Connect with Skip - Skip Heitzig

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We're glad you've joined
us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig exists to
connect you to God's never changing truth in ever changing
times through verse by verse teaching of His Word. That's
why we make messages like this one today available to
you and others on air and online. Before we kick
off today's teaching, we want to let you know that

(00:23):
you can stay in the know about what's happening at
Connect with Skip Heidzig when you sign up for email updates.
When you do, you'll also receive Skip's weekly devotional email
to inspire you with God's Word each week. So sign
up today at connectwiskip dot com. That's Connect with Skip
dot com. Now let's get into today's teaching from pastor

(00:45):
Skip Heitzig.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
And they put on him a purple robe. This is
a military robe. There were many in the Antonia Fortress.
One of the soldiers took another soldiers or perhaps his
own robe, and put it on him. This will add
to the suffering of Jesus later on, because as the
robe is put on him and the blood soaks through
the robe and begins to coagulate. By the time he

(01:11):
gets to the place of crucifixion, and they rip the
robe off of him. It'll open up those wounds afresh.
Now a crown of thorns is put upon his head.
Now thorns, I think are significant. They're emblematic of the curse.
After Adam sinned in the garden, God pronounced a curse.
He said, cursed is the ground. For your sake, thorns

(01:34):
and thistles they will bring forth. So this emblem of
the curse put on the one who came to eradicate
the curse, the one who would one day take away
the curse of the earth all together, as we all
live in a millennial kingdom of paradise on Earth, is
now taking the punishment for the curse brought upon mankind

(02:00):
by sin and verse three. Then they said, Hail, King
of the Jews, and they struck him with their hands.
There was a game, a very cruel Roman game, played
by the soldiers. Keep in mind Roman soldiers were bored.
They gathered in Jerusalem at the Antonio Fortress just to

(02:22):
put down any riot that might start. So they just
sort of sat around all day waiting for action, and
if no action came their way, they would they would
create a little. So whenever they got a prisoner, they
would take their aggressions out. They're bored him out on
a prisoner, and one of the games is called hot hand.
They would blindfold a prisoner and they would take turns

(02:44):
punching in the face that prisoner and then telling the
prisoner to guess which soldier it was that struck the blow.
Now why this was unusually cruel is because if I
if I were to throw a jab at your face,
and trust me, I won't do that unless you really

(03:05):
bother me. No, I'm just kidding. I won't. I won't
do it. But if I were to do that, you
would have the advantage of sight. You'd be able to duck,
kind of move your body with it and lessen the impact.
But when you're blindfolded and you get struck, you get
cold cocked without being able to see it. You will
take the full brunt of that impact. So they struck

(03:29):
him with their hand. They played that cruel game. Pilot
then went out again and said to them, behold, I
am bringing him out to you that you may know
that I find no fault in him. The second time
we read and there are many times if you put Matthew, Mark, Luke,

(03:49):
and John together. There were several times that Pilot was
trying to get Jesus off. He knew he was innocent.
He has come to a verdict not guilty. After the scourging,
It's like, okay, let this man go. I find no
fault in him. I'm the judge here. You brought him
to me. He's clear. Then Jesus came out wearing the

(04:14):
crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilot said
to them, behold the man. It's a very famous phrase.
You've read it, You've heard it in Latin eshe Homo,
behold the man. There's an arch in Jerusalem called the
eshe Omo arch that is believed to be the spot

(04:37):
the area of the Antonio Fortress where Pilot brought Jesus
out and said these words. When Pilot said behold the man,
this is a this is a cry of pity, like
look at this poor creature. I believe. Pilot, trying to
appeal to their compassion, said look at him. Isaiah predicted this.

(05:02):
Isaiah said that he will be beaten with stripes, for
by his stripes we are healed. His visage, his face,
Isaiah said, is marred more than any other man, and
his form more than the sons of man. Behold the man. Therefore,

(05:26):
when the chief priests and the officers saw him, they
cried out, saying, crucify him, crucify him. Pilot said to them,
you take him and crucify him, for I find no fault.
Third time, Pilot has declared, by his own lips not guilty.

