John 19:7 The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God." 8 Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid, 9 and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus, "Where are You from?" But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 Then Pilate said to Him, "Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?" 11 Jesus answered, "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been...
John 19:7 The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God." 8 Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid, 9 and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus, "Where are You from?" But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 Then Pilate said to Him, "Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?" 11 Jesus answered, "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin." 12 From then on Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, saying, "If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar." 13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, "Behold your King!" 15 But they cried out, "Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar!" 16 ¶ Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led Him away.
The Jews have backed Pilate into a corner at this point. It is a matter of Jesus claiming to be King and there can be only one King in Rome. He can either save his soul or his life. If He turns Jesus loose, he loses his life, if He crucifies Him, it will be his soul. So, Pilate asks where Jesus is from, but Jesus knows it is too late for Pilate, he has already said he doesn’t care about truth and so He does not answer him. It is a bad place to be when you have rejected God for so long, that He refuses to speak to you anymore. Pilate lets Jesus know that he is powerful and can let him go or he can have him crucified and Jesus speaks one more time. He lets Pilate know that He only has power because God has granted it to him. Then He lets Pilate know that his sin is less than that of the one who delivered Jesus up and I believe He is speaking about Judas. The Bible speaks of degrees of sin and degrees of reward. Hell won’t be the same for everyone, just as Heaven won’t. Read 1 Corinthians 3:8-15, 2 Corinthians 5:10. 2 John 1:8 Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. Revelation 22:12 "And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.
7 The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God." Le 24:16; Mt 26:55,65; Joh 5:18; 10:33
Now what the Jews are going to do is they’re going to put these things together in an accusation that’s going to cut both ways and it will notch it up so far that Pilate has to do something about it. In Leviticus 24:16 it was blasphemous for a person to call himself a king in Judaism. Under a theocracy for you to say you were a king when you weren’t a king was guilty of death. That’s a religious law under a religious system under Caiaphas. A political law, if you call yourself a king, you’re fighting against Caesar as the true emperor king. So both of these charges now of treason raise it way high and Pilate’s going to have to do something about it.
If Pilate won’t condemn Jesus for treason, perhaps he’ll condemn Jesus if he understands that both sides of religion and the civil law would work to his benefit to see Jesus executed.
Now, Pilate well knew that law. What was that law? Pilate knew that the Jews didn't tolerate any false gods, right? Two times Pilate had brought in the image of false gods to Israel, hadn't he? On his standards when he arrived there, on the shields that he hung up in Herod's palace, both times it had caused a revolt among the Jews, hadn't it? It had caused such a reaction among the Jews that he got word from Caesar himself to remove those things or he'd be removed. And Caesar was watching Pilate because Pilate had a problem with this same issue every time. That is, dragging, or letting false gods exist in Israel. Now the Romans weren't stupid. They knew in order to subject the people; you give them enough freedom to make them content. You don't violate their religion. And so the Romans let them worship as they wanted and they did not offend them with outside gods. And so, the Jews are saying ‑ Hey, Pilate, you remember that law about false gods? Remember that one? See. The one that almost cost you last time? Yeah, well here it comes again, Pilate, He's claiming to be the Son of God, we don't believe in false gods.
That just cuts because this is right exactly where Pilate's blown it twice before. Now they are sharp. They've got this plot, down to a science, they know what they're doing. And so, what they're doing is putting the pressure on Pilate to get rid of another false god. And the last two times he didn't do it, the first time it cost him his whole rule there, really, because he had to give in to them. The second time it almost cost him his life. Now they're saying to him, in effect, ‑ You going to let this one get by again? You're not going to execute what we believe to be a false god? You're going to let a false god run around among us again? You going to do this again? Guess who we'll report you to? Hmm? You know, so we'll tell Caesar.
And so, the threat is too much. And they know where to hit him
8 Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid,
That leads us to Pilate's fatal panic in verse 8.
