Greg Laurie - Indecision (08/11/2017)
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Pastor Greg Laurie examines Pontius Pilate's indecision before Jesus in Matthew 27, showing how Pilate faced the ultimate question—what to do with Christ—and chose political power over truth, washing his hands in vain. We all must decide about Jesus; neutrality isn't possible, and rejecting Him brings eternal loss while accepting Him brings forgiveness and life.
Introduction – The Problem of Indecision
So let's grab our Bibles now and turn to Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27. And the title of my message is Indecision.
I don't know about you. I don't know about you, but by nature, I'm a pretty decisive person. I tend to know what I want and what I like. When I go into a restaurant, I pretty much know what I'm going to order before I order. And I'm just waiting for the opportunity. And that's true of a lot of things in life. I'll think about it for a while. Then I'll make a decision.
But I, like you, have moments of indecision. And it always seems to happen in drive-thru, take-out type restaurants. Because they have so many things on the menu now. And you're processing all this information. And then the line behind you, they're waiting. And you feel the pressure to order. But the thing is, is there any drive-thru restaurant in America today that has a functioning speaker? I mean, where do they get these speakers? Like, was it a deal from Radio Shack in the 70s or something? And did every take-out restaurant buy it? Yeah, because they say... Okay, I'll have a hamburger and fries and... You don't know what's happening. You just hear distortion and hope that whatever you get may be close to what you actually wanted.
Well, it's not a big deal what you order in a take-out restaurant. By the way, that's why I like simple places like In-N-Out Burger or Chick-fil-A. Very simple. Just one, two, three. Animal style. Or I want the chicken. Or however you want it. But there's a lot of complexities with these things.
Big Decisions vs. Small Ones
Now, these are not big decisions if you have a burrito or a burger or a chicken or something else. But then there are big decisions in life, like who you're going to marry. Trust me when I tell you this. You don't want to rush in to that decision, you that are single. Okay, just take your time. All right? As I think it was Benjamin Franklin who said, Keep your eyes wide open before marriage and half shut afterwards. Right? But I think for many, it's more like your eyes are half shut before marriage. Then they're wide open afterwards. So don't rush that.
But the most important decision, of course, that we will ever make is what we're going to do with Jesus Christ.
Pilate's Dilemma – The Trial of Jesus
Well, I bring this up because now we're going to look at a man that literally had to make that decision. What was he going to do with Jesus Christ? This is our God Came Near series, and we're looking at the trial of Jesus as he stood before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.
Governors in this time were not voted on as they are in our country, but they were appointed by Rome, the ruling power. Pilate was a regional representative reporting directly to Caesar. It was a powerful thing to be a governor. The governors would collect taxes, they would build buildings, and they would try people, they would enforce laws, they maintained law and order. The governor had the discretionary power to execute at will, and if they wanted people to submit, they would use that power.
So one day, here's Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, ruling over Judea, not necessarily a dream job for a Roman, because the Jewish people were resentful of being under Roman occupation, and they would rebel many times. So there was a lot of tension that was happening at this time between the religious leaders and the Roman government.
Now, at this particular time of the year, Pilate would have been in his getaway place in the Mediterranean, there in Caesarea. But because Passover was happening, he needed to be in Jerusalem, and brought before him is Jesus Christ. His well-ordered life, where everything was structured, and he knew what was going to happen next, was interrupted by the appearance of this controversial man from Galilee, Jesus.
And Pilate was forced to answer a question that everyone must answer eventually. And the question is, what do you think about the Christ, and whose son is he?
This is the last thing that Pilate wanted to deal with on this particular day, but really, it was out of his hands, because this was bigger than Israel and Rome. This was a conflict in the supernatural world. God and Satan were at work, and for one moment in time, God and the devil were mysteriously moving in the same direction. Let me explain that.
They both were moving to accomplish a certain goal. Satan wanted Jesus Christ put to death. To stop his ministry. God the Father wanted the Son to go and lay his life down on the cross, to die for the sin of the world. So they moved toward the same event, but with different objectives.
