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Guest (Male): When the scourge was brought down upon the back of a victim, the flesh was literally shredded to ribbons and the blood flowed out. Not just trickled, it flowed out. After that beating, historians say you could see some of the vital organs of that individual from the back. It just takes the back and rips the back to shreds.

Bob Davis: Welcome to Apply Within, a verse-by-verse study of the Word of God with Pastor Bob Davis of North Country Chapel. We invite you to join with us as we, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, apply His Word within our own hearts as we study line upon line, precept upon precept, verse by verse through the Bible. Pilate has Jesus scourged as our study of John continues in chapter 19. Here is Pastor Bob.

Let me start in verse 37. We finished up chapter 18, but let me start in verse 37. Jesus is before Pilate. "Pilate therefore said to Him, 'Are You a king then?' Jesus answered, 'Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end I was born, and for this cause I came into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice, listens to my voice.' Pilate said to Him, 'What is truth?' And then when he had said this, he went back out to the Jews."

Remember they didn't want to be unclean, they couldn't step more than two steps into the Hall of Praetorium, the judgment hall there. So he went back out to the Jews and said to them, "I find in Him no fault at all." That's one. I find in Him no fault at all. In American, he is innocent. He's not guilty of anything. "But you have a custom," verse 39, "that I should release to you one at Passover. Will you therefore that I release to you the King of the Jews? Do you want me to let Jesus go?"

Then cried they all again. The chief priests started it and got everybody else joining in. If you put all four gospels together, they were the instigators, spread out through the crowd, and you start yelling this, and pretty soon everyone else joins in because people are like sheep. You get one of them going in the wrong direction and they all follow. The devil has said that and he uses it to his advantage.

"Release to you Jesus, the King of the Jews?" They cried all saying, "Not this man, but Barabbas!" Now Barabbas was a murderer, a robber, a thief, an insurrectionist, we learn from the four gospels put together. He's a bad guy. He killed Romans and things, and they want him instead. Do the people really want him instead? No, the people are being led by their leaders and the people are just like sheep. They don't know what to say now, and then someone yells out.

Have you ever been to a riot? It gets really weird instantly and the people don't really know what they're doing. You've got a few people in the crowd that are egging everybody on to do this and do that, and soon they're all doing this. As a police officer in the riots in Las Vegas, the culinary union went on strike, 90,000 people out there on the streets, all of them in a bad mood. I'm a pastor in all my police gear and riot gear and I've got bazookas and chains and knives and things, and we're standing in skirmish lines.

There's a group of Baptists. What do you do with that? But I'm out there and one of the people in the crowd looked like a pastor. Pastors look like them. I mean, he just looked like one. And he's yelling, "That's the Antichrist, and they're going to put the mark on you! Don't let them arrest you!" Well, they're throwing rocks and bottles and ugly things, not just words. And so my lieutenant tapped me on the shoulder. I'm not allowed to turn around, you're in a skirmish line, but he's talking to me.

He goes, "Do you see the lady? She's about three steps to your left, about 20 feet in front of you." Yes, sir, I see her. "Okay, we're going to take her. She's instigating and getting more people riled up, hotter and hotter." So he said we just need to take her because what's going to happen is you're going to have a whole group of people running a skirmish line of about 15 police officers and somebody's really going to get hurt on both sides because now everybody's fighting to protect their own arms and legs and things.

So I said okay, and when he tapped me on the shoulder, I stepped out and I grabbed her. Now I'm the pastor that teaches Bible studies. I just happen to be a police officer, that's what you do to earn a living at the time. I grab her gently and I say, "Ma'am, I'm going to have to take you behind the line. We're going to arrest you. We're going to take you downtown. We're just going to fingerprint you. You're not going to be charged. Your crime is public whatever you call it, whatever the term we want to use. Nothing's going to happen to you. You'll have to go to court and you'll have to probably pay a little bit of a fine, but it's okay."

So she didn't fight me too much, but as she was coming back through the line, we have a badge number, right? And so he hands me a magic marker and he says, "Just write on her arm your badge number because you can't leave. They'll take her downtown, they'll book her, and then you can write the report and put your badge number and all on that." So we wrote it on her arm. Well, that pastor said, "That's the mark of the beast! The mark of the beast, you can now, you can't go to heaven! You can't do it! Don't anybody let them!"

