John 18:33-38

Intro

Hey Y’all how are y’all doing? Doing good? Everyone ready for Spring Break? Anyone going any where cool doing anything fun? Cool cool, I’m ready for the break, I think it’s going to be a good thing. It’s so nice of Jones county schools to go on spring break in honor of my birthday on Sunday haha.

Anyways

Sunday Morning, who was in service and heard the sermon? Cool cool, what we are about to talk about tonight is going to play off of what Randy preached Sunday morning. Don’t worry if you weren’t here Sunday, this will make sense still. You’ll just only be a tad ahead if you were hear Sunday.

So Sunday morning, Randy is preaching, and he is in 1 Timothy 6, talking about fighting the fight of faith, pursuing righteousness, but during that i got curious about 1 specific thing, there is this phrase that Paul uses twice, “The Good Confession” once he says Timothy made the good confession, and then Jesus made the Good Confession before Pilate.

So that got me thinking, what did Jesus say to Pilate, what was his confession? What was the conversation they had? So I flipped over to Luke, Matthew, Mark, and they had like a little something, but John, John was there, he wrote down what Jesus said. John saw the confession live.

So that is how we are getting to where we are tonight, a little bit of a curve ball, but this will play in to what we talk about after Spring break when we look at the crucifixion.

But I am going to need to catch you up to where we are in the story.

So tonight we are in John 18:33-38, i’m going to give you some context, but first, does anyone need a bible? I would love for you to have the word right there in front of you, anyone need one? Okay cool. Last call anyone need one?

Context

Alrighty, so let me catch us up, we are going to jump ahead a good bit in the story.

So last we looked, Jesus was telling people to take his yoke, to find rest in him, to dwell in his presence. To seek after him. Now things in his life have sped up, he has come to jerusalem, and when he got here, the crowds were with Him, they knew he was the Messiah, they thought the knew He was going to come and over throw the Romans, The Jews were going to have a king, all was going to be right in the world, The New King of Israel was here. They are freaking out, Jesus rides in on a donkey, we’ve probably all heard the story, he rides in on a donkey, they shout hossanna, lay the palm branches down.

It is where we get our Palm Sunday from. The is the beginning of the Passion week, Jesus is the dude. The People cannot get enough of Him, they’re freaking out. People are losing their minds. The Jesus goes to the temple, clears that out, preaches and teaches, then the crowd and the people start to turn on him, they went from cant get enough to wanting to kill him.

you ever seen anyone go from beloved person to hated villian in like a weeks time? that’s all it took, just a week to go from The Man to the most hated guy in the city. You know what this reminds me of? Man did y’all see the backlash to the Freddie Freeman stuff. This man went from Hero of the Atlanta Braves to Dodgers villain. That whole thing was wild.

But that’s how fast that happened to Jesus, just like that, less than a week, and Jesus didn’t even sign with the Dodgers. But for real, he went from loved to despised and arrested and in the hands of the Romans. The Jews wanted to kill him, but their courts couldn’t kill him cause it was passover week, but Rome could. Rome was good at it.

So they have drug jesus from the High Priests court to Pilate, to the Romans. And that is where we find ourselves in the story. Jesus is in the hand of the Romans, and Pilate is asking him questions. Pilate is having a hard time seeing what he is supposed to do with Jesus? The Crowd is getting rowdy, so Pilate starts to talk to him, trying to figure out why Jesus is standing in front of him. Whats going?

So that is where we are tonight, looking at this conversation between Pilate and Jesus, unpacking what Paul later calls the good confession.

So John 18:33-38, that is where we are, before we read this, let’s pray for our time in the word tonight.

Pray

Read this with me

John 18:33–38 ESV

33 So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” 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.” 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?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.

Confession

Okay, so what is going on here, its the conversation with pilate, and Pilate doesn’t know what to make of Jesus. And we are looking at this to see what the Good Confession is, really, what is Jesus trying to say to Pilate, and to us?

What is Jesus confessing here?

SO let’s define terms really quick

So what is a confession? The word has a couple different connotations, but what do we mean by confession when we use it here?

