========================================================================
  HIGH PRIESTS, PILATE AND HEROD ON TRIAL
  by Anton Bosch
========================================================================

Summary: This sermon delves into the trials of Jesus before Pilate and
Herod, highlighting the lack of conscience in some leaders, the
importance of standing for truth over convenience, and the need to unite
around the truth of the gospel. It emphasizes the contrast between those
who reject Jesus and those who stand for Him, urging listeners to be
like the spotless Lamb of God shining in a dark world.

Topics: "Standing for Truth", "Conscience in Leadership"
Scripture References: Luke 22:63, Luke 22:66, Luke 23:1, Luke 23:13, Luke 23:26

------------------------------------------------------------------------
DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------

This sermon delves into the trials of Jesus before Pilate and Herod,
highlighting the lack of conscience in some leaders, the importance of
standing for truth over convenience, and the need to unite around the
truth of the gospel. It emphasizes the contrast between those who reject
Jesus and those who stand for Him, urging listeners to be like the
spotless Lamb of God shining in a dark world.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENT
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luke chapter 22, we continue our study in the Gospel of Luke and we're
obviously in the days before the day of Jesus' crucifixion. We're going
to be here for a little while. We ended with verse 62 last week.

Verse 63 of Luke 22 Now the men who held Jesus mocked him and beat him,
and having blindfolded him, they struck him on the face and asked him,
saying, Prophesy, who is the one who struck you? And many other things
they blasphemously spoke against him. And as soon as it was they, the
elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, came together and
led him into their council, saying, If you are the Christ, tell us. But
he said to them, If I tell you, you will by no means believe.

And if I also ask you, you will by no means answer me or let me go.
You're after the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of
God. And they all said, Are you then the Son of God? And so he said to
them, You rightly say that I am.

And they said, What further testimony do we need? For we have heard it
ourselves from his own mouth. Then the whole multitude of them arose and
led him to Pilate. And they came to accuse him, saying, We found this
fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar,
saying that he himself is Christ a king.

Then Pilate asked him, saying, Are you the king of the Jews? He answered
him and said, It is as you say. So Pilate said to the chief priests in
the crowd, I find no fault in this man. And they were the more fierce,
saying, He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning
from Galilee to this place.

When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the man was a Galilean. And as
soon as he knew that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to
Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. Now when Herod saw Jesus,
he was exceedingly glad, for he had desired for a long time to see him,
because he had heard many things about him, and he hoped to see some
miracle done by him.

Then he questioned him with many words, and he answered him nothing. And
the chief priests and the scribes stood and vehemently accused him. Then
Herod, with his men of war, treated him with contempt and mocked him,
arraying him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him back to Pilate.

That very day Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for
previously they had been at enmity with each other. So they had now
arrested Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. They brought him, first of
all, to Annas, the high priest emeritus.

He was the retired high priest, but he still retained influence. They
brought him to Annas. From Annas, they had shipped him across to
Caiaphas, and that's basically where we find the story now.

Now it gets a little confusing, because each of the gospel writers
highlights different aspects of the trial of the Lord Jesus. Luke gives
us a summary. While Luke is very detailed in many other aspects of the
life and ministry of the Lord Jesus, when it comes to these final hours,
he gives us a very brief summation of the things that happened.

So the fact that he excludes certain things does not mean that they
didn't happen. It simply means that for the sake of keeping the account
to the point that he's trying to make, he doesn't go into all of the
details. And of course John, at the end of his epistle, said that if
everything Jesus said and did had to be written down, the world wouldn't
contain the books.

And so obviously none of the gospel writers gives us a word-for-word,
blow-for-blow account of things that happened, but they give us the
highlights. When I come back from the United Kingdom, I will do a
report, and I will take 15 minutes to tell you what happened in 18 days.
I think it's about 18 days.

Now obviously in that 15 minutes, I can't put 18 days into 15 minutes.
And what the gospel writers are doing is they're putting 33 years into
23, 24 chapters. And so clearly what they are doing is they're
highlighting certain things that sums things up and that gives the main
point of what is going on.

And so let me give you a rundown of the various trials, and then you'll
be able to fit it in as we go along. And look, so we begin obviously
with Annas. So they take Jesus to Annas first of all.

As I said, Annas was the father-in-law of Caiaphas. He was very
influential, still very much ran things. And so you'll see references to
the chief priests.

Normally there would only be one chief priest, but Annas was still very
much influential. And then Caiaphas was in fact the appointed high
priest. Remember, not appointed by God through the tribe of Levi, but
appointed as a political appointment by Rome.

