Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] We have a building fund that we're raising funds for a couple of the modulars out there. We're looking to remove those and build one building in its place that will serve our kids ministry and youth ministry, us as a whole church, a new fellowship hall and kitchen for us. So a vision there that we have to raise funds for over the next few years. And so as you feel led, you can give to that.
[00:00:21] So with that kind of said, I want to jump right back into where we are in John. What chapter are we in? 1818, verses 28 through 40 is where we will be. And you see that on your, on your outline. I want to just give you a brief introduction to this. And then we'll read the text and then we will kind of dive into all of those lines that you have there. You'll be able to fill in all of those and more as we go through this. As we go through this text. So you go to the next screen. One of the things that we talked about last week, we said there was different trials that Jesus has been going through over the last few weeks. As we've been approaching this portion, Jesus has left the upper room where he had the last supper with his disciples. He went to the Mount of Olives. He was arrested. And we saw that a couple weeks ago. And then last week we saw the. We walked through the beginning of chapter 18, Jesus trial, informal trial, really, with a man named Annas, who was the previous high priest. And then today we move forward a little bit more. And so I entitled the message the King, which. Who is the king? Jesus. Jesus, that's an important name. Don't forget that.
[00:01:27] Jesus on trial. The King on trial. And you'll see why that's important for us to hold onto here as we walk through this text. Now, before we read it, look with me in your Bibles, the beginning of chapter 18, we have this first portion of Jesus trial. What we don't see happen, and John doesn't mention, but other writers they'll talk about is after Jesus left someone named Annas, that was the guy who used to be the high priest, he went to somebody named Caiaphas, who was the sitting high priest. So he was the kind of the guy at the top of the food chain for the religious worship, for the religious groups there in Jerusalem as the Jews. He was the high priest. His name was Caiaphas. And then what happened after that? You go to the next slide. I put this on the screen. Jesus went through six different trials. The religious trials were the first three. We Saw, oh, that's at Anna. That should say Annas.
[00:02:18] Annas. And then Caiaphas. And then the third religious trial that he went into was the Sanhedrin or the council. And Luke talks about that after these three trials took place, which we're now past, they said, all right, we've decided Jesus needs to anybody die. They have decided Jesus needs to die. He has said that he is the king, that he is the son of God. And in their religion, in their. From what scripture says is that if a man says that he is God or equal with God, that is called blasphemy. That means that he should die. Now, Jesus has done a lot more that has made them upset beyond blasphemy. But they have decided Jesus needs to die. And so they then say, we're going to move to the next stage. And so we move from really one side the religious trials that have taken place to now the civil or criminal trials that Jesus is going to stand.
[00:03:11] So let's read in our Bibles, chapter 18, verse 28. And now this is Jesus before somebody named Pilate. And he is the first of the individuals looking to have his trial with who can make this decision as far as Jesus death. So let's read verse 28 and we'll finish the chapter here. So read with me verse 28, starting there. Then they, that is, the religious leaders led Jesus, who at the time was bound, and he had been bound from the time he's been in the garden from the house of Caiaphas. We talked about Caiaphas. He was the sitting high priest, the top of the food chain there for the religious order, to the governor's headquarters, that is the Roman governor's headquarters. It was early morning.
[00:03:52] They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover. So Pilate went outside to them and said, what accusation do you bring against this man? Most likely pointing at Jesus, looking at Jesus, they answered him, if this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you. Pilate said to them, take him yourselves and judge him by your own law. The Jews said to him, it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death. We'll get to that later on.
[00:04:23] This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he would die. Verse 33 goes on. So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus to him. Are you the king of the what the Jews? Jesus answered his question. Do you say this of your own accord? Or did others say this about me? Pilate answered, am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?
[00:04:54] Jesus answers, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but my kingdom is not from the world.
[00:05:07] Then Pilate, verse 37 said to him, so you are a king.
[00:05:12] Jesus answered, you say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born into this purpose.
[00:05:20] For this purpose I was born. And for this purpose I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth.
[00:05:26] Everyone who is of the truth listens to my Pilate said to him, what is truth?
[00:05:35] After this, after he had said this, he went back outside of the Jews and told them, I find no guilt in him, but you have a custom that I should release one man to you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?
[00:05:53] They cried out again, not this man, but. But Barabbas, John tells us, and some other gospels. Expound a little bit further beyond this. John tells us now barabbas was a what?
[00:06:06] A robber. Well, Lord Jesus, we come before you this morning as we sung moments ago about how much you deserve our praise. You deserve our attention as the king, as the Messiah, the anointed one who stepped into our world, as the only one who had the power to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. You came into this world for that purpose so that we would see you as the truth and as the way, as the life, the only one who offers complete and total salvation for us lost in sin. And so we're grateful this morning for the work that you have done and for the spirit that you've put inside of us, your spirit that you've put inside of us to awaken our heart, awaken our mind to the power of this text right here.