Verses eight through eleven ask and answer the question who’s in control of all of this mess:
This is the first time the word fear comes into the storyline. Pilate’s been acting a shrewd politician, now he’s scared. Why is he scared? Well, two very good possibilities.
As if it's not bad enough to put Pilate in the spot that he can't get out of, when they said to Pilate ‑ He is making Himself to be the Son of God ‑that would automatically turn on something that Pilate well knew. The Romans were very superstitious. And the Romans believed that the gods, and demigods, often came into the world and moved among men, see. And the Jews when they said to him ‑ He makes Himself the Son of God ‑ he wouldn't have thought of that in the Jewish context, he would have thought of that in a Roman context. And he would have thought of it in a pagan context. And he would have understood it that this is ... this is a man who is claiming to be a son of a god. And then he would have thought to himself ‑ If He is, I'm in real trouble, right? I've just flogged the son of a god.
The Romans were superstitious. For example, in Acts chapter 14 when Paul and Barnabas came into town and they said: Hey, these guys are terrific, we think they're gods come to earth. And they started calling them Jupiter and Mercury, remember that? That was a common superstition. Acts 28 has it again. They believed that the gods came into the world.
Remember, his wife has a dream, too, in Matthew twenty-seven that sort of sets him back a little bit. Now Pilate's got this thing in the back of his head to add to all the rest of the stuff that's scrambling his brain. Maybe I've been beating up the son of a god, little did he know. That it was God Himself, the only true God.
9 and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus, "Where are You from?" But Jesus gave him no answer.
Isa 53:7; Mt 27:12,14
You say, "What's he saying? Does he want to know His address in Nazareth?" No. He knows where He's from. He is asking Him if He's the son of a god, that's what he's asking Him. Where did You come from? Are You earthly or are You from up there where the gods are?
Before the flood God said: "My Spirit will not always strive with man." The Bible tells us Pharaoh hardened his heart, Pharaoh hardened his heart and then it stops and it says: "And God hardened Pharaoh's heart."
There comes a time in the life of an individual who willfully rejects Jesus Christ that all of a sudden it becomes impossible. And God in Christ knew Pilate. He knew it was over. He knew Pilate had gone past the point of return. You see, back in chapter 18:36, Jesus had even said to him Every one that is of the truth hears My voice." He had given him an invitation. He declared who He was. He told him He was a King from another realm, not the world and Pilate wouldn't buy it and Pilate kept going further and further and further and further and Jesus just knew it was over.
10 Then Pilate said to Him, "Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?"
It's a shocking thing when you study in the Bible the silence of God. You say, "Why was Jesus silent?" Well, He was silent, I think, in response to prophecy. Isaiah 53:7 says: "As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth." In a sense He knew He was fulfilling prophecy in silence. But, let me give you something even greater than that. Jesus knew Pilate's heart. And Jesus knew it was over with Pilate...it was over. Nothing that Jesus said anymore would have mattered to Pilate. So, He didn't say anything. You know, it's a shocking thing to realize that a man can come to the place in his own experience with God that God stops talking to him. But it can happen.
11 Jesus answered, "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin." Lu 22:53; Joh 7:30
You say, could anybody ever be that guilty?" Yes, anybody who knows the truth and rejects it, according to Hebrews 6 is guilty of crucifying the Son of God afresh, putting Him to an open shame. And men today are just as guilty as the people who screamed for His blood then when they reject Him, willfully knowing the truth.
And so, it's hard for me to conceive of anymore guilt than Pilate but there's more guilt than what he did in ignorance. Much more on those who should have known the truth. Theirs was the greater sin. And that shows you there's degrees of sin. It only takes one sin of the smallest degree to condemn a man to hell, but the hottest hell and the severest punishment is reserved for those whose sin is a travesty on what they know to be true. Like Hebrews says of how much greater punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the blood of the covenant, the Son of God. The greater sin is that.
