Well, this morning we're gonna talk about how the gods are the, the gods.
Hello.
We believe in one God here.
Um, this morning we're here to talk about how the odds.
Are always in God's favor, despite contrary appearances, like showing
up to a sermon that's a four point sermon in communion afterwards,
which by the way, I'm aware of.
So if you're like, oh man, this is gonna be a, we're never gonna make lunch.
I'm aware, I, I'm watching, I'm watching.
I, I played soccer growing up.
I played soccer in high school, and before that I, I played in elementary school,
but there was one team that almost ruined it for me, uh, because, and all, we were
a brown, I think we were the Wildcats.
It was back in Plano Sports Association growing up out here.
Uh, this team, we won one game all season, and that's because when we
showed up, the other team didn't show up.
So we, we were one in, one in whatever it was because of a forfeit.
Every time we showed up, the odds were against us in that.
And if we're real with ourselves this morning, sometimes it feels
like that in life, doesn't it?
In, in fact, as Christians sometimes we find ourselves in situations
where we, if we can be so bold, we would even suggest that it feels
like the odds are against God.
We're going through a valley, we're going through a trial, we're
going through a difficult time.
Maybe you've lost a, a, a family member, or you've lost your job and you're
watching bills stack up and you've gone to interview after interview after
interview, and you're just not finding work and you're going, okay, God, I don't
know how you're gonna work this one out.
Or you've got an unbelieving spouse and, and you've shared the gospel over
and over and over and over again with that spouse, and yet they have not come
to faith in Christ and they've been seemingly getting harder and harder and
harder towards the gospel and despising your faith more and more and more.
And you sit there and you think to yourself, okay, God, I, I don't know
how you're gonna work this one out.
Or maybe there's times where, uh, you've got a wayward child, a a child that you
raised and you raised in the church, and you took them to the church from
the time they were little until the time now that they're older and out of the
house and, and you've been praying for their salvation and you've been thinking,
okay, God, anytime Now, anytime you want to, to bring fruit from the seeds
that were planted while they were in our kids' ministry or in Awana or in
student ministry or at home with family devotions, and yet it's not happening, and
you think to yourself, okay, God, I don't know how you're gonna work this one out.
It is times like that that we have to remember the truth that we're
gonna find in the text this morning.
That despite contrary appearances, the odds are always in God's favor.
Turn to John 18, if you will, starting in verse 12.
We're gonna cover the rest of chapter 18 together this morning.
John 18, verse 12.
It says this, so the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of
the Jews arrested Jesus, inbound him.
Now, remember, this is perhaps up to 600 soldiers.
That's what the word band in the Greek means.
It was a a a A cohort, which could have numbered up to 600 of them.
So these soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews, the, the
officers sent from the Sadducees and the Pharisees arrested Jesus and bound him.
Now, just for our timeframe, this is still Thursday night.
This is the same evening that Jesus was in the upper room with the disciples
eating the Passover meal with them washing their feet, teaching them that
all that he had been teaching them throughout the upper room discourse.
The high priestly prayer from John 17.
All of this is still the same night, Thursday evening.
It says in verse 13, first they led him to Anis, who, for he was
the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year.
Now, you might think to yourself, okay, if Caiaphas is the high
priest, why did they take him to Anis the father-in-law of Caiaphas?
What we have to know about, and, and this is some background to what's
going on here, is that Anis was the high priest before Caiaphas.
In fact, at this time, what had happened was the Romans came in and the Romans
began to depose the the Jewish high priest and install a new high priest.
This is one of the ways that they were exercising authority over the Jewish
people, but for the Jewish people, they looked at the role and office of
High Priest as a lifetime appointment.
There was no being removed from the office of High Priest for them.
And so even though the Romans had removed Anis from being high priest and
it installed his son-in-law, Caiaphas as the high priest at this time in the
Jewish mind, Anis was still the chief high priest, if I can put it that way.
He was the patriarch of the high priestly family.
In fact, I believe up to nine other high priests came either from Anis sons or
son-in-laws from this point forward.
And so that's why when the Jews are there and they arrest
Jesus, they lead him to Anis.
Now you might think, well, why Anis and why not Pilate immediately?
The answer to that is the Jews were the arresting party here.
They had recruited Roman help and as we'll see here, they were gonna
need Romans to get to, to where they ultimately wanted to get.
But the reason they stopped first with Anis is because Anis was the, the high
priest and this was a Jewish matter.
At this point in time, I.
In John's Gospel, we see a few of the trials of Jesus.
But all in all in the gospels, there's six trials that Jesus will
stand for, for defense in and I, I use the word trials very loosely.
