The Gospel of John 18:25-40
John 18:25-40 · Vern Peterman · Sep 1, 2013
Gospel of John (2013), No. 33
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49264021958

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

A key thing right at the top of your handout is that when we talk about the trial or trials of Jesus, when you break it down, you actually have seven trials. Some of those, you could say, are sub-parts, and so people will say, well, there's six or something like that. But seven trials. The first one is the one with Annas, and that's recorded in John 18.

Then with Caiaphas, John 18.24 makes brief reference to it. The other Gospels have more detail on that. And then before the Sanhedrin, likely at Caiaphas' house, So some would just lump those together, but in fact there are two separate trials.

Pilot twice, and John records both of those. But between there was an attempt that Pilot had, because remember Pilot's scrambling, how do I get this hot potato out of my hands? He's doing everything he can to get this thing out of his hands so he's not pronouncing a sentence. And one insight we have is Pilot's wife, kind of influencing him to say, don't have anything to do with this guy, you know.

Some later traditions say that Pilate's wife became a Christian, but that's rather unconfirmed. And then finally, Pilate before the crowd. Pilate's looking to the crowd and kind of testing the temperature of the crowd to figure out, you know, what do you do?

So anyway, those things John records at least in some degree, most of those, not the one before the Sanhedrin and not the one before Herod. But the rest of it John makes brief or in some cases a little more detailed reference to those things. Let's take a look before we step into the handout any further, just kind of go through the some of the slides. This was all after the Last Supper.

By this time, coming the next morning, this is about 6 a.m. when these trials are taking place, starting about 6 a.m. Jesus was crucified by 9 a.m. So we're talking about swift justice, right? It's not just necessarily, however. So 6 a.m. is when this thing begins with Pontius Pilate.

The Sanhedrin and Caiaphas and Annas was in the middle of the night. Here is the likely location of the upper room. And if you were to go there today, you can see the floor, the structure above it has been changed since. The Garden of Gethsemane, very likely the same one that's identified today. And then Caiaphas residence, possibly but it's debated.

There's some different thoughts on that. Dr. Lynn Rittmeyer, who I'd say is probably the foremost specialist archaeologist historian regarding the Temple Mount and the area around it. He believes that this is a reconstruction from archaeological and historical records of the House of Annas where Peter denied Christ at first. We'll take a look at that in a minute.

This is the steps to what some believe is the house of Caiaphas, as shown on the map that we've been including in the handout and shown here. This is the dungeon beneath what many believe is Caiaphas' house. So that would have been where Jesus was held for some brief period of time. Here's a model of Caiaphas' house. And here's the ossuary box. This is almost certainly that of Caiaphas. It has the name of Caiaphas inscribed on there, and the bones inside match the age that he died.

This is some information. I won't go into the detail. Here is Miriam, the daughter of Yeshua, son of Caiaphas. So this is Caiaphas' granddaughters. ossuary box or bone box that's been found so These are really tied into history not just you know, there's some Bible name and who knows who this is So artists are dramatic depiction of Jesus there in the garden being arrested Being betrayed by Judas of those arresting Jesus falling back, when he says, you know, I am, egoi mi, and Peter hiding out Jesus before the Sanhedrin, Peter denying Christ.

What's interesting is that all these things will show a rooster in the picture. I noticed that. I'm not sure roosters were allowed in the courthouse, but, you know, it fits with the story. The roosters were probably outside. I don't know if you've ever hung around roosters. They make a mess all over the place.

And this would be another artist's depiction. Here's the way they would do it, and this was during New Testament times. It wasn't a long-standing Jewish practice. So this is during New Testament times. What they would do is take the body, you know, wrap it up as they did with Jesus' body. And what the New Testament describes is about a hundred pounds of cloth and aloe and spices and things of that sort.

They'd wrap up the body, they'd put it in the tomb. A year later, when all the soft tissue had decayed and gone away, they would take the bones then and put them in an ossuary box somewhere else. So that would be the standard procedure. If, for instance, with Jesus' body, where they'd wrapped it and all that, they were probably expecting that they'd go in a year later and have an ossuary box for Jesus. But obviously that got cut short. But that was the custom that was done during New Testament times, not a lot before and not a lot after. Yeah Here's what's interesting is is it was said that he's gonna stink I'm not certain It's a question of conjecture. What actually took place?

Did, for example, Lazarus hear Jesus say, Lazarus come forth? Or did Lazarus' completely dead body then respond to Jesus calling him forth. Those are areas where we could conjecture and we don't really have answers. The reality is that Jesus, however it occurred, miraculously raised Lazarus back to this life, not the life of Jesus with a new kind of body. Yes, yep. And then, you know, so with each, with these things, there is some room for, you know, conjecture and speculation, but we have to leave it at that. We don't know. There are questions we might have that can't be answered.

Okay, let's take a look right underneath those numbers 1 through 7, the seven trials of Jesus. We say, Peter, having been allowed entrance into the house of Anna's because of John, is in the courtyard of the high priest Caiaphas while Jesus is being interrogated. The account in Matthew 26, 57 through 75 provides more detail on the events and proceedings summarized by John in this passage.

But see page four for the text of Peter's denials from all four gospels side by side. So let's take a look at that. We have on page four the text of Peter's denials in all four of the Gospels. They're side by side. We won't be going through that in detail, but just to let you know that's available to take a look.

All four of the Gospels record Peter's denials, and in fact it's interesting to see how much detail is given in Peter's denials, and that every single one of the Gospels provide some level of detail about Peter's denials. And let's ask this question, why would all four Gospels record a fair amount of detail about Peter's denials? Why would that be there?

Yeah Yeah, he failed and and why is that helpful? I mean, I think you're right, but anyway, yes it's a matter of looking at and say here is Peter one who was close to the Lord and And the Lord had him in a very special and unique place in the book of Acts He is the one in the first half up to chapter 15 About whom the most is recorded He is the one who spoke on the day of Pentecost. He is the one who introduced the gospel to the Gentiles. So here is this guy, we say, boy, he is a pivotal figure in the founding of the church. And he blew it big time again and again.

Yeah, it is a comfort to know, you know, if we blow it, are we out of business? And the answer is no. The Lord can make great use of us after we've blown it. In some cases, it may be a matter of the Lord using us even more because of those. Not that we want to encourage people to blow it, right? Yeah, Ruth, you had your hand up? I was just going to say, doesn't his name mean rock? Yes.

And even, you know, he was solid in his faith, but then he faltered just like we do. And God made him that much stronger. And we're going to see in John, it's uniquely recorded, his restoration to ministry. And I think that's a really great thing because We can see, you know, the Lord later on after the resurrection meets specifically with Peter to talk to him and to restore him to ministry.

Yeah? Yes. I was just reading a Matthew and Mark book here and it says, And all the disciples said the same thing, too. And they all said the same thing. We're all saying the same thing. They were in the party's way. He heard, yow, yow, yow. He didn't look. But they said, yow. I think it was an open mouth. Yeah. Peter was the primary and initiating spokesman and the rest of them said, oh yeah, we'll stand behind you. Yep. Yeah, we will. Yep. I was actually going to say the two people in Acts, the two paramount figures are Paul and Peter. And both of them had a dramatic change. Yeah. Isn't it interesting?

Peter had a huge, and here it is recorded on page four, a huge series of failures. And here is Paul. who initially, he said later, whenever I had a chance I voted for death for the Christians. So what you find is two massive realms of failure of these very high profile apostles. Paul even saying I'm the least of the apostles.

I think Charles Trumbull said something to the effect that a carnal Christian is no different than a victorious Christian in himself. Yes, that's correct. The difference is Christ. The difference is Him. Yes, the difference is Him. And I think that's one thing.

Here are two apostles that the Lord used immensely. And yet, as you look at them, you look at it and you say, why were they so useful? And it doesn't happen because they're great men. It happens because of a great Lord. And they're learning, even through failure, to trust that Lord. Yeah. So the great Lord convinced Adam and Pharaoh of, let's see, John Mark, uh-huh. Yep. Yeah And that would be another not apostolic But another instance of great failure and then recovery to being useful.

Yeah, very very good Let's take let's take a look So anyway, I'll leave it to you to take a look on page 4 about Peter's denials. Let's take a look on page 5. It's sort of a map there on page 5, and then it has a breakdown of the different denials by Peter. Because you have the different gospel accounts and some words or synonyms, some of those may be numbered separately, but actually ought to be together. Nonetheless, different denials by Peter. Different denials by Peter, and between the four gospels, quite a number. of denials by Peter.

