2017-10-08 Luke 23-13-25 Truth On Trial?

TRUTH ON TRIAL? (Luke 23:13-25) October 8, 2017 Read Lu 23:13-25 The idea of absolute truth is taking a terrific beating in our time. We touched on this 2 weeks ago, but we need to delve deeper today. In The Closing of the American Mind the late philosopher Allan Bloom observed: “there is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative. . . . The students, of course, cannot defend their opinion. It is something with which they have been indoctrinated.” Popular expressions of this belief are everywhere: like a participant on recent talk show on morality who said: “The great thing about our society is that you can have your opinion and I can have mine," the implication being both are equally valid. In this environment, truth doesn’t matter! Pres Johnson used to tell of a guy who applied to teach in the Texas Hill Country. The board was interested, but said, “We think we want you, but there is a difference of opinion in the community on geography and we’d like to know which side you’re on. Do you teach the world is round or flat?” The guy replied, “I can teach it either way.” That’s our world. Truth is whatever works for you. Problem is, the statement there is no absolute truth is itself a statement of absolute truth. It fails by its own logic. Philosopher Roger Scruton advises: “A writer who says that there are no truths is asking you not to believe him. So don’t!” That’s especially good advice when it comes to one’s eternal future. Pilate is a fascinating case study in this regard. When it came to truth, he could go either way. So how did Pilate handle truth that destroyed him? I. Pilate Ridiculed Truth John 18: 37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. 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.” 38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” Jesus came to earth for a lot of reasons – to become “a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45), “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Lu 19:10), “to destroy the works of the devil” (I Jn 3:8), and others. But perhaps no purpose is more descriptive than “to bear witness to the truth.” Truth about what? Truth about sin, judgment, the love of God, hope, eternity, hell and heaven. Truth about 1 anything and everything of eternal significance – because according to Isa 57:15, He “inhabits eternity.” Who better to tell us about it?! So, here’s Pilate, face-to-face with the One who knows everything – offering to reveal truth to him – and Pilate’s response? “Truth? What is truth?” He scoffs, ridiculing the whole idea that there is any such thing as ultimate truth. Truth to Pilate is here and now. It’s whatever he wants it to be or can make it to be. Truth is whatever works for him. He can rationalize anything. Kids, this is what you are going to be taught in school if it hasn’t happened already. It’s the philosophy that makes our world go round. But it ends in nonsense! Example: Alan Watts, British philosopher, who popularized ZenBuddhism in America, says: “Life is like a play where you see good and bad men in conflict on the stage -- but behind the curtain, they are the best of friends. Backstage God and Satan go hand in hand.” Reject truth and that’s what you’ve get – God and Satan walking hand in hand. Another philosopher says: "If you wish the plain truth, be not concerned about right and wrong. The conflict between right and wrong is the sickness of the mind." We intuitively know that’s wrong. But that’s relativism without clothes on. That’s “truth is whatever works for you” without the façade of respectability. Here’s how it plays out in “normal” life. On a recent talk show (Jerry Springer maybe), a woman admitted to having an affair with another woman’s husband. Sensing audience disapproval, she rationalized: “Of course, what I am doing may not be right for everyone, but it’s what is best for me!” Great! But couldn’t every thief offer the same excuse -- and every mass murderer and every child molester and Hitler himself? God and Satan hand in hand. That’s where ridiculing truth leads. Bc in the end, there is either objective morality, or there is no morality at all. There is either objective truth, or there’s no truth at all. When Pilate scornfully said, “What is truth?” he was already on the slippery slope to destruction. II. Pilate Realized Truth Fascinating. Pilate ridiculed the idea of true truth, yet he inherently knew it. He knew Jesus was innocent. He knew that. He was driven to say it not once but 5 times in Luke’s account! V. 4: “I find no guilt in this man.” V. 14c: “I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him.” V. 15: “Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him.” V. 20: “Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus.” V. 22b: “I have found in him no guilt deserving death.” Pilate knew the truth. The question was would he act on it? 2 His first thought was to minimize it. Twice (vv. 16, 22c) he offered, “16 I will therefore punish and release him.” He knows Jesus is innocent, but the crowd is persistent, so he offers to scourge an innocent man to get them off his back. He knows the truth, but he’s looking for a way not to pay its price. In a sense, Pilate represents every person who ever lived. How? Well, the Bible claims, every person intuitively knows the truth about God. Rom 1: 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” The design in creation witnesses to God in a way that makes every person responsible. There is also an internal witness to God. Rom 2: 14 “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law [the written law]. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.” Paul is saying, “That sense of right and wrong that resides in every heart – that’s God. He has written Himself clearly into creation, and He has written Himself into every heart.” Atheists are believers in denial! Rom 1:18b. People – “by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” Suppress – push down – hold back – hinder – prevent – deny. When we relativize the truth what have we done? We have suppressed, pushed down, prevented, denied the true Truth that we intuitively know to be truth but that we don’t want to be truth! We have left reality and are now living in Fantasyland. That’s where Pilate is going, but he has to deny reality to get there. This plays out in fascinating ways. Steve Jobs, founder and CEO of Apple Inc died in 2011 at the age of 56 of pancreatic cancer. Unquestionably brilliant, he was, nevertheless, a product of his times, merging Buddhism, which denies God’s existence, with western culture. He said, “I’m about 50-50 on believing in God. For most of my life, I felt there must be more to our existence than meets the eye.” Admitting the idea of death might be influencing his thoughts about afterlife, he said, “It’s strange to think that you accumulate all this experience, and maybe a little wisdom, and it just goes away. So I really want to believe that something survives, that maybe your consciousness endures. But on the other hand, perhaps it’s like an on-off switch. Click! 