Transcription downloaded from https://yetanothersermon.host/_/fmc/sermons/58493/john-the-word-became-flesh-john-1828-40/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Good morning family. Good morning. What a welcome. Good morning. For those of you that are joining us today for the first time and you may have looked online and saw that Scott Liddell was the senior pastor, I am not him. A glaringly obvious difference is Scott wears glasses and so...

[0:34] Talking about things that are obvious today. I just wanted to... As Scott said, my name is Rob. I have the privilege of serving here as one of the elders at fourth. I am married to Lisa, which is really weird to say Lisa because I always call her Lisa, but she was on staff here briefly and now is one of the assistant basketball coaches at Whitworth and then we have two beautiful children, Teya who's eight and Malachi who is six.

[1:10] A story. One day there was a man that was scuba diving off the coast, pick a coast, doesn't matter. And as he was enjoying the scene 20 feet below, he happened to notice to his right that there was also somebody that was at his same depth that was scuba diving without any gear, without any scuba gear.

[1:35] And he thought nothing of it and went about his business, continued his descent 10 feet lower only to look again and noticed that this same young man was at the same depth as him. Again he thought nothing of it, kind of weird, and continued his descent yet another 10 feet and this time when he looked he saw the same young man at the same depth without scuba gear. So curiosity got the best of him and he pulled out his whiteboard and his trusty waterproof pen and wrote on it, what are you doing down here without scuba gear? The young man took the pen, erased the board, wrote back, I'm drowning, help.

[2:27] Sometimes we can miss the obvious. So I'm gonna pray again and ask the Lord to show us what he desires us to get out of today's passage. Will you pray with me?

[2:41] Father, thank you so much for levity. Lord, thank you for your word. This is your word, this is not a book that contains your word, but this is the very word of God and as such Lord it is without argument. Lord, there is none like it and so I ask Lord that the meditation of my heart and that the words of my lips would be pleasing unto you. Lord, for those of us that need comfort, I pray that your spirit would have the freedom to comfort and encourage us and for those of us that need conviction Lord, I pray that your spirit would have the freedom to do that as well. Lord, I pray that we would walk away with something tangible that we can apply today. Lord, I pray that our heart posture would not be, wow this would have been something good for so-and-so to hear. Lord, I pray that your word would speak directly to us so that we might see how you desire us to walk as a result of today. Lord, we love you, we need you and that's why we gather and it's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. If you haven't been with us leading up until today, we're in the book of John, John chapter 18.

[3:56] We're gonna be starting in verse 28 as Pastor Scott read, but just to kind of give you a brief recap of where we are, the book of John is specifically written as it says at the end so that you would believe and know that Jesus is our Savior. And up until this point what we've seen is we've seen Jesus, his ministry, but at this point in the story Jesus has been arrested. There was a group of the religious elite of the day that had grown tired of him and as a result they've decided that it is better for Jesus to die. And so Jesus has celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples. One of those has left dinner early at Dine and Dash, if you will, to go meet up with the religious elite to put together an opportunity to betray the Lord. After the meal Jesus prays with his disciples. They walk to the garden and thus he is met by this mob that arrests him. Jesus reattaches the ear of the high priest servant which in and of itself would just be mind-blowing. And he has had a trial before the religious elite and now he is being moved on to Pilate's house and that's where we pick up our story right here. I think something that's important for us to understand contextually is the hatred that the Jews had for Jesus leading up into this point. So if you're a note-taker I only have two points today and they're this. The first is that Jesus is not deterred in his mission by hatred or hypocrisy. I'll say it again Jesus is not deterred in his mission by hatred or hypocrisy. And then the second point is that Jesus is not intimidated by authority. He's not intimidated by authority. So if we were first to look at hatred and hypocrisy again like I said we're gonna need to understand the context for how we got here. As we look back over Jesus' ministry if we were to look in the book of Matthew specifically in chapter 22 Jesus tells a parable and it actually alludes to the Pharisees. And within that parable one of the things that he says is he calls out the Pharisees for their inability to accept

