Welcome to Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition. We're glad you've joined us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig exists to connect you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times through verse-by-verse teaching of His Word. That's why we make messages like this one today available to you and others on air and online. Before we kick off today's teaching, we want to let you know that you can stay in the know about what's happening at Connect with Skip Heitzig when you sign up for email updates. When you do, you'll also receive Skip's weekly devotional email to inspire you with God's Word each week. So sign up today at connectwithskip.com.
That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Ladies, I'd like to introduce you to the perfect man. He's a doll.
He's 13 inches tall, so he's manageable. He's called Mr. Wonderful. Have you seen the Mr. Wonderful doll? This little doll is always happy, always smiling, and he's been programmed to always say the most sensitive, sweetest, and right things no matter what the situation. I have a little video clip of Mr.
Wonderful and just how great he is. Go ahead. Did you have a hard day, honey? Why don't you sit down and let me rub your feet?
Are you going shopping by yourself? How about if I tag along and carry your bags? Actually, I'm not sure which way to go.
I'll turn in here and ask directions. I love you. Yes, dear. You've been on my mind all day. That's why I bought you these flowers. You know, honey, why don't you just relax and let me make dinner tonight? Mr. Wonderful.
Now, ladies, what ladies whistling I want to know. Can you imagine having a man who's never irritable, who's never selfish? All you've got to do is give him three AA batteries and he's a happy man. Now think about this. God could have made a world filled with Mr. and Miss Wonderful dolls, right?
Just pre-programmed. So all we have to do, because he prompts us, is say, I've been thinking about you all day, God. Lord, it doesn't matter what I do today as long as I'm with you.
Lord, I love, honor you, praise, and bless you from my heart. God could have pre-programmed mechanical dolls to give him that kind of praise and that kind of submission. Now think about it. If he would have done that, there would be no evil in the world.
There'd be no rape, no murder, no selfishness, no crime, because that wouldn't be programmed into our components. But I have a question. Are there drawbacks to a Mr. Wonderful doll?
Ladies are going, no, I can't see any right off the bat. Well, the first one that comes to my mind, he's not real. It's mindless, mechanical compliments. So he says, I love you. It cheapens that love because it's not real love from a real heart.
There's no real submission. So God could have made people like that, but there wouldn't be real love involved. And so he didn't do that. He gave us an incredible freedom we know as human volition, the freedom of choice. Jesus came into this world and announced a kingdom was coming and that he was the king. It's a very different kind of a kingdom than an earthly kingdom like what Caesar had in Rome or what like the Jews were anticipating to come to their country. But three times in the section we're about to read, Jesus says, my kingdom.
His kingdom is not a kingdom filled with Mr. and Miss Wonderful dolls pushing the button and saying all the right things, but filled with real people dealing with the real God living in real submission to his authority. Now let me bring you back into the scene of John chapter 18. It's a courtroom scene. Jesus is on trial in these sentences before Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea.
Now we have all of the elements to a courtroom scene. We have the judge, that's Pilate. We have the defendant, that's Jesus. We have the plaintiffs, that's the Jewish authorities who bring Jesus for the trial. Let me remind you also that this isn't the first trial. This is one of six trials altogether that Jesus faces before death. This is trial number four.
Let me refresh your memory. The first trial was Jesus before the high priest Annas. He was the former high priest, but he's clearly the one who had all of the authority in Judaism. The second trial was after that before the son-in-law of Annas, the high priest who was the resident high priest at the time named Caiaphas. After both of those trials, the third trial was Jesus standing before the entire Jewish council called the Sanhedrin in the earliest hours of the morning. But because they couldn't bring the ultimate sentence they thought Jesus should have, the death penalty, they now have to bring it into the civil courts. So we're at trial number four, the trial before Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea.
Now here's what's ironic. We have the king of kings who will one day rule over all of the world, over all the kingdoms of men, standing trial before a puny human court. Pontius Pilate and his other ambassadors. What happened in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago where Jesus stood on trial is played out every single day in the hearts of men and women around the world. In the courts of public opinion, in the courts of personal decision comes the wrestling, what am I going to do with this Jesus? How am I going to handle him? What are my thoughts about him and dare I let him be king over my life?
Those are always the issues at stake. As we look at our verses, and today we're going to begin in verse 28 of chapter 18, I want you to notice three things. A kingdom denied, a kingdom discussed, and a kingdom disbelieved.
First is the kingdom denied. This is the Jewish authorities that bring Christ into this trial. Look at verse 28 of John 18. Then they, they being the ambassadors of the high priest, the Jewish authorities, part of the Sanhedrin, they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, that's the judgment hall.
And it was early morning, I'm guessing six o'clock no later, between five and six in the morning. But they themselves did not go in the Praetorium, watch this, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. Now the Jewish leaders felt if they were to go into the home of a Gentile, they would be ceremonially defiled.
