"His Blood Be On Us"

The point: Do not violate your conscience about the person and claims of Christ under peer pressure, or for personal gain, as Pilate did.

The release of Barabbas, the guilty insurrectionist, and the condemnation of the innocent Christ is presented as a marvelous picture of the Gospel of God's grace, where Christ dies for the unjust.

God has set before us a marvelous picture of the very heart of the Gospel of the grace of God. Barabbas, the convicted insurrectionist, the convicted murderer, Barabbas, the one laden with proven guilt, is set free, while the innocent Christ, innocent before the bar of Almighty God, declared innocent before Pilate and even Herod, the innocent one is condemned to die, while the guilty and the condemned one is set free. And in those, in those realities, I say, is a marvelous picture of the Gospel of the grace of God in which Christ dies the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. We t...

7:17 - 8:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not violate your conscience about the person and claims of Christ under peer pressure, or for personal gain, as Pilate did.

The story of Pilate and Herod becoming friends on the basis of their mutual rejection of Christ illustrates the wretched and foul basis for any human friendship built on opposition to Christ.

God has set before us a marvelous picture of the very heart of the Gospel of the grace of God. Barabbas, the convicted insurrectionist, the convicted murderer, Barabbas, the one laden with proven guilt, is set free, while the innocent Christ, innocent before the bar of Almighty God, declared innocent before Pilate and even Herod, the innocent one is condemned to die, while the guilty and the condemned one is set free. And in those, in those realities, I say, is a marvelous picture of the Gospel of the grace of God in which Christ dies the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. We t...

7:17 - 8:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not violate your conscience about the person and claims of Christ under peer pressure, or for personal gain, as Pilate did.

Pilate's actions, violating his conscience, the judgment of Herod, and his wife's warning, to please the crowd and save his career, serve as a prototype for anyone who compromises their conscience under peer pressure.

but on the occasion of their agreement with reference to rejecting the claims of Christ, they became friends from that very day. And any friendship formed on the basis of that friendship, of mutual determination, to stand against Christ and His claims, is a friendship founded on the most wretched and foul basis imaginable. And then we noted thirdly in this incident the pathetic picture of a man violating his own conscience, respecting Christ, in order to please men and to save himself, and his own personal political career. Everything in Pilate tells him Jesus is innocent. Everything within hi...

8:43 - 10:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not violate your conscience about the person and claims of Christ under peer pressure, or for personal gain, as Pilate did.

The chief priests' envy of Jesus, which Pilate recognized, is shown as the horrible nature and fruit of sin, burning until it led to a murderous spirit thirsty for Christ's blood.

Even this godless, unprincipled Roman pagan saw through the charade of the so-called accusations of the chief priests and the leaders of Israel. And we are told in Mark 15 that he knew that for envy they had delivered him up. He was stealing their...

10:56 - 11:20 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And all the people answered and said, His blood be on us and on our children. One writer has said there is no more fearful prayer recorded in the history of mankind if these words are regarded as words of imprecation and…

The ancient Jewish ritual from Deuteronomy 21, where elders washed their hands to declare innocence from bloodguilt for an unsolved murder, is used to explain the significance of Pilate's symbolic act.

And he would have known for there is no indication that this was a custom practice in Roman courts that this was of peculiar significance to the Jews in the context where innocent blood had been shed. And the practice has its tap roots way back in Deuteronomy chapter 21 and verse 6 in this strange requirement which God made to cover circumstances where a murdered individual was found but no witnesses to the murder could be brought forward to establish who the murderer was. And God mandated that certain things be done in order that the town nearest the place where the murdered man fell be clear...

16:15 - 17:43 Read in full sermon

Driving home: no man can declare himself his own judge if that were so then every criminal would declare himself innocent and free himself from prison or other forms of incarceration it will take more than Pilate's little ritual and P…

Pilate's handwashing and declaration of innocence are likened to 'throwing the whole issue as it were into the court of the Jews' hands,' mirroring their earlier words to Judas.

and rank in the echelon of Roman rule and being true to his own conscience freshly agitated by the visit of his tormented wife and her recent dreams they are concerned that if Pilate cannot reconcile this matter and rid himself of any culpability in this act they might not win the day and so in doing what he did and in saying what he did Pilate was throwing the whole issue as it were into the court of the Jews hands see ye to it the irony is that's the very language they used a few hours before when a self condemned Judas came and met them in the temple area and said I am guilty of betraying i...