So he goes from Annas to Caiaphas, and then he goes to the Sanhedrin,
the 70 members of the elders of Israel, together with the high priest
making 71, who has the casting vote. He is tried by them, so that's
three trials, if you will, all of them unjust. And that is the Jewish
part of his trial, being tried by his own people.

Then he's handed over to Pilate. Pilate does a preliminary trial, sends
him down to Herod. Herod sends him back to Pilate.

Pilate does the final trial, and Pilate hands him over to be crucified.
So in effect there are three trials, if you will, under the Jews, and
there are three under the Romans. Pilate, Herod, and then Pilate again.

All right, so now we're at the beginning. So Peter denies Jesus in
Annas' trial, and now it says the men who held Jesus mocked him and beat
him. The men who held him—remember that these are not the Romans.

At this stage it's all in the hands of Israel, of the people of Israel.
And so the men who held him was the temple police. They were—this was an
entirely Jewish thing.

One of the things that struck me as I studied the passage again is just
how balanced the indictment against Israel and the Romans is. I know
people like to pick sides and say, well, you know, it was the Romans.
No, it was the Jews.

Well, obviously it was both. And as I've listed the trials, I've told
you there's three on one side, three on the other side. Initially it's
the Jews who capture him, and it is Jewish temple police who mistreat
him, and then the Romans take over.

And, of course, this is a pattern which you see right through the book
of Acts. You find exactly the same pattern. Paul would go to a town.

He would begin to preach in the synagogue. The Jews would reject him.
They would hand him over.

Many times the Jews would hand him over to the Romans. The Romans would
take Paul and beat him up or put him out of town or whatever they would
do. So this would become a pattern of the Jews handing Jesus, and then
later on Paul, and obviously later on the church, over to the Roman
authorities.

So these are Jesus's own people, the Jews, who should have known better.
And they mocked him, and they beat him. Now one of the things in the
background, of course, is that not only is this the Lord Jesus, but this
is God in the flesh.

This is God in the flesh. And so they are not only beating up the man
Jesus, they are not just mocking the man, but they are mocking God
himself. And as we'll see in the verses to come, the whole issue
revolves around, are you in fact God? And I'm just summarizing that.

So verse 64, they blindfolded him. They struck him on the face and asked
him, saying, prophesy, who is the one who struck you? Now Jesus had been
prophesying all along. Right at that moment, the whole thing with Peter
was taking place.

And Jesus had prophesied the night before, before the cock crows, you'll
deny me three times. And that was happening while this is happening.
Remember, these things are not sequential.

Some things are happening in parallel. And so while this trial is going
on, and they're beating up Jesus, at the same time Peter is fulfilling
the very prophecy that Jesus made the night before. And of course, all
of what is happening here is prophesied in the Old Testament.

And Jesus himself, not so long before, while he was still on the road
from Galilee to Jerusalem, said that he would be taken, and he would be
beaten, and he would be despitefully used. So the very thing that they
were doing, he had prophesied several weeks before. But obviously, he is
not going to prophesy on demand.

Here's the thing with fallen man, is they want God to perform things on
demand. We'll see in a moment that Herod does the same thing. He wants
Jesus, you know, like a circus monkey, to perform tricks and do some
miracles.

You know, that's the only use they have for Jesus sometimes, is, you
know, just, you know, entertain us. That's really what they're wanting.
And obviously, Jesus is not going to play their kind of game.

Jesus says nothing. He doesn't respond. And then verse 65, many other
things, they blasphemously spoke against him.

And so remember that at this stage, he is not convicted yet. Now also
remember that this is not America, where you are innocent until proven
guilty. That concept doesn't seem to operate here.

And so they, part of the process of conviction would also be torture,
and that is part of the reason why they beat him. You'll remember that
the Bible speaks, uses the term, they examined him. Examining him means
to torture him in order to get him to speak the truth.

Even until not so long ago, this was a common practice in many
societies, still is in some societies. And so even though he is not
convicted, they are speaking blasphemous things against him and again,
the Scripture draws a veil. Remember, there's this thing that we find in
all the gospel writers, is that there are some things that we just don't
get the details of, because they are too painful.

They are just too blasphemous. They are just too ugly to include in the
Scriptures. And so it simply says, they spoke blasphemies against him.

Doesn't tell us what it is, and it's not right for us to speculate what
that would be. When the Scripture draws a veil over things, we ought not
to try and dig into them. Now, as soon as it was day, the elders of the
people, both chief priests and scribes, came together and led him into
their council.

So this is the third trial. So this is the Sanhedrin, the elders of the
people and the chief priests and the scribes. And remember I said that
there were 70 of them.

