Feeling a bit disconnected in your walk with Christ?
Well, Pastor Greg Laurie has a great new book called What Every Growing Christian Needs to Know that'll help. Let's say you're feeling lethargic and tired. You know, if you have a diet of social media and you don't take time for the Word of God, this is going to have a damaging effect.
So this is just one of the things we talk about in this new book called What Every Growing Christian Needs to Know. Available at harvest.org. Hey there, thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie, encouraging you. If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org.
You can open in your Bibles to Luke chapter 23. Uh so Luke chapter 23. All right, so this last week, Thursday. My wife has been waking up really early lately, like 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock in the morning. I'm not that guy.
I'm not that guy. I like to sleep in a little bit, you know, 6:30, 7, I'm around there. And unless I have to get up earlier. I was laying in bed and I heard her get up and she walks out into the kitchen. And the dog was also scratching at the door, trying to get out to go to the bathroom.
I've told you about Biscuit before, right? She was the dog we trained. Here's a photo of Biscuit. She's very cute. She's very cute.
She's a good little dog. There she is, sitting in the wildflowers. And so she was scratching at the door. She had to go out and go potty, right? We've all been there if you have a dog.
So my wife goes, like she's done many other times, opens the back door to our house, lets the dog out, except we found out Biscuit was scratching at the door for a different reason. She heard something in the yard. And I am awoken. After I hear my wife open the door and the dog goes out, I hear my wife screaming in terror: no biscuit, no, no, no, no, biscuit, no, no.
Now I'm laying in bed thinking that there's a coyote in our backyard. And so I spring out of bed and run to the door, getting ready to put a coyote in a rear-naked chokehold here. I get to the door, and my wife says, No, don't go out there, there's a skunk. Oh. That's way worse than the coyote.
Way worse. And sure enough, Biscuit tussled with the skunk. There's a joke in there somewhere. What is it? What is it?
Never get in a fight with a skunk. There are no winners. I don't know. I'll figure it out for the second service. But.
She gets in a fight. She doesn't get a direct hit. She doesn't get a direct hit, fortunately, but the skunk sprays in the yard, and Biscuit does get hit by it somewhat, and it's just so bad.
So, my wife actually goes back, grabs the dog from the backyard, brings the dog through the house, and of course. If you know anything about a skunk, I mean, it's just. has a way of permeating Everything. I mean, that smell is forever ingrained in the back of my brain. It's just there.
You can taste it. It is horrible. It's just the worst. And so she takes the dog to the front yard and starts washing the dog. And I said, you know, just put her in the backyard, put her in the yard, it's fine.
And she said, no, the skunk is still back there. And sure enough, look at this, I'm standing at the back of the door, and here I am looking, and here's the skunk. What what do you do with that? What do you do with that? What in the world am I supposed to do here?
It's like I should have shot it with my airsoft gun or something. I have no idea. I was yelling at it, telling it, get out of here, get out of here. And every time it would just sit there and square up with me. It'd square up and just sit there and stare right at me.
It was not intimidated, but it was ready to spray if necessary. The dogs, or sorry, the skunk stayed in the backyard for like an hour. For like an hour, it wouldn't leave. Finally, I was just throwing things at it, and finally, it just made its way out and climbed. I don't know if it climbed up a tree or what.
It went into the back corner of my house. I couldn't figure out how it got out, but it finally did get out. But it was the worst. Oh, the smell permeates everything. The dog smells.
You know, we put all these different concoctions on her, you know, asking ChatGPT, what can we do? And it's given us multiple remedies. And so the dog still smells a little bit. The thing that alarms me is everybody says the smell is gone in my family. They all say the smell is gone, and I can still smell it.
What does that say about me? Or what does that say about them? I don't know. But my dog got really close to that skunk, right? Too close.
too close to the skunk, close enough to be marked by it. Close enough to smell like it, close enough for me to treat the dog as if it were the skunk itself, right? You are not welcome in my home. I don't want to touch you, I don't want to pet you, I don't want to be around you. It's enough for me to treat it like the skunk itself.
Getting close to a skunk is never a good idea. Never a good idea. Oh man, the smell. You just can't get rid of it. And it sticks to everything, every article of clothing, even the pajamas my wife was wearing as she's washing the dog.
I'm like, throw them in the fire. Like we burn them. Don't you dare put those in the washing machine.
So proximity, proximity is not always a good thing, is it? It depends on what you're getting close to.