But Pilate did have a choice in this matter, and I want to bring this up, because we don't want to paint him as a sympathetic character, as sometimes people will do. Oh, poor Pilate. He didn't know what to do, and he didn't want to make this decision. No, he was a hard, and he was a wicked man.
There's a historical document where there was a letter written to the Roman Emperor Caligula about Pontius Pilate, and his character was described as follows, quote, Pilate is unbending and recklessly hard. He's a man of notorious reputation, severe brutality, prejudice, savage violence, and murder, end quote. This was a hard man. This was a mean man. This was a man who could have spared Jesus Christ had he chosen to. He had that power, but this is a man, because he did not want to lose his power, or his political position made the most wicked decision in all of history.
But really, when you get down to it, this was not so much Jesus standing before Pilate as it was Pilate before Jesus. He was going to be judged according to the judgment that he would render about Christ.
The Backdrop of the Trials
Now, sort of to get the backdrop of the story and where we're at, Jesus, of course, has been betrayed by Judas Iscariot. He's there in the Garden of Gethsemane, praying as he's preparing to go and die on the cross. He's arrested by the temple guard, and they take him to these trials in this kangaroo court of injustice. They broke every law. So many laws were broken on this particular night when Christ was tried.
Our Lord was taken to Annas, the former high priest. He was sort of a Godfather-like figure of the religious establishment, and his puppet son-in-law, Caiaphas, who was a sitting high priest. They cross-examine Jesus and find him guilty, and then they have him sent to Pontius Pilate.
So that's where our scene begins, Matthew 27, starting in verse 11. Now Jesus stood before the governor. This is Pilate. And the governor asked him, saying, Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus said, It is as you say.
And while he was being accused by the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. And Pilate said, Don't you hear the many things that they're testifying against you? But he answered him not one word. So the governor marveled greatly.
Now John's gospel fills in some gaps. And remember, our series, God Came Near, is a look at Christ from all four Gospels, Jesus in quadraphonic, if you will. So John fills in a few details, and he tells us that the religious leaders did not want to execute Jesus themselves. And they brought him to Pilate.
Pilate did not want to get involved in their local affairs, and he said to them, Judge him according to your law. In other words, as the governor, he gave them permission to do whatever they wanted to do. Hey, you want to execute him? Execute him. I give you permission. I don't want to deal with this.
But then they lied and said, Oh, we're not permitted to put anyone to death. Here's a strange twist on the story. They wanted Jesus put to death by Rome because they didn't want to do it themselves. But even in this wickedness, they were playing into the plan and purpose of God.
Because hundreds of years ago, the prophets told us not only would Messiah come and be born of a virgin, but the prophets told us Messiah would die the death of crucifixion, I might add, before crucifixion even existed. Isaiah 53 describes him before his accusers, and he's beaten, and he's bloodied, and he's wounded for our transgressions. Psalm 22 opens with the amazing words, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The very words Christ uttered from the cross, and it goes on to say, They pierced my hands and my feet.
See, unknowingly, they were playing into the ultimate plan and purpose of God because it was determined in the councils of eternity that Messiah would not only die, but he would die by crucifixion.
Jesus spoke of this repeatedly in Matthew 20, verse 18. He said, We're going to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. Listen to this. They'll sentence him to die. They'll hand him over to the Romans to be mocked, whipped, and crucified, but on the third day, he'll be raised from the dead. Could our Lord have been any more specific than that?
So here's Pilate with a political hot potato, if you will. Verse 11, he says, Are you the king of the Jews? Now, understand that Jesus has already been beaten severely by the temple guard and others. So he's already in bad shape. And I wonder if the emphasis was on the word you, as in, Are you the king of the Jews, this beaten, bloodied man standing before me? Are you the man?
And Jesus says, It is, as you say.
Now look, Pilate had pretty much seen it all. As I said, all criminal penalties in Judea were subject to his approval or his veto. So he was the one who decided. But he was used to prisoners protesting their innocence. He was used to prisoners groveling. He was used to prisoners wanting to get out of the dilemma they were in.
He was not used to a man standing there as though he was in control of the circumstances without any fear in his eyes whatsoever. This unnerved Pilate right there on the spot. He didn't know how to deal with Jesus because our Lord was so calm.
