The King We Need – King of Truth

I love the words of that song. You have no rival.

You have no equal now and forever God, you reign.

And when I sing that, I think we kind of join with people all

over the world kind of on a cosmic scale that you have no

rival, you have no equal. But but I think of that even

much more personally when I sing it that he has no rival in my

heart, no equal. But now and forever you reign in

my heart, Lord, that's I hope that's your, your prayer today.

I hope that's your cry today as we sing that that it's not just

something we're singing kind of on a bigger level as cosmic

level, but that it's really personal to you and that Jesus

is your king. And that's what we're going to

talk about today, the King of truth.

I want to start just with a simple question.

Some, some audience participation.

What's the biggest decision you've made recently?

What's the biggest decision you made?

Go ahead and talk it through with someone next to you.

Maybe it's maybe you've had a huge decision to make, maybe a

small decision. What's the biggest decision you

made recently? Today we're going to look at

this moment between Jesus and Pilate.

Pilate had a huge decision. How many of you have made a big

decision in the last couple weeks?

All right? How many of you have just made a

bunch of small decisions like where are we going to eat?

Friday night we got in the car and we said, hey, where are we

going to eat? We need to eat somewhere after a

carnival at the school. And I won't tell you which

member of my family came up with this idea, but her idea was

let's go to Taco Bell. Now, listen, I'm going to say

this later, guys. Most of the time you should

listen to your wives. If your wife says, let's go to

Taco Bell, it's really your call, but you're going to pay

for it. You're going to pay for it in

our in our house. We've had a big decision over

the last. I hope you don't mind me talking

about this, Eli, but I, we've got some seniors.

I didn't run it by him before. We've got a lot of seniors in

our youth group, quite a few that are graduating and trying

to decide what's next. And so is that going into the

workforce? Is that going to school?

Where is that going to school? And so we've been kind of

working through that here in our house over the past several

months. What's Eli going to do?

Where is he going to go? And there's been all these

different voices. Give him a hard time.

It's OK. Sorry, Eli.

All these different voices, you know, what's the right thing for

him? I mean, on, on one hand, he's,

he was looking at one school that I went to.

So it's dad's school. On the other hand, it's the

school that his mom went to and his, you know, some of his

grandparents and cousins and everyone else.

And then another when the school that his other grandparents went

to. And there's all of these

different factors take into account in that decision.

You guys know, you seniors know this is a big decision, right?

Regardless of what it looks like, it's a big decision.

It's not where are we going to eat tonight?

It's, it's a big decision. There's, there's the factors of,

I mean, cost, cost matters. How much is it going to cost to

go to this school versus that school?

And then it's what do they have to offer?

Do they have the right programs? Do they have, is it the right

fit? What is it like?

And so we, we've been working through this decision and, and

here's the beautiful thing for those of you that are, that are

seniors and you're trying to make these big life decisions.

I, I, I don't think you're going to make a wrong decision.

I think God's going to bless whatever decision you make.

Listen, if you're trying to decide where to go to dinner or

where to go to lunch, you're probably not going to make a

wrong decision. I mean, you can make some

painful decisions. All right, Last week, I, I

wasn't going to share this, but I, I only went 25 minutes in

first service. So I got some time to play with

here. You guys know last week I was

struggling. I I had like the stomach bug and

so much so that I actually sat down.

I don't usually sit down to speak, but I had not eaten

anything for like 4 days. I mean nothing good.

And so after service I was like I just want to eat something

good. And my wonderful wife I said I

think I'm going to go get wings. She said that's a bad idea.

See, sometimes she's a voice of reason and sometimes the voice

of Taco Bell and big decisions. I did listen to her last Sunday.

It was, it was a wise decision. So, So what we see today is this

big decision pilot is, is with Jesus and Jesus has been brought

before Pontius Pilate. Pilate is the governor of the

Judea region and the the Jewish leadership has brought Jesus to

Pilate because they want Jesus to be tried and executed.

And at this point, the Jewish people were not they, they had

lost the privilege or the right. They did not have the right to

do their own killings or their own execution.

They didn't have the right to sentence someone to death.

And so that's why they brought Jesus to Pilot is because they

wanted Pilot to do their dirty work for him.

