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[0:00] Well, good morning church. Thank you. Yeah. Jay's back from vacation.

[0:11] The question we're going to look at, ask and answer today, is in a world of injustice, in a world of chaos, how is it that we can take comfort in the Father, find refuge in the Father?

[0:36] How is it that we can do that? We can learn from Christ's example today. You may recall we are looking through, walking through the Gospel of John.

[0:49] In chapter 13 we see that Jesus goes to the upper room with his disciples, and there in the upper room, he models this example to the disciples of what servant leadership looks like.

[1:04] He bends down, he takes a towel and washes the disciples' feet, and he leads them in this servant leadership, this example, also teaches them about forgiveness.

[1:16] At the conclusion of that time, he also observes the Passover meal with the disciples, and begins at that moment to institute the Lord's Supper, and they are to do this in remembrance of Him, as long as they observe this until He comes.

[1:33] That is what Jesus institutes there in the upper room. Jesus is on His way to the cross. He leaves the upper room with his disciples, and He wanders through the streets of Jerusalem on the way down to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Judas will ultimately betray Him.

[1:50] Upon betraying Christ, Jesus will be taken to Caiaphas' house, where a mock trial will commence, one where even the Jewish laws are broken many times, and justice is made a mockery of there in Caiaphas' house.

[2:11] Caiaphas is dead set on killing Jesus, having Jesus be killed, but he knows he needs Rome's authority to do such, and so in the middle of the night, somewhere between 3 o'clock and 6 a.m., it's just the time all of us look forward being woken up.

[2:26] Caiaphas takes Jesus, and he goes to Pilate's house, Pilate the prefect or the governor, if you will, of this region under the Roman Empire, and that's where we picked up our story last week.

[2:43] Is this interaction now that Caiaphas and the religious leaders are there bringing Jesus to Pilate to continue this trial, to get Pilate to ultimately give the order that Caiaphas is looking for, that is the death penalty to Jesus.

[3:02] And he needs Rome's authority to do it, he needs Pilate to get on his side. That's the backdrop to our text. And if you were watching this scene unfold in a play, there would be eight scenes to the interaction between the religious leaders in Caiaphas and Pilate with Jesus.

[3:24] And so we're going to look at these eight scenes today, and we're going to find just how is it that the Lord took comfort in the Father in the midst of injustice.

[3:36] So if there is adversity in your life, there is injustice in your life, there is some circumstance where you're having a hard time finding peace and comfort and rest and refuge.

[3:47] This message is for you, because there are three ways that we will find that Jesus takes comfort in the Father with regard to all the circumstances and the injustice that surrounds him.

[4:00] Three of those eight scenes that we will look at today took place in last week's message. We find in the first scene in John chapter 18, verses 29 to 32, I'm not going to read these verses because you can go back to last week's message.

[4:16] Rob preached this message wonderfully and he taught on these scenes, but let me quickly go over them. On the first scene in John 18, 29 through 32, we see that the Jews entered the palace or the praetorium where Pilate was and Pilate came out to meet them.

[4:36] They did not go into Pilate's house. Pilate went out to meet them. The Jews made Pilate aware that there was a lawbreaker among them in the person of Jesus, so they would have Pilate believe.

[4:50] Pilate doesn't want to get involved until the Jewish leadership communicates that they do not have the authority to execute a criminal. Only Rome has that. Now Pilate thinks, oh, this escalated from just this lawbreaker to something where these people believe this guy deserves death.

[5:08] So then he takes Jesus inside his house. And so the second scene is now from chapter 18, 33 through 38.

[5:19] Pilate then goes back into his palace. He summons Jesus to come along with him. And one of the accusations is that Jesus is the king of the Jews. And so Pilate asks them, are you the king of the Jews?

[5:32] And Pilate continues, and he presumes that Jesus is guilty of whatever because Pilate's very question does not presume innocence but guilt because Pilate asks them in verse 35, what have you done?

[5:47] He presumes guilt, not innocent. He is guilty until proven innocent. Jesus responds with two things in verse 36.

[5:59] He says essentially the same thing twice. My kingdom is not of this world and the top of the verse and the bottom of the verse in verse 36, my kingdom is not from this world. And here we find the first way that Jesus takes rest and comfort in the midst of this injustice, all that surrounds him.

[6:19] And that is this, that he has an eternal perspective. The lens that Christ sees life through is the lens of an eternal perspective.

