Jesus Appears Before Pilate, Part 1

we return this morning to the Gospel of John after a bit of a break from that wonderful gospel we find ourselves back in the 18th chapter of John's Gospel we are as you will remember if you've been with us we are at the end of Passion Week to the final week of our Lord's life before his crucifixion and in the 18th chapter of John we're in the middle of a series of trials that our Lord was put through three of them with the Jewish leaders and three of them with the Gentile leaders in all there were six phases to this most severe miscarriage of justice and we are in Phase one now of the Gentile trial as we come to John 18 verse 28 let me read that text to you starting in verse 28 and we'll read down through verse 38 then they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the praetorium and it was early and they themselves did not enter into the praetorium so that they would not be defiled but might eat the Passover therefore Pilate went out to them and said what accusation do you bring against this man they answered and said to him if this man were not an evildoer we would not have delivered him to you so Pilate said to them take him yourselves and judge him according to your law the Jews said to him we are not permitted to put anyone to death to fulfill the word of Jesus which he spoke signifying by what kind of death he was about to die therefore Pilate entered again into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him are you the King of the Jews jesus answered are you saying this on your own initiative or did others tell you about me Pilate answered I'm not a Jew am I your own nation and the chief priests delivered you to me what have you done jesus answered my kingdom is not of this world if my kingdom were of this world then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews but as it is my kingdom is not of this realm therefore Pilate said to him so you are a king jesus answered you say correctly that I am a king for this I have been born and for this I have come into the world to testify to the truth everyone who is of the truth hears my voice Pilate said to him what is truth and when he had said this he went out again to the Jews and said to them I find no guilt in him fascinating part of the trial of our Lord Jesus this first phase of his Gentile trial before Pontius Pilate the governor of Israel under the Roman authority as I said there are six phases to the trial of Jesus leading up to his execution on the cross John records the first phase of his Jewish trial when he was brought to anis the high priest there were two further phases in the presence of Caiaphas also the high priest at the time though Anna's bore the title for life phase one before Anna's phase two before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin the Jewish Supreme Court and then phase 3 of the Jewish trial again with Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin let me see if I can break that out a little bit when Jesus was arrested in the garden identified by Judas and taken away he was taken to the house of Anna's the high priest and there he was railed against there was an attempt to find him guilty of a crime that was not possible he had committed no crime no sin after enduring the insults in front of anis the high priest he was then sent to Caiaphas we see that in in chapter 18 in verse 24 Anna's sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest when he got to Caiaphas he also got to the Sanhedrin the Jewish Supreme Court it is the middle of the night and they hold a mock trial of Jesus and sentenced him to death in the middle of the night John does not record that as the other Gospel writers do Matthew 2666 Matthew looks at that second phase of the Jewish trial and says they sentenced Jesus to death in the middle of the night holding a trial in the middle of the night was illegal it was against Jewish law it was forbidden that didn't stop them but they now knew that they had to legitimize their miscarriage of justice so early in the dawn at daybreak they quickly assembled together and held another mock trial very briefly according to Matthew 27 verse 1 it lasted just long enough in the daylight to pronounce the death sentence on Jesus which then legalized them mock trial in the middle of the night that covers the three phases of the Jewish trial one before Anna's two before Caiaphas and the Jewish Supreme Court John then picks up the story as the trial moves into the Gentile world there will be three phases of that trial the first before Pilate the second before Herod then back to Pilate finally when we come to verse 28 we read that they led that is the Jewish leaders temple police no doubt led Jesus from Caiaphas into the praetorium that's the Roman judgment Hall that's where John picks up the story phase one of his trial before the Gentile Roman powers now this is a very dramatic event as we all know and understand and the drama that plays out here is tied to the persons the characters the people that play a role the personalities it is a clash and interplay of personalities all of whom are wicked all of whom are sinful all of whom are and somewhere