Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / The Last Trials and Torture of Jesus Msg 1420 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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The Last Trials and Torture of Jesus Msg 1420 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: You'll find in the midst of your song sheet a chart,
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  Speaker 1: an outline of the trials of the Lord Jesus that
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  Speaker 1: we are considering in our time together, studying the life
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  Speaker 1: of Jesus, our Savior and Lord. We have come to
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  Speaker 1: that dark and painful hour of his suffering. Before the
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  Speaker 1: offering is received and before time spent in prayer, I'd
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  Speaker 1: like you to take the time to Open your Bibles,
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  Speaker 1: if you have brought a copy of the Scriptures with you,
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  Speaker 1: to John chapter 18. I want to read a section
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  Speaker 1: in chapter 18 and then slip into the first six
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  Speaker 1: verses of chapter 19. You may want to place right
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  Speaker 1: here after we've read the Scriptures that outline and mark
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  Speaker 1: it because we'll return to this in a few moments later.
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  Speaker 1: Let me read for you John 18, verse 28 through 38,
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  Speaker 1: and then 19, 1 through 6. They led Jesus, therefore,
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  Speaker 1: from Caiaphas into the praetorium, and it was early. And
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  Speaker 1: they themselves did not enter into the praetorium in order
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  Speaker 1: that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover. Pilate, therefore,
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  Speaker 1: went out to them. and said, What accusation do you
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  Speaker 1: bring against this man? They answered and said to him,
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  Speaker 1: If this man were not an evildoer, we would not
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  Speaker 1: have delivered him up to you. Pilate therefore said to them,
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  Speaker 1: Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law.
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  Speaker 1: The Jews said to him, We are not permitted to
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  Speaker 1: put anyone to death, that the word of Jesus might
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  Speaker 1: be fulfilled, which he spoke signifying by what kind of
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  Speaker 1: death he was about to die. Pilate therefore entered again
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  Speaker 1: into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him,
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  Speaker 1: you are the king of the Jews? Jesus answered, are
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  Speaker 1: you saying this on your own initiative or did others
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  Speaker 1: tell you about me? Pilate answered, I am not a Jew,
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  Speaker 1: am I? Your own nation and the chief priest delivered
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  Speaker 1: you up to me. What have you done? Jesus answered,
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  Speaker 1: my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom
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  Speaker 1: were of this world, then my servants would be fighting
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  Speaker 1: that I might not be delivered up to the Jews.
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  Speaker 1: But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm.
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  Speaker 1: Pilate therefore said to him, So you are a king?
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  Speaker 1: Jesus answered, You say correctly that I am a king.
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  Speaker 1: For this I have been born, and for this I
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  Speaker 1: have come into the world to bear witness to the truth.
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  Speaker 1: Everyone who is of the truth Here's my voice. Pilate
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  Speaker 1: said to him, what is truth? And when he had
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  Speaker 1: said this, he went out again to the Jews and
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  Speaker 1: said to them, I find no guilt in him. Verse 1,
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  Speaker 1: chapter 19. Then Pilate, therefore, took Jesus and scourged him.
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  Speaker 1: The soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it
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  Speaker 1: on his head. and arrayed him in a purple robe.
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  Speaker 1: And they began to come up to him and say, Hail,
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  Speaker 1: King of the Jews, and to give him blows in
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  Speaker 1: the face. And Pilate came out again and said to them, Behold,
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  Speaker 1: I am bringing him out to you that you may
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  Speaker 1: know that I find no guilt in him. Jesus therefore
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  Speaker 1: came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.
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  Speaker 1: And Pilate said to them, Behold, the man. When therefore
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  Speaker 1: the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify, crucify.
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  Speaker 1: Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves and crucify him,
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  Speaker 1: for I find no guilt in in him. The offering
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  Speaker 1: of God's people is an expression of worship from hearts
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  Speaker 1: that have been changed, transformed by his power. This is
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  Speaker 1: a time for believers who share together in the mission
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  Speaker 1: of a ministry to participate in its being sustained. Your
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  Speaker 1: gifts are given to the Lord in watched over carefully
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  Speaker 1: by the leadership of this church, and expended with great
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  Speaker 1: integrity and a lot of prayer. As we give this morning,
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  Speaker 1: we do so with gratitude, first of all, for all
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  Speaker 1: he has given to us. May we bow together. Our Father,
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  Speaker 1: we thank you this morning for the presence of the
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  Speaker 1: Spirit of God who is among us, and for his
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  Speaker 1: work to teach us the things of God. Thank you
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  Speaker 1: for your word that lives and abides forever. Thank you
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  Speaker 1: for its power and its ability to come and to
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  Speaker 1: cut into our lives where no surgeon's scalpel could reach,
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  Speaker 1: even to the very soul and spirit of our being.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you also that it never returns empty. It accomplishes
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  Speaker 1: its purpose. It does for us, our Father, what nothing
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  Speaker 1: else can do. And we pray that your word will
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  Speaker 1: be honored and read and obeyed as a result of
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  Speaker 1: our time spent in it today. In a few moments
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  Speaker 1: when this offering is received, may you find honor and
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  Speaker 1: praise in the giving, the motive behind the giving, and
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  Speaker 1: the act of worship. For we ask it in Christ's name. Amen.
