Pilate the People-Pleaser

Alright, we are in John's gospel. We're chapter 18 today. If you have your Bibles open to that place I'm gonna start to read at verse 28 down through verse 38. So John's gospel chapter 18 starting at verse 28 and I'm gonna read down through verse 38. It says this Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium and it was early morning But they themselves did not go into the praetorium lest they should be defiled But that they might eat the Passover and Pilate then went out to them and said what accusation do you bring against this man? meaning Jesus They answered and said to him if he were not an evildoer We would not have delivered him up to you. And then Pilate said to them you take him and judge him according to your law Therefore the Jews said to him it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death That the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled which he spoke signifying by what death he would die And then Pilate entered the praetorium again called Jesus and said to him Are you the king of the Jews and Jesus answered him? Are you speaking for yourself about this or did others tell you this? Concerning me and Pilate answered am I a Jew your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you to me What have you done? Jesus answered my kingdom is not of this world If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews But now my kingdom is not from here Pilate therefore said to him. Are you a king then? Jesus answered you say rightly that I am a king For this cause I was born and for this cause I have come into the world that I should bear witness to the truth Everyone who is of the truth. Here's my voice and Pilate said to him what is truth and when he had said this he went out again to the Jews and said to them I find no fault in him at all Let's pause there and pray Lord, it is good to be in your house today and to just come before you with with thanksgiving and song and now To come before you Lord and to open our hearts so that we might receive what you would say to us through your word and

we thank you for this part of the story Lord that is so important to us as We approach the death burial and resurrection of Jesus in the gospel of John We just pray these things would be impressed upon our hearts Lord the magnitude of your love for the world revealed on a cross We're just so thankful be with us now as we study your word together, it's in Jesus name We pray and everybody said amen Well just before Christmas we looked at the private conversation that Jesus had with his disciples between John chapters 13 and 17 and what is commonly referred to as the upper room discourse and Now as we continue in our journey through the whole Bible but right for the moment our journey through the gospel of John we come to the last few chapters of John's gospel which deals with the trial and the crucifixion and Later the resurrection of Jesus and we are introduced to someone here in chapter 18 who plays a pivotal role Who actually plays the pivotal role? with regard to the sentencing and Crucifixion of Jesus and that individual is of course Pontius Pilate Now he is only referred to as pilot in John's gospel He's only referred to as Pontius Pilate a few times in all of the New Testament, but that is his full name Pontius Pilate in Latin it is Pontius Pilatus He is mentioned not only in the Bible, but Pilate is also mentioned by a few of the ancient historians like Josephus Philo of Alexandria Tacitus and Eusebius to name a few what's interesting is that despite the fact that Pilate is mentioned in the Bible and mentioned by historians outside of the Bible for centuries skeptics questioned whether or not Pilate ever existed and They thought that the stories about Pilate were as much Fables as the stories about Jesus again, these are the skeptics and the reason why skeptics thought that Pilate didn't exist and that stories about him were fables was because for centuries there was no

archaeological evidence to point to Pilate's existence until 1961 in 1961 in Caesarea and Israel Well, a stone was discovered that is known as the Pilate steel or the Pilate stone. Here's a picture of it. It's the first external evidence for Pontius Pilate. It's a two by three foot placard carved in stone from the first century, discovered in Caesarea, as I said, in 1961. The inscription etched in stone is Latin. And you can only read partial words, but this is what they were able to gather from the partial words that were etched in stone. Tiberium Pontius Pilatus Praefectus Iudaei. And in English, it translates of Tiberius, because Tiberius was the emperor at the time, Pontius Pilate Prefect of Judea. First evidenced his existence, despite the fact the Bible had been talking about it for centuries. Finally, archaeology caught up with the Bible. So we know very little about this guy. Here's all we do know. He became prefect or governor of Judea. The Bible uses the word governor in description of his role, but prefect is more descriptive. And he became prefect or governor of Judea, which is the middle province of Israel, and it included the city of Jerusalem. That was a big deal.

