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John 18:39-19:16  THE SECOND HEARING OF JESUS BEFORE PILATE

Introduction:
	
	In our previous text Jesus was carried by the Jews to
Pilate, the Roman governor, for trial.  That hearing ended
with Pilate pronouncing Jesus "Not guilty" of the charges
which the Jews had made against Him.
	In our text today Jesus has a second hearing before
Pilate.

I.  The setting for our text

	When Pilate had pronounced Jesus "Not guilty" that
should have ended the trial, but it didn't.  The Jews became
very angry at Pilate for not rendering the verdict of guilty
and sentencing Jesus to death by crucifixion.
	Their anger toward him frightened Pilate.  He was not
afraid that they would attack him, because he had a large
number of Roman soldiers for his protection.  But he was
afraid that if they got too angry with him, they would make
another trip to Rome to register another complaint against
him to the Roman Caesar.  They had already made one such
trip to Rome and the Caesar had warned him that if there was
more trouble between him and the Jews that he would no
longer be governor.  So it disturbed Pilate greatly that the
Jews expressed such great anger toward him now.
	It was at this point that somebody among the Jews
mentioned that Jesus was from Galilee where Herod ruled.
They said that Jesus had especially stirred up trouble in
Galilee.  So Pilate leaped at the chance of shifting this
trial into the hands of Herod.  It just so happened that
Herod was in Jerusalem at this time for the Passover
celebration.  John says nothing about it, but Pilate sent
Jesus to Herod and sent the Jewish leaders away.
	He thought he had gotten himself off the hook and out of
a jam with the Jews.  He was wrong.  Herod also found Jesus
"Not guilty," but he did not dispose of the case.  Instead
he sent Jesus back to Pilate for Pilate to dispose of the
case.  So the case was right back in Pilate's lap.
	So Pilate called the Jewish leaders back to his judgment
hall and in addition sent messengers to the masses of common
people in Jerusalem that they also should come that they all
might hear his verdict.  I suspect he thought that the great
popularity which Jesus had held among the common people
would put pressure on the Jewish leaders to be lenient
toward Jesus.  However, even that did not work.  Pilate just
did not understand the great power of persuasion which the
Jewish leaders held over the people.  Nor did he understand
that many people even among the masses had already begun to
turn against Jesus.

