The Courtroom: When the World Judges Jesus

Introduction: This morning as we approach Easter we look at the Courtroom scene when Caiaphas led Jesus to see Pilate at the Praetorium. As we will read in just a moment, it begs several questions: Why was Jesus misjudged? What motivated key religious leaders of the day to falsely accuse Jesus? Why was Jesus so misunderstood by people both the Jews and the Romans? Why the hostility and the lashing out? Why the cross?

This morning as we study this text, please consider your background. Consider your upbringing and the thoughts you were taught about Jesus in your home. We must realize that many of us have been indoctrinated from a young age about our thoughts and mindset towards Jesus. We can’t for the life of us see how the people of that day acted out against Jesus. As we study the religious elite of the day and we study Pilate, we might see more of ourselves in this story than we would want to admit. Maybe we can see with greater clarity some areas the Lord still needs to hone and work on us in our influences of the world.

Let’s delve into this text this morning and seek answers.

John 18:28-40

John 18:28–40 NKJV

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. 29 Pilate then went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this Man?” 30 They answered and said to him, “If He were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him up to you.” 31 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,” 32 that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled which He spoke, signifying by what death He would die. 33 Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered him, “Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?” 36 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.” 37 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 hears My voice.” 38 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.” 39 “But you have a custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover. Do you therefore want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” 40 Then they all cried again, saying, “Not this Man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber.

Prayer

Message

Two weeks ago we looked at the scene at the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was arrested. As you know, Judas betrayed Jesus by kissing the cheek of Jesus to identify Him to the Captain of the temple guards along with officers from the Chief Priest and the Pharisees. After Jesus’ arrest they carried Him to a kangaroo court with Annas and later with Caiaphas.

This morning we find ourselves at the Praetorium, Pilate’s residence when He comes to the area to govern certain affairs. We see a False Trail taking place.

1. A False Trial (v. 28-32)

Jesus was brought before Pilate by those same religious leaders that were engaged in His arrest. We see within these four verses deep seated hypocrisy on the part of the Jewish leaders.

Their mindset was on avoiding the glitz and glitter of a week long celebration following Passover. Pilate was a Gentile and if they entered his home, they would be found defiled and unclean and would have seven days to overcome the defilement. The celebration would be over. Furthermore, if they were not in attendance it would appear they broke some law. God forbid such a thing happen.

This was the place their minds were stayed. Yet, deep within their being they were orchestrating a manner in which to have Jesus killed. We would beg the question this morning: How can a person be so concerned about religiosity and in the same vein, having murderous thoughts in their hearts and minds?

A. Religious hypocrisy masks spiritual rebellion They were meticulous about ceremonial law but blind to the moral failure of condemning the innocent Son of God.

Matthew 23:27: "Woe to you... hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs..."

Illustration: A man polishing a dirty car but refusing to fix the engine. On the outside it's shiny; under the hood, it's broken.

We must ask the question this morning-why could these religious elite be so bipolar in their two extremes of concern? What motivated such a diverse mindset and heart?

Let me say this that when Jesus comes into our heart and begins to influence our lives, He upsets the apple cart. He totally turns the status quo of our lives upside down. He causes us at every turn to question our present manner in this world?

How can you support such a statement?

Verses 36 & 37 answers that question for us.

John 18:36 “36 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.””

John 18:37 “37 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 hears My voice.””

The manner in which Jesus invades our spirit and the things we learn under His lordship

will not be of this world. Furthermore, Jesus said, “I am the Way, The Truth, the Life, no one comes to the Father but by Me.”

His teachings, His ways, His will for our lives will not align with the world value system. When you fall into deep love with Jesus your life will change because a life in Jesus is a life led by someone and somethings that are not of this world.

Dearly beloved, Jesus represented a change from the norm. Firstly, they felt a sense of loss of their position, their power and their influence. They felt out of their comfort zone.

One statement we all here to often is “that I do not accept change well.”

Corporately as the body of Christ, we hear the statement, “we’ve never done it that way before.”

