Sermon by Pastor Brent Kompelien
January 14, 2024
INTRO
Good morning! If you’re new, I’m Pastor Brent. We’re nearing the end of our series in the gospel of John, and we’re now entering the climactic moment where Jesus is arrested, tried and crucified. We are seeing the redemptive work of Christ and his confrontation with the world now coming into focus.
I don’t typically do a lot of sports illustrations in my sermons, but if you know me, you know that I’m a pretty competitive person who enjoys a variety of sports. So indulge me, just this once!
Since today is the start of the NFL playoffs, and in order to make all you Vikings fans feel a little better, I thought it would be appropriate to tell a story about Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins.
Kirk is a committed Christian, and he is not shy about sharing his faith and telling others about the gospel.
I recently watched a documentary that profiled Kirk Cousins, as well as some other NFL players and coaches. In this very self-aggrandizing environment of the NFL, and in this documentary that includes some not very savory characters who use some colorful language, Kirk embodied a totally different approach and a totally different sense of the integrity of his character. In the spotlight of professional sports, you know exactly what he stands for.
As you football fans know, the Vikings had tremendous success in the previous season. They were 13-4, they won a division title, and they had the largest comeback victory in NFL history when they trailed 33-0 at halftime, and then scored 39 points to win the game. This meant there was a lot of pressure on the team to win in the playoffs.
And as the quarterback, a lot of this pressure fell on Kirk’s shoulders. It was pressure to win for his team and this city, but he also knew that these are opportunities he had worked hard for since he was a kid. He has been in the NFL for more than 10 years, and he’s in his mid-30s, which is old for a professional football player. The stakes were high for the team, and the stakes were high for him personally at this point in his career.
As you probably remember, almost one year ago today, the Vikings lost to the Giants 31-24 and were eliminated from the playoffs.
This documentary captured the whole event from Kirk’s point-of-view because he was mic’d up and there was a camera crew following him everywhere. And so the cameras continued rolling after Kirk finished his post-game press conference, his TV interviews, and said goodbye to his teammates and coaches.
He got in the car and drove home from U.S. Bank Stadium with his wife. When they arrived home, the babysitter had their 3 year old and 5 year old boys in the bath. They had no idea what their daddy had just endured on primetime television. One of his boys came running up to Kirk smiling, wrapped in a bath towel, giving his daddy a hug. And suddenly, what really matters most came into dramatic relief against the failure Kirk experienced in that game.
You could see something shift in his countenance, a long-believed truth came flooding back into his mind. He knew he had a responsibility to his boys to model where his hope truly lies when you experience failure, or when you wonder if you’ll ever get the chance again, or when the world suddenly comes crashing down on you.
And so Kirk went into his son’s bedroom and read him a book and tucked him into bed, prayed together, and they sang together the song they sing every night: “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.”
Against the backdrop of other football stars who seek fame and money and want to win at all costs, captured for all the world to see in his documentary is a man who literally sings aloud to his son the truth that he himself needed to hear: There is no other solid ground than Jesus Christ, all other things are merely sinking sand.
(SLIDE 3, title) Open with me to John 18:28-40. Last week we focused on Jesus’ arrest and his trial before the Jewish leaders. This week, we are focusing on Jesus’ trial before the Roman authorities. Here he is literally engaging with the powers of a worldly kingdom, revealing the truth about the supremacy of his own Kingdom and his sovereign reign over all as the Son of God, yet still being rejected as he takes one more step toward the cross.
Let’s read our passage this morning to hear about Jesus’ trial before Pilate, the Roman governor. READ John 18:28-40.
One thing we are going to see as the story unfolds in this passage, and also all of chapter 19, is an intensification of the opposition to Jesus, while at the same time we see more and more clearly Jesus’ unique power and sovereignty in going to the cross.
ORG SENT — This passage is a multi-part conversation between Pilate, the Jewish leaders, and Jesus. First, we see Pilate confront the Jewish leaders (vv. 28-32). Second, we see Pilate attempt to interrogate Jesus (vv. 33-38a). Third, we see Pilate go back to negotiate with the Jewish leaders (vv. 38b-40). That’s how we will tackle this passage, by following Pilate as he confronts the Jewish leaders, interrogates Jesus, and then goes back to negotiate with the leaders of Israel.
MAIN 1 — Pilate Confronts (vv. 28-32). (SLIDE 4)
There is an interesting spatial dimension here. We see the text organized around the movement of Pilate as he goes outside his palace, then inside his palace, then outside his palace again.
But there’s another spatial dimension here that illuminates the intensifying rejection of Jesus by his own people. (SLIDE 5) Go back to verse 28 again. READ v. 28.
