John chapter 19, and the name of the sermon is Pontius Pilate the Politician.
Pontius Pilate the Politician.
And I decided to change the name from what we had listed in the bulletin on Sunday,
because when you really look at this chapter, kind of the main theme is Pontius Pilate.
And there's a lot to cover here tonight, but let's just get into the chapter.
And in verse number 1, the Bible reads,
Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him.
And so as he's scourging Jesus, he's punishing him,
we remember that he doesn't even think Jesus is guilty of anything.
And so why in the world would you punish someone or scourge someone or beat someone that you don't think is guilty?
But see Pontius Pilate is a politician, and he's trying to please everybody.
Isn't that what a politician does?
They try to make a statement to please everybody and not offend anybody.
They try to please the most people.
And so what he's doing is beating him to try to please those that dislike Jesus,
but he's not trying to do it too harshly because he doesn't necessarily think that Jesus is guilty at all.
Verse number 2,
And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns and put it on his head,
and they put on him a purple robe, and said,
Hail, King of the Jews, and they smote him with their hands.
Now notice here in verses 2 and 3, first it says they put on a crown of thorns.
And if you've ever seen any of those Jesus movies, like I saw The Passion of the Christ, you know, a long time ago.
And when you watch a movie like that and then they have a crown of thorns,
they don't really show you the full impact because it's not like it was just a hat on the top of his head.
It's kind of like you put a hat on the top of your head.
No, it's actually really in there.
And so when the thorns are in there, you know, there's real blood flowing from them.
I'm sure it's extremely painful, this crown of thorns that he was wearing.
It's put on his head.
But notice how it says a purple robe.
Say, what is significant about a purple robe?
Notice also in the third verse it says the King of the Jews.
Now turn to Song of Solomon, chapter 3.
Song of Solomon, chapter 3.
What you have to understand about a purple robe is it's actually very significant with the color.
You think of the Catholic Church and you think of the colors and you think of gold.
You think of purple and you think of scarlets, okay?
Now you say, why in the world does the Catholic Church have those colors?
Well, it's a tradition that's just been passed down.
Because purple and scarlet were colors of royalty, okay?
See, nowadays you can go to wherever and just get any shirt of any color under the sun.
Any color that you want.
But you know, in the past, a color like scarlet or purple, that was a color of royalty.
And we notice that in Song of Solomon, chapter 3, where it says in verse 9,
King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon.
Now let me ask you, was King Solomon someone who had a lot of money or was he poor?
He had a lot of money, didn't he?
Notice what it says in verse number 10,
he made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold.
Now is silver, is that something that has value?
Absolutely.
Gold, is that something that has value?
Absolutely.
The covering of it of purple.
The midst thereof being paid with love
for the daughters of Jerusalem.
Why is purple in there with gold and silver?
Because purple at the time was a precious and expensive commodity.
It wasn't something that just everybody had.
Lydia in the Bible, it says, was a seller of purple.
Look, if you try to make your business
on just selling things that are purple today,
you're probably not gonna make a lot of money.
But it was actually a career,
it was actually something you could make money in the past.
And so he chooses purple because that's a color
that not everybody has.
So when you go back to John chapter 19,
what we're understanding in John chapter 19
is when they're putting a purple robe on him
and calling him the king of the Jews, they're mocking him.
They're making fun of him.
They're saying, they put an expensive clothing on him
and say, yeah, you're the king of the Jews.
And then they cite him, they hit him, they're mocking him.
Now, when you look at the people that are doing this,
the soldiers that are mocking him and smiting him,
I don't believe all of those people are represents.
Now, the truth is that most people
are just kind of followers of everybody.
And if somebody chooses to do something,
then they're all gonna do it.
You know, when we're preaching the gospel today,
I was preaching the gospel in three teams,
and I was asking them questions,
and I was trying to keep them all engaged.
So I'd ask one person a question,
and then I'd ask the next person, and then the next.
And pretty much whatever the first person says,
you know, I said, I know, so I go,
they just say the same thing.
They don't know, they're just saying what their friend says.
You know, they're just kind of guessing, right?
They don't really know.
Because most people just kind of follow the crowd.
Now, I'm sure some of the soldiers
were probably just bad people,
but honestly, a lot of people are probably
just kind of following the orders from above.
And that's the same thing Pontius Pilate
is basically doing, because he's worried
about what people think.
But you know, if you have a job
where you have to do something wicked,
then you need to find a new job.
Now look, I understand that you have a lot of different jobs
and you can be involved in a business
and not want to do everything because you're like,
I really don't want to help the government out
and things such as that.
I'm not saying that's sinful,
but when you have to be the Lord Jesus Christ
as part of your job, you need to find a new job.
And then they're mocking him,
and I guarantee you in that crowd of people mocking him,
there's probably people that didn't hit him,
they didn't say anything,
and they thought what was being done was atrocious,
but did they do anything?
No, they didn't.
Why?
Because of fear.
That is the reason why.
But make no mistake about it,
that is what they're doing.
They are mocking him by calling him King of the Jews,
by putting on an expensive robe upon him.
Verse number four,
Pilate therefore went forth again and saith unto them,
behold, I bring him forth to you
that you may know that I find no fault in him.
If you find no fault in him,
why were you scourging him at verse number one?
Say you did nothing wrong.
Well, why are you beating him then?
Why?
Because he just wants to make people happy.
Because he's a politician.
And so why are you beating him
when you say you find no fault in him?
It doesn't make any sense.
He's trying to appease them by saying,
okay, I heard him,
but I've decided that there's no fault in him.
That's called being a wicked government.
Anyway, that's the world that we live in today.
Verse number five,
then came Jesus forth,
wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.
And Pilate saith unto them,
behold the man,
when the chief priest therefore and officer saw him,
they cried out saying, crucify him, crucify him.
Pilate saith unto them,
take thee him and crucify him,
for I find no fault in him.
So Pilate does not want to do this.
He doesn't want to be involved in this.
Now is it because Pilate's just such a good guy?
He's such a nice guy that he's just like,
no, he was just scourging him in verse number one.
But he does believe that he's innocent.
And we're gonna see later on
that he's actually afraid during this situation.
And he's trying to basically please everybody.
Verse number seven,
the Jews answered him,
we have a law and by our law he ought to die
because he made himself the son of God.
When Pilate therefore heard that saying,
he was the more afraid.
Now it says the more afraid,
which means before that he was afraid.
But now he's really afraid
because he finds no fault in him.
He says, this guy seems like he's innocent.
It doesn't seem like he did anything.
Why are they so mad at him?
Oh, he claimed to be the son of God.
Now look, most people don't want to get involved
in religion, right?
And he doesn't believe on Jesus Christ.
As far as we know, he's in hell today.