[6:30] And this is our first answer. Jesus is not rattled, he is not threatened, Jesus knows who he is, what he came to do, where he will return.

[6:41] And so Jesus takes rest and refuge in the Father, in the midst of this injustice and chaos, in these circumstances because he sees life through the lens of eternity.

[6:55] He knows why he came. He's going to die a death for sin and he's going to return to the Father in the resurrection. And that brings us to the third scene.

[7:09] The third scene, Jesus, or Pilate now leaves Jesus in the Praetorium and Pilate goes out again to the Jews. This is found in verse 38b through 40.

[7:21] And he informs, he does not find any guilt in the man Jesus. And it's accustomed to release a Passover, a prisoner before Passover. And so he says, because I don't find any guilt in him, why don't we release Jesus?

[7:36] And they say, no, no, no, no, give us Barabbas, this insolent murderer, insurrectionist. Give us that guy. And Pilate is now still stuck with this problem of what to do with Jesus.

[7:47] And that brings us to our text today, where we will continue to see how is it that Jesus takes rest in the Father in the midst of these unjust circumstances.

[7:59] Read with me in chapter 19 verse 1 through 3, John chapter 19 verses 1 through 3. This is now the fourth scene in the play, if you will.

[8:16] And the injustice continues. Pilate is stuck with what to do with Jesus, and we read in chapter 19 verses 1 through 3. Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him.

[8:27] And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him with a purple robe. They came up to him saying, hail the king of the Jews and struck him with their hands.

[8:42] Pilate in this fourth scene returns back inside to the Praetorium. He had failed in his manipulative attempt to release Jesus to the angry crowd outside the religious leaders.

[8:57] Pilate, so then Pilate had Jesus flogged. And the purpose of flogging in those days was for three-fold purposes. It was to extract information from a criminal.

[9:09] That was one of the purposes. Number two, it was to heap shame on the criminal himself. And number three, to hasten death, the death process prior to crucifixion.

[9:21] So Pilate taking his cue from the religious leaders outside the Praetorium, dressed Jesus up as a king as what they said he was. He's the king of the Jews, so I'm going to dress you up like a queen.

[9:32] Instead of giving you a crown of gold, I'm going to give you a crown of thorns. But I'll give you a purple robe, a robe of royalty. But only after his flesh had been ripped open in his back, undoubtedly that robe was now sticking to his back, the crown of thorns piercing his brow.

[9:56] Jesus at this time would have been a very sorry sight. Perhaps his eyes now have been swollen shut because they are striking him as they say, Hail the king of the Jews.

[10:12] Yet notice Jesus' response. He is not fighting back. He knows the purpose for which he came. He's going to die for sin. He is at peace with the Father in the midst of all this injustice.

[10:25] This is just the path to the cross. Because Jesus' present circumstance is seen through the lens of eternity. My kingdom is not of this world.

[10:40] This is the only way to bring about salvation and to forgive sin. We come to the fifth scene in verses four through five. Verses four through five, please read along with me.

[10:54] This is the fifth scene. 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. So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.

[11:08] Pilate said to him, Behold the man. When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, Crucify him, crucify him. And Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves and crucify him for I find no guilt in him.

[11:27] Verse seven, and 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.

[11:38] This is the fifth scene. Now, after privately making sport of flogging and beating and dressing him up as a king, Pilate now brings Jesus out to the crowd, shows him their king, whom they are so threatened by, this man now beaten.

[11:59] And Pilate parades Jesus in this shameful state before them and says, Behold the man. Pilate thought that the crowd, having seen that what Jesus had just been flogged and humiliated, would satisfy and even feel some sympathy for him.

[12:17] And then he could release Jesus. But Pilate was met with crowds crying, Crucify him, crucify him. This took Pilate aback and then publicly declared that he found no guilt in Christ and told the crown that they could take him and crucify them for himself.

[12:36] Here's my point. Finding rest in the Father in the midst of injustice, one has to see life in circumstances through the lens of eternity.

[12:52] John Payton was this missionary who I have come to love and enjoy reading. He's a missionary out of Scotland.

[13:03] He went to the New Hebrides, which is in the South Pacific Islands. The New Hebrides today is Vanuatu. And he went there, he was married for a very short amount of time.

[13:17] Within the first few months, in the early 1900s when he showed up on the islands there, his wife and his first child died. And he was confronted, do I return to Scotland?