In fact, even in our text, we're gonna see that these trials were not
conducted in accordance with Jewish law.
And so the first, there is this one before Anis that we find in our text.
The next is Caiaphas.
John alludes to the trial before Caiaphas here, but doesn't
give us any detail about it.
After Caiaphas came to Sanhedrin in Matthew 27.
Yeah, and then he sent to Pilate, John 18.
We're gonna get there in our passage from Pilate.
He goes to Herod again, John doesn't record that, but Luke does for us.
And then Herod sends him back to Pilate, and then we'll find that in the end of
our passage here in John chapter 18.
But six times Jesus is being tried for his apparent guilt.
John 1814.
It says this, it was Caiaphas, by the way, who had advised the Jews
that it would be expedient, that one man should die for the people.
That's a callback from John to John chapter 11 verses 49 through 50.
John 1149 through 50 says this, but one of them, Caiaphas, who
was high priest that year, said to them, you know nothing at all.
Nor do you understand it's better for you that one man should die for the people,
not the whole nation should perish.
Same Caiaphas here.
John's just framing that for us at this point.
Peter and John, we're gonna find out are at least following Jesus at
a distance, but man, things are not looking good for Jesus right now.
Uh, up to 600 Roman soldiers.
Plus the Sanhedrin officers arrested.
Jesus took him into custody, bound him, led him before anus to be tried.
He's gonna go through six trials, man, talk about the odds being
stacked against someone at this point.
It certainly looks from an earthly perspective, in a worldly perspective
as we look at this, like the odds are stacked against God, like the
odds are stacked against Jesus.
But as I said, the odds are always in God's favor.
In fact, acts chapter two, verse 23 says this, this Jesus delivered up according
to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the
hands of lawless men who killed Jesus.
Did the Jews did the Romans, or did God?
Yes, it was all in accordance with God's perfect plan.
See, the odds are still in God's favor because God is the one that's
orchestrating, like we talked about last week, orchestrating all of the details.
So even here, man, it looks like the odds are against Jesus, but this
is really exactly where God wanted Jesus and where Jesus needed to be.
See, Jesus was arrested, but God's plan wasn't arrested, and that's
point number one before us this week.
It's this.
Rejoice.
God's plan can never be arrested.
Rejoice that God's plan can never be arrested.
What does the word arrest mean?
Outside of the context of law enforcement, it means to stop something, right?
Think cardiac arrest.
Cardiac arrest is when your heart stops.
God's plan can never be stopped and, and the reason is, is God
is the divine chess master.
God is always 10 moves ahead, working to set up checkmate even when it might look
like he's losing from our perspective.
Why can God's plan never be arrested?
Well, let's talk about what God's plan actually is.
First Corinthians chapter 15.
If you wanna flip over there real quick in your Bibles, first
Corinthians 15 verses 24 through 28.
First Corinthians 15 verses 24 through 28.
The Apostle Paul, first Corinthians 15.
If you know this chapter, it's the resurrection chapter.
It's the chapter all about.
Our faith is not in vain because in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead.
But in this context, he gives us an idea, an understanding of where God's plan is
moving and why it can never be stopped.
Verse 24 of one Corinthians 15 says this, then comes the end when he.
Jesus delivers the kingdom to God the Father, after destroying every
rule and every authority and power for He, Jesus must reign until he has
put all his enemies under his feet.
The last enemy to be destroyed is death For God has put all things in subjection
under his feet, but when it says all things are put in subjection, it's
plain that he is accepted, who put all things in subjection under him, meaning.
The father is not being subjected to Jesus.
The Father is subjecting all things to Jesus.
Think Philippians chapter two, at the name of Jesus Christ, every knee will bow
and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.
Everything subjected to Christ, but polishing not the Father,
the Father is accepted from that.
Verse 28, when all things are subjected to him, Jesus.
Then the son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things
in subjection under him that is the Father, that God may be all and in awe.
This is the plan of God.
This has been the plan of God as far as redemptive history is concerned.
From the moment he said, let there be light.
This is what God is doing.
This is what God is moving towards.
He's moving towards the culmination of the fact that Jesus Christ is going to be
exalted by every single person in heaven, above on earth and under the earth.
Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord
to the glory of the Father, and then the Son is gonna take everything and
subject it to the Father, including himself, that God in the end may be all
there is, that He is all and in all.
That there's no question about who is to be worshiped.
There's no question about who gets the glory.
That is where everything is moving.
Uh, John puts it this way in Revelation 1115, then the seventh angel blew
his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying The kingdom
of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and
he shall reign forever and ever.
