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[ Silence ] [ Music ] ♪ I am revealed ♪ ♪ One in a thousand ♪

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♪ Jesus has changed my whole life ♪ ♪ I feel it's only right ♪ Just who I am, tell me who I am, repeat it Who I am, I am, repeat it

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♪ All praise for that ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus ♪ ♪ Has changed my whole life ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪

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♪ He's the one, yes ♪ ♪ Oh, just who I am ♪ ♪ Who I am ♪ ♪ I want you to tell me ♪

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♪ Tell me ♪ I am free again Where there was hate Love now abides

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Where there was confusion Peace now reigns I'm walking with Jesus I'm a child, I'm a child of the King

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Oh, because I've been, I've been redeemed Oh, yes I have, I have I have been redeemed I've been bought with a price

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Jesus has changed my whole life. Yes, if anybody should ask me just who I am, ♪ Tell them ♪ ♪ Tell them ♪

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♪ That I am ♪ ♪ I am ♪ ♪ I am preaching ♪ ♪ Yes ♪

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♪ I've got to tell all ♪ ♪ Tell it, tell it ♪ ♪ His favor ♪ ♪ I can't help but tell all ♪

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♪ His love ♪ ♪ I want to tell all ♪ ♪ His goodness ♪ ♪ To me ♪

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♪ Has he done something for you? ♪ All right. This is what he did for me. He purchased my redemption with his own, own precious blood.

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And from sin-- All right. --I've been-- All right.

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--I've been set free. Oh, yes, I am. I am. I am.

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With thee. I've been born. ♪ All will be ♪ ♪ Jesus has changed ♪

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♪ He turned me around ♪ ♪ Has changed my whole life ♪ ♪ Even better than I do ♪ ♪ He's giving me power ♪

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♪ Just who I am ♪ ♪ Tell 'em for me ♪ ♪ Tell 'em I am ♪ ♪ I am ♪

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♪ I am redeemed ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, I am, I am ♪ ♪ I am redeemed ♪ ♪ I've been born again ♪

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♪ Jesus has changed ♪ ♪ Jesus has changed my whole life ♪ ♪ And if anybody should ask you ♪ ♪ If anybody asks you ♪

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♪ Who, who is that man ♪ ♪ Just who I am ♪ ♪ You can tell them for me ♪ ♪ Tell them ♪

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♪ That I am ♪ ♪ Tell them ♪ ♪ Please, tell them ♪ ♪ Tell them ♪

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♪ I am, I am, I am ♪ ♪ Redeemed ♪ ♪ Oh, oh ♪ Let's all say, "Amen."

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Hear this word recorded in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, chapter 27, verses 22 and 23. Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified.

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And the governor said, "Why, what evil hath he done?" And they cried out the more, saying, "Let him be crucified." The subject, Pilate, the unjust judge. Pilate, the unjust judge.

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We have been, during this particular series of messages, considering personalities and the passion of our Lord. We come today to focus on Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea, the judge appointed by the Romans to preside over that particular area.

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Judgment is important in every civilization. Those who are empowered to render decisions affecting the lives of others. Pilate is appointed to the position of being a judge. One of the problems connected with judgments is that there is a tendency on the part of

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human beings to prejudge. Prejudge. We make the decision before we hear the case. Prejudge.

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And the word for that is prejudice. That's what it is, pre-judge. You spit it out. That's what it is.

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I was a pulpit assistant in the Antioch Church in Cleveland, Ohio, and the pastor arranged for me to preach at a vacant church. I went down and preached. I was fresh out of seminary, and the next few days he called and talked with one of

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the members to check on how I did in that visit. He said, "Well, the young man seemed to have been all right. He seemed to have known what he was talking about, but he came here and preached in a colored shirt."

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And so that was counted against me, the fact that I wore a colored shirt. Then I went to another church and preached and he checked on me again. He said, "Well, the young man did all right, but he didn't have no limonaries." He didn't have any limonaries.

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And another thing about it was that he don't hassle. So those were judgments against me. I thought maybe I'd never get a church with these judgments that were rendered against me.

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The Pontius Pilate is a judge, and we place a great deal of value on judges. We've just witnessed over a period of time the special independent counsel, Kenneth Starr. And I think the report was the other day that it has cost the taxpayers $60 million for his judgment, which absolutely told us nothing that we didn't already know.

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But we faced a pretty high price tag on our judgments. So Pilate is a judge. He is located in Caesarea, that is the Roman capital. But at this time he has come to Jerusalem, the religious capital of the Jewish nation.

