John 18:33–40

0:00 Good morning again everybody. Let me invite you to grab a Bible if you got one and turn to John chapter 18. That's where we're going to be this morning. If you're new here at Third Avenue, welcome. It's really good to have you here with us. Hope that you've been blessed by the service this morning, singing some songs of praise to the Lord and reading His Word together and praying together. Well, now we turn our attention to a time of the preaching of God's Word. We very much here at Third Avenue understand this to be kind of the centerpiece of everything that we do on a Sunday morning. This is when we quiet ourselves because all we've been doing this morning so far is making a bunch of noise, glorious noise, no doubt, but we've been making noise at God for the last few minutes. And now it's time for us to quiet our hearts and sit under his word in the form of preaching, in the form of this sermon that I'm about to preach. If I'm doing this thing right though, this preaching thing, the point of me standing up here in this pulpit is not to give you a bunch of my opinions about things. That's not the point at all. It's not for me to come up

1:02 with some message that I want to communicate to you. That's not the point. That's not what you called me and hired me and pay me each week to do. What you called me and hired me and pay me to do each week is to study this book, the Bible, the Word of God, to figure out what God is saying in His Word and then to present that message to you. So it's not my message. If I'm doing this thing right, it's God's message. And so this is the centerpiece of what we do every Sunday morning. We're going to be looking today at a relatively short passage out of the book of John, chapter 18. If you are using one of these red pew Bibles, which you can find either in front of you or under you, if you're in the balcony or some of the chairs, then you'll be able to find John 18 on page 904. So what you'll find on page 904 is a big number 18, up in the top left-hand corner. And then if you look down inside there, you'll see verse numbers.

1:56 That's what we call those. It just helps us kind of locate where we are in the text. And if you look down at the very bottom right-hand corner of page 904, you'll see verse 33 under the heading, My kingdom is not of this world. And that's where we're going to be this morning. We are actually continuing a study of the book of John that we've been in for several weeks now. We've been returning to it each fall for the last, I think, seven years, I'm not sure, and spending 10 or 11, 12 weeks each fall in the book of John. We've made our way up to what is Jesus' trial, and for the last few weeks we've been looking at that.

2:30 So when we started this fall, we looked at Jesus' arrest, we looked at his trial first before the Jewish High Council, which was called the Sanhedrin, and now today we look at the sort of second phase of Jesus' trial, or at least a portion of it, which was before the Roman governor of Judea, a man named Pontius Pilate who has become infamous over the last 2,000 years as the man who sentenced Jesus to death. The last time we were in John was a couple of weeks ago. I was out of town last Sunday, but we saw two weeks ago what the Jewish leaders were really up to as they arrested and then tried Jesus kind of through the middle of the night and in the early morning. What they wanted, what they were up to ultimately was that they wanted to get rid of Jesus. That was it. That was the whole plan. Everything that they did, from arresting him to dragging him in the middle of the night to Caiaphas' house and Annas' house, the whole thing was calculated to get rid of him. And they wanted to get rid of him in the most public and humiliating way possible because he had become a threat to them, most especially to their position and their

3:36 power. Now why was that? How was that? How did Jesus make himself a threat to the ruling leaders of the Jewish nation in that day? Well, if you know anything about the book of John or any of the gospels really, you know that in his teaching and in his preaching, Jesus had been making these extraordinary claims about himself. He claimed to be the long-awaited Messiah of the Jews that had been prophesied in the Old Testament, but not only that, he had raised the whole thing a whole other notch by saying that he was in fact God himself. And the problem for the Pharisees, the Jewish leaders, was that the people of Jerusalem and Israel were starting to believe him. They were starting to say, yeah, this is plausible. This guy may very well be the Messiah. In fact, this guy may very well be the creator God in the flesh. The problem was that if that was true, if the Pharisees allowed them to ask that question of themselves.

4:37 Do we really believe this? And what are we going to do about it if we do? And it would have meant that they themselves could no longer be the rulers of the nations. Right? I mean, if the Messiah is here, if the king's here, you don't need Pharisees. You don't need a Sanhedrin because the king's here. In fact, God is here, incarnate. And they would have had to bow their knee to him and give up their position and their prestige and their power and their reputations so they just never asked the question not really i mean they asked it but as an accusation not as a question instead of considering whether jesus's claims were really credible instead of really sizing him up as the rulers of the nation ought to have done they simply heard his answer to the question and declared him guilty are you the high priest asked the son of God and when Jesus said I am

