Father in heaven we thank you that you give us the invitation to come whatever we or each state we’re in whatever sin we’ve committed whatever our lot is in life we can come because you call us in Christ because Christ has made a way thank you that Christmas is that blessed time that we can remember in all things through all things you’ve made a way you’ve made a way out of death out of darkness out of sin beyond the shadows into light into light into your son into eternity Lord

Father I pray we would have very grateful hearts for the true and real meaning of Christmas and that that thankfulness and that joy would shape whatever difficult situation or struggle we have surely the knowledge of incarnate word Jesus is greater than anything we can face let us find our strength and our renewal and our peace in Christ would we pray that your hand would be upon our church that we would be faithful in all things that we would truly love one another that we would care of one another that we would shine your light and Lord we pray you would bless our giving our finances Lord we pray that you would abundantly grow our resources and our provisions so we can Lord all the more do your ministry and function as your church in this time and place Lord so let us be faithful to you cheerful and let us be generous in our giving and these things we pray in Jesus name Amen

well good evening to you and Merry Christmas again if you would turn with me in your Bible to John chapter 18 verse 33 to 38 John chapter 18 verses 33 to 38

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 Jesus Pilate answered am I a Jew your own nation and 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 kingdom is not 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. And 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. And Pilate said to him, What is truth? What is truth? Last week we said one of the gifts that Christmas gives to us is salvation. But we established salvation is not a what. It’s not a thing God gives. It’s a who. It’s Jesus. Jesus is Jesus, Greek, Hebrew, Joshua, same name, and it means God saves. It’s His name, and it’s who He is and what He did. And in a like manner this week, I want us to see, secondly, that Christmas gives us the gift of truth. And in the very same way, truth is not a what. It’s not a thing. Truth is a who. And I want to start at the very end of Jesus’ earthly life. Because in this unique Easter passage, if you will, about the crucifixion, it links Jesus back to Christmas in a very special and I think important way.

And Pilate has essentially said to Jesus, Jesus, who are you and what have you done? Who are you and what have you done? And we have something here in this passage of an impromptu court hearing, kind of thrown together by Pilate. Pilate’s the judge and the jury. And Jesus is on trial. And when you consider the characters in this courtroom, you realize quickly how absurd and ridiculous this event is.

Who is Pontius Pilate? He served as a governor on behalf of Rome over Judea. Pilate was, history tells us, a very cruel man. He had great disregard for the Jewish people and their customs.

Pilate first offended the Jews by bringing Roman standards with the images of the emperors into Jerusalem. And they revolted and they laid down with their necks up to be slaughtered. But Pilate backed off last minute and cowered to their whims and did not put up the images. Philo describes an incident where Pilate, in an attempt to honor the emperor Tiberius, placed shields bearing the emperor’s name. When Tiberius heard about it, he was enraged because it started another uproar among the Jews. There’s another account in history that Pilate took funds from the temple treasury to build aqueducts. Clubs were involved. A bunch of Jews were beat. And last… There’s an event where Pilate did kill some Samaritans, got back to the emperor. And Pilate was eventually exiled. History records there’s been myths that he committed suicide. And the reason Pilate got this job is because he knew a guy who knew a guy. He knew a senator who hated the Jews. And that is how he got this job in the first place. So, we have that star… Governor as judge and jury.

Someone who is altogether unqualified, poured his job, has no idea how to lead well. So, who’s this other guy in the courtroom? Who is it?

He says to Jesus, who are you? Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered, do you say this of your own accord or did others say to you about me? Pilate answered, am I a Jew? Your own nation and chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done? What have you done? Are you a king? Is that an honest inquiry on the part of the lawyer? In his cross examinations. Are you this king? Are you this king? Is that an honest question? But it’s not coming from a sincere seeker. Pilate’s not wanting to sign up. He’s looking for every reason to acquit Jesus because he knows that this has been cooked up. He knows that Jesus standing there with no army, bloodied and bruised, is not actually a threat to the Roman government. So, this doesn’t make sense entirely to Pilate, why the Jews who… who severely hated the Romans would betray one of their own and hand him over to Rome. There’s got to be some underlying reason, something beyond this. What is it that you’ve done? And Jesus questions his question, who’s my challenger? Jesus says, are you both the judge and the plaintiff in this case? Or did somebody else tell you this? And they’re the plaintiff. And this angers Pilate. He makes clear, hey, this is a Jewish nation problem. Alright? This is a y’all thing. They are accusing you of claiming messiahship and kingship. He’s essentially saying, like, how far do you actually want to take this? To claim kingship would be to challenge Rome. To claim messiahship would be to say that you are the one true leader of Judea, not Rome. What have you… What have you done? And this takes Jesus right where he wants to go in the conversation. Because now he can say to Pilate, just the sort of king he is and just the sort of kingdom he will establish. 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… My kingdom is not of this 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. For this purpose I’ve come into the world to bear witness to the truth.

Jesus wasn’t just another insurrectionist trying to put together a militia and overthrow Rome. That had happened. Obviously, it never worked out. And they’ll try it again in AD 70. And it totally doesn’t work out because that’s when Jerusalem was totally wiped out and vanquished up until 1948 and they were able to reestablish in Israel. So it was not a good plan. And Jesus was not trying that version of dominance.

Because Jesus is an altogether better and different kind of king who rules in a… vastly different and better way. What kind of king is Jesus then? I think in Luke chapter 17, it’s said best in verse 20, being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them, the kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed. Nor will they say, look, here it is. We’re there. For behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. What is Jesus saying? He’s saying the kingdom of God, it is here. It’s in the midst of you.

It’s the kingdom of God. And I want to do a flashback to Matthew’s Gospel. I know we were in Matthew for two and a half, three years. And so I define the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God like this. It’s the spiritual rule and reign of God in my heart, soul, mind, and life. The kingdom of God is first and chiefly the spiritual rule and reign of God. It’s the spiritual rule and reign of God in my heart, soul, mind, and life. If Caesar ruled through brute force with an iron fist, and he certainly did, whether you liked what he was doing or not, Jesus rules His subjects by revealing truth. Who He is. Who the Father is. What is good? What is bad? What is the purpose of life? Jesus rules His subjects by revealing truth. Jesus sets His subjects free with the truth so that they would love the truth and obey the truth and desire to do right from the heart. Have you ever heard of someone being coerced or forced to convert to Christianity? Maybe other religions. Maybe that’s been done poorly by Christians in centuries past. But friends, Jesus did not come coercing or forcing. Except through the forces of truth and love. All that God gave Israel in the law, the law of Moses, a.k.a. the truth, all of that, Jesus exemplified in His life what it looks like to live up to God’s standard. Jesus was perfect. And He walked in truth. And He spoke truth. He revealed the Father’s heart. That’s where we get true truth. Jesus loved God. And Jesus loved people because He knew the truth of who God was, who He was, and the kind of kingdom that the Father had sent the Son to establish. The Pharisees didn’t know or love truth. They made up their own rules, their own truths outside the law of Moses. They mixed and mangled it as they saw fit. But the Pharisees, they foiled in every part what the heart of God was trying to reveal through the law. Rome was synonymous with the worldly kingdom Jesus is talking about here. Rome was a kingdom built on paganism, all forms and versions of sexual immorality, of every sort of cultic practice, galore, satisfaction, greed, money. That was Rome. Rome. But Jesus came to, set you free from the bondage to sin and the inability to love truth and do right. Paul says it like this in Romans 6, verse 20. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end,

eternal life. Friends, as Christ is righteous, so by the Spirit we are made righteous that we would know who God is, love the truth of who God is, what it means to be a person, and the image of Christ that honors God. So it’s from the false hope of religion that Jesus saves us. Jesus alone exemplifies righteousness and holiness. And Christianity is a religion. I don’t think it’s fair to call it something other than a religion. Only true religion, true religion, reveals the truth about God. And who? Has come and revealed to us exclusively the truth about God. Jesus. And who, by the power of the cross and the empty grave, is able to internalize the truth of God so that we ourselves could know and love that truth? Only Jesus. Christianity is about who God is and who God is is fully revealed and who Christ is and who Christ is the Word made flesh. All that Christ is is all that God is and all that was put inside of humanity. All of that became a real man and obeyed God and loved God and loved man and died for sinners. So if you want true religion, know Jesus. That’s it.

We’re witnessing in this passage really an astounding thing. The truth is put on trial as questioned by this ignorant, spiritually darkened mind. What humility that Christ would suffer this dark world, that He would suffer these questions by Pilate, that He would suffer the Pharisees, that He would suffer rejection, that He would suffer, that He would suffer so much and die so that you and I could be set free. This is the King of truth. And His reign is firstly through the hearts of men made alive by the Spirit. And that kingdom grows when you and I as the church all these 2,000 years later speak it. And Christ is manifested in the way we treat one another in the way we treat God. In the way we represent Christ to the whole world. That’s how the rule and the reign goes out.

