The Ultimate Rejection of Jesus

This is the First Mustang Pulpit Podcast, a podcast of the weekly preaching and teaching at First Mustang.! Thank you for joining us. You can be seated. That's a hymn written by a man named Thomas Chisholm.

He lived in Kentucky in the 1800s. So many of our hymns come to us with stories of people who wrote their hymns out of times of great sorrow, or struggle. One of the things I love about Grey's Eye Faithfulness is, it is a hymn that comes straight from Lamentations 3, but it wasn't written so much out of a time of any specific sorrow or problem, as much as just a normal day, a normal life, giving praise to an extraordinary God.

And I think that's important for us because certainly one of God's good gifts to us is the gift of music and song for seasons when life is very difficult. But we also have songs to sing and to encourage us on the normal days, the normal seasons of life.

And the words that Thomas Chisholm penned coming from the heart of Lamentations 3, such an example, great is His faithfulness. Mercies are new every morning.

It's always good to be with you today on the Lord's Day to gather with our family and friends at church. This evening, if the Lord brings to your mind, you can be praying for me.

I mentioned a few weeks ago, I'm going to be preaching out of town tonight at one of our associations, another portion of the state. They have their annual meeting tonight, and they asked me to give the annual sermon for it, which I agreed to do.

What I did not do until late last night or until yesterday evening was to look up how far away it is. I thought it was like 45 minutes. Turns out it's about three hours away.

Marcy asked me last night, where are we going? And I told her and she said, you know how far away it is. I said, no, I've not looked. And she said, it's three hours away. So, I'm going to preach this morning, and then we're going to grab lunch through a drive-thru and be jetting out of town, because I've got to be three hours from here with about exactly three hours to get there, which would not be a problem because when we travel, Marcy drives.

The problem is we've got a tire problem in her car, so we have to take my truck. She doesn't like to drive my truck, but she doesn't like how slow I drive. So, we've got some things to work out here in the next little bit.

My wife's so good to travel with me all the time. She's usually the driver while I'm in the other seat looking at sermon notes.

And so, we've got to figure it out. We'll get a plan. We'll get a plan. Is it hot in here to anybody besides me? It's warm.

Now, I'm old, so I know, but okay, just wondering. I saw some people fanning, so just wondering. We find ourselves here in the Gospel of Mark at this next phase of the trials of Jesus.

And I want to help you with this. We looked at this a few weeks ago, and if you're one of the men that's been through our Men's Institute, we spend a lot of time on this. It's very helpful if you can grasp the details of what's going on because in the trials of Jesus, depending on what Gospel you're reading, Lee, did you just take care of us right there from your seat?

I just felt it kick on. Lee's got this magic thing right in the seat. You don't have to get up. He's taking care of us. Depending on what Gospel you're reading, it doesn't record all six trials.

We put them together in what's called a harmony of the Gospels. And when we put them all together, we can understand the flow and the sequence of what Jesus endures. So, let's just, let's back up just a little bit and remind ourselves of what's going on in the chronology of Mark's Gospel.

And then, if you want to open your Bible, go and open it to John 18. We're going to start there, and then we'll jump back to Mark. And the reason why is because we need to put together a couple of different things to get the order right.

So, remember that it's late in the evening on Thursday when Jesus is there in the upper room. He teaches His disciples. They have the final Passover meal together.

He institutes the Lord's Supper. Judas leaves. He is going to do his final work to betray Jesus. They're going to leave the house of the upper room.

They're going to cross the valley. They're going to go up on the Mount of Olives and find themselves at the familiar place where Jesus would gather with His disciples for prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.

During that time, He's going to ask the disciples to be watching and praying. They're going to be instead sleeping mainly. Jesus three times goes and tells them to wake up and to pray.

At that time, late in the evening, close to midnight, Judas comes with the arresting mob. Hundreds of men would have been with Him. Some of them are Roman leaders and soldiers.

Some of them are Jewish leaders. They are carrying swords and clubs and torches and lanterns. Their assumption is that when they show up, Jesus will probably run and flee.

And so, they've got to have a way to be able to find Him. And so, that's why they need the torches and lanterns and swords and clubs. It's an act of power. It's an act of intimidation. Christ, of course, not intimidated by them at all, simply speaks His name when they say, Are you Jesus of Nazareth?