We also know, according to John's Gospel, that Jesus said to Pilate, I came to bring truth to the world. All who love the truth recognize what I say is true. Pilate callously responds, What is truth?
What is truth? I don't think it was a question like, What is truth? That's in tell me. But it was more of a dismissal. Truth. What is truth? You see, Pilate was a pagan man. He had no core beliefs in his life. He was like the moral relativist of today, or sometimes they're called the post-modernist. People that do not believe in absolute truth.
Do you know that a poll was taken among Americans, and 67% said, There's no such thing as absolute truth. Isn't that amazing? So we're still saying this today. What is truth?
Poor Pilate. If he had opened his heart, he would have realized that truth incarnate stood before him, but this jaded Roman governor just wanted to get this whole escapade over with. He did not want to be confronted with Jesus, and he did what many do when they're confronted with the gospel.
You know, you can talk to people about any subject under the sun, but the moment you start talking to them about their soul, things get tense. They want to change the subject. You can be in a room talking about whatever, and then you just say, Well, you know what Jesus said, and it's almost like the whole room, air sucked up. What? Did someone actually use the word Jesus? Not in a profane way? Yeah, that's the way it is. There's power in that name, and people don't like to have that conversation. They'll do anything to stop that conversation, but here's Pilate's problem.
You see, he did not want to lose his position of power. So he thought, I don't want to execute Jesus like they asked me to, but I don't want to lose my powerful position, and if I defy these religious leaders, they're going to complain to Rome, and I might get thrown out of office, but if I give in to them, then I'm putting this man to death, and I don't want that on my conscience.
And so Pilate says, Hey, you know what? I find no basis for a charge against this man. I'm not seeing it. And they insist that, well, he stirs the people up all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and came here.
All Pilate heard was the word Galilee. Oh, Galilee, you say? You see, that was not his jurisdiction. Galilee was under the jurisdiction of Pilate's longtime rival, King Herod, and that meant that he could get rid of this problem and stick it to Herod at the same time.
He thought, This is from the gods for sure. This is amazing. Oh, what a stroke of luck. Oh, I'm sorry. This is not my jurisdiction. Send him to Herod and let Herod figure this out.
So Jesus is taken out of Pilate's presence, and Pilate's thinking, I dodged a bullet, or an arrow, I guess, at that time.
Jesus Before Herod – A Summary
Now, the picture, the story of Jesus before Herod is an amazing story, and we're going to deal with that next time. So let's just summarize it by saying, Jesus was brought before Herod, and Jesus never said a single word to that wicked king. He had a lot to say to Pilate. He had quite a bit to say to others. In fact, whoever engaged Jesus would hear quite a bit from him, but not Herod. He literally never spoke a word in the presence of Herod.
So Herod mocked him and sent him back to Pontius Pilate. So here's Pilate thinking that this is no longer his problem. He sent Jesus packing, and all of a sudden, he gets a message from one of his soldiers. They said, Jesus is back. By the way, Herod sends his love. Oh, no. And there he is again.
His heart sank as Jesus of Nazareth stood before him. If he could have thought practically and even more spiritually instead of politically, he would have seen this in a different light. Not as a dilemma, but as an opportunity.
I mean, think about this. This was God in human form standing before him. He could have asked Jesus any question and gotten an answer. He could have confessed his sins, and he had many sins to confess because he was a cruel, wicked man. And he would have been forgiven if he'd turned from his sins. But he did not take advantage of this opportunity.
We think, Oh, man, I wish I could have been with Jesus. I wish I could have walked with Jesus when he was on this earth. Here's the good news. Guess what? Jesus is here with us right now. He's here with us right now. He says, When two or more are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them. He said to his own apostles, Blessed are those who have not seen me, but still believe.
Oh, it was a blessing to be one of the hand-picked disciples of Christ. No question about it. And if I could have picked any other time to live historically, I would have picked that time with maybe In-N-Outburgers still. No, I don't know, but you know. It would have been amazing. But we can walk with him. We can know him. We can hear him. We can call out to him. Pilate could have done the same.
