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University SDA Church- East Lansing

The Face of Jesus Christ

David Shin

The Face of Jesus Christ- Part 1

The Face of Jesus Christ- Part 2

Today we are continuing in our series of messages entitled, The Face of Jesus Christ, is taken from 2 Corinthians, where the Bible says, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God is found in the face of Jesus Christ.

I'd like to invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 18 verse 28, it's 1, 2, 4, 7.

In your pew Bible, we'll be staying for the majority of our time in John's aspect of this interchange between Pilate and Jesus.

Incidentally, all 3, all 4 of the Gospels talk about Pilate and Jesus, but John's Gospel is unique in that it gives us the most dialogue.

So I'd like to invite you to turn with me there.

I'll have some scriptures on the screen as well so you can follow along in your Bibles and on the screen.

The Bible tells us, and they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium and it was early morning but they themselves did not go into the praetorium lest they should be defiled that they might eat the Passover.

That these religious leaders are about to murder the son of God, the Passover lamb, and they're like, uh-uh-uh, we can't go into the house of a Gentile because we might become ceremonially defiled.

This is a little bit of a twisted priorities here.

They're killing the son of God and they're like, we don't want to go into your house Pilate because you're a Gentile and we might defile ourselves.

Why did they have to go to the house of Pilate, the Praetorium?

The reason was the Jews were given jurisdiction over spiritual matters, but when it came to the death penalty, they still needed the Roman official's stamp of approval.

They had convicted Jesus on the grounds, remember last week, of blasphemy and now they were going to Pilate.

Now Pilate could care less about the conviction of blasphemy.

All he cares about is a civil insurrection.

And it was early in the morning when they came.

This is an inscription that was found in the 1960s.

Many higher critics did not believe that Pontius Pilate, the name, was a legitimate name that was ever used, and this was an archaeological discovery.

The only inscription, incidentally, with the phrase Pontius Pilate.

It essentially validated the biblical description of Pilate and you'll be interested to also know that every archeological discovery that has been made has never contradicted the holy scriptures.

It has become so reliable that when archeologists go to do a dig overseas, you know what they bring with them?

They bring a map and they bring a bible because the bible has been historically accurate when it comes to archeology.

Pontius Pilate was mentioned another time earlier to this incident in Luke chapter 13.

The Bible says, Pilate mingled the blood of the Galileans with their sacrifices.

It seems to indicate that Pilate had murdered them while they were giving sacrifice.

He was a weak, mean man that was not afraid to use lethal force.

Philo and Josephus also record some incidents about Pilate.

He did not get along with the Jews and it was a very interesting, tenuous relationship.

We see that the Bible says in John Chapter 19, verse 29, 18, verse 29, Pilate then went out to them.

Remember the Jews did not want to come in because they did not want to be defiled, so Pilate had to go out to them.

And he said, what accusations do you bring against this man?

Remember last week we said that they had pinned the accusation of blasphemy, a religious conviction.

And you'll see the interesting response by the Pharisees.

In verse 30, they answered and said to him, if he were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him to you.

In other words, they're just saying trust us.

We don't want to give you a legitimate conviction as to what happened.

Pilate then goes into the Praetorium where Jesus is and starts dialoguing with Jesus.

And for the sake of time, We're not going to read through the entire chapter of John chapter 19 and 18, and you will thank me for it later.

Incidentally, this was a very difficult passage to study because it was so large I had to really hone in on a certain section.

Pilate is in a quandary because even though Pilate is not afraid to use lethal force when necessary, Pilate does have an element of morality about him.

And he looks at the face of Jesus and he notices very quickly that in the countenance of Jesus there is a difference between him and the hardened criminals.

Pilate has been interacting with criminals for a very long time and he looks at the face of Jesus and he sees innocence and he dialogues with him and 3 times, not once, not twice, but 3 times in Luke's account, Pilate says some very interesting words.

I want you to notice it there very quickly on the screen.

Pilate turned to the leading priest and the crowd and said, I want you to notice the nuances of what he's saying here.

He said, I find nothing wrong with this man.

He has cross-examined Jesus, and he says, look, I can't find anything wrong with him.

Verse 14 of that same chapter, You brought this man to me accusing him of leading a revolt.

I have examined him thoroughly on this point in your presence and find him what?

Again in that same chapter, This is driving home a point in the mind of Luke.

I have found no reason to sentence him to death.

I would like to contend here this morning that Pilate not only did not believe that Jesus was guilty of a crime worthy of death, furthermore I believe that in Pilate's heart of hearts he wanted to release Jesus.

The reason I believe this is the Bible explicitly says in that same chapter, Luke 23, 21, Pilate argued with them.

Pilate comes out and he starts arguing with the religious leaders.

This is a pagan man, a non-believing pagan king, the prefect of Judea, the governor that was assigned to that region by Caesar, he goes out and starts arguing with them and he says that he wanted to release Jesus.

That was the reason why he would argue with them.

And in John chapter 19 verse 12 the Bible tells us that Jesus was attempted to be set free by Pilate.

He's in a quandary because he knows that Jesus is innocent and he starts to go out there to engage the mob, trying to convince them that this man is innocent.

Furthermore, he's trying to convince them that releasing him would be the best option.

There was a critical moment in which he compromised his position that I believe led him down the path of ultimately washing his hands and Jesus being crucified.

And this compromise began in Luke chapter 23 verse 20.

How could it be that someone that was so convicted that Jesus is innocent, furthermore is arguing in his favor trying to release him could later on wash his hands and Jesus would be crucified.

I believe it began right here at this critical point.

Pilate argued with them because he wanted to release Jesus, but they kept shouting, crucify him, crucify him.

For the third time he demanded why, what crime has he committed?

And I want you to notice this part that I've highlighted.

The next sentence seems contradictory to what he has just said.

I found no reason to sentence him to death so I will have him flogged and then I will release him.

Why are you going to whip an innocent man?

But perhaps in his mind he thought that they would have mercy on him or it was to appease the crowd that was beginning to get very, very angry.

He thought perhaps I could do this, I'll give in a little bit and I will perhaps quell the mob that is gathering around.

This is an interesting parallel or these sentences are placed specifically next to each other, it shows you the illogical framework that Pilate is working from.

He says, look, I found no reason to sentence him, but I will flog him and I will release him.

This is a picture of the Roman whip that archaeologists believe that they used during the first century.

It was a short handle like you see there on the screen, those things that are coming down are made of leather and you see those little kind of balls on the end of that leather?

That was a part of the whip where they would tie lead balls to the end of the leather, and then they would also take sharp pieces of sheep bone and place it on there as well.

The prisoner would be tied to a post, his back would be exposed and it usually took 2 Roman soldiers to take turns on the prisoner.

I'm not going to go into the details of what's happening, but medical examiners looking at the type of lacerations that would happen on the back of an individual that was going through something like this have said that it was designed to inflict as much pain as was humanly possible.

The Jews would only whip them 39 times because they believed that the 40th time would actually kill the individual.

So they would bring them to the very edge of death and then stop right there.

He's a physician at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, and he probably is a Christian and he was curious as to what happened during the flogging period.

I'm not going to belabor this, but I just want us to get a grasp as to what was happening to Jesus at this point.

It's in the Bible and it's there for a reason.

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Series

The Face of Jesus Christ

The Face of Jesus Christ- Part 2

Transcript

Parent Series

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