How ironic is that? They're willing to kill Jesus and push this through an illegal case, but we don't want to defile ourselves or do anything ceremonially weird. Then Pilate went out to them and he said, What accusation do you bring against this man? They answered and said to him, If he were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him to you. Then Pilate said to them, You take him and judge him according to your law. Therefore the Jews said, It's not lawful for us to put anyone to death, that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spoke, signifying by what death he would die. All right, these Jewish rulers, the Sanhedrin, Annas, Caiaphas, the ones that are bringing Jesus into the courtroom scene with Pilate, all of them believed in and anticipated a kingdom that was coming, a messianic kingdom. The trouble is they rejected Jesus as that Messiah who would be their king, and here's why. They believed that whoever the Messiah would be, he was going to bring in an immediate kingdom, an outward kingdom, a political kingdom. He's going to overthrow the enemies of the Jews, in this case the Romans, push them out of the country, and then set up his eternal messianic kingdom from Jerusalem. Jesus didn't deliver those goods, did he?
Now, let me just sort of trace this thinking. As soon as Jesus began his ministry, one of the first sentences out of his mouth was this, repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. When he said that, their hopes started rising. The kingdom of God is at hand, like immediate, like soon, like maybe this is the Messiah. And it got to be such that his popularity rose and rose so that when he was in Galilee and he fed 5,000 miraculously and did other miracles, in John chapter 6, some of the crowd said, let's take him by force and make him our king. They wanted to bring in that kingdom. But to top it all off, that anticipation reached fever pitch when just a few days before this courtroom scene, Jesus comes into Jerusalem on that donkey, the crowds brought palm branches and threw their clothes in the road, Jesus sat on the donkey, and do you remember what they cried out?
Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, listen, the king of Israel. So they thought at any moment, this guy's going to pull out all the stops and set up that immediate political outward messianic kingdom. That's not why he came the first time, right? He's going to eventually do that in the future, the Bible says, at his second coming. But when Jesus came the first time, he didn't come as the ruling, reigning king, right? He came as what? Savior. He came to deal with sin. He came to conquer sin in people's lives and to be the savior.
That's what the angel said to Joseph, you will call his name Jesus because he will save his people from their sin. This is Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition. Before we return to Skip's teaching, the question of God's existence has serious implications from his presence and participation in our lives to the reality of life after death to the basis for human morality. And in his book, Is God Real?, Lee Strobel, former atheist and legal editor of the Chicago Tribune, weaves together the latest evidence from a range of brilliant scientific and philosophical minds to answer the most consequential question of all time. This resource will equip you to address your own doubts and respond to others' questions about God with confidence. We'll send you a copy of Is God Real?, along with two messages Strobel preached on this topic at Calvary Church 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 what did they do? Waiting for this kingdom, Jesus isn't delivering. They have a sham trial, a mock kind of a trial, breaking all of the Jewish rules, three of them to be exact. They level a sentence against Jesus. They want him killed. But because the Romans had taken away the right of the Jews to execute anybody, the right of capital punishment, this is reserved for the Romans.
We have to bring it into a civil trial. That's why they're before Pilate. Now I believe that Caiaphas, the acting high priest, wanted nothing more and nothing less than to see Jesus hung on a cross, crucified.
That's what he wanted. That was not how the Jews executed people, by the way. In the Old Testament, what was the method of execution? Stoning, Leviticus 24, if somebody is worthy of death, they're to be taken publicly and stoned. It was a brutal way of execution.
They probably could have done that with Jesus because in a few weeks they're going to do it with Stephen in Jerusalem, they're going to stone him, and they could have talked their way through it with the Roman authorities afterwards. But I'm convinced Caiaphas didn't want a stoning. Caiaphas wanted the worst kind of a death, crucifixion, because the law of Moses said, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. And Caiaphas thought, if the Jews see this man crucified, they're going to think, no way could he be our Messiah. He's cursed by God.
He's on a tree. So that was their agenda. They want to see him crucified, and they bring him before Pontius Pilate.
There's an old adage that says, if you can't find a lawyer who knows the law, find one who knows the judge. Evidently, Caiaphas and Annas know the judge, and they bring Jesus before them. They bring him to the Praetorium, it is called. That was the ancient Antonia fortress. It was where the Roman soldiers were garrisoned in Jerusalem. It was their fort. Now, Pontius Pilate, the governor, he had his headquarters not in Jerusalem, but in Caesarea on the ocean.
Great place to hang out. Well, whenever there was a festival of the Jews, he moved his headquarters to Jerusalem. Why? Just in case a riot would break out, some kind of a scene like this. He could be there to quell that riot. And so the leaders come, and they bring Jesus. And they have to have some accusation. That's what Pilate says.
