I love the words of that song. You have no rival.
You have no equal now and forever God, you reign.
And when I sing that, I think we kind of join with people all
over the world kind of on a cosmic scale that you have no
rival, you have no equal. But but I think of that even
much more personally when I sing it that he has no rival in my
heart, no equal. But now and forever you reign in
my heart, Lord, that's I hope that's your, your prayer today.
I hope that's your cry today as we sing that that it's not just
something we're singing kind of on a bigger level as cosmic
level, but that it's really personal to you and that Jesus
is your king. And that's what we're going to
talk about today, the King of truth.
I want to start just with a simple question.
Some, some audience participation.
What's the biggest decision you've made recently?
What's the biggest decision you made?
Go ahead and talk it through with someone next to you.
Maybe it's maybe you've had a huge decision to make, maybe a
small decision. What's the biggest decision you
made recently? Today we're going to look at
this moment between Jesus and Pilate.
Pilate had a huge decision. How many of you have made a big
decision in the last couple weeks?
All right? How many of you have just made a
bunch of small decisions like where are we going to eat?
Friday night we got in the car and we said, hey, where are we
going to eat? We need to eat somewhere after a
carnival at the school. And I won't tell you which
member of my family came up with this idea, but her idea was
let's go to Taco Bell. Now, listen, I'm going to say
this later, guys. Most of the time you should
listen to your wives. If your wife says, let's go to
Taco Bell, it's really your call, but you're going to pay
for it. You're going to pay for it in
our in our house. We've had a big decision over
the last. I hope you don't mind me talking
about this, Eli, but I, we've got some seniors.
I didn't run it by him before. We've got a lot of seniors in
our youth group, quite a few that are graduating and trying
to decide what's next. And so is that going into the
workforce? Is that going to school?
Where is that going to school? And so we've been kind of
working through that here in our house over the past several
months. What's Eli going to do?
Where is he going to go? And there's been all these
different voices. Give him a hard time.
It's OK. Sorry, Eli.
All these different voices, you know, what's the right thing for
him? I mean, on, on one hand, he's,
he was looking at one school that I went to.
So it's dad's school. On the other hand, it's the
school that his mom went to and his, you know, some of his
grandparents and cousins and everyone else.
And then another when the school that his other grandparents went
to. And there's all of these
different factors take into account in that decision.
You guys know, you seniors know this is a big decision, right?
Regardless of what it looks like, it's a big decision.
It's not where are we going to eat tonight?
It's, it's a big decision. There's, there's the factors of,
I mean, cost, cost matters. How much is it going to cost to
go to this school versus that school?
And then it's what do they have to offer?
Do they have the right programs? Do they have, is it the right
fit? What is it like?
And so we, we've been working through this decision and, and
here's the beautiful thing for those of you that are, that are
seniors and you're trying to make these big life decisions.
I, I, I don't think you're going to make a wrong decision.
I think God's going to bless whatever decision you make.
Listen, if you're trying to decide where to go to dinner or
where to go to lunch, you're probably not going to make a
wrong decision. I mean, you can make some
painful decisions. All right, Last week, I, I
wasn't going to share this, but I, I only went 25 minutes in
first service. So I got some time to play with
here. You guys know last week I was
struggling. I I had like the stomach bug and
so much so that I actually sat down.
I don't usually sit down to speak, but I had not eaten
anything for like 4 days. I mean nothing good.
And so after service I was like I just want to eat something
good. And my wonderful wife I said I
think I'm going to go get wings. She said that's a bad idea.
See, sometimes she's a voice of reason and sometimes the voice
of Taco Bell and big decisions. I did listen to her last Sunday.
It was, it was a wise decision. So, So what we see today is this
big decision pilot is, is with Jesus and Jesus has been brought
before Pontius Pilate. Pilate is the governor of the
Judea region and the the Jewish leadership has brought Jesus to
Pilate because they want Jesus to be tried and executed.
And at this point, the Jewish people were not they, they had
lost the privilege or the right. They did not have the right to
do their own killings or their own execution.
They didn't have the right to sentence someone to death.
And so that's why they brought Jesus to Pilot is because they
wanted Pilot to do their dirty work for him.
