Pilate’s Dilemma (Part 2 of 2)

Music Playing Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg looks at how the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate faced a dilemma like that as he wrestled with what to do with Jesus. Our main study today is in Mark Chapter 15, but Alistair begins with a reference from John's Gospel and Peter's preaching in the book of Acts. As this drama unfolds, has to reckon with the fact that here you have worked out in large measure what John says in his prologue to his Gospel, summarizing so much. Remember, he says that Jesus came to his own, and his own did not receive him. He came to that which was his own, and his own did not receive him. Now, Peter made this perfectly clear after Pentecost, when he began to speak to the crowds on the Jerusalem streets.

He didn't pull his punches. In fact, it's absolutely remarkable the clarity and bravery of Peter in relationship to these things. Do you want me, Pilate is asking, to release your king of the Jews?

Are you kidding me, they say? Now, here's Peter, speaking in Solomon's portico, after the ascension of Jesus. Listen to this. The men of Israel, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him. But you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. And you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead.

And to this we are witnesses. Then, question number two. Then what shall I do?

What shall I do? With the man you call the king of the Jews. Or, in one of the other parallel passages, what shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ? That's a practical question, isn't it?

I'm only allowed to release one. If I release Barabbas, which is apparently what you want, then we're going to have to do something with Jesus. What do you expect me to do with Jesus? Now, it's a practical question, isn't it?

I mean, it has to do with jurisdiction, it has to do with the immediate of the situation, but it's just one of those classic questions. It is actually the question of the ages. It is the question for all of us. It is the question to be asked by every single person in earshot of my voice right now to ask yourself, What am I going to do with Jesus who is called Christ? What am I going to do with Jesus?

Neutrality is not an option. To meet Jesus is to find ourselves standing at a crossroads. Either we have in the New Testament the record of the birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension of the Lord Jesus and the prospect of his return, or we've got a complete fabrication.

We have either got history or we've got nonsense. So when we confront Jesus of Nazareth, we can't just fob him off. We're gonna have to decide.

And to say, I'm taking the fifth is to say no to him. That's what Pilate's about to discover. What do you want me to do with Jesus?

What are you going to do with Jesus? You see, I think that it is fairly common for us to start from the assumption that we live in a kind of intellectual, moral, theological neutral zone. And so, if you've come today as a seeker or a questioner, you probably think that you are in a sort of relatively safe place, and the challenge for anyone addressing you is the challenge of trying to convince you of the importance of moving from your safe zone into the ultra-safe zone of believing.

But actually, that's not the case. John 3, 17, For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. So, actually, we are with Barabbas, as it were, justifiably imprisoned for our insurrection—an insurrection against the lordship and kingship of Jesus. We are in a position where we are condemned, justifiably condemned, by our unbelief and our actions that go with them. We haven't loved God with all our heart. We haven't kept the Ten Commandments. We have not pleased him. We've pleased ourselves. We are justifiably condemned.

What am I going to do with this Jesus? Now, there are classic stories of great conversions, aren't there? I was reading again this week in an anecdote concerning C. S. Lewis. You know the story of C. S. Lewis? He wrote in Surprised by Joy, a little biography explaining how he had begun within a believing framework. His mother had died, I think, when he was nine. He woke up one day and decided he was finished with all matters concerning Jesus, walked out of the Anglican chapel and said he was done with it.

And then, eventually, he became a reluctant convert, as he put it. The anecdote went like this, that when C. S. Lewis arrived in Oxford—you know, he was an Irishman, he came from Dublin—when he arrived in Oxford with a great sense of anticipation, he got out of the railway station, and he mistakenly began to walk in the wrong direction. Instead of walking into Oxford, he was walking out of Oxford, and he didn't realize it. And he describes in this little anecdote that he was struck by just how ordinary the place was.

He thought it was gonna be much better, and he described the shops and the fascia of the buildings as being dreadfully plain. Only when he reached the edge of Oxford did he realize what he'd done. And he turned around, and he looked back. And then he saw all the spires and the towers, all the beauty that constitutes the town of Oxford. And in telling this story, Lewis said, This little adventure was an allegory of my whole life. An allegory of my whole life.

Walking away in the wrong direction. Finally, being turned around and looking and seeing the beauty and the wonder of who Jesus is and what he's done, I could take you to wonderful churches tomorrow in the city of London. You've visited many of them. We would stand on the outside, and I would tell you that the windows are magnificent. You would be prepared, perhaps, to accept that, but by looking at it, you would say, I don't believe so. They look gray and cold to me on a misty day in London. And then we go inside.

