GOD’S WORD FOR APRIL 3

Today,  Good Friday, we are deviating from what we were reading, to go

Back to 1934 when Harry Ironside wrote a long message on the Crucifixion,

Part of which we’ll read today.

Excerpt from:

PILATE ~ ~ BY Harry Ironside….   First published in 1934

“What will you do with Jesus?

The call comes low and sweet,

As tenderly He bids you

Your burdens lay at His feet.

O soul, so sad and weary

That sweet voice pleads with thee,

Then what will you do with Jesus,

Oh what shall the answer be?”

There was no hesitation on the  part of the people.   Stirred up by the chief priests, they cried with one voice, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate stood there again in perplexity. He went back to the judgment seat and summoned Jesus once more and put the question, “Whence art thou?” In other words, “Where do you come from, and what is your origin? You are different from other men; who are you really?   Whose case is it upon which I am called to pronounce judgment today?” But Jesus gave him no answer. It is evident that Pilate was no longer the honest inquirer. He was determined to placate the Jews and yet hold favor with Caesar no matter what it might mean. However, he would like to release Jesus. But there is no reply. And Pilate says, “You speak not to me? Do you not know that I have power to crucify you, and have power to release you?” In other words, “Don’t you know that the issues of life and death are in my hands?” Then Jesus spoke and He put the judge in the place of the prisoner when He said: “You could have no power at all against me, except it were given you from above: therefore he that delivered me unto you has the greater sin.” And now Pilate uses every effort in his power to move the hearts of these people to pity, to sympathy, but the answer comes, “If you let this man go, you are not Caesar’s friend: whosoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.” There is an accusation at last! This man is setting himself up as a king in rebellion against Caesar and now, Pontius Pilate, if you let Him go, we will send the charge to Rome that we found this man teaching sedition and that instead of pronouncing sentence upon Him, you let Him go free, and you will lose your position!

Pilate had taken a basin of water and ostentatiously washed his hands in it, saying, “I find no fault in him.” He brought Jesus forth once more with a crown of thorns pressed upon His brow and said, “Behold your King!” but again they cried, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate asked but one other question, “Shall I crucify your king?” Again they exclaim, “We have no king but Caesar.”   So, weary with the struggle, even after his own wife begged him to release Jesus because of a dream,  Pilate gave up.  What difference does it make?   He will sacrifice one almost unknown Galilean Jew and save his own good name with Caesar; so he delivered Jesus to be crucified and they took Him and led Him away.

Pilate had every opportunity to be saved, but that overwhelming sin of ambition, that desire to be thought well of by Caesar, that desire to be looked up to by the people was too much for him.  He gave Jesus to the death of the cross in order to save himself from shame, and what was the result? The centuries since have fixed upon him eternal infamy, “Crucified under Pontius Pilate.” All his life long, he had the memory of this miscarriage of judgment resting in his mind and on his life. This dreadful thing was upon his conscience and when some four or five years later, he went out into eternity as a suicide, he went to face forever the charge, “Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate.” He is facing it today and he shall face it for all eternity. This man had the opportunity of siding with Christ in the hour of our Saviour’s great distress, but he delivered Jesus to the will of the people.

My friend, I bring the question home to you, “What will you do with Jesus which is called Christ?” Jesus is on trial here today; the Spirit of God is saying to you, “What are you going to do with Him?” You must do one of two things. Will you accept Him as your Saviour, own Him as Lord, or will you reject and spurn Him?  You may say, “But I am not going to do anything about it now. I am going to think it through.” The very fact that you do not decide to receive Him as Saviour and Lord is your decision to reject Him, at least at the present moment. Pontius Pilate tried to be neutral and found that it was an impossibility. You cannot be neutral. It is not enough to say that you recognize in Him the greatest and best of the sons of men; it is not enough to admit that no other ever taught as Jesus taught; it must be more than that. You must see in Him the sinner’s Saviour; you must come to Him in all your guilt and trust Him for yourself.

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Galatians 1:10 – “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God?”

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Matthew 10:33 – “Whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.”

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John 12:43 – “For they loved human praise more than praise from God.”

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Luke 9:26 – “Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them.”

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Proverbs 29:25 – “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.”

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Romans 12:2 – “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

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