Appointed in the year A.D. 26, Pilate had a reputation for being a very bloodthirsty and cruel man, especially against the Jews whom he oversaw as part of his reign, appointed by the Roman government. In fact, Jesus even references how cruel and bloodthirsty Pilate was. There's a story that he mentions in Luke chapter 13. You don't need to turn there. But apparently in Luke 13, Luke writes that there were a group of Jews from Galilee who were worshiping at the Temple Mount and Pilate slaughtered them. And Jesus just makes a passing reference to that. But because Pilate historically and biblically had such a reputation for being bloodthirsty and cruel, historically, we know that he had already at this point been put on notice by Rome. Caesar had warned Pontius Pilate, stop being so cruel. You are indiscriminate in the way you slaughter people. And so Pontius Pilate was put on notice, if you continue like this, you will be recalled to Rome and you will lose your command. So I share all that so that you have this backdrop to this story, because by the time we get here, to this occasion where Jesus is brought before Pontius Pilate, Pontius Pilate is serving as a judge. He's about ready to make a determination as to whether or not Jesus has violated Roman law.

Now that's his law under which he governs, okay? The Jews had their own separate law. Under Jewish law, they accused Jesus of blasphemy because Jesus claimed to be God and they didn't believe that he was, so the Jews wanted him killed for blasphemy. The problem is that about two to three years before this scene, the Roman government had stripped the Jews of the right to practice capital punishment according to Jewish law. So the Jews could not kill Jesus and the method by which they would have killed Jesus would have been stoning him to death. They couldn't enforce capital punishment against Jesus, even though they accused him of blasphemy, breaking the Jewish law, because the Roman government had stripped them of the right to enforce capital punishment. So they had to trump up a charge that would have been a capital offense under Roman law, and that's why they appeal to Pontius Pilate, and the charge that they trump up was sedition, that Jesus is claiming to be a king and there's only one king and that's Caesar, and so that's the charge that they've trumped up. Now interestingly, in the text it said that the kind of death that Jesus would die, Jesus referred to, he prophesied, because earlier in John's Gospel, John said, if I be lifted up from the earth,

all men will be drawn unto me. And he was prophetically speaking of his imminent death where he would be lifted up on a cross. So even Jesus knew in advance his death would be under Roman law, not under Jewish law, even though both charges were not valid. So the Jews come to Pilate and say, you gotta crucify this guy because we can't kill him. And Pilate's like, well what is the charge? And against this backdrop, listen, Pilate has all these competing voices in his head. He's got Caesar's voice in one ear saying, don't be slaughtering people, okay? He's got another voice in the other ear, which is the mob, the crowd of the people. who are shouting, crucify Jesus, crucify, crucify Jesus, alright? And if Pilate had a third ear, it's his wife who's also whispering to him. Now, John does not record it, but Matthew does, which is the beauty of having the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, because God inspired four different writers to talk and record, talk about and record the same story from four different angles, and much of it overlaps, but there's a lot of unique information to each of the different Gospel writers. And one of the things unique to Matthew was he mentions that Pilate's wife, she's not named so we'll call her Mrs. Pilate, Mrs. Pilate has a dream, and the dream is about how innocent Jesus is. And so I'll just read it to you, it's Matthew 27, 19, now, this, the framing of Matthew 27, 19 is Pontius Pilate is on the judgment seat, ready to pronounce a sentence on Jesus. And Matthew 27, 19 says, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him saying, have nothing to do with that just man. Now I'm reading from New King James, the NIV says that innocent man, okay?

