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Episode 393: In today's podcast, Jeff and Chris delve into the gripping narrative of Jesus' trial before Pilate and Herod, exploring the nuances of each account from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Discover the unique insights each Gospel brings to this pivotal moment in history, and how Jesus' responses to Pilate and Herod reveal the nature of His kingdom and truth.
Whether you’ve been following Jesus for years or you’re just starting to ask questions, there’s a seat for you here.
Join Jeff and Chris for honest conversations about Scripture, faith, and the everyday stuff we all navigate. With humor, personal stories, and plenty of back-and-forth, The Bible Guys explore what the Bible says and how it connects to your life.
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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, good morning everybody. If indeed you are listening in the morning, that's right. The Bible Guys are back. You may listen at night they might be Yeah, we are back back better than ever. Noon approved. So he's Chris and I'm Jeff, and we make up the Bible Guys team, and we've been doing this for a while. We've been we're coming up on I think next week will be two years. Our four hundredth Bible Guys episode is next week. Yeah, and then if you include before it became The Bible Guys, we're way over. We're closer to six hundred. Yeah. Yeah. I never I don't know that I ever wanted to do six hundred of anything with you. So anything with you, but here we are. We're coming up on it. But it's almost four hundred episodes of The Bible Guys, six hundred minutes together. You didn't want to do six hundred minutes. I don't know, I don't know. I don't know that I had a plan for our relationship segment whatever, anything. He says, anything. Yeah, but we're coming up next week. It'll be our four hundred thing or four hundredth episode, So yeah, that's it's super cool. Yeah, it's gonna be fun. Well, hey, the segment for today is actually something we haven't done in quite a while, which is a social media minute. These are fun. I like this. Yeah, so Desrae has grabbed just some comments from you know, people either writing in or well actually all writing in, but either through email or on posting on YouTube or Facebook or face whatever whatever. Yeah, so I guess I'll read the first one. It says, you guys came through for one of my assignments. I needed a podcast for an assignment I'm doing, and you guys have one, or what you guys have one just for what I need? Blessings says Jaden. S Well, you're welcome, Jayden. We're glad that we could be the cliff notes to your project. That's right, that's fantastic, that's awesome. Kind of what kind of assignment would Jaden have been doing? It needed? Jaden has to be a pupa Yahoo's like us. Well, maybe it's a Bible college didn't. Okay, what not to do when you're teaching the Bible. That's right, that's right. Yeah. So just to remind you, we're not pretending like we're professors here, We're just two guys who like to talk about the Bible in funny, practical ways. So yeah, it's more devotional. Okay, Well, good job, Jayden, thank you. We're glad we can help you out. The second one is from Karen H. She says, I just love how you guys describe heaven. It's amazing how you can do that and make the Bible understandable. I love you guys. Thank you. Oh well, we love you too, Karen. That's amazing. That's very nice. So that's really incredible. I love you guys. I know that's nice. That's very very nice. Okay, and then Johnny C says this, I want to thank you guys so much for doing this daily. You guys help me so much in ways that I wish I could put into words. I'll have to say is thank you so so much forward your podcast. I've never been a firm believer in Jesus' Last God, but I recently have had a spiritual experience that definitely changed my life. Wow. That's amazing. Wow, I love that you know, Johnny, that's amazing. Yeah. When somebody discovers God for the first time and you know, comes to know the especially the power of God that changes lives, that's amazing. Yeah, that's great. Yeah. So hey, Johnny, you know you've heard of say it before, but the Bible says that just in time, Jesus paid the price for us, and that everyone who calls in the name of the Lord. If you believe that Jesus paid the price and he rose again, you're willing to confess your sins and invite him to become the Lord of your life, the King of your life. Everyone who calls in the name of the Lord can be saved. Right. That's amazing. So we're really glad that you're on that journey. That's really incredible. It's great. So and we're glad that we get to be a part of it, oh for sure. So what we have here we had Jaden and Karen and Johnny. Thank you guys, and anybody else, say, send us a message. We'd love to hear from you, and we'd love to communicate some Yeah, and we love getting emails to Our website is thebibleguys dot com. That's correct. And you can go and do all sorts of things on that website. You can subscribe, you can research manuscripts, right, yeah, yeah, we have all the transcripts, not manuscripts with the transcripts. That's of every show. Yeah yeah, and