They couldn't do it on their own.

In fact, it tells us that. I think it's verse 31 or 32 that

that's why they brought Jesus to Pilot.

But we see this conversation back and forth between Pilot and

Jesus. Now, Pilot was the governor of

Judea. He was, he was widely known as a

cruel, as a violent leader. He when there was opposition, he

dealt with it very harshly. He dealt with it violently.

And so, so his go to his kind of, you know, mode of operating

was typically violence and killing.

So much so that he'd even been told to kind of back off by the

powers that be. Hey, calm down a little bit.

It's one of the voices that you'll you'll see in in the in

the text here. So Pilate had this conversation

with Jesus and he had this decision to make.

Who is Jesus is who he says he is?

Is he the King of kings? Who is he?

And so we're going to be in verse 33, Stand with me and

honor God's word. We're going to read verse 33 to

39. You can follow along on the

screen. And, and really what's happening

here is Pilate is trying to figure out who is this Jesus?

Is he who he says he is? Is he a threat?

And what should he do in light of who Jesus is?

So it says here in verse 33, Pilate went back inside the

palace. He summoned Jesus and he asked

him, are you the king of the Jews?

Is that your own idea? Jesus asked or or did others

talk to you about me? Am IA Jew Pilot replied your own

people and chief priest handed you over to me.

What is it you have done And Jesus said my Kingdom is not of

this world. If it were my servants would

fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders.

But now my Kingdom is from another place.

Oh, you are a king then, said Pilate, and Jesus answered, You

say that I'm a king. In fact, the reason I was born

and came into the world is to testify to the truth.

Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.

That is a bold statement. Everyone on the side of truth

listens to me. What is truth?

Retorted Pilate. With this, he went out again to

the Jews gathered there, and he said I find no basis for a

charge against him. But it is your custom for me to

release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover.

Do you want me to release the king of the Jews?

We're going to stop there. You can have a seat.

If you read on, you would find that the people's response was

Pilate offered them do you want this criminal Barabbas or do you

want Jesus? And they said release the

criminal because they really they were intent on seeing Jesus

executed. And so Pilate gave them the

choice. He said what should we do?

And they said crucify him and ultimately Jesus went to the

cross and died. There are three things we see

here, 3 truths we see here and that we can see in this text.

And here's the deal, every single one of us.

I ask you what the most important choice you've made

recently. Maybe it was where to go to

lunch or dinner. Maybe you've had a really big

choice. Today.

You have a really big choice. And I'm not trying to be

dramatic Every single day you have a big choice.

Who is Jesus? Is he your King?

Are you going to follow him? That's the big question today.

And so we're going to look at 3 truths that we see from this

text #1 truth number one is this, that God's will and God's

plan are at work and are being accomplished.

Whether we can see it, whether we understand it, whether we

choose to be a part of it or choose not to be a part of it,

God's plan is still moving forward.

I love this. In this text, see, see.

And in this text, it seems like Jesus is in big trouble.

It seems like the enemy is winning here.

It seems like any time a king is is captured and taken before the

opposing authorities, then if it's a movie, if it's a show, if

it's a story, we would say that's big trouble.

But what I want you to understand is that Jesus is here

because it's part of God's plan for Jesus to be here.

See, see, Pilate thinks he's in this position of high authority

and he, he is on this earth. He has this position.

He's the governor of Judea. He gets to decide what happens

with Jesus and he does have a say.

But ultimately, what we see is that God's will and God's plan

are at work regardless of whether pilots on board or not

on board. The truth is, Jesus had already

predicted that this was going to happen.

He had already told people that he would be handed over to the

authorities, that he would be beaten, that he would be

crucified. He had already predicted this.

He already knew it was going to happen.

None of this was a surprise to Jesus.

And so while Pilate thinks he's making this huge decision, and

it is a big decision, the reality is, is this God's will

will be done. We have to figure out where

we're going to find ourselves in it.

So, so we see this kind of back and forth and I love this.

And the temptation is always to kind of read it how you see it.

And, and listen, I you know, the way I see this is kind of a back

and forth, you know, are you the king of the Jews?

Well, is that your idea? Did someone tell you that am IA

Jew. You know, come on, it's your own

people, Jesus, your own people hand you over to us.

