Have you been putting off surrendering your life to Christ until you're really ready? Till all of your questions have been sufficiently answered? Today on Truth for Life, we will find out why that's a dangerous tactic. Alistair Begg is continuing our study in First Timothy, but he begins today in John chapter eighteen, describing the good confession that Paul refers to in First Timothy chapter six.
So then, Pilate says in verse thirty-seven, "Well, I take it that what you're saying is that you are a king, then." And Jesus answers, "You are right in saying, 'I am a king.' My kingship is not the result of revolt. I was born to be a king. In fact, for this reason, I was born. He was born." He was human. He was not a spectre or a ghost.
He was not an ethereal figure. He had flesh and blood, and hands and feet and toes, and knew what it was to be thirsty, tired, lonely, disappointed. And in this little phrase, and don't miss little phrases like this. We have the reinforcement of essential truth concerning who Jesus is. For this reason, He said, "I was born." And then, interestingly, He says, "And for this reason, I came into the world." Isn't that an interesting juxtaposition of phraseology?
Why would you say, "For this reason, I was born," and then, "For this reason, I came into the world"? Is that tautology? Is He just saying one thing twice? No. In saying I was born, he is declaring his humanity.
In saying I have come into the world, he is declaring his divinity. For his birth in Bethlehem was not the beginning of Christ. For he came from the glory of the Father. He was with the Spirit and the Father, co-equal and co-eternal. His birth was a real birth.
He came down a normal canal. His conception was miraculous. His birth was unspectacular. But when the Mary mother held that baby in her arms, she held a child who was born to be king, heralded by the songs of the angels, visited by the shepherds, and adored by the wise men. And now, at the age of thirty-three, approximately, he stands enduring this mockery of an investigation by this pompous Roman governor, and he says, "Listen, I came into the world to testify to the truth, and everyone on the side of truth listens to me." Now, Jesus is not referring here to truth as an abstraction.
In the philosophies of men, he is referring to truth as an absolute in the person of himself, and everyone who owes their spiritual origin to He who is the truth is eager to listen to His voice. That's why he makes that wonderful statement earlier in John's Gospel: "I tell you the truth." The man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs up by some other way is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. You want to know how you're a member of the flock tonight?
Because you listen to his voice. You understand that? In terms of a nuclear family, don't you? Of all the voices that you might hear shouting in a street or on a college campus, there are only one or two voices that will arrest you, and there is only one voice that you might identify as your father's voice, and the way that you hear that voice. Will be different from the way anyone else hears the voice, and in listening for it, and in responding to it, we declare ourselves to belong.
Well, then says Pilate in verse thirty-eight, "What is truth?" I must confess, I've heard a number of sermons on this phrase. Where people have told me they're going to preach on just three words, what is truth, and then they went in like the man who jumped on his horse and galloped off in all directions. And so I want to be aware of it. The question that occurs to me, and perhaps to you, is simply this: When Pilate asks the question, "Is he a searcher or is he a cynic?" I wish we could hear the tone of his voice. I wish we had it in in in recording.
Because the tone of his voice is going to answer that question. Is he saying, "Oh, I want to know that. What is truth?" Or is he saying, "What is truth? Truth? I'm a politician.
Don't talk to me about truth. I'm surrounded by these soldiers. I do their pay charts." They do the time cards for me. Don't talk to me about truth, truth. If he had been concerned, I'm not so sure that he wouldn't have stayed.
But he says, "What's truth?" Pilate asked, and with this, he went out again to the Jews. In other words, you have the impression of him turning around. Jesus says, "And then for this reason I came into the world, and I am the King, and I have established the truth. And those who follow me listen to the truth." And Pilate says, "Oh yeah, truth. What's truth?
Hang on, I'll be back in a minute." You think that people are all sitting around tonight asking the question, "What is truth?" Get serious. They're not. They're clicking the TV thing. They're not asking is Christianity true. They're not sitting home wondering about that.
They might be sitting home wondering if it's relevant, but they're not asking whether it's true. They don't even care. There is none that seeks after God. No, not one. I think Pilate is dismissive.
Then that brings us finally. To the little scene that then takes place when he walks out the door and goes back to the Jews, the investigation is over. You could say that it's gone fairly well. He was seeking to determine whether Jesus regarded himself as a king, and Jesus said yes, he was a king. But he's made these statements regarding his kingdom, and Pilate is savvy enough to recognize that it doesn't seem to be the kind of thing that the Jews have legitimate concern with.
And so, in verse 38, with this, he went out again to the Jews, and he said, "I find no basis for a charge against him." Now, it is possible; in fact, it is probable that it is at this point that they ship him off to Herod, because when you combine the gospel records, there is the encounter that takes place with Herod, and I'm inclined to think that Herod's encounter takes place at the end of verse 38. And you'll find it in Luke chapter twenty-three at your leisure. Because in Luke twenty three it says, then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, I find no basis for a charge against this man. But they insisted he stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and he has come all the way here.