There's no indication he ever believed.
But you don't want to be associated with killing somebody
who claimed to be a man of God.
And honestly, most people out there
will think that somebody who claims to be a Christian
or a preacher, they assume they're a really good person.
But even more so when you claim to be the son of God.
And people are saying that you are the son of God.
It's like, whoa, I don't want to be involved in that.
Verse number seven, or verse number nine I should say.
And went again into the judgment hall
and saith unto Jesus, whence art thou?
But Jesus gave him no answer.
So he's saying, where did you come from?
Where are you from?
Whence or from where?
Where are you from?
And Jesus does not respond.
You do not have to respond
to every single question that people say to you.
Now, I didn't get a chance to hear the sermon yet,
but Pastor Jimenez mentioned that
as he preached on that recently.
But when people mock you on Facebook,
you don't have to respond.
I mean, you're not obligated to respond.
It doesn't make you wrong if you don't respond.
The amount of people that will mock our church
or mock us for being soul owners and stuff like that,
I mean, it's without none.
And they'll make fun of us and mock us.
We don't have to respond.
And you can look in the Bible and Jesus didn't respond.
This also shows you that, quite honestly,
you don't have to respond
if the government's demanding answers from the people.
Now, let me say this,
that I don't think it's wise
to try and get yourself arrested.
Sometimes it's better to just let the government be corrupt
and whatever, but you don't have to respond.
And here, Pilate's asking Jesus
and he chooses not to respond.
Then saith Pilate unto him, speakest thou not unto me?
Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee
and have power to release thee?
And so Pilate's basically kind of afraid
that he's claimed to be the son of God
and that they wanna kill him
and he's trying to kind of force it out of Jesus.
He's saying, look, I'm the one who has the power
to release you.
I'm the one who has the power to crucify you.
So basically, I'm demanding an answer.
But realize that Jesus wants to die, okay?
Now, obviously, he does have one, two in the flesh.
Obviously, he's painful, but that is what he was here for.
So he doesn't mind that he's gonna be crucified.
Verse 11, Jesus answered, thou couldest have no power
at all against me, except it were given me from above.
Therefore, he that delivered me onto thee
hath the greater sin.
So what he's saying is that Pilate,
even though you're in a position of power,
that power was given to you from above, right?
Now, let's ask the question, was Pilate a godly person?
No, he wasn't.
Are most politicians godly?
No.
But God allowed them to be in the position that they're in.
That does not mean we have to listen to their orders,
because Jesus didn't listen to what Pilate had to say.
But if somebody's a corrupt king,
there's a good chance God's put them there,
because we deserve it.
And see, what Jesus is saying is,
I allowed you to have that power, Pilate.
And so anyone who's a president, anyone who's powerful,
they must realize that they only have that power
because God allowed them to have it.
King Nebuchadnezzar had to learn that the hard way,
because at one time, he was the person who ruled the world,
and he thought he was something special.
Look at this great kingdom that I have built.
What ends up happening to him?
He's crawling around like an animal on the ground.
He's acting like an animal.
And look, there is nothing worse than acting like an animal.
It's a shame that 2% of our population
hasn't figured that out.
But there's nothing that's more disgusting
than acting like an animal.
In fact, I mean, when you read that story
with Nebuchadnezzar, it's not something to be proud of,
to be like a brute beast.
And yet somehow, our society hasn't figured that out.
They think it's something cool to show that you're an animal.
But whatever is what it is.
But I want you to notice in verse number 11 where it said,
he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.
So the people that delivered Jesus to Pilate
had the greater sin.
What that shows you is Pilate is still guilty.
He's still a sinner himself.
But it's not as bad as what they did by delivering him.
Now, look, there's a false teaching out there
in a lot of churches that says, all sin is the same.
All sin is equal.
You know, murdering someone is the same
as stealing a pencil from the bank.
Telling a lie is the same thing as being a pedophile.
Now, you say, why in the world would someone say something
like that?
Well, there's two reasons.
One is if they just heard that and they just
repeated mindlessly.
And the other reason is if you're just a wicked person
trying to justify your action.
Right.
You would do something like they commit adultery
and they say, well, you know, adultery
is no worse than telling a lie.
It's like, well, why is it that adultery
has the death penalty in life?
You don't get the death penalty for telling a lie.
And so it's like all sin is equal.
I mean, are you crazy?
I mean, to say that murdering someone or being a pedophile
is the same as telling a lie is ridiculous.
Look, you know, if my son, as he gets older,
if one day he chooses not to clean his room,
I'm not going to be very happy.
But what if he breaks all the windows in our house
and then throws something at my wife?
What do you think is going to make me more mad?
That he didn't clean his room or that he broke
all the windows in our house?
Probably that he broke all the windows in our house.
What if he punched me in the face?
Yeah, I'd be more upset about that
than if he didn't clean his room.
Why?
Because some things are worse than other things.
And the person that would say that those things
are all just the same, that's someone who's trying
to justify their actions because they're living
a bad life themselves.
Yeah, that is the truth.
You say, well, why does it say that they're the same?
It never says they're the same.
They're the same in the fact that one sin
will send you to hell.
That's how they're the same.
All liars shall have their part in the lake
which burneth in fire and brimstone, okay?
So yes, I get it that whether or not you committed adultery,
murder, or lying, you're a transgressor of the law,
but it doesn't mean it's the exact same thing
because in the law, there's a different punishment
for lying versus murder, okay?
Not every sin has the death penalty associated to it.
There are some sins that are worse than others.
And when we say something like all sin is equal,
it's gonna give people a really weird concept of God
because it certainly doesn't work that way in our lives.
If my son does something wrong
and it's not that big of a deal,
he gets a small punishment.
And when we explain eternal security,
this helps people understand it when we're preaching
the gospel because you explain that, hey,
if you tell a lie, then that's not as bad as pagpatat, right?
It's not as bad as murder, okay?
Murder's gonna give you a bigger punishment in this life,
but it doesn't change the fact
that it's still buhay nawal.
And that means it lasts forever, okay?
And so it's important to understand that, yeah,
there's some sin that's worse than others.
And people try to use that when we preach hard against sin.
You preach a sermon against the LGBT and they say,
well, you know what, have you ever told a lie before?
It's like, what kind of a stupid question is that?
It's like, you know, well, how dare you judge someone?
I mean, have you ever had a bad thought?
It's like, you know, you're preaching hard against sodomy.
I mean, have you ever lusted after a woman?
Yeah, but I've never lusted after a man.
But there's a difference there, okay?
It's like, yeah, we're all sinners,
but some sin is worse than others.
You say, well, prove it.
Well, I mean, in the Old Testament,
go to Leviticus 20,
and a lot of things have the death penalty.
But, you know, a lot of things don't have the death penalty.
