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(upbeat music) - Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions. We're looking at Mark
chapter 15 this week. This is our first day looking at verses one to 15.

In this chapter, Mark 15, Jesus gives his life for us on the cross. He gives his
life for you, for me on the cross. His suffering is a picture.

It is a reality. It is the greatest picture of love that you will ever see. It's
the greatest reality of love that you will ever see.

And I have to be honest, I feel very humbled and very inadequate to talk about
the reality and depth of what happened at the cross. I don't know if any of us
are. And yet God reveals to us his love through the cross.

It's my prayer that for you and me both, as we walk through these verses this
week, that in a new and fresh way, you'll see the reality of Jesus' love. Maybe
for the first time, maybe for the millionth time, but that you'll see it in a
new and fresh way. We're going to see as we walk through this chapter that it's all
about people.

It's all about the reactions and responses of those involved in this most
important week in human history. So let me read for you verses one to 15, Mark
chapter 15. Very early in the morning, the chief priests and the elders and
teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin reached a decision.

They bound Jesus, let him away and handed him over to Pilate. "Are you the king
of the Jews? " asked Pilate.

"Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. The chief priest accused him of many
things. So again, Pilate asked him, "Aren't you going to answer?

"See how many things they are accusing you of? " But Jesus still made no reply.
And Pilate was amazed.

Now it was the custom at the feast to release a prisoner whom the people
requested. A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had
committed murder in the uprising. The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for
them what he usually did.

"Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? " asked Pilate, knowing
that it was out of envy that the chief priest had handed Jesus over to him. But
the chief priest stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.

"What shall I do then with the one you call "the king of the Jews? " Pilate
asked them. "Crucify him," they shouted.

"Why, what crime has he committed? " asked Pilate. But they shouted all the
louder, "Crucify him.

" Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus
flogged and handed him over to be crucified. As you read these verses, as we
read them, all hearts are made clear at the cross.

The pretense of our human hearts is stripped away and the reality of our need
for Jesus's love is clearly seen. You see it in every person in this story. You
see it in Pilate.

In Pilate, you see a heart of fear. You read what happened between Pilate and
Jesus, and Pilate's questions, this Roman governor's questions, are more a
confession than a cross examination. "Are you the king of the Jews?

" he said. Now, if Pilate had listened, he would have discovered that Jesus was
a different kind of king, and other gospels were told that at this point, Jesus
reminded Pilate that he had a kingdom that was not of this world, that he was a
king who came to tell the truth, that he was a king who was rejected by his own
people. Here, he simply says, "It is as you say, I am a king.

" And this is Pilate's crucial moment. Jesus is standing before him. He is
saying, "I am the king of kings.

" And Pilate is a tortured, frightened man as he tries to decide what to do with
Jesus. He represents so many of us. He is a man who is trying to be in control
instead of recognizing the one who controls everything, the one that's standing
right in front of him.

We all do this. I want to be in control of my life instead of recognizing the
one who is in control of everything, including my life. It's not hard to see the
contrast as we walk through this story.

It's the Roman army that's supposed to be in power, but Jesus is Lord. When they
come to arrest him, he's the one in control. It's the Jewish court that's
supposed to be the example of squeaky clean righteousness, but Jesus is shown to
be the innocent one.

And it's Pilate who is supposed to represent the king, the Caesar, but Jesus is
obviously the king of kings. A comparison of the gospel shows that Pilate
pronounced Jesus guiltless no less than seven times. He didn't want him to be
crucified.

He wanted him to be set free. So why didn't he release him? Because he would
only release him if it was at no cost to himself.

And we have to admit, we're the same many times. We want to do what's right to the
point of some momentary loss. It's frightening to recognize how easily any of us
can slip into this weakness of Pilate.

Pilate, who had a heart of fear, he was revealed at the cross. And the rulers,
their heart is revealed also. They had a heart of envy.

Pilate knew it. Pilate knew that envy was the motivation for everything they
were doing. Their excuses, their arguments were theological, but the problem was
that their hearts were rotten with jealousy to the very core.

They were rotten with jealousy over the popularity of Jesus and his teaching and
in his ministry. And so they took Jesus to the cross. As we look through the
hearts of the people that day, you also see the crowd.

Their heart wasn't one of fear or of envy. Their heart was a heart of
disappointment. You notice that the chief priest stirred up the crowd to ask for
Jesus to be crucified, to ask for Barabbas instead.

Pilate wanted to satisfy the crowd. The chief priest stirred up the crowd. And
many people ask, how did this crowd turn so quickly from worship as Jesus
entered Jerusalem on Sunday to asking for his crucifixion on Friday?

Well, partly it was because it was a different crowd. All of Jesus's supporters
were in hiding by this time, but that's not the only reason. How was it that
this crowd was so easily convinced to ask for the crucifixion of Jesus?

Their motivation was Jesus had not done what they expected him to. They expected
him to sweep into Jerusalem and to become the ruler. And because Jesus didn't do
what they expected, they rejected, they rejected him.

Now, before I judge them too harshly, before you judge them too harshly, has
Jesus ever not done what you expected him to do? How did you react? It is so
easy to reject Jesus in our lives when he doesn't do what I want, what I expect,
to forget the fact that he knows more than I know.

In that crowd, you see a heart of disappointment. There's also Barabbas there
that day. What about Barabbas?

Books and movies have been written about how he might have responded, but the
Bible doesn't tell us. It just tells us he was an insurrectionist. He was a
terrorist who had murdered some people.

We know how he lived, but we don't know the end of his story. We do know this.
We know that Jesus died for him.

He lived, Jesus died. And because Jesus died, he was given the opportunity to
choose to live forever. As we look through the hearts that day, you see Pilate,
a heart of fear.

The rulers, a heart of envy. The crowd, a heart of disappointment. But you also
see Jesus.

In the midst of all this, you see Jesus with the heart of God. In all this, the
Bible says, he stood silent before his accusers. He was silent before Pilate.

Pilate knew that the charges against Jesus were purely from envy. And Jesus
could have said just the right thing at just the right time, and Pilate would
have set him free. But he chose to be silent.

And in choosing to be silent, Jesus was choosing to go to the cross. And so
Pilate, Pilate chose to send him to the cross. Now the Bible says first he had
him scourged.

He had him whipped. This was a terrible experience. It was a whip that had
pieces of bone and pieces of stone tied into this leather.

And it would beat a person and whip a person at the same time. And many times a
person that was going to be crucified most of the time was not scourged first.
Crucifixion was more than enough.

But this whipping was done. Other gospels remind us because Pilate was hoping it
would be enough of a persecution, of a punishment of Jesus, that the crowd would
say, "Oh, let him go. " But they didn't.

They continued to say, "Crucify him. " The fact that Pilate, wanting in some way
to escape that day and what was happening, chose this political means of
whipping may seem unjust and unfair, but it is not. It's in the plan of God.

Isaiah 53 verse five prophesies of Jesus, by his scourging, by his whipping, we
are healed. They scourged the Savior that day, and his flesh was ripped so that
our soul could be made whole. God's flesh endured the whip in order that you and
I might be set free from our slavery to sin.

That's the greatness of what he did for us there that day. All hearts are
revealed at the cross, including my heart, including your heart. Let's take a
moment to talk to Jesus.

Jesus Christ, as my heart has revealed, I see the need that's there. I see the
need for you. I see that apart from you, I can't have a relationship with God,
but with you, I can enjoy a relationship with God now and into eternity.

And so I bring my heart to you. And I pray that instead of feeling guilty about
what happened at the cross, I pray that instead of living with the guilt that I
have for my own sins, that Lord, I would be grateful, grateful for your love
that you would go to the cross, grateful for your forgiveness that my sins, my
sins can be forgiven and I am set free. Jesus, I am grateful.

I thank you. In your name, amen. Join us tomorrow as we walk through this day
with Jesus.

He's going to go to the place of crucifixion.