They couldn't do it on their own.
In fact, it tells us that. I think it's verse 31 or 32 that
that's why they brought Jesus to Pilot.
But we see this conversation back and forth between Pilot and
Jesus. Now, Pilot was the governor of
Judea. He was, he was widely known as a
cruel, as a violent leader. He when there was opposition, he
dealt with it very harshly. He dealt with it violently.
And so, so his go to his kind of, you know, mode of operating
was typically violence and killing.
So much so that he'd even been told to kind of back off by the
powers that be. Hey, calm down a little bit.
It's one of the voices that you'll you'll see in in the in
the text here. So Pilate had this conversation
with Jesus and he had this decision to make.
Who is Jesus is who he says he is?
Is he the King of kings? Who is he?
And so we're going to be in verse 33, Stand with me and
honor God's word. We're going to read verse 33 to
39. You can follow along on the
screen. And, and really what's happening
here is Pilate is trying to figure out who is this Jesus?
Is he who he says he is? Is he a threat?
And what should he do in light of who Jesus is?
So it says here in verse 33, Pilate went back inside the
palace. He summoned Jesus and he asked
him, are you the king of the Jews?
Is that your own idea? Jesus asked or or did others
talk to you about me? Am IA Jew Pilot replied your own
people and chief priest handed you over to me.
What is it you have done And Jesus said my Kingdom is not of
this world. If it were my servants would
fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders.
But now my Kingdom is from another place.
Oh, you are a king then, said Pilate, and Jesus answered, You
say that I'm a king. In fact, the reason I was born
and came into the world is to testify to the truth.
Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.
That is a bold statement. Everyone on the side of truth
listens to me. What is truth?
Retorted Pilate. With this, he went out again to
the Jews gathered there, and he said I find no basis for a
charge against him. But it is your custom for me to
release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover.
Do you want me to release the king of the Jews?
We're going to stop there. You can have a seat.
If you read on, you would find that the people's response was
Pilate offered them do you want this criminal Barabbas or do you
want Jesus? And they said release the
criminal because they really they were intent on seeing Jesus
executed. And so Pilate gave them the
choice. He said what should we do?
And they said crucify him and ultimately Jesus went to the
cross and died. There are three things we see
here, 3 truths we see here and that we can see in this text.
And here's the deal, every single one of us.
I ask you what the most important choice you've made
recently. Maybe it was where to go to
lunch or dinner. Maybe you've had a really big
choice. Today.
You have a really big choice. And I'm not trying to be
dramatic Every single day you have a big choice.
Who is Jesus? Is he your King?
Are you going to follow him? That's the big question today.
And so we're going to look at 3 truths that we see from this
text #1 truth number one is this, that God's will and God's
plan are at work and are being accomplished.
Whether we can see it, whether we understand it, whether we
choose to be a part of it or choose not to be a part of it,
God's plan is still moving forward.
I love this. In this text, see, see.
And in this text, it seems like Jesus is in big trouble.
It seems like the enemy is winning here.
It seems like any time a king is is captured and taken before the
opposing authorities, then if it's a movie, if it's a show, if
it's a story, we would say that's big trouble.
But what I want you to understand is that Jesus is here
because it's part of God's plan for Jesus to be here.
See, see, Pilate thinks he's in this position of high authority
and he, he is on this earth. He has this position.
He's the governor of Judea. He gets to decide what happens
with Jesus and he does have a say.
But ultimately, what we see is that God's will and God's plan
are at work regardless of whether pilots on board or not
on board. The truth is, Jesus had already
predicted that this was going to happen.
He had already told people that he would be handed over to the
authorities, that he would be beaten, that he would be
crucified. He had already predicted this.
He already knew it was going to happen.
None of this was a surprise to Jesus.
And so while Pilate thinks he's making this huge decision, and
it is a big decision, the reality is, is this God's will
will be done. We have to figure out where
we're going to find ourselves in it.
So, so we see this kind of back and forth and I love this.
And the temptation is always to kind of read it how you see it.
And, and listen, I you know, the way I see this is kind of a back
and forth, you know, are you the king of the Jews?
Well, is that your idea? Did someone tell you that am IA
Jew. You know, come on, it's your own
people, Jesus, your own people hand you over to us.