you can email us at info at thebibleguys dot com. That's correct, sweetness. Well good, So today we are in Matthew chapter twenty seven, Mark fifteen, Luke twenty three, and John eighteen. Yes, and then we're going to go back to Luke twenty or twenty three again. Okay, so we're going to cover some ground. The last couple ones we've done only had just a few verses, and now we're reading half the Bible on this. We're making up for lost time. Buckle up. So this is Jesus standing before Pilot. This is his first trial against Pilot. So Matthew chapter twenty seven, verse eleven says, now Jesus was standing for Pilot the Roman governor. Are you king of the Jews? The governor asked him. Jesus replied, you have said it. But when the leading priests and the elders made their accusations against him, Jesus remained silent. Don't you hear all these charges they're bringing against you, Pilot demanded, but Jesus made no response to any of the charges, much to the governor's surprise. In Mark chapter fifteen, verse two, Pilot asked Jesus, are you the king of the Jews. Jesus replied, you have said it. Then the leading priests kept accusing him of many crimes, and Pilot asked him, aren't you going to answer them? What about all these charges they bringing against you? But Jesus said nothing, much to Pilot's surprise, and in Luke chapter twenty three, verse one, it says, then the entire council took Jesus to Pilot, the Roman governor. They began to state their case. This man has been leading our people astray by telling them not to pay their taxes to the Roman government, and by claiming he is the messiah, a king. So Pilot asked him, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus replied, you've said it. Pilot turned to the leading priests into the crowd and said, I find nothing wrong with this man. Then they became inconsistent. But he is insistent, insistent what I say inconsistent inconsistently insistent. That's right, okay, But they became insistent, but he is causing riots by his teaching wherever he goes, all over Judea, from Galilee to Jerusalem. Oh is he a Galilean, Pilot asked, When they said that he was. Pilot sent him to Herod Antipas because Galilee was under Herod's jurisdiction, and Herod happened to be in Jerusalem at the time. And then in John eighteen, verse twenty eight, it says jesus trial before Caiaphas ended in the early hours of the morning, and then he was taken to the headquarters of the Roman governor. His accusers didn't go inside because it would defile them and they wouldn't be allowed to celebrate the passover. So Pilot the governor went out to them and asked, what is your charge against this man? We wouldn't have handed him over to you if he weren't a criminal, they retorted. Then take him away and judge him by your own law. Pilot told him only the Romans are permitted to execute someone. The Jewish leaders replied this fulfilled Jesus prediction about the way he would die. Then Pilot went back into his headquarters and called for Jesus to be brought to him. Are you the king of the Jews? He asked him. Jesus replied, is this your own question or did others tell you about me? Am I a Jew? Pilot retorted, your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial. Why what have you done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my kingdom is not of this world. Pilot said, so you are a king, and Jesus responded, you say I'm a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world that testified to the truth. All who love the truth recognize what I say is true. And then in Luke chapter twenty three, verse eight, it says Herod was delighted at the opportunity to see Jesus because he'd heard about him and had been hoping for a long time to see him perform a miracle. He asked Jesus question after question, but Jesus refused to answer. Meanwhile, the leading priests and the teachers of religious law stood there shouting their accusations, and then Herod and his soldiers began mocking and ridiculing Jesus, and finally they put a royal robe on him and sending back the pilot. Herod and Pilot, who had been enemies before, became friends that day. So really, there's only one passage that talks about him going to Herod and then coming back, and it's only Luke, chapter twenty three, that's correct. So there's only verses eight through twelve, that's it. So Luke's the only one that covers the Herod account part of the trial. And even though the other ones say, like the John said, hey, we're going to send him to Herod, but Luke's the only one that talks about Herod and that's amazing. And Herod's just intrigued because he heard Jesus did really cool things. Right, Hey, come over this. This would be like inviting Chris Angel to your big party and saying, hey, do some card tricks, dude? Can you levitate? Yeah? Right, that's what's happening. He's a celebrity that wants another celebrity coming here. Yeah. Herod didn't even care the fact. He didn't seem like he cared that he was on Travor's life. No, no, no, he's just like, ooh sweet, I heard about this guy. I'm glad you came all way over here, right, which is kind of Herod was known for monkey boy, Yeah exactly. Herod was known for debauchery and partying and very hedonistic lifestyle, which