Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Turning to John 19, 1, 16.
[00:00:10] This is a unique. I don't know, it was a difficult.
[00:00:16] Not difficult, just a different passage talking about Jesus. But if you read this, the majority of these verses are about who just by glass, who is it about?
[00:00:32] Pilate. Right. It's a lot about pilate. Of the 16 verses, really, you know, Jesus speaks a few, but it's really about his own conflict in his own heart. As we have the title of the sermon, Two Hearts, One example to follow. Of course, it's obvious we're going to follow the heart of Jesus, but at the same time, there's a lot written here about Pilate's heart, where he's conflicted, and there's just as much to learn from somebody who did it wrong. Correct.
[00:01:05] That's why we read history.
[00:01:09] Because if you read history, we see what mistakes people make. Right. And if you read it well enough and you're wise enough, do you repeat the same mistake that they did when they did something wrong?
[00:01:20] We try not to, but inevitably, what do we do? We keep doing those same things over and over again. All right?
[00:01:25] Because we think we can make the same mistake better. I don't know. Or we won't do it as bad.
[00:01:31] And so I think as we look at this passage, we look at two hearts, and it's a very simple outline.
[00:01:38] Not that I was lazy, but I just wanted some freedom to be. To go lateral when needed under some of these topics and points.
[00:01:46] And so we're going to look at two hearts, and the outline is simple. The first heart we're going to look at is a divided heart.
[00:01:56] And that's the next slide.
[00:01:59] And then we'll look at all the aspects of a divided heart. And I left space there so you guys can write notes. And maybe as you write notes and you can think, gosh, my heart is really divided here. Write that, circle it, highlight it, pray over it, and then ask God to help you in that area. Correct.
[00:02:17] That's kind of like what we do here and want to happen. So we learn something, and we don't learn to make mistakes that somebody else made.
[00:02:26] And I think as we read this, we're seeing a man who made lots of mistakes for the wrong reason, mostly for himself.
[00:02:37] So there's a different type of introduction here. So let's read this passage, and then we will pray and then we'll talk about two hearts.
[00:02:47] John, chapter 19, verses 1 through 6.
[00:02:50] A lot of verses, but it just goes really quickly here.
[00:02:54] Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him, and the Soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in purple robe. They came up to him saying, hail, King of the Jews.
[00:03:07] Struck him with their hands.
[00:03:09] Pilate went out again and said to them, see, I am bringing him out to you, that you may know that I find no guilt in him.
[00:03:16] So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, behold the man.
[00:03:24] Circle that right there or highlight it, if you don't mind. You know that it's just a huge statement that Pilate makes, and he didn't even know it.
[00:03:33] When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, crucify him. Crucify him.
[00:03:39] Pilate said to them, take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no fault or no guilt in him. The Jews answered him, we have a law, and according to the law, that law, he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.
[00:03:53] When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid.
[00:03:57] He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, to Jesus, where are you from?
[00:04:02] It's like, who are you? I mean, are you like an alien? I mean, what's going on here? He doesn't get Jesus.
[00:04:10] Where do you come from?
[00:04:12] But Jesus gave him no answer.
[00:04:14] So Pilate said to him, you will not speak to me. Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?
[00:04:23] And Jesus answered, and when he does answer, it's like, bam.
[00:04:28] It's such a huge statement.
[00:04:30] You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.
[00:04:36] Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.
[00:04:42] From then on, Pilate sought to release him. But the Jews cried out, if you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.
[00:04:54] So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the stone pavement. Aramaic, Gabbatha.
[00:05:04] Now it was the day of preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, behold your king.
[00:05:12] They cried out, away with him. Away with him. Crucify him.
[00:05:17] Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king?
[00:05:21] The chief priest answered, we have no king but Caesar.
[00:05:27] So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.
[00:05:32] Let's pray.
[00:05:33] Father. We come now through reading your truth, Lord, a point in history that forever changed our lives. Because we have hope.
[00:05:49] Lord. It's amazing how you can work so much good from so Much evil.
[00:05:56] And Father, you can work so much good even from our prideful, selfish mistakes.
[00:06:03] Lord, help us today to understand this passage, Lord, how we can find ourselves sometimes like Pilate, as we strive to be more like Jesus.
[00:06:16] Lord, we thank youk for your presence. Lord, just help this time guide my words that would bring glory to youo wonderful name. We all ask all these things in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:06:27] All right, so the first big point is a divided heart that will stay up there.
[00:06:32] And what happens when a heart is divided? We know. You know, Jesus tells us that when a house is divided, what just going to fall apart.
[00:06:41] That's why he prayed in John 17 as we went through that passage, that he prayed so earnestly for the unity of the body, of the church, of us disciples, that one accord, having that harmony that Pastor Diva talked about. Even though there's all these different people, we come together as one to bring beautiful glory to a beautiful God.
