John 18:28-19:16a - The Condemnation of the King

Pray

Father, thank you revealing yourself to us in your Word.

I pray that you would allow us to see your glory in your Word as we read about your Son Jesus.

Please take my small effort in preaching your Word and change us all into the likeness of your Son by the power of your Spirit.

I ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Intro

By way of introduction to the passage we’re going to look at today, I want you all to think of a time in your life when you sinned against the Lord.

This is an introduction by introspection.

Now, think of that sin, but I want you to do something with it that you may not be accustomed to.

Usually, when we think back about our past sins it is like looking in a mirror, showing us all of our own ugliness and frailty.

But what I want you to do with the memory of your sin is turn it into a lens to magnify the sufficiency of Jesus to meet your personal need for a savior.

Perhaps your sin is greed or covetousness.

Jesus perfectly meets that sin as the giver of life and everything that we need.

Perhaps your sin is anger or violence.

Jesus perfectly meets that as he made peace by the blood of his cross, with a heart of meekness and gentleness.

Perhaps your sin is pride or selfishness.

Jesus perfectly meets that as the ultimate example of humility and sacrificial love.

Whatever your specific sin is, Jesus perfectly meets it in his righteousness and authority as the Christ, the Son of God, the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

Jesus’ perfection is highlighted against the backdrop of your sin as your perfect savior.

In the passage we looked at last week, Peter denied Jesus three times in fear, but Jesus faithfully persisted with the mission and called out the deceit and injustice of the high priest in his questioning.

Jesus’ faithfulness was highlighted against the backdrop of Peter’s fearfulness.

Now, in the passage we are looking at today in John 18:28-19:16a, Jesus will be formally condemned to death by the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate at the insistence and coercion of the religious leaders.

And here, as before, Jesus’ character and sufficiency is highlighted against the backdrop of sin and failure.

Jesus’ righteousness and authority are highlighted against the backdrop of the pride and fear of both Pilate and the religious leaders.

We’re going to get a good look at the sinful state all of humanity is in.

But we’re also going to see how Jesus, the true King, is the perfect answer for humanity’s sin.

Against the backdrop of the utter unrighteousness and fear of humanity John has highlighted the perfect righteousness and authority of Christ the King as he was condemned to death.

And he does this so that we will understand our personal need for a savior and how Jesus perfectly meets our need.

This passage is structured in two parts… the end of chapter 18 deals with the topic of righteousness, and the beginning of chapter 19 deals with the topic of authority.

And in both parts, John highlights three people and their interactions: the religious leaders, Pilate, and Jesus.

So, first let’s see how they all interact over the topic of righteousness in John chapter 18 verses 28-40.

John 18:28–29 ESV

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. So Pilate went outside to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?”

John 18:30–32 ESV

They answered him, “If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you.” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” The Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.” This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

John 18:33–35 ESV

So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?”

John 18:36–37 ESV

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

John 18:38–40 ESV

Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” They cried out again, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber.

So, in this first part of Jesus’ trial we see…

The Condemnation of Righteousness (18:28-40)

I’m going to take a bit of an analytical approach to this trial.

So, we are going to look at each person or group of people.

And first up, we’re going to look at the religious leaders, specifically…

The Religious Leaders’ Disregard of Righteousness (28-32, 38b-40)

The religious leaders show up at the beginning and the end of this section, so we are going to look at both.

And we’re going to see that in both instances these religious leaders pridefully manipulated things to make themselves appear righteous and to make Jesus appear unrighteous.

At the beginning, in verses 28-32, they took Jesus from Caiaphas’ house to Pontius Pilate, the Governor’s headquarters in Jerusalem.

Normally Pilate’s base of operations was in Caesarea, but because of the amount of people in Jerusalem for the Passover, he relocated to his Jerusalem office during the festival to quell any Jewish uprising from getting out of hand.

Much the same reason the Roman cohort was there.

