Our Rightful King

Happy Palm Sunday!!

This Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, or Christ’s Passion

As such, we’re taking a short break from Ephesians to look at Christ, Our Foundation (*explain Holy Week + “Christ, Our Foundation” (PS: Christ, Our Rightful King | GF: Christ, Our Rejected Cornerstone (Ps 118) | ES: Christ, Our Resurrected Savior (Matt 28)))

The passage we’ve selected to draw out the themes surrounding Palm Sunday is in John 18, starting in v 33

There are two main figures in this passage—Jesus and Pilate

This section records a dialogue between these two—one that centers around the concept of kingship

This Palm Sunday, we celebrate Christ, Our Rightful King—but John 18 draws out a number of struggles that many share today

Pilate asks a lot of the questions that many who confront Jesus today ask of Him

So let’s begin by setting the scene that Pilate would have seen before him…

*paint the scenario from Pilate’s perspective

Listen while I read our passage…

Text

John 18:33-38 – ³³ Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” ³⁴ Jesus answered, “Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?” ³⁵ Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?” 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.” 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.” ³⁸ Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, “I find no guilt in Him.

Again, we’re talking about Christ, Our Rightful King…

You may have noticed a theme in our passage: Pilate deploys a series of questions in an attempt to figure out the man standing in front of Him

As such, we’ll go over 4 questions we must ask regarding the rightful king

The first question:

I. Is Jesus a King?

You can imagine Pilate’s confusion: he has a rabble of angry Jewish men and women who are wanting this Jesus dead for suuuper unclear reasons

One of the more clear points is the charge against him that he claims to be a king of sorts—even more confusingly, the king of the very people giving Him up to death

As such, he poses the main question of our passage that drives their conversation…

John 18:33 – Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”

This is a loaded question, and we’ll actually get to Jesus’s direct response during our last point

Because you could easily answer the question with a “yes” or a “no”—but that’s only due to the qualifiers Pilate attaches to his questions (qualifiers he will later abandon)

To explain, let’s rewind the clock a bit and look at some…

A. Old Testament evidence

There are a great deal of passages in the Old Testament (or, at that time, “the Scriptures”) that had prophesied a coming king

The Jews knew a promised King from the lineage of David was to come, yet His means, timing, and mission were hotly debated

Let’s look at a few of these passages as we consider the question: “is Jesus a king?”

First up…

i. Psalm 2:6-8, 11-12 – “But as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain. I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your possession… Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!

There is a whole lot here, but we see that this coming king will be the begotten Son of the Lord

His kingdom will have no boundary, and homage will be due Him, lest His wrath break out and decimate all dissenters

I don’t know about you, but I have a rather specific idea of what that king would look like in my mind

Is it the shackled, bloodied, and utterly rejected man standing in front of Pilate?

Maybe the prophet Isaiah will provide more clarity

In talking about this same ruler, he adds…

ii. Isaiah 32:1 – Behold, a king will reign righteously and princes will rule justly.

And Jeremiah similarly adds…

iii. Jeremiah 23:5 – “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land.

Pilate likely didn’t know this, but Jesus is of the direct royal lineage of David—both through his mother and adoptive father

And Pilate will later comment on Jesus’s “righteousness,” but we’re not there yet

Going even further back, Jacob prophesies of a coming king through the lineage of his son, Judah (of whom David is a direct descendant) …

iv. Genesis 49:10-11a – “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. He ties his foal to the vine, and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine;

Now we’re getting into more direct Palm Sunday illustrations—this King, or Shiloh (a Messianic title), will come via a donkey’s colt

This is stated more directly in…

v. Zechariah 9:9 – Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Christ seems to fit the bill for this—up until His capture

You can see why all the Jews had thought: “this is Him! He’s coming to save us!!”

The question is: what is this “endowment of salvation” that he brings?

Christ, showing little interest in bringing about the salvation that they desire (namely, salvation from Roman oppression), they quickly offer him up to the Romans

But less than a week before this conversation between Jesus and Pilate, the Jews were convinced that He was this Old Testament king, which brings us to…

B. Palm Sunday evidence

The worship team has already read through this passage, but it bears repeating

This was the sentiment surrounding Christ 5 days prior—how did things go so wrong??

Matthew 21:1-11 – When they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold your King is coming to you, gentle, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them, and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their coats on them; and He sat on the coats. Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest!” When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Is Jesus a king?