[00:07:08] And when the heart is divided, things always don't go that way.
[00:07:14] And so some characteristics of a divided heart. The first thing, the first point you can write in there won't be up there. I'm sorry about that. It's my selfishness and just not wanting to do that right now. But write in.
[00:07:27] Seeks to please men.
[00:07:30] A divided heart seeks to please men.
[00:07:34] And we see this from this very first verse. If you look at verse one, and from what we looked at last week and Pastor Duber brought about this whole interchange with Jesus, and if you had one word to describe Pilate in these verses from last week and this week, what would that one word be? If you were to say he is a blank man, what would you say?
[00:07:58] It's not rhetorical. You can just shout it out there.
[00:08:02] I have one word in mind, so if you match me, you get the prize, I guess.
[00:08:07] What's one word that you get from reading these verses about Pilate?
[00:08:13] Oh, who said conflicted? Jim. Yes. All right, I know. We're on the same path. All right, so he's conflicted. Allison said it too.
[00:08:21] So he's conf. You get that he doesn't know what to do.
[00:08:25] Like he wants to believe the truth and do the right thing. But what's he worried about?
[00:08:31] Himself and what people think of him.
[00:08:38] And what did Jesus say earlier in the Gospels that we shouldn't worry about what men can do to you, but worry about what the one who can destroy your soul?
[00:08:51] Maybe. You know, I don't think Pilate knew that. I don't think, you know, he was aware that Jesus said that. But I think if he knew that, maybe he would have better caution about what he did with Jesus. Better if he did.
[00:09:02] But we have a man here who wants to satisfy or appease. Do we get that as well?
[00:09:08] And the word appease is to try to relieve the anger or anxiety by giving someone what they want, even if it's not what you truly desire or believe is right. You just want to kind of, like, make peace, but it's the wrong kind of peace.
[00:09:26] It's kind of like a compromise.
[00:09:29] You don't want the conflict. And I mean, that's one of my, you know, people who don't like conflict will usually appease, won't they?
[00:09:37] Because they want things to be nice and smooth.
[00:09:41] So maybe that's the point for us. I mean, that kind of like, it's coming right back at me.
[00:09:47] Because people who don't like confrontation, they will say things and do things just to kind of like make things smooth.
[00:09:56] And Pilate, he didn't want any conflict here because he's worried about his own position.
[00:10:02] He's worried about Rome coming in and removing him from his position because he's not holding peace or maybe even like putting him to death because he did the wrong thing. So he is scared. And that's another point farther on. But at this point, he's wanting to appease.
[00:10:21] It's essentially trying to calm someone down or prevent them from being upset.
[00:10:27] No one likes people mad at themselves, do they? No one likes to have people mad at them or think badly of them.
[00:10:36] And so they get stuck in the wrong of doing and saying things or making concessions or sacrifices that you have to make in order to make them happy and not mad at you. Is that a nice place to live all the time?
[00:10:53] No.
[00:10:54] And it doesn't bring glory to God, does it? Especially when it comes down to the truth, because you're trying to bring glory to yourself that you are this kind of, like, peacemaker and you can handle that.
[00:11:08] So what does he do? We see this right off the bat. And Pilate took Jesus after this back and forth from the previous chapter, he took Jesus and flogged him.
[00:11:19] Now, there's two types of flogging. Actually, there's three types.
[00:11:25] And when Pilate flogged Jesus, now, it was basically a courtesy beating. For better words.
[00:11:37] The least severe of the floggings they would do.
[00:11:40] The fancy Greek word or Latin word is fustagatio.
[00:11:46] If I said that right, it's a relatively light punishment given for minor offenses. So Pilate was thinking, if I do this, I'm going to make these people happy.
[00:12:00] We know it didn't work.
[00:12:03] Nothing was going to make these people happy.
[00:12:07] The severest flogging was the fiberatio, which was the one with the leather whips and the lead tips and the bone, whatever that would rip away the flesh down to the organs. That's what that flogging was.
[00:12:24] And that's the flogging Jesus would receive.
[00:12:28] We'll see that at the end.
[00:12:30] But this one was just for Pilate, to appease them.
[00:12:35] But what happens when we try to appease the world?
[00:12:40] Does it ever work?
[00:12:44] It always wants more, doesn't it? It always wants more concessions, like, I meet you here. Oh, but now we want to go here.
[00:12:55] All right, we meet you here, and we'll set and we'll appease you here. And we'll compromise. Oh, no, that's not enough. Let's take it back this way further.
[00:13:04] And we call those, without getting too. I don't want to get political. It's an agenda. When the world has an agenda and they want to get from point A to point B. Now they say, well, point B, that is way. That is. That's just radical. We're never going to get there.
[00:13:21] And so what do they do?
[00:13:22] They take you to point A, dot one, right?
