The Wife’s Tale

heavenly father as We Gather here todayI thank you for the freedoms we enjoy inGuam Micronesia to worship you I thankyou that we have the word of God in ourhands I thank you that missionaries cameto these lands long ago and that wetoday can stand on their shoulders andproclaim the gospel further yet and so Ipray Lord that the same spirit thatmoved upon the Apostle Matthew when hewrote this story of the wife of pilate Ipray that that same Holy Spirit Willmove Upon Our Hearts today that you moveus to action and like these five youngpeople you'll move us so that we in ourtime in our generation take a stand forJesus Christ so father speak through meand for me this is my prayer in jesus'nameamen so I've noticed um I I've beentraveling since about the time I was 18which is a horrific period of time it'sabout 32 years I've spent floatingaround the world in all kinds of rolesand I don't know how many air miles I'vewrecked up over the years um some ofthose Air Miles were very pleasant andsome were very disturbing we won't gointo you know Mission missionaries haveWar Stories to Tell of flying onairlines that should be on the groundrather than in the air but this I knowthat when you arrive in a foreigncountry there's one thing on yourmind so uh I've got to the point where Ican pack my bags in about 10 minutes fora two-e trip I know what Ineed um the first thing is there's goingto be some aspirin to um I take beforeevery flight to make sure my blood isthinned down a bit I don't want deepvein thrombosis on a long haul flightthen I also have some some medicine Ipicked up in Africa and I don't knowwhat it's called flatulum or somethinglike that it's designed to kill all thebacteria in your gut it's reallypowerful stuff and I've had occasionwhen you're about to give a sermonsomewhere and the bowels decide to joinin where you have to take this kind ofmedication and it cleans out your gutcompletely and you have no bacteria inyour gut from months afterwards you'reyou're a sterile individual on theinside I think some of you doctors mustknow is it called flatulum or somethingthis medication so I carry those littlepills with me just in case I also carrylittle pills that are designed to bungme up um to make sure that nothinghappens down below why is that becauseonce I came home from Kazakhstan toberan Springs it was a 60-hour journeygoing via almati and Dubai and Frankfurtand Chicago then the last drive homeand uh to show my staff just what traveldoes to you I took a selfie on everyhour of that 60-hour Journey just tochart my physical deterioration but as Iwas getting on the plane diarrhea struckme over in Al Marti and I can tell youthat I'm not a Catholic but you start tobelieve in the Catholic doctrine ofpurgatory when you've got a 60-hour roadtrip and you've got diarrhea it's Grimso I travel with stuff to bung me up andstuff to kill whatever's in there theseare some of the essentials of foreigntravel when you come to a foreign landthese days you're asking yourself thequestion do I need a PCR test for thiscountry do I need a vaccine for thiscountry have I packed all that I need doI expect to go do I expect hot weatheror cold weather what are the localdiseases is there social unrest whatabout the water supply do I need todrink bottled water or do I can I justdrink from the foret um and how am Igoing to connect home because when youtravel there are two things that arereally important Wi-Fi and a clean bedand as long as you have Wi-Fi in a cleanbed life goes on Wi-Fi is almost a humanright these days I would say uh it's abasic means of communication but thereis one thing above everything else thatyou're concerned about when youtravel and it's this you've been on theroad for 40 hours and you've arrived atsome some airport in I don't knowSouthern mosm Beek and it's 11:00 atnight and you don't speak any of thelocal languages and you don't have anyof local Curren with you and you're justpraying that when you get out a rival'sarea there is one friendly face in thecrowd if there's somebody to meet you inarrivals everything else goes well forthat trip because when there's somebodyto meet you they're going to take you toa place where you're going to get Wi-Fiand a shower and a clean bed they'regoing to drive you somewhere you're notat the mercy of the local taxi driverswho are trying to rob you and whicheverway they can when you find that onefriendly face in the middle of a hostilecrme proud it brings joy and peace toyour heart some of you are noddingyou've been through this yes that onefriendly face finding that face isreally important and today as wecelebrate the the baptism of these fiveprecious young people who are takingtheir stand for Jesus we're going tospend some time dwelling on the story ofanother woman who many years ago tookher stand for Jesus in the middle of ahostile world and at that moment she wasthe only friendly face in the crowd forJesusso there's only one verse about the wifeofpilate but we're going to we're going togenerate a sermon out of one verse allright so there's not much material to beworking on here so let's start out withwhat we don't know about Pilot's Wifeand there's a lot we don't know we don'tknow her name other than she's Mrsponti's pilot we don't know her age wesuspect she's Roman but we really don'tknow her ethnic background we don't knowher education we don't know her familybackground we don't know whether she hadchildren or not we're not too certainwhich Roman god or goddess she worshipedand we certainly do not know her hopesor her fears in fact we know almostnothing about this Brave woman who tookus down for Jesus in the midst of thatmob but we do what we do know isactually quite a lot so what do we knowabout pontious Pilot's Wife well firstof all we know that she's the wife ofPontius pilot and uh pontious pilot wasthe governor of Judea so on the screenbehind me you have a map of the ancientRoman Empire and the Roman Empire washuge it was the largest Empire then inthe world and it was divided intoprovinces and uh there were certainthere were some provinces were like thecrown jewels so Egypt controlled thefood supply for the Roman Empire whoevercontrolled Egypt controlled Rome and theRoman mob they determined who was thethe emperor at the end of the day theywere they were kept plated they werekept happy by the emperor if he gavethem bread andcircuses Panet circus in Latin bread andcircuses as long as the emperor gavedaily executions and Slaughters in theColiseum and as long as they had a dailybread Supply the mob was happy with theemperor so whoever controlled Egyptcontrolled the Throne of Rome and thenthe the the um Spain was a prize umProvince Asia Minor that is modern dayTurkey was a prize Province and theprize provinces went to the Senators