[13:29] Or do I stay here and continue ministering to these people who have never heard the Gospel? He remained. He found an island neighboring Tana.

[13:42] Tana is where he went to, but he found a neighboring island called Antion. Antion was a people who had come to faith in Christ.

[13:54] These now national missionaries, if you will, who were among the people who had just heard the Gospel, came with John Payton to the island of Tana.

[14:05] And this is the account that Payton writes. One of those Antion national missionaries was chased from his home and savagely beaten.

[14:17] And Payton urged him to move into the mission house with him. He was there alone. His wife and child had died. Instead of living among the Tana natives, but this Antion missionary declared, when I see the native Tana people thirsting for my blood, I just see myself when the missionary first came to my island.

[14:42] I desired to murder him just as now they desire to kill me. Had that missionary stayed away from such danger, I would have remained a heathen.

[14:54] But he came and he continued and he stayed in such danger. I would have remained a heathen.

[15:06] But he taught us till the grace of God changed what I am. I am now a child of God. Now the same God that changed me to this can change these Tana people to love and serve him.

[15:22] How is it that this national person and John Payton could remain on this island where everyone just wanted to kill them?

[15:33] Is they had to see their life and their circumstances through the lens of eternity. These people will die apart from Christ unless the gospel is proclaimed. I must remain.

[15:46] Upon hearing this, Payton decided it was not in me to keep such a man under such motives from what he felt should be his post and duty. And so he let this anti-atom, anti-em, national missionary return to the village of the Tatum people where he had been working for so long.

[16:05] Three weeks later, this man became the first martyr on Tana. Praying in his last breath, O Lord Jesus, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.

[16:16] Take not away thy worship from this dark island, O God, bring all these Tana people to love and follow Jesus. One can only subject themselves to that circumstance if you see life through an eternal perspective.

[16:34] Whatever your circumstances are, wherever you find yourself, perhaps even injustice, do you see life and your circumstances through the lens of eternity?

[16:50] That's the first means Jesus we see is able to weather and take rest in the Father in the midst of this injustice.

[17:01] The second one we will find in the sixth scene. The sixth scene picks up in verse 8. 8 through 11.

[17:12] When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He just heard that he makes himself out to be the Son of God. That's the statement that makes Pilate more afraid.

[17:23] He enters his household again and says to Jesus, where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. 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?

[17:37] Jesus answered him, you would have no authority over me at all unless it was given to you from above. Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.

[17:51] The second scene, Pilate is now more afraid. He returns back into the home and he asks Jesus this question, where are you from?

[18:04] And isn't it interesting that they ask the question, where are you from? Well, what did he just hear that made him so afraid? It says that they declared that Jesus is the Son of God. Now, the Jews are referring to the Son of God as claims of the Messiah, that this man claims to be the Messiah.

[18:20] But Pilate doesn't have that worldview. He's Roman through and through. And so in the Roman world with the pantheon of Roman gods, he is thinking, is the man I just flogged and put to open shame, who I can find to know guilt, a God that came down from heaven, and did I order a demigod to be flogged?

[18:44] And so when he hears he's the Son of God, that's what he's thinking, and he becomes more afraid. So what's his next question? Where are you from?

[18:55] Did you come down from heaven and did I just flog this man? And so he's becoming more afraid.

[19:07] And Jesus refuses to answer him, which then Pilate then pulls the authority card. You don't answer me? Do you not know I hold your life in my hands?

[19:18] I can release you or crucify you. And it's to that claim of authority that now Jesus chooses to speak.

[19:29] Verse 11, you would have no authority over me unless it has been given to you from above. Therefore, he who delivered me over to, sorry, verse 11, you would have no authority over me unless it had been given to you from above.

[19:50] We'll pause there. Previously he saw, we have seen how Jesus takes comfort through the lens of it, seeing life in circumstances through the lens of eternity.

[20:01] Here we see Jesus takes rest and comfort in the Father in the midst of this injustice. Here's the second reason, because he recognizes that God possesses ultimate authority.

[20:12] God possesses ultimate authority. And Jesus takes rest in that. He knows, I see life through lens of eternity and I know that God has ultimate authority.

[20:23] Pilate, you have none. Jesus communicates to Pilate all authority, all human authority is granted by God. And Pilate has no authority over this event, over the trial or upcoming crucifixion unless God hands it to him.

[20:37] Pilate's authority did not ultimately originate from the Roman Empire. All authority and power comes from above, it comes from the Lord.

