Untitled Sermon (2)

John 18:33-40

Introduction

Have you ever had a conversation with someone new, and you didn’t realize until it was too late that it was someone kind of important and well-known? If my mind serves me, I don’t think that has happened to me yet, but I have a really good friend who that has happened to. This was probably about a year ago.

So the person that this happened to is my former college roommate, and his name is Connery. Some of you here probably know him since he is, indeed, a member of this church. There was a particular morning where Connery was going to go on a run on the treadmill that the gym at Southern seminary. If you’re familiar with that part of the school, then you’ll know that right by the entry of the HRC, there are a couple of circular benches until a set of stairs that go up to the second floor of the Honeycutt building, and on one of those benches, he saw someone sitting on them and reading his bible, and the guy had a roots mug. Since Connery is Canadian, this very much caught his eye, so he thought he would go over and introduce himself. Now this guy was in his mid-forties, had short, black hair, and had a goatee.

Connery starts to talk to this guy asking him how long he’s been in Louisville and about Canada because this guy is also Canadian, and eventually, Connery asks what church his guy goes to in Louisville, and the “stranger” responds that he goes to Immanuel. How many well-known Canadian guys in their mid-forties do you know that go to Immanuel? Well, Connery didn’t put it together. So when this guy responded, Connery responded, “Immanuel, huh? Well at least you have Ryan Fullerton…” To which the stranger replies, “I AM Ryan Fullerton.” I still don’t think Connery has fully recovered from that Incident. Well, similarly to Connery, we are studying someone this afternoon who was also talking to someone important, but he had no idea who this guy actually was, but unlike Connery, it wasn’t due to sheer ignorance, but it was because of the hardness of his heart.

Context

Since close to the beginning of the book of John, the Jews and Pharisees have been trying to find a way to hush Jesus up. He’s spent a lot of John attracting attention with his teachings and by doing miracles in front of a bunch of people, and everyone becomes really intrigued and basically asks, “Who is this guy?” Well, the desire for the Jews to get quiet Jesus eventually turns into a desire to kill him. He ends up making a lot of mind-blowing claims having to do not just with him coming from God, but actually being God in the flesh.

Now the Pharisees in particular know their Old Testament essentially front to back, and they know that there’s a promised messiah of some sort, but everyone would have pictured some kind of big, strong military leader who would lead the Jews out from under Roman oppression, not someone like Jesus who grew up poor and wasn’t physically leading people into war against Rome. So, when Jesus is tells a bunch of people that he is, in fact, this Messiah that has been prophesied about in the Old Testament, they become absolutely furious and want to put him to death because of his blasphemy, and so eventually they start devising a plan to put him to death, particularly one that is public and humiliating, such as a crucifixion.

Here's the thing, though. They themselves did not have the authority to put anyone to death. Rome had to do it. So even though at least most of the Jewish leaders seemed to agree that Jesus should die because of the claims he has made, they still had to convince Rome that this guy Jesus was worth going through all of the trouble to of crucifying him. If you read the other gospel accounts of Jesus before Pilate, you’ll see that the Jews tried every way they could to find a claim against Jesus, but they couldn’t, and so they just started straight-up lying about things that Jesus had done, specifically about the charge of blasphemy. There’s just one little hiccup in their plan, Rome would not have cared at all about a charge of something like blasphemy. They were a largely pagan nation. Their gods were almost all Greek and they didn’t give much thought to the God of the bible. They didn’t really care about them. So if they Jews came to the Romans and said that Jesus was claiming to be their God, they may have thought that he was a little bit crazy, but that definitely wasn’t anything that warranted death. So the Jews had to try to find a reason that Rome would also want to stop Jesus and put him to death. This is why the Jews finally make the charge against Jesus that he has claimed to be a king. You don’t get that detail in John’s account, but if you go back to Luke’s account, specifically chapter 23:2, then you’ll see that the Jews end up making this claim, and THAT is what causes Pilate’s ears to perk up.