That's where we're moving.
That's where we're going, and that plan can never be stopped, never be arrested.
And that plan is gonna come to fruition through Jesus Christ.
And, and so for us, it's one thing for us to think at the, the macro level
of that and be like, yes, I get it.
Amen.
The, the, the plan of God can never be arrested.
I'm fine with that.
But what about when God medals in our life?
What about on the micro level?
Do you still believe that God's plan for you can never be arrested no
matter what's going on in your life?
This nation looks a lot different than it used to look.
This, this state looks a lot different than it used to look.
I mentioned last week the, the growth of Islam In this state, there's a, a
planned center called Epic Center, east Plano, Islamic Center that's being built
or proposed at least over in Plano.
And there's some legal.
Opposition to it now, but this is supposed to be a, a massive complex, a
400 acre Muslim only community that's supposed to feature a K through 12 Islamic
school, as well as a community college.
Mosque.
Sharia law has been associated with this, and the broadcasting of the, the
prayer, the Islamic call to prayer over the loudspeaker speakers in Plano, up
in McKinney, there's a planned 40,000 square foot Islamic center that they're
planning on, including another mosque.
Here in Frisco, we have a 34,000 square foot Hindu temple.
This is not the same Texas that I grew up in, in the nineties.
And, and the question is, what do we do with this?
Do we sit back and say, God, what are you doing?
How can this happen?
What's going on?
But maybe even at that level, we're able to say, okay, God, your plan, not my plan.
Just, just keep it outta my backyard.
What if it comes into your backyard?
What if your neighborhood in 10 years has speakers up on the light poles
broadcasting the Islamic call of prayer?
See, our plans might be arrested, but God's plan never will.
And, and, and that's where it's, the rubber meets the road for us, y'all.
Is when it, it comes out of this ambiguous theological doctrine.
God's in control of all things and it gets into our kitchen, into our
life, and, and, and our family's security is now in jeopardy and, and
our plans for our life is in jeopardy.
And, and your spouse is rejecting Christ and your kids are walking away
and you've got marital problems and the diagnosis came back and says,
cancer stage four terminal, sorry.
We can't do anything to help you in that.
That's when the question becomes, do you believe that God's plan
can still never be arrested?
Again, our plans can be arrested, but his plan can't.
And so we see our savior arrested.
We see our savior delivered over to the Jews.
We see our savior standing trial and we have to ask the question,
do we believe even there that the odds are still in God's favor?
'cause God's plan can never be arrested.
The disciples were gonna learn that lesson, but it was gonna take them
some time verses 15 through 18.
We find what happens in the immediate context here and also in verses 25
through 27, which is what we're gonna cover here in this next section.
Uh, verses 15 through 18, Simon Peter followed Jesus
and so did another disciple.
We believe this is John.
Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus
into the courtyard of the high priest.
But Peter stood outside at the door, so the other disciple who was known
to the high priest went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch
at the door and brought Peter in.
The servant girl out the door said to Peter, you also are not one
of this man's disciples, are you?
He said, I am not.
And now the servants and the officers had made a charcoal fire
because it was cold and they were standing and warming themselves.
And Peter also was with them standing and warming himself.
So what's interesting here, what, what hit me this time reading this is she says,
you also are not one of his disciples.
Meaning they knew John was one of his followers.
And, and so it's not as though Peter and John were both
trying to be incognito here.
Uh, it's not as though anyone was like, Hey, if you're his disciple,
we're gonna kill you on the spot.
John's able to walk right in and then come back and get Peter and bring Peter in.
And so really at this point in time, Peter has no reason to deny Jesus other
than I think he's just so discombobulated by everything that's been happening.
He's so thrown off and, and self-preservation is kicking in, but
from here, it's only gonna ratchet up.
If you look at verse 25, now, Simon Peter was standing and warming himself
again with the officers in the servants.
So now the stakes are a little bit higher.
Now, there's some of the officers, the arresting officers that were there.
And one of them said to him, you also are not one of his disciples are you?
And he denied it and said, I am not.
And then one of the servants, this is when the stakes reached, the hi reached
the highest for Peter, one of the servants of the high priest, a relative
of the man whose ear Peter had cut off.
This is Malus relative.
He says, didn't I see you in the garden with him?
Peter again denied it.
And at once a rooster crow.
Now.
In these three denials, uh, we don't get all of the detail that
we find in the synoptic gospels.
Like when Peter finished denying him the third time and Jesus turned
and looked at Peter, and Peter went out and whit wept bitterly.