andThe Aristocrats in Romansociety and then you he came down tosome lesser um provinces such as NorthAfrica and Greece and so forth but someprovinces were the dregs of the Empireand Judea was the dregs of the RomanEmpire we're going to come on to why ina moment and the people who became thegovernors of places like Judea they werenot the aristocrats or the social ElitesfromRome now they had a tax farming systemwhat does that mean it meant that if Iwanted to be the governor of let's sayturkey I would pay a certain amount ofmoney into the Roman Treasury and when Ibecame the governor and that you weresent normally as a governor for one yearwhen you were sent to that region as agovernor for one year you then tried tomake as much money as you could out ofthose people and you'd already paid tothe Roman government in advance what youwere hoping to extract from thepopulation and anything you cameanything that you got over and abovewhat you paid to the Roman governor wasput into yourpocket now this still happens todaymoney is the only commodity on Earththat disobeys the laws ofgravity everything else goes down moneyin every society throughout history onlygoes up and there are societies North Iused to work in a place in the worldwhere if you wanted to be a policemanyou paid $500 a month to the localpolice chief for the privilege ofwearing a policebadge and then did you get a salary noyou had to pay your boss $500 a monthbut with that badge and that cap youcould then go and stop whatever motoristyou please at night or day and onceyou'd made up your $500 for the monththe rest of that was pureprofit this is a tax farming systemzachus is a great example of the taxfarming system he would collect moneyfor people some would go to Rome becausehe's paid for that job but he could keepthe profit in his ownpocket and the Judean Province was not aplace where Romans wanted to go it was adifficult difficult Pro Province theJudean Governor did not not have accesshe did not control any of the legions ofRome they were based up in Syria he hadauxiliaries like a part-time troops tohold keep maintain Law and Order and thepeople like um pilate were not so muchwith concerned about improving life forthe population as they were withmaintaining Roman Authority by BruteForce if necessary they say that whenthe Romans were besieging Jerusalemthere were so many crosses outside thewalls of Jerusalem where they werecrucifying the Jews who escapedJerusalem it was like a thick forestthey kept the Jews down by Brute Forcenow pilate now there's the the thehusband of pilate's wife he comes toIsrael um in uh just before the life ofJesus he comes he arrives in Jerusalemin ad26 Jesus is baptized in the fall ofad27 so he comes to Jerusalem just intime for John the Baptist to hear hispreaching and then he's throughout he'sin Jerusalem throughout the reign ofJesus and he leaves Judea in ad 37 um 6years after Jesus has died and gone backto heaven and so P what kind of Provincedoes pilate come to well it's a dividedProvince you see their map there and hewasn't governor of the whole region soum when Herod the Great died the Romansdivided Palestine up into differentregions so um um pilate ruled over Judeaand Samaria here but this over here wasruled by um Herod Antipas Herod Antipasthe the son of Herod the Great ruledhere Philip rules the tetrarchy overhere otherwise known as the decapolisand so Juda Palestine was a dividedterritory and pontious pilate hadresponsibility for this area here youmight say here it is this is histerritory here and then um Herod agrippa or Antipas rules these areas herethis is Philistine not in theirterritory and the decapolis is ruledover here by Phillip um the worddecapolis means the 10 cities and whatwas going on in Israel when pilate andhis wife arrived well it was a polarizedSociety like we have today you have theruling class the permanent politicalclass like we have today in Washingtonthey are known as the Sadducees theSadducees are the chief priests they'rethe high priests and their job is tomaintain the balance between Rome andthe population they manage the templeand they will pay money to the RomanGovernor's bribes for their familymembers to be made the chief the chiefpriest and so if you didn't pay enoughbribes to the Roman Governor you wouldbe replaced or you'd be executed andthen you have the Pharisees now thePharisees are the popular Heroes we tendto think of the Pharisees as you know aworthless bunch of guys but thePharisees were very very popular and whywere they popular well because about 100years before the arrival of Jesus whenwhen the Greeks were invading underAntiochus epiphanes i 4 and he hebrought in the worship of pigs into theTemple of Jerusalemmany of the Jews went along with theGreek gods and the helenistic culturebut the Pharisees were the party of thelaw they said we will not adopt Paganways we will stick to the law ofGod on one occasion that 800 of themwere executed by one of those GreekKings for refusing to partake in the thePagan Worship in the temple so thePharisees by the time of Jesus were thepopular Heroes they were the Guardiansof what it truly meant to be anIsraelite then you have the herodiansthey were another political party theywere in favor of Greek culture inJerusalem then you had the ases the aseswere a bunch of um religious Jews whosaid that everybody in Jerusalem is iscorrupt and we're not going to partakein in the rituals of Jerusalem anymoreand they went down and they created acommune by the shores of the Dead Seacalled Kuman and you can still seekumran today and they wrote books aboutthe teacher of righteousness and therotten corrupt High priests in Jerusalemand to a certain extent they were truethen you had the zealots the zealotsthey disagreed with the Sadducees andwith the herodians and with the Asen andwith the Pharisees and they said we wantJewishIndependence and they were willing tokill in order to get their independenceand they would carry small knives threeor 4 inches long known as sikai theybecame known by the time of the Jewishrevolution of the sikari and theirspecialty was to walk up behind somebodyin the crowd who was a collaborator withRome and just slippered into the rear oftheir back into their kidneys and justfinish them off they were known as theSakari CU they Carri these tiny littledaggers in their hands so when pilatecomes Judea he's coming to a polarizedand violentSociety it's not like he comes toGuam it's like he comes to America todaywhich is also a polarized and violentSociety where people have radicallydifferent visions of what the the futureshould hold now in order to gain hisposition pilate was an a consumatepolitician behind him in Rome was thisguy here the emperor Tiberius nowTiberius um by all intents and purposeswas an absolute