Some were Sadducees and some were Pharisees. The Sadducees, the high
priest always came from the Sadducees. They were the liberals, if you
will.

The Pharisees were the conservatives, the Sadducees were the liberals.
The Sadducees had sold out to Rome and they had this deal going with
Rome, that they could, that Rome would appoint the high priest and they
could skim the top off the temple taxes for themselves. They were given
all sorts of privileges and in exchange they had to keep the people in
line.

And so remember that for this reason, I think it was Caiaphas who said
that it's better that one man die for the people. He wasn't saying that
in an atoning way, in the sense that we understand it. We understand
that Jesus died for us.

What he was saying is Jesus is a troublemaker and he's going to get,
he's going to, he's going to foment an insurrection and then we're going
to get into trouble and we're going to lose our privilege and our
position. So it's better he dies than we have trouble. And Rome comes
down and brings the soldiers and remember Rome would have no problem of
coming in and killing several hundred people just to make a point, just
to quell any kind of insurrection.

And so these are then the ones who come together. Obviously there are
some empty seats. Now there have been extensive studies on the
illegality of particularly this trial of the Sanhedrin and it was
illegal on about 25 or 28, I don't remember exactly, different points,
different points of their law that they were breaking in this process.

One of the points was that the, and we'll pick up one or two others as
we go along, but one of the points was that the decision for a capital
offense, the decision for someone to be executed had to be unanimous. It
had to be 100%. Remember I spoke earlier that sometimes you would have a
50-50 vote, so you'd have 35-35 and then the high priest would have that
casting vote.

In the case of a capital offense it had to be unanimous. Now it was not
unanimous and also they had to all be there. Now how do we know it
wasn't unanimous? Well we know of two who either were not there or would
have abstained or who would have voted against.

Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. They were disciples and followers of
Jesus. They would not have agreed to his crucifixion.

And remember that after Jesus dies they ask for the and they go and bury
him. So we know that it wasn't unanimous. Anyhow, so they have this mock
trial.

Now remember you've already had two preliminary trials, which again is
unconstitutional. Well they don't have a constitution, but against the
law. You have a trial with everyone present, but they'd already had
trials with Annas and with Caiaphas and they had already said he is
guilty, even before he comes to the Sanhedrin.

So the purpose of the Sanhedrin is it's a mock trial, simply to
legitimize what the high priests had already decided. And of course that
was illegal. So the question is, if you are the Christ, the Messiah, the
word Messiah is the Hebrew for the Greek word Christ, same word meaning
the anointed one, the Son of God.

If you are the Christ, tell us. Now Jesus had told them many times.
Remember here's one of the things that those who do not believe in the
divinity of Jesus, who don't believe that Jesus is God, they love this
argument of saying Jesus never claimed to be God.

Well that's absolutely bogus. Many, many times right through Jesus's
ministry there are points at which he makes statements that clearly
makes him to be God. Jesus said before Abraham was, I am, using the name
of God, saying that he is eternal, that he has no beginning nor end.

In other words, that he is God. And of course this is the thing that
they are going to try and get him on. Now remember again, we have two
different legal systems.

We have the Jewish one, based on the Old Testament, but added to that
all of their own laws and things, and then we have the Roman one. Their
laws are different. So they change the accusation, because the
accusation that they would bring to a Jewish trial would not stand in a
Roman trial.

So in the Jewish trial, and we will see this, I'm jumping ahead, but in
the Jewish trial the accusation is blasphemy, that he has made himself
to be equal with God. That's the accusation, and it requires death if he
is found guilty of that. Of course they don't have the power to kill
anyone or to execute anyone, and so that's why they have to involve the
Romans.

Now if they went to Pilate and said, well this man says he's God, Pilate
would laugh at them, because in the Roman understanding there are many
gods. And yeah, so maybe he's a god, you know, it's no big deal, you
know, we have Zeus and we have Arodite and we have this one and that one
and the other one, we have all these gods, so no big deal. So they
change the accusation to one of insurrection when they get to Pilate.

So you can see again, it's totally, it's a sham. Anyway, so it draws
around, are you the Christ? And he said to them, if I tell you, you will
by no means believe. Now this is a very important statement that Jesus
is making.

It's very simple. I mean, you know, Jesus saying, what's the point of
telling you? Because if I tell you you're not going to believe me. And
if I deny it, he says, if I also ask you, you will by no means answer me
or let me go.

So if I say I am the Christ, you won't believe me. And if I say I'm not
the Christ, you won't let me go. In other words, you've made up your
minds.

I know you've made up your minds, he says. And you know, that's simple.
And yet he has the insight, obviously he's God, he knows, but he
understands that this is a waste of time.