So, the religious leaders took Jesus to see Pilate for his official death sentence, but they did something that is really ironic.

They refused to step foot in Pilate’s headquarters because they didn’t want to be defiled and barred from eating the Passover.

Really… they didn’t want to be defiled… yet here they were trying to get an innocent man executed.

This is exactly what Jesus had already condemned them for back in John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Murderers and liars like their father, the Devil, yet they don’t want to be defiled by entering a Gentile dwelling.

Jesus also condemned the religious leaders in Matthew 23:27 ““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.”

They didn’t want to be outwardly defiled, they didn’t want their whitewash to be soiled.

But inside, in their hearts, they were already morbidly defiled by murder and deceit.

And the whole reason they didn’t want to be defiled was so that they could eat the Passover.

Now, they weren’t worried about simply missing a meal.

They were worried about appearances.

If they were defiled and not able to eat the Passover, then they would look like they had messed up, like they weren’t as righteous as they pretended to be.

That’s why Jesus called them hypocrites.

The word “hypocrite” simply means a pretender, a fake, a poser, someone acting differently from the way they really are.

They were pretending to be righteous, when really they were the most unrighteous of all, murderers and liars.

So, Pilate came out to meet them because they were unwilling to come into his house.

And he was probably a bit miffed that they made him come out to them.

He was probably the one who had ordered the cohort to help with Jesus’ arrest, so he wasn’t really surprised by their visit.

And since he was already in the know, the religious leaders expected him to simply accept their judgment and take Jesus to be crucified right then.

But their interaction reveals that Pilate and the religious leaders were not on good terms.

He knew they already had their own trial.

But he asked them anyway what Jesus had done to deserve his further involvement.

“What accusation do you bring against this man.”

Not what judgment have you rendered, but what accusation.

Pilate dismissed their judgment, he didn’t even want to hear it, and he decided to make his own judgment.

We don’t get to know exactly why Pilate did this, but I think it was probably because he didn’t really like the Jews in the first place and he was miffed at their slight of making him come out to them.

Well, then the religious leaders answered his question in a very snarky way.

Instead of repeating their accusation from their trial, they simply said, “If we hadn’t found him guilty of evil, we wouldn’t have brought him to you.”

Their statement accused Jesus of evil in general, but it was really just a manipulation of the justice system, a manipulation of righteousness.

Their answer was actually more about Pilate than it was about Jesus.

They wanted Pilate to just accept their verdict and take Jesus to be killed, but he was making life difficult for them.

And they hadn’t requested the death penalty yet.

So, Pilate responded with his own snarky retort.

Judge him yourselves, don’t involve me, this is a waste of my time.

And the religious leaders finally revealed that they brought him to Pilate because they were seeking the death penalty, and they weren’t allowed to do that under Roman rule.

They were unrighteously seeking to kill Jesus and appearing to be righteous by manipulating the justice system to do it.

And John tells us in verse 32 that all of this was to fulfill what Jesus had said about the method of his death.

Jesus talked about this in John 12:32–33 “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.”

Lifted up from the earth was a euphemism for crucifixion, similar to the term, “hung on a tree.”

When legal executions took place in the nation of Israel it was death by stoning.

Where the person was killed on the ground.

But the distinctly Roman form of execution at that time was crucifixion.

Where the person was nailed to a cross and lifted up to die hanging above the ground.

This whole interaction and the shift from Jewish custody to Roman custody was to fulfill what Jesus had said about how he would die.

Whenever John mentions the fulfillment of prophecy or the fulfillment of something Jesus had said, he’s saying that this was part of God’s sovereign plan.

Now I want to skip to the end of this first part of Jesus’ trial to see how the religious leaders continued in their prideful manipulation of righteousness.

In verses 38 through 40 Pilate came back out after questioning Jesus, and he said that he finds him not guilty of what they had accused him of, specifically claiming to be the king of the Jews, a threat to Caesar and the Roman empire.

