I want to read a couple of verses
here in Acts chapter 4. This is where the early church
was under persecution. And this is the prayer that they
prayed. This is a portion of the prayer. In verse 26, this is what Peter
prayed. The kings of the earth stood
up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against His Christ. For of a truth against thy holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done." I was thinking about a song that an old friend of mine, Pat
McGinnis, used to sing some. Some of you know Pat. Barb knows
him very well. She's known him longer than I
have. But he used to sing this song, Who Killed Jesus? And I
was thinking about this song, and let me read the first three
verses of this song to you. The chorus goes like this. Who
killed Jesus many years ago? Who is guilty of a crime so low? Why did he have to die? What
is the reason why? Who killed Jesus? I would like
to know. And then he names some folks
in this psalm. Was it the Roman soldiers with
their tools of war? Driving nails through hands that
did no wrong? Malking and abusing? Crowning
him with thorns? All the evidence is very strong. Was it Pontius Pilate? He was
governor, trying to decide the case that day. Finding that the
Savior had no fault of his own, was he guilty when he turned
himself away? Was it the Hebrew children, proud
of who they were, shouting, crucify him at their king? trading their
Messiah for a common thief and turning down the kingdom he would
bring? Who killed Jesus many years ago?
I thought about that song and I thought about a message that
I preached on that and I don't even know when I preached this
to you folks. You probably have been last month. I tell you as
I get older I lose track of when I preach things. Just the other
day I was thinking about a message, and I thought, I'm going to preach
that message. And I got through my nose to
look at it, and I preached it about a month ago. And I thought,
my goodness. So maybe you're like me. Maybe
if I did preach this two or three months ago, you'd say, Bruce,
I didn't even remember that. So we'll preach it again. Who
killed Jesus many years ago? That's a good subject, isn't
it? That's a good subject. We know that He died. There is
no doubt. that He died. Jesus of Nazareth
did indeed die. We've got this record, but Rome
has still to this day a record of the persecution and death
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We know where He
was crucified. He was crucified outside the
old walls of the city of Jerusalem. We know he hung there until he
gave up the ghost, said, it's finished. They wrapped him in
grave clothes and buried him. And for three Jewish days and
nights, he was in that grave. And on the third day, he came
out and was seen of over 500 brethren at once. And for 40
days, he was seen of them and ate with them and drank with
them until at last upon the Mount of Olives, he ascended back to
heaven. after He had blessed His disciples.
Undeniable proof. The evidence is very strong,
isn't it? We have a Savior who has died
and has risen again. And there are those who profess
to believe this truth concerning the death of the Lord Jesus Christ,
but for some reason or other, they refuse to assign responsibility
for who killed Him. But we have evidence of who did
it. It tells us here in my text, who killed Jesus? And we read
here in the text in verse 21, it tells us of these groups that
were united against the Son of God. The kings of the earth stood
up, the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against His Christ. We often read about the unity
that the Lord brings between enemies among enemies when He
saves them. I remember what an enemy Saul
of Tarsus was to the church until the Lord saved him. And I tell
you, he was the greatest helper the church ever known. The Lord,
when He saves people, He makes friends out of those who used
to be enemies. But I tell you, it's right the
opposite too, isn't it? He makes friends out of those
who hate Him. We have a good example of that
here. We're told here The Gentiles and the people of Israel were
gathered together. Now here were two different societies,
here were two different nations, the Jews and the Gentiles. The
Gentiles hated the Jews. They looked upon them as being
self-righteous, hypocrites, They would condemn the Gentiles for
sins against the law of Moses that the Jews committed themselves.
And they say, you're hypocrites, you're self-righteous, we don't
want anything to do with you. And then the Jews hated the Gentiles. They looked upon them as dogs. They said, you're devil worshippers.