[00:06:53] And that you would continue to transform us is our prayer that this wouldn't just be information on a page that we read this morning, but that you truly would work in our hearts and minds so that we would continue to look more and more like you. In Jesus name, amen.
[00:07:08] You could write in first point on your outline. Is this the delivery? We're just going to walk through this together. I'll give some cultural context, some in depth. Look at some of these points here as we walk through this. And then there's other gospels you can see at the bottom of your outline, there's some other. It says Other passages. You can see the text there. The first three from the other Gospels are this exact story, just other people's accounts or the other Gospels accounts. So I'll reference those as we go through this time. So the first point, the delivery, I.e. jesus has now been delivered to this governor. What's his name?
[00:07:44] Pilot. Not like a pilot who flies in an airplane. This is Pontius Pilate. This is the name you might also have heard. And so look at verse 28. We'll walk through this a little bit more slowly. You could Write this in 1A. On your outline is the hypocrites. That's the first point that you could write in under delivery, understanding this whole story of Jesus coming to Pilate. It says this. Then they led Jesus, they being the religious leaders, to the House of Caiaphas. From the House of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters. Some of your Bibles might say the hall of Judgment. Some of your Bibles might say the Praetorium, where Pilate, where the Roman governor stayed, what we know happened from this transition. So I'm going to kind of set the stage for you, if you will. I often do this because it helps me, and I hope it's helpful to you. So here's. Just imagine with me right here with my arms are. Is Jerusalem. It's kind of this oval shape. Here's Jerusalem. Here's. Here's the eastern side of Jerusalem. The Mount of Olives is up over here. Here's the western side of Jerusalem.
[00:08:41] My arms are kind of the city walls. Okay, you with me there so far? So here's the city of Jerusalem. Jesus has been taken from the Mount of Olives. We saw that already. The trial has occurred and he was brought into the city. Annas has seen him. Caiaphas has seen him. The Sanhedrin, they've interacted with him. This is happening in the city. And so what happens then is Judas remember Judas? He's the guy who did what, betrayed Jesus. Judas is paying attention kind of from the background, and he sees that they have decided that Jesus should be killed. And Judas realizing, oh, my goodness. I mean, I didn't like what Jesus was doing. What Jesus was doing. I wanted him gone and stuff, but I don't know if I actually wanted him to be dead. I wanted him handed over the religious leaders so he could be maybe put in prison and so on, and I could get money from it. But dead, I'm not sure if that was actually my plan. So what he does is when he realizes they want him Dead. They decide this at the temple, the Sanhedrin does. When he sees Jesus being brought from the Sanhedrin out to the western side where the Roman governor was, he says, I didn't actually sign up for this. Nevermind, I don't know if I want to do this anymore. He goes back to the people that had given him money and said, actually, nevermind, I shouldn't have done this. Here's your money back. And what do they say?
[00:09:55] I'm sorry, that's it. We already have him. We've already made the decision. He is going to die. And so Judas throws the money back at them in the temple and he leaves the city and he hangs himself. It says in Matthew, chapter 17, and you can read more about what happens there. So that has occurred now. Jesus is being taken outside of the city to the western side of the city, and it's off on the western wall. What happens is they left the city and they come around to the other side and where this place called the Praetorium is, and the Praetorium is just inside the city. They would have left and probably come back in.
[00:10:30] I put a couple pictures on the screen that might be helpful for you to look at. One wall you can see looks old. That's what it looks like now. That's the outer western wall. The lower picture is what it could have looked like. It's kind of just a possibility of what that would have looked like. As they would have walked up to at the top, there would have been Pilate. There would have been a porch that he would have sat on. There would have been a seat as well.
[00:10:55] And then just inside the wall, as you see the other picture is this what's called the Praetorium. There's a massive hall there. Pilate would have lived there at this time, especially during a major festival like Passover going on. So he would have gone in to make sure that there's a Roman presence there. And so here's what we see. Hypocrites. That's what you have written in there is. This is what the text says. The Jewish leaders, they walked outside the city, they come around and now they're standing and they're looking at the seat there where.
[00:11:27] And the door where Pilate would have walked out. And Pilate, early in the morning, this is about six o' clock or so, perhaps in the morning, Pilate has been woken up. He says, hey, Pilate, there's a crowd of people outside. This needs your attention. And so Pilate would have walked outside of the praetorium and he would have. This thing is mic heroes. There we go. He would have stepped outside, and he would have seen this crowd outside in front. And then he asks a particular question, right? He says, what's going on here? Why are you here? But the reason he has to step outside is because the Jews don't want to be defiled walking on Roman land.
