You remember last week in our series entitled People Jesus Met, we talked about a meeting between the Lord Jesus Christ and Pontius Pilate that ended with Pontius Pilate washing his hands and condemning Jesus to the cross. Today we want to go back and we want to look at that very same meeting between the Lord Jesus and Pilate, but from a different angle. We want to look at it today from the angle of something Jesus said to Pilate during that meeting.
So let's go back 2,000 years and let's see what it was that Jesus said that was so significant during that meeting. And then let's wind all of that forward and we'll talk about: okay, so how does that matter to me here in the 21st century? Our passage is John chapter 19, and we begin in verse 1. And remember, as we pick up here, the rabbis have brought Jesus to Pontius Pilate because. They want him to crucify Jesus, and Pilate has tried his very best to turn Jesus loose, but the rabbis have insisted that he crucify Christ.
And so that's where we pick up the story, verse 1. The Bible says then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. Most of us have seen Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion, so we have a pretty good idea what it looks like for someone to be flogged. Verse 2, then the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on Jesus' head, and they clothed him with a purple robe, of course, mocking him for his claim to be king of the Jews. And then the soldiers came up to him again and again, saying, Hail, king of the Jews, and they slapped him in the face.
Folks, by the time that the soldiers got through working Jesus over, he was a miserable, bloody mess. But you see, this fulfilled one of the scriptures in the Old Testament about the Messiah, one of the prophecies. Isaiah 52, 14 says his, that is the Messiah's appearance, was disfigured. Beyond that of any man, and his form marred beyond human likeness. Verse 4.
So once more, Pilate came out and said to the Jews, Look, I'm bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him. Jesus therefore came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, Behold the man. And as soon as the chief priests and their officers saw him, they shouted, Crucify! Crucify!
Crucify. Jesus found no pity at all in the eyes of these Jewish leaders in spite of his abused appearance. Here they understood was their chance to get rid of him once and for all, and they were not about to miss it. Verse 6 continues: But Pilate said to them, Take him yourself and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him. You say, All right, Lon, wait, hold, hold, hold, stop me.
I thought you said last week, Lon. That the Romans had taken away from the Jewish leaders the right to crucify anybody, that only the Roman governor had the right to put somebody to death.
Well, that's exactly right. You say, well, then what in the world is Pilate talking about here when he says, you take him and you crucify him?
Well, friends, the answer is simple. Pilate is being sarcastic with them, like when a woman in labor says to her husband, Hey, you think this is so easy? You have the baby.
Well, of course, a man can have a baby. And of course, these Jewish leaders could not crucify Jesus in being sarcastic with the rabbis like this. In essence, Pilate was threatening to turn Jesus loose. And the reason that we know that's the right explanation is because of what the Jewish leaders say right after that. Verse 7: But the Jews insisted, We have a law.
And according to that law, he must die. They said, Pilate, you cannot just turn him loose like this, and we can't execute him. We have a law that says he must die because he claimed to be the son of God. And Pilate, you're the only one that can do it, and you have to do it. Verse A.
Now. When Pilate heard this statement that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, he was even more afraid.
So he went back inside the palace and he asked Jesus, Where do you come from? But Jesus gave him no answer. Pilate therefore said to Jesus, Do you refuse to speak to me? Don't you realize that I have the power either to free you or to crucify you?
Now, here comes the statement I want you to see. And Jesus said to him, You, Pilate, would have no power over me at all if it had not been given to you from above. Wow, what an unbelievable comment. What an unbelievable moment. Here Jesus is bruised and beaten and bleeding, saying to Pontius Pilate, Hey, the only reason that you were able to do this to me, and the only reason that you're going to be able to go on and crucify me, is because God is allowing you to do it in order to fulfill his purpose.
Perfect plan for my life. Friends, this is how Jesus looked on all of those circumstances there in front of Pontius Pilate. And with this comment of Jesus, you know, we suddenly find ourselves delving into the deep mysteries of God, mysteries about how God runs the universe, mysteries about the interplay of man's free will with the sovereignty of God, mysteries that are far too complex for you and me to be able to fully comprehend. And yet, in spite of our inability to fully understand how all this fits together, this much is clear: every person alive has genuine free will. Pilate did, the rabbis did, the Jewish mob did, and yet, somehow, God superintends all of man's free will to make sure that his sovereign plan for the universe is executed right on schedule.