another culpable for this miscarriage of justice the one person who shines out as righteous and holy and pure and all glorious is the Lord Jesus Christ who is the one being accused of the crime the self-righteous the ones who are the purveyors of justice are all doing evil the one they are accusing is perfectly pure and righteous he is the victim he is mocked he is despised he is ridiculed he is sentenced to death and yet it is his purity and majesty that dominates the scene against the back drop of their sin shining out of this ugly darkness of an unjust series of trials is the bright glory of the Son of God who are these personalities well there's anise the patriarchal high priest there is Caiaphas the reigning High Priest there is the Sanhedrin the elite of Jewish law who upheld the law of the rabbi's and of Moses there is Pilate Pontius Pilate Roman procurator governor there is Herod Antipas if you me and king who ruled in the area there are false witnesses there are screaming crowds crying for the blood of Jesus there are Roman soldiers and there are Roman executioner's all of those evil people are amassed against Jesus in one way or another set against him to do deadly harm to the Son of God in the midst of it all all we see in him is beauty and glory and majesty and purity and righteousness we're not surprised is the blameless son of God he is called the holy child in the New Testament is called the innocent one the New Testament says the testimony of Luke 23 he has done nothing wrong again in Luke 23 testimony is given regarding Christ certainly this man was innocent Paul says he knew no sin the writer of Hebrews says he was without sin holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners Peter says 1st Peter he committed no sin that is testimony to his holy perfection from the beginning of his incarnate life into the very end of it and you see his perfection on display all through his trial and the harder they work to accuse him of being a blasphemer and a rebel and an insurrectionist a threat both to Jews and Gentiles to the Roman power and to God himself the more accusations they Trump up and heap on him the more majestic he appears the glory of Christ is seen in contrast to the other characters now just thinking first of all about the Jews which essentially refers to the chief priests and the Jewish leaders the Sanhedrin those who were the rulers in Israel Israel as you know at this time is under Roman occupation the Romans have basically conquered the Mediterranean world they are everywhere and they have final power they have subjected the Land of Israel along with a lot of other nations to their authority the nation is under Caesar under Roman law and occupied by Roman troops Roman taxes are being collected from the people the Jews obviously hate this they resent this the Romans are pagans they are outside the pale of God's concern at least in the rather racist view of the ancient Jews the Romans were gracious to a degree they did allow their nations that had been conquered a certain amount of self-government and they had allowed that in Israel but they did not allow the Jews to exercise the death penalty Old Testament law had established the death penalty Genesis chapter 9 establishes the death penalty and the Bible in the early years Mosaic writings begins to expand the death penalty for crimes even beyond murder this was given not only to Israel this was given to the world before Israel but Israel was a covenant people and had the law of God and they had the right to exercise capital punishment for certain crimes the death penalty was designed by God to be a deterrent and when it was used with swiftness it was a deterrent but under Roman rule that right - the death penalty had been rescinded from the Jews it was called the EU sei the right of the sword in Latin and it belonged only to Rome now in all honesty though that is true it didn't seem to bother the Jews when they stoned Stephen they took Stephen because of what he had preached as you know in the 7th chapter of Acts they crushed out his life by throwing stones on him they stoned him there was no discussion about we can't do this there was no discussion about the fact that the Romans might bring about some repercussions and in fact there's no record in the New Testament that the Romans did anything about it so why all of a sudden are they so concerned to get the Romans to execute Jesus it didn't bother them when a rabble mob literally ran at Stephen crushed out his life why make an issue out of the death of Jesus and have Rome involved somebody might say well they didn't want to do it because it was Passover and there were hundreds of thousands of Jewish people there many of whom knew about the miracles and teaching of Jesus and they just couldn't do this in a public way this might be a very dangerous thing and might cause some kind of revolt there is that possibility but that's not in itself the real reason I'll show you the real reason in a few moments nonetheless the Jews wanted Jesus dead they'd wanted him dead for a long time we can say they'd wanted him dead for years we could say they wanted him dead at least some of them