[00:12:04] They're willing. The Jews, catch this with me. The Jews are willing to have an illegal trial of Jesus, which we already saw before. They. They weren't supposed to have a criminal trial during a festival. They weren't supposed to have a trial during nighttime. Jesus didn't have any witnesses for anything that he had done wrong. Multiple things had the Jews done wrong already because they wanted Jesus, what, Dead. And so they were willing to break the law. After breaking the law. After breaking the law. And then they come back outside, they stand in front of Pilate, and they're like, oh, we're not gonna go inside to your place because we don't wanna get dirty. You see the hypocrisy there?
[00:12:39] They're unwilling to step on the same cobblestone path that Pilate stands on because they want to be able to celebrate the freedom that they have because of the power of God. Get this with me, friends. They here were willing to say, we would like to offer up to you, the king of freedom, but we aren't willing to go on your land to do that because we need to go back home and celebrate the freedom that we have.
[00:13:05] That's what they're doing. They're celebrating the freedom that God gave them from Egypt, but they're offering up the king of freedom.
[00:13:11] They've missed the picture here of what Jesus actually came to do.
[00:13:17] So we go on a little bit further, and we see verse 29 says this. So Pilate goes outside to them and he asks a question. He says this. What accusation or what charge do you bring against him? You go to the next slide, point B on your outline. You wrote this in. The accusers, they answered him, if this man were not doing evil. So as I read that, and maybe you do as well, I underlined it on the screen. If this man. Who are they talking about?
[00:13:44] If this man were not doing evil?
[00:13:47] Here's what jumps out immediately to me as they're standing there looking at Pilate, Jesus has been brought before them is this. They just called the Holy One evil. They just called their creator evil. They just called the one who defines good and evil and always stands on the side of good. They just called him what evil? I don't know what Jesus was feeling at that time, but talk about hypocrisy and talk about completely missing the person of Jesus right here.
[00:14:17] So these accusers says, he has done evil. If he hadn't, why would we be. Why wouldn't we be bringing him to you? Verse 31 goes on. Pilate said to them, well, take him yourself and judge him by your own law.
[00:14:29] Well, firstly, we see here that they said that Jesus has done evil. So in essence, Pilate says to them, all right, if he's done something wrong, y' all have the power to figure it out. Go figure it out. I would like to go back inside, drink my coffee and my scone and whatever else he's gonna do. It's early in the morning. Go back and you all figure it out. That's what he's telling them. And. And their reply is this.
[00:14:54] We would like to, but we don't have the authority because we don't want him judged. We want him dead. And he knows, and they know that they don't have the authority to kill Someone. Now, about AD6 or so, the Romans had come in and taken over Judea and said, this is gonna be a province of ours. And what the Romans did was when they stepped into the province and made, I should say, Judea a province of Rome, they said, we are gonna let you do what you're gonna do, just be peaceful about it. But we are gonna take away one power that you have, and it's the power of capital punishment.
[00:15:29] So you all can be judges over the people. You can do your own thing, but the one thing you can't do is kill someone. By the way, they broke that law with Stephen later on, but that's a different story. So here, now we see again, they're willing to say, we're gonna break our own law to get Jesus dead, but we're gonna honor the law of the Romans.
[00:15:48] Another thing that we're like, wait a minute, you've missed the picture here. Now, what's the accusation against Jesus? Luke tells us, he says this. They began to accuse him, Jesus saying, we found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is the Christ, saying that he is a king.
[00:16:08] But they. Verse 5 goes on in Luke 23, it says this, but they were urgent, saying, he stirs up the people and he teaches them all over the place about God.
[00:16:19] So five things. Five charges that they brought against Jesus.
[00:16:25] But there's only one of those five that Pilate actually cares about. At least cares about in a big way. We're gonna see what that one of those five are in just a moment. But we see here the decision to kill Jesus has been made and they were unwilling to wait to put him in jail. Verse 32. I just want to comment on that really quickly. And then we'll look at which of these five Pilate actually cares about.
[00:16:49] Look at verse 32. It says this was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show what kind of death he was going to die. Here's what that means. Here is if the Jews were just going to kill Jesus, most likely the way they would have killed Jesus, especially because it was blasphemy. That was their main claim against him. The main way they would have killed him most likely was by stoning. Now, if someone were to be stoned, you're not lifting them up, are you? You're throwing them down. Now, John 3, verse 14. Jesus is talking about the snake in the desert and how this parallel exists. He says, just as the snake was lifted up in the desert, so too the Son of Man must be lifted up. That's what Jesus is referencing here. But he doesn't. If it was Jews who were gonna kill him, it would have been just as the Son of Man is gonna be thrown down, which doesn't make sense to the snake parallel. But if the Romans are going to kill you, what's the Romans preference in the way they're gonna kill people?
[00:17:47] Crucifixion, that is lifting him up on the cross.
