Shall we turn to John's Gospel, chapter 18.
Jesus has finished his prayer, which we mentioned
last week, should properly be entitled, The Lord's
Prayer.
And now, from wherever this prayer was offered,
maybe it was on the temple precincts itself,
as the temple gates were open all night,
during the time of Passover, so people could
come at any time and worship God.
But having finished his prayer, he now crosses
the Brook Kidron with his disciples, that he
might go over to a place on the
Mount of Olives, where Jesus went often with
his disciples into a garden known as Gethsemane.
In those days, the wealthy people of Jerusalem
had private gardens on the Mount of Olives.
It could be that one of these persons
who liked Jesus, had given him the key
to the gate of his garden, and that
Jesus had access to this particular garden there
on the Mount of Olives.
And he went there often with his disciples.
But when Jesus, chapter 18, verse 1, when
Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth
with his disciples over the Brook Kidron, where
there was a garden, into which he entered
with his disciples.
So, the wording and the phraseology here would
indicate that it was one of these private
gardens within a gated area that Jesus entered.
The interesting thing, as he crossed the Brook
Kidron at this point, during Passover season, there
on the Temple Mount, for the Passover, there
would be slain thousands of lambs.
In fact, some 30 years later than this,
the Roman government sought to take a census.
They could not count the people because the
Jews were opposed to a census of the
people ever since the time that David took
the census and the nation was judged for
David's sin.
So, from that time on, they would never
count people.
In fact, the Orthodox today, if you're at
a party and you have to count off
for a game or something, they won't count
people.
They'll say not one, not two, not three,
not four, not five.
But, in the taking of the census, what
they did was count the number of sheep
that were killed for the Passover because they
were curious to find out how many people
were gathering in Jerusalem for these Passovers.
Now, the Passover lamb had to be eaten
by no fewer than ten people.
And so, at the particular census made mention
by Josephus, there were 256,000 sheep killed
for that one Passover feast, indicating the number
of people in Jerusalem at somewhere around 2
.5 million people gathered for the Passover.
So, when they would kill the lambs, the
blood would go in a little rivulet that
was created on down to the brook of
Kidron.
And there it would mingle with the water
of the brook Kidron, and it would be
a bloody-looking water flowing down the stream.
And as Jesus crossed it with His disciples,
filled with the blood, mingled with the water
of the stream, which of course washed it
on down, thinking of all of those lambs
that were sacrificed for Passover, Jesus no doubt
was thinking of the lamb that was to
be sacrificed this Passover.
The Lamb of God who would take away
the sins of the world.
And so, to Him it was probably a
very touching moment as He crossed that stream
with His disciples, seeing it flowing red with
the blood of the Passover lambs.
Judas also, who betrayed Him, was familiar with
this garden where Jesus often went.
And so, having received a band of men
and officers from the chief priests and the
Pharisees, they came out with their torches and
lanterns and weapons.
The band, that word in the Greek, indicates
a Roman contingent of either what was known
as a cohort, 650 men, or they also
had an enlarged cohort, which was 1,000
men comprised of 270 cavalrymen plus the footmen,
or at the least 200 men.
Now, it is interesting that they would bring
such a large number of Roman soldiers along
with the officers of the temple to arrest
Jesus with His twelve.
Why they thought they needed that many is
interesting.
And Jesus therefore, knowing that all things should
come upon Him, went forth.
He came on out of the garden.
They came with their torches.
Now, it was full moon.
They really didn't need torches during the full
moon over there.
But perhaps they thought that He would be
lurking somewhere in the bushes or hiding, and
so they came with their torches and weapons.
But Jesus came right on out to meet
them.
And He said unto them, Who are you
looking for?
And they answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth.
And He said unto them, I Am.
You'll notice the word He is in italics,
which means that it was added by the
translators.
Jesus just said, I Am.
That divine name of the eternal God.
When Jesus said, I Am, there met forth,
no doubt, a blast of power, divine power.
And as He said unto them, I Am,
they fell backward to the ground.
Now at that point, Jesus could have just
walked off and left them lying there.
It is interesting that Jesus is in control
of the whole situation.
He is the Master.
And though they have come to arrest Him,
He is the one that is giving the
orders.
Notice, He asked them again, Who are you
looking for?
And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
He said, I told you that I Am.
If therefore you are seeking Me, then let
these others go.
And He ordered them to let the disciples
go.
Which they did.
He was in control.
He was calling the orders at this point.
Perfect command of the entire situation.
Now at this point, well, that the scripture
might be fulfilled, which said, Of them which
you gave Me, I have lost none.
Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it.
And he smote the high priest's servant and
cut off his right ear.
The servant's name was Malchus.
Simon had been in a deep sleep.
He had tried to stay awake and pray
with the Lord, but he just couldn't do
it.
He was tired.
And so when Jesus said, Sleep on now.
Take your rest.
And then He said, Arise.
The hour has come.
When Peter arose out of the deep sleep,
he was probably still pretty groggy.
He looked around, saw the crowd, pulled out
his sword and began to swing.
And Malchus can be glad that he was
sleepy.
He only caught his ear.
He was trying for his head, no doubt.
It is interesting, the last healing miracle that
Jesus performed, He performed to cover the bungling
act of one of His disciples.
For Jesus healed the ear of Malchus, the
servant of the high priest.
Now, Peter is one that we are prone
to fault.
Because in just a moment, he will be
denying his Lord.
In spite of his strong protestations earlier that
he would never deny Him, that he would
die for Him, soon he will be denying
Him.
And we're prone to fault Peter for his
cowardice.
But wait a minute.
Here are at least 200 Roman soldiers plus
the officers of the temple.
And I'll tell you, Peter is ready to
stand them all off to defend Jesus Christ.
That's not cowardice.
That takes some kind of a man.
And so don't be too harsh on Peter.
He was a man's man.
He was ready to stand off the whole
band.
Then said Jesus to Peter, Put up your
sword into the sheath.
The cup which the Father hath given Me,
shall I not drink it?