And there's a lot of sins that, you know what, it's a sin,
you're gonna be judged in this life,
but it's not as bad as other things.
Certainly some things are.
And anyone who's gonna tell you
that all sin is just the same, look, that's weird.
Stay away from my family.
Because I'm sorry,
but lying is not the same thing as murder.
Verse number 12.
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 making himself a king speaketh against Caesar.
Now, this is Pilate's fault.
He has boxed himself into a court.
And look, when you try to please the world,
they will never be pleased.
Yeah.
That is what he tries to do.
He tries to please them by scourging Jesus,
even though he believes Jesus is innocent.
And now he's gotta decide between Caesar and between Jesus.
Now, look, he doesn't believe on Jesus Christ,
but he's obviously worried that it might be true.
And he doesn't wanna get involved in a religious matter.
But look, he obviously doesn't wanna speak against Caesar.
Because Caesar is the most powerful man in the world.
So now he's put himself in a position where,
basically, this could be the son of God,
but this is the most powerful man in the world.
But since he knows
this man's the most powerful man in the world,
he ends up going through with it, okay?
And so he puts himself, basically, in this tough position.
And look, the world's never gonna be satisfied.
Now, when you're seeing this story,
let me ask you a question.
Does Pontius Pilate seem like he's a good guy?
No.
He's not a good guy.
He's in this situation,
and he's the one who's basically responsible.
Not as responsible as the Jews,
but he allows us to go forth where Jesus is crucified.
Now, a long time ago,
I watched the movie The Passion of the Christ.
And it's been more than a decade,
so I might not remember all the details perfectly.
But in the movie The Passion of the Christ,
which was Mel Gibson's movie,
and by the way, with The Passion of the Christ,
Mel Gibson's a hardcore Catholic.
Yeah, he's not an independent, fundamental Baptist.
He's not a soul owner.
In fact, that original movie,
because if you remember, it was not in English, was it?
But Mel Gibson wanted that movie to have no subtitles.
He didn't want there to be subtitles.
You say, why were there subtitles?
Because he was basically forced to put them in.
You say, why wouldn't he want subtitles?
Well, what do hardcore Catholics think
about a church service?
Put it in a language where nobody understands
what's being said.
And see, he wanted it in a language that nobody understood.
You say, wasn't the movie based on the Bible?
No, the movie was actually based
on these images of these women
that said they had stigmata.
Stigmata is basically like Padre Pio, right?
Basically, you feel the pain.
Oh, man, I'm being crucified right now.
And you supposedly feel the pain,
and it was based on these images of these women.
So basically, all these things that are unbiblical
in The Passion of the Christ,
it's because some possessed woman
said she was being crucified and felt the pain,
and she said, well, this is what it's actually like.
Why?
Because Catholics believe in that garbage.
I mean, Padre Pio, I see his picture all the time.
And it's like they actually believe in that stuff.
And so The Passion of the Christ
was actually based on that.
But one thing you need to understand,
if you remember the movie, if you've seen it,
Pontius Pilate's the good guy in the movie.
And it's like, show me the politicians that are,
the politician that crucifies the Lord Jesus Christ
as a good guy in The Passion of the Christ.
I mean, what in the world?
I mean, how could they come to that view?
Because in the movie,
Pontius Pilate is just like, horrified.
He's like, no, I don't want to crucify him.
No, if you actually read the story,
Pontius Pilate is scared, but it's not that he thinks
that, oh, man, I don't want to have to do this.
He just doesn't want to be in that position.
It's not because he's a good guy.
In the movie, though, he is made to be a good guy
in The Passion of the Christ.
And honestly, that's why any Hollywood movie about Jesus
that makes $350 million from that,
it's obviously not gonna be accurate.
I remember the first time, I saw that movie two times.
The first time I saw that movie,
I thought it was really good, okay?
Because I didn't know the Bible very well.
And then I saw the movie like six months later,
and I was like, because I was basically movie saved.
I had only been saved a few months,
or six months or something.
I just looked it up.
It came out in 2004, like February or March.
And so I got saved in October 2003,
and it came out in February or March of 2004.
So we're talking about four or five months
after I got saved.
And I remember watching the movie thinking,
man, that was awesome, that was powerful.
And then I watched it like six months later.
I was like so excited, it would come out on video.
I could watch it all the time.
I was like, man, this is like the worst movie I've ever seen.
There are so many things that were weird in the movie.
I mean, in the movie, Judas Iscariot's kinda like a bad guy.
Because there's the one scene
where Judas feels really bad that he betrayed Jesus,
and there's like this chain wrapped around Jesus' neck.
And I'm just remembering, I couldn't misremember this,
because I'm just kinda going off memory right now.
And he like falls over a bridge
with like the chain wrapped around his neck.
And he falls right beside Judas Iscariot.
And Judas is like really sad and everything.
You know, oh man, I can't believe I did this.
Judas was a reprobate, right?
It's like how do you make Judas and Pontius Pilate
out to be basically good guys in the passion of Christ?
But apparently that's what Hollywood likes.
Verse number 13.
When Pilate therefore heard that saying,
he brought Jesus forth and sat down in the judgment seat
in the place it is called the pavement,
but in the Hebrew, Gabbitha.
And it was the preparation of the Passover
in about the sixth hour, and he said to the Jews,
behold your king.
This is what you call a desperate man just trying something.
He's trying his best to just get them to believe,
hey, this is your king.
Why?
He doesn't wanna crucify him.
He's afraid that he could be telling the truth.
He doesn't believe he's the son of God,
but he's afraid he might be.
He doesn't wanna be involved in the situation.
He doesn't wanna be responsible
for crucifying a religious person.
And someone who's unsafe thinks
that basically all religious people are good, usually.
Most unsafe people think that pretty much
anyone who calls himself a pastor is a man of God.
Even if it's, you know, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist,
whatever religion, it doesn't even matter.
You know, how could you preach against, you know, a pastor?
And I know John MacArthur might be wrong on that,
but I mean, he's a pastor.
I mean, it's like, man, he's a man of God.
I mean, and they're always shocked.
You know, Catholic priests, they always just say,
man, he's a man of God.
It's like, how could you preach against
this man wearing a dress?
They just assume that, you know,
if he calls himself a pastor.
So Pontius Pilate, he doesn't wanna crucify
a religious person.
Verse 15, but they cried out,
away with him, away with him, crucify him.
Pilate saith unto them, shall I crucify your king?
The chief priest answered, we have no king but Caesar.
Now, turn to Matthew 27, Matthew 27.
And so, Pilate does what he can
to get himself out of the situation,
but they claim no Caesar is our king.
We're, you know, we don't care about Jesus.
Just kill him, okay?
And what this also shows, because when Jesus preached,
didn't thousands of people listen to him?
But, you know, he passed a great division
which we saw all throughout the good job.
Some people loved him, some people hated him.
You know, here's the truth with first-time visitors.
At our church, there is usually two reactions.
They love the church service,
or they hate the church service.
There's no in-between.
It's one or the other.
And look, it's usually easy for me to tell
whether they love it or hate it.
We had a visitor on Sunday,
and he told me after the service,
he's like, I didn't even know a church like this existed.
He's like, you've got some guts.
But, you know, there's a lot of people
that would've heard that sermon
that would've said, you know what,
it was like the worst sermon,
how hateful you are, et cetera, et cetera.
Why?
This kind of preaching causes two reactions.
Why is it that you go to the normal Baptist church
in the Philippines, and it gives you
just kind of this in-between position?
You're like, it was okay, it was boring.
I didn't learn anything.
But, you know, the pastor's a nice guy,
you know, that was okay, you know.
Isn't that the reaction of pretty much every Baptist church?
Yeah.
Why is it that you can go to a church
and just have no reaction either way?
Because if the word of God is quick and powerful,
then it's basically either gonna cause you
to love it or hate it.
Yeah.
You have no in-between.
And when you hear the preaching of God's word,
and, you know what, if you're in a church
and you hear preaching and you're just kind of
this in-between position, there's something wrong then.
Yeah, right.
You go to Joel Osteen's churches
and it just causes this kind of, eh, reaction.
Where it's like, yeah, he's a nice guy.
But, you know, the sermon, I didn't really learn anything.
It wasn't fantastic, but he's kind of a nice guy
and things like that.
But yet Baptist churches are the same.
Yeah.
And there's something wrong with it.
Look, it doesn't bother me if people hate my sermons.
What would bother me is if somebody would come
and just be like, eh, it's kind of in-between.
No, I'd rather be either loved or hated.
Yeah.
And if it's neither, then it's like, there's something.
Now, obviously there's some sermons
where it's not really one of those sermons.
But look, if someone's here for a couple months
and they're kind of like, eh,
you know, I'm kind of in-between on this.
I don't love the preaching.
I don't hate the preaching.
It's kind of like, just like your typical Baptist preaching.
I'd be offended.
It's like, man, that sounds like the victory church
I usually go to.
I'd be offended by that.
Yeah, it's just like going to CCF.
I would be offended if somebody said that.
But I would not be offended if they walked away
and said, I hate that man's guns.
Hate that's fine.
Right.
Say why?
Because you're just the messenger
when you're preaching the word of God.
And you're preaching the word of God
and people are either gonna love it, they're gonna hate it.
So here, Jesus has people that want to kill him.
There's also a lot of people that love Jesus as well.
Now in Matthew 27, verse 24,
this kind of gives us a little bit more insight
on Pontius Pilate.
And it says in verse 24,
when Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing,
but that rather a tumult was made,
he took water and washed his hands before the multitude,
saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person.
See you to it.
Okay.
When he says he's a just person,
he's saying he doesn't deserve what's happening to him.
You know, it definitely seems like Kyle believes that,
that he doesn't deserve to be crucified,
even though he doesn't really step in and help him out.
But he basically says, you know what,
if it's gonna happen,
I just want to wash my hands clean of this.
I don't want to be responsible for this man's blood.
Well, you could wash your hands for like
a whole straight week.
It doesn't matter how much you wash your hands.
It doesn't matter how much soap you get.
Your hands are still as dirty as can be.
It doesn't matter if you try to pass the sin
onto someone else.
Well, you can't pass sin onto somebody else.
Yeah.
Like, hey, I just murdered someone,
but I don't want to be responsible for this blood.
Can you take that?
Sure, I'll take it.
Okay, then I'm free.
I'm not gonna do it.
No, you're still guilty.
And here Pontius Pilate tries to pass on the sin.
You can't pass on the sin.
But he tries to pass on the sin,
and then notice what it says in verse 25.
Then answered all the people and said,
his blood be on us and on our children.
What in the world?
What a stupid statement to make.
Now, look, this does not mean the blood
is out of Pilate's hands,
because he's still guilty.
Yeah.
But if you want the blood to be on you and on your children,
it's like, what a stupid thing to try
to curse your children for your stupidity
and you being an idiot.
Now, what's interesting is I talked about
the Passion of the Christ.
There's actually a deleted scene
from the Passion of the Christ.
I kind of saw this when I was preparing this.
I kind of forgotten this.
But if you watch the Passion of the Christ,
there's one part of the final scene
that they just take out.
And it's kind of interesting what they take out.
They take out this phrase,
his blood be on us and on our children.
And this is the Jews saying that.
These are the Pharisees, the leaders saying that,
his blood be on us and on our children.
But it's taken out of the Passion of the Christ.
Now, I have no idea what's taken out,
except I do know that Mel Gibson
was basically ordered by the pope
to take that scene out.
And Mel Gibson is a hardcore Catholic.
He listened to the pope.
And it's like, why in the world
did you take out the part that condemned the Jews?
Now, what that shows me is a couple things.
One, the pope doesn't really rule the world anymore.
Because if this movie was made hundreds of years ago,
I know there were no movies back then,
but that scene would have still probably been ended.
But nowadays it's kind of like,
if anyone does own the world,
it's probably the Jews.
If anyone has the real money.
But that scene was basically taken out.
If it wasn't taken out because the Jews
basically owned the world,
then it's taken out because of the fact,
let's just bring all our religions together.
Let's take out the part where the Jews said,
let his blood be on us and on our children.
But that scene was actually taken out
because Mel Gibson was told by the pope,
which I think was Pope John Paul.
I don't remember offhand.
Probably Pope John Paul at this time.
Basically he was ordered to take that out.
And so that part is out of the movie.
And so when you watch the movie,
and the part's coming in subtitles,
the part you're not gonna see is,
his blood be on us and on our children.
It's just taken out.
Very interesting.
And like I said, that movie's not all that accurate.
John chapter 19, turn back to John 19.
And you say, do Jews feel differently today?
A lot of them don't feel any differently today.
Because what the Jews believe about Jesus Christ
is not that he was a nice guy,
but the Buddhists believe.
I mean the Buddhists, the Muslims, the Hindus.
Everybody believes Jesus was a nice guy, don't they?
You're really only gonna find one religion
that hates the guts of Jesus Christ.
And that is the Jews.
You say, why?
Because it's the Bible that condemns the Jews
more than any other religion.
It's the Bible that says the Jews are responsible
for murdering Jesus Christ.
His blood be on us and on our children.
Look, they're the ones who said that.
We didn't say that.
They're the ones who put the curse on,
but you know, honestly,
if you hear Jews speak off the record,
they don't feel bad about responding to Jesus.