I read some lyrics the other day that I really liked. I don’t know if you’ve heard of Andrew Peterson. He’s a Christian kind of folk artist. He kind of tells stories through song and he has a whole Christmas album kind of telling the story of Christmas. And one of his songs says this. Gather around ye children come listen to the old, old story of the power of death undone by an infant born of glory Son of God, Son of Man Gather around remember now how creation held its breath how it let out a sigh and it filled up the sky with angels Son of God, Son of Man So sing out with joy for the brave little boy who was God but he made himself nothing. He gave up his pride and he came here to die like a man. Boy, that’s Jesus. God in the flesh for sinners that we may know and be saved by him, the truth. So friends, if Jesus is truth the only thing I could do is encourage you know Jesus more. Know Jesus. Because Jesus is the only place where you can know what it means to live what it means to interact with people what it means to know God everything that matters is found in Jesus. And praise the Lord we don’t just have that story we do have the gospel story but I think it’s truly a miracle we pass over that we have these copies called Bibles and it’s actually Jesus. On paper it’s Jesus it teaches us all 66 books it’s all pointing either forward or backward to this person Jesus and the spirit the more I go to his word the spirit teaches me who Christ is. And so if Christ is life man, I’m going deeper into life when I know this thing. And I have to tell myself I think that’s an important thing to remember because maybe you’re like so awesome in your daily devotionals and you just never struggle with them. But if you’re anything like me sometimes it just feels stale like I don’t want to read I don’t want to do like a thing I don’t want to study but I have to remember I’m not just reading some book I’m interacting with Jesus I’m sitting down to have a cup of coffee with Jesus like the spirit’s gonna gonna speak Christ to me if I would study this passage you know so I think we always need to be elevating the truth of God’s word not because it’s some religious book because it’s a gift that God’s given us that we can know his son more and more and more love the word of God and then secondly I think we need to always remember that you and I are representatives none of us get to live in anonymity as Christians God has called you and I in the time and place by providence that we happen to live in the church we join to you know, choose to be a part of God has put us where we are to grow in that truth together as we first think and I think Paul’s clear about this we need to first be about the business of loving one another well living out the truths of the gospel amongst ourselves well but then that light shines to the world that light shines to the world so let us be faithful to speak truth show truth to one another so that then the world says that’s different that’s salt that’s a city on a hill there’s something different about Christians you know that’s hard right because sometimes I want to retreat into self and I just want to live anonymously do the big things I’ve got to take care of go home but no hold on Jesus Jesus came so that we can shine that light to the world so look friends let’s shine that light together

the gift that Christmas brings is the gift of truth that truth is not a what it’s a who and that truth must be fully embraced by us it must be fully embraced at the end of this little discourse here Jesus says everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice and then pines me why that really asks a timeless question really a just the question that I think someone in every age asks what is truth what is truth I love what Don Carson says about this the man in the dock invites his judge to be his follower to align himself with those who are of the truth Jesus is not dangerous he may also be getting under Pilate’s skin either way Pilate abruptly terminates the interrogation with a curt and cynical question what is truth and just as abruptly turns away either because he is convinced there is no answer or more likely because he does not want to hear it does not want to hear it so we have to always remember the world is always going to hate the truth if you are going to stand for the truth there is always going to be many more that hate the truth and I think that we can sometimes kind of put ourselves in a box and think well no one is like us in modern western society with the moral decline that we are in and certainly morals and values on the whole are in decline and certainly Christian values Bible believing Christian values are marginalized more and more you know I think the victim of hostility that’s for sure but you and I can’t be so silly as to say as to think this has never happened before it’s not even unique to Rome though it happened in Rome disbelief in the truth the outright rejection of truth that’s common to all men it’s common to every person born on planet earth except for the one so Pilate is not unique Pilate is just a sampling of humanity at large he’s just really speaking on behalf of unbelieving humanity what is truth the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1.20 where is the one who is wise where is the scribe where is the debater of this age has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world for since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe for Jews demand a sign and Greeks seek wisdom but we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God what does that mean it means this truth truth , true truth is a treasure and it’s true that it’s a very very high premium to know it no one can just know truth it’s not in some book written by a man it’s not a philosophy it’s not something some sage or guru dreamed up it’s certainly not innate to you you can’t find it no matter how hard you were to look for it you could search the whole globe you could talk to everyone and I think you could say well hold on a second we have these things called math books and we’ve you know verified at this point two times two is four and we have you know astrological knowledge about the way the earth spins on an axis and it goes around the globe and we know a whole lot about you know DNA and you know how a baby grows and we know quite a bit of true things I know I truly love my wife and children that’s good that’s true to that the Bible says that there are such things as general truths general truths that are grace to all men the rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous the Bible says so sure you can appreciate arithmetic or food or astrology or whatever it may be but you cannot truly know those things because you’re knowing them as an unbeliever apart from the one who created them and those things themselves are only supposed to help you see Christ in them how often does the psalmist talk about creation and the stars and the sky and all that he doesn’t go wow that’s just awesome in and of itself no he says God I see your glory in it so see glory in two times two

