John 19:1-16a “Pledge Allegiance to God”

1:03Those we consider to be heroes of the faith are often immortalized as fearless. But Abraham and Moses, Rahab, Ruth, and Esther, Daniel and the apostles were not fearless. They just feared God more than they feared man. After Jesus was arrested, he was. Taken to Annas, who had served previously as high priest, and then to his son-in-law Caiaphas. Guards spit on him, blindfolded him, hid him, urging Jesus to prophesy and to tell them who struck him. Afterward, the Jews led Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, because they wanted to execute Jesus, but they did not have authority to do so.

2:01But Pilate, who despised the Jews in every way and had no reason to show compassion to Jesus, a man who ostensibly was planning to lead a rebellion against the nation of Rome, became increasingly convinced that Jesus was innocent and that the religious leaders had only handed him over out of envy. So after examining him, Pilate told the Jews, I find no guilt in him. I find no guilt in him. He offered to honor his custom of releasing one prisoner at the Passover each year, and he asked if they wanted him to release Jesus, but instead they asked for Barabbas, a criminal who is in prison for robbery, for murder, and for leading an insurrection against the Roman government.

2:50That plan backfired, and so today we are going to see as Pilate will make several more attempts to release Jesus. But in the end, Pilate, like all the people, All of us makes his decisions based on fear. And what we're going to do this morning is we're going to have the opportunity to consider our own fears and think about how those fears drive the decisions that we make every day of our lives. What we'll see here in John chapter 19 is that our greatest fear determines our highest allegiance. Let's pick up here in chapter 19, verse 1.

3:35Right off the bat, we see here that Pilate has Jesus flogged. Why, you might ask? That is a great question because Pilate has just said that he found no guilt in Jesus and offered to release him. But remember, his plan backfired, and the crowd demanded that Barabbas be released instead of Jesus. And so Pilate tries another strategy that's fleshed out in Luke chapter 23. Take a look at the screen. Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people and said to them, You brought me this man as one who is misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him.

4:23Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him. I will therefore punish and release him. And we see here in Luke's Gospel that Pilate is hoping that the crowd will be satisfied if he punishes Jesus. So Pilate has him flogged. Now, that Greek word translated flogged is mastigoo. It means to beat severely with a whip. And believe it or not, that was the lighter form of punishment that was used for minor offenses in the Roman Empire.

5:03It was awful, but it would not kill you. It isn't until later, just before he is crucified, that Jesus is scourged. Now, scourging is not recorded here in John, but it is recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And it's what happened to Jesus just before he went to the cross. Scourging was horrendous, and many prisoners died from it. Scourging was beating someone with a whip, but the whip in the pieces of leather had pieces of metal and bone embedded in it, so that every time the executioner struck the prisoner, the pieces of metal and bone would stick in his back, and he'd have to rip them out before striking him again.

5:49It was an awful form of torture. Now, friends, I know it's hard to think about the torture that Jesus endured and that the Jewish leaders and Roman soldiers inflicted. Upon him, but I want to remind you of two truths. First, Jesus endured this horrific suffering because of our sins. So, anytime we are tempted to make light of sin, to excuse it, to justify it, we should remember the suffering of Christ. Every white lie, every small theft of time or property, every careless word that we speak was another lash on the back of Jesus, our Savior.

6:41And thinking about his suffering makes us think differently about our sin. Second, I want you to remember that the physical suffering was not the worst part of the deal for Jesus. We should note that at no point do any of the gospel writers ever record Jesus crying out because of the pain and agony he was suffering, although surely he was crying out in pain and agony. But the gospel writers do record him crying out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

7:20The worst part of this whole ordeal was not the physical suffering, it was the Father turning his face away from him as he bore the guilt and the shame. Of all of our sin. That was the worst part for Jesus. After they flogged him, the soldiers decided to take out some more frustration on their prisoner. And the first thing that they do is they make a crown of thorns and shove it on his head. And I had never considered the spiritual symbolism of that before, but Warren Wearsby brought this to my attention this week. Take a look at what he said: Sin had brought thorns and thistles into the world, so it was only fitting that the Creator wear a crown of thorns as he bore the sins of the world on the cross.

8:10So they thrust this crown of thorns upon his head, and then they wrap him in this purple robe, the color of royalty. And in the Roman Empire, of course, soldiers and citizens and politicians, when they saw Caesar coming towards them, or when they approached him, they would say, Ave Caesar, or Hail Caesar. And so here you have the soldiers mocking Jesus with Hail, King of the Jews, as they bow down before him and then hit him in the face.

8:42Friends, all of this reminds us that Jesus didn't just bear the guilt of our sin, he bore the shame of our sin as well. Let's pick up in verse 4. 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. So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, Behold the man. For the second time, Pilate declares to the crowd that he finds no guilt at all in Jesus. And again, that significance cannot be overstated. The Gentile governor presiding over the official Roman court declares Jesus to be not guilty.

9:32He will do this three times. Every reader of the Gospels, every generation from this time forward will read over and over again that the court found Jesus not guilty. So Pilate brings Jesus forward, blood flowing from the crown of thorns, covering his face, wearing the purple robe, probably bent over from the flogging and the beating that he's endured to this point. And Pilate says, Behold the man. It's as if he's saying, Look at this poor man, this pitiful sight. Hasn't he had enough? He's not a threat to anyone.

10:16The author of Hebrews sees in Jesus' suffering a challenge for every Christian. He writes: Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against him. So that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. Consider him. Think about Jesus and all the hostility that he endured. He stayed the bloody course that the Father laid out for him all the way to the cross.

10:58But the author points out for us that in our own struggle against sin, we have not yet resisted to the point of shedding our blood. When we feel weary or faint-hearted about our own struggles, when it seems like we're not making progress in our fight against sin and we never will, the author of Hebrews says, look to Jesus. Consider him. Friends, we look to Jesus as an example, yes, but much more than that. We must remember that through faith, Jesus lives inside of us. The very one who rose from the dead, the very power that raised him from the dead, lives inside of us. So we should never give up in our struggle against sin.

11:50Do not lose heart. Do not grow weary. God's grace and the power of the Holy Spirit are sufficient for you, no matter how many times. You failed, no matter how long that you have struggled against sin, do not give up. Join me in verse 6. 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. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and according to that law, he ought to die, because he has made himself the Son of God. When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid.

12:45We see in these verses that the chief priests and officers are not moved at all by the pitiful sight of Jesus, beaten and humiliated. Instead, they cry out for him to be crucified, and for the third and final time, Pilate declares, I find no guilt in him. And so he sarcastically tells them to take him themselves and to crucify him, which he and they both know that he has no authority to do. In response, the Jewish leaders change tactics. You might recall that back in chapter 18, when they first brought Jesus to Pilate, they only accused him of doing evil. Well, that did not move the needle, and nothing else has worked either. And so they tell Pilate that Jesus. Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. He has committed blasphemy, which, according to the Mosaic law, is a crime that is punishable by death. Take a look at Leviticus 24.

13:43Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the name, shall be put to death. Now, of course, as we've noted several times, under Roman law, the Jews don't have authority to put anyone to death. They are prohibited from carrying out the death penalty. So they ask to do it for them. Oh, thanks. We have a change of tires.

14:40Sounds perfect. What were we talking about? Under Roman, thank you very much. Leviticus, yes. So, under Jewish law, anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord is to be put to death by stoning, but the Jews don't have authority to do that. That. And so they ask Pilate to execute Jesus. Well, this is a very shrewd move by the Jewish leaders. See, Pilate and his Jewish subjects may be miles apart theologically, but no one in any culture wants to mess with someone who claims to be and who may be a God. I want you to remember that in Greco-Roman culture, it was filled with myths about the gods coming down in human form. And in Greco-Roman myths, if you mistreated one of the gods who came down in human form, it did not end well for you at all. And so John notes that when Pilate heard that Jesus claimed to be God, he was even more afraid.

15:47But that may strike you as odd because never in John 19 or 18 is Pilate said to be afraid. But here, John says that he's even more afraid. Well, Matthew fills in the gap for us. Take a look at Matthew 27. Besides, while Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream. Now, men, I trust if you have been married for more than a week, you've learned that you ignore your wife at your own peril.

