Sound of Faith

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Greetings friends and new listeners and welcome to the Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for tuning in today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Today's message, "The Crucifixion Conspiracy," examines the plot to kill Jesus with the behind-the-scenes intrigue we generally don't focus on. Prepare to be engaged in the theater of your mind in "The Crucifixion Conspiracy."

R. G. Hardy: And so we find that the next morning, they take Jesus to Pilate. First of all, they held this trial, which was really a sham, and they did it overnight in the middle of the night. Amen. Which was illegal to start with. And then they had all these witnesses that couldn't even agree, and finally, they got two that were liars, but their stories agreed. They had the same lie. Their lies matched up, so they said, "Okay, so we've got you now. You are a blasphemer."

Here's what I want you to understand. These are the ministers of God. This is the priesthood. These are God's ministers who are liars and slanderers and bribers. Amen. But as evil and as corrupt as this whole thing was, it was necessary because only the high priest could offer up the lamb. It had to be the high priest that says, "You shall die. You must die." In fact, in one of the Gospels, he actually prophesies and doesn't even know what he's doing and says, "Isn't it better that one man die for a nation than the whole nation die?"

He prophesied and didn't even realize what he was saying. Amen. Because the Passover lamb had to be offered up by the high priest. Now, they take him to Pilate the next day. And really, if you read all four of the Gospels, and you really have to read them all to get the whole picture, but basically, in the beginning, when Pilate was examining Jesus, he kept saying, "I find nothing in this man that's worthy of death. I mean, maybe he's a false prophet, maybe he goes around saying stupid things, foolish things according to your religion, and it irritates you and it upsets you and you don't like it, but I don't see where it's worthy of capital punishment. I can't just kill somebody because you don't like them."

Because one of the Gospels says he knew it was for envy that they brought him. Amen. And so in the beginning, he was looking for a way out. At one point, he even said to them, "Well, you know it's Passover. That's right, I remember it's Passover. And we have a custom every Passover, I release one of your prisoners out of jail. Just as a kind thing on Rome's part because we're such wonderful masters over you."

"So because Passover is one of your festive times, we always release a prisoner. How about we release this Jesus? Okay, that's a good idea. That's it, that's how I'll do it. I'll say I'm going to release Jesus for Passover." They weren't having none of that. They began to cry out, "Release to us Barabbas." And Barabbas was a known seditionist and murderer. He was a bad man. Amen. And they knew he was.

I'm surprised that Pilate would even want to let him go if he was the seditionist. That meant he was going to stir up anarchy and rebellion, and they were always trying to keep the peace. Because if Pilate couldn't keep the peace there in Judea, Rome was going to call him back. He'd lose his job and his position. Amen. So he tried to offer them Barabbas, but they would have none of it.

And then while he's trying to figure out what he's going to do, he gets a message. This is a message from your wife. She said it's very, very important. I had to give it to you right now. And he opens it up and he reads it, and it says, "Have nothing to do with this just man because I have suffered many things in a dream this day because of him."

This was a divine intervention, but Pilate ignored it. Amen. Oh, I know sometimes it's hard to reconcile it in your mind because you're thinking but Jesus had to die. But he had to be crucified. Oh, yes. Yes, he did. He was going to have to go to that cross. He already won that victory in Gethsemane. But I want you to see how that God wanted it to be known and seen how that all of these people came together, but it was God's will for Jesus to go to that cross. Amen.

And so they refused Jesus. They said, "No." And they said, "Give us Barabbas." They chose Jesus. The same lamb that Caiaphas said he's worthy of death. Amen. Well, Pilate is still trying to figure out how to handle this situation. And somewhere in the all of the conversation and dialogue, somebody mentioned the fact that Jesus is actually a Galilean. That he's from Galilee. Wow.

Pilate said, "He's from Galilee? Oh, well, that's Herod's jurisdiction. Let Herod be in charge of that part. I'm not the governor of Galilee." And guess what? As fate would have it, because it was Passover, Herod was in the city of Jerusalem. He didn't even have to get a caravan together to send him to Galilee. He said, "Send him over to Herod's palace."

So now we've got Roman soldiers taking Jesus to Herod. And the scripture says that Herod was glad. He was happy. He was delighted to see Jesus. He had never met him. But boy, had he heard about him. And he had heard that he was a miracle worker. And he had heard all the miracles that he had done. And Herod got excited because he hoped that Jesus would perform a miracle in front of him.

