The Jewish And Roman Rulers Of The Crucifixion

Hello, and welcome to Social Media Ministries. My name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you so much for tuning in with us this week.

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Alright, today we have a great message on the rulers of the crucifixion. If you’re a believer, you believe that Christ died for your sins and rose from the dead. We have a sermon series about the ascension. You can check that out. It’ll be in a card up here on our YouTube channel; otherwise, just go to our website, type in “Ascension.”

It’s called the “Resurrection: Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory.” So, you can watch that sermon series, it’s about seven sermons — three of them. Two of them, First Ascension, Second Ascension — so you can watch those on that. But the point is, the rulers of the crucifixion. That’s what we’re talking about today.

So, consider the thoughts that were going through the minds of the unbelievers and of the rulers at the time during the crucifixion of Jesus. Think about, Jesus lived on Earth from about, I think He was born about four to seven AD, or, you know, not BC, but A. So the New Era, Common Era, CE, sometimes is called. They got all kinds of different acronyms.

He was born then, lived for about 30 years, and then from about 30, age 30 to age 33, He had His ministry. So He had a three-year ministry, and He had pretty much the entire known world talking about what He was doing. Three years, that’s it.

The power and the impact that happened there was incredible. Let’s have that happen again. He had the Roman government wondering what they were going to do about Him. He had all the Pharisees, well, not all, but the majority of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, wanting and plotting to kill Him.

They didn’t like what He was doing, and so, think what was happening when He was finally hanging on that cross. Many of those people were saying, “Whew.” They breathed a sigh of relief. They said, “Finally, this guy is done, over with, He’s gone!”

The Pharisees were rejoicing, popping the champagne. If they drank, they might have, who knows? But they were rejoicing at that time because they said, “We did away with this Jesus of Nazareth. He’s done!”

The Sadducees were probably cheering. The Roman officials were saying, “It’s nice to have that done. We don’t want to risk any rebellion. We don’t want to risk any revolts. We don’t want the zealots to side with them, anything like that.” So, consider what was going through their minds.

Now, of course, some of them, the Pharisees, like perhaps Nicodemus, he was not rejoicing. Or, a Roman official like Pontius Pilate, he was concerned. He even said, “I wash my hands off this, I’ll have nothing to do with it. I had Him whipped, you guys want to crucify Him? That’s not right, it’s wrong. I’m wiping my hands clean!”

Like James says, “Wash your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.” Pilate’s like, “I don’t want anything to do with this.” Even the Roman centurion that had his servant healed, he’s not rejoicing. Point is, it’s not everybody, but many of the unbelievers were probably very happy to have gotten rid — or so they thought — of Jesus. Let’s go to Matthew 27:24.

Matthew 27:24 says, “When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood,’ he said. ‘It is your responsibility.’”

In other words, Pilate said, “We already had the guy flogged; the punishment fits the crime in Rome, but you, the mob, want to do even more. Rome has nothing to do with this, do as you will, I’m washing my hands.”

They probably considered it to be one of their greatest victories — they were glad to be rid of Jesus, and have Him gone. Now, from the time Jesus was arrested, first of all, ha, it was like a crooked warrant, or a corrupt warrant if you went today’s day. They found him at like, midnight.

Okay, most of the time things happen in the daylight, but in this instance, they did it in the cover of darkness so no one would know, so there wouldn’t be an uproar. That tells you something shady was going on. They knew something shady was going on. They wanted to do it at night.

He got arrested. They brought him to Annis. Who was that? Well, that is the father-in-law of the high priest. He’d heard Him out. Then he says, “Alright, I’m sending him to Caiaphas, the high priest.” Caiaphas ends up hearing Him out and is like, “I’m going to send him to the Sanhedrin.”

He goes to the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin ends up sending him to Herod. Okay, from Herod, Herod’s like, “What are gonna do with this guy? He’s done nothing wrong. Let’s send him to Pilate.” He goes to Pilate. Pilate’s listening to Him like, “Well, what the heck, we’re not gonna do anything with Him. He’s not done anything, fine, flog Him and then get Him out of here.”

Pilate sends Him to the elders. He just goes back and forth to all these places because, guess what? Rome really can’t find anything wrong. So, they say, “Alright, we’re gonna appease you. We’ll flog Him and release Him.” “No, no, we’re not releasing Him. I want to crucify Him!”

“Wash my hands!” And anyway, where — He went all over the place. He was arrested, and they even transported Him. I mean, they sent Him all the way to Herod. This is some big stuff.

Now, if you want more information on all these places where they went, read the Bible. It’s in the Gospels. You’ll have to read all four Gospels to get more of a complete account.

In addition, there’s another non-canonized text called the Gospel of the Kaileti, which you can read for a more detailed account as well, kind of in order, so that helps. Keep in mind, use that as a reference to the Gospels.

