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  WHAT WILL YOU DECIDE
  by Anton Bosch
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Summary: This sermon delves into the trial of Jesus before Pilate,
highlighting the repeated declarations of Jesus' innocence by Pilate and
Herod, the pressure from the crowd and religious leaders to crucify
Jesus, and the pivotal decision-making moments faced by Pilate and the
people. It emphasizes the importance of making decisions based on truth,
resisting external pressures, and choosing Jesus over worldly expediency
or popularity.

Topics: "Truth in Decision-Making", "Choosing Jesus Over Popularity"
Scripture References: Luke 23:13, Matthew 27:24, Acts 4:10, Romans 1:18, John 18:38, Matthew 27:26, John 18:40, John 14:6, Matthew 16:26

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon delves into the trial of Jesus before Pilate, highlighting
the repeated declarations of Jesus' innocence by Pilate and Herod, the
pressure from the crowd and religious leaders to crucify Jesus, and the
pivotal decision-making moments faced by Pilate and the people. It
emphasizes the importance of making decisions based on truth, resisting
external pressures, and choosing Jesus over worldly expediency or
popularity.

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CONTENT
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Luke chapter 23, Luke chapter 23 and we're going to read 13 through 25.
Luke chapter 23, 13 through 25. Then Pilate, when he had called together
the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, said to them, You have
brought this man to me as one who must lead the people.

And indeed, having examined him in your presence, I have found no fault
in this man concerning those things of which you accuse him. No, neither
did Herod, for I sent you back to him, and indeed nothing deserving of
death has been done by him. I will therefore chastise him and release
him, for it was necessary for him to release one to them at the feast.

And they all cried out at once, saying, Away with this man and release
to us Barabbas, who had been thrown into prison for a certain rebellion
made in the city and for murder. Pilate, therefore wishing to release
Jesus, again called out to them, but they shouted, saying, Crucify him,
crucify him. Then he said to them the third time, Why, what evil has he
done? I have found no reason for death in him.

I will therefore chastise him and let him go. But they were insistent,
demanding with loud voices that he be crucified. And the voice of these
men and of the chief priests prevailed.

And so Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they requested. And he
released to them the one they requested, who for rebellion and murder
had been thrown into prison, but he delivered Jesus to their will. So if
you remember, Jesus had been tried illegally by the Sanhedrin.

They had handed, the Jewish leaders, they had handed Jesus over to
Pilate. Pilate examined Jesus and he finds no fault in him. He then
decides to send Jesus to Herod, because Jesus came from Galilee, which
was Herod's jurisdiction.

Jerusalem was Pilate's jurisdiction. Galilee was Herod's jurisdiction.
Herod examines Jesus.

He finds no fault in him. So for the second time, the Roman government
finds him innocent. But Herod didn't like Jesus, and so he has him beat
up and mistreated, and sends him back to Pilate.

So the section that we're dealing with this evening, this morning, is
Jesus in front of Pilate. And so Jesus comes back to Pilate again, and
Pilate then calls the chief priests, the rulers, and all the people, all
the people. So the chief priests, remember there was two high priests,
effectively, Annas and Caiaphas.

The rulers are the Sanhedrin, the 70 leaders of Israel, elders of
Israel, and then the people. Now, we don't know how many people there
were, but certainly this was a major event. Remember, this is the time
of the Passover, and the people had followed Jesus up to that point, and
they are gathered in the praetorium, the outer court of Pilate's palace.

And so he said to them, you have brought this man to me as one who
misleads the people. Remember, they changed the charge several times.
Indeed, having examined him in your presence, I have found no fault in
this man concerning those things of which you accuse him.

So in this section, this is the first time that he declares Jesus
guiltless, innocent. This is, of course, the third time. So Pilate first
finds Jesus guiltless, Herod finds him innocent, and now Pilate finds
him innocent again.

So this is the third time that he is pronounced not guilty. Now, you
know that this is not America where you have double jeopardy. You can't
find a man guilty of the same crime, or you can't find, you can't retry
him once he's been declared innocent.