And so she starts licking it off. And I told her, "It is not the mark of the beast. I'm pretty sure I'm not the Antichrist, I'm pretty sure. I'm too busy. I'd like to run the world, but come on, lighten up. This is not the mark of the beast, this is my badge number." And she's screaming, and now she's completely out of control. She is so afraid, she thinks she's going to hell. And so now it all broke loose. They tried to break through the line, so now we're having to arrest all of them. And now we're putting our badge numbers on their neck because they can't lick that. Well, they were trying to do it off each other, but still.

You see, you can get people in a heightened state to say anything you want them to say and believe anything you want them to believe. And these poor people, I felt sorry for them. I kept saying, "I'm a pastor. I just happen to be carrying a gun. I'm a pastor and I'll pray with you and we're all right and you're not going to hell, but you're going to go to jail and you're going to be printed. But that, I didn't do that, you did that." But they just couldn't hear it. They're just afraid and now they're all believing that man's telling them they can never go to heaven.

That's what's going to happen right here. So let me say it quickly and we'll start in chapter 19. Jesus went through six mock trials: three religious and three Roman government trials. So you start to get the impression that it was God's will that Jesus die, but we knew it from the start, we read through Isaiah. So keep that in mind because now look at John chapter 19, and let me start in verse 1. "Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged Him," had Him whipped, beaten.

That's not legal. Well, Rome can do anything it wants, but they weren't allowed to hit someone who's not been convicted yet. Pilate just said out loud, "I said that's one, He's innocent. I find Him completely innocent, no crime." And they say, "Well, we want Barabbas! You put Him to death." So Pilate takes Jesus and has Him beaten. "And the soldiers plated a crown of thorns, they put one together, put it on His head, and then they put on Him a purple robe, and said, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' And they smote Him," that means they punched Him and slapped Him with their hands.

They're not allowed to do that. They don't care, it's a Jew. Don't you get it? They don't care, Rome doesn't care. Pilate knows better, he just publicly pronounced the man innocent, now he has him beaten. If you read the other gospels put all together, he says, "Well then, what do you want me to do with this Jesus, your King?" And they said, "Crucify Him! Away with Him!" "Away with Him" means he's got to die, not just send him out of the country, not just put him in prison, he's got to be gone forever. Away with him, want him dead.

But Pilate wanted to set Jesus free, let Him go, thinking for sure the people would choose Him over Barabbas, a murderer. They chose Barabbas anyway. They didn't, it was the crowd, the leaders in the crowd just dispersed through the crowd yelling out, "We want Barabbas!" And you go, "We do?" "Yeah, come on Bob, Barabbas!" "Okay, Barabbas! We want I don't know who we want, tell me what we're doing next." That's people. Don't be that.

Pilate is shocked and stuck. What do you do now? And then the soldiers took Him and they mocked Him because He had said He was King of the Jews, so they made a crown of thorns. Those thorns, as you've probably seen over there in Israel, they're eight to nine inches long. And boy, you've got to be careful when you make a crown because you can get it all over your hands and you're bleeding just trying to put it together. And those things are tough. As a matter of fact, they made that crown of thorns and they had to pound His head with something almost like a baseball bat to get it to lock in.

You know what? A crown of thorns. That should strike or ring a bell or strike into our hearts what we learned way back in Genesis. Thorns are symbolic of the curse which sin brought to all mankind. Remember that? Let me read it. Genesis 3:17 and 18. "And unto Adam the Lord said, 'Because you have harkened unto the voice of thy wife, and had eaten of the tree of which I commanded you saying, "Thou shalt not eat of it," cursed is the ground for your sake, because of you in other words. In sorrow shall you eat it all the days of your life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to you and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the ground, for out of it was thou taken, for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return.'"

You see, symbolic. Those thorns represent what? Sin. The sin of mankind. And Jesus wore that crown of thorns to remind every one of us. They took that crown of thorns and they pounded it down to His head so that it wouldn't keep falling off. You know, that's tacky for a king. So you just take a baseball bat and just pound it into place. That would have caused excruciating pain for Jesus Christ.

