The King before the judge -John 18:28-35

Whereby, whereby, thy grace to claim,

I'll wash my garments white In the blood of Calvary's Lamb.

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.

Sin hath left a curse to stain me, washing white as snow.

Heav 'n with me for the throne, God's heaven can not meet.

Jesus died, my soul to save, my wish has come complete.

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.

Sin hath left a curse to stain me, washing white as snow.

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.

And to make disciples of everyone that we come across, Lord, and that the evangelism might be upon each one of our tongues, and that the banner behind us might be the cross that you crucified,

Lord. God, I just pray that in the preaching of today's word and the hearing of it,

Lord, that you would be glorified above all things, and that people might know more about you today. And God, I would pray too that we might grow as Christians from today, and that we also might have not only the spiritual growth, but we also might be blessed with the numerical growth in this church,

Lord. For there are sinners in this community that need to know the gospel. And Lord, what a privilege it is for us to know who you are.

Lord, I pray over this text once again that your will would be done, and that your word might be proclaimed. And we say these things in your name, the

Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. We're going to be in John chapter 18 today.

John chapter 18, and we're going to be focusing on verses 28 through 35 for today's message.

John 18, 28 through 35. John 18, 28 through 35.

Let us first read over this text, and we'll offer another prayer, and then we'll talk about some more of the context of what's going on, and start going through these verses as the

Lord provides for us today. So let us read 28 through 35. They led

Jesus, therefore, from Caiaphas into the

Praetorium, and it was early. And they themselves did not enter into the Praetorium, in order that they might not be defiled.

But they might eat the Passover. Pilate, therefore, went out to them and said,

What accusations do you bring against this man? They answered and said to him,

If this man were not an evil doer, we would not have delivered him to you.

Pilate, therefore, said to them, Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law.

The Jews said to him, We are not permitted to put anyone to death, that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled which he spoke, signifying by what kind of death he was about to die.

Pilate, therefore, entered again into the Praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him,

Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered, Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about me?

Pilate answered, I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered you up to me.

What have you done? Let us pray over this text.

Lord, God, I would pray that us as a corporate church that seeks to worship you as our triune

God, Lord, that we would be quick to remember that all these things in this

Old Testament point to you. The very kings and the judges pointed to you, the very

Passover and the priests pointed to you. And so Lord, God, I would ask that as we come before this text that we might recognize you as such, the king of the

Jews. And Lord, that you are the king of kings and the Lord of lords. God, we also would ask that we might recognize that when this question is asked,

What have you done? We recognize that it is nothing you have done that is amiss. It is nothing but good and truth and love and mercy and righteousness that you have done for us,

Lord. And so God, help us remember these things and let us recognize you in this text,

Lord, and let your glory be magnified today above all things. And we just say this in your name,

Jesus Christ. Amen. As we've gone through this text in John chapter 18,

I want to remind us of the context of where we're at right now. This is literally hours before the cross, maybe even getting closer than just hours.

It is right there. It's right before Jesus Christ in this time. And not only this, but in this chapter, in verses 12 through 24, we see that Jesus has now been judged by Ananias, the uncle of Caiaphas, the high priest that year.

But Ananias, I can't pronounce that name correctly, but Ananias is seen as the supreme ruler in those days.

This is the guy that everybody goes to. He's been the high priest years before. His sons have been high priests, and now his nephew is a high priest.

And so Jesus has been judged by him. He's been judged by Caiaphas. And now in verses 25 through 27, and a little bit before that as well, we have the privilege of having

Sam take us through what it looks like for Peter, one of Jesus' most devout followers, and one of his closest friends, deny him three times, thus fulfilling prophecy uttered by Jesus Christ himself.

And so Jesus has now not only been judged by two rulers of Jerusalem in this time, but he's also been denied by his servants, those that he's been working with in these last three years, three and a half years.

And now we see Jesus go from being at the high priest's door and being judged in that place, we now see that Jesus has come before another judge.

And this is now Pilate that we are looking at right now. And so I would ask again that we remember what has come before this text, and church, this is sad text in here.