16:29I would remind a man who's a man. Saul, that scripture never says that a woman needs a helper. It's us. We need a helper. So, as we see in the text, God created man, gave him about half a day to work things out, and then said, This is not going to work. Pilate already had serious reservations about putting Jesus to death. Then his wife sends word to him that God spoke to her in a dream. And her conclusion was that Pilate should leave Jesus alone. That scared him. And now, the Jewish leaders are finally coming out with the whole truth. The reason they want to put Jesus to death is because he claimed to be.

17:20You guys want me to switch again to a different one? And now I'll be running this game show. Let's look at verse 9. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, Where are you from? 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? Jesus answered him, You would have no authority over me at all. Unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.

18:09So why doesn't Jesus answer Pilate's question about where he comes from? Well, there are probably at least two answers to that question. First, Jesus doesn't answer him in fulfillment of prophecy. Take a look at Isaiah 53. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shears is silent, so he opened not his mouth. When Jesus appeared before Annas and Caiaphas and Herod, the gospel writers all record that he did not answer any of their accusations.

18:53He did speak at times to them, but never once did Jesus ever defend himself. And that is because he was silent, like a sheep before its shears is silent. Jesus was taking our place. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. Unlike Jesus, the accusations leveled against you and me are true. Jesus stood silently, accused of things that he never did, so that he would be punished in our place. He does not answer. Any of his accusers in fulfillment of prophecy.

19:36But second, Jesus doesn't answer Pilate because he already has. You may remember back in chapter 18, Pilate asked him, Are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus said, What? My kingdom is not of this world. So he already told him plainly that he was a king. He just wasn't an earthly king with an earthly kingdom that could be won by earthly methods. I want you to look back at verse 37 in chapter 18. You might have to flip a page in your Bible.

20:11Chapter 18, 37 says, Then Pilate said to him, So you are a king? Jesus answered, You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. Jesus does not answer Pilate because he already has. Everyone who is of the truth will listen to his voice. God does not owe anyone additional revelation. Friends, in our pride, many people say, I'll believe in God when he gives me a sign, or I'll believe in God when he speaks directly to me.

20:58But friends, creation Itself is a miracle. And simply by looking at what God has made, we should be moved to conclude that there must be a creator, a creator to whom we are accountable. That's what Psalm 19 and Romans 1 tell us. We are without excuse. And if that weren't enough, God has also given to us a conscience. That word means with knowledge. Every one of us does and says whatever we do and say with the knowledge that it is either right or wrong. It points us to the fact that there must be an ultimate lawgiver, an ultimate judge of what is right and wrong. On top of that, God has revealed himself through Jesus in his sinless life that culminated in his resurrection from the dead, all of which he has written down for us, God has written down for us through the apostles, through the authors of scripture in the Bible. Men who had no incentive to lie. And so, friends, Jesus did not owe Pilate any further explanations or answers. He does not owe any human being any further explanation, least of all those of us who have access to the Bible, those of us who have access to Christians who will tell us the truth. And so, if you have justified your unbelief by saying that you will believe in God when he gives you a sign, or that you will believe in God when he gives you a sign of a sign Speaks directly to you. Understand that it is entirely likely that you will die in your unbelief because God has already given us many, many signs. He has already spoken directly to us clearly in His Word. And He does not owe any of us additional revelation or additional words. And so I urge you to humble yourself. Don't be like Pilate. Don't be like the religious leaders, the countless others who demanded to see and hear more from God, who had shown and said so much already. Humble yourself, consider the evidence, and then decide to follow Jesus or not.

23:15Now, Pilate cannot believe that Jesus will not speak to him. After all, he believes that he possesses the authority to release or to crucify Jesus. And humanly speaking, that oh dear. We're out of microphones at this point. I'm just going to have to yell. Humanly speaking, that is true. Pilate does have authority over Jesus, humanly speaking, but he only has that authority because God gave him that authority. Take a look at Romans 13. Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

24:00Pilate's authority, like all human authority, is a derived authority that comes from God Himself. Pilate's job is to exercise that authority in such a way that honors God in a way that is consistent with God's character and his law. And as we'll see, and as many of us know, Pilate is not going to end up doing that. But, friends, God is sovereign, he is in control of all things, even Pilate's failure to treat Jesus justly as part of his plan to deliver us from sin.