(05:48):
The Jews answered him, we have a law, and according
to our law, he ought to die because he made
himself the son of God. Now they're showing their hand.
Now they're revealing their true motive. They made up charges

(06:08):
and they tried to get Jesus killed based on those
false charges. They said he's an insurrectionist. He commands us
to avoid paying taxes to Caesar. Those charges didn't stick
because they were false charges. There was no evidence of that.
Even bringing in a false witnesses didn't stick. So now

(06:33):
they're revealing their true motive. We want to kill him
because he is a blasphemer. He claims that he is deity,
he claims to be God. Leviticus twenty four is the
reference when they say, we have a law in our
law commands that he die. Leviticus twenty four says that

(06:55):
there's somebody among you that blasphemes, you are to take him,
throw him him down, and stone him to death. That
was their law. The problem was the Jews had no
right to execute anyone. The Romans took that right away.
Capital punishment was removed. Only the Romans could lay down

(07:16):
the law. So they bring him to Pilot. They want
a guilty verdict, but there's nothing in Roman law that
would implicate him. So they say, we have a law,
and according to our law, he must die because he
made himself the son of God. Now I want you
to think of that phrase son of God for a moment.

(07:38):
I want you to think of it because you may
meet someone who will say to you, you know, Jesus
never claimed to be God. He only claimed to be
the son of God. The term the son of God
is a term of deity, an expression of being God.

(08:00):
I have a son, he has my DNA. We're two
separate beings. But as my son, he is a man
like I am a man. The son of a man
is a man. The son of a dog is a dog.
The son of a shark is a shark. Same DNA,

(08:24):
two separate entities, but same substance. The son of God
is God. It's a term of deity used in the
Old Testament and applied to Jesus Christ. And the reason
they would kill They wouldn't kill somebody who says, you know,

(08:45):
I'm a child of God like everybody else, I'm a
child of God. You don't get killed for that. That's
not a capital crime. The reason the Jews wanted to
kill him is because he claimed to be equal with God.
We read that in the Gospel of John. We have
noted on several occasions Jesus said to them. On one occasion,

(09:06):
they try to pick up stones to kill him, I've
done many good works. Which good work do you want
to stone me for? And they said, not for a
good work, but because you, being a man, are making
yourself out to be God. And they said, that's blasphemy.
You claim to be deity. So now they're just cutting
down to the core and they're saying, look, according to

(09:27):
our law, he needs to die because of blasphemy he
makes himself the son of God. Now, notice what happens next. Therefore,
when Pilot heard that saying he was more afraid, Pilot
immediately thinks, oh, he's what they keep using that term

(09:50):
son of God. Pilot, being a Roman, had a Roman worldview.
The Roman worldview is very superstitious. They believe that a
person may be a representative of a divine being, and
if you mess with that person, they might bring damage
on you. They might kill you, they might hurt you. Well,

(10:14):
Pilot just had Jesus beaten up. Uh, you called him what?
And I just did what. Not only that, but Pilot's wife,
remember had that dream, said, have nothing to do with
that righteous man. Oh, he's the what son of God. Therefore,
when Pilot heard that saying, he was more afraid. We

(10:40):
don't have time to look back. But in Matthew's Gospel,
the Gospel of Matthew, it says Pilot marveled at him,
marveled at him. The word is foul madzo. In the
Greek it means to be shaken and astonished, shaken and astonished.
He marveled at him. Now watch this, and went again

(11:04):
into the praetorium and said to Jesus, where are you from? Now?
Remember in our last chapter Jesus said, my kingdom is
not of this world. And then he said, I came
into this world for that purpose, as a king.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
You're listening to connect with Skip Heightsig before we return
to Skip's teaching. Misunderstandings about Jesus abound. Some see him
as a prophet, others as a moral teacher, and still
others as just a myth or mere historical figure. But
the Bible tells a different story about who Jesus is.
We want to help you know the real Jesus of

(11:40):
the Bible by sending you Skip Heitzig's nine message CD
series Who Is This Jesus. In this eye opening series,
Pastor Skip addresses common misconceptions about Jesus, clarifying both Jesus
as humanity and his divinity. To equip you to confidently
answer questions about who Jesus really is. We'll send you
the Who Is This Jesus series as well as Skip's

(12:03):
booklet for new believers titled Life Change as thanks for
your gift of fifty dollars or more to reach more
people with God's love through connect with Skip Heisig. Go
to connect with Skip dot com slash offer, or call
eight hundred and ninety two to two eighteen eighty eight
and request your copy when you give. Now, let's get
back to Skip for more of today's teaching.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
So he has already said and intimated that he comes
from another realm, and that he is a king, but
not of this world, but from a heavenly realm. So
now Pilot just comes in point blank says where are
you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. Then Pilot