And she adds, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him. So apparently God gives Mrs. Pilate a dream about Jesus, that he's just, that he's innocent, that he's righteous, and so she's tormented by this dream, and so she goes to her husband and says, don't kill this guy, I've been tormented by a dream, he's a just man, he's an innocent man. And does Pilate take his wife's advice? No. Ladies, things haven't changed for 2,000 years, I'm sorry to tell you. Often to our own demise, but anyway, he doesn't take his wife's advice, and I want to explain something that is happening here because it's important to our story. There's a providential aspect to this story, and there's a practical aspect to this story. What do I mean? Let me first start with the providential aspect of this story. Please know, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was God's providential plan to save the world. Okay? God is good at chess, and He is using Pilate as a pawn. But this is a providential act of God. Peter, when he gets up on the day of Pentecost to preach in Acts chapter 2 to the bystanders, he refers, Luke records it in Acts 2 verse 23, that Peter says this in the course of proclaiming the gospel, proclaiming the good news. In Acts 2 23, Peter says, the determined, Jesus was crucified according to the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God. The determined purpose and foreknowledge of God. The ESV says it this way, that He was crucified according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. So that's what Peter says there in Acts 2 23, that this was all the providential, predetermined plan of God for the salvation of the world. And Peter wasn't the only one who said such a thing. Isaiah, 700 years before Christ, prophesied about the coming Messiah in Isaiah 53, and in Isaiah 53, among other things, Isaiah says in verse 5, that He was wounded for our

transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. This is all prophecy about Jesus. In verse 7 of Isaiah 53, that He would be led like a lamb to the slaughter. All of this was fulfilled in Christ. In verse 8, that He would be stricken for the transgression of the people. And then listen, Isaiah 53 verse 10, Isaiah says, yet it was the will of God, the will of the Lord, to crush Him. This was God's will. This was God's predetermined plan for the salvation of the world, that Jesus should die on the cross. So make no mistake about it, when we're looking at this story here, the crucifixion of Jesus was God's providential plan, in God's providential timing, to save the world through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross, so that whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, Romans 10, 13, okay? There was a divine plan. purpose at work. And God, now listen, because this is where it gets tricky, but understand. A divine purpose at work, and God used a man to advance his purposes. No doubt unknowingly to the man, but a man who was predisposed to such a heinous decision because of a weakness in that man's soul. Now what was the weakness in Pilate's soul? And here's where the providential aspect of this story intersects with the practical aspect of this story. Pilate had a weakness, and it was a weakness that God capitalized on to accomplish his divine purposes without violating Pilate's free will. And here's what his weakness was, for you note takers. Pilate had a weakness for what other people thought, and that weakness moved Pilate off center from what he knew was right. This is not only where it gets very practical, but it becomes very personal, doesn't it? Let me show you what I mean by that statement about Pilate. In the opening verses that I read with you there in chapter 18, Pilate interviews Jesus and he investigates the charges that have been brought against him, and he concludes, he rules, that there is no reason to condemn him to death. Look again in your Bibles chapter 18, look at verse 38. Verse 38, it says, Pilate said to him, said to Jesus, what is truth?

Quid est veritas? Okay, it's the age-old question people have been asking. And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, I find no fault in him at all. That's the first ruling. I find no fault in him at all. Now, John doesn't tell this, but again, this is the beauty of how the Gospels overlap. Luke tells us that at this point, when Pilate first stands up and says, I find no fault in him at all, Luke tells us that Pilate then on a legal technicality says, you know, listen, technically speaking, Jesus isn't even in my province, okay? Because he's a Galilean. He's from the northern part of Israel. And the northern part of Israel was under the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great. And so, Pilate, Luke tells us at this point in the story, says, send Jesus off to Herod Antipas. This is his problem, not mine. Jesus is sent up to Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas interviews him a little bit, jokes around with him, like, this isn't going anywhere. Show me a miracle. Jesus doesn't perform any miracles. He's like, you know, I'm done with you, and sends him back to Pilate. And Pilate's like, great. I thought I was done with him. I thought Herod Antipas would be able to take one for the team, and instead now he's back. So, like, this is the game of hot potatoes, you know. So, like, here Jesus is back, and Pilate's like, oh no, now what am I going to do? Here's what I'm going to do. Because he's got Caesar in his ear. He's got the mob in his ear. He's got the wife in his ear, okay. And so, he's like thinking, what am I supposed to do here? Here's what I'm going to do. Maybe I will appease the crowd, and I'll make Caesar happy, and I'll make my wife happy. A happy wife, happy life. I've got to live with her. You know, this is all very real in the moment. He's like, here's what I'll do. I'll just have Jesus scourged. I will have Him whipped, and Isaiah tells us, beyond recognition. I'll have Him whipped so severely, an inch short of His death, and maybe that'll appease the mob. Look in your Bibles at chapter 19. Chapter 19, verse 1, it says, so then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe. And then they said, they're just mocking Him, they said, Hail, King of the Jews, and they struck Him with their hands. This is all before the whipping. Verse 4, Pilate then went out again, well I'm sorry, he was scourged at this point, they just add insult to injury. Verse 4, Pilate then went out again and said to them, Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault

in Him. Ruling number 2, same thing. Jesus is standing before them, beaten and bloodied, and Pilate still says, I find no fault in Him. I'm not going to kill this guy. Keep reading. Verse 5, then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate said to them, Behold the man. Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, Crucify Him, crucify Him. And Pilate said to them, You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him. Him, that's ruling number three. Three times, not once, not twice, but three times Pilate finds no basis for condemning Jesus to death. So then the question is, why did he have Him crucified? If three times he says there's no basis to condemn Him, I find no fault in Him, no fault in Him, no fault in Him, then why in the world did he end up having Jesus crucified? And the answer is because he capitulated to the loudest voices. He gave in to the crowd. He appeased the mob. This is what happened. You see, he feared man, certainly instead of God, because he was a people pleaser. Because it even says further down in John chapter 19 verse 12, look at verse 12, from then on Pilate sought to release Him. He looked for every which way to be able to release Jesus. This is the last thing he wanted to do. It says, 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. Oh, fear of man. I'm afraid of Caesar and I want to please these people. This is the quandary that he's in. This is the torment in his head. Verse 13, and 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. Now it was the preparation day of the Passover and about the sixth hour, that's 6 a.m. friends. This is Roman time now. Okay, this is 6 a.m. All of this happens in the wee hours of the morning. 6 a.m. and he said to the Jews, behold your king. But they cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him. And Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king? And the chief priests answered, we have no king but Caesar. Now think about that. You remember a little snippet of American history when the Revolutionary War started in Lexington and the British came and said to the colonists who had formed this Minuteman Militia, by the way they were all from the church in Lexington, the men formed the brigade that came in Lexington to fight the British. And the British said to them, throw down your arms in the name of the King of England. And they said, we have no sovereign

but God, and no king but Jesus. That's how the Revolutionary War started because our highest authority is God, not the King of England. Our highest authority is not the President. It's not the Congress. Thank God, what a mess that's been this week, right? Our highest authority is God. And these people are saying, no, no Caesar is our highest authority, He's our king. This is thumbing their nose at God. And so it says in verse 16, tragically then He delivered him to them to be crucified. And then they took Jesus and led Him away. For you note takers, Pilate was controlled by the fear of man and the desire to please people. And it was more important to him what people thought than what was the right thing to do. This is painfully practical, friends. Because this is something that all of us must wrestle with from time to time. Why? Because there's a little bit in every single one of us that wants to be liked. And you might say to me, wait a minute, Pastor G, you just made the case that God providentially nudged Pilate to do what He did, so why are we pointing fingers at Pilate? Listen, because God used Pilate for God's purposes according to Pilate's own weaknesses. God did the same thing with Judas, by the way. Don't feel sorry for Judas. Some people think, well how unfair, like of all the people on the planet and God picked this one guy to be the fall guy. And Judas was the one who betrayed Jesus. And it's kind of unfair, why would God do that? And this guy is condemned for that. You know, poor Judas. No, not poor Judas. What God did in that case is very similar to what He's doing here. He accomplished His providential purposes by capitalizing on someone's weakness that was already there. God didn't violate Pilate's free will and He didn't violate Judas' free will. You know how we know this? What was the reason that Judas betrayed Jesus? What was the reason? Money. For 30 pieces of silver I'll betray the Son of God. It was money. It was greed. Okay, well, let's back up. In John chapter 12, John tells us that Judas was already a thief. Way before he took 30 pieces of silver from the religious leaders to betray Jesus. In John chapter 12 John tells us that there was a money box that was kept for the donations of the people who gave to Jesus' ministry to help support Jesus and the disciples for the three and a half years of Jesus' public ministry as they traveled around the countryside. And the