Here’s what is happening: Jesus was brought to the Jewish High Priest first, earlier in chapter 18, and now he is brought to the Roman governor. Jesus is led inside Pilate’s palace, presumably bound and under the supervision of Roman soldiers. But the Jewish leaders stay outside the house. Here is the moment of separation: the Jewish leaders and the Jewish people gathering in a crowd outside, while Jesus is now alone inside the palace of the most powerful representative of a worldly kingdom in the region.
Did you notice the reason why the Jewish leaders did not want to enter Pilate’s palace? The text says, “they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.” Let me share with you some background about this:
The Passover was not only a single meal with specific symbolism to commemorate God’s deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, but it was also a 7-day festival in which pious Jews needed to remain ritually clean in order to participate.
Jewish law made provisions to have a ceremonial washing at sundown if you had dealings with Gentiles in public. If you did the prescribed cleansing at the end of the day, you could still participate in the week-long festival. But, Jewish law declared that a Gentile home was a place that would make you unclean for 7 days. (SLIDE 6) In other words, if these Jewish leaders went into Pilate’s household at this moment at the beginning to Passover week, they wouldn’t be able to participate in the entire 7-day festival!
And yet they are willing to send Jesus into Pilate’s home, knowing that he would be ritually unclean for 7 days, therefore cutting Jesus off from the Passover Festival entirely, the very symbol of God’s redemption and God’s sovereignty and God’s power to save.
Don’t miss this: Here’s is a divide that opens up in front of us. This is a fundamental shift in the meaning and fulfillment of the Passover.
The Jewish leaders want to remain ritually pure outwardly, even while they harbor sin in their hearts and have words of betrayal of the Son of God on their lips.
Yet the climactic and final Passover Lamb himself, the Messiah, to whom the Passover meal symbolically pointed to, is here providing perfect redemption and walking to the cross to be the sacrifice for the people, the people who are celebrating a meal that point to him!
KEY: The Passover story pointed back to God’s deliverance from Egypt, but equally pointed ahead to the perfect and final redemption when God himself would again come down to deliver his people from the bondage to the curse of sin itself.
Here he is: The Passover Lamb, yet they reject him. (SLIDE 7) Jesus’ substitutionary death is the fulfillment of it all; his death is the satisfaction of everything the Passover pointed to.
And in this passage, the Jewish leaders turn their backs on him and head off to their rituals and legalism, missing the point entirely of the very feast they are celebrating.
Now, if we go back to this confrontation between Pilate and the Jewish leaders, it is ironic the way John portrays this scene. Pilate opens the proceedings properly, asking for a formal charge.
Remember last week we learned that Annas had broken Jewish protocol by questioning Jesus directly without a formal charge and without witnesses or evidence? Here Pilate is showing that he is more committed to justice (SLIDE 8) than the Jewish leaders who want to skip all the witnesses and evidence so they can execute Jesus as fast and quietly as possible.
Pilate is a shrewd guy. He sees through their deception, so he tells them to take Jesus back and try him by their own law.
But they object, revealing their real intention: They simply want to kill Jesus. But they had no power to sentence Jesus to be executed. This was because when Rome formally took over Israel in A.D. 6 and installed a governor, they took away capital jurisdiction, which was their practice in all provinces where there are conquered nations.
IMPORTANT — John tells us the reason for this. This is all fulfilling God’s plan. (SLIDE 9) In the fullness of time, Jesus is being tried at a moment when the Jews cannot execute him, which typically would have been by stoning. Rather, they need to not only find him guilty according to Jewish law, they also need to convince Pilate, who alone has the authority to execute Jesus at this historical moment. And the Roman execution is by crucifixion, fulfilling Deuteronomy 21:23, “anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse,” and fulfilling Jesus’ own words in John 12:32-33 that he would be “lifted up” for our salvation.
So now we see Pilate go into his palace to interrogate Jesus, or so he thinks.
MAIN 2 — Pilate Interrogates (vv. 33-38a). (SLIDE 10)
Look now at verses 33-36. READ vv. 33-36.
Apparently, the charge brought by the Jewish leaders was that Jesus claimed to be king. (SLIDE 11) This is a strategic charge, because anyone who claimed political authority and gathered a large crowd of followers would be considered an insurrectionist in the eyes of the Romans. This was a capital crime that deserved death.
Here’s where we see more clearly the reality of Jesus’ kingly authority in the face of this worldly authority. There are two things I want to point out about this interrogation:
First, Jesus is in complete control. (SLIDE 12) We see Pilate trying to ask questions, but Jesus returns his questions with a question. In the same way as the arrest in Gethsemane and in the trial before Annas, Jesus turns the tables here and is in complete control of the situation. ILLUST — New Testament scholar Don Carson says, “Jesus, as it were, becomes the interrogator; the prisoner has become the judge.”
Second, we see a widening of the scope of Jesus’ kingdom. (SLIDE 13) Pilate begins by asking if Jesus is the king of the Jews, even getting frustrated by Jesus’ response and exclaiming, “Am I a Jew? Your own people handed you over to me!” Pilate is operating as though political jurisdictions and ethnic boundaries are ultimate.