[00:13:27] So you make a little compromise, you appease them a little bit. Then what happens? About five or 10 years later, they take you to a dot three, right? Now you're at a dot eight, and before you know it, they brought you to where?
[00:13:44] Point B.
[00:13:47] The world is never satisfied until they get what it wants. And that's just death and destruction.
[00:13:52] The enemy is never satisfied. And the enemy would not be appeased at this point, would he?
[00:14:00] The enemy wanted Jesus dead because in his pride he thought, if I can kill Jesus, I win.
[00:14:07] Good thing he was clueless about that.
[00:14:13] So same thing with our flesh. Can we ever appease ourselves really of flesh? Can we ever satisfy the flesh?
[00:14:21] No, we keep trying and we go to different lows and we find ourselves just like, wallowing one day before we realize, you know what? Life was so much better when I was just abiding in Jesus.
[00:14:37] It was hard. I had to make a convicted stand and stand firm. And that's what Pilate couldn't do because he was convicted. He was conflicted and convicted. He had a thought that maybe this man was innocent.
[00:14:51] But he didn't have the willingness and the heart to stand there, did he?
[00:14:57] And that's something that we need to do on a consistent Basis when. When we are convicted, that we have the strength, the power of the spirit to stand firm on what we know is right and not make any compromises.
[00:15:15] So the flesh is never satisfied. The enemy is never satisfied, not until it destroys us.
[00:15:23] So what we can learn from this first verse here, this first point, is that we can't appease the flesh or the world.
[00:15:35] We have to stand firm. Because the truth was standing right before Pilate, wasn't he?
[00:15:41] And he had an idea that this was the truth, but he wasn't willing to stand on that truth because he was more worried about himself.
[00:15:51] And so therefore he had to do this curse courtesy flogging. This sounds horrible, but a courtesy flogging to try to appease the crowd.
[00:16:06] The next thing we get, verses four through five, we'll go back to verses two through three, because that's all about Jesus there. All right? And we'll talk about that.
[00:16:19] Is that a divided heart is blind to the truth. So you can add that in there under, I didn't have it up there. I apologize. I was nice. I had to put it up there.
[00:16:31] So it is blind to the truth.
[00:16:36] Verses 4 and 5, says, Pilate went out again and said to them, see, I am bringing him out to you, that you may know that I find no guilt. He wanted nothing to do with Jesus.
[00:16:46] So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe that was put on in verses two and three. We'll get back to that. Pilate said to them, behold the man. And just.
[00:16:55] Just picture yourself there. He brings him out, he's bleeding from the crown. He's been bruised on his face for them slapping him around. He walks him out and, you know, basically sarcastically says, look, here's your man.
[00:17:13] Behold the man.
[00:17:16] And the reason when I read that is that he had no idea what he was saying when he said, behold the man.
[00:17:26] Because what did this man represent?
[00:17:31] Salvation.
[00:17:33] Because a man had to live perfectly to die for us.
[00:17:38] There had to be a replacement. There had to be a substitute for someone to live perfectly. A man, a human being to allow himself to be killed and take upon our sin so that we could have eternal life. And that's what Pilate was ushering out when he said, behold the man. And he was totally clueless.
[00:17:56] It had to be a man.
[00:17:59] It had to be a man who would live a perfect life. Because we are not capable of living a perfect life. Correct.
[00:18:07] We cannot.
[00:18:09] You will fail as soon as you leave those doors today.
[00:18:13] You might even fail before we get done with the sermon. If you're thinking, gosh, that's not me, I'm never like that.
[00:18:21] It doesn't take much for us to sin, does it?
[00:18:25] So a man had to die, a perfect man, to be the sacrifice for our sins.
[00:18:36] So Pilate, blind to the truth, he doesn't want to condemn Jesus. He's looking for this compromise.
[00:18:44] But does he truly understand who this man is?
[00:18:48] Or is he just as blind as the religious leaders?
[00:18:53] While his intention was likely to avoid condemnation, John's gospel also presents a deeper kind of meaning. Here it says, behold the man we talked about that, that he is this perfect man, the one who would bear the sins of the world. As John the Baptist declared as Jesus came down the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world, it would mean nothing for God to come down in his deity and his godly form because he is perfect.
[00:19:26] But a man being born in a perfect way, living a perfect life his entire life, so that he would be able to die and be that perfect, blameless, spotless lamb that would take upon our nastiness.
[00:19:44] He was the man that Pilate ushered before them, whether he was just ignorant or just willful rejection of Jesus as the Messiah or the one and only Son of God.
[00:19:57] This exchange here is crucial because it demonstrates the Jews deliberate choice to reject Jesus.
[00:20:07] Even though they read about him, they studied him and all the prophets, and again their eyes had to be blinded that God would be able to work good, perfect salvation through the evil of these men so that we could have life.
[00:20:29] Why they would reject the Messiah and embrace the Roman rule by claiming Caesar as their king as just pure selfishness of their own power.
[00:20:39] This also shows Pilate's manipulation of this situation, using Jesus as a pawn in a political game.
[00:20:49] In reality, Jesus really meant nothing to him as well, because he was worried about himself. And Jesus was a tool that would enable him to gain favor where he needed favor from the Jews and from Rome.
[00:21:06] So we get this idea of rejection and judgment and the consequences of choosing worldly power over divine authority.
[00:21:17] I think sometimes we just do that, just. And we don't even know it.
[00:21:22] That we put so much stake and so much confidence in worldly power that we forget who really has authority sometimes, don't we?
[00:21:32] We worry and stress about who's in power and we don't. It's just. God is in power.
[00:21:39] It doesn't matter who sits in the seat. God is the one who is sovereign, isn't he?
[00:21:46] But yet we worry, we're anxious, and I'm just to blame, because we all want a nice life, don't we?
[00:21:55] We want an easy life. We don't want a lot of conflict in our life. So the person that's going to be there, that gives us the less conflict we're going to be okay with.
[00:22:12] Later on in 1415, we see this kind of like blindness as well. If you go down Starting at verse 14, it says now, it was the day of preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, behold your king.
[00:22:27] Not realizing this was the king. This was the king of kings, wasn't he?
[00:22:33] But he did not realize the power that was before him.
[00:22:37] They cried out, away with him. Away with him. Crucify him. Pilate said to them, shall I crucify you in a mocking way? Shall I crucify your king?
[00:22:47] What kind of king is this?
[00:22:49] I'm the one in control here.
[00:22:52] I'm doing everything. He's doing nothing.
[00:22:57] I am really the king. The chief priest answered, we have no king but Caesar.
[00:23:03] So blind to the truth that was standing before him, Pilate now uses Jesus as a way to mock the Jews. Here is your lowly, bloody, powerless king. Shall I crucify your knight in shining armor here? Basically, he's nothing.
[00:23:21] And mocking them for his claim to be the king.
[00:23:28] And yet we can see the irony in this. For a while, Pilate thought little of Jesus, and the Jewish leaders rejected him as their king.
[00:23:41] So he's saying, here's your king, but they've already rejected him.
[00:23:46] We know that the one who stood before them was God incarnate, the true sovereign overall, who was really orchestrating events in order to bring about the salvation of the world.
[00:23:59] That's the man that Jesus presented as he brought him forth.
[00:24:06] The next thing a divided heart does is it causes a person to fear man over God.
[00:24:18] Verses 6 through 8 says, when the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, crucify him. Crucify him. Pilate said to them, take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.
[00:24:30] The Jews answered him, we have a law, and according to the law, he ought to die because he has made himself the son of God. When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. Why was he afraid?
[00:24:45] He already tried to placate or appease them by this mild scourging.
[00:24:55] He responded that they should crucify Jesus themselves.
[00:25:01] But he was not really putting the rite of execution into the hands of the Jewish leaders. Instead, Pilate spoke out of exasperation. He was like Done with this.
[00:25:11] It's gone on for a bit here. He's the governor. He's the man with the authority. And these people are kind of like rejecting him.
[00:25:21] And he can't think about. He's caught.
[00:25:24] He doesn't know what to do. Now his conscience is saying, this guy has done nothing wrong.
[00:25:32] And usually when we fail, we have nothing else to do. We begin just to throw stones and. And just slander people.
[00:25:40] That's all we got left. That's all he had left. He was mocking the Jews for having this king who was really powerless at this point, but at the same time, he was taunting these other people.
[00:26:04] But we know that this mild beating was far from what they wanted. Wasn't.
[00:26:11] Wasn't enough.
[00:26:12] The only thing that would make them happy was blood. They were thirsty, weren't they? They were thirsty for this death.
[00:26:21] The blood of an innocent man in reality. And if you look at the Pharisees, it was the blood of the competition, was it?
[00:26:31] They didn't want to lose power.
[00:26:34] They didn't want to lose their money, their source of income, their influence over the people.
[00:26:39] Power is really, really harsh for some people.
[00:26:43] And they wouldn't be happy until this competition was gone.
[00:26:50] And that's something that we, you know, we think about our own political world and our own world around us and corporate whatever.
[00:26:56] When the competition is there, what do we want to do to the competition? Even in a football game, we want to win.
[00:27:05] And sometimes we'll go to the harshest things and to lower our standards, to do whatever we can do to eliminate the competition.
[00:27:15] We'll slander, we'll make fun of, we'll throw them under the bus.
[00:27:21] We'll do whatever we can to make them look bad so that we will look better.
[00:27:27] Pilate looking for a way to avoid having to wash his hands of this.
[00:27:34] He didn't want to have to go there and say, it wasn't my fault. He wanted them to take ownership of it and they weren't doing it.