II.  Pilate's persistence in trying to avoid ordering the
	crucifixion of Jesus

	But Pilate had another plan.  V. 39, "But ye have a
custom, that I should release unto you one at the
passover: will ye therefore that I release unto you the King
of the Jews?"  It was at this season that he, as governor,
would release one Jewish prisoner who was being held by the
Romans.  He did this each yearin order to try to gain with
the Jews, who did not like him at all.  Other gospel writers
say that he offered them a choice between the release of
Jesus or Barabbas.  Barabbas was a mean one and he could not
imagine under any circumstances that the Jews would ask for
the release of Jesus.
	Pilate thought that by offering the people this choice,
he would get out from under the responsibility of having to
make a decision in the case.  He knew that Jesus was
innocent of the charges against Him and de did not wish to
crucify an innocent man.  Yet it was obvious that if he
released Jesus he would anger the Jews and almost surely the
Jews would report him to the Caesar.  And just as surely as
they reported him to the Caesar he would be removed from the
governor's office.  So by offering them as choice between a
good man like Jesus and an extremely bad man like Barabbas,
they would surely ask him to release Jesus and he would not
have to make a decision at all.  This was another reason he
wanted the masses of common people there to hear his offer.
He thought the common people with whom Jesus had been
popular would all join in asking for the release of Jesus.
	But once again, Pilate found that it was not easy to get
off the hook.  V. 40, "Then cried they all again, saying,
Not this man, but Barabbas..."  According to the other
gospel writers, the Jewish leaders became frantic at this
point.  They screamed and yelled to the top of their voice
calling for the release of Barabbas.  I am sure that it was
much to the disappointment of Pilate, but the masses of
common people joined right in with the Jewish leaders.
	(V. 40), "...Now Barabbas was a robber."  John tells us
that Barabbas was a robber.  Other gospel writers tell us
that He was also guilty of murder and insurrection against
the Roman government.  Yet the Jews demanded the death
penalty for the God-man, who was innocent of such crimes,
and demanded the release of a man whom they knew to be
guilty of such crimes.  What hypocrisy!
	V. 1, "Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged
him."  John says that at this point Pilate took Jesus and
scourged Him.  This means that he had Jesus brutally beaten
with a whip by a Roman soldier.
	Other gospel writers say that he first again pronounced
Jesus "Not guilty" of the charges.  He must have reminded
them that in the first hearing he had found Jesus not
guilty.  He now informed them that Herod had also found Him
"Not guilty."  He knew that this verdict would not please
the Jews, but he had tried his best to avoid making a
verdict of any kind and had been unable to do so.  At first,
he had tried to get the Jews to try Jesus and pronounce a
verdict, but they had refused because they could not
pronounce a death penalty.  Then he had sent Jesus to Herod
hoping that Herod would settle the case.  Herod did
pronounce Jesus "Not guilty," but did not dispose of the
case.  Herod did not set Jesus free.  Instead he sent Jesus
back to Pilate to pronounce sentence.  So now Pilate, who
must make a decision is still at this time sticking to his
guns and again announces a verdict of "Not guilty."
	With a verdict of "Not guilty" the thing that he should
have done was simply to release the prisoner.  But he
didn't.  Pilate was very much afraid of these men.  He was
afraid that they were so angry that they would go again to
Caesar.  He was afraid that Caesar would take his
governorship away from him --- maybe even his life.
	So Pilate did not simply release Jesus.  Other writers
say that he told the Jews that he would scourge Jesus and
then set Him free.
	He apparently thought that after they saw how brutally
Jesus would be whipped by the soldier that their anger
toward Jesus would be appeased and that they would be
satisfied with his verdict.  So he had Jesus scourged.
	Now scourging alone was a terrible ordeal.  Even if
crucifixion had not followed, the strips laid on with the
whip were extremely painful.  It was common practice in that
day to tie pieces of lead and pieces of bone to the tip end
of the whip which would strike the flesh of the victim. The
pieces of lead and pieces of bonewould cut deeply into the
flesh.
	Furthermore, when the Jews would scourge a man they
would limit the number of stripes to forty stripes save one.
That is, they limited the blows to thirty-nine stripes.  But
when the Romans scourged a man, they did not limit the
number of stripes which the soldier could administer.
Usually the Roman soldier who would whip the victim well
beyond the thirty-nine stripes which the Jews would
administer.
	After the scourging the Roman soldier then made sport of
the suffering Christ.  V. 2, "And the soldiers platted a
crown of thorns, and put it on his head..."  We are told by
the other writers that they put it on His head and then beat
the thorns down into His brow with a reed.
	(V. 2), "...and they put on him a purple robe."  This
would be as though they thought that He was a king.  Then
they, in mockery, would do homage to the king.  V. 3, "And
said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their
hands."  They would march before Him and say, "Hail, King of
the Jews" and then they would beat Him in the face with
their hands as hard as they could.  And these men were
strong.  They were soldiers.  They could beat hard.
	V. 4, "Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto
them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know
that I find no fault in him."  That is, Pilate had Jesus
brought out before the crowd so that all the crowd could see
Him in that pitiful, pitiful condition.  V. 5, "Then came
Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple
robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!"  He
wanted them to see that Jesus, a man whom he truly believed
to be innocent of any crime had been severely beaten just to
please them.  He thought that if there was an ounce of mercy
in them that surely the pitiful sight of Jesus standing
there in that terrible condition would touch their hearts
and they would be satisfied with his verdict and his
actions.

III.  The persistence of the Jews in insisting that Pilate
	order the crucifixion of Jesus

	But not so.  V. 6, "When the chief priests therefore and
officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him,
crucify him..."  Then that great big crowd of people joined
in with the Jewish leaders and chanted, "Crucify Him!
Crucify Him!"
	Pilate must have been stunned.  (V. 6, "...Pilate saith
unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault
in him."  When I first read this, it sounded to me as if
Pilate gave them permission to take Jesus right then and
crucify Him.  But they didn't and I wondered why.  It
finally dawned on me that Pilate did not really give them
permission at this point to crucify Him.  At least they did
not understand it that way.  If they had thought for a
moment that Pilate was really giving them permission to
crucify Jesus, they would have eagerly done so.  They were
that determined to see Him put to death.
	In essence what Pilate was saying was, "If you are that
determined to see an innocent man put to death then you put
him to death.  You will then be the one to have to answer
for your crime."
	At any rate, the Jews made no move to lay a hand on
Jesus.  Instead, they began a new approach to seek to
persuade Pilate to crucify Jesus.  They sought to convince
Pilate that they had good reason according to Jewish law to
want Jesus put to death.  Thus, even though Pilate was
convinced of His innocence, they sought to persuade him to
do them a favor and put Him to death just to please them.
V.  7, "The Jews answered him, We have a law, and byour law
he ought to
die, because he made himself the Son of God."
	V. 8, "When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was
the more afraid."  He was not just afraid of the Jewish
leaders and what they could do to him, but he was afraid of
Jesus and what Jesus could do to him.  He was afraid that
Jesus just might be the Son of God.  The tactic of the Jews
had backfired.  Instead of making Pilate decide to put Jesus
to death, they actually made him afraid, at least
momentarily, to do anything else against Jesus.  He had
already had Him scourged.  He surely did not want to offend
the Son of God any further.
	I think the message that Pilate's wife had sent him had
something to do with this fear.  She had sent him a message
saying that she had suffered many things in a dream about
Jesus.  Her advice was (and I paraphrase), "Have nothing to
do with harming this just man."
	So once again Pilate goes inside the judgment hall away
from the crowd and interrogates Jesus again.  V. 9, "And
went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus,
Whence art thou? ...."  Pilate wanted to know if Jesus
really is the Son of God and so he asked Jesus, "Where did
you come from?"  If Jesus had answered, He would have to
tell Pilate that He came from heaven and He did not want to
tell Pilate that.  So He just kept quiet.  (V. 9), "...But
Jesus gave him no answer."
	By this time Pilate had recovered somewhat from his fear
of Jesus.  V. 10, "Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou
not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify
thee, and have power to release thee?"  He wanted to impress
Jesus with his power and authority and to intimidate Jesus
into answering his question.  Jesus responded, but not to
answer his question.  V. 11, "Jesus answered, Thou couldest
have no power at all against me, except it were given thee
from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath
the greater sin."  Pilate had sinned by not freeing Jesus
when he knew Him to be innocent of the charges, but the Jews
bore the greater guilt.  Jesus was on trial and He was
innocent.  But both His accusers and His judge were guilty.
Jesus said that the Jews were more guilty than Pilate.
	V. 12, "And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release
him..."  That is, he actually set about to set Jesus free.
He had repeatedly stated that Jesus was not guilty.  Yet up
to this point he had made no move to make his verdict stick
and to actually release Jesus.  But now he made his move and
set about to set Him free.
	When he did there was a wild reaction from the Jews.
(V. 12), "...but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let
this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend: whosoever maketh
himself a king speaketh against Caesar."  The one human
being that Pilate feared the most was the Roman Caesar.  He
knew full well what would happen to him if the Jews reported
to Caesar that he had set a man free who was accused of
insurrection against Caesar.  Pilate knew that he would no
longer be governor.  If he, himself, was not put to death,
he would be put into some Roman prison until his death.