everything is an end in itself if we do not know God in the truth that he is creator of all and Jesus is the creator of all certainly then non-believers who aren’t Christians don’t know the spiritual truths gospel truths and Paul told us why in Corinthians it’s because it’s foolishness it’s offensive it’s offensive to say to someone give up your idea of the good life give up your idea of what right and wrong is which is varied across you know the globe give up your preferences of comfort give up your delusions about the purpose of this life about what’s coming in the life to come which is greatly varied rather believe God can’t question what you’re gonna do in your life

you have to start you have to start how that’s gonna look like and bloodied questioned by Pontius Pilate he died when he was raised to life and he ascended to the right hand of the father that is a foolish gospel and let me say to you it is an impossible gospel to believe save this one thing the sheer grace of God really really and so The grace of God showing a sinner like you is not true.

Matthew chapter 16, verse 16. Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

Friends, embracing true truth, knowing truth is nothing less than knowing Jesus. And knowing Jesus is nothing less than a wonder of graciousness that God would save sinners and lift spiritual blindness that we may see all things clearly and all things right in Jesus. And it costs a premium price. It costs. The very, the blood of the one who was born as a babe in a manger. That’s something to celebrate Christmas for. That’s something to be really excited about.

True truth revealed by the Spirit. My wife asked me this morning a question, because you know, I’ve been to Bible college, so I must know everything.

Did Jesus have Mary, Mary’s DNA? They didn’t cover that one.

And then what’s His DNA like where the Father DNA would be? She was talking about, you know, the Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception that Mary’s sinless. And so if Mary’s sinless, you know, that works out for them why Jesus could have been in sinless Mary. Of course, that’s bunk. And so, I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. I’ve got to throw my hands up and say, I don’t know. I believe it. But I don’t know. I don’t know. Be amazed that you believe God became a baby. Be amazed that you believe that. That’s not a small thing. That you have some inclination to know and love God. That even if you’re bad at it a lot of times, you have some inclination to resist sin and tell the truth and not tell lies. Like, be amazed that you have some capacity to do that. Because that means the Spirit of God who created the universe came inside of you and opened your eyes to it.

And if God saves you, He’ll keep you. Would Jesus go through so much and then get bored with you halfway down the line and say, see ya? No, Jesus is life and death and resurrection are powerful to keep. But then I want to say to us, we must embrace the truth. And we do live in 21st century clown town. And people truly are asking the question these days, what is is? You know? What is is? What is male? What is female? What is that? What is up? What is down? Who can say that? Don’t be a bigot. Don’t tell me which way is up. That’s so arrogant. We live in a weird, weird world, friends. And if we can’t establish what a woman is, we’re certainly not going to be established God became a baby. And He’s calling you to die and come to new life in Him. But would we not do it for a Savior who gave so much for us? So friends, stand firm. Stand firm on the truth of God’s Word. Stand firm on the fact that God loves you. And He called you out of darkness into light. And He’s going to keep you for eternity. And that’s worth suffering for this amazing, beautiful Gospel story that we believe and call Christmas.

Christmas in a very real way is our creed. It’s our banner that we fly over our lives. That God stepped into time and space to save us and redeem us. So Christmas gives the gift of truth. It’s not a philosophy. It’s not a concept. It’s not innate. It’s not a religion of try your darndest and hope you pull it off. Truth is a person. His name is Jesus. And He’s the full and perfect expression of the Father. And He has been by grace revealed to you. Do you know Him? Do you know Him? Let us pray.

Father, we can’t but worship when we truly sit and think upon the cross and we think upon the manger. And surely 10,000 years from now we’ll still be wondering and wondering at such a salvation. So Lord, let our whole lives be lived to worship and glorify You. That we have been called to truth, to live lives in the truth.

We know Your son Jesus.

Father, move us to treasure Him. Keep our minds and eyes and hearts clear from all the ways that the enemy and the world and our own flesh seeks to muck up our lenses and keep us focused on the lesser things that don’t matter. Oh Lord, let us love You and serve You and give You our all. We thank You for Jesus. Amen.