Now the reality is that today we have many gainsayers, many who oppose
the gospel, many who oppose the truth. I get those emails all the time.
I get comments on the videos all the time.

And most of the time I don't bother to answer. And people say, well
you're rude, you should answer. No, this is why I don't answer.

Because you can see in the statements that the individual makes, that
they are not interested in the truth. They are simply interested in
making their point, whatever that point, their point is. In fact, one
was on one of my YouTubes this morning, saying quite terrible things
about me.

Well, what's the point? He's made up his mind. There's no way I'm going
to convince him. He's listened to my preaching, and he's decided that
I'm, that I'm fake.

So what's the point? So Jesus just doesn't, doesn't answer. But he does
say, now remember that Jesus is not trying to get himself out of a
corner here. Jesus understands that the will of God has to be done, and
that the will of God is that he would be handed over to the Romans, and
he would be crucified.

And so he's not trying to defend himself. In fact, in this verse, he is
giving them ammunition. Because he says, hereafter the Son of Man will
sit on the right hand of the power of God.

Now remember, the Son of Man is a messianic title. This is making
himself equal to God. We'll see in a moment, there's another title Jesus
uses, the Son of Man.

Also a title making him equal to God. And so when Jesus says the Son of
Man, he is in fact saying, I am the Christ. I am the Messiah.

And not only will you see me as you're seeing me now, being beaten up
with blood and spit running down his face as they spat upon him, but you
will see me at the right hand of the power of God, at the right hand of
the majesty. Remember that this is where Stephen saw him. Stephen, when
they stoned him, Stephen says, I see Jesus at the right hand of the
majesty.

He happened to be standing at that point. The fact that he will be
seated, we're going to see this idea in the book of Hebrews, when we
continue in the book of Hebrews, that Jesus as a high priest sat down,
meaning that he is sitting in a position of power and of authority, that
the work is done. He is not standing like the priest in the Old
Testament because the work is never done, so they have to stand all the
time making sacrifices.

No, he sits down, having made once for all the final sacrifice. And so
he's going to be seated at the right hand of the power of God. Then they
said, are you then the son of God? And he said to them, you rightly say
that I am.

You rightly say that I am. In other words, he's going to do the same
thing with Pilate. You say it.

You said so. And obviously he is saying that is the truth. So notice in
the previous verse he says the Son of Man will sit.

Next verse he says, they say are you the Son of God? They understand
these are the same things. These are, you know, whether you and there
are technical differences between the Son of God and the Son of Man,
just like there are between his title of Lord and of Jesus and of
Christ. There are slight differences between those, but they are
pointing to the same individual.

They speak of the same person, the second person of the Trinity. And so
they then all say, are you then the Son of God? So they're rephrasing
the question. The first question was, are you the Christ? Then he says,
no, I'm the Son of Man.

And then they say, are you then the Son of God? And he said to them, you
rightly say that I am. Now I'm not sure whether in those last words, I
am, he is using the divine title. It's very possible, but I think that
it's difficult to prove it, and so I'm not going to make that statement.

But it's very possible that that is what he is intending. Because
remember, the fact that the word rightly is in italics, in other words,
that was not in the original. The original says, you say, I am.

In fact, that is also not there. So you say, I am. Verse 71.

And they said, what further testimony do we need? Now remember again the
argument of those who reject that Jesus is God. They say Jesus never
claimed to be God. Now he had just used three words in which he claimed
to be God.

And if you say, well, you know, those were just words that he said, you
know, it doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean that he claimed to be
God. Well, look at their response.

How did they understand this? And this is important when we understand,
when we interpret scripture to understand, how did they understand it?
So that we understand what it means. You see, we have sayings in
different languages. When I first came to America, I heard people pray
in the prayer meeting for somebody who was under the weather.

And I was quite offended by that. And I understood that that means that
they were not well, they were sick. But in South Africa, if someone's
under the weather, it means they're drunk.

So what does it mean you're under the weather? Well, you have to
understand how people in that community understand that word. There are
many other examples like that. And so we need to look at the response,
and that will tell us exactly what Jesus said and what Jesus meant.

So what's their response? They said, what further testament do we need?
For we have heard it ourselves from his own mouth. In other words, he's
committed blasphemy. He has called himself God.

So they themselves admit, even though they're as perverse as they are,
that Jesus is God, certainly that he claimed to be God. They're not
saying he is, but that they claim to be God. Then the whole multitude of
them rose and led him to Pilate.