You're led away unto these dumb idols. I tell you, that was two
cultures that you could not join. Jews and the Gentiles. But here,
here, they joined themselves together. What brought these
two cultures together? Against the Lord and against
His Christ. They were gathered together in
this one desire to this one end, and that was to kill the Son
of God. And here we're told about two
more enemies, Herod and Pontius Pilate. These were two of the
rulers that had a fallen out. They were at enmity, one with
another. But when Pilate sent the Lord
Jesus to Herod for Herod to examine him, then they were made friends. They were made friends. The Lord
Jesus, when people set themselves against Him, and all of us have
seen it, He brings enemies together and makes friends to kill the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Bible says that when
Pilate sent the Lord Jesus to Herod, and our text puts responsibility
upon Him for the death of Christ, that Pilate said it's Herod's
jurisdiction. It's him the one that should
judge Jesus of Nazareth, not me. So he sent him to Herod.
Herod examined him, had his soldiers to whip him, and this is what
he said, I find nothing in him worthy of death. Then what should
he have done? Released him. Released him. He had the jurisdiction. He could
have released him and that would have been all that was said.
Why send him back to Pilate? Why do that? Who is responsible
here in the death of Christ? Herod is going to have to take
responsibility. He valued his new found friendship
more than the life of this righteous man. And I tell you, that's not
been the first time that politicians joined together against the Son
of God and against His cause and against His church. Politicians
run our country because God set them there. He calls them the
basest sort of men, doesn't He? And He tells us to pray for them.
But God have mercy upon us if we have to resort to trusting
them. Because that's what they are, the basest sort of men.
Herod proved it here. And you know, poor things, they
haven't changed, have they? Don't put your trust in politicians. Herod was a politician. Who killed
Jesus many years ago? Herod was responsible. Look over
in John. Just over to your left in John
18. John chapter 18. I want you to
see this. Peter was preaching in Acts chapter
3 to the Jews and he said Pilate was determined to let Christ
go. He set his heart on letting Jesus go free. Not killing Him. But the Jews kept insisting on
that. But let's look at this and see
how this went. Look in John chapter 18. And look in verse, I guess it's
28. Look at these places as we read
down through here. Notice the different times that
Pilate tried his best to release the Lord Jesus. He said here
in verse 28, Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas the high priest
into the hall of judgment, and it was early, and they themselves
went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled.
Now isn't that amazing? We don't want to defile ourselves. Plotting the death of the Son
of God. I pray that they are going to defile themselves by
their rituals. But that they might eat the Passover. Pilate
then went out unto them and said, What accusation bring ye against
this man? They answered and said unto him,
If he were a malefactor and an evildoer, a criminal, we would
not have delivered him up unto thee. Then said Pilate unto them,
Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore
said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death.
that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled which He spake,
signifying what death He should die." Here is the first time
that Pilate tried to get out of killing the Son of God. Verse
33 is the second time. Then Pilate entered into the
judgment hall again and called Jesus and said unto Him, Are
not Thou the King of the Jews? Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest
thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?
Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief
priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done? Jesus
answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were
of this world, then would my servants fight that I should
not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not of
this world. Pilate therefore said unto him,
Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that
I am a king. To this end was I born, and for
this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto
the truth. Everyone that is of the truth
hear of me." Pilate said unto him, What is truth? And when
he said this, he went out again unto the Jews and said unto them,
I find in him no fault at all. If you have a custom that I should
release unto you one at the Passover, will you therefore that I release
unto you the king of the Jews? Then cried they again, saying,
Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. There's
the second time that Pilate tried to release the Lord Jesus Christ. And then look on in chapter 19,
and you see another time. Look in chapter 19. Then Pilate
therefore took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers plaited
a crown of thorns, and put it on his head. And they put on
him a purple robe, and said, Hail, King of the Jews! And they
smote him with their hands. Pilate therefore went forth again,
and said unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that you might
know that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth, wearing
the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate said
unto them, Behold the man! Here's the third time he tried
to release him. And here's what he did. He had
him scorched on purpose to examine him. That's the way they examined
him. If you had anything that you
were hiding, you told it during these scourges. And Pilate came
back and said, he's confessed to nothing. He's not guilty of
anything. And what he did was appeal to
their sense of justice. I have scourged this man. He's
an innocent man. Therefore, you have to let him
go." But what he didn't know about this crowd was they had
no sense of justice in them. They weren't out for justice.