Oh no, I do not know him. Quite a number, even though Peter was in the same household, at least during one of those events. And I think it's important, we're going to see this later on as we go through the Gospel of John, to just consider, here is this guy that the Lord is going to use greatly, and yet Great, great failure, you know. Now, so let's take a look here. John 18, 25-27, Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself.

So they said to him, You are not also one of his disciples, are you? He denied it and said, I am not. One of the slaves of the high priest, being a relative of the one whose ear Peter cut off, said, did I not see you in the garden with him? Peter then denied it again and immediately a rooster crowed. Okay, being a relative and do you remember the name of the high priest servant whose ear was cut off?

Remember, this was Malchus. This is Malchus. John named him. And the fact that you have a relative here points again to John's seemingly unique connection to the Sanhedrin and to the high priest. He's known among the servants of the high priest. So John's got special connections here. And John knows the name of the one whose ear was cut off, Malchus. John knows that this one that asked Peter was a relative of Malchus, and so it's interesting that John makes these particular notes of detail.

And so, of course, if an ear was cut off and then healed, wouldn't a relative take particular note of that, right? And as a matter of fact, here's Peter, the one who cut the ear off, right? So this relative is, you know, hey, wait a minute, aren't you the one that cut my relative's ear off? And aren't you the one that Jesus said, put it away, and healed the ear? And Peter just, no, no, no, no, you got the wrong guy. Backs off from it all.

Once we look at the full record of the Gospels, I'm in the second to last paragraph on the first page, we see that Peter denied Christ in both the houses of Annas and Caiaphas. So Peter didn't just deny Christ in one place or the other, he did it in both places. Both places, it's recorded. John was the one being recognized by the household servants, was able to have Peter admitted to the house of Annas, and possibly also in the house of Caiaphas, though that is not explicitly stated. He seemed to get some connection. We've got a train taking off here. Okay. We will see how the Lord restored Peter to his service when we get to John 21, 15 through 33. So that's down the road a bit here. After the resurrection. And that's in Galilee.

As noted above, John's account of the trials of Christ, while true, must be harmonized with the other three Gospels to gain the most complete record of the trials of Jesus. As we showed, you know, there at the very top of page one, actually, if you're breaking it down, seven trials of Jesus from the middle of the night after he was arrested into coming before Pilate and then before the crowd. Okay. Top of page two, John 18, 28 through 32.

And they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the praetorium, and it was early, and they themselves did not enter into the praetorium so that they would not be defiled, but might eat the Passover. Therefore Pilate went out to them and said, What accusation do you bring against this man? And they answered and said to him, If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him to you. So Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law. The Jews said to him, We are not permitted to put anyone to death, to fulfill the word of Jesus which he spoke, signifying by what kind of death he was about to die. Now Mark 15-16 reveals that this praetorium is the palace of Pontius Pilate. What is recorded in John 18, 28-38 is the first time Jesus was brought before Pilate after his trial before Caiaphas in the Sanhedrin, starting about 6am.

The Jews would not enter the praetorium since it was still Passover that day and it would be Sabbath and the feast of unleavened bread by sundown. The first Passover meal was actually observed the night before, which Jesus and the disciples had observed as the Last Supper. But the Passover was still continuing on that day when they had the trial, and they had for days after that the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So the Passover is the introduction to that. And it was going to be the Sabbath. So all these holy days were still in consideration.

And if they were to enter the Praetorium, which is the house of the Gentile, they would be unclean and unable to observe the whole rest of the feast. They would be disqualified. So instead, they stayed outside. You know, here's Jesus, you take him, we can't come in.

So Pilate's having to talk to them from over a wall or through the door or something of that sort. So Pilate appropriately asked what accusation the leaders of the Jews were bringing against Jesus. And did they have an accusation? No. If you weren't an evildoer, we wouldn't have brought him to you. That's about as vague as you can get, right? So, no specific accusation. So, Pilate, you know, is, of course, puzzled. The leaders of the Jews could not bring a specific charge, but simply said that Jesus was an evildoer. He's a troublemaker. Was he a troublemaker? Kind of. Kind of, but more it upset them rather than who was really causing trouble.

So on Pilate's attempt to put Jesus back in their court, the Jews said they were not allowed to put anyone to death, which was true, although sometimes they did it anyway. Can you think of an instance where they did it anyway? Stephen, right. They killed Stephen without taking him to the Romans.

