this morning, Lord willing. So Pilate entered his headquarters
again and called Jesus and said to him, Are you the king of the
Jews? And Jesus answered, Do you say
this of your own accord or did others say it about me? Pilate
answered, Am I a Jew? Your own nation and chief priests
have delivered you over to me. What have you done? And Jesus
answered, My kingdom is 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
this world." Then Pilate said, "'So you are a king?' Jesus answered,
"'You say that I am king. For this purpose I was born,
and for this purpose I have come into the world, to bear witness
to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth
listens to my voice.' And 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
Jews, excuse me, 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 an evil man. I know some of the words that
you heard me say this morning may not flow exactly in the translation
that you have. I believe we need to grasp just
a couple of things, specifically that Barabbas, when it says robber,
is not necessarily the word that we see there. We see an evildoer,
the same word that is used with the thieves on the cross, with
the two men. They're evildoers. So when it
comes to textual variants and translated variants, we see robbers,
we see murderers, we see evildoers. Either way, they were guilty
of capital crimes concerning ones of which Jerusalem, Israel,
and Rome would have counted worthy of crucifixion. Also, I want
you to see here that Jesus deals with these questions, sometimes
with a question. And I want to help you understand
just a moment that as John has played out this narrative, as
John's gospel is continuing in its same pattern, we realize
that there is much to be learned. That's not a good word. Much
to be considered when we see details. For example, as we get
started, Pilate entered his headquarters. and called Jesus and said to
him, are you the king of the Jews? So you see this contrast
here. We've got the gospel writer,
the evangelist John, writing about this narrative, and he
specifically makes sure we understand that the house of Pilate, if
you will, is called his headquarters. The idea of headquarters is what?
It's a center of operations. It's by definition shows and
reveals that there is some substantial governing authority, that this
is where it all happens. This is where it is all ruled
and governed. So if we have a business and
its headquarters, we might have a thousand branches, but the
headquarters is where everything is made, where the CEO sits,
where the executive offices are. And from there, all the decisions
are laid out and sent out to the peripheral offices. This
is nothing new, we've already seen it here. Jesus is arrested
and tried by the Jews and they take him over to Pilate. They
surrender themselves to the law of Rome, as we saw last week.
And so as we see this, there's specific things that I want you
to focus on. First, I want you to focus on the fact that Jesus
is called the King. That is the only thing that they
could use in order to get him before Pilate and find a guilty
sentence. Because blaspheming the God of Israel, which is what
their charge was, where they had people bear false witness
of Jesus. They had people come out and
say, yes, I heard him say what? I heard him say that he could
destroy the temple. He's a terrorist. He's going to destroy the temple.
I heard him say that he was greater than Moses. I heard him say that
he was greater than Jacob. Imagine how the woman from Sychar
in that testimony that she heard, even when she asked Jesus, are
you saying that you're greater than our father Jacob who gave
us this well? And then what does she teach?
What has Jesus taught her, rather, in John chapter four? He says,
I'll tell you the truth, when she comes to her senses and sees
in her logical mind that Jesus is a prophet, per se, Then she
says, well, tell me this, should we as the Samaritans worship
at Mount Gerizim in the replica of Mount Israel, Mount Jerusalem? Who's right? And Jesus answers
her this way. He says, there's a day and the time is now when
true worshipers will worship in spirit and truth. They won't
worship in this place or that place. Now, just for today's
problem, you who are here this morning, we know all over the
country and all over the places, the governors who we should listen
to with great, with great concern concerning this pandemic have
placed a lot of authority over a lot of different organizations,
businesses, churches, you know, restaurants, every sector, because
they want to do what is necessary to save lives. That's what they
want. And it is something that we should
heed, and it is something that we should understand is important
and vital, but we should not do it out of fear, we should
do it out of faith. And so when we see People using John chapter
four where Jesus says, you don't have to worship on this mountain,
or this mountain, or that mountain, or that mountain, as a proof text
that you don't have to be together as the church, it's blasphemous. Okay, I'm just gonna say that
off the boot. It's blasphemous. Use wisdom, and many of you,
Grace Truth Church, have used wisdom. You are at home right
now, and I give you great blessing for that, please. Those of you
who are at risk, you are at home right now, I give you great blessing.
Those of you who are in good conscience, are able to be here
today, I give you great blessing. But we must be wise. We have
our measuring tape, Mrs. Jones, if you got your measuring
tape, you know, we keep them apart. I see 12, 15 feet apart
here, that's good, keep it up. But we don't abuse Scripture.
They charged Jesus of abusing Scripture. Well, maybe some of
you. Abusing Scripture. They charged Jesus of blasphemy.
And they were easy to find people who would accuse Him of that.
But yet, Rome could not care less of that charge. It was not a crime of Rome to
blaspheme God. They were manifold in their ideas
of gods. If you didn't have one, you could
just create one. much like evangelicalism has
done over the last 200 years. Let's create our own God. Let's
create our own Christ. Let's create our own ideas concerning
this God that we created, this Jesus that we created, that we
got straight out of scripture, straight out of context. Yet there's never going to be
an opportunity when false teaching is not the prevalent doctrine
of a culture. And there's never going to be
an opportunity when in times of stress and trial and calamity,
where the false gospel is going to be more abundant ever so than
in times of pain. And I know many people say, well,
I hear you, brother. We've got these false teachers. Where are
the faith healers? They're where they're supposed
to be, counting their money. Where are the kingdom people?
