The True King - John 18:33-40
It’s been a few weeks since we were in the gospel of John and this lovely, New Years Eve, we’re back in it.
If you can remember the last time we were in the gospel of John, Jesus had just been brought to Pilate by the Jewish Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin had tried Jesus under the cover of night, imprisoned him, and drug him out early in the morning so that Pilate could quickly condemn him.
Everything is speeding to the cross.
We of course know we’ll eventually end up there, but here Pilate takes a moment to speak with Jesus before eventually caving to the Jewish pressure to condemn him.
But Pilate’s conversation with Jesus really centers around one question: Are you a king?
And the answer is of course, yes, Jesus is a king, in fact, he’s the true King! He sits enthroned on high, sustaining, ruling, and governing all that comes to pass! But with that said, he’s not an ordinary king, in fact, his kingdom is not of this world.
This passage really breaks down into three parts: first, the true king is oppressed by a lie (vv. 33-34), second, the true king is questioned (vv. 35-38a), and then lastly, the true king is rejected (vv. 38b-40).
Throughout the gospels, Jesus makes it abundantly clear that he is the Messianic Savior, the promised deliverer, who would rule over God’s people from the lineage of David. And the Jewish people understood the Messiah to be a king!
Which is exactly what the Jewish religious leaders used against Jesus. They told Pilate that he claimed to be a king, and therefore, he was an imminent threat to the Roman Empire.
The True King is Oppressed By a Lie (vv. 33-34)
And that’s precisely where our passage picks up in verse 33. Jesus is before Pilate in his headquarters or “Praetorium” to be questioned. Initially it seems like Pilate didn’t want to simply roll over and do exactly what the Sanhedrin wanted him to do.
Because if you remember from several weeks ago, we learned that Pilate didn’t really like the Jews and the Jews didn’t really like Pilate either.
But their relationship was necessary because the Romans occupied Israel and only the Romans had legal authority to put someone to death. And because the Jews wanted to put Jesus to death, they had to prove that he was a threat to the Romans.
So the Sanhedrin couldn’t present their theological case against Jesus, because the Romans wouldn’t care! They couldn’t take Jesus to Pilate and say, this man challenges our teaching, so you need to put him to death. They had to have political charges: and they’re primary political charge against Jesus is that he claims to be king.
And obviously, that meant he was a great threat to the Romans! Because if this man claims to be King and gathers a large enough following he could attempt to overthrow the Roman establishment.
But as we know, these were trumped up charges. Jesus wasn’t a threat to the Roman government, he was a threat to the Jewish establishment, which is of course why they wanted him executed.
But nevertheless, Pilate had some understanding of the situation. We’re told in Matthew that Pilate knew the Sanhedrin was motivated by envy.
After all, Jesus was drawing the crowds, people were eager to hear him preach, while the Jewish leaders were forced to sit back and watch.
And you can’t help but think that Pilate believed this whole situation was ridiculous. Just consider the image: you have the pathetic looking man, who by the other gospel accounts was essentially silent before Pilate, and yet, this man is guilty of sedition and insurrection because he claims to be a king.
Certainly by his appearance and demeanor he didn’t look like a major political threat to Pilate!
So hopefully you can see why this charge is so significant. Jesus’ life hung in the balance of whether he claimed to be a King or not.
Which is why Pilate cuts straight to the chase in verse 33: “Are you the King of the Jews?”
As a side note, prior to Jesus’ passion is the designation, “King of the Jews” is only used once and it wasn’t by Jesus. The wise men are the only other ones to use the designation when they ask Herod, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?”
But of course, what is the truth? He’s King of the Jews and people all over the world! His kingdom is confined to Israel. But all Pilate knew was a king in the geopolitical sense.
And so, Jesus was in an interesting spot because if Jesus had simply said, “Yes I am a king,” then Pilate would have understood him to be admitting that he was a political seditionist, revolutionary, and insurrectionist.
But then again for Jesus to simply say, “No, I’m not a king” wouldn’t have been honest either.
So Jesus asks a clarifying question in verse 34, Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?
It’s an important detail isn’t it? Jesus wants to know if Pilate is asking out of a real and genuine interest of how he thinks about himself or is he simply repeating what others have said about him?
One of the great benefits of living in the year, let’s go ahead and get used to saying it, 2024, is that we have access to an endless supply of information. You can figure something out at the drop of a hat thanks to the internet.
But one of the downsides of having access to unlimited information is that it often creates barriers between ourselves and original source material. We often settle for the Sparknotes instead of reading the original thing for ourselves. We’d rather read a third party’s summary of The Hobbit, instead of actually reading The Hobbit for ourselves. And of course, I’m just using that as an example because it seems that we consistently settle for someone else’s descriptions, analysis, and thoughts over investigating and learning about it (whatever it may be) for ourselves! We now have news stories, about news stories, about news stories!
This is a real concern that I have within the church. We watch shows about Jesus, read books about Jesus, hear people talk about Jesus, but rarely let the infallible Scriptures tell us about Jesus. We’ll often blindly accept someone’s description or characterization of Jesus Christ, without ever searching the Scriptures to see if it’s true or accurate.