[20:51] God raises up kings and emperors and he deposes them as he wills. We learn that from the book of Daniel. All Pilate has is, all that Pilate is and all that Pilate has is derived authority.

[21:07] It's delegated authority. All authority has derived from the God the Father. And in this moment we see the superiority of Jesus' kingdom.

[21:20] Whenever someone has authority and loses sight of the fact that their authority is delegated authority, the subjects of that authority pay deeply. This is true of those who serve in government.

[21:33] In Romans 13, one, let everyone who be subject to governing authority for there is no authority except from God. And those who exist, and those that exist have been instituted by a God.

[21:45] This is true and this is what Jesus just informed Pilate of. North Korea, Afghanistan, Iran, Russia or America.

[21:56] Whenever a civil magistrate, a king, a president, a dictator of any nation forgets that they are only existing there by delegated authority and their authority has been derived by God, the citizens, if they forget that, the citizens of that country pay for it.

[22:14] And we see it all around. This is also true of the church. Elders provide oversight for the church and the minute any of us pastors and elders lose sight of the fact that we serve as mere under shepherds of God, those church members will pay the consequence for it.

[22:33] We as elders and pastors serve as with delegated authority and that authority has its source in God. I love when I pray and I hear other elders say things like this, which happens often.

[22:50] Lord, this is your church. Lord, these are your sheep. Help us to make decisions that are keeping with your will and your direction for the safekeeping of your people, not our people.

[23:05] This is also true in the home. I'm looking at places where delegated authority exists. Civil magistrates, elders and pastors and in the home.

[23:18] Husbands are called to provide loving oversight and leadership in the home. We see that in Ephesians, for husbands is the head of the wife, even as Christ is head of the church, his body and himself its savior.

[23:33] Husbands are to lead their wives in the same way that Christ is the head of the church. And what kind of headship does Christ offer the church? Is it loving or is it harsh? Was it domineering or was it gentle?

[23:44] Was it proud or was it humble? Christ loved for the church. He had so much that he never did anything harsh to the church. He never did anything unfitting for the church.

[23:56] He never did anything angry out of anger or that is unjust. He loved the church so much that he counted it more precious than his own life. He gave himself up for her, that she might live.

[24:10] This is how Christ himself is the model for you and me as husbands who desire to fulfill Christ's design in the home. So husbands, we are called to lead our homes in, I can find four primary ways.

[24:25] Let me just quickly share them. We are to lead our homes with loving leadership and provide direction, vision and leadership. The buck stops with you. It's very interesting that one of the qualifications of a deacon that we find in Scripture is that he must manage his household well.

[24:43] He manages well by leading well. So leading your home with loving leadership. The second way we are called to lead is in worship. Husbands are to ensure that your children, family and wife worship the Lord.

[24:57] Attend public worship gatherings, the church, and to have family worship. But also in personal worship that you are saturated with the Word of God in prayer.

[25:08] Thirdly, as a father, you're called to lead in your home as a father. The husbands are ultimately responsible for the children. Too many men have abdicated this responsibility assuming that the mother is the primary responsible for raising the kids.

[25:25] But it is not without importance that when the Bible admonishes to raise godly children, they are directed not toward the wives, but that instruction is given to the husband.

[25:38] Of course, this does not excuse mothers from being involved in raising children. It does not in any way mean that mothers are to be uninvolved or to abdicate their role.

[25:49] But instead, it simply shows that it is ultimately you as husbands bear the responsibility before God to ensure your children are raised in the fear and the admonition of the Lord. Fathers, we must take the lead and bear the responsibility in teaching our children.

[26:07] I have shared this in the past, but my father was a first generation Christian in his home. My father did not have Christian parents. They did not take him to church to grow up.

[26:20] My father came to faith in Christ in his young twenties by a foreman at an oil refinery who I had the pleasure of meeting after my father had been in the faith for many years.

[26:36] I am grateful to have met the husband and the wife the Lord used to bring my father to faith in Christ. I share that with you because my dad did not know what to do, how to be a godly husband, what it was to be a godly father.

[26:52] He did not know. And being saved in his early twenties and me being born to him in his mid to late twenties, he was still very young in the faith and he didn't know much.

[27:03] I would put myself back then, I would be scared to death. What would it mean to be a father and a husband? But I love growing up because my dad, with whatever he did know, he knew this, that I am just going to read the Bible to my kids and have a family devotion time and we are going to pray.

