[00:00:00] I'm going to have you turn in your bibles this morning to John, chapter 18. We're going to continue our series of the Gospel of John, and I'm going to just pray right now that God would really speak into our life. You know, I preached it in the first service, and I realized, you know, this is probably a little headier than even I usually am. How's that? I think last week, you know, I think everybody was right with me, but I could see from the first service people they had to really work hard to follow what I was trying to get across. The. So really put your thinking caps on. If you're taking notes, that's probably a good thing to do and follow along, because I believe God wants to say something very powerful to each one of us today in light of the current pressures we're experiencing in our culture. Amen. So let's pray and ask God to help us. Father, I thank you this morning. You're an amazing father.
[00:00:48] We experience such amazing love from you. Kindness, goodness, you're instructing us, you're comforting us, you're challenging us. And yes, at times you're convicting us and correcting us. And those are beautiful things that expresses how deeply you care for each one of us. And now I pray, Lord, help me to convey in the most.
[00:01:10] I don't even know how to say it in a way that would be so clear that we would leave this place going, I heard the voice of the father speaking into my life. And I get what you're saying, Father, and that's what we want. We want to encounter you today, and we want to encounter you in your word right now. We thank you for that in Jesus name. And God's people said, amen. Amen. So I've entitled this message how truth is a mirror into our inner world. Or I could say truth on trial. We're going to look at the element of truth today in a society that's changing so quickly. James Emory White wrote in a book, mind for God explains the significance and the impact of ideas on our behavior. I don't think we realize all the stuff that's coming out our minds and how it's shaping the way we think. And how we think affects what we're going to do and we're going to see. I'm going to share a couple of illustrations. This may be shocking to some of you, but historian Richard Wyckart, in his book from Darwin to Hitler, he examines the revolutionary impact that Darwinism had on the ethics and morality of social thinkers during the 1930s in Germany, during the nazi element of rule in that nation, believing that Darwinism had overturned any sense of the sanctity of life, an evolutionary fitness, especially in terms of intelligent health, became the highest arbitrator of morality for those involved in the nazi regime. And so Weickart concludes that Darwinism played a significant strategy not only on the rise of eugenics. I looked it up. What is eugenics? You know, it's a set of beliefs that humans can improve through selective breeding. Can you imagine? We're trying to come up with making a super race, but also in the rise of euthanasia, infanticide, which is the taking of lives of children after they're born, and also abortion and racial extermination. These were all. Ultimately, these ideas were embraced by the Nazis and practiced by them because of the way they saw life. Ideas shape behavior.
[00:03:27] He goes on to say the contention that Hitler built his views on darwinian principles raises one of the most important truths a mind can comprehend. Ideas have consequences.
[00:03:41] That's why God's word is so powerful, because it shapes the way we think and it affects what's going to happen in our lives.
[00:03:49] He goes on to say, and I think this is a great challenge to christian faith in the hour in which we're living in, it's not atheism, but secularism. Secular humanism is actually a faith system, and many of us don't understand that. It's shaping the way people are thinking, and it's shaping their behavior. He said, the heart of the secular religion is moral relativism.
[00:04:14] You know, if you understand what that means, it just means that everything is relative. There's no absolutes anymore. And he goes on to call it a functional atheism, if you will, which holds that which is moral, dictated by a particular situation in light of a particular culture or social location. In other words, everything is relative to what's going on in society. People are making changes. And I want to just challenge us that there is. I think there is absolute truth, and we're going to look at a standard by which we can build our lives so that at the end of the day, when the trials and difficulties and the real pressures come on us, that we will not be collapsing underneath that because we've built our house on a solid foundation. Jesus talks about that in the sermon on Mount. If you hear my words and you do what I say, you're building your life on a rock. And when the trials come, you'll stand. But if you're building your life on what society is saying, all these shifting values. It's like building on a sand and the house is standing. But eventually there comes a day when a great rain comes, a great trial comes, a great challenge comes, and the house collapses because the foundation is not strong enough to support that person's life, and that's what happens. So he goes on to say here, well, with moral relativism, moral values become a matter of personal opinion or private judgment rather than something grounded in objective truth. For example, scripture. We're going to look at actually the person of Christ. So in other words, where do I get my basis for making decisions in my life? Is it defined and determined by the continual shift in cultural and social mores and values? Is that where we're getting it? Or do I make my decisions within a framework of biblical truth that's found in a person, the person of truth? Because Jesus said it, I am the way, the truth and the life. So is that where we're building our foundation, our understanding of how we're going to make decisions? In John 18, we're going to discover that Jesus is on trial. Or we could frame it another way and say, truth is on trial. And yet the reality is, as John will reveal to us, truth is actually a mirror inside of our inner world. We're going to see that what Jesus is going to do is reveal what's really going on in the life of Pilate, because those are the two principles we're going to look at today in our text here. So it reveals, basically, the truth, reveals what's at the core of our being. So when Jesus is standing trial before Pilate, what we're going to discover is that Pilate is on trial before Jesus. It's very fascinating. Who's really on trial here? Will Pilate act on the truth, or will he embrace what is momentarily advantageous to himself?