Now, just a little earlier in the evening,
as Jesus was in the garden and praying,
Father, if it is possible, let this cup
pass from Me.
Nevertheless, not what I will, Your will be
done.
At that point, Jesus was facing the cup.
Reluctantly.
It was at that point He was submitting
His will to the Fathers.
It wasn't something He wanted to do.
Desired to do.
This was an act of submission to the
Father.
But that commitment was made.
Once it was made, there was no turning
back.
Jesus said to His disciples, Don't you realize
that at this moment I could call ten
legions of angels to deliver Me?
I don't need your help, Peter.
If I wanted out of this, I could
get out of it very easily.
But the cup that the Father has given
Me to drink, shall I not drink it?
He had made His commitment.
There is no turning back.
Then the band and the captain and the
officers took Jesus and they bound Him.
How ridiculous that they should bind Him.
But let me tell you, whatever they used,
the ropes or whatever to bind Jesus did
not bind Jesus.
Jesus was bound by something else much more
powerful than the ropes.
He was bound by His love for you
and for me.
That's what caused Him to submit to this.
Not that they tied Him up and were
taking Him as a captive.
He was not their captive.
He was a captive of love.
His love for you.
His love for me.
That's what bound Jesus to go ahead to
face the cross.
And they led Him away to Annas first,
for he was the father-in-law to
Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same
year.
Annas had been the high priest from the
year 5 to the year 16.
Annas was probably one of the most influential,
powerful, wealthy men in the city of Jerusalem.
At this particular time, the high priesthood was
a political kind of an appointment by the
Roman government.
And it was secured by a bidding kind
of a process.
They paid and bribed for the privilege of
being the high priest.
It was extremely corrupted at this point.
Annas was the high priest.
And being the patriarch of that family was
recognized still as the power behind the office
of the high priest.
Five of his sons at various times and
for various periods held the position of high
priest.
At this particular time, his son-in-law,
Caiaphas, had the official Roman sanction as high
priest.
But Annas was still considered by the people
the high priest, and he was the power
behind the throne.
And that is why they brought him to
Annas first.
Annas was the man who had so corrupted
the priesthood.
But he was the one who owned the
booths in the temple courtyard where they sold
the animals for sacrifices, where the money changer
tables were.
For he was the one extorting from the
people the high prices for the sacrificial animals.
You could buy a dove out on the
street for about twenty cents to offer as
a sacrifice.
But the sacrifices had to be without spot
or blemish.
So if you bought a dove out on
the streets and brought it for a sacrifice,
the priest would examine it carefully and he'd
find some little blemish.
He'd say, I can't offer this to God.
Look, it's got a blemish here.
You better go over to the table over
there and buy a dove from them.
And of course, this was a concession owned
by Annas.
And they were charging ten, fifteen dollars for
a dove.
But if you wanted to offer a sacrifice,
you had to have one the priest would
accept.
And these were already accepted.
There was no question about these that Annas
was selling in his concessionaires there.
And that was the thing that Jesus saw
that upset him so much that he drove,
he made a whip and he drove them
out of the temple.
And he overturned the money changers' tables and
he said that my father's house is to
be called the house of prayer and you've
made it a den of thieves.
Merchandising the things of God and how God
gets angry at that.
And I think that that would be wise
for a lot of these evangelists and healers
and all around the country today to realize
how angry God gets when people try to
merchandise the Gospel or to put in the
way of men barriers to their coming to
God.
People who try to enrich themselves off of
the Gospel would do well to study the
anger of Jesus when he found this going
on within the temple courts.
Annas had it in for Jesus ever since
he had overturned his little business.
Naturally, they put things right back together again.
But it galled him that Jesus would have
the nerve to upset his extortion racket.
And so he was first brought to this
man, an extortioner, a wealthy man, a Sadducee.
And there he was first tried before Annas,
then to Caiaphas, and then to Pilate.
And so they brought him to Annas, who
was the high priest, the father-in-law
to Caiaphas, who was the high priest that
same year.
So that's why there were two high priests.
Annas, the patriarch, the old man, recognized by
the people, but the Roman government had appointed
politically Caiaphas as the high priest.
Now this Caiaphas was the one who said,
look, it's necessary that one be killed for
the whole nation.
And Simon Peter followed Jesus.
Now, again, this is admirable.
The rest of the disciples, with the exception
of John, had fled.
Simon got into trouble because he wasn't going
to leave Jesus.
He continued to follow him.
And the disciple which was known unto the
high priest and went with Jesus into the
palace of the high priest, but Peter stood
at the door.
Now this disciple, this other disciple, is no
doubt John referring to himself.
And he was known to the high priest.
Now how do you suppose it was that
John was known to the high priest?
According to the stories, John's father Zebedee was
a very wealthy fish merchant.
He had his fleet of ships up on
the...
Actually, that was an Israeli slip.
When you're there in Israel, they'll say, look
at all of these sheeps.
And they'll be talking about the sheep on
the hillside.
And they call them ships.
And so, see all the ships over there.
So, Zebedee had his fleet of fishing boats
up on the Sea of Galilee.
Only a fool falls in the same ditch
twice.
And watch me fall in that one in
just a minute to prove it.
And it was impossible to get fresh fish
to the market in Jerusalem.
So, they would salt the fish.
And salted fish was one of the great
delicacies.
And according to the stories, and in fact
today there's a little coffee shop still in
the old city of Jerusalem.
And under this coffee shop there are arches.
And they declared to you that these arches
were actually the fish market of Zebedee.
And that he sold the salted fish to
the high priest.
Now, if this were so, as John was
growing up, he probably was the delivery boy
and had been there in the high priest's
home many times delivering the salted fish.
And this is how it is believed that
John knew the high priest.
At any rate, he knew him.
And so, he went on in, but Peter
was outside.
And then the other disciple who was known
to the high priest spoke to the girl
that was keeping the door and he brought
Peter on in.
Then the damsel said to Peter, the one
keeping the door, are you not one of
this man's disciples?