Now if you're if you're cold And you get close to a fire, oh, that's a great thing, right? Oh man, you warm yourself, getting close in proximity to the fire. Too close in proximity, not a good thing. You can actually burn yourself, right? If you've ever had, you know, early stages of hypothermia, your fingertips are completely numb, the tip of your nose is numb, and you get too close to the fire, you know, you can actually burn yourself.
That's not good. If you get close to the wrong group of friends, That could be a bad thing. Proximity to the wrong group of friends, that's a bad thing. Proximity to the right group of friends can be the right thing. Another reason for you to join a small group: getting in proximity to the right kind of people that are going to challenge you, exhort you, encourage you, and growing.
I've been going to the gym with a group of guys, and it's great because they all have the same goal. We want to be healthy, we want to be strong, we want to have good flexibility, and all of that. And so, being around them, it's a positive, right? They're encouraging me to do better. And so, we all need to be in proximity to the right things and to stay away from the wrong things.
Now, I think all of us here would agree. Proximity to Jesus is a good thing. Being close to Jesus is the best thing. It's the most important thing. Amen?
It is. But it also is really important what our heart is behind that. Why are you close to Jesus? Why are you in proximity to him? You have to ask yourself that question.
This message today that I'm going to be sharing really is an exhortation to you to be in. deep harmony in communion with Jesus. not just on the fringes, not just in proximity. but to have him be the master of your life. Being close in proximity to Jesus does not necessarily mean transformation.
It does not necessarily mean you are a Christian. Just because you attend church on Sunday, just because you have a Christian bumper sticker on your car, just because you have Bibles in your house, even just because you are reading a Bible plan, it doesn't mean you are a Christian. Yes, it is possible to be in proximity to Jesus and to remain unchanged. Is there any better example of this than Judas Iscariot? Judas was close to Jesus, really close.
He touched him, he slept next to him, he traveled with him, he saw the miracles, he saw and heard the teachings, he saw the amazing things that Jesus did, he saw the proof. And yet what did he do? He betrayed Jesus. He betrayed him for 30 pieces of silver. No, proximity to Jesus does not mean transformation.
In fact, if you're not careful, Proximity to Jesus, again with the wrong heart, could actually mean. Inoculation. Could actually mean that you develop a resistance to Jesus. One of the ways our bodies develop immunity, resistance to a disease, is through inoculation, is through being exposed to a virus, right? You develop an immunity to it.
That's why vaccines, I mean, especially in the 18th century and 19th century when they really started to come out, were so important. Things like smallpox, diphtheria, cholera, malaria were killers. If you got it, there was a really good chance you were going to die. And actually, in the last 250 years, just in America, over a million people were killed by these diseases. And many more would have died had there not been a vaccination for it, right?
Vaccination for it.
Now, everybody's thinking, what's he going to say about vaccinations? I'm not going there today, okay? That's another topic for another time. For these diseases, the way that they created the vaccination was they actually took the disease, were able to take a weak strain of it, and inject it into a person.
Now, you might come down with a slight fever or a slight cold, but your body figures out how to create a defense against it, and you created a resistance, and millions of people's lives have been saved as a result. Again, the vaccine doses your body with that small amount that you want to be protected against, and your body creates that immunity to it. Spiritually, that was Judas. That was Judas. Again, he saw the miracles, heard the teachings, he knew the prophecies, and yet he was not transformed.
but instead developed a spiritual resistance. To the Son of God. That's a scary thought. That's a scary thought. Sitting in the pew.
At church. Silently excusing yourself from everything that we talk about on Sunday morning. You shouldn't live with your boyfriend or girlfriend, flee sexual immorality. You know, you need to stop sinning. You shouldn't steal.
You shouldn't do this. And if you are silently creating a defense against those things, well, that's, you know, that's not me. God knows my heart. I'm able to do that. That doesn't apply to me.
Oh, that was just for the first century. If you're constantly doing that, you are excusing yourself from the Word of God and from ultimately the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And that is a dangerous thing to do. It's a guaranteed way to have a heart like Judas. I would know.
I would know. I sat in the front row for many years. Listening to amazing preaching, seeing altar calls happen, hearing about miracles take place in people's lives, seeing spiritual transformation, but I hardened my heart. I hardened my heart. And I knew, I knew I was going to contradict the things that I was hearing on Sunday morning.
Ultimately, God sent a wake-up call on my way and got my attention. But proximity does not mean transformation. G. Campbell Morgan, an amazing Bible commentator who's now with the Lord, said this: Listen. There is more hope for the man outside the church.