Don't forget why you're here. It's because your own people

betrayed you. It's your own people have handed

you over to be killed and and Jesus says in in verse 36, he

says my Kingdom is not of this world.

There's this question in here that I think is, is so

incredible. He says, your own people, the

chief priests have handed you over to me.

And and I think Pilot's being sincere here.

He says, what have you done? What could you possibly have

done to get yourself handed over to to death by the Jewish

people? Now, all right, if you're, if

you're invested in this story, don't you want Jesus to give a

really good answer right here? Pilot says what have you done to

find yourself here? What's the answer?

Come on, give me some answers. What has Jesus done?

You don't want to be wrong. It's OK.

Just be bold. It's OK.

There are no wrong answers unless they're wrong and I'll

ignore it. OK.

He tells people to forgive. How awful.

Forgive others. What else has Jesus done?

He heals people. He protects people.

He loves people. What was that?

He upset the balance. Yeah.

I mean, Jesus, the question, that is such a loaded question

that Pilot asked. And and it's like Pilot saying,

hey, by the way, buddy, you're here because your people turned

you over. What in the world did you do?

And and I wish Jesus would have just stood up and said, I'll

tell you what I've done. I've healed the sick.

I've healed the blind. I've raised the dead to life.

I've fed the hungry, that's what I've done.

That's why I'm here. Nothing but good things, right?

What a load. Don't you wish Jesus would be a

little more snarky sometimes? Is it just me?

It's just me. What have you done?

Are you the king of the Jews? After all, they handed you over

to me for death. Jesus answer is great.

Jesus says my Kingdom is not of this world.

If it were, then my servants would fight to prevent my arrest

by the Jewish leaders. But now my Kingdom is from

another place. You know what Jesus is basically

saying there is? You can only see what you see,

Pilot. You see that these people handed

me over. But I need you to understand

that there is a bigger Kingdom at work here and I wouldn't be

here if it wasn't the will of the Father, God and Jesus the

Son. He says if I wanted to my

servants, if I didn't want to be here, my servants would have

fought back. Now, is he talking about maybe,

is he talking about those ragtag group of disciples, the people

that have followed him? Is that who he's talking about?

I tend to think, no, I tend to think what Jesus is really

talking about here is if I didn't want to be here, then my

servants would come to my aid. Yeah.

I mean, open your eyes. Let me just open your eyes to

see the heavenly forces around you.

If I didn't want to be here, I wouldn't be here.

But I'm here because this is the will and the plan of the Father.

God's will and God's plan are at work whether we see it, whether

we understand it, whether we get on board with it or not.

Jesus says my servants, if it wasn't God's will, my servants

would would have me out of here in no time.

If Pilate had any clue whose presence he was in, oh, this

would have been a much different story.

But he had to make that decision.

He had to figure out who is Jesus and he had to decide.

Listen, whether you believe that Jesus is the true king, the

truth or not, God's plan will move forward.

There will still be victory over sin and death.

God's Kingdom will still come, and God's purposes still will be

carried out. The question is, will you be on

board or you will you miss it? Truth one is God's plan will

succeed. Truth 2 Is this.

The only way to be in line with the truth is to listen to Jesus.

We talk about dinner decisions, we talk about college decisions,

we talk about after high school, work, college, what college

where, where are we going to eat?

What am I going to do for, for work?

What, what is all these decisions we make and, and

listen, most of those aren't the end of the world, but but this

decision that we have to make today is the most important

decision that we will ever make. Who is Jesus?

Is he the King? Jesus is very clear here.

There is only one right answer. See, Pilot's been trying to

figure out who is he? Is he the king of the Jews?

Is he guilty? Does he deserve to die?

Is he a threat? What's going on?

How do I handle this situation? Who is this guy that they've

brought before me? And, and you know what I think,

I think Pilot was expecting Jesus to be, you know, radical

and militant. And, you know, when someone's

handed over and, and said to be, I mean, they're handed, the

Jewish people are handing Jesus over to be killed.

I think he was expecting something much different than

what he got. And it became very clear very

quickly that there was something different about Jesus.