This is very sad. As I've been studying through John 18 and looking at what we're going to be getting into the future,

I've studied this text several times, as I hope you have, but to prepare a message for us has been accompanied with many tears and heartbreaks of thinking of what it was like in those days to see

Jesus be fitted with a crown of thorns and be judged by men that had no authority to judge him, and so on and so forth.

So just remember the weight, this darkness that is becoming over Christ.

But we need to also remember what's about to happen in the future is that this darkness will not defeat the light, but the light will defeat the darkness in his death and burial and resurrection, and that's what we look to as the light.

So don't be consumed by this sadness that's happening here in this text. Look to Jesus and remember what he accomplished in his death and burial and resurrection.

But in verse 28 is where we're going to start specifically. Verse 28 starts out with saying,

They led Jesus, therefore, from Caiaphas. And as we go on later in this text, we're going to look into another gospel account, as we probably will for every single

Sunday until we're done with the gospel of John, because they harmonize with each other.

We can look at Matthew and see things that we see John didn't record, and they make sense together, and so on and so forth.

They give us a more well -rounded picture of what's going on here. But we're going to see some more context later on in today of what happens between Jesus being led from Caiaphas to Pilate, and not only that, but what is taking place while Jesus himself is being judged by Pilate and the

Jews in his day. So it says here in verse 28, They led Jesus, therefore, from Caiaphas into the

Praetorium. And as I was reading this, I think it is just interesting to think about how

Judas, that has just betrayed Jesus, had to grab a group of Roman cohort, a 600 group of men, to come capture

Jesus. And Jesus, out of a single utterance of a word about who he is, makes them fall down before him.

And in this text, it is recorded as such that they led Jesus. They led

Jesus. It may immediately go to Proverbs chapter 16, and you can follow me here if you'd like, in Proverbs chapter 16, verse 9.

It says this in here. Proverbs 16, verse 9. The mind of man plans his way, but the

Lord directs his steps. The mind of man plans his ways, but the

Lord directs his steps. Now, let's turn to Acts chapter 4, verses 27.

Acts chapter 4, verses 27 -29. If you didn't turn to Proverbs with me, I would ask that you absolutely turn to Acts chapter 4 with me.

Acts chapter 4, verses 27 -29. Acts chapter 4, verses 27 -29.

And this is going to be a common reading in this text that we're going to read multiple times as we look at this crucifixion account here in John.

But Acts chapter 4, verses 27 -29, it says this. For truly in this city there were gathered together against thy holy servant

Jesus, whom thou didst appoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the

Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever thy hand and thy purpose predestined to occur.

And now, Lord, take note of their threats and grant thy bondservants may speak thy words with all confidence.

This is Peter speaking here in this text. And he's speaking about what just took place days before.

And that's what we're reading in John chapter 18. So as these people are leading Jesus from this high priest to Pilate, they think that they have this authority over Jesus.

But we see a better and more supreme authority even over the people that are committing this most heinous act of betraying

Jesus. And that is to do whatever the hand of the Lord and predestined to take place.

The responsibility lies absolutely upon the men that are leading Him, but it is taking place in such a way that God has glorified

Himself. John chapter 18 going back here in verse 28.

Like I said, that Acts chapter is speaking about this overall picture of what we see in this day and this hour in John chapter 18 to John chapter 20.

We see this terribleness that's taking place. And the Acts chapter 4 verse 27 through 29 covers the purpose of why that took place in that way.

But let us read it again. They led Jesus, therefore, from Caiaphas, this high priest, this one that represented

Jesus Christ, who was supposed to, into the praetorium. And it was early.

So it has now gone from Christ has been in this room with His disciples, feeding them and breaking bread and blessing wine and partaking in fellowship with His fellow brethren in this ministry effort that He's doing.

And He's gone from that. And over time, there's been less and less people following Him in less than even 12 hours at this point.

He's gone into the garden. His disciples have fallen asleep, those that followed Him down there. And not only this now, but now

Jesus has been denied three times. And it is now early in the morning.

So it's gone through the night, and Jesus has been effortlessly going and walking continually towards the cross without stutter, without stopping, without questioning what the purpose that He's going to be doing here soon.