Well, Jesus was declared innocent, and he is now being retried and
retried and retried. Now, obviously, they didn't have the double
jeopardy law, but at the same time, this is clearly injustice, because
having found him not guilty, Pilate should have released him. And so,
having examined him in your presence—so this was not a secret
interrogation.

He had interrogated Jesus in front of everyone, and he had found him not
guilty. He says, neither did Herod. Now, remember that Herod doesn't
make a statement.

Herod just beats Jesus up and sends him back. Herod doesn't make a
statement that Jesus is not guilty, but obviously, he had sent the
message back to Pilate and said, I don't find the man guilty. So Pilate
is giving Herod's decision.

So, neither did Herod, for I sent him back, sent you back to him, and
indeed, nothing deserving of death has been done by him. So, I will
therefore chastise him and release him. This was—remember that the Roman
law really was built on intimidation.

It wasn't really built on justice in that sense. While there was much of
Roman law that was that was good, and certain countries—South Africa,
amongst others—South Africa's law used to be built on Roman principles,
Roman Dutch law. But there were other aspects of the law which were
totally unsatisfactory.

And so, the idea was that he would then be whipped, and there were
different grades, three different levels of whipping. This would be the
lowest level, but still serious enough. It wasn't a joke at all.

But this was just his attempt to appease the people, just to say, well,
you know, I'm going to do something to give you what you want, but I
can't find him guilty, and I can't have him crucified, because he is
innocent. For it was necessary for him to release one to them at the
feast. Now, he's saying, I want to let Jesus go.

There was a custom—Matthew says that it was customary for the local
governor to release a Jewish prisoner to appease the people, to make the
people happy. And so, Pilate is looking for an opportunity to release
Jesus. Now, we have to speak a little about Pilate.

We've spoken about him before, but Pilate clearly finds Jesus not
guilty, in spite of the fact that Pilate is not a particularly nice
character. Pilate is not religious in any way. Pilate does not respect
the Jews or their religion.

He had shown this on a number of occasions. He had killed many, many
Jews at different times. He had disrespected the Jewish faith from the
beginning.

There was an understanding, for example, that the Jews having a problem
with idols, based on the second command, that the Romans, when they came
into the city with their army, they would lower the standards. The
standards would be the crest. Today, our equivalent would be the flag.

They would lower the standards because the standards were seen to be
idols. And so, in respect of the religion of the Jews, they would lower
the standards. And remember, the armies—I'm sure you've seen pictures of
Roman legions marching, and there's the standard on a post, and there'd
be a standard bearer.

Like today, we have a flag bearer. But they would lower the standards in
respect to the Jewish laws, not that they respected God, but simply
because they respected the Jewish laws and did not want to cause any
trouble. Pilate refused to lower the standards, and this created
rebellions.

This created all sorts of problems, and Pilate would simply quash that
through violence and through strong-arm tactics. So, he didn't respect
the Jewish faith. He didn't respect God, it seems.

But there is something that is inside of him, a conscience, and somehow
God is speaking to him. And so, Pilate now is wrestling between what he
knows is right and what is politically expedient. And of course, at the
end of the day, Jesus is crucified by the Romans for political
expediency, because it was politically easy to get Jesus out of the way.

And so, he's trying all along to let Jesus go. But the Jews will not let
Jesus go. So, it was necessary for him to release one at the feast.

And so, they all cried out at once, saying, away with this man, and
release to us Barabbas. Now, this is the crowd, and obviously they're
incited by the high priests and by the Sadducees and the Pharisees, by
the Sanhedrin, the leaders of the Jews. I've read one commentator who
says, these were not the same people who followed Jesus all along.

But there is nothing that indicates that this is a different crowd.
There's absolutely no indication that there were two separate factions
of people amongst the common people. It seems that the common people, up
to the day before, were following Jesus, wanting to hear him preach.

Remember, every day he would be in the temple, in the outer court, and
he would be preaching, because the people wanted him to preach. Many of
them had followed him for a long time, as he was coming from Galilee all
the way down to Jerusalem. And so, it seems to me that this is exactly
the same crowd who, the previous week, had wanted to make him the king.