He says, I am. The people all fall down. As Jesus displays His unmistakable power and authority yet again, the arresting mob stands up, dusts themselves off, tries to once again be in a posture of intimidation.

They are going to arrest Jesus, have Him bound. The other disciples will leave and run off. They will then take Jesus and begin this process of putting Him on trial around midnight.

The next six trials will take place over these next seven hours or so. The trials break down this way. You've got three Jewish religious trials where the charge is blasphemy.

Jesus said He's the Son of God. They will go through those three trials. Those three trials will break down like this. Annas, the former high priest, still the most influential religious man in the land, will lead that first trial, that first preliminary hearing, so to speak.

He then will have a second trial under Caiaphas, the current high priest, the son-in-law of Annas, and the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court of the day. At the end of that second trial, they're going to break.

They're going to put Jesus in a holding cell, and they're going to break. And the reason they do that is according to their law, they were supposed to give 24 hours between sentencing of someone to be put to death to make sure that they were thinking clearly, that they got it right, that no new information would come to them.

They're not going to keep that law, but they'll keep some semblance of that law, so they'll break, they'll go home, they'll reconvene. When they reconvene, they have another trial at night, which they were not supposed to do, supposed to be voting the youngest to the eldest, so that the younger members are not unduly persuaded by the older members.

They don't do that. They break a number of their own laws. At the end of that third trial, so it's Annas, Caiaphas, Sanhedrin, and then again Caiaphas and Sanhedrin, three trials. At the end of those three trials, they convict Jesus of the charge of blasphemy, claiming to be the Son of God.

At that point, if they could, they would have put Jesus to death. And if they could have put him to death on their own, they would have put him to death the way the Old Testament regarded the false prophet, and that would be by stoning.

They can't do that, though, because at this point in history, one of the things Rome has taken away from the Jewish people is the autonomy to be able to carry out capital punishment.

Now, there are times where they might could get by with it. There are times where maybe if Rome isn't paying attention, if maybe if something happens quickly and suddenly, perhaps they could get by with still putting a man to death.

But when Rome is watching, if it's someone that people are aware of, certainly at this time during the days of the feast, there is no way they would be able to get by with it.

So, one of the things that the Jewish people have to do, which they utterly despise having to do, is get permission from Rome to put someone to death. But that's the situation.

So, they're going to take Jesus early on that Friday morning, and they're going to march him from where he was over to Pilate. And over here now, we begin three Roman trials.

We've had three Jewish trials. Now, we have three Roman trials. The three Roman trials are going to be in front of Pilate, and then Herod, and then again back to Pilate.

At the end of these three Jewish trials, we, as we studied last week, had this horrific event where Peter denies that he even knows Jesus.

We also have Judas who goes and takes his own life, having betrayed the Lord. With that as a background, we find ourselves now this morning starting this second group of three trials.

Again, the reason why they're having to do this is because Rome has removed the autonomy of the Jewish people to do this themselves. They're not here because they care what Pilate says.

They're not here because they respect Pilate. They're here because they have no choice but to have Pilate agree to condemn Jesus to death.

So, we find ourself in John 18 because it's going to pick up for us some things that are not in Mark, and then we'll go back to Mark and pick up the rest of the story.

Who was Pilate? Pilate is a Roman citizen, probably born in Italy. He was described by historians of his day by words like merciless, inflexible, arrogant, and cruel.

You remember Herod the Great from the Christmas story. Herod the Great was the king of the whole area of Palestine.

He dies, and when he dies, his kingdom gets divided up among three of his sons. Eventually, one of those third areas that Herod the Great was over has fallen to Pilate who serves as the governor of Judea.

Appointed in 26 AD by the Emperor Tiberius, and he served in that way for a decade. Now, Pilate is not a popular man with the Jews.

In fact, they can't stand him. There's a few things that Pilate did that's been well-documented, well-covered by historians. You're probably familiar with some of these.

A couple of things that Pilate did that really made the Jews oppose him. One is it was standard practice when a Roman governor would arrive in Jerusalem that they would remove their standards, their pole that had the Roman eagle or the image of the emperor there mounted on the top.

They did that because the Jewish people had disdain for such images. Pilate did not. And typically, out of a way of acquiescing to the Jewish people, they would remove such things.

Pilate did not. Pilate would march through Jerusalem carrying the medallions with the emperor's image on them, and it was of great offense to the Jewish people.

