The Key Questions Part 1

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Key Questions Part 1. He will be in John 18:28-38

But Jesus Christ came into a suffering, sinful, flawed world and he came to bring redemption, forgiveness, and grace and mercy to all who would believe in Jesus Christ. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders.

It’s great to have you today and thank you for tuning in. I hope that you are enjoying these programs and that you’re encouraged by them. Let us know how God is working in your life. Send us a letter, email, go to our website at hopeworthhaving .com and leave a comment and let us know how God is ministering.

Today we’re going to be in the Gospel of John chapter 18 verse 28 through 38 and we’re dealing with a new series entitled The Key Questions. There are key questions that we need to ask ourselves and these questions help us understand where we’re at in our faith.

So I hope today that you will be encouraged and strengthened, so join me as we study together. If you have your Bible this morning, we are in the Gospel of John chapter 18 and we’ll be covering verses 28 through 38 this morning and it is quite ironic in the background and understanding as we come to this passage of Scriptures because as you have been with us, if you’ve been following along through the Gospel of John,

we know that Jesus Christ has already been betrayed, that he has been bound, he has been brought before the religious courts and now he stands before Pilate in the civil courts and now he has to give an account and what is so ironic is that the religious leaders of that day, that they could not stand the Roman system, that they had a great hatred in their heart because they felt like the Romans were oppressing them and yet now they were a pure to the Romans to try to kill this man named Jesus Christ and by a fraudulent trial they had convicted Jesus in their religious courts for blasphemy but they did not have the right nor the authority to execute death upon Jesus Christ and so in order for them to see this man killed whom is our Savior they decided that they would try to manipulate the civil courts so they brought Jesus Christ before Pilate for trial.

Pilate was a Roman governor in the Roman Empire he was the governor of Judea and he was the fifth governor of Judea. Pilate and the Jews had not gotten along As a matter of fact, the Jews were infuriated with Pilate because in the midst of one of their special days as they were worshiping, Pilate trying to stop an insurrection against the Romans by a certain sect within the Jewish religion went in and slaughtered men and women,

boys and girls, as they were worshiping God. And this was a great tragedy because many innocent people died and suffered as a result of Pilate’s anger and his desire to keep control. The Roman government had sent word to Pilate that if he did not get control of the Jews that he would lose his role, he would lose his responsibilities.

And so Pilate was adamant that he would be in charge, he would be the boss. As a result of that tyranny, the Jews could not stand Pilate. But here they are now, dragging Jesus Christ before Pilate, demanding that he convict Christ and that Jesus be put to death.

And so there are three key questions that are brought up in this text this morning and three questions I want each of us this morning to consider. Questions that help us to understand not only what is going on but questions that help us to understand about our own heart and what do we believe about the Lord Jesus Christ.

So I submit unto you the first question is simply given by Pilate himself when he said what is the accusation. So we pick up in chapter 18 we’re in verse 28 and we notice that the Bible says this. led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the Hall of Judgment, and it was early, and they themselves went not into the Judgment Hall, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover.

Pilate then went out unto them and said, What accusation bring ye against this man? They answered and said unto him, If he were not a male factor, we would not have delivered him up on TV. Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him and judge him according to your own law.

And the Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death, that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake signifying what death he should die. Jesus Christ had been telling his disciples that he would die, and that he would die a crucified Savior, that he would be hung on a cross that he would be lifted up.

before man, Jesus Christ, taught his disciples that his death was imminent. Now they never really caught on, they never really understood, they never really grasped the details of what Jesus was saying.

And why this is significant in that John points it out to us is that because if Jesus were to be convicted under the Jewish law, the Jewish law did not allow for crucifixions where people were suspended between heaven and earth on a cross and simply left there to die, but under the Jewish law, people were stoned to death.

And so if Jesus were to talk about his death to his disciples in the context of what they understood about the Bible, they would interpret it that somehow he’s claiming that he is going to be stoned to death.

But Jesus used different figurative language and metaphors in describing his death. As he said, just as the snake was lifted up before Moses, Jesus would tell his disciples that he would be lifted up before man.

And Jesus describes his death as a crucifixion, that he would be attacked and beaten. He would be a person who was suffering for the sins of mankind. And so the disciples did not quite grasp it, but John brings clarity, what he tells us again in verse 32, that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, Jesus being God himself, Jesus being a teacher, Jesus being a prophet, Jesus being a priest, Jesus spoke truth.

And as Jesus spoke that truth, he prophesied what was to come of his life on this earth and that he would die at the hands of… the Romans who would have him crucified. Now Pilate wanted to know what is the accusation?

What is the charge here? What is it that this man has done? Pilate did not want to be sucked into all the trivialities of some of the discrepancies and disagreements that the Jews had among each other and he felt no need that he should have to determine whether this man was innocent or guilty and so he tried to avoid the issue altogether and abdicate his responsibility and say look you have him tried by your own law and the Jews reminded Pilate look we can’t because it will not fulfill our agenda of course my words not theirs but certainly what they meant in that they wanted Jesus put to death and they wanted him to be crucified on a cross and they desired that it would all happen before the finality of the Passover,

which was the very momentous time in the life of those who were Jewish. And so here they are. They are trying to expedite this and he says, what is the accusation? The Bible reminds us a little insight about Pilate’s heart and his mindset.

In Acts chapter 3 and verse 13, the Bible says, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our Father has glorified his Son Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go.

That’s that last phrase I want you to get, is that Pilate wanted to let him go. He didn’t want to be caught up in all this mess. He didn’t really want to get involved in this and so he was trying to find ways to let them deal with it so he does not have to.

And that’s why Pilate would say, take him yourselves and you judge him. You deal with him. But the Jews desired the death of Christ and definitely they desired it through a crucifixion. And they knew they did not have that authority to bring a man to the point that he could be crucified or put to death because of his guilt.

But here was the problem. Later we read in our text that Pilate concluded, as all have concluded throughout history, that Jesus was an innocent man. Jesus was not guilty of blasphemy. Jesus was not guilty of harming or hurting culture, community, or society.

He was not guilty of breaking the Jewish Jewish law, he was not guilty of breaking the Roman law, he was not guilty of breaking God’s law. He simply was a man who came to fulfill the law, to come and to be able to help people understand that Jesus Christ has come that they might have eternal life and that they might have forgiveness of their sins.

Now this morning I want to invite you to go to the book of Hebrews. And I want you to turn to Hebrews chapter seven and verse 26 through 27. I would like to point these two verses out to you. So I’d like you to take your Bible or your device, whatever you’re using this morning, and if you say to me, pastor, I don’t know where the book of Hebrews is, well I just want you to keep going from the Gospel of John.

And I want you to go towards the back of the book of the Bible and you’ll eventually run into Hebrews. And it is Hebrews chapter seven that I want to bring our attention to, and I want us to look at verse 26 through 27.

The book of Hebrews is written to those who were very steeped into Judaism, and many had left Judaism, and here the writer of the book of Hebrews is making it clear that Jesus supersedes Moses, Jesus supersedes the priesthood.

He supersedes anything that was in Judaism, and so he comes to verse 26 and 27, making the case for the superiority of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Bible says, for such a high priest became us, meaning Christ became human.

He became man. He became like you, and he became like me, for such a high priest became us. Who is? He is holy. He is harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. Who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people.

For this he did once when he offered up himself, and the Hebrew writer is making the case that Jesus Christ is the final high priest, and that he is the final sacrifice as well, and that unlike all other human priests, he does not have to bring a daily sacrifice for his own sins or the sins of others, but rather because he is a holy, undefiled, sinless, righteous God, that he himself is worthy to be able to offer himself up,

and he does not have to come to God for forgiveness, or grace, or mercy. And so when we look at the life of Jesus, we understand that Jesus alone, is utterly pure and he is without sin. Unlike you and I, yes Jesus became like us, but he did not take on a sinful nature, but he took on a human nature and he took on this nature, lived a sinless life before us.

He walked into this world and what did he bring? He brought hope, he brought healing, he brought help, he brought grace, he brought salvation, he brought forgiveness and this is what the Pharisees and the Jewish people desired that he would be put to death.

