25th May 26 | 06:30
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Luke 23 01-05 THE KING AND HIS KINGDOM 08 Luke 23 02-05 God’s love for the fallen man
📖 Luke 23:1-5
Sun14Nov2021 – God’s love for the fallen man - Luke 23:01-05 - THE KING AND HIS KINGDOM (08) - Bible reading: I John 4:9-10
We praise God for His love for us. We see the deplorable condition of man’s heart and yet God loves us and He goes to the cross on our behalf.
Our evil is not something that we do without knowledge but our sin before God is intentional and deliberate. Yet, He loves us and dies for us. He desires for us to live a full life, which brings glory to Him.
Luke 23:2-5 And 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." (3) Then Pilate asked Him, saying, "Are You the King of the Jews?" He answered him and said, "It is as you say." (4) So Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowd, "I find no fault in this Man." (5) But they were the more fierce, saying, "He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place."
We saw that Pilate had had a personal audience with the God of heaven and earth and yet he rejected to become a citizen of the kingdom of Jesus.
Then we find Pilate, demonstrating double standards. He was revealing the fallen nature of man. Pilate, had Jesus tortured, while simultaneously declaring that Jesus is innocent.
As we read the entire narrative of what took place, we find that Pilate had other reasons, why he should not have sentenced Jesus to be crucified. Pilate had enough basis to stay with what he knew, was the right thing for him to do.
1. Pilate knew that the Jews had delivered Jesus to him because of envy. This he knew from his own sources of information that he had gathered.
Mark 15:10 For he knew that the chief priests had handed Him over because of envy.
When Pilate knew that the underlying reason why the Jews had brought Jesus to trial before him, Pilate should have called off the bluff. Pilate did not have the courage to confront the Jews. Pilate had the basis to do what was right but he did not do it .
Isn’t this man’s condition? We do not face up to the truth but we go along with the crowd. This is the cowardice in man’s heart.
2. Pilate’s wife warned him not to make a mistake with Jesus, for He was just.
Matthew 27:19 While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, " Have nothing to do with that just Man , for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him."
Here was another warning, an alert, a caution that came to Pilate, even as he sat on the judgement seat. This came at the right time, which Pilate should have heeded.
Pilate could have had the humility to have listened to his wife but this was not to be. Pilate was proud.
Man’s heart is full of pride. This is a huge problem in the heart of man.
3. Pilate was, personally, eager to release Jesus.
Luke 23:16 I will therefore chastise Him and release Him" Luke 23:20 Pilate, therefore, wishing to release Jesus, again called out to them.
Pilate knew, in his own conscience, that Jesus was innocent and he desired to release Jesus. Pilate should have listened to his own conscience but other factors weighed heavily on him.
The heart of man is evil and we do not listen to our own conscience.
Apostle Paul encourages us to have faith and a good conscience
I Timothy 1:18-19 This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, (19) having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck,
God has placed the conscience in the heart of man but the problem of sin is such that though we know what is the right thing to do, we do what we should not do. This is the fallen condition of man.
Pilate’s fall
1. Pilate permitted the Jews to crucify Jesus.
This was a major decision, for he was officially allowing the death sentence to be carried out by a ruled nation. This provision of issuing and executing the death sentence, till then, was vested only with Rome.
John 19:6 Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, " You take Him and crucify Him , for I find no fault in Him."
This was, administratively, a huge blunder by Pilate that he was permitting the Jews to conduct the death sentence.
2. Pilate, absolved himself of the decision of having Jesus crucified.
History, however, has hung the verdict of the crucifixion of Jesus, on the neck of Pilate. This absolving ceremony was only a formality, it had no credibility.
Matthew 27:24 When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, " I am innocent of the blood of this just Person . You see to it."
This was a totally inconsistent statement by Pilate.
Man puts on an outward show of uprightness but inwardly there is ruin
3. Pilate was nothing but a crowd-pleaser.
Mark 15:15 So Pilate, wanting to gratify the crowd, released Barabbas to them; and he delivered Jesus, after he had scourged Him, to be crucified.
Man seeks the favour of people but not the favour of God.
John 5:44 How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?
In every way, Pilate’s ways and his final decision reveal the foolishness, wickedness and cowardice of man, both Jews and Gentiles.
It is for us, such evil people, that Jesus went to cross, in order to bring us back into the fullness of life in God.
Thought to ponder
Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?
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