[00:07:07] Will he make a judgment based on truth, or will he vacillate into some moral relativism and surrender to political expediency, or what he thinks is to his advantage?
[00:07:19] I think probably one of the most stressful and intense moments of Jesus earthly life is now where John has us. He's been arrested. He's gone through Gethsemane, he's been taken before the Sanhedrin, and now the jewish rulers have made a decision, and they're moving them towards a roman governor, because what they want to see happen is that Jesus is now no longer a problem.
[00:07:43] Their lives, he's caused them grief. We've been going through the book of John. We can see that Jesus has challenged them, and they're getting frustrated. And the fact that he's tried to tell them that by demonstrating he's doing these things, that he is actually the messiah, and they just refuse to be open minded enough to give it any sort of consideration. They feel threatened by him.
[00:08:04] It's out of this great evil, this trial that is happening. Basically, they're prejudiced, and we're going to see that. How many would like to go to a court case where, you know, the people that are trying, you are prejudiced against you, you know, you're going to have a problem here. We're going to see that all of them are prejudiced against Jesus, and then we're going to go before an unprincipled roman governor. And so it's out of this great evil that Jesus mission, why he came to earth. He said, I came to seek and to save that which was lost. Mark says Jesus came to give himself as a ransom for many. So we're going to see the mission of Jesus now beginning to happen. He came for a purpose, and this is it. He came to die in order for you and I to have life. He came to bring about a reconciliation to God the father through his death and his resurrection for our sins.
[00:09:04] Jesus, really, he's the Passover lamb. You know, all the passovers they had all along, those were all pictures of what is now going to be fulfilled and what Jesus is doing. He is the ultimate Passover lamb. This is actually the day he's before potted, and he's going to be crucified is actually the passover. His disciples celebrated it before because usually they celebrate it over a week, but this is going to actually be the Passover. And Jesus does this so that you and I will not have to face judgment and the coming penalty, which is ultimately eternal separation from God. You know, people sometimes think, well, it's no big deal. I don't have God in my life right now. What's the big deal about having eternal separation from God? And my argument right back to them is every good and perfect gift comes from God. You know, joy comes from God. Peace comes from God. All the things that people actually enjoy actually come from the hand of God. Could you imagine the absence of all goodness, the absence of all joy, the absence of all peace? That's what it will be like, you know, when we talk about eternal separation from God, that's what we're describing. That's what is going to be part of the issue for a people that are going to be living in that eternal condition. So now, after being betrayed and arrested, after being brought before the jewish authorities, Jesus now is being dragged before the roman governor. And, you know, there's a lot of debate over why the jewish leadership sought Jesus execution by turning them over to the roman authorities. Now, there's a discussion about that, but one of the primary reasons was that the Sanhedrin had lost its political clout and power to actually give the death sentence. They didn't have that authority to do that. Now, we read instances where they stoned people for blasphemy and they probably could have. Did you know, they tried to do that with Jesus, but it didn't work. But now they're exasperated and maybe they're a little fearful of the populace. Can you imagine those guys killing Jesus and how the rest of the jewish people are going to feel that are followers of Christ? They would have had a real problem. So now they're trying to drag him before the Romans and somehow lay the blame on the roman governor. And, you know, he's always done some crazy things. I mean, he's not a very popular person in the people's times. Among the Jews, he's not very popular. He's done a lot of crazy stuff. He's been quite harsh with them. So let's pick up this story, which I think is fascinating. I'm going to take us first of all to Matthew, because what we see in Matthew we're not going to find in John. We're going to talk a little bit about what John zones in on, but Matthew gives us another perspective and then we'll come to John's perspective. In Matthew. We find that the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. How many go, this is very prejudicial.