You see what I want you to know is that throughout history is that there have been many who have desired to try to discredit Jesus and they have tried to discredit not only his character, but they have tried to discredit his ministry and his words.

only to find that Christ’s spotless character stands alone by itself throughout history. And he alone, throughout all humanity, has, is, and will be entirely sinless. And therefore, he alone is qualified to die for our sins.

The skeptics have argued Jesus was a good teacher, Jesus was a good man. Jesus was a man who led a unique religious movement that unfortunately ended up in his own personal demise. But I hear to tell you this morning that Jesus Christ is more than a man and he is more than a good teacher.

And as C .S. Lewis taught us, that if he was a good teacher, would a good teacher tell people that he is God? Would a good teacher claim deity? Would a good teacher tell you that he is going to die for your sins?

For if a good teacher walked up to us and claimed to be God, you and I would raise our eyebrows. We would be very skeptical. And we would wonder, perhaps, about the mental stability of this person. So Jesus only falls into one of three categories for us as we analyze his life and we look at his life.

And that is that he was either a liar or a lunatic or he was truly the Lord Jesus Christ. To think anything different is irrational, unreasonable, and defiance to who God is. The reason that many scientists and educated people in the world do not want to admit.

that there is a God is because they know that the next step means that they must submit to this God that they must surrender to this God so they would rather teach and inundate us with irrational theories that cannot be backed up by facts and try to claim to us that somehow you and I either out of a big bang came into this world or that we evolved from a tadpole or a monkey and if you want to know what’s matter with our young people if you keep telling him that they came from a monkey they’ll keep acting like a monkey amen and so I submit unto you that we have a Savior who is without sin the scripture says that we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are,

yet without sin. You see, when the Bible says that Jesus understands and sympathizes with our weaknesses, it’s not simply saying that he understands that you can’t shoot a ball into the basket or kick a soccer ball into the goal.

That’s not what he’s talking about. But he understands our humanity. He understands our fallenness. He understands our limitations in our human state. He understands that we are born into this world with a sinful nature and a selfish nature.

He recognizes these things and therefore he came. He came and took upon himself the nature of man in his sinless state. He walked through this world and categorically faced every temptation that you and I have, are, and will face in this world.

He has faced every temptation and yet he has overcome every temptation because he is God. And how is it that he could be 100% man and 100% God? Who can know? For the greatest scholars have contemplated this great thought that God becoming man and living among us.

And it has baffled the mind and it is hard for us to wrestle with the thought and truth that Jesus is God and yet he is man. But Jesus came into this world. Unlike the gods of this world, he did not abandon us.

He is not distant and far from us. But Jesus Christ came into a suffering, sinful, flawed world. And he came to bring redemption, forgiveness, and grace and mercy to all who would believe in God. Jesus Christ.

Praise God. That ought to make you stand up, shout, and get excited and turn a Presbyterian into a charismatic. But as we contemplate this great question, what is the accusation against Jesus, it is the question you must ask yourself.

What is Jesus guilty of that hinders you from believing in Christ? What is it that Jesus is guilty of that undercuts His claims as being God Himself? What is it that Jesus is guilty of that you would not put your trust and your faith in Jesus Christ?

For as we examine the life of Christ through the Gospels and even historians, we know that no one was less worthy of death than Jesus Christ. For He was not guilty. And we stand with the Apostle Peter who said in 1 Peter 2 .22 that Christ committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.

And I presented to you, according to the scriptures and the testimony of our Savior’s life, that he is a man who is sinless, holy, and righteous. And there is no accusation that can legitimately be tagged to him.

The second question I would like for you to consider in our text this morning is, are you the king of the Jews? We come down to verse 33, and again Pilate is still interrogating Jesus. And the Bible says that Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and he called Jesus and said unto him, Art thou the king of the Jews?

Jesus answered, Sayest thou this thing of thyself? Or did others tell it thee or of me? Meaning, did you come to this conclusion? Or did other people tell you that I am the king of the Jews? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew?

Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What has thou done? Verse 36, Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom were of this world. Then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews.