They were out for his blood. And another reason Pilate scourged
him was to humble him. They said, He's a king. He's
pretending to be a king. Now He comes back out. Here's
the crown of thorn. Here's this awful mockery robe
on Him. He's been beaten. He's been humbled. There He stands,
a man beaten down before them. And He doesn't say, Here's your
king. Behold this man. He's not a king. He's just a man. So He appealed
to their sense that He's really not a king at all. Will this
satisfy you? You scribes and you Pharisees,
you've been concerned about Him ruling and so many people interested
in His kingdom? Look at Him! He's just a man.
Release Him and let Him go. Pilate was determined to let
Him go. But look here at the fourth fact.
Look in verse 6. When the chief priests, therefore,
and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, Crucify Him! Crucify
Him! Then Pilate said, ìTake ye him,
and crucify him, for I find no fault in him.î The Jews answered,
ìWe have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made
himself the Son of God.î Then Pilate therefore, when he heard
that, saying, ìHe was the more afraid,î and went again into
the judgment hall and said unto Jesus, ìWhence art thou?î But
Jesus gave him no answer. Then said Pilate unto him, Speakest
thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have
power to crucify thee, and power to release thee? Is that so? That was so. to release him. But the Jews
cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's
friend. Whosoever maketh himself a king
speaketh against Caesar." Here is the fifth time he was determined
to let him go. And then in verse 13, when Pilate
therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth and sat
down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the pavement,
but in the Hebrew, And it was the preparation of the Passover,
and about the sixth hour he said unto the Jews, Behold your king.
But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him.
Pilate said unto them, Shall I crucify your king? The chief
priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. Then delivered
him unto them to be crucified, and they took Jesus and led him
away. What was Pilate to do? What was
this man to do? If he released the Lord Jesus,
they told him there in our text, you're no friend of Caesar. This
man is a king. He said he was a king. And if
you release him, you're going to be in opposition to Caesar. And boy, right in the midst of
this, Pilate said, what is truth? Was he really concerned about
truth? What is the truth? The truth was standing in arm's
reach of him. Jesus Christ is the truth. Here
is the truth. What's the truth worth? What's the truth worth? How important
is the truth? Is it more important than some
political party? Is it more important than King
Caesar? What is truth? Jesus Christ is truth. And I'm
telling you, get a hold of Him and don't let Him go for anything
else. He is the truth. Why didn't you
release Him then? He should have, shouldn't He?
He tried to wash His hands of any responsibility. But you know
He gave the command, crucify, crucify. And I bet you in hell
today He's still trying to wash that blood from His hands, don't
you? No, it's truth, or it's a lie. There's no gray areas in between
that. No pilot tried to excuse it. So there we have Herod, we have
Pilate, and our text said the Gentiles. Who are they talking
about here? Well, these are the soldiers.
