What Is Truth?
Download MP3Would you guys turn with me to John chapter 18. If you're new to Redeemer, just real quick introduction again. My name is Joel Busby, and I'm one of the pastors here. My title here at Redeemer is that of planting pastor, which means that a a group of us are being sent to the other side of town, Homewood area, to plant a new congregation in the coming months. And we just ask for your prayers and that work.
Joel Busby:As you're turning there, I do I do want to tell you about something that just happened to me. I was setting my bible up and make sure everything is set, and then a whole entire piece of my Bible tore out. Natalie Brooks gasped when it happened. If you want to believe in spiritual warfare, you go. John chapter 18, and we continue our journey through the gospel of John.
Joel Busby:I will begin reading in verse 28. We're going to cover a a lengthy section in terms of the scripture reading, because this really goes together as a unit. But I will really, as far as the sermon is concerned, concentrate on the part that's in chapter 18. So let's read beginning in John 18 verse 28. Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters.
Joel Busby:It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover. So Pilate went outside to them and said, what accusation do you bring against this man?' They answered him, 'If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you.' Pilate said to them, 'Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.' The Jews said to him, 'it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death. This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die. So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, 'Are you the king of the Jews?' Jesus answered, do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?' Pilate answered, 'Am I a Jew?
Joel Busby:Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done? Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but my kingdom is not from the world. Then Pilate said to him, So you are a king?
Joel Busby:Jesus answered, You say that I'm a king. 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.' Pilate said to him, what is truth?' After he said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, 'I find no guilt in him, but you have a custom that I should release 1 man for you at the Passover. So do do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?' They cried out again, 'Not this man, but Barabbas.' Now Barabbas was a robber. Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him, and the soldiers twisted together crown thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe.
Joel Busby:They came up to him saying, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, see, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I have find no guilt in him. So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, behold the man. When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, crucify him.
Joel Busby:Crucify him. Pilate said to them, take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him. The Jews answered him, we have a law, and according to that law, he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God. When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered into his headquarters again and said to Jesus, where are you from?
Joel Busby:But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, you will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have the authority to release you and authority to crucify you? Jesus answered him, you would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.
Joel Busby:From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone makes him everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the stone pavement in Aramaic, Gabatha. Now it was the day of the preparation of the Passover. It was about the 6th hour.
Joel Busby:He said to the Jews, 'Behold your king.' They cried out, 'Away with him, away with him, crucify him!' Pilate said to them, 'Shall I crucify your king?' The chief priest answered, we have no king but Caesar. So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. The word of the Lord. Let's pray once more. Lord, we do ask that in this moment that your Spirit would take these words and the words that I've prepared, Lord, and that you would use them in our hearts to shape us and to change us, Lord, we ask.
Joel Busby:Pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our King. Amen. Well, we all watched it. We were all witnesses. Like it or not, we heard every bit of it.
Joel Busby:2 people in a debate, if you can even call it that. Was that really a debate? 2 differing diagnoses for where the problems lie, 2 different understandings of where all the solutions are supposed to come from, The atmosphere thick with misunderstandings, with talking past one another, with not seeing eye to eye. Scoffing, sarcastic jabs were there. Cynicism and skepticism abounded.
Joel Busby:We watched it. 2 different visions of power and authority. 2 different opinions as to how political power works. When it comes right down to it, at the end of the day, 2 very different understandings of truth. And the fate of the world and the future, it seems, hanging in the balance.
Joel Busby:Now I'm referring, of course, to the scene we just read between Jesus and Pilate. What did you think I was talking about? This passage is really something. It's grand and it's cosmic, significant type of things going on here. It's a clash of world views.
Joel Busby:I mean, it's it's a huge important passage. And readers throughout the history of the church has always understood what happens between Jesus and Pilate to be very central to understanding who Jesus was and who Jesus is. I mean, just think about our famous Christian confession, the apostle's Creed. We believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate.
Joel Busby:This passage in what came before in John 18 that Joel preached last week is is a wildly fascinating section of scripture. I'm not sure if this is allowed, but but it's one of my favorite passages of scripture. I don't know if preachers are allowed to have favorites, but we all do. And it's incredibly complex from a literary standpoint. If you know me at all, you know that that's something I'm particularly into.
