Fear: Son of God or Son of Men?
John 19:1-16
Pastor Wes
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Last Sunday, Pastor Dave led us through the end of John chapter 18. We saw Jesus being interrogated by Pilate, and we explored some of the tactics the enemy used against Pilate- the same tactics he often uses against us- as he plays on our arrogance and tempts us to ignore truth in order to self-preserve. As we continue reading and enter into chapter 19, I want us to still picture ourselves in Pilate’s shoes, as he makes the historic decision to listen to the loud voices of the world around him, rather than the quieter voice tugging in his heart. How often we find ourselves in similar situations, with the choice to listen to the quiet voice we know is right, or to listen to the louder voice we sense is wrong! If you think about it, so much of the Christian journey is made up of learning how to hear and obey the Lord’s voice over the shouts of the world’s voice. Who do we listen to more? Who do we fear and respect more: the LORD- Creator of the world, or man? Our text this morning is rich with description of the battle going on in Pilate’s heart as he wrestled with who to honor and fear more. But before we dive into the text, I don’t want us to miss the significance of the last verse (verse 40) in the previous chapter 18…
The parallel accounts of this event in the book of Mark and Luke tell us that Barabbas had been imprisoned on account of revolting and murder. (Mark 15:7, Luke 23:25) What this means, is that Barabbas was someone who had rebelled against the Roman occupation, and was attempting to overthrow the Roman authority and governance, and that somewhere along the way in that attempt, blood had been shed. Barabbas had likely killed a Roman soldier or soldiers in an uprising. Now I believe this isn’t just a side note contained in the gospel books, this is a very significant detail, one that in itself contains the very gospel message: Jesus Christ- completely innocent, is condemned to die- taking the place of the one who deserved to die because of His violent rebellion against the authority over him. The one who violently rebelled is set free and is given life, because of Jesus taking his punishment. Wow- there’s the gospel- loud and clear. We all, in some way, have rebelled, chosen our own way, sinned against God (who is our authority over us); and the punishment for that rebellion is death (eternal separation from God). Yet Jesus, (a perfect, fully innocent man) has chosen to take our place, taking our punishment on Him through His death, so that we might be set free for life eternal.
What drives this symbolic, gospel point even further is the meaning of the name Barabbas. Bar means “son of” and abbas is the plural of abba- meaning father. Barabbas is the son of fathers, in other words he is the product of the generations before him, he is representative of the “sons of men,” the term the book of Genesis uses to describe the fallen race of mankind. On top of that, the early 2nd century biblical scholar by the name of Origen, tells us that Barabbas was known as Jesus-Barabbas. Now Jesus was a fairly common name during New Testament times, it was the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua. But how interesting it is that here in this moment, Pilate and the people are choosing between Jesus-Son of God, and Jesus-Son of Men.
And the resulting scenario in John 19 has everything to do with this battle of choosing between Jesus-Son of God and Jesus-Son of Men. In fact today, that is still the number one most import decision you will make in your life here on earth- will you choose to listen to, honor, and fear the Son of God, or will you choose to listen to, honor, and fear sons and daughters of men? Let’s read the first 6 verses of John 19…
Pastor Dave mentioned last week that the book of Matthew lets us know that sometime during this interrogation, Pilate’s wife sent a message to Pilate advising him to leave Jesus alone, for she had a terrifying dream of His righteousness. (Matt. 27:19) And I’m sure at this point, Pilate as well, is sensing Jesus’ innocence. But innocent or not, people under Roman authority don’t get off that easy, so Pilate has Jesus whipped, and soldiers mock Him with a crown of thorns and a kingly robe, and then he brings Jesus out in front of the people in order to show them he has punished and humiliated Him, in hopes that the crowd will be satisfied and he can then go home, having pleased the people, while also avoiding killing an innocent man.
But the people started chanting “Crucify, crucify!” Pilate had the authority and power to release Jesus, (as he felt in his heart was the right thing to do) but instead he did what we often do- he passed the responsibility off to someone else. In facing the decision to honor the Son of God or the “son of man,” he looked for someone else to take the burden of responsibility, so that he could avoid the hard decision. But when we avoid making the hard decision, what often happens- inevitably- is that the right decision is avoided. The gospel of Luke tells us that sometime during this event, Pilate had also sent Jesus off to Herod, (Luke 23:7-11) again- avoiding the opportunity to stand up and make the right decision.