one who took control of the money box was Judas. And in John chapter 12 it says, and Judas was a thief because he regularly helped himself. He stole from the money box for himself. Judas was already a thief. So God used a thief to do a thief's work to accomplish God's purposes. And God did a similar thing with Pilate. Pilate was not some innocent pawn in the providential plan of God. Pilate was a guilty pawn that God capitalized on for His divine purposes. But without violating Pilate's will, because this is how Pilate was already bent. He was an unprincipled man who had an appetite for slaughtering people he didn't like and appeasing the ones he did like, even if it meant violating what little conscience he had. And God said, I'll use that guy to do my bidding. Pilate was captive to the fear of man, and the trap of pleasing people. Now when I say that don't misunderstand. Like you know I hope we want to please people in a sense of like, listen I care about what other people are going through, and serving people. There is an honorable way to please people. The kind of thing I'm talking about I hope you all understand, right? It's when we become people pleasers, where we are so bound to make sure that everybody is happy. I've got to fix everything, make sure everybody is happy. I've got to make sure they are happy because if they are not happy they won't like me. And I want to be liked so I want to make sure everybody. And that people pleasing thing that all of us to some degree or another will struggle with from time to time is such a terrible weakness. It was Pilate's weakness. And if nothing else can we please learn from his bad example. Because why? Two things to point out. The fear of man

will cause you to not do things you should. And being a people pleaser will cause you to do things that you shouldn't. That's why these things are so destructive in our lives. Having the fear of man, being captive to the fear of man or the trap of pleasing people. And the one question we should all be asking is not what will people think? But is what does God think? When you are making decisions or your, whether it is for your company, or for your family, or for your kids, or whatever the case might be. The question we should all be asking is what does God think of this? What does God think of this? Because you and I have one audience to please and one audience to fear and it is God Almighty. And if you endeavor, if you endeavor to please, that was weak. We'll try again. We'll try again. Because wait, let me follow up. Wait a minute. Wait. No. See, that sounded like I wanted to be liked. I don't want to be liked. I just hadn't actually finished it. So listen, if you endeavor to please God and to fear God alone, guess what? He's going to take care of everybody else who doesn't like that you are a God pleaser instead of a man pleaser. And He will take care of everybody else because you fear God more than man. And this is our objective in life really is to make sure that God is the one that we are pleasing, and that God is the one that we fear. And again, to try to qualify, when I say fear God, I don't mean this recoiling kind of God's going to punish me type of fear. But it's this reverential fear that He is holy, and righteous, and just, and pure. And I want my life to be lived in such a way that honors Him in public and in private. To quote Oswald Chambers, he said, quote, the remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else. Whereas if you do

