Sermon Tone Analysis
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Beware of the Priceless Trade: Remember that there is a choice to be made between either the Judas tree or the Jesus tree.
The Judas tree traded the priceless treasure for betrayal and death.
Beware of the Comfort Zone: Last week we saw that while glory was on the horizon we must first take up our cross and follow Jesus.
The road for all disciples must go through the cross of Christ.
Beware of Public Opinion
The crowd is not as much concerned with truth as with what is most expedient for me.
What is best for me.
Many times this skews or colors the truth in shades of gray.
We become led more by the mob or the popular culture and less by what is the truth.
Today people may ask the question what is the truth, but, do they truly want to know what the truth really is, or are they still looking to public opinion to drive their understanding of truth.
DISCLOSURE BEFORE PILOT
The question in front of Pilot today is twofold, 1) What have you done to deserve death?
(Pilot pressed Jesus on the claim that he was declaring himself the King of the Jews).
2) What is the truth?
(Jesus never answers this question for Pilot, the reader is left speculating whether Pilot knew the truth or not).
Jesus is appearing before a secular trial on a criminal charge.
Johns writing of this account draws in the big issue relating to Judaism and the Roman State.
The tensions during this particular time in history were very contentious to say the least.
You now have what will continue to be the struggle even today between the sacred and the secular.
The pragmatic part of the trial was seeking what is most expedient and best for the Roman Government.
Jesus is not in the least bit intimidated by this personal representative of the Roman Emperor and attempts to personalize the conversation, reaching out to Pilate as a man needing to find the grace of God.
“Is this your own idea…?
Pilots whole goal behind the interrogation is to discern if there is any criminal activity involved from Rome’s viewpoint.
Jesus concedes that he is the head of a kingdom, but not one which Rome need fear as a political rival.
If it were he would be supported by the military action of his ‘servants’.
Note: Pilot was banking on the Peoples Public Opinion of Jesus to do the right thing and let him go free.
Pilot even sweetened the pot by offering Barabbas a known criminal and murder in exchange for Jesus.
Surely the mob that had formed would see the reason in sending Barabbas to the cross.
I grew up thinking that Barabbas was a bad guy.
You know, just another garden variety criminal.
I thought people hated Jesus so much that they preferred the convicted murderer over Jesus.
It turns out that Barabbas was more of a freedom fighter type, an insurrectionist, a hero of the people who was willing to take one for the team.
The people loved Barabbas.
He was something of a minor celebrity among them.
Now the chief priests and elders had no sympathy for Barabbas the insurrectionist, because it would jeopardize their status quo with the Romans; yet still they stirred up the crowd to ask for Barabbas instead of Jesus.
WHAT IS TRUTH?: This question is the in thing to say and we are all being duped.
Pilot appears to be a modernist before his time.
“Your a king then, you are right in saying that I am a king, for this reason I have been born to testify to the truth.”
BIG IDEA:Those who stand with Jesus at the foot of the cross are the only ones standing on the right side of TRUTH.
Now, everyone believes that they are on the right side of truth, even the most hardened Atheist.
If we listen to him and take Him at His word we are on the side of truth and if we reject Him and deny His word we are not on the side of truth.
1. Standing on the right side of truth avoids the lie.
Has anyone ever caught you talking to yourself.
If you live in our house this is probably a common occurence.
It’s not like we are crazy or anything.
It is a little embarrassing.
Why?
It is embarrassing to feel so exposed.
It’s as if someone has accidentally seen us naked.
Our internal life is something that few ever get to see it is suddenly open and exposed.
For those who do talk to themselves it can be beneficial in that it helps us process our thoughts.
You may not be to surprised when you catch someone talking to themselves because we know that we all have a constant internal conversation going on in our hearts all the time.
Self talkers have simply made their thoughts known or explicit.
We have already probably talked to ourselves a couple of times that day anyway, saying, “Is it really time to get up?” or “Maybe I will go to the store … No, I think I will stay home.”
We reason and debate things in our hearts.
Think of Eve’s internal struggle with the truth she knows and the lie she is being told.
The only part of the struggle we are told is “That fruit looks really good.”
“I bet it will make me so much wiser.”
“Maybe I should trust this what this serpent says.”
We know of course, that Adam and Eve chose wrongly.
They knew the truth of what God had said, they listened to the serpent, and they willingly disobeyed God’s command.
Satan introduced Self-Deception into their hearts.
At some point in their interaction with Satan, Adam and Eve learned to lie to themselves.
We live with distorted views of our selves.
There was a lot of Self-Deception going on in the last few day’s of Jesus life before his crucifixion.
Truth on Trial
The truth faced six trial in less than on full day, three of which were religious, and three were secular or legal.
In the end.
few people involved in the process could answer the simple question, “What is truth?”
The first trial was held by Annas, a corrupt former high priest of the Jews.
Annas broke numerous Jewish laws the first of which was holding a trial in his house, trying to induce a confession out of Jesus.
After Annas could not extract a confession the truth was led before the acting high priest Caiaphas who so happened to be Annas’s son-in-law.
Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin had many false witnesses come forward to speak out against the Truth, yet nothing could be provided and no evidence of wrongdoing could be produced.
7 Laws broken by Caiaphas during the trial.
1) the trial was held in secret.
2) the trial was carried out at night.
3) the trial involved bribery.
4) the defendant had no representation.
5) the requirement of 2-3 witnesses was not met.
6) the use of self-incriminating testimony against Jesus.
7) they carried out the death penalty on the defendant that same day.
All of these actions were forbidden under Jewish law however Caiaphas declared the truth guilty because the truth claimed to be God in the flesh, something Caiaphas called blasphemy.
The Jewish leadership had no legal authority to carry out the death penalty.
Therefore, the truth had to be moved to the Roman court to declare a verdict.
The two charges that were levied at Jesus were:
1) Jesus forbid people to pay taxes to Caesar.
(This was a lie, in fact Jesus declared “render to Caesar what is Caesar.s”)
2) Jesus is proclaiming himself to be King.
Note: Pilots question “What is the truth,” is a question that has echoed down through History to 2022.
In a postmodern world that denies that truth even exists or can be known, the question is more relevant and important than ever before to answer the question.
“What is the truth.”
*The right side of truth accepts reality over illusion
Note: “What is truth?”
retorted Pilate.
(my translation of Pilot’s retort: “Whatever!”
Isn’t that always the words toward the truth?
Whatever!
Jesus Reply: “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
TRUTH HAS A SIDE. THESE DAYS EVERYONE WANTS TO BE ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY.
NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE MUCH ABOUT BEING ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE TRUTH.
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