If they thought they could get away with it, they would. You see, if they did it in the temple courtyard, the Romans would have the fortress Antonia with their watchtowers over the courtyard and they could see what's going on. So how do you get it away from the Romans' immediate view? You take them outside the walls and behind the walls get away from the view of the Romans and then pull it off.

So in fact they did in the case of Stephen. So then Matthew 20, 19 and Mark 10, 33 record what Jesus had said that was being fulfilled in verses 31 and 32 above, that He would be crucified by the Gentiles. This is how it's going to happen. I'm not going to be stoned to death. I'm going to be crucified by the Gentiles. Do we have any evidence of the kind of death Jesus would die in the Old Testament.

Yeah. One is a metaphor, and that's the bronze serpent and the cross. Right, the bronze serpent and the cross would be one, and Jesus, in fact, made reference to that. So yeah, that's correct. Yeah, Tom? Archaeological artifact is a spike-ridden tomb. Yeah, there is an archaeological artifact. Interestingly, the only instance of that we have was found in Jerusalem.

So yeah. Ruth? It says in the Old Testament that not all bones would be broken. If he was stoned, he would definitely have some broken bones. Yeah. So you have that. You have the description in Isaiah 53, but also Psalm 22 is another one. Yes? Yeah, yeah, Psalm 22 is another one that describes a crucifixion death, not a I got stoned to death, right? Okay, so let's look at John 18, 33 through 40 here.

Therefore Pilate entered again into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, are you the king of the Jews? So Jesus says, no, no, I'm not, right? Verse 34, Jesus answered, Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about me?

Now, did he answer the question? No, he answered the question with a question. So Pilate answered Jesus' question. No, he comes up with another question. Pilate answered, I am not a Jew, am I? And why would he ask that? Why would he say, I'm not a Jew, am I? Why would that be particularly relevant? Yeah? He's right there on the scene and technically okay to be uncircumcised terrorist, right? Yeah. They were on the other side.

Yeah, here's the Jewish leaders and they don't want to be defiled, but they'll make false accusations, right? And deliver this guy over without making a specific accusation and without coming up with two or three witnesses of their own. you know, in front of Pilate, but they'll shove Jesus into this house where he's defiled, right? But do we have any understanding of why would Pilate say, I'm not a Jew, am I? Here's Pilate. He's of Rome. He's not a Jew. He's not privy to what's going on. And the Jews aren't giving any specific accusation. And Jesus isn't standing up and saying, you know, hey, I've done something wrong. So he's saying, I'm not a Jew.

How am I supposed to know what your problem is? And you're not saying what's wrong. You're coming back to me with a question. How am I supposed to know what's wrong here? Imagine Pilate's puzzlement. He's got a warning from his wife, don't even have anything to do with this man. He's trying to hand it off, trying to get rid of this hot potato. He's asking, what are you guilty of? He's asking the Jews, what is he guilty of? He's not getting any answers. And he's not in the Jewish circle, so he doesn't know what's the problem here. We wouldn't have handed you over if he wasn't an evildoer, said the Jewish leaders, but no specific accusation.

Yeah. What's really weird is that he could have taken an easier way out that's not predictive. He could say, let's wait till after the feast, then do it. Yes, and he could have legally done that, but what we find is crowd pressure. Which, by the way, can be considered by a Roman magistrate. The crowd's opinion is one of the factors that you can consider. So that's a little different from our legal system.

So, Pilate says, verse 35, Your own nation and the chief priests delivered you to me. What have you done? More questions. More questions. Jesus answered, finally a statement, right? Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm. What's he saying there? What's that? Not applicable. I'm not here You know, trying to fight for any political advantage, position, side. I've got no axe to grind, to use our expression. I don't have a dog in this fight.

So, therefore Pilate said to him, so you are a king. Because remember he said, I'm a kingdom. I mean, I have a kingdom, right? So, you are a king. Jesus answered, You say correctly that I am a king, for this I have been born, for this I have come into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Pilate said to him, What is truth? Jesus answered in the affirmative, Yes, I'm a king. But then did he go on to explain what that was all about? No, not really. Why not? Yeah, you're saying about what's Pilate trying to do? He's trying to try this case on the evidence. The problem is he can't get any evidence, right?

