The Judgment of the World (John 12:30-33; 18:28-19:16)

Welcome to God's Word for Youth, a ministry of Sharon Arpey Church in southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today, and we pray that you'll be blessed by both hearing God's Word as well as having it applied to your life and your heart. So I'm going to ask you to turn, first of all, to John chapter 12, and there's a common theme that runs through those texts on the judgment of the world, the judgment of the world. Let's look at, first of all, John chapter 12, verses 30 to 33, and then we will be turning to John chapter 18. So let's hear the Word of God. Jesus answered. Jesus has been speaking here.

This voice, speaking of a voice that had come from heaven, has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

Then a few chapters over in chapter 18. starting at the end of that chapter in verse 28, going through chapter 19, verse 16. This is the account of Jesus before Pilate. Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters, so they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover.

So Pilate went outside to them and said, what accusation do you bring against this man? They answered him, if this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you. Pilate said to them, take him yourselves and judge him by your own law. The Jews said to him, it's not lawful for us to put anyone to death. This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

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? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you to me. What have you done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. my kingdom were of this world my servants would have been fighting but I might not be delivered over to the Jews but my kingdom is not from the world and Pilate said to to him you you are so you are a king Jesus answered you say that I am a king for this purpose I was born and for this purpose I will come into the world to bear witness to the truth everyone is of the truth listens to my voice Pilate said to him what is truth After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I should choose release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? They cried out again, not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.

Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head, arrayed him in a purple robe. They came to him and said, Hail, King of the Jews, and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, See, I'm bringing him out so that you may know that I find no guilt in him. So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and a purple robe. Pilate said to them, Behold the man. And the chief priests and the officers saw him.

They cried out, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate said to him, take him yourself and crucify him for I find no guilt in him. The Jews answered him, we have a law. According to that law, he ought to die because he has made himself the son of God. When Pilate heard the statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, where are you from?

Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, you will not speak to me? Do you not know I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you? Jesus answered him, you have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. And then on Pilate sought to release him. But the Jews cried out, if you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.

So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat him on the judgment seat in a place called the stone pavement in an Aramaic Gabbatha. It was the day of preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, behold, your king. They cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, we have no king but Caesar. So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.

Prayer for Illumination

Let's pray. Gracious Father, we come to you today and we recognize that in this passage that we have read, we read about the false accusations, about human government and human religion, and even the crowds of people condemning the Lord of glory. But we also read about the fact that the truth will win out. that you judge those kingdoms, those falsehoods of this world. We ask and pray now that as we've heard your word, that as I proclaim it, that I would have clarity, that we would have attentive hearts and minds to hear what you have to say to us today. For in Christ's name we pray, amen.

Sermon

In the time over the last few years that I have been here, including the extended time when I was your interim supply preacher before Pastor Brian came, we were looking at the Gospel of John, and in that Gospel, One of the themes that you will find was what some have called the trial reversal theme.

In other words, Jesus gets put on trial, but everything gets reversed. And all the accusations that are made against him get turned around and brought back to his accusers. There are a lot of places in the Gospel of John when this very truth is shown, but perhaps nowhere as clearly as in this account of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. And we read the portion in John 12 because that is Jesus' opening statement of what would happen, actually, in the trial and crucifixion of Jesus.

We're primarily looking today, of course, at his time before Pilate. who goes down in history as the one before whom Jesus was tried as a civil magistrate. He goes down in some of the classic creeds of the Christian Church, such as the Apostles' Creed, suffered under Pontius Pilate. Pilate was his last name, like the little kid that was, you know, asked to draw something, a religious picture, and he showed an airplane, and someone asked him, well, that's Pontius the Pilate, he said, as he pointed to the guy in there. Not that, but Pilate, the man under whom Jesus was tried.

