{"id":6898,"date":"2015-09-08T00:05:10","date_gmt":"2015-09-08T07:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=6898"},"modified":"2015-09-07T22:27:48","modified_gmt":"2015-09-08T05:27:48","slug":"limited-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/09\/08\/limited-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Limited Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Pilate heard that, he was the more afraid, and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus, \u201cWhere are You from?\u201d But Jesus gave him no answer.<\/p>\n

\tThen Pilate said to Him, \u201cAre You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?\u201d<\/p>\n

\tJesus answered, \u201cYou could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t From then on Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, saying, \u201cIf you let this Man go, you are not Caesar\u2019s friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tWhen Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, \u201cBehold your King!\u201d<\/p>\n

\tBut they cried out, \u201cAway with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!\u201d<\/p>\n

\tPilate said to them, \u201cShall I crucify your King?\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe chief priests answered, \u201cWe have no king but Caesar!\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThen he delivered Him to them to be crucified. Then they took Jesus and led Him away. (John 19:8\u201316)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tPontius Pilate was the fifth Roman governor of Judea. As the governor, he held absolute power over Jesus as both judge and jury. He could have freed Jesus just as easily as he ultimately had him executed.<\/p>\n

\tBut Solomon wrote in the book of Proverbs, \u201cThe king\u2019s heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases\u201d (Proverbs 21:1 NIV). Pilate could do only as much as God would allow him to do. He was not the one ultimately in charge. In fact, Jesus told him that the one who had delivered him to Pilate\u2014Judas\u2014was far more guilty than Pilate could ever be.<\/p>\n

\tPilate soon demonstrated his lack of control when he faced the people of Jerusalem. Despite his belief that Jesus was innocent, he felt constrained to follow the whim of the crowd that demanded Jesus\u2019 blood. Because of Pilate\u2019s lack of character, his power was much less than he liked to imagine. <\/p>\n

\tIn the end, God\u2019s will was done, though those who performed God\u2019s will were motivated by evil and therefore guilty of a great crime. In the end, we learn that God is always in charge. Nothing that happens to us is a surprise or beyond God\u2019s ability to control.<\/p>\n

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When Pilate heard that, he was the more afraid, and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus, \u201cWhere are You from?\u201d But Jesus gave him no answer. Then Pilate said to Him, \u201cAre You not speaking to me? … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6898"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6898"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6901,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6898\/revisions\/6901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}