from the time he began his ministry three years earlier when he came into the temple and did such destructive damage to the temple and then repeated it again at the end of his ministry they had chased him around Galilee through the duration of his ministry on a number of occasions they had tried to kill him they tried to kill him in Nazareth they weren't looking for the Romans then they would have thrown him off the cliff and stoned him there but he escaped what why now all of a sudden do they need Rome well it is true the Talmud Jewish Talmud says quote forty years before the destruction of the temple which is 70 AD judgment in matters of life and death was taken away from Israel that would mean at about 30 AD and that's right at the time this is happening so the Romans made a very convenient law the Talmud says at this very time period which comes into play in the death of Christ the first Roman governor that was ever assigned to the Land of Israel was named capo Gnaeus and the Jewish historian Josephus tells us that he was appointed in six ad he had the power of life and death put into his hands by Caesar says Josephus so the governor from six ad had the power of life and death and in 30 AD it seems that it was removed from the Jews very important timing very important timing if Jesus is to die and it's to be carried out according to the now Roman law then the Romans had to be the executioner's but again I remind you that it didn't seem to bother them after this when they stoned Stephen and it didn't seem to be an issue when they wanted to stone Jesus in Nazareth but they seek an execution from the governor by the time they get through these feet three phases of Gentile trials the crowd has become insane bloodthirsty mad shrieking howling like wolves twisted in bitter hate screaming at the top of their voices crucify him crucify him it's as if in the end they reach such a level of insanity that they lose all reason certainly all mercy and most of their humanity hatred can do that so the Jews play a prominent role in this drama they drive this entire episode they drive Jesus to the cross they cannot be they cannot be taken off the hook for the death of their Messiah they drove the entire execution through the Jewish trial through the Gentile trial now if they're going to get the Romans to execute Jesus they've got to take him to Pilate so that's what they do the sentence has already been passed by them they know what they want to do they want him dead Caiaphas said back in chapter 18 verse 14 that it was expedient for one man to die on behalf of the people this man Jesus needs to die before the Romans come and start killing all of us in their sinful stupid blindness they were convinced that they were honoring God by killing his son the friend of sinners was shackled by the hate of sinners the judge of all the earth was arraigned before a fallen son of Adam the Lord of glory was treated like a vile criminal the Holy One was condemned as a blasphemer liars gave false witness against the living Ruth and he was the resurrection and the life was to die John takes us into this civil trial he takes us to the judgment hall that's what praetorium means it comes from Prater it's a Latin term Prater is the same as governor procurator it was the place where he held court he was the leader of the Roman troops and the judge that Rome had set John details the civil trial before this man Pilate that's the first and third phase and herod in the middle and again just to remind you that as we go through this and we won't finish it this morning it continues on into chapter 19 the person that dominates in majestic perfection is the Lord Jesus Christ and that's why John gives us the detail he gives us as always to demonstrate that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God so that we might believe in him and have life in his name from 3 o'clock in the darkness of the morning on this Friday until daybreak Jesus has been held captive the midnight of his life has arrived and he has passed through that night and had a mock trial and the Jews need to make it legal in the morning so at the break of dawn about 6 a.m. the Sanhedrin hurries together Caiaphas their leader and they pronounce a death sentence on Jesus and then John picks up the story in verse 28 then they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the praetorium and it was early and they themselves did not enter into the praetorium so that they would not be defiled but might eat the Passover early Roman courts began at daybreak and ended at sundown just like Jewish courts and courts could get busy and they could get full and the Jews made their sentence technically viable at the very break of dawn by passing the final sentence and then rushed their prisoner to be the first ones at the Roman Court at the break of dawn this is also called the period from 3 to 6 the fourth watch of the night so at the end of the fourth watch of the night they arrive at the hall of judgment the hall of judgment is where Pilate set up his operation when he was in Jerusalem most of the time he's in says areia that was the Roman headquarters out on the coast when he came to Jerusalem