Well, they're where they're supposed to be, hiding in their closets. But those are obvious false gospels.
I'm talking about those who are so close that they could even,
even, if possible, deceive the elect. That as of this afternoon,
I'm going to get to go home and I'm going to be able to listen
to certain men preach that I have not been able to hear in 10 years. And in some way, I'm glad to
be able to have this opportunity. But in other ways, I think, my
goodness, how much more prominent can the not gospel be? May we
stay on task, beloved. no matter how hard it is. Listen,
what does this have to do with the text at hand? Everything!
What was happening to the disciples? They would have loved a virus,
rather than the government coming after them. No, the government's
not coming after the church, yet. There will be a day, it
could be tomorrow, it could be a thousand years from now, but
these aren't the precursors of government control. And here's
the truth, beloved, government can't control God. It cannot
control God's people. When we choose to cease intimacy
in the context of our proximity, it is because we are doing what
is best for the community that we live in. But it will not be
forever. There will come a time when we
have to decide our needs as a church and our needs as a family and
our needs as a community in the context of the glory of God must
prevail even if we die. We do not forsake that which
is called of us. Jesus promised these disciples over in his prayer
that God would protect them. But yet they all died, except
John, who died of old age in prison, or in exile, let me be
explicit. But God has not promised us life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. God has promised us life, liberty,
and true joy outside of this world. outside of this world. And that includes how we have
intimacy. Beloved, we cannot say, oh, we've
got these tools, let's use them. It's okay, it's not okay. We
must, as God's people in these times, recognize that just as
the disciples were stressed and troubled and under trial in the
times of Jesus, during His arrest, during His crucifixion, and after
His ascension, we too are in those same trials, but we are
in them in a way that is unprecedented for our generations. And in some sense, it seems like
the end of life as we know it. It's okay if it is, isn't it?
Is it okay? Yes, it's okay, because it is
what God has established for us. The disciples could see nothing
past the rest of Jesus. They could see nothing past the
cross of Christ. They were thinking, oh, life
as we know it is over, but life as we know it is just beginning. I think the infrastructure of
live stream on Facebook, if things stay in the current state that
they're in, I don't believe it will last a month before it's
gone. Then what do we say we're doing
in the context of ministry? If all these churches across
the nation can no longer preach, You hear me say this often, beloved.
The preaching of the Word of God is just a catalyst to do
that which we are called to do. The preaching of the Word of
God is a fuel to encourage us and to equip us to do the ministry
that we are commanded to do. The preaching of the Word of
God is a very small, small portion of our assembly and our intimacy.
It is the complete power of our intimacy. It is the complete
authority of our intimacy. But there is much more to be
done when this pulpit closes. in good times and in bad times,
in times of famine and in times of feast. And Jesus' pulpit was
closing when he was arrested. The last thing he ever said was
when he spoke to his disciples in the garden. And then everything else he ever
said was in response to his trials or from the cross when he was
given instruction and crying out to the Father, talking to
the other man who was dying. There was no more preaching and
teaching and giving the truth because now that's our turn.
It's our job as individuals. So as shepherds keep watch over
the flock, we each and every one of us are supposed to be
maintaining the gospel ministry of the local church in our lives. And just as many of my brothers
and sisters who fight death in Kabul, Afghanistan, in certain
areas of India, whom I will never see or speak to again because
they don't even have access to phones or the internet, and they
are probably some of them dead right this very moment because
I haven't heard from them in years, I'm assuming they've been
killed. But at the cost of the death of their own children,
they work hours upon hours every Lord's Day and oftentimes during
the week to travel through the cities and through the towns
and through the countrysides to sneak people into proximity so
that they may get the private instruction of God's Word, so
they may leave there as undercover agents of Jesus Christ at the
cost of their own heads coming off their bodies so that they
could proclaim the goodness of the Lord Jesus and meet the needs
of their brothers and sisters in the faith. That is what Jesus is doing. He is saving His church. He is
paying the penalty of their sin. He is setting the elect in a
justified way before the Father because of His blood being shed
on the cross and the ministry and their lives in Christ have
just begun. But friends, it is hard for me. It is hard for me. I've had feelings
this week and thoughts this week that I have not had in my body
or mind since 2007. And for those of you who know
my testimony, you understand the depths of the darkness of
those things. This is not thing. This is not
something I want to redress. It is not a place I want to be,
so I have to just I have just taken myself out of the fodder
out of the noise. I'm not going to listen to it
anymore. I'm not going to watch the news. I'm not going to listen
to the billions of people talking on social media and every pundit
and every corner of every aspect of every opinion. And I don't
care what they have to say. I must and you must in order
for your sanity and for your And for your holy thoughts to
be maintained by the Spirit of God, you must put your face in
the Scripture. And you must be in prayer for
one another. It's not bad yet, y'all. And
it could, by the mercy of God, and only by the will of God,
it could just be gone in a few months and everything could get
back to normal and we rebuild our jobs, we rebuild our communities
and everything, we bury our dead and we move on, soli deo gloria,
but it could be that every one but a hundred of us all perish.
