The Howls of Injustice (Part A)

This is a mockery. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Gospel of Mark.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the Gospel of Mark chapter 15 as he begins a new message called the Howls of Injustice. We are in the Gospel according to Mark.

Immediately in the morning, the chief priests led a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. And they bound Jesus, led him away, and delivered him to Pilate. Then Pilate asked, Are you the king of the Jews?

He answered and said to him, It is as you say. And the chief priests accused him of many things, but he answered nothing. Then Pilate asked him again, saying, Do you answer nothing?

See how many things they testify against you? But Jesus still answered nothing. So that Pilate marveled. Now at the feast, he was accustomed to releasing one prisoner to them whomever they requested. And there was one named Barabbas who was chained with his fellow rebels.

They had committed murder in rebellion. Then the multitude, crying aloud, began to ask him to do just as he had always done for them. But Pilate answered them, saying, Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? For he knew that the chief priests had handed him over because of envy. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd so that he should rather release Barabbas to them. Pilate answered and said to them again, What then do you want me to do with him whom you call the king of the Jews? So they cried out again, Crucify him. And then Pilate said to them, Why?

What evil has he done? But they cried out, All the more, crucify him. So Pilate, wanting to gratify the crowd, released Barabbas to them, and he delivered Jesus after he had scourged him to be crucified.

The howls of injustice, that's the title of this consideration, like wolves, one wolf howling over to another one. That's what these officers of the law were doing with each other, the fate of Jesus. John writes this in his 18th chapter about this moment.

He said, Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, and it was early morning. But they themselves did not go in the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. And so what John is talking about is, as the Jews are going back and forth trying to get the Gentiles to finally make a sentence of death on Christ, they did not want to defile themselves by entering the office of Pilate. They could hound holy innocents to its death upon the cross as a felon. They could wag their heads in scorn when he hung their dying between the thieves, but they could not venture within a Roman court of law, lest their holy feet should suffer defilement and make them unfit to share the sacred feast of the Jewish church known as the Passover.

This is disgusting hypocrisy that they had no problem with. Self-righteous religion, and these are religious people, this type of self-righteous religious people are very useful to Satan. They were then and they are to this day, and so we do want to pay attention to the lessons from the scripture to not be like them and also perhaps to be used by God to rescue those who may be.

We look at verse one. Immediately in the morning, the chief priest held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and they bound Jesus, led him away, and delivered him to Pilate. So it's dawn now or five, six o'clock in the morning.

The sun is just getting ready to come up. The chief priest, they are the ones that held the consultation with the elders and scribes, the whole council. The chief priests were the temple overseers, the hierarchy of priests that were there, mostly Sadducees. That would be the equivalent today of liberal theologians. Liberal scholars, when it comes to the Bible, are those who don't believe the Bible is the word of God. Or they'll say parts of it is the word of God, and men will decide what parts are from God and what parts are not.

It's arbitrary and with them, we reject that categorically. But this is a mockery. There are farce scruples of going through these proceedings that were so precious to them, this hypocritical protocol of religious men who are looking to murder someone who is absolutely innocent. They're like gangsters who murder and destroy and ruin lives and then go donate money to a church or to give back to the community to ease their conscience of this mockery of what decency is.

We're all sinners, we all goof, but there are limits. I mean, when it becomes blatant like this, mercy is something that is not going to be readily available to people with this mindset. There's no evidence of sorrow or repentance in the hearts of any of them.

There's blood in their eyes. They want death, and they bound Jesus and led him away. They cuffed him. After all, he had this reputation of healing people. So let's put him in cuffs.

He might heal somebody. They delivered him to Pilate. Of course they did. This is the first of two meetings with Pilate.

He typically resides to the northwest up in Caesarea by the Mediterranean Sea, but he's in Jerusalem for the feast because it is the Passover time. And the Jewish leaders, they could have just stoned Christ. Even though it was outlawed, they would have gotten away with it. I mean, after all, they stoned Stephen, and Rome looked the other way.