Or when it says that, that Peter was calling down and invoking curses
upon himself as he was denying it the third time saying, if this is
not so, let me basically be damned.
Let me go to hell.
We don't have that detail.
The other gospels provide that for us.
But before we make Peter the, the, the pin cushion doll for us and be like, I
can't believe Peter would ever do that.
Let's remember the other disciples have also abandoned Jesus.
In fact, in Mark's gospel, we read this Mark 1415, they all left
him and fled in Matthew 26 56.
But all this had taken place that the scriptures of the
prophets might be fulfilled.
Then all the disciples left him and fled.
Jesus had prophesied about this in Matthew 26 31.
Jesus said to them, you will all fall away because of me.
Tonight, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep
of the flock will be scattered.
So you see, it wasn't just Peter's denials, albeit they
were perhaps the most grievous example of the disciples failures.
It was the failure of all of them together.
But church, if we're honest with ourselves, we've also
failed Jesus too, haven't we?
We've been ashamed of him, like Peter was ashamed of him.
We've denied him by our actions, by the life that we've lived.
We've sinned against God.
And so metaphorically speaking, we, we are not all that different from Peter
in the, in the 12 Peter in the the 11.
But there's encouragement for us this morning because this, 'cause
remember again, at this point, okay, all his disciples have left him.
His, one of his closest disciples, most ardent defenders, is now denying him.
Again, talk about a situation where it seems like the odds
are stacked against Jesus.
And again, it's true.
The odds are always in God's favor because those disciples failed him.
That doesn't mean that his plan had failed.
Our second point this morning, along those lines is this, praise God,
our failures aren't God's failures.
Praise God.
Our failures aren't God's failures.
That's such good news for all of us this morning because there's only one person to
walk this earth and never fail the Father.
And that's Jesus,
him and him alone.
And so all of us in this room, I, I, I trust have had those moments where
we have felt the, the pain of our sin, the conviction, the guilt of our sin.
And yet the encouragement for you this morning is that doesn't
mean that God has failed.
None of us in this room are important enough that our sin
could derail the plan of God.
And that's good news.
So then the question becomes, what do I do with this?
I worship him.
I praise him for that.
I'm encouraged by that.
That's great.
But then I also want us to think about, so then what do we do with our sin?
Because this point is not licensed to go out and sin boldly, well, if I
can't mess up the plan of God, great.
Let's go.
Let's go eat, drink, and be merry.
'cause why does it matter?
It does matter.
So I want us to talk about what we do when we sin.
Uh, maybe when you've sinned, you've been tempted to retreat inward into that
kind of, that, that ball of self pity.
Where, where you feel like you are unworthy and God would never use you
and you can't go to church or you can't go to community group or you can't,
uh, show up to serve or you can't pray.
And, and, and what you end up doing in that moment is you end
up sidelining yourself from a, a position saying, God, I've failed you
and, and now your plan in my life, obviously you can't use me anymore.
If that were true, you realize we wouldn't have any of the New Testament pretty much.
Because everybody that wrote these books have failed God at
one point in time or another.
I mean, think about Paul.
If God wouldn't use somebody who failed him, do you think he would ever use Paul?
Think about Peter.
Do you think God would ever use Peter if, if, if failure meant that man,
God can't use me now that I failed, or Jesus' own brothers, right?
James Jude, they thought he was crazy early on in his ministry.
If, if our failure means that God's done with us 'cause he can't use us anymore,
his plan for our life has failed, then, then we wouldn't have the Bible.
And so we can't retreat inwards and, and sideline ourselves.
Rather, we need to be quick to repent, but maybe our, our other response
to our sin is we just shrug it off.
Like, okay, well fine then it's no big deal.
If, if my sin, my failure can't cause God to fail, then great.
Awesome.
Then I don't need to really worry about my sin.
My sins not that big of a deal.
The danger there is that may reveal that we've got a conscience that's been seared.
That, that we've ignored the spirits pressing in on an area of our life
for so long, that, that we now have a, a calloused conscience to
the spirit's voice in our life.
We're not meant to, to melt into a ball of self pity, but we're
also not meant to rush past the feelings of guilt and conviction.
Those feelings are a mercy and a grace of God in our life.
It meant to drive us to the cross, meant to cause us to go to Jesus.
And remember where our sin can ultimately be aone for where our
sin can ultimately be forgiven.
And so we need to not melt into a ball of self pity, but we
also need to not shrug it off.
So then what do we do?
Well, when we feel the weight of our sin, when we feel that conviction, we need
to truly repent and put it away from us.
The Apostle Paul helps us understand what that looks like
in second Corinthians seven 11.
