AUSTRALIAN BIBLE CHURCH January 27, 2008

A CONTINUATION OF THE THRUST AND BASE OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
OF AUSTRALIA ON BIBLICAL LINES …  

THE CONTEST FOR CHRIST JESUS, THE LORD, IN HIS DAY AND IN OURS

THE TABLEAU

The tableau, it is not pretty. Jesus has been arrested AT NIGHT. This anti-miracle has been wrought by TEMPLE guards at the behest of priests supposedly serving God, supposedly able to read, and in particular to survey the Old Testament scriptures, shown to be valiantly present at that time, in such sites as the Dead Sea Scrolls. They resolve that because He is so successful, He must be killed. Because He is such a healer, it is intolerable; since He even raises the dead in the very midst of their adverse and alien plotting, therefore it is apparent that His popularity, constantly supported by the consistent works, never failing, which He performs, as if miracles were His daily bread (cf. John 8:29ff., John 11), will bring on a deluge of followers. This could cause an invasion by Rome (as if One who heals is to use force, when never has He hurt or damaged a person by force in His entire ministry, at most vigorously rebuking, and gloriously preaching). Such is their puerile thought.

They are not willing to TRUST that God will use this love of humanity, this mission of reducing misery, this crusade of kindness, this refusal to be king (John 6 tells that tale), to influence Rome which then might be moved, as later it was moved in the 4th century, to change its own ways! Such is a common lesson to be learned from the word of God as it interprets mankind on its miserable missions of the me, myself and my love conspectus: the last being a nation, person, occupation or power of some kind, an ideology or influence, a prestige or elevation, or whatever other slice of truth or error is desired, the Source apart. It is like deciding whether to steal a car, or a diamond ring, or electrical goods, or a wallet, or a post, by defamation of one currently holding it, all things which have their place, but not in the hands of a thief!

When GOD HIMSELF is on view and available with the power of His kindness and the completion of His formal and explicit covenant from Moses, which is now manifestly fulfilled (Deuteronomy 18, Isaiah 49-55); and when His offer is nothing less than rest of spirit, healing of soul, illumination of mind, peace of heart and power for godly living in the very presence of God Himself: then the answer is this. NO THANK YOU! Except that such doctrinal deviants cannot really put in the second word of this phrase: it would rather be: No, and no thanks is due to you!! They steal themselves from the hand of their Creator, and are not thankful!

BEGGING THE QUESTION   

John 18:28-30   Prevarication and Hypocrisy

We return to John 18. Arrested then, in multiplied blindness, detained in frenzied fiasco, the LORD Himself is on trial before sinners, just as He said would be the case (Luke 9:44, Mark 10;33-34, 14:41, Matthew 26:45), and just as it had to be from the first (John 1:29), as John the Baptist had foretold, identifying thereby the Lamb of God required by the prophecies of Isaiah. Arriving after some rough stuff before the priest Annas, and transferred to high priest, Caiaphas, in the weary night's vigil (the first of His three nights figuratively in the belly of the fish in parallel with Jonah - Matthew 12:40), He comes at length to Pilate, in the Praetorium, the official site for action on the part of the Roman power.

First we notice, in characterising the wonder of the Lord in the dark background of the children of men, the hypocrisy of those involved who would not ENTER the praetorium, lest they feel defiled by being in the presence of the unworthy, just before the official Passover (John 18:28). They felt a certain legal uncleanness if they entered into unspiritual premises (cf. Leviticus 23:7), but what of their murder of Christ for extraneous reasons, contrary to the clear definition of the Old Testament which demonstrated His accuracy in making the claim to be Messiah (right to the date of His death as in Daniel 9 cf. Highway of Holiness Ch. 4) ? That was fine: Passover or not, kill a man! but do not dirty the carpet.

This was to the baying pack, in any sort of conscientious and controlled examination,  a minor matter, since it did not concern them and their blessed security from invasion, or misunderstanding or of course, categorical replacement by the Messiah. If HE lived, their power would die, and like so many, they liked what they had more than the truth at which with blinking eyes, they were fiercely looking.