5:38 and you'll see the son of man coming on the clouds and seated at the right hand of the majesty in heaven they didn't say is that true they said you're a blasphemer and they declared him guilty but they couldn't kill him not like they wanted to not without Roman permission and so apparently they'd worked it out with Pilate in advance to get his signature as the Roman governor who had the authority to sentence someone to death by crucifixion just to get his signature on Jesus's death warrant so that he could be crucified. It may be surprising to you when I say that that they'd worked it out in advance with Pilate but I mean think about how the story progresses. It wasn't just temple guards that went out to the garden to arrest Jesus. Do you remember who went out with the temple guards in order to arrest Jesus at the garden of Gethsemane? It was Roman soldiers. It was somewhere between 200 and 600 of them. A cohort of Roman soldiers who went out to arrest Jesus. And the Roman soldiers were under the command of whom? Pontius Pilate. Pilate wasn't ignorant of Jesus. He wasn't ignorant

6:41 of this plot to arrest Jesus. He'd sent a whole cohort of his soldiers along to help arrest him. And so the Jews were thinking this is going to be easy. We'll just, we'll condemn him according to our own law. We'll go to Pilate's house. Pilate will sign the death certificate and we'll hand him over to the soldiers to be crucified but last time we saw that when the Pharisees arrived with Jesus at the praetorium at Pilate's headquarters they got a little shock when Pilate opened the proceedings not just by saying yes yes yes yes here's the death warrant hand him over to the soldiers and crucify he didn't do that instead he opened proceedings by asking what charge do you bring against this man now that set the Pharisees back on their heels because because that was the beginning of a formal trial. And a formal trial was not what the Jewish leaders wanted. Please, just sign the death certificate and let's get on with it. So they seem a little taken aback, if you remember. They're like, well, Pilate, we've talked about this. If he wasn't guilty, we wouldn't have declared him guilty in our own courts. So why don't you just sign the death

7:45 certificate but Pilate's not having any of it if he's going to crucify Jesus he's going to do it right and Roman by having a genuine bona fide trial and it's a shocker to the Pharisees that he does so it also puts him in a pickle when Pilate decides to have a trial it really puts him in a pickle they didn't expect to have a trial they weren't prepared to have a trial They didn't expect Pilate to go all noble Roman on him. And besides, the crime that they'd actually convicted Jesus of, which was blasphemy, right, calling himself the Son of God, making himself equal with God, that was a crime that the Jews were interested in, but Pilate wouldn't be remotely interested in in any way whatsoever.

8:30 If they had said to Pilate, well, the charge that we bring against him is blasphemy. He's claiming to be the Son of God, which makes him equal to God, and you know, oh Pilate, that we are a monotheistic nation, And so, therefore, this man is condemned of blasphemy. Pilate would have just been like, ugh, enough. This is just a Jewish religious dispute. And he would have dismissed the whole thing as not worthy of his time. So now that Pilate has said, what charge do you bring? They're in a pickle. They've got to do something. And what they come up with on the spot, basically, was to accuse Jesus of something that Pilate very much would care about.

9:03 They accused him of treason, of sedition against the majesty of Rome and the majesty of Emperor Tiberius Caesar in Rome itself. They said, this man is claiming to be a king. Which is in direct opposition and sets him in direct conflict to Emperor Tiberius Caesar. Now that was something Pilate would care about. And that's where we pick up the story today in chapter 18, verse 33. Look there with me.

9:36 So, Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered, Do you say this of your own accord? Or did others say it to you about me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done? 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.

10:10 Then Pilate said to him, so you are a king. Jesus answered, you've said it, I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I've come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. And Pilate said to him, what is truth? After he'd said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, I find no guilt in him, but you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? And they cried out again, not this man, but Barabbas.

10:43 Now, Barabbas was a robber. Now, without a doubt, this is just a fascinating exchange here between Jesus and this Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. It's so fascinating, I think, because at this point in the story, both of them, Jesus and Pilate, actually kind of seem to respect each other. And they're sort of sizing each other up. They're having a real conversation. They're sort of taking each other at face value. And Pilate is asking smart questions. They're exactly the kinds of questions that you'd expect from a hard-headed Roman governor.

11:14 And Jesus has given him extremely straightforward answers. And it's all in the context of this Roman procedure for a legal proceeding. It's also fascinating, I think, because you can just, as the story goes on, you can feel the tension and weight of the decision that Pilate's got to make here. And it's on a couple of different levels, which lends even more weight and fascination to the whole thing. I mean, on one level, at the most surface level, just as a judge, Pilate has to decide whether this man that's standing before him is going to live or die.

11:47 And that's his job as the emperor's representative, the procurator, they called him. So as Pilate, the judge, he's got a decision to make in which a man's life hangs in the balance. But there's another level of this whole thing as well. Because Pilate is not just facing Jesus right now as Pilate, the judge. He's facing Jesus, more importantly and more deeply, as Pilate, the man. And by the end of the whole exchange, the question that's hanging over the whole thing is not, will Jesus live or die, but it's, will Pilate live or die in an eternal sense?