There's the famous comedian, Sarah Silverman,
who I think it's Sarah Silverman's her name,
and she basically bragged about it.
In standup comedy, she was saying,
do you feel bad about crucifying Jesus?
She's like, no, I'd do it again.
And she basically mocked him up on stage,
mocking Jesus Christ.
That's the way the Jews feel with that.
I mean, just the story we had from months ago
when Brother Bo was visiting us,
and he said he ran into a Filipino Jew.
I think it was at a result park.
I was like, a Filipino Jew?
I was like, what?
A Filipino Jew?
And he said that that Filipino Jew
was mocking Jesus Christ in front of him.
He said, don't the Jews think highly of Jesus today?
No, they don't.
They hate him.
It's funny because people don't even realize this
because I've seen people talk about it.
They say, well, you guys believe he's a prophet, right?
They're like, no, we don't believe he's a prophet.
They actually believe that he is the bastard child
because basically his mom cheated on her husband
with another man.
They believe that she cheated with Anterra, okay?
They believe that the actual father,
in the Talmud, the actual father,
in their writings, the actual father is Anterra
because Mary cheated on Joseph.
That's what they believe.
That's what they teach.
There's actually a band in the US,
I don't know if they're around today,
their famous rock band called Anterra.
They say, why would they name their band that?
Because they're blaspheming Jesus Christ.
I mean, does it really surprise you
when rock bands blaspheme Jesus Christ?
You could go down the list of the most famous.
And look, I'm not really proud of this,
but I used to listen to a lot of rock music.
And I know the origins of a lot of these rock artists,
like where they come up with the names and stuff like that.
I used to really like hard rock music.
And there was this list a long time ago on VH1
when I first got into hard rock music of like the 10,
or it was like the 100 greatest hard rock artists ever.
So it was in the days of Napster,
it was kind of the early days
where you could listen to music online.
So I was listening to all these bands
and everything like that.
And I wasn't saved at the time.
But you go down the list of these bands,
like the number two, and all of them were bad.
But I was going through the highlights of the worst.
Number two, the name was Black Sabbath.
Now, Black Sabbath, does that sound like a godly name?
Black Sabbath, you know, I'll let you take a guess
whether Ozzy Osbourne was a man of God or not.
Black Sabbath, okay?
You look at ACDC, number four.
It's an acronym for Sodomy, ACDC.
That's where the name comes from, okay?
Number 10 on the list was KISS, K-I-S-S,
Knights in Satan's Service.
That's where they get the name from.
You think these bands are godly?
Look, I don't wanna spend the whole time,
it's not a sermon on music.
But, you know, honestly, they're just very wicked.
Yet in the Jews, you know, that's what they said
that Jesus was actually the son of Pantera, okay?
That's why there's actually a rock band named Pantera.
They're just blaspheming God.
You say, why is that?
Because, look, Satan is the god of this world.
And when Satan elevates you to a level of prominence
in this world, it's usually because you sold
your soul to the devil.
Yeah.
And look, you know, it's not a conspiracy theory.
You can go to YouTube and see like every rock artist
admit that they sold their soul to the devil.
What's funny about it is you look at the ones
that are like, they sound really bad,
like the hard rock and heavy metal, you know,
I didn't like heavy metal, but I liked hard rock,
you know, there's kind of a difference.
But you look at ones that are kind of the softer rock,
like Bob Dylan, you can go on YouTube
and he's having an interview and he's saying
how he sold his soul.
And then the person's asking, you know,
who did you sell your soul to?
And he's like, I think you know.
You say, was he joking?
Yeah, they're all just joking.
They're all just joking about it.
Like every single rock artist,
it's just kind of a funny joke.
Yeah, I sold my soul to the devil too.
No, they actually sold their soul to the devil.
They actually decided basically to make a choice
to become a rapper, bait or whatever,
and basically they were lifted to a level of prominence.
Look, the music of the world is not music
that is from God, it's from the devil.
And look, Satan, you look in the Bible
and he was a musical angel, okay?
It's not surprising that the music
that comes from the world that's popular
is ungodly, anti-biblical, blasphemous music.
Now turn back to John 19, let's go over the sermon.
In John 19, verse 16, the Bible reads,
then delivered he and therefore
onto them will be crucified,
and they took Jesus and led him away.
And he bearing his cross went forth
into a place called the place of the skull,
which is called in the Hebrew, Golgotha,
where they crucified him and two other with him
on either side won, and Jesus in the midst.
Now, I think this verse kind of proves the fact
that I was saying earlier that I don't believe
all the soldiers were rapper mates.
I don't think most of them were.
And I'll tell you why.
Because if you remember when these two thieves,
or these two people being crucified with Jesus,
they both mocked Jesus Christ.
Did they not?
Both of them mocked Jesus Christ.
Now were they both rapper mates?
They weren't.
How do we know that?
Because in Luke chapter 23, what happens?
One of them believes on Jesus Christ, he is saved.
Today, shalt thou be with me in paradise.
That's what Jesus Christ said.
And so they're both mocking him at the beginning.
I would presume that one probably mocked Jesus
and the other one did the same thing
because everybody else is mocking Jesus.
And so what you see is this follow the leader
sort of mentality, okay?
But at the beginning, they both mocked Jesus Christ.
Now that shows the mercy of Jesus, though,
that he was willing to still save him.
That God was still willing to save him
even though then he's mocking him.
And so when it comes to someone becoming a rapper mate,
it's not like you do something wrong
and all of a sudden you're a rapper mate.
Like you used the Lord's name in vain one time.
You're a rapper mate.
No, I mean, that's not the way God operates.
When people become rapper mates,
they're people that have turned their back on God,
over and over and over and just chosen to be wicked, okay?
They make that choice.
It's not something where it's just like,
well, you know, I was kind of growing up.
My older brother smoked cigarettes
so I started smoking too when I was a rapper mate.
It doesn't work that way.
Or it's like, man, my friends try to get me to drink alcohol
and then, you know, man, due to peer pressure,
I drink alcohol.
You don't become a rapper mate.
Become a rapper mate for being a really bad person.
So it's not shocking that when we talk about rapper mates,
we're talking about serial killers,
we're talking about pedophiles, sodomites,
all these terrible things, okay?
Now in verse number 19, Bob reads,
and Pilate wrote the title and put it on the cross
and the writing was Jesus of Nazareth,
the King of the Jews.
This title then read, many of the Jews,
the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city.
It was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin.
Now, this is considered one of the great
Bible contradictions that there is.
That when the writing was done,
it's worded differently in the different gospels.
And you say, well, why is it?
How was it written?
Was it written Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews?
Or was it written differently than that?
And so the secret to understanding this Bible contradiction
is actually found in verse number 20.
