By Following the True King

This morning, we are continuing our theme of Enjoying Life in His Name, by following the True King. Following Christ involves a life of self-denial, taking up the Cross of Christ, and following him wherever he may providentially lead us. So in the case of our Savior, he essentially has only 3 hours left before he is to be crucified – He knows this. He’s also fully aware that he is about to drink the divine cup of wrath that His Father has prepared for him do drink.

The spotless Lamb of God is hours away from being our substitute for sin on the Cross and to begin the greatest movement this world has ever known: the rise of Christ Church.

So with the time we have remaining, I want to look at…

2 characteristics of Christ’s Followers in a World of False Kingdoms.

Spotlight your eyes onto verse 28:

²⁸ Then they *brought Jesus from Caiaphas, and it was early…” (i.e. 6AM) (stop for one moment to set the stage)

I. Followers of Christ Love Truth (v.37)

One of the things I love is how John, through the superintending work of the Holy Spirit, wrote his account of what transpired on this day - Let me give you ankle deep summary of what Jesus faced. But as we walk, we’re going to find ourselves going deeper into the context and find ourselves drenched as we discover the most unjust trial this world has ever known – the trials and crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Our Lord had a total of 6 trials. The first 3 trials were religious and the last 3 were civil – all of these trials, by the way, were literally squeezed into one day - Good Friday! That would be the Jewish Passover week. The religious leaders had to have Jesus killed and crucified before Sabbath.

These trials began sometime around 12AM and concluded around 6AM

The reason why we know this is because…

in Mark 15:25 and Luke 23:44 record for us that Jesus was crucified at the “third hour” – meaning – now, that would mean 9AM in the morning, ok?

Now…

When did Pilate sentence Jesus to death? Well…the answer can be found in John 19:13-14:

“Therefore when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement—but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. ¹⁴ Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. And he *said to the Jews, “Look, your King!”

This means that all 6 trials were concluded between the hours of 6AM-7AM – and all of them were illegal and pushed through, especially the Trials with Jesus and the religious leaders who wanted him dead.

Right out of the gate, this will set the stage for John 18 for Jesus and Pontius Pilate. Jesus was illegally detained by the chief priests and elders with no formal charges - illegally taken in the middle of the night and privately charged on 3 different occasions, when, according to Jewish Law, you’re not supposed to conduct secret trials at night, and worst of all, this whole thing started based on a bribe by Judas Iscariot! (Mk.14:10,11;Lk 22:3-6).

And Exodus 23:8 explains that “You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of the just.”

We learn from Luke’s Gospel that “the chief priests and the scribes were trying to find a way to put Him to death, since they were afraid of the people.” (Lk. 22:2-3). In other words, they had nothing to go on…until the betrayer came.

And it was these providential unfolding of pages of events that Christ would so reminded Judas and his cohort of evil on the night of his arrest, saying to them that “…this hour and the power of darkness are yours.” (John 18:3; Luke 22:53).

In other words, Judas is not the One in control. The religious leaders were not the ones in control. the One standing before was and so upholds “all things by the word of His power.” (Hebrews 1:3).

So, the religious leaders walked Jesus through 3 Jewish trials…

(John 18:12-24; Matt. 26:57-68; Matt. 27:1-2; Lk. 22:63-71) But all of them were a complete mess…

because we learn in Mark’s Gospel that the people leveling false accusations against our Lord couldn’t get their testimonies to agree (Mk. 14:56,59).

According to their own Old Testament, you had to have two or three witnesses whose testimonies had to agree in every detail (Deuteronomy 19:15-19).

Abraham Lincoln said that “no man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.” Such was the case with these religious leaders in their attempt to kill Christ.

So then, my friends - cradle the truths of Scripture in your heart – when you don’t cradle the truth in your life, you are a religious hypocrite – you are a white washed tomb, and the smell of your stench will be obvious to all that you are no follower of Christ.

And so our challenge is that we must demonstrate that we are not only lovers of the truth, but that our life demonstrates a portrait as a people whose lives are purveyors of truth – they don’t twist the truth…

A. They do not twist truth (vv.29–32)

Nevertheless, they pushed through the illegal trials so that they could get their case adjudicated by a man named…Pontius Pilate of Rome…

They knew that they had to have Jesus crucified before Sabbath! You see, they didn’t just want Christ stoned to death – they needed to demonstrate before the people that Christ was cursed of God, by hanging on a tree (Deut. 21:23)…

by being…crucified and totally blind to the reality that the Christ standing before them sole purpose was to be lifted up on the Cross not only to redeem his people from the curse of the Law, but also by “becoming a curse for us.” (Galatians 3:13).

