Well, I do invite you, if you're visiting tonight, we're working through the Gospel of John in the mornings, and we are studying the trial of Jesus, Jesus on trial. This morning we looked at him before Annas and Caiaphas, which was really the church trial or the ecclesiastical trial. Now he goes to Pilate tonight, and we're going to start that next week coming into chapter 19. But we're going to conclude chapter 18, beginning at verse 28 to the end of the chapter. Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover. So Pilate went outside to them and said, what accusation do you bring against this man? They answered him, if this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you. That's exactly probably the tone this went, I want you to know. This is a very hostile moment between the Jews and Pilate. The Jews, Pilate said to them, take him yourselves and judge him by your own law. The Jews said to him, it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death. This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was to die. So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered, do you say this of your own accord or did others say it to you about me? Pilate answered, am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done? Jesus answered, my kingdom's not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but my kingdom is not from the world. Then Pilate said to him, so you are a king. Jesus answered, you say that I am a king. For this purpose, I was born, and for this purpose, I've come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. Pilate said to him, what is truth? After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, I find no guilt in him, but you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? They cried out again, not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. And there will end tonight the reading of God's word. I'd like you to remember in this particular passage where we are at this point. If you weren't here this morning, there have been two trials that we are looking at here. They come in sets of three. Jesus has been arrested. He is now facing trial. trials he has to undergo are difficult trials. They are full of falsehood. They are vicious trials. They are unjust trials. And this morning we studied that each trial we looked at comes in three parts. John doesn't capture all of that for us. John has specific purposes in capturing aspects of the trial. But he had first went to Annas, a high priest who had been removed by Rome, And his son-in-law was put into place, but Annas still held the cords of power. That is clear here as a high priest. The whole thing, of course, in the first trial was a big scam. I would just like to be put on trial between 1 and 3 a.m. in the morning so that no one can get you and see this. I mean, even in our day, we would just decry injustice everywhere. Jesus was asked to incriminate himself, which also broke the law. Everything about it was wrong. Everything about it was unjust. And what John is doing here is just that. He's really showing us that, if you're asking me for a basic point, that he's showing us they had no just cause to do this to Jesus. And it's unveiling for us the unjust reason that Jesus was put on the cross. Now, we're going to look at this and understand as we go, especially next week. You're going to see, it's the psalm. A greater judge has taken his seat. That's what we know has happened here. There's a greater judgment that's being rendered. There's a greater thing that we understand about all of this, that this helps us to see the outward beatings and the things that happened to him. We say in our own Heidelberg that he suffered a punishment, not just in body, but in soul. And we'll be looking at that. We'll be talking about that as we go in the next Sunday and then as we approach Good Friday. But remember that God was doing this, that a greater purpose was unfolding that would be made known to the ends of the earth. Remember when the gospel would go out, the very first sermon, I'm going to close on this note in a little bit, the very first sermon when they were preaching and Peter said, the serious crime of humanity against the Lord of glory was that you have taken him and by lawless hands have crucified him and put him to death. lawless hands. There's nothing just about this. And that's what I think you should leave with tonight. If I've done anything, hopefully you'll see that. There's nothing just about this. They took the just one and did something terrible to him. Well, here we are. After hours of really of this, no real charge has even been made, has it? What charge have you found? the council decides that he should be put to death. That is evident here. So what we have is now Jesus being moved and shifted to and handed over to the civil authorities, and a great transfer now takes place. The first point I want you to consider here is the accusation that comes out. So we're going to look at that. We're going to look at the accusation that is made, the interrogation, and then this great release that happens, which really leaves us on a shocking note. That's the effect of this text when we're done. Look at verse 28, that Jesus is led from Caiaphas to the praetorium is what it is. It's early morning. Early morning. The praetorium was the governor's house. This was Pilate's palace. You'll notice it says it was early. We've already known that the first trial had just taken place between 1 and 3 a.m., and these guys are up early doing the Lord's business, aren't they? They bring him to Pilate's house as early as they possibly can. As soon as light