What Jesus Endured For Us | Mark 15:1-20

Y’all can go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Mark 15. Now I’m not sure if y’all have noticed, but there’s only one more chapter left in Mark after 15. So we’re pretty close to the end of the book, so we can guess what’s about to happen.

We’ve finally reached Friday of Holy Week in Mark. And what’s so significant about Friday? The day Jesus died. So what we’re reading today is on the day of Jesus’ death. Now we’re not gonna actually see it this week, we’re gonna see it next week, but we’re gonna see everything that leads up to Jesus’ crucifixion tonight.

And all Jesus does in these 20 verses is say one sentence. You’d think with Him about to die, He’d do more, but all He does is say one sentence.

And it looks like Jesus is very reactive in this passage. It looks like He’s not really in control of anything, just reacting to everything happening to Him.

When in actuality, Jesus is doing something really incredible in this passage. We are seeing here what Jesus is willing to endure for us.

Do y’all remember what the purpose of the book of Mark is? A couple months ago we talked about how the book of Mark is broken into two sections: the first 8 chapters and the last 8 chapters. And both sections are trying to communicate something.

What was the purpose of the first 8 chapters of Mark? To show us who Jesus is; that He is the Son of God.

What is the purpose of the last 8 chapters? To show us what Jesus came to do; to suffer and die for our sins.

And outside of the crucifixion itself, this passage does the best job of communicating the purpose of these 8 chapters. Because we see what Jesus is willing to endure because He loves us.

Tonight, we’re gonna see three things Jesus endured for us. We’ll go ahead and hit the first slide.

What Jesus endured for us:

So let’s go ahead and read verses 1 through 5. [Volunteer]

Mark 15:1–5 NLT

1 Very early in the morning the leading priests, the elders, and the teachers of religious law—the entire high council—met to discuss their next step. They bound Jesus, led him away, and took him to Pilate, the Roman governor. 2 Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus replied, “You have said it.” 3 Then the leading priests kept accusing him of many crimes, 4 and Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer them? What about all these charges they are bringing against you?” 5 But Jesus said nothing, much to Pilate’s surprise.

We’ll go ahead and hit the next slide…

1. Wrongfully accused (vv. 1-5)

The religious leaders have finally arrested Jesus, and they are in a hurry to get Jesus convicted. It says they met early on Friday morning to discuss their next step. They bound Jesus and took Him to Pilate, the Roman governor.

And Pilate questions Jesus to figure out what’s going on. And he asks Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” And then we see the only sentence Jesus mutters in this passage and that’s, “You have said it.”

And the religious leaders keep accusing Jesus of crimes and Jesus stays completely silent. And it shocks Pilate that Jesus isn’t saying anything.

And Jesus knew what was coming. Jesus knew these accusations were leading to the cross. And yet He said nothing.

Have you ever been accused of doing something you didn’t do? There were a ton of times when I was younger, my brother would do something to mess with my sister, and he’d blame it on me. And I can tell you every time I was falsely accused of messing with my sister, I was quick to defend myself. I wasn’t letting that slide.

Jesus here is being falsely accused of something that He knows would eventually lead to His death. Yet He stays completely quiet. Doesn’t say anything. And we know from last week that Jesus is deeply distressed at the idea of going to the cross. To the point of sweating blood.

Why does Jesus stay quiet? For you and for me. He knows the cross is where He will have the wrath of God laid on Him for the sins of the world. All to pay the price we deserved for our sins. And He wanted to pay that price because He loves us. So He stays quiet while He is falsely accused.

Now let’s see what Jesus endures next. Lemme get someone to read verses 6-15…

Mark 15:6–15 NLT

6 Now it was the governor’s custom each year during the Passover celebration to release one prisoner—anyone the people requested. 7 One of the prisoners at that time was Barabbas, a revolutionary who had committed murder in an uprising. 8 The crowd went to Pilate and asked him to release a prisoner as usual. 9 “Would you like me to release to you this ‘King of the Jews’?” Pilate asked. 10 (For he realized by now that the leading priests had arrested Jesus out of envy.) 11 But at this point the leading priests stirred up the crowd to demand the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus. 12 Pilate asked them, “Then what should I do with this man you call the king of the Jews?” 13 They shouted back, “Crucify him!” 14 “Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?” But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!” 15 So to pacify the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.

We’ll go ahead and hit the next slide…

2. Unjustly convicted (vv. 6-15)

It’s custom every year for the Roman governor to release a prisoner of the people’s request. The two options are Jesus, and this revolutionary who committed murder named Barabbas.

And the crowd chose to release Barabbas. And Pilate doesn’t understand why the crowd is being so harsh on Jesus. Pilate asks them, “So what do I do with Jesus?” And they shout, “Crucify Him!”

And to pacify the crowd, Pilate releases Barabbas and turns Jesus over to be flogged and crucified.

Many people when they read the Bible, they think the Bible is all about them. They think they’re the hero of every story they read. For example, David versus Goliath. What would y’all think is the usual takeaway from the story of David and Goliath? [I’ll open this up to the leaders too] Many people see David as the hero of that story. And that we all have giants in our lives and just like David we need to sling the stone of faith at our giants.

That’s not the purpose of that story! Hiding from Goliath was the entire Israelite army. Who, by the way, was much more capable than David to kill Goliath. They are soldiers, David is a shepherd boy. And David, this lowly shepherd boy, comes in and just slings a stone at him to kill him. Many see David as the hero of that story. That it was because of David’s faith in God that the giant is dead. No! David’s not the hero of the story. God is the one who killed Goliath. He’s the one who guided that stone to just the right spot to kill the giant.

And just like David is not the hero of that story, we are not the hero of our story. Honestly its not even our story, its God’s story. We just get to be part of it.

And just like in the story of David and Goliath, people may see this story of Jesus being convicted and Barabbas being set free and see themselves as Jesus in this story. Everyone’s gonna falsely accuse you and you’re gonna experience persecution just like Jesus.

i struggle with this

We’re not anything like Jesus. You wanna know who we are in this story? We’re Barabbas. The guy who deserved to be crucified, but was actually released because Jesus was convicted instead.

We can’t do anything to deserve heaven. We all deserve hell. It’s only because of Jesus being wrongfully convicted; it’s only because Jesus took the punishment we deserved for our sin that we are set free.

That’s what Jesus endured for us.

Mark 15:16–20 NLT

16 The soldiers took Jesus into the courtyard of the governor’s headquarters (called the Praetorium) and called out the entire regiment. 17 They dressed him in a purple robe, and they wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head. 18 Then they saluted him and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” 19 And they struck him on the head with a reed stick, spit on him, and dropped to their knees in mock worship. 20 When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified.

3. Completely humiliated (vv. 16-20)

The Roman soldiers took Jesus into the courtyard. They mocked Him. They made him look like a king, put this purple robe on Him, gave Him a crown of thorns