12:21 Because the challenge that Jesus leaves for him is, Pilate, will you believe in me? Will you accept me for who I am and be saved? And ultimately, that's the question that lingers under all the legal machinations, all the legal procedures of this story. And what's fascinating about it is that John shows us more than any of the other three Gospels what's happening in Pilate's mind as he wrestles with the claims and challenges of Jesus.

12:53 So here's the main idea. The main idea of the sermon is this. Look, you may have some questions about Jesus, and that's fine. But once those questions are answered, and they can be answered, once those questions are answered, there's only one question left, and it's not to Jesus, it's to you. Will you believe in him or not? Once all the questions are answered, and they can be, there's only one question left, and it's to you. Will you believe in him or not?

13:28 Now, just like is the case with so many portions of narrative in the Bible, it's a little hard to kind of divide this up because it's sort of one story, it's one conversation, it runs logically from beginning to end as a single conversation, but I do think you can kind see this scene developing in kind of two different acts. So in verses 33 to 36, you've got Pilate's initial question about whether Jesus is a king, and then Jesus answers that. And then in 37 to 40, he presses the matter again to be sure in his own, you know, judge's mind about the whole thing. And then after Jesus answers him, tries to evade responsibility for the verdict that he's reached. He tries to get away from Jesus. So two points to the sermon, number one, a moment of decision, and then number two, an attempt at evasion. A moment of decision and an attempt at evasion. Let's look at it. Number one, a moment of decision that faces Pilate. If you remember from last time, throughout this whole conversation that Pilate's having to

14:30 have with the Pharisees, he's been having to sort of shuffle back and forth between his own judgment hall, where his judgment seat, his sort of, you know, little throne would have been, and the courtyard outside where the Jews and Jesus at the time were because the Jews had refused to go into Pilate's house for fear of being defiled during this week of the Passover. They didn't want that. They have to be the big leaders. They have to participate in all the feasts. And if they go inside a Gentile's house, and Pilate's a Gentile, they can't participate in the feast, and so they don't want to do that. I mean, never mind, of course, that they've broken like a dozen and a half of their own laws in this steamrolling of Jesus to get him convicted before the Passover would really begin. Never mind all of that. They don't want to be defiled in this ritualistic manner.

15:16 So they stay outside and Pilate's got to run back and forth sort of between his own judgment hall and the courtyard in order to talk to them. So 33 starts with Pilate. He's been talking to the Jews out in the courtyard. 33 starts with him turning around. He heads back inside to begin his trial of Jesus. John doesn't tell us exactly what the Pharisees charged Jesus with. John just sort of skips that part. And the reason he skips it and just moves right into Pilate's questioning is probably because he knows about the other three Gospels, and he knows that you are familiar with the other three Gospels. And so what he's doing really throughout his book is sort of filling in holes, right? So he'll rush forward to some detail or some story that's not told in the other three Gospels, but he'll skip very famous events that are told in plenty of detail in the other three. That's probably what he does here. He just sort of skips the charge, runs right to Pilate's questioning. But it's going to be useful to look at how Luke, for example, records the charge that the Jews finally made against Jesus. You can tell that they're kind of scrambling for

16:17 it because this trial's been sprung on them. And what they say is, we found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar and saying that he himself is Christ, a king. That's in Luke chapter 23. Now, if you look at that carefully, you can see three things that they've sort of come up with. It's a sort of spaghetti-against-the-wall approach. We have to find something that's going to make Pilate mad and get him to crucify Jesus. So let's just take everything we've got that sounds remotely political, true or not, and throw it against the wall. So number one, they say, we found this man misleading our nation.

16:52 That's kind of the first attempt. And that's sort of moving into their blasphemy charge, right? They don't want the nation to believe that Jesus is God. They don't want him to believe that he's the Messiah. And so they just try to sort of wipe it out a little bit, Just scrub it out and say, we won't use the word blasphemy. We'll just say he's misleading our nation. Well, that doesn't work. Pilate's not interested in that. They also say, second, he's forbidding us to give tribute or pay taxes is what that means to Caesar. Well, of course, that's just utterly false. You know, one time Jesus got asked about paying taxes to Caesar.

17:23 You remember what he did? He took a Roman coin and said, whose picture is on this coin? Whose image is on this coin? And the people say, well, it's Caesar's, right? And so he says, well, then give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. and you give to God what belongs to God. Of course, the hook in that, of course, is, well, if Caesar's image and likeness is on the coin, and therefore it belongs to Caesar, and we ought to give it to Caesar, the question becomes, well, okay, but where is God's image? Where is God's likeness? That's on us. You're made in the image of God.