Pilate eventually, because of the protest, gave in and removed the image from those standards. Another such occasion that created such hatred between the Jewish people and Pilate, the Roman governor, is there was a time when Jerusalem needed more water, and there wasn't enough money to be able to build this new aqueduct.

So what Pilate did was he stole money out of the temple treasury. The people then rioted in the streets, and Pilate had plain-clothed soldiers ready to club or stab people to death in order to break up the riot.

That's just two of the things that Pilate did that made the Jewish people despise him. There's others that he did as well. They're taking Jesus to Pilate not because they care about his inside, not because they trust him in a sense of justice.

They take him to Pilate simply because it's what they have to do. Their hope is not for Pilate to have any kind of legitimate trial. Their hope is for Pilate simply to sign off on this.

After all, in their mind, they've already tried Jesus three times, Annas, Caiaphas, the Sanhedrin, and the second time, Caiaphas, the Sanhedrin. And their thought is, we've had three trials, never mind the fact that they broke their own law repeatedly during those trials.

All they need Pilate to do is rubber stamp this and get Jesus put to death immediately. With that in mind, let's pick up here in John 18.

Verse 28, Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters. Remember, Caiaphas is the high priest. That's the Jewish trials. We're going from Caiaphas, the Jewish side, to the governor's headquarters.

That's the Roman side. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover.

So Pilate went outside of them and said, What accusation do you bring against this man? They answered him, If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you.

You get a sense of what they're thinking here. They won't go in because it would defile them. Yet, they're comfortable breaking their own law, hiring false witnesses to have lied against Jesus in the previous trial and put to death the very Son of God.

It's interesting, isn't it, that they're wanting to maintain some semblance of law-keeping all the while comfortable putting to death the very Son of God.

But we see that in our world today too. People who are comfortable coming to church, singing the songs, going to Sunday school, even taking sermon notes, all the while knowing in their own heart they do not love the Lord.

People will rarely stop being religious. Even in the rebellion, they'll still find some way to channel their religiousness.

This is an insult to Pilate. We won't come into your place because if we come into your place, you will make us unclean. And so Pilate says, what charge do you bring against this man?

And they simply say to him, if this man were not an evildoer, we would not have brought him to you. Don't ask us questions. We're not looking for a trial. We don't need help.

We're not looking for you to execute justice. It's just that the law demands you have to give us approval to put this man in the death. We've tried him. We've done this three times.

We find him worthy of death. We would do it ourselves, but you won't let us do it ourselves. And so we just need you to say, okay. That's the heart behind these trials.

That's all they've come up with. If you weren't guilty, we wouldn't have brought him to you. He had to be guilty of something for us to be bothering you with this, so just trust us and sign off on this so we can put him to death.

Of course, the problem they have is that their charge is blasphemy, claiming to be the Son of God. Pilate is a superstitious man.

He's got some things and beliefs that unfold during the trials, but he's not necessarily a religious man. And whatever he thinks or believes about Jesus and Judaism altogether, he's not concerned about the finer details of such things.

And so his thought's going to be, look, if you think he's a false prophet, then don't listen to him. If you think he's a false prophet, fire him. If you think he's a false prophet, don't give him a teaching platform.

If you think he's a false prophet, spread the word that he can't be trusted. But Rome doesn't want to put a man to death based on a religion that they themselves don't even follow.

And so the Jewish leaders have a problem. They broke their own law to find him guilty of blasphemy. They've got to bring him to Rome to get approval to kill him.

And Rome, frankly, just doesn't care that much about the charge of blasphemy. The Jewish people, they just despise Jesus.

They just want to put him to death. This isn't about justice. This isn't about truth. This isn't about right and wrong. This is about a political agenda. This is about a desire to be able to get rid of someone who has called them out for their own sin, who has told them they need to repent and they need salvation.

And the religious leaders of the Jewish people say, who do you think you are? What authority do you think you have? They just hate Jesus.

This isn't about truth. This is about hatred. And just as a side note, hatred's a dangerous thing.

Hatred will get you to do really foolish things. So, Pilate says to him in verse 31, says to them in verse 31, take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.

In other words, this is a religious matter. Your religious nuances have no consequence to me. Take him and deal with him the same way you would deal with your other religious matters.

Verse 31, the Jews said to him, it's not lawful for us to put anyone to death. There will be exceptions to that.

Acts 7 with Stephen is one. But by the law and for sure during the feast when Rome has moved into town and watching closely, there's no way they would be able to put him to death.

