The King Crowned in Our Shame
The Son of Man Glorified • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Good morning, Church! If you have your Bible and I hope that you do, please turn with me to Mark 15. Today we are looking at the Lord Jesus Christ meeting Pontius Pilate. The Apostles Creed is one of the oldest historical creeds in Christianity. A creed is simply a statement aboutwhat someone believes. Some well meaning people will say “No creed but Christ!” which in and of itself is a creed.
The Apostles Creed finds its earliest recordings from 140 AD. On the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association website it says “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell; The third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; The Holy catholic Church, the Communion of Saints; The Forgiveness of sins; The Resurrection of the body, And the Life everlasting. Amen.”
Hell, is used as the place of the dead. Jesus did not go to hell as we understand it. That word catholic there is the definitional sense meaning “universal”, not the denomination that most of us associate that term with. Just some corrections to the language.
But for those of us familiar with this creed have you ever wondered why Pontius Pilate is mentioned? I mean… Judas’ betrayal isn’t there. Peter’s denial isn’t there. Caiaphas’ sham of a trial isn’t there. But Pontius Pilate is. Why?
A couple reasons:
1) We have a historical faith based on real events that happened. Unlike other religions that are the creations of human invention, Christianity is true, historical, and based in reality.
2) No one else had legal authority to execute prisoners. As the Roman governor, Pilate could spare life and take it away based on his word.
3) It fulfilled prophecy. Isaiah 53:8
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
There had to be someone with authority that could pass judgment. God chose to use Pilate and appointed Pilate for this purpose. Pilate was the Roman governor over Judea for 11 years. It was the longest tenure of anyone that served in that post and that wasn’t because he was particularly good at it. It’s because he was actually a bad governor. He was fired and banished from government by Emperor Caligula in 37 AD.
Philo and Josephus tell us that Pilate was inflexible, stubborn, and cruel. He put down rebellions in brutal fashions but he was also the cause of many of the rebellions. For example, he put up gold shields with Caesar’s face on them in the temple which the Jews consider blasphemous. This led to the priests petitioning and pleading which he refused, the people got upset and rebelled and Pilate subdued them violently.
One time he built an aqueduct that ran for 23 miles and brought fresh water to Jerusalem. This was a good thing to do but he confiscated money from the temple in order to build that aqueduct. Once again, rebellions took place because those were offerings to the Lord that Pilate was using.
So let’s learn about Christ’s interaction with Pilate but more importantly, lets learn about Jesus Christ our King: His Rejection, His Condemnation, and His Humiliation. Let’s stand together in honor of God’s Word as we read Mark 15:1-20
1 And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. 2 And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” 3 And the chief priests accused him of many things. 4 And Pilate again asked him, “Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you.” 5 But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed. 6 Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. 7 And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. 8 And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. 9 And he answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” 10 For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. 12 And Pilate again said to them, “Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” 13 And they cried out again, “Crucify him.” 14 And Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.” 15 So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. 16 And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. 17 And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. 18 And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 19 And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. 20 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him.
PRAY
The Gospels all record that this event occurs at sunrise. The Sanhedrin met again to maintain some semblance of keeping their rules and laws. The fact is that they had already condemned Christ, gained consensus and were simply steamrolling any opposition that may remain. But once the decision was formalized, they bound Jesus like a violent criminal. Why? It wasn’t like Jesus was vicious. He wasn’t an insurrectionist. He was a Lamb that was going the way of the cross!
But these men couldn’t simply kill Jesus. They had to bring Pilate into the situation. Now Roman governors held court at sunrise as was the custom at the time. Now they led Jesus bound and brought Him to Pilate and here’s what they accused Jesus of.
Luke 23:2
2 And they began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.”
5 But they were urgent, saying, “He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place.”
It’s interesting that they tell Pilate this even though Jesus was not convicted by them of these accusations. Why is this important? Because Pilate didn’t care if someone blasphemed the Jew’s God. He wouldn’t kill anyone because of that. So they made up all sorts of stories and testimonies against Jesus.
So they’re okay with false witness, murder, deception, manipulation but John 18:28
28 Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor’s headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover.