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  Speaker 1: There's something about the innocence of a child that makes
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  Speaker 1: foolish comments funny rather than embarrassing. I don't know why
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  Speaker 1: it is when grown-ups say things children say, we look
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  Speaker 1: kind of foolish. But when children say them, it's funny.
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  Speaker 1: I heard several years ago about a little first-grade class
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  Speaker 1: that had been given an assignment where the children were to...
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  Speaker 1: They were to draw whatever meant a lot to them.
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  Speaker 1: So one child went right ahead and started drawing a
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  Speaker 1: picture of her pony. Another one drew the face of
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  Speaker 1: her favorite doll. And a third one, a little boy,
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  Speaker 1: was drawing a picture of a football. And little Robbie,
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  Speaker 1: six-year-old Robbie in the back of the class, never looked up.
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  Speaker 1: He just was working feverishly on his masterpiece. And finally,
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  Speaker 1: all the other children had turned their pictures in, but
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  Speaker 1: not Robbie. He was still at it. And the teacher
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  Speaker 1: walked back and said, what are you drawing? I can't
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  Speaker 1: make that out. He said, this is a picture of
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  Speaker 1: the one who means the most to me. This is
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  Speaker 1: a picture of God. She remembered the sermon yesterday at
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  Speaker 1: the church and that God is a spirit. And she
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  Speaker 1: said to him, you know, Robbie, no one knows what
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  Speaker 1: God looks like. He's a spirit. Robbie said, well, they
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  Speaker 1: will when I'm through. Laughter It's so great to be
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  Speaker 1: just a child and be able to get away with
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  Speaker 1: comments like that. If you and I said, then we
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  Speaker 1: would look so foolish. Third grade class was doing a
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  Speaker 1: similar assignment, except in their case, they were told to
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  Speaker 1: draw pictures of some favorite story in the Bible. And
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  Speaker 1: one of them drew the picture of Noah as he
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  Speaker 1: was ushering all the animals into the ark. And another
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  Speaker 1: child was drawing a great picture of the bearded prophet
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  Speaker 1: Daniel as he was petting the lions that were now
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  Speaker 1: docile and under great control. He wasn't worried at all.
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  Speaker 1: And back in the back was this little girl. Susie
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  Speaker 1: was just working on a panoramic picture of Jesus. She
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  Speaker 1: was covering all the bases, the nativity scene, the angels.
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  Speaker 1: the shepherds and then she moves over to when he
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  Speaker 1: walks on the water and when he is feeding the 5,000
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  Speaker 1: and and finally she brings him to the cross and
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  Speaker 1: has the crowd crying crucify him crucify him and then
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  Speaker 1: there's this empty tomb and the stone is rolled away
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  Speaker 1: she's got it all laid out there and in the
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  Speaker 1: back was this massive 747 jet and a fellow walking
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  Speaker 1: up to get on the in the plane and and
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  Speaker 1: uh Naturally, all of it made sense except the plane.
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  Speaker 1: And so the teacher says, what's the plane, sweetie? And
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  Speaker 1: Susie says, well, it's the getaway plane. The getaway plane. Well,
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  Speaker 1: who's this guy? Well, it's Pontius the pilot. We need
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  Speaker 1: to know who Pilate was. As a matter of fact,
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  Speaker 1: thousands of churches around the world today are repeating his
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  Speaker 1: name in a creed that they quote at every one
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  Speaker 1: of their worship services. It's called the Apostles' Creed, where
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  Speaker 1: five words appear, he suffered under Pontius Pilate. One of
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  Speaker 1: my older references said, Pontius Pilate crucified the Lord. Well,
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  Speaker 1: he did suffer under Pontius Pilate. but Pilate didn't actually
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  Speaker 1: nail his hands to the cross and lift the cross
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  Speaker 1: beam up and drop it in the hole. I suppose
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  Speaker 1: the writer meant, like we would say of Adolf Hitler,
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  Speaker 1: who exterminated six million Jews and He didn't actually light
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  Speaker 1: the ovens. Didn't actually turn on the gas. But he
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  Speaker 1: could have stopped it. He was insidiously engaged in the
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  Speaker 1: approval of the extermination. That's Pilate in the crucifixion. Pilate
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  Speaker 1: wasn't just sort of an afterthought of the story. He
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  Speaker 1: was crucial to for it to run its course in
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  Speaker 1: order for Jesus to wind up on a cross. They
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  Speaker 1: lived in a divided world in those days. The Jews did.
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  Speaker 1: They were conquered by the Romans, but they were still
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  Speaker 1: called a nation of Jews. And it had been a
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  Speaker 1: tough time. Tough conquering, but the Romans prevailed and now
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  Speaker 1: the Jews lived under the Roman boot. And as is
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  Speaker 1: true when you travel in Israel today and people will say, well,
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  Speaker 1: this is Palestinian area. This is Israeli. Remember those occasions
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  Speaker 1: when you need to remember what's what? In those days,
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  Speaker 1: this is Roman. This is Jewish. Understand a couple of things.
