SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/3/2017
7:48 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-1 “Pilate’s Fatal Panic”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 19:8-12
Message of the
verses: “8 Therefore when Pilate
heard this statement, he was even more afraid; 9 and he entered into the
Praetorium again and said to Jesus, "Where are You from?" But Jesus
gave him no answer. 10 So Pilate said to Him, "You do not speak to me? Do
You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to
crucify You?" 11 Jesus answered, "You would have no authority over
Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered
Me to you has the greater sin." 12 As a result of this Pilate made efforts
to release Him, but the Jews cried out saying, "If you release this Man,
you are no friend of Caesar; everyone who makes himself out to be a king
opposes Caesar."”
We ended our last SD in the section before this by
looking at verse seven which says “7 The Jews answered him, "We have a
law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God."” After the Jews said this Pilate goes back and
talks to Jesus once again, and as mentioned in our last SD this happened
because he was frightened, frightened over what the Jews said about Jesus, and
frightened over what his wife had said to him about the dream she had concerning
Jesus. We also stated about Pilate that
as a Roman he was not only cynical but he was superstitious, and this
frightened him. Pilate may have though that Jesus was one of the gods that the
Romans worshiped come to earth in human form, and that would have been a
partial truth missing the fact that Jesus Christ was the very God who created
the world and now He was standing before Pilate in human form. If Pilate superstitious thoughts were right
he would have been more afraid as he had just had Jesus scourged and now
perhaps he would bring vengeance upon him.
Pilate then takes Jesus back into the Praetorium and asks
Jesus where He was from, and the question was not about where He was from on
earth, for Pilate knew He was a Galilean “6
When Pilate heard it, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. 7 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 (Luke 23:6-7).” John MacArthur speaks about Jesus’ silence: “There are several possible reasons for the
Lord’s silence. It fulfilled Isaiah’s
prophecy concerning Him: ‘He was
oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that
is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He
did not open His mouth’ (Isa. 53:7).
Further, Jesus had already told Pilate that He was a king from another
realm (18:36-37). Certainly Jesus’
silence was judgmental, in the sense that Pilate had heard the truth and
rejected it, and now would receive no further answer from Him. The Bible teaches that when men persist in
rejecting God, He will reject them (cf. Judges 10:13; 2 Chron. 15:2; 24:20; Ps.
81:11-12; Hos. 4:17; Matt. 15:14).”
Pilate seems to be a bit irritated that Jesus would not
answer him and so he replies “You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I
have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?"” Pilate may have had the right however he did
not have the courage to either release Him or to crucify Him. Leon Morris writes:
“The question is
illuminating. In the last resort it was
Pilate alone who could say ‘Crucify’ or ‘Release,’ and this frank recognition
of it makes nonsense of all the shifts to which he resorted in the attempt to
avoid making a decision. Ultimately he
could not avoid responsibility and these words show that deep down he must he
must have realized this.”
We will continue to look at this in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: There have been
times in my life when I have had to make a choice that I knew if I made the
wrong choice that it would be hurtful to my Lord. I have to say that I have not always made the
right choice and deeply regretted it.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I believe that the Lord has spoken to my
heart about what I am to share for this week’s Sunday school class and for that
I am very thankful. God has answered my
prayers and I wish to bring glory to Him by getting these thoughts on paper and
then going over them in my mind.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Matthias” (Acts 1:26).
Today’s Bible
question: “Which epistle is anonymous”
Answer in our next SD.
5/3/2017 8:22 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment