God Before Governor | Sermon 03/10/2024

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Open your Bibles with me to the Gospel accordion. John chapter 18.

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I hope you picked out your row and your seat really well. We're Baptists, so that's the last seat you'll ever have.

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Can never change, right? No, I'm just kidding. I found that in a joke book for pastors.

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Alright, we're going to be in verses 28 through 38.

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Just the beginning of 38, I would call that 38A. Gospel accordion

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John chapter 18. The title of the sermon today, church, is God Before Governor.

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God Before Governor. So starting in verse 28 of the

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Gospel accordion John chapter 18. Hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true

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God. Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the praetorium, and it was early.

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And they themselves did not enter into the praetorium, so that they would not be defiled, but might eat the

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Passover. Therefore Pilate went out to them and said, What accusation do you bring against this man?

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They answered and said to him, If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him to you.

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

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

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Therefore Pilate entered again into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, Are you the king of the

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

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

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What have you done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the

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Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm. Therefore Pilate said to him,

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So you are a king. Jesus answered, You say correctly that I am a king.

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For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world to testify to the truth.

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Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Pilate said to him,

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What is truth? Thus ends the reading of God's holy and inspired word.

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Let's pray once more as God's people. Lord, we come before you today asking that you would bless our time in the word of God.

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God, that you would illuminate the scriptures, that we would receive them, we would know them. God, we are your people who have heard the truth.

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You have come to us, Lord, with that truth. And we ask now, Lord, that you would have us not simply be informed, but transformed by what we hear.

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Lord, edify your people, strengthen your people, challenge your people today, instruct your people in the way that you see fit by your

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Holy Spirit. Help me to speak, Lord, rightly and truly, and by your power and not my own.

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Lord, we pray that you would consecrate this new building, Lord, that you would in such a way purify it, that the word of God would come forth and ring out of this place.

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We thank you, God, for your provision. We thank you for this moment. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

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Well, church, last week we had our elder candidate, Andrew, open up 1

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Timothy chapter 3 with the qualifications of an elder, an overseer. That was really, really good.

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But three weeks ago, we went over the arrest of Jesus in the

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Garden of Gethsemane. And we talked about the fact that in Gethsemane, Jesus was in control.

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He was never out of control. He had control over the whole situation. In fact, He pursued that moment.

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He willed it to come. He went forth to meet His pursuers, and He identified

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Himself what? Not only as Jesus, the man from Nazareth, but also the

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I Am from the kingdom of heaven. We saw that hundreds of men flew backwards from such divine power.

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And then we learned that Peter's intentions did not consider God's. And he tried to intervene with what?

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The sword. Peter intervened with the sword. And thankfully, he did not kill the high priest's slave,

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Malchus, but simply maimed his ear. And Jesus, still being merciful, still having an eye and a heart for the suffering, puts

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His hand out and He heals Malchus' ear on the spot on that dark night in the

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Garden of Gethsemane. And you know, that's what it is. Caring for the suffering.

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Caring and loving those who are sinful. That's what drives Him to the cross.

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And that's about to happen in very short time. In the text. In fact, we're going to be going over, as I've told you before, the crucifixion in two weeks and then the resurrection on Resurrection Sunday, which is going to be wonderful.

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And so, Jesus was bound in that moment. We talked about how He was bound like a lamb that has led to the slaughter.

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He was taken before Annas, the high, high priest. The religious mafioso, even though He wasn't the high priest technically that year,

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Caiaphas was, we talked about how the Romans would only give them short stints as high priest so as to make sure that no one man gained tons of power.

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But what they then inadvertently did, the Romans, is they made this religious powerhouse family that had

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Annas at the top and all of His sons, it says, had served as high priest and now

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His son -in -law, Caiaphas, is a high priest as well. So you have this religious powerhouse.

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And so it makes sense that Jesus didn't go to Caiaphas first. He went to Caiaphas' father -in -law,

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Annas. He went there. And He was questioned illegally in the night.

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Guilt was presumed instead of innocence. And Jesus gave the truth even though it cost

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Him a strike to the face. It was strength and humility, though, that stayed

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His limitless power from resisting these wicked men. He had to keep going. He had to keep pressing on.

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And we saw then later on, two weeks ago, that John had laid out four acts, four scenes.

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And that scene in that moment when Jesus was being tried, it would go from Jesus being questioned to Peter in the courtyard, back to Jesus, then back to Peter.

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It ended with Peter, right? And so Peter denied

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Christ three times just as the Lord foretold. And Jesus, as He was bound,

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Annas was done with Jesus. They had resolved to take Him to Caiaphas across the priestly courtyard.

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I talked about how they had a priestly campus, or I don't know how to say it, residence of many priests.

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And so they were able to just take Him right across to Caiaphas. And Jesus is bound, being led by temple guards.

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And Peter's warming himself, excuse me, at a fire. And he's recognized, if you remember.

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Malchus' relative says, weren't you the guy in the garden? You cut the ear off of my cousin, or whatever.

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He recognizes him. And at the moment that Peter denies Jesus for the last time, the third time,

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Jesus is being escorted. And at that moment, Peter looks up when he denies Christ and Jesus looks at him in the eye.

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Said that in the Gospel according to Luke. And when he met Jesus' eyes, it says that he ran out and he wept bitterly.

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So we saw the contrast there of Jesus' faithfulness opposed to Peter's faithlessness.

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Right? That's what we saw. And what we talked about is we're all like Peter.

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We are Peter. We have been like, we've also been like the unbelieving

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Jews who are questioning Him. We are not the heroes in the story. And that's what we tend to do.

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We've been taught from the moment we were born, you can do anything. You're the biggest hero. You're the best.

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We read ourselves into stories. There's amazing stories. You pick up J .R .R. Tolkien's books and you, oh,

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I'm Aragorn for sure. I'm definitely not Gimli, but I'm Aragorn, right? Like we read ourselves into stories and we make ourselves the heroes, but here, we are no hero.

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These men are no heroes. Jesus is the only hero in this epic.

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And so, we concluded our sermon two weeks ago on the difference between Judas and Peter.

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You had Holy Spirit -wrought regret, repentance, and shame, and renewal as we kind of fast forward and looked at John 21.

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But then on the other side with Judas, you have regret still, but shame that led to hard -heartedness that concluded with what?

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Suicide. Suicide. So today in our passage, we're gonna see contrast again.

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We're gonna see a contrast between darkness and light, falsehood and truth, the earthly versus the heavenly, and the governor of one locality versus the king of heaven.

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So let's begin in verse 28. You can grab your Bible or we have a printout in there for you.

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Verse 28. Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the praetorium, and it was early, and they themselves did not enter the praetorium so that they would not be defiled but might eat the

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Passover. So, John gave us a glimpse of the questioning between Annas and Jesus in his

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Gospel. By the way, the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they don't show the discussion between Annas and Jesus.

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And John showed us that, something special. But here, in John's Gospel, he fast -forwards through the

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Caiaphas and Sanhedrin questioning that happens then in the Synoptic Gospels.

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So the Synoptics cover the Caiaphas and Sanhedrin trial, which is second, and we saw that John was the only one who covered the

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Annas interaction. So John fast -forwards through that, and for sake of time, we won't be able to go into tons of detail.

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You can read the full account of the Caiaphas and Sanhedrin questioning of Jesus in Matthew 26,

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Mark 14, and Luke 22. But what I can tell you is, Christ eventually affirmed that he is the

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Son of God. He affirmed that he is the Messiah. And in that moment,

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Caiaphas tore his robes. And they declared, what further need of evidence or witnesses do we have?

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The charge of blasphemy has been demonstrated in the flesh. And so the council, all these

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Jewish men yell out, he deserves death, he deserves death.

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And it says then in Matthew 26, at this moment, so he was already struck by the guard with Annas, but then it says this, when he's before the

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Sanhedrin, these are supposed to be respectable, holy men of God. It says, then they spat in his face.

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They spat in his face, they beat him with their fists, others slapped him, and they would mock him and say, prophesy to us, you

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Christ, who is the one who hit you? So that's how that section is concluded.

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John leaves that part to the Synoptic Gospel writers, and he tells us what happens right after that, okay?

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It's Friday, it's early morning, very early. That was through Thursday night into Friday.

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It's early morning, specifically of a day of what we call Good Friday. That long

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Friday. We're gonna be in that Friday for a couple weeks. Good Friday. So this verse tells us, in fact, it was very early, and Jesus is led to the

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Praetorium. This is the governor's official residence in Jerusalem. You see, normally

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Pontius Pilate would live north in Caesarea, but during the feasts and festivals of the

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Jews, he would come down, more Roman cohorts would be in town as well, and Pontius Pilate had a residence in Jerusalem so that he could observe everything, he could make sure that no riots were breaking out, maintain order, things like that.

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So not only will the Jews, God's covenant people, judge

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Jesus as deserving of death, but so will the Romans, the

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Gentiles. All types of people are then represented here.

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Excuse me. This is Adam's kin. That's what John is trying to show us.

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This is Adam's kin right here. Everyone, this is all of us. But what do we see here?

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The priests and the Jewish officers would not step into the Praetorium. They went to the boundary entrance, right?

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They went to the boundary entrance, and they were concerned for Gentile defilement.

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Ritual uncleanness. You see, the Jewish Mishnah, the teachings of the elders, the traditions of the elders, stated that a

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Jew who entered the dwelling place of a Gentile would become ceremonially unclean.

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Now, there are different reasons for why they believed this. This actually isn't in Scripture. This is a tradition of theirs.

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Many Jews believed that in the homes of these Gentiles, pagan worship was taking place.

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That there could have been idols in there. There could have been unholy things, and going in there, therefore, would offend

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God to step into their idolatrous home. This is another big one.

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Many Jews believed that Gentiles were constantly having, believe it or not, abortions.

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They believed that they were killing their children in their homes, and they were passing the infant's body, and when they passed the infant's body, that they would touch the dead body of this baby, and that, the touching of a dead body, goes against Numbers chapter 19.

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There's a prohibition of doing that. That would make you ceremonially unclean. And so, these

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Jews often thought that Gentiles were having these abortions, touching dead bodies, and so they didn't want to go in there.

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There could be other things, but whatever it is, we see that this would affect their ability to participate in eating the

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Passover. Excuse me. Which, when he says that, it likely means, since the

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Passover has already started, John means the whole of the Passover, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

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Every activity, every festivity in that. You see, think about it.

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If men who are higher up in the priesthood, men who are prestigious, and they're well -known in Jerusalem, and they're not taking of the bread, they're not participating in the festivities, what would that look like?

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Right, they have fear of man. They're man -pleasers. They don't want to do anything that would make them look unworthy, or they don't want people to think that they've sinned, because that could be a possibility.

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So they don't step into the praetorium grounds. And so, you could probably already see the high hypocrisy in this, right?

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It's honestly shocking irony, because they don't want defilement.

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They don't want to be unclean, and yet, blood is about to be on their hands, right?

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They're defiled already. They're not clean. They are defiled.

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They've lied. They've kidnapped a man in the night. They've done an illegal trial.

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They've done all these things against Jesus, and they're worried about defilement.

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They're worried about not being able to take the Passover. It's honestly high hypocrisy and irony.

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You see, they're more polluted now than they'll ever know. They're more polluted now than they'll ever know.

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They're not worthy to partake in this Jewish feast. They're not. They're not.

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Doing so will only heap more judgment upon them, because they deny the

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One for whom the Passover celebration was made. The One standing in front of them right now.

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You see, the Hebrews would take that spotless lamb. They would take its blood, and they would put the blood on the doorpost, right?

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And then they would take a portion of that spotless lamb, and they would consume it. Then they would take the unleavened bread.

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That is to say, they had to leave in haste. Their flight from Egypt was in haste, and so they made unleavened bread, and they would eat that.

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They would eat a portion of the lamb. And so, the Jewish officials are worried about this when they are in no way concerned about the true fulfillment of this

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Passover. The Passover lamb stands right in front of them. He's ready to give

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His blood so that the angel of death would pass over them. The exodus from sin is about to occur, but not for them.

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Not for them. These men, get this, these men are more like Pharaoh now than they are like their beloved hero

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Moses. They're not like the prophet Moses. They're more like Pharaoh at this point.

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And so they bring Him before Pilate. Verse 29, therefore Pilate went out to them and said, "'What accusation do you bring against this man?'

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And so we have the introduction of Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea, a

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Roman who is now in the picture in the fourth gospel. And so just four years prior to this moment, the emperor

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Tiberius gave Pontius Pilate this appointment. It is said that he held the office of governor until AD 37.

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According to one commentator, he says, both from biblical and extra biblical sources, historians have come to know

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Pilate as a morally weak and vacillating man who like many of the same breed tried to hide his flaws under shows of stubbornness and brutality.

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His rule earned him the loathing of the Jewish people, small groups of whom violently protested and were put down with savage ferocity."

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That's Pilate. That's his legacy. A vacillating, back and forth coward.

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A man pleaser. Now it says, Pilate came out to them. He would have understood

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Jewish law and he would have honored it, maybe reluctantly, but he would have had his servants carry his big judgment seat.

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His servants, his slaves, likely carried this big judgment seat to the edge of the boundary of the praetorium and he sat down and the

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Jewish priests and temple officers are there to give their accusations. And that's how it began.

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I don't think he's totally unaware of who Jesus is. He is the governor of Judea.

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Jesus has been doing ministry for three years by now. I'm sure Pilate has heard of him, especially when you consider the fact that what?

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The night prior, a Roman cohort, according to John, came out to arrest

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Jesus. And so Pilate, of course, would have known that some of his soldiers were out to make sure a riot didn't break out when they arrested a famous Jewish teacher named

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Jesus. So I'm sure Pilate has heard of him and he begins his proceedings like anything else.

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What charges do you bring against this man? And this is not exactly what the

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Jews expected. This is not what they wanted. They didn't expect for the slaves to bring out the judgment seat and for him to sit down and do a formal investigation.

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The Jews even came as high priests to show like, hey, we have no servants bringing him.

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This is high business. Yeah, this man needs to be put to death. But unfortunately for them,

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Pontius Pilate starts, what charges do you bring? And so they answer him like this, if this man were not an evildoer, we would have not have delivered him to you.

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I feel like that's sometimes how our kids respond to us. I wouldn't have done this. You know what

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I mean? That's how they're acting. It's a mocking way of response. And so they want

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Pilate to bypass all these questions and simply become an executioner.

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That's what they're looking for. They're looking for an executioner. These priests and leaders don't like that the governor is conducting his own investigation.

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They want nothing to get in the way of their murder plot. And so they accuse

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Jesus of being one who performs evil. This word is characteristic of the opposite of good, of course.

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This is, this word is a quality of the devil. Psalm 34 says,

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The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, but God turns his face from those who are doers of evil.

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And that's what they're saying that Jesus is. But we know something about Jesus that they don't, at least something that they reject or refuse to believe.

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We know, what? That John has shown us time and time again, through Jesus' own words, that Jesus is what?

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Jesus is God. Jesus is divine. James 1, verse 13 says,

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Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil himself, and he himself does not tempt anyone to evil.

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So not only can God not be tempted by evil, he cannot commit evil. If he can't be tempted by evil, he doesn't commit evil.

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If he doesn't tempt others with evil, he's not evil. They are false accusers.

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They are liars and false accusers. And so they are the evil ones.

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They are the unclean ones. They are the ones whom they are charging

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Jesus to be. So verse 31, Pilate said to them,

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Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law. The Jews said to him,

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We are not permitted to put anyone to death. Do you see how the

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Jewish leaders and Roman governor get along so well? He didn't do what they wanted.

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He opened an investigation. And so they respond harshly and condescendingly that they would have never brought

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Jesus to him if he wasn't an evildoer. So resentful towards their statement,

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Pilate knows the game pretty well. He can play it pretty good. Pilate responds with similar venom.

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Take him yourselves then. You want it done your way, you do it.

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You see, if they want capital punishment, Pilate needs more than a general statement. Now this is not a moment to think favorably about Pilate.

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He isn't doing this because he wants justice. He's acting like this because he wants to inflate his ego.

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He wants to make the Jewish leaders jump through hoops and acknowledge his authority.

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And this is not about justice at all. He wants power more than he wants justice.

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And that's a fact. If Pilate was concerned about justice and innocence,

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Jesus would not have gone to the cross under his authority, right? Ultimately, that's what's true.

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And so the Jews state they can't judge him according to their law and carry out execution because, quote, we are not permitted to put anyone to death.

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One historian states, when Rome took over for Judea and invested in the governor,

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I'm sorry, when Rome took over for Judea and began direct rule through a prefect in 86, capital jurisdiction was taken away from the

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Jews and invested in the governor. So some have said that they lost the ability to put people to death as the

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Jewish people in 86. But there's another resource that says, another

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Jewish historian that says, 40 years before the fall of Jerusalem, and that was 70

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AD, we know, 40 years before is when the Jews lost their ability to stone someone to death, to do capital punishment.

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So that would make it what? AD 30, potentially. So you have the 86 idea,

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AD 30. And what that shows us is, providentially,

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God had made it so the Jews could not put him to death.

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And that's important. Hang on to that for a moment. The Jews could not put him to death.

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That means that the Jewish authorities and the

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Gentile authorities had to both individually come to a judgment of capital punishment. Both sides had to say capital punishment.

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Capital punishment. That's what God had them do. And so therefore, both types of people are indicted in this murder.

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And that's the premise of things like Romans 1, Romans 2, and Romans 3.

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The Jews had the oracles of God, but still they killed His Son. The Gentiles were exposed to God through creation, through nature, through His invisible attributes, and they are without excuse as well.

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And so Paul concludes in Romans 3, there is none righteous, Jew or Gentile, all types of people, not even one, every single person and type of person, along with their sin, necessitated this death of Christ.

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This is the providence of God. Why is this important?

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Because Jesus would not be simply a Jewish Savior. Jesus will not only be a

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Jewish Savior, He'll be the world's Savior. All types of people.

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His death is not just for Jews, but for Gentiles. It had to take place this way.

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And so the immediate scene is concluded by a word of our narrator John, verse 32.

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This was to fulfill the word of Jesus which He spoke, signifying by what kind of death

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He was about to die. Jesus spoke truly. He said before,

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He won't be stoned to death. A stone won't touch Jesus, He is the cornerstone.

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In John 3 .14, John 8 .28, John 12 .32, our Lord indicated multiple times

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He said what? I will be lifted up. Those were the words, I will be lifted up.

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John 3 especially detailed that. We saw in John 3 about over a year ago,

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He said that He would be lifted up like what? Like the serpent on the staff.

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Like with Moses. The rod of Moses in the wilderness. And so in that moment, if you remember, we talked about that.

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If the poisoned and venimated Israelites looked up at the serpent on the rod, if they looked at the serpent hanging on the rod, if they stared at it, it said that God would heal them.

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They had to look upon it. It was a moment of faith. And so that's very interesting, right?

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It wasn't a lamb on a wooden rod, it wasn't a lamb, it was a serpent. Jesus would have to become something

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He is not. 2 Corinthians 5 .21, He made

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Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

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Galatians 3 says that Jesus became a curse for us.

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And so what is a serpent according to Genesis 3? What is a serpent? It's a cursed thing.

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A serpent is a cursed thing according to Genesis 3. And Christ, though perfect and holy,

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He became the opposite on the cross. I'm not saying He sinned.

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I'm not saying anything like that. I'm talking about the imputation of His righteousness to us and the imputation and application of our sin on Him.

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It didn't say He sinned, it said He became sin on our behalf. It says that He became a curse though He committed no curses.

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And so that's why it was a serpent on a rod and Jesus says that.

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People are often confused. Oh goodness, why would Jesus compare Himself to a serpent on a wooden rod?

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It's because He became a curse. He became sin for us. Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, the

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Bible says. Then Jesus said in Matthew 20, verse 18 through 19,

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He foretold this moment and He said, Behold, He's telling His disciples, we're going to Jerusalem and the

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Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes and they will condemn Him to death and will hand

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Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify

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Him and on the third day He will be raised up. He already predicted it. He foretold it. And right there you have chief priests,

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Pharisees, scribes, they did their part, we saw that. Now we have Romans, Gentiles, they're going to do their part.

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All hands are in the murder plot. Jewish accusation, Roman crucifixion.

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This is the kind of death He would die. So back to our passage, the

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Jewish leaders relent. They put their arms up. They need the governor's assistance.

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And so they leave the praetorium and they don't want to risk their cleanness.

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And verse 33 picks it up, look at this. Therefore Pilate entered again into the praetorium.

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He left where he was. He went further into the praetorium. He summoned

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Jesus to him. And Pilate says, are you the king of the Jews? So the governor starts his own interrogation of Jesus one -on -one.

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And this question is reported in actually all four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Are you the king of the

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Jews? And so what this demonstrates is that Jesus clearly admitted to being the

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Son of God. He did. We saw that especially in John 10. He said, I am God's Son. That's something

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He did in His earthly ministry. And by this time, the Jews associate that title, the

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Son of God, with the Messiah. And they also associate the

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Messiah with what? Kingship. This kingship aspect is not unfounded because they would look at the typology of promises of Deuteronomy where it talks about a king will come, someone from your own.

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He will be righteous and that was fulfilled in Christ. Then you have things like 2 Samuel 7 where God speaks to David and He says, when your days are complete,

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David, and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendent after you who will come forth from you and I will establish

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His kingdom. He shall build a house for My name and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.

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Well, Solomon's dead. Who was this fulfilled with? Who is this being fulfilled with?

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This is with Christ. It was for Solomon, but it's ultimately for Jesus.

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He is the king. He is the one that comes through the Davidic royal bloodline.

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And so the way the priests and Pharisees must have relayed this to Pilate was like this.

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The Gentiles wouldn't maybe have understood what that means. What's Messiah? What's Mashiach?

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What's Christ? What does anointed one mean? The Gentiles didn't have that in their mind, but what do they have in their mind?

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Kings, competing rulers. So how did the Jews come to Pilate?