They brought him in on Palm Sunday, and he was riding on the donkey,
remember, and they throw down their clothes, and they throw down the
palm leaves, and they say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord. And they were ready to crown him as their king. This is a week
later, and they turned against Jesus.

I think that this is an important lesson for us about the fickleness of
our own emotions, how easily we can be swayed by other people. The
people had not come to their own conclusion. They had been whipped up
and stirred up by their religious leaders.

I think that this whole story is a story of people acting against what
they basically know is right, simply because they pressurized by those
around them. Pilate hands Jesus over because he is pressurized by the
Jews. The people turn against Jesus because they are pressurized by
their leaders, and nobody is doing what they know is the right thing to
do.

I think that in that is an important lesson, that we not make up our
mind based on pressure brought to bear on us by those around us, by the
news media, by the politicians, by the conspiracy theorists, by some
preachers, but that we make up our minds based on what is truth. That,
at the end of the day, is the issue. That is the question that has to be
asked.

What is truth? Remember, Pilate is not in this passage, he's in the book
of Matthew, but Pilate asks Jesus, and he says, what is truth? That is
the question. None of these people, Pilate, Herod, the Sadducees, the
Pharisees, the priests, and the people, none of them were acting on what
was truth. They were simply acting on where everybody else was going.

And folk, we live in a time when there's a lot of pressure on us to
think certain ways, to act in certain ways, to make certain decisions.
We need to make sure that the decisions we make, that the values we
hold, the things that we believe, are based on truth, and are not based
on mass hysteria, are not based on the pressure that is being brought to
bear on us by every which side, but that we make up our minds. And the
question at the end of the day is, what is truth? What is truth? And so
they all cried at once, saying, away with this man, and release to us
Barabbas.

And he tells us, who had been thrown into prison for a certain rebellion
or insurrection made in a city, and for murder. So Barabbas had rebelled
against Roman authority. He had led some kind of insurrection.

Remember, this was an ongoing thing. They had this all the time. Many of
these people were zealots, or they were part of the far-right
establishment, if you will, seeking to overthrow Rome.

And in the process, he seems to have killed some people. A story that's
not unfamiliar to us here in America in recent years. It's interesting
that the thing that Jesus was accused of was insurrection.

He's stirring up the people against Rome. And yet Jesus was innocent of
that charge. Barabbas was guilty of exactly the same charge.

They did not bring a charge of murder against Jesus, but obviously
there's a charge of murder against Barabbas. Now remember that treason
in those days, or rebellion against the state, was punished by death. So
Barabbas is in prison.

He is under the sentence of death. And the people say, give us Barabbas,
crucify Jesus. Another important thing to remember is that Barabbas is a
very important picture in this whole story, because Barabbas is a
picture of us.

Because at the end of the day, Jesus dies and Barabbas is set free.
Barabbas was guilty. Jesus was innocent.

And yet the innocent dies in the place of the guilty. We were guilty,
but Jesus died in our place. The name Barabbas means son of the father.

Remember Bar means son. Simon Bar Jonah, Jesus said. Simon son of Jonah.

Abba, we know what that means, means father. So son of the father.
Interesting.

Jesus was the son of the father, the son of God. This man was not the
son of God. He was an imposter, as it were.

And yet he is set free. We live in a time when people are making
decisions. When people in America and all over the world are making
decisions.

One of the things I noticed as I was traveling is how people are making
decisions about the governments, and about the future, and about all
sorts of things. And making decisions based on bad information. Making
decisions based on pressures being brought to bear.

We must make a decision concerning Jesus. We must make a decision
concerning truth. And we must come to the right conclusion.

Otherwise, this in fact becomes a life and death situation. And so
Pilate therefore, wishing to release Jesus, again called out to them. So
Pilate is trying now, I think this is the second time, to release Jesus.

And so there's obviously a tumult. People are shouting and screaming.
And there's a lot of people.

Pilate is probably up on a balcony or somewhere where he's able to
address the crowd. And so he calls out to them. He's trying to get their
attention.

And, but they shouted saying, crucify him, crucify him. What a
statement. The Messiah, the Saviour, the Anointed One, the Son of God,
crying for him to be crucified.