Ok, let’s get back to reading and descend a little more into the waters until the undertow pulls us into the turbulence of what is about to happen. All 3 trials are finished. Now, they are on their from seeing Caiaphas to Pilate…but they…

Verse 28b “…and they themselves did not enter the Praetorium, so that they would not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.” (stop)

What, are you kidding me??? So let me get this right: The religious leaders don’t want to enter into the headquarters of Pilate because he’s a Gentile…and they don’t want to be…defiled so they could eat Passover, yet somehow taking a bribe, and illegally arresting, and illegally conducting secret trials, and murdering an innocent man somehow didn’t fit the unclean category…?

This is what it looks like when we honor Christ with our lips, yet our hearts are far from…as the east is from the west…religion without faith is dead. Faith devoid of a changed life is a death faith, as James said in 2:26.

The Apostle John warned us – warned them not to be deceived. It doesn’t make a difference if a person makes a perceived profession of faith, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” (1 John 1:6).

He warned us not to be deceived, “Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; ⁸ the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” – 1 John 3:7-8

And the idea John had in mind is a kind of walk that reflects one’s conduct of living. The unregenerate man has a kind of walk that reflects he is not a believer. The regenerate man has a kind of walk that reflects that he is a regenerate man! one’s circuit of living.

John is highlighting one’s circuit of life – one’s course of life. To put it simply – one’s lifestyle. Does this describe you this morning? Have you made a profession of faith in Christ, yet you’re life bears the earmarks of animosity against a Cross saved life? Is the course of your life emblematic of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day that reveals a heart far from God?

If it does, “What will you do with Jesus? (as one song writer said)
Neutral you cannot be; Some day your heart will be asking, “What will He do with me?”^[1]

And these religious leaders were not neutral in their conduct toward the Savior…

Now, at this juncture in the sermon…

I’d be remised if I didn’t tell you that what we are about to enter into is a fiery exchange between the religious Jews and a Roman governor by the name of Pontius Pilate.

You need to know at the outset that Pilate’s animosity toward the Jews was great and the Jews animosity toward Pilate is was great enough that it’s recorded in history. And the Lord would use this Jew and Gentile saga to bring about His death. Now, let’s read the passage and read the tense exchange between the two, ok?

Jesus is taken to Pilate’s headquarters between the hours of 5AM-6AM – we are now at Jesus’ 4^th trial. Jesus was taken into the Roman headquarters while the Jews stood outside…he has no idea why Jesus was brought to him at all…there’s no list of charges…nothing.

Listen to this exchange, because right out of gate, Pilate is not happy…he’s not happy at all that he has to leave his headquarters to go out to meet the Jews.

Verse 29-32: “Therefore Pilate came out to them and *said, “What accusation are you bringing against this Man?” ³⁰ They answered and said to him, “If this Man were not a criminal, we would not have handed Him over to you.” (stop for a moment..)

Did you feel the insolence/disrespect response by the religious leaders? They assumed Pilate would have merely taken their word for it that Jesus was a criminal…but Pilate knows better than that – he’s an experienced law enforcement officer…this isn’t his first rodeo…

Verses 31-32 “³¹ So Pilate said to them, “Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your law.” The Jews said to him, “We are not permitted to put anyone to death.”[Ahh, now Pilate knows their motive for being there!] ³² This happened so that the word of Jesus which He said, indicating what kind of death He was going to die, would be fulfilled.” (stop)

The history between Pilate and the Jews is filled with so much theatre, that I feel pressed to share a little of it to color our understanding as to why Pilate proceeded with the unjust murder of Jesus Christ…

Pilate was a brutal man.

He was not a nice person. He was sent over by Caesar to govern of all places…Judea…not the place you want to govern because of the many Jewish uprisings against Rome. It would be like a police officer being transferred over to South Central LA, or Fuller Park Chicago, or Dundalk Baltimore.