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They likely said, we have a man who's saying he's a king, and we know that goes into conflict with the emperor and with yourself.

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That's how they would have sold that to him, right? Jesus is a threat to the people.

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He's a threat to the country. He's a threat to the emperor. Pilate, he's a threat to you.

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What are you going to do about it? And so that's right. These Jewish leaders would actually manipulate a wonderful promise of the

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Messiah and his kingship, and they would use it against him. They would build a case against him.

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They're trying to impress upon Pilate the danger of letting Christ live. Jesus is political enemy number one.

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And so Pilate doesn't want an insurrection on his watch. You see, if governors lost control of their region, you know what the emperor would do?

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Someone would arrive, come back, come back to Rome. And you can imagine what happens next, right?

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He doesn't want to lose his position. He doesn't want to lose his power. He doesn't want to lose his own life. So, look at verses 34 and 35.

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Look at, actually, look at 34 first. Jesus answered, so he said, Are you the king of the

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

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In the other Gospels, Jesus simply replies, It is as you say. He affirms his kingship immediately.

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But here in John, he won't do that until verse 37. Apparently, there was a small dialogue in between his affirmation of kingship.

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And so, Jesus wants Pilate to declare whether this is a question from his own understanding, or his own curiosity, or if he's merely repeating the

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Sanhedrin's charges against him. It's possible that the way that Pilate responds will determine the way that Jesus does.

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Maybe either imparting faith -based knowledge, or answering in a similar way that he did to Annas, his other interrogators.

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So, but what I find remarkable in this moment, is that Jesus turns it around on Pilate.

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Right? He is still under control.

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He's got perfect boldness. Who? Where'd you get that? Why are you saying that?

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Right? Did someone tell you this? So, Jesus is interrogating the interrogator.

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Jesus, the prisoner, is interrogating the jailer, the judge.

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He's under control. Verse 35, Pilate answered, I am not a

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Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priest delivered you to me. What have you done?

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And so, Pilate's starting to get a little angry here. What am I, a Jew? He doesn't take this completely seriously, that this ordinary -looking man before him in a rabbi's tunic, this man who has spit dried upon his face, this man who has some blood coming out of his nose, he looks a little bruised up, this man who looks like a simple

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Jewish rabbi, Pilate's not taking this very seriously. How could this man before me be a public threat?

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That he's a national threat is a joke to Pilate. And he greatly underestimates

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Christ. Greatly underestimates Christ. He has no idea. He has no idea.

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The claims are ridiculous to him. And this is the mark of the unbelieving world.

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Contempt. Contempt. No realization that Jesus coming to earth, dying and rising from the dead, is not a

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Jewish thing or even a Christian thing, but something that impacts all creation, no matter who you are or where you're from,

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God has stepped into His own creation. This impacts everyone. So Pilate begins to distance himself from this moment.

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He begins to distance himself from the Jews' accusation, and he'll do that even greater later.

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We'll see that even more. He'll distance himself from what's happening here. And we see him, he says, it's your own nation.

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Your own nation. Your own priests did this. They brought you to me.

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The people from your world delivered you to me. However, Jesus is about to bring clarity concerning the world

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He is truly from. Verse 36, Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world.

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If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting, so that I would not be handed over to the

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Jews. But as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm. So when

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He says the word kingdom, My kingdom, this is the word basileia in the

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Greek. In this context, He's likely not talking specifically about location or territory.

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I think what Jesus is indicating is His reign. His kingship. My kingship is not of this world right now.

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And even world doesn't necessarily mean locality as well. We've seen world or cosmos used in different ways.

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This is the world in its darkness. This is the system in rebellion to the one true

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God. My kingdom is not of the world, this world, this darkness, this system.

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If My kingdom were of this world system, like yours, My servants would be fighting for Me and defending

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Me, and I wouldn't be here. He says. But King Jesus doesn't rely upon the sword, does

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He? He told Peter, put that sword back in its sheath. Put it away.

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He healed the negative effect the sword had caused. Jesus answers this way to remove any immediate concerns of a worldly local takeover.

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Pilate and his cohorts are not going to be attacked suddenly, right? Are you a king?

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Where's your army? What are you about to do? Where are your insurrectionists?

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Where are your rioters? Where's your gang? And Jesus is like, that's not what this is about.

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My kingship doesn't come from this carnality, from this fleshliness. My kingdom is of something else.

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You see, the kingdom of heaven is infiltrating the world in another way. And that's important to say because Jesus' declaration is in no way saying that His kingdom is not active in this world.

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Some people read that. When Jesus says, My kingdom is not of this world, people go, okay, His kingdom is not active in this world?

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No, that's wrong. His kingdom is active in this world. Oh, His kingdom has nothing to do with this world? No, His kingdom has everything to do with this world.

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That would be totally misconstruing His words. His kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, now has everything to do with it.

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And that's exactly why the very first thing that Jesus preached, we're talking the very first thing that Jesus preached open air after His temptation in Matthew 4 from the devil.

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He came out of that wilderness, was ministered to by angels, and He starts out like this,

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Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is here. The kingdom of heaven has come.

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It has stepped down into this world. When the

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Jews accused Him of doing acts by the power of Satan, if you remember,

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Jesus said, Satan doesn't cast out Satan. Kingdom divided against itself can't stand.

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They're like, maybe He's removing demons by the power of the devil. It's like, you know, He's incredulous about it.

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It's ridiculous. But in Matthew 12, 28, Jesus says, after He warns them of the blasphemy of the

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Holy Spirit, which is attributing the works of the devil to the Holy Spirit or to the power of God, doing that,

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He says this, But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

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So the question is, church, did Jesus cast out demons by the Spirit of God while on earth? Yes. You betcha.