And all of its coldness, than for the man within the church who is near enough its warmth to appreciate it, and far enough from its burning heat to be both useless to God and man. Listen to this. There is a greater chance for the non-believer who has not heard the gospel than for the man who has become an evangelized non-believer. Man, that's heavy. I think you could say that there's potentially more hope for the guy sitting at the bar right now, who's maybe nearing rock bottom and recognizing all of his decisions have led him to this horrible place in life, than there would be for the person who sits in church every Sunday silently excusing themselves from having to make a stand, a real commitment to Jesus.
I want you to think about that. I want you to pray about that even.
So today in our text, we're going to look at three men and their interactions with Jesus.
Now these three men, they were all very close in proximity to Jesus, close enough to hear him. Close enough to see him, close enough to reach out and touch him if they wish. They stood face to face with him, and ultimately, all three of these men. Their entire lives are defined by this brief encounter with the Son of God. We're going to be looking at Luke chapter 23 together, and I've titled this message Close Encounters.
Close encounters. Let's read now in Luke chapter 23. Starting in verse 1. These, of course, are the events immediately following what we heard last week, where Judas betrayed Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and delivered him into the hands of the religious leaders. to be killed.
And so we read in verse 1: Then the whole multitude of them arose and led him to Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar. We know that's not true. Saying that he himself is Christ, a king. Verse 3.
And so Pilate asked him, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered him and said, It is as you say.
So Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowd, I find no fault in this man. But they were the more fierce, saying, He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place.
Now when Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the man were a Galilean. And as soon as he knew that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. Let's pause there. That brings us to our first character, the first man that we're looking at, number one. It's Pilate, and the point is: the prefect meets the perfect.
Pilate was a prefect, a governor, and Jesus, of course, is the perfect. The prefect meets the perfect.
So, Pontius Pilate, he's a very interesting character for sure. We don't know a ton about Pontius Pilate, but as you read this at face value, You know, you may find yourself kind of sympathizing, empathizing with Pontius Pilate. He was in a sticky situation. This is a guy that was in a tough spot. He had to make a very difficult decision.
On one hand, he has Jesus. A man that he believes to be innocent of these crimes. A man that he believes to not be worthy of being sentenced to death. And he's being accused by what he knows are the religious leaders. And Pilate knows better than anybody, the religious leaders were hypocrites.
They were corrupt, the Pharisees and others. And then on the other hand, so he's got Jesus, then on the other hand, he has his primary job. His primary job as the Roman appointed prefect of all Judea was to keep the peace. was to keep things Status quo to make sure everything was running smoothly. No rebellions, no uprisings, no drama.
And that meant negotiating with that same group of corrupt leaders who were wrongfully charging Jesus. He knew that if he did not give the Pharisees what they wanted, they would ultimately stir up a riot, and that would be bad for him with Rome. That put him in hot water. And so he declares Jesus innocent. But the moment that he says to them, I find no fault in this man, the religious leaders respond back.
He stirs up the people teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place.
Now, when Pilate heard the word Galilee, his ears perked up. He thought this was his ticket out of the situation. He says, ah. He's a Galilean.
Well, my friends. You know, this unfortunately is outside of my jurisdiction, and you need to go and present this case to Herod, my good friend, who is the Tetrarch over Galilee and Perea.
So, why don't you go and talk to him? Also, it just so happens he's in Jerusalem right now for the high holy day of Passover.
So, why don't you go talk? To him instead. And so they ultimately do. They go and meet with him. And like a hot potato, Pilate attempts to offload this responsibility.
He doesn't solve the problem. He doesn't actually make a decision or a judgment about Jesus. And declare him innocent and kick the court, kick the case out of the court. No, he hands it off. to someone else.
He relocates it. You know, people do the same thing with Jesus today. They still do the same thing. They're presented with the facts, they're presented with the evidence, they're confronted by it, they're demanded that they make a decision. The gospel demands it, it's black or white.
And what do they do? Uh I'll kick it down the road a little way, right? They put the decision off. They don't meet Jesus or the gospel with hostility. They just punt, right?
They don't want to upset the status quo of their own lives. They just say, oh, I'll figure out what I believe later. You know, I'm not against Jesus. I just haven't really thought about it that much yet. I need to do some more investigation.
That's a nice little smoke screen to buy you some time. Or maybe you say, you know, my spouse is the religious one. My parents, my sibling, she's the religious one, not me.