And so he's asking the question, well, so you are a king. Jesus says, yes, for this I was born. And by the way, when the Magi came into Jerusalem, what question were they asking? Where is he who was born? King of the Jews. So yeah, for this I was born. And the statement or the question of the Magi was exactly on that point. For this I was born. So then does Jesus follow through with, yeah, I'm a king and it's going to be like this, and I've got this lineage through David.

He doesn't do that, does he? So what does he do? He shifts from the king issue to what? Truth. Truth. Why would he do that? Yeah, isn't it interesting? Why would he talk to Pilate about the truth here? Why would he shift to what's true instead of saying, yeah, I really am a king, and I'm going to rule the whole world. when you're long out of the picture. He didn't explain that, did he? Why shift to talking about the truth? That's what's important right now. Yeah, what's important now is what is the truth. And let's ask one other question.

Is Jesus saying this for Pilate's benefit or for whose benefit is he saying this about the truth? You knew what part would become part of the Scripture, and you wanted to make sure that people everywhere would know the focus. Yeah. First of all, you look at it and you say, well, this is recorded in Scripture, and for whose benefit is Scripture written? For ours, right? For ours. So this is recorded for our benefit, that the real issue is the truth, right?

Does Pilate get it about Jesus' statement about truth? Yeah, I see Ruth immediately. No, no, no, no, no. He doesn't get it. What's his response? Yeah? But he doesn't get it. But I think Jesus also said it. Yeah. Because Jesus was going to die for him as well. Here's what's the amazing thing. Yeah.

Jesus will say things. We've seen this before in the Gospel of John. Jesus will say things even though the people who are listening, it is evident, and even evident to Jesus, that they're not going to get it. But He will say things out of grace. He will say things out of, okay, here is the truth, and you have a responsibility before the truth. Right? Yes. But isn't that the case today at any time? If you're saying things or trying to express certain things, people aren't there at that point in time, maturation-wise, it's like speaking to a wall. Yeah.

To what group is the issue of the king and the kingdom most important? To the Jews. Remember, he was born king of the Jews, and so before Pilate, His kingship is not the primary issue. His kingship isn't the issue, but what is? What's that? Well, he is a king, and he does accept that. But, truth. Truth.

And I think this relates to the two Gospels that we point out. The Gospel of the Kingdom is a message primarily aimed at the Jews. The Gospel of Substitution The gospel of substitution is aimed at all. That Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again.

Yes? Isn't this kind of a corroboration of what Pilate's wife told him last? I mean, you're talking about two witnesses. Here he's being, actually, Pilate has had confirmation from two sources. Jesus. and from his wife, and the fact that he's standing there and saying the same thing, basically, that she told him. That he's got this. I mean, he's a smart man. He's a political person. As it turns out, in 36 AD, both Caiaphas and Pilate were booted out. At the same time. Same Roman decision. You're out, you're out.

Okay, let's continue on here. In the last part on page 2, And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, I find no guilt in him. He's innocent, okay? But you have a custom that... Now he's looking for another option, right? How can I get out of this thing? Okay? Verse 39, But you have a custom that I release someone for you at Passover.

Do you wish then that I release for you the King of the Jews? Which, of course, just calling him that, irked them. So they cried out again, saying, no, not this man, but Barabbas. Now, Barabbas was a robber. If you're going to release somebody, it's Barabbas, not this guy. And don't you dare call him king of the Jews, that's offensive.

And Pilate didn't care. Pilate didn't care. Let's take a look at page 3 there. So Pilate's opening question was, are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus responds by asking if Pilate was saying this on his own initiative or because others had said it. Pilate responds by asking, I'm not a Jew, am I? And then, what have you done? Jesus says that his kingdom is not of this world as evidenced by his servants not fighting to keep him from being arrested. Was there a brief exception to that? With Peter, right? But Jesus says, Peter put it away and he healed Malchus here. Yes.

And even though they saw the ear cut off and healed, they still arrested him. That's a pretty cute trick there. You know, you're under arrest. We're tying you up. We got all, you know, hundreds and hundreds of us guys here to arrest you and we're going to do this even in spite of your very interesting little trick with the ear, right?

Peter tried to, and as a matter of fact we find from Luke that among the disciples there were two of them with swords. Peter had one of them obviously. So Pilate asks, so you're a king? Jesus answers affirmatively, he was born a king. This is Matthew 2.2 from the Magi come. He quickly turns to telling Pilate that he has come into the world to testify to the truth, and that those who are of the truth hear his voice. To that Pilate asks, what is truth? So here is Pilate.