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Then the kingdom of God has come upon them. It's here. Jesus' kingdom will expand from heaven to earth.

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And by what means? The gospel. The gospel. It's going to be the gospel, the good news that Christ died sinlessly, bore the transgressions of the sinful, and rose again, conquering the grave.

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That's how His kingdom spreads. If He does what He's about to do,

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Pilate and the Emperor and Herod and all the other kings and worldly leaders, even the ones we have today, if Jesus does what

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He's about to do, then they have no real kingdoms of their own. It's a facade.

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It's a delusion. There is one kingdom.

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All of it belongs to Christ. All the parables of Jesus state things concerning His reign and establishing

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His kingdom in this wicked world. You see it so much in His parables. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven in a loaf of bread, right?

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You put a little bit of leaven, you put a little bit of yeast in tons of dough, and you give it time, and the whole thing gets much bigger, it grows.

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That's what He says. It's like a man who sowed good seed in his field. You sow these tiny little seeds across a whole field, and then you have what?

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You have tons of growth everywhere. I don't know if any of you are from the Midwest or something. I know my wife's from the

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Midwest, and that's what they did. They didn't go to the mall. They hung out in cornfields. They would watch it grow,

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I guess. They would sit there and watch it grow. I'm just kidding. But they would throw the grain out, and then you'd have this moment where,

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I mean, these things were taller than people. Huge! It went from nothing to something. That's what He says the kingdom of God is like, the kingdom of heaven.

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All of it belongs to Christ. You have the mustard. He says the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that grew exponentially.

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Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure in a field that you give everything for. Because what? There's a return on investment, right?

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That's what you expect when you put money into, I don't know, an IRA or the stock market.

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You put a little bit in because you hope it gets bigger. And so a man sells all he has, invests, buys a field, because heaven will produce that much more.

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The kingdom of heaven grows. It's the best pearl you've ever seen. The kingdom of heaven, he says, is like a dragnet.

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You know what a dragnet is? These fishermen would go out into the sea. They would take these nets, and one boat would have the other side of the dragnet.

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This boat would have this side. And they would row together through a school of fish, and this dragnet would grab all these fish.

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And that's what he says the kingdom of heaven is. The kingdom of heaven on earth. Exponential.

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One fish hits that net, two fish, three fish, boy, 100 ,000, whatever, that dragnet comes and it takes all those fish.

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That's the kingdom of heaven, he says. And so the question is, when Jesus says these things, these parables, are these things only about heaven?

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Is this only about a spiritual place that we can't see right now? No. The kingdom of heaven is touching down to earth.

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It's spreading across the globe at the coming of Christ. You know what Revelation chapter 11 verse 15 says?

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This is the, you have this heavenly scene. And this is what's said.

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You have this heavenly scene in Revelation 11. It says, Then the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices everywhere in heaven saying this,

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The kingdom of the world, he talks about the world, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our

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Lord and of His Christ. And He will reign forever and ever in that kingdom.

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That kingdom that spreads from heaven to earth. Psalm 2 shows the father promised to give his son the nations as his inheritance.

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God didn't forget to do that. God gave His son the nations. You see,

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Pilate thinks that the man in front of him is defeated. Look at this man, he's bruised, he's beaten, he's spit upon.

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He's like this king, whoever he calls himself a king, this man is under my power, he believes.

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His kingdom can't spread here, he thinks. He has no cohorts, no armies to do so. Pilate doesn't know that his kingdom is about to come through this man's death and subsequent resurrection.

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And so my charge to you today is don't think like Pilate. Don't ever think like Pilate did.

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Don't ever think that Jesus' kingdom is only something up in the clouds. It has spanned dimensions, it has spanned realms.

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That's what Jesus is doing through the spreading of the gospel, the changing of hearts and people. Don't think

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Jesus is defeated like Pilate does. He must reign until all his enemies are a footstool for his feet according to Scripture.

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Verse 37, Therefore Pilate said to him, So you are a king.

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Jesus answered, You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this

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I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.

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What Pilate is shocked by is not that a king stands before him, but that in his mind,

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Jesus just admitted to the charges set by the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin said, this man is saying he's a king, he's a threat to you.

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And so Pilate isn't like, wow, oh, you're a king, let me get down and worship you. That's not what

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Pilate's doing. He, Jesus, has just admitted to the fact that he's affirming what the

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Sanhedrin has accused him of. But we know that Jesus isn't affirming their wrong view of kingship or their accusations, but his true kingship.

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Something that Pilate honestly knows nothing about. And so you have this face -off of two rulers.

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One is finite. One is eternal. One is evil. One is impeccably righteous.

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One has his rule from the system of this world. One has his rule from a place of divine authority.

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One uses violence and force and domination to spread his kingdom.

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One uses sacrifice and love and grace to spread his.

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One is based on falsehood. One is based on truth. And so Jesus says, you are correct.

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I am a king. You say I'm a king. He agrees. To be the king here is the reason

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I have been born into the world. You see?

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Do you get that? If he wanted to remain a king in heaven, he would have stayed in heaven.

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But he comes down, for this reason I've come into the world. This kingship, it's the reason he's been born into the world.

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He speaks of his incarnation and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We saw his glory, glory from God, as the one and only of the

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Father, full of grace and truth. And so the Son of God became man to save us, no doubt.

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That's the biggest aspect of this. But also to be king. To be the king.

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And in that rule, Jesus will testify of the truth. His kingdom is one of truth.

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And that's really what the gospel is. The gospel is truth.