Two Corinthians seven 11 talks about what godly repentance looks like.
He says this, foresee what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you.
What eagerness to clear yourself of that sin.
To say that that sins got no claim on me anymore.
It's done.
I'm, I'm, I'm putting it behind me, but also what Indignation He says,
indignation at the thought of the sin.
That, that it becomes repulsive to us.
What fear?
Uh, that fear that we should venture back into it, that we should slide
back into that sin what longing?
A, a longing that that would never come back in our life again.
A desire that it would never be associated with us ever again.
What zeal?
A passion for godliness and for holiness.
A zeal for that which is the opposite of the, the sin that we've just committed.
What punishment think When Paul says, I discipline my body and make it my
slave, we're gonna do, we're gonna discipline ourselves to make sure that
we're never going to do that sin again.
This is godly repentance when we sin.
And so it's, it's good news.
Back to our point that the carrying out of God's plan in this world
is not dependent on you and me.
That's such good news.
Our failures aren't God's failures, y'all.
That also means that none of us are indispensable to him.
Right.
That he doesn't need any of us in this room.
Your existence in this moment isn't because God needs you,
but because he loves you.
That said again, my, my fear with the point like this is that I don't want
us to walk away trivializing our sin.
And so while our sin can't lead to the failure of God's plan, our sin can
lead to the hindrance of God's plan.
Lemme explain what I mean.
Last year, churches in our area, were in the news multiple
times for all the wrong reasons.
You had multiple pastors.
I think at, at one count, pastor Rod and I were keeping track.
We had at least eight that we knew of pastors who disqualified themselves
or were even arrested for acts under unbecoming, a, a decent human being, let
alone a, a minister of the word of God.
And that was a black eye to the church.
Social media posts were littered with comments, feigning shock,
saying, well, this is true of every pastor that's out there, so why
should we all be surprised at this?
Lemme ask one question first.
Does that mean that God's plan for reaching people in North
Texas has failed because those pastors disqualified themselves?
No, but let me ask this.
Has it been hindered?
Have there been obstacles put in the way?
Has it become more challenging for us because of the actions of those men?
Undoubtedly, the answer to that question is yes.
So, while our sin doesn't mean that God's plan has failed, our sin can lead to the
hindrance, the obstacle, the the slowing down of the progression of that plan.
And that should, what should that do with us?
That should instill within us a, a fear that we would ever do something that
would lead to God's plan being hindered or slowed down in its accomplishment.
Pastor Ada often cites this quote from DA Carson, and I think it's appropriate here.
Carson said this.
He said, I, I do not know how many times I've sung the words, oh,
let me never, never outlive my love for thee, but I mean them.
I would rather die than end up unfaithful to my wife.
I would rather die than deny by a prolate life what I have taught in my books.
I would rather die than deny or disown the gospel.
God knows there are many things in my past of which I'm deeply ashamed.
I would not want such shame to multiply and bring dishonor
to Christ in years to come.
There are worse things than dying.
And so we, we need that balance with this second point here that
we should praise God that our failures aren't God's failures.
We praise him because that means that, that we're not
gonna ever derail God's plan.
That, that whatever your past looks like, Christian God is
not done with you this morning.
You have not failed your way out of usefulness to him.
You have not sinned your way out of usefulness to him that if there is
genuine repentance, then God is delighting in continuing to use broken people
for the accomplishment of his plan.
That's how he gets all the glory, but we have to balance that with
this reality that we should fear ever doing anything that would lead to the
hindrance and obstacle put in the way of the accomplishing of that plan.
We can do a lot of harm.
We can do a lot to make it look like the odds are stacked against God.
But praise God, the odds are always in his favor.
Jump back up in the passage now of verses 19 through 24, which I skipped over here.
Jesus is gonna appear here before anus.
It says there in verse 19.
The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.
And the high priest had had more than a, a passing interest in Jesus' followers here.
And this tells us that, that Jesus was actually.
Insightful and and wise to step forward and say, who do you seek
when he did so in the garden?
Because now Anis is saying, Hey, tell me about your followers.
Jesus is gonna ignore that, and he's gonna go straight to the second
question about his own teaching.
Look at verse 20.
Jesus says here, he says, I have spoken openly to the world.
I've always taught in synagogues and in the temple where all Jews come together.
I've said nothing in secret.
Why then do you ask me, ask those who have heard me what I said to them.
They know what I said.
What's going on here is, is more than what meets the eye on our initial reading
of this, and, and we have to understand the, the procedure in Jewish law, Anis
was not supposed to be interrogating Jesus about his teaching at this point.
