INTRODUCTION:

1. After our Lord was betrayed by Judas Iscariot, He was arrested, beaten and mocked by the temple guards, and then brought before the Sanhedrin for a trial.
2. During this time, Peter denied our Lord three times (22:57-62).
3. After deciding that our Lord was guilty of blasphemy (22:66-71; cf. Mark 14:63-65), the chief priests, along with the elders and scribes and the whole council, bound Jesus, and carried him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate (23:1).
4. The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession (I Timothy 6:13).
5. Years before I ever read the Bible; and years before I was saved, I knew about Pontius Pilate. As a boy, I was taught: He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried ( Apostles Creed ).
6. They brought our Lord to Pilate because the Jews did not have the authority to execute Jesus.  Only the Roman government had that power (cf. 20:20; John 18:29-31).
7. Pontius Pilate was at that time the Roman governor of Judea. Luke 3:1 says, Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea
8. First, they conducted their religious trial, and now they delivered our Lord to Pontius Pilate for the civil trial.
9. The story of Pontius Pilate is found in all four of the Gospels (Matthew 27; Mark 15; Luke 23; John 19).  Pontius Pilate is also referred to three times in the book of Acts, and once in the apostle Paul s first epistle to Timothy (cf. Acts 3:13; 4:27; 13:28; I Tim. 6:13).

10. In Acts 3:13, Peter reminds us that Pontius Pilate was determined to let Him go.   But because he was a weak and worldly politician, Pilate gave in to the Jewish mob that was demanding Christ s death.
11. From what we can gather from the Bible and from secular history, Pontius Pilate was a rich and corrupt politician, proud and crafty, a worldly-minded and selfish man, more concerned with his own career and his own comfort than with truth and justice.
12. We know from secular history that he was appointed governor of Judea by Tiberius Caesar in 26 AD, and that he held that position until 37 AD.  The details surrounding his death are not clear but apparently he committed suicide.
13. In Luke 13, we are told he slaughtered some Galileans while they were offering their sacrifices in the temple (Luke 13:1).
14. Though Pilate had contempt for the Jews (cf. John 18:34, 35), he evidently had respect and admiration for our Lord (cf. John 18:38; 19:4-6; Luke 23:4).
15. And when studying the trial of Jesus, this one fact becomes clear: Pontius Pilate was distracted and torn between two conflicting feelings a fear of offending the Jews (which could have led to an insurrection), and a conscious conviction that our Lord was innocent.
16. But being a typical politician, and a weak, cowardly man, destitute of any fixed principles, and being interested only in himself, he yielded to the blood-thirsty mob and had our Lord crucified. So, ended Pilate s part in the greatest crime which has ever been committed since the world began.

 

I. PILATE TRIED TO AVOID THE PROBLEM BY SENDING OUR LORD TO HEROD (23:1-7)

1. The accusations brought before Pilate were false (23:1, 2).  For example, forbidding to give tribute to Caesar.   But this is the exact opposite to our Lord s teaching and to His practice (cf. Matthew 17:24-27).
2. Their other accusation saying that he himself is Christ a King (23:2b) was also untrue. Our Lord said to Pilate, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence (John 18:36).
3. When Pilate said, I find no fault in this man (23:4), the angry mob became more fierce, saying, He stirreth up the people (23:5).
4. When they mentioned Galilee (23:5), Pilate realized he had an opportunity to pass Jesus off to Herod Antipas (23:5-7).
5. This was the same Herod who had killed John the Baptist.  Our Lord referred to Herod as that fox in Luke 13:32.
6. Pilate was like many people today.  His reasoning was, I will go along with whatever Herod decides to do (cf. 23:7).
7. People do what is convenient or expedient, not what is necessarily right.
8. It is not recorded in the Gospel of Luke, but according to Matthew 27:22, Pilate asked, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?
9. This is a question every person must answer.
10. The angry mob said to Pilate, Let him be crucified (Matt. 27:22).