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  Speaker 1: First of all, there were Roman buildings and there were
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  Speaker 1: Jewish buildings. And there were Roman laws and there were
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  Speaker 1: Jewish laws. The very Jewish building was the Sanhedrin, which
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  Speaker 1: was like the Supreme Court of the nation of the Jews,
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  Speaker 1: a body of men who interrogated and unfairly accused Jesus
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  Speaker 1: of wrongdoing, declaring him guilty of blasphemy. They're now stuck
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  Speaker 1: after that third trial. How do we get him killed?
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  Speaker 1: Because you see, they couldn't accomplish capital punishment until the
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  Speaker 1: Romans approved. That meant they had to move from their
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  Speaker 1: Jewish building to a Roman building called the Praetorium. This
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  Speaker 1: was Passover time, and the governor of Judea was residing
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  Speaker 1: in the Praetorium. That was also a place where the
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  Speaker 1: Roman barracks were. And a larger number of the Roman
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  Speaker 1: garrison had been brought because this was Passover time and
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  Speaker 1: riots were often breaking out against Roman rule. All of
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  Speaker 1: that is interplaying between the lines of the gospel accounts
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  Speaker 1: of the Lord Jesus' trial and crucifixion. And since Pilate
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  Speaker 1: is the governor and since his word is required in
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  Speaker 1: order for them to nail him to a cross... It
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  Speaker 1: was essential that they bring in before this anti-Semitic politician
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  Speaker 1: who had already been on report to the emperor Tiberius.
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  Speaker 1: And being on shaky ground, he waffles under the load
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  Speaker 1: of this responsibility as he tries this man, Jesus of Nazareth.
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  Speaker 1: One of my sources does a little quick and sort
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  Speaker 1: of dirty background on Pilate. Listen. He was the Roman
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  Speaker 1: procurator placed at that time over Judah and Jerusalem. He
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  Speaker 1: was Caesar's representative. What Tiberius himself was in Rome, all
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  Speaker 1: that Pilate was in Jerusalem. The emperor Tiberius had made
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  Speaker 1: a special selection of Pontius Pilate and had sent him
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  Speaker 1: east with special instructions to govern with his very best
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  Speaker 1: ability the very difficult province of Judea. Pilate was a
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  Speaker 1: much coveted post among his rivals in Rome, but he
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  Speaker 1: had not found it to be a bed of roses.
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  Speaker 1: For as the Jews had been the hardest to conquer,
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  Speaker 1: so had they continued to be the hardest to hold
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  Speaker 1: down of all the races that ever writhed under Caesar's heel.
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  Speaker 1: Pontius Pilate, at the rulers of Jerusalem's or the rulers
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  Speaker 1: of Jerusalem at Pontius Pilate, the rage never ended. The
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  Speaker 1: rage and revenge of the rulers of Jerusalem against him
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  Speaker 1: burned to this day, like the coals of juniper in
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  Speaker 1: the pages both of Philo and Josephus. Pilate is no
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  Speaker 1: friend of the Jews, but they've got to have Pilate's
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  Speaker 1: approval to nail him to a cross. If it had
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  Speaker 1: been a Jewish death, they would have stoned him. But
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  Speaker 1: they had no right to do that. And by now,
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  Speaker 1: stoning was rare. To put him on a cross, which
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  Speaker 1: was a Roman kind of capital punishment, they had to
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  Speaker 1: go through Pilate. Which is why we read what we
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  Speaker 1: do in verse 28 of John chapter 18. They led
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  Speaker 1: Jesus into the praetorium. It was early. The chart I
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  Speaker 1: handed you suggests that it is early in the morning.
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  Speaker 1: It had to be in the daytime for it to
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  Speaker 1: be legal. And they themselves did not enter the praetorium. Remember,
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  Speaker 1: there's Jewish building and there are Roman buildings. And especially
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  Speaker 1: at Passover, a Jew corrupted or contaminated himself if he
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  Speaker 1: went into a Gentile building. So they're standing out on
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  Speaker 1: the steps with their prisoner, held in tow with his
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  Speaker 1: hands tied behind his back, and they're getting an audience
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  Speaker 1: with the governor of Judea, Pilate himself. Please observe in
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  Speaker 1: your marking of the Bible. I don't know if you
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  Speaker 1: like to mark your Bible, but I've done this in mine.
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  Speaker 1: Look at the movement that's going on in the nervous
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  Speaker 1: life of Pilate. Look at verse 29. Pilate went out.
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  Speaker 1: Mark that. 33, Pilate entered again. So he went out
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  Speaker 1: of the praetorium to the steps, then he came back
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  Speaker 1: in again to interrogate. Verse 38, in the middle of
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  Speaker 1: the verse, when he said this, he went out again,
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  Speaker 1: so he goes out to the steps. Verse 1 of
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  Speaker 1: chapter 19, he took Jesus, that means he came back inside,
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  Speaker 1: no doubt at that time, into the barracks, for he
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  Speaker 1: came out again from Nine, he entered into the praetorium. Thirteen,
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  Speaker 1: when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out. We're
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  Speaker 1: going back and forth, back and forth. The Jews will
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  Speaker 1: not come inside, but they will not leave until they
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  Speaker 1: hear him say, he deserves to be crucified. Now, having
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  Speaker 1: said all of this about Pilate, I want to say
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  Speaker 1: something in his favor. It's hard to do that with
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  Speaker 1: a man like Pilate, but I think it's fair. He
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  Speaker 1: is the only one in all the trials who gave
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  Speaker 1: Jesus an objective hearing. And isn't it interesting? He found
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  Speaker 1: him not guilty. Not guilty. He doesn't say it once.
