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That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. And they put on him a purple robe. This is a military robe.
There were many in the Antonia fortress. One of the soldiers took another soldier's or perhaps his own robe and put it on him. This will add to the suffering of Jesus later on because as the robe is put on him and the blood soaks through the robe and begins to coagulate, by the time he gets to the place of crucifixion and they rip the robe off of him, it'll open up those wounds afresh. Now a crown of thorns is put upon his head. Now thorns, I think, are significant. They're emblematic of the curse. After Adam sinned in the garden, God pronounced a curse. He said, cursed is the ground for your sake. Thorns and thistles they will bring forth.
So this emblem of the curse put on the one who came to eradicate the curse, the one who would one day take away the curse of the earth altogether as we all live in a millennial kingdom, a paradise on earth, is now taking the punishment for the curse brought upon mankind by sin. And verse three, then they said, Hail, King of the Jews, and they struck him with their hands. There was a game, a very cruel Roman game, played by the soldiers. Keep in mind, Roman soldiers were bored. They gathered in Jerusalem at the Antonia fortress just to put down any riot that might start. So they just sort of sat around all day waiting for action. And if no action came their way, they would create a little. So whenever they got a prisoner, they would take their aggressions out, their boredom out on a prisoner. And one of the games is called hot hand.
They would blindfold a prisoner and they would take turns punching in the face that prisoner and then telling the prisoner to guess which soldier it was that struck the blow. Now, why this was unusually cruel is because if I were to throw a jab at your face and trust me, I won't do that. Unless you really bother me. No, I'm just kidding.
I won't do it. But if I were to do that, you would have the advantage of sight. You'd be able to duck, kind of move your body with it and lessen the impact. But when you're blindfolded and you get struck, you get cold cocked without being able to see it, you will take the full brunt of that impact. So they struck him with their hand.
They played that cruel game. Pilate then went out again and said to them, Behold, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no fault in him. The second time we read, and there are many times if you put Matthew, Mark, Luke and John together, there were several times that Pilate was trying to get Jesus off. He knew he was innocent. He has come to a verdict, not guilty. After the scourging, it's like, okay, let this man go. I find no fault in him. I'm the judge here.
You brought him to me. He's clear. Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate said to them, Behold, the man. It's a very famous phrase. You've read it.
You've heard it. In Latin, esche homo, behold the man. There's an arch in Jerusalem called the esche homo arch. It is believed to be the spot, the area of the Antonia fortress where Pilate brought Jesus out and said these words. When Pilate said, Behold the man, this is a cry of pity.
Like, look at this poor creature. I believe Pilate, trying to appeal to their compassion, said, Look at him. Isaiah predicted this. Isaiah said that he will be beaten with stripes, for by his stripes we are healed. His visage, his face, Isaiah said, is marred more than any other man and is formed more than the sons of man.
Behold the man. Therefore, when the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, You take him and crucify him, for I find no fault.
Third time, Pilate has declared by his own lips, not guilty. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and according to our law, he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God. Now they're showing their hand. Now they're revealing their true motive. They made up charges, and they tried to get Jesus killed based on those false charges. They said, He's an insurrectionist.
He commands us to avoid paying taxes to Caesar. Those charges didn't stick because they were false charges. There was no evidence of that. Even bringing in false witnesses didn't stick.
So now they're revealing their true motive. We want to kill him because he is a blasphemer. He claims that he is deity.
He claims to be God. Leviticus 24 is the reference. When they say, We have a law, and our law commands that he die, Leviticus 24 says, If there's somebody among you that blasphemes, you are to take him, throw him down, and stone him to death. That was their law. The problem was the Jews had no right to execute anyone. The Romans took that right away. Capital punishment was removed. Only the Romans could lay down the law, so they bring him to Pilate.
They want a guilty verdict. But there's nothing in Roman law that would implicate him, so they say, We have a law. And according to our law, he must die because he made himself the Son of God. Now I want you to think of that phrase, Son of God, for a moment.
I want you to think of it because you may meet someone who will say to you, You know, Jesus never claimed to be God. He only claimed to be the Son of God. The term the Son of God is a term of deity, an expression of being God. I have a son.
He has my DNA. We're two separate beings, but as my son, he is a man like I am a man. The son of a man is a man. The son of a dog is a dog. The son of a shark is a shark.
Same DNA, two separate entities, but same substance. The Son of God is God. It's a term of deity used in the Old Testament and applied to Jesus Christ. And the reason they would kill, they wouldn't kill somebody who says, You know, I'm a child of God like everybody else. I'm a child of God. You don't get killed for that.
That's not a capital crime. The reason the Jews wanted to kill him is because he claimed to be equal with God. We read that in the Gospel of John we have noted on several occasions. Jesus said to them on one occasion, they tried to pick up stones to kill him. I've done many good works.