Now, this is the consistent claim of the Bible throughout. Listen to Acts chapter 2, where Peter is speaking to the Jewish crowd after the Lord's been resurrected and gone back to heaven, verse 23. Peter says, Men of Israel, this man, Jesus, was handed over to you by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. Friends, here we see the sovereignty of God at work in this verse. Peter goes on to say, But you handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, even though Pilate had decided to let him go.
Here we see the free will of man at work. Verse 18 of chapter 3 of Acts, but Peter says, This is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. Here we see the sovereign plan of God. God triumphing in the end. And so, what exactly is the Bible saying in all of these verses in the book of Acts?
Three things. Number one, the Bible is saying that the rabbis who pushed for Jesus' crucifixion knew exactly what they were doing. The Bible is saying, number two, that the Jewish mob who went along with the rabbis chose to do so by their own free will. And finally, number three, the Bible is saying that God nonetheless was in total control all the time, allowing the actions of the rabbis and using the actions of the mob to fulfill his perfect plan for Jesus' life.
Now Jesus understood this. And Jesus believed this. And Jesus saw every circumstance in his life through this lens, which is why he said to Pilate, John 19, verse 11, he said, You would have no power over me at all if it had not been given to you from above. Jesus says, Hey, Pilate, it may look like you're in control. Pilate, it may look like you've got the final say.
Pilate, it may look like the final decision is up to you. But, Pilate, the truth is, you are not really in control here. Almighty God is, and nothing is happening to me that God hasn't already planned to happen.
Now, do we all see that?
Okay, we do. Good. I was worried I lost you there for a minute. All right, we all see this, right? Yes.
All right.
Now, that brings us to the end of the passage, but we want to stop now and ask our most important questions.
So, at Prince William, and down in the Edge, and at Loudoun, and on the Internet, and here at Tyson's, are we ready?
Okay, this is Christmas. Come on now. Here we go. One, two, three. Yeah, you say, Lon, so what?
Say, I understand what you're saying here. How does that all relate to me in the 21st century?
Well, let's talk about that. Folks, this lens through which Jesus saw everything that was happening to him in front of Pilate, this lens of biblical truth through which Jesus saw every circumstance of his life, I like to call it having a godly view of circumstances. And it's perfectly illustrated in the life of the Old Testament patriarch, Joseph. Let's go back and review a little bit about what happened to Joseph in the Old Testament. If you remember, he was the firstborn son of Jacob, his father's favorite wife, Rachel, and he became Jacob's favorite son out of 12.
Remember, Jacob, his dad, made him a coat of many colors, and his 11 brothers were insanely jealous of him. The Bible said they hated him. The Bible says, Said they couldn't even speak to him in peace, and so they sold him into slavery to a caravan of Ishmaelites who were on their way to Egypt. And the Ishmaelites took him and sold him to Potiphar, a member of Pharaoh's bodyguard.
Well, everything was going pretty good, actually, for Joseph in Potiphar's house until Potiphar's wife got what in the south we used to call a hankering. For Joseph. You know what a hankering is?
Well, figure it out. You're smart people. She got a hankering for Joseph, but Joseph said, I'm not committing adultery with you. I'm not doing it.
So she framed him and she had him thrown in jail. Joseph spent 13 years in jail from age 17 to age 30, but he was an innocent man. And while he was in jail, two of Pharaoh's officials were thrown into jail, a butler and a baker, and they had a dream one night. And by God's grace, Joseph was able to interpret the dream. He said to the butler, Your dream means that in three days Pharaoh is going to call you back into the palace and give you even more honor than you had before.
So the baker runs up and says, Well, interpret my dream. Interpret my dream. And Joseph says, Well, your dream means in three days that Pharaoh is going to cut your head off, which is what happened.
Sorry, I asked. Anyway, he said to the butler, When you get back into Pharaoh's house, remember me. I'm here. I'm an innocent man. I did you a favor.
Do me a favor. Yeah. Nothing. Totally forgot about it. Then a few years later, Pharaoh had some dreams.
Maybe you remember there were seven fat cows that came up out of the Nile, and then seven lean cows came up and ate up the fat cows, and nobody could figure out what the dream meant.
So the butler says to Pharaoh, Hey, you know, by the way, A couple of years ago, I was in jail, and it was this guy in there who interpreted my dream. Maybe you ought to call him.