Don't forget why you're here. It's because your own people
betrayed you. It's your own people have handed
you over to be killed and and Jesus says in in verse 36, he
says my Kingdom is not of this world.
There's this question in here that I think is, is so
incredible. He says, your own people, the
chief priests have handed you over to me.
And and I think Pilot's being sincere here.
He says, what have you done? What could you possibly have
done to get yourself handed over to to death by the Jewish
people? Now, all right, if you're, if
you're invested in this story, don't you want Jesus to give a
really good answer right here? Pilot says what have you done to
find yourself here? What's the answer?
Come on, give me some answers. What has Jesus done?
You don't want to be wrong. It's OK.
Just be bold. It's OK.
There are no wrong answers unless they're wrong and I'll
ignore it. OK.
He tells people to forgive. How awful.
Forgive others. What else has Jesus done?
He heals people. He protects people.
He loves people. What was that?
He upset the balance. Yeah.
I mean, Jesus, the question, that is such a loaded question
that Pilot asked. And and it's like Pilot saying,
hey, by the way, buddy, you're here because your people turned
you over. What in the world did you do?
And and I wish Jesus would have just stood up and said, I'll
tell you what I've done. I've healed the sick.
I've healed the blind. I've raised the dead to life.
I've fed the hungry, that's what I've done.
That's why I'm here. Nothing but good things, right?
What a load. Don't you wish Jesus would be a
little more snarky sometimes? Is it just me?
It's just me. What have you done?
Are you the king of the Jews? After all, they handed you over
to me for death. Jesus answer is great.
Jesus says my Kingdom is not of this world.
If it were, then my servants would fight to prevent my arrest
by the Jewish leaders. But now my Kingdom is from
another place. You know what Jesus is basically
saying there is? You can only see what you see,
Pilot. You see that these people handed
me over. But I need you to understand
that there is a bigger Kingdom at work here and I wouldn't be
here if it wasn't the will of the Father, God and Jesus the
Son. He says if I wanted to my
servants, if I didn't want to be here, my servants would have
fought back. Now, is he talking about maybe,
is he talking about those ragtag group of disciples, the people
that have followed him? Is that who he's talking about?
I tend to think, no, I tend to think what Jesus is really
talking about here is if I didn't want to be here, then my
servants would come to my aid. Yeah.
I mean, open your eyes. Let me just open your eyes to
see the heavenly forces around you.
If I didn't want to be here, I wouldn't be here.
But I'm here because this is the will and the plan of the Father.
God's will and God's plan are at work whether we see it, whether
we understand it, whether we get on board with it or not.
Jesus says my servants, if it wasn't God's will, my servants
would would have me out of here in no time.
If Pilate had any clue whose presence he was in, oh, this
would have been a much different story.
But he had to make that decision.
He had to figure out who is Jesus and he had to decide.
Listen, whether you believe that Jesus is the true king, the
truth or not, God's plan will move forward.
There will still be victory over sin and death.
God's Kingdom will still come, and God's purposes still will be
carried out. The question is, will you be on
board or you will you miss it? Truth one is God's plan will
succeed. Truth 2 Is this.
The only way to be in line with the truth is to listen to Jesus.
We talk about dinner decisions, we talk about college decisions,
we talk about after high school, work, college, what college
where, where are we going to eat?
What am I going to do for, for work?
What, what is all these decisions we make and, and
listen, most of those aren't the end of the world, but but this
decision that we have to make today is the most important
decision that we will ever make. Who is Jesus?
Is he the King? Jesus is very clear here.
There is only one right answer. See, Pilot's been trying to
figure out who is he? Is he the king of the Jews?
Is he guilty? Does he deserve to die?
Is he a threat? What's going on?
How do I handle this situation? Who is this guy that they've
brought before me? And, and you know what I think,
I think Pilot was expecting Jesus to be, you know, radical
and militant. And, you know, when someone's
handed over and, and said to be, I mean, they're handed, the
Jewish people are handing Jesus over to be killed.
I think he was expecting something much different than
what he got. And it became very clear very
quickly that there was something different about Jesus.