Now this might feel like neutrality, it might feel like safety, because it postpones the decision, and it keeps the status quo. But Jesus said in John 10, excuse me, in Matthew 10, 32, Whoever confesses me before men, I I will also confess him before the Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be those of his own household. This is a hard saying of Jesus, isn't it? You read that, what is Jesus saying here? What he's getting at, ultimately, is that the decision you are making regarding him is binary. It is black and white.
It is yes or no, on or off. You are either for Jesus or against him.
Sometimes when I'm at home, I get back from work, and we're sitting down at the table for a nice dinner together, and we're eating, and then there's a knock on the door. Oh, great. Who's that? At 5:30 p.m., I can only assume. And you open up the door, and what is it?
It's a solicitor, right? And they're riding one of those scooters, too. It's like, first of all, I don't have that much respect for you in the first place. And the fact you're riding one of these electric scooters, your core score just went down that much more. And so.
It's hard for me to take you seriously. You know, I used to, when a solicitor would come to my door, you know, I'd be polite, hey, how you doing? Oh, yeah, so what do you guys do? You know, selling, oh, okay, interesting, right, yeah, I'll take your brochures and whatever else. And I never had any intent to actually buy the product that they were trying to solicit me with, but I was just trying to be polite and not just slam the door in their face.
Now I just slam the door in their face. No, not really. I usually just open up the road. Hey guys, no, I'm all good. Thank you so much.
Take care. You know, they are just trying to get a word in edge-wise, just get their foot literally in the door sometimes just to try and sell you on the thing. I don't get it. I don't know how successful it is to be a solicitor. Apparently, there's some success, otherwise, they wouldn't exist anymore.
But now, when I hear a knock at the door, you know, I look at my camera. I look at my security camera. I'm like, okay, who is it? No, I'm not answering the door right now. Or I peek out my window and kind of try and see it.
It's like, oh, yeah, solicitor, I'm okay. And so sometimes I don't answer the road. They knock for a long time, over and over. They see the lights on in the house. They know the game.
Other times they don't knock very long and they just go on their way. But Jesus said, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him and him with me. Listen, when it comes to Jesus, he is not a solicitor. You either answer the door and welcome him in, or you leave him outside.
There is no third option. There is no neutrality when it comes to be when it comes to Jesus. To be undecided is to be decided. Each of us must choose what to do with him when he knocks. You either accept him as savior and make him Lord and invite him into your proverbial home, into your life.
or you reject him. And so Pilate decides to delegate this decision about Jesus and passes it off to Herod. Let's read about him now in verse 7. And as soon as Pilate knew that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. When Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad.
For he had desired for a long time to see him, because he had heard many things about him, and he had hoped to see some miracle done by him. And so he questioned Jesus with many words, but Jesus answered him nothing. You might want to underline that. And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused him. And then Herod, with his men of war, treated him with contempt, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him back to Pilate.
That very day, Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for previously they had been at enmity with each other.
So that brings us to number two, our second character, Herod. And this is the Tetrarch that meets the king. The Tetrarch that meets the king. You know, the Herods They were as creepy as they come. as creepy as they come.
They engaged in behavior that even the Caesars would blush at, right? Even our politicians today would blush at. The first Herod, Antipater I, the Idumaean, was an influential man in Julius Caesar's administration who was the first emperor of Rome. The title Herod, the name Herod, ultimately became like a title similar to Caesar, right? Ultimately, Herod, the first Herod, was entrusted with all of Judea to rule as a Roman-backed chief minister, sort of a governor over the area, right?
A client king. Rome, in You know, they were constantly conquering all kinds of new civilizations and new kingdoms, and they had to install their leadership that were loyal to Rome. And so that's what Herod was. He was in charge of all of Judea. And there he would collect taxes, he would keep things in order, and do the bidding of Rome.
Ultimately, Herod I was poisoned by a rival politician and died.
So his son took his place, and we know him as Herod the Great. We read about him in the Gospel of Luke in chapter 2. And it was him that really cemented the dynasty of the Herods. Herod the Great, he was known for making beautiful buildings. He was an amazing building project guy, whatever you call that, amazing with architecture.
He built things like Masada. He built things like Caesarea Maritima, but most notably, he was known for beautifying and helping rebuild the second temple in Jerusalem, which was ultimately called Herod's Temple. It is the same temple we read about in the pages of the New Testament. And so he really had a legacy. He really built amazing things.
