Sermon Overview

Scripture Passage: Matthew 27:22

In Matthew 27, Jesus Christ stood on trial before Pilate, and in verse 22, Pilate asked the most personal and pressing question: “What shall I do with Jesus?”

What we do with Jesus is an unavoidable decision each of us will make; what we decide—or not decide—will dictate our eternity.

We must consider Pilate’s decision: as the people cried out for Jesus’ death, Pilate’s voice of reason and conscience raised alarm. He examined the evidence and listened to witnesses, including his own wife (v. 19), and Jesus Himself, who confessed that He was the King of kings. (John 18:37)

Though the voices that confronted Pilate clearly revealed the right thing to do, his warped values pressured him to decide otherwise. Pilate was pressured by the public’s opinion; the people were viciously calling for Jesus’s blood. His boisterous pride, his lofty position, and plentiful possessions were more valuable than the innocent man standing before him.

At first, Pilate ignored the issue, then shifted the decision to King Herod. When Herod declined and sent Jesus back to Pilate, He confessed Jesus was faultless, yet decided not to decide.

However, as Adrian Rogers warns, “You cannot be neutral about Jesus.” Matthew 27:24 says, “When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.”

Pilate’s rejection of reason and misplaced values made Jesus’ trial a mockery of justice. Pilate’s “neutral” verdict condemned Jesus to death, and also condemned himself. We have an opportunity to make a different decision. Analyzing the evidence from Scripture, the witnesses of the saints, of old and of new, we know Jesus is exactly who He says He is. And perhaps the most crucial witness of them all is God the Father.

1 John 5:9 says, “If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son.” We know that Jesus is Lord because after He was crucified, God reversed the decision of the court and raised Him from the dead!

Apply it to your life

You cannot be neutral about Jesus; you cannot avoid Him, escape Him, or bypass Him: so what will you do with Him?