He continues to go forward. And so it's early in the morning, and they themselves, speaking of the

Jews, they themselves did not enter into the praetorium in order that they might not be defiled, but might eat the

Passover. And we've talked about this many times, Church, and I hope you only know, what was the reason for the

Passover in Exodus? It was to save the children of Israel. It was to remember what

Yahweh, God, did for them in escaping Egypt. It was this way to commemorate what

God had done for them. But it was also to point forward to Jesus Christ Himself.

And so they don't want to defile themselves so that they can go eat something that points to the very person they're betraying.

Don't you see the great hypocrisy that's taking place in this text? These Jewish men, the ones that represent

Christ, that are supposed to be, that aren't, let's be clear in this, this is unbelievers that are supposed to be as a nation representing

Christ, and they're denying Him step after step.

Are we doing this in any way in our efforts to evangelize the world today? I don't want to defile myself so I can then go to church.

I'm going to keep my tradition so I don't mess this up. The Jews are unwilling to go with their

Messiah into His judgment, but they're putting Him before the judge so that they can go and do something that represents

Christ Himself, the Passover. Terrible, terrible text in this.

Verse 29 goes on to say this. Pilate therefore went out to them and said, What accusations do you bring against this man?

Pilate, if you don't know, Pilate has been appointed to be the governor, the fifth governor of Judea in this day, and he's been doing this for about 10 years, and you have extra biblical resources that record

Pilate as well as these biblical resources that regard Pilate and see him as such.

They see him as a proud, arrogant, cynical judge, this governor that has been appointed over this, and that's a little bit more of a context of what

Pilate is in this day. Depending on the historian that has recorded this for us, it has been recently in Jesus' day, and there's even thought that it took place in the year that Jesus was crucified, that they have turned over the rights of capital punishment to the

Romans, to Pilate himself, to be able to make judgment on who would die. So the

Jews have taken over. They've said, Here, you deal with this now. You deal with casting out judgment upon killing somebody or putting someone to death, and it has been transferred to the

Romans now. And so some historians would say that it's actually the first year that this is taking place, that we see

Christ and his crucifixion, and that's why we see the Jews answering in certain ways here in this text, which we'll make a mention of here.

And then some say that it was years before, but the point of it is this, is that the Jews recognize that they want to stone

Jesus for blaspheming God in their opinion, for claiming to be God in flesh. They want to do this, but they have sought the means of crucifixion by the

Romans in order to carry out this action. And so they don't want the blood on their robes.

They want to put it on someone else. They don't want the blood of Jesus on their hands, and so they're putting it to somebody else in this text.

And so 29, once again, Pilate, this proud and arrogant leader of Rome in this area,

Pilate, therefore, went out to them. And to make this clear, this would be, in a sense, to put this in perspective for us.

Let's say Brad Little is this governor that we're talking about, and he resides in the capital. People have taken this prisoner, this

Jew, to the capital and put him in, and he's been taken in to Brad Little.

And so instead of the Jews continuing on to talk to why they have brought these accusations in Brad Little's area of judgment, they're saying, no, we're good.

And it's making Brad Little, this leader, this one that has supposed great authority, he has to be now the middleman between what accusations have been brought against him and the people that have done it.

And so he's going back and forth, back and forth. And I hope that makes you think, would that happen today?

Would any governor of today get out of his office to go before a people to then go back to the prisoner and then go back to the people and do this back and forth thing that we see in this text?

No, it wouldn't. It really wouldn't. And that's what is happening in this text is that Pilate is being treated as the middleman.

He's being treated in this way. Pilate therefore went out to them and said, what accusations?

So Jesus is now before him. He sees him and he goes out to the people, the Jews, and he says, what accusations do you bring against this man?

And it's a great question because Pilate, recognizing, there's no doubt that Pilate knows about the

Roman cohort that has gone out to capture a man. He, being the governor, would know these kind of things.

And he does. But he understands that he, to put somebody to death, has to have an accusation, a reason to do so.

And these people have pushed him in the door and taken their hands away. He doesn't have this weight of killing

Jesus yet. And so he goes to the Jews and he says, what accusations do you bring against this man?

And they answered and said to him, they answered and said to him, if this man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him up to you.