he would go to fort Antonius the Roman fort there or he would go into Herod's palace which seems to be the most likely place it was a very ancient palace and that's where he would set up his headquarters the Jews then approached pilots headquarters the hall of judgement at the break of dawn they want to be the first ones in line in the court that opens that day they don't go in John tells us in verse 28 that they wouldn't enter the praetorium so that they would not be defiled but might eat the Passover the Passover so later that day they don't want ceremonial uncleanness and so they don't want to enter a Gentile habitation they didn't want to be defiled by that because entering a Gentile habitation would defile you and then you would be defiled and couldn't eat the Passover and oh by the way there is no such Old Testament ceremonial law there is no such Old Testament regulation the rabbis had advented these kinds of things as they pushed the gentiles further and further away they had invented things like this to isolate themselves from gentiles according to the Mishnah the codification of jewish law we read quote the dwelling place of gentiles are unclean that is not in the law of God what is in the law of God is that if you touch a dead body there is a ceremonial uncleanness numbers 19 forbids the touching of a dead body and one of the excuses the rabbis gave was that if you went into a Gentile home you would very possibly contact the dead body because Gentiles were thought to throw their aborted babies into a drain it was thus a defilement that would defile you for seven days for touching a dead body concocting these kinds of ideas isolated the Jews as you would imagine in a kind of perceived racism so they were careful not to go in they stayed on the outside this is an amazing level of hypocrisy they don't want to be defiled and they're about to kill the son of God they would have done far more to defile the Gentile habitation than it would have done to defile them they were happy to keep the letter of their own invented law while killing the one who came to fulfill it and the one who wrote it in the first place John Calvin wrote about this he said these hypocrites though they are so full of malice ambition fraud cruelty and greed that they almost infect heaven and earth with their abominable smell are only afraid of external pollution so it is that this intolerable disdain and revulsion for God and the son of God makes them act hypocritically as it always has now the trial begins formally in verse 29 Pilate went out to them they wouldn't come in he went out to them here we have the first phase of the trial the accusation or if you will the indictment can't have a trial until you have an accusation Pilate went out he wanted an accusation he's the judge what accusation do you bring against this man you brought him here he's bound who is he what has he done now as you know if you know the story Pilate finds out that Jesus has done absolutely nothing wrong he is completely innocent and that the charges of the Jews were nothing but lies and Pilate is a judge and he has a sense of justice and Roman justice was clearly defined and whatever kind of man he was as a judge he had the responsibility to uphold the Roman law and he did not want to condemn Jesus to death that was not just but he did he knew he was innocent he repeatedly says he is innocent and he has him executed anyway he tried several times to get out of it his wife tried to get him out of it he never could why did Pilate this Roman judge who had to have proven something to have been appointed to this position which he held for 10 years why does he cave in to these Jews and execute a man that he knew committed no crime I'll give you a little background in 4bc going back Herod the Great died he was the king of Israel in his will and he was an idiom e'en not a Jew but he was nonetheless the king of that area he divided up his kingdom between three of his sons one son was Herod Antipas and he received Galilee and Perea and we read a lot about him in Galilee in the New Testament in the Ministry of Jesus he was there so Antipas was given Perea and galilee philip another son received Betania Aaron itis and trackin itis nets north and east from the land of Israel and more unpopulated area and then the third son Herod Archelaus was given a jamia Judea and Samaria so he ruled over Jerusalem the Romans okayed the whole deal they were ok with Herod this son of petty king passing out the territories to his son Antipas Herod Antipas and Philip ruled rather quietly and fairly well our coleus who was over Judea and Samaria ruled as a tyrant by extortion the Jews actually went to the Romans and said we cannot tolerate this man our coleus please get him out of here and replace him with a governor give us a Roman and they did they gave him a series of procurator's preachers governor's to rule in Judea and Samaria and with them came the Roman legions and Roman control small provinces like Israel would often have procurator's or governors who were in full charge of the Roman military power that was there also had judicial responsibilities as well as administrative duties