November 20, 2021 Christ The King Sunday
John 18:33-37 33Pilate
went back into the Praetorium and summoned Jesus. He asked him, “Are you the
King of the Jews?” 34Jesus answered, “Are you saying
this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” 35Pilate
answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me.
What have you done?” 36Jesus replied, “My kingdom is
not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so
that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from
here.” 37“You are a king then?” Pilate asked. Jesus answered, “I am, as you say, a king.
For this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world, to
testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
The Truth Is...
1. Our King
was handed over in place of us.
2. Our King’s rule is out of this world.
In the name of Jesus, the King of
Love, dear fellow redeemed,
Recently
I ran across a page of jokes on the internet.
One of jokes went like this….”You may be 58 years of age, but your knees
are 81 years old and your back is 68
years old. But the good news is your
sense of humor is still frequently 10 years old.” Isn’t that the truth! Another
one said, “You work five days a week.
You shop seven days a week. No
wonder your finances often don't work out well by the end of the year.” I guess that’s true too. Truth- it is something we look for but don’t
see very often in our world. One of the
places we look for truth in is the courtroom.
Sometimes even with expert witnesses and sophisticated technology, it is
still pretty hard to sort out the truth even in the courtroom.
Today in God’s Word we get a
look into the courtroom where the Only True and Holy One is on trial. Many people didn’t see the truth in Pilate’s
courtroom that day years ago. But you
have seen Him. Over the last year, on
the pages of Scripture, you have seen the truth. As we
have gone through the church year, we’ve seen the King. In His Word He was born just as God promised
in Bethlehem. We saw him nailed to a cross and buried in a tomb. We
thrilled to hear the news of Easter that he did not stay dead but rose
again. We heard about his ascension into heaven and his promise to
return. We’ve had a chance to review his promises. On this Christ
the King Weekend, we wrap up the church year reminding ourselves of the truths
of our King Jesus! The Truth Is... 1.
Our King was handed over in place of us.
2. Our King’s rule is out of this world.
Imagine
going to a baseball game and seeing the umpire on the pitcher’s mound, the fans
in the outfield and the batter on 1st base. Nobody is where they are supposed to be. If you had been come upon the scene in front
of Pilate’s palace that morning, it might have seemed like no one was where
they were supposed to be. It would have
been difficult to see the king and the truth He brings. Even Pilate, the
one who was supposed to be judging the situation, was confused. "Pilate
went back into the Praetorium and summoned Jesus. He asked him, “Are you the King
of the Jews?” " Jesus wasn’t sitting on a throne. He was bound and
standing where criminals stand when they are on trial. The Lord of heaven and earth was all bloody
and beaten up. The truth is Jesus was
standing exactly where he wanted to be- handed over in our place. All of that was Jesus handed over in our
place because “he did not consider
equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing taking the
very nature of a servant and became obedient to death even death on a cross.”
Jesus
made clear that the Son of Man came not to be served like so many earthly kings
throughout history wanted to be served.
Jesus came to serve and give his
life as a ransom for many. Even as Jesus
was giving his life, here he is handing out invitations for people to know
about Him and put their faith in Him. Jesus’ returned Pilate’s question with
another question. Jesus’ question was an invitation to learn more about
the true King. “Jesus answered, “Are you saying this on your own, or did
others tell you about me?”
In
his response Pilate marvels that Jesus was turned over by his own people and he
scoffs at the idea that Jesus could mean anything to him. "Pilate
answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me.
What have you done?” What have you
done, Jesus that your own people have handed you over? Since the Romans normally looked for someone
who had military experience to be a governor, he had probably seen the horror
on the faces of the people when one of their own people were stretched out on a
cross to die. It all begs the question of what Jesus had
done to make his countrymen so angry that they handed him over with the demand
that he be tortured to death on a cross.