[00:11:51] You know, they've already sentenced him. In their mind, they're just looking for, you know, Jesus to be killed. That's what they want. Matthew's telling us that he says, but they did not find any, though many witnesses came forward, they couldn't find anything to charge them with. So then it goes on to say the high priest said to him, I charge you under oath by the living God. Tell us if you're the messiah, the son of God. Now, this is a pretty straightforward question. So what does Jesus say to him? You've said it. Jesus said, but I'll say to all of you from now on, you'll see the son of man sitting at the right hand of the mighty one and coming on the clouds of heaven, what is Jesus saying? He says, absolutely, I am the messiah. This is what I'm gonna do. And he freaks out. Now, I don't know about you, but if you were really being authentic and honest and waiting for the Messiah, and Jesus tells them, look at all the things that I've been doing. Look at all the works that I've done. Nobody's doing these things. By the way we've been going through John. Nobody's ever healed a blind man born from birth. As a matter of fact, I pointed out in that message, there's no incidence in the Old Testament as some from blindness being healed. But now the number one miracle Jesus does is healing people from blindness. And I believe it's part of a picture, a metaphor, to help people to realize they needed to have their eyes open. You know, the whole nation needed to have their eyes open. But these guys are so blinded to this, they refuse to accept that. And instead of saying, wow, we really made a mistake, Jesus, you're the messiah. This is awesome. No, they didn't do that. They said, no, you're committing this tragic thing. You're a blasphemer. See, he tears his clothes. He's spoken blasphemy. Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you've heard the blasphemy. So that's the grounds upon which the jewish leaders want to kill Jesus.
[00:13:36] Okay? So he asked the rest of them, what do you think? Well, he's worthy of death. They answered.
[00:13:42] So they bring Jesus to Pilate, the roman governor. So while the three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, give a picture of the jewish trial, John almost as focuses exclusively on the roman trial. And you say, well, why would they do that? Well, Warren Worsby said the apostle John records only the interrogation. This is a few exceptions, by Annas and Pilate, and mentions Caiaphas only in passing.
[00:14:10] He says he focuses primarily on the roman trial by the time he wrote this gospel, because he wrote a lot later than the other gospels. This is years later, because the jewish nation had already been scattered by Rome, Jerusalem had already been destroyed, and all that really mattered was that Rome was still going. And so he was addressing this about the roman situation because the other one is kind of passe. They're not really an issue.
[00:14:36] That's his impression of why they did that.
[00:14:39] Mike. John did that. Merrill Taney says, explains some of the differences. He said, the trial before Pilate is given more space in John than any of the other three gospels. In spite of certain omissions from John's narrative. He does not mention the initial accusation presented to Pilate. Luke does. Nor the repeated accusations by the priests, nor the hearing before Herod, nor the priest's agitation for Barabbas.
[00:15:04] John's portrayal of this incident is designed to bring the personalities of Pilate and Jesus into sharp relief.
[00:15:12] In other words, if we were doing a drama and a sketch here today, if John was the one that was writing the play, you'd have two characters here, Jesus and Pilate. He wants you to look at their lives. He wants you to look at them and really raise the question, who is really on trial here? Is it actually Jesus? Or maybe, just maybe, it's Pilate.
[00:15:36] And as we look at the story, I think you're going to find out Pilate is more on trial than Jesus is. We already know Jesus knows what's going to happen to him. He's not even worried about that. He knows he's going to lay down his life. But Pilate is really on trial. As we look at this being played out, you know, Tenney's assessment is insightful. It's more than just Pilate on trial. It speaks to the condition of our society today.
[00:16:01] You see, when we question the validity of truth or place expediency ahead of truth in questioning Jesus, PDT said, what is truth? He's actually very relativistic, isn't he? He's really challenging the whole premise that truth is even an important reality, even as our society is dismissing truth. Why are they doing that? Well, there's only two people. There's the father of lies, who is Satan. And, you know, Jesus. Sorry, Paul writes to the Thessalonians. He said, you know, God, if we don't become lovers of truth, what God says is he'll allow a strong delusion that you might believe a lie. And a lot of people today want to believe the lie. They want to believe the lie. And you know what happens when you believe a lie is you live in a state of self deception and a lot of people are living there. And it's the truth that really sets people free. Jesus said that, you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free. We'll come back to that in a few minutes. Pilate's final judgment on Jesus is a denial of justice.
[00:17:02] He knows he's innocent, but he's going to have him executed anyways. It's really a promotion of a very relativistic expediency and self interest at the expense of truth. And in the end, we see the failure of human social values in the face of God's tribunals, because you see all of this relativism that we're living in today and all of these ideas that are being espoused. One day we'll all have to give an account to what we really held to. We're all going to stand before a divine tribunal, and then truth will become the measure, because truth is actually not just a set of propositions. It's a person. Jesus is the truth. So, as I say, you know, though Pilate knew what the right thing to do according to law, he failed because of his own political self interest to do what was right and therefore allowed an innocent man to be executed.