Well, what accusation do you bring? And they said here in John's gospel, if he were not an evildoer, we wouldn't have brought him to you to begin with. Now, John didn't give us any more details, but the other gospel accounts do. Luke actually records what the charges were against Jesus at this trial. I want you to look at them. Turn with me, or if you don't have a Bible, I'll turn and you can listen to Luke chapter 23.
Now, I cheated because I marked it before I got here, so I just had to flip to it. But Luke chapter 23, I'll give you a moment to turn there, and you'll read the charges yourself. Verse 1, Luke 23, Then the whole multitude of them arose and led him to Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying... Now, you're going to notice three accusations. Number one, we found this fellow perverting the nation. Number two, forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar. And number three, saying that he himself is Christ the king. Three charges they level against Christ, all trumped up charges.
Let's go through them. Number one, this man is perverting the nation. Was that a true charge or a false charge?
It was a false charge. He never perverted the nation. Jesus said, I didn't come to destroy the law. I came to fulfill it. I'm not here trying to destroy my nation.
This is the nation God has given to this earth and has a covenant with. Number two, the charge was he's forbidding people to pay taxes to Caesar. Was that true or false? It's false.
Jesus held up a coin one day, and he said, Render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but make sure you render to God what belongs to God. But look at that third charge. This guy says he's a king. Was that a true charge or false? It was a true charge.
Now that charge was a true charge. This guy says he is a king. The trouble is they rejected his authority. They rejected his kingship. They didn't want anything to do with him ruling over them. A few days before this trial, as Jesus is coming into Jerusalem and the crowds do give him the adulation, Hosanna to the highest, the son of David, the king of Israel, you remember that as Jesus was making his way down the Mount of Olives, he stopped and he did something.
What did he do? He wept. He cried over the city. And he said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers its chicks under its wings, but you were not willing. Your king has come to you. You would not receive his authority in your lives. You were not willing for me to comfort you and gather your children and bring in any kind of a kingdom whatsoever. So that's the first section of John chapter 18 that we have read. The kingdom is denied. Let's go to the second. We now have the kingdom discussed.
The second scene is a private scene. It is Pontius Pilate, the governor, face to face with Jesus. Verse 33, Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus and said to him, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered him, are you speaking for yourself about this or did others tell you this concerning me? Pilate answered, am I a Jew? Your own nation and chief priests have delivered you to me.
What have you done? Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now my kingdom is not from here. Pilate therefore said to him, are you a king then? Jesus answered, you say rightly that I am a king, for this cause I was born, for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.
Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. We have here one of the most provocative encounters of two people in all of history. The Roman governor who represents the king of the world, Caesar himself, and Jesus, the king of kings. Now, Pontius Pilate is famous because of what you and I are reading.
In history, he is one of the most infamous characters. There was a group of Sunday school kids and the teacher asked the kids to draw a rendition of the Christmas story. Most kids drew shepherds and angels in the major scene, the wise men, the camels, et cetera.
One boy decided to draw something different for his picture of the Christmas scene. It was an airplane with four people in it, and the teacher stopped and said, I don't get this. And the boy looked up like, duh, and said, this is the flight into Egypt. Okay, if you're laughing, it's because you know in your Bible the little subheading says that when Jesus and Mary and Joseph had to flee from Herod's wrath, they went to Egypt, the flight into Egypt.
So he drew an airplane, the flight into Egypt. The teacher said, oh, okay, I get it, but why are there four people? I get Joseph and Jesus and Mary, who's the fourth, and the guy looked up again, the kid said, like, that's Pontius, the pilot. Okay, it's a kid. Truth be told, we don't know a whole lot more about Pontius Pilate than that kid thought he knew.
We just know a few things. There's just a sketchy bit of information about him, and I've tried to amass as much as I can to give you a little snapshot of this guy, Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate was the fifth Roman governor of the province of Judea, appointed by Caesar Tiberius in 26 A.D.
He reigned for 10 years as the governor of Judea. But get this, Pontius Pilate was not Roman. That is, he wasn't born in Rome. He was born in Seville, Spain. Later on, he joined the Roman army, the legions of Rome, and he got this job because he married strategically into the family. His wife was Claudia Procula, the granddaughter of Caesar Augustus in Rome. So he got the job because he married the boss's granddaughter. He is placed in this position, biblical passages as well as extra biblical history, paint him as a very prideful, arrogant, conceited, cynical kind of a man, and some of that is seen here. It's played out in the text. You can see yourself.
Okay, now, all four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, all record that the very first question that Pilate asked Jesus was this. Are you the king of the Jews? 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 Lee Strobel's book, Is God Real?, and two of his sermons on the same topic preached at Calvary Church to help you answer life's most consequential questions about God's existence. To request your copy of these resources, call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888, or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. For more from Skip, be sure to check out the many resources available at connectwithskip.com slash store. We'll see you next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig weekend edition. 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.