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He wants to be on hand because many Jews have come to Jerusalem during this time, and it is possible that there may be an uprising. And Pilate wants to be on hand to put it down quickly, should it occur. Many who have looked at the life of Pontius Pilate say that he had a character flaw, weakness

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of character. I don't think it was really a weakness of character that we see in Pontius Pilate. He has considerable strength. He shows this strength when he offended the Jews by having troops stay in Jerusalem bearing

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standards with the image of the emperor. There was no man who was weak. He was strong in what he believed and wanted to do. But when he took that action, a crowd gathered outside Pilate's residence in Caesarea in

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protest. And after five days, Pilate had them surrounded in the race course by Roman troops. he determined that he would accede to their wishes rather than run the risk of being involved in opposing them. He was a rather strong person. He's not weak. He

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raided the temple treasury and planned to use the funds for building an aqueduct and nothing was more dangerous so to speak to his reputation as a ruler than raiding the temple of the Jewish people taking their money and building a road that holy money so he was rather strong in what he decided to

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do and in conflict with the Samaritans he rose up against them and through his efforts the leader was killed by the Romans and that led to Pilate being displaced and sent from the region back to Rome. So Pilate was courageous, courageous. His life indicates that he was not afraid. His problem was fear was

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not the kind of fear that you have regarding religion. His problem really was not that kind of fear at all. His problem was not fear, but apathy. In fact, he was indifferent to Jewish concerns. He was insensible, and he sort of--you know how people are. When they look down their noses at others, and he sort of looked upon them as being cantankerous,

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And he really didn't care. He did not feel the suffering of oppressed peoples. So his policy was, when dealing with the Jews, avoid as much conflict as possible because they have peculiar religious beliefs.

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So he really does not care about the Jews. Pilate accommodates the Jews by doing certain things from time to time. In other words, he's accommodating them now.

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He has come from Caesarea, I said, to Jerusalem. And now a case has been placed before him, and he accommodates them in the way he deals with the case because he resides in the palace.

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And the Jews, even though they bring the case to Pilate, they do not go into the palace because they will contaminate themselves. It's near the time of the celebration of Passover

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and they don't need to be going into the palace because they will become unclean. So Pilate comes out and deals with them outside.

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He accommodates them. Rather shrewd man in many ways. And as he comes out to them, he says to them, "What are the charges that you bring against this man?"

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And they say to him rather sarcastically, "We wouldn't have brought him here if we didn't have some criminal charges. And we know he's a criminal,

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so that's why we brought him before you." Pilate says, "Well, take him yourselves and judge him." Can you imagine a judge telling those who bring the case against him to do, you judge it yourselves?

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What kind of judge is that? And yet many times we have this sort of action being taken. I remember when I was a lad in elementary school, two boys got into a fight and they were taken to the principal and the principal said to them, "Do you all want to fight?"

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And they both said, "Yes." And so he made them fight until they couldn't fight anymore. then he took him took them into his office and whipped both of them with his strap. So I I remembered that so later when I got into a fight and had to go

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before the principal he said you all want to fight I said no sir. Another boy said yes sir I want to fight so he took him into the office and he got a quippy so you see when you put it into the hands of somebody else and they let you use it in the way that you want to you can get many different and disturbing

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decisions. Pilate says take him yourself and judge him by your own law. Now these Jews had peculiar laws and the Romans had accommodated themselves, well these Jews they won't do this, they won't let them do this, as long as they don't follow a regular order of government. And so now Pilate is saying, well you take him and

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and judging yourself, that's a good way of getting rid of the problem, you know. And the most important verdict in the history of mankind, though, is being placed before him, and he's telling the people to take it and judge him themselves. Whenever you put a decision in the hands of the litigants, where is justice?

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Let the people decide. Well, in the case of Elon, if the people decided in Miami you know what would happen. We already know if we let the people decide. Let the people decide how fickle is the crowd. Let the people decide. We would like to I have been there, no doubt, to whisper in Pilate's ear

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and remind him of his position and his power and tell him, "Use it honestly and rightly. Think hard and long about this decision because this decision will determine the course of human history."

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The crowd tells Pilate, "We have no right to execute this man. He's in your hands. We want the death penalty, and Rome has not given us the power to carry out the death penalty, so this decision has to come from you."