sadist most of his Reignhe did not re reside in Rome um but hewas essentially a child molester and hehe built a palace on an island off thecoast of Italy and he spent many yearsof his Reign molesting children on thatisland he was a sadist he would killchildren and hum children and adults andanimals forpleasure he was an absolute monster andthe mob of Rome did not like TiberiaCaesar but he maintained his positionbecause he had a violent chief of policeyou might say his chief of police was aguy called sanus and sanus you see thatup on the screen there we don't have apicture of him there's no known bust ofLucius Alias sanus he was a confidant ofTiberius and he became the prefect ofthe petorian Guard the petorian guardswere like the Secret Service of the timethey maintained Law and Order In Romeand he was the commander from ad14 untilhis execution for treason just after thedeath of Jesus and what do we know aboutsanus well sanus was a v violentanti-semite he hated theJews he was also a guy who was Adept atmurdering tiberias as Rivals to power sowhile Tiberius was off doing hiswickedness on an island sanus wasmaintaining his Authority in Rome andwhen pilate gets assigned out to UDA heonly gets assigned to UDA as thegovernor with the approval of Tiberiusand the approval of sanus so he's goingto rule in Judea and his position isdependent upon the satisfying the crueldesires of Tiberius and the rankanti-Semitism of sanus the prefect ofthe petoriangod so pilate doesn't see any value inJewish bloodthe guy who appointed him is happy tosee Jewskilled anti-Semitism was as as asprevalent then as it is today hisappointment to Juda would only come withthe approval of a murderous Empire and ascheming anti-semitic petorian GeneralPilots to position depended there's somepictures of the petorian Guard uponovert overt loyalty to the emperor anddoing nothing that could be interpretedas disloyal to Tiberius or to sanus andit can't have been easy to be married topilate and he's not like your IdealHusband ishe we know from history that he was acruel greedy oppressive and unjust rulerhe cared little about whether hisprisoners were innocent or guiltybecause such was the anti-Semitism inRome if he just crucified everybodynobody would care inRome so whether the whether you wereinnocent or guilty pilate really didn'tcare because the political winds saidyou can kill as many Jews as you likeand nobody's going to worry about itcontemporary historians recall that hehad a vicious temper that he wasvindictive and he was inflexible on oneoccasion the historians tell us that hestole money to pay from the templetreasury to pay for a new Aqueduct toRome and it led to a riot on anotheroccasion he brought some idolatrousRoman standards and set them up in thetemple of Jerusalem knowing it wouldcause a massive offense and hundreds ofJewish leaders went to his Palace incesaria on the coast of theMediterranean to plead with him to takedown these standards and there was astandoff and pilate ordered his men toexecute all of these hundreds of leadingJewish citizens The Story Goes that allthose leading Jewish citizens bowed tothe ground and they Beed their necks andsaid okay have atit nowthankfully pilate had the good sense torelent and he didn't kill all thoseJewish citizens and at the climax ofJesus trial the turning point for pilatein his decision to whether to crucifyJesus or not was when um the the Jewsthreatened him by claiming that if hereleased Jesus that he was no friend ofthe emperor with a murderous emperor inRome with his General sanus looking forany sign of disloyalty that was whatsealed the deal for pilate even if hesaid Jesus is innocent which he did hewasn't going to have that come back tohaunt him by people saying that he wasno longer a friend of the emperor so weread there in wrote John 19:12 from thenon pilate began tried to release Jesusbut the Jews cried out out if yourelease this man you are no friend ofthe emperor everyone who claims to be aking sets himself up against the emperorwhen pilate heard those words he broughtJesus outside he sat down on the judge'sbench a place called The Stone pavementwhich in Hebrew is gabitha and hepronounced judgment UponJesus and it's very interesting in thisstory that there were two men thatpilate offered to the crowd yesbarabus and Jesus he figured this is away out now barabus in many manuscriptshis full name is Jesusbarabus so you have two men called Jesusoffered to thecrowd and the word barabus means son ofthefather so you have Jesus the son of Godon one side of the podium and pilateoffers him another a thief a murdererwho takes part in Insurrection we readabout that in the book of Acts and hisname is Jesus Son of the father it'squite a choice that he gives the crowdBarabas means son of the Father whichway are they going to choose the way ofpeace or the way of violence that's thethe choice he gives the Jews on that dayso pilate's wife was married to a hatedgovernor and in those days marriage wasnot popular in the Roman Empire men didnot want to getmarried I guess that's a phenomenonthese days as well they say men goingtheir own way if you look on socialmedia it's a phenomenon men going theirown way men didn't want to get marriedin fact so few men wanted to get marriedthat the Emperor Augustus just beforethis story happened required by lawevery Roman male citizen to be marriedby the age of 30 you will be marriedwhether you want to or not you willfather children for the Roman Empire andso P pilate's wife was effectively aprisoner in the Palace of cesaria or inthe Roman Fortress adjacent to theTemple of Jerusalem and there you have apicture there this is in Jerusalemhere's the model in the uh the Jerusalemum Museum you can go to today there'sthe northern part of the temple and theRomans built a massive Fortress wellactually Herod built it in honor of hisPatron Mark antthony so it became knownas the Antonia Fortress and we believethat's where pilate was based it was aRoman Fortress right by the temple andthat's from where that's from wherepilate um maintained Romanpower so pilate's wife she waseffectively a prisoner in the Palace ofcesaria or in the Fortress of Rome in aland teeming with violentrevolutionaries she was Target numberone after pilate she would not havetraveled without a substantial militaryguard and escort of soldiers and as adutiful Roman wife she would haveappeared with Pilots at officialBanquets ceremonies and events but shehad no public role that we know of andshe would have known that if her husbandfell out of favor with the emperor shemay also be executed as well so hercareer was tied to her husbands and herlife was tied to her husbands as wellher husband was caught in a difficultposition there was a vindictive Emperorback in Rome looking for any