They could not co-exist, the polluted system run by active enemies of God, and the incarnate God Himself: for their ways were so far from the word of God that they were clearly traitors to the Book of the Lord, and so to the Lord of the Book! Had not Christ made that deficit of duty, that grandeur of betrayal of their divine Lord, who had spoken through Moses and the prophets, sufficiently apparent (cf. Matthew 23, Mark 7! Luke 11:50-54)! Yet they bayed and betrayed. As so often, truth was surrounded by force, violence and folly; but here, The Truth was on trial before the lie! (cf. Romans 1:25). The result of course would in due course (ONE generation) be the elimination of the city of Jerusalem and the Temple; but at this point of our watching the spectacle of the trial of Christ, we are seeing the test of all things, all parties.

As we move on now to John 18:28-30, what do we find ? It is this. Pilate asks: What accusation do you have against this man ? Their reply does not even bother to be to the point at all. They simply manufacture themselves as judge in the very presence of two judges, the Roman one, and the Judge of all men (Acts 17:31), and declare "If He were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him up to you!"  That is a perfect illustration of begging the question by an appeal to authority, in this case, one of the participants. It is like a tennis match, and a line call is questioned. Instead of checking on the TV record of the event, the referee says, If it were not an out ball, I would not have called - Out! Didn't you hear me ?

Since they were actively seeking to get rid of the evidence of the results of their own immorality, in seeking an end to His vitality, the reply is in the highest degree, even spectacularly meretricious, beggaring the truth by will! What a costly will they thus wrote not only for the generation to come, to be expropriated by Rome, but for posterity to our own 20th century, when Hitler in a somewhat similarly intolerant way, proceeded to seek to extinguish the Jews altogether, meeting challenge by his ludicrous philosophical ideas, as if to say: I TOLD you they were a corruption of humanity. Did you not hear me ? They must go.

Of course those Jews who had become Christians, and those of Jewish extraction who may do so, have just the same way as Gentiles. It is the foretold scenario; but if they chose to remain in the obviously gathering storms of Hitler's anti-semitism and expansive intentions, then this became a national matter for them in Germany as such. The result for the nation, in the first century, was not only the enormous slaughter by Rome, and the devastation of their so prized glory, seeking to save which had led to its loss, precisely as Christ affirmed in more general terms (Matthew 16:25-27). It would also be the loss and shame of persecution whether from the Roman Catholic Inquisition, the pogroms of Russia or the expropriation of figures such as Louis XIV of France or the ravages of Hitler.

It is when you consider such things, that it becomes all the more meaningful to hear that this world with its works is going to be BURNT UP! (II Peter 3). What an excellent idea! It is founded in large part by humanity, on inequity, splendours of fraud, majestic miseries and intolerable injustices. Its fate is sealed, like that of Romanism (cf. Revelation 17-19, SMR pp. 946ff., 912ff., cf. 1032-1088H), and indeed all false religion (Revelation 16:13, 19:20), which is mere rebellion against the God of creation, salvation and justice (Jeremiah 10:11).

Let us always remember, the while, that it was SOME of the Jews (racially) who founded the Church and composed virtually its entire complement at the start, that it was Jewish missionaries (and Luke) who made some of the most amazing forays of NON-violent religion ever to be seen, in Paul and allies, and other apostles. It was Jews who wrote the Old Testament under the mighty hand of God. It is not a racial matter; some Jews and some Gentiles have done exceedingly well in the kingdom of God.

It is however as it was, a national matter. How one laments for Israel, which to this day, has not heeded what is needed (cf. Luke 19:42ff.), the same then as now; and how one rejoices (cf. Deuteronomy 32:43) that soon is the time when a sudden opening of the eye will occur in Israel. Please God it may be soon (Zechariah 12:10-13:1). As the forecast of the piercing of the LORD Himself in human form was made by Zechariah 500 years or so before it occurred, so was this prediction of the opening of the eyes of those of that nation in large part, from whom the death came (Romans 11), and to whom in large measure, life through Christ will come. 

DUCKING AND WEAVING IN THE GLARE OF TRUTH John 18:31ff.

Killing the truth naturally, indeed supernaturally, did not remove it; since Christ being resurrected in the very body in which He had died, one now transformed into a power more akin to His own, and one further, to be glorified (cf. John 7:39, Matthew 17), is as vital and alive as ever (Revelation 1:19). This His people know and see. It did however provide an easy and pleasantly ready-to-hand way of declaring war on God. It merely requires the rejection of this Messiah from eternity, in His coming as man, by man, in order to bring on just the same, or parallel result, as has stricken the Jews. This however is not just for time, but for eternity! (John 3:36). Recalcitrant Jew or Gentile alike faces a categorical escalation in this! But let us return to the events of His judgment, not as to come, that by Him, but of Him!