He certainly fits the requirements of OT prophesy, and the people of Jerusalem seemed to be convinced, hook-line-and-sinker

But remember where we are in our passage today—those men and women who presented themselves as Christ’s willing royal subjects have now turned Him over to the current regime in ower

If this man standing before Pilate is a king, then…

II. Where Is His Kingdom?

This is where the conversation gets very interesting

Jesus doesn’t provide a direct answer to Pilate’s initial question—in fact, he counters with His own question, leading Pilate to snap back with this…

John 18:35 – Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?”

Jesus’s question in v 34, which we will get to after a bit, has done its work

Pilate has shown his hand—he, like the crowd, have a narrow scope of Christ that fits with their own understanding, and Pilate has just given Jesus his parameters

The Jew’s understanding of Christ may be informed by Scripture, but it’s still faulty due to their own misinterpretation of the passages

It’s easy to judge them when we have the clear benefit of hindsight, but their inability to see beyond their own desire to be out from underneath Roman oppression led them to reject their king who was coming to do so much more

But Pilate—he knew the royal game

He’d been a player in the jockeying for power long enough to know how it goes

According to what he just said, there are only two possible categories that Jesus could fit into…

Pilate’s two options:

The first is…

1. Jesus is delusional

Pilate begins by asking: I’m not a Jew, am I?

That’d be a fine question, presuming his initial understanding of Christ was accurate—remember, he thinks that Jesus is king of the Jews

It’d make sense for him to not know the answer to that question if he wasn’t a Jew—like on your next international flight, you bump into “Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Muʿizzaddin Waddaulah”—i.e., the current Sultan of Brunei

You probably don’t know him, but you’re also likely not Bruneian…

So Pilate already thinks Jesus doesn’t know what He’s talking about, but he pushes it further by saying: “Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me…”

Do you know what subjects don’t do to their king?

Hand them over to an opposing nation for their execution…

So Pilate is thinking Christ may be delusional, but he also leaves room for…

2. Jesus is guilty

He closes his question by asking: “What have you done?”

If Jesus is King of the Jews, and He’s not delusional, the only other option for Pilate is that he’s done something awful to deserve this deposition

Even recent history recalls instances where people will give up their leader if things get dire enough

But why am I highlighting Pilate’s dualistic rationale on Palm Sunday?

Because this may be where you find yourself this morning as well

Perhaps you’ve heard of Jesus and the claims of those who follow Him—you may have even concluded that either He’s delusional, or certainly the people following Him are

Or maybe you have a bone to pick with God—things haven’t gone your way and if He really is who He says He is, He’s gotten some things wrong in your life

If this is you, I want to start by saying: thanks for joining us this Sunday: you’re in good company, because no one here has it all figured out

I believe it’s providential that God brought you here this morning, because this is Jesus’s reply to Pilate’s questions…

John 18:36 – 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.”

The Jews thought He was their answer to Roman oppression—not playing His part in their plan, they handed Him over

Pilate thinks He’s either delusional or guilty of severe wrongdoing—leading him to be utterly puzzled by Him

But…

Jesus’s answer: He is sovereign

Where is His kingdom?

Both presumptions—those of Pilate and those of the Jews—presumes His rule is of this world

But Jesus is King over so much more than that—He is sovereign over all things visible and invisible

This is essentially the struggle of both: they didn’t let Jesus speak for Himself

And when He did speak, they only had ears to hear what they already wanted to hear—anything that fell outside of their own preconceived notions was met with rejection

Perhaps that’s what’s happening right now when Jesus says: “my kingdom is not of this world…”

Do you believe Him? Do you literally believe that Jesus is the King, reigning over an eternal realm that transcends this world

Because if you do, if he IS sovereign, that means He’s King over you…

You may totally disagree—don’t worry, the next matter they cover is…

III. Who Are His Subjects?

But before we get there, let’s track where we’ve been…

Is Jesus a king?

The Scriptures seem to point to Jesus as the fulfillment of the coming Messiah—this King of the line of David that would rule over the nations

Then where is His kingdom?

We didn’t have time to go over it, but Jesus is continually brining up His Kingdom—especially in the Gospel of Matthew

But in our passage this morning, He makes it clear that his kingdom is not of this world, or else His subjects would be fighting for Him

Who, then, are His subjects?

In v 36, Jesus brings up His servants and His kingdom, leading Pilate to ask…

John 18:37 – 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.”