20:38 - 22:07 Read in full sermon

Driving home: something demoniacal possesses these Jews as far as the blood which Pilate dreads to stain his hands is concerned these Jews make light of it they offer to take it completely off the governor's hands and to load it upon …

A quotation from Lutheran commentator Lenski summarizes the demoniacal nature of the Jews' self-imprecation, highlighting their willingness to take all guilt and punishment upon themselves and their children.

the brash and irresponsible recklessness hear our children as if to assure Pilate that all his reservations are groundless they say the guilt will not upon ours broaden them with the shoulders of our children and unborn generation and that is the meaning of these frightening words Lenski the Lutheran commentator summarizes them with these words something demoniacal possesses these Jews as far as the blood which Pilate dreads to stain his hands is concerned these Jews make light of it they offer to take it completely off the governor's hands and to load it upon themselves that implies that they...

30:50 - 32:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Face the facts that God took the Jews' self-imprecation seriously, as proven by charges against them and historical judgments.

A quotation from Edersheim, a converted Jew, describes the historical judgment upon Jerusalem, linking it directly to the Jews' cry, 'His blood be on us,' and the subsequent suffering of the Jewish people.

Yet no longer are they the peculiar conduit and the particular vehicle of God's redemptive purposes. And in the process of doing what he did in taking the kingdom from them and giving it to others, the whole complex of events culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem are part and parcel of God's activity in fulfilling that purpose. And so commentators have very perceptively picked up on this. Edersheim, himself a converted Jew, wrote, But here in answer to Pilate's words came back that deep, that hoarse cry, His blood be on us, and God help us on our children. Some thirty years later, and on...

50:39 - 52:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Face the facts that God took the Jews' self-imprecation seriously, as proven by charges against them and historical judgments.

A quotation from Albert Barnes, referencing Josephus, describes the horrific bloodshed during the destruction of Jerusalem, where Jewish bodies were impaled and their blood quenched fires, illustrating the severity of God's judgment.

Albert Barnes, commenting on the same passage, says that in Josephus's account, the Jewish historian of what happened during that destruction of Jerusalem and in some of the other events leading up to it, that the blood flowed so freely from Jewish bodies impaled on crosses that it actually quenched some of the surface fires that were burning in the city. And while God in the day of judgment will deal with every cruel, heartless, unprincipled Jew hater, with every Hitler and every boy and girl in the schoolyard, that because a little boy had as his last name, a distinctively Jewish name, calle...

52:34 - 53:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Face the facts that God took the Jews' self-imprecation seriously, as proven by charges against them and historical judgments.

Hitler and schoolyard bullies calling Jewish children 'Christkiller' are used as examples of wickedness that God will judge, distinguishing it from the biblical truth of Jewish culpability.

Albert Barnes, commenting on the same passage, says that in Josephus's account, the Jewish historian of what happened during that destruction of Jerusalem and in some of the other events leading up to it, that the blood flowed so freely from Jewish bodies impaled on crosses that it actually quenched some of the surface fires that were burning in the city. And while God in the day of judgment will deal with every cruel, heartless, unprincipled Jew hater, with every Hitler and every boy and girl in the schoolyard, that because a little boy had as his last name, a distinctively Jewish name, calle...

52:34 - 53:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Be aware that your own madness, unbelief, and impenitence can curse the souls of your children and unborn generations.

The examples of an unconverted man in Israel (2 Samuel 3) and David (2 Samuel 12) are cited to illustrate how personal sin and unbelief can bring a curse upon one's children and future generations.

And my friend, that fountain open for sin and uncleanness that could pardon and forgive the very murderers of Jesus, who coarsely and crassly and boldly, imprecated themselves, and called down upon themselves the guilt of murdering the Son of God. That blood flows in the purpose of God to cleanse the vile sinner, who will but come in repentance and faith. And I close with this final word of personal application from these frightening words. It is possible, it is possible in our lives, our own madness and unbelief, to curse the souls of our children, of our own children, and of unborn generatio...

64:29 - 65:42 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not curse your children with crass, horrible formalism, where your religion is only skin deep but you convince others you are alright.

Martin shares a personal anecdote of seeing the principle of cursing one's children through unbelief worked out in his own bloodline, adding weight to the application.

You should be in the right place. You should be praying to God, you should be in the right state in the world, you should be praying to God in your own churches, you should be praying to God in your own church, Legitimacy and sins of the most shameful kind have come from him saying his blood be on me and on my kids. I can make it without this Christ of my mother and father, this Christ of my older brother, this Christ of my younger brother, this Christ of my seven sisters. No, let his blood be on me and let it be on my kids. And I tell you, I've lived to see that principle worked out in my own...

66:07 - 67:00 Read in full sermon