And Peter said, nope, I'm not.
And the servants and the officers stood there
who had made a fire of coals, for
it was cold.
And they were warming themselves and Peter stood
with them and warmed himself.
I might at this point just say, be
careful whenever you seek warmth at the enemy's
fires.
You're in dangerous territory.
The high priest then asked Jesus of his
disciples and of his doctrine.
Now, this was a violation of Jewish law.
They had a fifth amendment kind of a
thing where no man could testify against himself.
You were not required to testify against yourself.
There was the fifth amendment.
And it was illegal to ask a man
to witness against himself.
So when the high priest was asking him
the question, Annas asked him about his disciples
and about his doctrine.
And Jesus is actually answering saying, look, I
spoke openly to the world.
I was always teaching in the synagogues and
in the temple where the Jews always resort.
And I have said nothing in secret.
So why do you ask me?
That's illegal.
Ask them which heard me.
Bring forth your witnesses.
That's the legal thing to do.
Those which heard me.
And let them tell you what I have
said unto them.
Behold, they know what I have said.
So it was a technical legal point that
Jesus was calling the high priest on.
But when he said that, one of the
officers who stood by struck Jesus with the
palm of his hand and he said, do
you answer the high priest so?
And Jesus said to him, if I have
spoken evil, then you bear witness of the
evil.
But if well, why are you smiting me?
Now evidently, this guy standing by the high
priest liked to hit the prisoners.
Paul had the same kind of experience later
on when the high priest asked Paul a
question and Paul challenged it and the guy
hit Paul and Paul turned and said, God
will smite you, you whited sepulcher.
He was a little more gentle than Jesus.
I think of this though in the context
of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus
said, and if a man smites thee on
the right cheek, turn to him the other
also.
We've got to understand that particular scripture in
its context.
For Jesus did not really turn the other
cheek.
He just said, look, if I've said evil,
then bear witness of the evil and if
I brought forth an honest point of the
law, then why did you strike me?
And he challenged the man for striking him
illegally.
Now Annas bound him again and sent him
to his son-in-law Caiaphas and John
does not tell us about his trial before
Caiaphas, but the other Gospels, Matthew and Mark,
tell us about the trial before Caiaphas.
And Simon Peter stood and warmed himself and
they said therefore unto him, are you not
also one of his disciples?
And he denied it and said, I am
not.
And one of the servants of the high
priest being a relative to Malchus, the guy
who's here was cut off by Peter, said,
did I not see you in the garden
with him?
And Peter again denied and immediately the cock
crew.
One of the other Gospels tells us that
at this point Jesus turned over and looked
at Peter and Peter remembered the words of
the Lord and he went out and wept
bitterly.
It was a very hard experience for Peter.
The stories tell us that in years to
come, people to bug Peter, those enemies of
the Gospel, would make the sound of a
rooster crowing whenever they would see him.
Constantly reminded of his failure.
It's terrible how the people will take advantage
of a weakness or the failure of the
man and try and hold him down rather
than to lift him again.
Such should not be the case within the
family of God.
If a man be overtaken in a fault,
then ye which are spiritual, restore such a
one in a spirit of meekness as we
consider ourselves, lest we also be tempted and
we also fall.
As you would that men should do unto
you, then do ye likewise also unto them.
If I make a mistake, I want people
to be patient and tolerant and considerate, thus
I should be patient and tolerant and considerate.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain
mercy.
I used to tell that to my seminary
professors every test time.
Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the
Hall of Judgment.
Now he is being brought before Pilate.
And it was early.
But they themselves would not go into the
Judgment Hall.
You see, it was the area of the
Gentiles.
And if they went into there, they would
be defiled and they couldn't celebrate the Passover.
So Pilate went out unto them.
Interesting how corrupt and evil they were and
yet meticulously religious.
It's a terrible thing how meticulous a person
can be within the rituals of a religious
system and yet so totally immorally corrupt.
Oh, but oh, you know, can't do that
because that's against my religious principles, you know,
to eat meat on Friday or something.
Of course, that's been dropped now.
But it's amazing how that we get into
these little traditional things.
And as Jesus said, you strain at a
gnat, but you swallow a camel.
And this is so true of people that
get all bound up in the traditions of
religion.
They begin to strain at the littlest things,
but they overlook.
He said, you pay tithe from your spice
gardens.
As you're counting out your little Ni seeds,
you say, nine for me, one for the
Lord.
Nine for me, one for the Lord.
Counting out these little black seeds.
Make sure the Lord gets His tenth.
And you pay tithe of your mint, your
cumin, your spices.
But you have omitted the more important things
of righteousness and of judgment and of mercy.
Now, we've got to guard ourselves against traditions
and meticulous adherence to traditions, but yet overlooking
some of the more important things that God
is interested in.
And so, here they were.
They wouldn't come in because they didn't want
to defile themselves.
And yet, they were engineering the crucifixion of
God's Son.
What a whole paradox here.
So, Pilate went out to them.
And he said, what accusation do you bring
against this man?
Now, Pilate was appointed by the Roman government
as a procurator of Judea.
When Herod the Great had died, he divided
his kingdom to his three sons.
But Herod Archilas, who was over the area
of Judea, began to extort such heavy taxes
from the people that they complained to the
Roman government and were granted by the Roman
government to become a province of Rome under
a procurator.
And Pilate became the procurator over Judea.
Now, the Roman headquarters in that area was
in Caesarea, not Jerusalem.
But the procurator had to visit every major
city at least once a year.
And they would usually come up for the
feast days to Jerusalem because they knew that
that's when all of the people would be
gathered.
And if there was to be any civil
movement against Rome, it often occurred during these
feast times.
Now, the first time that Pilate came from
Caesarea with the Roman legion into the city
of Jerusalem, on the tops of the flags
of the Roman legions, they had these little
busts of the Caesar who was a god
to the people.
The Caesars took the position of gods.
And so the Jews objected to the Romans
coming in with these flags with a little
golden bust of the Caesars on the top.