[00:17:57] How many say that's tragic, especially if you're the judge?
[00:18:02] And in the trial of Jesus before Pilate, we find three elements in this rejection of truth. And I just want us to remember I've already said it. Truth is a person, not just a bunch of propositions. Sometimes as christians, we go, if you believe the right things. No, it's more than that. It's following the right person, who then, you know, but a person who, when received, when we receive the person of Jesus, when we receive the truth, he now begins to be the one who defines for us what is right and what is wrong according to his design. He's the creator. He's the designer. He's the one that decides, you know, what the moral boundaries are going to be in our lives.
[00:18:44] As I write here, God sets the eternal and moral boundaries in our lives, rather than the shifting sands of societies in rebellion against God. How many realize, if you study history over time, there's been many different societies. But, you know, what happens is when people move away from a standard of righteousness or justice or goodness or all of these things, and they move towards human relativism, and all societies do that, and they move towards a darkness and a perversity. Eventually, those societies don't exist anymore.
[00:19:17] It's rather kind of tragic, but, you know, we fail to understand it because we don't look at history, and we tend to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. Now, the question then is, how do we get there? How do we come to a place where we're tempted to reject the truth? And I think in this interchange between Jesus and Pilate, we're going to discover how we come to that very place in our own lives, because this isn't just about Jesus and Pilate. This is about us. And I want you to see yourself in the place of Pilate, because that's where we get to in all of our lives, we're confronted with Jesus, and we're confronted with the pressures of society. So let's take a look at how we reject truth. First of all, the first element in rejecting truth is the lack of grounds or substance to do so. So when people dismiss the person and work of Christ, it's not on the basis of truth, but because of their own self interest. That's why people do it. It's not an intellectual problem. It's a moral problem. People want to live the way they want to live. That's the main reason we need to remind ourselves that Jesus trial is really a trial about what is truth or who is truth.
[00:20:26] What was this really all about? And is there any substance to the charges that were being made against Jesus? And right from the very beginning, we find the religious leaders accusing Jesus, as I already pointed out, of blasphemy. But here's what we read in John. Let's pick up our text now. When the jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the roman governor, by now it was early morning. And to avoid ceremonial uncleanliness, they did not enter the palace because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.
[00:20:56] I think John is a master of irony, and I want you to see the irony in their behavior.
[00:21:03] There are a number of things we need to see that's ironic. First of all, they're not willing to go into the palace because he's a gentile and they don't want to defile themselves. And therefore, if they defiled themselves, they'd have to go through these ceremonial cleansings and they would not be able to eat the Passover meal. How many think that's fascinating? But what are they really about? I think what Ff Bruce tells us, there's, of course, the characteristic johannian irony in this reference to the chief priests scrupulousness in the matter of ceremonial defilement, when in all the time they were incurring incomparably greater moral defilement by their proceedings against Jesus. In other words, they were, you know, this is like
[email protected] and swallowing a camel. This is like, come on, you guys. You're all hung up about, you know, being in the presence of a gentile when you're ready to crucify your own messiah. How many think there's a little irony in all this?
[00:21:59] Because they're doing the one to please God and they're doing the other to really displease God, which is far worse. That's the point John's trying to show us. He's giving us this picture.
[00:22:09] Then he goes on here, they know they can't come to the roman governor and just say, hey, he committed blasphemy. How many know that's not going to fly? This guy's a Roman. He's not even going to relate to that charge. So this is what Luke tells us they said to the roman governor, because as we're going to see in John, he never, they never bring this up. It doesn't come up. Then it says in Luke, the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, we have found this man subverting our nation and he opposes payment of taxes to Caesar. How many know that's a blatant lie? You remember the story of Jesus with the money? They said, you know, jesus comes, Jesus very, very quick. You know, he looks at the coin, he says, well, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Whose head's on there? Oh, yeah, Caesar's. Now give to Caesar what belongs to him and what belongs to God. Give to goddess. So they're lying, right? I mean, how many go, that's pretty interesting. These are these religious people lying through their teeth.
[00:23:05] And he claims to be the Messiah king. Well, he does make that claim, but he is the messiah, the king. So he's not telling you a lie and you guys just don't buy it. So what is Pilate's response to their desire to have Jesus executed now? He says, so Pilate came out to them because they wouldn't go in. What charges are you bringing against this man?