The way that the Jewish law system was set up was Anis was supposed to
be talking to those that were bringing charges against Jesus, not to Jesus.
And so when Jesus says that to Anis, Jesus is not just appealing to the
integrity of his ministry, which he was, but more so, Jesus is issuing a
tacit rebuke to Anis the high priest who should have known better that annis.
You are not doing things in accordance with the law right now.
Why are you talking to me?
Is his question.
Talk to the ones that you are looking to for charges against me.
Now, the reason Annis couldn't do that is because at this point they didn't
have anything to charge Jesus with.
They're scrambling still trying to fi find even lying testimony to agree.
'cause you need two or more witnesses.
They can't find people to agree together.
And so at this point in time, anus is only left to talk to Jesus.
But that's why in verse 22, it says, when he said these things, one of the officers
standing by struck Jesus with his hand.
Man, that jumped off the page at me this week too, thinking about
that to strike the son of God at all, but let alone with your hand.
But the reason he does this is because he picks up on what Jesus has just done.
That Jesus has just called out anus for not doing things in accordance with
what the law was supposed to be, and so that's why Jesus responds when he says,
is that how you answer the high priest?
Jesus says, if what I said is wrong, tell me.
Show me bear witness about the wrong.
But what I said is right.
Why do you strike me?
In this context, what we see is, is Jesus is unashamed to stand by his word.
He knows that his word is impugn.
He knows that everything that he's taught is is completely true.
He knows that there's nothing that they can charge him with
as far as wrongdoing or error.
It says in verse 28, then they led Jesus from the House of Caiaphas
to the governor's headquarters.
And it was early morning.
They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters so that they would
not be defi, but could eat the Passover.
There is so much going on here, and that's what I get for
choosing such a large passage.
I, I wish I had more time.
Can I commend something to you?
Uh, there's a, a, a channel on YouTube called Expedition Bible Expedition Bible.
Great channel.
So many great videos on there.
Uh, there's a video called, is this where Jesus was tried by Pilate.
Is this where Jesus was tried by Pilate?
It's worth watching 'cause it's talking about this exact scene.
It's gonna give you a whole nother layer of what's going on here that I just
don't have time to get into this morning.
But lemme just say this, the reason they didn't want to enter into the
governor's headquarters, which I believe was the Ian Palace at this time, was
there were probably, according to Josephus, at least statutes, statutes
to fault gods in the courtyard.
And so if they were to enter in there, that would've been defiling themselves by
entering into the presence of these false gods that were in the courtyard there.
And it says that they wanted to be able to keep the Passover.
Now, you may be thinking, didn't they already have the Passover meal?
Isn't that what Jesus ate in the upper room with his disciples?
In fact, Mark's gospel says as much and Mark.
1412, it says, on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed
the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, where will you have us go and
prepare for you to eat the Passover?
So it's unquestionable that the meal they had during the upper
room was the Passover meal.
And so what's happening here is we have to remember that the Passover
meal kicked off what's known as the Feast of Unleavened bread.
And sometimes the whole thing was referred to as the Passover, so the Jews
didn't wanna become defiled so that they could continue to remember, continue to
celebrate, continue to observe the feast of unleavened bread, the whole thing.
That's why they're not gonna enter into the courtyard there of the governor's.
Headquarters of, of Herod's palace Pilate takes Jesus and says, take him
yourselves and judge him by your own law.
And the Jews said, it's not lawful for us to put anyone to death.
And so here's what I want you to see here.
They can't find anything to stick to Jesus.
Pilate can't find anything to stick to Jesus.
Anis can't find anything to stick to.
Jesus doesn't find anything to stick to Jesus.
And the reason is, is because of the unquestionable truth of
Jesus' ministry in his word.
Our third point this week is this.
Along those lines, we need to act on the unquestionable truth of God's word.
We've got a tall order, a, a mission that in some regards can seem like we
are up against it, like the odds are stacked against us as a church to take
the gospel to a lost and dying world.
And yet we need to remember in that moment that we have the unquestionable
truth of God's word, the, the, the word that Jesus was able to say,
show me what I've said That's wrong.
We have the message, we have the truth of the word of God to be able
to act on, to be able to take, to lost and dying people, to be able to call
them to faith and repentance in him.
And so even though we look at the mission and say, this seems like a tall order,
like the odds might be stacked against God, the odds are always in God's favor.
And that shows up for us as we seek to, to, to reach the loss by
knowing that we have the impugn word of God, which is able to save.
The question under this point for you this morning is, do you believe that?
Do you believe that?
Again, outside of these four walls, do you believe that?