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And we're not merely talking about knowledge or true knowledge. But Jesus is what?

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The way, the truth, and the life. Truth in Christ.

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Truth in gospel. Truth in kingship.

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Christ in kingship. It's all interwoven together. And when you think about it, that's what we do, right?

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That's all that we do. You know, we put this thing like, are you going to go evangelize? Are you going to go share the gospel?

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Those are fine. You could say it that way. But this is another way to say it. What are we doing? We're just simply sharing the truth.

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You're not omitting the truth. You're not lying. You're not giving falsehood. When we give the gospel of Christ, you're simply just giving the truth.

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You're speaking what is true. You're speaking what is right. That's what we do.

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We tell people the truth, and the people who are of the truth will receive it.

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They'll receive it. When God has regenerated them, when God has opened their eyes, they'll receive it.

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So we simply go out, we tell people the truth. Because this is all real. This is all true. And when they are of the truth, they are of Jesus.

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And when they are of Jesus, they are of His kingdom. And when you are of God's kingdom,

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Christ's kingdom, you belong to God. How long? How long is that citizenship?

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Forever. Forever. So let's finish up with our last verse.

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This is one of those moments, you know, when the, of course, I've told you before, the

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Bible didn't come to us split into chapters and verses. That was something done later.

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And truly, there are times that are like, yeah, that's not inerrant. This is a moment where I wish verse 38 was split.

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So look at verse 38. We'll only cover the first part. The narrative section of verse 38 will be next week.

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So at this statement from Jesus, affirming His kingship, affirming that He's come to testify of the truth,

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Pilate says to Him, simply, what is truth? What is truth? The main components of Jesus' kingship on earth will be truth -telling and truth -hearing.

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But here we see that Pilate doesn't know the truth. He doesn't know it. From the abrupt way that the interrogation ends, right here in verse 38, it is likely that Pilate is not asking this question in some sort of sincere way.

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He's not waiting to hear from Jesus. Please tell me, what is truth? That's not what's happening here.

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This isn't Pilate having philosophical pondering. What is truth, right? I don't know why he would change his voice, but maybe he would.

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But that's not what he's doing. Nor is Pilate indifferent or even concerned that putting

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Jesus to death may be the wrong thing. We don't want to give him that kind of credit. I don't even think that he's saying this out loud as an exasperation.

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What is truth? Thinking that Jesus is just a crazy and harmless Jew. I think

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Pilate, honestly, is being cynical here. I think he's being cynical, meaning, in other words, that he is skeptical that Jesus really has the truth.

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What is truth? This is a mocking question that serves as a rebuke.

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What is truth? Like, as if you know it. Man in front of me.

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Man who's at my power. And he turns away. It doesn't say that Jesus said anything.

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It doesn't say that he even gave Jesus a chance to say anything. It says, later in our verse, which we'll see next week, he departs from Jesus at this moment.

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He literally addressed the one who actually has the answer to that question, right? And that's what this all comes down to, church.

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This is good versus evil. This is spiritual versus fleshly. This is life versus death.

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This is love versus hate. Truth versus falsehood. And I don't want to act like those things hang in the balance.

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They don't. God has won. He has won up there.

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He's won down here. All those things, he has won over.

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There's no worry. There's no concern about good versus evil. There's no worry in our minds that truth won't win.

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Truth wins. Love never fails, the Apostle Paul says. Hate will never win.

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So as we wrap up, think about the questions that have been asked today.

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I think that Pilate has honestly asked the wrong questions. He couldn't know, but he asked the wrong questions.

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It shouldn't have been, are you a king? Pilate should have asked, are you my king?

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His question about truth shouldn't have been one concerning a concept, but one of identity.

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It's not what is truth, but who is the truth. Many could only dream of asking questions to God in the flesh, but one must be of the truth to hear the voice of truth.

01:00:11

Do you know what all these trials show us? How many trials have we seen thus far with Jesus?

01:00:19

Annas, the high, high priest, the religious powerhouse of the day, he tried

01:00:24

Jesus. Caiaphas, the current high priest, the one who said it was expedient or convenient that Jesus die instead of them losing their power, he tried him.

01:00:38

In the other Gospels, Pilate sends Jesus to Herod.

01:00:43

Herod, the faux king of Judea, was like, I've heard of you, would you do a sign in front of me?

01:00:52

Herod's waiting as if Jesus is someone who just does magic tricks. Herod's like, would you do something for me?

01:00:58

Show me a sign. And it says that Jesus stood and said and did nothing.

01:01:04

That man would have received no sign except for Jesus being lifted up and rising again.

01:01:14

Herod tried him, mocked him even after. Now Pilate, the governor of Rome, the representative of the political and warfare powerhouse of that time, he tried

01:01:25

Jesus. And what they all don't realize is those moments of trying

01:01:32

Jesus will serve as full witness to their trials. And they will be found condemned for their sin against the

01:01:41

Son of God. They were tried and found wanting.

01:01:48

Hebrews chapter 6 says that every person that gets exposed to the truth and then rejects

01:01:53

Christ, crucifies Him again to themselves, and not an atonement, but meaning that His blood is on their hands and His blood is not covering their sins.

01:02:05

And that's right. Everyone who rejects Christ will be held liable even for this moment.

01:02:11

It's like there are people today who reject Christ, and what the Bible demonstrates is even people who are born today who never lived in that day, they will be held liable for that as well because they've rejected it.

01:02:25

Even leaders like this. Think about it. These world leaders.

01:02:32

God debases the proud. What an amazing moment. The Gospel of the Kingdom is for the lowly.

01:02:38

It's for the sinner. It's for the sinner who has no other way but to look up.

