Let's turn together to the gospel of John chapter 19. I'm going to read this morning versus 4 through 16. As you're turning there, let me submit to you this as, I want to help you in your hearing. The gospels, particularly John and Matthew, as they present this passion of Christ, the trials of Christ. Don't simply give to us information, facts, milestones and dates. There seems to be a real concern with putting forward to us a feeling of the trials. It's almost more of a dramatic presentation than it is simply a didactic presentation. What we have before us is the drama of Christ's passion. We're made to see it, to hear it, to feel it, to enter into it. Don't keep it at a distance. Listen to the dialogue of our Lord with pilot. Listen as pilot ponders and wonders and puzzles over this man before him. Enter into that dialogue, enter into the voice of the crowd which calls out for his crucifixion. Don't keep it so far removed as to simply be a historical account. A historical account of the last day of our Savior's life. In the gospel of John, chapter 19, join me at verse four as we read the words of God together through verse 16. Pilot went out again and said to them, see, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him. So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilot said to them, behold the man, when the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out crucifixion, crucifixion. Pilot said to them, take him yourselves in crucifixion for I find no guilt in him. The Jews answered him, we have a law. And according to that law, he ought to die because he has made himself the son of God. When Pilot heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, where are you from? Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilot said to him, you will not speak to me. Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you? Jesus answered him. You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. From then on, Pilot sought to release him, but the Jews cried out. If you released this man, you were not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. And when Pilot heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the Stone Pavement and an Aramaic, Gabatha. Now, it was the day of preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, be old your king. They cried out, away with him. Away with him, crucify him. Pilot said to them, shall I crucify your king? The chief priest answered, we have no king but Caesar. So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. May the Lord bless the reading of his word and the hearing of his people. We've looked in some detail at the phases of the trial, the gossemic, the trail by Judas, Peter's denial. We've looked in some detail even at the scourging last Sunday evening. Let's quickly review the narrative of these last hours in the life of Jesus and frame the trials together for their conclusion of verdict and a sentence. Philip Lang's homological outline of the trials is a wonderful summary of our Lord and the trials. He said, Christ had once been judged by and judging the world. Christ, at the bar of the Roman state, Christ before pilot and pilot before Christ. How Christ glance pierced through all the mazes of judgment, through all entanglements to the right, through all concealments and misrepresentations to the bottom, through all ambiguities to the purpose, through all waverings to the issue, how the judgment of the Lord judgeeth itself in its accusations, in its examinations, and in the motives for its sentence. After the betrayal of Judas in arrest and gossemic, Jesus was taken to Annas, where the St. Hadron hoped to garner or to begin to build a case against Jesus. Annas fell as to deliver any help at all to the counsel against Jesus. And so Jesus is quickly taken from there to Caiaphas, who was the residing high priest, and to the St. Hadron. Witnesses are paraded through, with complaints ranging from self-contradictory issues to the ridiculous, until one finally recounts the testimony of Jesus when he said that if they would tear down that temple, it again in three days. Caiaphas became frustrated that Jesus wouldn't confirm or deny any charge that was made against him. And so he asked him outright whether he was the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus at this point not only affirms the charge, but promises that the next time Caiaphas sees him, he will be the judge who is standing over Caiaphas as the Son of Man. Caiaphas seizes upon this and charges Jesus with blasphemy. Tears his robe. That verdict would require stoning according to Jewish custom and law, but they aren't allowed capital punishment under the yoke of Rome. Caiaphas is forced to turn to Rome and to Pontius Pilate, the procurator for help. Pontius Pilate himself is a creature of politics and above average intelligence he seeks his own advancement. And he holds the Jews with nothing but the deepest contempt. He's in Jerusalem because of the constant concern of revolt against the empire whenever the Jews gather for feast. The Sanhedrin approached Pilate and nuanced the charge a bit from a crime against God to a crime against the kingdom. Remember that it is the zealots who are of Jesus' generation who will in a few short years to follow AD70, finally get enough traction and finally win enough hearts in their cry no king but God to cause an outright rebellion against Rome which would result in that insurrection with the actual destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. And so the atmosphere around the time when Jesus is brought into Pilate is one where Pilate is well aware of the activity of zealots. Thankful that so few are willing to give them any credence