Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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These are the events that proceed come. They come just before Jesus's crucifixion.
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Then they led Jesus from the House
of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters. It
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was early morning. They themselves did
not enter the governor's quarters so that they
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would not be defiled but could eat
the Passover. So pilot went outside to
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them and said, what accusation do
you bring against this man? They answered
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him. If this man were not
doing evil, would we have not delivered?
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We would not have delivered him over
to you. Pilot said to them,
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take him yourselves and judge him by
your own law. The Jews said
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to him, it is not lawful
for us to put any one to death.
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This was to fulfill the word that
Jesus had spoken, to show by
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what kind of death he was going
to die. So pilot entered his headquarters
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again and called Jesus and said to
him, are you the king of the
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Jews? Jesus answered, do you
say this of your own accord or did
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others say it? Say It to
you about me? Pilot answered, am
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I a Jew? Your own nation
and your chief priests had delivered you over
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to me. What have you done? Jesus answered, my kingdom is not
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of this world. If my kingdom
were of this world, my servants would
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have been fighting that I might not
be delivered over to the Jews. But
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my kingdom is not from the world. Then pilot said to him, so
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you are a king, Jesus answered. You say that I am a king.
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For this purpose I was born,
and for this purpose I have come
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into the world to bear witness to
the truth. Everyone who is of the
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truth listens to my voice. Pilot
said to him, what is truth?
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After he had said this, he
went back outside to the Jews and told
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them I find no guilt in him, but you have a custom that I
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should release one man for you at
the Passover. So do you want me
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to release to you the king of
the Jews? They cried out again,
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not this man, but Barabbas.
Now Barabbas was a robber and sends the
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reading of God's word. Categories are
very important. Knowing which category you're in
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when you're dealing with a problem,
when you're doing with a question, when
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you're thinking through a complicated such situation, is essential to know, I'm how
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to think about it. You can't
think right or act right if you're treating
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something in its improper place, and
this is true of the Kingdom of God
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as well. If your think about
the Kingdom of God as though it were
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of this world, if you think
about Jesus as the king is though it
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were of this world, then you'll
ask all the wrong questions and you'll do
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all the wrong things, and that's
what we see happening here in John Chapter
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Eighteen. The people, and pilot
him in particular, are not thinking about
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Jesus in the right way. Perhaps
it because because they don't know, perhaps
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it's because they know, they do
know and don't want to believe it,
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but either way it's wrong and it's
leading to all kinds of bad actions,
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bad thinking and even the worst thing, but the human race is ever done,
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which is crucify the son of God. But I'm here to tell you
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today that Jesus said the truth.
As Jesus himself says, he came into
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this world to bear the truth,
to help us to understand who he is
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and what he does, that he
is a king and that his kingdom is
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not of this world, it is
not from this world. If this is
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so, so important, because what
we see is that many, many people
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are assuming the opposite, not only
here in the passage, but in our
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world today. They think exactly the
opposite, that Jesus is from the world,
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and this gets us into all kinds
of trouble. Assuming that Jesus,
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for example, is from the world
and that his kingdom is another kingdom of
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this world tends to put people in
position where they feel like they can judge
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him, and that's what's happening here, first with honest and Caiaphas, and
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then before a pilot. These rulers
of the world think that they can judge
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Jesus because he is, after all, just another leader. But he's not
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just another leader. Human beings don't
get to judge the one who created the
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heavens and the earth. Human beings
don't get to stand on even on parallel
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with God, much less over God, and decide what is true and what
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is not, what is right and
what is not. We are under God.
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We are like pots that the paw
a potter has made. We are
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creatures made by a creator. We
are mortal beings made by the immortal God.
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In every way that we might think
about God, he supersedes us and
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qualitatively different than us, greater than
us, more glorious than us, categorically
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different from us, and this is
true, of course, of Jesus,
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who is himself God, as we
confess in our creeds, true God of
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True God, Very God of Very
God. He is everlasting, to everlasting,
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the creator of the world and also
the new world that to come,
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sovereign over time, sovereign over man, creatures, angels and all the rest,
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death itself, life itself. This
is Jesus. Jesus exceeds us in
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all these ways as a divine being, and he exceeds us in all these
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ways as a human not in these
ways, but in the in what I
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mean to say is that he exceeds
us in his humanity as well. Jesus
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is perfect, unlike any human who
has ever lived. He has obeyed the
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law of God perfectly. We talked
about people as hypocrites, who who proclaim
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one thing and they yet do another. Jesus was never a hypocrite. He
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never gave the beatitudes and then went
back to is house and thought, boy,
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I really should be doing better.