[00:17:50] Jesus knew this was the way he was going to die. And so even though we see the hypocrisy of what goes on with the Jewish leaders in the city, we see that they wanted Jesus dead. They were unwilling to do it themselves. So they took him to the Romans and they brought all sorts of accusations, mainly those five accusations against Jesus. Now, which one of those does Pilate actually care about?.2 on your outline. You can write this in the trial. The trial. So now Pilate has received. He's gonna receive Jesus. He's gonna go up into the city, into the praetorium, I should say, and they're gonna have a conversation. Verse 33 tells us in point A on your outline. So the trial. Point A, you can write this in. Is the king. The king.
[00:18:35] So Pilate entered his headquarters. So you have that picture with me. Right here's the western wall of Jerusalem behind me, the praetorium, this big old place that he lives just inside the wall. The people have come up from around the city wall. They've had this conversation kind of on this porch. Pilate has come out to them because they didn't want to get defiled by stepping onto his property. And. And then he says, all right, Jesus, come inside. We're going to talk. Are you with me here so far?
[00:19:01] So they step inside. Verse 33. So Pilate entered his headquarters, that is the Praetorium again. That's where he had come back out of early in the morning still, and called Jesus and said to him, now which one of the five does he care about? Which one do you think?
[00:19:15] The King.
[00:19:17] That's the claim that made him pause. Okay. He teaches people, whatever. He calls himself the Christ. That's a religious term.
[00:19:26] He's doing stuff. He's rioting among the people. I don't know. I haven't really heard a whole lot about that. But you say he's a king. Hold on a second.
[00:19:33] The accusation has been made. Jesus claims to be the king of the people.
[00:19:38] The people say, Pilate, he's a good judge to some extent. And he asks Jesus a particularly direct question. This is. We're gonna pause here. This is the most important question right now.
[00:19:52] If the answer to this question is in the affirmative, the implications of this are incredibly significant.
[00:19:59] Now, we don't know what tone Pilate asked this question in. There's a lot of speculation about this, and I want to offer three options to you. One, maybe it was an honest tone. Jesus comes in, Pilate turns around, maybe there's some guards there, and he says, honest tone.
[00:20:17] So are you the King of the Jews?
[00:20:19] Or some say, sarcastic tone.
[00:20:23] He turns around, he looks at Jesus, whatever the raggedy clothes are that he's wearing, because he's been beaten up a little bit, he's been dragged around, he's tired, and he looks at him and goes, are you.
[00:20:33] You the King of the Jews?
[00:20:36] Or thirdly, perhaps this is. I don't think so. But perhaps there's some level of fear, because now, is he actually standing before a king of another nation? And so maybe there's some fear.
[00:20:49] Are you a king? Are you the King of the Jews? Now, we don't know what tone it was, but we do see Jesus really, really good at being. Jesus answers a question with a question, and then he says, why do you say that?
[00:21:11] Where did that come from?
[00:21:13] And then pilate says, verse 35 in the next slide on the screen there says this. It's your own people that have turned you into me. In other words, why are you asking me that? Question. You're the one in trouble right now. You're the one on trial by your own people. So you should maybe answer the question that I have. Don't you know that they're saying you deserve death? So we gotta figure this. This out. Jesus goes on, verse 36, and he says this, and Pilate's wondering, what have you done? Like, what is the bad thing that you've done that they think causes you to deserve death? Jesus says, my kingdom is not of the world. And so now he's like going back and answering the question, what was the big question? Are you the king? That was question number one. That was the primary question of those five accusations that were made about him.
[00:22:03] Now he goes back and he speaks about that. Jesus does. Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but my kingdom is not of this world. So here he says very plainly, we might say, if he's referencing his kingdom and his servants, that sounds like a king talking, right? I mean, a king has a kingdom, has servants who would protect him. Now, this has both a spiritual significance and a literal significance. 1 the spiritual significance, because we know that Jesus truly is the king, right? Amen. He is the king of everything. He is in the monarchy that he exists in. He is the king. There is not a democracy in the rule of God. He is the king over all spiritual things, of all creation. There also is a practical sense to this, and that's the second side. If Jesus actually were a king of another nation, this also would be significant because it's possible that Pilate might interact with somebody who is a king of another nation, who maybe has been taken captive, who's not acting as the king.
[00:23:08] So Pilate then follows up with a question. He says, actually the same question.
[00:23:14] So based on what you just said, so you are a King, verse 37. So you are very direct. Verse 37, a Jesus reply. Again, maybe some might say is not as direct as we might like. Notice what Jesus says. You say that I am a what?
[00:23:35] To clarify, he asked the first question again, so you are King Jesus. His reply is to affirm these words. And so in all essence, he actually is just saying, yes, what you have said is accurate. Now, the question that Pilate is most likely wondering right now is this.
[00:23:53] But is this true?