in the area these procurator's these governors were not to accept bribes they were not to raise taxes that was Rome's call and they could be removed if the people reported them to the Emperor and they were determined to be unfit the first such procurator as I mentioned was Capone eosin 6 ad we're now at pilots time from 26 ad to 35 Pilate was a disaster a disaster there were three famous incidents that history records that made his rule so difficult when he first came into Jerusalem in the Roman occupation basically was headquartered in says areia out on the coast not far from modern Tel Aviv but he needed to make a statement about who he was and about his power to the city of Jerusalem and so he came into Jerusalem with soldiers he came with an entourage the soldiers had banners on poles that they were carrying as they rode in flag or a banner at the top and then above the flag was a bust of Caesar a metal carving or a metal mold of the Emperor and he was a God Caesar was a God he was worshipped as a God to the Jews this was a graven image this was a violation of the commandments and all previous Roman governors had removed any such offensive idols before entering Jerusalem pilot refused to do so he wanted to declare himself impervious to the Jewish wishes the Jews begged and he was adamant he would not take those idols off those banners he went back to Caesarea after he had gone through Jerusalem he went back to his headquarters the Jews followed him and they hounded him historians tell us for five straight days they just kept after him and kept after him and kept after him to remove those idols finally he told them meet me in the amphitheater I've been in that amphitheater a number of times in says areia meet me in the amphitheater they all showed up at the amphitheater those Jews who were dogging his steps he said to them stop the request and go away or you'll all be killed they were surrounded by Roman soldiers the Jews bared their necks said go ahead chop our heads off they called his bluff and not even Pilate could bring himself to Massacre defenseless men he was humiliated he was beaten he gave in he removed the images that's how it began it didn't get any better it's a bad start the Jerusalem water supply was inadequate Pilate determined needed to build a new aqueduct thus amazing ruins of aqueducts are still over in the Land of Israel it's won by says areia they wanted an aqueduct Pilate determined to build an aqueduct but where was the money going to come from Pilate robbed the Temple in Jerusalem took a fortune out of the temple Treasury which was intended for the service of God to build his aqueduct the people resented this and they rioted so Pilate sent soldiers into the rioting crowd and clubbed some of them to death and stabbed others to death once again Pilate was doing a masterful job of securing his unpopularity and word was beginning to trickle back to Caesar that this guy wasn't doing this very well but the worst one was when in Jerusalem he was staying in the ancient Palace of the Herod's and he had shields made out of metal and inscribed the name of Tiberius the Emperor he was trying to butter up the Emperor he had these shields made and they were devoted to the honor of the Emperor as a god Tiberius and again the Jews protested they didn't want those in Jerusalem Pilate refused to remove them so the Jews sent an emissary to Tiberius and complained about Pilate and Tiberius sent an emissary back and told Pilate removed the shields so Pilate was under constant threat of the Jews reporting him to Caesar in chapter 19 we'll see a little later verse 12 the Jews said to Pilate if you release this man you're no friend of Caesar we're going to tell him again why does Pilate even release Jesus when he knows he's innocent blackmail blackmail his previous mistakes misjudgments made it impossible for him to defy the Jews and keep his job he lost it anyway in 35 AD and historians tell us not long after that he killed himself I guess he wanted to do the right thing as a judge in one sense but he had no courage because he killed Jesus to keep his job that was Pilate so verse 29 picks up the story Pilate went out to them and you know he hates them because of all that's happened all the things I told you about had already happened and he said what accusation do you bring against this man now that's how you start a trial what's the accusation right that's the first legal thing that's happened what accusation do you bring against this man this formally opened court proceedings at the break of dawn Friday morning Pilate assumes there has to be some crime but what crime and of course this starts to become a problem to the Jews because they don't have a crime they don't want Pilate to be a judge they want Pilate to be an executioner they don't want justice for Jesus they want death they don't want a retrial but they're gonna get one the answer they gave in verse 30 is very interesting they answered and said to him if this man were not an evildoer we would not have delivered him to you he asked for an accusation they accuse him of questioning their integrity impugning them are you insulting us like we would bring