sign ofdisloyalty there was a vengefulpopulation in Palestine looking for anychance to kill him or his wife there wasa high priest who was as slippery as youas they come a man who was willing tobribe the Roman soldiers to deny thatJesus rose from thedead and he was also um backed up byaanus an anti-semite who would punishany Act of Mercy or kindness to the Jewsso not knowing who he could trust whowould pilot normally confidein if you were pilot who would you wantto confidein Tiberius probably not sanus no he's amonster the Jewish revolutionaries theyjust want you dead Caiaphas pretends tobe your friend but he's basically yourenemy and he'd be happy to see you deadtomorrow as quick as as quick as it canbe made to made to happen so who canpilate confide in well the only personhe's got is hiswife and she's in him she's with him inJerusalem for that Passover they saythat between 2 and a half and threemillion people came to Jerusalem forPassover every year and pilate has avery lonely job there's only one personhe can confide in and that's his wifeand she's with him in the Fortress therebut she's not with him during the trialofJesus ultimately what happened to pilatewell we know from usus an earlyChristian historian thatad37 after the death of sanus and afterthe death of Tiberius the new emperorkaai Caligula stripped pilot of histitles sent him into Exile in Francewhere it is believed he committedsuicide a few years later we alsobelieve that Pilot's Wife followed himinto Exile as a judul wife but we don'tknow whether she committed suicide aswell so pilate had a sorryending so what do we know about herspirituallife wellher spiritual life we can kind of deducesome of thesethings there are some things we have tokind of use our um Sanctifiedimagination she's a Roman lady whichmeans that she would been raised in theRoman Pagan Society worshiping themultiple Roman pagan gods she would haveworshiped multiple deities with multipleCults each cult had its priests orpriestesses sacrifices and lurgicalrituals ancestor worship was common andas was the belief that the gods spoke indreams to to worshipers it was a commonbelief in Roman society that the godsspoke to women particularly in dreamseven today people of the Middle Eastbelieve that God speaks to people indreams um this week we entered the monthof Ramadan on the 22nd of March Ramadanstarted the Muslim holy month andMuslims believe that God reveals himselfto people particularly during the monthof Ramadan and the last week of Ramadanis called the week of power and thatcommemorates when Muhammad allegedlywent to heaven on a white hor from theTomb of the the the Dome the temp the umSolomon's Temple the Dome of the Rockmosque there and so Muslims believe thatin the last week of Ramadan that is whenGod really connects through the peopleand the primary method he does that withis throughdreams and so it is not surprising thatpilate's wife is open to Revelationsfrom God in dreams we as westers don'tput much store by dreams do we no youhave a dream ah it was a dream but someof the most important revelations inhistory such as the dreams of Daniel orthe dream of Nebuchadnezzar or the dreamof pharaoh those come throughdreams and so she is a woman who wasused to all the multiple Cults of Ro andrituals of Rome and we know from 1Corinthians 10:20 that when the Romansbowed down before Idols they were bowingdown to Demons so she was effectivelyengaged in Demon worship she may nothave called it demon worship but that'swhat it was and when she arrived inJudea she learned about Judaism realquick I don't think pilate came homeevery night and she said how was the dayat the office honey and he said oh wellI had some peaceful meetings with thechief priests about this umadministrative issue in the temple ornot pilate would have probably soundedoff to his wife about the Sadducees andthe herodians and the Pharisees and theessin and the kumran community and thezealots and the people trying to killyou pilate as well he would have talkedabout these things at home don't youthink don't you think that pilot wouldhave spoken to his wife about histroubles in the office well it wasn'tjust that she was living in Judea but weknow if you have your Bibles with you Idon't have this text put upon the screenturn to Mark chapter 6 because whenJesus sends out hisdisciples and they go out and theypreach and they teal heal and they castout the Dead cast out demons and theyraise the Dead We realize that the nameof Jesus became known throughout JudaJewish society and in Mark 6 and verse4it says that King Herod heard of it thatis he heard of the ministry of the 12disciples then it says for Jesus knownname had becomeknown what does this tell us means thatthere were 12 disciples went out but onename came to herod's ears it was thename of Jesus Matthew wentout but it wasn't the name of Matthewcame to herod's ears John went out butit wasn't the name of John came toherod's ears Thaddius went out but itwas not the name of thadius came toherod's ears what this tells us thatwhen those disciples went out the nameof Jesus didn't just stay at the bottomlevel of society the name of Jesuspermeated up through society and itreached into the the uh the mind andlife of King Herodhimself we may ask ourselves to when weengage in Ministry who isglorified when we engage in Ministry whogets the honor and theglory is it the name of Jesus knownthrough our ministry or is it our ownname that gets known is all too easywith the inet all that kind of stuff toengage in fault and self-promotion andin a sense you you have to have somepromotion because that raises funds butthe danger with our modern form ofministry is that our names become knownrather than the name ofJesus so in what you do in your churchuh how your church operates whether it'sthe school whether it's a clinic whetherit's awr whether it's Joy FM whateverMinistry you're involved in here is itthe name of Jesus that is being known ingu or is it your name and if it is yourname that is being known rather than thename of Jesus then it's time to reflecton how we're doingMinistry and so the name of Jesus hasbecome known then come forward to thebook of Acts and in the book of Acts wefind there Acts 26 that the name ofJesus didn't just come to Herod but itwas well known among the Roman governorsat the time it was well known to fesusand to Felix Felix means happy and hewas parado rically very unhappy man andin Acts chapter 26 when Paul is makinghis defense before the Roman GovernorFelix and also before Herod um Antipasthis is not Herod agria from the time ofJohn the Baptist this is his nephewHerod Antipas it says there in Acts 26while Paul was making his defense fesusexclaimed you're out of your mind Paultoo much learning is driving you insanebut Paul said I