He Answered Him Nothing

So this morning, I want to ask you, start out by asking you about Christians' relationship to the government. How about Christians relate to the government as citizens? This is the question I want us considering. If I don't want you to answer it, I just want you to think about it right now. Some of us think, well, we ought to do what the government says. We got to do what the government says, and that's as far as we've gotten. And some of us are going, well, yeah, but... If the government's righteous, that all applies. And if they're not, then, well, away with them. Some of us are ignorant going, I don't really know. Not sure what we ought to do. Not sure when we ought to do. The reason I start by asking this question and getting it into your minds is we're going to see Jesus interacting with the government, with the civil government. And we're going to see them interacting with him. And it's interesting to see the dynamics between them and then what the outcomes are.

As you know, they're sad outcomes. Jesus ends up being found guilty. But it's interesting that as we read, and I'm pulling the curtain back and telling you where we're ending up at the beginning, but I want you to know so that you're not surprised. Both Pilate and Herod, neither one of them, these are the guys we're going to read about today, neither one of them think Jesus is guilty. And our text makes it very clear. Neither one of them think he's done anything wrong. And yet, each in their turn, mock him, hold him in contempt. pass him back and forth like a criminal. But neither one of them think that he's guilty. And so it was interesting to me as I was reading and studying and preparing, it undid a lot of my expectations that people are very straightforward and that they actually do what they're convinced of. And you find often that they don't. And so as we look at this and as we study how these men treat Jesus, we're also going to pay attention to how he interacts with them, what he does.

With the end being that we'll actually take our cues from Jesus. That we won't look and go, oh, well, isn't that nice? Look what Jesus did. Well, not for me. But that we would look and go, I see. There's instruction here for me. There's instruction here for my kids. There's instruction here for us as Christians. So that's the purpose this morning. We're going to be studying Luke chapter 23, the first 12 verses. Would you please stand now for the reading of God's word? This is the word of the Lord, and it is eternally true. Then the whole body of them got up and brought him before Pilate.

And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king. So Pilate asked him, saying, Are you the king of the Jews? And he answered him and said, It is as you say. Then Pilate said to the chief priests in the crowds, I find no guilt in this man. But they kept on insisting, saying, He stirs up the people teaching all over Judea, starting from Galilee, even as far as this place. When Pilate heard it, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who himself also was in Jerusalem at that time. Now Herod was very glad when he saw Jesus, for he had wanted to see him for a long time, because he'd been hearing about him and was hoping to see some sign performed by him. And he questioned him at some length, but he answered him nothing. And the chief priests and the scribes were standing there, accusing him vehemently.

And Herod, with his soldiers, after treating him with contempt and mocking him, dressed him in a gorgeous robe and sent him back to Pilate. Now Herod and Pilate became friends with one another that very day, for before they had been enemies with each other. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. So if you're here last week, you remember the sermon. They've gone to arrest Jesus, and they've taken him away by night, and they brought him to the chief priest's house. And what they're trying to do is work up a charge against him. Something that they can take to the civil magistrate, to the Romans, that's worthy of death. And so they've got people coming in one after another, guys that the chief priests have arranged to come in and to lie, to blaspheme, to bear false testimony against Jesus, hoping to find enough men who've got their story straight enough that they can go before Pilate and they can get him put to death. They can get Jesus put to death.

Well, if you remember, none of the witnesses could get their story straight. They couldn't find enough witnesses, two or three, who they thought could pass muster before Pilate. And so finally they asked Jesus, if you're the son of man, tell us. And he says, well, if I tell you, you won't believe. And if I ask you a question, you'll not answer. But know that from now on, the son of God has work to do. I don't remember how the rest of all of it went. But he basically acknowledges, who he is. And they say, so are you the son of God? And he says, yes, I am. And they say, what more do we need? What more testimony do we need? He's admitted it himself. And so that's where we dropped off last week. This is all happening at night. Peter's out in the courtyard. Peter's denying Jesus through all of this. And as soon as day breaks, they pass their judgment and they decide that they're going to take him over to Pilate. And that's where our text picks up this morning. So all of the chief priests and the scribes, they all gather together.