is up, they bind the Lord and they lead him off to the governor's headquarters. Jesus has been in prison and is now moving to the ultimate destination of the cross of what he's been talking about the entire time. Now at this point, John highlights something that should be sadly ironic and infuriating to us. You'll notice in verse 28, but they themselves did not go into the praetorium. They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters so that they would not be defiled but could eat the Passover. You say, well, what? They were worried about being ceremonially clean to go eat the Passover, the very thing that would celebrate a Passover lamb who would shed his blood so that they would be passed over and not face the judgment. But they got to be clean doing it. I think John is really capturing for us the utter hypocrisy here of the Jews at this point. The hypocrisy of the whole thing. They lead Jesus right up to the palace, but they won't step into this filthy Gentile Pilate's palace, the house of praetorium of a Gentile, especially this unclean hall where criminals go. There's a line and we're not crossing it. And it's just a shocking moment. I mean, I really don't even know what to say about it. Think of the irony here of what they're going to go celebrate with clean hands. And look who they just delivered over. Now, Pilate comes out the door. It's probably 5 or 6 a.m. You think he likes this? Pilate's really unhappy. You can hear it in the dialogue. He's ticked off. Here these Jews go again with their squabbles and I got to deal with it. Here they go again with all their religious fights and I'm tired of it. What accusation do you bring against this guy? I want to know. Why are you calling me out of bed? Pilate hated the Jews. He absolutely hated the Jews. We know this from history. He was the governor of the southern half of Palestine, and he ruled over the province and was directly accountable to the emperor of Rome. So this is a big moment for Pilate. He's got to handle it well. He would actually be removed from this position if the emperor felt that he failed to keep the peace. So Pilate's under immediate pressure. Pilate understands what he has to do. He hated the Jews who were notorious for upheaval. He knew what they believed. Pilate was proud. You'll remember in Luke's gospel, he had mingled the blood of worshipers in Israel. That's how vicious of a man this was. You didn't mess with Pilate. So he was the kind of leader that took insurrection very seriously. Pilate would take the sword against his own people, but this threat of insurrection was a real one. So all Pilate really cared about at this point was keeping his power, which means he has to keep the emperor of Rome happy. So here come the Jews, notorious for revolts, notorious for fights. Remember that they believed, Pilate knew this, remember they believed that God was going to come and crush the Romans when the Messiah came. That their king was going to come and sit on the throne and take out the emperor. That's what they were waiting for. That's what they believed about the kingdom. They expect a king to come and take care of people like Pilate. So you can see the tension that's here right now. So here we are. We're right in front of the praetorium, 5 or 6 a.m. By the time we get to Pilate's trial next time, he's going to take this thing out on the judgment seat of the terrace. There's an over terrace that overlooks the road. The masses would be able to come up and they're going to bring Jesus out. You're going to see all of that. But this interrogation goes a while. And you'll notice here that they have stood there with Jesus. And what the question that Pilate now asks is, what accusation do you have against him? I want to know. What is your what is your charge? What has this man done? He knows obviously that Jesus, they have brought Jesus to be condemned as a threat, but we've got to find out what specifically the accusation is. And there's an interesting little dialogue that goes on here. I think that John is showing they weren't even really clear on the matter. Notice what they said. They answered him, if this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you. What are you hearing that? Are you questioning our judgment? We're the highest court in Israel. We're the highest court. You just need to confirm our decision about what needs to happen to this man. This is the attitude that's coming out here about Jesus. So what a total disregard of justice. Don't you worry about it. We've told you he's evil. We've told you enough. Pilate knew how scrupulous the Jews were about their law. Pilate understood this, and he sort of mocks their authority now in verse 31. And he says, well, take him yourselves then, and you guys judge him in accordance with your own law. If you're judges, then you be executioners. And they shoot back, oh, but we're not permitted to do that. Rome took that from us. That's why Jews weren't stoning anymore. They would have stoned. If we could pilot, we'd be done with him. The Romans possessed all jurisdiction for capital punishment. They took it. It was theirs. They owned it. They claimed it. And all of a sudden, John stops the narrative here. It's just a really interesting moment that John stops the narrative in this first part to give us an insight as to why the Romans had been given this authority and that it had been taken from the Jews When the Jews said, it's not lawful for us to put anyone to death, we read, so that, here's the purpose of that, the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spoke, signifying by what death he would die. I don't