Now, of course, we wonder what happened to the first temple, Solomon's temple, that was built during King David's lifetime. After King David died, he gave all the things that Solomon needed to build it, and he built this beautiful temple. Incredible, it was ultimately destroyed during the siege of Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians 400 years earlier. And so, Nehemiah, we know the story, he came back, rebuilt the walls, started to rebuild the temple, and ultimately Herod completed the project and beautified it. But behind the architecture, behind these amazing massive building projects, was a deeply paranoid and brutal man.
Herod the Great was responsible for having all of the newborn baby boys murdered, right? You remember the story? After hearing about the newborn king of the Jews, which was Jesus, from the wise men. We come to worship the newborn king of the Jews. That was Herod's title, right?
He was an egomaniac. There's another king of the Jews. Who is it? It's that little two-year-old with the paper crown. Let's murder him.
He was crazy, right? He was Ultimately, known for yes, these amazing building projects he did, but he was known for just being a deeply paranoid man. Herod the Great had 10 wives, okay, ten wives. He murdered his first wife, Miriam, on suspicion of disloyalty. Then he had two of his own sons executed for the same thing, for the same suspicion.
And in his final days, when he was sick and dying, he ordered the execution of a third son just five days before his own death.
So, this was a guy that was not afraid to have people killed, was not afraid to secure his position. And ultimately, Caesar Augustus, the emperor of Rome. Made a joke about Herod, and he was recorded as saying, It is better to be Herod's pig than his son. You'd be better off being his livestock to be slaughtered than his own son. And so when Herod the Great died, They divided his kingdom of Judea, all of Judea, into three parts, one for each son.
Archolos received the largest share, which was Judea itself, and was given the title Ethnarch. And then the two other sons, Antipas, they received smaller little factions and they would rule under their older brother of Archola.
So Antipas received Galilee and Perea. Perea was basically the area of the Dead Sea. And he was given the title Tetrarch. And Philip received a smaller region in the northeast and was also given the title of Tetrarch.
Now, Archelos, who got all of Judea, who had the larger area of land, was so brutal that he was removed by the Roman government after 10 years.
Okay, you've got to be really bad for the Romans to come and say, you're too brutal, right? And so ultimately, Judea was placed directly under Roman rule, and they installed one of their own. A guy that was a Roman prefect from the equestrian class, a guy by the name of Pontius Pilot. And that is where we see Pontius Pilate step in. He was the prefect of Judea.
He took over the area that Herod the Great, or rather Herod the Great and then his son Archelos ultimately had. And underneath him was Herod Antipas, who we're reading about, and also Herod's son Philip.
Okay, so a little context for you, a little history there.
So, this Herod, Herod Antipas, was cut from the same cloth. He was just as gross. He was just as disgusting. He did just as bad things. You turn back in your Bible a few chapters and you see what kind of man he is.
We see that he married a woman named Herodias. Herodias, that was his brother's wife, his brother's wife. while Philip was still alive, right, steals his wife away from his brother. John the Baptist called him out for it and actually said, It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. Herodias hated John the Baptist for it, of course, right?
She hated him.
Now, Herod, it's interesting, he actually respected John the Baptist for him. You know, he was so, just had so many people, you know, sucking up to him and trying to make him happy and stay on his good side. He probably respected John the Baptist because he just told it like it was. He actually respected John the Baptist, we read in scripture, but his wife hated John for it.
So one day, Herod Antipas, he has a big birthday party. Big birthday party, you know, they're going all out. Everybody's drunk, and it's a big party, it's crazy. And his wife's daughter, his stepdaughter, slash his niece named Salome, came out and did a dance for him and his guests, right?
Now, Herod, when he saw this dance, he was so pleased, I think you could say aroused. He made her a promise that he would give her up to half of his kingdom and whatever she wanted. And so Salome went to her mother, Herodes, and said, Mom, what should I ask for? And she said, The head of John the Baptist on a platter. And this Herod Antipas had to honor her wish.
He made this promise in front of all these people. And so this same Herod, Herod Antipas. This is who Jesus was now standing before. Jesus stood before this very man.
Now, Jesus was probably wishing, you know, Peter, I really wish you didn't swing your sword at, you know, the chief minister's assistant, right, at Malchus, and you sliced off his ear and I put it back on. I really wish you were here right now to slice the head off of Antipas, right? I wish you would have done that. John the Baptist, of course, was Jesus' cousin. He loved his cousin very much, and it was ultimately Antipas that executed him.