24:33So, Pilate's actions are sinful. But Caiaphas, the one who delivered Jesus to Pilate, is guilty of an even greater sin because he's the high priest. Of all people, he should have known the scriptures. He should have recognized the Messiah when he saw him and heard him. But he didn't. Caiaphas handed him over and premeditated his murder. Verse 12. 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.

25:27Pilate has now resolved in his own mind to do everything. Everything he can to release Jesus. In addition to believing Jesus is innocent, Pilate is now concerned that he may be a god. But the Jewish leaders, as you can see, are also resolved to accept nothing less than Jesus' execution. They've tried accusing him of doing evil. They've tried getting Barabbas released instead of him. They've tried even explaining their theological rationale. But none of that has worked. Pilate is still resolved to release Jesus. And so they play their trump card, which is to threaten Pilate's job, if not his very life. Take a look at how Bruce Milne explains the situation.

26:17Roman sources inform us that Pilate had gained Emperor Tiberius' favor and became a friend of Caesar through the good graces of one Sejanus, a highly placed imperial official. Some months before the crucifixion, during a palace purge in Rome, Sejanus had been removed and executed, along with many of his supporters. Pilate was therefore conceivably in a highly precarious position at this point due to his known connections to Sejanus. A whisper in the right ears in Rome, and Pilate was a dead man.

26:53Now, did the Jewish religio know all of this? Possibly. But what they did know is that when they said, if you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend, they were threatening to tell Caesar that Pilate had allowed a man claiming to be a king to develop a following in his area and had done nothing about it. Let's pick up in verse 13. So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the stone pavement and in Aramaic, Gabbatha. Now it was the day of preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, Behold your king.

27:44They 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. So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. If you think back to what we saw in verse 8, Pilate was already afraid because of his wife's dream about Jesus. And then when the Jews came and said that he claimed to be the Son of God, he was even more afraid.

28:21It seemed as though Pilate was moving in the right direction, as though perhaps he was beginning to conclude for himself that Jesus might actually be. Be the Son of God. In the face of this angry mob, it seemed that the fear of God might prevail over the fear of man. But then the Jews threatened Pilate's job and perhaps his life by implying that they would tell Caesar that Pilate let a man claiming to be king go free. So I want you to look again at the first part of verse 13. Look what it says.

28:58So when Pilate heard these words, at that moment, any fear of the Lord that may have been growing in Pilate's heart was driven out by the fear of man, by the prospect of Caesar taking away his job or his life. Friends, Pilate is remembered throughout history as a villain, as the man who sent the Son of God to be crucified, and for the most part, he is remembered accurately for his sins. But humility demands that we acknowledge that we may have done the very same thing if we were in his position, because every one of us has feared man more than we fear God many times in our life.

29:46To borrow a phrase from Dr. Ed Welch, in these kinds of moments, people seem big and God seems small. Look at Proverbs 29, 25. The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe. Well, to Pilate, it certainly didn't seem that way. As much as he wanted to release Jesus, that didn't seem safe at all. The safe play was to give in to the demands of the crowd and to preserve his job, his life, or both. The safe thing for Pilate to do was to fear man.

30:30But look what Jesus taught in his own ministry. Luke chapter 12. I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear. Fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. If Pilate had feared God more than he feared man and what man could do to him, he may have lost his job or his life or both.

31:08But Pilate would have been safe eternally because all man can do is kill us. That's it. That is the extent of the authority of man to make our brief life on this earth just a little bit shorter. That is all that man can do to us. But God Has the authority to cast into hell for eternity, to punish sinners forever for their sin and rebellion against him. That is why we should fear God and not man.