And so essentially what the Jews are doing is not giving any reason for Pilate to kill

Jesus, but saying, look, there's a reason that there is that Roman cohort that you know about,

Pilate. There was a reason that they went out to capture this man. There's a reason that we, as this mob of people, have come before your praetorium, which we wouldn't be doing just out of the blue.

There's got to be a reason for this, Pilate. Just go for that. That's the reason. That's good enough for you to be able to go and kill

Jesus. Just take our word for it. Go and do it. Go and put him to judgment. The Jews did not want this to happen.

The Jews wanted this to be, here's Jesus and it's done. We can now go eat the Passover. There's no more need for us to be here.

That's what the Jews were seeking. That's why they took him to Pilate, was so that this could take place in such a way.

But it's not in their mind, and so they're now getting asked, why is

Jesus here? Why is this Jew here? Why is this person before me? And they're just saying, take our word for it,

Pilate. Take our word for it. Now, consider this. Would this work in any court of law today? You take a prisoner before a judge and no one has charges to press against him.

What happens to the prisoner? He gets to go. Why was this person before me in the first place?

This is strange that it's happening in this way, church. Why is it happening in this way? Because it is the way that God, God's hand has predestined it to take place, and it is taking place as such.

That's the only reason it's taking place like this. Pilate, therefore, went out to them and said, what accusations did you bring to this man?

They answered to him, just take us at our word, essentially, is what they're saying. Just take it for what we've done.

We are in good standing with you, Pilate. We recognize your authority. We want you to put him to death. Just take our word for it.

Just take our word for it. Pilate, therefore, said to them, take him yourselves and judge him according to your law.

The Jews said to him, we are not permitted to put anyone to death. This is where that capital punishment has now been transferred to Pilate to perform.

So the Jews, interestingly enough, have already sought to kill Jesus. They now have taken it a step further, and they want to kill him in such a way, by lifting up the

Son of Man. They want to do it in this gruesome and terrible way of crucifixion.

And so they have done this in this means to put him before Pilate, thinking that it would just be a quick trial, a quick judgment, a quick death.

That's what the Jews are seeking. We don't want the blood on our hands again.

We want this terrible punishment, crucifixion, to be brought about by your judgment, not ours.

You've made the choice, Pilate. Pilate, therefore, said to them, take him yourselves and judge him according to your law.

The Jews said to him, we are not permitted to put anyone to death. This is Pilate, once again, this proud and arrogant and cynical leader of Rome, this leader in Judea here, is before the

Jews and recognizes what they are trying to do, the silliness of that statement.

We wouldn't have brought him to you if he doesn't deserve death. We wouldn't have done that,

Pilate. He understands the silliness of this statement. Once again, Pilate has ordered, or not even ordered, but understands that the 600 men have gotten

Jesus. He knows all these things. He says, look, take him yourselves and judge him.

Why am I dealing with my precious time as the governor here? Why am

I doing this right now? I'm having to walk back and forth and be this mediator between Christ and the

Jews. I have to be said to be this messenger back and forth. Why? You guys deal with this.

The Jews therefore said to him, and they admit now what they are trying to get at, we are not permitted to put anyone to death.

Church, the Jews are recognizing the law of their day.

They're recognizing that they shouldn't kill Jesus, not because they shouldn't do it, but because the law doesn't let them do it.

Is this a good thing for them to be obedient to their law in this text? It's not.

They're obedient to their authority, Pilate, in this text. We are not permitted to put anyone to death, and so that is what they're seeking.

And then we see in verse 32 that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled which he spoke, signifying by what kind of death he was about to die.

And we're gonna turn and look at what this means about what kind of death he was about to die.

John chapter 3, verse 14. John chapter 3, verse 14. John chapter 3, verse 14 says this.

I'll give it a second for us to turn to it. But as a reminder, this is not a New Testament prophecy alone.

The crucifixion of Christ is found all throughout the Old Testament. You see it in the Passover itself.

But not only this, but very vividly, in Psalms chapter 22, it is prophesied about the way

Christ is going to die. So, could Jesus have died by the

Jews by getting stoned? No, because 1. That is not how God has declared it, predestined and made it to be.