And they take Jesus and they present him before Pilate. Quite a raucous crowd showing up, first light. We've got a problem. We need you to pass judgment. And so they accuse Jesus. And what is the accusation? They say, we found this man misleading our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar and saying that he himself is Christ, a king. Now, if you remember what Jesus said of himself and you listen to what they say, you already are scratching your head and going, Jesus didn't say all of that. And so they're blowing up the accusation. They're making it more than it was. But the substance of their accusation is that Jesus is fomenting sedition. It's like there's a little bit of frustration among the Jews because of the Romans, and Jesus is like a guy. What he's doing is pouring gas on the fire. He's trying to stir the people up to rebel against the Romans. That's the accusation, that they're leveling against Jesus before Pilate.

They're saying that Jesus taught that they ought not to pay taxes and that he ought to be called the king because he's the Christ. Now this was supposed to incite Pilate. It was supposed to make him mad. It was supposed to be a threat to his power, to his authority, to his place. And the end was supposed to be that Pilate would kill Jesus. That having seen that Jesus is telling them to rebel against the Romans, to not pay taxes, and to set himself up as a king, Pilate was supposed to say, We can't have any of that. We can't have a man doing that sort of thing around here off with his head. Put him to death. Now, I want to talk about this accusation a little bit so that you can see the lies that are going on here. He tells them, they first say that he's misleading the nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar. Now, this is simply not true. This is the exact opposite of what Jesus said regarding whether they should pay taxes or not. Just a few chapters before in Luke 20,

They're coming out, and this is the point in their prosecution of Jesus where the Pharisees are asking him questions, and they're trying to sway the crowds by asking him a difficult question that they feel like there's no answer to, that there's no good answer, where he won't either condemn himself before the Romans or get the people to turn against him. So one of the questions they ask him is, is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay taxes? That's the question. But he, Jesus, detected their trickery. And he said to them, show me a denarius. Show me one of the coins. Give it to me. And he holds it up and he says, whose likeness and inscription is on this? And they say Caesar's. And he said to them, then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. And what is he saying to them except that that money that you pulled out of your money bag and that you use to conduct your business, that money belongs to Caesar. And so if you're going to use his money, you ought to pay his taxes.

Give it to him. Pay his taxes. And they would think, well, what other choice do we have? And it's like, well, did you not have currency before the Romans came? You, by agreeing to use their currency, agreed to submit to their rules for their currency. So if you use their money, give them their money. This is what Jesus says. He says, you pay taxes. And yet here before Pilate, they're saying, no, he told us not to pay taxes. It's just a lie. Now here's a question. Who was it that didn't want to pay taxes? It was the Jews, right? The reason they asked that question of Jesus in public was because they thought if Jesus said you should pay your taxes, that all of the Jews would get angry and that they'd be able to kill him without causing a riot. And so it wasn't Jesus who had a problem with them paying taxes. It was them. They didn't want to pay taxes. You guys ever heard the saying, a thief thinks everybody steals? That's some of what's going on here.

And it's common among us as well. What the saying means is that whatever bugs us, whatever makes us upset, whatever frustrates us or scares us or makes us happy, whatever it is, whatever causes us to respond, we presume that everyone responds the same way. And so the things that make us angry make other people angry. And no matter how much we interact with other people and see that we actually get angry about stuff that other people somehow don't get angry about, We still think they should. Or we think the things that we appreciate, everyone else appreciates. And no matter how many times we realize that those are our preferences and we like them, but they're not universally accepted. Other people don't prefer the same things we prefer. We still think they should. And that's what's going on with the Jews. They hated paying taxes. They thought that it was unrighteous, unjust. They thought that God was being stolen from. That they were unable to provide for the temple needs because of these taxes.