[00:23:55] Does Jesus actually speak truth right now? Is he actually the king? Because if he is a king, what should I do about this? Right? Like, if he is a King. I don't want to kill a king of a nation. I don't want that to be on my conscience. But if he's not a king, this is some show for someone who's not a king right now. Is what Jesus is saying true? This is the question spinning through Pilate's mind. And you're gonna see that I'm accurate in this in just a moment. But before we get there, this question will not sit around on the minds of people forever. In the end, all people will know, regardless of what religion, of what gender, of what race, of what age, all people will know the answer to this question. Revelation 17:14 says this. They will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because he is the Lord of lords and the King of kings, and with him will be his called chosen and faithful followers. Revelation 19:16 says this on his robe and on his thigh. He has a name written on it, and the name is this. The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. So this question that Pilate asks is the most important question that you and I must wrestle with today.
[00:25:12] Is Jesus the king? Is this a true statement or not? In the end, no one will be asking this question. They will be submitting to him as king. But until then, you and I have to make that decision.
[00:25:23] Are we gonna believe in him as king? So Pilate then wants to know, is this true? And we're gonna see that in just a moment. Point B on your outline. Look at this. For this purpose, Jesus goes on, you say that I'm a king. For this purpose I was born. And for this purpose, I have come into the world to bear witness to the what truth?
[00:25:46] Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. And then pilate says verse 38a, the first part of that. What does he say?
[00:25:54] What is truth? What is truth? Now, in this on the screen, there, you see, there are two incredibly important points that we can't overlook before we go on. One is Jesus statement about his purpose, and the second is Pilate's question. Now, oftentimes, Pilate's question is what jumps out to us the most? But both of those are incredibly important. Let's take them in order. Jesus statement. You can see it on the screen. For this purpose, I was born, and I have come into the world. He says at least four significant things here, and you'll see them as I say them, outlined. 1.
[00:26:27] As I say them out loud. 1. He says, I. I was born for a purpose.
[00:26:32] This speaks to his foreordained direction in his life, Jesus wasn't an accident that happened in the world. Secondly, he says, I came into the world. This speaks to his pre incarnate state. I didn't suddenly begin to exist when I was born. I existed before that. Thirdly, he says, I bear witness to the truth. This speaks to his ability to be objectively moral in all things.
[00:26:58] And fourthly, he says that if people are people of truth or people who care about truth, they will listen to me. And even more slightly perhaps veiled in that is an invitation to Pilate, do you care about truth? Because if you do, you will listen to me.
[00:27:15] So we see those four things packed in just what Jesus said there and then secondly, I said there's a second point we need to pay attention to. Is that, is this Pilate's question?
[00:27:25] What does he say?
[00:27:27] What is truth? Now a lot has been said about this, some might say is a dismissive question of Pilate.
[00:27:36] I'd like to offer again four considerations as we ask this question or we listen to Pilate asking this question. Here is this one, does Pilate not actually care about truth? Does he not care?
[00:27:49] I'm not sure.
[00:27:52] Did he actually mean this question or was it born out of a frustration of the situation?
[00:27:58] I don't like what's going on here. This is hard for me to figure out what is truth.
[00:28:03] Thirdly, did he mean this question only about theological concepts or about things in like theoretical things in life? Like he objectively knows that some things are true and some things aren't, but around religious things, truth is hard to know.
[00:28:20] Or fourthly, was he expressing frustration as a judge, someone who is supposed to figure out truth in the midst of conflict. Now, if any of you have sat in a place where you're trying to figure out what is true between two people who are arguing, you know it can be hard, don't you?
[00:28:35] Some person said this is true and somebody else says this is true and you're like, I'm supposed to figure it out. And maybe born out of frustration, this comment is, what is truth? I can't figure this out. This is hard. Now again, this comes back to tone. We don't know his tone. We don't. We don't know his attitude. We don't know his thoughts. What we do know is this, he later comes to believe and post above Jesus head that Jesus is the King of the Jews. When asked later on if he would take this sign down or even just to add that he said he was the King of the Jews. In other words, you shift this from an objectively true statement, Jesus is the King of the Jews to a subjectively true statement, that is he thought that's what they wanted him to write. Above Jesus head, he says that he is the King of the Jews. Pilate says what? I have written, I have.
[00:29:25] So even though he asked this question, we see that Pilate's heart is being moved.
[00:29:33] We know this when he says he is the King of the Jews. Something significant happens here. We know also from other gospels that his wife has come over to him and said, hey, I had a dream last night. And the dream was basically saying, you should have nothing to do with Jesus. He's righteous.
[00:29:48] You should pay attention to what's going on here. Now to speak before we go on to the subject of truth, you and I are both aware that the concept of something being objectively true, that is it's true regardless of how you feel about it, is a concept that is under attack.