Soli deo gloria. The headquarters of the body
of Christ is not Rome. The headquarters of the church
of Jesus Christ is not the government. The headquarters of the true
church is not America or these United States. It is not this
town. It is not that town. It is not
that denomination or the other. It is not a specific sect of
certain types of soteriology. It is not a historical plantain
of theological principles. It is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the headquarters of the church. So these Jews who hate Rome,
who consider them unclean dogs, submit themselves to Rome and
take their very Messiah to Rome to be judged guilty. So that they can wash their hands
of his murder. And they submit themselves The
picture of the headquarters of the kingdom of God and the shadow
of it all is the temple in Jerusalem. That is why God destroyed it. It is no longer viable. As to even this instruction,
you take this ark, this box, and in it you put the law, and
on top of the law you put the mercy seat, and on top of the
mercy seat you pour the blood. You see where the law sits? securely
in the grace of God. So that the whole of the ark
and the mercy seat and all and the blood and all is Jesus Christ.
It is no longer necessary. So Christ is our headquarters. The cross is ground zero. And this accusation, they knew
that the only thing they could do was to somehow usurp the authority
of Rome. That's the only way they knew
that they could get a guilty verdict from Caesar. That if
they could get in there and they could have this pilot, this puppet
pilot say, this man is a threat to Caesar, they know he would
die. But what they couldn't understand
is that their own scripture, the scripture they'd had for
thousands of years, had already shown them that Messiah would
die. And so they were doing exactly as God had purposed them to do.
They were freely, willfully, sinfully, evilly killing Jesus. But it is for the good of the
elect, it is for the glory of God that God put forth Christ
to be our propitiation. And so we ask Him, are you the
King of the Jews? Because you know, people think, wait a minute,
didn't Israel have kings? Yeah, puppet kings. This region
had a king, that region had a king, but they were under the control
of the governors of Rome. They were subject to Caesar.
They operated, we already know that based on what we've seen
in the Gospels and the narratives and even Acts, but we already
know that based on what the Jews do. We're not able to kill anyone. It's against your law, remember?
So here, when he's asked, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus
as God throws one back at him. He says, did you say this of
your own accord? Or did others say it to you about
me? See, Jesus is so insignificant to Rome, they didn't even know
the deal. They would hear the buzz, this
God, this Messiah, this Jesus of Nazareth, this guy here doing
miracles and all. And Rome would be like, golly,
what do we have to deal with now? What else? What else? Who cares? Who cares? He's a homeless man running around
the country with 11 with 12 people. We're not worried about this
guy. We don't care who he is. We're wrong. I got more power
on my left pinky toe pilot could say than Jesus has gotten his
whole entourage. What are they gonna do? What
are they going to do? They didn't care. He didn't know
who Jesus was. Of course, he wasn't ignorant.
Just politically, he wasn't ignorant, but he was not on the radar.
They'd looked at this Jesus and they had backed off. Like, okay,
this is an interpersonal problem with a cultural issue within
Israel. These Jews are having a problem.
And so what these Jews did is they came upon it and said, listen,
we've arrested this man. He is guilty. He needs to die
because he's trying to usurp Caesar. That's what they told him. He's
a spy. He's a terrorist. He's a usurper. He's a king. He's trying to make
himself king of Israel. The irony behind that. How many
times did the people want him king? And see, herein lies the
real evidence of what's truly happening with Jesus' arrest
in the hearts of those people who should see Him as Messiah.
They heard their people saying, Messiah has come! Our King is
here! And all of a sudden, their selfish,
myopic, diseased, degraded, depraved egos got in the way of truth. Got in the way of truth. And
they're like, we're about to lose control. Not hallelujah,
here's our king, let's get behind him, let's do it. Even if they
were wrong in their assessment that he would liberate them from
Rome, why would you as a leader of a people not want to be liberated
out of slavery? So see, just like the Israelites
of the days of Moses, they would rather be slaves to another than
free under the subjection of God. Think about that for a second. Here is in the Exodus, they bemoan,
they bemoan, bemoan 500 years. How many generations is that?
How many children and grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren
and on down the line, listen to that, 500 years of slavery
and bondage. And then God speaks to Moses
who was raised in the palace. And he comes back and says, My
God says to let His people go or He's going to take them from
you. He's going to snatch them out of darkness into the light.
of freedom. No, he's not. I'm not letting
your people go. Plague, plague, plague, plague,
death. And he still didn't let them
go. He pursued them to kill them, to destroy them. They get into
the wilderness and God is making miracle bread appear on the ground. God is tornado cloud of dust
and tornado cloud of fire by night walking with the Israelites
leading them. I mean, I would feel pretty tough. If I were a leader of the Israelites
and I was sort of elected to be a general or a sergeant or
something or at least a lieutenant in the days of Moses and people
walking around and some enemies come and I say, look at them
thugs over there, they're trying to get our bread, they're trying to get our stuff.
And I'm standing there next to a blazing tornado. A pillar of fire shooting up
out of the ground from the heavens. And I'm thinking, are you dumb?
You see what we got? Sharknado. I mean, you know.