(12:46):
said to him, oh, you know you could to see
him like, raising his eyebrow. Are you not speaking to me?
Do you not know that I have power to crucify
you and power to release you? Now at this saying,
Jesus is going to pipe up. Now Jesus is going

(13:07):
to speak. Pilot has appealed to authority. Don't you know
who I am? I have power, I have authority. I
can give you the death sentence. Don't you realize who
I am? Jesus answered, you could have no power at
all against me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore,

(13:31):
the one who delivered me to you has greater sin.
Something struck me as I was reading this verse. Jesus said,
you would have no power at all unless it was
given to you from above. Do you believe that leaders
good or bad are put in their position by God?

(13:56):
I hope you do if you believe Romans chapter thirteen.
You may not like the judge who hands you the sentence,
or the police officer who writes you the ticket, or
the president who's in the White House. But nobody has
the right as a Christian to ever say, well, that's
not my judge, or that's not my governor, or that's

(14:18):
not my president, because that person, whether it's the current
president or the former president or the president last generation,
is put in that position by God. And so Paul's
point in Romans thirteen is give honor to whom honor

(14:40):
is due, Pray for them, honor them, because if you don't,
you're dishonoring God in heaven. It leaves the Christian with
absolutely no option except to honor those in authority. Do
you agree or not, whether you voted for that person

(15:03):
or not. Here is punches Pilot a cruel dictator as
a governor, and Jesus acknowledges him, you have power, but
you've been put in power for this season by God.
From then on, Pilot sought to release him. See Pilot
knows he's innocent, but the Jews cried out, saying, if

(15:26):
you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend,
whoever makes himself a king, speaks against Caesar. These guys
hate Caesar, hey hate him with a passion. They hate
the Roman government. But all of a sudden they gets

(15:46):
suddenly patriotic. Suddenly they're all worried about Caesar and being
buddies with Caesar. When Pilot therefore heard that saying, he
brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat
in a place that is called the pavement. But in
Hebrew Gabba tha, that's saying really bothered him. And you

(16:16):
need to know why. Shall we say pilot was on
thin ice with the emperor in Rome, that was Tiberius Caesar.
Let me tell you why. Punch's pilot had been the
governor of Judea for five years so far at this
point he had made mistakes. He had made three very

(16:37):
bad mistakes. But this isn't baseball, so he's not out yet,
but he's on thin ice. Strike number one came when
Punch's pilot was first placed in that position, and he
came into Jerusalem with the banners the ensigns of the
Roman army. Those were those tall vertical poles, and on

(17:01):
top of the poles, on top of the banner, on
top of the standard was a little bust of Caesar,
because Caesar was worshiped as deity. So on top of
those little poles is this little bust of Caesar. On
all the soldier's poles had them. Well, you know, in
Judaism it's against Jewish law to have an image of

(17:22):
any kind of any kind anything of in heaven or
on earth. Second commandment says, I want no images. They
took it very seriously because there's images in Jerusalem. They rebelled.
How they rebel They went to Caesarea by the sea,
which is where Pilot's headquarters were, and said, we demand
you take those little busts away, those poles out no

(17:47):
images in Jerusalem. Pilot responded by hurting them all in
the amphitheater in Caesarea and said, now my soldiers are
going to come by and cut your head off unless
you stop your protest. What happened next, Pilot was not
ready for. The Jewish leaders fell to the ground, pulled

(18:12):
their shirts down and bared their neck to the Roman
sword and said, please cut here along this line. We
would rather die than break our law. Well, at that
point Pilot knew he lost. He had never seen people
willing to die for such a law, so he recanted.

(18:32):
He thought this would be a mess. He pulled back,
and he pulled those ensigns out. That got all the
way to Rome. Second mistake, punches Pilot wanted to build
an aqueduct to bring more water into Jerusalem because the
sacrifices in the temple required a lot of water to
wash away the blood, and they just needed more water

(18:53):
in that city was a growing city. Well, he didn't
have the money in the coffers of Rome to pay
for it, so by he invaded the temple and took
from the temple treasury money to pay for the aqueduct.
People protested. Pilots sent soldiers in among the protesting crowd
with swords and clubs hidden in their robe, and at

(19:14):
a certain signal, he told his soldiers dressed like regular
people to kill them. So several were murdered and the
crowd was dispersed. That got back to Rome. Third mistake.
He brought tribute shields with an embossed image of Tiberius