And Jesus says, you're using his money, give him his money, Caesar's money, give it to him, pay his taxes. And they also said of Jesus, they said that he is saying that he himself is a Christ, which he did say. They said, are you the son of God, the son of man, the Messiah, the Christ? All of these phrases would be of a fabric used together. And at night, Jesus said, yeah, it is as you say, yes, I am. And so they come to him, to Pilate, and they say, he says that he himself is a Christ, and then they add a king. Now why would they add a king? Are they just lying? Is Jesus not a king? Well, in one sense, I mean, no, they're not lying. Jesus is a king. Absolutely he's a king. But why would they say that to Pilate? Well, they say it to Pilate because they want Pilate to believe that Jesus is a threat to Caesar's power and his authority and his dominion in the land.

I want you to think about something for a second. Wherever Jesus went throughout all of Judea, there was a crowd following him. A couple of records tell us 4,000, 5,000, not including the women and children. There was a huge number of people with him, men, who didn't like the Romans. Now, if he was going to incite a riot and a rebellion, do you not think that he had opportunity to do it? He had ample opportunity to cause rebellion among the Jews if he had wanted to. If he wanted to set up another kingdom, if he wanted to overthrow the Romans, he wasn't going to find any opposition among the Jews. He had plenty of people following him, hanging on his every word, wanting the Romans to go away. And you know, if he had done it, what would the Pharisees have thought of him? Would they have hated Jesus if he had done it? They would have loved him.

because they thought that's what their Messiah was supposed to do. He was supposed to come and set them free. He was supposed to come and kick out those nasty Romans and give them their land back. And so the irony in this accusation is very thick, because the Jews are the ones who have a problem with paying taxes, and the Jews are the ones who want there to be another king other than Caesar. Time and again, Jesus has taught the people by the thousands and healed them. And performed all kinds of miracles. And never anywhere in it do you see the people rebelling against the Romans as a result. And so this is the accusation. It's a funny thing. Because the Jews accuse him of the very things that are true of them. He doesn't want us to pay taxes. He's misleading our nation. He's setting himself up as a king. And all they wanted was someone to do all of those things. And they hated him because he didn't do those things.

So Pilate hears the accusation and he asks Jesus, are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus answered and said to him, it is as you say. Now, what would you expect? I mean, I know you've got the text up in front of you and I've read it to you already, but put yourself in real time. What would you expect Pilate to do? Are you the king of the Jews? It is as you say. What would you expect him to do? Off with your head. You're done. Here you are admitting. The validity, the truthfulness of the accusations against you. This is your defense. I'm guilty. But the very next verse says, then Pilate said to the chief priests and crowds. He's the judge. He's done his examination. He's heard the case. He looked at the defendant and said, is it true? And the defendant said, yes. And he looks at the prosecutors and he says, not guilty. I find no guilt in this man.

who's just admitted that what you said is true. You have to like Pilate a little bit. You do. I do. A little bit. Because he sees through this whole thing. At this point, you go, there's at least a man sitting in the judgment seat who isn't going along with all of the lies. He knows well enough that Jesus isn't the one telling them not to pay taxes and Jesus isn't the one that wants them to go away. He's heard nothing but good stuff about this Jesus. He heals people. He teaches them. He feeds them. Here he is, the king of the Jews, telling them to rebel and not pay taxes. And Pilate just goes, nah, I don't believe it. I see what's going on here. So I like that about Pilate. Here's what I don't like about Pilate. He says, I find no guilt in this man. But when they put pressure on him, they didn't accept his judgment.

They kept on insisting, saying he stirs up the people, teaching all over Judea, starting from Galilee, even as far as this place, which is true. Stirring up the people not to rebellion, though. And then this weird thing happens. It says when Pilate heard it, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. It's just a strange thing if you think of it. Why did Pilate ask that question? Well, because he didn't want to have to be the one to deal with the crowd. What he's doing is punting, okay? Plain and simple. There's a conflict brewing right in front of him. They showed up on his doorstep at first light.

wanting him to kill somebody. He's heard the case, and he went, it ain't believable. But if I tell them no, I'm going to have a riot on my hands. And so when they say, he's stirring up people all over Judea, even starting in Galilee, he keys in. He's like, this guy's from Galilee? That's somebody else's problem. That's what's going on. When he heard that he was from Galilee, is he from Galilee? Oh, yeah. And when he learned that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod. who himself was in Jerusalem at the time. Here, Herod, now, there's a political thing going on between Herod and Pilate here that's not immediately obvious in the text, but you need to know about. It says that at the very bottom of it, that after this day, they became friends, that they were previously enemies, okay? So Pilate's looking at killing two birds with one stone here. Herod's his enemy, and if he sends him a prisoner to pass judgment on, it's seen as an honor, a thing of respect.