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  Speaker 1: He says it four, five times. I find no fault
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  Speaker 1: in this man. I've interrogated. I see nothing of a
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  Speaker 1: crime in him. He is not guilty. He is not guilty.
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  Speaker 1: They don't give up. And ultimately, they blackmail him, as
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  Speaker 1: we will see later. They know he's on shaky ground
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  Speaker 1: with the emperor Tiberius. And they know that if they
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  Speaker 1: report to Tiberius that he let a guilty man go
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  Speaker 1: or this riot broke out, he is finished as the governor.
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  Speaker 1: So being more politician than he is a man of character,
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  Speaker 1: he waffles under the load and his integrity, what little
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  Speaker 1: of it he had breaks down. Now look closely. Verse 29,
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  Speaker 1: Pilate went out to them and said, What accusation do
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  Speaker 1: you bring against this man? Understand how the Romans worked.
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  Speaker 1: In their Roman code of criminal procedure, there were four phases. First,
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  Speaker 1: the accusation. That's what he's searching for. Then the interrogation.
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  Speaker 1: Then the defense. And finally, the verdict. Interestingly, he never
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  Speaker 1: does have a defense. There's no defense attorney here or
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  Speaker 1: elsewhere in any of the trials. It is the most
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  Speaker 1: fallacious set of trials in the history of jurisprudence. They
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  Speaker 1: bring him before Pilate for this fourth trial, the first
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  Speaker 1: one before Pilate. He will have another one later. And
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  Speaker 1: they say, here is the man we want you to accuse.
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  Speaker 1: We want the verdict to be guilty. And so he said,
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  Speaker 1: what's the accusation? Observe, they never answer the question. Verse 30.
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  Speaker 1: They answered and said, if this man were not an evildoer,
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  Speaker 1: we would not have delivered him up to you. That's
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  Speaker 1: not the question. That's not the answer needed. What's the charge?
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  Speaker 1: You know what the charge was? Blasphemy. But to Romans,
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  Speaker 1: blasphemy meant nothing. They had many gods. Blasphemy against which
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  Speaker 1: of the 50 or 100 or 2,000 gods we have?
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  Speaker 1: That wouldn't hold water. They're now working on a change
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  Speaker 1: of the accusation from blasphemy to treason. So they say
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  Speaker 1: he's an evil god. If he weren't, we would not
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  Speaker 1: have taken your time. So Pilate decides it's time to
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  Speaker 1: bring him inside. Look at verse 30. They said, if
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  Speaker 1: the man were not an evildoer, we would not have
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  Speaker 1: delivered him up to you. Pilate said, hey, take him
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  Speaker 1: yourselves and judge him according to your law. They say,
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  Speaker 1: we're not permitted to put a man to death. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: This is a capital crime? This is a man you
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  Speaker 1: want me to put to death? So that explains in
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  Speaker 1: verse 33 why Pilate takes him inside for the interrogation.
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  Speaker 1: Look at the questioning. He brings him into the praetorium.
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  Speaker 1: He summons Jesus and he says, you were the king
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  Speaker 1: of the Jews? Jesus answered, are you saying this on
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  Speaker 1: your own or Or did others tell you about me?
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  Speaker 1: You seem interested. Am I a Jew? I mean, don't
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  Speaker 1: put me in the camp of those people out there
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  Speaker 1: on the steps. Am I a Jew? Your own nation
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  Speaker 1: and the chief priest delivered you up to me. What
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  Speaker 1: have you done? He's trying to get the accusation out
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  Speaker 1: of him. Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world.
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  Speaker 1: If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would
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  Speaker 1: be fighting, meaning overthrowing Rome. They'd be storming the palace
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  Speaker 1: in Rome, but they're not doing that. They would make
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  Speaker 1: it possible that I wouldn't be delivered up to these people.
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  Speaker 1: But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm.
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  Speaker 1: Pilate says, so you are a king. So you claim
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  Speaker 1: to be a king. Jesus answered, you say correctly that
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  Speaker 1: I'm a king. For this I've been born and for
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  Speaker 1: this I have come into the world to bear witness
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  Speaker 1: to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth, here's
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  Speaker 1: my voice. Wait, wait, wait, wait. What is truth? It's
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  Speaker 1: like I're using the word today when you refer to truth.
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  Speaker 1: The absolutes are gone. I mean, come on. It used
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  Speaker 1: to be a very clear line between right and wrong.
