The Gospel of John -- Truth and The True King, John 18:28-19:16

What we believe to be true will determine how we live. Do you believe Jesus is the truth?

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Morning, church. Glad you guys are here this morning and thankful to have the opportunity to teach. So we are here today to center our lives, our attention, our focus on Jesus. Now, a couple nights ago I had the opportunity to watch a movie. Every now and then with our kids, we'll uh we'll we'll throw a movie on in the living room and we'll uh we'll get some snacks or we'll eat dinner and we'll kind of watch a movie together. And we watched uh a movie that's been around for a little while called Wally. Anybody seen Wally? Wally, right? Um so the kids, I thought since the kids were in the room, they'd appreciate that. Um but it's interesting, there's a lot of commentary on the culture in Wally. Uh if you've watched it and you paid attention, parents are like, ah, you know, kids don't really get it, but parents get a lot of it. But one of the interesting and yet sad truths is that you see these people in Wally, um, they're on this spaceship because they've, you know, basically polluted the earth to the point where they had to leave the earth and they're now living in space on this amazing spaceship with all these things, and they've been living there for 700 years, uh, or something like that. And and and they're like in their little chairs, just these blobs of human beings. And it's it's really it's really kind of sad to be honest. And and they're just on their little screens, and they're just kind of living their little life, getting their food, uh, getting their entertainment, but they're kind of in sort of a zombie type state, really. And and so Wally, of course, disrupts that and starts like breaking uh the cycle because he he messes with the screen, and for the first time, people kind of see beyond this little screen that's in front of them, and they start to get a little bit of a sense of whoa, there's something bigger going on here. In fact, they go, Whoa, we have a pool here. Uh whoa, there's a peep, there's other people around. They actually start to connect. And I was just thinking about that in light of just I know for some of us we go through our everyday lives. Uh, we kind of get into our modes of operation, and we're just kind of like zombies, just walking through life, doing our thing, you know, paying bills and going to work and you know, checking on the kids and doing things. And my prayer is that every time we gather as a church here, this would just be a disruption, okay? A holy disruption to you, that we just sort of recenter us, recenter your life, just kind of break out of that tunnel vision we can sometimes get into and see the beautiful and amazing realities of God. That we could just kind of have an awakening of our hearts every single week when we gather to celebrate. And I hope it's not just on Sundays when we gather. Hopefully it's in our groups, as you if you're part of a life group, a community group, uh, if you're part of just meeting with people and talking about the word, that every time we open God's word, every time we pray that God would disrupt us because Christians don't see the world just like everybody else does. We have a new perspective, a new view because of Christ and what he's done and because of the work of the Holy Spirit in us. And it's amazing, it's beautiful. And the Christian life, and especially for you men in this room, I want you to hear this: the Christian life is an adventure. It's not a boring just process that we sort of, it's a beat it's just a beatdown that we go through, but it is an adventure that God has called us into as we follow him. And so I pray that even this morning your heart, your mind, your eyes, your every part of you would just be enlivened again with a fresh sense of awe and wonder. I don't want that to ever go away as I look at the scripture and who Jesus is and what he's done. I want it to wake us up, to give us a fresh sense of awe. So if you have your Bible, I want to ask you to open up to John chapter 18. John chapter 18. Um last week Harley took us through the first half of John 18, talked about Peter, and talked about the difference between trusting God and trusting ourselves, and how we can see that in the life of Peter contrasted with the life of Jesus. And so this morning we're gonna continue in the narrative in John as the next step of Jesus' trials unfolding. He's headed to the cross, and we're not surprised by that. We know the end of the story, we know where this thing's gonna end, and then where uh what Christ is gonna do. But um, I want us to read this together. I'm just gonna read the first, well, it's back it's bears basically verse 28 through 38. I'm gonna read that to us, even though we're gonna go further in uh kind of our conversation this morning in regards to um what Jesus says to Pilate. Okay? So if you're with me, John 18, verse 28, here we go. Then they took Jesus from Caiphus to the governor's headquarters. It was early morning. They did not enter the headquarters themselves, otherwise they would be defiled and unable to eat the Passover. Then Pilate came out to them and said, What charge do you bring against this man? They answered him, If this man weren't a criminal, we wouldn't have handed him over to you. So Pilate told them, Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law. It's not legal for us to put anyone to death, the Jews declared. They said this so that Jesus' words might be fulfilled, signifying what kind of death he was going to die. Then Pilate went back into the headquarters, summoned Jesus, and said to him, Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered, Are you asking this on your own? Or have others told you about me? I am not a Jew, am I? Pilate replied. Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done? My kingdom is not of this world, said Jesus. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I would be handed over to the Jews. As it is, my kingdom does not have its origin here. You're a king, then? Pilate asked. You say that I'm a king, Jesus replied. I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of truth listens to my voice. What is truth? said Pilate. And we're going to stop there. Now, there are so many different ways that we could preach this text because there's so many different themes within it. But I want to focus in on this last question that Pilate asked. And I don't think that we can do it justice because we're not there in person, but I need you to understand that when Pilate asks this question, what is truth? He says it in the most sarcastic, snarky voice. Okay? Because at this point, he is at a place where he's a little bit exasperated with Jesus. Jesus is not answering his questions directly or clearly. And he's like, What is truth, Jesus? I mean, what is truth anyway? And I thought about that question this week because we're actually not so far removed from that question even today, are we? You see, Pilate's question might have been some exasperation towards Jesus, but the reality is that we live in a world that's still asking the question, well, what is truth anyway? I mean, you know, what it what is truth? Who can really know truth? I mean, what how how do you think you have the corner market on truth? Why do I say that? Well, one of the beautiful things about going on mission trips, as I just mentioned, is that you do get to see other cultures in the world and you get to see uh the ways that people interact, the way they think, and and there are common denominators in the human experience, no matter where you live, right? So you go all over the world. We would engage people in Indonesia when we were there in Grab Driver uh cars, which uh that Uber owns Grab there, so it's basically their Uber. And and so we're there in a in a car called Grab Grab Driver. Um we would we would start talking to these drivers and we would engage them in discussions, and one of the first things we say is just like here, hey, so you have a family? Yeah. You have a wife? Yeah, how long you've been married? Kids. So we get through all sort of the informalities, uh just kind of the things about life and easy connection, right? And then we ask this question because we were there to share the good news of Jesus. So we had to transition at some point and say, hey, look, we look around, we hear these prayers, which by the way, if you've never been in a Middle Eastern country or Muslim country and listened to like the prayers be blasted over the city, uh, it's such an eerie experience. And this has been, I think, three or four times for me to be in that environment where you're hearing these prayers five times a day, blasted over loudspeakers over all entire neighborhoods. Um, as these men and even children at times praying these prayers to Allah. They're very impersonal prayers. The people come and there's a call to prayer and they they they bow down and face Mecca. But as I would see that, I would see these grab drivers, hey, I see these guys praying. Like, uh there's a lot of Muslims here. Are you Muslim? And of course, eight out of ten, most of them would say, Yes, I'm I'm Muslim. And I would ask the question, well, are you like, did you grow up Muslim? Did you like how did you become a Muslim? And most of them say, Well, I was I was born into it, I was, I was raised Muslim, and that's what I am. And without uh without an exception, almost, yeah, without exception, every one of the drivers I spoke with would say something to this effect. I'm Muslim, but everybody has their beliefs, and we just want to live at peace with everybody. And so we don't want anybody to be like, you know, basically they they didn't want there to be any tension. Now, being an American there, they obviously assumed that we assumed certain things about Muslims. So they would automatically start to think that we thought, well, they were militant Muslims, or that they were, you know, the kind of Muslims that were anti-us. And they were like, oh no, we we love everybody, we're for everybody. And they didn't want there to be any tension in regards to that conversation. Now, I will say, it is much easier to talk about religion in Indonesia than it is in the United States. These people are very hospitable, they're very kind, they're very welcoming, uh, they're they're very they're very gracious to you. And you can go a long way in conversation. Uh we found even making the transition back from Indonesia to Singapore and then into San Francisco, the Uber drivers were not quite the same in San Francisco. It's like, hello, we're back in the U.S. Because we have this stigma. Now, the point that I'm trying to make is that there is a stigma because we as a culture have moved to what's called post-truth. I didn't make that up. In fact, 2016, uh, Oxford English Dictionary, their word of the year was post-truth. Word of the year, post-truth. What does that even mean? Well, primarily what it means is that you can't objectively know truth. It's what you feel, it's whatever you have your own belief, I have my own belief. It's subjective, okay? And what I'm saying to us is that we struggle, again, with this same question that Pilate asked, what is truth? And we've all kind of just said, well, whatever you think it is, that's true. And I'm here to say today that the Bible tells us plainly that that's not the case. Now, one other note. Some of you have been in church all your lives, and I thought about this and I was like, you know, God, am I really trying to talk to a group of people who don't believe that there's truth? And I was just, you guys hear me give a lot of stats. I'm I don't know why. I like stats, but sometimes they're really depressing. And one of the ones that I looked at, Pew Research 2017, said that in America, that 80% of Christians believe that there's at least one other way to God besides Jesus. So that means, I'm just gonna throw this out, there's probably some of you in here who believe there's other ways to God besides Jesus. Now, to put all my cards on the table from the very beginning this morning, not to shut you off, but to put all my cards on the table, I believe this word is true. And this word says that there is no other way except through Jesus to the Father and to heaven. That's not culturally okay, it doesn't give warm fuzzies, and in fact, our culture even considers it to be immoral to stand on truth and to then think that that truth is binding for others. But I would much rather offend you than a holy God. And I would much rather stand on the promises of God's word than to get people to like me. Because I know that this is an amazing, miraculous book, and I'll talk more about that in just a minute. You see, coupled with this idea of post-truth, we have this word tolerance that's floating around. And tolerance is again this idea that we just should let everybody do what they want. But what's so fascinating to me is that if you're intolerant of intolerant people, then you're intolerant. And doing the same thing you accuse of others of doing. Are you with me? And that's exactly what we're seeing today. It is not wrong, it's not bad, it's not evil to have a belief and to stand on that belief. It's no more narrow to claim that one religion is right than to claim that the one way to think about all religions are right. Does that make sense? You still with me? Now, truthfully, we need Robbie Zacharias here this morning. Some of you guys know who he is, RZIM Ministry. If you're a thinker and you really like intellectual