If there is someone claiming to be a king in town, that would mean that there’s a potential threat against Rome’s emperor, Tiberius Caesar. And if someone is trying to lead a revolt or mob against Roman authority and not just Jewish authority, then it’s actually Pilate’s job to worry about that as the governor. So Pilate brings Jesus in for questioning. What re-angers the Jews, though, is that when Pilate sees Jesus, he asks the crowd a question in verse 29: What charges do you bring against this man? This is how Rome started an official trial, and the reason that this made the Jews so upset is because they were trying to get Jesus found guilty and executed as fast as they could because they couldn’t execute during the Passover, which was happening the next day. They had already broken over a dozen laws involving what trials were supposed to look like. For example, they weren’t supposed to hold any trials at night. However Judas betrayed Jesus in the evening, and then Jesus was question by the Sanhedrin, Annus, and Ciaphus during the night. Jesus was also supposed to have friends and witnesses with him to help make his case, but we know that all the disciples were left outside while Jesus was being tried, so he was all by himself. Clearly the Jews weren’t concerned with legal trial policy, so when Pilate started an official Roman trial, well, you can imagine the anger and impatience that the Jews experienced. And from that point is where our story picks up this afternoon. (Read Passage)

At the first reading of a passage like this, you may be thinking “What on earth did I just read?” Pilate seems to be asking Jesus questions, and then Jesus seems to be dodging those questions and instead, answering questions that Pilate didn’t even answer in the first place! But upon deeper study, I think you’ll begin to see what’s actually happening, and see what John is doing. What John is doing in these verses is showing us the heart of Pilate and the love and Lordship of Jesus. Jesus actually is answering the questions that Pilate has, but those answers have much more meaning to them than Pilate would have been expecting.

Main Idea: Ask good questions about Jesus, and once those questions have been answered, you must decide whether you will believe in him or not.

1. The Motives of the questions(33-35)

2. The Answers to the questions(36-37)

3. The Response to the questions(38-40)

1. The Motives of the Questions

The first thing we see in this passage is that Pilate enters his head quarters to question Jesus. Until the actual trial started, it’s clear at this point that Pilate hasn’t actually seen much of Jesus at this point, but he’s definitely heard of Jesus. In this past 3 years of his ministry, Jesus made quite a spectacle of himself with all of these teachings that people had never heard, his claims to both know God and be God Himself, and with all the miracles that he performed. Over and over again in the gospel accounts we see that crowds were following Jesus, or, if he did a miracles with only a few witnesses, the receiver of the miracle would go out and tell everyone what happened to him! So Jesus became famous pretty quickly over his three-year ministry, so no doubt Pilate would have been aware of Jesus.

So Pilate walks in where Jesus is and asks his first question: Are you the King of the Jews? Like we talked about a minute ago, it obviously perked Pilate’s ears when the Jews said Jesus claimed to be king. But why would it have perked his ears? Was it just because Jesus would have been seen as a potential threat to Roman authority, or maybe, just maybe, was Pilate asking if Jesus was something more than that? A loving King. A saving King. Well, it’s clear that his is exactly what Jesus wanted to know. Notice how when Jesus is asked this question of whether or not he is a king, he does not give Pilate a direct answer. And this isn’t because Jesus is afraid of the truth. He’s not cowering from the claims that he has made about himself in the past few years. He also isn’t playing the role of a classic politician who couldn’t answer a question straight to save his own life! Ironic, considering our passage today… No. Jesus makes the response he does because he want to see where Pilate is coming from when he asks if Jesus is King. Let’s read it: “Jesus answered, do you say this to your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” Now if you read this in the wrong way, it sounds like Jesus is just being sarcastic with Pilate. “Pilate, do you actually care if I’m a king, or are you just saying it because you’ve heard it from someone else?” But no, don’t think that is what’s going on at all. “Why do you want to know, Pilate. Is it just because it’s your job to ask me, or could it be that there’s a deeper, more personal motive to your question?” Or in other words, “What kind of king are you asking that I am, one that the Jews say pose a threat to Rome, or one that I say can save your soul, as your loving, saving King not of just the Jews, but of the whole world?”

