Series: Conversations with Jesus
John 18:33-38
INTRO
The story is told of a young man who entered a very strict monastic order. It was so strict that members were permitted to speak only two words per year to the abbot. At the end of year one the young man appeared before the abbot and spoke his two words, "bad food." At the end of the second year the young man appeared before the abbot and spoke two more words, "hard bed". At the end of year three he came to the abbot and spoke his last two words, "I quit." The abbot responded, "Well it is about time. Complain, complain, complain - that’s all you’ve done since you came here.
John, as we have seen, is a book of conversations as well
-reading Matt, Mk, Luke is like kayaking on a swift flowing river
-but John is more like a canoe on a quite lake
-we meander from one conversation to the next
-beginning with Nathanael, with His mother, with Nicodemus, the woman at the well, the paralytic, the crowd, the blind man, the woman caught in adultery
-the disciples
-and Jesus’ conversation with God
-you can outline the book by these conversations
And now we come to one of the last conversations—Jesus’ conversation with Pilate
-and like all the others—it is a conversation Jesus is ultimately having with us
SETTING
-it takes place outside of the Upper Room, where we have been
-prompted by a religious establishment thoroughly threatened by Jesus
-they want nothing less than His blood—and they are determined to make
Rome, and its governor—Pilate—see just how dangerous He is
-for only Rome had the authority to put men to death
-but they know this—that their religious concerns will cut no ice with Pilate
-so they make Jesus a political issue—they refashion their case in political terms
-this is one more terrorist leader with messianic notions inciting rebellion against Rome
-a Person claiming to be a king
Pilate is less than convinced with their charges
-but he must probe—because Pilate knows what kings and kingdoms are
-and he knows that it is his job to allow none on his patch
And so a conversation takes place recorded in vss 33-38a—in Gibson’s powerful
film, Passion of the Christ—he captures it
Here is Pilate in all of his impressive might
-confronting—challenging some “Backwater” wannabe
-vs 37a-You are a king?
But it is Pilate who is really the one on trial
-the one confronted—challenged with the reality of truth
-and this pre-modern man voices what our post-modern age expresses—
-a suspicion—a skepticism regarding truth-vs. 38a
Like Pilate—most of our age questions the existence, the knowability of truth
-a “deep, pervasive relativism grips our society”
-there is a growing suspicion of anyone making truth claims
-and the church has surrendered to this as well
-in recent research, only 45% of evangelical
Christians believe in absolute truths—only 10% more than Britons as a whole
-less than 1 out of 10 teens (9%) hold to moral absolutes
-here’s what this means—
We have reduced truth--
1. from something OBJECTIVE to something SUBJECTIVE
-there are no objective values—only personal preferences
2. from something SINGULAR to something PLURAL
-your truth, my truth
-we live in a smorgasbord of realities
-believe what you like, if it works for you who else matters?
-Jesus might be your truth—or Buddha, or…a hundred other truths
3. from something UNIVERSAL to something PERSONAL
-to what works for you
-to what makes you happy
4. from something DISCOVERED to something WE MAKE
What explains this aversion to truth?