Now, if you get one we put out, all of the instances in the Gospel of the Kaileti, we’ve kind of annotated scriptures that correspond with those statements in there, so you can use that as a companion text when you’re reading through the Bible, so that’s pretty exciting. If you want to find that, go to our website, and can check it out there.

But they were so glad to be rid of him. All these places, Annas, Caiaphas, the Sanhedrin, Herod, Pilate, the elders, probably the Sadducees, they were all like, “Pass Him on, get Him out of here, we don’t want anything to do with this.”

And when it was finally done, they were probably all just relieved. Those Pharisees, they worked really hard to trump up charges and arrest Him. They fought and pleaded to get Him crucified. They used mob psychology; they put a lot of time and effort into killing Jesus. These rulers of the crucifixion.

However, they didn’t understand what they were really doing. They didn’t know that in so doing this, they were falling right into the hands of God. Ha, it’s funny, the little segue, that God’s will is being done all along. Now, of course, we know that the people, or the beings behind the Pharisees and these rulers of the crucifixion, that was all Satan.

Satan was working hard to use humans to crucify Christ. Now, even before that, you look up Isaiah and Jeremiah. Those are two prophets that were killed. They each received a vision. Isaiah received a vision of the Christ.

You can read about it in Isaiah. He ended up being sawed in half. Why? Because Satan was trying to get information out of him. Isaiah wouldn’t give it up. Jeremiah, same thing.

Jeremiah had visions of the Christ, and he ended up being killed, tortured to death by, obviously, humans, but Satan working through, trying to get information on, “Who’s going to be this Christ? Who’s the Messiah coming, when?” They didn’t give it up.

Finally, when it was happening, Satan’s like, “Alright, this is the Messiah. We recognize Him. Let’s get Him out of here.” He even tried to tempt Him. Nothing worked. So finally, he says, “We have to kill him.” Goes through people — remember, he tested through the disciples.

He tried Peter. Didn’t work. He eventually, he probably went right through them all, and then he landed on Judas. And Judas, “Okay, I can work with Judas. He got greed, baby!” Tried Matthew, “Man, he gave up his greed.” Judas! And Satan used all these people to crucify Christ.

But really, God had a master plan because Christ had to be crucified in order for us to have salvation, and so, how cool is that, that God uses everything for the good of those who love Him. Not everything for everyone’s good.

He uses it for the good of those who love Him, so this crucifixion, even though how brutal and horrible it was, it was used for our good. Because now, we can have that relationship with Christ. Praise God for that, and thank God for doing that.

Alright, let’s go to some verses. Luke 23:34. 23:34 says, “Jesus said, ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing,’ and they divided up His clothes by casting lots.”

Fulfilling a couple Old Testament prophecies right there. They didn’t know what they were doing. Jesus knew what was going on, but the people doing it had no clue. They were killing Him. They were casting and dividing His stuff. They didn’t know what they were doing. They were doing the will of Satan. Let’s go to Luke 23:47.

Luke 23:47, “The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, ‘Surely, this was a righteous man.’” He knew it was the Son of God. He knew that was Christ, so he praised God, saying that. Matthew 27:54.

Matthew 27:54, “When the centurion, and those with him were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and all that happened, they were terrified and exclaimed, ‘Surely, He was the Son of God!’” They were recognizing afterward what they had done.

They realized they really did kill the Son of God, but they didn’t know that in killing Jesus, they were fulfilling prophecies, setting up for the greatest victory of all mankind. How do we know that? Let’s go back to Isaiah 29:14.

Isaiah 29:14 says, “Therefore, once more, I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder. The wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish. I will astound these people with wonder.” How?

What is the astounding with wonder? Well, they thought they killed Jesus, and guess what happens a few days later? Three days — Jesus rose from the dead. They didn’t understand that Jesus would live forever. They didn’t get it, but when they killed Him, they thought it was done and over with. Then all of a sudden, it’s like their worst nightmare was back.

They’re like, “I thought we did this!” And you know what? It was their worst nightmare because, guess what? The worst nightmare for Satan and his demons is Jesus Christ. And if Christ is in you, nothing can stand against you.

Demons will flee. Why? Because you’re their worst nightmare, I mean, come on! But we’re good. How can good be a nightmare? For the evil, what is good is a nightmare. Alright. Let’s go to another verse.

1 Corinthians 2:8, “None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.” See, the rulers of the crucifixion did not understand what they were doing, because if they did, they wouldn’t have crucified Him.

If they knew, “Hey, by crucifying Jesus, He comes back to life and He incites even more followers than ever before,” they would never have done it.

They would have said, “Let this thing die out. It’ll be peaceful.” Obviously, it wouldn’t have because God had a plan. And if Satan knew the fulfillment of the plan, that Jesus would descend into hell and conquer hell so that there is no power of the grave over any of us, Satan would never have wanted Christ to be crucified.