But now is my kingdom not from hence. You see, Pilate understood that Jesus was no threat to the Roman Empire. He understood that, and that would be the one that Pilate could consider to try to bring this man to death is that somehow he was leading a mutiny against the Roman Empire and that somehow he was trying to overthrow the King Caesar or that he was somehow going to overthrow Pilate himself and Jesus Christ turned the question that Pilate had asked,

are you the king of the Jews? He took that question and he flipped it on Pilate and causing Pilate to reflect upon his own life. Do you believe this Pilate? Do you believe that I am the king of the Jews?

Do you believe I’m the prophesied one? And of course Pilate’s immediate response is I’m not a Jew. I don’t have any part of this. This does not matter to me. I am not a jews. Your people brought you to me with these accusations.

Jesus reminds Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world. His kingdom is not of this world. This is why we’re not a political church. This is why people get upset at Pastor Mike because he won’t let you register to vote in the lobby.

This is why people get mad at Pastor Mike because he won’t let you plant a yard sign in the church saying who to vote for. This is why people get mad at Pastor Mike because they think that God’s kingdom is of this world.

But I must be honest with you this morning. There’s no guarantee that America will survive forever. We understand the Scriptures. We are knowledgeable of the Bible. We are not ignorant to His truths as we understand that in the rapture of the church, in the church being ushered out of this world, that this will bring about the tribulation period which will bring about a one world government and a one world religious system and a one world economic system.

We know that our world is headed to this. I ask people all the time, do you have a dollar? Do you have a dollar? Like I was trying to get some air in my tire yesterday and they wanted a dollar seventy -five and I said I don’t have a dollar seventy -five.

Do you take a credit card, amen? Do you take a debit card? Who carries change in their pocket anymore? If anything drives me nuts is when I end up downtown and I gotta put a quarter in the parking spot, right?

Who has a quarter? Now don’t all of you send me a quarter, okay? I’m good. I’ll get a quarter, I’ll make it after all. But my point is this, is that you and I see the tea leaves of the tribulation, the signs of the tribulation, right?

We see it coming together. I was just talking to somebody the other day and we were talking about technology and how God is gonna use technology to fulfill prophecy and I was giving them an example about how our forefathers could not comprehend.

Although they knew it to be true, they could not comprehend how the scripture says during the tribulation that the two witnesses will lie dead in the streets of Jerusalem and all of the world will see it.

20, 30 years ago, we could not comprehend how that could happen. But today, We know how that can happen, right? Everybody has a cell phone. Everybody does. And what my point is that God is using all this fast technology and he’s doing things that are so amazingly unbelievable and hard for us to even keep up with in our mind.

And the young generation is growing up and they can use this technology and they can whip through it. And just the other day, my grandson, he just got a hold of my phone and he knew where the games were and he knew how to download them and he knew how to use my credit card to pay for it.

Now, how does that happen? I mean, I can’t even figure out how to pay for something on Amazon half the time. And he’s already got access to all of grandpa’s credit cards. So that’s coming, it’s here.

And I want you to know that America is not mentioned in the tribulation period. Is it possible that America could go the way of other nations and become not a superpower, but just a neutral country? Is it possible that America could come into a coalition of countries?

Is it possible that somehow America will not be the great nation that she is and has been and that it’ll be a nation that will be sucked up into a one world government that will be overseen by the antichrist?

Jesus Christ is the spotless son of God and he stands alone in all of history of his character and his morality and his purity and righteousness. And when we look to Christ, we see the exalted one. And I hope that as each of us are evaluating our life, reviewing these questions that all us are taking time to measure our life and making sure that we are in tune with the will of God, that we are following His path.

If you’re listening today and you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, I pray that today will be the day that you will call upon the name of the Lord. And we do that as simple as ABC by simply acknowledging our sin, believing in Christ, and calling upon Him in prayer, asking Him to forgive us and to be our Lord and Savior.

And friends, the Bible said, whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. May that be true today. If you have called on the name of the Lord and asked Him to be your Savior, let us know about your decision.

Go to HopeworthHaving .com and let us know how God is working in your life. If you’re rededicating your life, let us know. We want to know the impact of God’s Word upon your heart. So take that time by going to HopeworthHaving .com.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope. worth having.