Where the Crowd Leads, Don’t Follow

Luke chapter 23 verses 13 through 25.

Then Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, said to them, “You have brought this man to me as one who misleads the people. And indeed, having examined Him in your presence, I have found no fault in this man concerning those things of which you accuse Him. No, neither did Herod, for I sent you back to him. And indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by Him. I will therefore chastise Him and release Him.” For it was necessary for Him to release one to them at the feast. And they all cried out at once, saying, “Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas,” who had been thrown into prison for a certain rebellion made in the city, and for murder.

Pilate therefore, wishing to release Jesus, again called out to them. But they shouted, saying, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” Then he said to them the third time, “Why, what evil has He done? I have found no reason for death in Him. I will therefore chastise Him and let Him go.” But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices that He be crucified. And the voices of the men and of the chief priests prevailed. So Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they requested. And he released to them the one they requested, who for rebellion and murder had been thrown into prison, but he delivered Jesus to their will.

Luke chapter 23 verses 13 through 25.

Acts chapter 3 verses 13 through 15.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses.

Acts chapter 3 verses 13 through 15.

How would you like to lose your home to the homeless? Well that’s exactly what is happening to Violet Williams, an 86-year-old widow who lives in Kansas City, Missouri. Twenty-seven years ago, in the year 1968, she and her husband Ron moved into an apartment in a building on East 33rd Street in Kansas City. After her husband died she continued to live there. And her only companion is her little curly-haired dog whom she calls Annie.

About 13 or 14 months ago, however, the building was purchased by a group called the City Union Mission. And they notified the tenants that they needed to be out by October the first because they were going to renovate the building. And they were going to turn it into transitional apartments for homeless men who were preparing to live on their own. Now they offered the tenants relocation pay. They offered them to find a place in the neighborhood where they could have equal rent. And four of the tenants moved out. But two of them remained. One of them a 71-year-old man and the other Violet Williams.

So what does Violet Williams think about her impending eviction? Well she says it’s as dirty as can be. She said, “If I had not been paying my rental on time or not paying my bills I could understand it.” She said, “If I were doing something illegal, if I were having parties, but I haven’t. I’m just living here with my dog.”

Now the City Union Mission is not united with this situation. And a spokesperson said, “We’re not in the business of putting people out on the street. That’s not what we’re about.” But they never let us feel that they should go ahead. And they said that we know it’s going to be hard on them. But they knew it was coming.

Violet Williams’ niece is a woman named Chris. And Chris is worried about her aunt because Violet has never learned to drive. She shops in the immediate neighborhood. The only time she goes out of the neighborhood is when she walks to her hairdresser which is about six blocks away. And her niece says this move will kill her. I’ve seen too many people who have put their folks in a retirement facility and they live only six months or a year.

And what is the bottom line for Violet Williams? Well she said, “I can’t see why they would put a woman out in order to put a man in the apartment. It don’t make sense.”

Now you know I have to kind of agree with Violet Williams. It don’t make sense. In fact there are a lot of things in life that really don’t make sense. And isn’t it true that in our society and in our culture it often happens that this single little individual, a person like Violet Williams, that the single individual is swallowed up in the desires of the many? Sometimes the rights of one person are trampled on by the rights of the majority.

And one of the hardest things that we have to do in life sometimes is to stand alone. To stand up by ourselves when the opposition and the resistance is coming to us from every side. And that can become a major problem in our Christian life and experience.

And because it is I would like to leave you today with a motto. Perhaps it would be better to call it a challenge. But my motto, my challenge is this. Where the crowd leads, don’t follow. And that just happens to be the title of my message to you today. Where the crowd leads, don’t follow.

Now most of you know that your speaker this morning is a long-time ardent fan of the Cincinnati Reds baseball team. In fact this is my 48th consecutive summer of following the Reds. And some of you also know that for a number of years I used to go every year to Cincinnati. And my dad, who was also an ardent baseball fan, would accompany me to Riverfront Stadium where we would see the Reds play a number of games.

Now in case you don’t know this, Riverfront Stadium just happens to be one of the most beautiful ballparks in America. And when it is filled with Cincinnati fans there is a big crowd in that stadium. I’ve always marveled at the fact that when Riverfront Stadium is filled there are about three times as many people in Riverfront as there were who lived in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania when I was growing up there.

And one of the fun things about attending the ball game at Riverfront Stadium is walking out with the crowd. Provided that the Reds have not won the game you understand. But walking out with the crowd and walking almost shoulder to shoulder with that crowd as it crosses over an elevated walkway that leads from the stadium to the downtown streets of Cincinnati.

And when you’re in a crowd like that after a winning baseball game you can hear all sorts of nice things said about your team and about the gifted players who are playing for the Reds. But I think I should tell you that people in Cincinnati take baseball a little bit more seriously than people do in Dallas and Fort Worth. And if I were a Los Angeles Dodger fan and I was in that crowd and the Dodgers had just wiped out the Reds in a ball game you know what I would not be doing? I would not be shouting, “Yay Dodgers! When they guard Dodgers! When I would put it to those hapless Reds!” I say I wouldn’t be doing that because I value my life, my health, and my safety.

And you know I can almost sympathize with the serious situation that was confronting the Roman governor named Pontius Pilate in the passage of Scripture that we just read. You see this was Passover time in Jerusalem. And Jerusalem was crowded with people not only from all over the land of Palestine but all over the Roman world as well.

And when the Jewish rulers led Jesus to the judgment hall where Pontius Pilate was you remember the Gospel of John says they didn’t go inside. They were afraid that they would defile themselves under the law of Moses and not be able to eat the Passover. So they stood outside while Pilate interviewed Jesus on the inside.

And we can be very sure that the presence of these men outside of Pilate’s judgment hall created a crowd. And then you remember that Pilate tried to hand off the problem of Jesus to Herod. And while Jesus was in the presence of Herod we may presume that the crowd was getting bigger and bigger. And finally Herod passes the ball back to Pilate. And now Jesus has returned to the hands and to the judgment of the Roman governor.

And the Bible tells us that the governor called together the rulers and the chief priests and the people. And that probably meant he walked out on the stairways of the judgment hall and he assembled the leaders and called the people to hear his announcement.

And this was his announcement. He said, “You sent this man to me accusing him of misleading the nation. And I have examined Him in your presence. And I have found nothing of guilt of all the things that you have accused Him of. And furthermore I sent Him to Herod and Herod didn’t find Him guilty of anything that would be deserving of death. So this is my decision. I will release this man after I have subjected Him to me.”

Now my friends there can be very little doubt that in making this announcement Pontius Pilate was making basically the right decision. He knew that he had an innocent man on his hands. The only thing wrong with this decision was that Jesus did not even deserve the painful flogging that Pilate was going to give Him as a kind of throwaway scrap to His enemies.

But basically in deciding to release Jesus Pilate had decided to do the right thing. But there was one fly in the ointment. There was one fact that Pilate had failed to take into account. And the fact was this. The crowd did not want to do the right thing. The crowd did not want to do the right thing.

And as soon as Pilate had made his announcement the crowd begins to scream, “Away with this man and release to us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a real criminal. I mean he had a rebellion in Jerusalem and in the process he’d been guilty of murder. But the crowd is not interested in that. They are not concerned with the fact that Jesus is innocent and Barabbas is guilty.

And they fulfill the charge which Peter lays before them later in chapter 3 of the book of Acts. “You denied Him in the presence of Pilate when Pilate was determined to release Him. You denied the Holy One and the Just and you desired a murderer to be granted to you and you killed the Prince of life.”

What a horrible, dreadful, ugly decision. Does a murderer get rid of the man named Jesus?

And may I suggest to you this morning that if you are a Christian person, and by that I mean if you have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for the absolutely free gift of eternal life and you know that you’re on your way to heaven, if you are a true born-again Christian, then sooner or later you are going to confront a crowd that doesn’t want to do the right thing. A crowd that doesn’t want to do the right thing.

Years ago in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa, a South African was up on this balcony of the sixth floor of a downtown building. He was preparing to jump. Government officials were up there trying to talk him out of his determination to commit suicide. And while he was up there a crowd assembled in the streets below. It was estimated at about 2,000 people.

And you know what the crowd was shouting as this man was up on the balcony? The crowd was shouting, “Jump! Jump! Jump!” And after two hours this man rejected the advice of the government officials and he accepted the advice of the crowd. And he jumped. He fell to his death on the pavement below.

And may I warn you there are many times when the crowd tells us to jump. Maybe you are in a group of young people and everybody in the group is beginning to smoke marijuana. And somebody offers you a joint and they say, “Try this.” And you say, “I don’t do illegal drugs.” And then everybody in the group says, “Go ahead and try it. It’s not going to hurt you. Take a deep breath of it. Inhale. It’ll give you a high. Go ahead. Do it.” And the crowd, the group, is telling you to jump.

You’re a young husband and father and you’re just getting off of work on Friday afternoon. And all your buddies at work say, “Hey let’s go over to the liquor store and cash our checks. And then let’s go down to Bill’s Bar and Cafe and let’s have a few cold ones. In fact let’s get drunk.” And you say, “No I really need to go home to my wife and kids. And besides I have so many bills I can’t afford to spend any of my money down at Bill’s Bar and Cafe.” And then they say, “Aw come on. A few cold ones will do you good. After a couple of coolers under your belt you won’t even remember that you have any bills to pay. Come on. Go with us.” And the crowd is saying, your friends are saying, “Jump! Jump!”

Here you are a working mother. And on Friday afternoon all your gal friends in the office gather around you. And they say, “How about joining us? We’ve made big plans for the weekend. We’re going to get in several cars and we’re going to go to Galveston this weekend. We’re going to leave our husbands at home to take care of themselves for a change. We’re going to go out and have a good time on the beach at Galveston.” And you say, “No I can’t do that. My husband has made some plans for the family for over the weekend.” And your girlfriends say, “Hey what’s with you? Are you one of those old-fashioned people who still thinks that a husband is the head of the family? This is the 90s. Wake up. Smell the roses. This is the age of feminine liberation. Come with us to Galveston.”

And of course your girlfriends are ignoring the word of God and they are telling you to jump. Jump!

And don’t you see that’s exactly what the crowd was telling Pontius Pilate to do? I mean here is a man who is on the very edge of the most important judicial decision that was ever required in the history of mankind. The man before him is the Creator and Redeemer of men, the Creator of all things. And Pilate wants to release Him. And the crowd says, “Jump! Jump! Jump!”

Now there’s no question about it is there that Pilate knew exactly what the right thing to do was? I mean he knew that Jesus was innocent. He had said so himself. He knew that this was a man who did not deserve to die. And when the crowd began to cry out Pilate calls after them and he says he wants to release Him. And now the crowd begins to chant. And in the original language the chant is just one word. And their chant is, “Crucify! Crucify! Crucify!”

And Pilate shouts, “Why? What evil has He done? I will chastise Him and release Him to you.” And all that the crowd does by way of response is to raise the level of the noise. Can’t you hear them? “Crucify! Crucify! Crucify! Crucify!”

And isn’t it obvious that not only is the crowd determined to do the wrong thing but the crowd refuses to listen to reason? The crowd refuses to listen to the other option. They refuse to consider the right and the wrong of the situation. They insist on their way.

There was a parade years ago in San Francisco. And there was a beautiful float on which a young woman was supposed to ride. And before the parade began they coated her body with gold because she was supposed to represent the golden state of California. And I’m assuming she looked quite impressive as she rode on that float past the cheering crowd. But unfortunately the gold clogged up her pores so that the pores of the body could not breathe as they need to do. And the woman who was doubtless praised by the crowd died.

Well you can put it this way. The crowd would like to coat us in gold. Or to say it this way the crowd wants to smother our opposition. The crowd wants to smother our resistance. The crowd wants to smother our arguments and smother the issue of right and wrong and insist on doing it their way.

If you are with a group of people who have decided to go out and drink beer how long do you think they will listen to your arguments that it would be better for them to go to the Dairy Queen instead? Not long. And if you’re with a group of people who have decided to do illegal drugs how long are they going to listen to your discussion that they ought to just say no?

Don’t you see it my friends? The crowd is determined. The crowd is insistent. The crowd is unreasonable and unreasonably. And the crowd can get very, very ugly indeed. And that’s what happened to Pilate.

The Bible tells us that they were insistent, demanding with loud voices that He be crucified. And the very next words of our text I think are some of the saddest and most tragic words in the Bible. Don’t you see the situation that Pilate was in? He could listen to the voice of his conscience or he could listen to the voice of the crowd. And the Bible says that the voices of those men, the voices of those men and of the chief priests, prevailed.

And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they requested. Unconditional surrender my friends. The complete collapse of any moral standards on the part of Pilate. The world of Pilate fades like air escaping from a punctured balloon.

And the Bible tells us that he released to them the one they had requested, the one who for rebellion and murder had been cast into prison. And then in these fateful words it says, “And he delivered Jesus to their will.”

The will of the crowd had won.

Now before we get real tough on Pilate and before we condemn him for his cowardice and wimpishness let us all ask ourselves one question. The last time a group of people asked us to put our Christian convictions behind us and to go their way what did we do? How did we respond?

If you are a believer in Christ know this. That sooner or later the will of the crowd will clash with the will of God. And it will be the will of the crowd versus the will of God. And then you will make the decision. And when that happens the decision that you make should be guided by a very basic principle. And the principle is this. Where the crowd leads, don’t follow.

During World War II after the armies of Nazi Germany triumphed in France the effort to evacuate the British forces from the northern seaport of Dunkirk was a disaster. One of the greatest disasters in British history. In some engagements after Dunkirk off the Norwegian coast 47 British ships were sunk. After the evacuation half of the British destroyers were in the shipyards for repair. The British Royal Air Force had lost 40 percent of its bomber spread. The British military had about 50,000 vehicles in France. England was on the verge of starvation. And the troops that she had on the island were poorly equipped.

And everyone expected it was only a matter of time before Hitler would invade England. And England apparently very helpless before the power of the Nazis. But in this one of the darkest periods of British history the British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill spoke words that rallied his country. And these were his words.

He said, “We will defend our island whatever the cost may be. We will fight on the beaches. We will fight in the fields. We will fight in the streets. We will fight in the hills. We will never surrender. And if our island should be subjugated and starving our empire on the seas will continue to struggle until in God’s good time the new world and all of its might and power will step in to deliver the old.”

We all know the end of the story. Hitler never invaded England. And it was Hitler who went down to defeat. And it was England and her allies that won the victory.

And listen to me. Even though our eternal salvation is a free gift of God which we receive by faith in Christ the Christian life is not for wimps. It’s not for people like Pontius Pilate who have no backbone, no courage, and no ability to say no to the crowd.

The Christian life is for people who say, “I will defend my Christian commitment whatever the cost. And I will never surrender to the crowd.” And it’s people like that my friends who respond to the call of the hymn writer.

Stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross. Lift high his royal banner. It must not suffer loss. From victory unto victory his army shall he lead. Till every foe is vanquished and Christ is Lord indeed.

Do you want to be a winner and not a loser in life? Do you want to experience victory as a Christian believer? Then hear me. Where the crowd leads, don’t follow.

Shall we pray? Father we all know what it’s like to confront people who oppose our Christian convictions and who seek to lead us in the wrong way. Help us to have the courage of those who are truly committed to Jesus Christ to say no and to stand firm for our Savior. And we ask this in Christ’s name. Amen.