Of course, there's always this debate as to was it the Romans or was it
the Jews. And as we've said many times, both were equally guilty. If the
people hadn't persisted, Pilate probably would have released Jesus.

So the Jews are guilty. And remember that Peter on the, in Acts chapter
4, in his sermon on the day of Pentecost says, you, speaking to the Jews
as he's preaching to Israel, he says, you, you've taken with wicked
hands and you have crucified him. So the Jews were guilty of crucifying
Jesus.

But at the same time, Pilate was guilty because Pilate handed Jesus over
to them to be crucified, knowing he was innocent. At the very least,
Pilate should have taken Jesus and put him in protective custody. Now
that, there's a precedent for that because you remember a few years
later, Paul would be put into protective custody.

The Jews wanted to kill Paul as he comes into the temple. And the Romans
rushed down into the temple area and they grabbed Paul and they put him
into protective custody, not because he had done anything wrong, but
simply to save his life. So the very least Pilate could have done is to
put Jesus in protective custody if he was not going to let him go.

But in fact, Pilate is guilty because Pilate hands him over to be
crucified. And then he said to them the third time, why, what evil has
he done? I have found no reason for death in him. I will therefore
chastise him and let him go.

So three times Pilate is trying to let Jesus go. His conscience tells
him, Jesus is innocent. And yet he acts against his conscience.

And folks, how many times do we know something is wrong and yet we still
do it? And we act against our own conscience. And just like with Pilate,
it's easy to look at these men and to condemn Pilate and condemn the
Jews. And yet we are exactly the same as they are.

We are no different. And so three times Pilate acts against his own
conscience and does the wrong thing. How many times do we act against
our conscience, even though there is a repeated warning from our
conscience, from the Spirit of God, from the Word of God, for us to act
in a different way? And yet we reject or we push away, we suppress the
Word of God.

Paul deals with this in Romans chapter 1, because he says the wrath of
God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness
of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, who suppress the
truth. God's anger, and in the context of Romans chapter 1, God's anger
is not about homosexuality and murder and all of the terrible sins that
are listed in Romans chapter 1. God is angry because people have the
truth and they don't obey the truth. They suppress that truth.

Pilate is suppressing what he knows is right. He's pushing it down. He
knows what he should be doing, but he's wrestling with it and he's
putting it down, he's pushing it down, so that it doesn't rise up and
force him, in a sense, to do the right thing.

And so it's easy to blame everybody else, and yet many times we do
exactly the same thing. We know the truth, and yet we suppress it, and
we don't obey the truth. And that is what God is angry about.

The sins, by the way, in Romans chapter 1 are a consequence of
suppressing the truth. And the Romans 1, of course, is a warning of
where we end up if we don't listen to the conviction that comes by the
Holy Spirit. And so he says a third time, what evil has he done? I found
no reason for death in him.

I will therefore chastise him and let him go. I think this is the fourth
time that Pilate has declared him innocent. At the first trial, and then
three times in this second trial, he says he is not guilty.

But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices that he be
crucified. And the voices of these men and of the chief priests
prevailed. It's amazing.

Here is a man who would murder hundreds of Jews to enforce his rule, who
had no problem acting against the will of the people. And yet at this
time, the people prevail against him. Now, we must remember, he is in
charge.

He has his army. He's come to Jerusalem with express purpose to keep
order in case there was some kind of insurrection, some kind of trouble
in Jerusalem. And so he comes with all of his soldiers, in addition to
the garrison that is stationed in Jerusalem anyhow.

He has the power to enforce his will, but he doesn't enforce his will
because he listens to the people. This is probably the only time in his
life that he ever listened to the people. Remember, this is not a
democracy.

This is a dictatorship. He doesn't listen to the people, but now he
listens to the people. It's amazing how we change what we do and how we
do things for convenience sake.

And I understand his problem because remember that in one of the other
gospels, it says that one of the threats they brought against him, they
said, if you don't crucify Jesus, then you are no friend of Caesar. And
of course, that was a major problem for him because if Caesar heard that
he wasn't doing a good job and that he was going against Caesar, he
could lose not just his job, he could lose his life, he could lose his
head. And so he's afraid of everything and he doesn't do the right thing
and he makes the wrong decision.