It was true in more than one way that
Jesus’ own people turned him over to be crucified. Judas betrayed him. The chief priests and teachers of the law
turned him over to Pilate. Many people in
the crowd shouted for Jesus to be killed.
They all turned him over but the truth is…we did too.
This king died to pay for the sins of his
own people. God punished him for the
things we did wrong. The Bible says, “He
was crushed for our iniquities and by his wounds we are healed.” All too often Satan has tricked us into
betraying Jesus-maybe we’ve sung Stand up Stand Up for Jesus and then promptly
sat down when the pressure was on. In our sinful foolishness we listened to the
devil time and time again. We turned him
over. But Jesus the King turned the
tables on the devil. He redeemed
sinners. He saved His people. He saved you and me. Jesus is the king handed over by His own
people. And the truth is that’s how he
saved His people!
Did it
ever happen that when you asked your mom or dad to do something and you began
it with a compliment that Mom or dad was a little suspicious? Pilate is a little cautious like that on Good
Friday morning. Standing before him were the Jewish religious leaders
pretending to be a great friend to Caesar when they really could not stand the
Roman government. Even though Jesus had made clear on many occasions that he
had no interest in setting up a kingdom here on earth, they accused him of
being a rebel, a threat to Caesar’s throne. Pilate seemed to know something
wasn’t quite right as he pokes around a little.
Jesus makes it clear. The truth
is….2. Jesus’ kingdom is not of this
world.
Jesus makes
clear that what He is about is bigger than Pilate or even the Roman
Empire. This was the plan of God! The
fact that some of the leaders of his own people handed him over to Pilate
instead of making him an earthly kingdom did not signal the end of God’s
plan. Jesus had told his disciples before what God’s plan was. “We
are going up to Jerusalem and the son of man will be betrayed to the chief
priests and teachers of the law. They will turn him over to the Gentiles
to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be
raised to life!” Jesus knew that God had woven the sinful actions of
these so called religious leaders into his plan.
“Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this
world, my servants would fight so that I would not be handed over to the Jews.
But now my kingdom is not from here.” 37“You are a king then?” Pilate asked.
Jesus answered, “I am, as you say, a king. For this
reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world, to testify to the
truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate
was right Jesus was a king! But fighting people to establish a kingdom here on
earth was not what he had in mind.
Remember he said, “I lay down my life of my own accord. No one takes it from me.” Jesus was not interested in setting up or
keeping an earthly kingdom. That’s
pretty clear. Remember just one angel
killed 185,000 soldiers in Sennacherib’s army in one night. So keeping Jesus from being arrested would
have been simple.
There were no soldiers lining up to
defend the honor of their king, rather here was the King fighting for His
people. What kind of tools does a king use? Jesus, the King of all, uses
truth as His weapon. “I am, as you say, a king. For this reason I was born, and
for this reason I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who
belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
The truth says that without Jesus we are all doomed to suffer eternal
punishment in hell without Jesus. "All have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God." That by the way is a truth that people in our world do not
want to hear-our sinful natures don’t like to hear it either. But
the truth also says that Jesus paid for the sins of the whole world on the
cross. "He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not only for ours but
also for the sins of the whole world." The truth says that it is by
God given faith that Jesus’ payment benefits you and me and makes us children
of God and servants in God’s Kingdom. "It is by grace you have been saved
through faith and this not from yourselves it is a gift of God, not by works so
that no one can boast." The truth says that because of Jesus we are going
to live in the mansions of our King in heaven when we die that are "out of
this world." Jesus isn’t talking about some tinfoil hat out of this
world place. He is talking about heaven,
where things aren’t all messed up by sin.
No more hurt. No more hate.
Getting pretty tired of all the lies in our world? Jesus is a good king. He doesn’t lie. The truth He tells brings life. The truth is
we have a King who laid down his life for us.
The truth is he is with us and will one day take us home. Looking back on a church year we thank him for
his truth. With confidence in our King
we move forward into the future. Amen.
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