Joel Busby:So humor me just for a quick second as I give you a couple of examples. The passage is just loaded with dramatic irony. I'm a say more about that as we go. It it also has a very careful structure. Pilate is going to speak to Jesus inside.
Joel Busby:He's going to go outside to speak to the Jewish leaders. He's going to come inside to speak to Jesus and he's going to do that back and forth 7 times. K. There's there's a there's a drama building here. And 7 in the Bible is this number of completion, of fullness.
Joel Busby:So something huge is going on here. It's loaded with with all kinds of Old Testament illusions. There's just tons of stuff happening in this text. And as tempting as it would be to just talk about all those fascinating things, we're here to actually do more this afternoon. You know, this week in preparation, I kind of was stuck because I thought I had come away with some fascinating things and that we'd all hear them and then go to dinner.
Joel Busby:But this text asked for more. It actually is going to turn on us and ask us some hard questions. It's a word for us tonight. We read the large section because the trial of Pilate is really understood to be one unit and it's too much for one sermon. So Brooks and I are going to cover it in 2 parts.
Joel Busby:I'm going to take this section through the end of chapter 18. And I'm going to focus on verse 38, Pilate's question. What is truth? Because I really think that's central. Everything's building to that.
Joel Busby:And make no mistake. In this scene, truth is on trial. Truth is on trial, and truth is on trial in 3 different ways. 3 different people are on trial in this scene, all leading to this truth question. So that's the way this sermon is going to take shape.
Joel Busby:Three different trials. Here's the first and most obvious. Jesus is on trial here. And it's a joke. It's a sham of a trial.
Joel Busby:It's it's not a trial at all. In fact, this trial scene before Pilate is just a gross injustice that has been carried over from before, the night before. And it's loaded with irony. It is ironic that Jesus, who John chapter 1 tells us, is the light of the world, the true light that gives light to everyone, the light that shines in the darkness. He's betrayed under the power of darkness.
Joel Busby:He's arrested and put on trial under the cloak of darkness. And then in verse 28, if you look at verse 28, they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters. It was early morning. So, the Jewish leaders have tried Jesus at night, an illegal thing to do. They've reached their own verdict and they want to put Him to death.
Joel Busby:The rooster has crowed, so that means the day has dawned, and they rush him off to Pilate to get a rubber stamp on their decision and to see Pilate carry out a quick execution before anyone can take notice. The irony continues. Look at the second part of verse 28. They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover. The irony is intense.
Joel Busby:The Jewish leaders want to stay pure. They want to stay ceremonially clean so that they can attend temple worship. So therefore, they don't want to go inside Pilate's house. They want to keep God's law. But the irony is they're delivering over the Passover lamb, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
Joel Busby:They're delivering over to be unjustly killed. In verse 29, Pilate he wants to know what all the fuss is about. So he says, What accusation do you bring against this man? The Jewish leaders answer in verse 30, If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you. Now, if you notice, that's not an answer.
Joel Busby:Because they know they have no case here, and Pilate seems to be annoyed with him. Look look at verse 31. Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law. Now, most scholars believe that Pilate's being a little snarky here. He's rubbing their noses in the fact that the Jewish leaders prized their law, but their law could not do for them what they wanted it to do in this case, which is deliver a death sentence.
Joel Busby:So, Pilate's kind of being mean. We know historically that Pilate was actually quite cruel and he stayed pretty frustrated with the Jewish people. And so what he's essentially saying here is, hold on a second. What about that law you're so obsessed with? Oh, oh, what?
Joel Busby:It can't it can't help you here? He's being kind of rude to them. Look at look at how they respond in verse 31. It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death. Now, John tells us there's something very different going on here that this actually was the fulfillment of Jesus's words that he would die a death by Roman crucifixion.
Joel Busby:This is not this is a detail not to be lost on us, that Jesus is on trial before the most powerful man in Palestine, the representative of Roman power. But it's Jesus who's in control of the situation. In fact, he's been guiding his whole life to this moment. He's been guiding the whole world to this moment. Jesus' accusers want his death, so Pilate decides he needs to dig a little deeper and figure out what's going on.
