Who Do You Say I Am?

Well, we want to welcome everybody this afternoon. We're having a very special service here in Southern California because we have a number of our people and two of our congregations attending a regional Sabbath service further up north in Los Angeles. But we all wanted to get together today because these are special days that we come together as the body of Christ to contemplate the power, the love, the meaning of the upcoming festival. So the night to be much observed, and of course the days that follow, the night to be much observed, and the festival and love and bread with its two holy days. So we have a lot to contemplate, and therefore we're all here together. So today I want to get right into it to discuss the importance of the message that I hope to bring everybody today. During our lifetime, all of us have been exposed over the years to some unique and unsettling trials and hearings that come to us over the media. Some of those trials and hearings come out of Washington, D.C. Some of them come out of well-known figures, celebrities in Hollywood. We have others that are famous legal cases of where somebody is being tried for murder. Unfortunately, perhaps even something that is heinous and horrible. Not that any one individual being killed, but beyond that even more than that. And as you know, and I know, we become at times, because of social media and because of the layout, we take these in soundbite by soundbite, photo op by photo op, expert witness by expert witness.

We are there as judge and jury. If we're not careful, and I'm saying this metaphorically, executioner. Sometimes perhaps in a rush to judgment before we actually have all of the facts.

Trials like this, we have trials even going on in our nation right now in all three of these categories. They can become bring us on to become emotionally charged. They can certainly by their impact and by the judgments made of alter society, alter culture. And we kind of look back and we say, wow, look what's going on. And then we want to add our two cents as we're on our little judgment seat in our office or on our cushion watching. Maybe not adding our two cents, but in these days of inflation, maybe three or four cents because of what we're experiencing right now. And sometimes it's almost as if we want to make a final verdict before we have all of the facts.

And then sometimes after all of that, then we say, whoa, boy, at the end of the day, I'm glad that I was not the judge over that. Black robe and all, because I just didn't know which way to go. This wasn't really a slam dunk.

Well, with all of that said, what I want to bring you into this message about is simply this.

That set aside, ultimately, each and every one of us must sit in the seat of judgment and render a verdict. We must render a verdict on history's greatest ongoing trial. What would you suggest is history's great greatest ongoing trial? Allow me to submit what I think is history's greatest ongoing trial, and that is simply the people versus Jesus of Nazareth. Before we go any further, we have some determinations to meet on that. When we are called to make a judgment with discernment, with facts, with all that is set before us, none of us escape this matter of judgment in making this decision and rendering a conclusion as to who Jesus of Nazareth actually was. Was this Jesus of Nazareth simply a son of man, just like us, and that alone?

Was he perhaps a well-meaning philosopher, a good man who had compassion on the sick, a good man who kept company with those that nobody else would keep company with because, well, after all, they were the dregs of society, quote-unquote. They were the sinners. He was a man that could talk to people one-on-one, and yet he could also talk to crowds and mesmerize them, as it were, and it seems as if he had a gift from above of healings and creating wonders and miracles, and was able to help people that were seemingly deranged. Is that our judgment alone on this son of man? And or perhaps he was at that time, as sometimes brought out, was he a revolutionary? Was he a zealot? Was he one of those wanting to overthrow the Roman Empire? And perhaps all this other was a cloak, a cloak to keep Rome and to keep the religious authorities of Jerusalem that had allied with Rome, to keep them off his back, to keep them off the scent of his trail of where he was wanting to take people around him. Maybe he was just simply one of those messiahs that had risen over the hundreds of years before in the post-exile period that sincerely believed that God was whispering in their ear and had lodged in their heart, and that they were the chosen. They were the ones. They were the ones that were going to liberate the people of God.

They were the ones that were going to be the one that had been spoken about in Genesis, the one that came from the seed of Eve, and that was going to trample the head of the serpent, the one that was in the promise to Abraham that through your seed that the nations of this earth might be blessed. For the words of Moses who said, there is one that is going to come like and unto me that will be amongst you. And it goes on and on and on. So what do we make of this person?