am not out of my mindmost excellent Festus but I'm speakingthe so truth indeed the king knows thesethings this is Acts 26: 26 and to him Ispeak freely for I am certain that noneof these things has escaped his noticefor this was not done in a corner KingAgrippa do you believe the prophets Iknow you believe agria said to Paul areyou so quickly persuading me to become aChristian and the point about this isthat the ministry of Jesus was knownamong the RomanElites fesus knew about It Felix knewabout it pil knew about it the chiefpriests knew about the ministry of JesusKing Herod Agrippa knew about it KingHerod Antipas knew about it the name ofJesus had permeated all ofsociety and you don't think it hadn'treach the ears of Pilot'sWife that everybody's talking about thismiracleworker when Jesus in his trial is sentoff to meet Herod it says that Herod hadbeen wanting for a long time to meetJesus cuz he wanted to see him work amiracleso everybody knew that Jesus was amiracle worker he's just raised Lazarusfrom the dead you don't think that'scome to pilate's wife's hearing as wellshe's heard about the feeding of the5000 she's heard about the Widow of Na'sboy being raised from the dead all themiracles of Jesus have been passed onthroughout Roman Jud and Judean societyand it's come to the the ears ofpilate's wife pilate would have knownabout this and pilate's wife would haveknown about this she would have knownabout the basic beliefs of Judaism withits reject of the Pagan Roman gods andit focus on the worship of the one trueGod and through her life with pilate shesaw that he was continually putting downby military force self-proclaimedMessiah because the Jews knew from theProphecies of Daniel that the Messiahwas Jew and there were multiple mensrose up at that time and said I am theMessiah she knew that the Jews wereexpecting a messiah figure a Heavenlybeing almost a Divine figure to walkamongst men and so it was that in thespring of ad30 1 she traveled with herhusband from cesaria on theMediterranean Coast to Jerusalem wherehe would watch over the Passovercelebrations with their hu huge crowdsto make sure that there was no popularrevolt against Rome and that Thursdayevening while Jerusalem was AB withpilgrims from around the world peoplecatching up with relatives people makingold connections I saw you last yearwhat's happened in this last year foryou and so forth Roman soldiers keptcareful watch from the from the therampants of the Roman Fortress adjacentto the temple and within thatFortress pilate and his wife spent thatThursday nighttogether Outside The Fortress on thatThursday night A Man Called Jesus ofNazareth was arrested in a garden justoutside the city walls he was triedbefore the Jewish Sanhedrin in a mockeryof Justice he was condemned to death butthe chief priests even though they hadthe authority to condemn Jesus to deathdidn't have the authority to carry out adeath sentence and so they dragged Jesusto P's Palace to The Fortress and theysaid we need this man put todeath he says well and what charge andthe rather insolently said if he weren'tdeserving of death we wouldn't havebrought him to you the chief priestscould not execute Jesus on their ownthey and they they they knew that ifthey said he claims to be the Son of Godpilate wouldn't care about that he wasonly concerned in threats to Roman powerand Roman Authority so roused from hisbed at an early hour I don't knowwhether pilate was a morning person or anight person but most of us don't liketo be dragged from our beds in the earlyhours of the morning certainly not tocondemn a man that we think is innocentand Order him to be executed well anywaypilate came to the Judgment Hall he lefthis wife where she was he was confrontedby the chief priest demanding theexecution of this innocent prisonerJesus of Nazareth and pilate could couldget no firm answer in John's gospel whenhe asked what the specific charges wereand he realized quickly that it was outof jealousy that Jesus Jesus of Nazarethhad been handed over to him to becondemned to death but the chief priestswouldn't give up though and insisted onthat innocent prisoner's execution sonot sure what to do when pilatediscovered that Jesus was From Galileehe said oh pilate was a goodadministrator he says oh that's herod'sjurisdiction so he sends Jesus off toHerod says Herod is your problem youdeal with him maybe I'll go back to bedand when Jesus goes to Herod and Herodis happy to see him because he wants tosee a miracle Jesus is silent beforeHerod his silence iseloquence and eventually Herod mocksJesus they beats him they put a gorgeousrobe on him and Herod can't get any joyout of Jesus so he pushes the problemback onto pilate's lap and says you dealwith this prisoner I have nothing to dowith him there's nothing I can do withhim but the mob is still baying for theblood of Jesus so pilate decides to freeeither Jesus barabus or Jesus of Jesusof Nazareth he offers this Jesus or thatJesus to the crowdwill you take this son of the fatherBarabas or will you take this son of Godwho are you going totake and the crowd they choose the manof violence rather than the prince ofpeace and in so doing the rest of theirhistory under the Roman Empire wasnothing butBloodshed at that moment as the crowdbaed for the blood of Jesus and theycried for the release of Judas of Jesusbarabus a messenger arrived at pilate'sside with a note and there it is it saysat the Festival the governor wasaccustomed to release a prisoner for thecrowd anyone whom they wanted at thattime they had a notorious prisonercalled Jesus barabus so after they hadgathered pilate said to them who do youwant me to release for you Jesus barabusor Jesus who is called the Messiah forhe realized that it was out of jealousythat they had handed him over to him andwhile he was sitting on the Judgmentseat his wife sent word to him the onlytime in scripture this woman appearshave nothing to do with that innocentman for today I have suffered a greatdeal because of a dream about him justas Jesus speaks to Muslim women inparticular all around the world todayjust as God revealed himself to a paganKing called Nebuchadnezzar and herevealed himself to a pagan Emperorcalled the Pharaoh um just as Jesus uhGod revealed himself to Cornelius theRoman Centurion later in the book ofActs so pilate's wife is open though sheis a pagan she's open to RevelationsfromGod we tend to think that God speaksonly to Devout Christiansbut some of the most momentousrevelations in human history have cometo Devoutpagans and when God reveals himself topagans they're looking for friendspeople in the body of Christ who arewilling and humble enough to accept thatmaybe God revealed an important thing ofhuman history to a pagan and rather thanto aChristian so if you have a Muslim