Pilot realized early on, I think that Jesus was in fact not
guilty of anything, but he's still trying to decipher, is he
the king? Is he the king of kings?
Verse 18, he says you are a king.
Then said Pilate, Jesus answered, you say that I'm a
king. In fact, the reason I was born
and came into this world is to testify to the truth.
And then he makes this bold statement.
And guys, we talked about this last week and we're going to
talk about it again today. Everyone on the side of truth
listens to me. Jesus leaves no room for
options. Either He's the King of Kings
and you're on board, or you're not in line with truth.
Period. It's that simple.
So there's all these voices, I mean, just like the colleges and
there's all these voices in, in pilot's head.
In fact, if you go back to Matthew's Gospel, Matthew's
account of this, he, he tells the part of it that pilot's
wife, I told you guys I was going to talk about this pilot's
wife actually tells him, hey, you need to let this innocent
man go. You should have nothing to do
with him because I was warned about this in a dream.
And guys, all right, Taco Bell notwithstanding, most of the
time, you should listen to your wives.
They are wise sometimes, most of the time.
All right, women, have your fun. Get your nod and nudge if you
want. It's fine.
Seriously. There, there is something to
that. Pilot has his wife's voice in
his ear saying, hey, I was warned about this in a dream.
You need to let that man go. You need to have nothing to do
with that. That's one voice in his head.
Another voice in his head is the Roman authorities who have said,
hey, you've been too cruel. It's time to calm down a little
bit, settle down. Another voice is the Jewish mob.
Hey, kill him. He is wrong.
He's he's a traitor. He's he's blaspheming.
He has to die. And so he's got all of these
voices. There's the potential of an
uproar and Pilot finds himself in this moment with Jesus and he
has to make a decision. Who is Jesus?
Is he the king? Maybe not in such a dramatic
way, but I think we have a lot of voices in our in our ears and
in our heads telling us what truth is and what truth isn't.
And Jesus says the reason I was born and came into this world is
to testify to the truth, and everyone on the side of truth
listens to me. He leaves no room, no room for
anything else. Guys, today the most important
decision you'll make is not where you go to lunch or where
you go to school or what job you take.
Most important decision you will make is, is Jesus your king?
Period. There's no other way, he says.
Anyone who's on the side of the truth follows me listens to me.
Now guys, I realize some of you have been in the church for 50
years. Like Brad said earlier, I
realized some of you made this decision 50 years ago, 70 years
ago to follow Jesus. I want you to understand that
today you have to make that decision again every day you
have to choose to follow Jesus. Jesus says anyone who wants to
follow me was take up their cross daily and follow me.
Is he your King? Jesus says I came to testify to
the truth. That's the reason I was born.
That's the reason I came to this world was to testify to the
truth and anyone that wants the truth, anyone that wants to walk
in the truth, anyone that wants life and salvation will listen
to me because Jesus is the way the truth and the life pilots
trying to figure it out. He's trying to make a decision.
We have a decision to make today.
Is Jesus your king? The third truth that we find is
that it's not enough just to know Jesus is the king, but you
have to follow the king with your actions.
Guys, this is important. We can't just say I'm a
Christian. Jesus is king.
Jesus says anyone who wants to be in line with the truth will
listen to me. That doesn't mean that doesn't
say, hey, we'll wear, you know, a chain with a cross on it to
show that they're a Christian. It doesn't say slap a bumper
sticker on their car. It doesn't say change their
Facebook profile to say that they're a Christian.
That's not what it's about. It's not just a one time
decision. Hey, here it is.
Jesus is king. If he's your king, then he's got
to be your king every day, and your actions and your decisions
have to follow the king. What is truth?
Retorted Pilate. With this.
He went out again to the Jews gathered there, and he said, I
find no basis for charge against him.
All right, Pilate probably didn't know what this question
came up this last week as we were talking about it with the
staff. Did Pilate really know that
Jesus was the Messiah? And, and there are some
traditions that believe that Pilot eventually became a
believer that there's no proof of that, that we have.
But but here's the thing. It's pretty clear that that
Pilot knows there's something different.
He says there's no way that that I can, I find no basis for a
charge against him. But then he takes the cowards
away and he allows the voices, the loud voice of the mob to
talk him into doing something that he shouldn't have done,
allowing Jesus to be killed. What is truth?