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They want Jesus dead. They want Jesus destroyed forever. So Pilate goes back into the palace and summons Jesus, that he might have a private audience with him.

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And as he does so, he asks him this question, "Are you king of the Jews?" says to him, "Is this your idea or did you get this from others about me?" Pilate is perturbed. He says, "Am I a Jew?"

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"It was your own people who handed you over to me," he says to Jesus. "And what is it that you've done?" but is concerned about what Jesus has done, and he fails to give attention to what he is doing with Jesus.

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Jesus addresses those who can see the splinter in others' eyes and can't see the plank that is in their own. Jesus says to Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight.

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But my kingdom is not of this world." "You are a king?" said Pilate. And Jesus answers, "You're right in saying I am a king." acknowledges the fact that Jesus is the King but he fails to treat him as the

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King. How do we treat Jesus as we meditate upon our relationship as disciples of Jesus Christ during this Lenten season? How do we treat him? Do we treat him as prophet? As prophet? Do we treat him as the one who really speaks to our hearts and do we observe his proclamations? How do we treat him? What do we do with Jesus?

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As priests, do we acknowledge in our actions and our relationships that he is the mediator connecting us with the Heavenly Father? How do we treat Jesus? Do we treat him as king? Do we accept him as the ruler of our lives? Do we consult him?

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Well, now, the decisions we make, how do we treat him? Jesus said to Pilate, I came into this world to testify to the truth. Then of course, Pilate tries to shift the conversation.

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He said, well, what is truth? What is truth? Pilate does not know the truth when he sees it. Pilate does not know the truth when he hears it.

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Pilate does not actualize the truth in his presence. What is truth? So when Pilate completed this dialogue with Jesus in private, He goes back outside where the crowd is and he says to them, "I find no fault in this

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matter." But he says, "It is your custom for me to release one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release your king?" And they shouted, "No! No! Release unto us Barabbas!"

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But the irony of it all is Barabbas is a thief! Barabbas is a robber! Barabbas is a rebel! Release Barabbas, one who has been fighting against the government. If anybody is guilty of high treason, it's Barabbas. No doubt he's been engaged in a rebellion against Rome. That's why he's in prison.

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But here Jesus is innocent. Here Jesus is the righteous one. And the crowd, the religious leaders, the chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, joined together and of course saying, "Release unto us Barabbas." Oh, so often we take Jesus and leave him to be crucified and free one who deserves to be punished. So what does Pilate do when they choose Barabbas, a revolutionist, one who is guilty, preferred

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over the righteous one? Pilate takes Jesus and has him flogged. Can you imagine a judge doing so many unjust things? a decision is rendered, he takes them and has him beaten unmercifully. Well, maybe

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he thinks that this is going to affect the Jews and make them sorry or make them change their mind and make them pity, but it does not. It does not. In fact, they take Jesus after he is flogged and dress him as a king. They mock him, put a purple robe on him, a crowd of thorns around him, mocking him, ridiculing him, laughing

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at him as king. And then Pilate appears before the crowd again and says, "Look, I'm presenting your king to you this man, this is the man and I want to say again I find no fault in this man. Here he is, you see him, but they have no pity. They shout all the more crucify him,

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him. And the pirate says, "You take him and crucify him." That's what we call passing the book. That's his responsibility to render the decision, but he says to them, "You take him, you crucify him." It is said that Harry Truman, while he was president, kept a sign on his desk, "The book stops here." The book stops here. No passing of the book

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any farther. It stops here. So the people said to Pilate, "We have a law and according to our law he must die because he claims to be the Son of God." Jesus had already appeared before the Sanhedrin court and they had accused him of blasphemy and the accusation was based on the fact that he claims to be

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the Son of God but now they're before a Roman court, a civil court and and Romans aren't really concerned about some man who claimed to be God. They'd recognized the right of the Jewish people to have their own beliefs and practices and now they're pushing Pilate into a corner and Pilate goes back into

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the palace and he talks with Jesus again in private and says where where do you come from? Jesus did not answer he said don't you know I have the power to free you or to crucify you and Jesus said you wouldn't have any power unless it were given you from above. So Pilate tried and tried to set Jesus free and the

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more he did so the crowd shouts, "If you let this man go you are not Caesar's friend." Ah, that's the trump card! If you let him go you are not Caesar's friend and after all Pilate wanted to be regarded as a friend of Caesar. His job really depends on Caesar. And how often do we crucify Jesus? Because of our job. Because