Pilate says, take him and judge him. Regard him however you choose to. But they don't want Jesus dismissed. They want Jesus destroyed.

So, they finally have people who step forward to try to create some pressure upon Pilate.

Luke 23 adds at this point, they began to accuse him saying, we found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to pay taxes to Caesar and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.

Luke 23, 2. Now, that's a very important part of the story. First of all, it's based on lies. Did Jesus forbid them from paying taxes?

He did not. In fact, on Tuesday, this is, this is early, early Friday morning. It was just three days ago that they tried at the temple to catch Jesus in a trap and they said to him, what do you think?

Should we pay taxes to Caesar or not? Jesus said, give to Caesar what is Caesar's, give to God what is God's. He eluded their trap on Tuesday and now they take that conversation, they twist it, then they tell Pilate, he was forbidding us from paying taxes to Caesar.

Now, if that charge is being dealt with, now Pilate has to listen. He can somewhat ignore the charge of blasphemy because Rome doesn't really care about blasphemy.

But if someone is saying you don't have to pay your taxes to Caesar, now Pilate, the Roman governor has to pay attention. Then they make it even more serious.

They say, this man calls himself a king. Well, at this point, Pilate can no longer be done with this.

What the Jewish people essentially do is on the spot they change the charge from blasphemy to treason. Blasphemy saying, you're the son of God.

It's a religious matter in Rome's eyes. Treason, claiming to be a king, is altogether different because there's one thing Rome will not tolerate.

It's any threat to their power. And if you have someone claiming to be a king who might try to overthrow the government or lead some kind of revolt or insurrection, they must pay careful attention.

So, Luke 23, 2, the charge gets massaged from blasphemy, claiming the son of God, to treason, claiming to be a king.

They do that because they want Pilate to think that Jesus is a threat to Rome. Now, here's what Pilate knows.

In the first century, the Jewish people hated having Rome as their occupying authority. In fact, one of the main reasons why the Jewish people rejected Jesus is because they wanted a Messiah to come and help them overthrow Rome.

They wanted the Messiah that would come and fight against Rome, deliver them political freedom, deliver them military freedom, deliver them economic prosperity.

All the things that they could not have if Rome was on top of them, holding them down, that's the thing, those are the things that they wanted the Messiah to come and throw off the shackles of Rome.

So, the interesting thing is the reason why, at least in some degree, that the Jewish leaders despised Jesus mainly because they, Jesus called them out on their sin and Jesus called them out on their, on their hard hearts, but also an aspect of why they rejected Christ is because Jesus was not the kind of deliverer they wanted.

Jesus wanted to talk about saving souls, they wanted to talk about preserving power. Jesus wanted to talk about repentance and salvation, they wanted to talk about getting rid of the authority of Rome.

They were concerned and consumed with earthly things, and Jesus came proclaiming spiritual, eternal freedom, and the Jewish leaders did not care.

there. So, what Pilate knows is that the Jewish people, if Jesus really were trying to overthrow Rome, the Jewish people would have loved him.

The very reason why he is now in front of Pilate is because he would not do what the Jewish leaders wanted him to do, namely, overthrow Rome. They wanted the Messiah that dealt with just earthly material and earthly things and earthly problems, and Jesus said there's things much more important than earthly things, namely, your soul.

If Jesus had said, God, I'm a king in an earthly sense and I want to overthrow Rome, the Jewish leaders would not have had him trumped up on false charges.

They would have been following him into war. Not only that, you'll remember that there's only one miracle Jesus did that's recorded in all four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

The one miracle Jesus did in all four gospels is when there were 5,000 men plus women and children and Jesus fed all of them, 20,000 people perhaps all together with the lunch of one boy.

That one miracle is the only one that's recorded in all four gospels. At the end of that miracle, because of what Jesus did, the scripture tells us that the crowd, the mob, came to Jesus and they took him by force to do what?

To try to make him be king. Their desire was for Christ to be king in an earthly sense.

Why so? Well, because if you are going to go into battle or try to overthrow an occupying authority, who better to lead that, then somebody who could feed 20,000 people with just one boy's lunch.

I mean, from a financial standpoint, it doesn't take a lot of money to feed a large army if you've got a guy that can do that. If you have somebody who can heal someone who can't walk, and you're going into military conflict, and somebody gets hurt, wounded, or killed, and your leader can heal them or even raise them back to life, how do you defeat that army?