He not only didn't get his miracle, he didn't get one word. Jesus didn't even give him one word out of his mouth. Amen. And Herod questioned him at length, and Jesus never said a word. And you know, I have to think to myself, remember Jesus was a man with emotions just like us. How he controlled himself with Herod. Herod is the one who had beheaded John, his cousin, his friend, and heaven's prophet.

And how he controlled himself in Herod's presence. Wow. That's something to think about, isn't it? He never said a word. I would have expected him to call him some kind of snake or a rat at least. "You killed John, the holy one, and what did he ever do to you? Told you that you're an adulterer, married to your brother's wife. That's all he ever did." But Jesus never opened his mouth and he never said a word, neither was there any guile found in his mouth.

Because when he got on that cross, that altar, he was going to be a pure and holy and sinless lamb. He wasn't going to lose his temper. He wasn't going to say something that someone could misconstrue. Amen. Somebody said silence cannot be misconstrued. Amen. Silence cannot be misconstrued. Amen. And Jesus was not going to let the enemy get the upper hand. He was going to go to that cross as the pure and holy lamb.

Well, after a while, Herod obviously got bored with the whole thing. And by then, he just let his soldiers—oh, we've got another set of soldiers. We've got the temple soldiers, we've got the Roman soldiers, now we've got Herod's soldiers. And they began to mock him. Amen. And they mocked him, and we know they put on the purple robe and they hailed him as the great king. Amen. And all of that, and they marched him right back to Pilate.

I don't know, by then Pilate was probably sitting down getting ready to have lunch, thinking, "Whew, I'm so glad I dodged that bullet this morning. These crazy Jews and all of their stuff." And next thing he knows, here comes Herod's men marching Jesus right on back to Pilate's house. Once again, he had to figure out how he was going to rid himself of Jesus. Amen. And he said over and over, "I have found nothing worthy of death in this man." Amen.

Let's turn back to John 19 and let's look at verse 10. "Then saith Pilate unto him, 'Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee and power to release thee?'" Notice he said both. "I have the power to crucify you or I have the power to let you go." Jesus answered, "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above. Therefore he that delivered me unto you has the greater sin."

And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out saying, "If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend. Whosoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar." What hypocrites. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of the Passover and about the sixth hour and he saith unto the Jews, "Behold your king."

But they cried out, "Away with him, away with him, crucify him." Pilate saith unto them, "Shall I crucify your king?" And the chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar." And then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified and they took Jesus and led him away. Pilate was trying to get out of it, but they insisted. Amen. And so when he said to Jesus, "Why don't you speak up for yourself? Why don't you defend yourself? I have the power to let you go or to crucify you."

And when Jesus said, "You would have no power except it be given you of heaven," if Pilate was nervous before, if his wife's note unsettled him before, if before he was upset, he was really nervous now. Amen. Because when Jesus said, "You have no power except it be given you of heaven," I'm telling you that must have pierced his heart like an arrow. Amen. And then the coup de grace. They began to say, "If you let him go, you are no friend of Caesar's."

That was it. That was the last straw that broke the camel's back. Because the last thing he wanted was for some evil report to get back to Rome saying they had a seditionist, they had an anarchist who said he's the king, and Pilate let him go. And when they said that, that was the thing that did it. But the thing is as they were such hypocrites because they would not ever declare Caesar was their king.

Remember when they brought the coin to Jesus and said, "Should we pay tribute to Caesar?" And he said, "Whose picture is on there?" "Well, Caesar's." "Well, give to Caesar what belongs to him and give to God what belongs to God." They were amazed because of course they knew that was Caesar. That was saying he was God. That was saying he was divine. And now they're going to say, "We have no king but Caesar." How wicked. But the thing really got to Pilate.

Now let's read on verse 17. "And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is also known as Golgotha. Where they crucified him and two others with him on either side one and Jesus in the midst. And Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was: 'Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.'" Because that's the only thing he could find fault with.

This title then read many of the Jews, for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city. It was on a well-traveled road. And not only that, it was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin. All three common languages spoke that day. And not only that, scripture says in the mouths of two or three witnesses let every word be established.

Here's the part, verse 21. "Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, 'Write not the King of the Jews, but that he said I am King of the Jews.'" And Pilate answered and said, "What I have written I have written." Now why were they so upset? Were they upset about the king part? Here's why they were upset. It said many Jews saw it, didn't it? They would have been reading the Hebrew sign, would they not have?

Here's what it would have said in Hebrew: "Yeshua Ha-Notsri Ve-Melekh Ha-Yehudim." Yeshua: Jesus. Ha-Notsri: of Nazareth. Ve-Melekh: the king. Ha-Yehudim: of the Jews. This is what would have been written in Hebrew. But those four things formed an acrostic. What is an acrostic? An acrostic is when you take the first letter in a group of words or a phrase and put them together and they say something.