Pilot realized early on, I think that Jesus was in fact not

guilty of anything, but he's still trying to decipher, is he

the king? Is he the king of kings?

Verse 18, he says you are a king.

Then said Pilate, Jesus answered, you say that I'm a

king. In fact, the reason I was born

and came into this world is to testify to the truth.

And then he makes this bold statement.

And guys, we talked about this last week and we're going to

talk about it again today. Everyone on the side of truth

listens to me. Jesus leaves no room for

options. Either He's the King of Kings

and you're on board, or you're not in line with truth.

Period. It's that simple.

So there's all these voices, I mean, just like the colleges and

there's all these voices in, in pilot's head.

In fact, if you go back to Matthew's Gospel, Matthew's

account of this, he, he tells the part of it that pilot's

wife, I told you guys I was going to talk about this pilot's

wife actually tells him, hey, you need to let this innocent

man go. You should have nothing to do

with him because I was warned about this in a dream.

And guys, all right, Taco Bell notwithstanding, most of the

time, you should listen to your wives.

They are wise sometimes, most of the time.

All right, women, have your fun. Get your nod and nudge if you

want. It's fine.

Seriously. There, there is something to

that. Pilot has his wife's voice in

his ear saying, hey, I was warned about this in a dream.

You need to let that man go. You need to have nothing to do

with that. That's one voice in his head.

Another voice in his head is the Roman authorities who have said,

hey, you've been too cruel. It's time to calm down a little

bit, settle down. Another voice is the Jewish mob.

Hey, kill him. He is wrong.

He's he's a traitor. He's he's blaspheming.

He has to die. And so he's got all of these

voices. There's the potential of an

uproar and Pilot finds himself in this moment with Jesus and he

has to make a decision. Who is Jesus?

Is he the king? Maybe not in such a dramatic

way, but I think we have a lot of voices in our in our ears and

in our heads telling us what truth is and what truth isn't.

And Jesus says the reason I was born and came into this world is

to testify to the truth, and everyone on the side of truth

listens to me. He leaves no room, no room for

anything else. Guys, today the most important

decision you'll make is not where you go to lunch or where

you go to school or what job you take.

Most important decision you will make is, is Jesus your king?

Period. There's no other way, he says.

Anyone who's on the side of the truth follows me listens to me.

Now guys, I realize some of you have been in the church for 50

years. Like Brad said earlier, I

realized some of you made this decision 50 years ago, 70 years

ago to follow Jesus. I want you to understand that

today you have to make that decision again every day you

have to choose to follow Jesus. Jesus says anyone who wants to

follow me was take up their cross daily and follow me.

Is he your King? Jesus says I came to testify to

the truth. That's the reason I was born.

That's the reason I came to this world was to testify to the

truth and anyone that wants the truth, anyone that wants to walk

in the truth, anyone that wants life and salvation will listen

to me because Jesus is the way the truth and the life pilots

trying to figure it out. He's trying to make a decision.

We have a decision to make today.

Is Jesus your king? The third truth that we find is

that it's not enough just to know Jesus is the king, but you

have to follow the king with your actions.

Guys, this is important. We can't just say I'm a

Christian. Jesus is king.

Jesus says anyone who wants to be in line with the truth will

listen to me. That doesn't mean that doesn't

say, hey, we'll wear, you know, a chain with a cross on it to

show that they're a Christian. It doesn't say slap a bumper

sticker on their car. It doesn't say change their

Facebook profile to say that they're a Christian.

That's not what it's about. It's not just a one time

decision. Hey, here it is.

Jesus is king. If he's your king, then he's got

to be your king every day, and your actions and your decisions

have to follow the king. What is truth?

Retorted Pilate. With this.

He went out again to the Jews gathered there, and he said, I

find no basis for charge against him.

All right, Pilate probably didn't know what this question

came up this last week as we were talking about it with the

staff. Did Pilate really know that

Jesus was the Messiah? And, and there are some

traditions that believe that Pilot eventually became a

believer that there's no proof of that, that we have.

But but here's the thing. It's pretty clear that that

Pilot knows there's something different.

He says there's no way that that I can, I find no basis for a

charge against him. But then he takes the cowards

away and he allows the voices, the loud voice of the mob to

talk him into doing something that he shouldn't have done,

allowing Jesus to be killed. What is truth?

