Turning your Bibles, please,
to the 18th chapter of John. I'd like to talk a few minutes this
afternoon about the true meaning of life or what is truth. It's
a question that Pilate asked of the Lord Jesus. It's interesting
sometimes when you study the Bible how the Lord will put together
some things, some disjointed things that aren't normally compared
with each other. It kind of happened to me on
this subject. You wouldn't think that Pilate,
Simeon, and Anna in the Bible have anything in common, but
it struck me that they do. Each of those people lived their
entire lives for one day. It was God's purpose that they
do something big on one day of their lives, and they lived their
whole lives for that one day, of course, not knowing exactly
what was coming at them. But that's true of Pilate, of
Simeon, and Anna. So let's look at that today in
the context of what is the true meaning of life, of what is truth. All of us go through life, and
it's amazing to me, and I'm sure it is to you, how some people
can go through their whole lives without ever asking deeper questions
about life, about what the real meaning of all of this is. And
it's very true in America. In some ways, it seems like other
parts of the world ask that question a little more than we do. But
of course, we who understand the sovereignty of God, know
that there's a reason for that, that we don't ask those deep
questions truly unless God is causing us to ask those questions.
So we go through life and we work, we gather up material things,
we sleep, we eat, we do leisure activities, we love someone or
someones on a deeper level, we are creative or we learn things.
And that's what the world's mostly all set about. But the real purpose
of life is to discover, when God reveals it to us, what is
truth. God must cause us to seek that. God must cause us to seek more
about life. So let's look at Pilate. Pilate
was a very interesting person. all the synoptic gospels, Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John, all talk about his role in the crucifixion. I find that John has the most
detail. So we will go to John 18. What
I did this time in studying this is I counted the number of times
that Pilate brought the Lord Jesus back into the praetorium
to talk to him one-on-one about these deeper questions. It's
amazing. I counted at least three. I never realized that before.
He didn't just get rid of him like that. He was genuinely interested
on the surface, we know. It wasn't a saving interest,
but he was pretty genuinely interested in finding out what this man
was all about to a certain extent. So let's read in John 18, First
of all, now remember what had happened the night before. The
night before, the soldiers had all come to get the Lord Jesus,
and they took him into custody, and he spent that whole night
up being grilled by the religious leaders first. It wasn't the
government leaders at first, it was the religious leaders,
the Jewish leaders, the Sanhedrin. They had a kangaroo court for
him, They got these two guys to testify falsely that he had
said, I'm going to tear the temple down and rebuild it without hands. Of course, he wasn't talking
about the temple temple. So they concocted that into a
reason to go after him. And then it was that night when
he answered to the high priest that he was the Christ, the Son
of God, which they called blasphemy. That's all we need to hear. and
they decided to send him off to the government authorities
the next morning. So this is the next morning, and it's off
to Pilate. By the way, Pilate shoved him
off to Herod at one point and then back. I don't think we'll
see that in John, but it did happen. So in John 18, 28 to
32 first, verse 28. Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas,
that's the high priest, unto the hall of judgment. So finally
he's getting into the government place, the praetorium, the hall
of judgment, the Roman authoritative place. And it was early, and
they themselves went not into the judgment hall lest they should
be defiled. The religious leaders weren't
going to go into that Roman place because it was the holy days
and they weren't going to get themselves defiled. concocting
false things against the Lord Jesus, and yet they were still
so self-righteous that they wouldn't walk into the praetorian, but
that they might eat the Passover. Pilate then went out unto them
and said, what accusation bring ye against this man? They answered
and said unto him, if he were not a malfactor, we would not
have delivered him up unto thee. Then said Pilate unto them, "'Take
ye him and judge him according to your law.' "'The Jews therefore
said unto him, "'It is not lawful for us to put any man to death,
"'that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, "'which he spake,
signifying what death he should die.'" So this was the first
stage. They brought him to Pilate inside
the praetorium, but they didn't go in themselves. So he came
right back outside, and he's talking to the Jewish leaders,
and he says, What is it you guys are accusing him of? And they're
saying various things. I don't think this tells everything
they said, but essentially they were saying that, you know, he
is by our law has been a blasphemer and we need to put him to death.
