Admonition Podcast

Thank you.

We are in Mark chapter 15.

Let's begin with a word of prayer as we get started with our study.

Gracious Father in heaven, we come before your throne grateful for the day that you
blessed us with, for the opportunities that we have to serve you, for the health and the

energy and the abilities that you've given us to be able to be together with one another,
to fellowship with one another, to encourage one another and provoke one another to love

and good works.

Lord, we pray that as we take time out of the schedules that we all uh work to keep, that
we might take our our minds and apply it to the word of God, apply it to what you would

have us to learn and how you would have us to live.

We might see in Christ our example in suffering, our example in living and our example in
obedience.

Lord, we pray that you be with those who are dealing with illnesses and difficulties,
recoveries,

pray that you will give them strength during the hard days and that you will help them to
fully recover their desired health.

Pray that you be with us as we go through this period and pray that you be with those who
are not present because they're traveling and allow them to reach their destination

safely.

All as we pray and ask in Jesus name, amen.

The end of chapter 14, we have the record of Peter denying Jesus and then departing after
oh the rooster crowed the second time.

Chapter 15 begins with one of those words Mark uses quite often, immediately.

It says immediately in the morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders
and scribes and the whole council, and they bound Jesus, led him away and delivered him to

Pilate.

So they've been going all night long through this trial and through the sham trial that it
was searching for witnesses, not finding any, finally concluding that they could condemn

him because he claimed to be the son of God.

or as he puts it, the I am, which has even more significance than just claiming to be the
Son of God.

ah But in the verses here, they led him away to Pilate or led him away and delivered him
to Pilate.

Then Pilate asked him, Are you the king of the Jews?

He answered and said to him, It is as you say.

If you go through John's record and some of the others, you'll know that Mark is doing
what Mark often does.

He's given you the sound bites and moving on.

He's given you the highlights and not all the details.

ah But Jesus is going to be asked by Pilate, are you the king of the Jews?

Now, why is that a strange question from Pilate?

All right, there's no indication that Pilate had ever had any interaction with him.

So the indication is the question is coming from the accusations, not from the knowledge
that Pilate has.

But what is it that the Romans had established by way of a ruler over the Jews?

Herod, who was king of the Jews.

So if you were asking from a political perspective, doesn't Pilate know the answer of who
the king of the Jews is?

Sure, because matter of fact, here in a little while, Pilate's gonna send Jesus off to
stand before Herod, the king of the Jews.

And yet, in spite of the fact that Jesus recognizes Herod's role and Pilate recognizes
Herod's role, in spite of that, the question is asked and the question is answered.

But notice, he says, it is as you say.

Now, as you...

track all the way back to the birth of Jesus.

What is it that the wise men from the east came to Jerusalem and asked concerning?

All right, where is the one who is born the king of the Jews?

Now, who heard about the request and the inquiry of the wise men?

Herod did.

Now, this would have been this current Herod's father.

All right, because the Herod that was alive when Jesus was born was not going to live very
long after that.

And you remember in the text where it tells us that after Herod died is when Jesus and his
parents, uh or when his parents determined they could safely return back to the land of

Israel out of Egypt.

But the point is,

Back when there was a king and Jesus was born, somebody was looking for the king of the
Jews and they weren't looking for Herod.

Here at Jesus' trial, Pilate, the governor of the Roman Empire over that region is looking
for the king of the Jews and it's not Herod.

Herod and all of the Herodian line were puppet kings.

They were put in place by Rome.

They answered to Rome.

They were not even Jews.

What descendancy were they from?

What lineage were they from?

Esau, they were Edomites.

So they're not even Jews, those who are ruling over the Jews.

And so as you understand this, there's an understanding from Pilate, there's an
understanding from the text beginning and end of Jesus' life that Jesus came to be the

king of the Jews.

He was prophesied to be the king of the Jews and the king that they had wasn't the king of
the Jews.

That is, by the way, in complete agreement with what the prophets had said and what the
Old Testament prophesied, because the Old Testament was clear back in the days before

Judah fell that at the time that God put an end to the kings and the rulers in Judah,
there would not be another king to sit on the throne in Jerusalem until the Messiah came.

And so Herod was not someone who intercepted that.

Herod was

not someone who ruled in that seat of the king of the Jews as a descendant of David.

And so as he stands before Pilate...

Pilate says, are you the king of the Jews?

He answered and said to him, it is as you say.