not fear God, you fear everything else. John Witherspoon, he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was also the sixth president of Princeton. He said, quote, it is only the fear of God that can deliver us from the fear of man, end quote. You see there is a worldly philosophy. There's a worldly belief system, and a worldly mindset. Some of which is ok, because it doesn't really contradict Scripture. But most of which especially in these days is evil and that world system is constantly trying to wrestle you into submission and the Bible warns us about this very thing for example Romans 12 to do not be conformed to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God the Bible warns us don't be conformed to the pattern of this world Colossians 2 8 see to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ so we have to always be aware of this that there is this propensity in the world to shape us to mold us and and that kind of shaping and molding often comes because we yield to the fear of man and wanting to please people and can we all just get along and I don't want to you know rock the boat and so we please rock the boat and stop caring what people think can I get an amen the mob in this story and every mob like this is loud and annoying and relentless and if they can't get you to join them if they can't recruit you they will just simply try to wear you down until you finally do and Joshua Joshua saw this few thousand years ago in his farewell address to the Israelites in Joshua 24 14 and 15 he said now therefore here was his charge to them now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth and put away the gods small G the pagan gods put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt serve the Lord he says and if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord choose for yourselves this day whom

you will serve whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell but as for me in my house we will serve the Lord he made that public declaration I don't care what everybody else does but this is what I'm gonna do and my family's gonna do we're gonna live for the Lord he says and and look in talking about all these things I I don't mean it on just some kind of a large scale like you know us versus the the evil mob of the world okay this plays out in small ways in everyday life with your family where you work where you go to school with your neighbors when we are captive to the fear of man and the trap of always trying to please people we will inevitably violate our own conscience and sin against God Proverbs 29 25 says the fear of man brings a snare it's a trap in other words but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe conversely Proverbs 19 23 the fear of the Lord leads to life and he who has it will abide in satisfaction he will not be visited with evil David would write in Psalm 27 1 the Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear the Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid so two quick exhortations one making decisions based on whom you fear or whom you want to like you that's the definition of being a people pleaser but instead start making decisions based on fearing God and pleasing him so we got we got it we got to stop this it's like well what would my mother-in-law think what will my wife think well what my neighbors think well my boss think well my kids think okay and we need to start asking what does God think and we need to stop this oh oh the the trap of social media and all of this who likes me know how many likes today how many likes do I have who's following me do I have that you had that little blue checkmark Oh likes and follows likes and follows likes and follow selfie stop all that who cares who likes your posts frankly we don't care about your posts right it's like stop worrying how much people like or don't like you you have one person to please in the universe and it's the Lord God Almighty and if you please him he'll take care of everybody else right he'll take care of everybody else

In fact, in Galatians 1.10, Paul wrote this, for I am now, for am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. Paul says you can't be both, a God-pleaser and a man-pleaser. So we must fear God and please Him, and God will take care of everybody else. Let me close with this. All of this took a drastic toll on Pontius Pilate. Eusebius, the ancient historian, writes that four years after Pontius Pilate gave the order for Jesus to be crucified, four years later, Caesar Tiberius recalled Pontius Pilate to Rome and then banished him to Gaul, which is France. And Eusebius writes that around the year 39 AD, roughly six, seven years after the crucifixion of Jesus, having been so tormented that around 39 AD, Pontius Pilate committed suicide. It is a devastating thing to be under the bondage of the fear of man and being a people-pleaser. It violates our conscience every time, and it sins against God. So I would like us to pray, and I actually wrote out a prayer, I don't ever really do this, but I think it's so important that for myself included, for all of us, to just join in this prayer. I'm gonna just lead you, and all you have to do is just kind of, if this is you, you don't have to feel obligated to pray this, but if there's any amount in you that says sometimes I'm captive to the fear of man, and I'm trapped by being a people-pleaser, and God free me of this so that I can please you and live in the fear of God and not in the fear of man, okay, then just, you can just follow along in this prayer with me, okay? Everybody just bow your heads, and I'll go slowly enough, and you can just whisper this to the Lord, and let's just pray this. Just whisper this, say, Lord, deliver me from the fear of man and the trap of being a people-pleaser. May I be a person who fears you and pleases you in all things, at home, at work, at church, at school, wherever I go, with my friends, in public, and in private, because you see

all things, and I will trust you with everybody else in my life. In Jesus' name, and everybody said, amen.