Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By
now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not
enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate
came out to them and asked, "What charges are you bringing against this
man?" "If he were not a criminal," they replied, "we would not have handed
him over to you." Pilate said, "Take him yourselves and judge him by your
own law." "But we have no right to execute anyone," the Jews
objected. This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the
kind of death he was going to die would be fulfilled. Pilate then went
back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the king of the
Jews?" "Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you
about me?" "Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "It was your people and your
chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?" Jesus
said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to
prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."
"You are a king, then!" said Pilate. Jesus answered, "You are right in
saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came
into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens
to me." "What is truth?" Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the
Jews and said, "I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your
custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you
want me to release 'the king of the Jews'?" -- John 18:28-39 (NIV)
#1 Pilate did sentence Jesus to die. That is all the evidence that we need.
The evidence is pretty strong that Pilate was guilty of the crime. But he was not guilty. But why? Thought Pilate did sentence Jesus to die he didn't want to do it. He tried to repeat Jesus repeatedly. In fact at the end Pilate is forced by threat from the crowds to do it. It is hard to find someone guilty when they were forced into making the decision.
Let's apply the passage for ourselves now. In this passage Pilate asked Jesus a question, "What is truth?" It is a great question. Is there truth and what is it? We used an illustration using cookies. I set out one cookie. Some people say that there is one cookie, which is true. Some say that there ar no cookies, some say there is more than one cookie, and some might say everything is a cookie. Not all of these statements can be true. Some say there are many truths, some say that there is no truth, some say that there are many truths, and some say that every thing is true. But there is only one of these that can be true.
Truth does not rely on your perspective nor does it change from one peson to the next. Turth is the same for every person through all of time.
With that said, if someone makes a claim that something is true or not true it becomes your responsiblity to decide if it is true or not. What you decide doesn't make that statement true or not, it being true makes it true. It is important to find out to the best of our ability if that statement is actually true or not.
Some claims I gave were: God exists, he wants to be part of your life, you were created for a purpose, Jesus lived, died and rose again, we can have forgiveness only through Jesus' death, God loves you specifically, and without Jesus we are lost and goign to hell. It is each persons job now to decide, are these true statements or not. What you decide won't affect if it is actually true or not, but it makes a big difference for you and the way you will live your life.
Now with all of that said it leaves us with three things to do if those things are true. 1. We need to know the truth. 2. We need to live the truth. 3. We need to share the truth.
I give tonight a: B
Favorite moment of the night: Youth leading worship
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