17:55 So give to God what belongs to God. Give yourself to him. That was the hook, but he didn't say don't pay taxes to Caesar. In fact, he straight up said, you should give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. So Pilate doesn't question him about that one either. But then there's that third one. We found this man misleading our nation, no, forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, false, and saying that he himself is the anointed one, Christ, a king.

18:29 That's the third one. And that's the one that catches Pilate's attention. Because in claiming to be a king, in claiming to be the anointed one, what the Pharisees were saying about Jesus, that he had done that, was true for one thing, but it was also the one that was a potential threat to Caesar's authority. So that's the charge that he, as he rose in on, and he asks him point blank there in verse 33, are you the king of the Jews? Are you the king of the Jews? Now, all four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, record Pilate asking that question.

19:02 It's in almost exactly the same form. And all four of the Gospels record that at the end of the whole conversation, Pilate walks out of his judgment hall and renders the verdict that Jesus is not, in fact, guilty of treason. So that's all they tell us, though. Are you the king of the Jews? Then there's silence because none of the other Gospels record the conversation. And then Pilate walks out of his judgment hall and says he's not guilty. He's not guilty of treason. He's no threat to the emperor. He's not guilty of sedition. I find no reason for a charge against him.

19:35 What's fascinating about John's gospel, though, is that that silence between the question and the verdict that exists in the other three gospels is filled in by John. And you get to see the conversation that convinced Pilate that Jesus was no threat to Caesar. So let's look at it. Look at verse 33. So Pilate goes into his headquarters again. He asks this question in verse 33, and Jesus responds to that question, are you the king of the Jews, with a question of his own. Look what he says. Jesus answered, do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?

20:13 Now, at first glance, if you're reading this with a certain sort of attitude, it can kind of look like Jesus is just sort of being impudent here. Just like getting back up in Pilate's face and saying, do you really have any interest at all in that question, Or are you just parroting the words that the Jews have stuffed into your mouth? It can look like Jesus is just getting right back up in his face. But that's not it at all. That's not just a rhetorical question. It's not just a thunderous clap back to Pilate. That's not what's going on. He's asking Pilate in all sincerity, do you really have any interest in that question?

20:49 Do you have any interest in it in the way that it matters? I mean, he knows that Pilate has interest in the question, right? It's Pilate's job to be interested in the question of anybody. Do you think you're a king? Do you think you've set yourself up against Caesar as a rival to Caesar? He's very interested in that question. What Jesus wants to know is, are you interested in that question in any deeper sense? Are you approaching this just as a judge, as a Roman governor, with strictly Roman ideas of what a king is and does politically, because if you are, then you'll get one answer from me.

21:29 But if there's just a chance, if there's just a remote chance, Pilate, that you're asking not just, are you a king, but are you the Messiah? Then we have a different conversation. So before he answers, Jesus wants to know where he's coming from. Are you just asking this question as a Roman judge? Or are you asking this question as a man who knows he needs to be saved?

22:04 And in 35, Pilate gives his answer. Pilate answered, am I a Jew? The answer, of course, is no. God forbid that you should think of me as a Jew. It's your own nation and the chief priests who have delivered you over to me. What have you done? In other words, Jesus, I am not a Jew, and I don't care about your Jewish religious disputes. I'm not interested in your thousand-year-old scriptures. I'm not interested in your prophecies. What I want to know, and it is my job to know it, is what you have done that presses on and challenges the authority of Rome.

22:42 I mean, if you think about it, it's really a pretty tragic moment in the history of the world. Because there's this tiny space of time that hangs in the air after Jesus asks him that question. How are you asking this? Are you asking it merely as a judge or are you asking it as a man? There's this tiny space of time that hangs there where it all could have been different for Pilate. Where he could have looked into the eyes of Jesus and seen him for who he truly was and said, Jesus, I'm asking for real.

23:15 I've been here long enough to know the Jewish scriptures. I've been here long enough to have seen what you've done and how it lines up with the Jewish scriptures. I'm not just asking for the emperor. I'm not just asking this question as part of my job. I'm asking for me. There was a moment when he could have done that. In the end, sadly, Pilate turned out to be nothing but his job. Friend, is there any chance that that's you?

23:48 that when it comes to Jesus, you're not approaching Him on your own terms. You're not approaching Him for your own interest. But you're approaching Him and even rendering a verdict on Him based on somebody else's agenda. Is there any chance that maybe you're forming your opinions about Jesus, not because you've really thought it through and those are your opinions but because somebody else in your life demands that you think about Jesus in a certain way.

