Christmas John 18:37

33 "Then Pilate went back into the headquarters, summoned Jesus, and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 "Jesus answered, “Are you asking this on your own, or have others told you about me?” 35 "“I’m not a Jew, am I?” Pilate replied. “Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?” 36 "“My kingdom is not of this world,” said Jesus. “If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” 37 "“You are a king then?” Pilate asked. “You say that I’m a king,” Jesus replied. “I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”” ()

Flip over to and beginning in verse 30 () we find the whole purpose of John’s writing of the gospel.

30 "Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. 31 "But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” ()

The purpose of all that is written in the Gospel of John is to bring people to trust Christ as God’s Son and thus give them eternal life.

Therefore, since my text this morning is taken from John’s gospel, my goal, too,

is that those here

who do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God

might be drawn to Jesus by the power of God the Father

working through his Word, and

that every believer might leave this place today

loving the truth of Christ more deeply and

more assured of eternal life.

Be Careful How You Listen

And let me preface what I have to say with a warning

so as to awaken you to the seriousness of listening to the Word of God.

When Jesus spoke and no one believed, John explains their unbelief like this:

38 "This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet, who said: Lord, who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 39 "This is why they were unable to believe, because Isaiah also said: 40 "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they would not see with their eyes or understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.” ()

That is from and 6:10.

There is another passage in Isaiah that helps explain how God blinds the eyes and hardens the heart. It is , where the prophet laments,

7 "No one calls on your name, striving to take hold of you. For you have hidden your face from us and made us melt because of our iniquity.” ()

Therefore, the way God blinds and hardens is not by coming into a person’s life and making it evil,

but by withdrawing from the person’s life and leaving him in his own sin.

Only when we see this will we give God all the glory not only for providing a way of salvation through the death and resurrection of Christ,

but also for effectually applying that salvation to our lives by drawing us to Christ in faith.

“No one can come to me,” Jesus said, “unless the Father who sent me draws him … No one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father” (, ).

So the warning is this: Believers, give God all the credit for drawing you into the kingdom of Christ, and

let the truth of Christ stir you up to greater reliance on Him;

do not boast over the lost sheep as if you did not have to be carried into the fold yourself.

Unbelievers, give heed to the Word of God and pray that God might open your eyes and soften your heart,

lest you be found blind and hardened and without hope.

Pray, I say, and listen, because God has spoken these things that you may believe

that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing have life in His name.

My text this morning in .

37 "“You are a king then?” Pilate asked. “You say that I’m a king,” Jesus replied. “I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”” ()

Here, several hours before his death, Jesus makes a statement about

his birth which I want us to ponder as we enter the

last few weeks of Advent.

The situation is that Jesus and Pontius Pilate are together in the Roman praetorium, and Pilate is

trying to get Jesus to say something that will show him worthy of crucifixion. Verse 33:

33 "Then Pilate went back into the headquarters, summoned Jesus, and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”” ()

Jesus’ answer to this question is what grabbed me and hooked me:

36 "“My kingdom is not of this world,” said Jesus. “If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” 37 "“You are a king then?” Pilate asked. “You say that I’m a king,” Jesus replied. “I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”” ()

This is a great Christmas text even though it comes from the end of Jesus’ life on earth, not the beginning.

Let’s look at this text more closely now, so that in seeing Christ and his purpose more clearly,

we might approve of Christ’s words with all our heart and mind and soul and strength.

The uniqueness of his birth

pre-condition of approving that purpose is mentioned.

The uniqueness of his birth is that he did not originate at his birth.

Jesus defines His kingly mission positively.

To be a king was the reason He was born.

It’s the reason that He came into the world.

He existed before he was born in a manger: “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world.”

Jesus shared the glory with His Father before He was born.

"Now, Father, glorify me in your presence with that glory I had with you before the world existed.” ()

"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” ()

The purpose of his birth

His purpose of being born was to display something of that glory that He had with the Father.

"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” ()

We catch a glimpse of this glory as Jesus bears witness to the truth: “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world: to bear witness to the truth.”

Bearing witness of the truth is nothing less than the self-disclosure of God in his Son, who is the truth (14:6).

Disclosing the truth of God, of salvation and of judgment, was the principal way of making subjects, of exercising his saving kingship.

Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (p. 595). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.

And the precondition of approving that purpose, that is, the thing that enables a person to agree that

Jesus testifies to the truth is that the person is “of the truth.” “Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.”

It’s only those who rightly relate to God, to the truth itself, can grasp Jesus’ witness to the truth.

Everyone who is on the side of truth listens to Jesus.