and actually rise up in revolt but still wary because there is a definite threat of discontent and rebellion among the people. Days, not unlike the days which we find ourselves in, Pilate begrudgingly receives Jesus for an interview. He really would prefer to have nothing to do with this from the very beginning if this is Jewish business but nevertheless trying to keep the peace ever the politician he interviews Christ. He finds no crime in Jesus is conduct but he struggled with the nature of the charge that is until he hears the word Galilee. Ah, Jesus is a Galilean that means that he is a subject of Herod who is the son of Herod the great, Herod the great who is infamous because of his command to destroy all of the children in Bethlehem. And so he is sent to Herod the great. Jesus there is mocked in Herod's court. He is clothed with a purple robe until finally Herod sends Jesus back himself finding no reason for charge and without a verdict. Ralph Gorman sums up the situation well when he said, pilot found it difficult to get the affair off dead sinner. The Sanhedrinist accused Jesus, pilot disbelieved their charges and Jesus remained silent. In Luke 23, 14 and 15, pilot sums up the trial of the Sanhedrin. He tells them that he has examined Jesus and he has found nothing to charge him with. Herod also examined him and found nothing worthy of charges. He seeks a way out, he is looking for some crack, some way to find a technicality or a legal loophole that he can find a graceful exit through. Recognizing and remembering the great entry that Jesus had into Jerusalem which he surely would have received a report of, he knows that Jesus is popular with the masses and so he turns to the masses. He divests himself a responsibility for coming to a verdict and setting Christ free against the will of the Sanhedrin and he turns to the masses presuming that they are going to exonerate Jesus and remove from him this difficult position that he is in. But unfortunately the crowds that have been gathered there have already been swayed to the Sanhedrinist view. And as he comes out and reports to them that there is a tradition by which one will be released during Passover, they call for the zealot Barabbas who is imprisoned because of thevery, murder and insurrection. Pilot is still too much of a coward to set Jesus free. So he determines to have Jesus flocked, flocked rather hoping to satisfy the Sanhedrin's disdain for Christ. After the flogging the soldiers barely treating Jesus as a human being and actually even worse than they would treat their own beast, put a purple robe on him and then they place a crown of thorns on him and they take a reed which Jesus held in his hand and they begin to hit him in the head where the crown of thorns is located, driving the thorns deeper and deeper into his head. We don't know how long the soldiers had Jesus to their own abuse as they awaited Pilots return but the scriptures seem to indicate hinting to us that it was more than likely quite some time. Jesus through all of this suffers in silence. Pilot ordered that Jesus be brought out again so that all can see the horrid condition of their Christ. Pilot still prefers to set Jesus free. He turned to the crowd and he announced that he found no guilt in Jesus and he orders them to behold the man, the famous words which have come down to us even in the Latin Echa homo behold the man. Gorman reflects on these words. It would almost seem that pilot like Caiaphas was used by God as an instrument of prophecy and that his words go far beyond any meaning he intended they should have. It was almost as if he were saying to those present and to the generations yet to come behold the man behold more than a man. Behold him whose coming and whose present situation were foretold by the prophets especially Isaiah behold him from whom alone comes the salvation of the world again we repeat in our own day behold the man. It would seem that pilot actually intended on an appeal to the Jews morality, to their sensitivities, to the abuse of a man. By asking more or less how they could hope for any worse punishment on one of their own people at the hand of Rome or perhaps he was showing that this man before them couldn't possibly be a threat to Rome. Look at him. Look at one of your own. Do you want any worse for one of your own at the hand of those who have the yoke of bondage over you? Look at this man. Do you really take seriously any charge that he would be a threat to Caesar? He can do nothing. He's a beaten man. Whatever he hoped for pilot never imagined how dark and deep the hatred for Christ was and those who just wanted him dead. I find no fault in him pilot confirms the apostles Peter's words that Jesus is a lamb without blemish and without spot. I find no fault in this man, this lamb of God who's come away come to take away the sins of the world behold the man behold the lamb of God who comes to take away the sin of the world. The answer to pilot comes quickly and clearly in one single word crucify three times now pilot has declared Jesus innocent three times he has declared that there is no crime. His disgust at the Jews comes out when he suggests that they do their own murdering and crucify Jesus themselves. H.A. Ironstein tells a remarkable story of a meeting of the Sinod of the free church of Scotland. A minister was asked to preach on Sunday morning on virtue. And as he was preaching he gave a stirring message on virtue. His conclusion was, oh my friends if virtue and carnit could only appear on earth men would be so ravished by her beauty that they would fall down and worship her. Everyone left that Sinod meeting remarking about how eloquent and how beautiful that sermon