When we hear it, we thing to confess something bad, like i’m confessing to murder, or a he signed a confession, or I confess I are the last cookie

Pilate is trying to get jesus to confess to something, but Jesus gives a different confession.

So what we mean by confession is stating something we believe.

We are baptists, FBC Gray is a Southern Baptist Church, and if you have ever wondered what we believe, we have a confession of Faith, we have a scaled down version.

If you wanted to know what Southern Baptists all believe, You can check out the Baptist confession of faith, the Baptist Faith and Message 2000.

A confession states what you believe, it is very similar to a creed.

Any of you watch the Madolorian? Mando lives by a creed, a way of life, a statement about the manner in which you live your life.

The most famous creed is probably the Apostles Creed, pretty much all faithful orthodox Christians believe this creed, this confession. Let me read it to you really quick

I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth;

And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father almighty. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church*, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

I know it says Catholic Church, catholic is a word that means universal, not the Church of Rome, before you think we are actually catholic, it just means we believe in the big C Church, the Global Church, the kingdom of God.

But boom, that is a super simple rundown of all the things you need to believe to be a Christian. This is Mere Christianity as CS Lewis puts it. IF you are a follower of Christ, this is what you believe.

Trinity, Jesus died, was buried, rose to new life, is over all things, sins are forgiven, the Church is God’s people. Simple.

This is what is meant by the word confession.

So what is a confession, how do we define it? A confession is a held belief of an Eternal reality. if you are writing things down, write that down. a confession is a held belief of an Eternal reality.

It is more akin to how we use the word profession.

Those of you that I have baptized, what did you say when i asked you “what is your profession?” Jesus is lord. You were confessing that Jesus is Lord, you were telling people what you believe based on this statement.

So that is what we mean by confession

Kingdom

so, what is Jesus confessing? What is He confessing to Pilate? What is the thing Jesus is professing.

The Kingdom.

It’s funny Pilate is trying to ask jesus some questions about what he’s doing, why he’s here. Are you the king of the Jews and Jesus is like, you said that, not me, or people have said that I am.

Pilate is like I’m just trying to get something out of you, do I look like I’m jewish? my name tag says Senate and People of Rome, Rome incorporated. Why are these people mad at you?

And what does Jesus tell him? Tells him the same thing he’s been preaching since he got here, The Kingdom is at hand. The Kingdom is coming and is now here!

Jesus starts preaching to Pilate, the guy who is eventually going to crucify Him, Ponticus Pilate, the infamous Pilate. Jesus tells him, the Kingdom is coming, it isn’t of this world, the people who follow me get this. This Kingdom is not one you can dictate what happens to it.

Like think about this, This is a Roman Leader, he’s seen in his lifetime Rome conquer almost to China, and almost to England. Like, Rome is the most powerful country on the planet. Jesus tells him, My Kingdom is not of this world, you have no control of this kingdom, i am here because I am supposed to be here.

So what is Jesus Confessing? The Kingdom, and what is the kingdom? It is the promise of an Eternal reality. if you’re writing things down, write that down, The kingdom is the promise of an Eternal reality.

The Kingdom is at hand and is now here.

This is a promise that Jesus is making to Pilate, that what ever you do to me, My Kingdom is coming

and this is a promise for us, that no matter what happens, the Kingdom is coming. No matter to what trials come our way, no matter what suffering, no matter what laws governments pass, no matter what party wins an election. This is a promise, the Kingdom is the promise of an Eternal reality.

The King has always been on the throne, the King has always been in control, the King has always been working his plan for his glory.

The King is coming to make all things new.

A thing that I’ve been seeing on twitter every couple days that has been encouraging, which is not the default setting for most of twitter, is this one account that just every day, tweets, Christians we are one day closer to heaven.

So Followers of Christ, we are one day closer to heaven. We are one day closer to the Kingdom coming down, one day closer to Christ making all things new.

Because Christ is and always has been on the throne.