I mean, just Hollywood would show that as an incredibly difficult
thing to overcome. But yet they walked with God
and they would not come to see. God would not permit them to
believe and to trust fully in his providence. That's what's
wrong with with worldly Christianity. That's what's wrong. When the
Jews, as they delivered Jesus up, and they accused Him of trying
to usurp Caesar, that's all they could do. Beloved, people are
going to say of you, you are usurping Caesar, when you do
not submit to the governing authorities concerning your faith. And I say, put me away. I answer
to God and His Word. and the wisdom of Scripture. What are we talking about? We're
not talking about anything right now, because we're not having to face
that right now, are we? It is prophesied, it is purposed,
it is what God has planned for us. As Christ suffered, so we
too shall suffer. The Pilate didn't even have his
own opinion of Jesus. That's what they had told him.
So Jesus answers, you're not saying this. Somebody told you
about this. Somebody told you this about
me. What do you say? You see, that's always the question
too. And that's where I get on this historical theology kick
when everybody wants to quote all these historians, all these
theologians, all these pastors. God help if people quote me.
It's not going to be pleasant for them. How do you know that?
Because you said I might come unglued, especially right now.
Woke up with an ocular migraine this morning, pain in the back
of my head is tense, and I couldn't see for two hours, so I'm glad
I'm able to at least see the scripture here. So I'm not in
one of those moods to sort of be shepherdy, one of those moods
to sort of be, I don't know, security guard. Get back in your
cell and be quiet, you know. Here, what have you said? Jesus is going to call him out
on his own testimony. Who do you say that Christ is?
Isn't that what he did with the disciples? Who do you say that
I am? Oh, I hear what you're saying
about this pastor, this theologian or whatever, but what have you
learned concerning the Christ? What have you learned concerning
the good news of Jesus? What have you learned from the
Word of God alone? Not your study Bible, not your
footnotes, not your grandma, not Google, not YouTube, not
anywhere else. What have you learned reading
the Word of God by yourself in the bathroom? Not that you should
do that, but that's the only place you can really find solitude
sometimes. What have you learned? Who is
Jesus? Not who is Jesus in your opinion,
not who is Jesus according to you, not who is Jesus to you,
but who do you say Christ is according to the Word? Well, Pilate had no testimony
of Jesus. He only knew what people had told him about Jesus. They
say, I sort of probably went like this, they say, you say,
you're the King of Israel. What's that mean for me, bro?
I'm the governor of this entire outfit here, and Caesar is my
Lord. And if you want to be a king,
you're going to have to be a king under the shackle of Caesar.
So there's a way to do this. Are you a king? Or are you the king? You're the
king of the Jews. And he says, what do you say?
And I think Pilate's a little offended by that. He says, you
think I'm a Jew? Am I a Jew? Do I look like a Jew to you?
I mean, put him in our present vernacular. I imagine that Pilate
spoke in common Greek. Jesus and he are speaking in
common Greek together. They're speaking Greek together
and he's saying something very clear. Do I look like a Jew to
you? Do I look like you? Do I look like your people? Do
I give a flip about what you people are doing? I'm stuck here
far from my luxurious home while y'all walk around and praying
and doing all this silly stuff and y'all can't even pray together.
What's wrong with you people? I'm not a Jew. I don't care if
you're the king or not. I mean, think about it. I don't
care who you are. Beloved, that's the statement
of most professing Christians today. They don't care who Jesus
is. They just know who they think
they know he is and they've settled their mind on that euphoric Delusion. And they're fine with it. And
they'll fight tooth and nail to rest in what they've created
Jesus to be. He said, your own people, your
nation, your leaders, your chief priests, your religious heads,
your shepherds, your overseers, your elders have delivered you
over to me saying that you say you are their king. And then he asked the question
that he should have been asked in the beginning. What have you
done? What have you done? In all my
life as regent, I've never in my life seen anybody hated as
much as you've been hated. And he's probably saying, I got
a guy Barabbas that robbed them blind and killed some folks,
and I don't think they hate him as much as they hate you. What
have you done, Jesus of Nazareth? To be so hated? And what would
Jesus' answer be, had He answered it then? I came to do the will
of the One who sent me. Before now the Father was working,
now I am working. As the Father speaks, I speak.
I tell you the truth. Unless you believe that I am,
you will perish in your sins. What do we do? What have you
done? And Jesus does not say, I am
not the king of the Jews. Jesus does not say, you have
gotten your political boundaries mixed up. You are confused a
little bit. Jesus says, My kingdom. So you see there? So He says,
I'm a king and I have a kingdom. My kingdom is not of this world. Now if you were on trial, for
usurping the Lord Caesar. And the guy that could free you
stands in a place to ask you what you've done and ask you
if you're a king. Wouldn't it be better to just
say, I'm not a king, they're wrong. I make no claim to the
throne of Israel. And then come out and say, and
by the way, in a couple of years, y'all are gonna get tired of
these people anyway and destroy the temple. So where's the king gonna
sit? Where's the king going to worship?
Where's the king going to live? From what platform? I don't want this crumbly
mess, this world. I don't want this disgusting
place. That's not what God in his wisdom said. But he did differentiate from
this disgusting place of fallen people and all of its kingdom
and the true and only eternal kingdom. He says, my kingdom
is not of this world. And then he explains it. If,
conditionally, my kingdom were of this world, and I'm going
to put this in southern redneck style, you couldn't have stopped
me. That's what Jesus is saying. My people would have whipped
up on your people and I wouldn't be standing here right now. You
couldn't touch us if you tried. How many more times can I say
it in a different way? If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would
have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the
Jews. That's why he stopped Peter, see. It was the will of God that he
be put to death so that Peter could be washed. His head, his
hands, his feet, you know, all of me, wash all of me Lord. Wash
me. But my kingdom, he reiterates,
verse 36b, is not from the world. In other words, I'm not even
going to establish it from the world. I'm not going to bring
it out of the world. I'm not going to recruit it. It doesn't exist
in the world. And nothing that is of this world
belongs to me in the sense of my kingdom. But those who are
mine, and we go ahead and talk about what he's talked about
from the Last Supper up to this date and this prayer and everything.