He says, I find no basis for charge against him.
But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at a
time. At the time of the Passover, do
you want me to release the king of the Jews?
And they said, no, give us Barabbas, crucify Jesus.
And Pilate, I told you God's will will be done.
God's will was that Jesus would go to a cross, die on a cross
raised from the dead to give us salvation from our sins and
victory over sin and death. But Pilate, Pilate chose the
wrong way. He gave in to the mob.
He gave in to the other voices, and he didn't allow Jesus to be
his king. And his actions showed it.
So here's the deal. The first question I want to ask
you today is, is Jesus your king?
Worship team, you can come on up, is Jesus your king?
But the second question I want to ask you today is will you
follow him? Will you listen?
Because it's not just enough to say, hey, I'm a Christian.
He doesn't just he's not just king and name, but he has to be
the King of our heart. He has to be the Lord of
everything in our lives. So here's the deal.
I know some of you maybe have never made that decision to say
I want Jesus to be my king today.
It's a simple decision. Are you going to allow Jesus the
truth? There is no other way to
salvation in life except through Jesus.
He said I came to this earth to testify to the truth.
The only way to have forgiveness of your sins, salvation and
eternal life is through Jesus Christ.
Death and resurrection. It's the only way.
So today maybe some of you need to make that decision.
Hey Jesus, I want you to be my king.
But maybe some of you need to listen to him today.
Stand with me. Jesus leaves no room for options
here. If he's your king, then love is
not a choice. If Jesus is your king, then you
will love others. If Jesus is your king,
forgiveness is not a choice. If Jesus is your king, you will
forgive others. If Jesus is your king, then
surrender is not a choice. It's not OK Jesus, you can be my
king, but I'm going to hold this part of my life off.
No, either he's the king of kings, he's everything and you
surrender everything, or he's not your king.
Surrender is not a choice and holiness, if he's your king, is
not a choice. We don't get to choose to live
in sinfulness and selfishness. If he's your king, your actions,
your life, your heart need to follow that.
So I want to call you to respond.
We're going to sing a couple songs and one of the response
we're going to, one of the ways we're going to respond is we're
going to take communion together and we're going to do this a
little different. You're not going to go grab the
elements and come back to your seat and wait for me to tell
you, but you're going to just go and you're going to take the
elements and you're going to pray and you're going to take
them on your own. Jesus gathered with his
disciples the last time he was with him in the upper room and
and he took the bread and he took the cup and he said, this
is my body that's broken for you.
He said this, this cup, this is my blood that's shed for the
forgiveness of sins. And he says take and eat and
take and drink. And he says continue to do this
in remembrance of me. And what Jesus is saying is not
take communion just so you can have a warm fuzzy memory of who
Jesus is. What Jesus is really saying is,
but as we take communion, we choose every day that he's our
king, that he's the only way, He's the only truth, He's the
only life. So that's one way I want you to
respond. I want you whenever you're
ready. There's going to be communion on
both sides and, and if you come down, you can take the elements,
you can go kneel somewhere, you can go to your seat, but take
communion. Make the choice today.
Jesus is my king. There's a prayer station in the
back. If you would like to do a prayer
station, just a tangible way to walk through it, It's straight
back in the back. You can do that back there.
There are altars here. We're going to pray and anoint
Beth Lloyd over her surgery. That's coming up.
And so we're going to do that. If you would like prayed for,
you can come forward. If you would like anointed, you
can come forward. If there's something you need to
lay down today, I want to encourage you.
Jesus says anyone who wants to walk in truth, well, listen to
me. Is he your king?
Are you following him today? Maybe there's a situation that
you need to lay down, that you need to surrender.
I want to ask you to respond to God's word.
Take communion, pray, whatever that looks like, Choose Jesus as
king. He is the King of truth.
Father prayed, speak to us and I pray that we would respond to
you with sincere hearts. I pray that nobody would walk
out of this room not following you as their King and their
Savior. Give us salvation, give us life,
and give us life everlasting today.
We respond to you now by taking communion, by praying, by
surrendering. Be with us Lord.
We respond to your word now in Jesus name, Amen.