So, Pilate said that he will either release Jesus to them, a man whom he has found not guilty, or he will release a known and convicted highwayman named Barabbas.

Now, in our translation, John says that Barabbas was a robber, but the word has connotations of much more than just taking other people’s stuff.

Remember Proverbs chapter 1, and the sinners who call us to join them in their violence and theft?

That’s Barabbas, that’s what the word means that John uses to describe Barabbas, a violent thief who had probably led a band of thieves to murder and steal.

So, which do you think would be the righteous choice to release?

Jesus, who had done nothing against the law and who had behaved peacefully and civilly, or Barabbas who had clearly broken multiple laws and who was violent and uncivil?

Obviously Jesus would be the righteous choice, but the religious leaders were so bent on their own pride and seeing Jesus as a threat to their power and a threat to the perception of their righteousness, that they chose to release Barabbas.

Again, they were manipulating righteousness in their pride to seem righteous when they were the furthest thing from righteous.

Next I want to look at Pilate, specifically…

Pilate’s Ignorance of Righteousness (33-38a)

In verse 33 Pilate brought Jesus inside his house, away from the religious leaders to question him privately without their interference.

He asked him if he pleaded guilty or not guilty to what the religious leaders had accused him of.

John didn’t record the accusation from the religious leaders’ lips, he recorded it here, and it’s the same one in all four gospel accounts.

Are you the King of the Jews?

This was one of the only things that would have compelled Pilate to get involved, the accusation of a rival king threatening the Roman empire.

Jesus answered this question with a question of his own to get Pilate to think before acting.

He basically asked if Pilate genuinely believed that Jesus was king of the Jews, or if he was just repeating the accusation.

And Pilate got it, he understood what Jesus was doing, but he didn’t like it.

The significance for Pilate of whether or not Jesus was the King of the Jews had no bearing on his personal view since he was not a Jew.

But the reality is that Jesus being the king of the Jews is very significant for both Jews and Gentiles because Jesus’ kingdom includes both Jews and Gentiles who submit to his authority as sovereign ruler of all creation.

But Pilate was ignorant of this truth, and his patience was already wearing thin from how the religious leaders had treated him.

And now Jesus seemed to be undermining his pride as well with this question.

That’s why he answered so vehemently that he’s not a Jew, and that Jesus’ own countrymen and religious leaders had delivered him over to be sentenced to death.

His next question was much broader.

“What have you done?”

But Jesus knew Pilate’s prideful heart in this question, and he answered Pilate’s heart, as he had done so often in his ministry.

He said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

Then he explained the significance of that statement regarding what he was accused of.

He had no soldiers to defend him against the Jews’ bloodlust.

He wasn’t a threat to the Roman empire, like the religious leaders wanted Pilate to think.

But he didn’t deny that he’s a king, and Pilate picked up on that and confirms, “so, you ARE a king?”

And Jesus confirmed his purpose in coming to the earth from where his kingdom currently was.

He came to bear witness to the truth, and everyone who is of the truth, everyone who is part of his kingdom of truth, listens and obeys his voice.

His kingdom may not be a threat to the Roman empire, but that doesn’t mean its an empty powerless kingdom.

It’s a kingdom full of people from every tribe and nation who listen and obey their king, Jesus.

It’s a kingdom of righteousness and humility and truth.

It’s a kingdom that Pilate didn’t understand.

Because Pilate was ignorant of Jesus’ righteousness, he was ignorant of the truth.

That’s why he answered Jesus’ statement by rhetorically asking, “what is truth?”

He didn’t even know what truth was anymore he’d been so corrupted by the lies and manipulations of politics and humanity in general.

He was blind to the truth, so blind that truth had become entirely subjective.

And in his perception, the truth was that Jesus was not guilty, he wasn’t a threat to the Roman Empire.

Pilate thought that Jesus wasn’t a threat to anyone because in his mind Jesus was just a harmless Jew with delusions of grandeur.