And the other procurators had acquiesced to the
Jews and had not had these little busts
on the top of their gods.
But Pilate was not ready to give in
to their superstitions.
And so the Roman soldiers under Pilate marched
right into Jerusalem with these little standards on
the top of their flags.
And it so incensed the Jews that they
started just bugging him for this action, not
to do it again.
And they followed him back to Caesarea and
continued to bug him.
And so he commanded that they all gather
into the arena there in Caesarea.
And he had them lock the gates.
And then he said, alright, now you quit
bugging me or I'm going to kill you.
I'll have the soldiers kill you.
I don't want you to bug me on
this issue anymore.
And the Jews all leaned over and they
pulled their collars off of their necks and
they said, go ahead and kill us.
You know, we don't want you doing that
again.
Well, even as cold as Pilate was, he
couldn't just have these fellows slain like that
defenseless.
And so he capitulated.
And he gave in on this issue.
But then again, Pilate just didn't have patience
with their traditions.
And again, he violated some of their traditions
and they appealed to the emperor and the
emperor went along with the people and overruled
Pilate.
According to the Roman Senate, they wanted the
procurators to keep the provinces as peaceful as
possible, but Pilate wasn't that kind of a
personality to just bow or acquiesce.
And so he was having problems and one
more report to the emperor would not be
good for his record.
So Pilate went out and he said, what
accusation do you bring against this man?
And they said unto him, if he weren't
a criminal, we would not have delivered him
up to you.
Pilate said unto them, then take him and
judge him by your own laws.
I mean, Pilate didn't want to be bothered
with this.
They don't want to make actual charges.
Now, their charge against him was blasphemy.
You remember the priest said, art thou then
the son of God?
And he said, thou sayest it.
And he said, what need we have any
further witnesses?
We've heard him say it with his own
mouth.
Blasphemy!
What do you say?
He's guilty of death.
But they couldn't bring this charge of blasphemy
before Pilate.
And he said, go away.
So before Pilate, they had to bring other
charges.
He is inciting people to rebel against Rome.
That's a lie.
Lying charges.
But Pilate really didn't have any love for
these people.
They had burned him already.
And he didn't have any patience for their
religious feelings.
And so when they said, if he weren't
a malfactor, we wouldn't have brought him.
Pilate then said, then you go ahead and
try him according to your own laws.
He's not going to be, you know, playing
games with these guys.
The Jews therefore said unto him, it isn't
lawful for us to put any man to
death.
Now, this right, R-I-G-H-T,
of capital punishment had been taken away from
the Jews just a couple of years previous.
According to the Talmud, the Roman government took
away the right of capital punishment 40 years
before the destruction of Jerusalem, which was destroyed
in 70 A.D., which means that in
30 A.D., the right of capital punishment
was taken away from the Jews by the
Roman government.
When, and this is just two years before
the crucifixion of Jesus, when the capital, the
right of capital punishment was taken away from
the Jews, many of the leaders put on
sackcloth, ashes on their head, and they went
mourning through the streets of Jerusalem, and they
said, God has failed His promise and His
Word.
And they had mourning over the failure of
God to keep His Word.
For, God had promised through the prophecy of
Jacob that the scepter shall not depart from
Judah until the Messiah comes.
And when in 30 A.D., the Roman
government took away the right of capital punishment,
that was equivalent to removing the scepter from
the people.
And they mourned, and they said, God failed
His promise.
What they didn't realize, God had kept His
promise.
He was living among them at that very
moment.
The Messiah had come.
They just didn't recognize Him.
There was no need for their mourning processions.
God had kept His Word.
But, the right of capital punishment was taken
away in 30 A.D. by the Roman
government.
And so, they said, we don't have the
right, it isn't lawful for us to condemn
a man to die.
Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again,
and he called Jesus.
And he said unto Him, are you the
King of the Jews?
And Jesus said, do you want to know
this for yourself?
Or did others tell you about me?
Is this really something you want to know,
or is this just something that you've heard?
You know, there are a lot of questions
that people ask.
But they really don't want an answer.
They only want an argument.
There are honest questions, and there are dishonest
questions.
I'll take all day to answer an honest
question.
I have no time for dishonest questions.
And there are those who come up with
dishonest questions all the time.
And I have no patience with dishonest questions.
People don't really want an answer to their
question.
They just want an argument.
And there are certain questions that I have
asked of me that I know that are
only designed to bring an argument.
And I know exactly where they're coming from.
After they've asked the second or third question,
I know exactly where they're coming from.
And I can become very much like Romaine
very quickly when I get a dishonest questioner.
Jesus was asking Pilate, Do you really want
to know, or do you want an argument?
Did someone else tell you this of me,
or are you really asking?
Pilate said, Am I a Jew?
Your own nation and the chief priest have
delivered you unto me.
What have you done?
Jesus answered him, My kingdom is not of
this world.
Do you ask me if I'm a king?
Yes.
But my kingdom is not of this world.
If my kingdom were of this world, then
would my servants fight that I should not
be delivered to the Jews.
But now is my kingdom not from here.
Pilate therefore said unto him, Are you then
a king?
And Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am
a king.
Or more literally, you said it.
I am a king.
To this end was I born.
And for this cause I came into the
world that I should bear witness unto the
truth.
And everyone that is of the truth hears
my voice.
Pilate said unto him, What is truth?
I'm sure at this point Pilate was very
cynical after his encounters with the Jews and
the problems that he had faced as the
procurator of this area.
And I think that it was a question
of cynicism.
What is truth?
And when he said this, he went out
again to the Jews and he said unto
them, I find no fault in him.
But you have a custom.
That I should release unto you one at
the Passover.
Will you therefore that I release unto you
the king of the Jews?
Then cried they all again saying, Not this
man, but Barabbas.
Now Barabbas was a robber.
So here is Pilate's first attempt to release
Jesus.
Because of the custom of the Passover for
the Roman government to show favor unto the
people, he was to release a prisoner.
And so he tried to release Jesus as
the Passover prisoner.
But they cried for Barabbas.