friendin this come in in Guam or you know aMuslim start praying for them this monthbecause they're expect expecting God toreveal himself to them somehow some wayduring the month ofRamadan you may have a friend who is nota Christian but they may say somethingto you at work or at school and yourealize that though they don't recognizethe person of the holy spirit that theholy spirit is actually speaking throughthem toyou and we shouldn't be condemning andwe shouldn't be putting people down andsaying God only speaks to Christians noGod speaks to all people because hispurpose is all people'ssalvation and so pilate's wife sendspilate a message now she didn't send itby text or instant message um but uh webelieve she sends him a note there's avery famous picture there a very famouspicture from the 1800s you see G Jesusin the center there pilate offering himto the crowd and on the right hand sideof the picture you see Pilot's Wifeturning away from the scene indisappointment because pilot has notlistened to heradvice it's a very famous picture thisyes you've seen it beforeyou are Pilot's Wife and Her maid on theright turning away and behind her theservant holds an unopened scroll and itis thought that that represents themessage that pilate wasn't interested inand pilate has chosen instead to offerJesus to the crowd he's about to Scourgehim he's ignoring his wife and he'sabout to order Jesus executed and shesays have nothing to do with this manthis innocent man because I havesuffered a great deal because of ofbecause of him in a dream tonight onlypilate with could have read thatmessage he didn't put it on Facebookdidn't put it on Snapchat or Instagramit was private and it was confirmationfrom his wife what pilate already knewwhich was that Jesus isinnocent pilate had already declaredJesus to be innocent the Jews hadalready said to him we want you toexecute him because he claims to be theSon of God so pilate knows there there'ssomething spiritual about this man Jesusof Nazareth and then his wife sends hima note says having nothing to do withhim because I had a dream about him lastnight this man is innocent does pilateneed any more confirmation that he needsto leave Jesusalone God is speaking to pilate In ThisMoment saying pilate The Plan ofSalvation will go forward on its own butyou don't need to be the one that handsJesus over todie just as in the upper room Jesus wasappealing to Judas not to follow throughwith the Betrayal so even Jesus is aboutto be condemned by pilate and hand wouldto be crucified God sends a message ofMercy to the cynical hardenedadministrator who's desperately tryingto keep hisjob it's amazing isn't it that there isa Plan of Salvation out there but Godstill worked all through these gospelswith the key individuals involved in thedeath of Jesus trying to win them foreternity even some of the chief priestsbelieved in Jesus at this time and afterthe resurrection in the book of Actsthey they gave their lives publicly toJesus Christ Joseph of arthea a memberof the Sanhedrin he would have knownwhat was happening he may have beenpresentence during the the the trial ofJesus on that Thursday night he may havedone what he could nothing he couldn'tpersuade the mob from from handing Jesusover to be crucified but when Jesus wasdead Joseph arthea comes out in publicand says I'm going to do what I can evenfor the dead Jesus I'm going to take hisbody down from the cross and bury it inmytomb and so all through the story of thecrucifix ition of Jesus there are thereare hints that Jesus was reaching out topilate God was reaching out to pilateGod was reaching out to Judas God wasreaching out to the members of the chiefpriests and their Clan God was reachingout to members of the Sanhedrin sayingokay the Plan of Salvation is going totake its course but you don't need to bea part of it the world may be going inthis direction but you don't need to bea part of it your Society may be turningus back on God but you don't need beneed to be a part of that process yourSociety may be teaching Godlessideologies such as you know criticalgender Theory let's take that as anexample but you don't have to go alongwith it the forces at work you may notbe able to stop the that the you may notbe able to stop the flow of history butyou don't need to go along withit thank you sister true it is true youdon't need to go along with whereSociety is going you don't have to justgo with the flow and say I can't fightthe flow who am I in this story thestory of Jesus at is crucifixion all ofthe key individuals God is reaching outto them and even the Centurion whoexecutes Jesus he comes to a savingfaith inJesus how do we know that because inMark 15 it concludes that that gospelwhen Jesus dies on Calvary it says theCenturion who had crucified Jesus helooked up at Jesus on the cross whenJesus was dead and he said truly thisman was the son ofGod now that's a significant confessionbecause one of the official titles ofthe Roman Emperor tiberias was Son ofGod and that Roman Centurion is aprofessional killer for the Earthly Sonof God sitting in Jerusalem in in Romeand he's just killed a man who he nowbelieves is the true Son of God so whenthat Roman Centurion says truly this manwas the son of God he's turning his backon everything he's fought and killed forfor the last 10 20 or 30 years so eventhe Roman Centurion comes to Faith InJesus in those crucialmoments and you may be sitting heretoday with a sense that I have betrayedJesus I have let him down I have deniedhim I have disappointed him when themoment came for me to speak up at workor at school I kept my mouth shut andyou may be sitting with shame here andsay I wish that had neverhappened and you look at the death ofJesus and you realize that even thosewho were intimately involved in hisexecution and murder that that God wasreaching out to them offering them Mercyeach and every one of them Fatherforgive them said Jesus in Luke's gospelchapter 23 for they know not what theydo and the T that is used as theimperfect which means Jesus wasrepeatedly saying it as those Romansoldiers crucify him to the Cross Jesusis repeatedly saying father forgivethese guys here for they don't know whatthey'redoing so if God can be merciful topilate and God can be merciful toeverybody else involved in thecrucifixion of his son do you think Godcannot be merciful toyou and if God knows our paast and heknows where we failed and he knows wherewe haven't stood up for Jesus God knowsthat but his holy spirit still reachesout to us today and says brother sisterson or daughter forgiveness is stillpossible if you will confess and turn tome in faith and so pilate's wife sendsthis letter toJesus what must Jesus have felt at thatmoment can you imagine how Jesus feltwho knew what was in that matter in