Not by chance

Not by chance

August 10, 2025

John 18:28-32

READ TEXT John 18:28-40

As I age, I have come to the conclusion that “luck” is a dumb way to explain events that come together in special and unique ways. Allow me to prove my point. Elijah and Holly Stroude has a testimony of how “luck” has nothing to do with the events around the birth of Savannah.

The baby was due on July 9th and as God would have it, the baby stalled. Elijah had taken that week off in anticipation of the birth. Because the baby decided to hang out a bit longer, Elijah made use of his time and did odd jobs around the house.

One of the tasks that he thought would be a good idea was to take his backhoe tractor and scrape all the vegetation around his property's perimeter. Normally, I as a good brother-in law, would have made fun of him and said that he just liked playing on the tractor. As time went on, Maggie and Heidi came up with the idea to torment Holly with spicy food and walking up stairs to get that baby to come. So, on July 18th, Holly’s water broke, and it was time. Elijah and Holly got to the hospital for what turned out to be a very long birthing process.

After 22 hours of labor, the doctors decided that the best way to help the baby was to do a C-section. It was heartbreaking to hear that news for both Holly and Elijah because of how many hours of labor that she had already endured. But the C-section was successful and little Savannah was born. But the story is not over. The baby was 100% normal and good but Holly’s blood pressure was dangerously low, resulting in an extended stay in the hospital. Although this is bad news, it really wasn’t.

The day that they were supposed to go home, if Holly’s pressure was good, Elijah got this picture from His dad:

This is a picture of their home. A truck (chevy) caught fire off the side of the freeway over a mile away. The fire was being pushed by strong winds right towards their house. Their neighbors to their northeast lost several outbuildings and the fire department and cops did mandatory evacuations and it happened within minutes. It all happened while Holly, the baby and Elijah were in the hospital. There was nothing that they could do but to wait on updates.

Here is my point. If the baby had come on July 9th, Holly would have been home alone with a newborn as Elijah would have been traveling for work. If the baby would have come normally, in a normal time on the 19th, they would have been home. If Holly’s blood pressure had been normal, they would have just gotten home and no doubt asleep because of the 22-hour labor. If Elijah would not have been board and dug the fire line, there is a great chance they would be homeless right now. Here is a areal view.

The world would call this luck, karma, or even a guardian angel. But God’s children call this God’s providence. There is no such thing as happenchance when it comes to God’s plan.

Over the last couple weeks, we have seen Christ’s courage as He executes the greatest plan in human history for our redemption. Christ’s courageous act to endure the undeserved wrath of man and God demonstrates a resolution on God’s part to redeem the lost. Through His providence and sovereignty, Christ courageously walks through each necessary step to the cross because this is the plan to save sinners like you and me. None of this is luck or accident!

It is my goal that after today we all are spiritually moved by the courageous work of Christ’s walk to the cross. My question for all of you and I is this, are you moved by what Christ did on the way to the cross or is this just a story that we know?

CONTEXT: Review from last week: Jesus had been arrested in the Garden. And was taken to Annas bound, and in the middle of the night. Three times Peter denied Jesus, proving His sin nature and yet Christ’s salvation.

I was rethinking something about Peter that I wanted to make clear. When we look at Peter verses Judas, could you lose your salvation? In one sense, if left to yourself, I suppose you could. Allow me to explain that comment. When they came to arrest Jesus, Jesus asked, whom do you seek? They say, Jesus of Nazareth. He responds with “I AM He” declaring that you are just here for me (we talked about that last week) He protects His disciples.

Now, If His disciples would have to go through what He went through, they would have fallen apart. God does not put us into a position where our faith would be shipwrecked. Christ secures our salvation when in trials and difficulties. He sustains us and guards us from trials and destruction that would crush our faith. Could we lose our salvation, if left to ourselves, yes. But, He sustains us. He never leaves us or forsakes us. The world, flesh and Satan has unrestrained access apart from God’s protection. His protection secures our salvation. I hope that is clearer.

Now, let’s turn our attention to the trials of Christ. To understand this event, we need to understand that this drama is tied to the personalities and internal motives of each participant. Understanding these is the key to understanding that none of this is an accident.

1.             Conspiracy to try the innocent.

Let’s do some character development. Annas is our first participant. Last week I told you that he was like the godfather of Jerusalem. Many regarded him as the real power. He managed what really went on in the holy city and profited from the corruption that ruled in that day. Although he was not the high-priest, people still viewed him as such.

His motive to hate Christ was financial (Jesus called out the corrupt temple system and drove out the booths in the temple courtyard). He also hated Jesus for spiritual reasons. Annas saw that the people followed and revered Christ.

So, the first of six trials starts with him, in his house at night (18:12-23). Remember, according to the law of the Jews, no trial can be held at night, outside of public view and yet, the jews were all too willing to break their law to kill an innocent man.