But Jesus’ reply widens the understanding of his kingdom, revealing that the scope of his sovereignty and the essence of his kingship are cosmic and eternal! His Kingdom is not of this world! It is grander, ultimate, and touches every square inch of creation!
You see, Jesus isn’t merely trying to unseat Pilate and control a small province of the Roman Empire. The Greek word “basileia” (kingdom) emphasizes reign or sovereign authority, not territory. So Jesus is not talking so much about the location of his kingdom. Rather, he is talking about the source of his kingly authority (heavenly) and the reality that his kingly authority is breaking into this world.
IMPORTANT: I need you to hear this. True salvation cannot come through a king or a kingdom that is of this sinful world. It is necessary that our redemption come through a heavenly King bringing his heavenly reign into our broken and evil and sinful world. This is truly good news!
In verse 37, Pilate presses Jesus further: “You are a king, then!”
Here Jesus explains his mission: to testify to the truth. (SLIDE 14)
If you are on the side of truth, you’re with Jesus! This isn’t a mere philosophical platitude. It is a statement of exclusivity: knowing Jesus is knowing the truth! He is the clue to history, he is the Lord of all, as missionary Lesslie Newbigin says.
Don’t miss this: Jesus’ statement about truth is an evangelistic appeal. He is inviting Pilate to come to the side of truth, to listen to him. (SLIDE 15) Jesus is the true King, not Pilate. And yet Pilate laughs in his face! “What is truth?” he says.
MAIN 3 — Pilate Negotiates (vv. 38b-40). (SLIDE 16)
It is at this moment that Pilate realizes with certainty that he is being drawn into a religious squabble. He could care less about internal Jewish religious politics, as long as they keep the peace.
But he offers them a compromise: (SLIDE 17) He will release one prisoner. They get to choose.
Did you notice: The fact that Pilate asked them if they wanted him to release the “king of the Jews” is a dig at these Jewish authorities. They expressly forbid that Jesus would be called King, and this was in fact their charge against him. Here is Pilate, standing in the portico of his palace, overlooking a growing crowd of Jews who were gathering for the Passover Festival, and he mocks them publicly: “Do you want your king?”
Look at what they say: READ v. 40. (SLIDE 18) Give us Barabbas!
We know from the other gospel accounts that Barabbas was already convicted of insurrection, the same charge that is being levied against Jesus. Barabbas had taken part in a violent uprising, likely killing Roman citizens and destroying Roman property, legitimately threatening the Empire’s rule in the city.
There’s an irony here: Barabbas is actually guilty of insurrection, Jesus is not. Yet the Jewish leaders are so intent on getting rid of Jesus that they would rather have a convicted killer on the loose than to have Jesus continue his public ministry of healing and teaching about the Kingdom of God.
But the irony goes deeper: Barabbas is Aramaic (one of the commonly spoken languages of the time). It literally means “son of the father” (bar-abba) (SLIDE 19)
This is what is happening in this scene that should grab our attention and shock us into seeing the intensification of the rejection of Jesus: The Jews shouted for the release of Barabbas, the fake “son of the father” (SLIDE 20) who had attempted an armed uprising, using the ways of the world to try to establish a worldly kingdom, and they condemn the real “Son of the Father” to death, a man who would willingly walk to the cross to be lifted up at the true King who reigns over a different kingdom that is not of this world.
APPLY
Here’s what I want you to see this morning: This passage takes us to another level of seeing the reality of the sovereignty and authority and unique power of Jesus Christ to save us. He is King, he is Lord. In the face of the Romans authorities, he made his purpose clear: (SLIDE 21) His Kingship is of cosmic proportions, his Kingdom is eternal, and his saving work is our only true and lasting hope.
ILLUST — Let me share one more quick story about Kirk Cousins. Kirk received the Bart Starr award in 2023. This award is given at a special event during Super Bowl week by Athletes in Action, a ministry of Cru, to an NFL player who exemplifies “outstanding character and leadership in the home, on the field, and in the community.”
In his acceptance speech, Kirk Cousins reflected on his career as a football player, and the ultimate hope he has in Christ. This is what he said, (SLIDE 22) “Football will one day end, and life will be based on much more than football. The one thing that can’t be taken away from me is my personal relationship with Jesus.”
Kirk knows that he is secure in the grace of God displayed in the work of Christ on his behalf. Friends, when we trust in Jesus by faith, we all can have certainty in our redemption, because we have a Savior who was faithful to go to the cross for you.
You see, Jesus Christ, the real Son of the Father, was rejected by men and led away to be executed so that you would be accepted by God and washed clean of your sin by his blood spilled in your place.
He is the Passover Lamb, the fount of all truth, and the true King who reigns. Jesus is the solid rock on which we stand. Apart from him and apart from his substitutionary death on our behalf, we would be on sinking sand.