Joel Busby:So Pilate comes back in, and he confronts Jesus. Now, remember, Jesus is on trial and Pilate begins his interrogation. Look at verse 33. So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called to Jesus and said to Him, 'Are you the King of the Jews?' Pilate is asking this question somewhat sarcastically, and it's emphatic. Are you you the king of the Jews?
Joel Busby:See, because as soon as he sees Jesus, he already knows the answer to such a ridiculous question. This guy a king? You've got to be kidding me. What kind of moron would think this guy was a king? This country bumpkin from Nazareth.
Joel Busby:The guy with the Galilean accent. The man who's dressed in peasant clothing right here in front of me. This wretch of a person whose peasant clothing is marked with salty sweat stains, and those sweat stains are strangely tinged with drops of blood. This fool, whose hands and arms are burning because they're bound behind his back, he's a prisoner whose face maybe is swollen from having been disrespectively slapped earlier in this night. This guy the guy who Pilate in the next scene is going to flog and have beaten, who's going to take a twisted mess of briars and thorns and press it into his mangled and matted hair, who the soldiers will spit on and mock?
Joel Busby:That's a king? You better believe it. And I wanna say so much more here, but it's next week's sermon. Jesus is on trial here, and it's the most undressed trial the world has ever seen, which is really saying something. And at this point, the pastor in me wants to offer a word of application.
Joel Busby:In enduring this evil, the circus of evil and justice, Jesus is actually doing something for us. 1 of our professors in seminary, Robert Smith, told me one time, anytime you get a hint of Jesus doing something directly for your people, tell them. Have you ever been mistreated, maligned, lied to, deceived, lied about, falsely accused, completely misunderstood? Have you ever been the victim of a scam, of injustice? Have you ever been abused by someone in authority?
Joel Busby:Been hurt or abandoned by someone you should have been able to trust? Have you ever been a victim of a plot to hurt you? Been the object of gross negligence from some person in power? Maybe you have. I'll bet someone you know and love has.
Joel Busby:And it is a profound comfort to know that Jesus has too. In the face of all that sort of thing, it's good to know that he has truly taken the worst of it. Scripture tells us that He endured this kind of shame for you and for me. So that's Jesus's trial and it's it's building. It's building toward this truth question.
Joel Busby:But there's a second person on trial in this story. We see it in verse 34. Remember Pilate asked, Are You the King of the Jews? But look at Jesus' answer in verse 34. Jesus answered, do you say this of your own accord or did others say it to you about me?' We all of a sudden realize that Pilate is on trial here.
Joel Busby:See, Pilate thinks he's interrogating Jesus, but then he finds that this is not the case. It's Jesus who's interrogating Pilate. In the first part of their conversation, Jesus has something he wants to know. Do you say this of your own accord, Pilate, or did somebody tell you this about me? It reminds us of that other scene in the gospels where Jesus says to his followers, who do the crowds say that I am?
Joel Busby:And they and they answer a few things. He says, no, no, no, no, no, no. You tell me who do you say that I am. See, Jesus is doing here what He so often does. He refuses to be dealt with as an idea, as a concept, or some sort of theory.
Joel Busby:He's not going to be dealt with as a rumor or some kind of abstraction. Not for a second. Not for his disciples. Not for the Roman governor. Not for you and me either, by the way.
Joel Busby:Jesus wants to know what Pilate thinks. And all of us, we have to reckon with Jesus personally. Pilate doesn't doesn't love this new line of inquiry. Verse 35, he becomes kind of snide and snarky. Am I a Jew?
Joel Busby:Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done? Pius is trying to gain control of the conversation again. It's his way of saying, Hey, buddy. I'm the one asking the questions here.
Joel Busby:Jesus' response, again, is interesting. He responds by talking kingdom. And this is bold. He's talking to Pilate, the man who represents Rome, one of the most powerful cultures that the world has ever known. If there's one thing that Rome understands, it's kings and emperors and power and might.
Joel Busby:But Jesus makes it plain in verse 36 that his kingdom is not of this world. Now it is for this world, but just not from it. It's not of it. In other words, the realm of Jesus' rule is driven by an entirely different set of values and priorities. Jesus' kingdom has a different agenda, a different ruler.