Friends, do not miss the compassionate heart of Jesus in this question of his. Jesus Christ is probably within an hour of his crucifixion at this point, and in his love, what he is focused on most in this moment is the heart of Pilate. He could have avoided the question altogether. He could have just said yes to get it over with. But even when facing is own death, Jesus chooses to love. In fact, even when Jesus is hanging on the cross of Calvary itself, Jesus chose to love. He loves when he tells John to take care of his mother. He loves when he saves the thief on the cross next to him, and while he was up there, he loved you and me. He loved us enough to take every drop of God’s wrath on himself so that you and I could be saved. Friends, behold your King who loves you.

Well, the true heart of Pilate is exposed to Jesus and to us in the next verse. Look at verse 35, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” Pilate wasn’t asking for any other reason apart from this being his job. The Jews were bothering him, Pilate has a list of things to do, and Jesus is just one item on that list that he wants to cross off. The only reason he asks if Jesus is king is because, in fact, the Jews said he was a king. The only reason Pilate cared to ask if Jesus was a king is because he wanted to know if he would be a political threat to Rome.

I think there are a few things for us to learn here. First of all, as we have already said, notice that Jesus does not care nearly as much about the words Pilate says than he does about the heart behind those words. And the same thing is true for us. For we who have been in the church awhile, it comes naturally to us to use Christians phrases. Praise the Lord, God is good. It also comes naturally to us to sing on Sunday mornings and maybe even answer some questions in Sunday school. But it is very possible that we say those things when they do not actually mean anything to us. But instead, we just say those things because that’s what you know you’re supposed to do. Friends, if this is you, understand that you might fool other people doing this. You might fool pastors, friends, or maybe even your own family, but the one Person you are not fooling is He who has the authority to judge your soul for eternity. Jesus Christ knows and cares about the heart, and just like Pilate’s heart was exposed to Jesus, yours is as well. Jesus cares about your heart, and you need to make sure that yours is truly right with him.

Second, there might be some people here who are skeptical of this whole Christianity thing altogether, and you might have a lot of questions. And that’s okay. You can have questions, if you have them for the right reasons. You see, there is such a things as questions that are asked in good faith and questions that are asked in bad faith. If you’re truly asking questions to see if this Jesus guy is actually legit and he says who he says he is, that’s fine. Ask those questions and get answers to them. But if you’re someone who asks these kinds of questions just to get some king of “gotcha” moment out of someone, or just to ridicule people who believe in Jesus when you don’t, those would be in bad faith. Pilate asked the questions he did not because he wanted to learn, but because he just didn’t want any more of his time wasted on this guy. Why do you want to ask the questions you do. In order to argue, or in order to understand better? Let me say again, it is okay to have questions if you really are not sure and want to know more about Jesus and the bible, even Christians have those, but I would just urge you to ask them for the right reasons.

Third, is the opinion you have about Jesus one that you formed on your own? Or is your view of Jesus formed strictly by what other people you know have said about him? Pilate let the opinions of others take over for him. He didn’t care about Jesus for his own sake. The Jews said he was a king, and Pilate just went with it. Some of you here today might have opinions about Jesus only because other people you know have given those opinions in the past. It could be a brother or sister, a parent, a friend, a professor, literally anyone you know, but the point is the opinions you have are not your own. If you are going to have an opinion about him, form it yourself from what the Lord has revealed in his Word. The entire bible is about this guy named Jesus, and he makes a lot of BIG claims about himself. Read a book either by yourself or with someone else and decide for yourself what you think of him. If you haven’t read a bible before, I would suggest starting the book of Mark. See what Jesus says about himself, and then make a decision about whether or not you believe who he says he is. Don’t let the opinions of other people rule your mind.

2. The Answers to the Questions

So in the first point, the main questions that Pilate had were presented, now in the second point, we see how Jesus answers his questions. Remember, what Pilate is primarily concerned with is if Jesus was a threat to Rome; whether or not he was trying to start an insurrection. Now let’s read verse 36. “Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”

What you should know right off that bat about this verse is that it is a hotly contested verse in the bible. There’s an entire theological debate that has been going for a long time about this kingdom. Now I don’t have time to go into it, and it’s not the point of this passage anyway, but I can give the cliff notes. Basically, the argument is about whether or not there are two kingdoms that exist in heaven and on earth, or if there are two distinct kingdoms. One the one kingdom hand, their argument is basically since Christ technically rules both the physical realm and the spiritual Realm, then they are meshed together. So they’re more likely to seek a Christian government and Christians nations, trying to get us as close to heaven on earth as possible before Christ comes back.