know if that means a lot to you, but it really does again communicate what John keeps telling us. This whole thing is in Jesus' hands. This whole thing's in Jesus' hands. He hasn't said a word here yet, and they're not in control of a thing. John doesn't want us. John is so intent to make sure we don't lose that thought. He stepped into this. He chose this. This was the Father's will for him to do to save every single one of those whom the Father had given him to save, and Jesus had been saying this the whole time. Remember what he said? behold, we are going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify, and the third day he will rise again. Well, lo and behold, this is going just as planned. There's nothing out of ordinary here of what Jesus said. I'm going to be put to death by the Gentiles. The Lord never wanted us to miss this. I think this is an important point heading into here shortly, Good Friday and the celebration of Easter. I think as I look around the world and I see celebrations with this, I think how often the real purpose of this and an understanding of this is missed as the whole thing becomes a sentimental mess. As if Jesus, this whole thing, got away from him, and we feel sorry for him, and we try to reenact the cross. I mean, this happens in certain cultures. Jesus is carrying his cross. He will carry it. He is bloody. He is beaten. A crown of thorns will be on his head, and all of it was purposely planned for you. We've got to keep that in front of us. Now, we have this charge that is made. If you were to go through the Gospels and say, what charge did, what accusation did the Jews have against Jesus? It's three things. It's a really important moment to think about what was their charge against him. And there's really three things that throughout the Gospels you would find. Number one, we found, Luke 23, this fellow perverting the nation. Number two, this fellow was forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar. And number three, saying that he himself is Christ a king. That's the accusation. That's the one concern here that permeates this section and what John wants us to understand. The accusation singularly comes down to this. Jesus is a seditious rebel trying to overturn Caesar's throne. That's the accusation. That's what the Jews will use in the next chapter when they say, he says he's a king. You have to deal with this, Pilate. Even when Pilate says, there's nothing wrong with this man. You have to. He said he's a king. Now, it's interesting because back in chapter 6, the ironies are thick here. Back in chapter 6, they had tried to make him king. They had tried to take him by force and make him king, and Jesus wanted nothing to do with it. So here they are using this against him. This is the charge. This is the accusation. Now comes the great interrogation. So Pilate takes Jesus into the headquarters of the praetorium in verse 33. He enters the battorium, he takes Jesus, calls Jesus and says to him this great question, asks him this great question, are you the king of the Jews? Now, I don't think this was a nice moment either. I think Pilate sized him up. I think Pilate looked at him and said, are you the king of the Jews? Is this what they've delivered up to me as their king? Is this the one? This is pathetic. Are you their king? That's how you should take it. I believe he is so angry at six in the morning. I mean, you know, this is coffee time. Six in the morning that the Jews have brought this lowly beggar in their eyes. This no outward glory king. Look at him. He's not even wearing the hat. He's not beautiful. Isaiah 53 told us there's no comeliness to him. He doesn't look powerful. He looks rather pathetic to Pilate. He's not dressed like a king. He doesn't look like a king. He doesn't look anything like anything that's a threat to Rome. This is your threat? Are you kidding me? Now Pilate's interested in one thing. Pilate was concerned with this charge. Seriously so. He was forced to deal with it, that Jesus was a rebel against Caesar. Clearly, Jesus had a mighty following. That's the one thing he cares about. He doesn't care about anything else. All he cares about is making sure how he can put this out. Roman emperors were constantly being assassinated. You study these histories and you study what they did to each other and how crazy some of them were. I mean, we really don't have too much to complain about. Did you know that? These guys were really bad. Ask Dr. Godfrey. He knows. He taught me that. Jesus, have you come to take down the president? This is what it sounds like. Is that what you're doing? You claiming to be king over our president. that's a question I want to know. That's what I'm interested in. You need to tell me. Jesus responds brilliantly. Did you say this or did they? Do you say that yourself? Do you want to know yourself or are you asking on behalf of them who are saying that? Did others say that to you? Who wants to know? See, Jesus was asking. If Pilate was asking based on what the Jews said about Jesus, about their idea of a kingship? No. But if you want to know, Pilate, about what I am as a king, I'll tell you, because he does. Jesus would not be boxed in to the kind of kingship the Jews were forcing. So Jesus is standing there bound up. He has no one to defend him, no weapons, no help. And this is the most pathetic king that Pilate, in his view, has ever seen. And Pilate responds, am I a Jew? Am I a Jew? Your nation of chief priests have delivered him over to me. What have you done? And that, beloved, is the question of the text. That is the question of the text. What have you done? I