We each, alone, are accountable for what we do with this man Jesus. We each, alone, are accountable for listening to His voice, or for choosing to heed the voice of the shouting mob. Let me say it another way- your relationship with Jesus is dependent on you alone- not on your parents, not on your friends, not on your family, not on your pastor, not on your church. You alone must hear His voice above the voice of the world, and you alone must do all that you can possibly do in order to follow Him more closely. Whether you are comfortable with that decision or not, it is a decision that you alone must personally deal with. Verses 7-12…
Here in verse 12 we see that Pilate made efforts to release Jesus. I wonder if that could be descriptive of how we sometimes attempt to honor and fear the Son of God above the sons of men? Do we sometimes just “make efforts” towards that? “Well, I aim to read and pray a little each day.” “I need to be more involved with a church family- I’ll even post on social media that’s what we should be doing.” “I would share about Jesus with someone else, if they were to bring up the subject.” And sometimes, the things we know we need to do get lost in a sea of good intentions. I don’t want to see us as God’s people just intend to do what we’re supposed to do, but may we boldly- with passion, commitment, and follow through- live our lives tuned into hearing His voice and honoring it above all else.
In this verse 12 we can also see the “fear of man” being played up a higher notch to Pilate. The crowd sees that perhaps their loud voices ringing in his ears are not enough, so they appeal to the fear of man by associating Pilate’s resistance with personal rebellion against Caesar. It’s as if they say, “Oh, you don’t fear us? Well then, fear Caesar! Fear your boss, fear for your career, fear for your work relationships, fear for your financial stability. Do what you know is wrong in order to save all of that.” Don’t we hear those voices in our heads too? “If you mention a scripture verse to that person at work, you might get called into the boss and fired for proselytizing. If you ask to pray for your friend, they might think you’re weird and you’ll lose that relationship. If the numbers are fudged just a little bit, your profit will skyrocket. If you do the right thing, it’s going to cost too much, and God wouldn’t want to hurt you like that.” Be on alert, to recognize the sounds of the fear of man being presented to your mind. Verses 13-16…
After an epic battle of the soul, Pilate sits down to look at Jesus-Son of God alongside the voices calling for Jesus-Barabbas, and he then gives in to the fear of man and silences the quieter voice that was softly speaking to his heart. Luke wraps up his account of Pilate’s battle, with this statement: “But they were insistent, with loud voices, demanding that He be crucified. And their voices began to prevail. And so Pilate decided to have their demand carried out. And he released the man for whom they were asking [Barabbas], who had been thrown into prison for a revolt and murder; but he handed Jesus over to their will.” (Luke 23:23-25)
Luke really describes the heart battle well, in saying “and their voices began to prevail.” The crowd became louder than his own conscience. The crowd became louder than his wife’s warning. The crowd became louder than Jesus’ voice that had just previously said “My kingdom is not of this realm.” (John 18:36) I can’t help but think, that the longer Pilate waited to do what was right, the harder it became for him to do what was right. The more time spent looking for someone else to make the decision and take responsibility, the longer he remained undecided, the longer he procrastinated- the loud wrong voice became louder, and the quiet right voice became quieter. I want to remind you, that delaying the right decision, is in fact choosing the wrong decision. If you know the thing God wants you to do right now, the delaying of doing it is disobedience. And what I have noticed throughout life, is that with every act of disobedience, every choice to not act on what you believe God is speaking to your heart, every decision not to apply scripture to your daily life, every time we ignore the prompts of the Holy Spirit, every time we delay doing the right thing out of fear and desire for self-preservation- with each of these acts, the voice of God becomes a little quieter. A little more vague. Passion dries up. Confusion settles in.
In contrast, with every decision made in obedience to God, you become more likely to follow through on the next act of obedience. Hearing God’s voice and acting on it, leads to hearing His voice again, and acting on it, and the little steps lead to bigger steps, and one day you realize God is calling you to a gigantic leap, but yet you have this history of obedience and seeing God’s blessing and provision time after time again, and so the gigantic leap really doesn’t seem so intimidating. So you step, and you leap, and no matter what the outcome is, you have no regrets, because you know you were obedient to the LORD, and the outcome is fully His responsibility.
That is the kind of relationship I want you to experience with the LORD. But you alone will have to make that decision. You alone will have to want that. What changes can YOU do to make your relationship with Jesus stronger? Think about that for a moment, I want you to really answer that question in your mind. Next question: What intentions, or what efforts, do you need to more fully follow through on? I’ll give you some time to think on that one too.
There’s a native American teaching that has made its way through history that says a man once said something like this: “Inside of me there are two wolves. One is evil and the other is good, and they fight each other all the time. And when asked which one wins the fight, I answer, the one I feed the most.” As followers of Jesus, we need to feed our soul with God’s word- His truth- cultivating our ears to more readily grow the sound of His voice, while at the same time boosting our alarm systems to detect lies and fear cast from mankind. Listen to Jesus’ words from the book of Matthew: “Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known… Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows not sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.” (Matt. 10:26, 28-30)