31:44And our greatest fear determines our highest allegiance. Because Pilate feared man more than he feared God, he pledged allegiance to Caesar and sent Jesus to be crucified. Now that is very sad, but in the end, what did we really expect? Pilate is a Gentile, a pagan who likely knew nothing of the Jewish scriptures or the prophecies about the Messiah. What's truly heartbreaking is that up until the very end, Pilate, the Gentile pagan, is doing his best to release Jesus. But when he asked the Jews, shall I crucify your king, the chief priests, the highest representatives of the Jewish faith, said, We have no king but Caesar.

32:39That is truly shocking. It is not surprising that Pilate feared man more than he feared God and pledged allegiance to Caesar. It is truly shocking that the Jewish religious leaders were no different than Pilate at all. They also feared man more than God. And so, once more, I want to draw your attention back to John chapter 11, because this passage is the key to understanding all that happens to Jesus and why. So, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, You know nothing at all, nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish. He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on, they made plans to put him to death.

33:58The greatest fear of the chief priests, the Pharisees, the religious leaders, was that Rome would come and take away their land and their temple. They feared man more than they feared God. And because our greatest fear determines our highest allegiance, they pledged allegiance to Caesar, just like Pilate. Friends, if I were to ask you, what is your greatest fear? Your immediate response might be, God, especially after you've just heard this sermon. But I want to ask you: what does your life reveal?

34:46Never forget that Pilate was resolved to set Jesus free because he knew for a fact that Jesus was innocent and did not deserve death. But he lost his nerve in front of the crowd, proving that he feared man more than he feared God. In the same way, many have resolved to walk in the fear of the Lord. But when relationships are threatened, when job security is threatened, when life is threatened, when freedoms are threatened, we prove that really we fear man more than we fear God.

35:25Fear of man is natural, fear of the Lord is supernatural. So you can know for sure if you fear the Lord or if you are beginning to fear the Lord, if God is moving you in that direction, God is at work in your life. He is the one who has authority to judge and to cast into hell. And so, friends, decide today whom you will fear. You must make that decision. And if the answer is God, turn to Jesus in repentant faith.

36:00Turn to him and fear the Lord rather than man, the one who took your punishment in your place, the one who died for you, so that you could walk in a holy fear of God without any fear of punishment at all. That is the good news of the gospel. If you're already following Christ, but you are tempted to think that God is upset with you because you, like every one of us, have succumbed to the fear of man many times in your life. I want you to remember this morning: Jesus died for those who feared man more than they feared God.

36:42His own disciples ran away when Jesus was arrested after promising never to do that. Jesus died for them. And if he can transform those men who were too scared to stick around and pledge allegiance to Jesus in the face of adversity, he can transform us as well. Those disciples who all ran away on the night that Jesus was betrayed then became bold witnesses for Christ after they were filled with the Holy Spirit, who were beaten and jailed and martyred for their witness to Christ.

37:22Friends, Christian, God is not disappointed with you. He loves you. You and he knows your weaknesses and your temptations. He desires to use you to empower you to be his witness, just like the disciples. And so remember, the fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe. Fear God rather than man, because our greatest fear determines our highest allegiance. Let's pray. Father, we confess that many times we have feared man and what man can do to us.

38:43In most cases, we're not afraid of being thrown in jail or being put to death for our faith. We're simply afraid of being mocked. Being ostracized, being left out, being thought of as weird or uncool. For the many times that we have feared man instead of you, God, we are sorry. We pray that you would teach us to fear you, the one who has authority to cast into hell. Not because we have to worry about that as believers, but because you are God.

39:40And if you are God and we belong to you, then we never have to fear man or what man can do to us. Give us boldness, give us courage, give us the words to say when we're at work, when we're on campus, when we're around our neighbors, and there is an opportunity to speak about our faith in Jesus, and we are tempted to shrink back and to pretend like we are not your disciples. Father, for everyone who is not yet a Christian, I pray that today would be the day that they turn to Jesus in repentant faith. I pray that you would give them a holy fear of you, that would overcome. Any fear of man and what man can do to them. Call men and women, boys and girls to yourself.

40:41We thank you, God, for your word and for speaking so clearly to us through it. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.