So Pilate sought the second time for releasing
Jesus by having him scourged, hoping that the
horrible, brutal punishment of the scourging would suffice
the thirst for blood that these people had.
Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him.
The scourging was a whipping that was done
to examine the prisoners.
It was a third degree technique of the
Roman Empire.
They did not have amnesty in those days
or human rights.
They had a third degree that was totally
unmerciful.
They would tie a prisoner to a post
so that the back was stretched out and
then with a cat of nine tails whip,
a leather whip with little bits of glass
and lead embedded in it designed to rip
the flesh, they would lay the whip across
the back of the prisoner 39 times.
Forty is the number of judgment.
Thirty-nine the number of mercy.
So judgment must be tempered by mercy.
So they would lay 39 stripes.
Now as they would lay the stripe across
his back, the prisoner would cry out a
crime that he had committed.
And every time he would cry out a
crime, the lash would be a little less
severe until by the time the 39th stripe
came, they would just sort of lay the
whip across his back.
But if the prisoner would not confess a
crime, then every stripe would be harder and
harder and harder until he would be forced
to scream out in sheer agony the crimes
that he had committed.
Imagine Jesus in this plight, nothing to confess.
And so as the sheep before her shears
is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.
And they laid upon him the full force
of the 39 stripes and they scourged him.
It's just not much said about that, but
we cannot imagine the agony.
Many times prisoners died as the result of
these scourgings.
Before the 39th stripe was laid upon them,
they were already dead from the loss of
blood and just from the extreme pain.
But Jesus bore that suffering.
Now, the question, inasmuch as all of this
is a part of God's plan, these stripes
being laid upon him were a part of
God's predetermined plan.
It was prophesied in the book of Isaiah,
so God knew it in advance.
If he knew it in advance, he planned
it in advance.
As Peter was talking to the Jews on
the day of Pentecost, he said, you according
to the predetermined counsel and foreknowledge of God
with your wicked hands have crucified and slain
him.
According to the predetermined counsel and foreknowledge.
Now, why would God in his predetermined counsel
determine that Jesus should not only die that
horrible death of the cross, but also be
scourged, receive the stripes?
Going back to the prophecy of Isaiah.
He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for
our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him.
And with his stripes, you are healed.
Jesus was there definitely making provision for healing.
For his people.
I believe that that healing goes beyond the
spiritual healing.
I do not believe that you can deny
that also there is physical healing involved through
the suffering of Jesus.
Matthew's gospel chapter eight.
And they brought to him many who were
sick and afflicted with diverse, various kinds of
diseases.
And he healed them all that the scripture
might be fulfilled, which declared he bore our
suffering in his own body.
So that when Paul was writing to the
church concerning their taking of the Lord's Supper,
he said unto them, there are many of
you who are weak and sick because you
do not understand the Lord's body.
Jesus took the bread and he broke it
and said, this is my body broken for
you.
Those in Corinth, many of them were sick
because they did not understand the provision that
God had made for them through the scourging
of Jesus.
And he scourged him.
And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns
and they put it on his head and
they put on him a purple robe and
they said, Hail, King of the Jews.
And they smote him with their hands.
Now, Jesus had already experienced a tremendous buffeting
in the house of Caiaphas.
There they put a covering over his head
and with this bag over his head, they
began to hit him.
Now, that's vicious.
We are fearfully and wonderfully designed and we
are designed to have automatic reflex actions.
And when we see a blow coming, we
automatically reflex to protect ourselves from that blow
by fainting and going with the blow, thus
cushioning it.
And as long as you see the blow
coming, it's amazing what you can absorb as
long as your body is able to see
it coming and you can then compensate and
cushion and relax and flow with it.
You see these quarterbacks, you know, these big
old tackles come in and just massacre them.
And you think, Oh, man, he'll never get
up.
And he jumps back up to his feet
and runs to the huddle.
He saw the guy coming.
Where they really get hurt is when they
get blindsided.
They're not able to prepare themselves and that's
where your ribs get broken.
That's where your backbone gets broken.
That's where you really get hurt is when
you get blindsided because there your body is
not responding.
You don't have this opportunity of reflex action.
You can step off of a curb and
break your leg if you don't know the
curb is there because you haven't set your
body to react for that height.
And just the height of a step, you
can break your leg by just going down
hard, not knowing that the step is there.
So by covering Jesus' eyes, by covering his
head and then buffeting him, no chance to
faint or to respond and you take the
full force of the blow.
You don't know it's coming.
Wham!
And that hurts.
He'd already had taken that kind of abuse.
It's amazing how that animals
will pick on one that is already down.
You've heard of hen pecking.
If there is one that is sick or
small or scrawny, they'll all peck it until
they kill it.
It's just a part of animal nature.
And man without God is no more than
an animal.
Man recognizes that.
And those men who are without God talk
about the highly evolved form of animal life.
And they look at the monkey and tip
their hat to their ancestor because they naturally
relate to the animal kingdom because they live
like animals apart from Jesus Christ.
Until that spiritual dimension of your life is
open through Jesus Christ, you are no more
than an animal.
And these men as animals, seeing Jesus already
battered, were not satisfied, but continued this ungodly
persecution of a righteous man.
His face already bruised, swollen, bloodied by the
blows from Caiaphas.
They continued the abuse by smiting him, putting
on the crown of thorns, mocking him.
There is a horrible mob psychology where people
lose all of their natural inhibitions and restraints
and act as a mob and like an
animal.
And it's always shocking the things that people
can do in the anonymity of a mob.
The true vicious nature of man, sinful nature
of man is revealed.
Pilate therefore went forth again and he said
unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to
you that you may know that I find
no fault in him.
And Jesus came forth wearing the crown of
thorns and the purple robe.
And Pilate said unto them, Behold, the man.
I think that Pilate was saying this in
awe of Jesus.
He had just seen him take 39 stripes
without a word.
He had heard other men in that condition
screaming out in agony.
He had heard others as they cried out
their crimes.
He had heard others shriek the curses.
