It's wonderful to be here together today and to worship
God. And as I look over the audience,
we have a great crowd here, even though we have, as Terry
mentioned, so many of our members that are sick or hurt or
recovering or maybe at other places traveling.
But we have a great crowd because you're here today.
And I've looked forward to worshiping with you.
And I hope that what we have to discuss in our lesson will be
encouraging and helpful to you. We're continuing our series that
I started from the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was
arrested in the garden, and now we are where Jesus was taken
before pilot. And I'm just going to say that
this is actually a two-part lesson because there's so many
things that happened when Jesus was taken before pilot.
We cannot cover all of it in one sermon.
Usually when we talk about Jesus before Pilate, we talk about the
things that Pilate did that sent Jesus directly to the cross.
For example, when he was beaten and scourged and spit upon.
Then when he was taken and nailed to a Roman cross.
And we talk about those things when he went before Pilate, but
before that happened. These verses in John 18, verses
28 through 38 are very, very significant.
And often times we just read over them without going very
deep into them because we want to get to exactly the climax of
and teach on the climax of what happened to Jesus.
Let me just say before I go any further, that John 18, verses 28
through 38 is very significant. And it's very significant for
three reasons and in three ways. Number one in Jewish history #2
by way of Roman history and #3 and most importantly by way of
prophetic history or the fulfillment of the prophecies
from Jesus Christ or about Jesus Christ himself.
So where are we right now in our narrative?
Jesus has been arrested in the garden.
He was taken in the middle of the night before Anis.
And that was really the arraignment part, you would say,
of the religious trial. Remember, the trial was twofold.
It was religious and it was also civil, meaning religious before
Israel, civil before Rome. Jesus had been arrested.
He's taken to Anis and then also in the middle of the night, he's
taken before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin.
In the middle of the night, the very next morning, he's taken
before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin.
Once again, the mock trial. But the only way that they could
legally crucify Jesus or execute Jesus, which is all they wanted
to do, is he had to go to pilot. He had to go to Rome.
And the reason for that is during this period of Jewish
history, they were living under the oppressive thumb of Rome.
They were living under Rome's control.
I want to say this though, about the Jewish courts and what they
were actually allowed to do, living under the bondage of Rome
and under the laws of Rome. Rome actually gave Jews their
own laws and said, you know what?
You can have your own laws, you can have your own courts.
And that's why it was legal to actually have the 71 member
Sanhedrin, which would, I guess I don't know a better way to put
it. It was the highest court you can
imagine under Judaism. It would be considered like the
Supreme Court among the Jews. That was legal.
What else could they do? They could have their own laws,
they could even administer their own laws, and they could even
inflict punishments to some degree regarding the breaking of
those laws under religion or under Israel or under Judaism.
OK, But they were limited. They were limited when it came
to a capital case. They could not execute somebody
legally because as we know, the right of the sword belonged to
Rome. But what I want to notice this
morning is, why is that significant?
Why is it significant that the Jews had to go to pilot?
Nothing, by the way, in the Scriptures is by happenstance.
Nothing is a coincidence. I don't believe in that at all.
I like what Joe Heisler said one time.
He said, you know what coincidence is?
It's Providence Incognito. That's just free.
I'm going to tell you something. There's no coincidence in the
Scriptures. They went to pilot for a reason.
They went to pilot. Not only legally did they have
to, but they went to Pilate because prophecy determined how
Jesus was going to die. Bible says that Jesus was to be
lifted up. Do you remember what they
accused Jesus after the religious trial?
What did they say? They said when they were so
angry and they tore their clothes and they were so mad,
they said blasphemy. Why?
He said I am the Son of God. When Jesus said that that's all
they could stand. They tore their clothes, they
were angry and they said blasphemy.
OK, what does the Bible say in the Old Testament about somebody
that would blasphemy in Leviticus 24 and 16?
Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to
death. All the congregation shall
certainly stone him, the stranger, as well as him who is
born in the land. When he blasphemes the name of
the Lord, he shall be put to death.
All right. Had Jesus been executed anytime
before Roman rule, you know what would have happened?
They would have taken Jesus. They would have in a mob
mentality, they would have stoned him to death.
And if that's the case, the Bible is not true.
The Bible is not accurate. Give you an example about
prophecy regarding this. When Moses came as the deliverer
to deliver the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage,
I got to Fast forward through the story.