He would have said, “Stay out of here forever. I don’t even want you coming here,” but guess what? The Old Testament prophecies and everything said that that is what Jesus would do. Even back in Genesis. He will crush your head. You will bruise His heel.

What do you think the crucifixion was? A bruise to the heel of Jesus. He went down into the depths, took the punishment for your sins, and then crushed the head of the serpent, and ascended out of hell and into Heaven.

How amazing is that? God hid these facts from the rulers of the crucifixion. He hid the truth from them. They didn’t know their Old Testament prophecy, of course, the Romans didn’t. They had other gods.

They didn’t know the Scripture, even the Sadducees and Pharisees; they didn’t know. They didn’t know the Word — they claimed to, but they didn’t believe.

They didn’t like Jesus. They didn’t believe He was their Messiah. Most of the Jews today still don’t. Interesting, though, isn’t it? God hid the truth from them so they wouldn’t understand. Let’s go to Matthew again. Matthew 11:25.

Matthew 11:25, “At that time Jesus said, ‘I praise You, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, because You have hid these things from the wise, and learned, and revealed them to the little children.” God hid these things from the wise, and the studious, and the pompous. Remember, we have a sermon, it’s called “Be Not A Pharisee.”

You gotta check that one out. Go to our website, type in “Pharisee.” Go to YouTube channel, whatever, wherever works for you. Go there, check it out. Why? Because! Be not a Pharisee. You can’t be like them. Don’t be like the pompous, wise, and learned.

Be like the little child, actively seeking and relying on God for everything. If the rulers of the crucifixion understood, they never would have gone through with it, because they didn’t want to be working for God. Think about that.

In what they were doing, they were inadvertently, unknowingly, doing exactly what they needed to do in order so that the Old Testament prophecies would be fulfilled, in order so that our sins would be paid for, in order so that we would have eternal life.

They were doing the will of God. They just didn’t know it yet because God hadn’t said, “This is my will.” Like today, we have the Bible. We know what we need to be doing. We know the will of God. We were commissioned by the Great Commission to go and do. If you’re not doing that, you are simply being disobedient.

Don’t argue with me. Take it up with God. That’s the command — Go out, preach the gospel, heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, freely He gave to you, freely you give to others, make disciples of all nations, teaching them to follow all that God has commanded you.

If you are not doing that, you are living in disobedience. Don’t be mad at me. Take it up with God. Spend some time with Him, and He’ll tell you exactly that. He’ll say, “Yes. Go and do!” These people, the rulers of the crucifixion, they didn’t want to be working for God. So if they knew that that’s what they would be doing, they wouldn’t have done it.

They didn’t believe in God. They didn’t want to believe in God. They had their own gods. Remember, God plans in detail. He has detailed and sophisticated plans for your life, for everyone’s life.

He’s got that all down to His science perfectly. And He wants you to follow those plans, and He wants to make you prosperous and successful. But God hid the true purpose from their eyes. why? So that they would follow His plan.

Kind of sneaky, isn’t it? Not really. God knew them. And He knew that if He told them, “This is what you are to do,” they wouldn’t believe Him, they wouldn’t listen, so He used something that they would understand, exactly how God used a star to lead the wise kings, or the wise men, to the baby Jesus, or actually at the time it was the two-year-old Jesus.

See, these Magi worshipped the heavens through divination, through astrology. That’s not good. That’s wrong. That’s a false god, but God put a star up there, using any means necessary. We have a sermon on that, “God Uses Any Means.” He used that star to lead these people to Christ.

God will meet people where they are, and use what He can, to get them to follow Him, to do His will. Let’s go to 1 Corinthians 2:7.

1 Corinthians 2:7 says, “No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden, and that God destined for our glory before time began.”

We declare God’s wisdom — it was a mystery that was hidden, but it was destined before time began. God has a plan, God is always in control, both then and now. He has a will ,and He wants you to follow and do it with all your heart.

Let’s pray.

Father, thank you so much for this sermon. Thank you so much for this time together, thank you for the rulers of the crucifixion. Thank you that they accomplished your will.

Thank you for being willing to send your Son to die for us, and we thank Jesus as well for being willing to do that for us.

To do that for just one person, to do it for the whole world. Thank you for what you did. And Father, we believe in you. We believe in your Son. We love you, and we love your Son. I ask that you would soften the hearts and minds of those around us, that they would be willing to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Father, that you would inspire those watching and listening to go to those around them, to lead them to you, to help them make that decision to have Jesus Christ be their Lord and Savior, that they would raise up an army around them filled with believers on fire for you, doing your will, actively doing what you want them to do each and every day.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Remember, Christ died for you, for you alone. We have a two-part sermon series that you can check out on our website, for you alone, saved by grace, Jesus died for you. Remember that.

If you have any questions or comments, please put them below on our YouTube channel. Otherwise, head over to our Discord server, you can discuss it there.

Have a great week, and God bless.