a man to you to be executed who hadn't committed a crime which of course is exactly what they did there was no accusation they are impugning pilate by accusing pilot of impugning them this spotless sinless perfect son of God had done nothing wrong ever they couldn't find one single crime and they had worked at it believe me if there was one they could have found it they're in a tough spot they need Jesus executed they can't come up with a reason all they can do is defend themselves if this man were not a malefactor the old word is an evildoer we would not have delivered him to you here we see again as we see all through the trial of Jesus his innocence they can't come up with anything absolutely nothing and again you ask the question why in the world are they pressing this issue with Pilate if they don't want to try out why did they come why are they doing this verse 31 begins to tell us so Pilate said to them take him yourselves and judge them according to your law do you understand what he just said to them kill him yourself well your what is your law say you've got some crime do what you need to do according to your law well that their law what was the law of Moses and the law of Moses gave them the right of capital punishment particularly with a blasphemer in fact in the Book of Leviticus it was basically required Leviticus 24:16 that a blasphemer be stoned so Pilate is saying go kill him yourself I give you an in from the law take care of it yourself there is no offense to Roman law here the Romans did respect the laws of conquered people's and gave them some latitude in the administration of their own laws and justice Pilate knew they wanted to kill Jesus he didn't want to do it he had some sense of justice there was no crime against Rome do what you need to do according to your law kill him yourself and an amazing response the Jews said to him verse 31 we're not permitted to put anyone to death so now they're quoting Roman law can't do it we can't do it it would be a violation of Roman law they had just been told by the representative of Roman law to go do whatever they wanted to do oh no we're not permitted because we are bound by law Roman law why in the world don't they just go do what he told him to do why are they going to force this issue through pilot through Herod back to Pilate why all this verse thirty-two gives you the answer to fulfill the word of Jesus which he spoke signifying by what kind of death he was about to die I can't tell you what an incredibly powerful statement that is if they had walked away with Jesus and stoned him Jesus is not the Son of God the Bible is not true Christianity goes up in flames the whole of Christianity why because Jesus said this back in John 12:32 and I if I am lifted up from the earth will draw all men to myself but he was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which he was to die he was going to he was going to die by being lifted up that's how the Romans executed criminals they lifted them up on a cross the Jews executed people by throwing them down and stoning them jesus said I will die by being lifted up not thrown down he prophesied his own crucifixion so you see if the Jews had taken him and stoned him then Jesus was wrong and if Jesus was wrong he's not the truth he's not God all Christianity collapses Jesus is a fraud the Bible is full of lies Jesus had to die being lifted up that is a Roman means of execution he was not to die by being thrown down crushed mutilated by stones they tried to stone him many times during his life never successfully in Nazareth they tried to throw him off a cliff and then stone him crush him isn't it amazing this frenzied madness is all under the control of a sovereign God to fulfill specific words that Jesus said you say it seems like a very small detail it's not if ever he spoke a lie or if ever he said something that was not true he is not who he claimed to be so the accusation falls short there is no accusation we come to the second part of the trial before Pilate phase one the interrogation the interrogation so Pilate entered again into the praetorium after he'd been outside talking to the Jews he came back in he summoned Jesus and said to him are you the King of the Jews are you the King of the Jews jesus answered are you saying this on your own initiative or did others tell you about me now the Jews had said he perverts the nation he forbids tribute to Caesar he says he's a king but there's nothing that rose to the level of any kind of problem for Rome this is not a dangerous man this is not some man who's starting a revolution this is not somebody who's guilty of high treason he's not perverting the nation there's no evidence of that he's not forbidding tribute or taxes to Caesar he paid his taxes he had the disciples pay their taxes the only thing Pilate could ask him was are you a king or are you a king or are you the King of the Jews in fact in the in the original language just like this you are you the King of the Jews as if this is absurd this is ridicule this is ridiculous you're the one everybody so worked up about he probably remembered back to that the original day when he came into the city