conversations, I encourage you to go to his site, rziam I think.org. He's an incredible, amazing thinker. I am not, but I can tell you this: that God can minister to us and he can lead us into understanding truth and even how to engage in a way that is respectful and kind and loving. In fact, Tim Keller in New York City, who's dealt with a lot of people who believe that there is no truth, says this tolerance isn't about not having beliefs. It's about how your beliefs lead you to treat people who disagree with you. And what I would say to you this morning is that a Christ follower, as a Jesus follower, I have something way better than tolerance. I have grace. Way better than tolerance. Why is it way better? Because it's not just that I say you believe what you believe and I believe what I believe and we'll be good. It's that I care about you and I want to serve you, and I want to bless you, and I want to love you, and I want to help you know the truth that I cling to. Not because I'm better than you, not because I know all the answers, not because I have this lofty position, not that I'm God in your life, but because I believe in the truth of the word of God, and I don't want you to miss it, and I want you to know it. And so I want to offer you truth with grace. That's what we as Christians have. It's amazing. But in the post-truth era, era, as Abdul Murray in his recent book, Saving Truth, says, the post-truth era, the public outcry is about preferences, not truth. Anytime a Christian speaks up and says what they believe that the Bible says, in fact, it wasn't all that long ago, that an Australian rugby player, a coach to be exact, was asked about homosexuality, and he gave his biblical perspective on it, and they crucified him. They hammered him. They said, You cannot be uh, you know, you you were you're evil because he gave what he believed to be true. What I'm saying to you this morning is that if you stand on the truth, it will probably not be popular. But I encourage you, cling to God, trust in him. Because here's the thing, C.S. Lewis said it this way. Christianity, if false, is of no importance. But if true, it's of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. You hear me?

unknown 15:39

O.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

C. S., he's a great guy, isn't he? I think we quote him like once a week here. Such a beautiful quote. And such a true quote. You see, what we believe to be true will determine how we live. But many believe truth is relative. It's subjective. What we believe to be true will determine how we live. Um, just as we saw in those other countries of the world that we just recently visited, because they believe certain things, even as I sat in a grab car with uh a guy who is a Buddhist in Singapore, my kids in the car, and one of my favorite things about having our children, two of our children with us on this mission trip is just the worldview perspective they got. And to hear a guy who is a Buddhist say to us, you know, hey, I just want to be a good person. And I'm hopeful that, you know, if I'm just a good enough person, I'll get reincarnated. And in fact, maybe I'll be good enough to get reincarnated in the U.S. next time. That's what he said. And then when I really pressed him, he said, but you know what? The reality is I can't you can't really know what you really believe and what what's really true. Yes, we can. And that's what I told him. I said, Yes, we can. We can know what is true. I know what is true. I am confident in my Savior Jesus Christ. I am confident in his word, and I know where I'm gonna spend eternity because of Christ's sacrifice, not my goodness. And it makes me so sad to know so many people wandering around this earth not believing that they can actually be confident and know truth. So, back to the text. In this text today, again, we could preach this multiple ways, and I'm gonna draw your attention to a couple of those things. But to summarize this section that we've read in a very simplistic way, what we find in the text, in the narrative, is that the Jewish leaders are bringing Jesus to Pilate in order to secure his execution. And after Pilate examines Jesus, he hands him over for crucifixion. He hands them over to these religious leaders. So in verse 28, we find that these uh is kind of getting started here, um, they've already done sort of their trial, uh, the Sanhedrin has, and now they're going to Pilate. Who's Pilate? Well, he's the Roman uh leader in that area, in that region. He's over the the army there, and he's got this responsibility as a governor of that area, and so the Jews know they cannot execute Jesus, they cannot crucify him without this permission of the Romans. Um, so they want Pilate to have a part in this. And what's interesting is, of course, it's you know, it says early morning, which was between 3 and 6 a.m. Under the cover of darkness, they take Jesus over to Pilate's uh quarters, and they want to have this trial, and it's it's really, they said that it's already a slam dunk in their mind because we know that they've already had this conversation with Pilate. They've already talked with him. How do we know that? Well, how did how did did uh did these Sanhedrin leaders get Roman soldiers to uh seize Jesus when he is there with his disciples as Judas betrays him? How did that happen? Well, they've already had a conversation with Pilate, okay? They've already talked through this, and they've already said Jesus is a criminal. All we need to do is get him, and then we'll bring him to you, and then you just make the sentence that he's going to be executed. Alright? And everything is going the way they want it to until they show up and Pilate starts messing with them. Because Pilate, historians will talk about Pilate, but he was he was not a nice guy. He was a punk. Okay? And he liked to mess with the Jews, and he liked to sort of show his power. And so here they show up with this man who he had already heard about. He'd already sent some of his soldiers to capture, to take into custody. And now they show up, and what happens? Well, instead of Pilate just saying, slam dunk, this is a case, it's over, he then looks at them and it says in verse 29, it says, Pilate came out and said, What charge do you bring against this man? And they, of course, answered him, saying, Hello, we've already had this conversation. If this man weren't a criminal, we wouldn't have handed him over to you. You see what I'm saying? And so in this text, we see this interchange between these religious leaders and Pilate. It's really pretty humorous, but in all of it, Jesus is unfazed. And Jesus is there, just going through the process that he knew was coming regardless. And so Pilate says to these guys, Well, why don't you take them and judge them yourself? And of course