Which good work do you want to stone me for? And they said, Not for a good work, but because you being a man are making yourself out to be God. And they said, That's blasphemy.
You claim to be deity. So now they're just cutting down to the core and they're saying, Look, according to our law, he needs to die because of blasphemy. He makes himself the son of God.
Now, notice what happens next. Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was more afraid. Pilate immediately thinks, Uh-oh, he's what?
They keep using that term, son of God. Pilate, being a Roman, had a Roman worldview. The Roman worldview is very superstitious.
They believe that a person may be a representative of a divine being. And if you mess with that person, they might bring damage on you. They might kill you.
They might hurt you. Well, Pilate just had Jesus beaten up. Uh, you called him what?
And I just did what? Not only that, but Pilate's wife, remember, had that dream? Said, Have nothing to do with that righteous man.
Uh-oh, he's the what? Son of God. Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was more afraid. We don't have time to look back, but in Matthew's gospel, the gospel of Matthew, it says, Pilate marveled at him. Marveled at him.
The word is thaumazo in the Greek. It means to be shaken and astonished. Shaken and astonished. He marveled at him.
Now watch this. And went again into the Praetorium and said to Jesus, Where are you from? Now remember, in our last chapter, Jesus said, My kingdom is not of this world. And then he said, I came into this world for that purpose as a king.
You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we return to Skip's teaching, misunderstandings about Jesus abound. Some see him as a prophet, others as a moral teacher, and still others as just a myth or mere historical figure.
But the Bible tells a different story about who Jesus is. We want to help you know the real Jesus of the Bible by sending you Skip Heitzig's nine-message CD series, Who Is This Jesus? In this eye-opening series, Pastor Skip addresses common misconceptions about Jesus, clarifying both Jesus' humanity and his divinity to equip you to confidently answer questions about who Jesus really is. We'll send you the Who Is This Jesus series, as well as Skip's booklet for new believers titled Life Change, as thanks for your gift of $50 or more to reach more people with God's love through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give. Now, let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. So he has already said and intimated that he comes from another realm and that he is a king, but not of this world, but from a heavenly realm. So now Pilate just comes in point blank and says, Where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. Then Pilate said to him, Oh, you know, you could just see him like raising his eyebrow.
Are you not speaking to me? Do you not know that I have power to crucify you and power to release you? Now, at this saying, Jesus is going to pipe up. Now Jesus is going to speak.
Pilate has appealed to authority. Don't you know who I am? I have power. I have authority. I can give you the death sentence.
Don't you realize who I am? Jesus answered, You could have no power at all against me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, the one who delivered me to you has greater sin.
Now, something struck me as I was reading this verse. Jesus said you would have no power at all unless it was given to you from above. Do you believe that leaders, good or bad, are put in their position by God?
I hope you do. If you believe Romans chapter 13, you may not like the judge who hands you the sentence or the police officer who writes you the ticket or the president who's in the White House. But nobody has the right as a Christian to ever say, Well, that's not my judge or that's not my governor or that's not my president.
Because that person, whether it's the current president or the former president or the president, last generation is put in that position by God. And so Paul's point in Romans 13 is give honor to whom honor is due. Pray for them.
Honor them. Because if you don't, you're dishonoring God in heaven. It leaves the Christian with absolutely no option except to honor those in authority, whether you agree or not, whether you voted for that person or not. Here is Pontius Pilate, a cruel dictator as a governor, and Jesus acknowledges him, You have power, but you've been put in power for this season by God. From then on, Pilate sought to release him.
See, Pilate knows he's innocent. But the Jews cried out saying, If you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar. Now these guys hate Caesar. They hate him with a passion. They hate the Roman government.
But all of a sudden they get suddenly patriotic. Suddenly they're all worried about Caesar and being buddies with Caesar. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha.
That saying really bothered him, and you need to know why. Shall we say Pilate was on thin ice with the emperor in Rome? That was Tiberius Caesar.
Let me tell you why. Pontius Pilate had been the governor of Judea for five years so far at this point. He had made mistakes. He had made three very bad mistakes, but this isn't baseball, so he's not out yet.
But he's on thin ice. Strike number one came when Pontius Pilate was first placed in that position, and he came into Jerusalem with the banners, the ensigns of the Roman army. Those were those tall vertical poles, and on top of the poles, on top of the banner, on top of the standard was a little bust of Caesar because Caesar was worshiped as deity. So on top of those little poles is this little bust of Caesar on all the soldiers poles had them. Well, you know in Judaism it's against Jewish law to have an image of any kind, of any kind.