So, we looked at the religious leaders’ manipulation of righteousness, and we looked at Pilate’s ignorance of righteousness.

And both of them highlight…

Jesus’ Perfect Righteousness (36-37)

Specifically in verses 36-37, Jesus’ statements about his kingdom and the reason he came to the earth reveal his perfect righteousness.

The religious leaders were manipulating righteousness, and those who are truly in Jesus’ kingdom oppose such manipulation because Jesus, our King, also opposes such manipulation.

We saw that in the previous passage when Jesus opposed the manipulative questioning of Annas.

And Pilate was so ignorant of what righteousness is that he even questioned the existence of objective truth to base that righteousness on.

But Jesus is the truth.

In John 14:6 “Jesus said to [Thomas], “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

He is the objective truth revealing that all of us are sinners in need of a savior so that by faith in our savior, Jesus, we can be forgiven and live forever with the Father.

Jesus perfectly met the sins of the religious leaders and Pilate regarding true righteousness.

So, in this first part of Jesus’ trial before Pilate his righteousness was both condemned and highlighted against the backdrop of the perversions of righteousness of the religious leaders and Pilate.

Next, in the second half of Jesus’ trial, the interactions will shift to the topic of authority in chapter 19 verse 1 through the first half of verse 16.

John 19:1–4 ESV

Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. 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.”

John 19:5–7 ESV

So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” 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.” 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.”

John 19:8–10 ESV

When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. 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?”

John 19:11–12 ESV

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.” 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.”

John 19:13–16 ESV

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. Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” 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.” So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.

So, in this second part of Jesus’ trial we see…

The Condemnation of Authority (19:1-16a)

Similar to the first part, in this second part we’re going to analyze the different people or groups of people regarding the topic of authority.

And this time, we’re going to begin with Pilate, specifically…

Pilate’s Fear of Authority (1-11)

Last week I mentioned that prisoners were protected from harm until the judgment dictated their beating or execution.

That protection was part of the Jewish legal system.

The Roman legal system had no such protections, so it was perfectly within Pilate’s rights as governor to do whatever he wanted to Jesus even after he had declared him not guilty.

But the reason Pilate had Jesus beaten and mocked was to hopefully appease the bloodlust of the religious leaders who had asked for a known murderer to be released rather than the apparently innocent and peaceful Jesus.

As if Pilate thought, maybe if I have this guy bloodied and beaten and made to look as ridiculous and harmless as I can, then they will finally calm down and stop trying to have him killed.

So, Pilate had Jesus beaten and mocked and made to look ridiculous in a purple cloak and a crown of thorns, and he brought him out for the religious leaders to see just how little of a threat Pilate saw in Jesus, why Pilate found no guilt in him.

“Behold the man.”

But this didn’t have the effect Pilate intended.

They called for more than just blood, they called for his death, “Crucify him.”

At this point Pilate was probably afraid that this would turn into a mob that he would have to call the cohort to suppress.

So, in frustration he tells them to crucify him themselves, that he want’s no more part of this crazy trial.

This is now the third time that he told them that he found no guilt in Jesus.

Interestingly, the first two times the Greek grammar implies that Pilate did not find any guilt for their accusation in Jesus, but this third time, in his frustration, he implies that he has found no guilt at all in Jesus.

This may be just a subtle unintended implication, but we know that Jesus was completely sinless, and here Pilate seems to unintentionally confirm that truth.

Well, his frustrated response did not give the religious leaders the go-ahead to kill Jesus, it was just Pilate venting his frustrations with them.

But the religious leaders felt compelled to give Pilate one more piece of information about why they wanted Jesus dead.

They felt they needed to push him just a little further for him to agree to crucify Jesus.

You see, Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, and according to their Jewish law that deserved the death penalty.

They were probably referring to Leviticus 24:16 “Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.”

This was the very same thing they attempted to stone Jesus for back in John 10:33 “The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.””