1.some blame it on an emerging postmodern culture—that has been disillusioned by false promises and lies and hypocrisy
2. but it is much deeper Something that goes back to the very nature of sin
-we are indifferent, even hostile to truth—in large measure— because it is in our sinful nature to do so
-it is in our nature to be self centered—to be the god of our own universe—where truth is truth only if it supports, confirms our actions
All of which leads to deadly consequences—
A. LIFE IS EMPTIED OF MEANING
-for if truth is ultimately about us—does not go beyond us—to something, Someone outside of us-
-then truth, and life is pretty thin
B. LIFE BECOMES CONFUSED
-for if there is no reference point by which everyone can go to judge something—then we end up with chaos
-there is no basis for anything
-you know it is a confused age when you find books like this one out on the market— “That’s Funny, You Don’t Look Like Buddhist—On Being a
Faithful Jew and a Passionate Buddhist”
C. LIFE BECOMES A CONTRADICTION
-we say there is no absolute truth—but such a statement is its own truth claim
1.we can’t get away from some form of objective truth
-even postmodern architecture relies upon engineers who rely upon absolute truth—otherwise-the building collapses
2. we can’t get away from moral absolutes
-torturing the innocent for pleasure cannot sometimes be right
-pedophile behavior is not sometimes okay
-worst of all
D. LIFE SELF-DESTRUCTS
scatterbrained lady called in a repairman to fix her electric clock. The repairman fiddled with it for a while and then said, "There's nothing wrong with the clock; you didn't have it plugged in.", "I don't want to waste electricity, so I only plug it in when I want to know what time it is." truth is truth, you can trust the truth of physics, of the natural laws of the world, the truth of the word of God, the person of God, the Son of God, you see,
-if there is no ultimate truth acting as a moral compass
-IF THERE IS NO CENTRE
-if pornography is not a moral evil—it just may not work for you
-if homosexuality is not a moral wrong—it is just an alternative lifestyle
-if divorce is not necessarily sin—for it can allow you to expand your life, enhance personal growth
-if assisted suicide is right if it is right for you
-THEN SOCIETY BEGINS TO IMPLODE
-the surest way to hurt people is to abandon moral absolutes
In this one statement in John 18:37
-Jesus contradicted all of these contemporary assumptions of truth—
“For this I was born—for this I came—
-to witness—testify, affirm, give evidence to this—there is truth
-truth that can be known—must be known—and I am that truth
One can hear in these words Jesus declaring—
-test me Pilate—look at My life, My words
1. I ALONE CORRESPOND TO REALITY
-to what is there
-I alone give an accurate account of what is out there
-every person wrestles with four basic truth questions-
A. who am I?
-a mistake, an accident?
-some empty molecule on a meaningless sea?
B. why am I here?
-to simply consume, live for today
C. what is wrong?
-lack of governance, insufficient education?
D. how can things be made right?
-more governance—more education?
Only Jesus gives credible answers—
-we are a divine creation made in the image of God
-we are here to glorify God and enjoy Him forever
-here’s what’s wrong—we fail to acknowledge God
-here’s how to get right—get right with God
-embrace the work I have to this world to do on the cross
-test Me Pilate—
2. I ALONE AM AUTHENTIC
-for this is the nature of truth—truth is whatever has integrity, wholeness, reliability
-Jesus was, is who He claimed to be
-believing and being—talking and doing were all joined in a seamless whole
As we stand before the Pilate’s of our world—cynical and skeptical of truth—we will have to do no less—
1. Declare there is truth—no matter the cost
-for this we too were born—to bear witness to truth
2. Live truth—no matter the price
-in fact—whatever we declare must arise within a context of authenticity
-if we believe Jesus is the truth—but do not live it out
-if we don’t disentangle ourselves from habits which contradict our statements—and embody truth
-we will only increase skepticism
-the same seamless whole has to be in us
3. pray for God’s grace to open hearts
-for only a heart inclined to truth can hear-vs 37
CONCLUSION
There’s one more scene that captures this—
If you will not hear the truth—no one can tell you
Can you hear the truth—is your heart open to truth?
And if you have opened your heart to truth—are you embracing—saturating your
life with truth?
The name Hans Lippershey is not a famous one, but he made a tremendous contribution to the world of vision. In l600, he created the first telescope. He was a Dutch spectacle maker. One day two children came into his shop and were playing with some of the lenses scattered around. They put two together which greatly magnified a weathervane across the street. Lippershey capitalized on the discovery and made a profit selling his new lenses to the military. it took two small children at play to make it all happen. An unexplainable event shaped the beliefs of society and enabled them to see. The bible is our technology to see how God sees the world and us, let us saturate ourselves in the truth so that we can be all that God calls us to be
As Muhammad ali once said “Cause if God can make penicillin out of moldy bread, He can make something out of you."
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