I defer to your judgment. I'm not going to step on your toes. This is your work. You go on ahead and do it. That's the sort of stuff that's going on in Pilate's mind. So he can get out of having to pass judgment and cause a riot, and he can restore a relationship with Herod. So it's a win-win. He says, send the guy to Herod. Just so you know a little bit more about Pilate. The problem that happened between Herod and Pilate was that Pilate came in and killed a bunch of Galileans. Back in Luke 13, they come and they report this as news to Jesus. They say, now on the same occasion, there were some present who reported to him, to Jesus, about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Now it's a strange thing, mixed with their sacrifices, but what it means is those Galileans were in the temple, they were worshiping and offering sacrifices, and Pilate came in and killed them while they were offering sacrifices because he understood them to be a threat to his authority and his power.

So he went around Herod. He didn't defer to Herod. He just had him killed. And that's what upset Herod. So Pilate has in his hand now an olive branch. The other thing you see about this is Herod, or Pilate rather, he's not above killing people. He's not opposed to it. He's not a softy. He heard the Galileans were rebellious. Thank you, sweetheart. He heard that these Galileans were trouble. And that was it. He went into the temple because that's the only time that Galileans wouldn't have had their swords with them. If we were to talk about the neighborhoods of Indianapolis and where people are tough and where people are more likely to carry a gun and that kind of stuff, the Galileans were the tough ones. They always had their swords, except for when they went and offered sacrifice. So Pilate went and killed them when they had disarmed themselves. Weapons-free zone. He went after them. Same man who says, Jesus, I find no guilt in this man. And so you know that the accusations are really unbelievable.

And I don't mean unbelievable in the like amazing, that's unbelievable. I mean, unbelievable, like they're so obviously false that he defers it to Pilate or to Herod. Now, one of the things I want to note to you about Pilate that is in contrast to Herod is that he doesn't do anything bad to Jesus. He doesn't hold him in contempt. He doesn't beat him. He doesn't mock him. He hears his case and he declares him to be innocent, to have found no guilt in him, which is different than Herod. So he sends over Jesus is sent over from Pilate to Herod. And it says, Now Herod was very glad when he saw Jesus, as he received a gift. For he had wanted to see him for a long time because he had been hearing about him and was hoping to see some sign performed by him. And he questioned him at some length, but he, Jesus, answered him, Herod, nothing. So who is Herod? Well, this is the Herod who had John the Baptist beheaded. So he's not a friendly guy, a nice guy. Also not opposed to killing people.

simply because his wife's daughter decided that she wanted it. But he was happy to see Jesus. He wanted to see a miracle. He wanted to see something amazing. He'd heard all about it, you know. If you heard about that new movie, if you heard about the, you know, they made that trade, the team's going to be great. Don't you want to see them play? He wanted to be entertained by Jesus. That's really what it came down to. And here's a warning for us. Many of us are in danger of being entertained by the gospel and not being, and not. believing it. Herod had no interest in believing in Jesus. He was interested in being entertained by Jesus and seeing what new cool thing Jesus could do that could impress him, but he did not want to believe the gospel. And so we have to be careful, especially in our time, that the gospel not become something that's entertaining. It's not meant for entertainment. It's not meant to tickle our fancies and to be engaging in all of the ways that CGI movies are.

