The Road of Rejection

[0:00] Bible's coming to Mark 15 this morning. Mark 15 as we begin a new chapter here in the book of Mark as we've been going through. He knew the road when he left Galilee was going to be a road where he was ultimately going to be rejected by everyone around him.

[0:39] And to reject in the reality of that, of what he had come to do though, while he was going to be rejected, it was also a path that he had chosen long before.

[0:51] He came exactly at the appointed time to accomplish exactly what he came to do. And Christ came for that purpose.

[1:01] He wanted to provide what was required to reconcile me and you to God.

[1:12] Because everything Jesus came and did was for our benefit. It was for us. And the culmination of this purpose was quickly approaching as we find last week as he had been arrested and interrogated.

[1:27] And having prepared his disciples for what was to come, Jesus was facing the public trial and the official rejection of those very ones that he came to save.

[1:40] You know, as you think about that dynamic of Jesus came and was rejected, refused to be accepted by those very individuals that he came to redeem.

[1:59] I mean, that's a hard thought sometimes to wrap our mind around. Why would Christ come knowing he would be rejected? You know, the road of rejection was real and the difficulties that were there.

[2:15] And when you consider the council that had arrested Jesus in the night is preparing their case against him here. And remember, witness after witness came with accusation.

[2:27] Yet we know none agreed. And it was only after Jesus declared himself to be the son of God when he was asked directly, are thou son of the blessed? And we see that Jesus is I am.

[2:39] If you remember, as we talk through that about the reality of who Jesus has declared himself to be, but we find now that the morning has come.

[2:50] And we're going to see that they begin the official trial, you might say, of Jesus and the progress towards the penalty they'd already predetermined.

[3:01] You know, when you think about a set-up trial, I don't think you get any more of a set-up trial than Jesus. They arrested him for the purpose of charging him with death.

[3:13] That was the intended purpose. They arrested him. They were plotting that out. That was the whole ploy in that. And so as we're going to see here, as they openly call for his death.

[3:25] And so if you found your Bible this morning, Mark chapter 15, let's stand together in honor of reading of the Word of God here this morning. And we'll look here and just read the first five verses here, and then we'll pray and get into the message here today.

[3:39] But notice here it says in verse 1, in the Word of God, it says, And straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and the scribes and the whole council, and bound Jesus and carried him away and delivered him to Pilate.

[3:52] And Pilate asked him, Art thou king of the Jews? And he answering said unto him, Thou sayest it? And the chief priest accused him of many things, but he answered nothing.

[4:03] And Pilate asked him again, saying, Answerest thou nothing? Behold, how many things they witnessed against thee. But Jesus yet answered nothing, so that Pilate marveled.

[4:17] Let's pray. Heavenly Fathers, we come before you once again this morning. Lord, we're thankful for your Word. We're thankful for all that you've given to us. Lord, we're thankful for the reality that you came knowing that you would be rejected.

[4:30] Lord, you understood the full price that was required for our salvation. Lord, what love you've shown to us. While we were yet undeserving, you loved us enough to come.

[4:45] Lord, as we look at this passage, as a reality of what you faced, what you went through along the road to redeem us. Lord, we just thank you for all that was needed that you took care of for us.

[5:00] Lord, I pray just have your hand upon each one today. Lord, if there's one that doesn't know you as Savior, if they're not sure that today would be the day, that they would say, Lord, I recognize what you've done, and I need you as my Savior.

[5:14] But Lord, help also anybody that knows you as Savior to be reminded of the price that you paid on our behalf. And Lord, we just love you and thank you in Jesus' name.

[5:28] Amen. You may be seated. You know, as we see here all night, if you remember, Jesus had not yet got any rest. You know, they'd been up all night. They were rested in the garden where Jesus was praying, and the disciples were exhausted.

[5:43] Remember, Jesus told them to watch and pray, and they fell asleep. Why? Because it was getting late. They were tired. Jesus has been up all night now, and they're getting ready into the fourth watch of the day, it's called, as we'll look here in a moment, and we'll see as he is being brought forth to the full council to finalize the charges.

[6:07] And all night, the high priest had sought for a reason to put Jesus to death. And we know that when Jesus said, I am, and he identified himself as God, we know what the high priest was saying.