Now again, the chief priests are talking. One of the things in a trial
like this, one of the rules, was that in coming to a conclusion, the
most junior members must speak first, and then eventually the high
priest speaks. You say, well, why is that? Well, this is a very simple
but very important principle, and a principle that I try to apply in
business meetings.

I try not to speak first. I try to get others to speak first. Because
what happens if the high priest speaks first? What are the junior
members going to say? What he said.

And that can lead to injustice, because whatever he said may not be the
right thing. So let's hear from everybody, from the junior first, all
the way up the line. Then we'll get an honest opinion of the group.

It's a very wise principle that they built in. But the high priest made
up their mind. They made the decision.

They said, we don't need any further proof. This man's a blasphemer.
Let's get rid of him.

So again, the procedure wasn't followed. And so the whole multitude of
them arose and led him to Pilate. So obviously they are meeting.

Again, there's a question as to whether this meeting should have been
private, and as I understand it, it should have been a private meeting,
but with the 71 members. But this is obviously happening in the public
arena, and the multitude are there, and they're saying to them, you
know, this man has blasphemed. And so the whole bunch, the whole crowd,
and again we don't know how many people this is, but a multitude is a
lot of people.

And they rose, and they led him to Pilate. And they began to accuse him.
This is now before Pilate.

We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to pay taxes
to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a king. Now you see how the
accusation has changed. The first accusation now is that he's forbidding
paying taxes.

The second accusation, sorry, that he is perverting the nation, number
one. Number two, that he is forbidding to pay taxes. And number three,
he is saying he is a king.

But they had found him guilty of saying he was God. But obviously that
wouldn't hold in the Roman court. But if he said, if he said he is the
king, he is then standing in opposition to Caesar, and Pilate, and
everybody else down the line.

And this is insurrection. This is rebellion. And this cannot stand.

So you can see how they, in some aspects, totally changed the
accusation, and in some aspects it's a subtle change. But they're
adjusting the charge sheet to the judge. And so we found him perverting
the nation, forbidding to pay taxes.

Of course Jesus never forbade the paying of taxes. He himself paid
taxes. You remember that they find the coin in the fish's mouth, and
Peter pays the taxes on one occasion.

Another occasion they said, should we pay taxes to Caesar? And Jesus
said, show me the coin. And he says, give to Caesar whose image is this.
And they said, it's Caesar's.

And he said, give to Caesar what is his. So is Jesus saying, don't pay
taxes to Caesar? No, clearly he is saying, Caesar's image is on here.
This is his money.

Give it back to him. But give God what is his. So he never forbade the
paying of taxes.

And then saying that he himself is Christ, a king. Well, he did claim to
be Christ. But he clearly was not preaching a kingdom, now theology.

He was not preaching that he was the king, and he was going to throw
Rome out. Of course, that's what they wanted. That's what the Jews
wanted.

But that wasn't what Jesus had come for. And he made it clear that he
wasn't on that king trip thing. That he was the Messiah, and that he was
a spiritual king of a spiritual kingdom.

And this will come out later in the trial with Pilate, the second trial
with Pilate again. Then Pilate asked him saying, are you the king of the
Jews? And he answered him and said, it is as you say. And again, pay
attention to the italics.

It is as is an italics. So the original only has you say. In other
words, you say, I am the king of the Jews.

And remember, this would be the accusation that Pilate would put on the
superscription, on the piece of paper that would be attached to the head
of the cross in three languages, Jesus the king of the Jews. And of
course, this is the heart of the question. So verse 4, Pilate said to
the chief priests in the crowd, I find no fault in this man.

I don't quite understand this verse, because obviously there is no fault
in Jesus. But if Jesus had claimed to be a king, and Pilate says, are
you the king? And Jesus says, well, you said it. If that was really the
way Pilate understood it, then why does he say, I find no fault in him?
So clearly Pilate does not see Jesus as a threat.

Does he see Jesus as just some crazy nut who was claiming to be
something? Well, that's very possible. I don't know. But clearly Pilate
doesn't find fault with him.

I want for us, well, let me hold that when we come to Herod, because I
want for us to see the difference in the conscience of these various men
who are trying Jesus. Annas and Caiaphas, I'll group those together,
Pilate and Herod. All right, so he says, I find no fault in the man.

And of course, he'll say that again in the second trial. But they were
the more fierce saying. He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all
Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place.

Now, they're pressing the various buttons. And the thing that Pilate is
most afraid of is insurrection. Pilate was a weak governor.

He had had trouble in the kingdom or in his jurisdiction before. And
remember that Rome, that Caesar, would take no nonsense. And if a
governor wasn't doing his job, if he wasn't collecting the taxes, and if
he wasn't keeping the rebels under control, that guy would be out.