Look at the hypocrisy! They didn’t want to be defiled by entering a home but murder and false witness was okay?! This shows the biblical principle found in Galatians 6:7-8
7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
The Pharisees had a self-righteousness based upon their works and behaviors instead of based on faith and love. They had self-righteousness that was based on discipline but that self-righteousness bore the disgusting fruit of death. Why? These men were leaders in their community! They looked righteous, they prayed faithfully, and tithed well. They knew the Word of God but didn’t know the God of the Word.
In fact we see point 1:
I. The King Rejected
I. The King Rejected
The chief priests, scribes, and elders rejected Jesus Christ. In fact, it is by their accusations that Pontius Pilate gives Jesus the title, King of the Jews. This is why Pilate asks Jesus “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answers “You have said so.”
Jesus isn’t denying it. He is the King of Kings! But His crucifixion isn’t going to be because of a claim He makes. It’s going to be because He lays down His life willingly. No one takes it from Him. The accusations continue but Jesus remains silent.
Pilate is impressed with Jesus’ silence and sends him over to Herod for examination. This is the same Herod that beheaded Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist. Herod was scared that John the Baptist had come back and seeing Jesus he was put at ease and instead of learning from Christ, he mocked him by dressing him in extravagant robes. In fact, mocking Jesus unified these two enemies.
But Jesus is sent back to Pilate and we read this:
13 Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, 14 and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him. 15 Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him.
All these charges were baseless and Pilate knew it. He said Jesus was innocent and that should have been that. In fact Pilate turns to Jesus and encourages Him to speak up in His defense and Jesus is silent! This is in fulfillment of Isaiah 53:7
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
Christ endured in silence while He was completely innocent, He didn’t defend Himself. Charles Spurgeon said “Christ stood before Pilate, and yet the real Judge of all the earth stood silent before a sinful man. He who will one day judge the nations was Himself condemned—so that we might be acquitted.” He went to the cross willingly in order to make full atonement for sin. He willingly bore injustice to secure our salvation.
Now, Pilate had a custom and he would release a prisoner at the Passover and there was a rebel in the prison named Barrabas. Barrabas was also known as Jesus Bar Abbas. This man committed murder, is described as a rebel, and insurrectionist.
Pilate asks “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” Pilate likely assumed, based on Jesus’ recent triumphal entry, that the crowd would want Him released. But Pilate underestimated the influence of the chief priests, scribes, and elders. Their ability to manipulate is second only to Satan, but I’m certain he was involved here as well.
The crowd shouted to free Barabbas! What a shock! Why? Why Barabbas instead of Jesus? Because it was the will of the Lord. God used Judas to betray Jesus. God used Satan to put it into the heart of Judas to betray Jesus. God used Caiaphas to wind up the crowd. God used Pilate to deliver Jesus over to be crucified. Like Abraham who nearly offered up his son back in Genesis, God offered up His Son for us. Romans 8:32
32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Peter writes this,
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
This teaches us something really important, that Jesus took the place of sinners on the cross. Paul puts it this way, 2 Corinthians 5:21
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
In other words, Jesus is completely guiltless! He’s innocent. No one can find fault with Him. Yet, Jesus willingly takes the blame for us so that we can take His righteousness and Barabbas is a picture of that for us. Jesus is the substitute for Barabbas. Jesus was innocent of being an insurrectionist, rebellious, man. He was accused of being a thief by not paying His taxes. He was accused of all these things and yet He takes the place of Barabbas. Barabbas is guilty of the sins that Jesus is accused of!
You and I are Barabbas. Christ died so that we wouldn’t be guilty of our sins, but that we would be counted as innocent when we trust in Christ by faith. We are the ones guilty. Our punishment is not beatings and crucifixion. All of those that die apart from trusting in Christ are condemned to hell. I don’t want that for you! I want you to know the Lord and be safe!
It is the crowds that scream “Crucify Him!” What?! Pilate doesn’t get it. He even asks the crowd “Why? What evil has he done?” But crowds aren’t reasonable. They shouted louder, “Crucify Him!”
24 So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” 25 And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” 26 Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.