[6:22] He says, I got you. Because they said, you just blasphemed. I mean, you made yourself associated with God. That was the charge. You're going to see the Jews. That was their reasoning.

[6:34] But I want you to see here, they had to come up with something better, because as this final declaration, as Christ, the promised deliverer, set the stage there of what he was soon to be cut off, as Daniel chapter 9 describes to us, he's fulfilling prophecy every step of the way.

[6:52] But if we notice in our text, it says straightway in the morning. The word here is the fourth watch. That's between 3 and 6 a.m. So this is real early morning yet, and they've been up all night.

[7:04] And the exhaustion that is happening, but we see their vigor as they want to press forward. And they begin with a meeting together.

[7:15] Notice here, it says, in the morning the chief priest held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. You know, why did they hold a meeting after they'd just been up all night talking about it?

[7:28] You know, that doesn't make much sense to us, but their problem was, as we're going to see here, their problem was that they could not put someone to death on their own authority.

[7:39] Not legally, anyways, under the Roman rule. They had to go to the Romans to have permission to do that, or to allow the Romans to do that.

[7:51] So they're sitting here thinking, how are we going to do this? Because if we take Jesus to Pilate, and we tell him, well, Jesus is guilty of blasphemy. He's violated our laws.

[8:03] You know what Pilate would have said? Go home and deal with it. You know, he basically, so you have another guy declared to be God. As a Roman, he would have said, well, we got many of them anyways.

[8:16] I mean, the charge that they had wanted, they found against Jesus didn't hold any water when it came to the Romans. It had no punch, no authority. There's nothing they could do with it.

[8:27] So they're thinking in their mind, okay, how do we make this happen? What do we have to do when we go to Pilate, what needs to be the accusation?

[8:41] How do we manipulate the information to get the desired outcome? You know, we thought that was something modern. You know what? I want you to understand it's human nature.

[8:53] Jesus had the same exact, that's how they crucified him, by manipulating information. To say something contrary to what Jesus said.

[9:03] And we're going to look at how that is happening here because the scribes and elders come together and they have how to say, how to have the Romans kill him.

[9:14] It says they held a consultation before they brought him to Pilate. Because we're going to see here this morning the first place that Jesus was rejected in this, was he was rejected by the pious individuals.

[9:26] You know, there was those religious leaders, those in authority, those that thought they were in greater position than God, if you want to see ultimately what they did. They said, we are the authority.

[9:39] God has given us ultimate authority. The only problem is they thought their authority, God gave them, superseded God. That they had authority above God of what God had said because they were looking for themselves.

[9:53] You know, the council is convened to legitimize what's happening. Because you need to remember they could not, what happened the night before, what happened early morning hours was not legal for them to be doing.

[10:05] To call a council in the darkness, that was against Jewish law, Jewish custom, to have a trial in the dark. One of the things they required was it would be day when everybody could pay attention to what was happening.

[10:20] Have you ever noticed good things don't happen at dark? You know, most people try to manipulate and use the darkness. You know, men love darkness rather than light. Why? Because their deeds are what?

[10:33] Evil. Why did they do this in the middle of the night? Well, they didn't have to worry about too many crowds gathering because they were all sleeping. They wanted to manipulate and be prepared because they were going to have to soon face the crowd.

[10:48] To face what was going to happen. And so we see here these pious individuals said, okay, how do we manipulate this to condemn him to death? You know, take a look over to Luke chapter 22.

[11:02] Because here in Luke 22 it reveals that Jesus was once again when they convened this council together we'll find that they once again as a whole council try to confirm what Jesus said.

[11:16] You know, we find here in Luke 22 look down at verse 66 with me this morning. You'll have to bear with me I bought a new Bible. New preaching Bible. First one in 25 years.

[11:29] Pages are a little sticky so not near as nimble but we'll get it limbered up here. But take a look here in verse 66 it says, As soon as it was day the elders of the people and the chief priests and the scribes came together and led him into their council saying, aren't thou the Christ?

[11:47] Let's tell us and he said unto them if I tell you ye will not believe and if I also ask you you will not answer me nor let me go. You know, that's interesting.