That thought never crossed his mind,
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because he was always doing things perfectly. And yet he never did this with
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pride. He never had in his
heart those sinful tendencies and that we so
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also often had. Everything that he
thought, everything that he did was in
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perfect righteousness. What right does pilot
have to judge him? What right to
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the Jews have to hand him over? Notice that the Jews don't even bring
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an accusation. Pilot goes outside and
says to them in Verse Twenty Nine,
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what accusation do you bring against this
man? Where's the accusation? They never
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sitting it, they never give it, maybe because there is none to give.
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Instead they say this. If this
man we're not doing evil, would
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we not have delivered him over to
you? Classic deflection. Right, what's
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his sin? He's here, isn't
he right? And we're going to see
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more of this kind of political maneuvering
throughout this passage. They have no accusation
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to bring. He is the one
to be on judge. Jesus is not
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the one really on trial here and
as John is giving us the story,
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the history of this trial, we
are learning to look at ourselves and our
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own action is in light of him
in his righteousness. But we miss all
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this because we don't believe what he's
saying. When he says he's the king
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and that his kingdom is not of
this world, that he is not of
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this world, that he comes from
above, from the father. Assuming this,
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not believing this, causes us to
also ask the wrong questions. Pilot
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asked Jesus. What have you done
when Jesus and pilot says you so,
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you are a king. Jesus says, you say that I'm a king,
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which is true and which is Jesus
way of both affirming that he is a
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king but also causing pilots a question. Maybe you're not thinking about this right,
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which, of course he isn't.
Pilot is still, even as Jesus
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says these things, even as he
confesses that he has a kingdom, that
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he is a king, pilot is
still thinking in terms of this world,
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which also means that he fails to
understand the answers that Jesus gives. Jesus
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says to him. For this purpose
I was born, and for this purpose
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I have come into the world to
bear witness to the truth. Everyone who
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is of the truth listens to my
voice. Pilot says to him. Yes,
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my Lord. No, he says. What is truth? The truth
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with a capital t is standing right
in front of his face and he says.
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What is truth now? Did he
say this questioningly, hungering for it?
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Did he say this in a sarcastic
way, in a critical way?
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We all wish we knew. I
don't know if we can, but it
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doesn't seem to be in a believing
way, for reasons that we see to
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come and he doesn't trust Jesus,
he doesn't bow before Jesus, he doesn't
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listen to his voice, it would
seem. It seems to me, that
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pilot is not coming to Jesus.
As an aside here, pilot is not
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coming to Jesus and Jesus is not
coming to pilot as a totally unknown person,
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for couple reasons. One, this
would be very unlikely given all of
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this disturbance, given that this issue
has already come to pilot, given all
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the miracles and everything's that's been happening. I'm Jesus is very likely not a
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brand new figure for pilot that he's
being introduced to the first. I'm second
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beyond likeliness. Notice in Verse Thirty
Three, Pilot Asks Jesus, are you
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king of the Jews, without any
prompting from the Jews or from Jesus to
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ask this question? Why is he
asking this question and not did you steal
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some bread? Or why are you
inciting a riot, or this or that?
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He he seems to know something about
Jesus. He seems to know something
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about their complaint or what is happening. Knowing these things, knowing something about
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Jesus, he does not believe it. He does not turn to Jesus,
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he does not hear his voice.
Insteady says what is truth. Another thing
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that we do, aside from asking
the wrong questions, failing to understand the
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answers that we are given, more
refusing to understand them, judging God when
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we are the ones were truly under
trial. The last thing I'll mention we
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do when we don't believe and understand
that Jesus is a king and his kingdom
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is not of this world, is
that we are threatened by him and we
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try to overpower him and fight against
him and separate ourselves from them instead of
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submitting to him. If Jesus is
a king who is of this world,
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he is indeed a threat to the
spiritual lie of those who are in charge
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in Jerusalem. He's a threat to
their political life, he's a threat to
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pilot and we see that threat being
felt in various ways in this passage.
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First of all, noticed that the
Jews bring Jesus to pilot. Why?
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Pilot essentially asked this question himself.
He says in Verse Thirty One, Taken
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Yourself, judging yourself according to your
law. He gives them freedom to do
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this and they say it's not lawful
for us to put anyone to death.
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It's interesting that they didn't say that
when it came to the stoning of Stephen
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a little bit later. They didn't
say they didn't take Stephen to pilot or
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others when they had tried to stone
Jesus earlier or when they and other apostles
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this wasn't a concern. So why
are they giving this reason now? Not
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a real reason, but the reason
verse thirty two gives us the answer.
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This was to fulfill the word that
Jesus had been shown spoken, had spoken
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to show what kind of death he
was going to die. Jesus predicted,
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the Old Testament predicts, that Jesus
would be raised up, cursed and hung
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on a tree, that Jesus would
be raised up in crucifixion, a tool
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used by the Romans to punish people. It was something that Jews were asking,
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were pushing pressuring pilot to do?