[00:27:41] He wanted something to happen so that he could sleep at night.
[00:27:45] And again, we do the same thing.
[00:27:48] We want the burden off, and sometimes we'll do whatever we can to eliminate that burden, whether it be right or wrong.
[00:27:58] He was unwilling to make that hard stand.
[00:28:01] Sometimes a hard stand will make you lose sleep, won't it?
[00:28:05] Even though you know it's right. Even you know that it's. It's biblical, it's right.
[00:28:10] But we worry about what people are going to think of us.
[00:28:13] We worry about how this is going to affect the relationship.
[00:28:20] But hard stands, when they're made on the word of God, it's the right thing to do. And God will provide you the rest.
[00:28:28] He will provide you the means to move forward and to realize that you really, you did the right thing, even though it wasn't the best all the way around.
[00:28:46] And in this point, in this scenario, the Jews threw a curveball here, or as today we would use the term pivot.
[00:28:55] Things weren't going their way, right?
[00:28:59] And so they use this political tyranny charge like, you know, if you're friends with Jesus, you can't be friends with Caesar. And that just like. And that really got Pilate in a bad place. He couldn't. He had nowhere to go.
[00:29:14] And these, these leaders were smart and that maybe that was the last thing they were going to use. But they realized they weren't going to get their way. Pilate hasn't yet condemned Jesus to be crucified. All they did was give us this little, little beating here at the beginning.
[00:29:28] But they say, you know what?
[00:29:31] You can't be, you can't be divided is what they were saying.
[00:29:35] You can't serve two kings.
[00:29:39] And so now he was stuck.
[00:29:42] So why would this bring fear to Pilate?
[00:29:47] It's kind of, kind of complex here. First it was religious because even in the Roman world, Roman gods were esteemed and it would be not right for any person to execute or slander the name of a Roman God.
[00:30:04] So they got in there that he's claiming to be God. And so if he is God, I can't execute this God.
[00:30:13] The whole what if. What if Jesus is right? Or what if he is telling the truth, that he is God? I can't do this.
[00:30:20] I do have certain morals, you know, but it's a dilemma for him.
[00:30:30] Next, it's political.
[00:30:32] What would be the political climate if the Jews didn't get their way?
[00:30:39] Is that in the back of his mind, if he doesn't appease them, are they going to riot?
[00:30:46] Are they going to burn chariots and pilfer the town?
[00:30:53] Because, you know, the whole Pax Roma, I mean, there was peace, but it was peace under the thumb of Caesar. But if he let peace get out of hand and be no peace, whose fault would it be?
[00:31:04] His.
[00:31:05] So that's on his mind as well.
[00:31:08] He's got to continue this pax Roma.
[00:31:12] And then thirdly, personal anxieties.
[00:31:15] He had convictions.
[00:31:18] What if Jesus is telling the truth, that he is the son of the true God?
[00:31:24] What do I do about that?
[00:31:29] Matthew's writings of the event tells us that Pilate's wife had a dream. In chapter 27, verse 19, it says, besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, have nothing to do with that righteous man. She called him righteous.
[00:31:47] So now you got your wife in your ear. And you know husbands, you can't ignore that, right?
[00:31:51] The wife is there saying that this man was righteous, for I have suffered much because of him. Today in a dream, there's a lot of things playing that's causing Pilate to be fearful and wants to make the right decision.
[00:32:10] But his right decision is going to be based on what's going to make him best.
[00:32:18] What fears might we have when we allow our heart to be divided between serving ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ?
[00:32:28] What keeps you up sometimes? Worried about, fearful of when we're trying to make ourselves more comfortable, to avoid persecution, to avoid making a stand that may cause someone to be upset with this.
[00:32:47] A divided heart is prideful. Verses 9 and 10, he entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, where are you from?
[00:32:56] But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, you will not speak to me. Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?
[00:33:09] So in his pride, he's saying, basically, I hold the keys to your life. I'm the one in charge.
[00:33:20] And we know that Jesus will set him straight here.
[00:33:26] But the idea that pride will cause us to do some really harsh things in life.
[00:33:33] That's why God hates pride. He hates haughty eyes because it destroys love.
[00:33:41] Pride destroys relationships, all of them. Doesn't matter what relationship. Pride does not work in a relationship. We know that, don't we?
[00:33:53] It's a killer of relationships.
[00:33:55] Pride kills all relationships.
[00:34:00] It kills care. It kills sacrifice. It kills kindness.
[00:34:07] It destroys lives. Proverbs 8:13.
[00:34:10] Pride and arrogance. I hate.
[00:34:12] If God hates something, should we avoid that?
[00:34:18] Always? Like when I deal with students and, you know, pride and gossip and slander, it's like it's just rampant in middle school. So I always read Proverbs 6:16, right? The six thing God, the six things God hates and the seven that are abominable to him. And it's all about selfishness and pride. It's about slander, it's about divisiveness. It's about, you know, sowing discord on purpose.