But there's more to it than that. They wanted to deliver Jesus to the Romans so the Jews could shift the blame of the crucifixion on them. That was one of the things. Now when I say the Jews, I don't mean all Jews, of course, but these particular Jews, the religious leaders who had a big problem with our Christ. Of course, many Jews did not have a problem with him. But they wanted Rome especially to execute him through crucifixion because stoning was too merciful compared to crucifying someone. It gave them added satisfaction. And additionally, it put the curse of the law on him.

Paul quoting this passage from the Old Testament and here in the New Testament, it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. And that's part of what they wanted to go with it. So these men were particularly evil in their religion. And we see some of this in parts of the world today.

And just the violence in places like Pakistan and in the name of religion, or India even, just the horrors of throwing acid on people and burning people alive. And just the devil is hard at work, which should make us say to ourselves, well, what am I doing? What is my part? What is my role as a Christian? Every Christian should be asking that of God. What am I supposed to be doing with this Christianity that I have? Am I supposed to just be enjoying these outrageously magnificent sermons at Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville? What am I supposed to do with myself as a Christian? I think even those who, from time to time, those who know what they're supposed to be doing have to go back and get calibrated with God.

Lord, am I still where I need to be? Well, verse 2, and Pilate asked him, Are you king of the Jews? He answered and said, To him, You said it. That's exactly how it transfers from the Greek.

It is as you say. Now, Pilate did not bring up the charge that the Jewish high priest indicted Christ with, which was blasphemy, because he would not have recognized it. That's a religious matter. We're not going to kill anybody over that here, unless, you know, he starts biting into the Roman gods.

That could become a problem. But he doesn't bring that up, because the indictment that the Jews had to get against Christ had to be something that Rome would be particularly adverse to. And so they manipulated the charge. They charged him with treason against Caesar. So if they could say to Pilate, Listen, you have a Jewish man under Caesar's authority going around with a following, saying that he's a king. Well, if Rome did not sanction him as a king, then he must be a treasonous.

And this is what was happening. Pilate, of course, didn't take it serious at all, because his spies had informed, his informants were out there, and they said, Yeah, great crisis, these large crowds, but he preaches peace, and love your neighbor, and he's healing people. And so he was no threat to them. So here the Jews are bringing a Jew before a Roman court that they hated. They hated the Roman court, and they probably never did this ever before, and they probably never would again. Bring a Jew to a Roman court on the charge of treason.

They celebrated those kind of men as, you know, liberation fighters, which Barabbas was likely one of them. That's why it's mentioned his rebellion. And so there the hypocrisy again surfaces, and Pilate, he's going to see this. Pilate is making an effort in these early stages to administer Roman law, because the Romans were big on law.

But of course, he's going to fail. He is not equipped to face the Satan that is prevailing in the hearts of men on this. He continues here in verse 2, He answered and said to him, It is as you say. You got that right, Pilate. I am the king of the Jews. And the Scripture, the Old Testament Scripture, had declared Messiah would be king. Micah 5, 2 and Zechariah 9, 9 are two verses that make that announcement. And so the Lord is not going to say, No, that's false. He's admitting without hesitation. Yes, I am. He's not saying I'm guilty. He's saying I am king.

There's no guilt belonging to that because he is worthy. Well, we're laying, of course, the foundation for this. So you teenagers, you younger ones, these are important little facts that have to be in place. If these things are out of place, then the story becomes, you know, it's not what it is intended to be. You leave loopholes in it for critics to attack it. So we have to set the story up by reviewing what is actually going on. What is actually going on? So don't try to keep up if you can.

Some of you may find it easier than others. Verse 3, And the chief priest accused him of many things, but he answered nothing. So there he is, handcuffed, standing before them, and they're hurling all these charges against him. Any other felon would be saying, That's a lie.