[6:32] God's means of salvation as well as their self-righteousness. And after the Pharisees decide that they need to question him and trap him we move on to chapter 23 where Jesus lays out seven woes of the Pharisees. Like Jesus brought receipts in this instance. And within those seven woes three main things come up that we see. The first is that Jesus calls out the fact that the Pharisees didn't practice what they preached in verse 3 of Matthew 23. The second thing is that they placed burdens on the people and offered no help to alleviate them. There already existed the law and then the religious leaders heaped more stuff on top of what the law which was already difficult. They heaped even more things on and so Jesus called them out for that. And then the last thing that Jesus calls them out for in Matthew 23 is he says that all their religious rituals everything that they had done was done publicly so that they would receive ooze and oz from the people as opposed to knowing that the Lord was satisfied with how they were living their life. And so to put it lightly Jesus went scorched earth on the Pharisees. And so the Pharisees clearly are not making any friends with Jesus. And so it wasn't until John chapter 11 that we covered months ago after the raising of Lazarus where as Col read last week the decide or the religious leaders decided it would be better that we put this man to death. The Jews had said the religious leaders had said they were starting to get nervous because there were people that were believing in him and and there was this fear that there was going to be not only a loose of their control or a loss of their control on the people but also that Rome might end up stepping in. And so Caiaphas in prophesying not realizing that he was doing so it said that it would be better for one man to die for the nation. And so that's what has brought us here to verse 28 and chapter 18 which says this then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters.

[8:45] It was early in the morning. They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters so that they would not be defiled but could eat the Passover. The hypocrisy of these Jews. Some scholars think that the passage that Col taught on last week that there was some 20 laws that the religious leaders had broke just in having that trial. 20 laws that they had bypassed and we're not talking about people that that didn't have any sort of education.

[9:19] These were people that knew the law backwards and forwards and so a few of the laws that they said to have broke were you're not supposed to have any trial at night. Jesus was arrested at night. He wasn't putting a holding cell until the morning and then they had the trial. They had the trial that night.

[9:36] Another thing that they broke was you're not supposed to have a trial over a festival, over a feast and we are clearly here in Passover.

[9:48] Clearly. These Jews hated them. They were in absolute haste to put Jesus to death.

[10:03] As a result one of the things that we see here which is ironic to me is that they had brought Jesus it says early in the morning. In the Greek what that is is it's the fourth watch of the night. So this is between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m.

[10:16] They were real early knocking on Pilate's door and while they wouldn't go into the governor's house this is what's interesting. They've broken 20 plus laws to condemn Jesus to arrest him, to hold a trial and they have no problem murdering Jesus yet they will not go into the governor's house. Why? Because they don't want to defile him because passovers needs to be celebrated. We need to eat. One of the things that the Lord had condemned them on was the fact that the things that they had done publicly they had done so that everybody would see even though as Jesus called them whitewashed tombs you are beautiful on the outside. Your robes are pressed, starched. You have everything where it needs to be. There's not a bead out of place but yet your heart is dead and that's what we see here. We see the dead hearts of those that want to do things that they think they're doing on behalf of God Himself.

[11:19] They hated Jesus because he exposed their inconsistencies. They hated him enough to put up a fake trial and keep him up through the night. They hated him enough to bring them to bring him to a Roman official which was merely a reminder that the Jews had lost their sovereignty. They were under Roman control. So to have to succumb yourself to come to a Roman home to ask for help to rubber stamp what it is that they're trying to accomplish must have been extremely humbling. The other thing that we read is that they wouldn't enter the governor's house because they wanted to eat the Passover but one of the things that we just read a couple weeks ago was that Jesus had already had the Passover meal. Jesus had already had the Passover meal with his disciples. They had it. They walked to the garden. They prayed. Jesus was arrested. So the Jews were so intent on getting through this trial and killing the Lord. They had skipped the Passover meal. They were busy talking with Judas trying to figure out where was the best time and place. They had missed the Passover meal but they were going to make sure that whatever was left over that they would get. The interesting thing was that there actually wasn't a law. It was a tradition that they couldn't go into the house of a Gentile but the Pharisees again with their religious piety or with their religious hypocrisy would not enter. So they bring Jesus to Pilate and the interesting thing is that Pilate really isn't interested in this. First of all it's early in the morning. So verse 29 Pilate went outside to them and said what accusation do you bring against this man? They answered. They didn't even answer the question. If this man were not doing evil we would not have delivered him over to you. Verse 31 Pilate said to them take him yourselves and judge him by your own law. Pilate has no interest in dealing with Jewish affairs with