We don't have the authority to do that. You guys, you Romans
do. That's why we brought him to
you. Okay, so Pilate is getting the story at first here. Then
look at verses 33 to 40. Then Pilate entered into the
judgment hall again and called Jesus and said unto him, now
this is a one-on-one session with him inside the praetorium,
art thou the king of the Jews? Notice how this starts way up
on the surface and it gets deeper as we go. So he wants to know
if he is the king of the Jews, because that's the main thing
he's been hearing that the Jews are accusing him of. Jesus answered
him, saying, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others
tell it thee of me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief
priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is
not of this world. He's answering the question,
Are you king of the Jews? If my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered
to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from
hence. Pilate therefore said unto him,
Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that
I am a king. To this end was I born. And for
this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto
the truth. Everyone that is of the truth
heareth my voice. So now all of a sudden we're
diving deeper down into who Jesus Christ is, who he says he himself
is. And that's what Pilate's asking.
So he says he's a king and he says he's got a kingdom, but
it's not of this world. Pilate saith unto him, what is
truth? And when he had said this, he
went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in
him no fault at all. But ye have a custom that I should
release unto you one at the Passover. Will ye therefore that I release
unto you the king of the Jews? Then cried they all again, saying,
Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. So
Pilate is really on the surface trying hard to let him go. He doesn't believe he's done
anything serious. He's just had a private conversation
with him to which he asks Jesus what is truth? Who knows how
genuine that question was. It wasn't genuine enough to get
him saved, but it was Pilate at least asking the deep question
of life. Now look at, by the way, look
at chapter 19, verse eight real quick. No, I'm sorry. Let's go on through
19, eight from 40. Then Pilate therefore, now he
takes him back again. All right, he's gone out with
him after the private session. Now he takes him back again and
scourged him. And the soldiers plaited a crown
of thorns and put it on his head and they put on him a purple
robe. and said, hail, king of the Jews. And they smote him
with their hands. Pilate therefore went forth again, outside again,
and saith unto them, behold, I bring him forth to you, that
ye may know that I find no fault in him. So he had him scourged,
whipped, punished. He thinks, okay, this is going
to satisfy him. I'll get him off the hook now.
Then came Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple
robe. And Pilate saith unto them, behold
the man. You can just imagine, look at
the man, look at what I've done to him. When the chief priest,
therefore, and officers saw him, they cried out saying, crucify
him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, take
ye him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. How many times
is he saying that? The Jews answered him, we have
a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself
the son of God. when Pilate therefore heard that
saying he was the more afraid now Pilate is starting to get
afraid of this man because he's hearing both from the mouth of
the Lord himself and from the people that he claims to be the
Son of God equals the Christ equals deity this this man is
claiming to be God okay so now in verse nine, and went again
into the judgment hall, and saith another private session with
him, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him
no answer, because he's already told him. Then saith Pilate unto
him, Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have
power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Jesus
answered, thou couldst have no power at all against me, except
it were given thee from above. Therefore, he that delivered
me unto thee hath the greater sin. And from henceforth Pilate
sought to release him. But the Jews cried out, saying,
If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend. Whosoever maketh himself a king
speaketh against Caesar. Okay, the crowd is throwing down
their trump card now. Pilate's just not gonna do this
thing. So they say, Pilate, he's working
against Caesar here, your boss. You better do something here
because you're gonna get in trouble if you don't. And so that gets
to Pilate. When Pilate therefore heard that
saying, he brought Jesus forth and sat down in the judgment
seat in a place that's called the pavement, but in the Hebrew,
Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of
the Passover and about the sixth hour, and he saith again unto
the Jews, behold your king. But they cried out, away with
him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, shall
I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, we
have no king but Caesar. Then delivered he him therefore
unto them to be crucified, and they took Jesus and led him away.