[00:23:27] Well, the fact that Pilate knew a little bit what was going on. Think about it. He had sent a roman detachment to arrest Jesus, don't you think? Those roman detachment, that soldiers came back and gave him a report of what had happened and that Jesus willingly surrendered himself. And, yeah, there was a little skirmish and one guy got a little excited and drew his sword, but Jesus picked up the guys here and plastered her back on his head and healed them. You know, he sounds like a dangerous insurrectionist. Doesn't he sound like that to you? You know, so I think Pilate knew all this stuff before these guys showed up. And he also recognized that as he's, as they're coming, he's aware that they're going to come now. And they have it in their mind they want this guy dead. And Pilate knows this. So we have this little interesting exchange between them. Ff. Bruce says. Then he opened the judicial proceedings, which was his duty. As the governor, by asking them to state their charges against the man whom they had brought before him. But they, instead of playing their part straightforwardly as delatores, I had to look up that word. Maybe some of you have heard it, but to help us all out, that means you have to make an accusation in a court of law. You have to make a charge against somebody. He demurred at the terms of Pilate's questions. Regular though it was, according to roman practice, it was evident that Pilate was, in effect opening a new trial. Instead of simply confirming the death penalty which they had maintained Jesus had incurred in terms of jewish law. Basically they were saying, listen, Pilate, you don't have to worry about this guy. We've already decided that he's deserving of death. Just sentence him and we'll be on our way. Pilate goes, oh, wait a minute, guys, I'm not going to do that. So he says, what are the charges you're bringing against them? And then they say, this. This is their defensiveness. They're a little bit frustrated. Well, if he's not a criminal, hey, would we not have handed him over to you? In other words, the very fact that we're doing this says this guy's a bad guy.
[00:25:23] Well, how many know that's not a good enough reason? And, you know, now Pilate's going to do some things. He now has an opportunity to needle these guys. You know, there's a little tension between these relationship between Pilate and the religious leaders. And so he mockingly says to him, well, hey, listen, why don't you go take him yourself and judge him by your own law, you know, in other words, why don't you do that? And they say, well, yeah, but we don't have the right to execute anyone. They objected. So basically what Pilate is now mockingly saying to them, why don't you guys judge him on your own terms? Yeah, but they go, we can't do what we really want to him. We can't kill him. And that's what we want. And you only have the authority to exercise that execution, and we can't do that. So they were acknowledging that they were a little bit impotent to do what they really wanted. In other words, Rome is in charge here, guys, you can't do what you want. I can do what needs to be done.
[00:26:18] While they're squabbling, there's another statement that John makes I think is very profound. How many know the plan of God now is just being carried out? God already had figured this all out. Isn't that true? Of course, he said this all along, you know, a thousand years before this happened, of this crucifixion, the psalmist is writing in psalm 22, describing what it would be like for God's servant to be crucified and how he'd be forsaken by God. We read all of that stuff. So this drama is being played out under the auspices of God's purposes. How many see that? And these guys are playing their parts, and they think they. And they are, they're using their own wills to play their parts, but they don't really realize they're playing out God's amazing drama. And John brings this out in the next verse. He said this took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about what kind of death he was going to die. You know, a few times they had picked up stones to stone him. He just walked away. So he wasn't stoned for his statements, but Jesus knew he was going to be crucified, you say, well, why was that so important, pastor, that Jesus had to be crucified?
[00:27:23] Well, very simply stated that Jesus knew that he had to become cursed by the father. He had to become sin for us. He had to become accursed. And that's one of the reasons why jewish people sometimes find it a stumbling block when you tell them that the messiah is someone who was crucified. And Paul understands that because he's jewish. And in relating to his audience. Now, these were Galatians, but they were thinking about reverting, or some of them were thinking about going back into Judaism. And some of the people that were even considering the christian message, he says this to them in the book of Galatians. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
[00:28:08] For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.
[00:28:12] In other words, what is Jesus doing? Jesus is actually taking our place.
[00:28:18] He's dying a substitutionary death because you and I sin.
[00:28:23] We're basically in a state where we're going to be accursed of God. We're the ones that deserve to be crucified. But what does jesus do? He takes our place. He becomes accursed. And now by taking our place, you and I receive the gift of righteousness or a right relationship with a God. How powerful is that? Let me move on to the second element.
[00:28:50] It's the rejection of Christ's kingship. This is fascinating. How many know this is all about authority?
[00:28:57] Actually, I would argue that most conflict is over control.
[00:29:01] We'll either be servants of Christ or we're servants of sin. We'll either obey Jesus, or we'll go our own way and do our own thing. See, Roland Tasker relates the significance of the dialogue between Pilate and Jesus. Now, he said, the reader is now presented with a dramatic scene in which two types of kingships are contrasted.
[00:29:21] The kingship, backed by the authority and might of imperial Rome, represented by Pilate, a kingship of this world and upheld by this world's weapons, and the kingship of Jesus, not of this world, in which the monarch is to reign by being lifted up on a cross.