Jesus is more or less asking Pilate the same thing! Are you asking this question because you’re interested in understanding who I am or are you asking that question because the Jewish elites have said that about me?
Because everything they’ve said about him was built upon lies! Which is of course one of the deep ironies of this passage: the truth, Jesus Christ was oppressed and crucified for a lie!
The True King is Questioned (vv. 35-38a)
But Pilate was offended by Jesus’ question wasn’t he? “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?”
In other words, Pilate said, “I’m not a Jew and don’t care about Jewish affairs! Your own people have brought you to me! Now, what have you done?”
But of course, Jesus doesn’t answer the question “what have you done?” Rather, Jesus answers Pilate’s earlier question: “Are you king of the Jews?”
Look at verse 36 with me.
“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 the world.”
Jesus implicitly acknowledges that he is a king in verse 36 and then explicitly acknowledges it in verse 37.
But by simply saying, “my kingdom,” he’s implicitly acknowledging that he’s a king! Because if you have a kingdom, then you’re a king. But of course, what does he follow that up with? “My kingdom is not of this world.” His kingdom is not an ordinary one.
R.C. Sproul said that Christ’s kingdom isn’t “built on violence, on blood, [and] war.”
Because that’s what characterizes earthly kingdoms isn’t it? A country invades another country and attacks it in order to take its land, people, and resources so that its kingdom may expand.
That’s how we typically think of kingdoms, but Jesus makes it abundantly clear that he is a King, but that his kingdom doesn’t operate that way.
To emphasize his point he says that if his kingdom was of this world, then people would have been fighting to protect him.
As a quick side note: notice who Jesus points to as his enemies: you’d expect him to say the Romans, but he points to the Jews. He says that if his kingdom was earthly his servants would have protected him from his own people.
Wouldn’t you expect that right there to be enough to undercut the accusations of sedition and insurrection? If Pilate was a fair and honest man, he would have released Jesus right there! He’s not an enemy of the state, he’s just causing problems for the Jewish religious elite! But of course, Pilate is politically beholden to the Jews.
But back to Christ’s kingdom. How do we understand the kingdom of Jesus Christ?
First and foremost, we must understand that Christ’s kingdom is a spiritual one, which explains why he says that his kingdom is not of this world. A lot of wonderful, godly pastors teach that Christ will return to earth and rule for 1,000 years, but Jesus’ words right here seem to undercut that.
We should understand Christ’s kingdom as his spiritual rule and reign over His people, the church.
The Westminster shorter catechism gives a lot of direction for how to think about Christ fulfills the office of a king:
“Christ executes the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.”
He subdues and rules over his people by saving and redeeming his people. In other words, true genuine believers make up the citizens of Christ’s kingdom.
You might even say that we have a small province of Christ’s kingdom right here in the American Legion this morning.
And his kingdom expands as men and women from all over the world submit their lives to the true king.
The theologian Louis Berkhof wrote, “The spiritual kingship of Christ is His royal rule over… His people or the church… Moreover, it is spiritual, because it bears directly and immediately on a spiritual end, the salvation of His people.” (pg. 415)
This is an important point because many well-intentioned believers seem to think that Christ’s kingdom expands by starting soup kitchens, ministering to the handicapped, and beautifying our local community, all of which are wonderful things!
But if we’re not careful and we confuse categories we might be led to believe that these other things are the engine that drives the church! We might even be led to believe that social programs are what expands Christ’s kingdom.
If that’s your view, then suddenly the ministry of the word becomes irrelevant. You may even wonder, why do we waste our time sitting around in church on Sunday morning when there are people outside who are cold and hungry!
It’s a misunderstanding of Christ’s kingdom! You see, Christ’s kingdom doesn’t expand by the tip of the sword, by cleaning up the street, or just feeding the hungry - Christ’s kingdom expands by the power of his Word and Spirit. His word, the sacraments, and prayer are his ordinary means of grace by which he brings people into his kingdom!
Of course, it would be naive to think that the word of God doesn’t change people and spur them on to love their neighbor and seek the good of those around them.
But the ministries of the church should always be born out of the ministry of the word. That is, Christ conquering more of our hearts should be the catalyst for why we do what we do.
The church should be focused on ministering the word and empowering her members to pursue the ministries that they’re passionate about.
I can think of a great example right here in the Roanoke Valley. Many of you know this story far better than I do, but my understanding is that the Blue Ridge Women’s Center was born out of a few women who attended church together gathering together to pray.
Their church didn’t necessarily set out to establish a pregnancy resource center, rather, it was organically born out of the work that the Lord was doing in those womens’ lives.
Far too often we want to see the Lord transform our neighborhoods and our valley more than we want him to transform our own hearts. But that’s backwards isn’t it? The Lord Jesus must continue his work of building his kingdom in us, before we can expect him to build his kingdom out there.
Each week we pray “thy kingdom come” in the Lord’s prayer, but what does Jesus teach us to pray right after that? “Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”
My point is very simple: we should regularly pray for the Lord to work in us and establish his kingdom in our hearts if we really want to see him transform the world around us.