And so we read that he was exceedingly glad to see Jesus. He was excited to meet Jesus for the first time, face to face. And so he asked Jesus many questions. Prodding, poking like a kid with a new hamster, right? Oh, what do you do?
What can you do? Show me a magic trick. But Jesus gives him nothing. He gives them nothing. He doesn't say a single word.
Because Jesus knew that Herod wasn't interested in the truth. He wasn't interested in the truth. He wanted a magic trick. He wanted a party favor. And so Jesus ultimately doesn't hand over the sacred things of God to someone treating them as entertainment.
Silence is the sermon. Silence is the sermon to Antipas. We read in the Bible Jesus talking about: don't cast your pearls before swine. Don't offer the things that are sacred of God to someone that is ultimately going to reject it.
So, Herod, he treats Jesus like a court jester.
someone to perform and entertain him. And you know, for us, there's a lesson here. You can be close enough to Jesus. To even believe in him, that he's capable of doing miracles, comfortable enough to ask him for things, to sing about him, even feel something in a worship service and still not know him because you never wanted him, you wanted an experience. You wanted an experience.
You wanted a feeling, you wanted a moment, you wanted a genie in a bottle. Ultimately, you wanted the gift. not the giver of the gift. You wanted the things that God offered to you, the blessings, but you were not interested in the heart of God. Pilate got close to Jesus and delegated.
His decision. Herod got close to Jesus and wanted entertainment. Both men had a real, historical, face-to-face encounter with the Son of God, and both are remembered for what they refused to do with it. Imagine sitting with Jesus for a moment. Imagine you get 10 minutes of FaceTime with Jesus.
What would you do? What would you do? What would you ask him? What would you ask him to do for you? Think about that.
And the fact is Herod had the authority to also declare Jesus innocent and to kick this case out of court. The Herodian dynasty had more influence with the Pharisees and religious leaders than even the Romans did. Herod could have held court right there and turned it right back on the Pharisees. Herod knew that the Pharisees were insecure, they were power hungry, and that Jesus was disrupting their status quo. And he could have just said, hey, you know what, guys, I don't care.
I don't care. Deal with it. This man, he's innocent. I'm declaring him innocent. Case dismissed.
He knew authenticity, and he knew that the Pharisees were hypocrites. He had a front row seat to the King of Kings, and he used it to look for a party favor. That's what he spent his time doing. And when Jesus remained silent, what did they do? They mocked him with his soldiers.
They made fun of him. They cursed him. They did all of these things. And ultimately, they put a beautiful robe on him and sent him back to Pilate like a toy he had already gotten bored with.
Now Pilate and Herod Both of these men were cowards. They were cowards. They were appointed by Rome to rule and judge and pursue justice. Both men just wanted to maintain the status quo. They didn't want to actually make a decision about Jesus.
They just passed him back and forth. Neither man willing to stand for the innocent Jesus. Neither man willing to be changed by Jesus. But there's a third man in the story. Let's read about him now in verse 11.
And so then Herod, with his men of war, treated Jesus with contempt. and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him back to Pilate. And that very day Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for previously they had been at enmity with each other. And then Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, said to them, You have brought this man to me as one who misleads the people. And indeed, having examined him in your presence, I have found no fault in this man concerning those things of which you accuse him.
No, neither did Herod. For I sent you back to him, and indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by him. I will therefore chastise him and release him. for it was necessary for him to release one to them at the feast. And they all cried out at once, saying, Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas.
Who had been thrown into prison for a certain rebellion made in the city and for murder? Pilate, therefore, wishing to release Jesus again called out to them, but they shouted, crying, Crucify him. Crucify him. And then he said to them the third time, Why? What evil has he done?
I have found no reason for death in him. I will therefore chastise him and let him go. But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices that he be crucified. And the voices of these men and of the chief priests prevailed.
So Pilate gave the sentence that it should be as they requested. And he released them. The one they requested. who for rebellion and murder had been thrown into prison, but he delivered Jesus to their will. And that brings us to point number three.
The guilty meets the innocent. The guilty meets the innocent. Now Pilot He calls everyone together. We see here the chief priests, the rulers, the elders, everyone. Get away from me, Beelzebub, this fly, right?
And he delivers the verdict that he, neither Herod, found Jesus guilty of any crime. He was innocent. He was innocent. Herod had every opportunity to condemn Herod, but he didn't. Pilate had every opportunity to condemn Jesus, but he didn't.