Here we learn point 2
II. The King Condemned
II. The King Condemned
Jesus was condemned by sinful men. Many times atheists will say, “I will believe in God if He were to come to earth and I could see Him, touch Him, and listen to Him.” But that happened and we killed Him. This exposes our natural depravity where we prefer sin over our Savior.
Pilate sent Jesus to be scourged. Mark presents this simply as a fact, we get more detail from John where Pilate decides to have the soldiers brutalize Christ.
1 Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. 2 And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. 3 They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. 4 Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” 5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” 6 When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” 7 The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” 8 When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. 9 He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.” 12 From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” 13 So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” 15 They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” 16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus,
This scourging was not a mercy by any means. This punishment was known as flagellatio and was intended to weaken condemned men.
Jesus was stripped naked and tied with His hands up, exposing His entire body. His back, buttocks, and legs were open to every single whip. For 39 whips our Lord was beaten. His flesh was torn from His body over and over and over again. The blood and fluid loss would often send victims into shock.
By the end of the scourging, Jesus’ back would have been a mass of open wounds. Strips of flesh would hang from His shoulders and sides. His muscles, especially around the rib cage, would be exposed and quivering. The skin from the shoulders down to the calves would likely have been shredded, causing unbearable agony with every breath or movement. The trauma would have left Him extremely weakened—barely able to stand, much less carry the cross to Golgotha.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
These wounds shredded His body. Isaiah 52:14
14 As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
The beating wasn’t enough for the soldiers. They called together the whole battalion, 600 solders and mocked Jesus. They clothed the Him in a robe and placed a crown of thorns on His head. The crown was made from a Poterium spinosum, a plant with 4” long spikes that were driven down on Jesus’ scalp, the blood running down His face. Fresh new pain running the length of His body.
The soldiers continued to mock Him by bowing down “Hail, King of the Jews!” They they took a reed and continued to beat Him on His head and spit on Him and knelt down. The word reed there is the word kalamou which has a bunch of different meanings from a stick, to a measuring rod. I’m inclined to believe it was something firm since Matthew tells us it was like a scepter to add insult to injury.
A scepter represents a king’s sovereignty. The Romans placed it in Jesus’ hands and took it out of His hands and beat Him with it. And yet, it is Jesus Who is in full control here.
8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
This shows Point 3:
III. The King Humiliated
III. The King Humiliated
Jesus did these things willingly. The Bible says Hebrews 12:2
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus endured the beating and the suffering in order to make full atonement for our sins. But the story doesn’t end here. You see this is just one part of the atonement. Christ must drink the full cup of the wrath of God for us. He must make full atonement.
And Jesus did these things for you. It was for you Jesus took the the pain and suffering. He bore all the punishment and all the injustice. He took your place so that you could escape the wrath to come! You see like Barrabas, we all are guilty of actual sins. We are the guilty ones. The punishment that Christ took was Barrabas’. And yet, Jesus did so that we could be reconciled to the Father!
The Gospel doesn’t really tell us how to be saved. The Gospel tells us what Christ did to save us. We call this the Gospel of Mark because it tells the whole story of the life of Jesus. His birth, life, betrayal, suffering, death, burial, and resurrection is the Gospel story.
What will you do with it? Will you believe the Gospel for the sake of your own soul? The Bible tells us Acts 16:31
31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Do you believe in the Lord Jesus? Not in some fairytale kind of belief but do you believe the Gospel is true! Are you willing to put all your eggs in this one basket? Are you willing to lean all your trust upon Christ? That’s saving faith!
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ today. Believe the Gospel and be saved!
Head: God wants you to know that Jesus suffered in our place to deliver us from our sins. We learned that Jesus’ suffering before Pilate fulfills prophecy and reveals Him as the sinless Lamb who took our punishment to deliver us from sin.
Heart: God wants you to believe that Jesus Christ willingly suffered and died in your place to deliver you from your sins. Jesus’ voluntary sacrifice, seen in His silence and submission to condemnation and humiliation, proves His love and power to save you from your sins.
Hand: God wants you to trust in Jesus alone for your salvation and confess Him as Lord.