[11:57] Jesus looks at him and says, you know, you're asking a rhetorical question here because it doesn't matter how it's answered. You've already made your mind up. You know? One thing you need to always realize is Jesus realized here if somebody's got their mind made up there's not much you're going to do to change it.

[12:13] They already had their course they had their plan they had their thoughts laid out and where they were going to go and Jesus here once again I think that Jesus' statement revealed to us just kind of pokes them once again and says, hey guys I know your heart.

[12:30] I already know who you are and what's going on but I still came for you because notice this it says, Hereafter shall the Son of Man sit on the right hand of power of God and they all and said they all art thou then the Son of God and he said to them ye say that I am and they said what need we any further witness for we ourselves have heard of his own mouth.

[12:54] You know consider that they say hey we've heard him blaspheme but they still had a problem. They had a problem because blasphemy didn't allow the Romans to execute him.

[13:06] But you know the other part of this that Jesus said he was going to sit in power in the power of God. The implication there sometimes we miss some of those little nuances when we don't stop and think about it.

[13:19] What Jesus is saying I am the one that is sovereign I am the one in authority. In their mind what they heard is Jesus is saying I'm the one over everything.

[13:31] I am king and we're going to look here because what's going to be their accusation? When they go to Pilate you're going to find their accusation isn't he claimed to be God he claimed to be king over Caesar.

[13:43] Now ultimately that is true because God's over everything. There's nobody he sets up kings he takes down kings he establishes governments does away with governments I mean we've looked and studied all those things so it's true there's nothing untrue what they're saying but what they were using that is twisting it to get Pilate the governor of Judea to kill Jesus because he's now an insurrectionist.

[14:11] He's one that wants to overthrow the authority the sentence of death required something the Romans would find to be a problem. So they had to come up with an argument they had to come up with the accusations they had to produce a charge that Pilate would act upon.

[14:31] And so what did they settle on? Jesus is inciting rebellion and overthrow against Caesar. That's what their accusation boils down to.

[14:42] You know look over in Luke 23 for a moment. Luke 23 in verse 2 tells us this and they began to accuse him saying we found this fellow what notice is perverting the nation forbidding to give tribute to Caesar saying that he himself is Christ a king.

[15:00] Now that's another interesting phrase because they're just saying Jesus proclaims himself to be a king and we know he is the king.

[15:12] He is the authority and we know this but they're perverting those words and we see here these religious men these pious men manipulated the truth to fit the need.

[15:24] You know the fact is that religious people still do this today. You can find religious people who try to manipulate the things of God for their own benefit.

[15:36] To try to get the outcome that they desire. You know it's a manipulation that seeks to control and seeks its own place and its own power because these religious leaders of the people had no place for Jesus.

[15:52] You see Jesus was turning everything they had all their stability all the things they thought they were in control of upside down. Because remember earlier in the same week what did Jesus do?

[16:05] Jesus had entered into the temple and what did he do? He purged the temple. He cleansed the temple. He overturned the tables. He drove them out that were selling and exchanging in the temple.

[16:18] Remember they were upset. Why? It wasn't because Jesus made a mess. He interrupted their income. He interrupted their authority. They weren't upset about the table being turned.

[16:31] They were upset because he interrupted their authority, their place, their position, their income. They were skimming off the top. You know the one thing it doesn't take long to learn in life when you start messing with somebody's income they get upset.

[16:45] I mean if you want to make somebody mad start messing with their money. I mean just look at the news you'll find that out. I mean as soon as you mess with somebody's money man the meanness comes out. And we see here that they were there they had established their own righteousness.

[17:00] They rejected Jesus and they were justifying their actions. Think about it. Here's the very ones that say they're going to uphold the law. Now last I checked you know even the Ten Commandments is pretty clear on this one.

[17:12] It says thou shalt not what? Kill. Thou shalt not murder. What are they doing? They're literally having the government they want the government to murder Jesus. The very people that say they want to uphold the law of God are working and manipulating through envy and jealousy and you know covetousness.

[17:32] Huh that might be another one on the list. I mean think about all the very things they said they wanted to uphold that they're violating. They're violating all the basic simple commandments that they tried to hold everybody else to in nuance.