The two kingdoms group, on the other hand, believes that the physical and spiritual realms are completely distinct and should not be brought back together until Jesus comes back again to claim his people. The physical realm saturated with sin and will eventually perish, and the Spiritual kingdom, where Christ rules primarily, will live on forever, bringing in a new physical earth and new bodies after Jesus comes back. That’s like a 60,000 ft view of the views. Most commentators that I looked at for guidance hold to the second view, the two kingdoms theology, and I agree with them. And I think there’s proof right in verse 36 itself. Jesus literally says that his kingdom is not of this world, twice! Meaning that his kingdom is of a different world, yet acknowledging that the kingdom that Pilate is talking about is a real kingdom. So Jesus gives this answer, and Pilate seems quick to respond. “So you ARE a king?” He says, and Jesus basically says, ‘it is as you have said,’ or ‘yes, Pilate, I am a king.’ Then in the remainder of verse 37, as if he’s anticipating Pilate’s next question, Jesus tells Pilate why’s he’s there in the first place. Look at the rest of verse 37 with me. “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

Okay, there’s a lot packed into Jesus answer to Pilate, and I want to go back and break it up into 4 statements that Jesus makes that should have caught Pilate’s attention on a level higher than his job, and that should catch our attention as well, whether we are believers or not. But before we jump into those questions, I don’t want us to miss the fact that Jesus actually takes time to answer the questions that Pilate has. It is so important that Jesus is willing to give answers to people. Him answering questions plays a big part in my own testimony. When I was 9 years old, I was at a summer camp and they had chapel every morning and night, and if I remember correctly, during the chapel on Wednesday morning, the speaker took time to explain the gospel in extended detail, and I was keenly interested for some reason. I grew up in a Christian home and went to church my whole life, so I kind of knew what the gospel was, but I became latched on this time. So the speaker starts off, and he gives the bad news first. He said, in short, that we are all sinners, and that we deserve hell for eternity. Here’s the problem, after he said those words, I didn’t hear anything else because I was so scared that I was going to hell. I knew that I was sinner in a new way at that moment, and I was absolutely terrified at the prospect of spending eternity in hell, and I didn’t hear the good news in the gospel message. This is where the questions come in.

Later that afternoon when we had some free time, I’m still thinking about this and I go to my counselor and tell him my concerns. And then I ask him how I can escape hell, pretty much. He gently tells me that I can’t be saved just to escape hell, but that I need to see that I am a sinner and that I need a savior, namely, Jesus. And then he explains how Jesus came and lived the perfect life and died in the place of people who would turn from their sin and believe in him, and that he was raised on the third day to declare victory over Satan and death, and that if I believe in this Jesus, I can have eternal life with him! And that’s how I got saved. Through my counselor, God worked in my heart and answered the questions that I had and it lead to my salvation. Friend, unlike any other god in any other religion, our God answers. It is promised elsewhere in scripture that if you seek Jesus with your whole heart, you will find him, and he will rescue you from your sin. Praise God that Jesus answers the questions we have.

1. My Kingdom is not of this world

In a culture that so often treats Jesus as a buddy and a pal, we need to remember that Jesus is not just someone we stroll up to casually and hang out with. Jesus is a King, and he deserves our fear and our reverence. Christian, when you pray, how is the posture of your heart when you do so? Praying is not a casual thing. It’s not just shooting the breeze with Jesus and talking about random things. When you pray in Jesus’ name, you are praying in the name of the Creator and the king of the entire universe. Jesus is your friend, yes, but we cannot forget that he is also our KING, and he deserves our absolute honor, respect, and reverence. He deserves to be bowed down before. He deserves our absolute loyalty.

Like we’ve said already, there is another Kingdom, and that is the Kingdom where Jesus in the King. Now what this tells Pilate is because Jesus is the king of that world, then he’s not going to serve as any kind of threat to the power of Rome that currently rules. He’s not going to try to take over the government and rules the Romans and the Jews, Jesus’ Kingdom is somewhere else.