On the flip side, or is he the Son of God? Not just the Son of Man, but is he the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, Messiah to Israel? And ultimately, the personal Savior to all of humanity is the Gentiles would be, as it says in the book of Romans, grafted into that branch, grafted into that mainstay of what Messiah came to save. We look at all of this, and we are called as individuals because we come to God individually as to who is this man, who is this Yeshua, who is this man born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth, and going throughout the Holy Land that was killed abruptly, horribly, at crucifixion, that much of history has simply kept in the grave.

Who is this man? Who is this Jesus? As I speak to you this afternoon, whether you're listening today or perhaps in the future, allow me in speaking to myself, because I'm looking at myself on my computer because it's the Zoom service. This is like a bat. My words are bouncing out to you or going through to you, but they're bouncing back to me like a radar, signaling to me what I need to do. Allow me just simply to share this with all of you, each of us, as we come up to the New Testament Passover. For that is what we are observing. Yes, there is a typology in the past, and yes, a lamb was given in the past, but the New Testament Passover is, while it is an extension of that, is expanded. It is new. It is added difference because we're talking about something that unites us with God the Father and reconciles us. So we take a look at this, and I ask you then that this judgment is upon us. Each of us must face Him alone. We are baptized under the water alone, and we are raised alone. We are individually called. We are individually wrapped, even as then we are placed into this body of Christ that God alone and Jesus know alone who are His. But He knows that you're listening today. He knows that you and I have been baptized. Each of us must face Him, face this man alone now and then, and render judgment.

Each of us come up to that lonely and formidable figure of Jesus that each and everyone must ask simply this and answer His question and make a judgment as we come to the New Testament Passover.

Who do you say that I am?

The most profound question raised in the Gospels that only you and I can answer alone.

And as we come up to the New Testament Passover, and as we partake of that bread and we partake of that wine, that is an event. But that question is to be the answer of how our life runs.

It moves beyond that night of the New Testament Passover. It is every moment. It is every day that we answer Jesus. That question that He asked us to judge and to ask us to give a verdict, a verdict, and that is, who do you say that I am?

So this is important because the Apostle Paul, speaking with God's words, said, let a man, and in this day and age, ladies, let a man and a woman examine themselves as we partake of the bread, as we partake of the wine, that partakes and symbolizes the symbols of the Lord's sacrifice, and not to do that in an unworthy manner. Because in all of this, really, when it's all said and done, it's only Jesus that is worthy. He is the one that is worthy, but it is by God's grace, by that movement of love towards us, that love that says, I've made a judgment, I have made a verdict, and I want you now to understand, now, perhaps ahead of all, perhaps ahead of season, as we look where it says, there are firstfruits, not because of us, but because of him. So God has already made a verdict, and perhaps we have also made a verdict, but that verdict is carried out every day, not just at festivals, but a living festival that lives inside of us. So let's go into the message now, and I'd like to give you the title of this message, because what we're going to do is we're going to stand by one that did judge Jesus, and that was Pontius Pilate. And we're going to look at Pontius Pilate and look at some of his words and what happened there as he comes one-on-one with Jesus during those hours, painful deliberations that went on that are recorded in the Gospels. And as we review his decision processes, then let's consider our own and think that we, as we examine this case that is presented to you on the Sabbath day, the people versus Jesus of Galilee, as we approach the anniversary date of that celebrated case. So we're going to take a look at it, and as we come to it and come to grips with ourself, we're going to actually come to see that what we see more than ever is that we need his mercy we need his mercy. He doesn't need our mercy in judgment. We need his mercy in judgment, and that he stands ready and is always ready and always willing forever to give it to you, but we must ask something of us. And he asks something of us to return. So as we move into so the title of my message is simply this. Here we go. Ready? And we're going to give you an outline then we're going to give you the title of my message is simply this. Who do you say that I am?