think John wants us to think about that. What a question, Jesus. What have you done? I want to know if you are claiming to be king in opposition to Caesar. You know, this is the kind of moment where you feel like you have to justify yourself, don't you? This is really that moment. You know, when bad things are said about me. I do everything I can to make myself look as good as possible. It's what you do too. Here comes one of the most important replies in all Scripture. Jesus looks at him and says, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, My servants would be fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here. It's really a chilling statement. You can almost hear Pilate thinking, what in the world are you talking about? It's as if Christ said, my kingdom doesn't attack the emperor. It doesn't attack the position of the emperor. I'm not a rebel against civil authorities. It's really good for Christians to hear this today, by the way. God has put things in place. We can learn a lot from this. I have a whole different kingship that is not of this world. So in other words, there are two kinds of kingships, says Jesus. And if I really wanted to make all the earthly kingdoms right now in the way of your thinking of kingship, you know what we would do? We'd fight. We'd pull out guns. We'd pull out swords. Remember, put the sword back, Peter. But I've got a whole different kind of kingship that's not of this world. Jesus just introduced the nature of his reign and the nature of his kingdom and he being a king to Pilate. Jesus said, my rule is a spiritual one. This is a really important moment, I think, for us to consider here tonight. I didn't come at this moment in time to take over civil governments. That's what the Jews wanted. See why you asked? Who's asking? That's what the Jews wanted. remember when they came to Jesus and asked when when does the kingdom come and the first thing Jesus said is listen the kingdom of God does not come with observation like you want it to come with observation it's not by revolution nor will they say see here or see there for the kingdom of God is within you his kingship his rule is seen in the hearts of people who've been born again by the Spirit. Luther said, a proper distinction is made. There are two kinds of kingdom. There's God's kingdom. There's Caesar's kingdom. Of course, the Lord is Lord over all kingdoms. We assist the emperor in maintaining his kingdom, but the place we come storming in is somewhere higher than Caesar's kingdom. That's why I like this quote. In order to transform the understanding of men's hearts. That's my kingship. That's my kingly reign. So you're a king then, says Pilate. You've answered rightly, I'm a king. For this cause I was born. For this cause I've come into the world. Now here it is. Here's where the essence of Christ's kingdom is shown that I think it's missed in all our kingdom discussions. Right here. When he says, for this cause I was born, for this cause I've come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. That's where the kingdom is. That's where the kingdom is. Where the truth is spoken. Where the truth is embraced in the hearts of people. Where the truth is heard. Where the truth is received. And think about a world we live in right now about truth. Nobody believes there is any, and neither did Pilate. What's truth? You can hear him laughing. Romans believed just like Americans. Jesus just said, I came to this world to bear witness to the truth that everyone who's of the truth hears my voice. My sheep, my sheep know who the king is because I've spoken to them the truth. What is truth? This is our problem today, beloved. We live in a society that has thrown out any objective truth. We're not even in a postmodern society anymore. I mean, I've said this before. We're not in the society that says, ah, you can believe what you want to believe and I'll believe what I want to believe and we're all good. That's gone. Today, whatever the culture says is truth, you will bow and submit to, and that is a new religion. That is religion. What is truth? Does the culture determine it? Does society determine it? And Jesus is saying, that's my kingdom, a kingdom of truth in this world. Now, you just got to the reason Jesus was put on the cross, beloved. Of all reasons, this is it. Jesus just told you why he got put on the cross. Because he told the truth. Because he spoke truth. He gets killed and murdered for truth. You know what that means. Every faithful pastor, every faithful Christian is an awful threat to this world. Is an awful threat to this world. how strange it is, you know, we preach, I preach, and, you know, we should be peaceful to the governing authorities, and we pray for them, as we're told, you know. I prayed tonight and this morning for the governing authorities, and I prayed that they would maintain their offices well, and we want to see them do well. Are we attacking them? Some Christians have completely forgotten this. We're not attacking them. But following Jesus, listen to me, is an entirely different kind of rebellion. You are in rebellion. Did you know that? Don't ever miss this. You are in absolute rebellion right now. Not with swords. Not with guns. We're not telling anyone to take up physical weapons. We never have. Jesus told us never to do that. Christ was calling for a whole different kind of rebellion. I think sometimes we're so worried about the government that we look nothing like Jesus and what we are called to rebel against. It's a great rebellion we're involved in. It's a great rebellion, a higher one, as Luther talked about, aiming for