thatmessage the pilotwifepilate andJesus and Jesus is standing there onthat platform in front of the baing mobwho are desperate for him to becrucified and there's blood the bloodlust is up and they don't care whetherit's right or wrong they don't carewhether Jesus raised the dead or healedthe sick or fed the 5,000 they just wantblood and you cannot reason with amob and the mob is baying for his bloodand his disciples have abandoned him andPeter has has deniedhim who's there left to stand up forJesus in his moment of when he's mostalone is Pilot's Wife he has been deniedby Peter betrayed by Judas spat uponscourged driven through the city by abloodthirsty mob beaten from frontbehind on all sides forced to standtrial for his life in illegal trialbecause you could not hold trials ByNight under Jewish law he had beencondemned to to death for blasphemymocked and beaten by Herod soldiers andthen by pilate soldiers he was nowstanding before Pilate bloodied torn andbruised physically exhausted abandonedby all who knew him and loved him andmoments before the ex the order forexecution is given he looks down onsuffering on humanity and all ofhumanity as far as he can see then isbaying for his blood and in thosemoments before Pilate said behold theman I'm innocent of his blood take himand execute him when pilate hands himover only one person stands up for JesusChrist in all of humanity and it's thisRoman woman they've got nothing incommon obviously he's a man she's awoman he's unmarried she's married she'sa gentile he's a Jew he was a prisonershe was free she slept in a palace andJesus had nowhere to lay his head he waspover impoverished she was as wealthy asbeam he came from a despised ethnicgroup she was from the ruling Romangroup ethnic group he came from aGod-fearing home she came from a paganculture they had literally nothing incommon they had probably never met theywould have spoken different languagesAramaic or Latin but in that moment wheneveryone was crying out for Jesusbarabus she alone in all of humanityspoke up for Jesus of Nazareth they havenothing incommon doesn't this tell you about thegreat the debt the extent of God's gracethat God can win even the most thestrangest seeming person for his kingdomshe had no reason to speak up for Jesusthere was no rationale for it she knewthat if her husband Let Jesus go therumor would get back to to to uh s Janusand tiberious and T and her husband maybe executed or she be sent into Exileshe was risking her husband's career ifhe followed through on her advice butshe chose to listen to God rather thanto pursue her own family's um careerinterest s she was risking everythingfor Jesus and you ask yourself what mustJesus have felt in that moment in thatpicture when he looks down at the crowdand cut sees him banging for his bloodand the Pilot's Wife is turning away indisappointment because she has done herbest to speak up for Jesus and herhusband is not listening to her and sheknows what's going to happen minutesfrom now she knows what a crucifixion islike and she turns away knowing that heisinnocent what must Jesus have feltwell I can only imagine the joy thatthat brought Jesus because in thatmoment he was given the assurance thathis sacrifice was not invain one person stood up for Jesus andthe joy must have brought Jesus in thatmoment when everybody's baying for hisblood when he knows that a gentile apagan a worshipper of demons hassuddenly come to a saving faith in himhe suddenly realizes at that moment thathis faith his sacrifice is not in vainfor during that night we believe God hadspoken to pilate's wife in a dream andshe'd seen the life and death and secondcoming of Jesus and she become convincedthat he was the Messiah Prince of whomshe had heard so much about in her timein Israel and she come to a saving faithin him and so she awoke and awokerealized to a horror what her husbandwas about to do and she sent her UrgentMessage to pilate begging him to letJesus go but it was to no avail humanlyspeaking pilate's wife did not changethe course of history but spirituallyspeaking her witness has echoed forcenturies because this story comes to usunder the inspiration of the Holy SpiritMatthew added that one verse under theinspiration of the holy spirit so thatevery person today will know that youmay not change the course of humanhistory you may not change the course ofyour family members lives you may notchange the course of the decisions yourlocal church makes but when you stand upfor Jesus God takes note and he sees itand he honors that Witness the flow ofhistory may not have changed Jesus wasgoing to die anyway but God took note ofthat one lonely woman who had thecourage to speak up against the mob andyou may feel that the world is you knowfalling apart you may feel that yourSociety is going down the drain you mayfeel that things are wrong in yourchurch you may feel that your family isunder incredible pressure but you needto know today that God is not asking youto change the flow of History somethings you cannot change but you candetermine how you're going to act andyou can determine what you're going tospeak up for and when you're going tospeak up for it and how you're going tospeak up for it pilate's wife did notcome and shriek at him and yell at himand have a scene in front of the wholecrowd and says you let this guy go shewasn't going to humiliate her husbandlike that she wasn't going to um put himon the spot she sends him amessage and that's how the Holy Spiritspeaks to you and I he speaks gently andTenderly to our hearts he doesn't callus out in public he doesn't humiliate ushe doesn't tell the whole world what'sgoing on in their lives but he comes toyou in the silent moments of the day andsometimes that impression is just likeis here and it's gone seconds later butyou know the Holy Spirit has moved uponyour heart he doesn't humiliate you hedoesn't call you out in public but helets you know that God knows what'shappening and this is what you need todo pilate's wife obeyed what God hadrevealed to her and the joy she broughtto Jesus that there was one person inthat crowd who thought his sacrifice wasworthwhile his disciples had run awayhis mother was nowhere to be seen thecrowds that had followed him were NowBing for his blood the Roman soldiers tothem he was just another guy to beexecuted it was just a normal day at theoffice for them they couldn't care lesshow long he took to die they just wantedto get home before it gotdark and that one woman stood up forJesus and brought joy to him in thatbleakest moment of Salvation history herwitness has echoed throughout eternityyour witness can Echo throughouteternity when you in your sphere ofresponsibility speak up and do what youcan forJesus your witness is noted in Heavenabove even if nothing