[00:34:44] And it's all based on pride.
[00:34:48] Pride and arrogance. I hate, says the Lord. Proverbs 11:2. When pride comes, then comes dishonor.
[00:34:55] It does the opposite of what we should.
[00:35:00] When pride comes, then comes dishonor.
[00:35:04] Pride does not honor you. It doesn't honor anybody. It dishonors everybody involved.
[00:35:09] More importantly, it dishonors God.
[00:35:15] It kills a supreme virtue of all virtues.
[00:35:20] And we see that in verses two and three. We'll look at it.
[00:35:24] Pride kills humility.
[00:35:28] And what did Paul tell us to be like in Philippians 2?
[00:35:33] To look at the character of Jesus in his humility and be just like that. Imitate him in his humility.
[00:35:47] Finally, just, I'll say not much about it. A divided heart won't take responsibility.
[00:35:54] That's the last thing that Pilate wanted to do, was take responsibility for what was going on.
[00:36:01] Then we see in verse 16, a divided heart is a defeated heart.
[00:36:07] So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.
[00:36:10] So they took Jesus. Now that phrase, they took Jesus.
[00:36:15] That's when that horrible, horrible beating would have taken place, where his flesh would have been ripped off his back.
[00:36:30] It was over.
[00:36:32] No one won in this situation.
[00:36:36] Jesus won because this had to happen. God won because he's sovereign and he's provident. In this situation. He used this horrible, wicked act so that we could be here today rejoicing and praising Him.
[00:36:52] All right, I know that was a lot. But there was a lot there, I think, for us to evaluate and say, I need to confess this God. I need help with this.
[00:37:07] I have issues with wanting to please people all the time, and that's not a place to be God. I need strength to please you, to honor you with my life and not make compromises so that I'm honored because there's no conflict.
[00:37:25] I'm just saying that because that's me.
[00:37:29] A surrendered heart. That's the next big point.
[00:37:35] We'll go back to verses two and three. And this. This just.
[00:37:39] I don't know, to be there and to watch this, I think would cause all of us to be angry like Peter and just want to get up and just defend Jesus.
[00:37:52] Just tackle those guys and just whatever you want to do. I don't punch him. But it's like, how can you sit back and watch this happen?
[00:38:01] To be mocked, to be tortured, and Jesus not saying a word.
[00:38:11] And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. Just total mockery, total unbelief, total rejection of who he claimed to be for three years of his life in ministry.
[00:38:31] They came up to him saying, hail, King of the Jews in whatever mocking voice, laughing, pretending to bow down whatever they could to Just to make him look as bad as they possibly could.
[00:38:44] And they struck him with their hands, just walking by, slapping him on the face.
[00:38:51] And the slap on the face was like the worst form of evil you could do to somebody. The lowest form of respect.
[00:38:59] Slapping him, mocking him all this time.
[00:39:05] So what do we draw from this?
[00:39:08] We had a bunch of things that a divided heart does.
[00:39:12] A surrendered heart is fewer, but they're really hard.
[00:39:16] Write this down. A surrendered heart gives up complete control to someone else in authority.
[00:39:24] That's what a surrender heart does.
[00:39:26] What did Jesus say? If you want to be my disciple, what do you have to do? Deny yourself and pick up your cross and follow me.
[00:39:34] So when you say deny yourself, what does that do to pride?
[00:39:39] It's gone. It has to be gone.
[00:39:44] A surrender heart gives up complete control to someone in authority and is empowered by the one who is in control.
[00:39:53] Right?
[00:39:54] We're empowered by the Holy Spirit.
[00:39:57] And we got to know that it was the power of the Holy Spirit because Jesus is human. Here, Jesus, it's a human being. He's just like you and I, standing there, taking this mockery, taking this abuse. And the only way that he could do it quietly would be the power of the Holy Spirit.
[00:40:16] Is this an example for us when we're offended?
[00:40:20] We'll get to that in a second.
[00:40:24] What usually happens when we get offended, when somebody accuses us that we really didn't do, do we get angry?
[00:40:32] Do we fight back? Do we get defensive?
[00:40:36] We do all the things that a divided heart sometimes does.
[00:40:43] When you are empowered by the Spirit and are fully dependent upon the resurrecting power, who or what can come against you?
[00:40:50] What can they say against you that's going to mean anything if you're totally surrendered to God and to his power?
[00:41:00] Your pride is not in yourself. Your confidence is in the Creator of the universe.
[00:41:06] And we sometimes think that we can take over, that your identity is not in what people say about you.
[00:41:15] Your identity is in Christ and that you are a new creation. That is who you are.