So they call Joseph in, and the Bible says before he went to meet Pharaoh, he shaved, which is very interesting archaeologically because we know at the time of Joseph that the only culture in the entire ancient Near East that shaved were the Egyptians.
Somebody writing a thousand years later and making up this story would have had no idea about that.
So, once again, the Bible stands the test. That has nothing to do with the story, it's just a little bonus.
Okay, so listen now.
So Joseph comes in, and Pharaoh says, Here's my dream. And Joseph says, With the Lord's help, here's what it means: You're going to have seven years of great produce in the land, and then you're going to have seven years of famine. And if you're smart, you'll find somebody to store up grain during the fat years, so you'll have grain to see you through the famine. And Pharaoh said, Well, how about you? You sound like a good candidate.
Genesis 41:41.
So Pharaoh said to Joseph, I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt. Only I will be greater than you. How about this? He becomes prime minister of the whole country. And when the famine hit, guess who came to Egypt looking for food?
Well, his brothers, that's exactly right. He revealed himself to his brothers, invited his whole family, moved to Egypt so he could take care of them, which they did. But when his dad died, Jacob died, the brothers were terrified that now Joseph was going to get them back for what they had done.
So they come to him, Genesis chapter 50, verse 18, and they fall down at his feet and they said, We are your servants, Joseph. Please don't hurt us. But Joseph said to them, Do not be afraid.
Now, watch. Here comes his godly view of circumstances. Genesis 50, verse 20. Joseph said, As for you, you meant evil against me. You hated me.
You wanted to kill me. You never wanted to see me again. But God was bigger, and God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result. That I'm the prime minister of Egypt, and I was able to save your lives and the lives. Of thousands of other people.
And let me show you another place where he shows his godly view of circumstances. Earlier, Genesis 45, verse 8, he said to his brothers, So then he said, it was not you guys who sent me to Egypt, but God. You say, Lon, but it was those guys who sent him to Egypt. No, not in Joseph's thinking, it wasn't. No, no.
Joseph saw God above and below and behind everything his brothers and everyone else had done to him, purposely orchestrating it all together. Joseph saw that even though his brothers, nor the Ishmaelites, nor Potiphar, nor Potiphar's wife, nor the butler, nor the baker, nor Pharaoh himself realized it, they were all being used by God to get Joseph exactly where God wanted him. That's the godly view of circumstances. He looked past the people and he saw God. You know, as many of you know, I attended the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and I was a chemistry major there and actually was a pretty good student.
And so, my senior year, I got into honors chemistry.
Now, let me tell you how honors chemistry works. Honors chemistry, you get assigned to a professor, he puts you to work on some research project he's doing, you show up, you help him out, you get an A. It works like that.
Well, the problem is I didn't show up a whole lot, and the problem is I didn't help him out a whole lot. And so, when grade time came, the professor gave me an F. I couldn't believe it. Nobody flunks honors chemistry. I may be the only student in the history of the University of North Carolina to ever flunk Honors Chemistry.
So I went to see him to appeal my grade, and I said, Look, sir, I said, I know maybe I wasn't there as much as some others, but I think I deserve a D. No, because if I get a D, I graduate. If I get an F, I know. I said, sir, I think I deserve a D. He said, I don't think so.
I said, well, I said, sir, I don't mean any disrespect, but you were never there. How do you know how often I showed up? He said, well, your fellow students ratted you out. And he said, and besides, I don't like you very much. And I said, Well, sir, do you understand what this means?
It means I'm going to have to stay a whole nother year in Chapel Hill if you give me an F. I'm not going to graduate with my class. And he looked at me and he said, Couldn't happen to a nicer person. And he turned and walked away. I could not believe it.
I flunked honors chemistry. And I had to stay a whole nother year in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I had to stay a fifth year, and I began that fifth year in a pretty irritable and disgusted frame of mind, I got to tell you. But in March of that fifth year, 1971, as I was walking down Franklin Street in Chapel Hill one spring day in my irritable and disgusted frame of mind, I met for the very first time a street preacher named Bob Eckhart. And Bob Eckhart shared Christ with me, and Bob Eckhart gave me a Bible, and Bob Eckhart got me reading the Bible, and Bob Eckhart challenged me with the gospel, and four weeks later, this was 40 years ago, I gave my life to Jesus Christ, none of which would have happened, my friends, if I had not gotten an F in honors chemistry.