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  Speaker 1: Now it's very fuzzy. Now it's foggy. And Pilate's living
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  Speaker 1: in that world of fog, uncertainty, and he says, well,
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  Speaker 1: it What is truth? What is truth? You know, he
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  Speaker 1: didn't know it, but he was looking truth right in
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  Speaker 1: the face. For the first time in his life, he's
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  Speaker 1: looking at a man who models truth. Pilate didn't get
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  Speaker 1: into that position by walking in the truth. He didn't
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  Speaker 1: stay there by doing that which was truthful. And now
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  Speaker 1: he has someone in front of him who is the
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  Speaker 1: personification of truth. And he doesn't even know it when
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  Speaker 1: he meets it. He looks at Jesus and probably sits
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  Speaker 1: down and puts his head on his hand and says,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: what is this truth you're talking about? Now, at this moment,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: we need to shift to Luke 23. John doesn't give
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: us all of the information. Others give information that fits
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: at certain places, and here's one of those times. Pilate is, well,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: shall we say, caught. He's hearing enough to know that
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: he's not.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Standing in front of a criminal. This is no killer.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: This is no man leading an insurrection. He's talking in
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: these riddles of a kingdom that's not of this realm.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: He's another religious nut. But one thing is for sure,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: he's not deserving of death. So watch the dialogue as
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: it unfolds from Luke's pen. Verse 3, Pilate asked him, saying,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Are you the king of the Jews? And he answered
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: and said, It is as you say. And Pilate said
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: to the chief priests and the multitudes, I find no
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: guilt in this man. But they kept on insisting. Now
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: watch closely. Saying he stirs up the people teaching all
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: over Judea, starting from Galilee, even as far as this place. Wait.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: He said the G word. Galilee, do I hear? Understand
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: Pilate's trying to get out from this very uneasy dilemma.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: He's got Tiberius breathing down his neck. He has the
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Jews about ready to turn him in for not doing
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: what they want. He's a people pleaser at best. And
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: he hears Galilee, and he asks, verse 6, is this
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: man a Galilean? When he learned that, he had that
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction. He sent him to Herod,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: who himself also was in Jerusalem at that time. Perfect.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: This is great. This is my out. Herod will take
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: this case. Now, you've got to understand, Herod was also
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: a piece of work. All of these guys were out
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: to lunch, but Herod was especially a criminal. Herod was
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: the Tetrarch, according to Luke 3, verse 1. He was
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: the Tetrarch of Galilee. That means he was responsible for
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: the oversight, much like Pilate was of Judea. He was
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: in charge of Galilee. When Pilate learned that Jesus was
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: from Galilee, he thought, it's Passover. Herod the Tetrarch is
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: in town. This is Herod Antipas, whom Jesus once called
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: that fox. I love that line. You go tell that fox.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: That's another subject. But anyway, this is Herod Antipas. who
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: really doesn't have a character bone in his body. He's
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: the one who, well, one man put it, was more
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: a circus master than a serious-minded monarch. And instead of
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: taking up the case that had been referred to his jurisdiction,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: all that Herod aimed at was to get some sort
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: of amusement out of the accused. So he's the king
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: of the Jews, is he? He's a candidate for my
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: royal seat. Then let's put a coat of a candidate
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: on him and send him back to Pilate. James Stalker
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: says of Herod, the fiber of his character was more
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: and more relaxed till it became a mere mass of pulp,
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: ready to receive every impression but able to retain none.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Herod was that kind of a man. He had been
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: trying to get an audience with Jesus for months. He
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: wanted to see him do his magic. He heard that
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: he was a miracle worker, and this was his occasion
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: to get an audience with this fool. Let him be
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: one of the jesters in his court. Let's see how
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: he responds in front of me. Look at how it reads.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: When he learned that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: sent him to Herod. Verse 8, Herod was very glad
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: that When he saw Jesus, for he had wanted to
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: see him for a long time because he had been
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: hearing about him and was hoping to see some miracle
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: performed by him. And he questioned him at some length.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: I love the end of this. He answered him, nothing.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: You know, the greatest insult you can do against another
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: is to ignore them. Jesus stands there. All these questions come.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: He lets them all go by. He knows it is
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: not a serious investigation. This is not an official interrogation.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: This is about a game. This is Herod Antipas at
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: his best. By the way, did I tell you that
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: Herod is the one before whom the daughter danced? And
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Herod was so caught up in this incestuous lust for
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: this dancing young girl that he says to her, half
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: my kingdom I'll give to you. She had been prepared
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: by her mother to give the answer, I want the
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: head of John the Baptist. That's exactly what Herod required.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: This is the man who took the head of John
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: the Baptist. Jim Bishop tosses in this comment, he may
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: have been mentally disordered. Another one of my resources said
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: anybody who kills a Baptist has to be a little
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: mentally disordered. Just a little joke there. All of a sudden,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: Pilate glances out his window and he's back. He thought
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: he was gone. He thought he was in Herod's court.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Herod didn't want to try him. He would never get
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: out on that limb. He knew that he was in Judea,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: and this was Pilate's case. So it's kind of a
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: ping-pong back and forth. And from the fifth trial, we
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: find Jesus rushed to Pilate. Now it gets ugly. Now
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: it gets ugly. Back in John 18... When he said this,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: he went out again to the Jews and said, I find,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: verse 38, no guilt in him. So now he begins
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: to bargain with them. Watch it closely. All of these
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: things you've heard through your Christian life, but maybe you've
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: never pieced them together. Pilate knows he can't escape the
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: hard decision. So he thinks, I will placate this mob together.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: By offering them from their custom someone they would like
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: me to release. He's got Barabbas who is a convicted killer,
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: a robber, an insurrectionist. and he's got Jesus no one
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: can prove anything against him and he says which would
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: you rather I release to you Barabbas or Jesus and
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: of all things they say Barabbas it didn't work I'm
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: convinced the cross that Jesus was nailed to was a
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: cross originally prepared for Barabbas, which is another study, and
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: we'll get into that next time. It's a very intriguing story.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: No one ever had his place taken by Jesus at
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: the cross like Barabbas did. He missed his cross because
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: Jesus was nailed to it. The one who deserved it
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: was set free, and the one who didn't was crucified.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: So that doesn't work. So Pilate thinks, they're not taking
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: it like I want them to take it. Maybe a
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: little blood will help. This is where the cruelty of
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: Pilate's life emerges. See the first verse of chapter 19?