24:29 Maybe not even explicitly. Maybe it's implicitly. Maybe you know that if you render an opinion on Jesus that is in his favor, if you say, yes, I actually believe that Jesus is who he says he is, that friends will reject you or family will reject you or co-workers will reject you or a political agenda will reject you. Look, other people around you can exert all kinds of pressure. They can exert all kinds of pressure on you and make you feel like you need to reach a certain conclusion about Jesus.

25:01 But I want you to think about it. I want you to stop right here and right now and think about it for just a minute. Maybe, just maybe, you need to take a moment and decouple from those pressures and really think about Jesus on your own terms, not on a superficial level, not looking for a reason to render a verdict against him, but on a real level. Look him in the eyes and say, yes, this is a real question. Are you the king? Are you the savior?

25:35 Can you really save me? And that's what Pilate, to his everlasting shame, did not do. And I pray you won't make the same mistake. Well, by verse 36, Jesus knows exactly where Pilate is coming from. He's just playing his role as a Roman governor. There's nothing deeper to it than that. He's really nothing but his job. He has no interest in Jesus beyond the agenda that's being set for him by the emperor and Rome.

26:08 And so all he really wants to know is whether Jesus is planning to launch an insurrection against Rome. So Jesus makes it clear that he's not. Look at verse 36. What have you done, Pilate said? What have you done to set yourself in opposition to Caesar, to threaten Caesar's power? Verse 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.

26:39 Okay, now, at the strictly legal level, this is Jesus' defense against the charge of treason. And it's a perfectly legitimate offense because what he does essentially is admit to the word and the reality that, yes, in fact, I am a king, but then he defines the idea of kingship in such a way that it's clear to everybody that he's not a threat to Rome. He's not intending to raise a flag over Jerusalem and install himself as a king and start fighting with armies against Rome. When you think back to John chapter 6, that's what the people wanted him to do, right?

27:12 When he fed the 5,000, do you remember us talking about that? That would have been several years ago, but he feeds the 5,000 with a little boy's lunchable, right? And immediately after that, they try to grab him and make him king by force. Now, why would they do that? Why would they try to make him king by force? Because it is a huge advantage to an army if you can feed him out of nothing. And this guy can do it. He can feed an army out of literally nothing. So let's make him king and let's fight against the Romans. Jesus ran away from that. I'm not that kind of king.

27:42 I didn't come to be that kind of king. And he's making the same point here. My kingdom is not of this world. You don't need to worry about that, Pilate. So that's the legal thing. It's interesting, too, that legally he says there, you know, if his proof is sort of, if my kingdom were of this world, My servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. You remember that Peter tried. He cut the guy's ear off, but Jesus told him, put the sword away. We don't live by the sword. That's not what my kingdom is.

28:16 And it's also worth noting that when Jesus says, my servants would have been fighting, he didn't just mean the 11 apostles. He's not talking about an army of 11. Do you remember what he said? if I just whisper, my father will send 72,000 angels to fight this war for me. So Pilate wouldn't have known it, but that was a pretty powerful threat right there. If I want to fight, I'll fight. But that's not what I'm about. That's the legal, that's the political aspect of this.

28:47 But obviously there's more to it than that. Because what Jesus is doing here, beyond just making a legal defense of himself, is actually defining the very nature of his kingdom. and its relationship to other governments and kingdoms and powers of this age, right? He's defining how they exist together. And therefore, because he's defining the nature of his kingdom and the way his kingdom exists in relationship to other kingdoms, he's also defining how you and I are to live in relationship with other governments and kingdoms and powers of this age.

29:20 There's a few things to say about that. Here they come. Most essentially, in saying that my kingdom is not of this world, therefore my followers are not of this world and so far as they're in my kingdom in defining the relationship between his kingdom and the powers and authorities of this world he's saying that his kingdom unlike them does not have its origin in the stuff of this earth I mean in a way it's a kind of insult to all the other kingdoms and authorities and powers of the world he's saying those kingdoms are earthly they rise from the mud of this earth and they ultimately all fall into that same mud. But not my kingdom. My kingdom, Jesus said, is not of this world. It doesn't have its origin in this world, and therefore it will not have its end in this world, and therefore also it has no agenda of competing with the kingdoms of this world on their terms.