Oh, yeah, what did you know? They would be defending themselves. The Lord simply ignores them, which irritated them even further. To ignore somebody who is self-important is very noticeable and significant. In fact, speaking of significant, so significant is their fabrication that no one bothered to record the other things they were saying. We have no record of, Well, what were they saying?

Who cares? God said that. I'm putting that in the Bible. Anyway, by verse 19, again, Pilate will see through this, but it won't help.

And this is why it's one of the difficult story to read. If you love the Lord, you're seeing this injustice. On one hand, you know he's got to die for our sins. As Peter tried to stop at Caesarea Philippi with, you know, Be it far from you, and the Lord rebuked him for that. Get behind me, Satan, because you're mindful of the things of men, not the things of God. Well, we're mindful of the things of God, and the plan of salvation is being worked out here, and we're watching it, but it is painful. Well, sin causes pain.

Everything it touches, it hurts. Verse four, Then Pilate asked him again, saying, Do you answer nothing? See how many things they testify against you? So, again, Pilate trying to have a proper proceeding following the protocols. But he is surprised, again, that a prisoner is not interested in what his accusers have to say of him.

The Lord is saying, Why should I answer? He knew that evil, again, would prevail in their hearts. Isaiah the prophet, oh, almost 900 years before these events took place, speaking about the Messiah in Isaiah 53, said he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened down his mouth. Pilate could look at Christ standing there and tell that he had been abused physically, that they had knocked him around some. And so this is, you know, part of his processes, but we're looking at this and saying, Yeah, because he is afflicted. He is oppressed and he is afflicted, willfully so. He doesn't have to go through this for us, but he does.

I'll repeat this in a moment. Sinners should understand those who have not repented. Christ suffered out of love. He could have just made more people. You know, he could have just bypassed the sinners and let them go to hell, let them suffer, and not suffer in their place, just make more people.

But he does not. God's plan of redemption is going forward precisely as announced on schedule whether men know it or not or like it or not. Verse 5, But Jesus still answered nothing, so Pilate marveled. Yet, they were all marveling at the lesser things. They were missing the greater things.

They marveled at lesser things because they did not receive the greater things. Christ, John tells us, entered into dialogue with Pilate concerning truth and saying, I am the king, but my servants aren't going to fight for me because this is not my kingdom here, telling Pilate that he has come to announce the truth about God, about men, and about God's plan to reconcile men to himself. And then Pilate with a smirk says, What is truth?

And doesn't wait for the answer, and people are still doing this to this day. Luke writes, This about the people who did marvel at the right things about Christ, and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word was with authority. Well, because all the rabbis, the scribes, the Pharisees, all the others simply repeated each other.

They just, you know, they didn't come up with anything from the heart. John the Baptist certainly did. The prophets did. Christ did with an authority that was unmatched, and we look at the New Testament, and we never hear Jesus say, for example, Thus says the Lord. He says, I say, which is a profound, it's a profound revelation coming out of the scripture about who the, the identity of Jesus Christ, because if you get the identity of Christ wrong, what camp does that put you in? All the false religions have the identity of Jesus Christ wrong.

That's what makes them cults, false heretics, etcetera, false teachers. So the Lord continues to ignore the religious frauds. At this point, Pilate is going to send him to Herod, because he learns, okay, Jesus is from the region of Galilee, that's Herod's territory, so he shuffles him off to Herod, and they become friends, Herod and Pilate. They weren't friends before, and Christ will ignore all of them, all when he gets to Herod's court.

Herod, he is the one that killed John the Baptizer, and his father, that rat of a human being, slaughtered the little boys of Bethlehem, because he was afraid somebody else may claim to be king. And so, you know, these are the type of people that Christ is facing. He's given all of them a chance to step up, to find their higher self, and to submit to the truths about him, but none of them did. Yeah, I mean, how do you be a governor, a ruler, and you're hearing about multitudes telling you about this person healing people, and what he's teaching, and his miracles, and not look into it, and submit to it.