It's just not the point. It's meant to engage a different part of your life, your soul. It's not meant to scratch you where you itch. It's meant to convict you of sin and save you from it. So Herod's very glad to see Jesus. He wanted to see him. He's hoping to see a miracle. It says he questioned him at length. He questioned Jesus at length, but Jesus answered him nothing. So did Jesus perform this miracle? No miracles. He asks him questions. Who are you? What are you about? No answers. So how does Herod respond? He gets angry. He's not used to being treated that way. And so he and his soldiers looked on Jesus with contempt and they mocked him and they dressed him in a gorgeous robe having heard the accusation. They mock him and make fun of him. And they send him back to Pilate. Now you remember at the very beginning I said that neither Herod nor Pilate found Jesus guilty. And for all of Herod's frustration and all the contempt and all the mockery,

what could he have done? You do realize he could have killed Jesus. He could have sentenced him to death, but he knew better. And so one of the things you learn here is how wicked men respond to the gospel. They don't always respond with believing. Sadly, most of the time, they don't respond with believing, certainly not right away. But he does have a certain reverence or acknowledgement of the testimony of Jesus and what he'd done. Just because Jesus wouldn't answer him in this time doesn't mean he didn't know about Jesus and who he was. He knew the charges were false. And the chief priests and the scribes are still there accusing, vehemently, wanting him to put to death. And so he finds his own way of appeasing the crowds. He mocks Jesus, holds him in contempt, dresses him in a fine robe, and sends him back to Pilate. He does basically the same thing Pilate does, but treats Jesus poorly in the process. He doesn't want anything to do with killing Jesus. And it's worth us noting that there are wicked men that are convinced of things.

Both of these men are convinced Jesus hasn't done anything wrong. Next week, we'll study what Pilate actually does when Jesus comes back to him. But it's worth you noting that there are men who will be convinced of the truthfulness of what is being said to them, and they will not act accordingly. And you can't be surprised by that. You can't be put off by it. You will be surprised by it. I'm surprised by it. But you understand the stakes of this. And they go, uh-huh. And they go, then you need to do this. And they go, well, I can't do that. If I do that, all hell's going to break loose. One of the places you can see this most clearly in our day is with state legislatures and abortion. A number of my friends, other pastors and guys I know, they spend time talking to legislators, talking to governors, talking to men who are in the position to do something about abortion in their state. And the men don't lack, they don't lack

They don't disbelieve the truth. They just have counted the cost and said, that's too much for me. They're not going to do it. I can't introduce that bill. I can't act unilaterally like that. I can't do it. When actually they can, they just won't. And so I want you to realize when you're dealing with people in positions of power, they have a vested interest in not believing the gospel and not doing what it requires of them. Because the cost is very high to them. And in some ways they're different than you and I, and in some ways they're just like us. None of us will go through life without having a cost to believing the gospel, a cost to following Jesus. Each one of us will. But you need to realize, especially for men in power, their cost is high. And we can say, well, it shouldn't matter. And I say, okay, well, how much does the cost to you matter? In your small life, in your insignificant life, in your behind-the-scenes life, does the cost matter?

And we all say, uh-huh, it matters. And I say, okay, now, have compassion and mercy as you call men to faith, as you want them to do things. Don't expect them to do things you wouldn't do for yourself, things you haven't done for yourself. Like, well, what do you mean, David? I'm like, well, so if you want the guy to put his whole career on the line for the sake of the unborn, which I'm not arguing against, you hear, not opposed to it, will you do the same thing at your job? Or do you have to mind your P's and Q's? I can't say that, they'll fire me. Oh, I didn't know your job was more important than his. More important to you, but his to him. And so Herod and Pilate both think Jesus is innocent. Neither one of them are willing to condemn him. They're both trying to pacify the crowds, keep there from being a riot. And it says that after that, they became friends. After Pilate sent Jesus to Herod and Herod sent him back to Pilate, they became friends.

Here's another thing you learn. The enemy of the enemy, the enemy of my enemy, is my friend. It's a very helpful quote to remember and to understand when you're dealing with conflict. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Another quote that gets at this same thing is, war makes strange bedfellows. Neither one of these are scripture, but they are true. Pilate and Herod became friends because of their opposition to Jesus. Their unwillingness to believe. Their unwillingness to acquit him. That's what led to them becoming friends. And so you have to see that those who oppose the gospel often end up finding friendship with one another. And you ought not to be surprised by that. They can hate each other, but if they hate the gospel more, they'll become friends. The whole point of our message this morning is to say, I don't want you to be surprised when you run into the sort of opposition and the sort of wickedness that Jesus is enduring here.