And it was all designed to cause Him untold pain and humiliation. And Jesus did not deserve that, but I did. Jesus did not deserve any of that, but you did. Every human being has sinned and come short of the glory, even the ones that say they aren't sinners. And I used to wonder when they hit Him, they put a bag over His head and punch Him, take the bag off and say, "Okay, You're the Son of God? Tell us who hit You that time." You've got 200 or 300 soldiers there taking turns, and so He was beaten to a pulp.

It was all designed to cause Him shame, humility, embarrassment, and pain. And I used to wonder because Isaiah said, "Like a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He will keep His mouth closed." And I'd say, "Lord, why don't You speak up? Why don't You just say something? Stop them from doing it! You'll go to the cross, okay, but..." And the answer comes back: because it wasn't for me, it was for you. I had to keep quiet. You deserved it, and I took it for you. That's why He remained silent there. He was taking my place. He was taking yours if you will let Him, if you will receive Him.

They put a purple robe on Jesus. Of course, everybody you look through scripture, purple, the color of royalty. Then they mocked Him, they laughed at Him while punching Him in the face and spitting in His face. They're making fun of Him, shouting out, "Hail to the King of the Jews!" We see our sins placed on Jesus Christ so that we might be clothed with the robe of God's righteousness instead. He took all the suffering and the pain so that we could wear, by grace through faith, righteousness.

And that purple robe that they used to mock Him, to humiliate Him, we see our sins placed on Jesus. Now think about this: after they beat Him, they put a robe on Him, and so now that robe is hanging on His back and sticking to His back and it's bloody and it starts to stick and then they would rip that robe off. Remember, and start the bleeding again when He has to carry His cross. There's all kinds of things Jesus went through and they're not pretty to see on the TV screen or anywhere. It's just terrible, ugly, violent.

Pilate therefore went forth again and said to them, "Behold, I bring Him forth to you that you may know that I find no fault in Him." Then Jesus came forth wearing the crown of thorns and that purple robe and Pilate says to the people, "Behold the man!" When the chief priests therefore and officers saw Jesus, they cried out saying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" Pilate says to them, "You take Him and crucify Him! I find no fault in Him!"

Everybody, if you're counting, that's three times publicly in a court of Roman law, the adjudicator, the judge, Pilate himself said three times publicly: Jesus Christ is innocent of anything. Not guilty of a thing. He says, "So you take Him and you crucify Him! I find no fault in Him!" The Jews answered, "We have a law and by our law He must die because He made Himself the Son of God!" Notice what Pilate's trying to do here. He's trying to take the pressure off himself. That's why he had Jesus beaten.

He's seen those scourgings many times. A lot of the people die. Jesus lived through that because the Father said He had to be nailed to that tree, so He was still alive. And here's Pilate's logic: we're going to make this guy look so thrashed that when they see Him, I'm going to bring Him out and see how they put that crown on His head and the robe, how the soldiers have been making fun of Him. The people are going to feel so sorry for this guy and think He's had enough, let Him go. That's what Pilate is hoping for. It's psychology, right? It's logic. People you hope to count on that there's still a part of human still left in them and they have some sympathy.

Well, everybody you learn here, don't count on that. Pilate brings Jesus back out in front of the huge crowd and he says, "I told you, I found Him innocent," third time. I find no fault in this guy. Now he's been punished, my verdict is still the same. Look at Him. Behold the man. Look at this man. "Behold the man" literally is, in our language, "Look at this man." This is what you asked for, or part of what you asked for. And I told you he's innocent. Look at this man, beaten, still stands patiently before you. Isn't this enough? Behold the man, isn't this enough?

Chief priests and the Pharisees began to shout at the top of their lungs, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" Pilate is shocked and it's like, "Okay, this is crazy, I give up." He says, "Then you take Him and you crucify Him!" And then the third time, "I have found Him completely innocent! You kill Him! You crucify Him!" We learned right here and we've learned it with sharing with other people, we learn that it takes more than human emotion, more than human passion and feelings to bring the lost sinner to salvation.

It takes a heart, a surrendered heart. You will never, ever argue someone into the kingdom of God. You cannot do it. But we'll argue until our last breath is done, but you cannot argue anyone into the kingdom. The only people that you will meet in heaven, everyone you meet, "How did you get here?" They will say, "Somebody loved me here. I got loved into the kingdom." You didn't threaten them by hell, you didn't out-beat all their amazing, dopey arguments. You didn't do that. It is not, it's a heart. It's not a cerebral thing that happens, it's a heart when the Spirit of God speaks to that heart.