[00:41:22] And we know that it's not truth when people put us down or mock us for our faith and our walk in Jesus Christ, or when we stand for what is morally correct, what the Scripture says is correct. It's not weakness, it's confidence in what is true and what is right.
[00:41:41] I think the word that stands out every time I read this passage is one of the Beatitudes.
[00:41:48] When Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, he says, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Was he displaying that for us in that moment.
[00:41:59] Was it by his own power that he stood quiet, or was it by the power of the Holy Spirit that he stood quiet?
[00:42:06] Was it his power that kept him from, like, calling down a host of angels to destroy everybody, or was it the power of the Holy Spirit that made that happen?
[00:42:16] It was not him, you guys.
[00:42:19] He was living out what we are that we ought to do on a daily basis, that we live and walk by the power of the Spirit.
[00:42:28] And he was modeling that for us today.
[00:42:34] This is a great. It's probably for me, it's one of the greatest teaching moments. And he said nothing.
[00:42:44] It's the greatest moment for him to model a lifestyle that he's called us to model.
[00:42:50] And he said nothing.
[00:42:55] But it's very powerful because we know that he was incapable or incapable of doing this on his own.
[00:43:03] Biblical meekness is not weakness. And sometimes people get those confused.
[00:43:07] Being meek is far from being weak, you guys, but rather strength under control, a gentle spirit, and humility.
[00:43:17] It involves a willingness to submit to God's will. Was it God's will that Jesus did exactly what he did? Yes.
[00:43:23] Was it God's will that a few hours later he would be crucified? Yes.
[00:43:29] Did Jesus know God's will? Yes.
[00:43:33] And the only way that he could live out God's will was by the power of the Holy Spirit, not his own power. He would have failed. We would have failed to treat others with kindness and consideration. Even when facing opposition or provocation, Even when they're slapping you in the face, physically or verbally, being controlled and kind under the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the example Jesus gave us.
[00:44:06] Now, if he gives us this example, are we to ignore it?
[00:44:12] Are we to say, oh, it's okay if I get angry and offended and fight back, because that's my. That's who I am.
[00:44:20] Does it honor God when we fight back in this manner?
[00:44:24] It doesn't.
[00:44:30] Meekness is a virtue that reflects a heart submitted to God and a desire to live according to his ways.
[00:44:40] The meek are those wholly relying on God rather than their own strength to defend themselves.
[00:44:48] Do you think Jesus was offended standing there? Was he thinking, I'm just offended? That's just horrible.
[00:44:55] I mean, we can't put ourselves there all the. I mean, was he praying? God, just forgive them because they're clueless. They have no idea who I am or from the cross. What did he say from the cross? Forgive them for? They don't know what they're doing.
[00:45:15] They're ignorant to this.
[00:45:18] Maybe that's what he was praying. Maybe he had to pray. God, strengthen me, keep me from fighting back, keep me from just thinking, destroyed and they're destroyed. I mean, this is God. He could have done that.
[00:45:33] He had to be under control.
[00:45:36] He couldn't just fly off the handle, right?
[00:45:40] Some people take pride in that. They just flew off the handle. They would. No, he was under control because through that control, who was receiving all the glory?
[00:45:51] God was.
[00:45:53] And we have the same mission today.
[00:45:57] To stand there knowing that you are 100% right, because you have been perfect all your life, knowing that you are the one true son of God, that you are 100% absolute truth, that you have done no wrong. And you say no wrong.
[00:46:15] And again, any one moment you could have done whatever you wanted to get out of that situation. And not saying a word, that's hard.
[00:46:24] It's hard to not fight back when you know you are right and people are saying you are wrong.
[00:46:33] Or you know that you're saying that you're for 100% true, know that you're saying the truth and they say, no, that's not what happened.
[00:46:42] That just like grates on you, doesn't it?
[00:46:44] And you want to fight back, don't you?
[00:46:50] But Jesus stood there.
[00:46:52] He didn't argue that he was correct or defend himself. He wasn't offended by the lies and mockery because he was completely confident.
[00:47:02] Not in his flesh, but in the fact that he indeed is the one and only son of a living God.
[00:47:10] I don't really think as believers we should ever be offended.
[00:47:14] You may disagree with me because being offended means that you're better than someone else and they're kind of bringing you down, right?
[00:47:25] Like, I know better, I am better. You're saying something bad against me. But in reality, turn it around. Haven't we also always or half offended somebody else?
[00:47:35] We're not perfect, are we?
[00:47:37] We never said the right thing. I mean, we've always been in a place where we have done wrong.
[00:47:45] Jesus really had the only reason to ever be offended, right? Because he was perfect.
[00:47:51] And when you say that, no, Jesus, you're not perfect. Well, he could take offense to that because he knows, but he didn't.
[00:48:05] I don't know why.
[00:48:07] It kind of leads into that. We hold on to this anger against being talked down against or to, or allow ourselves to take offense.