Those who are mine are given to me by the Father who rules
it all. Now I am the King of my people. And we're so far away from where
you are, you can't touch us. You can't hunt us. You can't
follow us. Remember when he said that to
the Jews? Where's he going to go? He's going to go be the Messiah
to the Gentiles? Is that what he means? We're
not going to go out there? Of course we're not going to go out there, those dirty dogs.
We're not going out there with those filthy people, subhuman
being people. Or, like another time they said,
oh I know, he's going to kill himself. The only way we couldn't
follow him is he's going to kill himself. He thinks he's something
else. He must be going to kill himself. My kingdom is not of the world.
Pilate's a very smart man. He says, so you are a king. He
hears what Jesus is saying. You are a king. Think about that. He didn't deny
it. He put it in its proper place.
Jesus is subject to the kingdoms of this world for the sake of
the Father's will in order to save his people from their sins. Beloved, I'm going to tell you
this, none of us are Jesus. But we can all learn the heart
and the mind of Jesus the man by seeing how he subjects himself
to Pilate, by seeing how he gives himself to the people for crucifixion. He lays down his life and he,
in his will and power and desire, takes it up again. Jesus was
not a passive participant in his resurrection, he was the
power behind it. And Jesus says it very clearly.
Look at this latter part of 37. You say that I am a king. Would
you get it, You understand. And now you've said it out of
your own mouth, I'm a king. Alright, think about this for
a second. Pilate's concern by the accusation of the Jews is
that Jesus says he's a king and that that kingship could somewhat
usurp the authority of Caesar. So that Pilate has a vested interest
from his boss to make sure this man is not a threat. Now all
of a sudden, he says, I'm not a king of this world. But I am
a king. Pilate's smart. He goes, okay,
so you are a king. You are a king. So if a king,
then what? What am I supposed to do with
you, Jesus? Your people are saying you're trying to take over their
land. You're saying you're not trying to take over any land.
Now I'm worried about what land you are talking about because
I got this land and I've got a stake. I don't want to be crucified
either. Now I got some politics in play. What am I to do with
you, Jesus? What have you done? I don't know
what to do, that's why he washes his hands. He didn't know what
to do. He didn't find any legal guilt
with the man, but there is something there. And Jesus answers him very clearly.
You say that I'm a king, you know it. And for this purpose
I was born. And for this purpose I have come
into the world, and it is to bear witness to the truth. So now what we have here, we
have the Kingdom of Christ, it's not of the world or from the
world. We have His Lordship, His Kingship, His Rule, His Authority,
His Dominion. We have the shadows of this in
both senses. With Israel, who were blind and
dead, and Rome, who were the Gentiles, who were blind and
dead, both of them hearing the truth in the revelation of Christ
with their earthly ability, with their human ability, and none
of them being able to see clearly the truth. None of them. Because the truth, to an unregenerate
mind, is stupid. It makes no sense. There's always
a yeah, but. There's always, well, what about? And these are not inquiries.
There's a difference when someone working through truth and inquiring
and overcoming objections versus fighting with objections. There's
a difference. Jesus is a king. You say that
I'm a king and for the purpose that I've come into this world
is to bear witness to the truth Now you might think, and what
does Pilate ask in verse 38? What is truth? What is truth except that which
man determines is true? What is truth except the relativism
of our nation, of our culture, of our way of being, of our senses,
of our wisdom? The Bible says, the Bible does
not ever give man's wisdom a foothold. We are not to consider how we
take the truth of what God's Word teaches and how we parse
it out in our own minds and play it out in a system so that it
becomes palatable to anyone in the world. We're not to look
at truth that way. Truth is equally and always truth,
lest it be lies. The truth is the truth, no matter
what you think the truth is, because if it wasn't, it wouldn't
be the truth. So it doesn't matter what we think. It doesn't matter
what Pilate thought concerning Jesus. It didn't matter what
the Jews thought concerning Jesus. It doesn't matter what you and
I believe concerning Jesus in the context of what is truth.
It doesn't matter. The truth is the same and Christ
has declared the truth as himself. That He Himself is the truth
concerning the Father. He is the truth concerning righteousness. He is the truth concerning judgment. He is the truth concerning power.
He is the truth concerning rule and sovereignty. He is the truth.
And there is no other. There is no almost true, it's
a lie. There is no almost right, it's
wrong. He is the way, the truth, and the only ever will ever be
life. So, when he says, I've come to
the world to bear witness to the truth as a king, he goes
ahead and tells Pilate that he's not going to be able to understand
this. He says, you can't hear it. So you don't have to worry
about it, Pilate, because you're not of my kingdom. Everyone who
is of the truth listens to my voice. Pilate said, well, what is truth? He's truth. And because he is
truth, everyone who is of truth listens to him who is truth.