Dearly beloved, I say this with the highest humility, but when we make such statements, those are worldly comfortable statements. Jesus is a change agent.

Change can be difficult, change can be uncomfortable, but change, the kind of change Jesus brings can be earth shattering and bring about eternal benefits.

Jesus represented a change in their importance and power.

John 11:47–50 “47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. 48 If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.” 49 And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.””

Let’s be clear, when our relationship truly deepens with the Lord, we will focus more on Him and less of us.

John 3:30 “30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Moreover, Jesus challenged their understanding of the Law and their religious customs.

Mark 7:6–9 “6 He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. 7 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ 8 For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.” 9 He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.”

Somewhere along their spiritual journey’s they had become engrossed in the mundane of religiosity (the Mishnah and the Talmud) over the true word of God and their hearts had become cold and indifferent. Their lives were more about conformance to a certain life style than a compassion for life itself.

Simply put, they had become comfortable and Jesus made them uncomfortable.

John 8:7 “7 So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.””

Jesus used it as a moment for the Pharisees to confront an attitude of self-righteousness and having a judgmental spirit.

Luke 20:24–25 “24 Show Me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have?” They answered and said, “Caesar’s.” 25 And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.””

They tried to trap Jesus politically, but He turned into a moment about allegiance to God.

A man’s hand was withered and Jesus healed the man’s hand on the Sabbath I will add.

Luke 6:9 “9 Then Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one thing: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?””

For you see, Jesus exposed a heart issue. He caused them to confront legalism over love, rules over righteousness.

Jesus asked more of the religious of the day than they were will to give. Jesus confronted their souls for something deeper than they were willing to render over.

May I ask all of us a deep dive question this morning? Are we willing to give up our comfort and norm in the way we desire our religious practices to flesh out? Are we willing to totally surrender to the Lordship of Christ in our lives?

The Jews were upset over their concerns of power, prestige, influence, and the manner in which they did church that caused a barrier and they fought against total surrender.

What are you willing to fight Jesus over? Do you put up your dukes when it comes to committing your lives beyond Sunday Morning Worship at 10:30 am? Is that where you draw the line in the sand? Do you put on battle attire when asked to give your talents, your time, and your tithes over to the Kingdom of God to be used for His glory? Do you covet your time and the time it takes to deepen in Bible Study and other areas of service to the Lord? Will you go all hands on deck for battle to keep your religion in a nice neat package of time?

That’s what happened to the Pharisees and other religious elite of that day.

B. Justice is abandoned when agenda takes the stand They didn’t want a fair trial; they wanted execution. Pilate was merely the rubber stamp for their scheme. Jewish law would not allow for execution but by stoning.

Dearly beloved, we can sit here this morning so far removed from these scenes of the Bible and ask, how in the world did these people become so distorted in their thinking?

The same way any person that is removed from absolute truth, removed from the Word of God and His truth and live each day in the norms and traditions of the day lose sight of truth.

If you do not stay in the Word and expose your family to absolute truth of the Word of God, you will think that two men or two women kissing in the 7:00 pm prime time hour to advertise a pharmaceutical drug is normal. If you see people decide to change their gender or declare a different gender or declare they are some animal and that is all you know, you think that is normal.

Application: The world continues to place Jesus on trial even today based on its own agenda. Are we letting culture redefine your truth? The Bible speaks of a broad path and that most people pass on it, the narrow path is just that and few pass on it. Taking a stand for Jesus will come at a cost. Are you will to pay the price to follow Jesus fully?

2. A Foolish Governor (v. 33-38)

Pilate questioned Jesus, intrigued yet unable to comprehend who stood before him.

A. Truth confounds those who live by power Pilate asked Jesus if He was a king, subliminally assessing whether Jesus was a political threat. Jesus responded, "My kingdom is not of this world."

1 Corinthians 2:14: "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God..."

When Jesus responded to Pilate in verse 36 with these words:

“My Kingdom is not of this world, my Kingdom is not from here, I came to bear witness to the truth”, these were words that did not fit into Pilate’s expectations. And the truth is He will not fit everyone’s expectation.