Back then they were so worked up that they were willing to go around the Roman legal system and just murder Jesus right then and there and deal with the consequences later.

Well, now Pilate has become even more afraid, not of the unruly mob forming outside his headquarters, but because he had just beaten and mocked someone who may have divine power to exact retribution on him.

Pilate was superstitious like most people in the Roman culture.

He probably thought that Jesus might have been like Hercules or something, a demigod with supernatural power.

He may have also assumed that Jesus would be just as petty and capricious as the Roman gods were thought to be.

So, he took Jesus back inside and questioned him privately again, this time out of fear rather than pride.

Pilate’s tune had changed significantly.

Now instead of strutting he was fretting over who exactly this Jesus guy was and where he came from.

But Jesus didn’t answer his fearful question, and that made him even more afraid.

So, he tried to convince Jesus to cooperate with his questioning by asserting his authority and implying Jesus’ helplessness under his authority.

And Jesus responded in a way that was general enough that Pilate assumed that it was a veiled threat and an encouragement to disentangle himself from the religious leaders as soon as possible.

Now, let’s look at…

The Religious Leaders’ Disregard of Authority (12-16a)

I imagine Pilate sweating and frantically trying to undo Jesus’ bonds and slip him out the back door when through the air wafts a statement that stopped Pilate in his tracks.

“If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”

Up to this point Pilate was only concerned with protecting himself by simply doing his job in this backwater little country of Israel.

But now, they brought up Caesar.

They’ve called Pilate’s loyalty to Caesar into question.

This is probably the most manipulative thing the religious leaders have said up to this point.

This is blackmail, pure and simple.

If you don’t crucify Jesus, then we will have you crucified for treason.

Wow.

So, Pilate’s been put in a bit of a pickle.

On the one hand he’s found no guilt in Jesus who in his mind might even be a demigod of some kind, but on the other hand these religious leaders have called his loyalty to Caesar into question.

He was feeling threatened by Jesus and by the religious leaders, so he brought Jesus out to them, to the place of judgment.

The Stone Pavement, called Gabbatha in Aramaic, at the sixth hour on the day of Preparation.

John gives us these details because they are historically verifiable, as if to say, these things really happened, and here’s some verifiable details to prove it.

So, it was nearing midday the day before the Sabbath.

Time was running out for the religious leaders to have Jesus crucified before they would have to wait until after the Passover feast to do it.

They were getting antsy.

And after Pilate brought Jesus out to this Stone Pavement he tried one last time to get the religious leaders to back down, but they wanted Jesus dead, and soon.

So, they pressed in on their manipulative tactic that had already seemed to work.

Pilate presented Jesus one last time, and said “Behold, your King!”

But they responded to this by calling for his death even more.

So, Pilate asked incredulously, “Shall I crucify your King?”

And they confirmed it by claiming their own loyalty to Caesar as a further manipulation of Pilate since they had already questioned his loyalty.

“We have no king but Caesar.”

But their claim of loyalty to Caesar was a bald faced lie.

They had as much loyalty to Caesar as they did to Jesus.

But Jesus threatened their way of life, and Caesar was only annoying at that point.

They really had no regard for any authority other than their own.

Also, according to the Scriptures, Israel’s true king is God, and the human kings he set up over the years were ruling at his sovereign command and with his authority.

So claiming that they had no king but Caesar was also a statement of treason against God, their true king.

Their claim of loyalty to Caesar, whether true or not, was the last straw for Pilate.

He couldn’t argue with them, he couldn’t get out of their trap.

So, he gave in to their demands and sentenced Jesus to death.

Well, we saw Pilate’s fear of authority and the religious leaders’ disregard of authority.

But both of them are just the backdrop to show us Jesus’ view of authority.

They both highlight…

Jesus’ Submission to Authority (11)

When Jesus answered Pilate in verse 11 it was not actually a threat like Pilate thought.