And yet here he takes it all without
a word, without a whimper.
And I'm sure that at this point Pilate
was so totally impressed.
The kingly nature of Jesus.
How he stood up to the buffeting.
To this whole horrible scene.
And I'm sure that Pilate's heart was filled
with awe and reverence.
And he said, Behold, the man.
I think that Pilate thought, I have never
seen a man like that in all my
life.
Behold, the man.
Every bit the man.
The epitome of manhood was found in Jesus
Christ our Lord.
He is one that every man can look
up to as a model.
And seek to follow that role model.
Every inch a man.
And when the chief priests, therefore, and officers
saw him, they cried out saying, Crucify him!
Crucify him!
And Pilate said unto them, Do you want
to take him and crucify him?
I find no fault in him.
And the Jews answered him, We have a
law.
And by our law he ought to die.
Because he made himself the Son of God.
And when Pilate heard that saying, he was
all the more afraid.
And he went again into the judgment hall
and he said to Jesus, Where did you
come from?
But Jesus did not answer him.
Then Pilate said unto him, Don't you answer
me?
Don't you know that I have the power
to crucify thee and I have the power
to release thee?
Jesus then answered, you could have no power
at all against me.
Unless it was given to you from above.
Therefore, he that delivered me unto you has
the greater sin.
Pilate, you have a sin, but they have
a greater sin.
And from that time, Pilate sought to release
him.
But the Jews cried out saying, If you
let this man go, you are not Caesar's
friend.
For whosoever makes himself a king is speaking
against Caesar.
Uh oh, he's already lost one bout to
Caesar.
The next bout will cost him his kingdom.
Pilate's past is catching up with him.
And so, when Pilate heard that saying, he
brought Jesus forth.
Sat down at the judgment seat in a
place that is called the pavement.
In the Hebrew, it's called the Gabbatha.
And it was preparation for the Passover.
It was about the sixth hour.
That is, about nine o'clock in the
morning.
And he said to the Jews, that is
in the Roman calendar, Behold your king.
But they cried out, away with him, away
with him.
Crucify him.
And Pilate said unto them, Shall I crucify
your king?
And the chief priest answered, We have no
king but Caesar.
I'm sure that that took Pilate back.
He knew what rebels they were against Rome.
But to hear the chief priest say, We
have no king but Caesar.
It was that subtle intimation.
If you let this man go, a report
is going directly to Caesar.
And it's your job, buddy.
Here is a man claiming to be a
king.
He can't be a friend of Caesar's.
And so Pilate delivered him to be crucified.
And they led Jesus away.
Pilate had a very difficult decision to make.
He knew in his heart what was right.
But he was being pressured by the crowd
into a decision he knew was wrong.
That's always a hard position to be in.
When in your heart you know what you
ought to do.
In your heart you know what is the
right thing.
But there is the pressures pushing you to
do the wrong thing.
And what a tragedy when a person succumbs
to those evil pressures and does that which
is a violation of his own conscience, his
own knowledge of what is right.
Sad, always, to violate your own conscience.
And do that which in your heart you
know is wrong.
Pilate had the power to crucify Jesus or
to release Him.
Pilate knew that the right thing to do
was to release Him.
There was no fault.
If he would take the scourging without crying
out any crimes, he had to be innocent.
Pilate asked them the question, What shall I
do with Jesus who is called Christ?
They cried, Crucify Him.
Why?
What evil has he done?
They just cried louder, Crucify Him.
No argument.
There's no real reason.
Just the loud cries of the crowd.
And Pilate succumbed to those.
And he delivered Him to be crucified.
That question that Pilate faced is a question
that each of us must face.
What am I going to do with Jesus
who is called the Christ?
You see, every one of us are in
Pilate's position.
This is just not a recorded fact of
history.
This is relevant to you tonight.
Each one of you must make the same
decision that Pilate had to make.
What will I do with Jesus who is
called the Christ?
And you can either believe in Him or
not believe in Him.
But as many as believed on Him, to
them gave He the power to become the
sons of God.
Even to those who believed upon His name.
Or you cannot believe.
You can confess Him.
Or you can deny Him.
And if you will confess Me before men,
Jesus said, I will confess you before My
Father which is in Heaven.
But if you deny Me before men, I'll
also deny you before the Father in the
presence of the holy angels.
You can receive Him or reject Him.
What will you do with Jesus who is
called Christ?
Now there's an interesting paradox here.
As I told you, Jesus was the one
that was in control of the whole scene.
Pilate was supposedly the judge.
Jesus was the plaintiff.
In reality, Pilate was the plaintiff.
His decision was not to affect Jesus at
all because what God had preordained was going
to take place.
Pilate's decision did not affect Jesus.
What Jesus had to do, He had to
do.
What He did, He did.
Pilate's decision affected His destiny.
His own destiny was determined by the decision
He made.
And even so with you.
Though in a sense you must make your
judgment, what am I going to do with
Christ?
Your decision does not at all alter the
destiny of Jesus Christ.
What He is, He is.
Where He is, He is.
That cannot and will not change no matter
what you believe.
You may go on saying, I don't believe
that two and two is four.
That doesn't change the fact.
It only makes you a fool.
What you do with Jesus Christ doesn't alter
Him, but it does determine your own destiny.
And thus, you are the judge of your
own fate.
As you face the question, what will I
do with Jesus who is called Christ?
The destiny of your own eternal future is
in your hands.
Then He delivered Him to be crucified.
And they took Jesus and led Him away.
And He, bearing His cross, went forth to
the place called the place of a skull.
In the Hebrew, it is Golgotha.
In the Latin, it is Calvary.
Where they crucified Him and two others with
Him on either side and Jesus in the
middle.
And Pilate wrote a title and put it
on the cross.
And the writing was, Jesus of Nazareth, the
King of the Jews.
Now, when the sentence of crucifixion was given
by the Roman judge, immediately the prisoner was
surrounded by four Roman soldiers.
He was given His cross, and He was
to bear His own cross.
And they would take the longest route through
the city.
