Pastor Muri's message from Sunday (part 2)

Authority? Over your creator? Come on! You’re not thinking in context, Pilate. You didn’t read the beginning of this book.

 

11 Jesus answered him, You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who [has] delivered me over to you has the greater sin. 12 From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.

 

And this was the final nail. This was the final argument. This was what put Pilate over the edge and made him realize, “I have to deal with this Jesus in accordance with the demands of the Jews or I am going to be history as far as a governor in Judea.”

 

13 ... When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, [or] in Aramaic Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the day of [the] Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. [And] He said to the Jews, Behold your King! 15 They cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him! Pilate said to them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered,

 

Now think about this in context again. Historically, first-century Jews, under the Roman oppression, which they hated:

 

We have no king but Caesar.

 

I think I could say with a measure of authority today that these words had never been on their lips before. This is something they had never been willing to say and probably would never say again.

 

16 So [Pilate] delivered him over ... to be crucified.

 

How did it happen? Jesus said to Pilate in verse 11:

 

You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me ... to you has the greater sin.

 

It seems like Jesus is talking about culpability, about responsibility for him being where he is. Who is to blame for the death of Jesus Christ? That seems to be the question. It seems to be the issue. The issue could be stated like this: Who killed Jesus?

 

The courtroom as Pilate saw it was probably a bare room in the Praetorium where Jesus was sitting in the dock, whatever that looked like, and Pilate was standing at the judgment bench, whatever that might have looked like, and he was presiding over this trial.

 

But the courtroom as Jesus saw it was much different. He saw a sovereign God, viewing multiple defendants and assigning criminal blame relevant to their involvement in this obscene trial and this act of crucifixion.

 

But who are those who share responsibility for the death of Jesus Christ? We’re not just doing history this morning. I want you to understand as we begin to move into this, we’re not just doing history this morning. We’re actually looking back over chapters 18 and 19 and we’re asking ourselves the question: Who killed Jesus? Who are those who are responsible for the death of Jesus Christ? And the reason -- the thing that has stimulated this question is Jesus’ statement in verse 11:

 

He who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.

 

The word delivered is the word that we’re going to be focusing on this morning. It appears frequently throughout the Gospels. It’s translated differently, but it’s the same word, paradidomi. And I’m gonna use that Greek word this morning. I don’t typically sprinkle Greek words over my sermon, but I want -- I’m gonna keep coming back to this so that every time we see it translated, you’re gonna understand that this is the very same word. We’re talking the same thing. Whether the verse says that He was given up or given over or delivered up or betrayed, it’s all the same word, paradidomi.

 

So think with me as we look through this. Who killed Jesus? Who are the multiple defendants? As God looks down from the [end of track 3, 4:59] court in heaven and assigns culpability to each one, one after another, at various levels of culpability.

 

“Pilate, the one who delivered me over to you has greater sin in this than you.”

 

Question: Does Pilate have any guilt in this thing?

 

Well, he must if the one who delivered him over has greater sin, then Pilate has some sin.

 

What is Jesus assuming? Jesus is assuming that Pilate is gonna carry through on the course that he’s already begun on and that is to remand Jesus over to soldiers who will carry out His execution. He knows that because it’s the work that God has before determined that is going to happen. Acts chapter 4.

 

Let’s keep on in the context, however. Let’s look at the guilty parties.

 

One. Let’s start with Pilate. Pilate is immediately responsible because he’s the one that turns Him over to the Jews -- or to the soldiers. Verse 16:

 

16 So he delivered him [paradidomi] over to ... be crucified.

 

He gave Him up to crucifixion. He, by the choice of his will, declared Him to be guilty, though knowing in his mind He was absolutely innocent. He chose to call Him guilty and he turned Him over to the Roman soldiers to crucify Him. Mark 15, verse 15:

 

So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd,

 

Not to satisfy justice, but to satisfy the crowd.

 

released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus,

 

Whom he six times declared to be innocent, he

 

scourged Jesus, [and] he delivered him [paradidomi] to be crucified.

 

Question: Did Pilate truly have any authority in this legal decision? Does Pilate have any authority over Jesus at all?

 

Answer: Yes.

 

Jesus had said to him:

 

You would have no authority ... at all ... had [it not] been given [to] you from above.

 

Implication: You do have some authority. God in His sovereign providence has assigned to you a measure of authority to be able to say, “Take Him away and crucify Him.”

 

With authority comes responsibility. How is Pilate going to deal with the responsibility that he has? If Pilate had no authority, then he would have no responsibility. If he had no responsibility or authority, he could have no sin in this situation. But he does sin. Jesus convinces him of sin in the statement that He had made. In fact, Acts chapter 4 and verse 27, if you want to flip over there:

 

for truly [Peter says] in this [very] city [of Jerusalem] there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and ... plan had predestined to take place.

 

“Both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel” -- who is implicated in this?

 

Well, Pilate is, among others. The Gospels make it clear to us. If you read a harmony of the Gospels, where you get kind of a narrative all kind of blended together and you can follow chronologically through this whole series of trials and as the Jews bring Jesus to Pilate, it becomes very clear that Pilate is hung before he has a chance to even open his lips and make a decision. He is placed on the horns of a very difficult dilemma. In his mind he knows that Jesus is innocent. It is obvious to him that the Jews have delivered Him over to -- delivered Jesus over to him for a trial because of envy, not because of guilt. There’s no question in Pilate’s mind that he’s dealing with an innocent man. He’s had the pre-trial hearing. He’s interrogated Him. He’s questioned Him. He knows that Jesus is not a threat to the pax Romana. He’s very well convinced that Jesus is not guilty of sedition or any of the crimes against the state that the Jews have accused Him of. But at the same time, he was panicked. He was fearful of the Jews’ reaction. [end of track 4, 4:59]