How do you just dismiss it? Well, a wicked heart that wants humanity to prevail, and not the Lord. Well, anyway, after Jesus has finished ignoring Herod and his group, they shuffle him back to Pilate. Verse 6 now, now this is Christ going before Pilate a third time, so he has six hearings, one with the high priest, Annas and the high priest, and the Sanhedrin council, one with Pilate, one with Herod, and a second with Pilate. So three with the Gentiles, three with the Jews, and beatings in both of them. He hasn't gotten the one from the Gentiles.

That's coming, the bigger one, that is. Verse 6, now at the feast he was accustomed, that is Pilate, to releasing one prisoner to them whomever they requested the feast, the celebration of God passing over his people because they obeyed him and put the blood on the passageway to their homes as the angel of death went through Egypt taking the firstborn, but not of those who had the blood on the door, the threshold. So they were supposed to be, on that night, freed from being slaves, and they were. They were supposed to be taken to a promised land we know as Canaan, and there lived free to worship the Lord and be a light to the Gentiles.

And they did not do well. God is not impressed with religiosity or rituals. You're going to have to do a lot more than burn candles and throw money into a plate to get God's attention. Even the Proverbs where you wouldn't expect such, or maybe you would, such a short profound statement about hypocrisy in religion. Proverbs 21-3, because the prophets were all over this, and here Proverbs, to do righteousness and justice, is more acceptable to Yahweh than sacrifice. Stop playing religion.

Stop acting like you can do without something and somehow get God's favor when you're passing by the essential things that you need to not do, to abstain from sin. And so here these men, they want to have, these people, not just the men, this element of the Jerusalem society that is so against Christ. They want their religion. They want their Passover.

They just don't want to be righteous at the same time. This is an appeasing tradition of the Romans. At this feast we'll let one criminal go free.

I don't find appeasement to work. It's a bad idea and we're going to see it here because they're going to let Barabbas run free and crucify the innocent. Verse 7, and there was one named Barabbas who was chained with his fellow rebels. They had committed murder in rebellion. The part, the rebellion part, he's a political prisoner too, but not unjustly so.

He's rebelled against Roman authority. John says Barabbas was a robber. Well, a robber, the difference between a thief and a robber is a thief typically will take from you when you're not looking.

A robber will take it right out of your hand when you're looking or not. They overpower you by force and that's just if you just split the hairs there. But again, the guilty one is going to be set free, treated as though he is innocent because Jesus will die in his place and we'll cover that because that's the big part of this section, this latter section of the Gospel of Mark is the crucifixion of Christ for sinners and the resurrection and then the book of Acts is and this is what the believers did with it. Verse 7 still, they had committed murder in rebellion. This again put them in the minds of some of the Jews as patriots even if they didn't agree with them.

So some viewed Barabbas as a liberation fighter. The fact is we've all sinned, no revelation there. I don't know, have you ever met anybody who honestly says I've not sinned?

I actually met someone who claimed to be a Christian with the twisting from the 1 John letter insisting that he didn't have sin and I simply said you're sinning now by lying. What are you talking about you don't have sin? Anyway, we've all sinned and we've rebelled against the throne of God.

Barabbas rebelled against Rome, sinners rebelled against the throne of God. Sin means I broke something that is very precious to a holy God. That's just a short meaning of sin.

Purity has been stained and therefore made impure before the presence of a pure God. Why should again God let me go unpunished when he can just make more people? He can make better people perhaps. Well I say that perhaps because there's that free will thing. Free will means that you have to make that choice and God knew what was going to happen. He has every right to have a people that choose to follow him even in the midst of a cursed world. People may object to God's processes to which the almighty God can say right to them and he does through his word.

Bottom line I don't care what you think if you are against what I am offering because you will be judged. It's the hard side of the gospel. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Mark. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry visit our website crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the book of Mark right here on Cross Reference Radio.