[00:30:06] Objective truth is under attack. To those who hold to this kind of truth, that is something is true even if you don't like it.
[00:30:16] It's not dependent on how you feel about this. They're often considered, we might say even we are called things like hateful or mean, cruel, close minded. The war hone in here. The war on truth should not surprise us.
[00:30:32] The war on truth started in the garden and won't stop until Jesus makes all things new. The war on truth, it manifests itself in different ways at different times. The war on truth is real.
[00:30:44] Around us we see this regularly. What am I talking about here? If we were to say the global war on truth in the midst of that, from the garden to when Jesus makes all things new, there are all sorts of battles that take place. Battles like who defines marriage?
[00:31:00] Who defines gender, who defines happiness, who defines murder, who defines love?
[00:31:06] One might say there is an objective answer to that. There is a true statement about that. And others might say, no, it's however I feel about it. Who defines morality? Who defines appropriate sexual relationships? Who defines adultery? Who defines healthy parenting? Who defines love?
[00:31:25] If we shift away from what God's word says, then it is up to whoever would like to define that.
[00:31:32] When a culture has rejected Jesus Christ, the compass pointing us towards truth, we are fools to think the culture will continually walk a straight line or any line at all. When one doesn't have a compass or stars or a landscape to give perspective, why would we assume that everyone would know what true north is?
[00:31:57] When we live in a culture that rejects Jesus, the Bible or even biological design, why would we assume kingdom principles would win out.
[00:32:07] We don't know what Pilate meant by this question, what is truth? But we do know that so many people around us have already answered this question.
[00:32:18] And to many people, here is the answer to the question that Pilate asks. Truth is what I say it is.
[00:32:27] When we interact with people like this, maybe you do getting angry or yelling, cutting them out of your life, forcing change upon them. Oftentimes you know that that doesn't work because they're literally blind and you're asking them to walk a straight line and they can't do that. And then getting angry at them doesn't work. And so we want to pray. Firstly, three things you can do. Pray that, that God opens their eyes. Secondly, you wanna ask them if they will trust you even though they don't see the right path. See the path.
[00:32:57] And thirdly, ask them, or four things, really. Thirdly, if they will consider evidence.
[00:33:04] Ask them if they're willing to talk with you about it. Cause some people, they won't. Because here's the fourth thing. Sometimes the reason they're rejecting objective truth is because they're hurt.
[00:33:17] And so that's the fourth thing. If they're hurting, hear them out.
[00:33:20] Because sometimes the reason people are rejecting Jesus or Christianity or God is not because there's no facts out there to prove that, but because they've been hurt in deep, deep ways. And then here we might be as Christians trying to force facts upon them and they're saying, okay, I get the fact part of it, but I'm not rejecting God because I don't have enough facts. I'm rejecting him because I'm hurting inside because of something that happened.
[00:33:42] And so sorting through that with someone is so important if we want to walk in care, in love for others.
[00:33:51] This man, let's go back to Pilate. Now, this man believed the truth about Jesus. On some extent, we're gonna see that he did. But he also feared losing his position more. And that is where we lead into point three.
[00:34:05] We find again, the fear of man trumping the fear of God, or the fear of man trumping what is true, what is right. Point three on your outline. You could write this in. We'll go pretty quickly through these last couple points. The verdict, you could write that down. Verses 38B and 40. The verdict.
[00:34:24] So verse 38B. Just looking at that together, after he had said that. Go to the next slide. After he had said this. That is kind of. Imagine this conversation. Remember, there's the city of Jerusalem, Aunt of Olives, over here. They brought him up. Now we move over. Here's the Praetorium. They're standing out there.
[00:34:42] Pilate is having this conversation with Jesus. And then Pilate turns and he says, what is truth? And then he turns to leave and he walks back out. That's what we see. Verse 38. After he had said this, he went back outside. That is outside the city walls. There's that porch there. The crowd is still out here because they wouldn't want to walk onto his property. Cause they didn't wanna be defiled, unclean, because the Passover's coming up. So they're still standing out there. He walks out there, and his job here is to function as a judge. He walks back out and he says this. Look, with me there, he told them, I find what, no guilt or no cause for punishment. No crime. Is the word there in him.
[00:35:27] Now, that should have been the end of it, shouldn't it? The judge has spoken. You brought a criminal, as you say before the judge. It's his job to figure out what to be done. And he walks back out and says, I find no crime in him. That should have been the end of it. The judge has spoken. Nothing else should have taken place. The trial should have been done. But it wasn't.
[00:35:46] Pilate gave a verdict. And then because of his fear of the people, he gave a choice why he was scared. Now, honestly, he had reason to be scared. Because if a riot happened on his watch, who's getting removed from his job, who's getting fired?