[00:29:36] The narrative clearly presupposes that it had been intimated to Pilate that Jesus, by claiming kingship over the nation of Israel, the jewry, was in effect, a political revolutionary and therefore a potential danger to Rome. But it lays the guilt for supposing him to be such upon the Jews. Jesus does this, but he lays the blame, actually on the religious leaders there because he knows Pilate. He doesn't know really what's going on. Pilate's really kind of a foil in the story in some ways. I think, in reality, Jesus had come into our world for no political purpose whatsoever, but solely to witness to the truth, the truth about God, and to testify by word and deed to his justice, and at the same time, to demonstrate God's love. So the question of ultimate authority and the basis for it. Pilate then went back inside the palace, and he summoned Jesus and said, are you the king of the Jews? Okay?
[00:30:33] Now, Jesus seeks to clarify the issue, because Jesus is really. He knows that, you know, he's not trying to be the king of Rome or the king of Israel. He's the king of kings, and he knows who he is. It's a transcendent kingdom. It's a divine kingdom. It's a spiritual kingdom. His authority does not come from earthly rulers. Earthly rulers. Authority come from God. That's what we need to understand. So Jesus now says, is that your opinion, or did others talk to you about me?
[00:31:04] Am I a jew? Pilate replied, your own people and chief priests handed it over to me. What is it that you've done? In other words, what have you? How did you tick these guys off so badly? Like they don't like you? What's going on here? He's asking Jesus the question, Warren Wirsby says. But then Jesus added a question of his own. Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell me about you? What was our lord really asking? What kind of a king. Do you have in mind Pilate, a roman king or a jewish king? A political king or a spiritual king? Jesus was not evading the issue. He was forcing Pilate to clarify the matter for his own sake. Pilate's sake. After all, it's not Jesus here that's on trial. It's Pilate. If Pilate had a roman king in mind, then Jesus would be considered a rebel. If the governor was thinking about a jewish kind of king, then political matters could be set aside.
[00:31:55] And it's interesting that Pilate called Jesus King at least four times during the trial. And even later, he used the placard when he put the crime that Jesus committed. He's the king of the Jews. And the leaders, the religious leaders, got upset about that. Don Carson adds that Jesus response helps us as readers to understand where Jesus and Pilate are coming from. Pilate's answer, he's indignant, maybe even contemptuous. He goes literally, am I a jew? Like, who wants to be a jew? Like, in his mind, he's roman, right? He's expecting, no, I don't. I'm not a jew like, he's expecting a negative answer. Then he goes on and says, he is saying, in effect, that the royal pretensions of any jew can mean nothing to him personally. He has no stake in their outcome and could not possibly be seriously considered contemplating the claims of the man that stands before him. In other words, he could care less about this trial. This is all a sham to him, a mockery. He's got no interest in this. This has nothing to do with him in his mind, but it has everything to do with him. He doesn't realize it. He doesn't realize that he's on trial rather than Jesus.
[00:33:05] So Jesus now explains his kingship in verse 36. My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place. You're a king then, said Pilate. Jesus said, you say that I'm a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on this, on the side of truth, listens to me.
[00:33:29] Now Jesus has clarified the matter.
[00:33:34] Though Pilate is dismissive of Jesus, the reality is Jesus is exposing Pilate's soul for all the world to see. And will ultimately affect his eternal well being.
[00:33:50] You see, Pilate is standing before the king of the universe. The issue is one of ultimate reality. It's the issue of truth. And those who hear the truth are going to listen to Jesus. Not only is this true for Pilate, but it's true for every last one of us.
[00:34:04] Jesus challenges each one of us with the truth. How are we going to respond? I want you to put yourself in Pontus position for a moment. Do we accept Christ's authority in our lives? Are we making ourselves the moral arbitrators in our own life? Or let me state you this way, who determines what's right and wrong in your life? You or God?
[00:34:28] Yeah. Is it God's word that's telling me how I should think and behave and act, or am I making decisions what I think is best for me? That's the question we're raising today, and it's a big question, because in our society today, most people are rejecting the voice of truth or the voice of Christ or the authority of the word of God, and they're moving away from that. And there's a lot of people who name the name of Jesus that are moving away from it, too, and they're moving away from this moral authority that Jesus has, and he's claiming in all of our lives. So now we're going to see what Pilate does. It's really a condemnation of himself. In verse 38, he goes, what is truth? And with this, he went out to the Jews gathered there and said, I find no basis for a charge against him. I want to point out two things from this passage that are really important. First of all, he's mocking the idea of truth. He's rejecting Christ's authority, which I believe is a judgment on himself, you see? And then he goes out and he condemns himself when he says to the people there, this man is not guilty of any of the charges you brought against him. He's innocent. And at that moment, Pilate should have done what released him. But did he do that? No. And in that sense, he's not a just judge.