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it seems to be the thing to do in order to get us out of a certain situation at the time. Crucify him. Crucify him. Well, time and time again, Pilate is outwitted, it seems, and outmaneuvered. He remained rather indifferent. He doesn't really faced the situation, he's rather indifferent. He had passed by the opportunity just to make

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a decision, just to make a decision. Have you seen people who just find it so difficult to make a decision? They know what is right in their heart of hearts, but they find it so difficult just to do it, just to do it. And Pilot is indifferent, he is insensitive, and you know what? All his things he passes by, even his wife, his wife sends a message

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to him while he's on the bench, so to speak. She said, "Don't do anything to this just man because I've suffered many things concerning him in a dream that's a warning but Pilate disregards it and then he comes finally says shall I crucify your king Pilate asked this angry crowd and they respond we have no

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king but Caesar and so Pilate like so many people today washes his hands and and said, "The blood be upon you." And they said, "Yes, upon us and our children." And finally, Pilate hands Jesus over to the crowd

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to be crucified. Pilate judged Jesus unjustly. He handed him over to be crucified, and we crucify Jesus afresh today.

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we crucify him. We crucify him when we fail to feed starving children. We crucify him by miscarriages of justice in our courts that cause the innocent to suffer. I was down to the legislature a few years ago. They'd asked me to give the morning prayer and later I met

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an attorney who was involved. There was a man who was being brought before the legislature as a judge and they would have run their decision about it. And he saw me like he said, "Rabbi!" He said, "That was a good prayer you gave before the legislature." He said, "But it didn't do a bit of good." Because they had already decided that they were gonna hang this man, so to speak.

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They'd already made their decision. They were already prejudiced! And so here is Pilate. Pilate made his decision. The question is, "What will we do with Jesus?" And this is not a question that we can let go.

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The great judge of heaven and earth demands an answer. It's a question that comes to every person regardless of condition or circumstance. "I can't answer for anybody else and you can't answer for anyone other than yourself." What will you do with Jesus?

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You ask me what will I do, I tell you, follow Him. Follow Him wherever He leads. Listen to what He has to say. Honor Him, honor Him as prophet, honor Him as priest, honor Him as king.

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Bow before His throne and love Him with all your heart. Just do it. The way may be difficult, the way may be hard, but just do it and Jesus will do something for you.

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He will bless our hearts. He will bless us with the fellowship of his Spirit. He will heal our brokenness. He will bless our life beyond all we can ever imagine.

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And as we sing the hymn of invitation, we extend the privilege of the church. What will you do with Jesus? It's an invitation that comes to us in the here and now.

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The decision is ours. [MUSIC PLAYING] I can accept the call to Christian discipleship as we sing "What Will We Do This Year."

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[MUSIC PLAYING] [CHOIR SINGING] ♪ When you walk on the lawn ♪ ♪ Standing and talking to God below ♪

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♪ Give him a hand, he'll be grateful for ♪ ♪ What will you do with Jesus ♪ ♪ What will you do with Jesus ♪ [Music]

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♪ Some day your heart will be happy ♪ ♪ Some day we'll be blue and free ♪ ♪ And you'll find all the answers here ♪ ♪ Longing to enter your soul to feel ♪

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♪ You were such a loving and patient ♪ ♪ What will you do with me now ♪ ♪ What will you do with me now ♪ ♪ With your new friend on me ♪

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Show me your heart to be happy How may you feel with me? Who will you be in the long past time? How may you choose him for every crime?

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♪ This is the person you most desire ♪ ♪ What will you do with me ♪ ♪ What will you do with me ♪ ♪ If I am dead or mean ♪

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♪ Someday you'll open the eyes ♪ ♪ Will you now answer this sinner's call ♪ ♪ Will you obey him for evermore ♪ ♪ Follow him daily and for evermore ♪

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♪ For till you do with me ♪ What will you do with Jesus? What will you do with Jesus? Just where you can not be

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Someday our hearts will be at ease ♪ Lord, may they do with me ♪ - Unto you, O God, we lift our hearts and ask your guidance as we face the challenges

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of a new week. Grace, mercy, peace be with you. From God our Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. [ Silence ]

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[Choir singing] ♪ And be gracious unto you ♪ ♪ And be gracious ♪ ♪ Oh Lord, be gracious ♪

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♪ Gracious unto you ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪

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♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪

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♪ Amen ♪ - All of those who stood earlier celebrating birthdays this week, would you come? [BLANK_AUDIO]