(19:36):
Caesar to the Antonia Fortress. These were just decorative shields
and they were only placed inside the Antonio Fortress where
soldiers could see them, not the Jewish public. But they
found out about it, and they protested, and they complained
and appealed to Caesar in Rome. Caesar himself said, you
take those shields out, so he's on thin eyes. So

(20:01):
you can understand now the threat when they say, whoever
does this is not Caesar's friend. Oh he knew what
that meant. It was a veiled threat or not so veiled.
We're gonna we're gonna tell on you. We're gonna tell
mom on you, or Daddy on you. Daddy Caesar is
gonna find out about this. When Pilot therefore heard that, saying,

(20:24):
he brought Jesus out and sat in the judgment in
that place that has called the pavement, but in Hebrew Gobbatha.
Now it was the preparation day of the Passover, and
it was about the sixth hour, and he said to
the Jews, behold your king. But they cried out, ohway

(20:50):
with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilot said, shall
I crucify your king? The chief priest answered, now this
is this is going to seal it. The chief priest,
who hated Caesar, answered, we have no king. But Caesar

(21:13):
again suddenly they wax patriotic, Suddenly they love Caesar, and
in rejecting Jesus as their king and saying we want
Caesar as our king, you know what will happen in
just a few years from now at Caesar's orders. Their king,

(21:34):
Caesar will order Titus in seventy a d to destroy
the temple, destroy the city, and slaughter one point five
million Jews. You really want Caesar as your king, because
that's what your king is going to do to you.

(21:57):
I do want to make note of something in this
verse that you might just pass over, but I think
it will help you in understanding the chronology of the
New Testament, and especially this crucifixion. It says in verse fourteen,
it was the preparation day of the Passover. It was Friday,
and it was about the sixth hour. Now John is

(22:21):
using Roman time, the reckoning of time by Rome, and
according to Rome, the Romans began their day at midnight,
so it was six am. The sixth hour was six
in the morning. The preparation day was the day that
the lambs would be in the afternoon for a two

(22:42):
hour period slaughtered in the temple. And it was that
day that the Jews would eat the Passover in Jerusalem.
They're going to go home and take that lamb that
are slaughtered, and they're going to have a meal, the
Passover meal. That's the preparation day. And we read in
the previous chapter that when they brought Jesus before Punches Pilot,

(23:02):
they didn't want to go into Punches Pilot's headquarters less
they become remember the word defiled, so that they could
eat the Passover. They hadn't eaten it yet. That's going
to come later on that night, the day of preparation.
The lambs are going to be slain. They're going to
take one home. They're going to eat the Passover that night.

(23:23):
So now we have a bit of a problem because
Jesus and his disciples the night before have eaten the Passover.
So people will read this and they go see there's
a problem in the Bible. Another one. There's this discrepancy
there all over the place, and here's one. And that's
because they don't know their history, and so they just

(23:44):
want to chalk it up to being a discrepancy or
a contradiction. It's not a contradiction at all. And let
me explain to you why in Galilee, the Galileans, the northernerners,
began their day. They looked at the day from sunrise
to sunrise in Jerusalem down south in Judea. The more

(24:06):
orthodox Jews reckon time from sunset to sunset, which means Galileans.
This is according to Josephus, the Jewish historian, and the
Jewish writings in the Mishnah, and a couple of other sources.
The Galileans, because of their reckoning of the day, would

(24:28):
eat the Passover on one night, and the next night
the Judeans would eat it. Clears it up. Doesn't it
make sense.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember
that when you give fifty dollars or more to help
reach more people with the Gospel through connect with Skip Heizig,
we'll send you pastor Skip series Who Is This Jesus
and his booklet Life Change to help you better understand
both who Jesus is and why you can trust what
the Bible says and who you are as a belo

(25:00):
in Christ. To request your copy of these resources, call
eight hundred ninety two two eighteen eighty eight. That's eight
hundred ninety two two eighteen eighty eight or visit connect
with Skip dot com slash offer for more from Skip.
Be sure to check out the many resources available at
connectwiskip dot com slash store. Come back next time for

(25:23):
more verse by verse teaching of God's word. Here on
connect with skip Heidzig Make Connects, Make connects, The Crossing.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
Chat and song makes next.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Connect with skip Heidzig is a presentation of connection communications
connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.