[13:30] Jewish people which is why he just dismisses them. Go deal with this on your own and the Jews respond. It is it's not lawful for us to put anyone to death but if we read in the next book if we read in the book of Acts we see that they stone Stephen. So it wasn't that it was against their law to stone or to put anybody to death. They had lost their right being over Roman control. They had lost their right to put anybody to death. They had lost the right of capital punishment. According to a second century rabbinical tradition in a Jerusalem Talmud it says 40 years before the destruction of the temple the right to inflict the death penalty was taken away from Israel. That's this period of time.

[14:30] And yet this is why they can't put Jesus to death because Rome had the power. Theologian F. F. Bruce says it succinctly if the Jews hadn't lost their right to capital jurisdiction their rulers could have carried out the death sentence in the same way that they did Stephen in the book of Acts by stoning. However this is where we see that the Lord is not deterred by the hatred and hypocrisy of the Jews. If you go back you have time later to read Psalm 22. Psalm 22 is a description of someone being it's the description of the Lord being crucified.

[15:10] If you read Psalm 22 it's not the description of somebody that is being stoned to death. Let's flip there really quick. Go ahead and keep your finger in John. Let's read it. We have time. 22 verse 1. I love that sound by the way the sound of Bible pages turning and keep going. Psalm 22 verse 1. My God my God why have you forsaken me? Sound familiar? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? Verse 12. Many bulls encompass me. Strong bulls of Bishon surround me. They open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within my breast. My strength is dried up like a potard. My tongue sticks to my jaws. You lay me in the dust of death. I can count all my bones. Verse 17. They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast and for my clothing they cast lots.

[16:29] Psalm 22 is what's getting ready to take place. We're not there today but it's what's getting ready to take place. Back to John 18. So the Jews are responding to Pilate. They're not answering this question. What they're saying is if he weren't an evildoer then we wouldn't have brought him to your doorstep. He's just he's a bad man. Bad man do bad things. That's the equivalent.

[17:01] It's not lawful for us to put anyone to death and I love this. Verse 32. This was to fulfill what the word the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die. If you were to look in John 3 verses 14 and 15 and 12 verse 32. I'll flip to 12 really quick. 12 verse 32 says this. And I when I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself. John 3 says the same thing that the Son of man must be lifted up. Again that's that's not a stoning that's taking place. That's somebody being lifted up on a cross. So when we look at Jesus here with regard to the hatred and hypocrisy that he's not deterred by the thing that's encouraging to me is that you don't see Jesus looking for the quickest way out. You don't see Jesus looking for an exit. You don't see Jesus trying to say well guys this is a misunderstanding. You got the wrong guy.

[18:09] In this first couple first couple verses Jesus actually is silent but yet he's still in complete control. It says this was to fulfill the word that was spoken by Jesus. So my question for us is this. Well actually let me take a step back.

[18:27] One of the things that we see with Jesus a couple of the last chapter in 17 we see that in his high priestly prayer that Jesus he acknowledges that the Lord has given him that God the Father has given him all authority. Jesus understands that his moment his hour has finally come throughout his ministry. He says my time has not yet come. My time has not yet come. My time has not yet come.

[18:49] And yet now in chapter 17 and where we find ourselves today his time has come. This is the hour. And so Jesus is able to sit under the full control and comfort knowing that God is in control. Are we committed to this type of obedience to the Lord regardless the situation that we find ourselves in. When we find ourselves in tough and impossible situations are we able to be committed to the Lord. Last week Cole said that that's impossible. It's impossible to muster that type of strength on our own in those situations.

[19:32] It's absolutely impossible without without the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand misery loves company. And last week I was really convicted by the Pharisees. And so I'm going to share with you. There's something I feel like we can learn from the Pharisees. Earlier I mentioned in chapter 23 of Matthew that the Pharisees didn't practice what they preach. What areas do we as believers. What areas are we really good at quoting when it comes to the Bible. But yet within our own life we're hypocritical. Oftentimes I think especially for myself it's the area that we can tend to be the loudest about.