Now, the one who’s delivered Him raises several questions. Who? It’s a singular verb, a singular pronoun. The one who delivered. So He’s talking about one person. Is it Judas? Is it Caiaphas? Is it Satan? And I don’t have a clear answer. Caiaphas is representing Judaism at its worst and Pilate is representing Roman civil law and these are the things colliding in the charges right now. Some would lean towards Caiaphas as the one. He says, “He has the greater sin,” because under the religious theocracy, he should know. “He came into His own and His own know Him not.” He should know who Jesus is and he’s going to deliver Him over to get rid of the problem because it’s expedient that Christ die for the nation.
John’s expression, “handed over,” is used 11 times previously in this Gospel (6:64, 71; 12:4; 13:2, 11, 21; 18:2, 5, 30, 35, 36). In its first 8 occurrences (6:64–18:5), this verb is consistently rendered “betray” by the NASB, and in each case, it clearly is used in reference to Judas. The next 3 instances of this verb (18:30, 35, 36) are found in the context of Jesus’ trials, after His betrayal and arrest, and thus they are rendered “handed over” by the NASB. I would have to conclude that when this verb is used here, it may be referring to Judas.
why would Jesus mention Judas to Pilate? And why would Jesus’ reference to Judas strike such fear into the heart of Pilate? From Matthew’s Gospel, it would seem that Judas may already have died by his own hand (Matthew 27:3-10). Is it possible that Pilate knew about Judas’ role in all this, and also that Judas had already killed himself? That might give Pilate pause for thought!
Jesus has pointed out that Judas was guilty of a great sin. Judas is now dead, by suicide. While Judas may be guilty of greater sin, Jesus implies that Pilate will also be guilty, of a somewhat lesser sin. Now we begin to see why Pilate is getting more and more uneasy about condemning Jesus, and why he wants so much to release Him. Pilate seeks to instill fear in Jesus, by trying to impress Him with his authority. Instead, Jesus instills fear in Pilate, by reminding this governor where his power comes from, and by indicating that any harm done to Him is God’s will. Even though the death of Christ is God’s will, it will also be the result of Pilate’s sin, for which he must someday give account. No wonder Pilate is getting nervous!
Now, technically we all know that sin is sin. We don’t like that, but if you steal a pen from the office, or some Post-its or whatever you rip off from your office, that is somehow as bad as murder and rape and plunder and mayhem. Now, in our view of things, well of course it’s not the same. But from a purely technical theological stance, sin is sin, right?
Even the Scripture attempts to deal with sins differently in the Old Testament. Certain sins were punishable by more severe punishments. So we can say there are sort of degrees of guilt, degrees of the scope of a crime; but is that really what’s going on here? If Pilate is going to be a pawn in God’s program and convict Jesus Christ to die a Roman crucifixion, then how is that lesser than the one who’s delivered Him?
Lu 12:48 "But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
So, we see then that Pilate says ‑ I can do what I want. And Jesus says ‑ You couldn't do anything except God gave you the power.
Romans 13:1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
12 From then on Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, saying, "If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar." Lu 23:2; Ac 17:7
Now, if you think it was bad before, it's bad now. Cause now they're saying ‑ We're going to report you for letting this political threat to Rome go unpunished. Now you know they were clever enough to twist it around and Pilate knew it would be the end of his life. Pilate knew to tolerate a traitor was the end. Tiberius would never permit to tolerate a traitor. And this did it. He chose in favor of his neck not his soul. They’re saying, “You’re no friend of Caesar if you don’t kill this man.” It’s blasphemous under the religious law for Jesus to make Himself out to be a king and it’s treason for Him to call Himself king when Caesar is alive. “If you don’t do something about this, you’re not a friend to Caesar.”
And Pilate’s relationship with Caesar and Tiberius are ticklish enough that he understands now that he can’t do anything about this. He has been painted into a corner and there’s no way for him to win, even though he continues to maintain Christ is innocent.