[17:46] They were trying to do that and we find here that this religion though is always a problem. You know the problem with religion is religion is based on what people do of how they look and how they can control and how things are present but you know what God I want you to understand something that's important because this is where I think we get in trouble because what we do and how we act and what we say on the outside is important but when you understand that what that needs to come from the heart out not the out in.

[18:23] Now you can dress somebody up and make them look good but don't change the heart and they're still the same person. But you know what if you have a heart change it ought to be reflected outwardly.

[18:35] That's going to reflect in the choices you make what you do how you want to present yourself. All those things are going to be impacted from within. Religion wants an outward dress up and relationship with God changes us from the inside out.

[18:52] You've got to keep in mind that sometimes the problem is it's hard for us because all we see is the outside but don't be fooled God sees the inside. God sees the thoughts and intents of the heart. He knows you better than you know you.

[19:03] He understands exactly what's happening here but religion wants to have control and manipulation and God says I don't want to manipulate you I want to rescue you.

[19:14] I want to provide a way for you to be saved and that salvation is by faith. You know think about very simply Ephesians chapter 2 tells us this it says for by grace are you saved through faith.

[19:30] It doesn't say you're saved by how you look it doesn't say you're saved by what you do it says you're saved by faith but you need to keep in mind if you're saved it's going to transform you from the inside out.

[19:42] but notice it says and not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast. Romans 5 adds a little bit to this idea that we're talking about here in chapter 5 of Romans in verse 1 it says therefore being justified by faith.

[20:03] Justified being declared righteous before God being declared that your sin has been taken care of because of that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ who also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

[20:24] You know rejoicing is another one of those things that comes from the inside out. You can paint on a happy face but a rejoiceful heart comes out inside out always keep that in mind religion is worried about the outside God's worried about the inside and the relationship you have with him.

[20:45] The outside if you have a right relationship with God you know what the outside will take care of itself. It will transform how you think how you want to present yourself and how to present because you're representing the one who has saved you you're not your own you're bought with a price.

[21:02] You know what really matters are some very simple things when it comes to the pious individuals because ultimately it doesn't matter how pious you are it only matters where you stand with Christ.

[21:15] What have you done with Christ? Have you believed the gospel message of Christ's death burial and resurrection? Because what we're getting into is essential.

[21:27] You know I want you to understand it's important that Jesus went to the cross and paid the price for our sin. I want you to understand good people can do something for benefit somebody else.

[21:37] They can give their life for their friend but you know Jesus didn't just give his life for us it says he resurrected. I want you to understand that makes all the difference because we don't worship somebody who just died for us we worship a living savior that he's alive he is resurrected the Bible says that resurrection is the victory the cross is the payment and the resurrection is the victory over death that we can have life in Christ and are we trusting Jesus and Jesus alone for your salvation?

[22:14] You know religion wants to do Jesus plus Jesus if you add this or Jesus if you put that you know some people want to be Jesus plus baptism or Jesus plus taking some juice and some bread and add that to it I want you to understand they take things that are important but misplace them in order they take what they represent and turn them into something they don't we need to understand that you don't receive Christ through a piece of bread or some juice or wine or whatever they want to try to do you don't receive Christ and your sins aren't washed away because somebody put you under water I want you to understand both those things are important but they have nothing to do with your salvation you can go to heaven without being baptized you can go to heaven without ever partaking in the Lord's Supper because that's not the determining factor those are things of being right and being in obedience to God and celebrating what Christ has done for us they're not about our salvation it's because of after what Christ has done and we can celebrate those things what we see here the rejection of the pious these individuals were rejecting him how do we get rid of him how do we remove him so they prepare their case and they come to

[23:33] Pilate look down here at verse 3 with me excuse me verse 2 in our text here and it says and Pilate asked him art thou king of the Jews and he answering said unto him thou sayest it and the chief priest accused him of many things but he answered nothing we're going to find here that ultimately Pilate's going to reject him he's going to be rejected by Pilate Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent the text makes it very clear he knew Jesus was innocent and didn't take a stand he says I'm going to turn my back on you and I'm going to let him kill you even though I know you're not guilty that's a whole other form of rejection you know Pilate begins with an inquiring question about to Jesus initial accusations of being seditious or trying to overthrow the Romans you know ultimately you know remember one of the accusations was what well