Pilate's Attempts to Avoid the Decision
So Pilate's thinking, I don't want to make this decision. He was indecisive. I don't want to send him away. I don't want him to be put to death. I don't know what to do. And then he has an idea. And he's, I know, I got an idea. There's a custom during Passover. And the custom is, we release a convicted prisoner. And the people get to decide.
Now I was thinking, now Jesus has a lot of friends out there, a lot of followers. If I put Jesus out in front of them, they'll surely pick him. And I'll put the worst guy next to him. I'll put Barabbas out there. Nobody likes Barabbas.
See, Barabbas, he was a hardened criminal. He was a notorious criminal as well. He tried to lead a revolt against Rome. He was guilty of murder, sedition, and robbery. We might call him a terrorist today. It was like a wicked terrorist and Jesus Christ.
So Pilate brings the two of them out, Jesus and Barabbas. He says, Which one of these prisoners do you want? Matthew 27, look at verse 15. And the governor was a customer releasing one prisoner whom they wished. And at that time, they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.
And he gathered them together and said, Who shall I release to you, Barabbas heard Jesus who is called Christ. For he knew that they had handed him over because of envy.
Pilate thought, Okay, this is a slam dunk. This is going to work. And then plus, to make matters even more complex for the Roman governor, his wife had come to him and warned him about Jesus.
Matthew 27, verse 19 tells us his wife said, Have nothing to do with this just man for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him.
That's interesting. You know, interesting phone ring. You might want to mute that. Sounds very spooky. Okay, so, here we find that Pilate's wife warns him. We might call this woman's intuition. Listen to this. A wise man will always listen to his wife.
You know, my wife often has a different perspective. I'll see things one way and my wife will say, Well, I think this. And I'll say, No way. And then, doggone it, if she's not right a lot of the time. So now we listen. In fact, I'll ask her opinion before I make a decision. Okay, how do you see it? You know, they have that, those insights that we miss a lot of times as guys.
But I think this is more than women's intuition. Maybe this was a God-given dream. It's interesting. She says she suffered many things in a dream because of Jesus. Why did she suffer? Was she brought face to face with her own sins? As she was aware of what her husband was doing, she could turn a blind eye, but she knew what he was up to. Maybe she participated in some of those things. And then there were the things that she herself had done.
But her counsel have nothing to do with him was not really good counsel. She should have said, Pilate, I had a dream about this man have everything to do with him. This is God, Pilate. Ask him questions. Get help from him. No, have nothing to do with him.
Why did Pilate not want to make this decision? Well, as I said, he was in a position of power. Listen. For men, what they do is everything. You know, you get a couple of girls together, they're meeting for the first time and they'll ask something like, well, are you married? Do you have a family? And the pictures of the kids will come out, right?
You put two guys together who won't be long until one will say to the other, so, what do you do? Well, I do this. Oh, well, I do that. Sometimes it's a little bit of who's the Alpha dog here. But a man is often identified by what he does. It's very important to him.
And so, in the same way, what Pilate did, he was the Roman governor. He was the top dog. He had unrivaled power, only rivaled by Caesar, but in this jurisdiction, he was like Caesar. He worked long and hard to get to this position, and he did not want to do it.
So he's waiting for a decision from the crowd. Okay, people, who is it? Jesus or Barabbas? And much to his shock and dismay, they say, Barabbas! Barabbas!
Are you people crazy? Well, what shall I do with Jesus who's called Christ? And they say, crucify him and let his blood be on us and on our children.
Pilate could not believe his ears. This is not the way he expected it to go. He heard many voices that day. He heard the voice of his wife and her dream about Jesus. He heard the voice of the bloodthirsty multitudes screaming, crucify him. He heard the voice of Jesus.
In fact, Jesus said to Pilate in John 18:37, everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Pilate audibly heard the voice of Jesus, but apparently he did not hear it in his heart.
So now, one more time, he's going to try to pass the buck. And we read in verse 24, saw that he was in getting anywhere and that a riot was developing. He asked for a bowl of water and he washed his hands before the crowd saying, I am innocent of this man's blood. The responsibility is all yours.