Now, what is it that Pilate is going to write over Jesus' head when eventually Jesus will
be led to the cross and crucified?

And what did the Jews want him to write?

All right, the Jews wanted him to say, he said he was the king of the Jews.

Pilate said, what I have written, I have written.

You brought him because he claimed to be the king of the Jews.

I could find no evil with him.

The only accusation that he would admit to was he was the king of the Jews.

And so that's what I wrote as the condemnation.

He was crucified because he was the king of the Jews.

Now, notice the chief priests accused him, verse three, of many things, but he answered
nothing.

Then Pilate asked him again, Do you answer nothing?

See how many things they testify against you.

But Jesus still answered nothing.

So that pilot marveled.

Is it always wise?

to say nothing when people throw accusations at you.

Careful with the word always.

Is it always wise to say nothing?

No.

Is it always wise to say something?

No.

And Jesus here is doing more than just making a wise choice.

Jesus is actually fulfilling prophecy.

Jesus is choosing to behave in a certain way that fulfills Old Testament prophecy, Isaiah
53, and others.

Jesus is standing there allowing the accusations to flow forth from the chief priests,
from the scribes, from the Pharisees.

Did you notice, by the way, the statement is clearly made that these were accusations, not
proof?

They had an abundance of things to accuse him of.

Where was their evidence?

They didn't supply any.

They didn't have any evidence, but they had an abundance of accusations.

so Pilate questions him, are you not going to answer?

Are you not going to represent yourself?

Are you not going to give an explanation as to why all the things that they're saying are
false?

Now, for us, in our current society, if our laws were enacted the way that they're
actually written, what is the case when a person is brought to court or accused of

something?

What is their by-nature stance in court?

All right, innocent until proven guilty.

Has that always been the case everywhere and at all times?

No.

uh Quite often you were guilty at the accusation of someone in power unless you could
prove you were innocent or somehow get around the charges.

so Pilate is astonished that Jesus is not answering.

anything.

But it's not just the Jews that Jesus isn't answering.

When Pilate questioned Jesus, did he answer Pilate?

No.

Verse 6 says, at the feast he was accustomed to releasing one prisoner to them, whoever
they requested.

And there was one named Barabbas who was chained with his fellow rebels.

They had committed murder in the rebellion.

All right, so a little bit of Jewish history here.

Regularly throughout the first century, the Jews would begin to rebel against

the Romans.

They would try and overthrow the Roman rule.

As matter of fact, you can remember that many of the ones who followed Jesus were looking
for a Messiah who was going to do what in their mind?

throw off the shackles of the Romans and they would once again return to the power and the
glory that they had when David and Solomon were on the throne.

He was going to restore the nation to Israel.

That's what the disciples, even the apostles come and ask Jesus about in Acts chapter one.

Are you now going to restore the kingdom to Israel?

Jesus says it is not appropriate for you to ask questions about things you don't
understand.

If I could paraphrase.

And so, many of the Jews are looking for the relinquishing of Roman power over them.

Now bear in mind, they have been subjugated under the Romans.

Before that, they were subjugated under the Grecian power.

Before that, they were subjugated under the Medo-Persian power.

Before that, they were subjugated under the Babylonian power.

So they've had 600 years of no real independence in their history because of their fall to
Nebuchadnezzar.

And as a result of that, many of them are striving to once again become their own nation,
once again become the ones in charge.

Well,

It seems as though that Barabbas had been involved in this sort of rebellion, except
notice

that they had committed murder in the midst of the rebellion.

This was not an individual who was of upstanding character.

This was not an individual who was a good person, just got caught up with the wrong crowd.

This was a person who had incited rebellion.

This is a person who had committed murder.

This is a person who was not

the kind of person you invite back into society.

than the multitude, crying aloud, began to ask him to do just as he had always done for
them.

But Pilate answered them, saying, Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?

For he knew that the chief priests had handed him over because of envy.

Mark points out that Pilate

had perceived exactly what was going on.

That this didn't have anything to do with the chief priests and the elders trying to
uphold Roman law.

It didn't have anything to do with them upholding their own law.

It didn't have anything to do with them having justification for their actions.

It had everything to do with the

power that Jesus had and the sway that Jesus had among the people as opposed to what they
had.

So Pilate offers the people to release the king of the Jews.

But you might remember there's an uh admonition back in Proverbs chapter 1 where Solomon
will write to his son, do not follow a multitude to do evil.

The same multitude of people who wanted to call Jesus king at the beginning of the week
are going to refuse to have the king handed back over to them at the end of

We need to be cautious when somebody says, don't you believe this?