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: It reads so simply and easily, but it is horrible.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: Pilate had him scourged. I just want to ask you
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: right here, why? Why, if he believed Jesus was innocent,
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: would he have him scourged to save his own neck?
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: He's thinking, if I present to them this man whom
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: we will punish to the end of his tether, when
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: I bring this massive swollen body of flesh back in
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: front of them, maybe they will back off. so he
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: has him scourged. You and I have never seen a scourging,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: certainly not a Roman scourging, and we never will, thankfully.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: Our nation gets up in arms when one of our
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: own gets a cane whipping in another country, and it
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: makes the headline news. The cane whipping is nothing. It's
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: like a Girl Scout party compared to a scourging. The
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: victim is stripped naked naked, spread over a stump that
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: looks perhaps more like a fireplug than anything else. There
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: are rings at the base of it where the hands
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: are tied on each side and where the feet are
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: spread and tied at the ankles. Jim Bishop writes in
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: painful detail, The Jews called their scourging intermediate death. although
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: it was far less severe than the Romans. The custom
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: in Palestine was to administer the prisoner 40 stripes save one.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: It was done by a paid executioner. But the scourging
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: of Rome was more deadly. Now imagine. It was administered
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: by a trained man called a lictor, L-I-C-T-O-R. There were
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: none in Palestine. He used a short, circular piece of wood,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: like a broomstick, to which were attached several strips of leather.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: At the end of each strip, he sewed a chunk
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: of bone or a small piece of chain, iron chain.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: The instrument was called a flagellum. There was no set
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: number of stripes to be administered, and the law said
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: nothing about the parts of the body to be assailed.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Jesus was standing, bent over the short column and tied
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: to it securely. The soldier who performed the flagellations bent
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: down to see the face of the victim. He then
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: moved to a position about six feet behind Jesus and
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: spread his legs. The flagellum was brought all the way
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: back and whistled forward and made a dull drum sound
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: as the strips of leather smashed against the back of
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: the ribcage. The bits of bone and chain curled around
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: the right side of the body and raised small subcutaneous
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: hemorrhages on the chest. A moan escaped the lips of
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: the victim and he almost collapsed. The knees bent then
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: by effort, they straightened. The soldiers murmured approval because they
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: had seen others who passed into unconsciousness before the punishment
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: was fairly underway. The flagellum came back again, aimed slightly lower,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: and crashed against the skin and flesh. The lips of
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: Jesus seemed to be moving in prayer. The flagellum now
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: moved in slow, heavy rhythm. It reduced the naked body
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: to strips of raw flesh and inflamed, bleeding wounds. The
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: scourging usually took not more than three minutes. The executioner,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: with no more feelings of compassion than the priest had
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: for the lamb with its head through the ring, untied
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: the wrist ropes, and the victim would fall at once
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: off the pillar and roll onto his back on the stones.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: Jesus had pretended to be a king, had he. The
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: soldiers would costume him like a king, a comic king.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: He would be in the nature of Herod's joke, but exaggerated.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: As they prepared, the victim sat thin and bearded and
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: subject to shivering, which started in spasms and shook his
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: whole being as his teeth rattled. He looked up into
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: the sun and his face was a suffering mask. The
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: shivering started again and a soldier dropped the scarlet cloak
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: over the naked back and they dragged Jesus to his
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: feet to drape the garment correctly. Isaiah tells us that
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: his visage, his appearance was marred more than even that
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: of a human being.