[20:33] Sometimes as believers we can be very outspoken about things say like marital fidelity. And yet somewhere within our heart there's an area that's compromised. We've compromised our marriage whether or not it's physically or emotionally. Or sometimes as believers we can rail against people that are addicts. We can talk very loudly clearly and plainly about addicts but yet someplace in our own life there is an addiction that's looming in the closet. Or we can come to church on a Sunday or be in the midst of believers throughout the course of the week and we can complain about how bad church is or what's wrong with our specific church or other churches.

[21:21] And yet that's as far as it goes. We offer no suggestions on either A. what could take place or B. being willing to step into the gap and B. the change that we see is necessary. Or Lord convicted me this week so this is just my own personal list. You're just being welcomed into my thoughts. Or we allow our preferences for what we think should take place in church and we have elevated that to gospel importance. Whether or not it's the type of music that we happen to use to be led in worship each week or where we sit on a Sunday.

[22:08] That's my seat or that's my ministry. The kingdoms that we tend to build up within this church. Years ago I grew up at a church, Antioch Bible Church over on the West Side. And I had the privilege of serving in the college ministry and part of that involved leading a small group. I would give announcements on Sundays. I would greet new people and from time to time I would be allowed to teach. A lot of times on Saturday nights though I would be at a nightclub dancing.

[22:49] Now whatever it is that you have in your mind it wasn't the two-step it wasn't the Lindy hop and it wasn't swing dancing. I can't describe it for you.

[23:02] It wasn't appropriate. We'll leave it there. It wasn't appropriate. And I would justify it in my head like well my small group is growing and blah blah blah blah. One particular evening I feel like the Lord had just kind of had it.

[23:21] And I noticed there was a young lady that was looking at me while I happened to be at the club that particular Saturday and I didn't necessarily think anything of it. I just kind of went about enjoying my hypocritical evening.

[23:36] And Sunday morning came and I was at church bright and early. I was standing at the door greeting people, hey how you doing? Nice to see you. Welcome to the college ministry. Hey how you doing? Nice to see you. We got a seat over here.

[23:49] There's donuts in the back. And as I was standing at the door low and behold who should walk through the door but the young lady that I had happened to see the night before. I say that to say this that there was immediate repentance that was necessary. Oftentimes the Lord doesn't bring it to us that stark and in your face. My conviction literally walked through the door. But the Lord isn't thrown off by those things. Family we gather week after week not because we've reached the pinnacle of our salvation or our sanctification. We gather week after week because we are in desperate need of a Savior who's in the business of changing. Jesus is not deterred by our hatred or our hypocrisy.

[24:54] Let's take a look at intimidation. We're gonna move on to the conversation now that takes place between Pilate and Jesus in verses 33 through 38. And if you if you just start here at 38, 33 it's gonna be confusing to you and the reason is is because when Pilate comes to Jesus and says so are you the king of the Jews. It's the first time within this book that they've spoken. And we just saw in the previous verses the Jews don't say in this book that he says that he's the king of the Jews. So we have to look at some of the synoptic Gospels and in Luke chapter 23 one of the accusations that the Jews bring it says in verses one and two that while the company of the or then the company while then while the company of them arose and brought him before Pilate and they began to accuse him saying we found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar and saying that he himself is a king the Christ. So who is Pilate? Just really quickly Pilate is he's a governor over this province in Judea.

[26:05] Oftentimes well most times if not all times when Rome would conquer a nation what would happen is they would put one of their people over it. And so Pilate is tasked with three things mainly. Number one he is to collect taxes and what he would do is he the Romans would recruit Jews to do their dirty work.