[24:36] Jesus told them not to pay their taxes you know what that's the biggest lie there was no place did Jesus ever tell the people not to pay their taxes matter of fact he said render unto Caesar that which is Caesar unto God those things that are God's but he asked them there very simply he looks at Jesus and basically says are you who they say you are are you king of the Jews that's what he asked him he's saying are you what they accuse you of let me hear your side of the story I want you to see here Pilate was actually at the beginning here doing his job he says they're coming I'm supposed to be judge of this I want to do somebody is accusing you what what what's your side of this Pilate starting out pretty good here really he's like hey I want to know the right information

[25:36] I want to know what's needed and he asked Jesus of who he is and when asked about his identity by the pious religious leaders Jesus was clear and said I am!

[25:51] but yet to Pilate! he responds now take a look over to John chapter 18 for a moment because as we look here in John chapter 18 we find that Jesus has a little more John records a little more conversation here now I want you to keep something in mind here because John's gospel gives us more details and nuances of conversation now I want you to remember something we talked about here a few weeks ago where was John was in a position to hear these things John was the one disciple that was in a position to hear the nuanced conversations that were taking place and he records some things for us here in John 18 in verse 34 it says Jesus answered And sayest thou this thing of thyself or did others tell it tell it thee of me and Pilate answered am I a Jew thine own nation and chief answered my kingdom is not of this world now that's a whole other lesson to discuss because

[27:01] I want you to understand that Jesus didn't come to establish a physical kingdom at this time that's future Jesus will one day return and establish his kingdom the physical kingdom to fulfill his promise to Abraham Isaac and Jacob fill his promise to David he was going to fulfill those things when he comes but he still promised to do it those things are going to happen but when he came the first time it was not to establish himself as king of a nation or people here upon the earth in the way we think about it physically when you're saved you become a member of the family of God you become part under God's authority you put yourself under his authority at salvation and we realize that necessity he says his kingdom is not of this world if my kingdom were of this world then would my servants fight that's a key indicator what Jesus tell Peter to do

[28:02] Peter wanted to fight what Jesus say put away the sword now is not the time now is not the purpose but now is my kingdom not from hence now I can just imagine the puzzled look that Pilate had Pilate is probably looking at him like I'm trying to piece this together I'm trying to make sense of the chaos here I've got these religious leaders that are already on my case because you need to understand a little bit of history that Pilate and these religious individuals had a lot of clashes Pilate was not a good governor in many ways he was really pretty foolish!

[28:40] Pilate was a politician looking to skip up the ladder of power and wasn't really concerned about the people and he made some pretty foolish decisions about how he might look good to rule not thinking about how all the other impacts came about we don't have time this morning to get into all that but I want you to get that context of what happened!

[29:01] These two groups knew each other to understand this was not just something random but there was a lot more context put into it you know over in Luke 23 Luke records this he says in verse 4 he says then said Pilate to the chief priest and to the people I find no fault in this man and they were more fierce saying he stirreth up the people teaching throughout all Jewry beginning from Galilee to this place now that's the time where you realize when Pilate is a good politician because he's listening to little words how do I get out of this how do I bail this is an uncomfortable situation I know Jesus is innocent but if I let him go these people are going to have a conniption there's going to be a meltdown!

[29:54] in the community because they're going to raise up all sorts of crowd that's going to cause me problems and then their accusation well all the way from Galilee you know let's say when you read through it and you don't stop to really consider what that means because this is where Mark doesn't record it but it is recorded we'll find that at this point right now we find that Pilate says Galilee he's under Herod's authority I make Herod be the bad guy that was Pilate's plot he's like hey I don't want to have to deal with this this is not going to end well for me no matter what happens Galilee that's under Herod's authority oh Jesus is a Galilean well Herod's in town we'll send him over there so he sends him over to King Herod the one that was put in charge of the area of Galilee there he happened to be in Jerusalem when we understand all the details and history behind that but