[27:23] I did. And I admire him for that. I am grateful. And he led the way for our family to go to church and be involved.

[27:37] And ultimately I am grateful that the Lord drew me to himself and placed my faith in Christ. I mention that because I don't want any of us to use anything as an excuse.

[27:57] I will also say this. Today I brought a book. You don't need tools. I am going to show you a tool. You have the tool right here.

[28:09] You can just read God's word and pray with your family. If you have younger children and you are looking for a book though, this is the Child Story Bible.

[28:21] And it puts the story of the Bible into story form from Genesis through the book of Acts, the history of the early church. And it is a great Bible to read for younger children if this is a new habit for you.

[28:41] And I want to offer that as a tool. But all of us can do this. And why did I spend so much time talking to men as husbands and fathers?

[28:52] Because we are talking about delegated authority. Pilate was unaware that God had given him that place. Pilate was totally unaware that he was not where ultimate authority lay and it lie with the Father.

[29:11] So those with delegated authority, we do not live by our own devices and what we think is best but by God's design. The citizens that are subject under authority pay the price when people forget this.

[29:26] So too does the church, so too does the home. And may we not forget this. So where am I going with this? What's the point?

[29:44] Jesus takes comfort and rest in the midst of injustice and chaos. We've seen two ways primarily. When he sees Jesus recognizes all of life and circumstances must be seen through the lens of eternity.

[29:59] And secondly, that he recognizes that God the Father possesses ultimate authority, not anyone else. Whatever is happening in your life, can you see through the lens of eternity and can you see that God the Father is the ultimate authority?

[30:14] Those are ways that we can take rest in the Father. The final way that Jesus takes comfort and rest in the midst of this injustice is stated this way.

[30:28] Knowing that all sin will be judged righteously. Knowing that all sin will be judged righteously. Look with me in the bottom of verse 11. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. So he's speaking to Pilate, you have no authority unless it was given to you from above.

[30:46] And Pilate, I need to let you know, there is the one who has delivered me over to you has the greater sin. So what's the point? Jesus is taking comfort in the Father knowing that ultimately the Father will judge righteously.

[31:03] And there is distinction. So Pilate believed he's presiding judge over Jesus. But John makes it clear that Jesus is doing the one who is doing the judging.

[31:17] Pilate, you think you have authority over me? You think you're judging me? Let me tell you, there is one who's created, you have committed a sin and there's one who's committed a greater sin than you. And that's the one who delivered me over to you.

[31:30] You're not going to get away with anything Pilate, nor is the one who handed over to me. So all sin is equal. I want to make sure I'm going to, because I'm going to talk about degrees of sin here in a minute.

[31:41] Degrees of sin, somebody created, somebody committed a greater sin than Pilate did. So who is that and what is that difference of degree of sin? But before we get into the degree of sin, let me make something very clear.

[31:53] All sin is equal in terms of penalty. All sin is created equal in terms of penalty for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God. What's the penalty of sin? We all fall short of the glory of God.

[32:06] Secondly, it's stated this way, the wages sin is death, the penalty of sin, the thing we deserve because we have sin is death. And that death is talking about an eternal separation from God.

[32:18] There is no distinction between sin when we talk about penalty. It is all deserving of death, separation from God for eternity, which is falling short of God's glory.

[32:32] Because all humanity of sin, all humanity deserves to be eternally separated from God. The penalty of sin is the same, whether it be a white lie or a heinous murder of someone in the first degree.

[32:45] The penalty of that sin is the same, death, separation from God. And this is why we need a Savior so badly for all of us of sin. And this is why Jesus will ultimately die.

[32:58] So that people could be reconciled to him, sin could be forgiven and we might know him for all eternity. That being said, not all sin is equal in relation to ourselves or others.

[33:11] There are degrees of sin depending upon the... And so as I looked in Scripture, here's some distinctions I would say, the Bible makes these distinctions with regard to sin.

[33:22] And Stephen Wellum has written well about this. But it depends upon the context, the intention. Did you commit that sin with intention or was it done in ignorance?

[33:33] Secondly, the person committing the sin, namely, is that person in leadership or is that person not in leadership? For example, I will be held to a higher account.

[33:52] And sins, and lastly, the sins overall affect. These are distinctions that God's Word makes to make distinctions of degrees of sin.