So what they saw was Yeshua, they saw the Hebrew letter Yod, which we brought into English as J. They saw the Hebrew letter Ha-Notsri, they saw He, which we bring into English as like our H. Then they saw Ve-Melekh, they saw the Hebrew letter Vav. And then, which is V. And then they saw again Ha-Yehudim, they saw the He again. So they saw Yod He Vav He. We would write it YH V H.

Remember, in ancient Hebrew they didn't write the vowels. How about we put the vowels in? So we have Y-E-H-O-V-A-H. This is what they saw. They saw the acrostic: Yeshua Ha-Notsri Ve-Melekh Ha-Yehudim. They saw YH V H. What is that? What is YH V H without the vowels? Put the vowels in. Jehovah. Jehovah. We bring it in English and we say Jehovah. It said they were killing God.

They looked up there and they saw the sacred, holy, unpronounceable name of God. Remember when God appeared to Moses and told him to go down into Egypt and he said, "Well, who am I going to tell them sent me?" He said, "You tell them I AM that I AM sent you." I AM that I AM is derived from Jehovah. The sacred name of God. The I AM. Amen. In Revelation, Jesus said, "I AM. I AM, Jehovah."

They saw this name and the reason why I say it's unpronounceable is because the name is so holy that the Jewish people don't even want to speak it. They don't want to say it because they don't want to make it common by saying it. So what do they call God? If you ever go to maybe a Jewish doctor or you have reason to be around Jewish people, they're talking to each other, and they greet one another, you'll hear them say Ha-Shem. Ha-Shem, Ha-Shem.

Ha-Shem means "The Name." Amen. So instead of saying Jehovah, they say, "The Name blesses you. The Name be with you." They won't say Jehovah bless you or Jehovah be with you. They'll say Ha-Shem. Barukh Ha-Shem. Bless the Name. Because they don't want to defile it by even speaking it. In fact, Jews that speak English, when they write, if they're the Orthodox Jews and they're writing in English and they want to write the word "God," you may think it's a spelling error.

You'll see G-hyphen-D. How many's ever seen that in a book? It's not a mistake. They did it on purpose. They don't even want to write G-O-D because they don't want to make the name of God common. So in their way, I know it sounds a little far-fetched, but this is their mindset. Right. They treat the things of God so holy. And so this is what they saw. They saw up there Jehovah.

And they said, "Don't say he's Jehovah, say that he said. Say that he said is the king of Jews. Don't say he's the King of the Jews, Yod He Vav He Jehovah. He said it." And you know by this time Pilate was up to here. He said, "You know what? What it is, it is. I'm not changing it. It's what it is. It's going to stay like that. And you're going to have to go by it, and you're going to have to watch it, and you're going to have to stand there and see that man dying on that cross saying Jehovah. And you put him there."

Amen. That's why they were so upset and wanted Pilate to change it. Amen. Now I've run out of time. I haven't run out of message, but I've run out of time. But let me finish with this thought. So I ask you, who really crucified Jesus? Caiaphas, the high priest? Remember, he's the one that had to certify the lamb. And remember that Jesus had told Pilate, the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin.

Who delivered him? Caiaphas, the high priest, acting on all of the priests and the council. So was it Caiaphas? What about the chief priests and scribes? We know they were there because out of envy they wanted Jesus dead. Amen. And what about Herod? This guy was so paranoid that he killed one of his wives and some of his children because he thought they were going to take over his throne.

That's how paranoid he was. Anybody he perceived to be in competition with him for the throne, they're a goner. Was Herod responsible? And what about Pilate? He did have the authority to set Jesus free. He did. But instead, he released Barabbas, a known insurrectionist and murderer because he was afraid of Roman reprimand. So the answer is yes, yes, yes, and yes. They crucified Jesus.

But there were others. There were others. Let me tell you the story about one of the famous Renaissance painters whose name is Rembrandt. I'm sure way back in the file cabinets of your dusty mind you remember learning about Rembrandt. He's one of the greatest painters the world has ever known. And one of his paintings is called "The Raising of the Cross."

And he painted Jesus on the cross and they're lifting the cross up as he's being crucified. But he did something astounding in this painting. He included himself among those who were standing at the foot of the cross. And here's the thing that is remarkable. You know that it's him because he's standing there in the clothing they wore in the 1600s when he painted the painting.

And the painters during that time all wore these blue berets, these little flat blue caps, those French hats. That's what the painters wore in his time. And there is Rembrandt standing amongst those who would be wearing biblical clothing. And he's standing there dressed with his blue beret on. So here's the point that he gave in this painting. He was saying, "I crucified Christ. I am just as guilty as those who drove the nails in his hands and in his feet because my sin also is responsible for nailing Jesus to the cross."

And so were yours. And so were mine. The other night, Sister Angie sang that beautiful song, "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? The answer is yes, I was there because he died for my sin and your sin. I know that Caiaphas was a wicked, corrupt high priest and all the priesthood and all the elders were corrupt. And I know that Herod was corrupt also and paranoid. And I know that Pilate was a big wimp. But my sin and your sin nailed Jesus to the tree.

And let me end with this thought. Jesus said in John 10, this was when he was getting ready to be crucified in the weeks and the times before. He said in John 10:17, "Therefore does my father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my father."

Jesus made his mind up in Gethsemane when he said, "Take this cup from me if possible," but then he said after the third time, "Not my will, but thine be done." Jesus said, "I lay down my life." All of these actors on the stage had to play their role, had to play their parts. Amen. But Jesus said, "Ultimately I laid my life down." But here's the good part. "I laid it down that I can take it up again. I laid it down that I can take it up again."

Hallelujah. Because this I have received promise from my father. In Gethsemane, he cried and he agonized until his sweat came like drops of blood. And we're told in Hebrews that he feared, he feared. He had strong crying and tears because he feared death. That was the human part of Jesus fearing death. He knew how gruesome the death would be. He knew what crucifixion would be. He saw people being crucified along the roadways.

He knew what he was facing, and he cried with strong crying and tears. That's Hebrews the fifth chapter. And he was heard in that he feared death. But he knew if I am willing to drink this cup and if I will do this, on the third day, on the third day, I'll rise again. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Because he died to pay the penalty for our sin. The soul that sins it must die.

The wages of sin is death. He had to pay the penalty for every one of us. You know in Isaiah 53:9 it says that he died with the rich and he died with the wicked. Amen. He died with them in his death. But the Hebrew's plural. In his deaths, plural. How can that be? His is singular. Deaths is plural. It would have to say their deaths or his death. But it says in Hebrew deaths because he died my death and he died your death.

He had to die for every sinner there ever was. But folks, he had to raise again to prove. He had to rise again to prove that he paid the penalty. We wouldn't know, we wouldn't have proof that he paid the penalty for our sin unless he rose again for our justification. Hallelujah. Oh, come on and praise him this morning.

So if you're here today and you have never asked Jesus to forgive you of your sin, if you've never really understood the price that he paid that your sin could be forgiven, I would like to ask everyone to bow their head here today. Amen. No sense in waiting until next Sunday. You don't have any guarantee you'll be here next Sunday. I don't know if I'll be here. I plan to be here and preach, but I can't guarantee it.

Amen. You don't know. Why are we going to wait for Easter Sunday? Today is the day of salvation and now is the acceptable time. So if you don't know and you're not sure, or if you're away from the Lord, you've gotten away from God and you know you have, and you realize what Jesus, how much he loves you, let's pray this prayer.

"Jesus, I thank you that you came to be my lamb, to take away my sin and give me life. I receive you as my Savior. I ask you to cleanse me in your blood. I ask you to take away the desire of sin and give me the power to live a godly life. I thank you for saving me. I receive you as my Lord and by your help and with your grace, I will serve you all the days of my life. In Jesus' name." Give the Lord a clap offering.

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Amen. I hope you're blessed by this intriguing examination of each of the players who had a major role in the plot to kill Jesus. Every detail of Old Testament protocol was fulfilled in the sacrifice of God's final Passover Lamb with astonishing accuracy and New Testament revelation.

Every player from John the Baptist, who first declared Jesus the Lamb of God, and then later Judas the betrayer to the corrupt high priest who certified him to be put to death for the nation, to Pilate and Herod, and the soldiers—each one stepped onto the stage of the Son of God's final hours and cast their votes to crucify the Christ. All played their crucial roles that changed the course of human history.

But ultimately, Jesus laid down his life. He laid it down so he could take it up again. "The Crucifixion Conspiracy" can be ordered on CD for a love gift of $10 or more to help pay for the cost of airtime on this station. Request SK193. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203 or go online to SoundofFaith.org where you will find a plethora of resources on many biblical topics.

But to order by mail, send a minimum love gift of $10 and request SK193 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Now if you're not ordering the CD, we still need to hear from you if you enjoy the program. We need financial help to keep this program on this station, so please prayerfully consider a love gift for the radio ministry today. Until next time, this is Sharon Knotts saying Maranatha.