IV.  Pilate's capitulation

	This was when all of Pilate's resistance against the
Jews crumbled.  V. 13, "When Pilate therefore heard that
saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment
seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the
Hebrew, Gabbatha."  This was an elevated platform built out
in front of the judgment hall where the governor could speak
to large crowds.
	V. 14, "And it was the preparation of the passover, and
about the sixth hour..."  That is, it was the day of
preparation for the special sabbath day which always
immediately followed the Passover.  So the this was the day
of preparation for the special sabbath and they cooked and
prepared for it in advance.  They could not cook on that
special sabbath day.  The hour of the day was somewhat near
to the sixth hour of their day.  By the way we count time,
it was about 12:00 o'clock noon.
	(V. 14), "...and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your
King!"  He said this in sarcasm, of course.  He did not like
those Jesus and he threw this at them knowing it would
irritate them.
	V. 15-16, "But they cried out, Away with him, away with
him, crucify him.  Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify
your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but
Caesar.  Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be
crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away."  It was
at this point that Pilate called for a basin of water and
washed his hands of the whole affair.

V.  Some questions for us

	Now let me ask you a question:  Just who was responsible
for the death?  Who was responsible for the crucifixion of
Jesus Christ?
	Was it Judas Iscariot?  He is the man who betrayed Jesus
into the hands of His enemies.  The answer is:  Yes, to a
large measure, Judas Iscariot is responsible for the
crucifixion of Jesus.  But not altogether.  There wereothers
involved.
	Was it Caiaphas,the chief priest?  It was his idea.  He
was tahe one who had told the Sanhedrin Council that Jesus
,should be put to death.  He had told them this even before
Jesus arrived at Jerusalem.  Yea, aCaiafas was to blame, but
not altogether.  There were others at fault.
	Was it other members of the Sanhedrin?  It was these men
who had joined with Caiphas who had pressured Pilate into
making a decision that he did not want to make.  Yes, to a
very large measure, it was these Jewish leaders who were
responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus.  Jesus Himself in
His conversation with Pilate said that they were
responsible.  But the Jews alone were not responsible.
There were others involved.
	Was it Pilate?  He was the Roman governor who was
responsible for administering justice in this case and he
certainly did not do it.  Furthermore, Pilate knew that he
did not administer justice.  So was it Pilate?  Yes, it was
at his command that Jesus was crucified.  But Pilate alone
was not responsible.  There are still others involved.
	Was it you and I?  We did not even live at the time.
How could we be responsible?  The answer is: Yes you and I
are very much responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus.
Even though we were not even born at that time and even
though we did not directly participate in what took place at
His judgment, yet we are very much responsible.  You see, it
was for us that Jesus died.  If He had not died as a
sacrifice for sin, then we would all be lost in our sin.
	We are sinners in the sight of God and even though were
not even born at time, Jesus knew even then that we would be
born and that we would be sinners and that we would need a
Savior.  Yes, it was for me that He died on Calvary.  It was
for you that He was crucified.
	It is because He died that most of us here today can
say, "Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul."
	It is because He died that those of you who are not
saved, can trust in Him and be saved today.
	It is because He died for us that we who are saved
should love Him and live for Him.

Conclusion: