I've entitled my discourse to you this morning, "Satanic Jurisprudence" and hopefully that title will make more sense, as we see it manifested in the text before us, which is in Mark chapter 15; Mark chapter 15, as we continue to go through Mark's gospel verse by verse. Let me read the passage, beginning in verse one and going through verse 15.

"Early in the morning, the chief priests with the elders and scribes and the whole Council, immediately held a consultation; and binding Jesus, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pilate.

Pilate questioned him, 'Are you the king of the Jews?' And He answered him, 'It is, as you say.'

The chief priests began to accuse Him harshly.

Then Pilate questioned Him again saying, 'Do You not answer? See how many charges they bring against You?'

But Jesus made no further answer; so Pilate was amazed.

Now at the feast he used to release for them any one prisoner whom they requested.

The man named Barabbas had been imprisoned with the insurrectionists, who had committed murder and the insurrection.

The crowd went up and began asking him to do as he had been accustomed to do for them.

Pilate answered them, saying, 'Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?'

For he was aware that the chief priest had handed Him over because of envy.

But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask him to release Barabbas for them instead.

Answering again, Pilate said to them, 'Then what shall I do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?'

They shouted back, 'Crucify Him!'

But Pilate said to them, 'Why, what evil has He done?' But they shouted all the more, 'Crucify Him!'

Wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas for them, and after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified."

According to First John five and verse 19, we are told that, "We know that we are of God, and that the whole world is in the power of the evil one." The world, the cosmos; in this context, the orderly system of satanic control, the sphere, the domain of his influence; where he does everything, he possibly can, to thwart the purposes of God in redemption to ultimately bring glory to God. He is indeed the evil one, Satan, the devil. Jesus referred to him as "the ruler of this world" in John 14. And speaking of unbelievers, Jesus declared in John eight, verse 44, and following, "You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies."

There are only two kinds of people that exist in the world. Those who love the world and are therefore the willing slaves of Satan, even though perhaps unwitting, and those who hate the things of this world, and are therefore by God's grace, the willing slaves of God himself. In First John two beginning in verse 15, we are told his believers, "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world." In other words, all of the places and things and people that are in this world, that surround us, that influence us; those things that appeal to our sinful flesh and draw us away from an intimate knowledge and fellowship and service of the living God, all of those things are going to disappear. But those are the things of the world that you must avoid. And thankfully, according to what we are told in Colossians, one and verse 13, God has "rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son."

Friends, what we see in our passage here today, in this historical narrative, is a clash between these two domains--the domain of Satan, the kingdom of Satan that is in this world, and the kingdom of Christ that is not in this world. As we examine the details of this horrific injustice, we will not only see the many parallels in our own culture, and our own country, but we will also see remnants of our own unredeemed flesh. In fact, may I remind you, never examine this historical narrative in isolation, as if it is just some ancient chronicle of antiquity or whatever. But rather, be quick to see the infinite perfections of Christ portrayed in it, and how those things relate to your life in union with Him. If you cannot see yourself in the characters of this narrative, you will never accurately see Christ.

Now I wish to expose it this passage under three progressive characteristics of depravity that not only emerge from the text, as we will see, but also emerge from the depraved machinations of human beings. First, we will see in phase one, mocking sarcasm of Christ. That will move to phase two, depraved humiliation of Christ. And then in phase three, we will see the physical torture of Christ. Both scripture and history give testimony to this progressive, satanic wickedness that was inflicted upon Christ and all who belong to Him. In fact, the Lord tells us in Matthew 10, and verse 22, "you will be hated by all because of My name." And as believers, we see that being manifested more and more in our culture. But also in John 15, beginning in verse 18, Jesus said, "'If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world. Because of this, the world hates you.'" And as we will see, that hatred will move through this kind of progression. From mocking to disdain to violence; this has always been Satan's strategy.

Now, let me remind you of the context here. Jesus, of course, has been arrested, the disciples have fled. Three ecclesiastical trials have been conducted the first one with Annas, the former high priest, but the one who frankly wielded the sacerdotal influence amongst the Jews of that day; the power of the Sanhedrin. And he was an aged, tyrannical, worldly, Sadducee, that enjoyed prominence and enjoyed all of the influence that went with his title. And he was also friends with the Herod’s and the Roman pro creators and so forth. He was like the mafia Don, and he was the one that held the greatest malice against Jesus, because Jesus interrupted his illicit commercial enterprise in the temple precincts with all of the money changing, and so forth.

In fact, I might also add that as we look at history, most of the people detested Annas and his family. And certainly, they despise the Romans that supported them. Jesus has also had a hearing before Caiaphas, that was Annas; son in law, the current high priest who also benefited from the greedy gains of his father-in-law. And Caiaphas feared that Jesus might stir up the populace and stirred them up against the Sanhedrin and against the Romans and therefore threaten their position. And then finally, they have had the trial with Jesus--illegal trial--that was convened in the Sanhedrin early in the morning. And as we have examined, those proceedings were undoubtedly the greatest miscarriage of justice in the history of civilization. This, dear friends, is the example of satanic jurisprudence, the phony and false indictment against the Son of God, resulting in the sham trials, the false accusations of witnesses that lead ultimately to the predetermined sentence of death.

Now also bear in mind that during this whole time of these three trials with Jesus, Peter has been exposed and he has denied knowing Jesus or knowing anything about Jesus, three times. And then the Lord gazed at him and caused him to be overwhelmed with guilt and he has now felt the shame and the sorrow that he needed to feel, and he has repented. So, Jesus now has been humiliated. He has been hooded, he has been beaten, he has been mocked, he has been spat upon. And bear in mind now he's been up all night long. And he has also sweat drops of blood in the garden. According to John 18, verse 28, we read that shortly after dawn, the Sanhedrinists quote, "led Jesus from Caiaphas into the Praetorium, and it was early; and they themselves did not enter the Praetorium so that they would not be defiled but might eat the Passover." Oh, the deceptive power of religious hypocrisy. Astounding, isn't it? They abhorred ceremonial defilement that might prevent them from being able to eat the Passover meal that night, but they cared nothing about shedding innocent blood.

You know, self-serving false religionists, as well as politicians, for the most part, care only for themselves, not for the truth, not for the people; only their own power and prestige. So with this, now we come to our text in verse one of Mark 15, "Early in the morning, the chief priests with the elders and scribes and the whole Council, immediately held a consultation; and binding Jesus, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pilate." Now they had to deliver Him to Pilate, before the people in the city began to stir, it's still early in the morning. Bear in mind that Jesus's hands would have been tied behind his back, they would have had a rope around his neck and they would have had to have traveled from what was called the Hall of Meeting, where they would have met over a large bridge spanning the Valley of Tyropoeon, which is also called the Central Valley, it ran along the eastern wall of the Temple Mount. And so this would have been a horrible spectacle for anybody to behold, but especially if there was a large crowd of people. So they hurry now, and they take him to Pilate.

Moreover, bear in mind, and this again exposes their hypocrisy, they needed the crucifixion to be over by the beginning of the Sabbath, which commenced at sundown on Friday. In fact, we read about this in John 19, verse 31, "Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for the Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away." I mean, once again, more evidence of the depths of this kind of depraved, fanatical hypocrisy. So with the seared conscience of a demonized sociopath, they could somehow justify the torturous murder of an innocent man, the Son of God, but his crucified body had to be removed before the Sabbath, so as not to violate the Sabbath and somehow fall into sin. So they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the Praetorium, and in John 18, verse 29, we read, "Therefore Pilate went out to them and said, 'What accusation do you bring against this Man?' They answered and said to him, 'If this Man were not an evil doer, we would not have delivered Him to you.' So Pilate said to them, 'Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your law." The Jews said to him, 'We are not permitted to put anyone to death.' And then John adds this, '...to fulfill the word of Jesus which He spoke, signifying by what kind of death He was about to die."

So back to Mark 15, verse two, "Pilate questioned Him, 'Are you the King of the Jews?' And He answered him, 'It is as you say.'' Here we come to the first phase that I would call: mocking sarcasm of Christ. Bear in mind your friends, Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Lord of hosts, is standing before this petty little tyrant Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, appointed by Emperor Tiberius in ad 26. His face is bruised and swollen and bloodied, like his garments. And yet there he stands, the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, all alone, to be judged by a creature that he created. It's an astounding thought, is it not? And with mocking sarcasm, Pilate question him, "'Are you the king of the Jews?'" In the original, the pronoun "you" is placed at the beginning of the phrase, as if Pilate were saying, "You're the king of the Jews?" "You are the king of the Jews?" Really what a joke. Dear friends, they mocked him then as they mock him now.

Let me give you a little historical background on Pilate, so that you understand what would have been going on in his mind. Pilate hated the Jews, but he also feared them because he didn't want another insurrection. In fact, Philo of Alexandria, he was a Jewish philosopher and Hellenistic theologian of that era. He described Pilate's character by quoting a letter from Agrippa the First to Caligula were Agrippa called him quote, "inflexible, merciless and obstinate." Not the kind of guy you want to be judging you right? Now Pilate's haughty violence against the Jews had gotten him into hot water with Caesar before in the past. For example, soon after he was installed as the procurator, he instructed his Roman soldiers to bring the Silver Eagles and other insignia of the Legions from Caesarea into Jerusalem, and to sneak them in by cover of darkness. And he defiled the temple by putting these golden shields inscribed with the images and the names of Roman deities in the temple. Well, obviously, when the Jews found out they were apoplectic, absolutely enraged. This was idolatry. This was profaning the temple. And history tells us that for five days and nights, they surrounded Pilate's residence in Caesarea, often lying prostate on the bare ground and threatening to storm the residence. And on the sixth day, the soldiers surrounded them, and Pilate threatened to massacre all of them, but they would not desist and so he thought, you know, I better back off or I'm gonna get in trouble here. But this just fueled his already existing abhorrence for the Jews.

On another occasion, Pilate used some of the same money that was used in the sacred treasury of the temple to build an aqueduct. Well, this enflamed, the Jews and 1000s protested. And when the mob refused to disperse, he instructed many of his soldiers to dress as if they were part of the mob, as if they were Jews, and to infiltrate the crowd, and to use daggers and kill the ringleaders and also use staves, or like billy clubs to beat many of them and many died in that milieu. Many were beaten, many were crushed by the fleeing mob. And on yet another occasion he hung some shields dedicated to Tiberius in the Herodian palace at Jerusalem [cough..."excuse me"] where he stayed during the festivals. And the Jewish leaders wrote a letter of complaint to Tiberius himself because they were so offended. And when Tiberius got this complaint, he's like oh, here we go again. This guy Pilate, he's causing trouble, and so, in order to avoid an insurrection, we read how Tiberius reprimanded Pilate, had the shields taken down and transferred from Jerusalem to the Temple of Augustus at Caesarea. I might add as a footnote, eventually, the act that led to Pilate's removal from office was when he had his calvary attack and kill many Jews who were following some false prophet as they were ascending Mount Gerizim to find some sacred vessels that they believe Moses had hidden up there. And Pilate was eventually then banished to Gaul, which would have been Western Europe, especially France, in that day, and he died of suicide. And now he's in hell.

So a little background, and the point with all of this is to say, Pilate hated the Jews. But he lived in constant dread of an insurrection, which did eventually cost him his position. So back to verse two, "Pilate questioned Him, 'Are you the king of the Jews?' And He answered him, 'It is as you say.' The chief priests began to accuse Him harshly." Now, bear in mind, the Jewish leaders were hoping the Pilate would just rubber stamp their sentence of death for blasphemy, a sentence that they couldn't carry out. But they also knew that the Romans would laugh at this idea, well, he blaspheme God. They didn't believe in any of that anyway. So they needed to come up with something else that would somehow cause the Romans to charge him. They needed to demonstrate how Jesus was basically a revolutionary that he was an insurrectionist, and thus a threat to Imperial Rome. Which, by the way, Jesus never ever advocated civil disobedience. You never see him protesting. He never marched around with the disciples holding banners that said, "Jews lives matter," or whatever. You didn't see any of that kind of they never promoted rebellion. Now, as we will see, Pilate did not see Jesus as a political threat, as the Sanhedrin alleged. This was laughably absurd. I mean, here's this guy standing there in front of him looking like he's basically close to death. He knew this whole thing was a charade, just to keep the Jewish leaders in power; typical of politicians, and how they will use the courts and so forth to keep themselves in power. In fact, in verse 10 of chapter 15, we read that, "...he was aware that the chief priests had handed Him over because of envy." So Pilate didn't see Jesus as a threat. But what Pilate didn't know is that God required Rome's involvement to fulfill many Old Testament prophecies regarding how Jesus would be killed, namely crucifixion, which the Jews did not do. They abhorred that form of violence against a person of capital punishment, they stoned people.

Now, I want you to notice John's account of this first phase now; this is the first phase of three Roman tribunals before Jesus is crucified. In John 18, verse 33, "Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, 'Are you the King of the Jews?' Jesus answered, 'Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?' Pilate answered, 'I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?' Jesus answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.' Therefore Pilate said to Him, 'So You are a king?' Jesus answered, 'You say correctly, that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.' Pilate said to Him, 'What is truth?' And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, 'I find no fault in Him.'" Of course, this verdict enraged the Jews. This isn't what they wanted to hear. So, as we read in Luke 23, beginning of verse five, "they kept on insisting, saying, 'He stirs up the people, teaching all over Judea, starting from Galilee, even as far as this place.'" Now, who knows all of the satanically inspired claims against Jesus that were spoken, but it is fascinating as I did some research; in Sanhedrin 107 B of the Talmud, we read how Jesus was a student of Yehoshua Ben Pariah, but Jesus sinned by bringing magic from Egypt and seduced the people, so he was excommunicated for 400 days. I bet you didn't know that did you? Also, quote, "Jesus stood a brick upright to serve as an idol, and he bowed to it. Yehoshua Ben Pariah, then said to Jesus, 'Repent.' Jesus said to him, 'This is the tradition that I received from you.'" And later we read, "And the master says, Jesus performed sorcery, incited Jews to engage in idolatry and led Israel astray." End quote.

Well, of course, this is all utterly false. These are Satanic lies, but sadly, many people believe them; believe them to this day. Back to Mark 15, verse four, "Then Pilate questioned Him again, 'Do You not answer? See how many charges they bring against You!' But Jesus made no further answer; so Pilate was amazed." It's interesting, too, that Jesus' silence here, fulfilled biblical prophecy, right? Isaiah 42, the first 12 verses, and especially in Isaiah 53, verse seven, where we read, "He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before it shears, so He did not open his mouth." Now, what Luke tells us at this juncture is very important. We read about this in Luke 23, in verse five and following, "But they kept on insisting, saying, 'He stirs up the people, teaching all over Judea, starting from Galilee, even as far as this place.'" Now catch this, "When Pilate heard it, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that He belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent Him to Herod, who himself also was in Jerusalem at that time." Oh, you're a Galilean, okay, well, you need to go see Herod. You know, he's in charge of that over there.

Now, Herod Antipas was the exceedingly evil son of Herod the Great, you will recall how he illegally divorced his wife and took the wife of his half-brother, Herod Philip the First, a lady named Herodias; he married her. Who, by the way, was also his niece. And then John the Baptist comes along and confronts them and he gets imprisoned and then Herodias' daughter does this lewd dance in front of the king and bunch of other guys, and he gets all excited, and the king offers her up to half of his kingdom and she doesn't know really what to ask him for. And so she talks with her mother, and the mother wanted the head of John the Baptist. Okay, so that's the background. That's who this dude is.

Now, according to Mark six, when the disciples were preaching, and casting out demons and working miracles of healing, we read in verse 14, "King Herod heard of it, for His name..." referring to Jesus, "had become well known; and people were saying, 'John the Baptist has risen from the dead and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in Him.'" So you see, Herod's conscience was eating at him. He was superstitious. Always fascinating to me how pagans will be superstitious, and they will believe in ghosts, but they will not believe in God. Right? So this is what's going on here. So Pilate hands Jesus off to this perverted, vile, irrational tyrant, so that he can interrogate him.

And this brings us now to phase two that I would call depraved humiliation of Christ. We pick this up in Luke 23, beginning in verse eight, "Now Herod was very glad when he saw Jesus; for he had wanted to see Him for a long time, because he had been hearing about Him and was hoping to see some sign performed by Him. And he questioned Him at some length; but He answered him nothing. And the chief priests and the scribes were standing there, accusing Him vehemently. And Herod with his soldiers, after treating Him with contempt and mocking Him, dressed him in a gorgeous robe and send him back to Pilate. Now Herod and Pilate became friends with one another that very day; for before they had been enemies with each other." It's always fascinating to watch how wicked people will form alliances with other wicked people. What's the old saying? The enemy of my enemy is my friend, type of thing. So he's unable to get a word out of Jesus. But imagine the kind of vulgarity that is being hurled at Jesus. While this pompous king is looking on with amusement. What humiliation of the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the one who will one day be their judge, and their executioner at the Great White Throne. So Jesus says nothing and unable to find any fault worthy of death, Herod treats the whole spectacle as if it's a big joke, puts the robe on him, sends him back to Pilate. Again, Herod had no interest in justice, his only concern was his own power and pleasure, which I might add, are the common preoccupations of fallen man, especially those who are in power over others.

So we move from mocking sarcasm, to depraved humiliation, and finally to the third phase, the physical torture of Christ. This is the third and final phase of the Roman tribunal and I might add, that this is the most disturbing, the most demonic; it is very hard for me to even reflect upon this, much less speak about it. Pilate knew Jesus was innocent. And that was confirmed by Herod's dismissal. But he also knew that he had to do everything possible to prevent another Jewish uprising. And the Jews knew this as well. So they had him, you might say, over a barrel. John 19, verse 12, we read that, "...the Jews cried out saying, 'If you release this Man, you are no friend of Caesar; everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar.'" Well, this must have caused Pilate's heart to tremble in fear, when he thought, Oh, my word. If Caesar gets wind of this, I'm dead meat, right? And sadly, like so many, he feared man more than God. And he sought earthly pleasure rather than eternal life. As I was just meditating on this passage, trying to put myself there and think what was going on? My mind went to what Jesus said in Matthew 16, verse 26, "'For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? What will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.'" So Pilate is in a real dilemma here. He has to come up with some kind of a plan, and he thinks that he has one here, one that he thinks will appease the Jews, but also protect him from killing an innocent man.

And so we read about this, Mark 15 verse six and following, "Now at the feast he used to release for them any one prisoner whom they requested. The man named Barabbas had been imprisoned with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the insurrection." Isn't an interesting, an actual insurrectionists now is going to be exchanged for one who is being accused of being an insurrectionists but is absolutely not. Verse eight, "The crowd went up and began asking him to do as he had been accustomed to do for them. Pilate answered them, saying, 'Do you want me to release for you, the King of the Jews?'" Obviously, you can see how he is at some level mocking them. And then again, verse 10, "For he was aware that the chief priests had handed Him over because of envy." They didn't hand him over because he was guilty, but because they were envious.

I want to give you an important note here that is injected into the historical narrative that we see in the Gospels. Something fascinating happens at this point. And it's recorded in Matthew 27, beginning in verse 19. While Pilate was "...sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message saying, 'Have nothing to do with that righteous Man; for last night, I suffered greatly in a dream because of Him.' But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to put Jesus to death." So, Pilate's greatly conflicted here; all of this is going on in his mind. And it's also interesting to note that while Pilate is deliberating on all of this, the leaven of the Pharisees is leavening the whole lump outside, okay? And this is what we read in verse 11, of Mark 15, "But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask him to release Barabbas for them instead." You know, it's kind of like, you know, at those political rallies or different things, they'll raise a sign applause and all well, this is kind of what's going on here. Come on you all let's root for Barabbas.

Verse 12, "Answering again, Pilate said to them, 'Then what shall I do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?' They shouted back, 'Crucify Him!' Pilate said to them, 'Why, what evil has He done?' But they shouted all the more, 'Crucify Him!'" And Matthew adds this in chapter 27, verse 21, "But the governor said to them, 'Which of the two do you want me to release for you?' And they said, 'Barabbas.' And Pilate said to them, 'Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ?' They all said, 'Crucify Him!' And he said, 'Why, what evil has He done?' But they kept shouting all the more saying, 'Crucify Him!' Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, 'I am innocent of this Man's blood; see to that yourselves.' And all the people said, 'His blood shall be on us and on our children!'" What a staggering statement. "Then he released Barabbas for them; but after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified."

Folks, this is satanic jurisprudence. Mark says the same thing verse 15, "Wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas for them, and after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified." Beloved next to crucifixion, scourging is possibly the most severe torture man has ever devised. In fact, a Roman citizen was exempt from it. This satanic savagery was a hideous cruelty, designed to weaken and dehumanize a victim. The Romans used an instrument called a flagellum, which was a wooden handle attached with, or I should say, a whip, attached to a wooden handle made up of leather thongs that were that were fitted with small pieces of bone and lead or metal, and the victim would be stripped naked; the victim would be tied to a post, or sometimes bent over some type of a structure, and then several soldiers would beat him until the soldiers were too exhausted to continue, or the commander asked them to stop. The lashes would be so severe that they would gradually remove the skin. It would rip into muscles, to arteries, to nerves, but it would tear away bone and cartilage. In fact, eyewitnesses tell us that the beatings were so brutal that they would often break bones and expose the entrails of the victim. I hope you understand this is why Jesus was unable to carry his cross, which would have been just the top piece not the whole thing. John adds this in John 19 Verse one, "Pilate then took Jesus and scourged Him." And if that weren't enough, verse two, "And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns..." this would have been a crown that they made out of date palms. In fact, some of the thorns would be as is as long as 12 inches. And they would twist them together to imitate the crowns of oriental god kings and the crown would look like it had the appearance of radiating glory. They did this, "...and put it on His head and put a purple robe on Him; and they began to come up to Him and say, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' and to give Him slaps in the face."

Folks after this unimaginable cruelty, we read in verse four, that "Pilate came out again and said to them, 'Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no fault in Him.' Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, 'Behold, the Man!' So Pilate hopes that the Jews will be sympathetic to this poor creature, and let Jesus go. We read in verse six, and "When the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, 'Crucify, crucify!' Pilate said to them, 'Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him.'" There Jesus stood in silent agony, so bruised and bloodied that at this point, he no longer looked human. In fact, Isaiah predicted that the people would be, according to Isaiah 52:13, "astonished" to look at him, and "...His appearance be marred..." beyond human semblance, and "His form beyond that of the children of mankind."

Matthew tells us what happens next, in Matthew 27, beginning of verse 27, "Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole Roman cohort around Him. They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. And after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head and a reed in His right hand; and they knelt down before Him and mocked Him saying, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' They spat on Him and took the reed and began to beat Him on the head. After they had mocked Him, they took the scarlet robe off Him and put His own garments back on Him, and led Him away to be crucified." Think about the dramatic reversal that will occur one day in judgment when the one who stood falsely accused will sit in judgment. He will not wear a painful crown that somehow mimics the fading glory of earthly kings. But rather we read in Scripture that upon his head will be many diadems, the glory that will never fade away. At that point, his eyes will no longer be swollen and soaked with blood, but we read that they will be like a flame of fire. A day is coming when he will not be a lamb that opens not his mouth, but the Lion of Judah that will thunder judgment. He will not wear a man's robe of mockery, in Revelation we read that he will wear a robe dipped in blood, referring to the blood of judgment and on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

A day is coming dear friends when Jesus will return in all of his glory. And in Revelation we read "and from His mouth will come a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and He will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty." We could ask the question "why did they hate him so?" Though he stood before them in such a horrifying state, why would they, like savage beasts that had just had a taste of blood, want more and cry out for more? Why would they do that? Why would they demand that he be crucified when just a few days earlier, they wanted to crown him as king. Folks, the answer is this, Jesus was Emmanuel, God in the flesh. And Satan hates the living God. And Satan is the temporary god of this world. And those who belong to Him will hate him equally. Oh, they will love a Jesus of their own making, but they resent the true Jesus that we read about in Scripture.