[26:22] That's the reason why it was so shocking when Jesus chose Matthew because Matthew's occupation was indeed a tax collector. He's also responsible for public order and then lastly justice which is why the Jews brought Jesus to Pilate. See Pilate's in charge he is the man in Judea. Within his own compendence estimated that he had about 600 soldiers at his command. He is Caesar's authority to stop any hint of rebellion against the Empire. Jesus isn't standing in front of some mall cop. Now look no offense to mall cops if that's what you do I apologize it's a very honorable profession I don't mean to. Jesus is not standing in front of somebody that has no authority. Jesus is standing in front of the person that has been appointed by Caesar to run this area. That's who

[27:28] Jesus is standing in front of. And so Pilate's first question is not philosophical. Pilate didn't grab a cup of tea and sit down with Jesus and say so let's chat. Pilate has one aim and one aim only and what he's gonna do is he's gonna use the weight of his authority to make sure that Jesus isn't a problem. Pilate is specifically trying to find out whether or not Jesus is a threat to Rome. He doesn't care about these Jewish issues matter of fact in the first section of verses he tries to dismiss this this has nothing to do with me and it's way too early in the morning go handle it yourselves. So when the Jews refuse to come in and they say he's an evil man doing bad things and he is a problem potentially to Caesar Pilate's question is are you actually the king of the Jews? I can imagine that Pilate probably I don't know probably had his hand on his sword and was wrapping his fingers on his sword. Whatever it was that he was doing he was trying to let Jesus know like you're not a problem right?

[28:38] Are you actually the king of the Jews? But again we said that Jesus is not intimidated by authority. Back in chapter 17 let me read it for you really quickly. 17 1 and 2 it says when Jesus had spoken these words he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said Father the hour has come glorify your son that the son may glorify you since verse 2 you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all you have given him. You have given him authority over all flesh that includes Pilate. See Pilate is on loaned authority from Caesar.

[29:16] Caesar is on loaned authority because God put him in that position. Jesus just acknowledged that God the Father has given him all authority. So Jesus is sitting there not bothered because he knows that this is again the hour. Another story is one of my favorite stories when I was in high school. I was in the office on a regular basis in high school. I was not the model upstanding citizen that you see before you today. I would not have qualified to be an elder for a long time in my life. But when I was in high school I was in the office so much I was on a first name basis with the principal. I'd walk in and be like morning Patty morning Rob and then I'd go on about my business. Then one year we got a new vice principal her name was Clem Wimbush. I did not like this woman and she remembered me for middle school. Again not an upstanding citizen. I went about my regular routine so one morning I walked into the office morning Patty and out comes miss Wimbush. Mr. Fossett you do not address her as Patty. She is

[30:43] Mrs. Seagworth to you. In that moment I had a decision to make but I had a relationship with Patty and I understood the authority that I was under. This is a very loose connection. I understood the authority that I was under. I was under the same authority as miss Wimbush and so in that moment I said sure Clem bye Patty and I walked out the office. I ended up in detention later that day.

[31:23] But the reality is is that I understood the authority that I was under and in the same way in a very loose way Jesus understands the authority that pilot is under who's under Caesar who ultimately is under God and as a result when pilot leans in and says so are you actually king of the Jews? Jesus is able to respond with a question rather than addressing this issue initially Jesus says do you actually want to know like are you actually curious Jesus goes for the heart of the issue do you actually want to know pilot or did somebody else put this up put you up to this as if he doesn't already know? He does know and pilot again makes his intentions clear look am I a Jew that's his response am I a Jew your own nation and chief priest delivered you over to me what have you done? And so Jesus is not necessarily left with an option but he goes ahead and he describes what the kingdom is then verse 36 Jesus answered my kingdom is not of this world if my kingdom were of this world my servants would have been fighting a kerfuffle as Pastor Scott would say that I might not be delivered over to the Jews but my kingdom is not from this world so really quickly what is what is this kingdom that Jesus is describing? In a Greek what Jesus is saying is my kingdom is not going to come out of this current world system that there would have been a serious battle had it had it been of this world but the kingdom of God won't be built on war it won't be built on turmoil it won't be built on hatred or bitterness it won't take place by vote it won't be won by political maneuvering Jesus was not offering up any sort of resistance again he understood the hierarchy that was in place and Pilate was on loaned authority so from a 30,000 foot view the kingdom of God is this it's where God sits as ruler of the entire universe Psalm 10319 says that the Lord has established his throne in heaven and his kingdom rules over all when Jesus comes he proclaims the coming of this kingdom he preaches the ethics of the kingdom and gives parables about the kingdom if you look back in