Do you believe in God?
Father, son and Holy Spirit?
Do you believe in the realities of sin and the realities of eternal judgment
for that sin suffering under God's wrath?
Do you believe that if your lost neighbors don't repent and believe in
Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, that that they will go to hell?
Do you believe that if your lost coworkers don't do that, that they will go to hell?
Do you believe if your lost family members don't repent and believe
in Jesus that they will go to hell?
Do you believe in the power of the gospel to change that reality?
If so, have you shown it?
See my, my concern, my, my, and I'm preaching to myself here, church, and
I have been all week long in this, is that we say we believe all these things
here, and that's super easy to do,
but I think what shows whether or not we really believe this is whether or not
we're actually acting upon these beliefs.
Are we sharing the gospel with people?
If we have the, the, the unquestionable word of God that contains all of these
realities that I just mentioned, and you're living next door to somebody
who is a, an, an aneurysm, a heart attack, a a car accident away from
dying and going to hell, and you're content to just let it happen.
Do you really believe it?
Do I believe it?
How many of your neighbors do you know?
Actually no,
we're, we're, we're trying to get people to put a yard sign in the front yard
in some, I, I, I, not thinking of anyone specific in this room, honestly, but,
but some may be sitting out here this morning, even embarrassed to do that.
Y'all eternity's at stake.
And if we believe what we say we believe about what's in this book,
are we doing anything about it?
Are we acting on it
when we get to heaven?
God's not gonna be impressed with our doctrine in theology.
You know, my greatest fear is that we would end up as the Church of Ephesus.
A church that's got all the doctrine, all the theology that we're here,
that we're, we're strong internally, that we've got great ministries,
that people are growing in their strong marriages and everything else.
And yet we've forgotten our first love.
God told that church, Hey, if you don't repent, I'm gonna remove the lampstand.
I'm firmly convinced church that if we don't get after reaching
lost people for Christ, that this church will absolutely fail.
It doesn't matter how strong the pulpit is, 'cause we're not here.
To get spiritually sw for us to just look in the spiritual mirror
and be like, look how great we are.
We're here on Mission for Jesus.
Act on the unquestionable truth of God's word.
I get that the difficulty there, that that's hard and
that's frightening sometimes.
I, I love what Ray Comfort says.
He says, look, if you're fearful about sharing those realities with
people, don't pray for less fear.
Pray for more love.
I love that.
Love for who.
Love for the lost.
Pray that God would cause you to love them more, such that you're like,
if I don't share the gospel with them, I know where they're going.
So woe to me if I don't.
Act on the unconquerable unquestionable truth of God's word.
Verses 33 and following.
So Pilate Enters, entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to
him, are you the king of the Jews?
Pilate's perking up now because this is threatening him politically.
Because if Rome catches word that in Pilate's district, there's a king of
the Jews, Rome's not gonna like that.
And so Pilate's, a little nervous at this point.
He's gonna get more nervous next week.
Jesus answered.
Do you say this of your own accord or did others say it to you about me?
He's trying to fish for what's going on here with Pilate.
Pilate answered, am I a Jew?
Your own nation and the chief priest have delivered you over to me?
What have you done?
So Pilate's saying, why are you here?
Tell me what's going on here.
Verse 36.
Jesus answered.
He says, my kingdom.
Yes, I am a king.
My kingdom, it's not of this world.
If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would've been fighting
that I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but my kingdom
is not from this world, y'all.
This is why in John chapter six, Jesus didn't allow them to seize him and make
him king after the feeding of the 5,000.
This is why last week when we looked at it, Jesus said to Peter,
put your sword back in its sheath.
And he healed malus because his kingdom wasn't gonna be a kingdom
earthly, but a kingdom to come.
Pilate says in verse 37, so you are a king.
Jesus answered.
You say that I'm a king.
That's a way of him saying yes.
Basically 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.
Jesus is inviting Pilate to understand and acknowledge this truth at this
point, but Pilate in an act of cynicism, utters the famous phrase, what is truth?
After he had said this, he went back outside of the Jews and told
them, I find no guilt in him.
What I want us to see in this last point this morning is this.
I want us to notice what Jesus says about his kingdom.
My kingdom is not of this earth.
If it were of this earth, my servants would've been, would've been fighting.
Now, if my kingdom is of another nature, it's a kingdom that's that's yet to come.
Church.
When we look around at this earthly world, the earthly kingdoms in this world, we
can be tempted to think that the odds are stacked against God's kingdom.
But the reality is God's kingdom is yet coming, and it's the kingdom
that will never end, and that's the kingdom that we need to be
ultimately focused on this morning.