Everybody does.

Don't you agree with this?

Everybody does.

Don't you think that this is what we should do?

Everybody thinks we should.

I dare say history has proven over and over and over again that everybody is often wrong.

when those type of statements are made.

So Pilate offers the Jews, and he says to them, Do you want me to release to you the king
of the Jews?

For he knew that the chief priests had handed him over because of envy, but the chief
priests stirred up the crowd, so that he should rather release Barabbas to them.

Pilate answered and said to them again, What then do you want me to do with him who you
called the king of the Jews?

So they cried out again, crucify him.

Then Pilate said to them, why, what evil has he done?

But they cried out all the more, crucify him.

Give me one good reason.

Nobody was interested in giving him a good reason.

Simply shouting him down with the cry, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him.

But you'll notice the incitement as well.

The chief priests going among the crowd inciting the people again, careful with a crowd.

It's one thing to say, you know what, most of the people in the crowd are good people.

Yeah, well good people in a crowd do really bad things.

and so they are being incited to cry out and cry out for him to be crucified.

So Pilate verse 15, wanting to gratify the crowd, released Barabbas to them and he
delivered Jesus after he had scourged him to be crucified.

Part of the problem you go look back and do some digging into history is that Pilate was
dealing with a nation that regularly, as we already mentioned, liked to revolt.

And there's good indication in some of the historical records and things that have been
found that essentially Pilate had dealt with revolt after revolt after revolt.

And it seems as though Pilate's neck was on the line.

another revolt and it won't be the people revolting that will be gone, it will be pilot.

And when the Roman government takes a governor out, they don't take him out to dinner.

Take him to the grave and say, we'll get somebody who can do the job.

So Pilate is in it for his own skin.

He is willing to appease the people for his own interests, not the interest of that which
is right.

You go all the way back to Exodus chapter 18 and what were some of the qualifications for
judges that were established in Israel?

They had to be those who hated a bribe.

They had to be those who did not defer to those who were rich, to those who were poor.

They had to be impartial judges.

In other words, they would side with the innocent.

by Pilate's own testimony.

This person's innocent.

And the people who are crying out, crucify him, won't even give him a reason to crucify
him.

They just want him executed by the power of the government.

So notice Pilate is going to hand him off.

to be scourged, then He is going to hand him off to be crucified.

Now again, Mark gives us the summary snippet version.

The scourging was intended to do what?

get someone to talk.

was an investigative technique.

If you brought somebody close enough to death through scourging, they'd probably tell you
if they were guilty or not.

They'd find some way to communicate something that they had done so the scourging would
stop.

They didn't find anything.

When the scourging was over, which by the way, when you were under Jewish control and
under Jewish law, how many times could you be beaten or could you be uh have pain

inflicted upon you under Jewish law?

40 stripes.

They would back off one in case they miscounted to keep the law.

So they'd give 40 stripes save one.

Romans had no such law.

Romans had no such uh ordinance or rule that they followed.

The Romans would beat you until you spoke up.

or until they concluded, there's nothing to learn here.

Quite often it is stated and pointed out due to the scourging that by the time they were
done scourging an individual, that their back was basically just flayed, just opened right

to the organs from behind.

Sorry, I thought there was a comment.

And so he's going to scourge him first.

Then he's going to crucify.

Then the soldiers led him away into the hall called Praetorium.

And they called together the whole garrison.

And they clothed him with purple, and they twisted a crown of thorns, and put it on his
head, and began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews!

Then they struck him on the head with a reed, and spat on him, bowing the knee, they
worshiped him.

And when they had mocked

They took the purple off of him, put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify
him.

It's not enough that they're going to beat him.

It's not enough that they're going to scourge him.

They're going to mock him.

They're going to torture him.

They're going to blaspheme him.

And every single step along the way.

It's fulfillment of prophecy.

They brought him to the place Golgotha, which is translated place of a skull.

Then they gave him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but he did not take it.

And when they crucified him, they divided his garments, casting lots for them to determine
what every man should take.

Now it was the third hour and they crucified him.

And the inscription of his accusation was written above the King of Jews.

Now back here just a little bit ago, verse 23, the the wine mingled with murder the way I
understand it.

And I'm no expert on the matter, but the way I understand it is this is basically uh
something that would dull the the senses and the pain of what is about to occur in the

actual crucifixion.