Who do you say that I am? Lessons from the trial of Jesus. Lessons from the trial of Jesus. And so we're going to take a look at this, and I think we're going to, as we move through this, we're going to see a classical clinical case of the inevitable meltdown of human nature left to itself. Wind of light of a value system which lasts beyond the moment. What we're going to do is we deal with the person of Pilate, and if you're taking notes, you might just want to do this down. We're going to see the erosion of this human spirit without a savior, and we're going to go through some stages. Number one is going to be a conscience that is startled. A conscience that is startled. Number two, we're going to see a conscience once startled that is struggling with the issue. Struggling. And we will see the struggle, sometimes even as we struggle. Then we're going to see a conscience that is compromised. A conscience that is compromised. And then, number four, ultimately we're going to see a conscience that is that is drugged and silenced.

Drugged and silenced. Revealing a person that lives for the moment. Lives for the moment.

And we're going to come to understand then that when we understand that, that we've got to look at ourselves and ask where we're going. And again, beyond all of this, that sounds pretty heavy. I understand, but life is heavy. And what God the Father and Jesus Christ is doing is heavy, and it's divine work. And God will only do what God alone can do.

But He asked us to examine ourselves during this time so that we may come into unison to Him by His grace. So there's going to be hope, because at the end we're going to talk about the righteous judge and what the righteous judge does for us. So number one, here we go. Ready to go? Number one, we're going to deal with, number one, a conscience that is startled. And if you'll do so, let's go to John 18.28 in the Gospel thereof, John 18, verse 28. Because it gives us kind of a sequence what has happened here in John 18, verse 28. And of course, this is after the New Testament Passover on the eve before. This is after going down to the garden. This is after Judas has betrayed him in the garden. This is after he's been in the hands of the Jewish community, seized by the temple guards, taken to the officialdom of the temple and others that are there. And now we have a transfer. We might say a transfer of the prisoner. Now notice in John 18, verse 28. 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? Now, what is going on here, and where I want to draw your attention to this is Passover time in Jerusalem, which is a hub of activity. A number of the Jews have come in from the Diaspora.

A lot is happening. But at the same time, it seems as if Pontius Pilate had been left out of the issue with Jesus at this point, and not knowing what the temple officialdom had done. And the one thing that happens is simply this is, it's early morning. It could have been very, very early morning, because you recognize that Jesus would be dead by 3 p.m. that afternoon, and with everything else that went on before that. So, once we hit this point, there's going to be a lot of movement. But it's early morning, and he said, well, what's going on, and who is this man, and what do you want? It's a conscience that is startled, and I might say, perhaps unprepared for that which is about to transpire. One thing that I get out of all of this is that, and I want to share with you as we prepare to utilize the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and to have his life walking in us beyond this reconvening of our covenant with him, is to recognize our trials never come at convenient times, and perhaps when released prepared, or in comfortable circumstances. It may be uncomfortable, but that's why we have to go in knowing who we know—our shepherd, our Savior, our Messiah—and have that active presence in us, because we never know when trial is going to come. Pilate might have been asleep, woken up, came out in his bathrobe or his toga. What's going on? It was early. It might have been 3, 4, 2 o'clock in the morning. We don't know, but the one thing is we, number one, know it was early, and number two, there seems to have been a startled moment in that.

That's where we need to pray to God at times that we need to be spiritually awake at all times, to be able to give an answer, to be discerning, to be judging, according to where God's Spirit guides us and leads us and awakens us and gives us thoughts that may not be our own to make proper decisions that are going to be coming up this year. Join me if you would in Luke 23 and verse 1 to add a little bit more of the flavor of what's going on here. In Luke 23, starting in verse 1, then the whole multitude of them arose and led him to Pilate. They began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a king. Then Pilate asked him, saying, Are you the king of the Jews? And he answered and said, It is as you say. And we're going to build upon that a little bit later. So Pilate said to the chief priest and the crowd, I don't find any fault in this man.

But they were the more fierce, saying, He stirs up the people teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to the palace. What was going on here? What was going on here?