they say, Well, we can't. It's not legal for us to crucify this guy. And this is what we want to do. We want him dead. We don't want him just like flogged. We want him dead. We want him gone. We don't want to see him anymore. But then in verse 33, it tells us that Pilate went back into his headquarters, and instead of just making the sentence on the spot, he decides he's going to have his own little trial. He's going to have his own little questioning. And so he invites Jesus back to his quarters. And he says in there the first response that we get. Because our focus today is on Jesus' responses to Pilate and what we can learn about truth and his kingship. The first thing he says in verse 33 says, Then Pilate went back into his headquarters, summoned Jesus, and said to him, Are you the king of the Jews? Even in the midst of the stress and the strain that Jesus is enduring, Jesus is still thinking about others. And we see that in his question. Because what does he say to Pilate? I don't think Jesus is being mean or snarky or sarcastic or rude like Pilate was. In this moment, Jesus answers, Are you asking this on your own, or have you others told you about me? What is Jesus doing? He's getting personal. He's saying, This isn't just a trial, Pilate. Where are you with me? Where are you on who I am? What do you think, Pilate? It's interesting when Jesus is with his disciples in a previous scenario and he says that he He asked, looks at his disciples and he says, What does other people think about who I am? And they all start giving these different things that people are saying. But then he looks at his disciples square in the face and he says, Who do you say that I am? You see, the kingdom of God and truth is a personal decision. Why is this so important? Well, it's pretty obvious, isn't it? I hope it is. We see this all the time. We watch parents raise children. There's many kids in here. We're thankful for all of you kids that are here at this service and this gathering today. And I want you to know, kids in the room, that just because your parents believe in Jesus doesn't mean that you automatically do. My prayer is that you would know Jesus because your parents show you who he is. But at some point, every single one of us have to come to a personal saving faith, a personal decision about Jesus. Your faith can't be your parents' faith. Your faith can't be your friend's faith. It can't be your brothers and sisters' faith. It can't be your pastor's faith. Your faith has to be your faith. Amen? It has to be yours. And every one of us has to come to a place where we decide who is Jesus? To me. And Jesus is like, are other people telling you about me, or is this your own understanding? And I would say there's a whole sermon in that we could talk at some other point, a different day. But the truth is this morning, I pose the same question to you. Who do you say that Jesus is? Who do you say that Jesus the Christ is in your life? It's a very, very important question. You know, the psalmist, Psalm 63, David, he says this. He says, and he's out in the desert, he's in the wilderness, and it's this beautiful prayer of him talking about thirsting for God and longing for God. Even in the desert, he's like, God, my soul thirsts for you. More than water, like I need you, God. But he says something that's powerful there. He says, Oh God, you are my God. And every one of us in this room at some point have to come to the place where we say, Oh God, you are my God. Not just my parents' God, not just my friends, God, but you are my God. Have you come to that place? Have you come to that place in your own heart with who Jesus is? Or are you living on borrowed faith? Borrowed faith will not get you through the struggles and trials of this life, the suffering and pain. When hardship hits your life, you have to ask that question, don't you? Do I really believe this, or is this somebody else's belief that they handed to me? We encourage you guys, we encourage you kids, ask questions, wrestle with it. God is a personal God. He will come to you and he will help you understand who He is and how He wants you to follow Him. So in that response, we see that as we engage truth, we need to make personal decisions. This is really important because I hear people all the time in Austin, Texas, say things like, Well, you know, the Bible's not true. Or this isn't, this is the Bible's not real, or Christianity is false. Um, and I'm asked the question, I asked them the question, well, is that your personal view or is that something you heard from someone else? Or I hear people say, Well, well, science real, but faith can't be. Well, is that your personal view, or is that something that you just adopted from someone else? And most of the time it's like, well, I heard this expert over here talk about this. My question is, is who do you say Jesus is? Moving on. The second interaction or response that we see is in verse 35. Pilate, of course, says, I'm not a Jew, Jesus. So your own people gave you up. I mean, what do you think? What do you expect? It wasn't me. And then he asked him, he asked Jesus, what have you done? And Jesus answers this question very strangely and yet very profoundly. He says, My kingdom is not of this world, said Jesus. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight. And by the way, one of them tried to fight last week, right? Who's that? Peter. He tried to fight. But Jesus says, My kingdom was not of this world. My servants would fight if it was, so I wouldn't be handed over to the Jews. As it is, my kingdom does not have its origin here. Throughout the whole book of John, we consistently see Jesus saying, My kingdom is not of this world. I'm not an earthly king. What is he specifically saying? Here's what he's saying. I'm not a political ruler. What do political rulers do? How do they reign? How do they lead? They're edicting, making laws. That's how political rulers, they lead through force. So when even in this text, when he says my followers would fight, the sword represents government, represents politics, represents power. And Jesus says, that's not the kind of kingdom that I am leading. It's not the kind of kingdom that I came to bring. There were a lot of Jews who wanted him to bring that kind of kingdom, right? They wanted the Romans gone. They wanted these Romans, these brutal, evil Romans. They wanted them out of there. Jesus wasn't that kind of king. And he says to Pilate, My kingdom is not of this world. Now, that does not mean that Jesus' kingdom has nothing to do with this world, right? It's very important. That's a very big difference. Because we know that the implications of God's kingdom change everything here and now as we wait for the then and there, the ultimate kingdom. For those of you who may know the Bible, you know