And so, it's a bit of uh a painkiller to keep someone from uh dying before they were done
crucifying you.

The last thing they want is you to die before they've made their point, as far as the
Romans were concerned.

But it also would have had an effect on someone's mental state.

And Jesus refused to accept that and refused to dole his

mental acuity at the things that were going on.

What time of the day is the third hour?

Nine o'clock.

So they're in the midst of this and they crucify him at the third hour and they write the
inscription in verse 27, with him they also crucified two robbers, one on his right hand,

the other on his left.

So the scriptures were fulfilled, which says, and he was numbered with the transgressors.

If you've ever read through Isaiah 53 and you've read that statement, you go, wait a
minute, what does it mean he was numbered with the transgressors?

Well, Mark's going to tell you exactly what it means.

He's going to say that means he was killed.

He was crucified with those who deserved it.

Though he did not.

Verse 29, those who pass by blasphemed him.

wagging their heads and saying, Aha, you who destroy the temple and build it in three
days, save yourself and come down from the cross.

Jesus had a reputation.

Not everybody agreed with Jesus.

Many who had listened to Jesus at earlier points turned back and walked with him no more.

Many chose not to agree with Jesus, but that didn't mean they didn't know who he was.

Didn't mean they didn't know what he had said.

That was pretty hard to escape in all Israel.

If you remember, we talked about in a lesson

recently about the two disciples that were on their way to Emmaus, and Jesus meets up with
them and he asks them about what they're discussing and what things have been going on.

And they basically ask, where are you from that you don't know what's going on?

The city at large knew what was going on.

Even those who were not from there, who were only there for the feast, knew what was going
on.

And so some come by and they blaspheme him.

and they speak as if he deserved the things which he was getting.

I think it's interesting that this phraseology here about the wagging of the head and and
the the statements that they were making has an interesting Old Testament picture with

what God had told Israel, specifically the nation of Judah, that all the nations around
them would do as they traveled by Jerusalem after it was destroyed.

God said that people would wonder at what had been done, at what their God had done to
them.

Interestingly, you go back all the way to the time of Job and the disposition generally of
the Jews and the Israelites and many individuals was if you were suffering, it was because

God was doing it to you.

If you were enduring great tragedy,

It was because God was punishing you.

And somewhat it appears to be here that some of the people who are coming by are operating
under the assumption if he's on the cross, it's clearly God judging him.

Now what accusation do they bring forward or what statement do they bring forward as a
proof text that he deserved to be where he was?

Notice.

You who destroy the what?

The temple.

You spoke against our God's temple and now look what He's done to you.

in the mind's eye of many, they considered speaking against the temple to be speaking
against God.

You remember that Jesus would point out as he was teaching concerning swearing and oath
that there were some who would swear an oath by themselves and others who would swear an

oath by something greater and some

determined that if they swore an oath by the temple then they had to keep it.

If they swore an oath by the gold of the temple they had to keep it even more.

in the Jewish mind.

the very representation of God in amongst their people and His presence in their nation
and their status as the people of God.

revolved around that temple.

Now, there's nobody who thinks that way today, right?

Certainly no nations or religions built upon an ideology that says this one physical
location is a holy place representative of our place before God.

But that was their mindset.

So to say you're going to destroy the temple?

was to the people's mind a statement against God.

That's something that the invading outsiders from days gone by did, not somebody who
claimed to be God's son.

That's something that someone who rebelled against God would do, not somebody who belonged
to God.

So as they make this accusation, the only one really that the Jews had managed to come up
with that could stick, because Jesus had actually said it.

They utilized this as a lever to turn the people against Jesus.

which reminds us that something doesn't have to be true, sorry, doesn't have to be false
to be turned into a lie.

Something doesn't have to be incorrectly stated in order to turn it into being something
that was never intended.

Had the people understood what Jesus was referencing,

they would have realized that they were taking part in the destruction of exactly that
temple right then.

because what was the temple he was referencing?

his body.

They were fulfilling his promise.

they were crucifying Him.

Without their actions, this statement wouldn't have come true.

And yet...

they were fulfilling that which they were accusing Him of being worthy of death because
of.

But they also said, save yourself and come down from the cross.

If you are the son of God, I think another of the texts will articulate.

Save yourself.

He said he would save Israel, but he can't even save himself.

Is it true that Jesus couldn't save Himself?

And it is a reminder to us that having the power to do something doesn't mean that you
should.

Jesus was held on that cross, not with nails.

but with a decision, a decision that had been made before the world was ever formed.