But here’s the thing, if we are united to Jesus by faith, then the we are citizens of the kingdom that Jesus reigns! Which means that this world is not our final home. However, we also need to remember that we are still legitimately citizens of the United States of America, and that God has sovereignly ordained our leaders, and so we have a duty to obey them unless what they say opposes Christ. If we come to a fork in the road of citizenship where we have to either side with Jesus or side with our nation, then we choose Jesus every time because he is our primary King and ruler.

We also need to remember that there is a time coming where Christ’s kingdom will come down and defeat allllll of the worldly kingdoms that we know of today. One day the superpowers of China, Russia, and even America will be completely wiped out by Jesus Christ, and his kingdom will be ushered in as the only one that exists into eternity. If you’re a Christian here today, that should give you great hope and encouragement. It doesn’t take much looking around to see that this world is decaying more and more with each passing day. We’re living in a world where sin is not only accepted by the majority of the world, but it’s actually being celebrated, and you’re looked at is if you’re crazy for not believing the same things they do. But, as powerful and loud as the world seems to be, we know based on the Word of God that they do not have the final word, Jesus does, and it isn’t one that anyone will be able to ignore. We suffer now, but Jesus is coming as our Savior and the world’s judge. And there is coming a day where there will be no more tears, or pain, or suffering, or hurt. But only absolute joy for all of eternity.

2. Jesus Came to Bear Witness to the Truth

What does that even mean? What is the truth he is talking about? Well this is the same word used when Jesus claims to be “the truth” in John 14:6. So Jesus came to bear witness to the fact that he, himself, is the fulfillment of the law and that he is God physically revealed to the world. He is the Messiah that has been prophesied about for thousands of years. He is God incarnate who came into the dark, sinful world to save sinners. This is what Pilate so desperately needed to see. Jesus was the only way to salvation from his sin. And the same is true for you and me. Whether you are a Christian or not, you are a sinner, and we must cling to the truth if we want any hope at all of being saved from God’s eternal wrath in hell. Come to Jesus and have freedom from your sin.

And to Christians in particular, we need to follow the example that Christ has set for us. We, too, are to rise up and be witnesses to the truth. We need to be people who proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost because there is an entire world out there that has believed countless lies about Jesus. Some believe that he was only a good man or a prophet or teacher. Some people believed that there are many ways to God. Some believe that Jesus didn’t exist at all and that the bible is completely fake, and all of these people are deceived and lost. We need to be passionate to show the world that there is a real God and that Jesus, the truth, did come to this earth and that there is a day appointed for them where they will be judged for their wickedness against a holy God. We need to have a fiery passion to make the name of Jesus known in this world. Because without Jesus, the world dies. Behold, the Truth. And bear witness to it.

3. Only Those Are of this Truth Here the Voice of Jesus

Jesus says this phrase at the end of verse 37, and what is really important to understand is that Jesus isn’t just saying this for the heck of it. Every single thing he has said for the last two verses, and this statement that he makes is no different. He is looking directly into the eyes of Pilate, almost asking him if he is of the truth. And he’s asking the same thing of you today. Are you of the Truth, or simply of the world?

How do you know if you are of the truth? Well it’s pretty simple, really. You have a joy that is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. You repent of your sin. You love hearing the voice of God in the scriptures. You obey the voice of God that is found in his Word. You delight in your heavenly Father. By the Spirit you have seen that you have sinned against a holy God and are in need of salvation and have trusted in the name of Jesus for that salvation.

Do you love the Lord? And really think about this. Like I have already mentioned, Jesus cares not just about words, but he cares about the heart, and he knows whether your heart towards him is genuine or not. We’ve seen in this second point that Jesus says a lot of important things about himself. He says that he is a King. He says that He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Law. He says that he is the truth, God incarnate. He has answered the questions of Pilate, and now Pilate has to respond. And friend, the same is true for you.