And there will only need to be the shadow of a light coming through those same gray windows from the outside to bestow on us all the beauty and artistry and clarity that is discovered only from within. Now, I put it to you again, this is the question of the ages. What are you going to do? What am I going to do with Jesus, who is called Christ? Well, the final question that he asks is in relationship to the fact that they don't really come back with anything other than the same old cry, Crucify him. Well, what has he done wrong? Why, what evil has he done?

That's the question, isn't it? See, there's a dreadful injustice in this. And the injustice of it ought to strike any of us who are thinking. In the scheme of things, the guilty should be punished and the innocent should be set free.

But in actual fact, here, the guilty's about to set free and the innocent is about to be punished. Now, this is where we need what we often talk to one another about in our understanding of the Bible—where we say that in the Gospels, Jesus is revealed, so we see this scene. In the Acts he is preached—we've seen a little of that with Peter in Acts chapter 3—and then in the Epistles or in the letters, Jesus is explained. So that in the writing of Peter, if we stay with Peter, he's able to give to us a succinct explanation of what is happening here in this injustice. And this is how he puts it in 1 Peter 3. Christ died for sins, once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God.

Yes, there is an injustice here. Paul addresses it. He marvels at it when he writes Romans. He says—and this is the amazing thing—that it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us.

While we were sinners that he died for us. Some of you are clever souls and have made it through whatever that dreadful exam is that you need to get into med school or into an MBA program or whatever it might be. I'm glad I've never had to face that. It would be a salutary experience to fail continually, to keep receiving a little word from somebody saying, There's still a chance if you get your grade up. There's still a chance if you get your grade up.

That horrible feeling of it going down rather than up. And that is the way many, many people have viewed the whole notion of Christianity. Somehow or another, vaguely religious, but if I want to get into the honors program, then I need to get my grade up. Then why would Christ die? There is no grade that you or I can ever get up that would negate the work of Jesus. There is no lousy score on the test that would ever be too low to leave us outside the wonder of his love. What evil has he done?

None. And so the story collapsed. Verse 15, Wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him over to be crucified. I think there's a lesson there for some of us, isn't there? Because it's really the crowd that has prevented us from believing in Jesus. It's the crowd that is preventing us from actually standing up straight and saying, Yes, I know you think I'm crazy, I know you think the message is foolish, but I am unashamedly a follower of Jesus Christ.

When I was lost, he came and rescued me. But is it the crowd at your gym that prevents you from believing in Jesus? Is it the crowd in your office?

Is it the crowd in your laboratory because you're a scientist? And wishing to satisfy your little crowd, you are prepared to deliver up Jesus all over again. The characters that are as outlined, the questions are as recorded, and just a word in closing concerning the challenge that this conveys. Let me put it… Let's go back to our words, beginning with R. Let's start with Rome for a moment, and the imperial authority of Rome. And what do we see here? We see that it is brought, if you like, to its knees, not by insurrection but by the silence of a Galilean carpenter, the one of whom the disciples said, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the waves obey him?

The one who, when pressed by Pilate, refuses to give any answer at all, because his silence is unveiling the glory of his person. And what is true of Rome is true of every proud empire throughout history, and will be for the future of history, until Christ wraps up history. Now, I've lived some sixty years of my life paying attention as I've gone along. I've seen the collapse of the British Empire. I, with you, saw the Berlin Wall come down. I have observed with you, both by travel and by introduction, that the proud boasts of Chairman Mao and all the aggravation and brutality that went with it not only have been unable to silence the voice of the risen Christ but have actually contributed to the vast epidemic impact of Christianity in mainland China. And one day, if we live long enough, the real story of that will eventually become apparent.

It won't be possible for the totalitarian regimes, whether it's there or in Korea, to silence the voice of Christ on the lips of his followers. And for those of you who are worried about the American Empire, let me just tell you flat out, this one is going away as well. But don't be alarmed. Disappointed, maybe. Concerned legitimately.

Infuriated frequently. But recognizing this, that one day the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever. Pilate says, Don't you know who I am? I've got the power to release you. I've got the power to crucify you. Really?

Yeah, how did that work out? What about religion? What about religion that believes nothing? What about religion that is formalist? Religion without the risen Lord Jesus Christ is ultimately worthless. That's why so many people today, having identified the worthlessness of religion, want to tell one another, well, I'm not a religious person at all, but I am a spiritual person.

Because they've already identified the fact that sort of religious orthodoxy as it is represented as a system of rules and regulations and rigmarole or whatever it might be, it has no power to change or to transform a life. What about the rabble? What about the crowd, moving to and fro and here and there, stirred up by the chief priests, moved, motivated?