[30:57] Herod Atypah who soon he comes and he talks to Jesus and the only reason Herod wants to see Jesus when you read the text he says hey I want to see a side show I heard Jesus does miracles you know Herod's only purpose for wanting to see Jesus is maybe I'll see something neat I'll see something really cool happen you know he'll perform a parlor trick but we know it isn't long and Herod sends him back to Pilate and I can just imagine when Pilate hears him coming and Pilate is going they sent him back and Pilate goes hey I got another idea notice what he does here look at verse 4 when Jesus returns and Pilate asked him again saying answer sound nothing behold how many things they witnessed against thee but Jesus yet answered nothing so that Pilate marveled now notice verse 6 it says now at that feast he released unto them one of the prisoners whomsoever they desired and there was one named

[31:57] Barabbas which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him and who had committed murder in the insurrection now we have actual insurrectionists that murdered and robbed and they had already tried him they had the evidence they were getting ready to put Barabbas to death but Pilate says hey I got an idea we have a custom that we started that we will release one other people will have mercy on somebody Pilate is like we can get out of!

[32:29] He was trying to deal with those things Pilate didn't want to have to deal with it you know I'm afraid that Pilate is like many in our world today they come face to face but don't want to deal with who Jesus is they don't want to deal with Jesus they don't want to deal with what's happening he wants to seek his own resolution to his problem by bartering a resolution with the people you know it's interesting that people do that today too don't they I don't want to deal with Jesus because with what Jesus says if it's true I have some problems in my life I have some things that need to be dealt with I have some things that I got to look at pretty seriously Pilate didn't want to have to deal with them so he's like how can I get through this and we find here that he goes to the people

[33:30] Pilate goes to the people here and we find and there notice he offers them Barabbas verse 8 here in our text and the multitude cried aloud beginning to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them and ever they said yes we want Barabbas isn't that one of those it really makes no sense until you really start thinking about people the people didn't want Jesus in a sense when you consider the people looked at Jesus and said hey you're the one that said that you're the Messiah you're the one that you're supposed to come and relieve this oppression that the Romans had put upon us then they look at Barabbas somebody who actually took action to do what they thought they wanted done!

[34:17] he actually was doing something but they missed the reality what Jesus was doing was far greater to deal with the problem that they had than the material dynamic that Barabbas was trying to overthrow the Roman oppression because Jesus came not to overthrow the oppression on the outside he came to overthrow the oppression of sin that dwells within you the Bible says we're a slave to sin and Jesus came!

[34:43] to redeem and set us free once again people like to look on the outside and not the inside what benefits me what I think benefits me right now but here Pilate he says well you know I think I'm relying on the people to want to have the peaceful Jesus who hasn't done anything that they're accusing him of compared to a violent I want you to understand that this is another prime example of what's in the heart of people you know we hear a lot today well just the will of the people you know what the will of the people is often a problem that's the reason that just operating on the will of people is pretty crazy that's the reason we don't our founders of our nation didn't set up a will of the people operation because you know what your will think about how fickle you can be some days you can wake up in the morning desiring to do something by noon is totally different circumstances change rapidly just because we desire to do something doesn't mean that's what we ought to do especially the crowd because notice the crowd as they go through here notice as we read through this read through the text here he says but the chief priest moved the people that he should rather release

[36:07] Barabbas unto them and Pilate answered and said again unto them what will ye then that I do unto him whom ye call king of the Jews and they cried out again crucify him then Pilate said unto them why what evil hath he done and they cried!

[36:25] the more exceedingly! what? crucify you know was there that morning now I want you to understand this is mostly and when you understand the context this is mostly people from Jerusalem because those that came for the Passover stayed out in the country or in the surrounding area of the city because you got to remember they ran out of places to stay pretty quick because Jerusalem would swell by five or six or ten times more out of Passover than it would normally of the population of the city you just don't have space people had to spread out you know it's no different today you have a big event someplace people will stay miles and miles away to come to the event why because there's just not space remember what time of the day it is we're dealing between three and six in the morning how many people you think got up and traveled in from the country at three to six in the morning we're pretty safe today these are probably people from Jerusalem they weren't from

[37:27] Galilee they weren't from other regions around where Jesus had ministered this is a crowd from Jerusalem we find here that he suggests the release of them and the people were stirred up by their leaders they came and stirred the people!

