The Christmas Story Before Pilate - Part Two

 

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? 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?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am 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.”

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The Lord Jesus Christ says, "My kingship is not of this world." Let us never forget that the authority, the dominion, the sovereignty, of Christ is entirely a question of WHO HE IS. Who is He? Well, He claims Kingship. He says, "I am the King. My kingship is not of this world." If His kingship is not of this world, it's either from hell or from heaven. There is no third place where it might be from.

 

Now there is a kingship that rises out of the sinister ideas and rebellion of Satan. Jesus said that Satan's kingdom is divided against itself, thus teaching that Satan does have a kingdom. Some of the angels that originally followed Lucifer in his fall rebelled against him. Wars in this world are caused by conflicts between Satan's generals of lesser rank who are trying to make it on their own. This is the essence of history, as seen from the point of view of the Bible. The Pharisees claimed that Jesus' kingship was from hell, for they said, "This man casts out demons by Beelzebub the prince of demons." (See Mark 3:22.) And the Lord Jesus announced, "Anyone who thinks that has committed the unpardonable sin." For to say that the working of Jesus is the working of Satan shows that a man is in complete rebellion against God. Not only has he rebelled in his own right against God, but he has taken up his place with God's greatest, defiant enemy, and says, "I'll follow Satan. I'll go with him." And God says, "When a man gets that far, there is no repentance for him. There is no pardon."

 

So, by the sheer logic of the facts, we are forced to show Jesus Christ's kingdom is not from hell, but from heaven, and therefore, from God. Many years ago I drew a little outline that showed what Jesus is. Put at the top of a page the words "Christ claimed to be God." Under that statement draw two vertical lines and label one "True," and the other "False." Now if His claim to be God is true, then it is true that He is God. But if His claim is false, then draw two more lines to show either that He knew the claim was false, or He did not know the claim was false. If Jesus Christ said, "I am God" and did not know that it was a false claim, then He was insane. If someone comes to you and says, "I am Napoleon Bonaparte," you know very well where he belongs. And if he says, "I am God Almighty," this is the same thing. Now if the claim is false and a man ignores the fact that he is making a false claim, then this is crookedness.

 

Again you are forced by sheer logic to say that Jesus Christ was a crook, or insane, or that He is God. And this is the dilemma that Jesus Christ puts before all the universe in Pilate's Hall when He stands and says, "My kingship is not of this world." Ruling out this planet and seeing the authority of Jesus, what is your answer? Is He from hell or from heaven? And if you say, "Well, of course, He is from heaven," then I say to you, in the name of God, you are His subject. If you are His subject, then get down in front of Him and bow before Him, and accept His allegiance, and say, "Lord Jesus Christ, I worship Thee."

 

When He said, "My kingship is not of this world," Pilate answered, "So you are a king." Jesus answered in Greek a phrase that means, "You say it," which was a very good Greek expression that was in constant use among the Rabbis in the rabbinical writings. It means "this is true." In our day we have the slang expression, "You said it," but in Jesus' day it was distinguished language. "You said it, Pilate." And thus it was that the Lord Jesus Christ announces in no uncertain terms, "I am King." Dean Alfred, in his Greek New Testament Commentary points out that the punctuation should be in the middle of the sentence here. It should be, "You say it. I am a king."

 

Then Jesus says, "To this end was I born." O little baby of Christmas, now we can begin to understand. A few hours before you die you say, "To this end was I born."

 

"Where did you come from, baby dear? `Out of the everywhere into here.' "Where did you get those eyes so blue? `Out of the sky as I passed through:

"Where did you get that pearly ear?

`God spoke and it came out to hear."'

 

Back in the old days, no mother ever had a little child that didn't sometime or another run up against this little bit of doggerel that is so filled with the sweetness of mother love, and yet, of course, we know that the baby did not get its blue eyes from passing through the sky, and so on. But what is inherent in this poem is certainly true with the Lord Jesus Christ. "Where did you come from, baby dear?" No other baby did come "out of the everywhere" but the Lord Jesus Christ did! He came from eternity.

"My kingdom is not of this world.... To this end was I born. I came to bear witness of the truth." Here Jesus was speaking to Pilate, and Pilate asked a question that has been echoed by cynics through the centuries. "What is truth?" said jesting Pilate. But despite his jesting, the Lord Jesus gave a straight answer. For when He said, "I came to bear witness unto the truth," first of all, Jesus Christ is declaring that truth is an entity. Truth is not in fragments. Truth holds together. There is no phase of truth that is not related to every other phase of truth. The inspiration of the Bible is related to the structure of the atom. The virgin birth is related to the multiplication table. All things that are truth are a part of the Truth.

 

And a Christian is never afraid of truth. This is why a true Christian can go into a biological laboratory and become a great biologist. He may work on the creation of the protein molecule. He may even be the one who shall put the amino acids together in such a form that the newspaper will announce, "Scientists have created life in the laboratory!" Now, there may be little, insecure people who jump and say, "Oh, no, no, no! Leave that to God. Don't let a scientist do that." But, I tell you this. A true Christian need never be afraid of truth.

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