the end of the story. There's one day that the King of kings and Lord of Lords is going to show up on the scene and he's going to establish his rule and reign. And at that point, he will edict, and there will not be a choice of whether or not you're going to bow down at the feet of King Jesus. Everyone will be on their face before King Jesus that day. But when he came the first time around, he came not as a political leader, not with a sword, but he came to serve and he came with a tau. And he came to go to a cross. And so he says to Pilate, My kingdom is not on this world. What does this mean for us? It means this: if you think that the gospel, the message of Jesus is foolish, you are right if you are thinking in human terms. If you think that it is silly that God would send his own son to become flesh and to dwell among us and to suffer and die on a cross for our sins, if you think that's foolish, you are absolutely right if you're thinking in human terms. But if we're thinking in God's terms, it's brilliant. It's wise. In fact, Paul says it this way: He says to those who are perishing, it is foolishness, but to those who are being saved, it is the aroma of life. It is the power for salvation. The reason the world doesn't get Jesus or the gospel or this Bible is because Romans 1 says it very plainly. We don't want to get it. We suppress the truth by our own unrighteousness. That's what Romans 1.18 says. We don't want to get it because people don't want to be accountable to the God of the universe. People, including myself at times, we don't want to see that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus and not by our own works. We want to earn our way. But you can't. And this king, he's not one who's currently edicting. You know what he's doing? He's inviting. The king, Jesus, that came as that baby in a manger who grew up and lived a sinless life is inviting. He's inviting every one of you in this room today. He invited all those. He says, Come follow me. Come follow me. One of the most amazing moments I had in uh in Indonesia. We were at an orphanage, and this orphanage was in the middle of a graveyard. It was the weirdest thing, honestly. It was very eerie. We're walking through this little road, and there's homeless people living all through this graveyard. Just, I mean, they're just hanging out on people's graves. Just, you know, there they are. Building little houses and little lingtus, and and and there's this little stream of dirty water that they're scooping water out of and boiling it, and they're just doing life in the middle of this graveyard, and we get to the very end of this thing, and there's this orphanage. And these little kids were so beautiful, but my heart began to ache. It began to break to think that these kids have never heard about the good news of Jesus. Not the ones at the orphanage itself, but the ones around it that we were engaging as we were walking. And there were these four little boys, and they're sitting there, and we had been told by the missionaries, don't try to lead children to Jesus. Because it'll make their parents real ticked off, and they'll actually kick their kids out of their house. And those kids will have to try to make it on the street. That's how serious they are about whether or not you follow Jesus. You want to believe that there's actually some committed followers of Jesus over there? When they say they're following Jesus, they're saying, I'm going to turn my back on my family and follow Jesus. Sounds like Jesus' very words when he says, to follow me, you actually have to turn your back on your family. They experienced that. So they said, Don't leave these kids to Jesus, but you can tell them. So I'm sitting there on these four little boys, and they're just looking at my face, and they're, of course, they're just like, white person, this is awesome. American, woo! Photo doulu. And I'm talking to these little boys, and God just says, just speak to them about my love. So I just started unpacking John 3.16 for these four little boys. Said, God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. And I said it in ways they can understand. I broke it down for them. And I said, Boys, I want you to know I'm leaving tomorrow to go back home. But God, He's speaking. And He wants to speak to you. And you know the two things that He I can for sure guarantee He's gonna say? He's gonna say, I love you. Come follow me. I love you, come follow me. I'm praying for those little boys. Almost every day I'm praying for I can see their faces. We've got a few pictures of them. My my son, the only game they had was they have her throwing a water bottle in the middle of these graves. And they were playing, they had a blast. I mean, Americans would be like, you know, these boys are like excited about having a water bottle. And we I see those boys' faces and I said, and he's saying the same thing to you today, guys. His voice is saying, I love you, come follow me. Come follow me. He is speaking. His kingdom is not of this world. You know what made the early church so beautiful? This is gonna mess with some of you political people in the room. You know what Jesus what made made the early church so beautiful is that they were more liberal and more conservative than the culture around them. They were more liberal and more conservative than the people around you. I know everybody in America thinks that Jesus would have been a white, uh, right-wing conservative Republican. Okay, I know that. That's actually not true, just in case you're wondering. Some of you are like, can I leave now? Listen, Jesus wasn't into politics. Here's why. The early church, when they started following Jesus and living out the Jesus way, they were more conservative because the way they viewed sexuality, the way they viewed purity, the way they understood the way that they were supposed to live, they actually believed they were supposed to obey Jesus' instructions on this. And so did the culture around them that was hypersexualized, that said whatever they wanted and did whatever they wanted, they actually were like, who are these people? These aliens. They're weird. And yet, you know what happens? The Christian families flourished. They flourished, family flourished, children flourished, marriages flourished because they followed the way of truth, the way of Jesus. They were also more liberal because guess what? When you showed up to a church gathering, which by the way, they were called the way back then. I think we should kind of return to that, right? The way of Jesus, not so much the church, the service, the programs. They were called the way because they were following in the way. And you showed up to that, you know who was there? Rich, poor, young, old, people who were prestigious and people who had no prestige