Caiaphus is the son-in law of Annas and held the title of high priest. He was just as vile as old dad. The second of six trials was held in his house (Matthew 26; Mark 14; and here in John vs 24). It was held at night, outside of public view.

His motive was financial and a puppet of dad. He also sought to retain his authority and power. Remember, the Jews were determined to kill Jesus by this point. It was decided long ago that He was going to die; they just need to figure how to make it look good. (Funny how sin is like this. We justify and justify until it looks “good”.) By the end of this trial, they settled on the charge of treason against Rome (this is key for later). But, there is yet one more Jewish trial that Jesus had to go through and it is found in Mark 15 and Luke 22.

Sanhedrin: To make this conspiracy look halfway legitimate, the Jews had to try Jesus before this body of leaders. The Sanhedrin was a body of 71 leaders that met daily to hold court. It was made up many different subgroups all with their own agenda. Think about our house of representatives, no one has the same agenda and rarely do they agree.

But, with Jesus they all agreed. They all wanted Him gone, and Rome was the means. Remember, it is still at night and at Caiaphas’s house. So, they had to make this “look legal”. At first light at 6 am, they take Jesus to the judgment hall for a 30-second decision, “guilty” and it was nothing more than a formality.

Pilate: We covered Pilate in depth at Easter. But as a review, Pilate was a governor put in place by Rome. After Herod the Great (the one who murdered all the babies in Bethlehem in AD 4-6, died, his three sons took over. Herod Antipus (who we will see in a couple of weeks), Herod Philip (ruled to the North East) and Herod Archelaus. Archelaus was the ruler in Judea, where we are in our passage today. Archelaus was horrible! He was a murderer and a tyrant. So, the jews went to Ceaser and demanded him removed. Ceaser agreed. But what the Jews did next is remarkable. They demanded a Roman Governor! Many people miss this point. Even before Jesus’s Earthly ministry, God is putting all the pieces in place.

From AD 6 to the time of our passage, Pilate was the 6th Roman attempt to govern these very difficult people. This position was hard because of the Jewish people. Remember that Pilate had, up to this point, messed up three times. The first was when he came to town with the Roman flags with an image on them and that one moved caused a riot because those were graven images. The second was that he robbed the temple treasury (tithe money) to build a water aqueduct. The third was that he built shields with Ceaser’s face on them to butter up Ceaser. When the jews complained, Ceaser was furious at Pilate and demanded that he get rid of the shields. All three of these failures secured his position as incompetent and under the thumb of the Jews.

The Jews may be under the thumb of the Romans, but they had power over Pilate. If they don’t get their way, they can blackmail him to Ceaser and he knew it. To him, he was in a no-win and miserable position. He was responsible for “Pac Agustus” (peace through power) and he was failing.

What we did not cover at Easter was that Pilate had about 3,000 soldiers at his disposal. Remember that during the Passover, the city swelled to 2 million people. Thousands welcomed Jesus as king just that week. If Jesus was in the least bit motivated, He could have at his disposal an overwhelming force of able men willing to fight Rome.

The Crowd: The crowd was made up of ordinary people who were angry with Jesus because they expected Him to deal with Rome, deal with the corrupt religious leaders and wanted a Judas Maccabees. Remember that Maccabees lead a revolt against their oppression and they had that in mind for Jesus. When he allowed Himself to be arrested, it is no wonder that they are disappointed. They did not want a meek savior spiritually, they wanted a king.

The crowd is most like many of today’s church goers. They had built in their minds a Jesus of their own in their minds. When they learn that the Biblical Jesus is not what they think, they are quick to jump churches until they find someone who will validate their version of jesus. The prosperity gospel or WOKE accepting churches are great examples.

Now that we have the players in place, we now turn our attention to how the conspiracy to conduct murder plays out.

2.             Conspiracy played out.

These contributors and their motives are stepping stones for a real understanding of the significance of the plan of salvation we are watching come together.

READ Vs 28: They led Jesus to the governor’s praetorium (headquarters of the governor). This place is Pilate’s city hall where Pilate would judge court cases. It is the heart of Pilate’s power while in Jerusalem. But, he is not normally in the city unless he had to be. Remember, it is safe to assume that he did not like being here and it is easy to assume that he hated the jews. So, he was normally in Cesaria (on the coast) 74 miles away. As God’s plan would have it, Pilate was there, along with Herod (normally not in town). Nothing is by accident.

READ Vs 28b: There is NO law in the Torah that says that they could not go into a gentile house. It was added to the Jewish Mishana as one of the many man-made laws that prove the hypocrisy of the religious leaders. John includes this to draw attention to the hypocrisy that the jews were. They don’t want to be “unclean” all the while orchestrating the murder of an innocent man.

READ Vs 29: So Pilate went outside and asked: What is the charge: This is normal. Pilate would do this on every hearing.