Because it was written in Hebrew,
it was written in Greek, and it was written in Latin.
It was written in multiple languages.
And so when you have a statement that you put
from one language to the next,
sometimes things change a little bit.
And so to say, well, you know, it's a Bible contradiction.
No, it was written in three different languages.
Now, when people like to mock the King James Bible
or they're against the King James Bible position,
inevitably, they usually speak no language.
They speak one language or two languages
if they grew up speaking that.
They're not someone who actually knows
how to learn a language at no range.
Because you learn things when you're trying
to learn a language.
Now, depending on where you're from and everything,
you might have grown up learning two languages.
My wife speaks three languages.
But those are languages she learned as a young child
where it becomes kind of natural.
But when you learn a language,
you really start to see things translated.
You start to understand a little bit better.
And people that like to say, well,
your King James Bible only position is foolish.
It doesn't make any sense.
You always lose something in the translation.
They don't understand how language is worth.
And they might have sold a really popular book
called the King James Old Akasha Pursuit,
but James White doesn't understand.
He's a little bit too bobo to understand the concept.
It doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to him.
He's just not smart enough to figure it out.
And unfortunately, the people that criticize
the King James Bible only position,
they just don't have as much knowledge about it
as they think they do.
When you actually learn languages, you realize,
wow, if I'm gonna translate from this language
to this language, some things have to change a little bit.
That's why in the Bible we have italicized words
and things such as that.
So anyways, the answer to this contradiction in the Bible
of what way was it written?
Was it written like this or this?
It was written in multiple languages.
It wasn't just written in one language.
Verse number 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.
Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written.
So this is Pilate just trying to figure out
what is the middle position I need to take?
So I'm not an enemy of Caesar,
but I'm not guilty of crucifying Jesus Christ.
Basically just a politician trying to do whatever
he has to do.
And whenever you read any of the gospels,
you can tell with Pilate that he's not really a good person.
Yeah, okay.
Now you have to understand when you're reading the Bible,
you shouldn't just look at the actions people do.
You should actually look at why they're doing this.
Yeah, okay.
Because sometimes people do good things,
but it's for bad reasons.
And you gotta be careful when you're reading that.
One great example is in the Bible,
you look at the character of Reuben.
I actually preached a sermon on Reuben
at Verity Baptist Church probably about a year ago.
And I show that Reuben is a pretty rotten apple in life.
But if you quickly kind of vaguely read through,
he does a lot of things that seem good.
But if you really notice, his intentions are evil
for the reason why.
His intentions for helping Joseph
are merely because of himself.
As the oldest brother, he's responsible.
I mean, Reuben's the one that says,
no, no, no, no, we shouldn't kill him.
Why does he say that?
Because the oldest brother's always responsible.
Yeah.
If all the brothers are out there
and something happens to one, guess what?
Dad is gonna be mad at the oldest brother.
And so Reuben does not care about Joseph.
He cares about himself.
And you notice that throughout Reuben's life.
What I'm trying to tell you is that when you look
at characters like Pilate,
he seems to do a few nice things.
But why is he doing that?
Because he cares about himself.
His motives are always to help himself out.
That's the only reason why.
Verse 23, then the soldiers,
when they had crucified Jesus,
took his garments and made four parts
to every soldier apart, and also his coat.
Now the coat was without seam,
woven from the top throughout.
They said therefore among themselves,
let us not rend it, but cast lots before it.
Whose it shall be, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
which saith, they parted my raiment among them.
For my vesture they did cast lots.
These things therefore the soldiers did.
Now turn to Psalms 22.
We'll go back to John 19 in a second.
Psalms 22.
I just want to show you that this,
as he mentioned, as it is written,
the scripture might be fulfilled.
It's written here in Psalms 22 verse 18,
where it says, they part my garments among them
and cast lots upon my vesture.
And so, Psalms 22, 18, it's really pretty amazing
if you go on Google sometime,
just type in all prophecies that Jesus fulfilled.
Because I don't know all of them off the top of my head,
but you'll have charts that you can find online,
and there's so many prophecies that he actually fulfilled.
And not just prophecies that he fulfilled,
but so much symbolism throughout the Bible.
Look, to suggest that this Bible was written by man,
and not written by God, is a foolish thing to do.
Because there's so much prophecy that is fulfilled here.
And that's what you see in Psalms 22.
Now go back to John 19.
And in John 19 verse 25, John 19 verse 25,
it says, now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother,
and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas,
and Mary Magdalene.
When Jesus therefore saw his mother,
and the disciples standing by him be loved,
he saith unto his mother, woman, behold thy son.
Then saith unto the disciples, behold thy mother,
and from that hour that disciple took her onto his own home.
And so when you see these verses,
kind of gives you an indication
that Joseph is no longer around.
So we presume he passed away, he's already dying.
Now, it's kind of interesting in the Bible,
because you don't really know a whole lot about Joseph.
You know, he's there in Matthew chapter one.
He's there a few other times in the Bible,
and then he kind of is just gone.
I presume, and I don't know this for sure,
because the Bible doesn't say,
I presume he's probably older than Mary by a decent bit.
Probably he's a little bit older,
and he ended up dying before her.
At this time, it certainly appears that he has passed on,
because Jesus basically, with his mother,
just kind of leaving her in the care
of the disciple whom Jesus loved.
That's what it says.
It says, behold thy mother,
and then it says, saith unto his mother, behold thy son.
So basically, you know, she at this point
doesn't really have someone to care for anymore, I would say.
And basically, she is in the care
of the disciple whom Jesus loved.
Now, Jesus did have brothers and sisters,
so I'm not sure why they wouldn't have been the ones,
but you know, at this point, what we can learn
from this is basically that Joseph is not around.
Because the general principle of the Bible
is that, for example, you know,
if my mom had no one to take care of her,
then me, being her son, or my sister,
should be the ones to take in my mom, right?
That's the right thing to do, okay?
Or if my dad, you know, let's say he got older,
and no one was there to take him,
you don't shove him in a nursing home, okay?
That's not something that you're supposed to do.
I mean, when your parents have raised you
from when you're a child, when you're a baby,
they took care of you for the first 18 years of your life
when you would have just died on your own.
And quite honestly, in today's world,
most of us would have died far into our mid-20s
because we don't really know what we're doing
when we're young.
And then all of a sudden, once they get a little bit older,
they need someone to help you, help them,
and you just say, well, here's a nursing home.
Look, people that are in nursing homes,
nursing homes aren't that common, right?
You know, in America, they're very common.
Basically, you know, that someone gets older,
and you just kind of shove them in a nursing home.
And you know, whenever you go to a nursing home,
because I used to preach in nursing homes, okay,
those people are just so happy to have someone see them
because their son lives in the same city as their mom,
never visits her.