Now Pilate, almost done here. Pilate said, "You crucify Him." He said, "I find Him innocent," third time publicly he pronounced Him innocent. He wants to let the guy go, nobody will let him go. So Pilate said, "Then you crucify Him." Now Pilate knows good and well that only the Romans could crucify, the Jews weren't allowed to do it. They could stone him to death, but they wanted him to suffer because he claimed to be deity, right? He claimed to be the Son of God.

They understood what that meant. That means God in human form, Messiah. Did Jesus ever claim to be God? Yes, and again the Jewish people said it. No, he says, "We're not going to let Him go." He's shocked. Pilate knew good and well they couldn't do it, the Romans wouldn't have allowed it. The people say, "We can't crucify Him, but you can. He claimed to be the Son of God, He claimed deity! That's blasphemy," they said. "He's broken our law and by our law He has to die."

He's got to be put to death because he claimed deity. If you look in Leviticus 24:16, it was around this time approximately that Pilate's wife sent him a really strange message. Matthew 27:19. When he sat down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him saying, "Have you nothing to do with this just, this innocent man." She decided Jesus was innocent too. "For I have suffered many things this day in a dream. I had a dream." All I'm saying is just a quick note: get this guy off your hands. Just don't do anything with him, let him go. He's innocent.

And what did Pilate do? Well, I've read the other gospels. Pilate took water and said, "There's nothing I can do." Yes, there was. You could have said, "I'm letting him go and I don't care what you think." But he was a coward, he was weak. He knew what was right and he wouldn't do it. So he took water, probably a bowl of water, and washed his hands in front of the crowd. You'll find that in the Old Testament. Washed his hands in front of the crowd, symbolizing his desire basically to absolve himself from being involved in this whole thing. I don't even want any part of it, wash my hands of the whole thing.

And his words, "I am innocent of this man's blood," did not make him innocent, did it? You can wash your hands all day, but you are the one sending him to die. All through history, people argue: who put him to death? Well, some say the Jews. Some say... well, all of us Christians know who did it. We did, didn't we? All sinners. He says, "I'm innocent of this man's blood, just whatever." And Pilate, just because you say you're innocent of it doesn't change a thing. You're not innocent of it, Pilate.

You're guilty of this travesty, mockery of justice. There was no justice there. Pilate goes down in all of history as the man who condemned and ordered the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Had he not done it, they could not have crucified Him. They would have had to do something else with Him. The Savior of the world. He condemned and ordered the crucifixion of the Savior of the world. Ever wonder what happened to Pilate?

He got called back to Rome. The Jews kept uprising and uprising. He got called back to Rome and they gave him the left foot of fellowship, took away his position, took away his titles. And it was maybe not even 10 years later he took his own life. You would be hoping, I was hoping when you're reading the history, you're hoping that he would have received Jesus as his Lord and Savior and could see the innocence, but instead he took his own life.

When you share Jesus with people, you're doing a good thing. But I hope you're seeing now what we're all slowly learning: we're not going to trick them into it, we're not going to argue them into it. That heart, the only thing that's going to get to that heart is not your stories or mine, not our arguments from scripture or out of scripture, it's going to be the Holy Spirit Himself. And that's what we're hoping for: that the Holy Spirit would work and use us.

Thank you for listening to Apply Within with Pastor Bob Davis. Apply Within is a radio outreach ministry of North Country Chapel. Our Sunday morning Bible studies are at 9:00 and 11:00 AM. We also have a Friday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM and a Monday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM. You can download today's message in its entirety at northcountrychapel.com/studies. That's northcountrychapel.com/studies.

If you would like a copy of today's message, write to us and ask for the message with today's date. The address is Apply Within, 2281 West Seltice, Post Falls, Idaho 83854, or call us at 1-800-572-8851. That number again, 1-800-572-8851. Our mobile app is available for iPhone and Android. Download it to listen to full-length studies, watch the live stream of our services, or to find out more about church events. If you have been blessed by the teaching or have prayer requests that you would like to share with us, write, email, or call us as well. Please join with us every Monday through Friday as we study together verse by verse on Apply Within, sponsored by North Country Chapel. God bless you.