He could be killed, he would just be deposed, and somebody else would be
put in his job. The purpose that Pilate had was to keep order, to keep
the people in subjection under Roman authority. That's why he had
soldiers, and that's why he had the job.

Pilate was weak, and we'll see his weakness in the next part of the
trial. But Pilate, or any of these Roman governors, were terribly afraid
of insurrection, because that would mean war. There was only one way to
deal with insurrection, and that is to bring in the army.

And they would bring in the army, they would kill several hundred
people, they would quell the rebellion, and that would be the end. But
it's never the end, because there's always murmuring and complaining
afterwards. There's always rebellion afterwards, and in the process,
this has cost money to bring the soldiers in.

They're losing money on taxes and productivity, and remember that Rome
is all about money and power. Those are the things that they're
interested in. And so he is on a thin edge.

Pilate has had, as I've said, he's not performed very well up to now, as
far as Rome is concerned. So if he has a rebellion on his hands, he's
got trouble. In fact, that's why he's in Jerusalem.

Pilate's headquarters was elsewhere. But he comes to Jerusalem at the
time of the feast with his army, with the express purpose of
intimidating the Jews and making sure that there is order. But remember,
there's thousands of people come from all over Israel, from all over the
world, to the feast.

And this is a potential hotspot for trouble. And so Pilate is in town
specifically to keep order and to keep the city in check. And so the
threat of Jesus stirring up the people, this really touches a hot button
with Pilate.

So Pilate's really, really concerned about this. So what you see in
Pilate is, and we'll see this again in the second trial, he's divided.
He looks at Jesus and he doesn't see a problem.

Does he see Jesus as the Christ? Does he see him as the Savior? No, I
don't think he does that. But he recognizes that Jesus is not what the
people are saying he is. But at the same time, he's got a job.

And his title and his money and his status is all dependent on his job.
And remember, these Roman governors were incredibly ambitious. Not only
did they want to keep their job, but they want to move up and they want
to eventually be part of the council.

They eventually want to be in Rome or have bigger territories. So all of
his personal agenda stands against what he sees in the man Jesus Christ.
And of course he has to decide between the two, and at this point he
can't decide.

And so what he does is he sends Jesus to Herod. So they say he stirs up
the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning with Galilee to
this place, to Jerusalem. So referring to the fact that Jesus has spent
the last year traveling from Galilee all the way to Jerusalem, preaching
as far as he was going.

And so they're saying, you know, he's not just done this here, he's
doing it all over the show, he's just causing trouble. And so when
Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the man was a Galilean, which Jesus
was. Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Galilean, the area up in the north.

And as soon as he knew that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent
him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. So interesting
that Herod is there in Jerusalem. Now he's able to sidestep the issue,
pass the buck.

Well this is not my jurisdiction, this is Herod's jurisdiction, because
he's from that area. So he packs him off to Herod. Now who is this
Herod? Remember there are many Herods in the Bible.

This is the Herod who killed John the Baptist. Remember that he had a
strange relationship with John the Baptist. This Herod had stolen his
brother's wife and married her.

And John said to him, you can't do this. This is wrong. Now on what
basis is John able to speak to Herod, who is a Roman governor? Well on
the basis that Herod had claimed the title King of the Jews.

Herod in fact was half Jewish. He was more Edomite, the people against
whom God has indignation forever. Amalek, that whole tribe, for those
who remember those studies, he is part of those people who come from
Abraham ultimately, but at the end of the day were against the people of
God.

But he wants to sell himself as Jewish. So he keeps Jewish customs, and
he tries to be Jewish, and he may well be in Jerusalem at this time to
show his Jewishness, and he's attending the feast, and doing all of
these kinds of things. So he desperately wants to appear to be Jewish.

So he likes John the Baptist. He loved to hear John the Baptist preach.
But he imprisons John, but John is imprisoned in the same castle that he
lives in.

So John is down in the dungeon, and he's living upstairs. And every now
and then he would bring John out of the dungeon to preach to him. What
that was about I don't fully understand.

It seemed that he had some conscience at that point, and that what John
was preaching affected him in one way or the other. But remember, just
like Pilate, he is torn between two things. He is torn between what he
knows is the truth, because he understands, clearly from what I can see,
that what John is preaching is truth.

But he also has his allegiance to Rome. But more than that, he has his
allegiance to his wife, Herodias, who he had stolen from his brother
Philip. And so he's torn between these two things.

But he protects John. But Herodias hates John. His wife hates John,
because John was the one who pointed out, you can't be doing what you're
doing.