Now, listen. Those fellow students who ratted me out, they meant evil for me. They did. And the professor who gave me that F, even though I deserved a D, he meant evil for me. But you know, here's the beautiful point: God meant it all for good.
And if I were to ever to meet that professor today, what I would say to him is the very same thing that Joseph said to his brothers, Genesis 45:8. I would say to him, Sir, so then it was not you who gave me that F, it was God who gave me that F. This is a godly view of circumstances.
Now, let's define, therefore, what a godly view of circumstances is. We've seen it in action. Let's define it. It means it consists of three things. Number one, it means seeing Almighty God in absolute control of every circumstance that comes into our life, working out His perfect plan for our life.
Listen, whether the people involved see it or realize it or not. Number two, it means seeing God is bigger than even the meanest, nastiest, cruelest things that people do to us. Seeing God is bigger than even the toughest trials that He allows into our life, just like He was bigger than all of this for Joseph. And finally, number three, it means by faith, actively relying on God to overrule people's sinful actions and override our worst trials and turn them all into a blessing. Blessing for us in the end, just like he did for Joseph.
You say, all right, Laude. I got it. Understand what a godly view of circumstances is. But here's my question: My question is: it's easy to look back once God's worked everything out and have a godly view of circumstances. That's easy.
What's tough is how do you do it when you're right in the middle of the situation? How do you do it when you're in that irritable and disgusted frame of mind stage? How do you get a godly view of circumstances?
Well, that's a great question, and we're going to answer that and then we're done. Having a godly view of circumstances, here's the answer, my friends, is a result. It's not a cause. You say, What do you mean by that? I mean that a godly view of circumstances is the result of believing a grand promise about our circumstances that God has made us in the Bible.
Romans 8:28, here's the promise: God works all things together for good for those who love Him. This is God's promise.
Now, Let's notice three important things about this promise. Number one, notice that God makes this promise only to a specific group of people. This promise is not made to every American, and this promise is not made to every churchgoer. It is made to those who love God, to those who know Christ in a real and personal way. And what is the promise that God's making?
Number two, notice that God is promising to overrule our circumstances, to override them, to overturn them, to flip-flop them, and convert them into good for us. And finally, notice, number three, that God's promise applies to all things: the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between. God promises to overrule it all. And friends, here in Romans 8:28, God does not say that all things are good. No, no.
Bankruptcy, sickness, car accidents, family problems, the death of a loved one, losing your job, being treated badly by other people. These things are not good in themselves, and God is not trying to say that they are good in themselves. What God is saying in Romans 8:28 is that He will take all these things, He will work them together and blend them together and combine them together so that by the time He is finished, the net result will be good and will be beneficial. Hate any of you guys like cake? Yeah.
I love cake. I love cake. Now I'm on the wagon. Because I have a heart condition. Of course, I wouldn't have a heart condition if it hadn't been for all the cake I ate for the first 58 years of my life.
But anyway, I'm on the wagon. I haven't had a piece of cake in a number of years.
However, I love cake. And do you ever notice what goes into making cake? You ever pay any attention, think about the individual ingredients? First of all, there are raw eggs. Raw eggs.
Now, nobody in their right mind would eat a raw egg unless you were looking to get salmonella.
So this is not so good. And then there's cooking oil.
Now, nobody in their right mind would drink cooking oil. Straight out of the bottle. Unless they had negative cholesterol and we're trying to get it up into positive numbers. And then after that, what do we have? We have bleached flour.
Would you sit down with a bowl of bleached flour and a spoon and eat bleached flour? Of course not. Then we have a stick of butter. There's enough saturated fat in that stick of butter to clog up 10 coronary arteries. As a matter of fact, don't even waste your time eating it.
Just take it out of the package and stuff it right in your coronary arteries. That's where it's going anyway. And then you got pure vanilla. That's not real tasty.
So, you know, here is all this stuff that if we ate it separately, it would be yucky. In fact, even when we mix it together and we bake it partway, it's still yucky. Ah, but friends, when you blend it together just the right way and you put it under just the right amount of heat for just the right amount of time, voila! What comes out is absolutely gorgeous and wonderful.
Now, friends, what the Bible is trying to tell us, listen, is that the circumstances of our lives are like the ingredients of a cake.
Some are good, some are bland, some are downright horrible by themselves. But God's promise in Romans 8:28 is not centered around, listen, the attractiveness of each individual ingredient, each individual circumstance that comes into our lives. God's promise is centered around the power of our heavenly chef to combine those circumstances and mix them together and put all the ingredients in just right and heat them up for just the right amount of time and produce a beautiful end result. You got it? All right, so let's conclude.