These are the soldiers, the Gentile soldiers. Look over in Mark,
just over to your left, just a little bit more, in Mark chapter
15. In verse 15, Mark chapter 15 and
verse 15, look at this, this is very interesting. This is Pilate's soldiers, Mark
15 and verse 15. And so Pilate willing to content
the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus
when he had scourged him to be crucified. And the soldiers led
him away unto the hall called Praetorium, and they called together the
whole band. And they clothed him with purple,
and plaited a crown of thorns, and put it about his head, and
began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews! And they smote him
on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowed
their knees, worshipped him. And when they had mocked him,
they took off the purple robe from him, and put his own clothes
on him, and led him out to crucify him." Now here's my question
about these soldiers. Weren't these soldiers just obeying
their superior? Weren't they under obligation
to obey? But let's read that just a little
bit closer. Our text says nothing that Pilate
gave the order to do what these men did to the Lord Jesus. He
said, scourge Him, and for my knowledge that just speaks of
whip Him. Whip Him and crucify Him, that's
what Pilate required. But in Pilate's absence, they
were content to strip Christ of His garments, expose His nakedness,
put these fake garments upon Him, this purple robe, they plaited
a crown of thorns, drove it down upon His forehead with a reed,
and they bowed the knee to mock Him. Did Pilate require that? Did he command the soldiers to
do all of that? Their conduct wasn't a matter
of disobeying their superior, but it was one of malice towards
Christ, and hatred towards His person, and enmity against Him. They gathered themselves together
against the Lord. They weren't obeying an order.
They had assembled themselves against the Lord Jesus. And it wasn't just three or four
that was content to expose their malice, but they called together
the whole band. You don't read that one soldier
stood up and protested, do you? You don't read that one of them
stood up and opposed the malice and the hatred towards the Son
of God. Not a one of them spoke up and said, wait, this is not
right. We weren't even commanded to
do this. This malice is uncalled for. Not a one of them. The whole
band were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ. Martin Luther said, A man may
be as much condemned for his silence and inaction against
evil as well as participating in it. If a person won't stand and
defend the truth that's most under attack in His day, then
He's complicit with those who attack the truth. The Lord Jesus said, He that
is not with Me is what? Against Me. There's no neutral
ground, is there? And He that gathers not with
Me is scattered abroad. Who killed Jesus many years ago? These soldiers with their tools
of war and their hearts of enmity against the Son of God. We have
Herod, we have Pilate, we have these Gentile soldiers with their
tools of war. And fourthly, our text in Acts
chapter 3 said this, and the people of Israel. Here is the
fourth part, the people of Israel. The people of Israel, the Jews.
It was in 1965, Catholicism exonerated the Jews
in the death of the Lord Jesus. You remember that? You may rewrite history, but
you can't rescind it. You may report a false view of
it, but you cannot change it. Who killed the Son of God? The
Jewish people were the people of Israel. The Holy Spirit never
exonerated the Jews in the death of Christ, but He bore witness
to their crime in it time and time again. Listen to Acts 2
in the first message after the Holy Spirit had come. Peter said,
You have taken, and by wicked hands You have crucified and
slain. In Acts chapter 3, He preached
to the Jews again. You denied the Holy One and the
just, and desired a murder to be granted unto you, and you
killed the Prince of Life. In chapter 4 they preach this
message. Be it known unto you and to all
the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth
whom you crucified doth this man stand before you whole. He
goes on in chapter 5 and preaches again. The God of our fathers
raised up Jesus whom you slew and hanged on a tree. And they said His blood be on
us and our children. But it's been on them ever since,
hasn't it? And you can't remove it, and I can't remove it, and
Catholicism can't remove it. It's there. It's there. Who killed Jesus many years ago? Boy, it's easy to brag when you've
got the upper hand. Let His blood be on us. You better
be careful. You better be careful. You got
the upper hand now. You're feeling good today. You
can boast now, but you better be careful. His blood comes upon you and
it's going to stay upon you in judgment. Who killed Jesus many
years ago? The Jews. Does that mean we have to hate
them? No, that don't mean we hate them. We pray for them.
Paul said, I pray for them. that God would save them, be
merciful to them. They have a zeal of God and not
according to knowledge. They don't even know they're
so blinded that they have killed the Savior of mankind. Who's responsible for the death
of Jesus Christ? Well, here's a good one. Peter
tells us in verse 28 of our text. Look back over there in Acts
chapter 4 again. In verse 28, He doesn't stop
with men being responsible for the death of the Son of God.