2. He has prophesied about the way that Christ was going to die, and so since it's a prophecy from God, that can't be violated.

And in Psalm 22, it very clearly talks about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. So Jesus has to be crucified.

He has to be. Because God has declared it. And that's what the men are seeking to do to him.

He has to be. John chapter 3, verse 14 says this. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the

Son of Man be lifted up. If Jesus was stoned, would he have been lifted up? No, he wouldn't have been.

That is just one of the many times Jesus says that he must be lifted up, signifying what kind of death he was about to die.

We see this in John chapter 8, verse 28, John chapter 12, verse 32, and once again that sad, glorious text of Psalm chapter 22.

Jesus had to be lifted up. He had to be. We see in John 3 that this was to complete and fulfill the foreshadowing of Moses in the wilderness, lifting up this bronze serpent upon a staff so that people could be healed.

We see that fulfillment in Christ, that Christ had to be lifted up so that all those that would look at him recognize him, come to him, fall before him, fear him, love him, so on and so forth, but have faith in him, would be saved.

It had to be done in this way. Back to John chapter 18. John 18.

As a reminder, as we're turning back here, it says in John 18 that this had to be done to signify the kind of death which he was going to die, and that's why

Jesus spoke of these words. This is another clear example of omniscience.

All knowing. Christ spoke that he had to be lifted up years before this judgment.

Christ is all knowing. He prophesied about his own death.

Any sane man that was not God in flesh that was making these accusations would have said, oh,

I'm going to get stoned. I'm just going to get killed in the streets because that's what the Jews were seeking to do over and over and over again.

Jesus says, I must be lifted up. And we see it take place in that exact way.

We need to have full confidence that Jesus knows all things. This is another clear text about this.

That the word of Jesus might be fulfilled which he spoke, signifying by what kind of death he was about to die.

This is another, not only the fact that he's omniscient, but he's all powerful, and he's declared it to be so.

The silliness of Pilate going back and forth between the people and Jesus, the silliness of the

Jews trying to have this expedient trial, the ridiculousness of crucifying

Christ for no accusation whatsoever, is a showing that God is working here.

That God is doing this for his glory and the redeeming people for himself.

God is working in this text as well. We see this, that it might be fulfilled which he spoke, speaking of God in flesh,

Jesus Christ, signifying what kind of death he was about to die. Crucifixion. Crucifixion.

Now, this is where I want to pause and give some more context of what is taking place in the background as we're reading this text.

As Pilate is going back and forth between the Jews, the Pharisees, and Jesus, what is going on around him?

I want to turn to Matthew chapter 27. John does not record this for us, but Matthew 27 does.

Matthew 27, specifically verses 1 through 10, records something very, very interesting that I think we need to take note of.

Matthew chapter 27 verses 1 through 10. Matthew 27, verses 1 through 10, it says this, and we'll pause here and make notes of very important things in this text.

Now, when the morning had come, this is speaking of that early morning that John is talking about, when the morning had come, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death.

Once again, the Jews are not bringing Jesus before Pilate in an unplanned way.

They're intentionally doing this so that Christ might be crucified. They're deliberating it together to conspire against Jesus.

And it says in verse 2, and they bound him and led him away. That's where we see in John 18 verse 28, they led him away and delivered him up to Pilate, the governor.

Then, so this is now the backstory of what's going on. We understand this verses 1 through 2.

This is now something that is not recorded for us in John. It says then when Judas, that betrayer, the one that just received 30 coins for betraying

Jesus, it says then when Judas had been, had been, who had betrayed him, saw that he had been condemned, which

Judas already knew would take place, he felt remorse and returned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.

And I want to pause here and make a note. Remorse and returning something is not the same as repentance.

Judas is not a repentant believer in this text. Judas is remorseful that he has betrayed

Jesus and he doesn't turn to Jesus for forgiveness. That's not repentance. That's just a sad feeling for doing something wrong against your friend.

It says that he takes the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests.

The wage of Jesus Christ himself, the money that he was betrayed with, he takes it back to the chief priests and elders after Jesus has been led away and it's saying, saying,

I have sinned by betraying innocent blood but they said, what is that to us?