READ Vs 30: The blackmail starts. Remember that the Jews know that Pilate is under their thumb. They respond, because we said so! This is like them saying, we have you, you do what we say. The phrase the Jews use also does something else. It flips the script on Pilate. “If you don’t’ do what we tell you to, we are going to tell ceaser…”

Look at the vileness of their hearts. Church, the Jews were supposed to be a light to the Gentiles (Isaiah 49), but instead the Gentiles see the darkness of their souls. There is only one bright light in all of this interaction and He is the one standing accused! As the Jews prove the sin nature of man, Christ sheds light on their wicked hearts. The harder they try to squash the light, the brighter it shines.

READ Vs 31: What Pilate said there is HUGE! In Genesis 9, God implemented the death penalty as a deterrent for capital crime. The power of death was given to the Jews even before they were “jews”. But under Roman rule in AD 6, Caponius, the first Roman Governor of Judea had been given the power over life and death in Judea. In Latin, is was called “eeous gladeei” and it meant the power of the sword.

From AD 6 to AD 30, the Jews had the power to execute judgment for life and death but in AD 30, Rome stripped the right to kill from the Jews. This was a newer decree. So, if Jesus was going to die and it was going to be legal, it HAD to be Rome that did it.

Do you see how the people, time and places are coming all together? Luck and accident is not even a possible explanation. The decree by Rome for eeous gladeei was a law, that could be bent however. Look back at what Pilate says. “you try him…” Pilate gave the Jews permission to kill Jesus!

READ Vs 32: If the Jews had taken Pilate up on this, Christianity would be a sham. Rome had to be the ones who killed Jesus! 1. Jews “cast down” and stoned people. They attempted this with Jesus many times and failed. 2. Prophetically, it had to be Rome cause they were the only ones who “lifted people up” meaning a cross. 3. No bone was broken on the lamb of God (prophecy). Last I checked, rocks break bones.

4. Rome were professional executioners. There was no chance of being “rocked to sleep” like Paul was. If Rome was killing you, you died. 5. Roman death would have been 100% legally binding. No one could circle back and say, well, maybe…. The list goes on and on.

By the way, the decree that Rome had to kill people was more suggestive than a hard rule. After all, the jews seemed like they didn’t mind when they stoned Stephen to death in Acts. So their response to Pilate that it was illegal was pretty convenient. The Jews were pushing this execution of their messiah with no regard for justice. Nothing was going to stop them from Christ’s murder. It was them who pushed this, not Rome and not the Gentiles.

There is a lot of reasons to pause here and stand amazed. In just 5 verses, countless prophecies were being checked off. John wants us to see a more important point than just facts, though. He wants us to see the beauty of the innocent against the backdrop of the guilty. There is a reason to take comfort from this event.

3.             Stand in the courage of the LORD.

Next week we will land the plane on the next 3 trials. To this point, we have gone through three and the start of the fourth. The takeaway is that we can take great courage in this plan of salvation. Christ boldly walks into this situation that He and His Father perfectly planned. I hope that today you see that nothing of this plan is the work of man. No man could ever put this type of symphony of perfection into place.

This has been cosmically orchestrated and fulfilled from the day of His birth to the day He says, “it is finished” on the cross. Every step, every person and every variable is under the control of the One standing before the angry mob being condemned to die. My question, why would He do this?

It is for the salvation of His children. Christ, being 100% innocent, orchestrated every step of this event to secure the hearts of those who stand in the darkness of sin. Each of us who are in this room stands in that courtyard as the crowd. We are not so much the Jews, but we most closely align with a crowd of those who want a version of Jesus that fits our expectations.

But that is not what truth is. What He requires of you is faith that He is the one who He represents in the Word of God and repentance. He stands before Pilate as the Lamb of God, perfect, sinless and spotless. He was 100% innocent of sin and adhered to every aspect of the Law that we are all to willing to break daily. He is being condemned for sin that He did not commit but we did. He will be pinned to a cross that was designed for our shoulders. The payment for sin must be righteous blood, something that we do not have.

But Christ, being perfect and willing, went through this so that we who are in Christ do not have to. Many of you in this room would say, yea pastor, I am a believer, but how do I know that I am?

If we are in Christ, there is a change! We turn from sin. No one who claims to believe in Christ can continue in a life that does not represent Christ. It’s an impossibility. If we are IN Christ, our old life must be put to death. This is not something we do on our own. Through the power of the HS, our lives change. We want sin less and Christ more. That is the mark of a true believer!

As we wrap up, I want to take us back to Elijah and Holly’s situation. If everything had happened according to their plan, the baby would have come on the due date, the baby would have been home and Elijah on the road. I asked Eljah when this all happened, “how would you be handling this if you were on the road and your wife and newborn were at home dealing with the fire?”

You see, God knows what will shipwreck us and what will not. He divinely orchestrates each step of His children’s walk. Some of our steps are really hard, but in the end, we know that each situation is for our good and His Glory. Even when it looks dark, His light is brighter!