Once the questions you have about Christ and the bible are answered, you have an obligation to respond to them. You can’t put it off or ignore them. Think about it. If Jesus is real, and he really died for sinners and got up from the dead on the Third day, and if there is a heaven and a hell, that would change your life. You couldn’t live the same way after that. The Bible claims every single thing I just mentioned and more, and now YOU have to investigate these claims for yourself to see if they ring true, because if they are true, which we as a church believe they are, it is the difference between eternal life and eternal death. You have an obligation to respond. Now in our third point, we see that Pilate does just that. And not in the way we would hope.

3. The Response to the Questions

In verse 38, we see what Pilate thinks of these claims that Jesus makes, especially the truth claims. He says “What is truth?” In the past, I took this to mean that Pilate was actually starting to change his mind. He was actually concerned about what the truth was. He was trying to gain knowledge and perspective and be philosophical. But that reading would be incorrect. Pilate is blowing Jesus off, waving his hand away from the one person who can save his soul. The reason we know this is because right after Pilate says “what is truth?” he walks right out of the room, if he were actually asking, he would have waited for Jesus to answer his question. But after everything Jesus has said, Pilate decides all of it is ridiculous and goes to make his verdict to the Jews outside.

Now there are a couple of big ironies in this response that Pilate gives. The first is that he whimsically asked what truth was to THE TRUTH himself! He was being sarcastic, but there was a life-saving answer literally staring at him in the face! The second irony is that the very next sentence he utters is also a truth, and a really important one. Look at the last little part of verse 38. Pilate goes out to the Jews and said “I find no guilt in him.” Man, that is so true. There was no guilt in the son of God from his birth to his death, which would take place in a matter of hours from this point in our passage.

Well, at this point Pilate probably thinks that Jesus is a little weird, but in no way does he serve as a threat to the political power of Rome, so he offers the Jews to release Jesus. But the Jews dig their heals in because of their hatred of him, and they end up still wanting to crucify him anyway. And instead, they have this guy named Barabbas released instead. Barabbas is an interesting character. We can see from this passage that he is a robber, but if we were to read all of the gospel accounts we can see that he was also a murderer AND an insurrectionist! Okay so check it out. The Jews lie about Jesus being an insurrectionist to get him killed, and then they release a guy who actually WAS an insurrectionist! In other words, the innocent died while the guilty went free. Does that sound familiar? It should? Because you and I have the same story.

You and I were just like Barabbas in this story. We have committed high-handed rebellion against our king, our Creator. And because of this gross rebellion, we deserve to die an eternal death because of our sin, but Jesus, who was completely innocent and free of sin, went to the cross on your behalf and my behalf. He took the full wrath of God for you and me on the cross, and he died a hellish death that we deserved to die. But the story doesn’t end there, because on the Third day, God raised Jesus from the dead indicating that Jesus was a the perfect sacrifice for sin. And now all who come to Jesus in faith and repentance are free from the penalty of sin and can live forever.

Friends, I really want you to see what could have happened with Pilate in this passage. If he was actually seeking answers to the questions of Jesus, and if he actually listened to the answers that Jesus gave him, then Pilate’s sin would have been nailed on that cross with Jesus, and Jesus would have paid for his sin too, and he would have lived. But he didn’t. The story of Pilate is actually incredibly tragic. Jesus was RIGHT THERE. Pilate was looking right into the eyes of someone who would have gladly saved him from his sin. But he looked at Jesus, he heard his claims, and yet rejected him. And as far as we know, Pilate died in his sin, and now he is paying for it with his own soul forever in the unquenchable fire of hell. Let this story serve as another reminder that just because you are close in proximity to things of Jesus, that does not mean you are saved. You can have solid Christian parents or siblings, you can go to church every week, and even know things about the bible, and yet not be saved. Judas Iscariot spent Jesus’ whole ministry with him, and yet wasn’t saved. Pilate was within arms reach of Jesus, and yet did not take his hand in faith and repentance.

If you have not yet believed in Jesus, you have the very same decision to make that Pilate did. You have an obligation to respond. It is my prayer that you choose life in Christ’s name, where you can have freedom from your sin and experience a joy unthinkable in the midst of a fallen world. Ask good questions about Jesus, and once those questions have been answered, you must decide whether you will believe in him or not. I pray deeply that you choose Christ, he will save you from your sin, and who will give you life in his name.