See to that yourself. The Jews don't say, he wasn't innocent, he blasphemed in the name of God.

They say, what is that to us? These are the same people that are leading

Jesus from Caiaphas to Pilate. These are the same people that said that I am the ethnic

Jew, the nation of Israel. I am God's chosen people and they say that to the day. What is that to us?

You ask a Jew today about Jesus Christ being God in flesh, they will say what is that to us?

They reject Christ. They don't know him. Saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood but they say, what is that to us?

See that to yourself. And instead of Judas running to Jesus, he says he threw the pieces of silvers into the sanctuary and departed and he went away and hanged himself.

And the chief priest took the pieces of silver and said, is it not lawful to put them into the temple treasury since it is by the price of blood, since it is a price of blood.

The Jews are continually holding this law that they supposedly follow which they aren't above recognizing

Jesus. This is why it's so difficult to go through this text, church. It is sad and terrible things that we are seeing take place in here.

And they counsel together the same way that they counsel together against Jesus. They counsel together and with the money bought the potter's field as a burial place for strangers and to give a little bit more context, this potter's field is in the valley of Hinnon, that valley of Gehenna that we talked about that represented hell.

They purchased land in the valley of Hinnon. This potter's field, the place where potters would go down to get the clay for pots.

They go down there and buy this field with the money that they betrayed Jesus with. And that, it says in here, for this reason that the field had been called the field of blood this day.

In the book of Acts it makes reference to this field later on but it says that they buy this place that is now known and called the field of blood this day.

Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled saying and they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one whom or the one whose price had been set by the sons of Israel and they gave them for the potter's field as the

Lord directed me. I just want to make reference really quickly to the book of Zechariah where some of that prophecy that is being spoken of is being fulfilled.

It also comes from Jeremiah but we're focusing for real quickly in Jeremiah chapter 11 verse 13 and I just want to make mention of this to see the clarity and the fulfillment of scripture taking place in this text.

Jeremiah 11 verse 13 we'll just read verses 11 11 to 14 let's do that.

So it was broken on that day and thus the afflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that I it was the word of the

Lord and I said to them if it is good in your sight give me my wages but if not never mind.

So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver thirty coins of silver.

They weigh out thirty shekels of silver as my wage. Then the Lord said to me throw it to the potter that magnificent price.

This is God speaking in here. Throw it to the potter that magnificent price to which

I was valued to them. So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw it through them to the potters to the potter in the house of the

Lord. Then I cut my second staff in pieces to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. This was a reality in Zachariah's day but a foreshadowing of what

Jesus is doing in this text. Truly truly amazing the fulfillment that takes place in this.

That was Zachariah chapter 11 verse 13. Let us go back to John 18 now. John 18 verse 33.

I hope that gives us a little bit better of a picture of not only the prophecy that Christ is fulfilling being before Pilate but the prophecy that's taking place down the street, around the corner and so on and so forth away from him about himself continually being fulfilled in such a way by a sinful man throwing the thirty shekels in the temple.

It's being fulfilled over and over and over again. 33 says this Pilate therefore entered again in the praetorium.

So he's now leaving the Jews once more and he comes over to the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him are you the king of the

Jews? I want to mention here once more the accusation that the

Jews have made against Jesus they have not said that Jesus is the king of Jews in this sentence.

They have said no we would have brought him to you if it wasn't for a good reason Pilate. But Pilate now comes to Jesus and we see something here.

He says are you the king of the Jews? Pilate knew why he was captured.

Once again Pilate is well knowing of what is taking place in this. He understands the betrayal that's going on right now.

He understands it, he gets it and so he says are you the king of the Jews? Are you the king of the

Jews? Jesus answered, are you saying this on your own initiative or did others tell you about me?

This is not a text that shows that Christ isn't all knowing. This is once again the way that God is seen talking all the time in the

Old Testament questioning somebody. In fact I would ask in this text that Jesus answers in such a way that it is not him that is on trial any longer, it is now

Pilate that is on trial before him. Are you saying this on your own initiative or did others tell you about me?

Now you answer me that Pilate. You answer me now.

Pilate answered, I am not a Jew. Your own nation and the chief priests delivered you up to me.