Joel Busby:And here's the deal. It is a threat to Rome, but not a threat to Rome in the way that Pilate is thinking. That's why Jesus adds the line that his men would be gathered and fighting if his kingdom was that kind of kingdom. But Jesus says it's a different kind of kingdom. And make no mistake, every other human power, every other human system of authority pales in comparison to this kingdom.
Joel Busby:Jesus, in those words, just relativizes Pilate's notion of power. We know in scripture that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess before this Jesus. It's really, really good to know in something like an election year that there is a true king that rules over all things. Now Pilate doesn't get it, but see Pilate can kind of work with this. If Jesus is claiming to be king, then he's actually a traitor to the Roman Empire, and therefore, there might be some cause to kill him.
Joel Busby:Look at verse 37. Pilate says, oh, oh, so you are a king?' Jesus responds by changing the subject again. Remember, he is the judge here, and this time he wants to talk about truth. Jesus says in verse 37, You say that I'm a king. But let me tell you my real purpose.
Joel Busby:For this purpose, I was born. And for this purpose, I've come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. Now truth is an important theme in John's gospel. In John chapter 8, we're told that if we abide in Jesus' words, we will know the truth and the truth will actually then set us free.
Joel Busby:In John 17, he's Jesus tells us he has sanctified his disciples and set them apart in the truth. So truth is an important theme in John. But what's going on here? Pilate's confused too. Look at verse 38.
Joel Busby:Pilate said to him his famous question, what is truth?' Now, that's a good question. And we're not sure of Pilate's tone of voice when he asks. Is he being snarky and cold and indifferent, sarcastic or rude? A lot of scholars think so. I mean, he doesn't wait to hear an answer.
Joel Busby:So some people think it's Pilate's way of saying, hey. This is a good talk, but I really don't have time for this. And if that's his tone of voice, then it fits perfectly with the way that the world now John sees Pilate as representing the world here it fits perfectly with the way that the world responds to Jesus. Cold indifference moving right along. Now, is Pilate asking in a gentler tone, is he a man who's grown weary with the ways of the world?
Joel Busby:Has he seen somewhat of the light that gives light to everyone in this conversation? I mean, we know that from this point, he finds a way to try to release Jesus, but he eventually caves to the pressure. So is he a guy just kind of caught in a bad spot and just sort of unwilling to really go there? If so, that fits perfectly with the way that the world responds to Jesus. Interested?
Joel Busby:Maybe even sincerely interested or even sympathetic to Him, but ultimately unwilling to bow to His kingship. So we don't know what Pilate was thinking, but his question, What is truth? Is the question of our day, isn't it? Our culture is asking this question at every turn. Is truth only that which is scientifically observable, totally rational, provable, verifiable in a test tube or laboratory somewhere.
Joel Busby:The modern world the modern world certainly thought so. Or in the late modern world, what some might call the postmodern world, is truth malleable? Is it adaptable? Is it customizable? Is the truth basically a preference according to whatever suits your fancy?
Joel Busby:Is it an individual experience of something, enabling us to use a phrase like, my truth? Just this week, Joel Brooks saw saw a news article he told me about where a question was asked of a famous celebrity, and they said, that doesn't really matter. We're inventing our own truth. Therefore, is truth just different for everyone? Well, the postmodern world certainly seems to think so.
Joel Busby:I was reading an article this week where where the author was saying we actually now live in a post truth culture. There's no such thing as it anymore. So is truth a body of facts or a swirl of whatever you happen to be feeling at the time? Which is it? Is it a fact thing, a rational thing, a feeling thing?
Joel Busby:The world is dying to know. And this passage in Christianity will say, Neither. See, that's another great irony of this passage is that when Pilate asked, What is truth? He is looking at it. He just doesn't recognize it in human form.
Joel Busby:What is truth? Pilate, my friend, you are looking at him. You all got to catch this. In Christianity, truth is a person. Truth is Jesus and to know the truth is to know him.
Joel Busby:To be of the truth is to be found in Him. To be united to Him. To be one who is found listening to His voice. You and I are like everyone else who's ever lived. We are searching for what is real and lasting and valuable and worth treasuring above all things.
Joel Busby:But that search is meant to end here with the one that John told us earlier is the way, the truth, and the life. Pilate doesn't wait for the answer. He goes back out and tells the Jewish leaders that while he finds no guilt in him, he wants to go ahead and strike a political deal because he's unwilling to embrace the truth. Pilate is on trial here, and he fails. This is essential.