And you know how the story ends. Herodias tricks him in a very, very,
very immoral way. When Herod was having a party, and they were all nice
and drunk, instead of bringing out the prostitutes to dance, she sends
in her own daughter to dance.

And she does the sensual dance, and Herod, in his drunkenness, makes the
promise, and he says, you know, whatever you want, I'll give you, even
to half my kingdom. Salome's mother, Salome is the girl, Salome's
mother, Herod's wife, had obviously set this all up. Salome says, well,
I don't know, what do I ask for, you know, big white horse, castle,
whatever.

So she goes to ask her mother. Her mother says, ask for John the
Baptist's head. Salome adds, in her perversity, adds to it on a plate.

Herodias didn't ask for the plate, but Salome added the plate. And so
there's Herod. Herod has to make a decision.

In fact, this is really, I think, the crux of what I want us to
understand this morning, and I know we're running late. Herod had to
make a decision concerning John. Does he kill John and retain his
conscience? Not saying he's saved, but at least keep an open door for
God's Spirit to continue to work with him, because clearly God was
working with Herod.

Or does he sell that for the esteem and the honor of the people around
him? Because, because remember, he had made a note, he had made a
promise. If he didn't keep that promise, he would lose face with all his
drunken buddies, and even though they're drunk, they'll remember. Oh
yeah, Herod, he's weak.

He made a promise, and he couldn't fulfill the promise. He couldn't even
kill that Jewish prophet. And Herod makes the wrong decision, and
Herod's conscience dies at that point.

So remember I said that we want to briefly look at the difference
between these different consciences. Annas and Caiaphas have no
conscience at all, never had. Jesus exposed them for their hypocrisy,
for their abuse of the nation, and they wanted him dead.

They wanted him out of the way. They were not interested in the things
of God. They were not interested in the Messiah.

They were simply interested in their cozy position as the high priest of
the nation. Pilate has some conscience, and right through to the end,
you can see Pilate wrestling with his conscience. Herod used to have a
conscience, but the day he killed John, his conscience died.

And now, as he sits in judgment of Jesus, he has no conscience left. His
conscience is dead. And so he sends him to Herod.

It's also Jerusalem at the time. Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was
exceedingly glad, for he had desired a long time to see him, because he
had heard many things about him, and he hoped to see some miracle done
by him. So remember I spoke about the circus monkey, so he's hoping
Jesus will perform some tricks.

And this goes back to, and that's why I reminded you of the story of
John the Baptist. He loved to hear John the Baptist preach. For what
exact reasons, we're not sure.

And he wants, he's been wanting to see Jesus for a long time. Now
remember a little while back, there was a there was a report that, watch
out for Herod, because Herod wants to kill you. Remember that? So Herod
sees Jesus as entertainment, but he also sees Jesus as an enemy.

So he wanted to see Jesus, because he'd heard about these miracles,
hoped Jesus would perform a trick for him, and then he questioned him
with many words, but he answered him nothing. He answered him nothing.
Why does Jesus not answer him? Because his conscience is dead.

What's the point? What's the point in trying to convince Herod of
anything? Remember Jesus is not trying to get out of the cross, but he's
still interested in souls. He's still interested in seeing Pilate, and
Annas, and Caiaphas, and Herod saved. Remember Judas, he wanted to see
Judas saved right up to the very end, but he doesn't bother with Herod,
doesn't say a word, because he understands Herod is long gone.

And so he questioned him with many words, so he made speeches, and Jesus
just said nothing. Of course this reminds us, remember last week we were
in Isaiah 53, as a lamb before a shearer's is dumb, he opened not his
mouth. And so Jesus is fulfilling Isaiah 53.

And then verse 10, and the chief priests and the scribes stood and
vehemently accused him. So they're now putting pressure on Herod, and
Herod with his men of war, Roman soldiers, treated him with contempt and
mocked him. So he's not even giving him the respect that he gave John.

He is mocking Jesus, and he arrayed him in a gorgeous robe. We're not
exactly sure what that means, but certainly it was, I think the word
gorgeous here is a good word, an elaborate gown of some sort, faking
this idea that he's the king. So let's dress him like a king.

And of course they're beating him up all along, and he sends him back to
Pilate. But I want you to also see something very important here, in
this whole process. Herod does not indict him.

Herod does not find him guilty of any crime. If he found him guilty, he
would have said so, and he would have had him crucified right there and
then. But the fact that he sends him back to Pilate means that he finds
him not guilty of the charges.

The fact that he despised him, that he didn't like Jesus, that he mocked
him, that's another thing. But from a legal perspective, the Jews could
not find him guilty, so they have a mistrial. Pilate does not find him
guilty, so he sends him to Herod.