He says, I find no basis for charge against him.

But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at a

time. At the time of the Passover, do

you want me to release the king of the Jews?

And they said, no, give us Barabbas, crucify Jesus.

And Pilate, I told you God's will will be done.

God's will was that Jesus would go to a cross, die on a cross

raised from the dead to give us salvation from our sins and

victory over sin and death. But Pilate, Pilate chose the

wrong way. He gave in to the mob.

He gave in to the other voices, and he didn't allow Jesus to be

his king. And his actions showed it.

So here's the deal. The first question I want to ask

you today is, is Jesus your king?

Worship team, you can come on up, is Jesus your king?

But the second question I want to ask you today is will you

follow him? Will you listen?

Because it's not just enough to say, hey, I'm a Christian.

He doesn't just he's not just king and name, but he has to be

the King of our heart. He has to be the Lord of

everything in our lives. So here's the deal.

I know some of you maybe have never made that decision to say

I want Jesus to be my king today.

It's a simple decision. Are you going to allow Jesus the

truth? There is no other way to

salvation in life except through Jesus.

He said I came to this earth to testify to the truth.

The only way to have forgiveness of your sins, salvation and

eternal life is through Jesus Christ.

Death and resurrection. It's the only way.

So today maybe some of you need to make that decision.

Hey Jesus, I want you to be my king.

But maybe some of you need to listen to him today.

Stand with me. Jesus leaves no room for options

here. If he's your king, then love is

not a choice. If Jesus is your king, then you

will love others. If Jesus is your king,

forgiveness is not a choice. If Jesus is your king, you will

forgive others. If Jesus is your king, then

surrender is not a choice. It's not OK Jesus, you can be my

king, but I'm going to hold this part of my life off.

No, either he's the king of kings, he's everything and you

surrender everything, or he's not your king.

Surrender is not a choice and holiness, if he's your king, is

not a choice. We don't get to choose to live

in sinfulness and selfishness. If he's your king, your actions,

your life, your heart need to follow that.

So I want to call you to respond.

We're going to sing a couple songs and one of the response

we're going to, one of the ways we're going to respond is we're

going to take communion together and we're going to do this a

little different. You're not going to go grab the

elements and come back to your seat and wait for me to tell

you, but you're going to just go and you're going to take the

elements and you're going to pray and you're going to take

them on your own. Jesus gathered with his

disciples the last time he was with him in the upper room and

and he took the bread and he took the cup and he said, this

is my body that's broken for you.

He said this, this cup, this is my blood that's shed for the

forgiveness of sins. And he says take and eat and

take and drink. And he says continue to do this

in remembrance of me. And what Jesus is saying is not

take communion just so you can have a warm fuzzy memory of who

Jesus is. What Jesus is really saying is,

but as we take communion, we choose every day that he's our

king, that he's the only way, He's the only truth, He's the

only life. So that's one way I want you to

respond. I want you whenever you're

ready. There's going to be communion on

both sides and, and if you come down, you can take the elements,

you can go kneel somewhere, you can go to your seat, but take

communion. Make the choice today.

Jesus is my king. There's a prayer station in the

back. If you would like to do a prayer

station, just a tangible way to walk through it, It's straight

back in the back. You can do that back there.

There are altars here. We're going to pray and anoint

Beth Lloyd over her surgery. That's coming up.

And so we're going to do that. If you would like prayed for,

you can come forward. If you would like anointed, you

can come forward. If there's something you need to

lay down today, I want to encourage you.

Jesus says anyone who wants to walk in truth, well, listen to

me. Is he your king?

Are you following him today? Maybe there's a situation that

you need to lay down, that you need to surrender.

I want to ask you to respond to God's word.

Take communion, pray, whatever that looks like, Choose Jesus as

king. He is the King of truth.

Father prayed, speak to us and I pray that we would respond to

you with sincere hearts. I pray that nobody would walk

out of this room not following you as their King and their

Savior. Give us salvation, give us life,

and give us life everlasting today.

We respond to you now by taking communion, by praying, by

surrendering. Be with us Lord.

We respond to your word now in Jesus name, Amen.