So, the Jewish people, seeing the power and the authority of Jesus, come to him and try to make him be their king.

He won't do it, because he has a different kind of kingdom, and a different kind of priority. it's quite interesting to me here at the very end of the earthly life of Jesus before the crucifixion, that the very things the Jewish people are accusing him of are the very things they wanted him to be that he refused to do.

He said not to pay taxes to Caesar, that's not true. He said that he was an earthly king, a threat to Rome, that's not true. That's what they wanted him to be.

Verse 32 here in John 18, this was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

Here's what John clarifies for us. If the Jewish people had their way, he would have died by stoning. That's the way they dealt with a false prophet.

But the Old Testament in Isaiah 750 years before Jesus, in the Psalms 1,000 years before Jesus, spoke of Messiah dying differently than stoning.

Jesus himself has said that he will be lifted up. when you're stoned for blasphemy, you're not lifted up, you're cast down with rocks and stones thrown on your head.

It's been clear in the Old Testament, it's been clear in the Gospels that Jesus will die by being lifted up. You're lifted up when you are crucified.

crucified. That's why John 18, 32 says he spoke of the kind of death he was going to die. John 3, 14, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man must be lifted up.

John 12, 32, and I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which he was to die, John 12, 33.

Jesus wasn't ever going to die by stoning. Even though, if you go back and read John 11, verse 8, it says, Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you.

Why? Because that's how they would have desired to put Jesus to death. Which tells us that though the Jewish people are completely accountable in this story for their actions and behavior, they are not in charge.

If they were, they would have never gone to Pilate, and they would have stoned him on the spot. Verse 33, Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, are you the king of the Jews?

Now, why does he ask him this? Because the initial charge was blasphemy. They've changed the charge from blasphemy to treason. They've changed it from saying he's a false prophet to saying that he claims to be a king.

So, Pilate calls him back and he says, are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus answered, do you say this of your own accord, or do the others say it to you about me? And Pilate answered, am I a Jew?

Your own nation and the chief priest have delivered you over to me. What have you done? Verse 36, Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world.

If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but my kingdom is not from this world.

At this point, it was about six or seven hours earlier that evening around midnight where Jesus is arrested in the garden of Gethsemane.

Peter takes out his sword and swings for the head of Malchus. Jesus tells him, put your sword away. Why? Because Jesus was not fighting a political battle.

So, Pilate says, are you a king? And he says, I'm not a king like you think. I don't want your job. I have a greater responsibility.

I have a kingdom, yes, but not of this world. Verse 37, then Pilate said to him, so you are a king. And Jesus answered, you say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth, everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.

Jesus says, essentially, I am a king, but not like you think. Jesus' kingdom was centered around revelation, not revolution.

Jesus' kingdom was about truth, not treason. He was a teacher, not a traitor. And Jesus is telling Pilate his authority is not derived from any earthly institution.

He wasn't elected. He wasn't appointed. He just is king of kings and lord of lords. And Jesus says, everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.

And here is Pilate, this politician who has for his whole life skirted around what is right and what is true, just trying to build his own career.

cruelty and compromise mark his administration. And Jesus now says to Pilate, I am the truth.

What will Pilate do with the truth? this is an amazing scene where the prisoner offers freedom to the judge.

Verse 38, Pilate said to him, and this, you have to read this verse in the way it would have been said. This is dripping with desperation, anger, sarcasm.

Pilate says, what is truth? To a man who has done everything he can not to do right and wrong, but to protect his own skin.

He has known conflict, he has known compromise, eyes, he is a professional politician trying only to serve himself, not those he is supposed to serve, and he simply says, I gave up on truth a long time ago.

You tell me, what is truth anyway? And after he said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, this is the end of verse 38, I find no guilt in him.

Pilate doesn't care about the charge of blasphemy.

He thinks he's the son of God, you don't, don't listen to him. He says he speaks the truth, you think he's a false prophet?

Don't follow his teachings. But as far as Jesus being a threat to Rome, I mean, at this point, Jesus has already been up all night, arrested, marched from place to place, struck, beaten, at this point he's bruised and bloodied, and Pilate says, I'm supposed to think he is a threat to Rome, this man is no threat to Rome, you take him, do with him whatever you've got to do, I find no fault in him.