Truth

So, Jesus says that, to Pilate and I love his response from like a dead pan frustrated point, cause Pilate doesn’t know what to do with Christ. Pilate just says, “So you are king?” And Jesus says in verse 37, John 18:37

John 18:37 (ESV)

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.”

you said I am, but that is not all that i am, I have come to do more than merely rule. I have come to bear witness, to show the world toward the truth. I was born and came in to this world. If you listen to the truth you listen to me.

The Pilate asks a great question, and it is one question that I think our culture more than anything has wrestled with, western culture has a truth problem. Pilate ask, What is truth? This is a super postmodern question coming to us from a Roman who has been dead for 2000 years.

So let’s ask ourselves, what is truth? Super philosophical question. But let’s get real, what is truth? Where does truth come from?

Truth comes from God. God is the one who authored truth, who created to concept of truth.

Truth is the eternal reality, that God is who he says he is, that God is truth.

There is an absolute baseline for what truth is, there is absolute truth.

So when someone tells you they are living their truth out, you can live your truth, truth is not what you make it, you can take that and just throw that away, you don’t need that thinking.

There is truth, there is objective morality, there is baseline for good and evil, there is a baseline for what is true and what is just not true.

If you think like this, go ahead and dismantle that thought process, probably not your fault, its the prevailing thought of the culture today. But go ahead, take that out of your mind, throw that away, you don’t need it, because it isn’t true.

Jesus is the Truth, Jesus is the Way, Jesus is the Life.

What is truth, Jesus is the truth. Jesus is the eternal reality, Jesus is.

Three things

So where do we go from here?

Pilate during this whole ordeal doesn’t know what to do with Jesus. and that is the thing about truth, that is the thing about what we believe, that is the thing about the Kingdom,

you cannot ignore it, you cannot make it go away, you cannot set it off to the side, you cannot kill it.

So what do you do, Pilate wasn’t sure of what to do, so he asked the culture, but we don’t find intrinsic truth in a culture that will pass away, Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified.

But what are you going to do with Jesus? Think about it? The Kingdom is coming.

So what do we do?

First thing we do, we believe who Christ is. Pilate is trying to figure out Jesus, instead of believing Jesus. There is nothing to figure out about jesus, Jesus is. Jesus is who he says he His. We must believe in who he tells he is in scripture. We cannot impose our own outside beliefs upon who Jesus is, Jesus is not a creation of ours but we are a creation of His.

If we believe Jesus is who he says he is, if we confess that jesus is Lord, the next thing we must do is proclaim His kingdom.

What Christ talked the most about in his ministry is that the Kingdom of God is at hand, the Kingdom is coming. We need to proclaim this as well, the Kingdom of God is here, the way to the kingdom is through Christ, and only Christ. We are sent out by christ to proclaim christ.

So how do we do that?

We have to center our lives as messengers of the truth. Our lives need to look different because they are different. The rest of culture tells us to live out our truth, to live our best life right now, to live like there is no tomorrow,

Christ’s call is to die to yourself, pick up your cross and die. Our culture tells us to live, Christ tells us to die.

This should reorganize our lives and reorient how we live our lives. We die to ourself because our lives are not our own. The lives we will lead will point to Christ, they will show this world who Christ is.

Last week i talked about smelling like waffle house, the world is going to know whose you are because you’re whole being is geared towards Christ and living out his mission.

The gifts, tools, and passions God have given you will be fully realized when you are using them to point people to christ. When they become signposts to the gates of kingdom.

Last things

So if you are a follower of Christ, this text is calling you die to yourself and take inventory of your life. How is your life set up right now, are you walking in the steps of jesus or are you missing a few, are you trying to walk both roads? Following jesus and following the culture? You cannot play both sides, put to death anything that is not God honoring in your life. This text is calling you proclaim christ, in all that you do.

If you are not a follower of Christ this text is asking you the same thing Pilate was asking himself, what do I do with jesus? You cannot ignore him, you can’t leave Him alone, you are given a choice, follow or do not follow. That is the choice given to us all. Christ is calling you, Christ is asking you to see him as the king. So if you have any questions about what it means to be a follower of Christ, or don’t know what you believe, talk to me, i’ll be right there, talk to an adult, talk to a friend, talk to someone. Come see christ as lord, come see christ as king,

Y’all pray with me.