Now that's exactly what he's done. You see, he goes out and he says, I don't have a basis for a charge against him. They reply, John doesn't cover it. Luke records it just like different newspapers have different detail and. On hearing this, Pilate asked the man if the man was a Galilean.
When he learned that Jesus was under Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.
So he gets shipped off to Herod, and I wish I had time to deal with the encounter with Herod. It's fantastic. Unlike Pilate, Herod is thrilled to see Jesus because for a long time he had been wanting to see him, and from what he'd heard about him, he hoped to see him perform some miracle. And I'd like to preach on the ninth verse. He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer.
He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer. Why not? Because Jesus knew his heart, and he knew that Herod's conscience had been put to sleep. No, I've started now, so you're going to say, "How in the world does he come up with that?" So I need, sorry, to delay just a moment to give you facts. If you just listen to me for a moment, but in Mark chapter six, in the beheading of John the Baptist, it says of Herod that when he heard John, he was greatly puzzled, and yet he liked to listen to him.
So there was a time when Herod liked the preacher, liked the preaching, and liked to listen. But now here he is, and he has Jesus in front of him, and he says, "Well, this is great. I got Jesus in here now. Fantastic. Maybe he'll do a miracle.
I heard he did a lot of miracles. Maybe he'll do one for me." And so he starts to ask him all these questions, and Jesus gave him no answer. You see, he knew Herod's heart. And as soon as Herod realized that he was not going to get what he was looking for, then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him, and dressed him in an elegant robe, and they sent him back to Pilate. And that day, Herod and Pilate became friends.
Before this, they had been enemies. There is somebody here tonight, and you've determined that when you are good and well ready. You have a number of questions that you're going to ask Jesus—vital, crucial, eternally significant questions—and in your mind, you're saying, "And He can frankly wait until I'm ready." I want to tell you, on the authority of God's Word, that on the day you ask your questions. You may get no answers, because the Bible clearly teaches that it is possible for us to become so inured to the teaching of the Word of God, so impervious to its instruction, so soaked by its information that our hearts become like like a a tin roof on a building. And all that happens is that the rain makes a sound upon it and dances off it, but never penetrates it.
And that is why I say to your loved ones with such regularity: Today, if you hear God's voice, do not harden your hearts. Because if you do, there may come a day when your heart is so hardened that you may long to hear His voice and never hear it. That you think that he will stand and wait for you until you are ready to have your questions answered? He who has come from the realms of glory and called you by name and spoken into your lives and given you godly parents and friends and introduced you to the scriptures and called you to Himself—do you really think you will tell him to wait outside until you're ready? And what will it take for you to be ready?
Your own personal miracle? Who do you think you are? In the posture of Herod, oh, good. Let's have Jesus come in. Maybe he'll do a show for me.
And he plied him with many questions. And he gave him no answer. Why? Because the confidence of heaven is in the Scriptures. Luke chapter sixteen and verse thirty-one.
In another context altogether. In the story, dramatic story of the rich man and Lazarus, I beg you, Father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment. He speaks from hell. He says, "Go back and give them a special warning." And Abraham replied, "They have Moses and the prophets.
Let them listen to them. In other words, they have their Bibles. Let them pay attention to the Bible." Oh no, Father Abraham, he said. But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent. If somebody goes and does something really dramatic, you see, then they will believe.
And he said to them, "If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced, even if someone rises from the dead." And that is the story of Judaism to this point. If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced, even if the Messiah was to rise from the dead.
Well, you got about seven sermons in one here. Let me stop. Go back to the thirty-ninth verse of John eighteen. But it's your custom, says Pilate, having had him shipped back from Herod.
Now you see, they're playing ping pong with the creator of the universe. Sending him up the street and then back up the street, and everywhere he goes, there's a slap on the face, there's spittle on his beard, there's a gut-wrenching kick in the ribs, and back he comes, and it's pilot's problem all over again, and he sees one last opportunity to wheeze aloud of it. Customary at Passover for the Roman jurisdiction to release a prisoner—a kind of "hey, at a boy" for having the Passover in town.
So he says, "Do you want me to release the king of the Jews?" Passionately hoping the answer would be yes, and they shouted back, "Oh no, not him! Give us Barabbas!" Trapped in his superstitious fears, coupled with tinges of a desire for justice and the fear of what will happen to him if he doesn't go with the crowd, Pilate, still unwilling to pronounce the death sentence, delivers Jesus up to be flogged. In essence, Pilate wanted to evade the responsibility of making a decision concerning Christ. And in that respect, he's like some of us. But he was to discover, as we discover, that neutrality is not an option.
