Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / John

John 18:28-40 (Part 2) 11/12/06

Message: ‘Truth Isn’t Always PC’ pt.2   Text: John 18:28-40

Introduction: A Multinational crporation was looking for a new Marketing Director, three candidates entered the final selection process. A mathematician, a statistician and a lawyer.

·       The first to be interviewed was the mathematician. The Managing Director asked him a simple question: What is 2+2. The mathematician was surprised, thought about it for a bit, wondered if it might be a trick question and then simply answered 4. The Managing Director thanked him for coming, but he wasn’t the candidate they were looking for.

·       The statistician was the next. The Managing Director  asked him: What is 2+2. He paused, thought about it for a bit and then replied that statistically it was a number between 3 and 5. The Managing Director and the Board were impressed. The candidate was thanked and ushered out.

·       The last candidate, the lawyer was then asked the same question: What is 2+2. Without batting an eye he replied: “What do you want it to be”. He was hired on the spot. (Sermon Central.com)

 

“What is truth?” The response we get most often these days by many people is “What do you want it to be?”. In our post-modern culture, we have become accustomed to relativism.

Relativism is the teaching that that all points of view are equally valid, that all beliefs, or belief systems, are equally true. Someone once described relativism this way:

·       The way things appear to me, in that way, they exist for me; and the way things appears to you, in that way, they exist for you. Thus, however I see things, that is truth ,for me. If you see things differently, then that is truth, for you. There is no separate or objective truth apart from how each individual happens to see things.

To many then, truth is what you make it, it’s situational, dependent upon the circumstance and individuals at that specific moment in time.

Background:

Last week I said that there are two basic ways of looking at truth.

          1. Truth is defined by God; it’s objective                        and absolute.

                   -For all have sinned

          2. Truth is defined by the individual; it’s                        subjective and situational.

                   -You may call it adultery, but I call it                           an affair.

I. John 18:28-32         Truth Repressed

Last week we looked at how the Jewish religious leaders manufactured their own version of the truth by repressing the facts and substituting their own reality.

Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea, was responsible to decide what was truth and then do something with it. This is where we enter our text this morning.

Transition: Turn in your Bibles to John 18:33 (pg. 827 in the bibles under the chair in front of you)

II. John 18:33-37        Truth Revealed

Read: John 18:33-37

When Pilate asked Jesus if he was the King of the Jews I don’t think he got the answer he expected. Jesus answered Pilate’s question with a clarifying question of his own. If I may parapharase. ‘Is this your question or did someone put you up to it?’

You see, if the question is Pilate’s idea, then he’s asking Jesus if he’s a political king come to challenge Roman rule. If he was put up to it, say by the religious leaders, then he’s asking Jesus if he is the Messiah. Two different questions, two different answers. 

Pilate, an intelligent man sees what Jesus is getting at and asks ‘Am I a Jew?’ He said this to qualify his first question. He wasn’t Jewish so the question he was asking is ‘Are you a political king come to challenge Roman rule? Jesus replied, no. ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews.’  Jesus was telling Pilate that he was no threat to him or Rome.

Sidebar: Here is something we must never forget. During the Crusades, Christians took up arms against the Muslims to advance the Kingdom of God. Thousands upon thousands of Muslims were killed all because the Christians at that time didn’t understand what Jesus said here. This is important. We can never advance the Kingdom of God with acts of aggression.

Pilate stated ‘Then you are a king’ and Jesus said yes, I am.

·       Pilate hears that Jesus is not a political king, a rival to Caesar, but a religious king, a rival to the Jewish leaders. And he really doesn’t care about that.

·       But notice that Jesus even made Pilate aware of who he was by his answer, even though Pilate rejected it.

Jesus then told him that ‘he came to testify to the truth. Why did Jesus talk about truth? Because it was Pilate’s responsibility to discern truth and then do something with it.

What was the truth Jesus came to testify to?

·       Jesus is the Son of the One True and Ever Living God.

·       Everyone sins but there is forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ.

·       Jesus is the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by him. And whoever calls upon the Lord will be saved.

And it was because of this truth that Jesus was rejected, beaten and killed. Put that away for a few moments.

Then Jesus told Pilate  ‘Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’ Why did he say this to him? Because truth is not just a cold fact, it is personal. Jesus brings Pilate face to face with the truth. Jesus makes it personal for Pilate.