They were already programmed. They, to a great degree, wanted to make this not about them, but they wanted to have favor with the local jurisdiction under Pilate, and they were trying to make it a thing about Rome. What they're saying here are a couple of things. Number one, they said, you know, they were trying to play, you know, the good guys. He says, they're encouraging people not to pay their taxes. Tax evasion.

Well, we know that's not true, because they said, given to Caesar's, what is Caesar's? But given to God, what is God's? Number two, that he was claiming to be a king.

Claiming to be a king. Again, that would be treason against Rome. But they hadn't heard the whole story, which we're going to get to in a moment. That, yes, he was the king of a kingdom, but there's the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say. And number three, that he was causing riots. That he was causing riots. And so, they used all this as bait to work up Pilate's curiosity, and to draw him in, and to throw a lot of information at him all at once.

So, he must be guilty. I know with all of this, there's no way out. This is what I was learning in my study, as I was giving through this. Remember, when a conscience is startled, it'll be at times that perhaps we're not prepared for. That we thought another time, another day, another month. Let's understand that Satan is always alert, and Satan will always come at an opportune time to stir us up, to get us off course. We do not battle against flesh and blood, just as much as our Savior did not just simply battle against flesh and blood, but the other world. And Satan can come at us like in the fog of war, and just get us all caught up with facts and all of this.

And we must ask God for the ability to focus on the real issues, and the true issues at hand, and not to answer a matter before we get all of the facts. It's very interesting when you go back to John 1828. Let's look back there a second. In John 1828. In John 1828. Yeah, here we go. No, it's very interesting. You know, when you sink into God's Word, you just see a lot of things that you normally don't see. It's in John 828.

Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorian. That's the Latin. That's the Roman headquarters. And it was early morning, but they themselves did not go into the Praetorian, lest they notice. Lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. This is—and I want to point this out to you as God's people and my brethren. You just think this through. These people, you know, they're murdering towards murdering an innocent man.

They have murder in their heart. And lies are abounding in their statements towards him. And here, the Passover is near. It mentions that. The Passover is going to be that night, two o'clock, the sacrifices, and etc. Bottom line, they were more concerned with ritual than with righteousness. They were going through the motions. Were they sincere?

Yeah, but they're first syllables sincere. They're going to be a lot of sin and sincerity. They were preparing to partake of a ritual and go to an event that night, but in their heart was sin and murder. They were going to show up that night, having betrayed the Messiah, made judgment on him, and still at the same time paying their dues, showing up, doing their own thing, but then seeking God's blessing. Brethren, that's not what we've been called to, and that's why God asked us to examine ourselves as we come up to the New Testament Passover.

God hasn't called us just to show up at church. He hasn't just called us to show up at the New Testament Passover. He hasn't called us just to show up at the New Testament Passover. He's called us just to show up, do our time, kind of allow the word of God to land on us and to land on our shoulders but not in our heart. He's called us to be holy, as he is holy. As we come up to a New Testament Passover again, we've got to ask, are we allowing God to grow us? Are we growing in grace and knowledge? Do we really recognize that he is existing?

There is the indwelling of God the Father and Jesus Christ, that our hearts today are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and that we can't make room for sin, we can't make room for darkness, we can't speak out of our mouth like these guys were doing, and then doing something else. That's not what it's about. Verse 31.

Oh, let's go to 30. Then they answered and said to him, If he were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him up to you.

Then Pilate said to them, So they're lying. Then Pilate said, You take him and judge him according to your law. And therefore the Jews said to him, It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.

They had no compunction to allow somebody to do their bidding. They had murder in their heart. So they're going to make it a federal issue, an empire issue, and turn him over to crucifixion. Do you know why they did that? Do you know why they didn't kill him themselves?