Even Herod, the man who beheaded John the Baptist on a whim, who mocked Jesus for sport, couldn't bring himself to actually charge Jesus with the crime. Two rulers, two independent investigations, and one unanimous verdict. Innocent. Jesus was innocent. And Pilate's response to that unanimous innocence, he says in verse 16: I will therefore chastise him and release him.
He's going to punish an innocent man just enough to make the guilty verdict go away. That's not justice. That's not justice. That is negotiation with a mob, using somebody else's body as the bargaining chip. It's been said: you know, chastisement, what he's talking about there, is scourging.
The scourging of Jesus when he was whipped and beaten. Ultimately, Jesus, they call the scourging the crucifixion before the crucifixion. It was so painful, so brutal. They whipped Jesus with a cat of nine tails. They ripped the beard from his face.
Isaiah says that he hardly resembled a man. Let's see if I can get this fly. Yeah. I don't think I got it. I left a nice scuff on the pulpit, though.
He's bugging me. It was brutal. It was brutal what Jesus had to go through. And this is what Pilate tried to do to satisfy the mob's thirst for blood. And so he says that he would chastise him and he scourges him.
You see, Pilate. He was a coward. He had the opportunity to do the right thing, but he caved under the pressure of the religious leaders. He cared more about catering to a group of influential politicians than he did about actual justice. And it says in verse 18, And they all cried at once, saying, Away with this man, release to us Barabbas.
Now, this is a man that Luke tells us very clearly was in prison for insurrection and murder. And unlike Jesus, Barabbas was for sure guilty. He was not framed. He was not falsely accused. He was guilty of murder.
Of rebellion, of terror. He was likely part of a little trio of those guys that were all crucified. Remember, there were three crosses. Jesus was placed in the middle. That was Barabbas' cross.
And the men to the left and the right, they say that they were thieves, right? That is underselling how bad they were, but it does give us an idea that these were not just men that were creating rebellion against the Romans like the zealots were in the first century. These were men that were likely doing it for personal gain, killing people, robbing them, stealing from them, inciting terror in the city, starting a rebellion. And so ultimately, Barabbas, I think we could speculate, he may have been the ringleader. That is who was going to be on that center cross.
This was a bad dude. He was a bad guy. And yet, Barabbas, he walked away a free man. Moments from being crucified, because what? Jesus took his place.
He took his place. 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us, He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Theologians for thousands of years have pointed to this brief story of Barabbas being delivered from execution as a beautiful picture of the gospel. This is the gospel in a nutshell because we are Barabbas. We are Barabbas, guilty.
Sentenced to die, awaiting execution. But Jesus steps in and dies on the cross that has our name on it. And here's what is different between Barabbas and Pilate and Herod. Barabbas didn't get a face-to-face with Jesus. He didn't get to ask him questions.
He didn't get to prod him. He didn't get to ask him to negotiate or delay or ask for a magic trick. Barabbas. He knew that he was sentenced to die. He knew that he was hours, moments away from being crucified.
All he knew was that if he was going to be saved, if he was going to get out of the situation, he needed someone to intervene on his behalf, or he was going to die.
Now it's interesting, the name Barabbas, his name Bar means son of, Abbas means father. He was the Son of the Father. Think about it. This young boy, this young man, at some time, he was a little boy. And he did probably, I'm sure he had a father, but he ran from his father.
He was the son of the father. And so as we look at these stories, we see these three men. My question in closing is, which one are you? Which one are you? Are you like Pilate?
A man so unwilling to compromise the status quo for what you know to be true? You may know Jesus, you may believe in Jesus, you may recognize him as being a good teacher, a good man, maybe even recognize him as being the son of God. But have you accepted him as your Savior? and have you made him the lord of your life? Have you allowed him to influence your decisions?
We get a lot of emphasis, you know. At the end of our messages on giving your life to Jesus, we pivot at the end and make it evangelistic and invite anybody who has not yet put their faith in Jesus to make that decision today. And I'll do that in a moment. But there's a big distinction between making Jesus your Savior and making him your Lord. Making him your savior, accepting him as savior, and making him the Lord of your life.
Making him the Lord of your life is a lifelong process. The process of being forgiven is immediate. That's in the twinkling of an eye. That happens the moment you put your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, but making Him the Lord of your life. That means you surrender to him.
That means that he is your master, that he guides you, that he makes those decisions and helps you understand what to do, right? There's a big distinction between those two things. A savior is what Jesus did for Barabbas. He saved him from execution.