‘Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’ Pilate, are you listening, I am telling you the truth…what are you going to do with it? What are you going to do with me?

Pilate’s eternal destiny depends upon how he responds to the truth…which side of truth will he take his stand? And the same is true today.

·       Do you stand for truth, objective, absolute truth found in God’s Word

·       Or do you stand with Oprah and others who say truth is subjective and situational.

·       Be careful where you stand, because your eternal destiny depends upon it. And we are all responsible for what we do with the truth.

Transition: Pilate, whose job it was to discern truth and do something with it, now had to decide and act.

III. John 18:38-40      Truth Refused

Read: John 18:38-10

‘What is truth?’ Did Pilate asked the right question? Yes…but unfortunately that’s as far as he got. Before Jesus had the opportunity to respond, Pilate abruptly leaves the room.

This tells me

·       that he wasn’t interested in knowing the truth, or  

·       that he had already made up his mind about the truth, or

·       that he bought into subjective and situational truth ‘Jesus, truth for you is not the same as truth for me.’

Not Guilty

Pilate saw truth from his perspective: Jesus wasn’t a threat to Rome so he basically goes out and tells the Jewish leaders and the crowd that had gathered that Jesus is not guilty.

But… he didn’t want to make waves so he gave the people a choice of who to release for the Passover. That meant whoever wasn’t released would be crucified.

Do you see what Pilate did? He did the politically correct thing by making it a democratic decision.

You see whenever we stray from our understanding of truth as objective and absolute there is only one place to go…and understanding that truth is subjective and situational. Pilate acts on what is expedient (that which is good for him at the moment) rather than on what is morally right and true.

Pilate asked ‘who do you want released? The people were given a choice…Jesus or Barabbas,

·       the innocent or the guilty

·       the future or the past

·       the good or the bad

The people spoke…the decision was made…Give us Barabbas!

Sidebar: Did you know that Barabbas means ‘son of the father’. Isn’t that sadly ironic. The Jews were accepting the criminal Barabbas ‘the son of the father’ while at the same time rejecting the innocent Jesus, the true Son of the Father.

But this should be no surprise as similar choices are made everyday.

·       Jesus offers eternity: We say ‘No thanks, I’ll take today’

·       Jesus offers truth: We say ‘No thanks, I’ll take the lie.’

·       Jesus offers forgiveness: We say ‘No thanks, I’ll take my chances.’

And we are all responsible for the choices we make with the truth!

Conclusion

Understanding truth as objective and absolute is important because by it we’re transformed. Accepting and living out God’s truth creates a passion in our hearts that makes us glad we are alive. That’s a promise from God and that’s the good news, but here’s a promise you may not want to hear.

Read: 2 Timothy 3:12 ‘In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.’

Christian, you weren’t promised an easy life when you were saved, in fact, it’s quite the opposite.

Sidebar:

·       Over 43 million Christians have been killed since the crucifixion of Jesus.

·       More than 200 million Christians in over 60 nations face persecution every day

·       60% of these are children

·       150-165 thousand Christians are killed each year

·       Thousands of Christians every day are being killed, brutalized, sold as slaves, put in prison, tortured, discriminated against, and raped.

As you watch this short video from the Voice of the Martyrs, think about this truth from God’s Word.

Read: Heb. 13:3 ‘Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.’

Play DVD  ‘India’

Why are Christians all over the world persecuted?

·       Because they have a certain color skin?

·       Because they live in a certain place?

·       Because they wear certain clothes?

Because of what they believe. Thousands of Christians suffer the ravages of persecution everyday, because of the truth…Just like Jesus who was also persecuted and killed for the truth.

And while we live in relative safety, it’s time for us to wake up, to come out of our spiritual slumber and begin pray for those who are living a testimony for Jesus Christ…who are proclaiming the truth in Jesus’ name and being persecuted for it.

·       To pray that our Christian brothers and sisters, who in obedience to God’s Word, stand up for objective and absolute truth,

·       who stand up for Jesus Christ knowing that they might be  imprisoned, raped, beaten or even killed. 

·       It’s time to stand with our brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world, to stand with them for the truth regardless of the personal consequences.

·       It’s time to stand together, because together we are the Body of Christ.

It may not be politically correct, but it is the truth.