[00:36:04] He is. And so for fear of losing his job and keeping the peace, he's thinking this. What can I do to offer peace? I know this guy is not worthy of death. But I don't want this mob of people to be mad at me, go to my superiors, a riot to break out and my job be on the line. His fear is rooted in the possibility of losing that job. And so we see the verdict is not guilty. But he offers a choice. You write that in a on your outline 3a. But shouldn't have gone there. Verse 39. But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at this Passover. We won't get into the details of that. We know this custom exists kind of as a way of appeasing the Jewish people while they're under Roman rule.
[00:36:47] So do you want me to release to you? Notice what he doesn't say. Jesus, that would have been a lot more peaceful.
[00:36:55] Do you want me to release to you the King of the.
[00:36:59] They already don't like that about him, right? They already don't identify him as the King of the Jews. And so for Pilate, who seems to believe on some level that he's the King of the Jews, says, do you want me to give up? You want me to offer him back to you, hoping that he might not have to kill him?
[00:37:15] That's Pilate's hope. That's why he offers this choice here. He knew that he shouldn't have been handed over to him. Matthew says this, that Pilate knew it was out of envy that they had delivered Jesus up to them.
[00:37:30] He knew it's not actually because of a crime that Jesus has done, but because these people are envious of the following that Jesus has.
[00:37:38] So he offers them a choice. And who does the crowd pick?
[00:37:43] Barabbas. Verse 40b. On your outline, you could write this in the cry.
[00:37:48] They cry out, again, not this man. But say it together.
[00:37:55] And they would have said it with a lot more passion than you all just said it.
[00:38:02] They would have. And it says, other gospels say that the Jewish leaders started passing around that name. Ask for Barabbas. Ask for Barabbas. Now, John tells us that he was a robber. We also know some other things about him from other gospels. It says that he was also an insurrectionist, that is, someone who started riots. He was also a murderer, most likely, which would have happened in the midst of an insurrection, that he was starting some revolt, most likely against the Romans, and somebody gets killed by the hand of Barabbas the robber. Piece that could have been something else as well, or a part of this insurrection.
[00:38:33] We see here that there's an option. Matthew 27 speaks about the option to release this notorious prisoner or the king of Kings.
[00:38:43] What an option.
[00:38:45] What a choice that they are given there.
[00:38:48] Now, what we don't see that John doesn't mention is this. Actually Pilate has had one conversation. He actually does this. He dismisses Jesus to go talk to Herod. Another guy, Herod, asks Jesus a bunch of questions. Herod, by the way, is the guy who had John the Baptist killed. You know how much Jesus says to Herod?
[00:39:10] Nothing. He has a conversation with Pilate. He says absolutely nothing to Herod. Herod gets annoyed and sends him back to Pilate.
[00:39:18] Jesus and Pilate have another conversation. And Pilate's conclusion or verdict is he is not guilty. And he actually says to the people, both, I have found him not guilty and Herod has found him not guilty.
[00:39:29] But who do you want me to release to you?
[00:39:33] Luke 23. Just listen. Verse 20 through 25. And we'll conclude with this awesome concluding questions in a minute. This full bringing the whole story to a conclusion. Pilate addresses them once more. Verse 20 of Luke 23. Listen to this. Desiring to. Pilate addresses them. The crowd once more, desiring to release Jesus. That's Pilate's desire. But they kept shouting, crucify him. Crucify him. Can you say it? Crucify him a third time. He said to them, why? What evil has he done? I find no guilt in this man deserving of death. Therefore I will punish him and then I will release him. But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified.
[00:40:17] And their voices prevailed.
[00:40:21] So verse 24, Luke 23 says this. So Pilate decided that their demands should be granted.
[00:40:27] And he released the man who had been thrown into prison for instruction and murder, for whom they asked. But he delivered Jesus over to their will to be crucified.
[00:40:39] There's a lot of unjust things that happen in this world.
[00:40:43] This is the most, the most unjust action ever done.
[00:40:50] I'm going to ask three questions that parallel the points that you have in your outline as we consider this in conclusion. Firstly, point one in your outline. What's the first word that you wrote in there?
[00:41:03] The delivery.
[00:41:05] Thinking back to the beginning of this text, we see the religious leaders handing Jesus over to Pilate. What I want us to consider you to consider as far as application and connection with the gospel in our life today is this. They were, as you wrote in earlier, they were acting in hypocrisy. They were saying, we want to stay clean while we also are criminals.
[00:41:29] Now, we all at times can be hypocrites, can't we?
[00:41:34] All of us at times. There is a part of us that can say or do one thing at one point in time or with one audience and say or do something else with a different audience.
[00:41:43] We can act one way in front of some people and act a different way in front of other people. Hypocrisy can show up in our life in different ways. And this, friends, is dangerous because people watch this, they see this, and they even say this about the church, right? Or Christians. I don't want to go to church because there's a bunch of hypocrites there.