is strange. He was Jewish that had bought his position right his father before him, his grandfather before him, and they had sold out the Jewish people to be kings. And so at this point now he's outside of mainstream Judaism certainly, and he's just live in this wild, crazy, self centered life. And so for him, it makes total sense that he would see this more as a party favor than anything else. And then they dress him up like a king in purple robes and send him back to Pilot, and apparently Pilot thought that was funny. They became friends that day. Yeah, right. They were enemies because you have Herod, who is the kind of the Roman face for the Jews, like, hey, let's have one of them, so he calm him down, and Pilot being the Roman face of the Romans, and so there was some tension between these two leaders. But their palaces were very close. If you ever look a map of ancient Israel or ancient Jerusalem at the time, their palaces were close. So it's not like it had to get a chariot and go, you know, back up to Galilee. It happened that one of Herod had palaces all over Israel, right right. Why it said he happened to be in Jerusalem that time, but it meant he wasn't just like down the street, like at the corner market. He just was at his palace in Jerusalem. Yeah. Well, it's Passover. This is the biggest thing happening in the whole nation right now. He wants to be seen. It's like going to Super Bowl. All the people who don't like football, but they're you know, they're already famous, and then they go buy a suite and they spend a million dollars on a suite they don't even care about because they don't care about the game. They just want to be seen. Yeah. In some cases, yeah, yeah, a lot of times. And that's kind of I think Herod's thing. It's not that Herod was celebrating Passover, it was just that this is the happening scene this week. I want to be there, and he had a palace in Jerusalem, so he went, and so they pass him off like this. But I think that the amazing thing is the conversation that's recorded in Luke twenty three that's not recorded in the rest with regard to it, just says in the others, are you the king of the Jews? Right, Matthew Mark right? But in Luke it kind of begins to unpack the conversation. Oh no, no, no, not Luke, John John right. John begins to say, are you know only the Romans are permitted to execute someone? Is what the Jewish leaders say? And then he goes back and he's having this conversation with Jesus, are you the king of the Jews? And he goes, is this your question? Did always tell you about me? He gets mad, what do you think? I'm a Jew? Like I care what the what the Pharisees and the priests are saying. Right, And then John also talks records more about the conversation about truth. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's how it ends. Yeah, and is pilot the second time is that when he says what is truth? Yes? Right? So they have another conversation later on sort of like an extend, extended conversation at this beginning one right here, because uh, because yeah, obviously Jesus is claiming about truth here and that's the only thing he says in the first meeting. You know, I I uh, I think that it's very very typical for people to pass the buck. So, you know, a little sermon within a sermon here is what's pilot do. He tries to shake off his responsibility, and he tries to say, oh, he's Galilean. Yes, you know, I could argue and say this isn't my problem, it's Harri's problem. Absolutely. Yeah. Oh I don't want to deal with the skeletony yeah, and uh And sometimes I think that as pastors, uh don't. I've seen you do this where you actually take responsibility for other pastors wrongdoings. So somebody, so somebody treats somebody poorly and you're like, hey, I'm not I'm not a pastor of your previous church, but I am a pastor. I'm sorry. So I just apologize on behalf of pastors everywhere, and on behalf of the church. We're you try to step up and you know, try to make it right just because you don't want to see somebody fall or things like this. It's the opposite of what a lot of people do. A lot of people just say, hey that you know, I'm gonna shrek off the responsibility. This is not my problem. You know. It feels segregated in people's minds sometimes, but it's not. We're the big church where the big Sea Church. For every church that believes that the way to heaven is through Jesus Christ, right, we own we own people's experiences with church and with God and with religious leaders, and we should try to take responsibility across the board. Yeah, and each other. You can't hardly blame him that he doesn't want to touch this. He doesn't want to touch this with a ten foot poll. He feels like he's getting played a little bit. He sees there's really nothing to that. Come on, really, Oh, he told people don't pay their taxes. He doesn't even address that part. That's a big deal. It's the only reason why Rome kept conquering the rest of the world was collect taxes, which may mean he already knew that Jesus had said give the caesar to that, which is Caesar's Maybe right, Maybe he knew that it happened in Jerusalem when that when that statement came up, it happens in Jerusalem, So maybe maybe he knew that was a