Communion Message
(Pilate, confronted with Jesus)
March 18-19, 2000
Pastor Donald Sheley

For I have received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as oft as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Luke in his record of Calvary's scene writes these words: Now as they led Him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, who was coming from the country, and on Him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus. And a great multitude of the people followed Him, and women who also mourned and lamented Him. And Jesus, turning to them, said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!' Then they will begin 'to say to the mountains, "Fall on us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!"' For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?" There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

No one is neutral concerning the crucifixion of the Savior. The fact is that no one is neutral concerning Christ Himself, for Jesus said, he that is not with Me, is against Me. And he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth abroad. Here is authoritative finality. It's irrefutable fact.

When John Bowering wrote that beautiful hymn, 'In The Cross Of Christ I Glory', he was quite accurate in assuring us that; all the light of sacred story gathers round its head sublime. For the radiant beams of divine revelation focus on the cross, and from there they are diffused. At the cross the saint finds his hope assured, but conversely, there the prince of this world is judged and all unbelievers inevitably will share his condemnation. The actual developments at the place of the skull when the Savior was dying, the just for the unjust, provide us with an interesting study of human behavior. In the record, stand by the cross and there you'll observe the response of the soldier who said, surely, truly, this man is the Son of God. You will listen to the cry of the malefactor that says, save Yourself and us. You'll hear the passersby as they smite their breasts as if to say, thank God I'm not as guilty as the one that's hanging there. For to smite one's breasts in Jewish response was a signal of exonerating yourself and condemning the other.

But I think the most fascinating personality at Calvary has to be Pilate. He was a confused man. Every citizen is entitled to his day in court, but the judge is there day after day. He must hear about the misdemeanors of the unscrupulous, the brutality of the vicious, and the flagrant disregard of the law by the frequent offenders. But I assure you that Pilate never sat with a more uneasiness in his court than the day that Jesus Christ stood before him. And he had a tremendous, tremendous problem. You see the evidence was not sufficient to warrant the death penalty against Jesus, and he feebly told the demanding multitudes that this was his considered opinion.

If it were true that Jewish custom made it mandatory for one prisoner to be released at this time of religious celebration, was it not in the prerogative of the ruling power of the land to determine which one would be set free? Is there any reason to believe that Pilate could not have seized upon their own suggestion and designated Jesus as the one to be released? Any dissent on the part of the restless milling throng would have at once betrayed their bias, and their bitterness of heart, and if there was a riot, they had enough Roman soldiers to quell that. But you see Pilate lacked utterly the poise and the fortitude to cope with the situation and the person before him.

How do you think the judge slept that night? How would you rest through the long night hours if you had condemned to death, to fearful, imponderable, agonizing death, one whom you personally believed and declared to be innocent. That was Pilate's problem. Pilate must've been a person of recognized reputation to have held such a position. He had to be concerned with honesty, and with fairness, and the finest display of principle because he was a Roman. And Romans were known for their adherence to Roman law. There was a multitudinous amount of impressions pouring through his consciousness like a mighty ceaseless Niagara. Then, there was prominently before him the gracious, loving, tender Christ whose presence is always overwhelming. It was this wonderful benefactor of men whom had now been turned over to wicked hands to be nailed to a cross. And try to justify Pilate, that would somehow enter into his thoughts they might be these, he could say, there was no alternative. I was forced. This situation was forced upon me. I'm a victim of circumstances. Try as you may, there is no excuse sufficient to justify Pilate in what he did.

Pilate, confronted with Jesus. You know, ladies and gentlemen, I look at this sacred moment in our worship service when by the elements of communion you and I are confronted once again with Jesus Christ and His claims. We're in the same predicament as Pilate. We've got to do something with Him. You can't sit here Sunday after Sunday and have those communion elements pass you by without having some reaction to the person they represent. You can't do it. Sooner or later if you keep ignoring Jesus, you'll walk away never, maybe never, to visit Him again. But these elements tell us that He's the man of glory, and the Savior of the world who came and 2000 years ago died on a cruel cross so you and I could be forgiven.

You say why was that necessary, Pastor? Well clear back when God began to deal with Adam and Eve and their sin, you remember we learned that, God said if you sin you're going to die. They sinned and God had every right, right then (claps hands) to end the human race. They sinned, they should have died. But here's where the mercy of God begins its long trail down through history, a trail of mercy and grace. God went into the garden, slew an animal, and the animal became the substitute who died so that Adam and Eve could live. The substitute died so the sinner could be freed, and God established an old Testament pattern of worship where if you wanted forgiveness for your sins, you went to your flock, got an animal, brought it to the temple, and stood beside the altar, and put your hand on the animal as if to transfer your sin to the animal. The priest slew the animal, the animal died, and you were freed from your sins. With the shedding of blood there was forgiveness, but it was done through a substitute, always in the Old Testament. That's why you have these sacrifices and sacrifices all the way throughout the Old Testament.

In fact, the historians tell us that on one occasion when they were having a great festival at the city of Jerusalem, 278,000 animals were slain and sacrificed for the sins of the nation. The animal - the substitute; dying because sin has its penalty - death, for man so he could be set free. In the fullness of time God said I'm going to change that. I'm going to send my Son Jesus and He's going to become the last and complete substitute. He's going to take the sins of all the world on Himself, and He'll die, your substitute and mine, so we can live. That's what this death of Christ stands for.

Neutral you cannot be when you come to Jesus. There's only one Savior. There's only one place that I can go to and that's to the cross to seek forgiveness for my sins. And if you're here today and you want the Lord Jesus Christ to be your Savior and your Lord, in these moments when we kneel together you can just simply say in your own heart of hearts; Jesus, thank you for 2000 years ago being the substitute that died to pay the penalty for my sin so I could live and have life eternal. And Jesus, I accept Your gift of life eternal now, and I proclaim You and receive You as my Savior and my God. If you will do that, this will become one of the most glorious moments between here and the commencement of eternity, because this will be the moment you become a child of God.

Let's kneel together, shall we? It's hard for us to imagine, dear God, how You worked out this total plan of salvation and the way that You provide forgiveness and covering for sin. We're grateful that we don't have to bring an animal to church to be killed to be the substitute for us because 2000 years ago, Jesus, You became that sacrifice. You took the sins of all the world. You became sin. You who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of You, dear God. So these elements that we hold in our hands You said the bread represents Your body, and we understand that it was in Your body that You became the sacrifice. It was Your body that was nailed there on that cross. And the Scripture says that without the shedding of blood, that is, there is no forgiveness of sins, and so the cup that we hold bespeaks of Your precious blood that was shed for our cleansing. And so these elements that we hold assure us that what You want to do more than anything else is to forgive us and make us Your children, and to cleanse us. Thank you for this constant reminder before us. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. And everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet the folks that have come to worship with us.