Nov. 22, 2020 John 18:33-37 “Jesus Is Truth!”

20 Nov Nov. 22, 2020 John 18:33-37 “Jesus Is Truth!”

Nov. 22, 2020   John 18:33-37        “Jesus Is Truth!”

In our modern world we don’t have very many kings any more.  Instead, we have governments that are democratic, socialistic, communistic and dictatoristic.  We seem to feel that these are much better ways than have a family run the country for decades or centuries.  If you really take a good look at our governments today, you will see that they are no more honest than were kings and kingdoms.  I think that there are only about seven true monarchies left in the world.  Centuries ago, every country was ruled by a king or queen.  It was the way things were done because these families claimed to have a more direct line to God than the common people.  Today we know that’s not true.  Monarchies gradually died out in the world as we discovered just how crooked they could be after the common person developed more freedom.  Monarchies were really a way to keep the common person in his place.  I’m so glad we have gotten so much better in our modern world.  With the exception of dictators, our modern governments in their pure form are probably good.  However, we are very broken people living in a very broken world so that all these systems are very corrupt and ineffective.  I include modern so-called democracy in this.  Fortunately for us, there is another form of government and it’s called Jesus Christ.  He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.  His ways are perfect so let’s find out how we can have this.

I begin today with a supposedly true story from Jason Jones.  There was a preacher in early 1800’s who heard that the King would be present at the morning worship.  He was a bit rattled so he ditched his well prepare sermon and spoke on and on about the Christian virtues of their King.  Even though the King said nothing the pastor after the service, he couldn’t help but think he might get some sort of reward for being so faithful.  Sure enough, a large crate arrived sometime later at the church.  The preacher opened it to find a life-sized crucifix inside.  He looked inside the crate to see a letter from the King.  He opened it to find instructions to place the crucifix on the west wall of the church so that the preacher would always be reminded of which king he should be preaching.  King Louis XIV of France, attached another short note saying, “There are 256 names in the Bible for the Lord Jesus Christ and I suppose this is because He was infinitely beyond all that any one name could express.”  People, no matter what you are doing, please remember that Jesus is King, period.

We need to start with what is going on here.  Most of us know this but we will have a little refresher.  Even though the Jewish leaders were very powerful, they were still subject to Roman rule.  They hated this as the Romans were often brutal.  In this case they come to Pilate, who is the Roman in charge of keeping the peace in Jerusalem.  To put this in a mild form, Pilate doesn’t like the Jews very much either.  Basically, they hate each other.  However, the powerful leaders of the synagogue did not have the power to put anyone to death.  They could mete out all sorts of other punishments but not death.  For this they needed Pilate to sign off.  That is why they are at his house so early in the morning.

So, Pilate first asks, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”  This is pretty straight forward.  Pilate will uphold the law, the Roman law.  Remember that these leaders have no charges against Jesus.  They want Him dead because He is being so disruptive of their rather crooked religious system.  He is a threat to their livelihood!  Therefore, true to their nature, they have to make up charges.

Pilate wants no part of this local religious squabble.  He wants them to put Jesus on trial themselves.  It’s none of his business until he finds out that Jesus has claimed to be a king.  There is only one king, ruler in his world and he lives in Rome.  Therefore, Jesus cannot be king because they already have a king.  And that kind of reasoning is treason.  Now Pilate cannot let this go.

Now my question to you today is what charges do you bring to Jesus?  I would guess that most of us are pretty good about these types of things.  However, I would also guess that you might have let Satan slip into your thoughts a little as we act like the teachers and the scribes.  Do you know for a fact that Jesus walked on water?  Or was this just an illusion or myth?  Did Jesus actually feed the 5000+ people followed by the 4000+ people or was this another fable made up to make a point.  These are rather easy.

Did Jesus actually raise Lazarus from the dead?  Or was this another story.  Was Jesus born of a virgin or is this whole story just made up?  How about the creation story?  Did God actually make the earth or not?  Did the flood really happen or do we believe in scientific magic?  Did the ax or hammer head actually float in the water so they could pick it up?  I could go on and on with examples but I hope you get the point.

And the point is this.  You unwittingly bring charges against Jesus every time you don’t believe what He did.  There are many scientists, theologians, preachers and lay people who say they have proof that none of these things I mentioned ever happened!  They are trying to tell me that Jesus is a liar.  God is a liar!  And I’m here to tell you today that my father is not a liar!

As soon as you start down this slippery slope, it will be very hard to stop you from destroying yourself.  As soon as you tell me that the 7 days of creation in Genesis weren’t days like we have now, you are on your way down.  And more importantly, if you don’t believe the creation story, then what else don’t you believe.  If you don’t think that Jesus died on that cross, then what else don’t you believe.  If this is your thinking, then I ask that you just rip out the parts of your Bible that you don’t think are true.  Just tear those pages out.  You don’t need them anyway.  It won’t be long before you don’t have much of a Bible left.

People, the Bible is truth and true.  We will get to this in a minute.  There really isn’t much you can count on these days.  Science is great and wonderful but it is also always changing.  What was great 100 years ago, isn’t so good today.  Afterall, we still don’t use leeches in medicine.  Experts are definitely not true as we have seen in the past.  Theologians are definitely not true as they try to distort the Bible.  Preachers aren’t true.  I’m not true.  There is only one piece of work that is always true, not matter what is happening around us, and that is the Bible.  Don’t ever take my word for something.  Read your Bibles.

The next question that comes from Pilate is “Are you the King of the Jews?”  Jesus answers rather oddly.  He asks, “Is that your own idea or did others talk to you about me?”  Jesus wants Pilate to answer so He knows which way to go with this.  If he answers that others put him up to this, the Jesus knows that he will have to answer in terms of the Messiah.  If he thought of this himself, then He will have to answer differently because after all, Pilate is not a Jew.

Jesus goes on to tell Pilate that His kingdom is not of this world.  If Pilate were a Jew, he would know that the Messiah’s kingdom was not of this world.  Please understand that you have to talk to non-Christians a little differently than Christians or people who claim to be Christian.  Jesus knows this so He gets down to the very basics.

This is something that we fail at quite often.  Sometimes we get so cranked up after a good sermon or a Bible study or just something inspirational that we talk to the first person we see who isn’t a Christian in a language they don’t understand.  For instance, where there has been a death, people assume that everyone goes to heaven.  This guy was a good guy so he went to heaven.  But we know that this isn’t so.  I assume I’m talking to a group of Christians today so I can get right to it.  All people do not go to heaven.  All good people do not go to heaven.  We know that the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ.  There is no other way.

As a pastor directing a funeral, I may even get into this mode a bit.  I do it because I don’t usually know what happened precisely or just before this person died.  They may have come to Jesus and weren’t able to tell anyone.  We don’t know what happens most of the time just before death.  I like to think that Jesus never gives up on us.

Anyway, Pilate says, “You are a king, then!”  But Jesus answers in a way that might be even more confusing for this poor man.  He says, “You are right in saying I am a king.  In fact, for this reason I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

Please note that Jesus agrees with Pilate that He is a king.  Now my question ‘is Jesus the King in your life or are you just giving him a little lip service so that you can betray Him the way Pilate did?’  This is an important question.  We just had an election and many people feel that one of the candidates is king, only they call him president.  But He is treated like a king.  This king will get us out of this coronavirus and no one else can.  He will solve every problem.  People, these candidates aren’t kings.  They are only human and they cannot do any more than the next person.  This virus is like any other virus and it will run its course no matter what anyone does, unless of course, we find a cure.  Jesus Christ is the only real King of the world.  He has made all this for us plus an eternity more that we haven’t seen yet.  He is that powerful.  He loves all of us and everyone in the world with a love we don’t deserve and don’t understand.

With this in mind, let’s get back to the truth of the situation.  Pilate asked the question of the day when he said, “What is truth?”  Then Pilate walked away without waiting for an answer.  Jesus had just told him that His purpose was to testify to the truth and everyone who listens to the truth, listens to Him.  In other words, Jesus Christ is the truth.

Now Pilate knew that his society had a lot of problems with truth.  Just about every aspect of the Roman government was corrupt.  They were always assassinating leaders.  They would spread terrible gossip about others.  Even the common people would try to cheat however they could just to stay alive or make a living.  It was a terrible system and the Jews hated it but they weren’t much better.

And we aren’t much different today.  If you expect any President of this country to tell the truth, you are living in a dream world.  If you believe all the news reports on TV or in the newspaper, you should step back and rethink that a little.  As far as I’m concerned, you cannot trust anything the media says.  Even in our own churches, we have power struggles based on lies and false doctrine.  There are very few religions in this country that I would call Christian.  They have all strayed far from the Bible.  What is their problem?

The problem is, “What is truth?”  For the last many years, we have decided that you can have your truth and I can have mine.  Do you see the fallacy of this?  Just by definition, there is no truth if we all have separate truths.  You see, there can only be one truth because if you have any more, then what you have ceases to be truth.  I’m here to reinforce you today.  Jesus Christ is truth because He said so.  Just because something like 70% of the people in this country say there is no truth and there are no absolute moral values doesn’t mean that you should jump on that bandwagon heading for the eternal fire.

In John we read that Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  This is so important and we just keep losing sight of this.  It’s ok to have some doubt about Jesus once in a while.  It’s ok to be upset with Him once in a while.  But remember that President Trump or Biden are not the way.  They are not kings.  The government cannot cure this virus.  They cannot pass a law that will take your troubles away.  Quit looking to them as a god.

And even though you continue to do bad things in the eyes of the Lord, He will continue to love you.  There is nothing you can do that will prevent His loving you.  We all live lives where things go wrong and sometimes terribly wrong.  However, you have the King of kings who is always there being your best friend.  You cannot bring charges against Him that will stick.  He is your King.  He is the truth!

If you don’t know Jesus, then ask Him to live in your heart today.  It’s really that simple.  When you do, you will have the best guide in the universe helping you.  There is nothing or no one who can even come close to Jesus as far as a best friend goes.  He is everything and He wants to share all that is His with you.  That’s right.  He will give you everything if you obey and ask.  A world like that just doesn’t get any better.  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.