Pilate may have perceived it as a threat, but it was actually just a statement of fact mostly about how Jesus was submitting to the authority of Pilate because of his submission to the authority of God the Father.

And how the religious leaders were not submitting to the authority of God, even though they were doing what he had sovereignly planned to happen.

As conscious moral agents we’re all held accountable to our submission to God regardless of the fact that everything is under God’s sovereign hand to happen as he has determined it to happen.

Jesus submitted to his Father in heaven, but the religious leaders actively opposed him, and Pilate ignorantly denied him.

Conclusion

So, where does this leave us?

What should we know, or believe, or do in light of this passage?

I think John intended for his audience to know and understand Jesus’ perfect righteousness and submission to the authority of God the Father so that we would strive to be like Jesus and not like the religious leaders or Pilate.

But I also think, just like with Peter in the previous passage, that all of this is to show us how much we need a savior, and how perfect Jesus is to save us.

We are all more like the religious leaders and Pilate than we may care to admit.

We all sin, we’re sinners.

We all disregard or ignore righteousness from time to time.

We all disregard God’s authority sometimes or we might fear man more than we fear God every now and then.

None of us are perfect.

That’s why I had you think of a time when you sinned against God.

We all sin, we can’t get away from it this side of glory.

The question is what to do about that sin.

Are you going to disregard it or ignore it or fear the consequences of it?

Or are you going to rely on Jesus to be your perfect savior, so you can repent of your sin and be freed from it.

Jesus didn’t disregard or ignore sin just like he didn’t disregard or ignore righteousness.

He was perfectly righteous so that he could free us from sin forever to live in his perfect righteousness.

And Jesus didn’t disregard or fear the consequences of sin just like he didn’t disregard or fear the authority of the Father who put him on this mission to die for the sins of the world.

He was perfectly submissive to the Father so that as we submit to him in faith we can be forgiven of all of our sins.

However you have sinned, Jesus perfectly meets that sin and he is sufficient to save you from your sin as the perfect, righteous, and submissive Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

So, if you have not submitted in faith to Jesus as your savior and repented of your sins, then now is a perfect time to do so.

Any time is a perfect time to do so.

Well, I suppose the only time that’s not perfect to do so would be after you die or after Jesus comes back because then it’ll be too late.

But you don’t know when that’s going to be, so right now is the best time to submit to Jesus and put your faith in him for the forgiveness of your sins.

All you have to do is believe in Jesus and turn from your sin to follow him in righteousness.

If you believe, then tell him in prayer, tell him that you believe, and ask him to help you repent of your sin and submit to his righteousness in your life.

And let us know, too.

We want to rejoice with you over your freedom and forgiveness and eternal life.

Now if you’ve already submitted to Jesus in faith, and I expect most of us here have done that…

Then please remember that sin is still a struggle, an enemy.

Temptation is still very real, and when you sin you are not cast aside because Jesus perfectly meets each of your sins.

You can have confidence to confess your sins to the Lord knowing that you have already been forgiven.

You can strive to be more and more like Jesus by striving for his righteousness and repenting daily of your sin, and by submitting daily to his authority in your life and fearlessly accepting the struggles and persecution he has sovereignly allowed.

And you can do all of this when you remember that Jesus was condemned to death so that you wouldn’t have to pay your own death penalty for your sin.

Pray

Father, thank you for showing us the glories of Christ in your Word.

Thank you for showing us his perfect righteousness and his submission to your authority.

And thank you for showing us what we can all be like sometimes.

Lord, we can all end up like the religious leaders or Pilate sinning against you because of our pride and selfishness.

I pray that you would forgive us because Jesus already paid the price for our sin.

And I pray that you would help us fight the temptation to sin by remembering Jesus’ righteousness and love for us in the gospel.

Help us remind each other of these things, help us work in each others’ lives to grow in our Christlikeness.

I pray all of this in the name of Jesus, our perfect Savior. Amen.