The crowd doesn't do well, does it, in history? It doesn't do well with Shakespeare, you know, Coriolanus, when the rabble of the crowd come, and Coriolanus greets them, and the fellow's at the front, and he's in charge, and he says to them, What do you think, you the great toe of this assembly? And the fellow—and I remember from school—the fellow says, I the great toe?

Why the great toe? It's so demeaning on the part of Coriolanus as a senator. But he's pointing out, you folks are just worthless.

He doesn't mean individually, but as a mass. T. S. Eliot, the love song of J. Alfred Prufrock—remember, he says, And so the people come and go with talk of Michelangelo. Whatever's on the news. Whatever's latest advertising fad. Whatever there might be. Look at them. Here they go. Here they come.

Interested in everything and opposed to only one thing—that in the person and work of Jesus Christ is the answer to the dilemma of their sinful lives and the only answer to their eternal destiny. And what about the robber? What about the robber? I have a dream. I have a dream that I will meet Barabbas. It's a dream. It's a hope.

There's nothing in the Bible that tells me that I will. But if Barabbas didn't get this, who got it? Don't you think he grasped…? He certainly, on a physical level, grasped the reality of what was happening to him. He awakened in the morning with the prospect of his own death.

He went to bed in the evening a free man. And there was only one explanation for that. Jesus of Nazareth had been put in his place. I wonder, did he follow along to the cross as the day unfolded, as these three-hour intervals, as we noted last time, began to lead to the crucifixion of Jesus? Did he listen with big ears as the two robbers, first of all, reviled Christ? Did he hear the one fellow say to his other friend, Hey, there's something wrong here.

We are up here getting what we deserve. But this guy, he's done nothing wrong. Do you think that resonated with Barabbas, an insurrectionist, charged with the rest, and legitimately so?

You see, here you are at the very heart of the story—that Christ dies, the innocent for the guilty, that the shepherd gives his life for the sheep, that he is substituted bearing the curse of God upon him so that those of us who enter by grace and faith into the reality of the salvation he offers may be relieved of the curse. I said to you earlier, and with this I conclude, it's quite fascinating, isn't it, that Jesus invades this entire little section of nine verses or so. But he never says anything. He never says anything.

Well, of course he doesn't say anything. Listen to the prophecy of Isaiah. Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street.

A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wig he will not quench. In other words, he doesn't dispense with us when our light burns low. He doesn't dispense with us when the tune goes out of the melody line of our Christian conviction. He doesn't shout in the streets, Was there ever such a shepherd, half so gentle, half so sweet, as the Savior who would have us come and gather around his feet? Such love, such compassion. Has it brought you to an awareness of your need of him?

Have you turned to him in believing trust and childlike faith? If not, why not? And why not today? Why not in the dying moments of our service? Cry out to him from where you are, Lord Jesus Christ.

Get me out of the crowd thing. Save me from the cries of the religious. Make me one of your own. And he will.

He will. Just a moment of prayer. Oh, make me understand it. Help me to take it in. What it meant for you, the Holy One, to bear away my sin. We pray in your name. Amen. So what will we do with Jesus?

You're listening to Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. As this message makes clear, you're either a believer or you stand condemned. There is no neutral ground when it comes to trusting Jesus. That's why we encourage you to reach out to unbelievers in your sphere of influence. And we've gathered some wonderful resources to help you. We're currently recommending a three-pack bundle of a book called Is Easter Unbelievable? Four Questions Everyone Should Ask About the Resurrection Story. This is a quick, compelling book for new believers or anyone who has questions about the truth of the Easter story. This book bundle is yours when you give a donation to support the ministry of Truth for Life at truthforlife.org slash donate. And while you're online, you can also pick up some gospel tracks titled The Story. The story is a little booklet that lays out the Bible's storyline describing God's perfect creation, what went wrong, how Jesus coming gives us hope, and what the future looks like. The story is written for those unfamiliar with the gospel, and it includes an invitation to find forgiveness and salvation in Jesus. These are great booklets to pass out to the bank teller or to the supermarket cashier to give to your children or grandchildren's friends, share them with friends or neighbors, along with an invitation to your church's Easter Sunday service. The booklets can be purchased in our online store at truthforlife.org slash store. They're just 50 cents each. You can buy 10 for $5 or 20 for $10.

If you'd prefer, you can place your order by calling us at 888-588-7884. Thanks for listening. When you stop to consider the crucifixion of Christ, it hardly seems like a display of love and justice, but that's exactly what it is. Tomorrow we'll follow Jesus to the cross. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.