Don't have time, but all of a sudden they come, and this is
after the parting of the Red Sea.
They'd walk on dry ground, and they're appreciative that God
was in their corner, that God had their back, that God sent a
deliverer. And that was Moses, who, by the
way, typified our deliverer, Jesus.
Moses brings them out and all of a sudden they're in the
wilderness. OK, what do the people do?
They forget, and they complain. At a great sermon last Sunday
from Wade about complaining, remember some of his points.
When you complain, you're not thinking about somebody else.
You're not thinking about God. You're thinking about you and
how many times do we do that? We have something good that
happens in our life. Maybe God blesses us or has
something good in our life, and then all of a sudden we forget.
It's kind of the old adage, what have you done for me lately?
That was the children of Israel. And you know what they murmured?
They said, wait a minute, we got no food.
We got no water. By the way, we're sick of this
bread. Terrible.
You know what God does? Numbers 21 God send serpents to
bite the people. When the serpents bit the
people, the snakes, what happened to the people?
They died. Hold that thought because
there's a picture there. When the serpents bit the
people, the people died. Now God got their attention.
So the people come to Moses and they say, Moses, pray to God
that God will take away the snakes.
Does God take away the snakes? No.
What God says is this. God does this.
He said, Moses, what you're going to do is this.
I'm not taking them away, but when they bite the people, this
is what they're going to do. You take a pole and you put
brazen serpents on a pole. That's what you're going to do.
And when the people are bit, they're going to look up and
when they do, they're going to be healed.
It was a look of faith, believing Numbers 21.
This is what Moses did. Moses made a bronze serpent and
put it on a pole. And so it was.
If a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze
serpent, he lived. Do you know what the snakes
represented? Sin.
When the snakes bit the people, death by sin as a prophetic
type. When the people, as an act of
faith, believing, would look up, they would be healed in that
beautiful. Because guess what?
We ain't talking about snakes and we ain't talking about Poles
and we ain't talking about Moses.
We're talking about Jesus. God doesn't take away the
consequence of sin until what we look to the one that was lifted
on a pole. The Bible says that's
significant because in John 3 and 14, and as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. That's why they went to Pilate.
It was the law. That's true.
Yes, that's true. But they had to go to pilot.
Why? Because prophetically, Jesus had
to be lifted up and a Jewish form of execution was stoning so
much more. I could say we got to keep
moving to legally execute Jesus. Rome had to do it.
So that's why they went to pilot.
Notice what Jesus said. And if I am lifted up from the
earth, this is back in John 12/6 chapters before will draw all
peoples to myself. I've heard people say this.
What that means is practically in life, it means this.
If I lift up Jesus in my life, it will draw all people under
Jesus. And while that may be true, and
while that is a secondary example, that's not what the
Lord was talking about. What the Lord was talking about
is writing the scriptures, this signifying what death he would
die, the form of death that He would die.
So interestingly, this is great. The sole right of execution was
given to Rome. Do you know when?
In about 8030. I'm just going to pause there.
Who's in control? When did Jesus start his earthly
ministry on the earth? About 3 years before he was
crucified. And if you don't go by the
adjusted calendar where he was crucified in AD 30, which I
believe it was AD 33, don't have time to go into it.
If you go by the traditional calendar, that means that he
started his earthly ministry in AD 30, the time that Rome was
given the exclusive right of execution.
So for the three years, because he was crucified in AD 33, for
the three years that Jesus was on the face of the earth, it
didn't make any difference. The Jews can get all the mad
they wanted to. They can get their mad on all
they wanted to. They couldn't legally execute
Jesus. Why?
Because the Bible prophetically stated he had to be lifted up.
Man, that ain't an accident. Who's in control?
God's in control. OK, So what dominates this whole
scene? What dominates the whole scene
is the innocence of Jesus. Pilate begins by saying I don't
know what the accusation is. You know what he ends up saying
6 times? I find no fault in him.
Jesus was innocent. He doesn't want the blood of
Jesus of an innocent man on his hands.
Religious trial already happened.
It began at night as I mentioned in our introduction.
You know, that was the illegal. Remember we talked about that
last time it was illegal. Why was it illegal?
Because capital cases under old law and under Jewish law under
the Sanhedrin could not be discussed at night time.
It had to be discussed under light of day.
And remember, we remember last time we said, and the reason for
it is this. If somebody is going to be on
trial for their life, they didn't want to have a law where
you can very hurriedly go through it at night and decide
if they should be executed or not.