Fourth and finally, be committed to God's kingdom agenda.
Be committed to God's kingdom agenda.
There's a greater prize coming than any kingdom here on earth.
Spring training's over regular season has started Rangers first place in the Al.
Excited about that.
Go baseball, go Rangers.
But spring training there, there's a, there's always a team that
wins that, that has like the best record in spring training to let
you know how little that matters.
It's been the angels for like the last four or five years.
Right.
Where have they finished in the standings recently?
They're doing better this year, but they'll fade.
I'm not worried about it.
Spring training doesn't matter.
What matters is regular season playoffs.
Y'all.
The kingdoms of this world don't matter.
What matters is the kingdom.
What matters is the kingdom that's coming
real fast.
We're right now between the cross and the rapture.
Okay?
I, I admit and, and agree, there are differences of opinion as
far as eschatology, but my job as your pastor is to interpret
the word into land on it, okay?
And so it doesn't help you, for me to say whatever you wanna
believe about the end times.
Believe about the end times.
Nobody understands it.
That's a, that's a horrible take.
There.
Don't be a pan millennialist.
That'll all pan out in the end.
Okay?
Read your Bibles, do some work.
You may be confused.
Ask the questions, do a little digging, but this is where all
of human history is headed.
We should care about that.
Our conviction is this.
We're between the cross and the rapture.
Okay.
In light of that, the next thing after the rapture is the tribulation period.
That's seven years where God is going to bring wrath upon the, the earth.
The antichrist is gonna rise to power.
During that time, at the end of the tribulation, God comes back, deals
with the antichrist, bind Satan.
There's a millennial kingdom, the kingdom that's coming, that's gonna
be a literal thousand years on earth.
At the end of the millennial kingdom, Satan is defeated once and for all.
The great white throne happens, and then the new heavens and the new earth.
In the eternal state.
That's where we're headed.
We're about that kingdom agenda, which means this, y'all.
We need to be about the message of the kingdom.
This is building on this last point.
If you wanna be committed to the kingdom agenda, be committed to the
kingdom message, which Jesus says time and time again in the gospels
is the good news of the kingdom of God, the gospel of the kingdom.
Of God.
And so this final point is all about, hey, if you wanna be committed to the
kingdom agenda, then then be committed to the good news of the kingdom.
And the good news of the kingdom that's coming is not about what's
going on politically here and now.
It's about what Jesus is gonna be doing then and there.
And to get there, we need to have repentant from our sins and put our trust
in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
And so that's what he's doing this whole time, y'all.
That's why the odds are never against God.
That's why the God odds are always in his favor.
Because that's what he's moving to.
Like we talked about in one Corinthians 15, this is all part of his plan to bring
it to that fullness in that culmination.
But it's all gonna pivot around the cross.
It's all gonna pivot around the cross.
The cross is necessary.
The cross had to happen.
Without the cross.
None of his plan happens, and so that's why the cross matters most to us.
We're fortunate as we study the gospel of John, that Easter is
also approaching and we're right here at the doorstep of the cross.
See, God's plan was not arrested when Jesus was arrested, because God
was leading Jesus before Pilates and before Herod, and before Anus, and
before Caiaphas, all the way to the point that Kyiv has, or that that
pilot ultimately is gonna deliver him over to be crucified, because why?
Because that's necessary.
Without the crucifixion, our sins are still here.
None of us are forgiven.
Without Jesus dying, God's plan that all of us would be reconciled to him.
If we are in Christ, that doesn't happen.
And so it all turns on the cross, which is why, as I read in one
Corinthians, God uses the weak.
God uses the, the, the foolishness in this world.
Because if you tell someone you worship a crucified savior, they're gonna look
at you like you're from planet Mars.
A savior doesn't die.
A savior saves the day.
But when we understand the gospel, we understand that he did
save the day through his death.
And so in just a moment here when the music plays, after I pray, our
ushers are gonna pass the elements as we observe communion together.
And as you look at these elements, there's, as Thomas Watson once said, a
sermon being preached in these elements.
In fact, we made a shift this week away from those chalky wafer cook crackers.
You're welcome to actual broken pieces of matza because of
what took place on the cross.
When Jesus said, my body broken for you, my blood poured out for you.
So as you look at these things, look at these things and realize the world
looked at this and thought, man, God's plan has done, and God has
given us these things to remember that God's plan has not been defeated.
It's ongoing, and it will ultimately come to full fruition
when we are together with him.
And so as the music will play, the uns will pass.
I'll come back up.
We'll take them together here in just a moment.