Once every three months, he visits his mom
in the nursing home.
And they're basically just in there.
It's like a prison for them.
That's literally what it is.
And you know, that's not the way it ought to be.
And so basically, Jesus is making sure
that someone is there to take care of his mom,
verse 28.
After this, Jesus noted that all things
were now accomplished, and the scripture might be fulfilled,
saying, I thirst.
Now they were set a vessel full of vinegar,
and they filled a sponge with vinegar,
and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar,
he said, it is finished.
And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.
And so this is the very famous phrase here in John 19,
where he says, it is finished.
And this is the big proof people try to have
say that Jesus didn't go to hell, okay?
They say, well, it is finished, and if it's finished,
that means he didn't have to go to hell,
because he's saying that the payment for the sins
is made now.
I've died on the cross, it's done.
No, a lot of people have died on the cross before.
Yeah, that's not that significant.
A lot of people have died on the cross.
A lot of people have let, I mean,
the Catholic Church killed so many people
on crosses, the Roman Empire just from that
have killed so many people by crucifixion, okay?
But what's significant is the fact that after Jesus died,
his soul actually went to hell.
Now go back to John 17.
And we talked about this once before,
but it's foolish because you see the phrase,
it is finished, saying, you see,
he didn't have to go to hell,
the payment was already made.
You say, why is that foolish?
Well, do you believe he had to rise again from the dead?
Because last I checked, our faith is in vain
if he didn't rise again from the dead.
People are, of all men, most miserable.
What's the point of anything we're doing
if he didn't rise again from the dead?
What's the point of coming to church three times a week,
reading your Bible every day, praying, going to so many,
and there's a lot of things I'll do.
If he didn't rise again, I'll just go work out,
have fun, do what I wanna do, right?
But if he rose again from the dead,
then every single thing we do matters, okay?
But look, if it's finished, then I guess
he didn't have to rise again from the dead.
I guess the gospel is, you know, he died.
That's it.
I mean, he didn't even have to be buried.
I mean, it's finished on the cross.
He could just rot up there on the cross.
He didn't even have to be buried.
The gospel is, he died.
That's the new gospel.
Okay, do you believe Jesus died?
Yes, I do.
Well, you're saved.
I mean, you're saved then.
If you believe Jesus died on a cross, you're saved.
Look, then I guess everybody's saved
because all that had to happen was he had to die, okay?
But that's not what the Bible teaches.
See, he said it is finished.
Many times he'd use the phrase finished.
In John 17, verse four, I have glorified you on the earth.
I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
So in John 17, verse four, he said,
I've finished the work that you gave me.
John 19, he said it is finished.
Very often, he'll use that word finished, okay?
All it means here in John 19, if you go back there,
is yes, his time on earth is finished, okay?
That doesn't mean that everything's finished, though.
He still had to rise again from the dead.
He was still there for 40 days.
He still preached to the disciples
after he rose again from the dead.
Now, turn to Acts two.
Actually, turn to Matthew 12.
Let's go to Matthew 12.
It's not quite as famous.
So it proves the same point, though, that Jesus did,
his soul did go to hell.
And so what's interesting is that people
will see clear verses that say Jesus went to hell,
and then they just try to use some philosophical argument
to deny it or whatever.
I mean, there's clear verses that say he went to hell.
Matthew 12, verses 39 to 40.
But he answered and said unto them,
an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign,
and there shall no sign be given to it,
but the sign of the prophet Jonas,
for as Jonas was three days and three nights
in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man
be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Look, it says the heart of the earth.
It's not just saying that he was like six feet
under the ground, that he was buried.
No, it's saying he was in the heart of the earth.
Guess what?
There was no non-burning part in the heart of the earth.
Yeah.
Look, there's no non-burning part.
The center of the earth, look,
I'll agree with scientists over Baptists on this.
You go back 2,500 years, yeah, you know what?
The center of the earth, it was thousands of degrees.
I agree with the scientists on this.
I do not agree with most Baptists,
because there was no non-burning part in the center of the earth.
Yes, thousands of degrees, okay?
He was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Why?
Because if I die as an unsaved person,
then I go to hell forever.
And so if Jesus was gonna pay for my sins,
guess what?
He had to go to hell to do that.
So there's your philosophical argument.
Yep.
We got the scripture to back it up.
We got the logical argument, so why don't they believe it?
Well, because their commentaries don't teach that.
Yep.
And so they don't believe it.
That's our back to John.
Hmm.
And look, I'll line up with the Catholic Church on this one.
I mean, but I guess the pope doesn't believe in hell anymore.
I'll line up with the Catholic Church
back when they killed a bunch of people, okay?
Back when the popes would murder you for not agreeing.
Hey, I agree with you.
You don't have to kill me.
I agree Jesus went to hell, okay?
I agree with them on that.
Why?
Because the Bible says his soul was not left in hell,
which means it was in hell.
Okay, before he rose again, okay?
His soul went back to his body and he rose again.
His soul was in hell.
And look, throughout the Old Testament,
you look at all those burnt offerings,
there's a reason why they were burnt.
John 19, verse 31.
But you know, the amazing thing about this,
and look, I'm no different than maybe everybody in this room
is that you hear something over and over again,
you just start to believe it.
Because I firmly believe that Jesus went to hell,
but I didn't always believe that.
After I got saved, I ended up not believing with him.
And it was plain as day in the Bible,
but the problem is, sometimes people don't trust the Bible
as much as they trust some preacher.
And look, that's something we should never be guilty of.
It doesn't matter who the person is preaching.
It doesn't matter what I say or what Pastor Mena says.
Look, if you've got verses that would disprove it,
then that would mean that you're right, okay?
And I always encourage you to believe
what you believe the Bible says, okay?
Now obviously, creatures are given to hell,
especially with people that are new.
They're gonna bounce around in all kinds of different ways.
When people are newly saved,
if they're reading the Bible a lot,
they're gonna believe things,
and then two chapters later, oh, whoops.
I was wrong on that.
They're gonna change their mind on that.
That's the way I was the first two years I was saved.
I would learn all these cool things.
Man, this is awesome.
Then all of a sudden, oh, whoops.
That's not true.
But obviously, a preacher's there to help,
but what I want you to understand
is that you have the Holy Spirit to help you.
Right.
To teach you.
And if you know something is true in the Bible,
do not let any preacher change your mind on that.
It doesn't matter who it is.
John 19, verse 31.
The Jews therefore, because it was a preparation
that the body should not remain upon the cross
on Sabbath day, for that Sabbath day was a high day,
he saw a pile of them.
Their legs might be broken,
and they might be taken away.
And so the Jews are so godly.
It's like, we can't break our religious holiday.