[00:35:49] He's not doing what's right. He's doing something that's actually unjust. Isn't he not? Well, Pilate doesn't see Jesus as an insurrectionist and a threat to roman authority, but because as we're going to see, there's a pressure being placed on him by the crowd, he persists in perverting justice. But let me move to the last element. The final element in rejecting the truth is the inconsistency in rejecting the truth before us.
[00:36:19] In one sense, Pilate is representative of each of us. As truth is brought into our lives, we have to decide, what are we going to do with Jesus, what are we going to do with Jesus? What are we going to do with the truth? We can see the turmoil within Pilate as he's trying to do the right thing. Four times in this trial, he tries to get Jesus off, like he tries to have him released with the approval of the crowd. How many know? You can never sometimes embrace truth and have the approval of the crowd. It's not going to work out. And Pilate sure found that out.
[00:36:56] So he comes up with a strategy.
[00:36:59] He says, it's your custom for me to release one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Yay. Do you want me to release the king of the Jews?
[00:37:06] You know what the response was?
[00:37:08] No, not him. Give us Barabbas.
[00:37:12] Now, Barabbas, it says, had taken part in an uprising. Here is an insurrectionist. Here's a guy that was killing people. Here's a guy that was guilty. Isn't that powerful? So the very thing that Jesus is charged with insurrection, he's innocent of. And the man they're going to free is an insurrectionist. Don't you think Rome's best interest would be served by freeing the innocent man than the guilty Mandev? Wouldn't it be better served that way? But that's not what Pilate's going to do. He's going to capitulate to the crowd who are shouting for the insurrectionist. And it's an anti roman position, and it's a pro jewish freedom type of position in their minds.
[00:37:57] But Pilate is more concerned about what they're saying. Rather than releasing Jesus on the merit of the case, he's proposed this alternative solution.
[00:38:07] The irony, as we've already seen, is Barabbas is an insurrectionist.
[00:38:13] Don't. There's a contrast here. Jesus, the prince of peace, is about to be crucified in the place of this insurrectionist. Isn't that true? Yeah, that's what's happening. But here's a picture of what the cross is all about. Like Barabbas, we also are guilty and being set free only by that sacrificial death of Christ. Once again, John is presenting that to us. So Jesus came to testify to the truth, because he is the truth. In speaking to the Jews who had believed Jesus had told them in John earlier, an earlier message in John, chapter eight, he said to the Jews who had believed him, he said, if you hold to my teaching, what does that mean? To hold to his teaching, that means you believe it, but you actually act on it. You're holding to it, you're standing on it. You're actually applying it. You're obeying it. If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Now, I've talked about identification markers. It's interesting. I talked about the Old Testament. Identification markers of the people of God were external. These are internal. But there also can be seen evidences of this internal behavior by our actions. Are we obeying God's word?
[00:39:29] Then? You will know the truth. He says, if you do the truth, you will know the truth. And when you know the truth and you're doing the truth, you know what it does. It brings freedom. You'll be free.
[00:39:39] And all the people who are rejecting God's moral standard and are not obeying that and doing their own thing, they're not free. It's the way it works. As a matter of fact, Paul himself reminds us that, who are we going to choose? Sin or savior? That's another way of saying it. Or as Paul writes in the book of Romans, don't you know when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you're slaves to the one you obey, whether you're slaves to sin, which leads to death, or obedience, which leads to righteousness.
[00:40:10] You know, I think the great hymn writer had it right when he said, trust and obey. For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. That's what it's all about, guys. It's about trusting God and doing what he says. It's real simple. It's not complicated. Let's just do it. You know, truth is a mirror into our inner world. It reveals what's at the core of our being. It's generally only revealed to us in the crucible of challenge to our faith. And we all stand at moments when the values of our society are screaming at us, while the authority of Jesus and the truth, or on the other side, how we respond reveals, like Pilate, whether we will do what is right or what we will deem as expedient. For the moment, don't you think we get confronted with this over and over again?
[00:40:59] Yeah, all the time. It's happening to us. All the time.
[00:41:03] Pilate's judgment against Jesus is in reality a judgment against himself.
[00:41:09] What is true for Pilate is equally true for you and me. Will we choose Jesus who is the truth? Or will we succumb to the pressures of this world and do what we think is in our best interest at the expense of truth?