The other things that we see about Pilate, besides the fact
that he asked the question, the deep question, what is truth,
is that he started here and he was the son of God, which in
Matthew 26, 63, and 27, 22, shows that they equated the son
of God with the Christ, the Messiah. The Messiah was the son of God,
and the religious leaders equated those. Pilate, in chapter 19,
verses 19 to 22, we find that Pilate wrote a title
and put it on the cross, above the cross. Jesus of Nazareth,
the King of the Jews. And this made him mad, you remember.
And it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. And they asked
him not to write that. And he said, what I have written,
I have written. You know, back off. That's what
I wrote, that's what stands. And if you look in Matthew 27,
19, you find out that about this time, Pilate is warned by his
wife not to have anything to do with this man because of a
dream she had. So it's all coming together for
Pilate. In Matthew 27, 24, he tried to
wash his hands of the whole thing. That was symbolic. He was trying
to say, I have nothing to do with this. But of course, every
one of us has something to do with it. We have all crucified
the Lord Jesus with our sin, and he couldn't be neutral on
the subject. So he did not get away with washing
his hands of the whole affair. He tried very hard to get out
of it, but in the end, he didn't. You remember a similar situation
with Agrippa and Paul in Acts 26 and verses 27 and 28, where
Agrippa says Paul was talking to him, testifying to him, witnessing
to him, and Agrippa says, you almost persuade me to become
a Christian. And you know, Arminians take
that and use it, but it doesn't mean that he came close on his
own to being a Christian. It's just his own words saying
You're trying very hard to persuade me to become a Christian, Paul."
Well, it's the same thing with Pilate. Pilate came close, but
like they say, close only counts in hand grenades and horseshoes,
so he didn't become a Christian. So, Pilate was a man who lived
his whole life according to God's plan for that one day. That was
the famous day in Pilate's life. Now let's look at two people
who also lived their lives for one day, and in the true search
of the truth, and that's Anna and Simeon. Turn to Luke, the
second chapter. Here are two elderly people. This is an amazing story. in
the second chapter of Luke. Two elderly people, Simeon and
Anna, who spent at least all of their latter days going to
the temple every single day to look for the coming of the Messiah. And people in our day and age
would say that that's a waste of life. That's just a waste. These two people were just loitering
around the temple, not doing anything productive, but just
waiting for something. But they were waiting for the
truth. They were waiting to see the truth eye to eye, and they
did. In Luke, the second chapter,
let's read verses 21 to 38. It's gonna explain to us that
this was the time of the purification for the baby, the Lord Jesus. And when eight days were accomplished
for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus. which
was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses
were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him
to the Lord. By the way, stop there just for
a minute. From the book of Leviticus in
the Old Testament come the rules for this purification in Leviticus
12, one to five. And the rule was, that a male
gets circumcised on the eighth day, and then the mother is ceremonially
unclean for seven days after the birth of a son, and then
for another 33 days, she had to keep away from holy things
until she could then, so that's seven plus 33 is 40 days, and
then she could go into the temple to purify herself. If she had a girl baby, it was
twice of each of those numbers. She had to wait 14 days after
the birth, and then another 66 days before she could go into
the temple. And they were to offer a sacrifice,
and we find in Leviticus that if you're too poor to offer what
you're supposed to offer, you could offer two doves or two
pigeons. And that's what she did, so it
proves that she was poor. So let's go on reading verse
23. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male that
openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord, and to offer
a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the
Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. And behold,
there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, And the
same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of
Israel. And that word consolation is
parakleson, which is related to the word for the parakletos,
the advocate or the comforter that the pastor talked about
the other day. So waiting for the consolation of Israel. This
is the way the Messiah is called out here. It means encouragement,
help, or comfort. And the Holy Spirit was upon
him, upon Simeon. So now we know the difference
between Pilate and this man is the Holy Spirit was on Simeon. And it was revealed unto him
by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen
the Lord's Christ. There's the equal thing we saw
with Pilate, that it's the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God,
the consolation of Israel, all these things, this is the truth
that people should be seeking. And he came by the Spirit into
the temple. And when the parents brought
in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law,
then took he him up in his arms and blessed God and said, now
look at his blessing. Lord now let us thou thy servant
depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen
thy salvation which thou has prepared before the face of all
people a light to lighten the gentiles and the glory of thy
people israel that's so significant there that we are included we
gentiles and and he included us in this salvation And Joseph
and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him. And Simeon blessed them, and
said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall
and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be
spoken against. Yea, a sword shall pierce through
thine own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be
revealed. So let's stop there just for a minute. Here Simeon
lived his entire life. It doesn't tell us how old he
was. It tells us how old Anna was, but he's gotta be old. He
was just and devout, so he was a Christian under the old economy. And he was waiting for the consolation
of Israel. Obviously the Lord had revealed
to him that this was the period of time in history when the Messiah
was going to come, and the Lord wanted him in the temple waiting
to see the baby. He would not see death before
seeing the Lord's Christ, the Christ of the Lord. We don't
know how long he did this. We don't know if he had family
or friends and what did they think about this whole thing?