[37:46] you know what you can move people to do things you can manipulate a crowd you have a crowd here that was manipulated because they were only thinking about how they were being hyped up or what they were being presented and what are they crying they say give us Barabbas and kill Jesus the will of the people can be pretty dangerous he was rejected by the people I want you to throw something else out of why would the people in Jerusalem remember they already had a problem with Pilate from some things that had happened in the community and in the city and the region whose word are they going to take Pilate that says hey Jesus is innocent you guys can choose and I'll release him to you and the chief priests are saying oh no we want side with the chief priests because they're thinking hey

[38:48] I don't like the politician whether he's right or not our minds can get cause us to do things that are counter to our own benefit they would easily side with the chief priests over Pilate I don't think it was that hard to sell because they were stirred up and they didn't think and once one person starts hauling crucify everybody else jumps on board mob mentality gets us in trouble that's the reason God doesn't deal with the mob he deals with you as an individual because God doesn't care what crowd you run in because if you're saved and what's inside starts coming out it'll change the crowd you run with who you want to associate with who do you want to be a part of how do you want unbelief there was no room for Christ you know many in our world today are just like the crowd that condemned

[39:51] Jesus all around the people who choose the world over the Lord what what do I want over what does God want what does God reveal to me that I need to do or how is it going to look in the world to others all around us are people who choose the world over God every day matter of fact you'll find the majority is not always right the majority rejected Jesus the majority condemned him to death the majority stood against him and guess what the majority was in the wrong the majority stands opposed to Jesus I mean it's not hard today if you take a stand for Christ you're going to find opposition it's not going to hunt very far it'll find you you know if you're going to stand for Christ you don't have to worry about opposition coming they'll show up don't worry the devil will send them the devil will stir them up just like the chief priest stirred up the people they'll grab ahold of something and run with it they'll stand opposed to

[40:57] God the world ignores who Jesus is it ignores the changed lives of those that have been redeemed it ignores God's free offer of salvation the lost multitude chose its sin over God's salvation you know we see here that's even today the multitude refuses to come to Christ it doesn't mean that you have to follow them down that path because God's given us direction in his word matter of fact God makes simple he says that if you trust him not just recognize that he is there's a lot of people in this world that recognize that Jesus is but there's a difference between moving Jesus from a person a historical figure to him being your savior because you can believe that Jesus existed that's not the belief we're talking about I want you to understand that's important that's the first step to recognize who Jesus is that he did live that he did come he did die upon the cross for your sin that he resurrected that's information salvation is more than information salvation is doing something with the information because the information attached to it says that you need to believe on the

[42:14] Lord Jesus Christ not just that he existed but he is the savior he is not a savior he is not just any way he is you'll think here in John 3 in verse 36 says this he that believeth on the son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him today you're only in one of two places he's either trusted Christ as your savior by faith in what Christ has done for you recognizing you're a sinner that needed a savior that you couldn't rescue yourself that you needed a deliverer you needed a rescuer problem often lies people say yes I recognize Jesus is a savior but there's a difference between being a savior and being your savior today don't reject Jesus as all these we read about did his heads are bowed and eyes are closed this morning

[43:17] I encourage you today don't walk away from Christ you have information this morning you have information about who Christ is the question is what have you done with it has there been a moment in time when you can look and see I know this is the time this is the place that I called upon him to save me if you don't have a time and place I encourage you that make today that time and place that you might know be confident because you know that he was more than just a savior but he's your savior heavenly fathers we have an opportunity to respond this morning lord i pray just have your hand upon each one lord you know each heart you know those that are yours lord we pray that you would work in a mighty way even here today or if there's one that's not sure or one that does not know you as savior that today would be the day that they would make that decision to recognize who you are what you've done and call upon you to save them to rescue them from the sin and the penalty associated with it and lord we ask it all in your precious name as the piano plays what about you today as the lord spoke to you maybe you need to spend a few minutes with the lord maybe if you're here today and don't know christ as your savior i encourage you to come but you have somebody show you from god's word how you can know that today would be the time and the place but maybe you're here today and just want to!

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