Sermon Tone Analysis

The Jesus of the Jews

John 18:1

The Sanhedrin was the supreme court of the Jewish ruling authority.

This court consisted of seventy-one judges appointed from the priests and Levites.

These 71 served as the ruling governments during the time of the Roman occupation.

To keep order in the Roman empire, each nation kept their ruling authority and would keep order and peace among their own people’ daily affairs.

This ruling authority could extend all forms of judgment and punishment save execution for capital offenses.

In other words, if there was a reason to put someone to death, the ruling authority would bring the accused before the Roman delegate who would carry out a Roman ruling and determine if the crime fit the punishment of death.

The Sanhedrin was the supreme court of the Jewish ruling authority.

This court consisted of seventy-one judges appointed from the priests and Levites.

These 71 served as the ruling governments during the time of the Roman occupation.

To keep order in the Roman empire, each nation kept their ruling authority and would keep order and peace among their own people’ daily affairs.

This ruling authority could extend all forms of judgment and punishment save execution for capital offenses.

In other words, if there was a reason to put someone to death, the ruling authority would bring the accused before the Roman delegate who would carry out a Roman ruling and determine if the crime fit the punishment of death.

The Sanhedrin was the supreme court of the Jewish ruling authority.

This court consisted of seventy-one judges appointed from the priests and Levites.

These 71 served as the ruling governments during the time of the Roman occupation.

To keep order in the Roman empire, each nation kept their ruling authority and would keep order and peace among their own people’ daily affairs.

This ruling authority could extend all forms of judgment and punishment save execution for capital offenses.

In other words, if there was a reason to put someone to death, the ruling authority would bring the accused before the Roman delegate who would carry out a Roman ruling and determine if the crime fit the punishment of death.

The Sanhedrin was the supreme court of the Jewish ruling authority.

This court consisted of seventy-one judges appointed from the priests and Levites.

These 71 served as the ruling governments during the time of the Roman occupation.

To keep order in the Roman empire, each nation kept their ruling authority and would keep order and peace among their own people’ daily affairs.

This ruling authority could extend all forms of judgment and punishment save execution for capital offenses.

In other words, if there was a reason to put someone to death, the ruling authority would bring the accused before the Roman delegate who would carry out a Roman ruling and determine if the crime fit the punishment of death.

John chooses in his gospel to not include Jesus’ trial before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin.

John saw the redundancy on their accusation and that of Annas.

If we look in the gospel of Mark, we see that the trial before Caiaphas was no trial at all, like it was before Annas.

Mark 14:53-65

Jesus is the Messiah.

He is the Son of God.

He is seated at the right hand of the Father.

All of these things were true.

Not only were these things true, they are the fulfillment of prophesy that the Israelites had been waiting for generations to see fulfilled.

Jesus is the Messiah that the scriptures had promised.

The Jewish leaders though created a picture, a mold of what the Messiah would look like, where he would come from and what he would do.

Jesus failed to fit this mold so they chose to kill Him instead of investigating His claims.

We do the same thing.

We create our own mold for Jesus.

Jesus will bring into our lives peace, joy, happiness.

Our troubles will begin to fade away and life will be easier.

With Jesus, we will know what tomorrow holds and we will not have worry, doubt, struggle or trial.

Our marriages will turn out like they do in the movies and we will find purpose, meaningful purpose in all that we do.

We will have our lives together and we will start to fit that mold that all Christians fit into where we can show up on Sunday morning untouched by the world.

This is not the Messiah that has been promised nor is this who Jesus said he would be in our lives.

Jesus came to set up his kingdom, a kingdom that was not of this world and unlike any kingdom in this world.

His kingdom is built not upon the strength of its people or the resources available to be used.

The Kingdom that Jesus ushered in is built upon His strength and righteousness.

All are in His kingdom because of Him.

He is transforming each and every individual to fit in the kingdom.

He enters into our lives to take the place of whatever or whoever was ruling and reigning.

Jesus did not come to build a winning team and recruit the best players to his side.

Jesus came to be king and to invite us to be ruled by Him.

While peace and joy are aspects of his kingdom, they are not experienced in his kingdom like they are in the world.

Our peace and joy come from our hearts embracing that this world is not our home but that our citizenship is now in Christ's kingdom.

Jesus has not come to grant our wishes or to be what we need in our lives.

This is the wrong perspective.

Jesus is what we need, but that is because we were made to be in relationship with Him.

We were made to be in the Kingdom of God.

It was us who stood in the way of that.

The Jewish leaders missed Jesus as the Messiah because they had built a mold for who the Messiah was to be.

They were looking for the conquering hero who would restore Israel to its former glory.

What we fail to see about former glory is that our former glory is built upon a broken foundation.

Our hope for making something great again fails on the very premise of what Christ is trying to do.

He has come to make things new.

Jesus Before Pilate

John 18:

John 18:31-

As the Jewish leaders bring Jesus before Pilate, they are elusive with their reasoning for bringing Jesus.

Their desire was for Jesus to be put to death because He did not fit their mold, their hope in the promised Messiah.

Pilate will not just give in.

He too must decide the mold that Jesus would fit into.

The Roman law system was designed to keep order.

There were some violations that resulted in death, but the act of putting people to death, especially non-Roman citizens was in the hands of the Roman authority.

Pilate was placed in the position of having to determine if Jesus fit in the mold of one whose violation warranted death.

To this, Pilate first desires to have nothing to do with this determination.

He scolds the Jewish leaders and tells them to judge Jesus in accordance with their own law.

Especially during the Passover feast where the population of Jerusalem increased multiple times over as Jews from all over the known world come to have their lamb sacrificed at the temple and partake of the most sacred of meals, Pilate and the Roman authority would have been on high alert.

Rome had even sent a detachment of soldiers to be on guard int he city.

Pilate would have been quick to enact judgment upon any who seemed a threat to the peace or a threat to the Roman interest.

Pilate’s reluctance to entertain this trial of Jesus shows that Jesus was not on his radar.

Jesus did not serve as a threat to the cause of Rome.

But the Jewish officials pushed for Jesus threatened their position.

Pilate finally relents and conducts the trial to see if Jesus had indeed warranted death as the Jewish officials claimed.

Pilate questions Jesus concerning his motives, seeking if Jesus was a treat to start a rebellion to usurp the Roman seat.

Pilate sought to fit Jesus into the molds that the world had defined.

The Roman empire saw any who claimed to be the king and sought to make their claims a reality as a threat and worthy of death.

Pilate tried to place Jesus in this mold, but he quickly found that mold did not fit.

Pilate then tried to fit Jesus into the mold of appeaser.

He thought that if he just punished Jesus, then Jesus could be used as a tool to appease the religious leaders and restore peace.

As Pilate brings Jesus out to the crowds, this mold quickly crumbles.

When we try to fit Jesus into the molds of the world, we quickly find that He does not fit.

Jesus for Who He Is

The reason none of these molds fit is because Jesus is greater than these molds can contain.

It is from the hands of Christ that the world was formed.

He is the one who fashioned everything into existence.

As the Father spoke, the Son molded and shaped.

It is upon His back that the universe was brought forth and it is by His hand that the universe continues.

When we try to confine Jesus to the constructs of our mind, need, or desire, we are limiting who God is.