In front of the prisoner would march another
Roman soldier with the accusation against the prisoner
the crime for which he was being crucified.
And as they would go through the streets,
it would be a warning to all of
the people who would see this man on
the way to his death.
This is the crime that he committed against
Rome and this is why he is being
crucified.
And it would put fear in the hearts
of the people to rebel against Rome.
And so, the soldier going in front with
that accusation, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of
the Jews, parading through the streets of Jerusalem,
out the Damascus Gate, over and to the
top of Mount Moriah, there above the area
that looks like a skull to be crucified.
Crucifixion was such a horrible, awful death that
it was ruled by Rome that it could
not ever be administered to a Roman citizen.
It was too horrible a death.
And yet Jesus, the Son of God, condemned
to crucifixion.
This title read many of the Jews for
the place where Jesus was crucified was near
to the city and it was written in
Hebrew and Greek and Latin.
From the city wall above the Herod's Gate,
you can look right across at Calvary, Golgotha.
It's within a stone's throw and the people
there on the wall of the city looking
over and seeing the three prisoners could hear
the cries, could watch the agony in that
horrible scene.
Then the chief priest of the Jews came
to Pilate and he said, Don't write the
King of the Jews.
But that he said I am the King
of the Jews.
But Pilate had no patience with these fellows
and he said, What I have written, I
have written.
Get lost.
Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus,
took his garments and made four parts to
every soldier apart.
One took his sandals, one took the girdle,
one took the inner robe.
But the outer robe, the coat that Jesus
wore, was without seam, woven from the top
throughout.
And they said among themselves, Let's not tear
it, but let's cast lots for it, whose
it shall be.
Now in Psalm 22 it said, They parted
my garments among them, but for my vesture
they did cast lots.
Actually what they would do is gamble.
They had dice and they would throw the
dice to see who would get the sandals,
throw the dice to see who would get
the inner coat and the various articles.
And when they got to the outer coat,
they're gambling as Jesus was dying over who
would get the robe.
Now there stood by the cross of Jesus
his mother and his mother's sister, Mary, the
wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
So the three Marys at the cross.
And when Jesus therefore saw his mother and
the disciple standing by whom he loved, he
said to his mother woman, Behold your son.
No doubt indicating John.
Then he said to the disciple, Behold your
mother.
And from that hour that disciple took her
into his own home.
A beautiful bond between Jesus and his mother
Mary.
She had borne a secret for a long
time.
The secret of the incarnation.
She knew that the child was a special
child.
The angel of the Lord had told her
that before she ever conceived him by the
Holy Spirit.
He shall be great.
He shall be called the son of the
highest.
And of the increase of his government and
peace, there shall be no end.
Mary buried that in her heart wondering, Oh
my, what kind of a child is this
going to be?
And when Joseph and Mary brought him into
the temple to be presented to the Lord,
this ancient man Simeon, a godly man, and
the Lord had said to him, Simeon, you're
not going to die until you have seen
the Messiah.
And as Mary and Joseph came with the
child, he took him up in his arms
and he said, Oh God, now let your
servant depart in peace for I have seen
your salvation.
But he turned to Mary and he said,
there is going to be a sword that
will pierce your soul.
And right now Mary was understanding what he
was talking about as that sword of grief
pierced her soul as she saw her son
there on the cross.
Mary standing there close by the cross to
see the end.
If I were hanged on the highest hill,
oh mother of mine, oh mother of mine,
I know whose love would follow me still.
Oh mother of mine, oh mother of mine.
And there was Mary standing.
And Jesus, though in this period of agony,
great pain took care to take care of
her.
Woman, behold your son.
Indicating John.
John, behold your mother.
And John took her into his home from
that time on.
No doubt Joseph was already dead and the
brothers of Jesus at this point did not
believe in him.
There is a closer bond always created in
the family of God than even in our
natural families if they are not also in
God.
Behold your mother, behold your son.
Now after this, Jesus having taken care now
of his mother, this is it, having done
this, knowing that all things were now accomplished,
as we told you this word, taleo, is
accomplished or paid or finished, knowing that all
things were now accomplished, that the scripture might
be fulfilled, he said, I thirst.
Now there was set a vessel full of
vinegar and they filled a sponge with vinegar,
put it upon his hip and put it
to his mouth.
And when Jesus had received the vinegar, he
said, it is finished, taleo.
It is accomplished.
It is paid.
God's work is complete.
I came not to do my own will,
but the will of Him who sent me.
I have come to do the will of
the Father and to finish His work.
It is finished.
God's work of redemption for a lost man
is a finished work wrought by Jesus Christ
upon the cross and there's nothing you can
add to it by your good works to
be accepted by God.
All you can do is receive that finished
work of Jesus.
Any endeavor on your part to improve on
the righteousness that God has already accounted to
you is only going to mar things.
It's not going to help.
It's finished.
God's work of redemption is complete and you
can receive the greatest benefits with the simplest
act of faith, just believing.
And he bowed his head and gave up
the ghost or dismissed his spirit, delivered up
his spirit.
The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation
that the body should not remain upon the
cross on the Sabbath day, notice John says,
for that Sabbath day was a high day.
Within the Passover feast, the first and the
last day of the Passover feast were called
high days.
Extra Sabbath days.
So this was not necessarily the Sabbath Saturday.
And there is where we get a confusion.
How could Jesus be three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth if
He were crucified on Friday?
So the Sabbath was probably, the high day
Sabbath was probably the Thursday, so they had
a double Sabbath day.
And Jesus was probably crucified during the day
on Thursday and then the Sabbath day on
Friday actually and then the Sabbath day on
Saturday, the double Sabbath on Friday and Saturday.
And then early the first morning, early the
morning of the first day of the week
they came and found the empty tomb.
But John, notice, tells us that this was
a particular ceremonial Sabbath day in regards to
the Passover.
It was the high day.
But because it was coming and they were
preparing for it and they could not do
any work and all, when it started, they
begged Pilate that the legs might be broken
in order that they might hasten the death
and get the prisoners down off the cross.
