1. Are You the King of the Jews? John 18:28-34

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1 Pilate s Questions 1. Are You the King of the Jews? John 18:28-34 Today is the first Sunday in Lent the season of sacrifice. The sacrifice of our Lord Jesus. Our own sacrifices as we serve Him. But it is not supposed to be a time to sacrifice high school students and teachers. Or worshippers at a church. Or those attending a music festival. That wasn t how I was going to start my sermon this morning. Actually, I had completed this sermon on Wednesday morning before the shootings in Parkland, Florida. And I ll admit that I wasn t quite sure of where the Holy Spirit was taking me as I was preparing this sermon. I often am not sure; it sure is an adventure, though, following where He is taking me! But what I originally wrote has a lot to do with what we have to do. Already this year, there have been several school shootings, and twenty lives have been lost, and thirty people have been injured. The number may rise in Parkland. And there was a politician the other day who stated that this was the new normal. The new normal! Only if Satan is in charge! What is happening in our nation is demonic. Satan loves it! Because it tears at the very fabric of our society. And speaking of Satan, you may remember that I have spoken of his power in both of the last two weeks, and he hasn t liked it very much. I ve felt him trying to shut me up. Well, he won t! I promise you that. So what do we do with this latest normal mass shooting? We could blame Congress and the NRA. And to be honest, I do. But even more, I blame myself. And anyone of us who fails to speak up to our elected officials and tell them that we are not going to take it anymore! Something must be done. As Congressman Donald Norcross wrote in an Inaction is not an option. And I already wrote to him. How about you? And if anyone can tell me why anyone anyone needs to own a semi-automatic weapon, designed not for hunting but for killing, you may stand up right now and justify it. But the issue is not just gun control; it s also mental illness. The young man in Florida was obviously deeply troubled. So were the shooters in Las Vegas, Sutherland Springs, Sandy Hook, and Virginia Tech, among others. And what are we doing? You know, last fall, I preached a sermon about the gospel and mental illness, and I received some criticism, mostly behind my back, to that sermon because I made some people uncomfortable. If I hurt some people s feelings, I am sorry. I didn t intend to do that. But I will never apologize for making people uncomfortable because the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it is taught through the Holy Spirit sure makes me uncomfortable. And you know what? It s time we get uncomfortable with the issue of mental illness. Because the only one who wants us to be comfortable is Satan himself. And I refuse to get comfortable. And I refuse to preach the spiritual equivalent of Gerber s baby food! The trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin, the leaders of the Jews, was a farce, orchestrated by those who vehemently opposed His message. The trial of Jesus before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, was also a farce, for while Pilate did the interrogation, it was Pilate who was on trial. Jesus words, and His silence, forced Pilate to look deep into his soul.

2 And I think we can be fairly sure that he didn t always like what he found there. Not that he would admit it, of course. Now we know that Pilate tried his best to avoid having anything to do with Jesus. He tried to pass the responsibility back to the Jewish leaders. He had Jesus scourged, hoping that some punishment might appease the Jews. He brought Jesus out to the crowd, hoping they would show a bit of mercy. He even offered them a choice of which prisoner to release Jesus or Barabbas thinking that they wouldn t possibly choose a known robber. Nothing worked. He could avoid Jesus no longer. No one can. In the end, at some point in all of our lives, we have to confront Jesus. Or we have to be confronted by Him. And the first question Pilate asks is: Are you the King of the Jews? A question Pilate probably asked with a bit of a chuckle. The guy standing before him? A king? Hardly! Not compared to Caesar anyway! Besides, there already was a king of the Jews Herod Antipas who was a king, by the way, only because he bowed low before the emperor in Rome. A King? What a joke. Only, the joke was on Pilate. He was looking at Jesus through a telescope, but from the wrong end. Jesus is a king Pilate s king. Caesar s king. My king. Your king. Our king. King of everyone who refuses to acknowledge Him as king. King of everyone who never heard of Him. King of everything that ever was, that is, and that evermore will be. And when we sing to Him, we sing Come Thou Almighty King. Not All-feeble, all-weak, all-frail, all-wimpy king. Almighty King! So why, why do we Christians so often walk through life like a bunch of wimps ourselves? And you know we do. We go out and face the world as if we have no backbone, with a big, wide, bright yellow streak running up and down where our backbone should be! We all do it. We moan at home. We moan at the office. We moan at school. We moan and sigh that the problems we face are just too big for us. Oh my goodness, we even do it in church. We moan that we don t have enough money. We moan that we don t have enough people. We moan that we don t have enough resources. We moan that we aren t bold enough. Now, there s the rub, isn t it? We re not bold enough! Dottie and I saw the movie Darkest Hour this past week. It focuses on Winston Churchill and his struggles in the early days of World War Two. By May of 1940, most of Europe had fallen like dominoes before Hitler's army. Even Churchill s advisors suggested that he negotiate with Hitler so that, at least, England might remain somewhat independent. But Churchill could envision a swastika flag over Buckingham Palace if they went that route. And in his most famous speech, he boldly tells Parliament: We shall not flag or fail. We shall go to the end.we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence; we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall

3 fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. And indeed, they did not, despite the constant bombing of Britain by the Luftwaffe. Now that s the definition of boldness. Shall we surrender? Shall we fail to fight, wherever that fight may take us? Shall we give in and allow our inner wimpiness to surface? The devil would like that, wouldn t he? There is a world out there, waiting to see bold Christians, who live under the rule of an Almighty King. Shall we be wimps? Or shall we be bold? That s not a rhetorical preacher s question! Shall we be bold in our service to the king? Of course, it isn t always easy to be bold. We need a weapon and armor to go out and win that fight wherever it may be. And that weapon is called prayer. That armor is called prayer. That ultimate strategy in the fight we fight is called prayer. We often hear prayer called the world s greatest wireless connection. And it is. But it s more. So much more. It s how we bring to God our fears and leave them with Him. It s how we bring to God our weaknesses and leave them with Him. It s how bring our doubts and hesitations and reluctant spirits to God and leave them with Him. And it s how we commit ourselves to being in the service of the one who is not the King of JUST the Jews. Dottie and I have been reading a book by Christian writer Max Lucado called Before Amen. Actually, you might say we devoured it. For while it is relatively short and simple, it speaks of the power of praying to our king. And Lucado tells how, when he first came to the church he serves as pastor, he asked for a team of pray-ers, men and women who would commit to praying every day for their church, its members, its missions and ministries, its officers, and him. Now I m not going to tell you that, overnight, everything was fine. That people were knocking down the doors to get in and that the offering plates were overflowing every week. It didn t happen overnight. It took a few weeks. Well, more than a few weeks. But it happened. Because members of the church were bringing their concerns all their concerns and not just those of the church to the Almighty king who knows a lot more about what we need than we do. Lucado had a team of pray-ers. I m going to be bold like I said we should be and ask for a congregation of pray-ers. Are you willing to set aside some time each day to pray for our church? For each of us who are a part of it? For the work we do for the king? And yes, for me, too, because I can only be what the Lord wants me to be with your voices lifted up to Him. Dottie and I usually spend at least an hour in prayer every morning before we get going, and it s the most powerful and blessed part of the day. Because it connects us to the king as nothing else can. Now I know that a lot of you are active pray-ers. If you re not and you know who you are become one. The more pray-ers, the more prayers. And the more prayers, the more blessings. And the more blessings, the more we become together. And isn t that what we want? So, are we going to be a church of pray-ers? That s not a rhetorical preacher s question. Are we? Which leads to one more way we honor the King. By carrying His cross out into the world.

4 Birth of a Nation, one of the earliest full length movies, directed by D. W. Griffith, is one of the most virulently racist movies ever made. A lot of it focuses on the Ku Klux Klan. I never saw the movie I choose not to - but I remember reading about the Klan in history classes in college and I came to despise them which is, after all, easy to do. I won t hate them because that puts me on the same level as they are. How bold and brave they were to parade around their hate and prejudices hiding under hoods and in robes so no one could recognize them. But what I despise about them most is their practice of burning crosses on the lawns of those they hate. How dare they! How dare they take the cross on which our king died to prove His unconditional love, and use that cross as a symbol of hate. How dare they take the cross on which our king died to show us grace upon grace, and use it as a weapon to intimidate. How dare they take the cross on which our king died that we might know the way, the truth, and the life, and use it to spread their lies and their road that leads to death. A burning cross is sheer blasphemy not that any of the Klan would ever know that, for their hate is blasphemous, too! The cross is power. It s love. It s hope. It s strength. It s the promise that when we boldly carry it out into the world where we spend 167 hours each week, we are carrying a message that the world so desperately needs. And yet, so many of us me, too seem so reluctant to take that cross out of the nice safe sanctuary in which we worship our king and show to the rest of the world just what our king did for us. And for them. No, we don t actually carry a wooden cross, but when Jesus told us to take up our own cross, deny ourselves, and follow Him, He meant to live the message of the Cross in all we say and do. And are we? No rhetorical preacher s question this time either. Just: Are we? The Cross. The hill called Calvary. Pilate s palace and prison. A garden called Gethsemane. An upper room. The table in our midst. Our King. Pilate asked: Are you the king of the Jews? Yes. Oh Yes. But so much more. He s my king. Your king. Our king. That s one of the central truths of the Bible. Pilate had to deal with it and he didn t deal with it very well. We have to deal with it, too. With boldness. With prayer. With a cross before us. Are we living that truth? And that s not just a rhetorical preacher s question! Let s make that the new normal!

5 Worship February 18, 2018 Call: Litany Assurance: Litany Children s Message: Word obey - tell story of Jonah Prayer: Great God our Almighty King, we kneel before you in reverence, knowing that our humility brings us closer to You. We walk with You in trust, knowing that our confidence in You is never misplaced. We serve You in boldness, knowing that as we bring Your truth to the world, we can change it. We live for You in faith, knowing that we can do all things through our Christ who strengthens us. We carry our Cross, as Jesus did, knowing that only by doing so, denying ourselves, and following You can we live a life worth living. And we commit ourselves to a life of prayer, knowing that only by bringing all needs and hungers and struggles to You can we live a life of victory. Needs, etc. Sing Lord s Prayer