I find no guilt in him. He's not guilty. Sorry, I can't find anything. You guys haven't come up with any specific accusations. I ask him, and I can't really come up with anything. So he's not guilty. And of course, the Jews just love that answer, right? Nah, not so much. So instead, you know, so Pilate's looking for another out. Hey, I released somebody, you know, just kind of a custom, you know, we do this, and why don't we do it with this guy, the king of the Jews? Nope. Nope. We want Barabbas. Yeah.

It's kind of interesting what you said about the year, because that says a lot about how they react over there. I mean, if you watch TV today, you see how they react. Truth doesn't have a whole lot to do with what they're doing. They're so emotional. They get so involved. People can tell them, like the Mullahs today, can tell the people certain things. And they just accept this, and then they go out, and they riot, and they do things that are just They aren't thinking it through.

I mean, it's all emotion. And that's the same thing with Keith. If you were told to go out and get this guy regardless of what he does, you're going to go out and get this guy. And Paul talked about the crowds all the time, being afraid of the crowds, and the riots, and the emotion, and all this other stuff.

I guess this is Middle Eastern way of living, right? Yeah. Part of it is Middle Eastern mindset where emotions drive things. Another part of it, and we're going to see this, is Roman law. Roman law has various odd characteristics to it. One of them was, you know, allowance for local exceptions. But another thing is to kind of take the temperature of the crowd. And that ultimately is what drives Pilate.

He's not guilty. Jesus isn't guilty. But I can still pronounce sentence of crucifixion like I keep getting pressured from the Jews because that's the temperature that I sense from the crowd. And Roman law allowed that. So that in the end was the seventh trial, if you will, before the public. And so people, you know, give us Barabbas, give us Barabbas, you know, crucify him, crucify him. And the public outcry overrode any specific finding of guilt. And Roman law allowed that. We have multiple recorded instances of Roman magistrates and governors making those kinds of judgments where they kind of tested the crowd on how do you feel about this guy. Ever see one of these game shows where it's the loudness of the clap and the yelling? Ever see those? And the loudness of the clap and the yelling wins the case one side or the other? And that's what this is like. Yes, yeah.

So this is, it points to a lot of screaming and yelling, crucify him and give us Barabbas, and that ends up deciding the case. So this is why we end up finding Pilate, you know, he washes his hands of it because the public has made their statement. He's done everything he can to get out of making this kind of sentence. He's, you know, said, I find no fault in him. I'm going to send you off to Herod's court and Herod bounces him back. He does everything he can to try to get off from this.

And finally, the public opinion is what gives him, under Roman law, means of pronouncing crucifixion, and yet it's not his hand, it's their opinion that does it, according to Roman law. He was not bending the rules. That was exactly the sort of thing that he could do under Roman law. Take the temperature of the crowd and do things with that.

So, fascinating. Any other thoughts, observations? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. And legal or not, the reality is that that's the nature of politics. It's just that it was written into Roman law that the governor or magistrate could actually take the temperature, so to speak, of the crowd and use that as a basis for influencing judgment. Here's Pilate's own finding. I find no guilt in him.

Yes? Let's think of something else. It was less than a week. This is Friday morning. It had been Sunday when there was this triumphal procession. Why in less than a week have we got this really odd disparity between Hosanna and praise to the Son of David and all that, and now less than a week later, from Sunday now into Friday, we've got crucify Him, crucify Him, give us Barabbas. Okay, but what's going on here that you'll have one set of apparent attitudes and whatnot, and then a different one less than a week later? What's going on?

A little bit of what I said earlier, kind of what Tom said, applying to also the fear that they're led. I mean, these people are told, basically, how to believe. They do not think for themselves. Today you have the Mullahs that are doing the same thing, that are telling these people how they're supposed to believe. And they just go out there and they just react.

And when Jesus was coming through, they thought, this is our King. So they got all excited about that. You know, they welcomed him and all this stuff. But, then when they're told that he's not, then they're angry because he's really not their king and they were out there doing this. Those who were praising him as he rode the donkey in towards Jerusalem, what were they thinking about Jesus as the king? Pardon? Ah, yes. Part of the problem was, though it appeared to be a triumphal entry, and we've pointed out earlier on, here's Jesus as he comes and crests the Mount of Olives and he bursts into tears. Not so triumphal.

