SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/25/2017
9:47 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “The Interrogation”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John
18:33-38a
Message of the
verses: “33 Therefore Pilate entered
again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, "Are You
the King of the Jews?" 34 Jesus answered, "Are you saying this on
your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?" 35 Pilate answered,
"I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You
to me; what have You done?" 36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of
this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be
fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My
kingdom is not of this realm." 37 Therefore Pilate said to Him, "So
You are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I am a king.
For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify
to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." 38 Pilate said
to Him, "What is truth?"”
Today we look first of all at the answer that Jesus give
to Pilate “If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting
so that I would not be handed over to the Jews.” Think about if Jesus were an earthly king,
and not one from heaven as we know He is, but if He was earthly He never would
have so easily gotten Himself caught like He did. Another thing we can remember that goes along
with this is that Peter, one of His followers tried to defend Him by cutting
off the ear of one who came to arrest Him, but Jesus not only stopped Him from
doing this but He also healed the ear of the one whom Peter struck with his
sword, so from those to incidents Pilate could have seen that Jesus was not an
earthly king. MacArthur writes “The
messianic kingdom does not originate from human effort, but through the Son of
Man’s conquering of sin in the lives of those who belong to His spiritual
kingdom.”
The kingdom of Jesus Christ is spiritually active today,
as the body of Christ is doing things that advance His spiritual kingdom on
earth, and one day Jesus Christ will return to earth as seen in Revelation
chapter nineteen and then His physical kingdom will begin and last for 1000
years. Jesus Christ at this point in
time was absolutely no threat to either the national identity of Israel or to
the political and military identity of Rome, and Pilate knew this to be a fact,
and yet we know that even though he knew this He had the Son of God crucified
because He was not in charge of what was going on, but Jesus was in charge.
We can see by Pilate’s next question to Jesus that He was
confused as he said to Him “So You are a king?”
Jesus then answered him clearly “You say correctly that I am a king.” Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:13 “I
charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who
testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate.” Jesus then tells Pilate “For this I have been
born, and for this I have come into the world.” Jesus as we know was not only born like any
other person, but He also came from another realm, that is from heaven. “"No one has ascended into heaven, but
He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man (John 3:13).” “"He who comes from above is above all,
he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes
from heaven is above all (John 3:31).” “"For
the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the
world’ (John 6:33).” “And He was saying
to them, "You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am
not of this world (John 8:23).” “"Now,
Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You
before the world was (John 17:5).” What
we see here is the unmistakable reference to the preexistence and incarnation
of the Son of God.
I want to quote from Warren Wiersbe’s commentary as we
look at the concluding part of our verses today.
“But Jesus not only told
Pilate of His origin; He also explained His ministry: to bear witness unto the
truth; and He won people to His cause, not through force, but through
conviction and persuasion. He spoke of
the truth of God’s Word, and all who were His people would respond to His call
(see John 8:47); 10:27). Rome’s weapon
was the sword; but our Lord’s weapon was the truth of God, the sword of the
Spirit (Eph. 6:17).
“We do not know what
attitude Pilate asked his now-famous question, ‘What is truth?’ In his classic essay ‘Of Truth,’ Francis
Bacon wrote, ‘What is Truth?’ said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an
answer.’ But we are not certain that Pilate
was jesting. Perhaps he was
sincere. For centuries, Roman and Greek
philosophers had discussed and debated this very question to no settled
conclusions. Whether Pilate was sneering
or sighing as he asked the question we do not know; so it would be unwise to
pass judgment.”
I don’t know what Pilate’s attitude was when he asked
that question, but I do know that he did not stop and listen to the answer, and
I also know that there are many people today looking for the answer to what
truth is and yet they look in all the wrong places, and then perhaps if they
come in contact with someone who knows the answer to that question, they too
like Pilate will walk away before getting the answer.
In our next SD I want to quote what John MacArthur has to
say about Pilate’s question and then we will look at our final section in this
whole section of verses (John 18:28-38), which is the remaining part of verse
38.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: As a believer I
know the truth of the gospel and it is my desire to continue to pass it along through
personal contacts when God brings them to me and also through my Spiritual
Diaries that go onto my blogs.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to trust the Lord to give me the
things that He desires me to have in order to teach Sunday school.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “To Pada-Aram” (Genesis
28:1-2).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who had seven hundred wives?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/25/2017 10:39 AM
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