When you see your brothers and your sisters going through it, I don't want you to go, what's going on? What's wrong? I want you to go, that's what happened to Jesus. That's how they did him. And so that's the first application. I don't want you to be surprised when wicked men team up together to oppose you. I especially don't want you to be surprised when they lie about you. That should not be surprising. It doesn't make it acceptable or right or good or any of that. But I don't want you to be surprised. They told a lie. They said I did. Of course they did. Don't you do the same thing?

I mean, really, do we not do the same sort of thing with people that we don't like? Or are we the type that we never slander and gossip? Of course we tell lies about people, and it's wicked when we do it, and it's wicked when other people do it. Don't be surprised if you stand together with Jesus and someone opposes you and lies about you in the process, you should expect it. First application. Second application. Godly men, godly women, godly families. are a blessing to the civil government. They're supposed to be. They're not supposed to be the ones who incite rebellion. They're not supposed to be the ones who cause trouble. They're not supposed to be the ones who rebel. You say, well, but, but, but. And I say, okay, well, but, but. We can talk about well, but, but. But what I really want to ask you about, you're like, well, but, but, is are you actually going to do anything about it or are you just going to complain? If you actually want to talk about what can be done, what should be done, what ought to be done, I'm all ears. Let's talk about it.

But if you just want to complain about the government and you just want to be a grump and you just want to run your mouth, you're not doing any good. And so don't do it. If anyone could have spoken against the government at this time, if anyone could have overthrown the Romans, it was Jesus, right? This is the same Roman government that Paul tells the Romans to submit to. And what I don't want is us as Christians to live in the exceptions. If you really think that there's a time and a place for you to say, No, uh-uh, ain't going to do it. I'm opposed. Well, let's talk about it. But if your general disposition is, I don't want to do anything anybody tells me, then you have no fear of God. That's what Paul tells us in Romans 14. These governments, and the Romans, you realize, were not the first wicked government to come in and oppress God's people. The Assyrians came in, the Babylonians came in. All kinds of people have come in and have given God's people a hard time. The Egyptians, all kinds of governments.

And you have to realize that those governments have been raised up by God to accomplish his purpose. And he'll deal with them. And so what is our place? Our place is to be godly citizens. And whenever the government comes into conflict directly and unavoidably with what God requires of you, you're not to listen to them. And it's not something you have to wonder about. At that point, at that point, you're not to listen to them. But before that, that's not the case. A life of grumbling and complaining against the authority that God's placed over you will not prepare for you to serve God in heaven. It just won't. You say, but they're wicked. And I say, we're the Romans, not wicked. We're the Babylonians, not wicked. We're the Egyptians, not wicked. We're the Assyrians, not wicked. We're the Jews, not wicked. This is not what dictates whether we obey or not. Unless our government is demanding that we disobey God.

We're to listen to them and we're to obey them and we're to pay our taxes to them. Even though they squander it. This is our work as Christians. Wicked men will do wicked things. Each one of us has in our hearts wickedness. To go right along with them and to match their wickedness and raise them one. Each one of us has these temptations. Our place is to submit ourselves to the Lord. To submit ourselves to his will in our life. To trust him. And to abide by the laws that have been placed over us by God for our good. And when the time comes that we're to oppose, at that time, we're not to be surprised when our opposition meets with conflict, because it will. And faithfulness in the little things to God will prepare you for faithfulness to the big things when those times come in our lives. And so my hope and my prayer is that we'll be prepared for those times, that we won't be afraid or put off or driven away by the cost of following Jesus, seeing how he's treated by the wicked men.

who ultimately are going to put him to death. But they would prepare us to follow in his train, to be like him, to make wise judgments, to know when to fight and to know when to be quiet. He answered Pilate, but he didn't answer Herod. It takes wisdom to know how to conduct yourself in these situations. Let's pray for that wisdom now.