whatsoever. Why? Because in that environment, it was all about the value we have in our creator and our savior, not what we have on the outside or how much money is in our account or what job we have, how much education we have. And it blew their minds. So much so that by the time you get to Constantine, and everybody give Constantine all this awesome credit for like making Christianity uh the national religion, which by the way doomed Christianity at that point. Once it became a political thing, it actually started to kill it. You want to know why Europe is where it is today? A thousand-year experiment where they tried to make Christendom the state religion. We don't need to be in bed with the government. What we need is to follow Jesus. The way changes people from the inside out. It's a kingdom, not of this world. Are you with me? We don't need to just get more politicians to obey Jesus. We need all of us to obey Jesus. I'm sorry if I'm preaching a little hard this morning, but my heart is stirred because we have missed this. It's not about a political position, it's about following Jesus. And it's an invitation to come and to experience truth, life-changing, transformative truth. Response three, I gotta move on. Verse 37. Pilate says, So you are a king. Now Jesus is in a very precarious situation because if he says he's a king, Pilate's gonna go, okay, well, there you go, done. Sentence you to death. No more political leaders. Caesar's in charge, he's not gonna stand for that. I can't stand for that, you're dead. Jesus doesn't say that. He says, So you say that I'm a king. So he doesn't really answer. He leaves it ambiguous. But it's beautiful because we know that Jesus is a king. He doesn't say he's not, but he doesn't say he is. The Jews, no, he's from the line of David, and he is a king. He's from the kingly line, he's in fact the king of kings. But throughout this text, he says, Jesus says, You say that I'm a king. Jesus replied, I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this. Catch this to testify to the truth. He's not just saying, I came to testify to a truth. He is saying I came to testify to the truth. And what is the truth? This is the truth, people. This is the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. Jesus doesn't say he's a king outright because he knows, again, he's gonna he's gonna get hammered and that he's gonna immediately get the sentence of death. But also, um, Pilate's not gonna get it. Pilate doesn't understand. He thinks only in political terms. But I want to remind you really quickly about how Jesus is revealing truth. Not only that, but how we see through the book of John, which by the way, the book of John has the word truth in it 50 times. Definitely a theme of John. That doesn't include light, which also indicates truth coming into a place where there's no truth, or darkness is what it's called, right? And so in this passage, John 1, verse 17-18, in this book, it says, For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through who? Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the one and only Son, the one who is at the Father's side, he has revealed him. Or John chapter 3, verse 31, uh it says this the one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what has been seen and heard. And yet no one accepts his testimony. The one who has accepted his testimony has affirmed that God is true, for God sent him, and he speaks God's words, since he gives the Spirit without measure. Or John 8 31, so Jesus said to the disciples who had believed him, If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Or John 12, 46, I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me would not remain in darkness. Or finally, John 14, 6, as explicitly as Jesus could possibly say it, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. These claims that Jesus is making about truth are incredible. But do you notice what the bottom line is that? Is that there is a truth, and that truth is in Jesus. And we need to understand today that as a Christian, there is no such thing as living post-truth. We are living in the truth of the King, of the living word, who is the truth. Now, how do I know that? Because the Bible says it, but I have to at least take it just a minute. I'm not going to do apologetics for you right now because I don't have time. And as I mentioned, I'd encourage you to go listen to Robbie Zacharias. He's a lot more articulate and intelligent than I am, okay? But what I can say, a simple, a simple way that you can engage this book, because I hear all the time, well, the Bible can't possibly be true. A couple weeks ago, a few weeks ago back, I gave you some stats that half people who sit in churches on a weekly basis don't believe that the Bible is actually true. Not fully. This is true. It's living, it's active, it's God breathed. And because it's God breathed, if we will come with an open heart and an open mind and we will pray and ask the Lord to speak to us, see, I believe He will. So let me just give you an activity. If you're in the room, which all of you are, why do we say that stuff? You're sitting here, and you are struggling to believe that this is truth. Here's my challenge to you. We could intellectually debate all day long. We could talk textual criticism, we could talk the number of manuscripts, we could talk about how old the manuscripts are, we could compare them to other things. We could do all kinds of stuff. We could go through the entire explanation of why this is a miraculous book and how God's preserved it. And it could help. But let me tell you how you actually come to believe that this is true. You engage this word and you ask God to speak to you through it. So here's my recommendation to you or to your friend or your family member who doesn't believe that this is truth. I encourage you, challenge you, and challenge them to open this Bible and read the four gospels. Pray, God, if you're true, if you're real, if you exist, would you reveal yourself to me? And then to read the Gospels. I'm confident that this word speaks for itself. It speaks for our King Jesus. And you will find that this is no ordinary, archaic old book that has nothing to do with our lives today. That this Savior is beautiful. I recently heard there's a guy, some of you guys maybe have noticed on Bible websites, there's a one translation, the J.B. Phillips translation. He was an English professor, and he decided to do his own translation, and he talks about his experience, and he's dealt with a lot of different literature, lots of different genres, lots of different content, and he said that as he did it, his heart was so stirred for worship that he would never be the same. It was unlike anything he had ever. In fact, he actually had a colleague, a friend of his, he said, I want