Pilate was sent by Caesar to keep the rule of law and to govern wisely over the Jews, especially when it came to their religious practices. Now, you’d think he would give some regard, right?

You want to know the first thing he did as governor of Judea?

The first thing he did was to have his Roman troops march right into the city of Jerusalem bearing staffs containing the image of Caesar as God.

Engraved in the staffs had the 1^st and 2^nd commandment on them, which read: “You shall have no other gods before me”, and “you shall make a graven image…”

Hmmm…do you think that went over well?

It incensed the Jews – so you want to know what the Jews did? They surrounded Pilate’s house and had a sit-down strike for six days, demanding that Pilate remove the Roman Standards out of the city of Jerusalem.

So Pilate got fed up – he ordered his troops and surrounded the protestors and told them that if they didn’t leave, he would kill them all. The Jews fell on their knees and were ready to die…At that point, it was Pilate stood down and was forced to remove the images. Well…Pilate didn’t like that…it gets worse…

So, on another occasion, just to anger the Jews even further, he ordered his troops to place roman shields with the image of Caesar as God on them, and put them into the Temple.

Sooo, how do you think that went…?

The uproar was so bad that the sons of the dead King Herod petitioned for Pilate to immediately remove the shields, but Pilate refused to listen. So they sent their petition to Caesar and he was infuriated. Pilate was scared of Caesar so he had the shields removed the immediately…once, again, Pilate was infuriated with the Jews…let me give you a couple more because the story gets even juicer.

Yes, it get’s better!

A third occasion involved a construction project for Rome that Pilate oversaw. Now get this: Pilate ran out of money for the project. So guess what he does?

He ordered his troops to take the money from the Temple treasury….I ask you: how do you think that went over with the Jews?

Well, it infuriated them and there was rioting in the streets. So Pilate secretly sent in the troops disguised in Jewish garb to the crowd of protestors, and then when Pilate gave the signal, he slaughtered all of the protesters…it was a bloodbath.

Can I give you one more…?

Rome was good at squashing insurrections and rebellion against Roman authority. Galilea was a hotbed of violent opposition against Rome.^[2] We’re not sure what happened to catch the ire of Pilate, but we do know that Luke 13:1 tells us that “there were some present who reported to [Jesus] whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.”

…how do you think this went over…? Now, you’re probably wondering what kind of picture best reflects this one…well. I call this one…

The Peek-A-Book Facepalm: Because Pilate’s stupidity is so epically bad that you have to peek to make sure that it’s really that bad!

I say all of this because I want to you to understand the rising tide of pressure against Pilate’s rule so that by the time we get to the civil trials of Jesus Christ, Pilate was not a popular man by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, by the time we get to Jesus’ last trial, he wants to let him go.

The religious Jews knew that they could manipulate Pilate to have Jesus…executed. That’s why in John 19:12 that…

“Pilate made efforts to release Him; but the Jews shouted, saying, “If you release this Man, you are not a friend of Caesar; everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar!”

So when we read the back and forth between Pilate and the Jews, there’s a seething hostility between them…and the religious Jews know how to manipulate Pilates unpopularity to their advantage.

Now, enters the confrontation between Pontius Pilate and Jesus Christ.

Verse 33 “Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” (stop)

Question: What were the Jews original accusation against Jesus? Answer: Blasphemy. He claimed to be the Son of God. So then why the switch? Why is Pilate questioning Jesus if he’s the King of the Jews? What’s going on here? Well, Pilate’s question presumes that the Jews trumped up a new accusation against Christ in order to get him…crucified. What was the charge? Answer – Treason.

Answer: Jesus’ accusers knew that saying you are the Son of God is not a crime punishable by death under Rome, but saying you are a King of the Jews meant you were a potential rival to Caesar because a king has a kingdom and a kingdom has an army, you see!

So, now the charge was switched to an accusation of treason. So now Pilate now is trying to determine of Jesus is a political threat to Rome.

Surely, this man doesn’t look like…a King. In other words, there’s no evidence to suggest Jesus fits the part. What Pilate is really asking Jesus is where his kingdom is. Is it in Judea? Where?

But Jesus isn’t intimidated by Pilate.

Verse 34: ³⁴ Jesus answered, “Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?” (stop)

Now, who’s the one trial! Pilate is now on trial before his Creator! In other words, Jesus questioned Pilate whether he received his information based on evidence, or hearsay?