 

II. OUR LORD BEFORE HEROD (23:8-11)

1. Verses 8-11 deal with Herod, a cruel and sensual man.  He took his brother s wife, and then had John the Baptist s head cut off.
2. Herod welcomed the opportunity to meet Jesus, because he had heard many things of him; and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him (23:8; cf. 9:9).
3. Our Lord would not answer Herod (23:9), which is a fulfillment of Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
4. H.A. Ironside said, The Lord Jesus had nothing to say to those who were curious but who had no desire to know the truth (Luke).
5. Herod soon went from being exceedingly glad (23:8) to mocking (23:11).
6. This is characteristic of Herod.  Mark 6:20 says Herod feared John the Baptist, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly.
7. Yet he still had his head cut off.
8. W.H. Griffith Thomas described Herod s frivolity and shallowness, his sinister gladness in showing a passing interest in John the Baptist and Jesus, but still agreeing to have them killed.
9. Griffith Thomas said, To neglect conscience is to stifle it (Outline Studies in Luke).
10. Herod s men of war, treated our Lord with contempt and they mocked Him, and they arrayed Him in a gorgeous robe, and then sent Him back to Pontius Pilate (23:11).
11. Matthew 27:28 says it was a scarlet robe.
12. Mark 15:17 and John 19:2 say it was purple.
13. Ironside said, that the warp may have been of one color and the woof of another, so that it was indeed a gorgeous robe (Luke).
14. Albert Barnes says Luke 23:12 reminds us that, wicked men, at variance in other things, are often united in opposing and ridiculing Christ and his followers; and that enmities of long standing are sometimes made up, and the most opposite characters brought together, simply to oppose (the Christian) religion.
15. Consider the strange alliance between atheistic liberals and Muslims.  They support each other because of their mutual hatred for Christianity.
16. Once again, I will quote H.A. Ironside, Here were two crafty politicians who hated and distrusted each other, but they could agree in rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ (Luke).

 

III. PILATE TRIED TO REASON WITH THE ANGRY MOB

1. Pilate tried to explain to the wild and angry mob that both he and Herod had examined Jesus and neither of them had found any fault in Him (23:13-15).
2. Luke does not mention it, but at about this time Pilate s wife sent word to him about her unusual dream.
3. When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him (Matthew 27:19).
4. Her dream just confirmed what Pilate already knew, but he was too weak and cowardly to withstand the mob.
5. I will therefore chastise (scourge or whip) him (23:16). 
6. This is unfair and illogical, and it reveals Pilate s confused and unstable mind. If Pilate supposed Jesus to be completely innocent I find no fault in this man (23:4; cf. vss. 14, 15, 22), why then would he propose to scourge Him?
7. Pilate was trying to placate the mob. He wanted to show them that he was willing to appease them if it could be done without a crucifixion.
8. Barnes said that perhaps Pilate expected that by seeing him whipped and disgraced, and condemned to ridicule, to contempt, and to suffering, they would be satisfied.   But this vicious mob was determined to see Christ crucified (cf. 23:21).
9. This bloodlust can only be understood by remembering that Satan was whipping up the mob.  Our Lord said to the Jewish leaders in John 8:44, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
10. Second Corinthians 4:4 says Satan hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.
11. Back in Luke 22:3, we read, Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot.
12. Satan had the mob whipped into a frenzy.
13. Luke 23:17 refers to an annual custom, whereby a notable prisoner would be set free at the passover feast. Pilate thought this would provide him with an opportunity to release Jesus.
14. Mark 15:9, 10 says, Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews?  For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy.
15. But at that time there was a prisoner named Barabbas awaiting execution.  Barabbas was a robber, a murder, and an insurrectionist (23:19; cf. Mark 15:7; John 18:40).
16. But the people cried out all at once, Away with this Man, and release unto us Barabbas (23:18).
17. Pilate kept trying to reason with them, but he was weak and timorous before the furious mob (23:20-23).  
18. Pilate was indecisive and vacillating At this point, he was more concerned with saving his own reputation, than with stopping a wicked mob from executing an innocent man. 
19.   And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed (23:23b).  Pilate finally gave in to the mob (23:24, 25).  
20. H.A. Ironside said, Pilate went against his own conscience; he went against his own best judgment; he went against the pleadings of his wife, who sent a message to him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that Just Man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of Him (Matthew 27:19) (Luke).

 

CONCLUSION:

1. Pontius Pilate was a career politician. There s an old story about a politician who was approached by a newspaper man and asked his opinion about a certain important issue.
2. The politician said, Well, I have many friends on one side of this issue and I have many friends on the other side of the issue.
3. The newspaper man wanted to know where he stood on the issue.  He asked him a few times, But where do you stand?
4. The politician finally said, Well, I have many friends on one side of this issue and I have many friends on the other side of the issue, and I stand with my friends.
5. That was Pilate.  He wanted to be friends with Herod, and he wanted to be friends with the Jews.
6. But he was no friend to Jesus.
7. It is not recorded by Luke, but according to Matthew 27:22, Pilate asked, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?
8. Sadly, we know what he did (23:24, 25).
9. What will you do with Jesus?