Moreover, man by nature, hates God, does he not? We read that man is by nature at "enmity with God." He's alienated and hostile in mind. He's engaged in evil deeds; his heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Solomon declared in Ecclesiastes nine, three, "...the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives." And Jesus said in John eight, verse 43, "'Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But I speak the truth, and you do not believe me.'" And then he went on to say, "'He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason, you do not hear them, because you are not of God.'" Jesus exposed their sin, and they hated him for it, as people do today.

And you will also have to ask ourselves, why would Jesus submit himself to such unimaginable, indescribable cruelty? The answer is because of his great love for his bridal church that the Father had given him in eternity past. Those, quote "...chosen before the foundation of the world." Ephesians one four. Those that he knew by name; he knew each one of us. He knew the color of our eyes, the color of our skin. He knew everything about us. These are the ones whose names were written in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world. Revelation 17 and verse eight. Just hours before the cross, you remember Jesus prayed in the garden, and it's recorded in John 17, the first couple of verses, "'Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.'" That's why he suffered. The atoning work on the cross that he anticipated was an actual, not a potential, atonement in ways that we cannot comprehend. He had our faces in mind. I think of my own dear wife, and my children. There is nothing that I wouldn't do for them even if it costs me my life; by God's grace, I would do whatever. You all would do the same thing. And that's why Jesus would go to the cross for us. We are told in Isaiah 53 five that "He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging, we are healed." Not, "we are made healable" but we are healed; something actually happened at the cross. This is why he suffered and died.

So to wrap it up this morning, I want to remind you of the tragedy of those that treated the the Savior with such contempt. And here I quote, a 19th century theologian, Farrar, quote, "Mark for one moment the revenges of history. Has not his blood been on them and on their children? Has it not fallen most of all on those most nearly concerned in that deep tragedy? Before the dread sacrifice was consummated, Judas died in the horrors of a loathsome suicide. Caiaphas was deposed the year following. Herod died in infamy and exile, stripped of his pro-curatorship very shortly afterwards on the very charges he had tried by a wicked concession to avoid Pilate. We read out with misfortunes died in suicide and banishment, leaving behind him an execrated name. The House of Annas was destroyed a generation later by an infuriated mob, and his son was dragged through the streets and scourged and beaten to his place of murder. Some of those who shared in, and witnessed the scenes of that day, 1000s of their children also shared in and witnessed the long horrors of the siege of Jerusalem, which stands unparalleled in history for its unutterable fearfulness." Finally, he went on to add, "They had forced the Romans to crucify their Christ, and though they regarded this punishment with a special horror, they and their children were themselves crucified in myriads by the Romans outside their own walls, till room was wanting and wood failed, and the soldiers had to ransack a fertile inventiveness of cruelty for fresh methods of inflicting this insulting form of death." End quote.

Oh, dear friends, may the blood of Christ be applied to you even this day. I trust you know, and you love him. I pray that you bow before him today as your Savior and Lord, because if you don't, you will bow before him in the future as your judge and executioner. Though he stood in silent sorrow, bruised and bloodied, mocked and scorned, the dawn of truth awaits the morrow when Christ will wield his judgment sword. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus, amen? Let's pray.

Father, when we reflect upon the cruelties that our Savior endured on our behalf, we are essentially speechless. All we can do is give you praise from the depths of our heart. And I pray that that praise will translate not just from words through our lips, but Lord, in our service and our worship to you. Use us as instruments of righteousness to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ to a lost and dying world. And if there be anyone here today that has never truly bowed the knee to Christ, come to him in genuine repentant saving faith, may you overwhelm them in such a way that they will do so today? We thank you and we praise you for the hope that is ours in Christ. And we pray again, Lord Jesus, that you will come quickly. We long to see you face to face. We give you praise for your glory. Amen.