In Mark 15, you can turn back there real briefly, I just want you to see how Mark deals with this. starting Mark 15 in verse 6 deals with the sixth trial, but at this point we're just at the fourth trial, and that's the first portion of Mark 15 verses 2, 3, and 5, or 2, 3, 4, and 5.

In verse 1 of Mark 15, we're ending the third trial, that trial that was Caiaphas and Sanhedrin. As soon as it was morning, the chief priest held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate.

This is Mark's recounting from Peter of the ending of the third trial, moving now to that fourth trial. Verse 2, Pilate asked him, are you the king of the Jews?

And he answered him, you have said so. And the chief priest accused him of many things. And Pilate again asked him, have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you.

But Jesus made no further answer so that Pilate was amazed. Jesus isn't intimidated.

He's not afraid. His life hangs in the balance and Pilate says this guy is unlike any man that's ever stood in front of me.

I don't know who he is. I don't know what he does. I don't understand all these things you guys are fighting over. All I know is there's something different and unique about this man and Pilate was amazed and so he goes out and tells the people I find no fault in him.

So Jesus was on trial three Jewish religious trials Annas Caiaphas and Sanhedrin and again Caiaphas and Sanhedrin they find him guilty of blasphemy!

They take him over to this side where it's going to be the three Roman trials and the fourth trial overall first Roman trial is in front of Pilate and it ends with Pilate saying I find no fault in him the Jewish people at this point though won't give up they're afraid they're losing the battle Luke 23 verse 5 tells us that somebody says this man Jesus is stirring up trouble all the way to Galilee at this point Pilate thinks he has an out because while Pilate was in charge of Judea it's a different man named Herod not Herod the great that's he died 34 years before this this is a different Herod the one who had John the Baptist beheaded he's in charge of the area of Galilee so when somebody steps forward and says

Jesus stirs up trouble as far as Galilee Pilate says oh we have a problem with Galilee good that's not my jurisdiction that's Herod's so he's going to have Jesus quickly taken across the courtyard to Herod that's the fifth trial Herod was staying in the other wing of the large palace of Herod the great built this large palace he has since deceased and that night one side of the palace was Pilate's residential headquarters when he came into town the other side was this other Herod's who was there and so Pilate says I find no fault in him if he's created trouble in Galilee good news Herod's here he's in town he's on the other side of the palace!

Take him over there let Herod deal with him Luke 23 tells us about the fifth trial at that trial Jesus largely just stays silent because Herod is not seeking any kind of truth he just wants a performance he's been wanting to meet Jesus he wants to see Jesus entertain him he wants to see Jesus dazzle him but Jesus is not an entertainer he's a savior not a circus and so Jesus won't respond if Pilate were to seek to just follow the truth he would have turned him loose!

Pilate is his career not truth his priority was himself today not his eternity I wonder what your priority is today is your greatest thought today about what would happen to you one second after you die or is your greatest thought today like Pilate's just trying to save your skin what will you do with the truth in a very real sense

Jesus today through his word stands in front of all of us he himself said I am the way the truth and the life and nobody comes to the father except through me having looked today in detail at the historical trials of Jesus I wonder today in your own heart who do you say that he is would you believe the truth would you repent of your sin and follow Jesus no matter the cost or like Pilate is your life built on compromise and just self preservation in just a couple of hours Jesus will go to the cross and he will pray father forgive them for they know not what they're doing they did what they wanted to do it's just that blinded darkened hearts won't understand the fullness of the consequence of their rejection until it's too late and the same is true for us today would you this day acknowledge your sin trust in

Christ and follow him no matter what if like Pilate you're more consumed with earthly matters than eternal matters you'll walk away from the truth but if you've come to the place where you realize your greatest need is your sin and how you can be forgiven you truly will find all you need in Christ who alone can forgive sin our God we thank you for your word today we have looked at much detail in history and I pray that the theology behind it has been made clear that each one of us would consider who we are where we are and what we do with the truth may you help us even this day to trust in your son the one who died that we may have life it's in

Christ's name amen love you church evening service at five o'clock encourage we are back for that tonight God bless some just he about fathers ch un via list fathers haber如 TomAC tal victoun農 ces root ses weiter fathers hook tout trip nation Oct dollar α oct農 properties畅 fathers農 fathers fathers fathers fathers fathers fathers saya農農農 fathers fathers fathers fathers fathers beings fathers fathers ont fathers tous или которыеhop fathers fathers fathers fathers