Why? Because they were threatened by
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him. They wanted him to have
the most cursed, ignoble, embarrassing,
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shameful death that could possibly and be
inflicted upon him. They wanted him to
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be crucified by Rome. They were
threatened by him and pilot was as well.
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Instead of submitting to him, I'm
giving giving him freedom and justice according
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to righteousness, according to his job
to exercise justice, even though he knows
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Jesus is innocent, even though he
knows there's nothing to condemn him by.
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Does he release Jesus? Does he
tell does he put the Jewish people in
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their place and say you have no
business here, I have no business here,
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I release this man and you're all
in trouble for ruining my day,
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or whatever. Right, pilot had
a job to do, to exercised justice.
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What does he do? Well,
he takes Jesus in because of the
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pressure of the crowds, he has
this conversation to him and then he goes
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outside to the Jews and he says
I find no guilt in him. But
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then, instead of releasing him and
possibly even protecting him, knowing that Jesus,
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an innocent man, was in trouble. What does he do? He
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does this very shrewd political thing.
He says, but you have a custom
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that I should release one man for
you at the Passover. So do you
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want me to release to you the
king of the Jews? All right,
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so he puts it in a way
that allows him to say, I've tried
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to release him, I tried to
appease these people, I tried to make
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everything right, and yet he also
incites them by calling him the king of
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the Jews. Pilot knows exactly what
is going to happen here. He knows
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exact he knows why Jesus is there, he knows why they're upset. Pilot
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does this shrewd political thing where he
is able to, on the one hand,
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outwardly wash his hands, to proclaim
his innocence in this, to proclaim
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that he is being a fair judge, that he's trying to give the people
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what they want, that he tried
to release Jesus. But then he incites
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them and they say we want the
king of the Jews. So he's able
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to actually give them exactly what they
want. Will still maintaining this kind of
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what could I do? My hands
were tied. Pilot was threatened and because
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he believes that Jesus is a either
a nobody or a person of this world
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and that his kingdom, if he
even has a kingdom, is of this
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world. He thinks that through this
political maneuvering, he thinks that, through
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these appeasements to the Jews, he
thinks that by this crucifixion, he can
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move on to his next day,
in the next problem and whatever else is
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next on his agenda, he can
stay in power without looking bad and all
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will be well, be well.
And of course, as he knows,
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they cry out not this man but
Barabbas, a man who was condemned for
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robbery. So this is while the
world reacts when they see Jesus and they
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come into contact with his kingdom that
is not of this world. They judge
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him, they're threatened by him,
they use all kinds of political maneuvering to
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conquer him and remain in power,
remain separated from him, in opposition to
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him. But, as we know, as Jesus tells us, none of
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this is right. This way of
viewing him is totally incorrect and all of
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these plans, all of this maneuvering
all of this fear and hope in the
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things of this world, is going
to come crash shining down, even as
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he is raised up on the cross, because they didn't believe him when he
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says that my kingdom is not of
the world, of this world, that
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he is not of this world.
They get that they if they find themselves
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in this unandy, unenviable place of
being tied to a world that will be
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shaken and judged by God one day
and will be dissolved and come crashing down.
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You might think to lighten just a
moment, you might think of this
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story and sort of the problem here, that the moral and intellectual problem here
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is is kind of like the story
of the Ugly Duckling. You know this
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story where the there's these different eggs
and they all hat but this one duck
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it's just doesn't look right and doesn't
swim at the right time and it doesn't
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act, doesn't fly at the right
time and nothing's happening right and it's ugly.
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It's really ugly, and there's various
versions of this story, right and
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and the thing about the story is
that everybody is judging this duck wrong because
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it's not a duck, it's a
goose. I think in the story a
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goose is a are a swan.
A Swan there everyone's likes barn. It's
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a Swan, a swan's egg that
is landed in this nest and in many
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ways it looks like an egg.
It is a it is an egg.
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It's a bird like the other birds, but it's different. And the point,
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the point of this analogy, is
to say, like that story,
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everyone was looking at Jesus and his
kingdom in the through the wrong lens.
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Jesus telling them you're looking at through
the wrong Lens, and that Ugly Duckling
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one day, of course, becomes
this beautiful creature, powerful and strong.
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The Cross is like that. Everyone
looks at the Cross and goes, this
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is a kingdom that is worthless,
this is a king that is worthless.
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Look at him, King of the
Jews hanging there. Let's put a crown
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of thorns around his head, let's
watch him bleed, let's flog him,
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let's steal his clothes, let's persecute
his followers, let's destroy him at every
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turn. What an ugly man,
stupid kingdom. My Kingdom is not of
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this world. My Kingdom is not
of this world. I am not of
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this world. Jesus is so clear
about this here and in other places.