It had to be in the light of day when they would take their time
and hear all the evidence. So they broke the law.
You know what they did the next morning?
The next morning they came together with Caiaphas in the
Sanhedrin to try to make legal what last night was illegal.
OK, so it's now early in the morning, but they still got to
go to Pilot. Why did they wait till the next
morning? It was early in the morning.
They couldn't do it before then because the Roman court opened
at sunrise and it closed at sunset.
So it wasn't like, well, they got Pilot up out of bed and
Pilots got no, it was his job by way of a Roman court.
It was his job and it opened at sunrise and it closed at sunset.
So now they came to Pilot's Hall.
The old, the old King James says, or the new King James
calls it his praetorium. Now we go to Matthew or John
chapter 18 and verse 28. Notice please.
Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium, and
it was early morning. But they themselves did not go
to the praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but that they
might eat the Passover. Now a Jewish man could not go
into the House of a Gentile under Jewish law, lest they be
defiled. And if they wanted to eat the
Passover, which was nigh when Jesus was going to be crucified,
they could not go into the House of a Gentile or they would be
ceremonially unclean. Notice the difference between
what happened under the old law and where we are under the law
of Christ. I like this so much better,
don't you? Acts chapter 10.
When Peter takes the gospel to the first Gentile converts in
the household of Cornelius, he references going back to this,
this idea of the old law. Then he said to them, you know
how it is unlawful for a Jewish man to keep company with or go
to one of another nation? But Peter says everything's
changed. God has shown me that I should
not call any man common or unclean.
That's under the law of Christ. This is under the law of Moses.
This is under the law of Christ. There's nothing common or
unclean. EM Zur put it this way and
summing up what they were saying, the Jews imagined that
it would defile them ceremonially, and I'm going to
get to that word in just a minute.
Ceremonially, what did it mean to be ceremonially unclean?
The Jews imagined it would defile them ceremonially to come
in contact with such a place, which would be the House of a
Gentile, and that would render them unfit to partake of the
Passover feast that was about due.
The Law of Moses required the Jews to be ceremonially as well
as physically clean before they can participate in the feast.
OK, And that's why John said this in John Chapter 11 and
verse 55. And the Passover of the Jews was
near. Many went from the country up to
Jerusalem before the Passover. What for?
To purify themselves. So it's very serious to be
purified and not be ceremonially unclean before the Passover.
So let's talk about being ceremonially clean and unclean
and what they had to do. Here we go.
For a Jew to be ceremonially clean means to be ritually pure,
free from defilement according to Jewish religious law, which
often involves performing a ritual washing called the
tebola, and in a mikvah, which was a ritual bath, to symbolize
the removal of impurity and allowing them to participate
fully in religious practices, particularly approaching the
temple or offering sacrifices, especially signifying a state of
spiritual readiness to worship God.
Saying all of that, that's the reason they didn't want to be
ceremonially unclean before the Passover.
Why Leviticus said this? Leviticus 22, six and seven.
The person who has touched any such thing shall be unclean
until evening and shall not eat the holy offerings unless he
washes his body with water. And when the sun goes down, he
shall be clean, and afterward he may eat the holy offerings
because it is his food. OK, saying all that, do you see
the unbelievable hypocrisy? Unbelievable hypocrisy.
They don't want to go into the House of a Gentile, so they be
defiled so they can eat the Passover.
All the while they're willing to execute and have crucified the
Messiah who's the fulfillment of the Passover, the ultimate
Passover lamb. Wow, unbelievable hypocrisy.
It's a classic example of straining out a gnat and
swallowing a camel like Jesus dealt with before.
Keep the Passover and kill the one who came to fulfill it.
OK, verse 29. Pilate then went out to them and
said, what accusation do you bring against this man?
You know one thing about Pilate? Pilate knows Jesus is innocent.
OK? Pilate is not naive.
Pilate is has no problems when it comes to his own personal
intellect. That's not the problem.
The problem with Pilot. Please get this, because it's
going to be the same problem all the way through, even in the
next lesson. Pilot was a coward.
I've said this so many times
that when the Jews were living, they were living under the
oppressive thumb of Rome. And that's true.
But look at the irony here while living under the oppressive
thumb of Rome. Guess what?
The Jews have Pilot under their thumb right now and he's a
coward. He doesn't want to lose his
position. Noticing in John 19 as we Fast
forward John 19 and 12. From then on, Pilot sought to
release him, but the Jews cried out saying if you let this man
go, you are not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king
speaks against Caesar. This is blackmail.
You want to keep your job? They're saying do the right
thing, crucify Jesus. If you want to do the right
thing, you know what the right thing would have been.
The right thing would have been to let him go because Jesus was
guilty of nothing, right? I thought about this when I was
putting this lesson together, and I want to share it with you.
Just food for thought. Have you ever been in a job and
you've been faced with an ethical dilemma and you've got a
choice to make? You got a choice.
Am I going to do the right thing or am I going to chicken out and
compromise because I want to keep my job?
Or maybe you're in business with someone and you have a business
transaction and the business transaction is a pretty good
deal, so you're tempted to compromise what you know is
right and ethical because you want your job or you want the
business. I thought about what a good
question for all of us to ask ourself.
We say we're going to do the right thing, we're going to do
the right thing, we're going to do the right thing.
My question is, is there a price you pay?
Is there a price I pay? Hope not.
Hope I wouldn't compromise. Hope I do the right thing.
Here it was When they came to Pilot.
Pilot sought to release him. They said if you let this man's
go, you're not Caesar's friend. We're going to tell on you,
Pilot, you're not doing good. Pilot going to tell on you.
You're not Caesar's friend. Oh, I'm going to lose my job.
Shaken takes courage to do that. Which is right.
So this is what Pilot says. He says, what accusation do you
bring against this man? And you know something about
this? This is the first fair aspect to
the Lord's trial. Finally, somebody is going to
ask the question, what do you got against him?
What's the accusation? What's he actually being accused
of? They don't want a trial though.
They want an execution Notice please.
Their response? They answered and said to him,
if we were not an evil doer or if he were not an evil doer, we
would not have delivered him up to you.
Did you get that? They don't answer the question.
What they say is this, oh by the way, if he wasn't a bad guy,
because we're wonderful citizens, we are wonderful
citizens, upstanding, respected men, upstanding men in the
community, upstanding men before God and all this, we are the
most religious people in the world.
Do you really think if he was not guilty of something or
really a bad guy, do you think we would have brought him to
you? That's how they answer the
question, OK, But in reality, you know what?
They don't answer the question. And I think there's really 2
reasons. There's no accusation.
That's number one, proving that Jesus was perfect.
They had nothing to say because Jesus was perfect.
But there's a secondary thing here.
The point is, there's nothing by way of a charge that they could
come up with that would hold any weight at all in a Roman court.
Nothing. What did they say about Jesus?
What did they have against him? We've already said that.
Oh, he blasphemed me. He's guilty of blasphemy.
He is said he's the Son of God. You know, Rome thought about
that. Who cares?
That's nothing to roam. So they don't answer.
Don't you see the hand of God working through all this?
They don't answer with an accusation.
First and foremost, because Jesus was perfect and he was
sinless and he had to be to be God's perfect sacrificial lamb
for the sins of the world. Everything Jesus did, everything
Jesus did, he was sinless in every way.
I'm going to tell you something. People get this mistaken and
it's not true that they are mistaken.
When Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan, some say while he
was perfect or sinless up until his baptism.
Then when John the Baptizer baptized Jesus, he baptized him
so he can remain sinless the rest of his life.
That is not true. He was baptized because the
Bible says to fulfill all righteousness.
Let's not go beyond the Bible to fulfill all righteousness.
Jesus said you must do this to fulfill all righteousness.
When he told John the Baptizer to baptize him, Jesus didn't
need that to stay perfect. Why?
Jesus is perfect in every way. He's the Son of God.
He is deity. So what do they do?
They got nothing to say. They take refuge in their own
character. Don't have a thing on Jesus.
Perfect in every way. In every way.
So not only does John show his perfection and it's made
evident, but also his deity. Notice Mark's account now about
his deity. Now they were on the road going
up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them, and they were
amazed and they followed and they were afraid.
Then he took the 12 aside and began to tell them the things
that would happen. How did Jesus know what would
happen? Because Jesus was God too.
He was all knowing in this too. Jesus knew everything that was
going to happen. Mark 10 is long before John
chapter 18. What did Jesus say in the very
next verse? Here's the prophecy.
Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man
will be betrayed by the chief priest.
It happened and the scribes, it happened and they would condemn
him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles.