But part of the problem is what they're thinking this king ought to be doing. And now at this critical juncture where Jesus is arrested and hundreds of soldiers, come with torches and weapons and one of his disciples pulls a sword out and he says, nah, none of that. And the one ear that gets cut off gets healed and restored. They're looking, wait a minute, this isn't our king. This guy, he's not going to save us from the Romans. This isn't going to happen. We must have been mistaken. He's not our king.

What's that? Yeah, Judas was, you know, hey, this guy isn't who I thought he was. This isn't going to turn out like I expected. So there's this expectation of what Jesus was supposed to do and who he was supposed to be. Yes? Well, because it was Passover and there were so many people in town, and it was a perfect opportunity for him to show his kingship. they were all here and he didn't do it so if he didn't do it he must be a blasphemous and a liar and all the other things that went through their minds and through their great mind and everything and so if he isn't all those opposite things then he needs to be crucified he needs to be killed because he didn't do what we thought he was going to do yeah what a disappointment you know this this guy isn't any keen This isn't who we thought we were signing up for. What a terrific disappointment. Let's get rid of this guy. He's not at all what we thought he was claiming to be.

Yeah, Tom? Before she were starting to kill him, he saw him and she put down shepherds and they're still shepherds. Yeah. Roy, you had your hand up? Well, I was wondering, from God's perspective, What's interesting is, according to people, there was not anybody there but Jesus who said, yeah, this is what's supposed to be happening. Right?

Everybody else, including his disciples, had it messed up in their heads as to what was going on. The crowd horrifically disappointed. I mean, this guy, what's such a terrific disappointment, we've got to get rid of him. We can't have people going around claiming to be king and not fulfilling it. That's just terrible. Get everybody all stirred up for nothing. Just get them out of the picture.

I think there's another thing to look at this too, and that's as believers we need to be careful about crowd think. Yeah, whatever the crowd's doing and whatnot, you know, everybody's doing it, whatever the trends are, the truth is what matters, and that's what Jesus brought up before Pilate. Of course, Pilate didn't understand, but it's the truth that matters, not what does the crowd think right now.

Right? Yeah. Doesn't that go along with politically correct? I mean, we have seen political correctness and people trying to, you know, distort the truth and show their perspective so that they can get their agenda accomplished and all that. Here's Jesus who's in the midst of all this back then, and he's basically telling the simple truth that people don't want to hear. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

If enough of the Jews believed in him, he would have brought about his kingdom, right? I mean, it would have happened. He would have replaced the Lord. Yeah, if you think about it, what would have happened if the Jews had said, yep, this is our king. This is the guy. This is the Messiah. There would actually be no need for the church. So they didn't necessarily believe him? as their king in a spiritual sense, right? I mean, they were just looking at it as earthly, an earthly angel, instead of actually believing in Him as God. Yeah.

And in fact, talking to a rabbi here in the Denver area, an Orthodox rabbi, you know, he says, yeah, the Messiah we're expecting is not deity. The Messiah we're expecting is a descendant of David. Craig brings up a good point because it couldn't have happened because he said from the beginning where the foundation of the earth this was going to happen the church had to be because it was the gospel that goes out to the Gentiles so there's no way in accordance with God's will and God's will is always accomplished especially in heaven that this was ever going to happen so it makes you wonder how much How do these people act the way that they did and do the things that they did and convict Jesus when in fact, you know, it's God's will that it's going to happen? I mean, it boggles the mind the fact that it's actually being done the way that it was being done because that's God's will and it had to be done for the church to come. How much power did they have over their own choosing? It's God's will.

We do run into a bit of a quandary, and that is how to reconcile God's foreknowledge with God's dictation of things. And sometimes we get into a place where hypothetical has to remain hypothetical. Well, let's see. We should wrap it up here. So let's do that. Lord, we thank you just for your word. We thank you for the truth that is revealed here.

And also just for the insight, Jesus was the only one who knew what was going on here. And Jesus was himself driving towards the cross. And in the midst of it, people were carrying out things in fulfillment. of what Jesus said in fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. And in fact, Jesus intended this set of trials to turn out the way they did. Because He loves every single one of us. And we just thank you for that immense love. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.