I'm going to tell you in a moment. Because there's a stain that they wanted to put on this man from Nazareth. Join me if you would in Deuteronomy 21. In Deuteronomy 21, and let's pick up the thought in verse 22. Going back 1400 years before them, then all the many of the city, oh okay, verse 22, if a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he has put to death, you hang him on a tree. Are you with me so far? You hang him on a tree. You put him on some wood. Let's just be plain. And his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. For he who is hung on that tree is a cursed of God. That's a double curse. To be a cursed of God, there is no road back. And the so-called religious community of that day, thinking that they were in their minds doing God a favor, which they weren't, they were killing the Son of God. That's how I judge it. I think that's how you judge it. I think that is your verdict. That's why you're listening today. But they wanted just a small, a smash-up job of forever alienating any possibility that he might touch the life and the heart of another Jew by hanging him, nailing him to a tree, through a cross, to refined wood.

Everybody knew what that was about in that day. And Lord, have mercy on them. And Lord, have mercy on all of us and ongoing, because we were all responsible individually for what Jesus Christ did for each and every one of us.

Let's go to Matthew 27, 11. I'm skipping some here, but I want to keep on going on Matthew 27, 11.

Let's notice a little bit of a conversation here.

In Matthew 27, now Jesus stood before the governor—that's Pilate—and the governor asked him, saying, Are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus said to him, It is as you say. And while he was being accused by the chief priests and elders, he answered, Nothing.

Just as the manifestation of Isaiah 53, that he held his mouth, he held his peace.

But what he did say would be quiet. And he answered responsibly, maturely, and to the point. Then Pilate said to them, Do you not hear how many things they testify against you? But he answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly. He marveled.

It's very important as we look at this statement here, that it says simply this, Now Jesus stood before the governor. Why don't you think about that for a moment? You might have shot that down. It's a good mind concept. He stood before that governor, and ultimately he'd be executed. And there's a power in this.

And that he died a wrongful death to an illegal trial with a wrong discernment and a wrong judgment. That you and I might stand before God and come before him.

When we pray, we come to cross that sea of crystal. As Jesus' business entered, we come up to that throne, and we stand before that throne spiritually, metaphorically, and in spiritual reality. And he stood before Pilate, that we might stand before God the Father today and say our Father, and say in Jesus' name. And even as Satan might be, they're accusing us, as he did Job.

Jesus stands at the right hand of God, and says, Father, I know they've done wrong. I know they've sinned.

But do you remember? That's why I'm here. I've been one of them.

I've been one of them. Remember. And I want us all to remember that he stood before an earthly governor through an incredible example. And he stood.

And later he would die, that you and I might have by God's grace. And that grace alone, not who we are, not what we have done, but what God the Father and Jesus Christ have done in tandem for you and for me. So let's kind of remember that. And I've got Philippian. Let's go back to Matthew. I think maybe I did deal with that for a second. What I want to do here for a moment then is I want to go down to Matthew 27. Let's go to Matthew 27.15. Matthew 27.15. Don't worry about the other points. They're going to go rather rapidly. We're laying the foundation here. Matthew 27.15. Now at the feast, the governor was accustomed—so during the Passover time with all the crowds in, it said that at that feast, there was a custom of releasing the multitude one prisoner whom they wished. And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. And therefore when they had gathered together Pilate said to them, whom do you want me to release to you, Barabbas or Jesus, who is called Christ? For he knew that they had handed him over because of envy. You know, he got them. He knew what they were doing. They were jealous. He knew that. And he was beginning to get it together after his conscience was startled, but he knew what was going on. And while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him saying, I don't have anything to do with this just man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him. But the chief priest and elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. And the governor answered and said to them, which of the two do you want me to release to you? And they said, Barabbas. And Pilate said to them, what then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? And they all said to him, let him be crucified. Let's understand something that's powerful in this. And I know that Mr. Smith spoke to that this past Sabbath in San Diego. Here you have before the audit, Pilate's saying, this is going to be a no-brainer. It's going to be a no-brainer. Here's the man that's been rebelling against Rome. He's a zealot or whatever. And he's called death and destruction. And they're not going to go for this guy for release. And here's this man that, from what I hear, he's worked with the people. He's people. From what I understand as a Roman, this is going to be a no-brainer. Right? No-brainer. Think about it for a moment. Barabbas means son Abba, son of the father.