What have you done? Church let me ask this question. Is Christ the king of the

Jews? Yes. Christ is the king of the Jews. What was inscribed above his head at the crucifixion?

King of the Jews. Is that a worthy accusation to be crucified over?

It was not. Yes, yes he is. Verse 19 in chapter 19 says this and Pilate wrote an inscription also and put it on the cross and it was written,

Jesus the Nazarene the king of the Jews. The king of the

Jews. So Pilate asks, your own nation, this one that you are the king of, your own nation has brought you to me.

Your chief priests have brought you to me. He understands that he gets this, he gets the opportunity to decide corporate or not corporate but capital punishment.

He gets to decide this capital punishment and he says, your own nation and priests have delivered you to me.

What have you done? The Jews might have been ethically ethnic

I cannot talk. I cannot say it. He might have been from the children of Abraham, physically born of blood and born

Jesus was the king to that people. Absolutely. But they are the

Jews. They are the ethnic Jews. Is Jesus the king of these ethnic Jews? Is he being received as such as a king before the ethnic

Jews in this text? No. He's not. I need to remind you church in Romans chapter 2.

This is absolutely beautiful in this text because the answer is yes, Jesus is the king of the Jews. Praise God for this.

Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter 2 verse 26 -29 says this.

Romans chapter 2 26 -29 If therefore the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the law, will not this uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

And will not he who is physically uncircumcised if he keeps the law, will he not judge you who have through the letter of the law and circumcisions are the transgressors of the law?

Paul in this text is saying you see these people that are saying that you have to be circumcised in order to be a

Jew. Are they a Jew? Is the question that's being posed in here. Those that are saying that you have to be obedient to the law are they the

Jew in this text? It says in verse 28. For he is not a

Jew who is one outwardly, neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.

But he who is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is that which is of the heart by the

Spirit, not by the letter, and his praise is not from men but from God. Yes, Jesus Christ is the

King of Jews. He is the King of those that have had the heart circumcised.

They've been born again and they worship him as the Almighty God. Yes, he is the King of the Jews and he does not need to be crucified.

He came into the world to his own but his own rejected him. His own nailed him to the cross.

His own betrayed him by taking him to Pilate. He was

King of the Jews. He was. If you proclaim

Christ today and you've had circumcised of the heart, is he your

King? Yes. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Back to John 18.

We're going to get into this text next week more. It says in verse 36,

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting that I might not be delivered up to the

Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm.

Pilate therefore said to him, So you are King. Jesus answered, You say correctly that I am the

King. For this I have been born and for this I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth.

Everyone who is of the truth. Who is the truth? Jesus. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice, the voice of a shepherd, the voice of God, the word that we read before us now.

Worship God today as King because he is such. Worship him in the way that he needs to be worshiped.

Worship him in the way that he deserves. Do not betray Jesus like the only nation that he came to by rejecting him and yelling him to a cross.

Church, this is only explained more in Luke 23 verses 1 -4.

So if you want to go home and read further into this text, Luke 23 verses 1 -4.

Church, if you do not have a dry eye after studying a text like this, you have to go to Christ even harder and see the true atrocity that takes place in these texts.

The way that God has shown his love towards you. Let us pray once more over this.

Lord God, we just thank you for every step that you took to this cross of Calvary for us.

God, we thank you for the circumcision of the heart that we have received. This new heart that you planted inside and removed this hard stone that we have.

God, I would just pray that as we think on these things that we might consider what it is like to be a proclaimer of a king in this day.

If we are one of your stewards, Lord, take us and place us at the door and at the gate of those that need to know you as king.

And let us proclaim you and rule out the red carpet for your arrival that we eagerly await,

Lord. God, we just worship you as the triune God that you are and we just say these things in your holy name,

Jesus Christ. Amen. So church, let me...

Hi, I'm Pastor Brayden. I hope you're having a blessed day and I thank you for watching this video. As a

Christian, it is my goal to give God glory alone and to proclaim the gospel message unto all the nations.

The gospel message is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God in flesh, the great

I Am, the perfect Lamb, and the High Priest. The only means of our salvation according to scriptures and that through having faith in that alone for your salvation, you will be saved.