Joel Busby:You gotta hear this. Pilate, at the end of the day, wishes Jesus would just say what Pilate wants him to say, that Jesus would just be who Pilate wants him to be so that Pilate can go about his business and get on with his life and not really have to change anything. Does this sound familiar to you? Sounds familiar to me. I said earlier that 3 people are on trial here, Jesus, Pilate, but there's a third, and it's supposed to make us squirm a little bit.
Joel Busby:And that's you and me. See, the Jewish leaders have rejected Jesus. Peter, the disciple, has denied Jesus. The world pictured here in Pilate has decided to be indifferent to Jesus. Next week, we'll see some more from Pilate.
Joel Busby:And next week, we'll actually get to hear from the crowds. They'll be tested. But John wants to know what you and I, the reader, thinks. See, remember, truth is on trial here. And how will you and I literally I mean that not abstractly, I mean in this room respond?
Joel Busby:If I'm honest, when confronted with the capital t truth, when confronted with Jesus or Jesus' words and ways, I'm more like Pilate. See, this is tricky because very few of us in this room are like the Jews, actively rejecting Jesus and seeking ways to kill him and his followers. I'm kind of trusting that. But almost every one of us is like Pilate, preferring that Jesus be or say what we want him to be or say so that we can go ahead and do whatever it is that we were planning on doing anyway. I was reading an article a couple years ago that that really just it's gonna sound simple, but it just kind of landed, kind of in my heart a few years ago when I read this.
Joel Busby:But it was a story about this young man who had grown up in these elite northeastern boarding school schools. He he was this incredibly smart person with from this very wealthy family. He had very, very, very nominally been involved in the church in his younger days, but by the time he had graduate from graduated from high school and attended one of the most elite academic institutions in the world, he was on his way, he he was searching for truth and had kind of found his way to sort of all that the secular world would have to offer. Now he made the mistake of attending a Christian meeting, and he began to rekindle his interest in his childhood faith, and that changed his life. And here's the way he described what happened to him.
Joel Busby:When I was in college, I had to learn to reject a prevalent idea in our culture, namely that Jesus could be treated as a side interest. Rather, if there is a God, and at this point I had no doubt about that, then this would be the biggest, most important thing in life, and the way I lived had to reflect this. I had to put Jesus front and center and conform everything to His reality. I mean, it's so hard, isn't it, to live against the prevailing notion of our culture, especially the American South, that wants to try to pretend that Jesus can be treated as merely a side interest in our lives, that we can take him and somehow apply him to our lives according to what is convenient for us? See, if Jesus is the truth, and he is, that would be the most important thing in all the world and certainly in our lives.
Joel Busby:A reality, that real reality, that our entire life must now live in accord with. See, if if we do that, that Jesus as a side interest, it shows we don't know the truth and they're not of the truth, But praise God, Jesus won't have it this way. Instead, He offers us something better. He has made a way for us. In the coming weeks, we will see the full extent of that love and that way making that He has done for us in the cross.
Joel Busby:See, there's an alternative to being Pilate, and Jesus wants us to know. John wants us to know there's an alternative. And the alternative is simple. It's to embrace him for all that he is. For all your quest for truth and meaning to meet their end goal in him.
Joel Busby:To bow yourself completely and utterly to his kingship in every possible way. To let him define you. To not take him and apply him to your life, but to take your life and apply it to him. To hear and listen to His voice in every respect, to treasure Him above all things. So would you and I turn to Him fully, freshly like that tonight?
Joel Busby:We will not be sorry. In John's words, we'll just be set free. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that by the power of your spirit, you would be making very specific application to our decisions, to our comings and goings, to our parenting, to our dating, to our way we spend our time, or to our thinking, to our searching. Lord, would we be a community who knows the truth, Lord, that is you, that we wrap our congregational life around the reality of who you are, that that would then spill into our workplaces and our communities.
Joel Busby:Lord, help us not be like Pilate, cold and indifferent, otherwise occupied, conflicted. Lord, would we follow the way that you've made for us through the cross? Lord, you make this true in us for the sake of your name and your glory. Pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our lord, our king. Amen.