On the opposite side is the one named Yeshua at that time in the Hebrew. But he is known also as the son of God. And that's what he has proclaimed. Son of the father, son of God. This really allows us to also think of the atonement process of the two goats.

Man of and by himself could not determine who would be the ultimate sacrifice at the atonement for the people. And that's why lots had to be cast. It had to be God's verdict. It had to be God's judgment. Because alone, we don't get it. We couldn't understand. We could come up with a Barabbas. And at times in our lives, at a lower situation, we have the people versus Jesus of Nazareth, in a sense, thumbs down. Like in the Colosseum. Thumbs down. Death. And they let the criminal go.

You and I today, unlike Pilate, we can't push this decision off on another person. We, every day of our life, every motive, every thought, every word, every action that springs from that word, every deed that bears fruit from that action, we're saying we've made a judgment. We have fallen on your mercy, Father. Thank you for your calling. I am not worthy, but Christ, by his righteousness, that I come under like the wing of a dove, makes me and allows me to be able to come to you. That's what it's about. Let's go to point number two. Like I said, the rest are going to go rather quickly. We now find this conscience struggling, and there is a struggling. What am I going to do? What am I going to do? And you see this, that from the conscience that is startled to the conscience that is struggling, and he's trying to put every—as a politician, he's trying to put every play in the book on the board, and nothing is working. And we do find again, if I can make this comment, you might want to jot down Matthew 7, 22 through 23. We've already been there. He's ready to wash his hands of the matter. Out of these verses is where it comes.

The struggle comes to a point where he gives up. It's out of his hands, and he washes his hands of the matter. You know, one thing that we want to remember, brother, when it comes to the terminations in our life, that when we have these big things that happen our way, and even when we've made wrong decisions, God doesn't ask us to wash our hands in water. He in a sense asks us to wash our hands, to wash our deeds, to wash the body of our existence, the body of the sins that we have committed against our God. Even as we remain in this human framework, he asks us not to wash our hands, and we put them off and wash our hands, get rid of it. He asks us, as it says in Revelation 1, about verse 5, to be washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, to confront our sin, to say, oh no, it's not the Jews that did it. It's not this. It wasn't, I was in a weak moment, and I alone have sinned. I alone need your mercy.

I need to be washed in that sense, and in that figuration that is mentioned in Revelation 1. Because it's interesting that in the book of Revelation, that the term lamb, or the lamb of God, is used 27 to 28 times. The book of Revelation, yeah, it's a book about prophecy. It's apocalyptic in nature. But you know what? It's the book of the lamb, how the Father is going to use it continually, not only to reconcile you and me, but the entire world to be grafted into the, to becoming the spiritual Israel of God. That's so neat. So we recognize that. Point number three. We now know Pilate's conscience is compromised. It's compromised. Join me, if you would, in John 19. In John 19. In John 19, and picking up the thought, if we could, in verse one, if you bear with me. So 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, they put it on him a purple rope. They were mocking him because he said, I am a king. And one thing about the Romans, they were brutal. They were brutal. Number one, just like their Hellenistic neighbors, they did not look at others being human.

The Greeks had that in them that they thought everybody else, and that which is Hellenistic, was a subtype of people. That's where the term barbarians comes from. Other, not from around here, out of this country. And of course, the Romans took that to a maximum because, again, you recognized why is it that they could kill hundreds and thousands and thousands of people in the Colosseum? You ever thought that went through? Because they did not look at them as being human beings, but to be simply inanimate tools towards their pleasure, towards what they wanted to do with them. In a sense, they moved, but they didn't have life in them. And Jesus came to give every human being, no matter what race, no matter what ethnic group, no matter what tongue, life, mercy, not thumbs down, but thumbs up. That's the God. That's the Savior that we worship. So they did all this, and they said, hail him, king of the Jews, and they struck him with their hands. They struck him till he was basically blind with all the blood coming, and then went out again and said in the plan, bring him out to you that you may know, and that you might find no, no fault in him. But they continued to do so. They continued to do so.