[00:41:22] And I want to just close with this one sentence. What are we going to do with Jesus? Let's stand.
[00:41:32] Well, you think about that the next time you're under pressure. What am I going to do with Jesus?
[00:41:38] We got to think about that. We're like Pilate at that moment. We got pressure on us now. There's values screaming to do things that we know are different than what the word of God says.
[00:41:47] What are we going to do with Jesus?
[00:41:50] Because isn't that what he had, that pressure? What am I going to do with Jesus? What am I going to do with Jesus? Do I give in to the pressure?
[00:41:59] And what happens then is Christ becomes crucified to us, he becomes executed, he gets knocked out of our world, he gets, you know, that's a big deal. It is a big deal. We got to make the right choice.
[00:42:13] It always comes down to that. It's always a choice.
[00:42:17] We have to choose Jesus. We have to choose Jesus. We got to walk in the truth. You know, God is a God of truth.
[00:42:29] Satan is the father of lies.
[00:42:32] Lies lead somewhere. Truth lead somewhere and they lead in the opposite direction.
[00:42:38] We have a choice.
[00:42:40] It's good to have you maybe bow your head for a moment. We're going to go into Lord, to the Lord in prayer.
[00:42:46] I'm going to ask you to raise your hand or do anything. I'm trying to think about what I'm sharing today.
[00:42:52] Some of you in this room, you're struggling. You've been confronted. How do you know this stuff, pastor? I get letters or I'll call them emails to me asking, what about this? What about that? And what about this? Hey, I'm happy to answer, but I'm telling you where my answers are coming from. They're coming from the book.
[00:43:11] Because remember, I want to remind us of something. If you build your life on Christ and his word, and doing his word, Jesus says, if you obey my teachings, it's like building your house on rock.
[00:43:31] The storm of life will come and your house won't come down. Your life won't be crushed, you won't be destroyed, you won't fall apart. You won't be so broken and messed up that you know what? It just feels like you're Humpty Dumpty and all the pieces have to be put back together again. How many know that takes a little work. Can God redeem you? Yes, he can. Can God revive you? Yes, he can. Can God restore you? Yes, he can. But, boy, is that ever a painful process.
[00:43:56] Or you can choose to embrace what the world is offering and you go along and accept their value system. You know what happens. And the trials will come and they do come. Folks, they always do.
[00:44:08] And your house is on sand. What happens? Your crater, you're broken, you lose out. It's so sad.
[00:44:17] I keep saying this. I've never had a person in all of my. I've been a pastor for over 42 years. Listen, isn't that crazy? It is to me. Not one person ever came and said, you know, pastor, I so regret serving Jesus. I've given him my entire life, and I really regret it. I haven't had that conversation yet. But you know how many conversations I've had with people saying, I so regret?
[00:44:38] You know, I knew the right way. I was walking with Christ. But somewhere down the road, I rejected the truth. Somewhere down the road, I embraced the lie. Somewhere down the road, I chose a wrong value system.
[00:44:51] And, boy, I'll tell you, my life has been a mess. My house was being now shifting from rock to sand, and pretty soon it all collapsed.
[00:45:00] And, you know, I've had a lot of people come at the end of the collapse saying, I don't know what to do. My marriage is terrible. My kids have now not walked with God. This is all the pain that goes along with it. That conversation, unfortunately, I've heard more than one time.
[00:45:17] So today it's really important. I'm telling you, choose Jesus.
[00:45:22] Choose the truth.
[00:45:24] Do the right thing. Don't let the pressures of this world squeeze you into its mold.
[00:45:31] But, as Paul says, rather be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may know what? That a good, perfect, and acceptable will of God is. Know what God's will is. How do you do that? Through his word. And so, Father, I pray for my brothers and sisters. I pray for each one of us in this auditorium. Those that are listening live stream. I pray, Father, that we would embrace the truth, that we would choose Jesus, that we would refute, Lord, the lies of the enemy and all of that, you know, the shifting of our culture and all of its value system that's drawing people away, and it's drawing believers away. I see it all the time. Believers are buying into the lies of the enemy. And it grieves me, Father, you have a standard. You haven't changed. You're the unchanging God. This is what's best for humanity. You're the one that defines what is right and what is wrong. You're the one that defines what healthy life is and what unhealthy living is. You're the one that defines it, not us.
[00:46:31] I pray, Lord, help us to be obedient.
[00:46:34] Help us to trust you. Help us to be willing to be misunderstood and maybe even rejected by some, because we're not moving into that way of thinking. We're sticking with you, Jesus. We're choosing Jesus. We're choosing Jesus. And we thank you for that. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you as you leave today.