[00:48:15] Maybe it's just pride.
[00:48:19] Pride and anger. It's kind of valuable because when we control and hold on to anger and hurt, then we control things, don't we?
[00:48:30] And we like to control and being offense and taking offense is like, I can control the situation. Now.
[00:48:38] Jesus was not. He was given all control to God at the moment.
[00:48:46] I mean, his mission. When he came, he said, I came to what? Seek and to save the lost.
[00:48:52] If he got angry here and he lashed out at these people, would that affect his mission to seek and save the lost?
[00:49:00] Would that burn some bridges?
[00:49:03] Think about the guard that walked by and says, surely this must have been the Son of God.
[00:49:11] If Jesus lashed out and said some harsh words to this guard, do you think he would have said that when he walked by the cross? Cross, probably not.
[00:49:21] Would the thief have a different frame of mind if Jesus was angry and bitter and yelling and screaming when he said, no, leave this guy. This is the Son of God.
[00:49:35] It's amazing what happens when we get angry and hold on to that. And Jesus did not.
[00:49:47] Sometimes we get angry and we just want to get rid of that person and get rid of the relationship.
[00:49:53] But when you hang on to that anger, that relationship never goes away, does it?
[00:49:57] It's like you're hanging onto it.
[00:50:00] As long as you stay angry at somebody, you're hanging on to that bad relationship wherever you go. It's kind of like those meetings where they tie a snake onto somebody and they're running away from it and they can't get away.
[00:50:14] You can't get away from that person because you can't let go of the anger.
[00:50:21] Whenever there's an injury to a relationship, a hurt, a broken heart or a broken thing and you're willing to forgive, you are saying, I got this.
[00:50:30] I am going to pick up the bill for this and we can move on because our anger is valuable to us since it has value. Giving it up requires a sacrifice, and anger is not an option for us.
[00:50:49] The cross simultaneously stands as a constant reminder of his willingness to pay the bill. Right?
[00:50:57] Wasn't our bill paid for on the cross?
[00:51:01] It's kind of like the ultimate pay it forward for us, right? Shouldn't we be able to pay it forward and forgive people who hurt us?
[00:51:16] He was willing to pay the bill for us.
[00:51:19] And as an indictment on us, when we are unwilling to do the same for others, it's an indictment. It's like we are doing wrong.
[00:51:29] That was Brant Hanson from his book Unoffendable.
[00:51:36] Jesus picked up the bill for us by forgiving us of every last sin, and we are called to do the same thing.
[00:51:50] And Jesus was displaying this in the act, forgiving these men for what they were doing, even praying that God would forgive them because they had no clue.
[00:52:02] And if we're walking in a manner that brings glory to God, then praise God. If we get persecuted for that, Jesus says, good for you. You're just like me.
[00:52:10] You shouldn't be offended for being Christlike.
[00:52:13] You should be rejoicing that people are talking bad about you for being Christlike.
[00:52:23] And Pilate ushered Jesus out and said, behold the man. He was actually speaking, probably the truest thing he ever spoke.
[00:52:31] And I think in our own snarkiness, if it was us, like, you got it right. I am the man.
[00:52:37] I'm in control here. You're not.
[00:52:40] We'd want to flaunt that right.
[00:52:44] But Jesus didn't.
[00:52:49] A surrender heart is a forgiving heart, not an angry heart.
[00:52:54] Finally, a surrendered heart loves the passage that Pastor Duba read this morning, and we'll stop with this, for if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. It's like people think we're just out of our mind. It's because we love God. If we are in our right mind, it's for you. For the love of Christ controls us.
[00:53:18] The love of God controlled Jesus at that moment, didn't it?
[00:53:23] The love for God, the love to honor God, the love to do God's will that enabled Jesus to do exactly what he needed to do in that moment for the love of God. The love of Christ controls us. Because we have concluded this, that one has died for all. That's Christ Jesus. For all. Therefore, all have died. And he died for all. That those who live might no longer live for themselves.
[00:53:45] Jesus had every opportunity to live for Himself, but he didn't at that moment. He lived for every one of us.
[00:53:53] And he was obedient to the very end. For every one of us no longer lived for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised again.
[00:54:08] Let the love of God control you for his glory and for his purpose and his will.
[00:54:16] Let's pray.
[00:54:23] Heavenly Father, we thank you for this wonderful example that Jesus has given us, Lord. To love when we are not loved.
[00:54:38] To love when it's hard, Lord, to trust you in every situation.
[00:54:45] Lord, thank you for your amazing, wonderful grace and that Jesus was perfect to the very end, his death and his resurrection. Lord, that we may have life in you, Lord, help us to live in such a way, such a manner, that we glory to you in our daily walk.
[00:55:07] Father, we love you. We thank you for your faithfulness and your amazing grace. Lord, we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.