30:15 In other words, my kingdom does not advance like they do by force or coercion. That's not how it works the kingdom of god unlike the kingdoms of all the other kingdoms of the world nations of the world does not advance by force or by coercion that's why he says i didn't have my followers fight for me that's why i didn't call the armies of heaven to defend him his throne unlike caesar's does not sit in the stuff of the earth and it doesn't need swords to defend or advance it that said though this is kind of the second thing he says doesn't need swords to advancing. Second thing he says, though, or second thing he kind of doesn't say, is that Jesus' words here don't deny in any way that the citizens of his kingdom, that's you and me, will be and will live our lives in and among and even under the kingdoms of this world. He doesn't deny that at all. We do, in fact, as citizens of heaven, live also in and among and under the kingdoms of this

31:16 world for most of us what that means gathered here anyway today for most of us in this room that means that as christians we are citizens of heaven and most of us are citizens of the united states all at the same time which means that we have responsibilities to both we have responsibilities to work for the good of the one while ultimately remembering that our allegiance lies with the other boots on the ground what that means is that we as Christians want to see the United States be a just and righteous society we want to work toward that by whatever means are available to us including the vote so we vote, we advocate, we exert pressure on societal structures and systems and we do it all in an effort to bring our society into line with what we know to be right precisely because we know that if society does what is right it will also be doing the most good for itself and so we engage the political process. We engage society on its own terms.

32:18 But at the same time, we also remember that our consciences are ultimately bound by King Jesus alone. Our statement of faith, for instance, I think puts all this really well. It says we believe, this is ours as a church, we believe that civil government is of divine appointment for the interests and good order of human society and we believe that magistrates are to be prayed for conscientiously honored and obeyed but then listen to the last phrase of it they're to be obeyed the law is to be obeyed the kingdoms of this world are to be submitted to except in things opposed to the will of our lord jesus christ who is the prince of the kings of the earth our allegiance is ultimately to him not to this other kingdom even though we may be citizens of it one more thing about this i want you to notice too that Jesus's words also don't deny that one day his kingdom will in fact be in conflict with all the other kingdoms of the earth in straight up head-to-head conflict the rest of

33:24 the Bible makes that clear and if you didn't pick that up in the book of Revelation you should go listen to that whole series again because it's kind of the whole point of the book that in the end the kingdom of Christ is going to be in conflict with and overcome all the kingdoms of the earth one day really soon the bible tells us the time for the kingdom of god to grow within and under the kingdoms of this world is going to come to an end and the time will arrive when the king of kings and lord of lords is going to demand that all the nations of the earth bow down to him now that day isn't here yet and for now all the kings of the earth rule and reign and the kingdom of god kind of spreads like yeast through and under them whether they try to stop it or not but one day every single one of those kings every one of those prime ministers every one of those presidents every one of those communist party leaders will bring all their treasures to the one who sits on the throne and every tongue will confess and every knee will bow and we'll all say that Jesus Christ is Lord

34:26 friend if you're a citizen of the United States you ought to work for the good of the United States of America You ought to hope for, you ought to pray for the good of the United States of America. But you also must remember that one day even the colors of the United States will be struck and fall down at the feet of the King of Kings. Look, here's the point. Being a Christian is not and cannot just be a religious matter.

35:00 It's a reality. It's a real allegiance that therefore creates real tensions and real pressures and real challenges in this very real world. Most of us here in this room are citizens of the United States. Some of you are citizens of the UK or Canada or China or whatever nation it is. And we should do all we can to work for the good of the people of those various nations. We should pray and work for the good of our country. But friends, even as we do that, we've got to remember that more deeply, more fundamentally than we are citizens of our countries, we are citizens of a kingdom whose values and goals and aspirations are hotly at odds with those of the world.

35:43 But unlike the kingdoms of this world, we as Christians have no desire to advance our values, our goals, our aspirations at the end of a sword. No, the spread of the kingdom of God happens like yeast through dough. It happens by persuasion. It happens by the Holy Spirit changing hearts. It happens by knees bowing to Jesus as they realize that they're sinners and need him to save them from their sin and from judgment. That's what the kingdom of God is. And that's what Pilate didn't understand.

36:16 Here's point number two, though, second act of this play. once Pilate understands it, an attempt at evasion. An attempt at evasion. So in verse 37 it becomes very clear that Pilate's heart really is as dull as Jesus thought it was. He's thinking purely as a Roman governor. He isn't interested in Jesus any further than that. So out of all that Jesus has said about my kingdom not being of this world, about me not defending it with the sword, about it not advancing at the tip of a sword. Of all that he has said, Pilate zeroes in on a one single little phrase. And that's the moment when Jesus said, my kingdom. That's what grabs his attention. That's what Pilate zeroes in on. He's not interested in anything Jesus actually said about my kingdom. It seems like he missed all of that. He didn't hear that it's not of this world.

37:09 He didn't hear it's not seeking to advance by force. He didn't hear it's not a political threat to Rome. All he hears is, my kingdom, and he homes in on it like a missile. Ah, so you are a king then. I mean, his logic is impeccable, right? If you have a kingdom, you must be a king, right? He's sharp as a tack, this one. Now, Jesus' response to that pressing from Pilate, ah, so therefore you are a king, right? It's been misunderstood by a whole lot of people throughout the centuries because they think Jesus is being evasive himself.