was that was delivered that same Sunday evening a second minister came to deliver the evening message preaching on the crucified Christ and he concluded his sermon with these words. My friends virtue and carnit has appeared on earth and men instead of being ravished by his beauty and falling down and worshiping him cried out away with him. Crucify him, crucify him, we will not have this man to reign over us. That tells the wickedness of the natural heart. For those Jews that day were but representative men they were not different men than any others and no different than us. Then quoting from Romans 3, 22 and 23 he read, but there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. They, that is the Jews, told out the hatred of natural man to the holiness of God. The Sanhedrin know they're losing their case because each time pilot comes out he declares he can find no reason to crucify this man Jesus. They're losing their case they confer they make a quick decision. Jesus is no threat to Rome or Caesar find them. They move all of that but as a good Roman pilot respects local law and in John 19, 7 the Sanhedrin disclose finally the first nugget of truth that they have said all day. Jesus has declared himself to be the son of God. How ironic in the end that they show their rejection of Jesus not with false charges but by presenting him just as he presented himself to be. Their final rejection is not entrumping up a charge or making anything up or leaving any doubt that there was any misconception they present Jesus just as he has claimed himself to be the son of God. That is their final charge. This new charge brings shocked silence from pilot. He looks again to Jesus and is even more afraid. Up to now he had been afraid of Caesar and Jewish politics but now now he is afraid of the nature of the man that is standing before him. Pilot once again takes Jesus aside returning again to Gorman's observations he said pilot had good reason to fear. He was a man of above average intelligence and must have realized from the beginning of the trial that this man who stood before him was no ordinary prisoner cringing before his judge and multiplying answers to accusations. Jesus had remained as calm and silent as if another had been on trial. His patience and sincerity or serenity rather, his disregard of the repeated charges of his enemies, his quiet majesty even when scourged and crowned with thorns and mocked as a royal pretender must have made a deep impression on pilot. When he did speak his words did nothing to allow pilots pilot spheres for he said my kingdom is not of this world. In pagan mythology the idea of a god manifesting in himself and human form was a real possibility is Jesus some sort of greater king pilot is asking himself is he some sort of a god who has come down and appeared in flesh who has a kingdom and who has armies at his disposal. And so he asked him a very plain question one that sounds almost desperate. Where are you from? I knew Jesus held from Galilee that he was called the Nazarene none of this had been denied by Jesus. So what does pilot want from Jesus now? Are you from heaven or are you from earth? Are you a god or are you a man? But again again Jesus remains silent pilot that pilot then makes a plea almost sounding like he is Christ own advocate. He reminds Jesus that all he has to do is say the word and Jesus will go free. He isn't asking for a sign. He isn't asking for a miracle. He isn't asking to be rewarded with a gift. He just wants Jesus to tell him if he is in fact a god or a man. I'm convinced that pilot is both desperate to find a way to free an innocent man and now afraid that he's tampering with powers beyond himself. Pilot wants nothing of either of these circumstances. He simply wants to be rid of this. Let's not conclude that there's any spiritual insight with pilot however. He remains arrogant. He remains annoyed just as much as he is superstitious. And his presumption that this man or god or whatever he may be dependent on him for his life proves he still had no idea who Jesus really is. He sought to release Jesus in a way to please the people not for justice sake. He sought Rome's compromise and he sought some middle ground between truth and lie. But as all postmoderns and relativist eventually discover there is no middle ground between right and wrong, between true and false, between salvation and condemnation, between the kingdom of god and the kingdom of man. The words of Jesus remain true. Whoever denies me before men, him will I deny before the father. Philip Lange, quoting Gossner, wrote, That lesson can be learned from pilot. Fidelity and infidelity are never served together. Once one has determined that he does not or she does not have to be faithful infidelity has already occurred. It's just a matter of degrees and who is hurt besides the one who is already serving to masters. Jesus replies to him. He speaks to this judge that is so graciously offering to use his power to save the incarnate Lord. You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. Saint Augustine noticed that Jesus said the one that delivered him had the greater sin thus not exempting pilot from guilt as well. Verse 12 teaches us that from that point pilot applied himself to Jesus's release. I agree with Augustine that pilot heard clearly that the guilt for an innocent man's death would be on him whether it is the greater or lesser sin it is his sin nonetheless. But the Jews pushed back just as hard as pilot's salt to have him released. They pushed back and they introduced a threat now against pilot himself. They announced that if pilot allows Jesus to go free that he is no friend of Rome in fact he is an enemy of