3 And you’re gone.” Then he smiled and said, “That’s why I never liked to put on-off switches on Apple devices.” Incredibly sad. A man who intuitively knew the truth, but rather than investigate the truth claims of Jesus, Jobs chose to create his own reality by refusing to use on/off switches – denying God’s internal witness. Like Pilate – knowing the truth – but suppressing it. III. Pilate Rejected Truth (went with the crowd) In the end Pilate rejected truth. V. 25b: “but he delivered Jesus over to their will.” Knowing Jesus to be innocent, Pilate nevertheless gave him to the Jews to be crucified. Why did he do that? The crowd. They blackmailed Pilate into submission. Roman governors were powerful. But they always knew Rome was looking over their shoulder. Rome wanted two things – taxes and stability. Pilate had already deeply offended the Jews in multiple ways – for example by displaying images of Caesar on banners the Jews considered blasphemous. He had also used temple funds to build an aqueduct and then murdered protestors as they made sacrifices. Furthermore, his sponsor in Rome, Sejanus, had fallen out of favor. Pilate was on a short leash and he knew it. Any protests to Caesar from Judea could ruin him. John 19:12: “From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” It was clear. It was Pilate or Christ. And when it came down to him or Jesus – he chose himself. In the end, he traded short-term gain for long-term loss. So does everyone who rejects the truth. How many people have allowed the crowd to stand between them and Christ? They’re like the victims of a species of alligators who seldom hunt. The just lie near the bank with open mouths as tho dead. Flies gather on their moist tongue, then other insects gather. Lizards crawl up to get the bugs; frogs join the party and soon a whole menagerie is there. But then in a second “WHAM” the jaws close and the party is over – the partiers dead having been led astray by the crowd. Soon the party will be over for many who have followed the crowd against Christ. Then they’ll have eternity to evaluate that decision – alone! No crowd there. Augustine in The Confessions tells how the crowd kept him from Christ for a long time. He tried to outdo them, even to the point of claiming to be worse than he was: “But I made myself worse than I was, that I might not be [mocked]; and when in any thing I had not sinned as the abandoned ones, I would say that I had done what I had not done, that I might not seem 4 contemptible in proportion as I was innocent.” He would have followed the crowd to hell had the Lord not gotten his heart. Everyone wants to belong. But will we give up the truth of Christ for the lies of the crowd? That’s the question Pilate illustrates. Jesus says in Mt 7:13: “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.” It may cost something to reject the crowd now, but it will cost eternally to reject the truth of Christ. IV. Pilate Rationalized Truth He thought he blame someone else. V. 25: “but he delivered Jesus over to their will.” Pilate thought he could pin the blame on someone else. Mt adds, “24 So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves” (Mt 27:24). Pilate wanted to declare himself innocent by blaming others. Just following human nature since Adam said, “She did it,” and Eve said, “The serpent did it.” But it didn’t work then; it didn’t work for Pilate and it won’t work for us. Pointing the finger at someone else only increases our own guilt. When Israel entered Canaan after deliverance from Egypt, they began to cozy up with the natives – liked the looks of their chariots, found some cute girls over there, and soon were worshiping their gods. Following the crowd to hell. Joshua called them on it. Josh 24:15: “And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” We must all choose for ourselves. We cannot blame someone else for our rejection of truth. Paul reminds us in Rom 14:12: “So then EACH of us will give an account of himself [or heself] to God.” Daniel Webster had an older brother named Ezekiel. One day their father had to be away from home and he gave the boys some chores to do. When he came home he found the chores undone. So he questioned the boys: “Ezekiel, what have you been doing?” Ezekiel replied, “Nothing, Sir.” So Dad turned to Daniel and asked, “Well, Daniel, what have you been doing?” Daniel replied, “Helping Zeke, Sir.” Placing the blame anywhere but me. The truth is, He did it. They did it. Nobody did it. Everybody did it. Anybody but me. 5 What this passage teaches is, truth is never on trial; we are. Truth is truth. It is not changed by our rationalizations or declarations of relativism. It is truth. And ultimately we will be judged by truth, not the other way around. You know, someday the tables will be turned. Instead of Jesus in Pilate’s courtroom, it will be Pilate in Jesus’ courtroom. I suppose Pilate will point to the Jews of his day and say, “It was them! It was all their idea. It was their fault. I wanted to let you go, but they insisted. They are to blame.” But the truth – the truth in the person of Christ will say, “But Pilate, you must give account for yourself. What did you do with the truth? You rejected it, and now I must reject you.” Conc – There are a lot of things we can do with truth. We can ignore it, deny it, suppress it, rationalize it, or relativize it. But what we can’t do is change it. At the end of the day, it is not truth that it on trial; it is we who are on trial! That means that to do other than submit to the truth as reflected in God’s Word, and specifically in the person of Christ, is pure foolishness. I saw a cartoon not long ago. It showed Satan greeting people as they were entering hell by saying, “You’ll find that there’s no right or wrong here – just what works for you.” The point, of course is, relativism leads straight to hell. You cannot relativize truth. What leads to the God? Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.” True for Pilate. True for us. Truth to live by. Let’s pray. 6