Jesus said a long time before it happened that that's exactly
what was going to happen. He would go to the Gentiles.
So in verse 31, then Pilate said to them, you take him and judge
him according to your law. Therefore the Jews said to him,
it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.
This is interesting to me. Pilate seems to be saying to
them, I'm giving you temporary authorization legally to try
Jesus and execute him yourself. They said, Oh no, no, no,
Pilate, it's not lawful for us to put anyone to death.
It's against the law. OK, why didn't they just scoop
up Jesus and take him and stone him to death?
Can't you see this is the hand of God?
Because if it was up to humans, notice they said it's not
lawful. Pilate gave them legal right to
do it. He gave them authorization to do
it. They said no, it's not lawful.
We can't put anyone legally to death.
Why didn't they scoop up Jesus? Because of the next verse that
they're saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spoke
signifying by what death he would die.
Amazing. Is Pilot in control?
No. Are the Jews in control?
No. Is God in control?
Yes. I'm telling you, when you think
about what God did for the sins of man and what Jesus did for
the sins of man, and you realize he was no man's victim.
He's the ultimate victor and he was totally in control.
Doesn't it give you at least a semblance of a greater
appreciation for Jesus than that?
I don't know about you, but it makes me really want to serve
Him even more. You know why?
Because he wasn't a victim. They thought he was.
God was totally in control and so was Jesus.
Remember what Jesus already said back in John 12 and 32.
And if and I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all
peoples unto myself. In other words, the kind of
death had to be lifted up or the death on the cross.
God is totally in control. But also John exalts Jesus in
another way too, not just in perfection and not just in
deity, but also as the supernatural king.
Jesus is the supernatural king. Pilate says, what are you going
to accuse him of? The Jews finally came up with
one and by the way, they thought, man, we really got him.
We finally got him. This is going to stick.
Luke 23 and verse 2. They began to accuse him, saying
we found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to pay
taxes to Caesar. That's a lie, saying that he
himself is Christ, a king. What their accusation is that
they thought would stick was this.
They're trying to make Jesus look like an earthly or
political revolutionary that's going to come in and lead a
rebellion, a revolution, and then crown himself as king.
Notice this phrase here. How much this is a lie here,
forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar.
Do you remember Jesus makes his triumphal entry into Jerusalem
on the back of a colt of a donkey on Sunday.
On Monday, he cleanses the temple.
In the last week of his life. He also, you remember, curses
the fig tree. Remember what happened on
Tuesday, the day of controversy or questions, And they come to
question Jesus and they come and they thought they really got
him. And they says, tell us, is it
lawful to pay taxes to Caesar? Jesus says, go get me a
denarius, go get me a Roman coin.
Somebody had to go and get one. I don't know how long it took.
You can imagine Jesus standing there and they're waiting to see
what Jesus is going to do. And finally they bring the coin
to Jesus and Jesus turns it back on him.
He says this, whose image is on that coin?
And they said, well, Caesar and Jesus says, render unto Caesar
that which is Caesar or Caesar's, and render unto God
that which is God's. We do the same thing.
We pay our taxes. We render unto Caesar that which
is Caesar's. But you know what?
It doesn't infringe on our service to God.
You can give up your taxes to Caesar, and you can also give to
God not only financially, but of yourself in every way.
You can give to other people. You can do all that and still
fulfill your obligation to government or Caesar or obey the
laws of the land that we currently live under today.
This is a lie. This is a farce.
They said, oh, he's perverting the nation.
He forbid to pay taxes. Caesar saying himself is Christ
as a king. OK, what's interesting to me,
and here's the hypocrisy of it all, they hated Jesus more than
they hated Caesar, and they couldn't stand Caesar.
And now they're going to use Caesar as a reason to crucify
Jesus because they hate him more.
Then Pilate enters the pretorium again, called Jesus and said to
him, are you the king of the Jews?
And by the way, in our English translations, it looks like just
a simple question. For example, if I said to Terry,
are you so and so and so and so? That's not what he was asking.
In the Greek it says this, this way.
In the Greek it says you are you the king of the Jews?
In other words, you got to be kidding me.
You a king, You don't look like a king.
You're meek, you're humble, your hands are bound, you're wearing
the clothes of a peasant. You don't have an entourage.
You're all by yourself. Remember what the Bible says
about the disciples. Not only did Peter deny Jesus
from our last lesson, but the Bible says also they all forsake
forsook him and they all fled. No entourage.