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: Imagine.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: Imagine. If he could see through his swollen face, his
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: eyes were like tiny slits. Because you will notice also
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: in verses 2 and 3 of John 19 that they
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: pummeled him. The soldiers wove a crown of thorns, put
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: it on his head, or raped him in a purple robe,
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: and began to come up to him and say, Hail,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: King of the Jews! And they would punch him. Already
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: having been beaten. They now spit upon him and punch
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: him in the face. Pilate views the victim and thinks
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: this will do it. This will reduce the mob to
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: at least a thread of compassion. Next time we're together
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: we'll look a little more in detail and at length
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: at the very act of crucifixion since we are totally
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: unfamiliar with the scene, thank goodness. Verse 5. Get the
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: pathos of this verse. Jesus therefore came out wearing the
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate said
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: to them, Eke homo. Behold. Behold. The man. Look at this.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: I suggest that if Jesus was able to stand up
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: at this moment, he was shivering. Blood had already soaked
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: through the robe. He was perhaps half conscious. And the
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: pain was beyond belief. And the chief priests and the officers,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: when they saw him, cried out, crucify him. Crucify! There
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: is no compassion. The heart is deceitful above all things
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: and desperately wicked. Had you and I been there that day,
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: we would have said the same thing in our sins.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: Take him yourselves and crucify him. I find no guilt
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: in him, says Pilate. He said it before, he says
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: it again. What will it take? Listen to the response.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: The Jew says, we have a law and by that
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: law he ought to die because he made himself out
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: to be the son of God. God? Pilate's a Roman.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: They have many gods. And the Roman and Greek myths
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: were extant at that time, and perhaps he was one
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: of these gods born on another planet who's come to
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: this earth with supernatural powers. No wonder he takes him
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: back inside the Praetorium, verse 9, and says to him,
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: where are you from? Look at that. That's why he
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: asked a question like that. What God are you? Son
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: of what God? This man is totally, totally pagan. He
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: has no religious awareness. Jesus gave him no answer. Why?
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: He would have never gotten it. You don't speak to me.
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: You do not know that I have the authority to
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: release you and I have the authority to crucify you. Yeah, Pilate,
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: you got both authorities, but you're only going to do
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: one because you're not man enough to tell them you're
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: going to release Jesus to them. That takes character and
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: you haven't that. Right about now, Matthew tells us something
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: unusual happened. Somebody tapped him on the shoulder and gave
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: him a note. He opened the note and he saw
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: the familiar handwriting of Mrs. Pilot, whatever her name was.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: And she says, have nothing to do with this just man.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: I've had a dream through the night. Stay out of it.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: This is a good man. whoever he is, don't mess
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: with it. So he's now got superstition. He's now got
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: bargaining going against him. He's now got his wife saying,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: leave him alone, get out of it. He's got the
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: mob saying, crucify him. He's got Tiberius's hot breath breathing
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: down his toga. What's he going to do? When you
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: have no character, you please the people. He brings Jesus out.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: Verse 13, he sits him down in the judgment seat
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: at a place called the pavement in the Hebrew Gabbatha.
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: Verse 16, and so he then delivered him up to
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: them to be crucified. What you don't read in John's gospel,
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: but you do elsewhere, is that he washed his hands
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: of the whole mess. Shakespeare picked up the scene in
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: another play, remember? Ah, I got to get this blood
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: off my hands. He doesn't have a problem with dirty hands,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: does he? The only way to wash his heart is
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: through the blood of the Lord Jesus. And he's long
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: gone past that. So he says, crucify. Peter tells us
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: who must have watched from a distance. As a lamb
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: before his shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. Incredible.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: You talk about strength. He had to be of an
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: enormous physical strength as a man to take the blows
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: he took and to still be able to carry his
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: cross beam as we'll see next time. But not lashing back,
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: he threatened not, but committed himself to him who judges righteously.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: Who his own self bore our sins in his body
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: on the tree. Who being dead to sin should live
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: unto righteousness. By whose stripe we are healed. Peter does
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: it in the singular. And it's like one massive bruise.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: One massive bruise. That's what Jesus was. Any picture you
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: see of Jesus on a cross where the facial expressions
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: are still there is inaccurate. His visage was marred more
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: than that of a man. One massive bruise. The trials
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: of Christ are history. The sands of time cover over
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: all of them. Only the scriptures remain available for accurate
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: sources of information in various readings of Matthew, Mark, Luke,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: and John. But there's application in all of this. Do
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: you know that? The journey I'm going to take for
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: these last few moments with you is a journey that
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: will bring you and me into the picture, and it
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: will not be a pleasant journey. I find in the
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: case of the state versus Jesus of Nazareth, Four different perspectives. Interestingly,
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: all four are still present today. The first perspective is Pilate's. Pilate,
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: too much of a people pleaser to do what he
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: knew was right. So he washed his hands of the
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: whole mess. Second, Herod. Too shallow and superficial to take
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: any of it seriously, so he made a joke of
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: the whole thing. That's the Herod response. Too shallow and
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: superficial in life to take anything seriously of a religious nature,
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: so he just made a joke of the whole thing.
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: Just drop a robe on him and have him do
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: his dance back to Pilate. Get him out of here. Third, interestingly,
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: is Pilate's wife. I find her intriguing. Though we're never
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: even given her name, she is too superstitious and fearful
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: to examine the evidence, so she says, get away from it.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: This could have an impact on our lives. Get away
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: from it. And the mob, too angry and blind to
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: to listen to the truth. So they demanded their way
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: and got it. Now, that was then, this is now.