The bottom line about all of this, brethren, was that it wasn't Jesus that was really on trial, was it? When you think about it, it was really Pilate, and it was those that claimed God, those that had the religiosity, thinking they were doing God a favor, that were found wanting. For the time of our Father above, we don't want to find any of us at all, found wanting as we approach these precious days of the New Testament Passover, that signifies the death of our Savior. And then the days that follow the celebration of the night to be much observed, where we proclaim God asked us to have that vigil. He asked us to be alert, to recognize that deliverance was not only for ancient Israel, but for the Israel of God in this present moment. Those that have come underneath God the Father and the Messiah and that second Moses, and that the Exodus continues. The Exodus continues. It never ends and moves beyond even even our time to the millennium, to the extension where people can pilgrim with God. And that, that's what we live for, that we might be a part of that. It was not Jesus that was on trial. It was all humanity on trial.

It was you and I that were on trial. And with the review of that trial, we have to admit we might as well have been there.

As we come up to the New Testament Passover, brethren, I just thought this is a good time to praise God. Praise God. Thank him for his mercy.

Don't make a non-apology. You ever heard a non-apology? You know how bad a non-apology sounds like? I think a kindergartner can say, uh-huh, that's a non-apology. Let's admit without our God, without his Christ, without our Savior, without that Holy Spirit fighting in us, that we come out wanting, that it's not about us and in humility. Praise God. Thank him for his steadfastness with us, that he has not abandoned us, no matter what perhaps we have done. Amen to that one. Number four, we then notice finally, Pilate's conscience is drugged and numbed and dead, almost like moral suicide.

When you go back to the whole story, now that you do this, Pilate, in this course of the morning, maybe in the very late morning, I added up Pilate made four different attempts to deal with Jesus, to get him off the hook so as to be rid of this man and move on with life.

We cannot move around Jesus Christ. He stands before us, this man, this man of Nazareth. We can't go to the right. We must confront him. We must make our verdict.

We must make that New Covenant pledge that we made at the last New Testament Passover, at baptism, that that was perfect. We were worthy of death, but he was going to give us life. We were not just simply going to walk like we walked before, but we said to follow him.

That's what it's about. He tried four different times to deal with Jesus. You get rid of this. He tried to put the responsibility on someone else, the Jews. He tried to lose himself through the choice of the crowd. Number two, he settled for the lesser of two evils by flogging him afterwards rather than killing him. Is this not enough? It was not enough. It will never be enough for Satan in his madness and in his insanity to try to get rid of the Son of God and his little brothers and his little sisters that have his spirit in him. It's never going to be enough. He will always, as it says in the scripture, come back at an opportune time to try to pull us away from our Lord and Savior. Number the last point where he tried an emotional appeal to the crowd again and again, but he succumbed. At the end of the day, you might want to jot this down. This is simple. Pilate was a people-pleaser, a people-pleaser to others. Number two, he was a person-pleaser to himself. Number one, he was a people-pleaser. Number two, he was a person-pleaser. I don't know what he's going to be pleased about other than there wasn't a greater riot. Bottom line is, he was not a God-pleaser. He was not a God-pleaser.

What had they is incredible. Have you ever thought about your friends, the worst thing Jesus Christ ever did was be perfect? I'm going to say that again. The worst thing that Jesus ever did was to be perfect.

And as it says in Hebrews 12, that as he went to the cross, he counted it all joy, for the joy that was set before him. And therefore, the author of Hebrews says, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. Fixed!

Not on Barabbas, not on Pilate, not on myself, not on your pastor. There are no substitutes at all other than to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. Because that's exactly what God the Father would want us to do. Because he is the bridge. He is the bridge, the Son of Man, the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth. Don't be the people versus Jesus of Nazareth.