We see two different people groups yet total similarity. The Religious of the day found that Jesus confronted their comfortable. Pilate undoubtedly did not find Jesus fitting His expectation. Furthermore, He did not find involving himself with Jesus to be politically expedient. For what Pilate wanted to accomplish in his future, a decision about Jesus’ future would have brought about political death because he would have appeared as disloyal to Caesar.

Pilate knew that the Jews did not really have any valid accusation against Jesus to bring about a death sentence. He tried on more than one occasion to wash his hands of innocent blood. Pilate even remembered the custom of rendering over someone at Passover. He knew in his heart of hearts they would want Barabbas over Jesus. Barabbas was a notorious murderer and robber. And yet, the crowds influenced his decision. He thought that a scourging would appease the crowd, but they said “crucify Him, crucify Him.” The religious elite used leverage against Pilate to place him in a position of disloyalty to King Caesar if he did not crucify Him.

Pilate compromised his stance on the matter over his status among his people.

Do you claim your Christian beliefs when you are in the minority? Or when its uncool?

B. Truth is ignored when it becomes inconvenient Pilate famously asked, "What is truth?" and walked away. He did not wait for the answer.

Application: Our world still asks this question, then turns away. Truth is not an idea to debate; it's a person to follow (John 14:6).

John 14:6 “6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

3. A Fatal Choice (v. 39-40)

Pilate offered the crowd a choice: Jesus or Barabbas. They chose Barabbas.

A. The crowd chose comfort over conviction Barabbas was familiar. Jesus challenged all parties concerned in their status quo. The people were not willing to give something up or to render something over to Jesus or allow Jesus their totality of life.

Romans 1:25 “25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

Ill. Many people here in our church live on prairie soil. Prairie soil is great for growing hay and cows, but terrible for building a house on. My next door neighbor that lived next to us in Halcyon for many years had a large crack in his foundation of his home that ran on outside of the house from the slab up the entire brick wall to the top of his house.

My doctor friend had a beautiful home. They were homemakers. Their yard, their pool, the overall environment was beautiful around their home. Had they not made the investment for the foundation specialist to come in and make the repair and restore the slab strength like new, all that they had invested in that home would have been wasted.

Application: Do we choose what’s familiar, easy, or culturally safe—even when it means rejecting Jesus? Dearly beloved, rejecting Jesus is a dangerous decision and a costly decision like my Doctor friends home repair, everyday its put off, it costs us something.

B. Every generation must choose: Barabbas or Jesus Pilate tried to pass the decision, but he is forever remembered for his failure to choose rightly.

Does any of these mindsets attack your being? If so, let’s answer the question, how do we overcome those subliminal influences that affect our walk with Christ?

Ill: The Master’s Chisel – Michelangelo’s David

Michelangelo was once asked how he created such a perfect sculpture of David from a block of marble. His reply is legendary:

“I simply chipped away everything that wasn’t David.”

What a profound picture of what God does in our lives. He sees who we are meant to be—His image, His purpose, His masterpiece—and begins to chisel away everything that doesn’t belong: pride, fear, sin, bitterness, selfishness.

Ephesians 2:10 “10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

God doesn’t just forgive us—He forms us. He’s not finished with you. He is patiently and precisely shaping you into something more beautiful than you can imagine. But the process takes surrender. Just as the marble didn’t shape itself, we must yield to the hands of the Master Sculptor.

Joshua 24:15: "Choose this day whom you will serve..." “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord”

Application: Standing with Jesus may not be popular—but it will always be right.

Conclusion / Gospel Call: The crowd judged Jesus and got it wrong. Pilate judged Jesus and washed his hands. But you cannot wash your hands of Jesus. Every person must decide: What will you do with Jesus?

Will you stand for Christ or blend with the world’s judgments? Will you exchange the truth for a lie, or will you choose the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life?