with all the Hales hosannas you're the one it's you you're no threat this is ridicule jesus answered are you saying this on your own initiative or did others tell you about me is this your charge Pilate I'm in your court are you actually charging me with something is this your idea that I'm an insurrectionist that I'm a threat to Caesar that I'm a revolutionary that I'm leading an attempt to overthrow Rome is this is this your idea or you just an errand boy for those Jews and pilots answer is I'm not a Jew am I verse 35 are you kidding I don't carry their agenda your own nation and the chief priests delivered you to me what have you done again the culpability of the leaders of Israel for the execution of Jesus Christ is patently obvious I'd love to do with you you have nothing to do with me Rome has nothing to do with you you have nothing to do with Rome you're no threat this isn't an issue with Rome you you are some kind of a king I don't know anything about that it's your own nation and your own chief priests who delivered you to me and once again what have you done there is no crime they can't find any you can't identify any this is some kind of Jewish issue that has nothing to do with the military or politics Pilate knew this for sure that the Jews would welcome a real king who could gather an army to overthrow Rome he would welcome that he also knew that they wanted Jesus dead for envy jealousy so he says what have you done there's no accusation at all Jesus answers regarding his being a king verse 36 my kingdom is not of this world if my kingdom were of this world then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews but as it is my kingdom is not of this realm yes I'm a king but not in the sense that you know a king yes I'm a king but my kingdom is not from this world it's not part of this world it's not out of this world it doesn't originate in this world there's nothing to do with this world he is not a king because subjects made him a king he is not a king because it ran in the family he is a king by nature and he is a king over a spiritual Dominion it's why I read Colossians 1 earlier that we have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear son it's a spiritual Kingdom three times he says my kingdom my kingdom my kingdom is not of this world he rules a kingdom where he creates and then regenerates his own subjects the kingship of Jesus is in a realm all by itself it is not of this world man's world produces many kings many rulers King Jesus is heavenly eternal supernatural there was nothing about Jesus that resembled an earthly king father was right about that but he was dead wrong and thinking Jesus was not a king he is king of kings revelation 11 points to a day when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he will crush all the petty monarchs all the pilots in the world will feel the power of his reign when he returns to establish his kingdom in the world Jesus said look if I was a king in an earthly sense my servants would be fighting some historians say that Pilate probably had about 3,000 Roman troops available in Cezary and jerusalem it wouldn't have been very difficult to get a greater crowd than that in fact if Jesus had just wrapped his arms around the mass of tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of Jews hailing him as Messiah earlier in the week he probably could have overthrown the three thousand Romans he had no intention of doing that my kingdom is not of this world or my servants would be fighting one of them pride in the garden when they arrested Jesus Peter grabbed his sword and started after people and took the ear off the servant of the high priest and Jesus said stop put your sword away and gave him back his ear so you are a king verse 37 jesus answered you say correctly I am a king for this I have been born and for this I have come into the world you see what there are two things there for this I have been born that's his humanity for this I come into the world that's his deity he existed before he was born he existed in heaven he came into the world you have his humanity for this I was born you have his deity for this I have come into the world he came from glory into the world that's the Incarnation I was born that's the humanity I came into the world that's his deity and why to testify to the truth to testify to the truth he's the king of truth his kingdom is truth he is the truth he says everyone who is of the truth hears my voice I am a king for this I came into the world pre-existent he comes into the world in human form before Abraham was I am back in John 8 he came to testify to the truth what truth the truth of his kingdom the truth of his nature the truth of God the truth of man the truth of sin the truth of salvation the truth of heaven and hell' gospel truth saving truth to tell men the truth about God about themselves about life about death about eternity about forgiveness the days of groping are over in the kingdom of darkness the days of guessing are over the days of half-truths and lies over he said I am the truth John says if you obey Him you will know the truth and the truth will set you free free from what free from the