The trial then was actually one of Israel and Pilate and hence of Rome; and Christ was the participant Judge, who declared clearly what His role would be when the time came. Asked if He were the Christ, the Son of God, He replied right in that court setting earlier, before the High Priest, "I am. And you will see the Son of Man setting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven."

There was always this glorious reticence and equally glorious clarity and categorical character to the exhibition of deity, by Christ. He did not tout it about, as if to become a high-coloured bill-board. He wanted it to sink into the depths of the heart, into the last recesses of thought; but when it was necessary He would announce it as seen in the references of Matthew 27:26, Luke 4:18-21, and indeed also in Mark 10:62, as here.

God has made everything clear, but He does not hit you over the head with it. On the other hand, His hand, as in the fate of Jerusalem in the generation following His coming, is perfectly clear and as there, very often announced well in advance in a manner incapable of imitation (Matthew 24:1ff.).  

Here, then, in the trial is ducking and weaving by Pilate,  mingled, in a scene of conflagration, with implacable pitilessness ultimately for themselves, from Israel.

Pilate is not impressed with their pompous self-affirmation in answer to the question, What accusation do you bring against Him ? He tells them to go and judge Him by their own law. This dismissive idea was an easy option for Pilate to take. Why get involved ? The Jews may have seemed a dangerously seditious, religious and fearless race, and to be involved in various manoeuvres and subtleties of theirs was a recipe for no plum pudding, but rather for black tar, perhaps mixed with blood, a sort of ultimate black pudding. The Jews present affirmed however that the death penalty required his assent. The matter could not be left to them; indeed, if it could have been, no doubt it would have been.

In speaking in this manner, however, the Jewish authorities, given some power by the Roman occupying forces, made it clear and public what their intentions were: and deicide, even if practised ONLY on the person of the incarnate Lord, is particularly dangerous as to its results for man, the flesh He made! Assassinating the surgeon is rich in results, if you need a cancer removed; but seeking to remove the Redeemer is especially inept, however popular in flesh with Israel's rulers of old, and in spirit with many Gentile nations today. Thus we read that here the death intention was made manifest. 

The Putting of the Question, Christ's Declamatory Answer and
Pilate's Avoidance of the Issue

Pilate then summoning Christ, asked if He were the King of the Jews. It is apparent from the text that he was greatly impressed, and was not only reluctant to remove this regal wording when Christ was later crucified, from His cross, but refused to do so! "Are you speaking for yourself, or did others tell you this concerning Me ?" Christ replied,  in interrogation of His own. In other words, did Pilate want to register his own questing with the query, or was it merely a part of his official duties.

"Am I a Jew ? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have you done ?" In this way, Pilate downgraded his personal interest, and pursued the legal question. The Lord was not going to let him be a mere functionary, since in all has He interest, and for all does He seek, it being far more a matter of rejoicing to gain one more, than just to have so many already at His side. Each such one is covered by that sacrificial redemption which the Jewish leaders were so inexorably moving to secure, though they did not know what they were doing. 

Christ Defines the Issue, in Word and Deed

In reply, Christ made it clear what was the answer to the fundamental question: Are you the King of the Jews ? It was this which the Jews were to use to manipulate the judge, later. Christ left him no ground in reality, reason and truth, for exculpation. "My kingdom," He declared, “is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now My kingdom is not from here."

His kingdom being of the truth, was not interested in the use of mere violence for the income of its nature and the outcome of its attestation. While judgment at length comes, how many millenia has this world had in order to find out the truth, as history grinds and then whimpers, shouts and then is abashed, through its horrors in the hall of ill fame! There have been at least six of these. Pilate then pursues the question for a legal answer. "Are you a king then ?" There is possibly also a touch of awe at the presence and peace, power and clarity of his prisoner, in this, as once more shown at the time of the inscription on the Cross. Indeed, it was not long before Pilate was actively SEEKING to avoid crucifying the Christ (John 19:12).

Christ then replied that yes, He was a King and came INTO this world, born to "bear witness to the truth." Roman and Jew alike having conspired to kill Him, this world has been categorically disoriented ever since, and awaits judgment. The escape route to Christ voids death, our lives in His keeping, the only way either out or on (Hebrews 6:18-19).