In fact, I'm deeply concerned and I know I touched on this earlier, but
I want to emphasize this. How many decisions do we make because we feel
pressured by those around us? And when I mean decisions, I mean bad
decisions, wrong decisions. It's time that we make decisions based on
the truth, based on what is real.

It doesn't matter the price. What has a man profited if he gained the
whole world, but he lose his soul? In the end, Pilate would go down in
ignominy and shame. In the end, Pilate would lose everything that he had
fought for anyhow.

All he did was hold on to power just a little bit longer. Folks, we need
to see Jesus and as we see him, we need to make the right decisions. You
see, at the end of the day, this is not Jesus who's at trial.

This is Pilate and Israel who are being tried. Jesus is innocent. He is
the judge.

But this is a moment of decision for Pilate and Pilate finds himself
weighed and found wanting. Remember that was true of the king of
Babylon? This is true of Pilate at this time. This is true of the
leaders of Israel.

This is the point at which they make a final decision concerning the
Messiah. And in making the wrong decision, they sign their own death
warrant. Forty years later, the temple would be destroyed and the nation
would be dispersed, never to be reconstituted for 2,000 years.

This was the point at which they signed the death warrant of their
nation. This is the point at which Pilate signs his own death warrant.
You see, sometimes we sit in judgment of others, but in fact, the
judgment is ours.

May we make the right decisions because those decisions have enormous
consequences. Pilate had probably sat in judgment of hundreds of men,
maybe even thousands, but this time it was different. And folk, we make
thousands of decisions, but some of those decisions are cardinal.

Some of those decisions are pivotal. Everything revolves around those
decisions. We must make the right decisions.

What is your decision today? Verse 24, so Pilate gave sentence that it
should be as they requested. Pilate gave in. Pilate buckled.

Pilate folded. Right now, there are many Christians across the world
that are buckling, that are folding, that are giving in to the
temptations, to the pressures, to the demands that are around them. And
they're making the wrong decisions, and those decisions have eternal
consequences.

And he released to them the one they requested, who for rebellion and
murder had been thrown into prison, but he delivered Jesus to their
will. What a travesty of justice. Two men in front of him, as it were,
obviously Barabbas isn't there, Barabbas is in prison, but two men on
the stand, and he chooses the wrong man.

He chooses the wrong man. And folk, the church in America and in the
West is making decisions. I'm not speaking about politics, but maybe I
am, because many are choosing politics over Jesus.

Many are choosing expediency above Jesus. Many preachers are choosing
popularity over the truth. How can you choose Jesus over Barabbas, or
choose Barabbas rather over Jesus? And yet people do that.

I don't know what decisions you're making this morning, but all of us
are at any time in our life making decisions about all sorts of things.
And I plead with you, make the right decisions. Choose truth, choose
Jesus.

Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, this is an awesome moment in
the history of the world as the Son of God is put on trial, and they all
got it wrong. They all got it wrong.

And Lord, I pray that we would not be those who get things wrong, but we
get it right. Lord, that in making decisions, we make the right
decisions. Lord, in choosing between truth and popularity, we may choose
Jesus and truth.

Lord, in choosing convenience over the word of God, we may choose the
word of God. Lord, it's easy to be pressurized by those around us,
sometimes maybe not even a crowd, but just our husband or our wife or
parents or children who put pressure on us to do things that we know we
ought not to be doing. But Lord, we pray that you'd help us to have more
guts and more spine than all of the men in Israel at that time.

Lord, that we may choose the right, that we may choose what is right no
matter the cost. Help us, Lord, to think clearly, to not be in a fog or
a haze because of the many voices that are shouting out for our
attention and shouting for our decision. But Lord, that we may make wise
choices in our lives, we pray in Jesus' name.

And so, Lord, I pray that you'd go with us, keep us, protect us. And
Lord, as we make many decisions in this week, help us to make the right
ones. In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/qbH27lzEz6E.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/anton-bosch/what-will-you-decide/
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