37:47 You can see it in your Bible. I didn't read, when I read it, the first time I didn't read it as it's written because it's written and it sounds like, it's translated as if Jesus is evading. Jesus answered, you say that I am a king. You're the one who said I'm a king. That wasn't me. That's your word that you're using there. That's not my word, but that's a mistranslation. That's not what Jesus said at all and this form of Greek words gets used all over classical literature, and it always means the same thing. What it means, what Jesus says there, is actually a straight up and unqualified yes.

38:21 He says, you have said it. I am a king. That's what he means. You've said it. You've hit the nail on the head. You're right. I am, in fact, a king. And then he goes on again and explains just what his kingship entails. I've come into the world. I was born for this purpose, to bear witness to the truth. That's why I'm here. Now, what does he mean by that? I've come to bear witness to the truth. Well, again, that's not just some religious mumbo-jumbo.

38:55 I think we can think of it like that. You know, when Jesus comes to the moment of climax, right, when he comes to the time when Pilate's got his finger in his face, are you a king? You're saying you're a king. Jesus says, yes, I am a king, but I'm just a flitty religious king, right? No power to it. I'm about truth. That's it. It's just religious mumbo-jumbo. That's all I mean by it. But that's not what he means. What Jesus means when he says, I bear witness to the truth, is the same thing that he meant back up in chapter 14 when he said, I am the truth and the way and the life.

39:30 He means that when he's bearing witness to the truth, When he's saying to the world around him what is true, he's saying everything that he's been revealing and proclaiming and pressing on people's hearts throughout this whole book. He means, I bear witness to the truth that I am the Son of God. I bear witness to the truth that I'm the new temple where God and man meet. I bear witness to the truth that I'm the bread of life and the water of life and the light of the world. I bear witness to the truth that I am the great I am and the resurrection and the life.

40:03 and then look what he says at the end of 37 everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice now you see what that is that last line do you see do you see what that is it's not just a statement it's not just a proverb it's not just an aphorism it doesn't just end with a period it ends with a deep deep look into Pilate's soul and a dot, dot, dot.

40:38 Everyone, Pilate, who is of the truth, listens to me. What about you? You see what it is? It's an invitation. It's an offer to Pilate. Will you listen to me or not? My friend, you're here this morning, and because you are here, that same question has come to you this morning.

41:11 Everyone who is of the truth, everyone who is of the age to come, everyone who is a person of God, listens to Jesus. What about you? Will you listen to Him? Will you listen to Him when He says that you're a sinner in need of a Savior? Will you listen to him when he says, there's no way you're going to be able to work yourself out of that sin? Will you listen to him when he says, you're not going to be able to win the favor of God by doing good stuff or avoiding bad stuff?

41:42 Will you listen to him when he says, there's no way to avoid the coming judgment? One day you will stand before God and you will answer for your life and you will be declared guilty of a rebellion against him. And then will you listen to him when he says, but I can save you. But everyone who calls on the name of me, Jesus, will be saved. Will you listen to him when he says, Everybody who believes in me, trusts in me, has faith in me, throws him or herself on me and says, Jesus, I can't save myself, I need you to save me, will not perish but have everlasting life.

42:14 Will you listen to him when he says that? And will you believe? Will you trust? Will you put your faith in him and declare that he is king? And Savior. I mean, sadly. Pilate's response to that question is just to evade. He just evades. He's right there. He's just right there on the precipice of eternity.

42:47 And what does he do? He makes a joke. To bat it away. You see that? First thing he does. The first evasion he makes is that he just bats it away with this cynical question. What is truth? Some people have said, wow, you know, Pilate is so postmodern. He's like 2,000 years ahead of his time. He's so philosophical. He's so thoughtful. He must have read all the philosophers.

43:18 He's not thoughtful. Pilate's not read any books. He's not interested in an answer to that question. If he was really interested in an answer to that question, he'd have stuck around and let Jesus try to answer it. I mean, he's been talking to Jesus long enough to know that the man probably had some thoughts on that question. What is truth? But he didn't want an answer. He just bats it away. What is truth? And did he just, I mean, expect Jesus to go, yeah, for real, dude. You know, what is it?

43:49 I just, what's he expecting? No, he's shown from the beginning that all he's interested in, all he's interested in with regard to Jesus, is whether Jesus is a threat to Rome. And now that that question is answered, he's not interested anymore. And so he goes out to deliver his verdict. Look at 38. Pilate says to him, what is truth? Bats it away. After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, I find no guilt in him.

44:20 Basically, at the end of the trial, the very last thing was for the procurator, the representative of the emperor, to declare the verdict. The thing they normally would have said at the moment of the verdict was this Latin phrase, non fecisi vidator. My daughter at Highlands Latin School helped me with that. That's how they would have said it. Non fecisi vidator. In other words, it doesn't seem that he's done the thing. It doesn't seem that he's done the thing. And then the very next thing that should have happened is that he should have let Jesus go.