Herod does not find him guilty, so he sends him back to Pilate. And
we'll see next time that Pilate still finds him not guilty, but kills
him anyway. That very day, Pilate and Herod became friends with each
other.

These are political animals, and they have their political fights and
feuds, but they become friends. They're reconciled, because previously
they'd been at enmity with each other. Here's a truth that's still true
today, that people who are not natural friends will unite against the
truth, will unite against the truth.

In a political sense, we have the liberal left and we have the
conservative right, and I don't want to end on a political point, but
when it comes to the truth, they will unite against the gospel. Remember
what I'm telling you. There are people who oppose the truth, who are of
totally different doctrinal persuasions within the sort of Christian
realm, and yet when it comes to opposing the gospel, they will unite.

They will stand together. We see this in legislation, and we see this in
theology, and we see this in churches. Truth should be a uniting factor.

Lies and mistruths should never be the basis on which we unite. And yet
I see Christians over and over uniting, because they're against the same
thing. But if that problem wasn't there, they would be at each other's
throats.

And so it's become popular in many parts of Christianity today for
people to define what they're against, or what they don't believe,
rather than what they do believe. And so we'll unite with these guys,
because we don't like those guys. Very recently, a very, very
conservative, theologically conservative preacher in this area, who for
many years preached against TBN, and I'm just using this as an example.

There are many examples, preached against Trinity Broadcasting Network
because of its false gospel. But he now appears on Trinity Broadcasting
Network, together with another preacher that he always spoke against,
simply because they're united in their fight for a political position,
some political standard. I don't want to get into it, because otherwise
we get sidetracked.

So what happened to your principles? So now the guy who used to be your
enemy becomes your buddy, because we're against the same thing. Folk, we
do not unite because we're against the same thing. We unite because we
are for the same truth.

We're for the same truth. As I go on this trip, there are churches that
will have me, because I stand against certain things that they stand
against. But we have very little else in common.

I will not preach on those platforms, because the basis of our unity is
not a common enemy. The basis of our unity is the common truth of the
gospel. And we need to, this is becoming a real problem in churches
today.

May God help us, that we may not be like Pilate and Herod. Even though
they were enemies, united because they hated Jesus equally. But that we
may be those who love the Lord Jesus, and unite with others who love
Him.

That the basis of our fellowship is truth, and not against error. Not
against error. And folk, I know there are people who say, well, it's the
same thing.

If you're for truth, it means you're against error. No, it's not the
same thing. There are many people who are against error, but they're not
for truth.

All they are is against. They just like to fight with everybody. No, we
need to be for the truth, and we need to unite around the truth.

Father, we said many, many things this morning, covered a lot of ground.
We pray that You'd help us to understand, help us, Lord, to understand
what it is You're speaking to us. Lord, we think particularly of the
issue of conscience, and how that there are those who never had a
conscience.

And then there are those who had a conscience, but seared it and killed
it, by killing the truth spoken by Your prophet. And then there are
others, Lord, who in the end will sacrifice their conscience for the
sake of convenience and expediency. Lord, we pray that we may be those
who hear Your voice, and Lord, who obey Your voice no matter what the
cost.

Lord, if it costs us our friends, if it costs us our position in
society, if it costs us our jobs, if it costs us whatever, Lord, help us
to be those who will stand and defend the truth. Lord, and that we would
unite with others who stand for truth, not uniting against common
enemies, but uniting for the same truth. And Lord, I pray that You'd
help us to get these things clear.

Lord, that we may not fall in the traps that these men fell into. Lord,
that we may not be guilty of the same sin of rejecting in the end Jesus
Christ. But Lord, that we may find Him to be the spotless Lamb of God.

And Lord, as we look at all of this mess, and we look at all of the
politics going on in these passages, Lord, we thank You that in the
midst of all this darkness and this perversity and all of this lack of
morality and integrity stands the spotless Lamb of God, never sinned,
never did the wrong thing, never said the wrong word, shining, as it
were, in the midst of a dark and perverse generation. Lord, I pray that
You'd help us to be like that today. Lord, that we individually and as a
church and as people may be those who stand out in the darkness of this
world.

And Lord, while everything else around us is decaying and everything
else is decaying into immorality and sin and evil and wickedness and
even Christians falling away from the truth, Lord, we pray that we may
be those who shine as a light in the midst of a dark and a perverse
generation. We ask this in Jesus' name. And so Lord, I pray that You'd
go with us now, keep us, protect us, bring us together again safely on
Your appointed time.

I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

========================================================================
Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/7boNM7AZSpE.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/anton-bosch/high-priests-pilate-and-herod-on-trial/
========================================================================