you, who was not a believer, by the way, he said, I want you to compare this because he had all this experience with other texts, other ancient texts, especially a lot of Homer, some of the ancient stuff that's been around. He said, I want you to check this out. He starts to check it out, and the guy just says, I was so stirred that I can't deny that this is divine. Why? Because God's word is living and it's active. And that's what I'm gonna put my life stake on. The truth about who Jesus is and what he has done as recorded in this amazing book. So I encourage you today, I challenge you, if you're struggling with belief that Jesus really is who he is, or that this word is actually true, I encourage you to sit down with it, interact with it. How many times have I had a conversation with somebody and they say, Well, the Bible's not true, or Jesus isn't real, or you can't believe that stuff, it's crazy, it's a fairy tale. And I'm like, how have you read have you ever read it before? And not in a snarky snide way. I mean, but have you ever read it before? And like, no, but I don't need to. I already know. I dare you. I dare you to read it. I dare you to actually get it out and read it. Response four, and the final one we'll close out. You get to verse 11, and by the way, between there, just for the sake, I I I feel almost I feel almost uh bad just even that we're having to skip over because I want to encourage you today in the week the this week's reading plan. Um, Tuesday, you'll read through this section of the text. And this is the section of the text where the intensity really increases in terms of physical abuse that Jesus endures. And I know from my heart it's so good for me to regularly remind myself of what Christ has endured for my salvation. But notice what happens. In the beginning there, you know, after after Pilate asks his question, what is truth? Pilate then decides, hey, look, I have no grounds to charge this guy. Here's what I'll do: I'll offer Jesus or Barabbas. And they're like, release Barabbas. We want Jesus dead. They are set on that. And so then Pilate releases Barabbas, who, by the way, was a revolutionary. He was causing all kinds of problems. He was not a good dude. And yet they still wanted him to be released. And then what does Pilate do? He has Jesus whipped. And the soldiers who were terrible, I mean, they were just evil men who'd been trained to torture people. It says they twisted a crown of thorns to put on his head. They put a purple robe around him. Then they mocked him. The king of kings who had been on the throne, who had spoken the world to existence, is now being mocked by a bunch of soldiers who are saying, Oh, hell, King of the Jews. Slapping them around. Oh man, how did Jesus have that kind of constraint, restraint, and self-control? To not just take them all out. And then it finally gets to the point where Pilate says, Listen, here's the man. And when the people see him, they say, Crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. They start yelling it out. Many of us are familiar with that. The people were so angry, so stirred. Pilate says, Take him and crucify him yourselves, because I'm not going to have any part of this. And he comes to the end, and Pilate tries one last time to get Jesus to defend himself. In verse 10 of chapter 19, Pilate says, You're not talking to me, Jesus. Don't you know that I have the authority to release you and the authority to crucify you? And at this point, through a bloodied face, a mangled back, a crown of thorns hanging on his head, Jesus says, You would have no authority over me if it hadn't been given to you from above. This is why the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin. Can you imagine Pilate in that moment? I can't imagine what it was like to hear those words come out of Jesus' mouth. Not words of defense, not words of get me out of this, but words of you're not in charge. My father is. We got this. And in that moment, we were reminded again, just in case we forget, that Jesus is the King, He is not out of control, and that everyone will ultimately give an account to him. Now, notice to Pilate, he says, Listen, you're sinning, but not near as badly as these guys who gave him over to me. Gave me over to you. And it does say right after that, by the way, just from that point, from that moment, Pilate made every effort to release him. Pilate's night, he's scared out of his mind now. Like, what have I done? Too late, Pilate. And besides, God's plan was going to unfold. Jesus, the eternal word, shows his ultimate authority by even explaining it in that very moment. But it's not just the fact that Jesus shows and demonstrates his ultimate authority through his teaching. It was amazing. We've read through a bunch of his teaching in John. It was not just through his sinless life. I mean, he handled people perfectly, even in the face of crazy opposition. He knew the truth. He was Jesus, and they still rejected him and they made fun of him. Yet he had restraint. It wasn't just the miracles he did. I mean, this guy, how many miracles have we covered so far in this book? So many amazing miracles, seven key miracles in the book of John. One of the best ones, raising Lazarus, one of his good friends, from the dead. But his authority is about to be declared in a way like none other. Because he is going to go to a cross, he's going to die, he's going to go into a grave, and then he's going to come out of that grave, resurrected, conquering sin and death. So that people like you and I can face death with confidence today, knowing that we are not going to just die and that's it. Lights out, game over, that we are going to die and then we are going to live again with our Savior. Yesterday, my wife's grandfather went home to be with Jesus. And unlike so many that I know, who when they come to death, they have no certainty. He was absolutely certain of where he was going. And the peace and the joy that comes, yes, joy, even in the face of death, is beautiful. And for my kids to hear he's gone and then to look at us with childlike faith and say, Yeah, but he is so much better off now. And we will see him again. Because Jesus has authority over the grave. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and his resurrection seals that truth. I've got to wrap up. Ultimately, we must all decide whether or not Jesus is the king. We all must decide. I said this on the front end, just like Pilate, have you personally come to a place where you've decided Jesus is the King? Now, some people in this room are Christians, are believers, and you've decided that Jesus is your Savior, but you've yet to actually acknowledge that He's in charge of your life. We call this knowledge-based discipleship. It's all about how much information we take in. Jesus didn't call people to just take his name. He says to come follow me, to obey me. And that's when you know Jesus is king, not just when you know about Jesus, but are you obeying Jesus? And Jesus wants us to decide today where we are. And some of you in this room have not yet decided that Jesus is the Savior, that He is the King, and that you need to give your life to Him. And some of you have said, I want your salvation, I want heaven, Jesus, I want forgiveness, but don't ask me to change anything in my life. Jesus, I want your salvation. I want heaven. I want a church family, but I don't want to actually have to obey you with my time and my money and my relationships. I don't want to do that. He's not your king. He is, but you're not letting him be. And the call today is to obey. Isn't it interesting in this passage that Pilate and the religious leaders both miss Jesus' kingship. They both miss truth. I didn't really call your attention to it much, but can I call it back to verse 28? Verse 28. Then they took Jesus from Caiphus to the governor's headquarters. It was early in the morning. Now notice this next sentence. They did not enter the headquarters themselves, otherwise, they would be defiled and unable to eat the Passover. Do you see the irony here? Here's these religious leaders, and they don't want to get undefiled by going into a Gentile's home so that they won't miss out on the Passover. Does anybody know what the Passover was? Passover was a festival where they celebrated what God had done back in Exodus, whenever the Passover lamb, they had killed the Passover lamb, they put blood over the doorposts so that the death angel passed over, and they got, they were saved. The firstborn didn't die. Think about how crazy this is. These religious leaders are lost in their religiosity so much that they are actually trying to kill the Passover lamb and don't want to miss out on the Passover feast. You see it? Listen, don't miss Jesus in your religion. Don't miss Jesus in trying to be a good person and going to church and doing the church things. Don't miss Jesus in trying to do all those religiosity things. It's possible. It was for them, it is for us today. Jesus is not our genie. He's not the one we show up on Sunday and pray some wishful prayers so that our lives will be better. He is king. And he is the Passover lamb for you and for me. The perfect Passover lamb so that we can have our sins cleansed. And speaking of that very issue, did you notice? Pilate gets to the end and he says, I don't want to have any part of this. In the Matthew account, it says that Pilate had talked to his wife. His wife had had a dream. She basically said, Look, don't have anything to do with this guy. This is not good. And he goes out in front of the people in the Matthew account and he washes his hands. And he says, I'm done with this. You guys have him. He takes a passive, weak approach. But he washes his hands. You know why he washes his hands? He washes his hands because he wants to say, I'm innocent of this man's blood. Isn't that insane? Because Jesus, the one who he hands over, who goes to the cross, is dying so that every guilt stain can be removed. Because we are all guilty because of our sin. Christ went to the cross for all of our sin. We don't need to just wash our hands. We need the blood of Jesus to wash over all of us so that we can be with God forever. So that we can be reconciled to God. If Jesus is everything in our lives, we must move increasingly towards alignment with his reality. Not just knowing more about him, but actually obeying him as King. At the beginning of the message today, I quoted from C.S. Lewis and I said, if Christianity is false, it's of no importance. And if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. If people were to view your life and they were to view my life, would they think that we actually took Jesus serious? Would they actually believe that Jesus truly is the King of Kings and Lord of Lord based on our lives? Or would they just continue to look at us and say, What is truth? Here's the question I want you to wrestle with in your own heart today. Is Jesus the truth? Is Jesus the truth? And if he is, if we believe what Scripture says that God created the world and everything in it, and that all of it exists for his glory, if Jesus is who he says he is and came from heaven and lived a sinless life and died on the cross in our place, if he alone is the source of salvation, if Jesus is king over all and we are called to submit to his rule and reign, if we believe that Jesus will come back one day as a righteous judge to reward his people and punish those who have sided with Satan, if we believe those things, what would change about the way we're actually living today? Is there any area of disobedience in your own heart that you need to turn away from? Is there any area where you're not taking sin seriously because you think it's only a sin here, but you don't realize you've offended a holy God? Listen, I'm not angry this morning. Might sound like there's some angst in my voice. What I am is pleading with you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Obey Him. Follow Him. You will find life there. You will find joy there. You will find the satisfaction, the contentment, the security that you are longing for in Jesus. The King. The true King. Let's pray. Father, I just pray this morning that we continue to grow. And we need your help. I need your help. Um, because God, I say you're King. I say that with my mouth. I sing it sometimes in this room, and I don't live it perfectly, God. I know I'm not going to be perfect this side of heaven. I know I've got a lot of growing room. I know every person in this room, like we've got a long way to go and growing and obeying you, Jesus. But help us not to give up and help us not to think that it's okay to just give you lip service. God, help us to actually do what you're asking us to do. God, I pray that our hearts would be freed up today in the beautiful truth that you have washed us clean. If we're in Christ, there's not condemnation, but there is conviction. There is conviction to not live in sin and to walk as the ruler of our own life, but to let you be the ruler. And God, if there's if there's people sitting in this place that have never said, Jesus, you're my savior and king, I pray today they would know that you are a good king worth following, that you are truth, and by your Holy Spirit, that you would save them, you would rescue them, you would call them to yourself. God, we want to be the people that bow down and worship you now before we're forced to. Because it will happen. But even now, we want to worship you because you're worthy, you're good, you're awesome, you're beautiful. Help us to do that, Jesus. We just pray this in your strong name. Amen.