This is why Jesus came to earth, isn’t it? To tell the truth to the world about who he is. Pilate even understood what Jesus was saying at this point:
He asked Jesus, ““So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth.”
Jesus was acknowledging that Pilate was correct when he said, “You say that I am a king.” In other words, he says, “you’re right in saying that I am a king.”
And of course his kingship and kingdom are built upon the truth of who he is. His royal mission was to tell the truth. “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth.”
Notice that Jesus’ main mission was to bear witness to the truth and “Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
The True King is Rejected (vv. 38-40)
To which Pilate famously responds, “what is truth?”
He flippantly replied in that manner because he could tell that Jesus was speaking in theological terms, which was of no interest to him.
But Pilate’s question is incredibly relevant because our world seems to be asking the exact same question: “what is truth?”
Our world denies a singular objective moral truth, and has instead accepted a plethora of truths. No longer is there one truth, because there are many truths. There is an overabundance of truths because everyone has their own personal truth. Every now and again, you’ll hear someone speak about “my truth,” or “your truth,” which trivializes any differences or conflicts. The hostile relativism that has overtaken our world is self-defeating, because to say, “there is no truth” is a truth claim.
But if everything is relative and objective truth is unknowable, then a gender spectrum begins to make sense!
Our world really is echoing the words of Pilate: “what is truth?”
And of course, Jesus gives both Pilate and each of us an answer: “Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
In order to know the truth, you have to know Jesus because Jesus is the very embodiment of truth. Jesus famously said, “I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life.”
To know the truth is to know Jesus Christ and to know Jesus Christ is to know the truth. The truth and Jesus Christ are inextricably tied together. You cannot know one without the other.
Which is of course the irony of Pilate’s question: He asks, “What is truth?” but fails to realize that the truth is standing right in front of him.
So often, we tend to think of the truth question in philosophical terms. We need to prove that the Christian worldview is more coherent than the atheistic, agnostic, or fill in the blank worldview. No doubt, there’s a place for defending your faith, after all, Peter certainly instructs us to be able to give a defense of the hope that is within us.
But what I think we all need to see this morning, is that Jesus doesn’t see the truth question as an esoteric, philosophical problem. To Jesus, Pilate’s skepticism and doubt over the truth is a spiritual problem. You have to know, love, and trust in Jesus Christ in order to know the truth. Your faith has to be in him in order for the scales to fall from your eyes.
Knowing, trusting, serving, submitting, loving Jesus Christ is the fountainhead of truth. I don’t care how smart or how infused you are with God’s generous common grace, if you’re not trusting in Jesus Christ then you don’t know the truth.
In fact, many would rather reject the truth and live in lies, which is of course what happens at the end of this passage.
Look with me at the remainder of this passage with me:
“After [Pilate] had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him. 39 But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” 40 They cried out again, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber.”
There’s a lot of things that can be said about these last few verses. First, notice that Pilate exonerated Jesus, but can’t help himself and mocks him in the process by referring to him, “King of the Jews.” And by this time a crowd of Jewish people had gathered together in order to beg Pilate to free Barabbas and condemn Jesus.
John tells us in verse 40 that Barabbas was a robber, but we also know from the gospel of Luke that Barabbas was also a convicted murderer, and most ironic of all, an insurrectionist.
But again, what’s the real issue here? Is it political? Is it philosophical? Or is it spiritual?
In many ways, I think what we see here is what Paul talks about in Romans 1: they’re suppressing the knowledge of the truth in unrighteousness. In fact, they’re exchanging the truth for a lie. They would rather free an insurrectionist and a murderer than protect the true king.
Which really brings me to the overall point that I want all of us to receive this morning and that is, submitting to the king requires that you and I submit to his truth. You cannot separate those two things. You cannot claim to be a citizen in King Jesus’s kingdom and at the same time reject his truth.
If you’re a citizen in Christ’s kingdom, then you must submit to the truth of his word.
Far too often, it seems that people readily profess Jesus Christ only to turn around and reject or obfuscate some truth that is plainly taught in his word.
The clear example of this is how so many professing Christians struggle to affirm what God’s word teaches on sexual sin. There’s a tremendous temptation to obfuscate, trivialize, or simply deny the plain teaching of God’s word.
And so out of fear, we walk wide circles around taboo issues like homosexuality, transgenderism, pornography, and fornication.
But again, consider our passage: Jesus is in chains standing in the presence of a Roman governor who has the power to execute him and yet he still said, “You say that I am a 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.”
When the opportunity presented itself, Jesus told the truth, not in a vitriolic, condemnatory, or rude sort of way, but in an honest, gentle, and loving way.
And it’s here that we clearly see God’s love. He loves sinners so much that he’s always willing to tell them the truth.
God doesn’t do what we’re so often tempted to do: obfuscate, trivialize, or simply deny his truth.
As Jesus’ life hangs in the balance he still speaks the loving truth to Pilate who has the authority to kill him, and yet he still says, “Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
For Jesus, to hide the truth from Pilate would be to hide his love, grace, mercy. And you see, his love, grace, and mercy, run much too deep to avoid telling the truth.
If you’re a subject of King Jesus, then you and I must be men and women of his truth. Amen. Let’s pray together.