[33:59] Matthew chapter chapters 5 through 7 you see that in the Sermon on the Mount in an essay on the kingdom Chris Morgan describes it as such the kingdom is God's reign over his people will finally and ultimately come at the end of an age in a mighty eruption into the history inaugurating the age to come and yet this kingdom has already come into history in the person and mission of Jesus so a couple of things for us to observe again we're talking about what's obvious a couple of things to observe about the kingdom number one there is a kingdom Jesus does not shirk away from this question again he doesn't say like oh no no no you're we're mincing words that's that's not what I meant it's not a kingdom it's it's it's more this than that no no no there is a kingdom Jesus says my kingdom next the other thing that we see is this kingdom when Jesus says my kingdom it's Jesus's kingdom he doesn't say me and others there is a kingdom and it belongs to and is run by Jesus so Pilate switches his question he drops King of the Jews because Jesus says my kingdom is not of this world so

[35:28] Jesus says okay or so Pilate says so you are a king then again Pilate's mission is has nothing to do with discovering the truth which we're gonna talk about here in a second Jesus answered you say that I'm a king and for this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice I'm gonna pause right there I love how FF Bruce puts this set of verses he says this quoting Jesus King is your word Pilate but if that is the word to be used in the kingdom of which I'm speaking is the kingdom of truth the citizens of that kingdom are those who love truth and they listen to me who is truth because they recognize me as their true King two more observations about this kingdom there are citizens within this kingdom and a way to get into that kingdom and that is through active obedience to Jesus's voice the word that Jesus used here when he says that everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice that's not merely just an auditory ability Jesus is saying not only do you hear what I say but you act upon what you hear that's what citizens of the kingdom do and it's not up for debate with regard to what you're allowed to do with truth it's more than just a nod or an amen it's more than it's more than that it is active obedience so what do you expect to come from a description like this of the kingdom Pilate has just asked Jesus some questions merely trying to figure out whether or not he's a threat to Rome Jesus doesn't really answer that question he goes on to say that my kingdom is not of this world there's there is a kingdom there are people that belong to that kingdom and the way to belong to the kingdom is to obey truth and Pilate's question tells you where his heart is Pilate's question is simple what is truth again it's not a philosophical as a philosophical question Pilate is not leaning in super interested to hear what happens next if anything Pilate is already made up his mind and he's walking back out to the Jews which it says in the next couple of verses he's already made up his mind as to who Jesus is what he knows is that

[38:10] Jesus is not a threat that was all he came for Jesus is not a threat to Rome I'm cool we can move on about our day but I feel like he missed it because here's the thing when Rome would conquer a nation what they would say is you have religious freedom you can have complete religious autonomy as long as it doesn't interfere with Rome and so I imagine that with the nations that Rome had conquered each nation that they had conquered undoubtedly had their own idea of what truth was each nation had their own belief system and so when Pilate gets to Jesus and Jesus is talking about a community of citizens that belong to this kingdom adhering to truth whatever what is truth and he completely misses the boat he doesn't lean in he's made up his mind he's on his way to tell the Jews there's these guys not a problem I don't even know why you brought into my house for those of you that are believers with us today we individually live in a world that has authority structures there's a hierarchy you have a boss and now unless you're self-employed or retired you submit to the government sorry Jesus has given us a calling to go and tell people about this kingdom wherever you are whatever your occupation whatever your educational level whatever your socioeconomic status whatever your ethnicity you've been called to play a role within this kingdom and the truth that you are to share is not along the same lines that Pilate was asking truth is not relative Pilate is standing before the one who is truth he is the truth of the kingdom he is the way to the kingdom and he is life in the kingdom

[40:46] Cole did such a great job I keep referencing you so last week Cole challenged us with participating in this kingdom business and one of the things that he said was it very rarely is because of an because of a lack of opportunity that we participate within the opportunity of sharing kingdom business it's very rare he looked at the fear of Peter and juxtaposed that with Jesus in the same way we can take us this morning and whatever the list is that we would say why we're not participating in the kingdom and we can look at Jesus standing before Pilate understanding that he's in good hands his hour had come and this was the role that he was to play Scott what time do