Here's Jesus humble attire and he says you, are you kidding me?
Are you a king? Are you the really the king of
the Jews? You only got a king to me.
Jesus has a dilemma if he says yes, I am a king.
The only thing that Pilate knows about is an earthly king.
So if Jesus says yes, I'm a king, then Pilate would say what
they're accusing him is right. And Pilate would say he is going
to be a political revolutionary. He's going to try to overthrow
Rome and then be asserted as king.
And that would be bad. That would prove their point.
If he says no, I'm not a king, he would be denying his own
kingship. And the Bible says that he is a
king. He's King of kings and Lord of
Lords. So what is he going to do?
Here's Jesus again, brilliant Jesus qualifying the question in
the next verse. Jesus answered him.
Are you Speaking of yourself about this or did others tell
you this concerning me? Then Pilate answered, am IA 2
your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you to
me. And then he says, what have you
done? Remember, this is an illegal
question. You're not allowed to ask
somebody that because under the law a man could not be condemned
by the word of his own testimony.
By law. Pilate's scrambling.
He knows Jesus is innocent. He said, are you a king?
He says, who told you I was a king?
Where'd you get that information?
Pilate says, am IA Jew, your own nation and chief priest
delivered you to me. Then he says, what have you
done? This was kind of like, I guess a
Fifth Amendment deal. Couldn't incriminate yourself,
right? Oh, the Lord's brilliant.
So what Jesus does is this. He doesn't answer the question
at all. He just speaks about His Kingdom
and he says this. My Kingdom is not of this world.
If my Kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight
so that I should not be delivered to the Jews.
But now my Kingdom is not from here.
Remember in John 18 and 37, Pilate responds.
He said to him, Are you then a king?
Jesus said, You rightly say that I am a king for this 'cause I
was born and for this cause I've come into the world that I
should bear witness of the truth.
Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.
OK, we got to methodically go through this here.
Jesus is the great proclaimer of truth.
To know Jesus, then, is to know the truth.
So I say this respectfully, and we'll talk about what it means
to know Jesus, because it really matters.
But if you don't know the truth, you don't know Jesus.
The word no means to have a relationship with.
If you don't intellectually know the truth, you don't have a
relationship with the with Jesus.
You know why? Because Jesus is linked to
truth. One man put it this way.
Jesus is King and his scepter, meaning his rod or his staff,
His rod or staff of authority and royalty is truth.
That's the king that he is. You know what Pilate, how Pilate
answers. It's amazing how Pilate answers
this. Pilate said to him, well, what's
truth? You know, he wasn't really
trying to ask Jesus to preach a sermon and tell him about what's
true or not. What he's saying is there's no
such thing as truth. Doesn't that sound familiar?
Pilate responds by saying what's truth?
What's that? In other words, it doesn't
really exist. Do you know anybody that's ever
said that? I don't understand something and
I'm going to be very polite and respectful, please.
In our life, we have standards of truth in every aspect of our
life. In school, there is a standard
of truth and there are facts that we're quizzed on and, and
tests on and all that. And if you answer the question
wrong, you get it wrong. You answer enough wrong, you get
an F, OK, Because why? We all recognize that
academically there's a standard of truth.
So we got to answer the question right based on the information
of the standard, right? I remember when I took the
contractor exam. You too and took the contractor
exam. Remember there's a test.
I remember the guys that didn't study and they flunked it.
If you study the information, it's pretty easy.
Trade and law. If you studied it, you know why.
There was a standard of fact which is true and everybody gets
it in every walk of life until it comes to religion.
And then people want to say there really isn't a standard of
truth. What's true for you is OK for
you, and what's true for me is OK for me.
And there's no standard and there's no room for
authoritative doctrine from the Scriptures is just what you
think is true is no good for you, and what I think is true is
good for me. And I don't understand that
because you know what? Religiously we're talking about
the greatest decision a person will ever make in their life.
There's nothing more important than your relationship with the
Lord. Jesus said I am truth.
Notice in the previous verse he said everyone who is of the
truth hears my voice. Wow here's my voice.
What is the word here? I hope this really drives home
what's it mean to hear Jesus. It means this from the Greek to
listen intently and obey. So everyone who is of the truth
listens intently and obeys my voice.
It's pretty heavy stuff. Jesus said it.