Rome. They now are bringing charges against pilot that he himself could be brought up as one who is a seditionist. How ironic, when Barabbas was a zealot, an enemy of Rome, the zealots would begin the uprising that resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD and yet pilot released Barabbas but if he releases Jesus the Jews will accuse him of being an enemy of Caesar. Pilot knows the Emperor Tiberius quite well. A charge such as this would bring a severe response from Tiberius. Still pilot makes another attempt to distract and dissuade the Jews now leaning more into psychological play than he has actual legal parlance. But this last move of his in this terrible series of strategy and rhetoric and counter strategy and rhetoric seals any other opportunity away for the release of Jesus. After their attempt to intimidate pilot by mentioning his king he presents Jesus to them as theirs. His move and insult to them makes the Jews cry louder for his crucifixion and pilot losing at this point. His self-composure destroys any hope for Jesus's release and fans the flames of the agitated Jewish mob. With bitter sarcasm he yells out to them, shall I crucify your king? The chief priests have hoped for an opening just like this. Without hesitation they claim loyalty to Rome and that they have no king but Caesar. Now the tables are turned and it's the Jewish Sanhedrin who are the defenders of the empire of this world while pilot is the last one standing between them and the Messiah. Perhaps it is with these words more than any other that Israel's rejection of their Messiah is most clear. Our king is Caesar. Our kingdom is Rome. The trials virtually concluded now at this point. With no way out pilot stares down at the Jewish mob knowing that it is check and mate and he is lost. There is no more doubt or hesitation. Pilot, ever the pragmatist, turns away from Jesus abandoning him. Pilot puts his period at the end of the sentence and our creed that reads he suffered under Pontius Pilate. So in about the sixth hour of the day, 12 noon of Passover preparation, that is the day before Passover in a place called Gabata which means literally high place. In the palace, fortress of Antonia, Jesus was condemned. Matthew tells us that pilot took some water and he washed his hands, symbolically testifying that this lynching of an innocent man was there doing and not his. How many have pretended that a few words, some symbolic act of reconciliation could wash their guilt away. How often have people relied on the passage of time to cause others to forget their egregious sin and have sought to saddle back up as if nothing had ever happened. How many times has sin sought to be washed away with the means of man and this world. The teaching of all the scriptures and both testaments is clear that sin and guilt are only washed away with the sacrifice of life by pouring out its blood, sin is a crime against God and his holiness is so perfect that any crime, the greater and the lesser carries the penalty of death. And the Old Testament, a morning and an evening sacrifice reminded the people how serious sin is but bulls and goats couldn't give satisfaction for man's sin, only the shedding of man's blood and only that from a man who himself was without stain or blemish or sin. Robert Lowry, a popular Baptist minister in the late 19th century put this scriptural truth to a song which has belonged to the church ever since. What can take away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me all again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can for Sanitone, nothing but the blood of Jesus, not the good that I have done, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Pilot has washed his hands but his guilt remained. His captivity to sin remained had Jesus washed his feet. He himself would have been set free but pilot will have none of this ministry of Christ. He now has turned Christ over to the wheels of Roman justice, the justice of this world who will always look at Christ with contempt. Will there ever be safe harbor in this world for Christ's church? No, never will. For this kingdom of God is not a kingdom of this world. It is alien and it is foreign and like antibodies in our own human bodies, any introduction of the kingdom of God and this world is fall hard as it would be an infection in the body. For it is antithetical to the principles and the purposes and the ambitions of everything that is in this world. Pilot sought for justice. Perhaps there was some nobility in this man otherwise known as Crass and Callus, a hater of the Jews and yet even his quest for some legal reconciliation failed in the end and there was no way out. The kingdom of God remains antithetical to the world it should not surprise us when the world says we want to hear nothing of the things of Christ and yet our calling is clear. We bear testimony that it is not the washing of the way of our sin with water that makes us pure and acceptable to God. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Why must we enter into the drama of the passion? The Jews had the benefit of seeing a slaughter in the morning and a slaughter in the evening. We are in dwelled with the spirit of God and we have the testimony of the Word of God before us but if we close that testimony then it would be the same as a Jew that refuses to ever go to Jerusalem for the Passover. We in our human frailty must be constantly reminded of the cross of Christ and of our own sin and of his passion. We must see it before us every day, every day so that we can then call out and sing amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. We once were lost, now we were found, we were blind and now we see.