Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

After his aside to show us the outcome of Judas, Matthew brings us back to the bigger picture.

The Sanhedrin has met together and decided that Jesus must go, and He must go in the most drastic terms necessary.

This is what John meant when he wrote: “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”

They didn’t have the authority to carry out the death penalty, but that had not kept them from being overcome in a fit of rage and stoning a person to death, as we have seen.

But, they wanted more than that for Jesus.

They wanted Jesus to be dealt with publicly and officially.

They wanted Jesus to die on a tree, which Deuteronomy teaches us is a mark of a cursed man.

And so, they bring him outside of the house of their Roman governor, Pilate, who is in town to keep an eye of the rowdy Passover festivities.

They are careful to present Pilate a case that he will care about.

They don’t tell him that Jesus is a false prophet or a blasphemer.

They tell him that Jesus is a self-pronounced King, a threat to Rome’s peace try to start a political revolution.

And so, with Jesus standing before him and with an angry mob pushing in upon them, Pilate asks him a question that was the difference between life and death, a question that meant everything then and means everything now: “Are you the King of the Jews?”

In order to understand all that is behind that loaded question, I want to approach our text this morning with three questions of our own.

John says of Jesus in : “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”

At the very outset of his Gospel, John tells the Christmas story like this: “The King left his Throne to dwell among his very own people, and his people rejected him.”

This wasn’t some marginal nation who worshiped the sun.

They were his people whom He had loved and whom He was coming to deliver.

And, they rejected him.

This morning, we’re going to be onlookers to the trial of Jesus, and we’re going to see Jesus’ very own people lobbying for his destruction.

We’re going to see them going to the tyrants of Rome and asking, “Will you murder our King?”

God’s Word

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“Are You the King of the Jews?”

What Will You Do with the “Word of God”?

Jesus Believed and Obeyed the Scriptures

v. 11 “You have said so” First, I want to ask you: What will you do with the “word of God”?

At first glance, you may wonder what this question has to do with our text, but, beneath the surface, this is the question that every, single one of them is facing.

There are a lot of charges being leveled against Jesus.

Pilate is asking him if he believes himself King, the priests and elders are shouting accusations, and the mob is sentencing him, all at the same time.

But, Jesus speaks only once.

Jesus only acknowledged the charge that was true.

Jesus believed He was the Messiah.

This can’t be understated.

Jesus believed that He was the Son of God sent from God to save the people of God.

Jesus believed that He was the only way to heaven.

Jesus believed that his sacrifice was necessary as a satisfaction of the wrath of God.

That is, Jesus believed that He was who the word of God said that He was.

Here is Pilate wanting to acquit him.

Looking for any excuse to let him go.

Hoping to find a good reason.

In fact, Pilate declares Jesus innocent three different times.

Jesus likely could have talked his way out of execution.

Yet, Jesus only answers the one charge that will condemn him.

Putting him in perfect alignment with the word God gave to Isaiah about the Messiah: “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”

Jesus was in alignment with the word of God and obedient to its path, even though that path was costly, filled with suffering, and would ultimately lead to death.

How did Jesus give credibility to himself as Messiah?

He did so by pointing to the word of God and showing how perfectly He fulfilled every iota.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

APPLICATION: Jesus believed that the Scriptures “verified” him and that He “verified” the Scriptures.

On the day of his resurrection, He will meet two disciples face-to-face, and He will walk them all the way through the OT to show how it is about him and is fulfilled in him.

Jesus isn’t doing all of this by the seat of his pants, and He isn’t simply figuring this out as He goes.

He is the Word of God alive in human flesh, and He is living in perfect obedience and fulfillment to all of it.

So, I want to ask you two questions: 1) Do you believe that Jesus is who He believed that He was? Jesus believed that He was the Son of God sent from God to save the people of God.

Jesus believed that He was the only way to heaven.

Jesus believed that his sacrifice was necessary as a satisfaction of the wrath of God.

Jesus wasn’t a philosopher.

He wasn’t a philanthropist.

He didn’t come to add a fresh perspective on spirituality.

If Jesus is right, He is the gate by which we can enter and have eternal life.

2) Do you hold the same view of God’s word that Jesus held?

If you say ‘yes’ to the first question, then ‘yes’ is the only rational answer to the second.

If Jesus is the Living God incarnate among us, if He is the gate to eternal life, if He is truly the holy God, then whatever He believes we must believe.

Whatever He thinks, we must think.

So, is your view of God’s word formed by your opinions, your logical conclusions, your self-seeking justifications, or is it formed by Christ and the Holy Spirit in you?

The Gentile Responds, The Priests Manipulate

yet he opened not his mouth;

v. 19 “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.”

But, I think Matthew wants us to see more than just Jesus’ view of God’s word.

He wants us to see the view of God’s word that is held by Israel’s priests and elders, the spiritual leaders of Israel.

He contrasts the priests and elders with a pagan, a Gentile, someone they considered unclean and unfit for God.

Pilate’s wife is an unexpected player in this whole drama.

For much of time, it was taboo for a governor like Pilate to take his wife with him on location.

But, the law had just changed to allow it, and God uses her for his purposes.

She sends word to Pilate that she has had a dream that caused her ‘suffering’ and that in that dream she became convinced of Jesus’ innocence.

She warns Pilate not to have anything to do with Jesus and this scheme as a result.

She’s trying to protect her husband.

This word ‘dream’ pops up six times in the book of Matthew, and all five of the other occurences are God speaking to someone through a dream.

So, she, even though she is likely unable to process it as the Lord God speaking, she was able to realize that something bigger was going on, and she, an unclean Gentile, responds to a single, momentary dream by faith and belief, declaring Jesus innocent.

Now, contrast that with the priests and elders of Israel.

They were the teachers of the Law.

They were the ones charged with helping the people of God stay true to the word.

They had 1500 years worth of Scriptures testifying to the coming of Christ and to the integrity of the Christ.

They were the ones who were looking for the Messiah.

They were the ones God had revealed himself to.

Yet, they ignored the testimony of Scripture, the fulfillment of prophecy, and the authoritative testimony of Christ himself, and instead manipulated the Scriptures to condemn Christ.

They used the very word of God that pointed to Jesus to call for Jesus’ death and to turn his people against him.

Pilate’s wife “responded” to God’s word while the priests “manipulated” it.

APPLICATION: Do you trust the word of God as much as this unbelieving woman, or do you manipulate it to serve your own agenda like the priests and elders of Israel?

They knew what it said.

They had much of it memorized.

And yet, they manipulated it to their own gain and their own comfort, all while this Gentile woman took it at face value and responded.

Are you manipulating the Scriptures to self-medicate your disobedience?

Are you manipulating the Scriptures so that your habits are okay, your selfishness is bearable, and your unfaithfulness is excused?

Or, are you ready to respond to whatever God has to say? Are you ready to do whatever He says?

Are you searching every corner of your life so that you might correct any place that is out of alignment?

What will you do with the word of God?

like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

Which “Jesus” Will You “Choose”?