Pilate stood before His Creator, The Word of God. Pilate stood before the Magistrate of all the earth who knew the thoughts and intents of his heart, “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” (Hebrews 4:12-13)

So how’s your Bible reading going, Faith Church? Are you getting cut? Are you opening the Book to have it interrogate and inspect the conduct of your life? When I was at the Master’s Seminary, I had taken a summer course on Greek. When we walked into class, our professor warned us that if we make it through the course, we were all going to get cut – but we are good hands!

So, are you getting cut? Are you in need of spiritual surgery? The Word of God is the solution for your soul both in salvation and sanctification - open the book and the Word’s piercing gaze will search you through and through.

God’s Word is like a flaming sword,
A wedge that cleaves the stone;
Keen as a fire, so burns His Word,
And pierces flesh and bone.^[3]

Transition: But that’s not what Pilate wanted. Instead of surrendering to piercing gaze of Christ’s interrogation of his heart, it was as though Pilate slammed the book shut and didn’t want to hear any more. But our Lord didn’t run from the truth and followers of Christ…

B. They do not run from truth (vv. 35, 38)

Verse 35-37: “Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?” (stop)

In other words, what do I care? I’m a Gentile, not a Jew - it was your own people that brought you to me…sooo, what in the world did you against Rome? You see that? Even Pilate knew something was off about this case. He’s seen plenty of trials brought before him, but this one doesn’t add up.

And Christ gave him his answer as to whether he’s a threat… and he doesn’t run from the truth.

C. They are consistent (vv.28, 38–40)

Transition: and

II. Followers of Christ are Kingdom-Focused (v.36)

Verse 36: “³⁶ Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.” (stop)

In other words, no – Jesus poses no threat. Had the physical Kingdom present, his angels would not hesitate to fight. Think about it: just one of God’s angels slew 185,000 Assyrians – that was just…one. So, if the Kingdom were manifestly present, the fight would have been over before Pilate could blink.

Now, at this point, it’s difficult to determine whether Pilate is taking this case seriously or whether he thinks Jesus is out of his mind – I don’t believe he’s taking this too seriously, so he humors Jesus.

Verse 37: “Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” (stop)

In other words, Jesus’ mission was spiritual, not political – his purpose was to bear witness to the truth, not to hostile take over of Rome.

There’s something deeply significant here that Pastor Bob made reference to last week. He said that Judas handed over his soul for 30 pieces of silver.

Pilate had every opportunity to sit at the feet of Christ and instead of humbling himself before his Creator, Pilate snappishly ended his discussion by saying this

Verse 38: “Pilate *said to Him, “What is truth?”

The spirit of the age will always say, “what is truth.”

But Jesus says in John 14:6 that he was the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus was truth incarnate…and Pilate handed over truth in exchange for falsehood. He kept his job…for a time…but lost his soul.

But even in the midst of this cloudy scene, we find a portrait of grace.

Verses 38b-40: “And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and *said to them, “I find no guilt in Him. ³⁹ But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover; do you wish then that I release for you the King of the Jews?” ⁴⁰ So they cried out again, saying, “Not this Man, but Barabbas.” Now Barabbas was a robber.” (stop)

You know…when the religious leaders screamed for Barabbas, Pilate understood that it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over.” (Matthew 27:18)

But in the handing over of the sinless spotless Son of God, I want you to see that Barabbas serves as an illustration of you and me and Jesus who took our place on the Cross and “redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13)

And that, my friends, is why we can sing with a chorus of the saints,

“Upon a life I have not lived, upon a death I did not die, another’s life, another’s death I stake my whole eternity.” “O Jesus, Son of God, I build on what Thy cross has done for me, There both my life and death I read, my guilt, my pardon there I see.”^[4]

[1] “Jesus is standing in Pilate’s hall,” Hymnal.net, last modified, https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/1041.

[2] Timeline - World History Documentaries, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLmMcLIzn4U

[3] Carl Bernhard Garve, “God's Word Is Like a Flaming Sword,” Hymnary.org, last modified, https://hymnary.org/text/gods_word_is_like_a_flaming_sword.

[4] “Ten Atonement Songs You Should Consider Singing,” Nine Marks, last modified, https://www.9marks.org/article/ten-atonement-songs-you-should-consider-singing/.