So when he says his kingdom is not of the world, it puts us
whether we have a cognitive relationship with that information or not,
it puts us in a place where we're sitting and all wondering. And as He taught His disciples
and they were boggled a little bit by this reality. They didn't
know what to think and what to do and where to go and how to
understand it. What were they going to do tomorrow?
Where were their plans going to be? Everything that they thought,
the vision, the mission of their ministry was over. Something
was different. Things were going to change.
But Jesus is the same. So the truth is the same. Get
this. So the purpose and the mission and the actions and the
life of the church is the same. No matter what the cost. And what was the cost of the
first century church being the body of Christ and community
death? So whether it be death by sword,
whether it be death by famine, whether it be death by disease,
it's death. So we do what we do, what we're
called to do and only what we're called to do. We put away those
things that are unnecessary. We establish the truth by proclaiming
the Lord Jesus Christ from His scripture in context always. We don't twist the Word of God.
We hold fast and we hear the voice of our shepherd. And I'm
not your shepherd. I'm an under shepherd. I'm not the leader of your spiritual
lives. I'm an overseer as Christ lives
in you. So my wisdom is worth nothing
if it is not the wisdom of Christ taught to you. And Paul even
understood that. How many times does Paul say
in the Scripture, this is my thoughts, this is my wisdom,
not I, not the Lord, but I say. What's one of the things he says?
I say it's better for nobody to get married. That wasn't a
command. That wasn't a pious example of
spirituality. That was Paul's personal anguish. Because I believe Paul's family
left him for dead when he started preaching. That's what I believe. And I believe Paul understood
that to live for Christ is to die to the world. I believe he
understood what Jesus says when Jesus tells people, let the dead
bury the dead. If you don't hate your father
and your mother and those of your own household, you can't follow
me. And it wasn't about loving less, it was about being willing.
You know what's crazy? I got an old pair of shoes at
home that I use when I cut grass now. And when I used to have
a lab, if you left a shoe for five seconds on a step, that
lab would chew it to the rubber. I don't know where they put it
all, but they chew it to nothing. And it would irritate me, but the
shoes, the soles flapping off, holes in it and all, I didn't
really care. I hated those shoes. When I'm going to church, I'm
not going to wear those shoes. I'm going to mama's house, I'm not going
to wear those shoes. I don't really love those shoes at all.
I mean, I use them and they work well for what I need them for,
but I'm not going to be upset the dog chewed them up. Our love for Christ, our hatred
to the world. But Jesus says, if you love me,
you'll obey my commands and my command to you is love one another.
For when you love one another, you love me. And when you love
one another, you're obeying me. This is the law of Christ. And many of you will always have
eternal life, but some of you will never love me. But if you
love me, feed my sheep. I can't love the Lord Jesus if
I'm not feeding the sheep, and I'd rather die in this body. And beloved, we need to also
consider how we're going to feed one another, not just physically,
but spiritually. What would it be at the cost
of truth if we could hear the voice of our Savior and the Lord
Jesus Christ were to show us clearly in the scripture that
to live is Christ and to die is far better. The world would look at us and
go foolish, stupid, ignorant, just like they did to Jesus. We are to understand wisdom,
we are to listen, we are to take heed, but we are not to live
in fear and we are to understand that all the prevention of persecution
that anyone could muster in the greatest power of this world
could never stop God from destroying everything in a second. And we don't need to abuse scripture
and get together and pray and repent of our national sins.
There's no such thing. Let's stop mocking God. Pilate's
like, what is the truth? And sadly, the truth was standing
right before him. But he wanted the truth of what was going to
happen next. That's what Pilate wanted. What is the truth? I
mean, what are you saying? What are you about to do? If
I let you go, what are you going to be doing now? Are you going
to be a problem for me? Are you going to be a problem for Jews,
which is going to be a problem for me? Is there going to be an uprising? Are you going
to have people follow you to try to get to your not of this
world kingdom? What is this? Where is it? What land are you
going to conquer? Are you one of those space guys?
You know, we used to burn those guys. You're not of this world. Okay, great. What is truth? And after this,
after he said this, He just walks out. He went back outside to
the Jews because remember they could not be defiled by entering
into his headquarters. Yet they put their Messiah in
there. I find no guilt in him. That's
what he says. I find no guilt at all. He has done nothing wrong. He
has broken no law of Rome. There is no consequence that
I can levy upon this man He's just crazy. He's talking about
he's a king of no kingdom that doesn't exist in the world, that
has no people, and they all hear his voice. See? Sounds like somebody that should
be put away for insanity. But Pilate said, as it was a
custom, every year at the Passover, Rome would release one of their
Jewish prisoners, by request, as a show of favor. One prisoner
be released. One guilty man will be let go.
One man that was going to face death could be released. Who
do you want? We want the murderer of Barabbas. So we've got him locked up. Do
you want this innocent man back? The king of the Jews, he says.
