Sermon Nuggets Thurs Nov 13
Theme The Trial
Verses John 18:28-37 Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.
29 So Pilate came out to them and asked, "What charges are you bringing against this man?"
30 "If he were not a criminal," they replied, "we would not have handed him over to you."
31 Pilate said, "Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law." "But we have no right to execute anyone," the Jews objected. 32 This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death he was going to die would be fulfilled.
33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?"
34 "Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?"
35 "Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?"
36 Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."
37 "You are a king, then!" said Pilate. Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."
The Hypocrisy of Justice.
In Matthew 26:59 reads, “The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death.”
Do you understand what this means? There was no sense of "innocent until proven guilty". Not only is the faith perverted by their sinful heart, but so was the legal system that was seeking justice. Injustice is done when there is the backroom bargaining, and wheeling and dealing with Judas, the Roman officials, and other temple guards. As far as justice among the religious leaders we should comment they broke their own rules. The Sanhedrin typically met for legal functions in the hall of hewn stone off the temple complex. They meet, like the congress does, only during certain daytime hours, and never during religious festivals and holidays If there was a religious trial they were required to examine their witnesses separately and those stories had to agree.
John is letting us know that this is not going to be a fair trial! The man who sits as judge and jury has already decided weeks in advance that it would be better off for everyone if Jesus was dead! It seems if you’re trying to be faithful to God, don’t expect the world to treat you fairly.
Do you remember when that Alabama judge Roy Moore got in trouble for putting a monument of the ten commandments in the Alabama Court building? The court system handled that very expeditiously. First, they got rid of the monument. Then they got rid of the judge. The ACLU is trying to get the judge disbarred so that he wouldn’t practice law, anymore. So even in our world, if you take a stand for what is right and what is true, you can expect to be labeled as a politically incorrect radical. And you can expect opposition and even hostility.
Almost all of their own laws were broken when you combine this trial with Caiaphas trial in the Gospel of Luke and Matthew. They met in the wrong place, at night not day, during the feast of the Passover which was being celebrated. There was no agreement by the witnesses, they were not examined separately. They came up a verdict and sentences in less that four hours, not to mention 24 hours. They did not have roll call voite, but only summoned a few of the Sanhedrian to make it appear legal. They not only questioned Jesus, but struck him as well. But Chaiphas with holy indignation rips his robes and calls Jesus a blasphemer deserving of death because He claims truth.
The details of the trial of Pontius Pilate and Herod, but there is hypocrisy of justice. As cruel as a ruler Pilate was he did not know what was right and he knew it. Early in the morning Jews did not want to defile themselves by entering into his palace because he was a Gentile and this was Passover so they come and bring him a prisoner to be put to death. Doesn’t it also seem ironic that the very people who want to keep themselves religiously clean and not defile themselves is bringing the Son of God to trial? How unholy can you be?
Pilate asks the charge. Isn’t it enough to know that we find him guilty of death? No what crime has he done? Pilate learned that religious laws and state laws are different. The decision of Pilates was reasonable-do whatever you want if he broke your religious laws, but he didn’t break any law of Rome, so he shall live. He was not the least bit concerned about the charge of blasphemy or claiming to be God’s son. That was no matter of concern to him.
The fact is the religious rulers wanted Jesus dead, but did not have that type of power in an official way under the Roman law.
It seems to be there are many incidents of stoning by Jewish law that show no repercussions by Rome, but my take on this is the Sovereign workings of God wanted the Jews and Gentiles part of the sham of the trial. As Jesus was to die for our sins it was for the sins of the whole world. I think the part that all played was representative and prophetic of the way the world condemned Jesus. We justify our own behaviors and desires when we are confronted by true holiness. None are guiltless, which is why we need a savior.
Evaluate how you come up with your conclusions that justify thoughts, actions, and decisions. Are we being honest with ourselves? More importantly, are we being honest with the Lord?
Pastor Dale