44:52 He should have let him go. He should have told his soldiers to unbind his hands and let him go. That's what he should have done. But, of course, he doesn't. I mean, you look at 38 and 39. It's amazing. I find no guilt in him, but, but, there's no but. You found no guilt in him. You declared it. You know, that Latin phrase. It doesn't seem that he's done the thing, which was the Roman not guilty.

45:22 You should have let him go. What's with this but? And yet between 38 and 39, the whole thing starts to capsize. Everything that Pilate has been doing to try to be a good Roman, to hold a proper trial, goes away. It sinks. He flinches and doesn't let Jesus go like he should have. Why? Why doesn't he let Jesus go? Because he's not just a judge. He's a politician. he's not just a judge he's a politician and he thinks he sees a better way a way to get out of this little problem that he's in well what's the problem well it's he thinks jesus is innocent right he really does at this point in the trial he thinks jesus is innocent he is not a threat to the power of rome but he also doesn't want to humiliate the pharisees either and that would work against his larger goals here in Judea you can't just humiliate the Pharisees you can't just humiliate the the rulers of the people you can't set this guy free after they've

46:26 gone to all this trouble to put him in chains so he makes them an offer he says all right guys I tell you what I find him innocent he's no threat to Rome but I'll tell you what I'll do I'll let you make the decision on your own as the great and high and mighty rulers of your people I'll let you make the decision to spring Jesus out of prison and then you can go back to the people of Israel and you can explain to them how guilty Jesus is under your own laws but that you in your great mercy have decided to rescue him from the power of wrong you'll have the glory you'll be the ones in the right of course that plan also has the additional benefit that it gets Pilate off the hook of getting pressed by them into condemning a man that he's convinced is innocent so he offers them a choice

47:27 he offers them a deal in other words he continues to try to evade the choice that stands before him to put it off on somebody else so that he doesn't have to take the consequences of it. If you think about it, that is not an uncommon response to Jesus, is it? Evasion. I mean, that's the thing about Jesus' claims. That's the thing that people see in Jesus' claims when they finally look at him face to face, right?

48:00 They're incredibly and inescapably pointed. You can't just ignore them. You also can't just approach the claims of Jesus as this kind of mystical, intellectual exercise. We're all just going to explore this together for a while. We're going to revel in the questions. The answer, the verdict, is not really the point. We revel in the journey here. We enjoy the intellectual and religious exercise. That's not what Jesus presses on you.

48:33 Jesus presses you for a verdict. Do you believe him or do you not? And so a natural response is to evade, just evade. I got to get out of here. I got people to see. I got things to do. I'm busy this week. I don't have time for this. There are more pressing things for me to do today than think about Jesus. Friend, that's what Pilate tried to do. He tried to push it off on the Pharisees. He tried several more ploys that we're going to look at over the next few weeks.

49:05 He finally put his hands in a basin of water and tried to wash the decision off his hands and say, I don't have anything to do with this. But history hasn't let him evade it. And God hasn't let him evade it. Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate. He can't get away from it, and neither can you. Friend, don't try to evade the claims of Jesus. Look at them straight up and make a decision about him.

49:38 Render a verdict on him. Do you believe him or do you not? I say this often, but I mean it. Maybe you need to ask some questions. Ask the questions. That's great. There are answers to the questions, I promise you. Christians have been thinking about this stuff for a very long time, and we're very good at it. And even better, this is true, so therefore there are good answers to the questions. But ask them. Don't just stuff them on a shelf somewhere and say, I'll get to them later. These are the most important questions you're ever going to ask in your entire life.

50:12 Who is Jesus? And what does he say about me and what I need to do? Ask your questions. Get answers. And then come to a verdict. Do you believe him or do you not? Don't try to evade him. You won't succeed in that any more than Pilate did. Let's pray. our lord jesus we as a church honor you today as king of kings and lord of lords we are your people whom you have bought with your own blood you laid down your life for us so that we might not have to be crushed under the wrath of god for our sins our father we pray for anybody who might be here this morning who is not yet a christian who hasn't put their faith and trust in you. And Lord, we ask that they would do that before they leave this place today. The Holy Spirit, we pray that you would soften hearts. We pray that you would break hearts. We pray that you would replace stony hearts with hearts of flesh. We pray that you would regenerate and give new

51:16 life to people even today and cause them to come to the verdict on Jesus that yes, he really is the Son of God. He is the Savior. He is the Redeemer. He is my Lord. God, we pray that you would do that this morning and we ask it in the name of Jesus and always to his glory. Amen.