He's mocking them. You want this king of the Jews
back? You want your king back? And they cried out, No, we want
Barabbas. And that's why I think it's important
for us to understand that Barabbas in some sense was
an evil man he done evil things and I want you to understand
what most historians consider Barabbas an insurrectionist someone who was trying to stir
get this by force action against Rome which in turn was action
against the Sanhedrin because they were in they were so cozy
with Rome They love the glory that comes
from man, not the glory that comes from God. The Messiah,
the glory, the fullness of God in the flesh is standing before
them. They cannot see because they are judicially hardened. And the accusation of Jesus is
that he's a usurper, he's an insurrectionist. He's a murderous
man that's going to cost lives. He's causing people to die in
the streets because he's trying to start a rebellion. He was
not doing it and Pilate knew. So instead, they released the
actual one who's killing people in the name of freedom. Jesus in a very real picture
there substituted Himself as an insurrectionist. Having done nothing but declare
himself the truth, Jesus now was guilty in the eyes of men
as being the very thing they accused him of, and then they
let go the very guilty one that had done the crime. That is the
picture of the gospel. Your fear has been placed on
Jesus who feared not. Your lusts have been put on Jesus,
who never lusted. Your failure to trust in God,
your faithlessness has been put on Jesus, who was always faithful.
Your murder has been put on Jesus, who was never a murderer. He
loved even his enemies. He cried out to the Father, as
we'll see in weeks to come, forgive these men, they do not know what
they're doing. So they cry out for Barabbas.
When we talk about the cross of Christ atoning for sin, this
is what it means. It substitutes and pays for. So that the one man who is guilty
of the sin and has to pay, Jesus who's not guilty of the sin takes
that penalty and pays for it. So that this man who's guilty
can never be charged again. He can never go back to prison.
He can never be condemned. He can never be blamed. He can
never pay a penalty because the penalty is paid. It's paid. If a security deed is satisfied
at a bank and the money is not owed, the bank cannot take the
property. If a sin is satisfied, God cannot condemn. He cannot
do it. When Jesus died, He paid for
the sins of all those who belong to Him, all those who are not
of this world, all those who are of His kingdom of life, who
have been snatched out by the Father and shoved on the body
of Jesus. This is who we are, beloved.
And the church always is as she is through trial and temptation
and death. She always is who she is through
those things because that is who Christ has, that is how Christ
brought in his kingdom, is by suffering, persecution, and death.
We too are the same. Beloved, it is not time for the
church to settle down. It is time for the church to
stand up. Through whatever means necessary.
I hear people say, well you know social media, the Lord used social
media. The Lord doesn't use social media.
That's not saying the Lord used that window for me to see that
car. God didn't use the window, I looked out of it. God caused
that car to be there. And I looked and I saw it. And
God causes the gospel to be on the window of the social sphere
and the internet and so we can see it. So it is the Word of
God that caused us. It is His Word that God uses,
no matter what vehicle it's through. Stop thinking that what we do
in an electronic age is intimacy. Intimacy is when we are together
with the truth, when we are able to feed the truth. And I would
strongly suggest all of us to get the phone numbers of each
of us and all of our peripheral members and the sheep who are
orphaned across this country and across this world. We need
to be able to contact each other outside of these means because
these windows will close, but the Word of God will never cease. It is so important to see that,
church. The window of the ministry of Jesus preaching was over in
order to bring about the fullness of redemption, the fullness of
the glory of God, the ascension to Jesus to his place of honor. Ruling God and King. Take this
world and what it is and use it for the glory of God. Hold
it loosely, though, beloved, because it is nothing but wasted
time and material. So what we have and what we are.
Is for the sake of Christ, we must consider one another. How
many times have I preached that every Sunday since I've been
in this bullpen? And where do we find the means of grace in
order to understand these things in his word? In his word. And as we'll see next week, they
take Jesus out. And what God has established
for Christ, for His people, is that they take Jesus out, an
innocent man, before all people. And everybody gets to see Barabbas
let go. And all these insurrectionists
and his little gang that are free, they rejoice, they take
him in. They clap in praise, all right,
Barabbas, yay. The cause is not dead, yet the
cause of humanity, even when it's honorable, was it honorable
that someone would stand against the tyranny of Rome? Absolutely,
stand, stand, stand for your citizens, stand, stand for your
neighbors, stand against tyranny. Great, but it's not the call
of Christ. It's not the call of Christ.
It is not what Christ came to do, and it is not what Christ
came to equip us to do, even though we may have to. If I were looking outside just
now and I saw someone being beaten, we would go. I'd say, Cash, go! You got the skills. I mean, you
know, go! We would help them. We would
stop that. We would do what we could, but we would not do it
at the cost of truth. at the cost of Christ. And when
it's all said and done, but here now, so here is Barabbas free
to continue the work that the Jews feared. But it was the will of God that
Jesus died. It was the will of God that Jesus suffer. And this is not the this is not
the last time that pilot tries to let Jesus go. after they flog him and try him. And Jesus even says, you have
no authority over me. The only reason you beat me is
because I let you. See, if you're the rock, you could probably
say stuff like that to somebody. But Jesus was merely a man, just
a mere man. Not very powerful, not very strong,
just a normal, common man in his physique. But by the word
of His power, He held up the very universe. He held together
the molecules of the catenontils that flogged Him. He held together
the very joints and sinews of the man who swung it. He held
together. He held together the molecules
of the blood that dripped down out of His body as He died. And Pilate's like, let's let
him go, y'all. This is terrible torture for
an innocent man. Terrible torture! What should
we do with this man? Crucify him. What shall we do with his people?