Look in verse 28, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before to be done. For to do what thy hand determined
should be done. Thy hand and Thy counsel, Thy
purpose. God killed Him. God killed Him. Isn't that what
He said? God spurred not His own Son,
but delivered Him up. God delivered Him up. God had
to deliver Him up. No man could have laid hands
on Him until God delivered Him up. One thing you'll notice,
especially in the Old Testament, as you read, you realize that
God had a hand in the punishment of His Son. We beheld Him, we
esteemed Him smitten and stricken of God and afflicted. A few years ago, the fundamentalists
came up with this theory. They said that Jesus Christ was
born to be the King of Israel. But because they rejected Him
as their King, God had to revert to Plan B and crucify His Son. The cross, brothers and sisters,
is not Plan B. There has only been one plan
from all eternity. You go back into the beginning
when the Lord turned our parents out of the garden. And He spoke
there of the seed of the woman. And His heel was going to be
bruised. He was going to suffer. And then
you go on to the book of Genesis where Abraham took his son upon
the top of Moriah. And what did He say about that
place? He said, God will provide Himself. And tell you what He said? Not
only will God provide Himself a Lamb, He will provide Himself
the Lamb. He is the Lamb. And you go on
through the Old Testament, and you saw that He was to come out
of the family, the tribe of Judah, the family of David, to be born
to the virgin. And then He comes. And in the
New Testament, you read, this happened, that it might be fulfilled
which was said in the Old Prophets. And upon Calvary's tree, outside
those walls of the city of Jerusalem, God hung His Son on that cross. And God punished Him for the
sins of His people. God had a hand in it, did He
not? Oh, that's wonderful, isn't it?
That's wonderful. To see man punish the Son of
God, to see devils punish Him, we can understand that. But when
God afflicted Him, when God smote Him, my Father, except I drink
this cup, it can't pass from me and from my people. So give
me this cup. That cup was in the hands of
God. The cup of wrath. upon our sins, and God smote
him for our sins." Oh, what a comforting thought that is! God was complicit
in the death of His Son. They meant it for evil, but He
meant it for good, to save much people alive, as it is this day. Thy hand, Sixthly, think of this. Who is
responsible for the death of Christ? Christ Himself was. Christ was. Listen to this. No man takes my life from me.
I lay it down of myself. He loved the church and gave
Himself for the church. Greater love hath no man than
this, than a man lay down his life for his friend. There has never been a more willing
act between the eternities than Christ giving Himself. There
has never been a more gracious act and loving act than Him laying
down His life unto death. No man takes my life. No man
takes my life. It is impossible for them to
take His life. Seventh is this, and let me read
the last verse of this psalm. When I think of Jesus and the
way He died, how upon Him all my sins were laid, all the other
people, Herod, Pilate, the soldiers, all the other fade away from
view. It's for me the sacrifice was
made. I no longer wonder anymore. I have found what I've been searching
for. My sin demanded hell. On Him the judgment fell. I am
guilty. Now it's plain to see It was
really me. What part do I have in the death
of Christ? It was my sin. It was my sin. It was my sin, my cruel sin. The chief tormentors were. Unbelief
became the spear. Unbelief. All my sins were the
nails in His hands. You say, Bruce, I wasn't there.
I had no part in that. But you know, if we won't take
a part in it, how can we partake of the blessings that comes out
of it? We must come to the cross and say, I'm guilty. I'm the
guilty party. This is sure as I drove the nails. Just as sure as I took the spear
and put it in his side, I am guilty. They shall look upon
him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one
that mourneth for his own son. I pierced him. I killed him. But thank God out of that death
comes my salvation. Out of that death comes our life,
doesn't it? Yeah, He died for the guilty,
even for those who pierced Him. Even you and even me. Who killed Jesus many years ago? I guess there's a sense in which
this world of humanity has to stand up and say, I'm guilty.
I'm guilty. But thank God. Thank God for
their salvation for the guilty.