Because of Romans 8.28, God wants you and me as followers of Christ to be able to say this. Here's what He wants us to be able to say. He wants us to be able to say, Give me any circumstance. I don't care how awful it may look at first. Any circumstance, and I know.
Without a doubt, that by the time it's all over, God will flip-flop this circumstance into a blessing in my life.
Now, I may not be able to figure out how it's going to happen right now, but I know it will happen. I know it must happen because Almighty God promised me it would, and God cannot lie. I may even be in heaven before I realize how some of my circumstances were intended for my good, but one of these days I'll shake my head in the affirmative and say, Yes, God, every single one of them you turned into good in my life. This is a godly view of circumstances.
It means looking beyond the people and beyond the circumstances and seeing a sovereign God behind it all running the show. Don't worry about the people. If the people involved knew what a blessing God was going to turn their mean acts. Towards you into, they dislike you enough, they treat you nice. Did you follow that?
Yeah. Don't worry about the people. They think they're treating you mean. They're intending harm for you. Fine.
Friends, look past them. God's bigger than that. He was bigger than that for Joseph. He'll be bigger than that for you. If the circumstance is ugly, don't worry about it.
Look past the circumstance. There's a sovereign God that has promised to overrule it. This is a godly view of circumstances.
So. If you're here and you're a follower of Christ today, can't you see how believing Romans 8, 28, the inevitable result? You got to end up at a godly view of circumstances if you really believe what God says. And, friends, if you're here today and you're facing some tough times as a follower of Christ, people are treating you mean and nasty and dirty as a follower of Christ. You've got things in your life that make no sense and you can't figure out how this could ever turn out for good.
Hey, friends, and you're angry about it and you're shaking your fist at God and saying, How could you let this happen to me? Friends, listen, listen, you got it all wrong. You are getting all upset over a half-baked cake. Do you understand? Let God finish the cake.
Let him finish the cake. And when he finishes the cake, When he finishes the cake, I promise you. You are going to say, Oh my gosh, I never saw how it could happen. I never believed how it could happen. If you'd have told me, I wouldn't have even accepted it.
But wow, look at what's happened. God, just like he says, has worked all things together for good in my life. Wow, wow, wow. Friends, believe what God tells you. Let him finish the cake, okay?
Trust him.
So this week When you go to the mall.
Somebody pulls in that spot. You had your blinker on. You know the rule in Washington: the blinker wins. You know the rule. But they didn't know the rule.
So they pull in your spot. Time for a godly view of circumstances. It is time for you to say, all right, you know what? You could not have pulled in that spot if it had not been given to you from above. You couldn't have.
And you know what? God's going to turn this around somehow. I don't know how He's going to do it, but I'm not getting upset about this because I'm going to take a godly view of circumstances here. All right, does that make sense? But when they grabbed that last sweater that you wanted.
You probably didn't need it anyway. Come on. And you save the money. Hey, God, leave you to circumstances here. Come on.
Friends. If we can look beyond people and look beyond the circumstance and see God, there is not a circumstance in life we can't handle with peace. And with joy, if we have these kinds of an outlook on circumstances, okay?
So, God leave you circumstances, yes? And just like Joseph. And just like the Lord Jesus in front of Pilate. And just like my F. Even though I deserved a D.
But even though my F God overruled it all and turned it into good. He will for you too. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, we thank you for speaking to us today about real life because this is where we really live. People really do treat us mean.
People really do some nasty things to us. Circumstances come into our life that really are ugly. And difficult. And Lord, we look at all of this in our human logic, and we can't figure out one way under the sun all of this could turn out for good. But help us remember that that's not our job.
That's above our pay grade. We don't have to figure it out. We just have to trust the sovereign God of the universe. And if he did it for Joseph, And he did it for the Lord Jesus Christ and for everybody else that we read about in the Bible. He has promised and he will do it for us.
So, Lord, help us to look at our circumstances, help us to look past the people, past the ugly trials, and see our great Almighty God behind it all pulling the strings and saying, Don't worry, don't worry. And don't judge the cake half-baked, don't worry. I got this whole thing under control for you. Lord, encourage our hearts today. And help us to trust you.
and let you finish the cake. And we pray these things in the In Jesus' name, What did God's people say? Amen.
