Pilate On Trial-Mark 15:1-15

As we begin this morning, please turn in your copies of God’s Word to the Gospel of Mark. This morning we will be in chapter 15 and looking at the first 15 verses. Please have these verses marked and ready, we will read them shortly.

Last Sunday morning, we examined Caiaphas, and the Great Sanhedrin, over and over again, casting aside the Mosaic Law, for the purpose of delivering a death sentence for Jesus. A sentence that was determined even before they had decided on the crime! I read back through the message from last Sunday morning and counted at least 12 separate violations of the Mosaic Law by Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin. Violations of Laws they were sworn to uphold and judge rightly.

But throughout the entire process on this dark night, we noted that the Sovereign God was in complete control of all the events, all the way down to the timing of everything. Additionally, we looked at how Jesus carefully fulfilled prophecies along the way. But we also looked at Caiaphas, unwittingly fulfilling prophecy as well.

As we closed out our time, we came to the conclusion that Jesus was not the One on trial. It was Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin who were on trial, and Jesus announced His verdict, in a powerfully riveting way when He declared; “I am a very clear declaration from Jesus that He is God in the flesh!, and you will see the Son of Man (yet another declaration that He was God in the flesh) seated at the right hand (a declaration that He would be enthroned on high) of Power (notice the capital P, this was a figurative title for God, Who is All Powerful and Jesus declaring to them that He would be enthroned on high and seated in judgement over them), and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

This brings us to chapter 15, would you please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word? We will be reading verses 1-15:

Next Slide

Mark 15:1–15 ESV

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.

May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Word. Please be seated. Next Slide

The Picture Of Piety In A Illegal Trial. Vs. 1; Mt. 27:1

I spent a number of years working in factories. If my memory serves me correctly, when I was working in the Coca-Cola plant in the Washington DC area, we had a number of individuals who were regularly a tad bit late. This was close to 35 years ago, so my recollection is less than vivid, but I recall we all were hard workers, but the traffic in DC was absolutely horrendous.

At the time, Pam and I lived in Baltimore, which was about 1 hour north of DC. I say about because during rush hour traffic, that 1 hour turned in to close to 2. In fact, I had to be on the road between 5:15-5:30 AM, to guarantee I would get to work in time. I usually arrived close to 1 hour before work, backed my pick-up into my parking spot, and went to sleep. About 10 minutes before our shift began, one of the mechanics who parked near me, would knock on my window to wake me up.

One thing you learn to do if you do much driving in rush hour traffic in a major city, is to listen to local radio, that way you would get reports on where the traffic jams are taking place. Generally those reports come at 10 minute intervals. At work, we were never permitted to punch the time clock until right at, or about 7AM and more often than not, we would hand our time cards to one individual and he would punch us all in. As we handed time cards to the designated time card puncher, we’d hear a conversation like this; “Hey, anyone see Bobby yet?” Frequently the reply would be something like this; “No, but there was an accident on the west side of the Beltway, he is probably stuck in the traffic.” No one wanted others to get into trouble. So, when people arrived a couple minutes late, they could proceed directly to their work station and none of the mucky mucks in the office knew of their tardiness, because the most important thing for them, was the all important time stamp on the time card. In some ways that is sort of what we are seeing in our first verse of chapter 15. Only in the case of the late arrivals at Coca-Cola, we understood they lateness was unintentional.

As we begin this morning in the first verse of chapter 15, we find Jesus in the midst of His third illegal trial, in just a few short hours, as He stands before the Sanhedrin. By now the verdict had already been delivered, but it had never been formalized. The shrewd men of the Sanhedrin were very careful not to sign on the dotted line until after the sun had risen.

If you look at the heading of most of your copies of God’s Word for the beginning of Mark 15, most will say something along the lines of “Jesus Delivered to Pilate”, or “Jesus Before Pilate”. But if we take a closer look at these verses, as well as the same account recorded in the other Gospels, we find out what we found out last week, Jesus wasn’t the One on Trial, last week it was Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin who were on trial, this week it was Pilate: Next Slide

Pilate Before Jesus.