This is typical of so many. But listen to this. You cannot wash your hands of Jesus Christ. Once you're confronted with him, once the gospel is presented to you, you must make a decision. And Pilate did not want to make this decision and now he's going to reject Jesus and turn him away and send him to the cross.
Another thing Pilate did was he had Christ scourged, hoping that would appease the bloodthirsty crowd. And of course, scourging was especially cruel because the Romans had effectively torture devices. The Romans were experts in torture, pain, and execution. When they wanted to put a person to death, they were very efficient. They'd just bring out a sword and off came the head and it was over with.
But when they wanted to cause pain, when they wanted to cause misery, when they wanted to cause humility, they crucified. And often before crucifixion, they scourged. And of course, it wasn't just a basic whip. That would be bad enough. But they had these devices like the cat of nine tails, bits of leather with glass and metal in each strand. And every time it would come down on the person's back, it would rip first into their skin, then into their skeletal tissues. Sometimes even vital organs were exposed.
And I think we can assume that after he was beaten 39 times by the Romans that Jesus was in horrible shame. Thus, Pilate brings the beaten, bloodied Christ before the crowd, and he says to them, which means behold the man. Like, okay, have you had enough? No. They had not had enough. They wanted him to be put to death, and so off he was sent.
Well, Pilate thought, what else could I do? Well, he could have spared Jesus. That's what he could have done.
The Tragic End of Pilate
Pilate's life ended so pathetically. We know that seven years after this cruel deed, Pontius Pilate, the great Roman governor who wanted to be more powerful than he was, was removed from high office by the governor of Syria. He was eventually banished by the emperor Caligula to Gaul, a distant region far to the northwest of Italy, beyond the Alps. And there he suffered what appears to be a mental breakdown.
And according to some historical records, though there is some conflict here, in the darkness of night, he went and hung himself. One report says he was executed by Caesar. Another says he committed suicide. Either way, he died a tragic death.
See, he never got more power. He never climbed the ladder a little bit higher. This judgment that he rendered came back on him again.
Judas sold his soul for 30 pieces of silver. Pilate sold his soul for position, power, and prestige. His craving for popularity cost him everything.
And I ask you today, is there something that is holding you back in your relationship with God? You know, for some, they put career over Jesus. Career is more important than Christ. It's not that you can't be a Christian and have a career. Matter of fact, I think if you're a Christian, you can have a very successful career. As you honor God, and you work honestly, and you give faithfully to the Lord, and you do your job well, I believe God will bless your business. He'll bless whatever it is you're doing.
Now, there's limitations if you're a hitman. He won't bless that, but you're going to have to change your profession. Probably turn yourself in first. But by and large, God will bless you and your work, but some people, all they want is success. They'll cut any corner. They'll do whatever it takes. They'll make any sacrifice.
Some will sacrifice their standards. They'll sacrifice their integrity. They'll sacrifice their family. Some will even sacrifice their faith. Well, I can't go to church in my work. I've got to be at the job. I've got to work these extra hours. No, I've got to work over the weekend. The work is going to make the money. Hold on now. Priority time.
The most important thing for you, men and women, is not career, it's Christ. Put him first. But I believe as you do that, God will bless your work.
Jesus summed it up so clearly. Where did he do it? Matthew 6:33. Blanked out for a second. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. And what are those things? The context was, what shall we eat? What shall we wear? What shall we drink? Jesus is saying, I know you're concerned about things like that. I'm saying don't worry about it. But put God first. Put his righteousness first. Put his word first.
And maybe in your work, somebody who cheated got the position you wanted. Someone who lied on their resume got put forward when you really should have been. Maybe somebody who cut corners was advanced when you should have been. And you say, it's just not fair.
Here's what I'll say to you. Hang on, buckaroo. Because as time passes, these things come out. And then all of a sudden that person who was in a position of power is gone And you, the faithful, plodding little tortoise, you know, a day at a time, a step at a time for God's glory, find that the Lord moves you forward. And you look back and you say, I'm so glad I did it God's way.
Put Christ first, not career. He'll take care of you.
