The King Like David

November 22, 1992

John 18:33-38

Colossians 1:11-20

In what was humanly a most vulnerable and helpless hour for Jesus, he was asked what seemed to be an audacious question. He stood bruised and bound, after a sleepless night during which He had been arrested and dragged from one place to another, roughly questioned by authorities, before the Roman governor who represented the world-wide power of Rome. The governor asked the prisoner, "Are You a king?"

I. THE QUESTION, THE ANSWER

  1. On the surface it looked simply ridiculous. And as we read familiar words 2,000 years later, we think we understand so well that we miss the drama:

    Pilate: "Are You a king?"

    Jesus: "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world then my servants would be fighting, that I might not be delivered up to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm."

    Pilate: "So you ARE a king?"

    Jesus: "You say correctly that I am a king. For this cause I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice."

    Pilate: "What IS 'truth'?"

  2. Jesus said to Pilate, and to all the world, that He came into the world— that He was BORN to reveal truth. Hearing truth and listening to Jesus are inseparable parts of the same process. Perhaps the proper question that morning was— and still IS— 'WHO is truth?'

II. THE KING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR, THE GOVERNOR BEFORE THE KING

  1. When we re-create the scene of Jesus standing before Pilate in our minds' eye, if we use a worldly mind-set we see weakness standing before power. We see a victim standing before a dictator. We see a martyr standing before false and wicked injustice. We see one man with the power of life and death standing before another about to die.

    But with the eyes of faith we are amazed to see that, yes, weakness IS standing before power— but the power is NOT with the Roman. We see one Man with the life of the other in His command, but the one in danger of death is NOT the Man from Galilee. How can this be?

  2. In His own words Jesus told Pilate several things that morning. He said:
    1. He IS a king!
    2. His kingdom is not derived from nor dependant upon earthly power either to establish or to maintain it.
    3. His is a kingdom of TRUTH. The King Himself IS the witness of TRUTH.
  3. But what sort of KING stood before Pilate that day? Listen to the epistle reading from Colossians 1:13-30:

    For He [God the Father] delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us

    TO THE KINGDOM of His beloved Son,

    IN WHOM WE HAVE REDEMPTION, the forgiveness of sins. AND HE IS THE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD, the first-born of all creation.

    FOR BY HIM ALL THINGS WERE CREATED, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created by Him and for Him.

    AND HE IS BEFORE ALL THINGS, AND IN HIM ALL THINGS HOLD TOGETHER.

    HE IS ALSO THE HEAD OF THE BODY, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything.

    For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth, or things in heaven. Colossians 1:1 -20

    The majesty of Jesus is veiled as He stands before Pilate. But the Christ is ETERNAL! All that the scriptures say of Him as true— in eternity, in the future, in the present— were true that day:

    1. The image of the invisible God! Holy, loving, patient, pure.
    2. The firstborn of all Creation.
    3. By Him all things were created, both visible and invisible.
    4. All things were created FOR Him.
    5. The KING was prior to all things, co-eternal with God.
    6. IN HIM ALL THINGS HOLD TOGETHER!
    7. He is the Head of the church.
    8. He is the firstborn from the dead
    9. Through HIM all things are reconciled unto Himself, since He made peace through the blood of His cross, things on earth and in heaven.
  4. If Jesus IS who the Bible claims Him to be— if He is King as HE HIMSELF said that day— then whom do you suppose was REALLY on trial the day Jesus was crucified? Pilate asked the wrong question- "WHAT is truth?" He was looking at truth! He should have asked "WHO is Truth?"

    But even to this day we Christians— who know the Beatitudes and the Ten Commandments and the Apostles' Creed keep asking "WHAT?"!! We confuse "truth" with the knowledge of the facts and OUR interpretation thereof. Too often we fail to see that we cannot know TRUTH apart from the PERSON who IS truth and who REVEALS truth.

III. WHAT DO YOU DO WITH A REAL LIVE KING?

  1. Pilate pronounced (1) a true verdict ("I find NO fault in this Man!") and (2) an utterly false and unjust sentence ("You take Him away and crucify Him...") And then the Roman soldiers proceeded to play a game with this King.

    The Roman garrison was adjacent to the Temple grounds. In recent years the pavement has been uncovered in what was the ground floor of that fort. This pavement (Gabbatha) is marked with dimly carved figures, something like a giant chess or checkerboard. On that checkerboard the common soldiers played a cruel game with condemned prisoners. They crowned them with thorns and wrapped them in an old robe and then they gave mocking bows along with all the abuse and resentment that they felt toward their own wicked masters. Jesus was not the first nor the last to be degraded in this way.

    But in their shameful ignorance that day they mocked the One Person who is the "glue of the Universe!," the One who holds all Creation together by the power of His Word! Jesus was on His way to "make peace through the blood of His cross," and so "to reconcile all things to Himself!" And these people did not have a clue!

  2. This horrifies us. WE would never treat the King that way! But think about this: To do anything less than to acknowledge Jesus as truly Sovereign in our lives is to make a mockery of His kingdom. Unless we are submitted to Him in every part of our lives and living, then He is not truly the King of our lives.

    There is a world of difference between the grace of SAVING FAITH and the arrogance of HUMAN PRESUMPTION. To say that we are Christian when we are not wholly submitted to the King is to take the place of Pilate and ask the question, "WHAT is truth?" when we know we should be saying to the One who is the Way and the Truth and the Life, "JESUS IS LORD!"

    Presumption MIMICS saving faith! Faith and presumption may look similar, as presumption MIMICS faith's confidence and assurance. But the confidence presumption gives is NOT a Holy Spirit assurance, and it will turn into terror before the appearance of the Sovereign Lord.

    To say that we are Christian and then to say that we shall decide for ourselves what is right and wrong, and how we shall live apart from divine revelation and apart from the Lordship of Jesus is to mock the King of Kings, even as the soldiers put the purple robe on Him the day He was crucified.

  3. Jesus is the chief cornerstone of life for all the Universe! He is the stone the builders rejected, but when we build on Him we "stand firm" and we "fit in" with all the truth of the Universe. When we reject Him the Bible says that He will fall upon us, and grind us to powder.

CONCLUSION

We have come full circle in the church year, and next Sunday we begin again with Advent. This last Sunday of the year we call "Christ the King Sunday." It is a reminder that history is NOT simply going around in circles, but that because Christ IS King, one day the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ is NOT coming to vindicate OUR way of life, nor OUR interpretation of the content of "truth." "Jesus is LORD!": and when Hew returns it will be HIS life that is vindicated, and HIS glory that will be revealed!

We are called to discernment NOW! We are called to faith NOW! We stand with Pilate NOW— where it LOOKS as though we have the power to decide "What shall we do with Jesus?"

I know it seems like a sudden leap forward into the Advent story, but we are called to the faith of Joseph, who couldn't believe the kind of King who was coming, from the line of David the shepherd boy who became a great king. Joseph had a hard time believing the angel who told him:

"Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife: for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

"And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins." (Matthew 1: 20 - 21)

We keep looking for the spectacular, when instead Jesus stands before us in the everyday living of life, in our joys and in our sorrows, it seems as if HE is on trial for HIS life! And we keep making life and death decisions for ourselves, when we have the TRUTH Himself ready and waiting to be our own CHRIST THE KING!

Prayer:

Hymn: #11 All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name