Revelation 13 verse 8 describes Jesus as the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of
the world.

Jesus wasn't held on that cross by the power of the guards, by the authority of Pilate.

Jesus would tell Pilate, have no authority, but that which given you from above.

Jesus would also point out to Pilate that he could call 10,000 legions of angels and walk
free.

He also made a point that the reason why his servants didn't fight is because his kingdom
out of this world.

We need to remember as we go through life, as we struggle with the difficulties that arise
in life, as we examine some of the things that we face in life, that many times

We are faced with the reminder that we can fight for what is in this world or we can fight
for what is not in this world.

And as Jesus hung on the cross, He was already fighting.

Not fighting to get out.

Not fighting to get off.

Not fighting to live.

fighting for those who were defenseless against sin.

Jesus was held on the cross by a decision.

And they thought the fact that He was still there was evidence that He was powerless to
come down.

Likewise, verse 31, the chief priests also mocking among themselves with the scribes said,
He saved others, himself He cannot save.

Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross that we may see and
believe.

Even those who were crucified with Him reviled.

As these events proceed, the tempo of the mocking continues and continues.

to the point where even the people who are hanging on the cross, who have to struggle and
push themselves up on a nail in their feet, do so just to make a statement reviling Jesus.

Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth
hour.

started at nine in the morning.

noon arrives.

And as noon arrives, you have a nice giant cloud get in front of the sun, right?

No, no, this was no cloud.

This was no eclipse.

Have you all ever watched an eclipse?

How long does it take to go by?

Yep, 10, 12 minutes.

There's nowhere where it's three hours.

for three hours darkness.

I know in some of the movies and some of the things that have been made, you have the
portrayal of this being a almost nighttime scene.

I don't think so.

I think this is more likely, far more like an Egyptian scene.

You remember one of the plagues in Egypt was what?

Darkness.

And the book of Exodus tells us that the darkness there in Egypt in the midst of that
plague was such that you couldn't see what?

You couldn't see the end of your nose.

You couldn't see a hand before your very face.

And as many have illustrated, if you've ever been down into a cave and they turn all the
lights out, you know what complete absence of light is.

This isn't nighttime with a full moon.

This is darkness.

at noon.

for three hours.

Imagine the soldiers.

trying to do their job of observing what's going on.

Think about the crowd.

You're three hours into this and mocking and mocking and mocking pervasive throughout that
three hours.

What think happened to the mocking when nobody could see anything anymore?

probably died down pretty significantly about that point.

I think my opinion here.

When you get over to the day of Pentecost.

You've had 50 days of people thinking about what happened.

It's not that the sermon that is preached is powerful, but it was evidenced by more than
just the sound of a rushing mighty wind, evidenced by far more than just speaking in

tongues or cloven tongues of fire on the heads of those who were talking.

It had been evidenced by the events of the crucifixion.

which is, by the way, a reminder.

that we should understand the value of the Gospel.

because there is a far cry difference between someone who knows what they've done is wrong
and someone who knows how to make it right according to the Word of God.

These people would walk away from this event knowing what they did was wrong.

but not having a solution for what to do next.

as we close.

We read.

Verse 33, now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until
the ninth hour.

At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, Lama sabachthanai,
which is translated, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?

Comes from Psalm 2.

Some of those who stood by when they heard that said, Look, he is calling for Elijah.

Why do you think they didn't understand what he said?

He didn't say Elijah.

It's a little bit of a reminder here that many of the Jews no longer spoke Hebrew.

They had become, much like much of the rest of society, a Grecian speaking people.

That is the one thing that the Greeks exported, was their language.

So the common tongue was Greek.

You find even the soldiers of the high priest who would go with Saul of Tarsus to Damascus
as they're traveling to Damascus and they see the light.

And one text says that they didn't hear any, the soldiers didn't hear what was said.

And another text says that they heard but didn't understand.

And the text is clear that he spoke, Jesus spoke to Saul in Hebrew.

That means that even the soldiers of the high priest who were Jews didn't understand
Hebrew.

they had lost much of their knowledge and through their ignorance of even their own
language they could not recognize a quote from the Psalms.

in Hebrew.

They were so divorced from their knowledge of the Old Testament that they couldn't even
hear a quotation from the Old Testament and recognize it in their own language.

So they question, he calling out for Elijah?

All right, we're gonna put a peg in it right there and we'll pick up ah here.

Not next week, I'll be out of town next week, but we'll pick up two