Now, look at it from his picture for just a moment. Who’s he going to fall on the sword for? This shredded human, Jesus? Or Rome? And if he takes it on the brow for Christ and says, “No, I’m releasing Him,” then his career as a political appointment is over. He might be murdered. So from a political standpoint, he commits suicide if he doesn’t turn Christ over to be crucified.
13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Gabbatha - This word is not elsewhere used. It comes from a word signifying to be elevated. – the one who is lifted up should not be, but Jesus should be and will be on the cross.
Php 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
The judgment seat in the text is the stem word “bema.” If you know your New Testament, you know about the Bema Seat. They bring out Pilate’s bema and they put it on the pavement. It’s the Lithostrotos stone. You can go and walk on these stones. Those stones are beautiful, enormous, huge pieces of rock that for centuries have been walked over and within a stone’s throw, envision a chair of some judgment, throne-looking apparatus being brought out of Pilate’s house, sat down on these stones. He sits to render judgment. And, again, the layers of irony in Johannine literature. I mean, who is going to have the Bema seat? Who will sit on the throne judging man? All these layers. Here’s the God of the Universe being condemned by this little pawn, Pilate, on a stupid little chair on a stupid little rock.
And the God of the Universe will be the King of the Universe on the throne of God, judging righteously. Can’t miss the layers and layers of Johannine irony. “Behold, your king.”
14 Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, "Behold your King!" Mt 27:62
But he won’t miss the opportunity to mock them, “Behold, your king.”
I don't know what he meant by that. I don't know whether it was cynical, whether it was desperate. I don't know what it was. By this time the man has lost his senses. By this time he is in a corner, he is cringing, he is panicky, his heart is beating, he is sweating, he just wants out. He's remembering that Jesus may be the son of a god. He's remembering the warning his wife had in a dream which connects up that whole divine possibility. He's remembering that Jesus is innocent. He knows the hatred of the Jews. He worries about the pressure of Rome. He's trapped. He's pounded down. He's ripped. He's got nowhere to go. And he says Behold your king. In other words, the emphasis may be on the "your," you decide. "And they cried out, Away with Him, crucify Him. Pilate said unto them, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar."
15 But they cried out, "Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar!" Ge 49:10
Our king does not live in a house on the corner, our king does not sit on a throne on this earth; our king is other-worldly. Lest we love our country too much to displace our Christ as our King, be very careful. And we see the Jews doing just this. “We have no king but Caesar.” And if they could do it, it would be easy.
Samuel goes to God and they have this great discussion. He says, “Give them a king, but let them know what’s going to happen. He’s going to take their children and their land and their animals and a percentage of their crops and he’s going to extort the people to support his kingdom so they can be like everyone else. And warn them and warn them and warn them.”
So, you know, the king’s inaugurated, the whole story. We now come full circle. We want to be like all the other people and have a king; and the bitter, better kingdoms, and divided kingdoms and the time of the judges and all the cycle down and now they’re exiles and the remnants are scattered. And now they’re coming back to Jerusalem, a handful of Jews. It’s Passover. There’s a lot of them, they’ve kind of got their confidence up a little bit. “We have no king but Caesar.” And this is the high priest for goodness sakes. “No king but Caesar.” How far he’s come from his mission as high priest.
16 ¶ Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led Him away. Mt 27:26, 31; Mr. 15:15; Lu 23:24
Applications:
- We must be careful not to displace Jesus Christ and put the government first.
Heb 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
- God’s sovereignty never lessens an individual’s responsibility. Man’s not a puppet. At the same time, God is sovereign. The evil that occurs with Judas and Pilate and Caiaphas and Satan is not somehow on the fringe of God’s sovereignty.
God would say, I planned that Jesus will die for you.”
Jesus’ death on Calvary was not an afterthought because evil got, sort of run out of hand of God’s Sovereignty. The minute we say that God is Sovereign, and these things occurred, we say, “Well, how could God allow these things to happen?”