And I think I would miss something here if I didn't say, give faithfully of your finances to the Lord. Because everything that we have comes from God. And we say, Lord, you've blessed me. Now I want to take my tithe and my offering and give it back to you. Because you've told me to do this and I'm investing in your kingdom. And you've also promised that if I'm faithful in my giving, that you will rebuke the devourer for my sake. And you've promised to open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing on me. And I won't even have room enough to receive.
Others choose people over Jesus. Oh, it's so important for them to fit in. And they want to be thought of as cool or acceptable. And so they'll make any compromise to do that. And that was Pilate. Well, I don't want to lose my position. I don't want to lose my popularity. If I spare Jesus, I know he's innocent. I know he shouldn't die. But look at what will happen to me.
Now we should put him first. And here's something you need to know. Listen, you will make some sacrifices to follow Christ. But know this, whatever you give up to follow Jesus will be more than made up for, either in this life or in the afterlife.
Let me say that again. Whatever you give up to follow Jesus will be more than made up for, either in this life or in the afterlife.
One day the disciples of Christ said to him, Lord, we've given up everything to follow you. What do we get? What a question. But I love what he said. He says, I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brother or sisters or mother or father or children or property for my sake and for the gospel will receive now in return a hundred times over houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and property with persecutions. And in the world to come, they'll receive eternal life.
Many who seem to be important now will be the least important then. And those who are considered least here will be the greatest then. I love that statement. God will make it up to you. He'll give you more than you gave up for him.
But then he adds this thing. With persecutions. Wait, what? It's like, I'm with you. Well, what? With persecutions? Can we do it without persecutions? No. It's part of the package. Well, I don't really do persecution. You might say. Well, then, friend, you don't really do Christianity. Because the Bible says all that live godly in Jesus Christ will suffer persecution.
Prayer Vigil for Saeed Abedini
We had a prayer vigil yesterday for Saeed Abedini on both on Riverside campus and down in Orange County. And folks came out on a Sunday afternoon and prayed for him. Here's a few photos from our little prayer vigil that we had. And we're praying for his release from an Iranian prison.
I'm still looking at myself. I'm hoping they'll come. Cue photos now. There we go. Okay. So here's some folks. We're down there praying. This is down at the Orange County site. And there's a gentleman next to me there. Let's go back to that last one. We'll come back to him.
Okay, there's a gentleman next to me I'll tell you a little bit about. But there's a photograph of Saeed. Let's just go forward now. And this is this gentleman that is in the middle here. This is Joseph Bondarenko. And he's an amazing man.
Because we're praying for Saeed Abedini to be delivered from an Iranian prison. Why is Saeed there? Because he shared the gospel with the Iranian people. Saeed was born in Iran. He was being trained as a Shia Muslim to be a terrorist when he was a teenager. He was tapped for jihad to give his life as a suicide bomber.
God got hold of Saeed as a young man. He became a Christian and started leading fellow Iranians to the Lord. He established a hundred churches throughout Iran. But then he was able to come to the United States of America. And here in America, he met his wife-to-be, Naghmeh, who also was from Iran.
Now, he could have stayed here for the rest of his life because he had dual citizenship. But he had a burden to reach his people. So he went back to Iran with their permission, I might add. But then one night, he was arrested by the Revolutionary Guard and thrown into this Iranian prison where he has served now for three years of an eight-year sentence.
And they've said they're going to extend his sentence because Saeed is sharing the gospel with other prisoners. So they sent him to a worse section of the prison where all the murderers are. They thought the murderers will do our work for us. Now he's leading the murderers to Christ as well.
See, that's what's happening. In fact, some of those murderers are having visions of Jesus in their prison cells. And they're believing in the Lord. And so they brought Saeed in recently for interrogation and were tasing him and beating him. And so we're praying God will get him out of that prison.
Coming back to Joseph Bondarenko, he's from Russia. He, too, is a preacher of the gospel. He was put into the Russian gulag for 10 years. And he, too, shared the gospel while he was in prison. But people prayed for him. He got out. In fact, many of his family attend our church in Orange County. A wonderful, godly Russian family. And so we just rejoice in that. And he was there yesterday to pray for the release of Saeed.
But when I look at these people, and these people, to me, are like heroes of the faith. I mean, you want to admire people. These are the people I admire. People that put it on the line like that for the gospel.
You know, we hear these stories of miracles. And Joseph told me an amazing story yesterday. Yesterday, he was in prison in Russia. And he was sleeping. And he woke up. And there's a man coming down with a shank about to kill Joseph. And Joseph said, I saw a hand stop him. There was light. And I saw a hand stop this other hand. And I woke up. And I found out later there was nobody else in that cell with me except me and that man.
Other prisoners heard about it. And they started coming to Christ as a result. Sounds to me like an angel stepped in and said, no, no, no. Don't harm that man. See?
We see this in the Bible, too. We see God doing miracles. Raising Lazarus from the dead. Delivering Peter from a prison. Delivering Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in a fiery furnace. But notice this. God never did miracles for entertainment. Jesus didn't get the disciples together and say, hey, I'm going to do some really cool miracles to entertain you tonight after dinner.
And whenever Jesus did a miracle, it was for a purpose. It was to bring glory to his name. It was to take a desperate situation and turn it around and show people that there is a living God who cares.
God is still in the miracle business. And we need that. But here's the thing. You know, we don't want the suffering. We want to see the miracle. We don't want the suffering. We want to see the hand of God stop. And we don't want the knife coming down on us. We want to see the other things. But it's often in the worst times that God shows his power in the greatest way.
Maybe you've prayed, Lord, I want to see more miracles. Lord said, are you sure? Lord, I want to see your power on display. God would say, okay, you're certain? Because what may happen to bring that about may not be what you ordered, but it will be just what you need to cause you to deepen in your faith in me.
Pilate Missed the Opportunity
So, look, Pilate missed it. He missed everything. And he could have seen so much if he had trusted in Christ.
Let me close with this thought. And I already mentioned that this was not Jesus before Pilate. This was Pilate before Jesus. And really, he was judging himself as he judged the Lord.
Pilate had to make a decision that we all have to make. What are you going to do with Jesus? Well, I don't want to deal with this. Well, too bad. Because once you're presented with Jesus, you can't wash your hands of him. You must decide.
Let's pray. Father, I pray for any that have joined us who need a miracle. Lord, extend your hand to them. Extend your hand of healing to those that need your touch. Those that have cancer. Those that have illnesses. Those that have other great needs. Lord, reach out and heal them and show them your glory.
Those that are in prison like Saeed. Those that are suffering, Lord, extend your comfort to them and deliverance when you believe it's the right moment. Extend it to us as well.
But now I pray, Lord, in closing for some who have joined us who may not believe in you yet. They want to wash their hands of you. They don't want to face you. But there's no getting away. Help them to see their need for Jesus. Help them to come to you, we pray now.
Invitation to Receive Christ
Now as we're closing in prayer, there might be some of you that have never really responded to Jesus. You've never asked him into your life. And as Jesus said, you're either for me or against me. You're with me or you're opposed to me. So you can't be neutral on this.
If you've never asked Jesus to come into your life, why don't you do it right now? I'm going to lead you in a simple prayer. I would ask you to pray this prayer after me, right where you sit, right where you're hearing this or watching this. You pray this prayer after me if you're not sure that your life is right with God. Pray it with me now.
Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. But I know that you are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I turn from my sin now and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Listen, if you just prayed that prayer, we want to help you get started on the right foot in following Christ. And we have a book we want to give you, not Max Licato's Glory Days. Here it is, this book. We want to give you this Bible. It's a New Testament. It's called the Start Bible. It has notes in it that I wrote that will encourage you in this commitment or recommitment you've made to follow Christ.
And there's a room over here to the side here at Harvest Riverside that you can go to. After we're done, you'll see that same red sign with a white arrow like is on the Bible. And you can go back there and they'll give you this Bible and share with you what it means to follow Jesus Christ.
So if you prayed with me just now, make sure you go back there and get your own copy of the Start Bible.
Closing Prayer for Giving
Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time this morning. And we ask your blessing now in this time of giving. Lord, whatever we have, it's come from you. And it's a gift. And that's what we want to give back to you of our tithes, of our offerings, and use them, we pray, for your glory. Lord, so more people can be reached with the message of the gospel. We ask this in your name. Amen.