Age after age after age after age. People who stand on the
sovereign and free grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. What does
the world say? Get rid of them. Mock them, abuse
them, destroy them, do whatever you can, but just get rid of
them. Beloved, it is worthy to be refused
by the world and thrown out because we have been received by the
Lord forever. When the blind man spoke for
himself, they threw him out of the synagogue. When the lame
man said that he was healed and brought his mat up to the temple,
they threw him out of the synagogue. When we are found in Christ,
the world and all of its religious zeal throws us away. Better to
be thrown out in Christ than to be together in judgment. Jesus says the same thing, doesn't
he? If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. If your hand
causes you to sin, cut it off. For it is better to enter into eternal
life out of hand and with one eye than to have your whole body
consumed by judging fire. The good news is Even when we
find our place in the, I don't know Him. Jesus says my kingdom
is not of this world. And He will keep us and He will
hold us and we will not be forsaken. We will not be lost. And beloved,
this that we're experiencing as a culture right now is nothing. Nothing. It's important. It's
serious. We ought to listen. Don't throw
caution to the wind. If you feel sick, stay away from
people. Don't go to ball games. There's
some common sense things that we can do. But the problem in
our culture, and I'm gonna get back to something and then I'm
gonna close before I mess up the Lord's Word, but the problem
in our culture is that we have made church life so stupid that
we can just do it online. We have made intimacy so lacking
that we can just, I don't know, we can do something else. The
very fact that so many people just think
that it's just another way. Beloved, you all and I have more
to do than this. It's important and it's vital,
but we have so much more to do. This teaching should drive us
to the actions that we're commanded to, which is to do what we can for
the sake of each other. And you might not think, what
can I do? We're not going to be out in public for a month.
Pray. Please pray. Please read your
word. Be healthy, so that when we're
able to be together again as a whole family, that we're not
starting over. We're not having to wean people
back to health. We're not having to nurse people
back to health, rather. Wean them off the world. Don't let
the world come in. Well, you're crying, just give
me Barabbas. Jesus, get out of here. Don't do it. Because you know that I am praying
for you. And you know that God the Spirit
is praying for you. And please, pray for us. Pray for me. Pray
for each other. Because this is not my thing,
y'all. This is the test of James Tippin's
faith. I live, eat, breathe, exist,
and don't sleep for the sake of the assembly. This is what
I am. And there is no other purpose
I have in life. None whatsoever. So, think about that as you pray. And that is important for us
to grasp. We need each other. We need each other. My home is
so intricately tied to the shepherding of the church that they are in
every way an extension of our church. We are each other's family,
you see. So when we are not diligent, diligent, To be in the word of
God, we are hurting one another. We are not preparing for one
another, yet the world in all of its funny glory will take
great strides to protect each other from disease. Let us take
the same strides to protect each other from sin. And from spiritual
malnourishment, please. But when we fail, Christ will
not. So we rest in Him. There is no
guilt. There is no shame. And when you
in good conscience are not able to be out, then do it by faith. And so for us, as a fellowship,
when we have an active case in Evans County, we will reevaluate
what we do. And at that time, we will still
be together, even if we're apart. Let's pray. Father, your word
is sufficient. I feel somewhat ridiculous to
even comment on certain cultural things, this virus, other stuff. And surely by your mercy, Lord,
I have not subjected this sermon to that end. But Father, pastorally,
I do feel as I've prayed this week, the necessity of expressing
the importance of who we are. And Father, I thank you, Lord,
that the gospel is the power and salvation and Lord that through
the means that you've promised, we are continuing to walk together. So as we leave this place today,
as we sign off for those who are for the majority of us who
are online. Lord, help us to stop this very
moment as we are done and pray for one another and to make this
afternoon an opportunity for ministry to reach out to be invested
in each other's lives. But father, if nothing else,
Lord, I feel. I feel commanded to oversee.
the counsel and the intimacy and the continual communication
of the flock, because without the little words of encouragement,
without hearing each other's voices and seeing each other's
faces, it is going to be. Extremely warlike in our souls. So I pray, Father, I pray for
those who are ill. That you would heal them, I pray
that you would, by your mercy, if it be your will. Let us not
have a lot of fatalities in our culture, in our community, in
our state, in our nation. Father, I pray that we would
all see the end of these days, that this isolation and other
things would be put down, that we might get back to life. But Lord, I do know that this
may be a catalyst for us to not be so normal in our lives, not
be so used to the way things are, that we may put Christ and
the gospel in front of us in every turn. Father, I pray against
the false teaching. I thank you, Lord, that you are
sovereign over it. I pray against all these things
that are continually being purveyed in your name that are wrong and
untruth and lie. But Lord, we know that you have
purposed it and you've put it there. You've caused it for this
very season. Lord, protect our hearts and
minds that we do not get bound up in the temptation of it, Lord.
Deliver us from the evil one as we are supposed to pray and
lead us not into temptation, whether it be the flesh or the
mind or the body. And Father, I thank you that
we are in a place and in a country that does have freedoms. And
I pray that you sustain those freedoms for the sake of the
gospel. But Lord, in all things, Father, we want your will to
be done. And so if it is your will to take many lives, if it
is your will to take away freedoms, if it is your will to do what
it is that you think is best, and we don't like it, Father,
let us rest in your sovereignty. For the sake of your glory. You
bring suffering to your people. So there is none of us who are
the children. Who can escape that which you
have willed for us? So bring it father that we might proclaim
the goodness of your name. And we pray these things in the
name of Christ. Amen.