[34:04] So when we read this in the latter part of John 1911, therefore the one who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. He's making that distinction. So Jesus is informing Pilate, you have sinned and you have sinned grievously, but your sin and your sin will be judged, but there is one who is guilty of a greater sin.

[34:25] And it is the one who delivered me over to you. So now there's been a rich debate among theologians of who that may be. Some would argue Judas, Judas being the one who betrayed Christ, is it Judas?

[34:38] Some would argue it might be Annas, because Annas is the arresting high priest, if you will, in the garden with Jesus. But I believe it to be Caiaphas along with a slew of others that is the person who handed Jesus over to Pilate who has committed the greater sin.

[34:56] Why do I say that? Because it was Caiaphas who issued the judgment after Lazarus, the friend of Jesus was raised from the grave. It was Caiaphas that decreed that Jesus had to die and who began to plot to kill Jesus.

[35:12] Secondly, the word he here in the Greek is singular. So when it says, therefore he who delivered me over to you, that word is singular.

[35:24] So I don't believe it's talking about the religious leaders plural, I think it's talking about a man. So who is that man? And again, I believe it to be Caiaphas is the one who worked up with the religious leaders to hand over Jesus to Caiaphas to get him killed.

[35:41] So Jesus is communicating to Pilate, you are guilty of sin Pilate, but Caiaphas is the one who is more guilty and will be judged accordingly. Both in his abuse of spiritual authority over Israel, his rejection of me as the Messiah, abuse of power in the mock trial and turning me the Messiah over to you, he is guilty of the greater sin.

[36:05] All sin, to be clear, carries the same penalty. It is the reason we need a Savior. But not all sin is created equal in terms of degrees and they will be judged accordingly.

[36:22] We know this intuitively, this degrees of sin. If you see your three year old son when asked where is your sister's toy, knowing very well that you saw where he put the sister's toy that you want him to give back, and he says, I don't know, that's sin.

[36:38] That's deceitful. But there's a difference between that and someone who committed murder in the first degree. We all kind of get this intuitively, right? We get it.

[36:49] Please know both of those sins though, in terms of penalty, deserve death. Eternal separation from God, this is why we all need to believe in Christ, for the forgiveness of sin, for the penalty, for the payment he made for sin on the cross.

[37:05] Which brings me to this final way to restate it one more time. How is it that Christ took comfort in the Father, in the midst of all of this injustice that surrounds him?

[37:22] And this is my encouragement to us. We take our example from Christ. He saw all of life and its circumstances through the lens of eternity.

[37:33] Secondly, he recognizes God possesses ultimate authority. And thirdly, knowing all sin would be judged righteously.

[37:49] The book of Romans says in chapter 12 verse 17, Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

[38:04] If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

[38:20] We do not need to seek revenge. We do not need to get our pound of flesh. We are told to do what is honorable in the sight of all, and to live it peaceably with all men.

[38:36] So far as it depends upon us, and the Lord will judge sin. I pray that we would pray for our enemies, and that God would have mercy on them.

[38:53] Just as with John Payton in the new Hebrides, that he prayed vigilantly for those who persecuted him so. Let's take our example from Christ.

[39:06] Let's see life through the circumstances of life through the lens of eternity. Let us understand that it is God who possesses all authority, and it is he who will judge sin righteously.

[39:22] And we can take comfort in that. Let's pray. Father, our text will conclude here in this passage, Father, with you being handed over by Pilate to be crucified.

[39:44] Lord, thank you for making payment for sin. Lord, thank you also for encouraging us in the midst of injustice and knowing that no one will get away with sin.

[39:59] That you judge sin righteously. You have appointed all authority. All authority that anyone may have comes from you, and all we have is delegated authority, but no ultimate authority for that only lies with you.

[40:14] I pray that you would help us to see all of life through the lens of eternity, of your plan, of what you are doing in the midst of our lives. Help us to have compassion for those whom even persecute.

[40:31] Help us to pray for those who persecute us. And Lord, help us to understand we are no better than anyone. We too were deserving of God's wrath.

[40:47] And it's because of your rich mercy that you drew us unto yourself that we might believe and have sin forgiven.

[40:58] For that reason, we say thank you, and those words are far too little to communicate the gratitude we all should feel that we know you and get to spend eternity with you.

[41:12] Father, may you receive rich praise from our lips for you are good. You are God. We would be encouraged by your word this morning. In sin, your name we pray. Amen.