[00:42:02] And in reality, like, there's open seats right here, like all over the place. There's room for more hypocrites.
[00:42:09] Cause we all, at times, we struggle with this. I say I believe in Jesus and I say I want to love people. And I Say I want to be kind to other people. And then there's other times that I just stay in my own little corner or I do something that's unkind or not honoring to God. There is a part in all of us that doesn't live in the identity that Jesus called us to be as his followers, representing him in all things.
[00:42:28] And so what do we do about this? And it's this. Psalm 139 says this. Search me, O God, and know my heart and see if there be any grievous or anxious way in me. As we consider point one, I would encourage you this week to pray this prayer every day. God, is there any part of me that isn't right with you? Is there any part of me that's not walking the way that you've called me to? Is there any part of me that hypocrisy is showing itself in the life, in my life?
[00:43:00] Cause I want to honor you wholeheartedly. I don't want to honor you with this side of my mouth and then do something else with this side. What part of my life is not in line with what you've called me to? The second point on your outline to consider the trial, particularly thinking about the King and the truth. We know that Jesus says he is the truth. I am the way and the truth and the life.
[00:43:25] Question for you to consider. Are there places in your life that your emotions are dictating what you believe rather than the truth? Because this, friends, is the struggle between what is objectively true or right and wrong is how do I feel about it? First we have to consider what does Jesus say about it? What do the facts say about it? And too often we can adjust our belief based on our fear about something that actually is objectively true. Yes, there are preferences, but there are some things that are absolutely true. Are you letting your emotions about God or about Christianity dictate what you believe?
[00:44:02] And I would encourage you to ask God to reveal that to you.
[00:44:06] Because there is truth in the world, isn't there?
[00:44:09] And we must be people that are willing to pursue it, no matter how uncomfortable it may seem and no matter how many other people might be shouting something else at us, we have to say, I'm willing to hold the truth and to change after truth. Even though you're yelling that you want something else from me.
[00:44:25] The verdict point three that you wrote down there.
[00:44:29] There are already three crosses planned to be on Golgotha that day. Did you know that they didn't rustle up a third cross cause Jesus showed up. Most likely Barabbas was to die that day, wasn't he?
[00:44:46] The cry of the people was for Jesus to take the place of a criminal.
[00:44:50] An unjust cry, right?
[00:44:53] And yet it was also the desire of Jesus, our. Our holy and perfect God, to take the place of us, a criminal.
[00:45:02] And so we look at the cry of the people saying, barabbas, Barabbas, Barabbas. Over the King of the Jews. For us, we know this. Jesus said, I want you, and I'm willing to die in your place. As someone who was running away from me, who's really a criminal of the throne, in the throne room of God, considered a criminal, but I'm gonna die for you. He was a substitute. Jesus was for Barabbas, just as he is a substitute for you. And I.
[00:45:31] He said, I see that. Yep, you are deserving of death. I will take your place.
[00:45:37] I will take your place. Isn't that a wonderful thing?
[00:45:40] And that is what Christianity is about, Jesus saying, I will take your place.
[00:45:46] You are worthy, if you will, of that punishment, but I will go in your place. The shame that you feel, yep, that makes sense because of the sin that you have done. But I will die so that you don't have to feel that shame anymore. The mistakes that you've done. Yep, you should feel guilty for that. But wait a minute. I will die so that you no longer have to sit with that guilt any longer.
[00:46:07] You felt like a criminal, like you were never good enough, not worthy of being loved. The list goes on. He says, yeah, that makes sense. Except, wait a minute. I died so that you don't have to feel that way anymore, so that you don't have to believe that about yourself anymore.
[00:46:21] Let's pray.
[00:46:23] Lord Jesus, we are grateful that you came into this world for this very purpose. We see an unjust trial like this.
[00:46:31] There's a part of us that wants to just yell out something else, like, no, Barabbas deserved it.
[00:46:36] No, let Jesus go.
[00:46:38] He's the king. Don't you see?
[00:46:41] And yet there's a part of us also that sees this text and we say that it needed to happen.
[00:46:47] You knew that it was going to happen. You designed this very situation to occur because of your love for us. You were willing to endure this injustice.
[00:46:58] And so, as we, as your people here today, think through this, Lord, help us to search ourselves so that we would be people that properly represent you in this world. We live worthy of the calling to which we have been called as your children.
[00:47:12] Also, Lord, for those here today that have never trusted in you that are searching for truth, searching for direction, desiring that, Lord, that you would open their eyes and help them to see you as the compass that points true north.
[00:47:26] See you as the one that they can hold to in the midst of a crazy storm.
[00:47:32] And you are our rock, our truth.
[00:47:37] In a season, in a world, in a culture that questions truth all the time, you are the king of truth. We're grateful for that. Today, in Jesus name, amen.