Pilate's fundamental dilemma is summarised in Matthew's record, where Pilate says out loud, but to his own heart, "What shall I do then?" With Jesus, who is called Christ, and although we are continually told that the issues in Peking, Beijing, and London, and Washington, And the state of the Tao, and the matters of the balance of world power, and all of these things that are given to us on a daily basis are the issues of time, and are the great concerns of the age. And global warming, and the the the forests in Oregon, and the president's concern about this and that—they pale into insignificance before this one fundamental question. What shall I then do with Jesus, who is called Christ? And remember, it was in the context of a call to a good confession. Timothy, I want you to make a good confession.
And remember, the Lord Jesus, whom you serve, made a good confession before Pontius Pilate. I think probably what we have there, and we'll come back to it in First Timothy six, is a little section taken out of a whole baptismal instruction, and therefore the exhortation is to take a bold stand in relationship to Jesus Christ. I ask you tonight: Are you prepared for that kind of bold commitment to Christ? To stand up and be counted, no matter if the whole world goes the other way, or you want to try and do the pilot trip. The question that is even more fundamental is not what would Pilate do with Christ, but what will Christ's words be to Pilate on the day of judgment.
Can you imagine standing before Christ in judgment, as Pontius Pilate, having gazed into His eyes, having addressed Him in this way, having had the opportunity to bear your heart before Him and embrace Him as your Savior, and having taken a bowl of water and washed your hands? And gone into the deep recesses of the palace, so that you couldn't hear his dreadful screams. As per your direction, they took and beat him to the point where his back was open to the bone, and his head was crushed with a crown of thorns. These are days. In which it is imperative that the the Lord will raise up some who are not chocolate soldiers to melt in the heat.
I don't ask for no public response on your part, but in your hearts, as you bow with me tonight, will you not commit your life afresh to Christ and tell Him that you love Him? And that you would be prepared to make a good confession before man, and that you will serve him. It is a thing most wonderful, almost too wonderful to be. That God's own Son should come from heaven. And die to save a child like me.
Father, words are inadequate. To grapple with the immensity of what is before us here in holy scripture, all the love that drew salvation's plan, and the grace that brought it down to man, and the mighty gulf that you, O God, spanned at Calvary, grant then that we might hear the voice of Christ. As to those he called in his earthly pilgrimage, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. If any man would be my disciple, let him take up his cross every day, deny himself, and follow me. Come unto me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Was there ever kinder shepherd? Half so gentle, half so sweet, as the Saviour, who would have us come and gather round His feet. Enable us, Lord, in these days, as individuals and families and as a church family, to be prepared to make a good confession in the presence of many witnesses. For Jesus' sake, we ask it, Amen. You're listening to Truth for Life with Aleister Beg.
As Aleister often reminds us, today, if you hear God's voice, do not harden your heart. And a Truth for Life, we have complete confidence in the authority and sufficiency of God's word. That's why it's our pattern to teach verse by verse through the Bible. We trust that as you listen, God will move you from merely having an interest in religion to experiencing and enjoying a personal relationship with Jesus. And if lingering questions are preventing you from trusting Jesus as your Lord and Savior, visit our website at truthforlife.org/learnmore.
There you'll find messages from Alice that clearly explain the gospel. There's also a short series of messages that teach more about who Jesus is and why He came. Again, go to truthforlife.org/learnmore. At a time when it's not always easy to discern what's true, Truth for Life is committed to being a trusted source of biblical truth. From our daily program to Alister's free online teaching library and the at-cost resources we offer, you may not realize that Truth for Life is entirely listener-funded.
It is your giving that provides for the cost of producing and distributing this program throughout the world.
So if you. Been listening for a while? Make today the day you join the team that enables Alister's teaching to be heard. Become a Truth Partner by supporting the ministry each month. It's quick and easy to sign up.
Go to truthforlife.org/truthpartner, or call us at eight eight eight five eight eight seven eight eight four. And we are grateful for whatever amount you're able to give. If you're able to make a monthly commitment of twenty dollars or more, you can request both of the carefully selected books we recommend each month. We're currently featuring a book titled "Not Old, Not Young, Not Done," following Jesus in your fifties and sixties. This season of life is often accompanied by many changes in family life, work demands, and health.
But God still has a plan for us, and the author of the book Christopher Ash shows us how we can serve God during these unique years by being active in our local churches and becoming bolder about sharing the gospel. Be sure to request the book when you become a Truth Partner today, or when you give a one-time gift at TruthForLife.org/donate. Thanks for listening. The right perspective of God will change the way you think about everything.
So, what is that perspective?
Well, we'll find out tomorrow. The Bible teaching of Aleister Beg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