01:02:44

God, have mercy on me, a sinner. There is no other way. The Kingdom of God, the

01:02:51

Gospel is for those. Not the high, not the proud.

01:02:58

You see, any other king from another nation, if Jesus was like any other king, and He made

01:03:06

Himself known, and He built this ministry, He would want to take

01:03:11

Annas and Caiaphas and Pilate and put them under His counsel. He would want to put them in His pocket.

01:03:19

But that's not Jesus. They won't be His vice -regents.

01:03:27

Not this king. Not the king. You know who

01:03:33

God will choose? He'll choose people like Peter. Deniers but repentant.

01:03:42

Criminals but contrite. Sinners but saved to be His ambassadors in this world.

01:03:49

God debases the proud. He exalts the lowly.

01:03:58

How does He make you lowly? God elects us. Really, there's no great big difference between these men and men like Peter and people like you and me.

01:04:13

It's God's grace. It's God's grace. But this is what He's chosen to do.

01:04:20

Confound the wise. He'll use people like you and me in this kingdom.

01:04:27

And I guess what I want us to remember leaving this message is we serve the king. You know,

01:04:34

I'm grateful for our country. I'm grateful that I get to be a citizen here.

01:04:41

I'm grateful that when God gives us somewhat benevolent leaders, though there are so very few, but whoever you are, wherever you're from, whatever your heritage, whatever your skin color, wherever you have citizenship, if you're in Christ, you now have a citizenship greater than all of that.

01:05:10

It's in Christ. And if His kingdom spreads across realms, then your citizenship in heaven is that vast.

01:05:20

The citizenship to which you now belong, church, is infiltrating this world. It's taking over.

01:05:27

How can it not when it's Jesus? When it's King Jesus? And so as the

01:05:33

Gospel changed you and you have grown in sanctification and holiness, therefore, then it impacts everything around you.

01:05:44

My question is, now that you've been saved and changed, are you impacting the world around you with the

01:05:54

Gospel? You see, first things first. It's not that we're seeking to change the world, it's that we're seeking to make the

01:06:04

Gospel known, therefore the world changes. It's first things first. It's going to spread.

01:06:13

Do you have a kingdom mindset? Are you stuck? I think there's two pits.

01:06:20

I think there's this Gnostic view of the Kingdom of God where it's like we've just got to get out of all this and get to heaven and be floating on clouds with martinis.

01:06:29

We've just got to get away from this. But then the other side of it is we've got to take this

01:06:36

Gospel and weaponize it. It's not about converts. It's not about that.

01:06:42

It's not about changed hearts. It's about morality. Well, I don't know if you could see around us what it looks like to have morality without true theology.

01:06:54

I want to see the world change. We just had six people become delegates in our church. Amen. But it's the

01:07:00

Gospel. And that trickles down. That changes everything. That's first things first.

01:07:10

I would submit to you it's impossible for this world to stay stagnant if Christians are not staying stagnant.

01:07:17

It's all changing. It's all transforming. All for the better. Little by little. One child of God at a time.

01:07:24

You see, that mustard seed that grew into a tree is not done growing. And so, last statement.

01:07:32

I promise you. The last thing I want you to remember is this. As we talked about Judas, as we talked about Peter, one thing that you and I can often do is we associate ourselves with the constant mistake making but dutiful apostles.

01:07:52

We do that more than we put ourselves in the place of the priests and the

01:07:57

Pharisees and Pilate. You see, I don't know about you, but I see much of myself, of who

01:08:07

I used to be in the man Pilate. The vacillating man pleaser.

01:08:13

I can see myself in a man like that. Or who I used to be, I should say. And so, maybe you and I need to remember were you once power hungry?

01:08:25

Were you going for it all? Like the priests? Maybe you and I need to remember how we would have done just about anything to serve ourselves over other people like who?

01:08:39

Like Judas? We often see ourselves in...

01:08:45

It's like the apostles are like some character in a show where it's like oh, they made another mistake, but they're still pretty good, right?

01:08:52

And we look at ourselves, and like I said, we make ourselves the heroes of these stories, but we're the priests.

01:09:01

We're the Pharisees. We're Pilate. We're like the apostles.

01:09:07

It's all of us. You see, the remarkable thing is not how we are not alike, but how we are.

01:09:15

And God still saved us. God still saved us. So He let us hear

01:09:21

His voice. He let us know the truth, and therefore, we now know the King.

01:09:27

So let's praise King Jesus for giving us that royal pardon today. Amen. Let's pray.

01:09:36

Heavenly Father, thank You today for Your Word that went out. Thank You, God, that You have sent

01:09:42

Your one and only Son into the world, that He is the

01:09:47

King we've always needed. He is the merciful King. He is benevolent.

01:09:55

He is good. He is righteous. His laws are perfect.

01:10:01

His ways are blameless. His love toward the people of His kingdom is everlasting.

01:10:10

Thank You, God, that Jesus isn't like the failed men and women who are leaders all around this world, but Jesus is the leader who will never fail us.

01:10:23

And what's so wonderful is that we don't have Jesus the perfect, benevolent leader for a short time, and then

01:10:30

He dies when He's 80. But we have Jesus the King, benevolent, good, righteous,

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Who is always there for us forever. And God, we thank

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You that You have saved us and changed us and made us new.

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I think I can speak for us all today, Lord God, that if we could just be in Your kingdom,

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Jesus, we would be the lowest paupers or slaves in Your kingdom if we could just be with You forever.

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But You gave us more. We're princes and princesses now because of Your grace.

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You've lavished us with that grace. You've seated us in the heavenlies. And so Lord, we come to You in this moment with praise and thanksgiving.