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Remember back, way back in John, Chapter six, Verse Fifteen, right
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after he feeds the five thousand people
bull I'm he gives to them this bread,
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bread of heaven. He is great
miracle. They people cry out when
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they had seen this sign that he
had done. Indeed, he is a
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prophet who is come into the world. Perceiving this, they were about to
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come and take him by force to
make him king. They were going to
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make him a king. Now,
later, they're denying and as a king.
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Earlier, when they made him king, we read that Jesus withdrew again
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to the mountain by himself. Why? Why didn't Jesus let them make him
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a King? He's a king after
all, because he's kingdom is not of
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this world. He is not going
to take power over earthly Jerusalem, Earthly
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Rome, earthly America, earthly anywhere. His Kingdom is not of this world.
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We have a vision of this in
the Old Testament, in the book
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of Daniel Nebuchadnezzar, this kingy as, this dream about this great statue made
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of these various metals and the end
of this prophecy, the end of this
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dream that the Lord Servant Daniel Interprets. He has sees this stone not made
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with human hands, a different kind
of stone, a different kingdom, coming
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and smashing the whole thing two bits. Or listen to these words in revelation
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chapter twenty one. I'll turn there
revelation twenty one, versus one through four.
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The Apostle John, receiving a vision
from the Lord's writes this. Then
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I saw a new heaven and a
new earth, for the first heaven and
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the Earth, first earth, had
passed away and the sea was no more.
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And I saw the holy city,
New Jerusalem, coming down out of
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heaven from God, prepared as a
bride adorned for her husband. And I
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heard a loud voice from the thrones
saying, behold, the dwelling place of
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God is with man. He will
dwell with them and they will be his
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people, and God himself will be
with them as their God. He will
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wipe away every tear from their eyes
and death shall be no more. Neither
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shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former
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things have passed away. The New
Heavens and the new earth, the heavenly
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city coming down. Hebrews describes the
this world and this age is being shaken
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in the judgment of God on the
last day, shaken so that it would
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all kind of crumble away, so
that the things that would remain, that
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are unshakable, s rock solid,
everlasting, would remain forever. Jesus talks
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about the dissolving of the heavens and
of the sun and the earth and all
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of these things. Anyway, the
point is this. Jesus is kingdom,
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is not of this world. He
is bringing into the world a new heavens
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and a new earth. His righteousness
is not like the righteousness of man,
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his miracles are not like the work
of Man, and his kingdom will be
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established not like any other kingdom.
Jesus is kingdom, being not of this
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world, is not going to be
established according to by a coup or by
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a tip for TAT, remembering of
sins, and you did this and so
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we're going to do that, and
all of these kinds of things. Jesus
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is kingdom, remarkable kingdom, an
unearthly kingdom, will be established by the
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cross, by suffering, by death. Why? Because Jesus was going to
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establish a kingdom that would last forever. In order for there to be no
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more death, Jesus needed to establish
a kingdom in which death was defeated.
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And in order for death to be
defeated, the curse need to be defeated,
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the curse for our sins. And
ordered for the curse to be defeated,
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our sins needed to be forgiven.
Our sins needed to be atoned for.
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So, in order that God and
man may dwell together, Jesus went
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on a cross, endured these things
willingly, suffered them to atone for our
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sins, to remove that guilt,
to cleanse US forever. And in doing
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this, and in opening our eyes
to see him as our king, to
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see that his kingdom is different,
he establishes us in something that we don't
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have to struggle to keep. We
don't have to fight, as he says,
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to establish we just receive it.
We just receive his grace, everlasting
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grace, perfect grace, happiness.
Remember those words from John are a revelation
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twenty one. No more crying,
no more mourning, no more death.
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When we miss that, we become
mobs of people rioting against God, going
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our own way, doing our own
thing, trying to establish our own kingdoms.
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But when we accept the truth,
when we accept his suffering and his
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death for us, we receive a
kingdom that is not of this world,
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a Kingdom of truth, a kingdom
of hope, a kingdom of love and
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of grace. Don't choose Barabbus over
Jesus, don't choose foolishness over wisdom,
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don't choose this world over the next. Instead, here the truth that is
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being spoken to you. Bow before
the king who is giving himself to you.
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Let your sins be covered by his
righteousness, be cleansed by his atonement,
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and as you receive that, brothers
and sisters, rest in it.
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Rest in it. This world is
a hard place. It's rough and full
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of vanity and turmoil and wickedness,
but it's not going to last forever,
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because Jesus is established a kingdom that
is not of this world. You can
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have peace in that and you can
even live in this world that he has
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called you to live in in light
of the next, knowing that he is
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your king and he loves you and
he's forgiven you. Let's pray