search for the truth he is the truth in that statement at the end of verse 37 is so important everyone everyone this is an exclusive statement everyone who is of the truth hears my voice there isn't a person on the planet and never has been who knows the truth who rejects Christ if you reject Christ you do not know the truth he is the truth sometimes I get in meetings with other universities and my connections with the Masters now masters University and I can be asked are you faculty free to search for the truth and I'd love to say well with all due respect we're not looking what I'm looking what no we're not looking for the truth we found it we have found the truth all we want to do is understand it apply it love it proclaim it you can take every University I think there are 303 in California alone and you can put a big X over every one of them that are still looking for the truth they're never gonna find it they're never going to find the truth they're going to be groping in the darkness I'm not saying they can't add to and to what I'm talking about is eternal truth salvation truth gospel truth it's wonderful to say and it's frightening to people who are in academia to say I'm not looking for the truth I know it and here we meet of course pilot the first postmodern cynic pilot said to him what is truth there's post-modernism what is truth this is there no truth what is truth he gave up post-modernism was given up there's no truth there's no absolute truth jesus said this everyone who is of the truth hears my voice if you're not hearing the voice of Christ revealed on the pages of Holy Scripture you do not know the truth I don't know what you know but you don't know the truth you you may know the truth about certain temporal things but you don't know the truth that matters and that's the truth about eternal things everyone everyone everyone who is of the truth hears my voice and when you begin to hear his voice that's the end of the search you've been set free from the search it's really wonderful to live in a cynical postmodern world where people have decided there is no truth and to step up and say yeah there is and we know the truth we know the truth the truth is the Son of God living in incarnate the Word of God inspired and inerrant that's the truth so we have the initial effort at an indictment the accusation and we have the interrogation what's the final decision we have the adjudication and verse 38 when Jesus had said what he said and Pilate had responded what his truth that was his final word in this phase cynicism he went out again to the Jews who were still outside and said to them not guilty I find no guilt in him there's no guilt um chapter 19 we're gonna see he had him scourge then again he came to the Jews in verse 4 he said I'm bringing him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in him then in verse six the chief priests in the officer saw him they cried out saying crucify crucify Pilate said to them take him yourselves and crucify him I find no guilt in him he just keeps saying not guilty not guilty not guilty not guilty not guilty he is flawless he is faultless he is righteous he's a lamb without spot a lamb without blemish he's the king of truth maligned accused hated mistreated executed and what you see in the whole thing is this glorious perfection I hope you see that in him we talked the last couple of weeks about loving him and not losing that first lover leaving that first love this is a this is a glimpse of Christ that should elicit that love in your heart and for those of you who have not come to Christ know this that you will never know the truth about spiritual reality about eternity about salvation unless you hear his voice and he has spoken in his word the Old Testament God spoke in diverse ways through the prophets in the New Testament he spoken to us by his son what will you do with the truth what will you do with the truth father we are so grateful for the rich rich texts of Scripture that take us to these unparalleled unequaled monumental events in the life of our precious Lord that help us to see his glory we thank you for the Holy Spirit guidance of the the mind and the pen of John to record all of this so that we will know the majesty of our Savior another glimpse of his glory Lord we ask that you would speak to every heart here for those of us who know Christ may we love him more for those who have not yet embraced him may they know that they are apart from the truth lost and groping and guessing in a world of darkness that can only land end in death and eternal punishment bring the truth to their hearts deliver them from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of your dear son do that work in hearts Lord bring people to the Savior to put their trust in him as the way the truth and the life these things we ask for his sake amen

Channel: Grace to You

Views: 37,624

Rating: 4.7738791 out of 5

Keywords: Truth, Gospel, Christianity, God, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Bible, Scripture, Biblical Preaching, Exposition, Expository, Sermon, John MacArthur

Id: HvnZBScP0f4

Length: 58min 39sec (3519 seconds)

Published: Wed May 18 2016