I mean, after all, why couldn’t He have dealt with Judas and Pilate and Satan and all those things? Well, he could have. And if God wanted to be a puppeteering Creator and just sort of relegate men the way He wanted to, He could sure do that. Somehow in this context man is a moral agent who works and lives within the Sovereignty of God. You and I have choices all the time. Well, does man have a free-will? Does man have a choice? Can man make decisions? Yes and no. That’s the answer. Under the sovereignty of God a lot of evil goes on.
If your view of man is basically good and a free moral agent, then you have a huge problem. If your view of man is basically, essentially evil and wicked and depraved, it makes great sense. That God is sovereign even as man is depraved. So both exist. If God’s sovereignty somehow dismantled human responsibility, then Christ did not need to die. Christ only died because it was part of God’s eternal plan to save man from his wicked estate.
- Who is responsible or guilty for the death of Jesus? Think about the disciples all running away. Didn’t Matthew know one good attorney? He was a tax-collector for crying out loud. He ought to know a couple of good, shrewd attorneys. How do we help Jesus out here? They all run away.
And people around the world who are Jewish are incensed with the whole notion that any way shape or form that Jews are responsible. Men and women, the text says that Jewish leaders were behind this but they were not solely responsible. All humanity was responsible. You see, it wasn’t just the Jews. The Jews were His chosen people. They are the ones that sort of incensed the thing. You read, go home today, and read two verses in Acts. Acts chapter two verses twenty-two to twenty-three, actually two passages, and Acts 4:27-28. Acts 2:22-23, Acts 4:27-28. Peter preaching saying, “All of us are guilty.” It wasn’t just the Jews who nailed Christ to Calvary. It wasn’t just the Jews who conspired, because all men are guilty, all men are evil and there’s not one righteous, no not one. Every one of us put Christ on Calvary. So we say, well, “Couldn’t God have used someone besides Judas and besides Pilate?”
Sure, He could have done anything He wanted. He chose before the foundation of time as far as you and I know it that part of His predestined plan, He was going to use these men as pawns. If that gives you trouble, I can’t help you. What should give you trouble is that He would love the likes of you and me.
The God of the Universe threw everything at His Son because He loved you and He loved me.
- Are you going to please God or man?
Eph 6:5 Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; 6 not with eye service, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,
- How do you look at the death of Christ
- Is it a martyrdom or
- Is it a substitutionary death for our sins
- You say I’m not like Barrabbas
- I’m not a murderer – you and I helped kill him because it was our sin that put Him there. Our hard hearts that pounded in the nails, Is He was pierced through for our transgressions. James says if you speak badly of people you are a murderer
- Not a robber or thief – you steal every day because you do not give God the glory He deserves, stealing His rain and sunshine and not using the gifts He gave you to serve Him
- Not a rebel – Every day you don’t submit to God as your Lord you rebel against Him
- You finally have to decide what you will do with Christ, no decision is a decision to reject Christ.
- Who do you believe Jesus to be, and what will you do with Him?
- The answer of the Bible is this: Acts 16:31 “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved”.
What about it? What is this saying to us? Listen to this. It's saying this. I don't care who you are, I don't care where you live, you've got to make a decision about Jesus. And the whole point that I want to emphasize to you is first of all this: Pilate attempted repeatedly to get rid of Jesus. You know what? He couldn't do it. You know why? No man can do it. If you think you can wiggle out of a commitment to Christ and a final decision, you are wrong. No decision is a decision with Pilate.
What are you going to do? You going to go for your soul or your neck? Your soul or your body? You want eternal salvation or do you want to go for the things of the world now and live it up? At least you think you live it up. You don't really live it up till you meet Christ and find out what livings all about. That's your choice. And God wants nothing more than to put you in a corner and force you to make that decision. But I say to you with all the love in my heart, make it before it's too late and you find that Jesus is silent and there aren't any answers anymore. And don't do what Pilate did. Don't pass the buck. Don't compromise. Don't run away. Pilate said that and you have to say it too. What shall I do with Jesus? And the only wise thing to do is accept Him as Savior and Lord.
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
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