We can kill a man.
Well, we didn't kill him.
We just had you do it.
And we said that the blood's on us and on our children.
They're willing to kill someone,
but oh, we can't have a body on up on the Sabbath day.
Because we care so much about
what the scriptures actually say.
And it's like, well, there's something wrong
when you care so much about his body not being up there,
but you're willing to kill him.
Guess what?
There would be no body up there if you didn't kill him.
Did you ever figure that out?
Verse 32.
Then came the soldiers and break the legs of the first,
and of the other which was crucified with him.
When they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already,
they break not his legs.
One of the soldiers with a spear reared his side,
and forthwith came there our blood and water.
He saw that it bare record, and his record is true.
And he knoweth that he saith true that ye might believe.
For these things were done that the scripture
should be fulfilled, a boat of him shall not be broken.
So where is this scripture fulfilled?
Turn to Exodus chapter 12, Exodus 12.
It's also in the book of Psalms as well.
We'll look at Exodus chapter 12.
And in Exodus chapter 12, verse number 46,
and this is the famous chapter in the Passover.
Verse 46, in one house shall it be eaten.
Thou shall not carry forth out of the flesh
abroad out of the house, neither shall you break a bone thereof.
And so one thing we should do when we're reading the Bible,
and look, a chapter like Exodus 12, it's a long chapter.
It's an interesting chapter, but quite honestly,
it can be tough to get through long chapters.
And the book of Exodus is really interesting for the first half.
It's very interesting the first half.
You've got the story of Moses, the plagues,
and everything like that.
You get to a chapter like Exodus 12 in your mind,
you just kind of wander.
I hate when you get to the end of chapter,
and then you're like, I have no clue what I just read
the last two days.
You literally learn nothing, because you're lying,
you're tired, you're not into it, or whatever.
It happens to me all the time.
But what I want you to understand,
and it's something for me to know as well,
is just that in chapters where maybe you're not
paying that much attention, there is great information in there.
And you know what we should be paying attention,
because here in Exodus 12, verse 46,
it's prophesized about Jesus.
Now, look at verse 37 in John 19, John 19, verse 37.
And it says in John 19, verse 37, and again,
another scripture saith, they shall look on him
whom they pierced.
And so once again, there's another scripture
that says they're to look on him whom they pierced.
Where does it say that?
Turn to Zechariah chapter 10, the second to the last book
in the Old Testament, Zechariah chapter 12.
Zechariah 12.
And in Zechariah 12, verse 10, the Bible reads,
and I will pour upon the house of David
and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem
the spirit of grace and of supplications,
and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced,
and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son
and shall be in bitterness for him,
for as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
So it says, they shall look upon me whom they have pierced.
So that's where it is written in the Old Testament.
Now, go back to John 19.
And so it's very obvious to us as, say,
people that the Bible is inspired by God.
It's inspired and preserved, both of those things.
I mean, you can see so many prophecies that are fulfilled.
And when you read the Bible, you can just
see the Bible is written by God.
It's not written by God.
John 19, verse 38, we'll just finish up here.
And after this, Joseph of Arimathea,
being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews,
besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus,
and Pilate gave him leave.
He came, therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
And so Joseph of Arimathea is a saved person,
but he's kind of doing it undercover
because he's afraid of the Jews.
He's afraid the Jews will persecute him or try to kill him.
And honestly, the persecution, it always has existed.
The last 6,000 years, since human history began,
if you're living godly, you're gonna have
persecution that comes.
One of my good friends was just asking me to pray for him
because he's worried with his job
because of something on social media.
I've been called to the principal's office as well,
so to speak, at work before.
Not at a school, but I say the principal's office
when you're a kid, you go to the principal's office
when you're in trouble.
I got called to the principal's office at my work
because, oh, we hear that you're sexist,
and you're hiccing, it's just like,
I didn't even say anything at work.
But I guess something I preached years ago,
someone found out I had been in churches or whatever,
I don't know.
But it's like the things that you believe,
you'll be persecuted for them.
And so he's doing it for fear of the Jews,
he's doing it secretly.
Verse 39, and there came also Nicodemus,
which at the first came to Jesus by night,
brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes,
about an 100 pound weight.
And so with Joseph of Arimathea,
it says he is the disciple of Jesus Christ,
that would show that he is saved.
It doesn't say that Nicodemus is saved
anywhere in the Bible, okay?
Doesn't say he's not saved, doesn't say he is saved.
That's something that if you want to study out,
then that's an interesting topic.
I probably would still lean towards that he is saved.
I did listen to Pastor Menes recently preach
a sermon on Nicodemus, and I didn't realize this,
but he doesn't believe that Nicodemus is saved.
It doesn't say Nicodemus is saved in the Bible.
I've always kind of assumed he was.
It's something if you want to study that out
in your free time, you're welcome to.
Trying to remember, it's in his series,
The Encounters of Christ, if you want to listen to that.
It was a few weeks ago, and so you're welcome
to check that out.
But I do see the point that he's making here
in verse 38 and 39, because in verse 38
it's very clear that Joseph is saved.
And I guess I presume Nicodemus is probably saved
doing it in fear as well, but it doesn't say that
in verse 39, so maybe not.
But there's a lot of things in the Bible
we can have different opinions on.
Definitely check that out if you're interested.
Verse 40, then took they the body of Jesus
and wound it in linen clothes with the spices
as the manner of the Jews is to bear it.
Now in the place where he was crucified
there was a garden, and the garden in New Sepulchre
where it was never man yet laid.
There lay they Jesus, therefore,
because of the Jews' preparation day,
Sepulchre was nigh at hand.
So kind of the big takeaway from this chapter
is Pontius Pilate, the politician.
Look, he was not a new guy.
Yeah.
There's nothing to indicate that he was a good guy.
I don't know why, and I don't know if Mel Gibson's view
is kind of the traditional view.
That was a weird movie.
Who has seen that movie before the passion of Christ?
Anybody not seen that, or has everybody seen that?
I guess it was, I mean, this is a Catholic nation,
you guys all know.
You're still Catholic at heart, right?
Who watched the movie?
I mean, it was such a weird movie.
Do you remember there's that one part in the movie
where Jesus being crucified, and then like
the devils in the crowd as a baby.
And I remember watching that,
because even the first time I watched it,
I thought it was a cool movie, and I'm like,
what in the world?
Why is the devils in the, it was like real dark and weird.
I mean, what a weird, weird, totally,
any Hollywood movie, especially if it makes money,
is not gonna be accurate at all.
Let's close the word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing me
to be in your house today, and help us take away
these words that we've seen in John chapter 19.
Help us to love our Bibles, God, and to read it faithfully,
and help us to learn so many interesting things
in the Bible for us to learn, God.