[41:50] I have so oh I just don't want to go over thank you appreciate you but one of the things one of the things that Jesus did was he gave us a master class on how to interact with authority while being winsome at the same time Pilate had the opportunity to lean in and you'll notice in this conversation that Jesus doesn't follow after him like no no no no ask let me answer your question are we willing to submit to and be used by the Lord in whatever daily situation we find ourselves in I taught in Seattle for 12 years and one of my favorite co-workers of all time is a man named Lewis Lewis and I I got back from Greece one year and I remember while I was in Greece I remember I was having lunch and

[42:52] I looked across at this cafe and there were these two men that were just arguing with each other just yelling at each other and I got interested and then at the end of their conversation they got up they hugged each other and then they walked away not in America and so I asked the buddy of mine at the time I said what just happened and he said that's what happens in Greece people can argue and they don't take it personally not in America they're able to understand that either they need to get a better argument or they need to go back and think about what was just said to them so I came back home and I remember I walked into Lewis's classroom one day he was a second grade teacher at the time and we disagreed about everything everything and I remember I said hey I said I was just in Greece and I just watched these two gentlemen share a beer and just yelling at each other and then they got up and like they hugged each other and it was weird I said I'm not bringing beer into your classroom because I like my job but what if we were just to be able to have what we called pizza talk where we're just able to have a conversation and see where it leads and at the end of the day you know that I respect you I know that you respect me and then we can just have that conversation and so we did and for the next several years until he left I loved going into Lewis's classroom we would disagree like I said about everything and if I got stuck I knew that I could go back to the book I could find the answer because I knew where Lewis worked it wasn't like I was gonna have to wait to find him in six months nope Monday through Friday I knew where

[44:42] Lewis was and he knew where I was and it was one of the most beautiful things in the world now does Lewis love the Lord absolutely not but do we have a healthy respect for each other and he knows he knows where I stand and he knows what I believe absolutely absolutely are we willing to be used by the Lord in that manner non-believers I was really excited today to make an introduction not to anybody sitting in the audience but of the Lord Jesus to you if you don't know the Lord today what a weird passage to come into potentially but I think you've been presented with an opportunity and we've been given an example in what not to do when it comes to pilot pilot was faced with truth and he chose to walk away having already made up his mind about who Jesus was and how Jesus fit into his life he wasn't gonna affect his job he wasn't gonna affect his political standing he just wasn't a threat he wasn't gonna change much in pilot's life I don't know where you stand with Jesus I don't know if you've already made up your mind about who Jesus is but this morning you've been presented with a man that is on trial and that if you stick with us for the next few weeks this man is ultimately gonna be crucified for sinners like you newsflash you're in a room full of sinners you're not by yourself you're in a room of people that have leaned into the question what is truth and on the other end they found the person of Christ I don't do altar calls I don't do things where you close your eyes and stand up and raise your hand but I would say this if you're an individual this morning that has questions about Jesus and where he stands in your life I would encourage you to lean in there are elders here there are pastors on staff there are members of the body that would love to talk to you about who this man is and I would encourage you to not pass up the opportunity to actually ask who is truth not what is true let's pray father in heaven you are so good you are so good and I thank you that on a regular basis you are challenging us Lord when you called us you had in mind our short comings you had in mind our hypocrisy you had it all in mind and yet you weren't swayed you weren't deterred you weren't set off course there was no gasp from heaven no scrambling to find a plan B Lord you are in charge

[48:31]  Lord I pray where hypocrisy exists in our life Lord would you very clearly very succinctly in the quiet of our hearts would you please bring it to mind and then would you give us the strength and ability to be able to repent from that hypocrisy Lord where you have called us to step into the world and to speak truth whether or not it's those that happen to be above us in some sort of authoritative hierarchy Lord would you give us the strength the words the wisdom to be able to speak truth Lord it's all about you these songs that we're getting ready to sing are all about you would you have your way today Lord Jesus would you be pleased and honored with how we go about the rest of our day week and month in Jesus name amen