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: There are across this landscape and quite probably in a
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: gathering this size, all four represented today. First, there are
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: pilots among us. People who in their hearts know that
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: this is truth and he was who he says he was,
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: who he said he was, but their desire to be
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: popular with the crowd is greater than their willingness to
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: do the intelligent and correct thing. So to keep peace,
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: the pilots of today wash their hands of the whole mess.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: And you do it in a dozen different ways. Second,
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: there are people like Herod. Her life is a bowl
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: of cherries. And clever as a fox. We just have
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: a little fun with religion. But don't get too serious
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: about that. You get fanatical. Remember the Jones who moved
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: in down the block where we used to live. And
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: they got really weird. They started seeing visions and hearing dreams.
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: things that weren't there, and we don't want to go there.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: It's a joke. Religion is a joke. It's good for
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: sick people and children and old folks, but don't take
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: it seriously. That's the Herod response. Then there's Pilate's wife.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: It's a thing to be feared. It's a matter of superstition,
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: just faith in Jesus stuff. It makes me nervous. I
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: just don't have anything to do with it. And then
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: there's the crowd. If he had been all he cracked
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: up to be, he would have never wound up on
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: a cross. I mean, after all, where in the world
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: was God? Good question. Where was God? It's like A.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: Lee Diesel asked that in his book, Night. Remember reading it?
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: He's standing as a child in this long column of
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: Jews and he smells in the air the smell of
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: burning flesh from the ovens. And he sees children parceled
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: out and taken into one group and women stripped of
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: their clothing taken into another group. And he says in
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: this line, where is God? Where is he now? It's
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: a moving book. Pulitzer Prize winning book, Night. Where is God?
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  Speaker 1: Why doesn't he come on the scene? He never left
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  Speaker 1: the scene. Isaiah 53, 10. It pleased the Lord to
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: bruise him. Why? Because the payment had to be made.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: That's how horrible sin is. Do you see it? Do
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: you understand that the payment for sin is death? And
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  Speaker 1: in order for someone to make the payment complete and full,
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: it took the sinless Lamb of God to take away
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: the sins of the world. Mystery though it was, it
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: was exactly as the Father designed it, so that when
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: the son finally said it is finished, the father was
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: satisfied and there's no more penalty to be paid. There's
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: nothing more to do but believe in the one who
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: died for you. One of my mentors in seminary had
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: a wonderful line when we came to the empty tomb.
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  Speaker 1: As Lewis Johnson used to say, the resurrection was God's
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: amen to Christ's. It is finished. Oh, it's a great line.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: Wonderful line. Amen. Come back. And the price was paid.
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  Speaker 1: The sin was removed. John Bunyan writes in his magnificent
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: Pilgrim's Progress, the story of Christian who makes his way
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: through the wicked gate and up the narrow road that
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: leads to life eternal and he stands on the precipice
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: and he sees the empty cross and the empty tomb
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: and Christian discovers that suddenly the chains that have held
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: the sin to his back are broken. and they began
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: to fall away. And Bunyan writes of Christian, Thus far
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: did I come burdened with my sin, nor could aught
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: ease the grief that I was in till I came hither.
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  Speaker 1: What a place is this! Must here be the beginning
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: of my bliss? Must here the burden fall from off
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: my back? Must here the chains that bound it to
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: me crack? Blessed cross, blessed sepulcher, blessed rather be the
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: man put to shame for me. What a great line.
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  Speaker 1: Blessed rather be the man put to shame for me.
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  Speaker 1: Tis mystery all, the immortal dies. What have you done
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: with him? What do you do with the evidence like this?
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: Took your place. And he paid it all. The only intelligent,
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: correct thing to do is to believe in him. Give
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: him your life. May we bow together, please. Very quiet now,
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: very still. if you've never turned your life over to
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus Christ, believe me today, the way is
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: open for you to come to Him and to receive
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: Him as your Savior and Lord. He is the way,
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: He is the truth, He is the life. No man
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: comes to the Father but through Him. No woman comes
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: to the Father but through Him. No person comes to
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: the Father but through Him. He paid the price in full,
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: and he waits for you to receive the gift that
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: he offers you. Receive it now. Receive it now. Down
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: through the ages, our Father, your people have sung and
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: worshipped and bowed before you, And your Son, who is
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: King above all who would call themselves King, and before
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  Speaker 1: their Lord, who is Lord over all who would call
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: themselves Lord. And today we follow that tradition. We stand
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: in their train. And we do so in worship and
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: awe and adoration of Christ who loved us. and gave
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: himself for us. May not one soul leave here as
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: Pilate or Herod or the wife or the mob. May
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: we leave as that small band of followers who believed
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: in him to their death. And may that make a
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: difference In how we live. And work. And play. And serve.
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  Speaker 1: I ask it in his gracious. Glorious name. And all
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: the people said.
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: The preceding message. The last trials and torture of Jesus.
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: Was copyrighted in 1999. 2000, 2008, and 2023, and the
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: sound recording was copyrighted in 2023 by Charles R.
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: In the preceding message, Charles R.
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: Swindoll, Inc.
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: Is grateful for permission to quote excerpts from the book
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: The Day Christ Died, copyrighted in 1957 by Jim Bishop.