Now, it could be, you know, a savior is someone that is a firefighter, right? They run into a burning building and they pull you out. It could be a lifeguard. Speaking of lifeguards, did you hear about that young boy from Santa Cruz? Ryder Williams, 16 years old.
Look at this photo. He saved a 10-year-old boy from huge waves in Santa Cruz, saved his life. This kid's 16 years old, and ultimately, That's incredible. That's a hero. That's a savior.
He stepped into danger and pulled this boy, put his life on the line and pulled him to safety, ultimate rider. Was given the highest civilian honor by President Trump, was able to go to the Oval Office along with the young boy he rescued, and that's just incredible. I know a lot of lifeguards, and they're incredible. The work that they do, the stuff that they have to go and put themselves into. I mean, it's absolute danger, and they deserve a lot of our respect and admiration.
But that's a savior. That's a savior. That's what Jesus does. You are in need of a savior. You are headed for hell, you were headed for death.
And it's because of what you did. You put yourself in that situation. You have nobody to blame except. yourself. All of us are guilty of sin.
But that's what Jesus came to do: to be a Savior for us. He died in our place, right? But a Lord A Lord is a master. Like a master would own a slave, that slave was obligated to serve the master. They had complete ownership even over the slave's life.
Is Jesus your master? Is he your master? Do you submit to his lordship?
Now maybe you're objecting to the idea of, you know, internally because you hate the concept of slavery and the idea of Jesus being a slave master.
Okay, right, that's fine. But ultimately, everyone is a slave to something. All of us today are a slave to something. You can be a slave to success. You could be a slave to your pride, to your ego, to your image, to your fitness.
You could be a slave to sex, to drugs, to your job. You could be a slave to all kinds of things, but only Jesus is a good master. Only Jesus is a master that lays down his life for you. Jesus tells us in Matthew 11, 29, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is heavy. is light.
This is in effect what Pilate was. He knew Jesus was innocent. He declared him innocent. He knew what the right choice was to make, but he only made the comfortable one by putting Jesus to death. Are you like Herod?
Are you delegating this decision? Are you putting it off? Are you declining to have him be the master of your life and only wanting him to maybe be your savior? You want the benefits without the authority? A savior without a Lord?
Or maybe you're like Herod. You ask Jesus to meet all your needs. You ask him for all the things, your party tricks, your miracles. You respect the church like Herod respected John the Baptist. You recognize that you are a sinner and you appreciate good preaching and teaching.
But in your heart you reject his right to rule you. You reject him. Or lastly, you could be like Barabbas.
Now, we actually don't know what happened to Barabbas after this story. I would sure hope that Jesus was not only his physical savior, but his spiritual savior as well. We don't know if he went off and became a Christian later on, but we do know that he was a guilty man who had nothing left to offer, and someone else took his place on a cross. That is the difference between a close encounter. and a rescue.
Which one are you? Let's pray now. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for. These examples, Lord, we find in Scripture.
Lord, we want to be... Disciples is what we want to be. We want to be disciples. We want you to be our Savior. And we want you to be our Lord.
But Father, we confess that as we live in these imperfect bodies, we do the things we don't want to do, and we don't do the things we want to do, like the Apostle Paul said. Lord, we we fall short. We sin. And so, Lord, we invite you into every area of our lives that you would occupy them as we willfully surrender every area to you. That is true success.
That is true lordship. We want that, Lord. We want it. Convict us. Convince us, Lord.
Help us to do it through the power of your Holy Spirit.
Well, our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed, and we're praying. There may be some who have not yet put their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. He has not yet delivered you from your sin. Listen, today is the day of salvation. You can walk out of this building, out of this church today.
In the month of August. a transformed person. Reborn. Renewed from the inside out, and altogether new creation. That can be you.
Jesus died for your sin, but he also died for your shame and guilt. Is it possible that you're carrying around a great burden of guilt and shame and sin for the things that you have done? Listen, Jesus died for that too. He can even deliver that. Deliver you from that as well.
Would you like to have that? Would you like to have that hope today? If so, pray this prayer out loud after me, wherever you might be watching from at Harvest Maui, Harvest Orange County, Harvest Riverside, pray this now. Dear God, I know I'm a sinner. But I believe Jesus is the Saviour.
Who died on the cross for my sin? And I turn from that sin today. from this moment forward. God, would you fill me with your Holy Spirit? And help me to follow you.
And make you my Lord. and master of my life. Thank you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it, just go to harvest.org. And to find out how to know God personally, go to harvest.org and click on Know God. Mm.