the transforming of hearts by telling the truth. The weapons, Paul would say, of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. That's what Jesus was saying. I came to speak the truth that there's one way to salvation, that there's one Savior given. I told people that they didn't keep the law, John 7. I told the Jews they didn't keep the law. I told them the truth about that. I held up high the standard of God. I preached the law of God and made it clear what that holy standard is. I told people that they have to come to me for life. I forgave sins. I told people that forgiveness of sins is possible through me. I told people that in God there's great tender mercies for all who come and turn to me. And I healed the blind and I helped the sick. But in it, my great goal was to tell the truth. Yeah, I'm promoting a rebellion of the truth, for the truth, against the values and principles of this world in darkness, in opposition. But not the kind of rebellion you're after. No, I'm not doing that. This is important. This is important. When you speak the gospel today, when you tell others the truth, boys and girls, you might get the same kind of response. Did you know that? Of people who think you're a really bad person. People who think and give you all kinds of false charges. But this is who you're identified with. There's one deposit of truth. You know, the truth has divided. I mean, look at it today. Curse the name of Jesus, the world will love you. Curse the name of Allah in this world, you'll be hated. See? Houses are divided. Parents are divided from children, mothers and daughters, brothers and sisters, not because there's a physical rebellion from one another, but because one believes something different than the other. One pastor said, I wish there were such rebellion in all our homes. for that's the way the gospel increases and is given strength. I came for this reason, says Jesus, to speak the truth. Pilate finds no fault in this. I want you to notice that. Pilate walks out. You have a custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover. You want me to release the king of the Jews? In other words, I know you love to honor your Passover on the day the Lord brought you out of Egypt and passed you over with that Passover lamb. I know you like to release a man to symbolize your release. You want to do that? You want to release the king of the Jews? I don't really find fault in him. He's not rebelling against Caesar like you're saying. That's the determination. Instead, what does the text end with? Think of all we've been studying so far. Then they all cried out, not this man. You release Barabbas, a notorious, wicked man in Israel, a robber, known, known guilty, given over as guilty, judged as guilty, headed to the cross as guilty. And now we see the whole picture, beloved. God was standing in our place. He stood in our garden. We lost everything. He was arrested in the garden for us. The God who told them of their deliverance the whole time, they have bound him unjustly. They have tried him unjustly. They have condemned him unjustly. And they have released the wicked and put him in the place of judgment. and in the marvelous plan of God. That's the story, isn't it? This is what we think of your son, oh God. This is what we think of your gift to the world. Take him and murder him. Get him out of our face. And the mystery of it all, which is the marvel of the Christian gospel, is that this whole time, Isaiah 53, God took pleasure to bruise and put to death His only begotten Son, that the way of your release might be made. The just for the unjust, that God might justify the wicked. understand who we are. When Peter preached that sermon that day, men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know. Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put him to death. Can you imagine when they felt the weight of that? Well, have you felt the weight of that? For they all cried out, being cut to the heart and deeply convicted. What do we do? Did we do this? What do we do? And I think Peter smiled. Repent and believe the gospel. And you'll be forgiven all your sins. And on that day, the whole church grew 3,000 people. What a marvel. What a marvel. You're seeing the plan of God unfold, the one great story of the Bible, and it's an announcement of God's love to you, the rebel. Thank him tonight. Go out into your weeks. Praise him for such love, such mercy, a gift and realize that you'll never have to stand and face the righteous judgment you deserve. Think of what he's taught us here today. A righteous judgment that you deserve. Here was Jesus in our place, bearing it all before the throne of God so that you might be released, the wicked, and enjoy a right standing with your God. Let's praise him together tonight in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you. What do we say? What a wonderful study in the Gospel of John to see the marvel of the work that was accomplished for us, but then also to see the marvel of our own wickedness and how great it is and what we did. With believing hearts, O Lord, we bow our heads and say, forgive us, wash us of all sins. We were deserving of a just judgment. But instead, the just one was put in our place who never did one sin so that you might reconcile the world to yourself. We praise you and thank you. Give us a stronger understanding in this and let it, Lord, affect us so that we would live all of our lives thankful and desire us that others would know the good news of the gospel to the ends of the earth. Strengthen us in your promises this day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.