lie. Maybe it was so common that he's like, yeah, welcome to every Jews. He says that, yeah exactly, which is why we have a henchman everywhere, because nobody wants to pay their job. But he doesn't even address that, right, and then he just wants to know are you really a king? Like, are you gonna cause me trouble? Right? Are you really? Are you a king of the Jews? Oh, let me send you to hear it. You're Galilean. Galilean is the king of the Jews too, right, But he also after that question, he also says, I find no fault in this man, right, yeah. So so he's like, come on, guys, you just you just want to kill him. That's that you want him kill him, and you want me to do it, and I don't see any fault. And then he finds out, oh wait a minute, king of the Jews from Galilee. Oh, Herod's the king of the Jews. Let's go ahead see if you if you'l And so Jesus never says a word to Herod not a thing to Herod not and you can just imagine how infuriating that would be. So boring, But again you can see how little care Herod puts into his leadership there. He doesn't get angry, he just starts mocking him and sends him back right, like, you're so boring. I thought this was gonna be fine. It's not fun. Yeah, go back over and you know it is fine, and put a purple robe on him. Yeah yeah, right, and start making fun of it, and then send him back to pilot. I don't want to mess with this anymore. And so then he comes back and so over the next day tomorrow we'll talk about more of that trial and how it finally finishes up. But this idea of you know what is truth is incredible because Jesus speaking to him, it's almost you can see Jesus is trying to help him, let him off the hook. Are you really a king? And he goes, well, my kingdom's not an earthly kingdom. So immediately Pily goes, this guy's nuts, right, He's no threat to the Roman Empire. Jesus is the me that totally lets him off the hook. And then he goes you know, if it were my followers would fight you. But they're not going to fight you, which, by the way, he's implying, you know all of Israel likes me. Right, you want a full blown riot, I could have given you one. You want a full blown revolt, I could have brought one if I wanted to, right, And so I think power to power in that moment, I think Pilot had an understanding and it's picking up on the fact that Jesus has no intent of doing that at all. And then he goes, but my kingdom's not of this world, and he says, so you are a king. He says, you say that I'm a king. Actually, I came into the world to testify about truth. You know, I'm the King of truth. That's what I'm here for you. You want to know what I'm all about. I'm not about you. I'm not about your power. I'm not about this palace. I'm not about your empire. I was here. I come from a different kingdom, and I'm just trying to bring truth to the people. And to a guy like Pilot. He had to be thinking, I think this guy's lost as marbles right right, well, because he says, King my kingdom is not of this world, right, And at the time, like think about like of this world? Like what are you even talking about? Right? Right? And and and then and then he goes into this like ethereal, you know, cerebral, you know, you know, I came to testify of truth. And I'm sure probably is probably thinking is he talking about the world of the mind? Right, right? Like what is he talking about? So who are you saying? Are you saying you're Apollo? Is that what you're saying, you're saying you're right? Right, that's because a king not of this world? Really, that's what you're. You're You're a Roman god. Is that what you're You're some kind of a Jewish god? That that's the thing. And he had to have thought this guy is crazy. And so you can clearly see he doesn't want to kill Jesus. And then tomorrow we'll see again he has no desire to go down this path. I sometimes to let Pilot off the hook, but I do feel like Pilot got played. And there is also the fact that I think he just runs out of gas and doesn't want to engage with this anymore. And what's what is it to me to kill one more weirdo, right right right. And by the way, let's not overlook the fact that John is the book here that includes the conversation, like you said about truth. It's also the one that talks about uh uh, only the Romans are permitted to execute someone. That's that's another insightful thing. But John also includes that his accusers, his accusers didn't want to go inside of Pilot's house because it would defile them and they wouldn't be allowed to celebrate the passover, right right, right, So so if going into a gentile's house made them unclean, which it did, right, So they're they're they're they're wanting Pilot to be their puppet to execute you know, Jesus for them. And at the same time, unfortunately they can't go in because if they do go in, by the way, they'll have to go and cleanse themselves and they'll isolate they isolate themselves for what is like seven days or three days? Yeah, it depends on what the I don't remember what the yeah vacation would be, but yeah, whatever the law said, and they probably have to go into the seat. They probably have to go into a like the Sea of Galilee first and then isolate themselves for days, and they can't do that because the passover literally is within twenty four hours and so, you know, which is obviously on the Sabbath. So yeah, I just think that that's really interesting. So they're like, come on out here, which means that these aren't room discussions. This is a this is a courtyard public conversation. That's what's happening here. It's happening in the courtyard with everybody around because it's not indoors, right, yeah, so everybody can see it happening. Right. This isn't the room where it happened, remember Hamilton, Yeah, the room it happened, the room happen. So the difficulty for Pilot here is he's confronted with truth and he doesn't know for sure what truth is, but he does know this truth Jesus is not guilty, he's not worthy of death, and he rejects the truth he does have. And so I think sometimes people have are have access to some of God's truths, but they won't make a decision until they have all the truth, or they feel like, well there's more. I don't understand it all right now, so I can't make a decision and Pilot made a decision he didn't understand at all. I think he thought Jesus little nuts on some of this stuff. But the truth he did know was Jesus wasn't guilty of anything worthy of death right, and he rejected that. Even if Jesus is trying to say, hey, I have a different kingdom, he rejects that idea, doesn't even ask any more questions about it. He's going to it again. He just asks about truth and that's it. And then, you know, so I think that it's really important for us to take the truth that we do have the words of God, that you do have the access to Jesus, that you do have, respond positively to that, and then God will continue to reveal more of his truth to you. And so this is why Pilot is also culpable in this whole process. And so you have both the Jews and the Gentiles being culpable in the execution of Jesus. Is he had access to truth and rejected it. So something you just said reminds me of something. You know, you've talked with skeptics or agnostics or people who say, hey, I've refused to make a decision about Christ because I have some questions, you know, and and there these are my questions. And until I get those answers, I want to debate. And I'm a thinker, and all these different kind of things. And I would just say, over the thirty years i've been a pastor, I've never seen anybody, you know, intellectually get all their questions answered. And that was their way into heaven. Oh right, right, somebody doesn't get all the answers and then make a decision to become a Christian because not everything is going to be answered to everybody's satisfaction. And if you're a person that's very inquisitive and you want to know more, and this is you know, if you're the type of person a project manager who says, I can't go in until every last stone is unturned and everything is explored, I know every possible angle before I enter into any project. Which there are people like that, and that's a good thing in a lot of ways. But when it comes to faith, there are things that we are required to just you know, take by faith, which, by the way, even Jesus interacting in the thirty three years that he lived, there were things that he didn't explain and he just said walk by faith. Yeah, he never gave people explanations on some things. Well, that's what we understand, is that we walk by faith and not by sight alone. Right, And so it comes to both the truth is there, and the truth is clear, and the Holy Spirit can show you the truth. But there is a faith moment when you have to just decide to say, I'm not God and I have to choose to make a choice and a belief. We do that all the time. You get in your car, even the best engineer doesn't know every single element. You get in a plane and you sit down and you lets but you've never even met you didn't even look at their license, and you let them fly you at five hundred and fifty miles an hour, thirty thousand feet above the ground, hollow metal tube. We live by faith all the time. And so it's that level of faith. I understand thrust, I understand lift, I understand some of those things. I trust the brand of Delta Airlines. Right, So I've got these things, and so I'm making an educated decision. I'm taking the preponderance of the evidence. That guy's wearing gold eagles on his shoulder, he's got a blue hat. He's standing there greeting me right next to the door. Apparently he's allowed in. And I've seen Delta work before. I think the plane's going to get me to Omaha. Empirical evidence, Yeah, exactly, and so I take the preponderance of that evidence, and the evidence the truths are enough for me to go okay. All the things I don't understand and know, I can trust that they do, and then I can place my faith in that pilot to get me to Omaha or wherever I'm going. It's the same thing. So you can take the truths either you accept them, a reject them, take the preponderance of the evidence, and then go okay. By faith. I can accept the rest while I'm still learning and discovering those things. Do you fly to Omaha much? No? I know, I said, Omaha, I'm just trying to go down alright. Well, hey, we are right at that time. So that's been you know, that's wrapping up today and we'll pick it up tomorrow. On the bibble gush