So in other words, to have a relationship with Jesus, you got
to hear him and you got to obey him and you can't do it on your
own way. You can't pave your own way.
When the Bible says work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling, it's misinterpreted among many to say this, I'm
going to do it my way. You do it your way.
And you know what, I knew a guy told my father this all the
time. I'm going to be on my path.
You go on your path and we'll see you guys to heaven first.
Used to make a joke with my dad. They were good friends.
Jesus says enter ye into the straight gate, for wide is the
gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction.
And many there be that go in there at For straight is the
gate, narrow is the way that leads to life.
And few there be that find it not few there be that not few
there be. Because it's hard to find.
That's not what that means. It means that few as opposed to
many are going to make the choices, to make the sacrifice,
to do what the Lord said and do what?
Listen intently to the Lord and obey what the Lord said.
And the standard is the word of God.
It's got to be, it's got to be. So after Jesus, after Pilate had
said this, he went out and you know, he said I find no fault in
him at all. And by the way, he says it 6
times so far, he's proven faultless.
In conclusion, there's no indictment at the beginning.
There's no conviction in the end.
The King of Truth is accused, he's maligned and he's hated,
but he's proven time and time again to be perfect and
faultless. But Pilot wasn't finished, and
that's going to be next. He has to make a decision, and
that decision is what then shall I do with Jesus?
Do you know you got to make that same choice, So do I Everybody
has to make the choice. Here's the evidence.
What am I going to do with Jesus?
We're going to talk about how Pilot has to make that choice
next. And finally he turns to them.
He says, shall I crucify your king knowing he's innocent?
You got a choice today too. What are you going to do about
Jesus? Jesus died for your sins.
He shed his blood. He rose again on the third day.
He is now sitting at the right hand of God.
He's reigning as our king. He's reigning as our king with
his scepter being truth. You got a relationship with
Jesus. I'm going to tell you what you
can today. This is how you do it, not based
on what you think or I think. By the way, don't ever listen to
me. If I can't give you book,
chapter and verse, If I can't show it to you in the Bible,
then you throw out anything I say.
But if I quote the Bible, please hear the Bible and listen to
what the Word says, OK. Jesus talked about hearing means
listen intently and believe. What did Jesus say in order to
go to heaven? What does the Bible say in order
to become a Christian? Here's the invitation that we
extend to everyone after we teach from the Word of God.
First thing you got to do, you got to hear the Word.
The word is the standard. It's the scepter of truth.
Romans 10/17. So faith comes by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. After you hear the word of God,
which as we've already noticed, means listen intently and obey,
you got a choice. You got a choice, Jesus said.
You got to believe with all your heart.
Hebrews 11 and 6. Jesus said that in in Mark 1616,
but also Hebrews 11:00 and 6:00. You got to believe with all your
heart. Without faith, it's impossible
to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is
and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
You hear the word of God. You hear the standard of truth.
You got a choice to make. Am I going to believe it or not?
And by the way, belief means having the force to obey.
There's that word again. You got to believe with all your
heart what else? You got to repent of your sins.
All that means is, man, I've been going in that direction.
I'm not going to go in that direction anymore.
I'm a follower of Jesus. You know what Christian is?
A disciple of Jesus, a follower of Jesus, and a learner of
Jesus. When a person comes to the
conclusion, I want to follow Jesus, that's what you're doing.
I'm going to be his disciple and follow him.
I'm going to be a learner of Jesus.
I'm going to follow him and serve him.
That's what I'm going to do because he's my King.
Then you got to be willing to confess Jesus Christ as the Son
of God. Then Philip said, if you believe
with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, I
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
These are steps that point toward or lead to the point of
salvation. These things are unto salvation,
but this is what puts you into Christ.
Be baptized for the remission of your sins.
Mark 1616. He who believes that is baptized
will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned.
Is it necessary? Do you have to be baptized to be
saved? According to the scriptures, you
do be baptized for the remission of sins first.
Peter 321. The like figure where to even
baptism does also now save us. Not the putting away the filth
of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
That's what it takes to become a Christian.
That's what it takes to be saved.
Baptism for the purpose of remission of your sins, beauty
of it. You're saved and Jesus adds you
to his body, his church, his Kingdom that he's reigning over.
Now, have you taken these steps perhaps, and you've drifted
away. Maybe there's something in your
life that you need to correct. You can do that.
There won't be that one of either class.
Come forward. Let your request be made known
while we stand and while we say.