changes at leastyou spoke up sometimes if you speak upyou change the course of historysometime you speak up you doesn't changethe course of history the course ofhistory is in God's hands but you canspeak up for him today and you can takea stand for Jesus when as and when theholy spirit moves you to doit one friendly face in a hostile crowdchanges any everything when I arrive inforeign airports I'm looking for thatone friendly face cuz when I see thatone friendly face I know thateverything's going to be okay on thattrip that you're scanning the crowdwho's that one friendly face when youfind it there is peace in your heartbecause you know that somebody caresabout you and your well-being and yourfuture so today we have five youngpeople who live in the midst of aviolent world mayj and Arisha ShaquilleSierra and Mina and like Pilot's Wifeyou young people you are choosing youare choosing to live in a world thatrejects Jesus Christ but you're standingup for him today and the joy that youwill bring God today is found as as Minaread in the children's story Lukechapter 15 okay there is rejoicing inheaven over every sinner that is savedso your Sac your your baptism today hasCosmic significance there is rejoicingin heaven and not only is thererejoicing in heaven but there is angeramong Satan and his demons so with everybaptism with every soul that is BornAgain these five young people todaythey're saying Lord we they're all likefrom the age of 10 to 17 or so Lord forthe next 60 70 80 years of my span onthis Earth I'm going to be active in theLord's army I'm going to be filled withyour spirit I'm going to be a livingambor to you for you there is joy inHeaven above for these five young peoplegiving their lives to Jesus Christ todayas then these five young people live ina world that rejects Jesus Christ todayas then these five young people live ina world that scoffs at the claims ofJesus of Nazareth today as then we livein a world that produces that prefersthe violence of Jesus barabus over thePrince of Peace Jesus of Nazareth todayas then our five young people arejoining with pilate's wife in affirmingtheir faith in Jesus Christ today asthen we are recognizing in that the holyspirit is at work today among youngpeople as he worked on pilate's wifeback then today as then these youngpeople are adding their voices to thatof pilate's wife in defense of Jesus ofNazareth and today as then with pilate'swife these five young people that theirwitness will echo through time and spacewe don't have we don't you know theBible stops at Revelation right we knowthat but what these young people aredoing today will Echo throughouteternity it will be recorded in theanals of heaven we know that becausetheir names will be found in the Lamb'sBook ofLife and because their names in theLamb's Book of Life their witness has aneternal consequence today as withpilate's wife there is rejoicing inheaven and Jesus Christ his heart isfilled with joy because he knows thathis sacrifice was not in veil in vainthe Apostle uh John puts it this waysays after this I looked there was agreat multitude that no one could countfrom every nation from all tribes andpeoples and languages standing Beforethe Throne and before the lamb robed inwhite with palm branches in their handsthat includes these five young peopletoday and pilate's wife they cried outin a loud voice saying salvation BelongsTo Our God who is Seated on the throneand to thelamb and so today we celebrate that fiveyoung people their names we written inthe Lamb's Book of Life we celebrate thefact that their their stand for Jesusbrings joy to Jesus Christ chist wecelebrate the fact that this Echoesthroughout eternity there is rejoicingin Heaven above and there is anger amongsatans and Satan and his demons thesefive young people have just taken aplace in the cosmic flow ofhistory and history will note theirwitness the fact they stood up for JesusChrist in a world just like pilate'swife that says we will not have this manto rule overus I thank God for these youngpeople I thank God for Pilot's Wifeand I thank God for every person thatdecides in a world that is hostile toJesus that decides for him and to accepthim as king of theirlives we thank God that we can gatherhere today and we can go through thewaters of baptism and that there can berejoicing in heaven and that Satan andhis claims against God can be rebukedand denied by the witness of five BornAgain souls and we as a church arecovenanting today not just to watch thespectacle of the baptism we are Covenantto covenanting that covenanting that wewill enter them into the body of Christthat these young men and women willbecome our brothers and our sisters andwe will encourage them and we willsupport them and we will pray for themand we will help guide them through lifebecause life is hard enough we don'tjust watch a baptism we welcome theminto thefamily Our Father which art in Heaven ifwe have a common Heavenly Father we'rebrothers and sisters and we need totreat these young children not assomebody else's child but as our ownbrother and our own sister sisters andwe have responsibilities to them whenGod said to Cain where is your brotherand he said am I My Brother's Keeper theanswer is no you're his brother and godholds you to account for how you treatyourbrother so God is going to hold us toaccount for how we treat these preciousSouls will we nurture them will wesupport them will we encourage them willwe guide them we provide practicalsupport for them will we love them whenall else falls apart will they find aplace of Refuge in our home will we sayto them when we know they're hungry andthirsty and homeless at the end of theSabbath service go in peace and forgetabout them till the next Sabbath or willwe actually treat them like brothers andsisters and look out for them becausethat is God's will for hischurch pilate's wife it's a famouspicture it's a famous story it's notjust something that happened a long timeto go a long long time ago today in thishostile World there are five more peoplejoining with pilate's wife and sayingwe're going to stand up for Jesus Christand just like Pilot's Wife yet thewitness of these five young people isgoing to Echo for eternity so to theyoung people I'd say may God bless youmay God guide you may his Spirit fillyou may God speak to you as he did topilate's wife may God give you thecourage to speak up and stand up forJesus whenever it is needed may he giveyou the discretion to do it in a waythat is maybe at times private forwhatever else may happen may he give youthe courage to not walk away when thatmoment of truth arrives may God blessyou and may may we as a congregation aswe watch the baptism this afternoonwe're covenanting that we're going tolook out for our younger brothers andsisters today