Did they think he was senile? Did they think he was a crazy
old man? But he was determined and it
was all of the Lord to go to the temple every day and wait
for that Messiah. What did he do all day long?
Who knows? What is truth? The Messiah, the
Christ, the Son of God, the Comforter that came to earth, He is the
truth. So he took Him in his arms. He
talked about Him being the salvation to the Gentiles and the Jews,
a light. and that he would reveal, he
would be the fall and rising again of many in Israel. So this speaks of the conversion
of many, of the judgment of many. He would be, this baby would
be the one who would split mankind into two camps for the fall and
the rising of many and everybody. Of course this prediction was
a shock to Mary that a sword will pierce her soul. Who knows
if she knew yet the role of the Messiah and what he would have
to go through, but she's beginning to realize this through Simeon's
prophecy here. And the thoughts of many hearts
will be revealed. I think that's a really neat
phrase there. Was this about judgment? when
our thoughts will be revealed to ourselves and to everybody
else? Or is it about conviction when our thoughts are revealed
to ourselves so that we can repent and turn to the truth? Or what? I think it's all of those things.
Then finally, let's look at Anna. It follows on the heels of this.
In verses 36 to 38. And there was one Anna, a prophetess,
the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. she was of a
great age and had lived with a husband seven years from her
virginity so i take that to mean she was married for seven years
and then widowed and she was a widow of about four score and
four years so that's 84 she was 84 years old which departed not
from the temple but served god with fastings and prayers night
and day and she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise
unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption
in Jerusalem. And when they had performed all
things according to the law of the Lord, they returned unto
Galilee to their own city, Nazareth." So here's Anna. I would think
for sure Simeon and Anna knew each other, shared stories with
each other about what they were looking for. shared the inner
thoughts that had come from the Holy Spirit, who was on both
of them. So they were there in the temple,
fastings and prayers every day, and then all of a sudden, one
day, this couple comes in with this baby, and they know who
it is. And these two, who had sought truth from God their whole
lives, saw truth face to face. They gave thanks to the Lord,
and they spoke of him to all those who looked for redemption
in Jerusalem. You know, as we go through life,
and, you know, I don't witness hardly any, I'm afraid to say,
ashamed to say, but what we ought to be doing is looking for people
across our paths that really are seeking truth. genuinely
from God, as the Holy Spirit draws them to the Lord. Not people who just say they
are, but people who really are seeking truth, and then we should
tell them who the truth is. Jesus Christ is the truth. In
John 14, 6, he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except
by me. And in John 4, 24, when the Lord Jesus was witnessing
to the Samaritan woman, he said, God is spirit, and those who
worship him must worship in spirit and truth. So the answer to the
deep question of life, what is truth, is it's the Lord Jesus
Christ. That is truth. And so thankful
that we know what the truth really is. The Word tells us many things
about this truth. But one of the most interesting
verses in the Bible, I love this verse. I'll just leave it with
you. Sometimes we think we know everything
about the Lord because we know the Bible pretty well. But don't
you love the last verse of John? John 21, 25. And there are also many other
things which Jesus did. Did you know there's many other
things he did that aren't written down? The which, if they should
be written, every one, I suppose that even the world itself could
not contain the books that should be written.