Anything of in heaven or on earth, second commandment says I want no images. They took it very seriously because there's images in Jerusalem. They rebelled. How'd they rebel? They went to Caesarea by the sea, which is where Pilate's headquarters were, and said we demand you take those little busts away, those poles out.
No images in Jerusalem. Pilate responded by hurting them all in the amphitheater in Caesarea and said, now my soldiers are going to come by and cut your heads off unless you stop your protest. What happened next Pilate was not ready for. The Jewish leaders fell to the ground, pulled their shirts down, and bared their neck to the Roman sword and said please cut here along this line.
We would rather die than break our law. Well at that point Pilate knew he lost. He had never seen people willing to die for such a law so he recanted. He thought this would be a mess. He pulled back and he pulled those ensigns out. That got all the way to Rome. Second mistake, Pontius Pilate wanted to build an aqueduct to bring more water into Jerusalem because the sacrifices in the temple required a lot of water to wash away the blood and they just needed more water in that city.
It was a growing city. Well he didn't have the money in the coffers of Rome to pay for it so by force he invaded the temple and took from the temple treasury money to pay for the aqueduct. People protested. Pilate sent soldiers in among the protesting crowd with swords and clubs hidden in their robe and at the certain signal he told his soldiers, dressed like regular people, to kill them.
So several were murdered and the crowd was dispersed. That got back to Rome. Third mistake, he brought tribute shields with an embossed image of Tiberius Caesar to the Antonia fortress.
These were just decorative shields and they were only placed inside the Antonia fortress where soldiers could see them, not the Jewish public, but they found out about it and they protested and they complained and appealed to Caesar in Rome. Caesar himself said, you take those shields out. So he's on thin ice. So you can understand now the threat when they say, whoever does this is not Caesar's friend. Uh oh. He knew what that meant.
It was a veiled threat or not so veiled. We're going to tell on you. We're going to tell mom on you or daddy on you. Daddy Caesar is going to find out about this. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat in the judgment in that place that is called the Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha.
Now it was the preparation day of the Passover and it was about the sixth hour. Pilate said to the Jews, behold your king, but they cried out away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said, shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered.
Now this is going to seal it. The chief priest who hated Caesar answered, we have no king but Caesar. Again, suddenly they wax patriotic. Suddenly they love Caesar. And in rejecting Jesus as their king and saying we want Caesar as our king, you know what will happen in just a few years from now? At Caesar's orders, their king Caesar will order Titus in 70 AD to destroy the temple, destroy the city, and slaughter 1.5 million Jews. You really want Caesar as your king?
Because that's what your king is going to do to you. I do want to make note of something in this verse that you might just pass over, but I think it will help you in understanding the chronology of the New Testament and especially this crucifixion. It says in verse 14, it was the preparation day of the Passover. It was Friday. And it was about the sixth hour. Now John is using Roman time, the reckoning of time by Rome, and according to Rome, the Romans began their day at midnight, so it was 6 AM.
The sixth hour was six in the morning. The preparation day was the day that the lambs would be in the afternoon for a two-hour period slaughtered in the temple, and it was that day that the Jews would eat the Passover in Jerusalem. They're going to go home and take that lamb that was slaughtered, and they're going to have a meal, the Passover meal. That's the preparation day. And we read in the previous chapter that when they brought Jesus before Pontius Pilate, they didn't want to go into Pontius Pilate's headquarters lest they become, remember the word, defiled, so that they could eat the Passover.
They hadn't eaten it yet. That's going to come later on that night, the day of preparation. The lambs are going to be slain.
They're going to take one home. They're going to eat the Passover that night. So now we have a bit of a problem because Jesus and his disciples, the night before, have eaten the Passover. So people will read this, and they go, see, there's a problem in the Bible, another one. There's this discrepancy.
They're all over the place, and here's one. And that's because they don't know their history, and so they just want to chalk it up to being a discrepancy or a contradiction. It's not a contradiction at all. And let me explain to you why. In Galilee, the Galileans, the Northerners, began their day, they looked at the day from sunrise to sunrise. In Jerusalem, down south in Judea, the more Orthodox Jews reckoned time from sunset to sunset, which means Galileans, this is according to Josephus, the Jewish historian, and the Jewish writings in the Mishnah and a couple of other sources, the Galileans, because of their reckoning of the day, would eat the Passover on one night, and the next night the Judeans would eat it. Clears it up, doesn't it?
Makes sense. We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember that when you give $50 or more to help reach more people with the gospel through Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you Pastor Skip's series, Who Is This Jesus? and his booklet, Life Change, to help you better understand both who Jesus is and why you can trust what the Bible says and who you are as a believer in Christ. To request your copy of these resources, call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer. For more from Skip, be sure to check out the many resources available at connectwithskip.com slash store. Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast your burdens on His Word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.
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