The subjects of Christ’s kingdom aren’t as obvious as Pilate originally presumed

Notice how he restates the original question, changing it from “are you the King of the Jews…” to “so you are a king?”

This could be a glimmer of hope—perhaps Pilate is abandoning his binary decision about Christ!

But before we return to Pilate, let’s look to the chosen people of God

We see that Jesus was…

A. Rejected by the Jews

This is made painfully clear in the next chapter…

John 19:14b-15 – And [Pilate] said to the Jews, “Behold, your King!” So they cried out, “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”

So just because someone is a part of the chosen people of God doesn’t automatically make Jesus their King

What does this mean for us today?

*discuss: you can be born into a religious home and still reject Christ

So does that mean the subjects of Christ are those outside of this religious group?

Not necessarily—Jesus was also…

B. Mocked by the Gentiles

John’s gospel doesn’t recount this point, but Matthew tells us how the Roman guards treated this king:

Matthew 27:27-31 – 27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole Roman cohort around Him. They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. And after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand; and they knelt down before Him and mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They spat on Him, and took the reed and began to beat Him on the head. After they had mocked Him, they took the scarlet robe off Him and put His own garments back on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him.

The soldiers were irreverently mocking Him, dressing Him up as a King, yet beating Him as a convict—all before leading Him away to execution

Certainly they were not functioning as His subjects

In Jesus’s response to Pilate, He clarifies that He is…

C. Accepted by all who listen to truth

Looking down at your passage, you’ll see that Jesus uses a rather curious way of saying this

He says, “for this I have come into the world…”

Jesus is speaking as a King, going on a diplomatic mission—and this is where He leaves little room for nuance

He is the sovereign ruler who has condescended His heavenly throne to “testify to the truth,” claiming “everyone who is of the truth hears My voice…”

Who are the subjects of King Jesus?

Everyone who listens to His words and submits to His sovereign rule

Psalm 2 warned us of our need to “do homage to the Son,” because Jesus is not a powerless King

Pilate may carry himself like a ruler, but He wouldn’t know royalty if it was staring him in his steely eyes

The Jews claimed to want Christ as King on Palm Sunday, but their murderous cries on this day were accompanied with their desire for further enslavement: “we have no king but… Caesar”

And the Gentiles prove that you can go through the motions of worship—even with the One True God—and still send Him to His death

But enough talking about everyone else…

IV. Is Jesus Your King?

Let’s go back and revisit the response to Pilate’s original question: “Are you the King of the Jews?”

Jesus counters with His own question…

A. Jesus’s Question

John 18:34 – Jesus answered, “Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?”

For Jesus, this meeting between Him and Pilate was not a formality

Even in the context of grave injustice, where the innocent Lamb of God was delivered over to certain death by those who ought to have been expecting His sovereign rein—even now, Jesus ministers to the eternal soul standing before Him

This Palm Sunday, I hope you ask Pilate’s question: “Is Jesus a King?”

I hope you would have been numbered among those lining the road to Jerusalem, ushering its rightful King to His throne

But follow the voice of truth, because Jesus is asking this personal question of you, as well

He phrases it another way in…

Matthew 16:13-16 – 13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Is Jesus your king?

Was Jesus Pilate’s king?

Let’s finish out our passage by looking at his response…

B. Pilate’s Response

After Jesus affirming his status as the sovereign King and the witness to the truth…

John 18:38 – Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, “I find no guilt in Him…”

You may be encouraged to hear that Pilate found no guilt in him

But remember his binary opinion of Christ—He was either delusional or guilty

What is his conclusion (delusional)

How do we know? First, because Palm Sunday leads to Good Friday, where Jesus will eventually hang on a Roman tree—one that Pilate passively furnishes for Him

But also, his question is a dead-giveaway: “what is truth”

Christ already answered that question earlier in the Gospel of John…

John 14:6 – Jesus said to [His disciple], “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me…”

Not only did Jesus come into this world as a King to testify about the truth, He Himself IS truth

In a rare moment in history, Pilate was staring at the embodiment of his question—only He couldn’t recognize His voice

How about you?

C. Your Invitation

Is Jesus your King?

This in an appropriate question for all in the room—those who would claim to be Jesus’s subjects already, and those who may still be considering

To those who would claim Christ as King…

**discuss: do you listen to the voice of truth and follow what He says

To those who are still considering…

**discuss: hear Christ’s question to you; to rephrase: “do you believe He is King on your own initiative?”