Now, crucifixion was begun in Persia because the
Persians considered the ground sacred.
If a man was evil enough to be
crucified, they felt that his body shouldn't be
placed in the ground.
So they were hung on a cross and
after they died, their bodies were then eaten
by the vultures.
And thus, their bodies did not spoil the
ground.
And most generally, they did not bury those
who were crucified, but they left them to
the vultures and to the dogs.
And the Jews, however, did bury those that
were crucified.
But the Romans generally did not.
The Carthaginians did not, nor did the Persians
who originated crucifixion, but left them just hanging
there until they were consumed by the vultures
and the dogs.
Now, they wanted to break the legs to
hasten the death so that they could take
them down before the Sabbath.
And the soldiers came and they broke the
legs of the first and of the other
who was crucified with Jesus.
But when they came to Jesus, they saw
that he was already dead and they broke
not his legs.
Jesus had said earlier, no man takes my
life from me, I'm giving my life.
I have the power to give it and
I have the power to take it up
again.
So he gave his life, he dismissed his
spirit before the soldiers ever got there with
a spear.
He was already dead.
They marveled that he was already dead.
And so they did not break his legs.
That was important from a prophetic standpoint for
the Scriptures said, not a bone of him
shall be broken.
You see, he was dying as a sacrificial
lamb of God.
Now, they were not to offer a lamb
that had any blemish or any spot or
any broken bone.
God didn't want, you know, you get an
old sick lamb, well, it got a broken
leg and it's going to die.
Let's make a sacrifice unto God with this
thing because there's no way you don't give
me your handoffs or your castoffs.
And so under the law, they couldn't give
a lamb that had a spot or a
blemish.
They couldn't give a lamb that had broken
bones.
God knew the nature of man, how we're
apt to just cast anything off on him,
save the best for ourselves.
And God says not so.
And so with Jesus, in order to fulfill
the type of the sacrificial lamb, could not
have a broken bone.
And it was prophesied, not a bone of
him shall be broken.
Now, add one of those soldiers just, you
know, swung the sledgehammer and broke his leg
anyhow.
Then we would have to say, well, we
better look for another Messiah.
Jesus cannot be the Messiah.
His bones were broken.
Oh, God was there to protect from such
an accident.
And instead of breaking his bone, he took
his spear and put it into his side
in order that the scripture might be fulfilled
that spoke about his side being pierced.
No broken bones, but they pierced his side.
And thus, the prophecy was fulfilled and we
need look no further for a Messiah.
Jesus indeed fulfilled all of the prophecies.
It is accomplished, performed, paid, fulfilled.
Now, these things were done that the scriptures,
well, let's see, one of the soldiers with
a spear pierced his side and there came
forth blood and water.
And he that saw it, that is John,
I was standing there, I saw it.
He bears record and his record is true.
And he knows what he is saying, that
it is true.
And I'm writing it, he said, that you
might believe.
John said, look, I was there, I saw
it.
I know what I saw.
I bear record of the truth of what
I saw.
And I'm writing it to you that you
might believe.
For these things were done that the scriptures
should be fulfilled.
A bone of him shall not be broken.
And again, another scripture says, and they shall
look on him whom they pierced.
That particular prophecies, they shall look upon him
whom they have pierced.
It's a different Hebrew word than the word
used, they pierced his hands and his feet.
It's a piercing with a sword.
And they shall look upon him whom they
have pierced.
The fact that blood and water came forth
indicates that if an odyssey were performed, they
would have discovered that Jesus died of a
ruptured heart.
For when the heart ruptures, a water-type
substance fills a sack around the heart.
And when they put the spear into his
heart and pulled it out, the water and
blood indicates death by a ruptured heart, or
you might say, a broken heart.
A heart that was broken over the sin
of the world.
And after this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a
disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of
the Jews.
There's a lot of secret disciples today, I
guess.
For fear of the guys at work.
Make fun of them and all.
But I always like it when the disciples
come out of the closet.
And they besought Pilate that he might take
away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave
him permission.
And he came, therefore, and he took the
body of Jesus.
And there came also Nicodemus, that one who
came to Jesus by night.
And he brought a mixture of myrrh and
aloes, about a hundred pound weight.
And they took the body of Jesus and
wound it in linen clothes with the spices,
as is the manner of the Jews to
bury.
Now, in the place where he was crucified,
there was a garden.
And in the garden, a new sepulcher, wherein
was never a man yet laid.
And there they laid Jesus, because of the
Jews' preparation day, for the sepulcher was near
and handy, really.
It was right there close by.
Now, if you will go today to Jerusalem
and you see the skull on the side
of the mountain at the top of Mount
Moriah, just adjacent to it there is a
lovely garden that is an ancient garden because
you can see the cisterns that are still
there from ancient days that were used for
the watering of that garden.
And there happens to be in that garden
a very interesting tomb that has a little
trough in front of it that shows that
at one time there was a stone rolled
along that trough to cover the door of
that tomb.
I am of the personal deep conviction that
that is the very tomb where Jesus' body
lay.
What happened to the stone probably was chipped
off and sold for souvenirs through the years.
But, thank God, this is not the end
of the story.
Continue next week as we come into the
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And we will finish the Gospel of John
next week.
And then we will enter into that exciting
book of the Acts of the Apostles as
we continue our journey through the Word of
God, studying to show ourselves approved unto God.
Rightly dividing the Word of Truth.
How important that we know God's Word.
And so, continuing on through the Word, next
week, finish the Gospel of John.
May the Lord be with you and watch
over you this week.
May you just have a beautiful encounter with
God.
Even as God's love was manifested to us
through the death of Jesus Christ, may God
manifest His love to you this week in
special ways.
That you'll just get that beautiful warmth from
the realization, hey, God loves me.
He knows all about me.
And that from that recognition there will come
that automatic, natural response, oh God, I love
you.
And may you come into a deep, loving
relationship with God.
As you walk with Him this week.
In Jesus' name.