You be a Son of God. What is fixed on that cross? Allow me to share a brief reading. It's going to be about a minute and a half. We're going to make one more comment, then we'll conclude.

This is from Dorothy Sayer. This is one of my favorite. It's graphic, but it's wonderful at the same time. And that's kind of what it's all about with Christ, isn't it?

It's graphic, but it's wonderful. It's joy. It's not happy, but it's blessed. It is the pathway to the bridge. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life.

Dorothy Sayer, many years ago, wrote about the real Christ.

The people who hanged Christ never accused him of being a bore. On the contrary, they thought him too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personalities and surround him with the atmosphere of tedium. We have very efficiently heard the claws of the Lion of Judah and certified him as being meek and mild, and recommended him as a fitting household pet for pure pure curates and or pale curates and pious old ladies. To those who do him, though, however, he in no way suggested a milk and water kind of personality.

He objected to him as being a dangerous firebrand. True, he was tender to the unfortunate, and he was patient to the many inquirers and honest inquirers and humble before heaven, but he insulted respectable clergymen by calling them hypocrites before heaven. But he insulted, and he referred to carers as the blacks. He went to parties in this reputable company and was looked upon as a gluttonous man and a wine-bearer and a friend of publicans and a friend of sinners, and he insulted indignant tradesmen and threw them and their belongings outside of the temple. Get out of here! He showed no proper difference for wealth or social position and confronted with a dialectic he made a paradoxical humor that affronted serious-minded people, and he retorted by asking disagreeable questions that could not be answered by rule of thumb. But he did have, and those that will be listening to this in the future, a daily beauty in his life that made us all of those that were in the people versus Jesus of Nazareth, that made us ugly, and officialed and felt that the established order of things would be more secure without him. So they did away with God in the name of peace and quietness.

Brethren, that's God's gift to us. That's what it's all about. That's who we have surrendered our life to, that we might no longer be a slave of sin, but a slave of righteousness, because we were bought and paid for by a man that came from above and for a few hours became a slave of Rome, that we might exist and live and thrive forever, beyond all this pain of life that we live in today. Join me if you would as we conclude in Isaiah 11. It'll be a brief reading of Isaiah 11. As we surrender ourselves and give a verdict as to who Jesus is and who God the Father is, because Jesus mirrors that Father, sometimes we talk about the judgment of God and we think of all those scary pictures that are on top of cathedrals over in Rome or in Germany or in France. Who better to render our life to, to judge us than Jesus Christ?

Join me in a John 11, and let me conclude with this, that at the take of that bread and doubt on that evening of the New Testament over and to render our lives, this is who will judge Jesus Christ, the judge of the quick and the dead, the judge of the living and the dead, that will come up again. You wouldn't want to be in anybody else's heart, nobody else's hands. He was tried unjustly.

He was tortured. He was humbled by Rome. They gave their best, but the, but the verdicts of mankind down below were over by the supreme of heaven above. Not just for you or for me, but for everybody. This Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, speaking of Messiah, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and his delight is in the fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, nor by the hearing of his ears, but with righteousness. He shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth, and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips, and he shall slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the belt of his loins and faithfulness in the belt of his weights. Righteousness, the worst thing that Jesus ever did, make us think, and thus he was killed, he was perfect.

Always be careful about judging people.

The holes of sacrifice that are the bridge between earth and heaven are only in one pair of hands, by a heart alone that is like his father, in which his father said, this is my son, in whom I am well pleased. That's what it's about.

Knowing this, I've laid out the facts. God willing.

You make a verdict from this moment forward.

You make a judgment as you come up against that lone figure, and he asks you, who do you say that I am? Who do you say that I am?

Not your actions. We'll tell him. We'll tell our neighbors.

We'll tell the world. Will you follow?

That's the story with the great purpose of God the Father and Jesus Christ.

We are blessed. May all glory and honor and praise be to both of them. Amen.