This is not just an interesting intellectual exercise for us, but crucial for our own spiritual state and our whole relationship with the Lord, to understand how Jesus overturns common human judgments against him. Because the world literally is on trial before Jesus. At the very time that key people, whether it's the religious leaders who opposed him, Pilate, the representative human government, or the crowds who represent popular appeal, are judging Jesus, they themselves are being judged. And that's what I want us to focus on, three areas in this account, and how we have this reversal of judgment. The first thing is that the false religions of this world are put on trial before God. Why does Jesus ultimately end up going to trial?

Interesting. Ever thought about that? Here we have the Son of God who's going around doing good. Not doing anything evil, but doing good. Why is he going to be brought to trial? Well, if you remember back when we were looking at John 11, Raising of Lazarus. And Jesus talks about, I am the resurrection of the life. We begin to see some inklings of this. When Jesus has just raised Lazarus. Now, when you read about that, you might assume, what opposition could you have from raising Lazarus? Raising from the dead, a beloved companion of Jesus. the brother of two that he loved, Mary and Martha.

But we see an inkling of this in the response of some of the chief priests and Pharisees who gathered in council, and it says, if we let him go on like this, this is the key phrase, the Romans will, everyone will believe him, and the Romans will come and take away our place and our nation. Here are religious leaders, and what are they concerned about? their place, their public perception, what the people think about them, far more than the truth. Now let's think about these religious leaders that Jesus is finding are his chief opposition, because they are. Among the common people for a long time, he had a lot of followers.

He could gather crowds. You know, think of the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000. That was just the men. We don't know how many women and children there were. Those are good-sized crowds. Out in a rural area, the common people at first were following him.

But there was opposition from these religious leaders. These were the very ones that had, as Paul would say in his epistle to the Romans, the very oracles of God. They had the Word of God. were entrusted with interpreting that word, we know that they had developed a system that had made them look good instead of teaching the Word of God. I mean, our very term, Pharisee, has become a word we say if someone is Pharisaical, that means someone who's hypocritical, is focusing on the outward show. But you have to remember that in the minds of many of the common people of that day, Pharisees were the good guys.

They were the ones that people would have looked at, and that's a really religious man over there. He fasts, he tithes, he does all the right outward things. Matter of fact, the common people oftentimes looked at the Pharisees and said, these guys do stuff that I don't have time to do. My occupation doesn't allow me to do that. My normal work-a-day world doesn't let me do what these guys do. These guys are the really holy guys.

And yet, to maintain that outward religious respectability which they have, they had to end up denying very truths of the Scriptures. They built this elaborate fence around the law, which was outward restrictions that they could do to make themselves look good. And that comment in John chapter 11 says volumes. They follow Jesus. They'll come and take our place away. And then the Romans won't let us do what we're doing.

They had really cooked up a good deal with the Romans to let them have a position of authority. In other words, they had compromised with the Romans so that they could look good in the sight of the people. They obstructed the teachings of Jesus, rejected his authority. hated him both for his views and his popularity.

Or as they say in John chapter 12 verse 19, look, the whole world has gone after him. Now that's clearly an exaggeration. But the exaggeration has enough truth in it that you get the point. They're saying, look at his popularity. And if he's popular, guess who is not popular? Us. They were willing to run roughshod over who Jesus was because of the impact it would have upon them. Now, when they come to Pilate with their case, Pilate recognizes they really don't have one. Did you see that? Pilate says, well, what's your case?

What accusation, he says in verse 29 of chapter 18. What accusation do you bring? What do you bring against this man? And they said, If he wasn't doing evil things, we wouldn't have come here, which is a wonderful evasion. Instead of saying, here's the evil he's done. Well, of course he's doing evil. Why do you think we're here? And Pilate's saying, that doesn't sound like an accusation to me. That sounds like a lot of innuendo, a lot of guilt by association or whatever you want to call it.

But the point is, the only accusation ultimately, when you search the Gospels they come up with, is they said blasphemy. Now what's really important to see is that that's the one charge, blasphemy. He made himself out to be the Son of God. That's blasphemy if Jesus is not the Son of God. But if he is who he says he is and was, then it's not blasphemy. It's actually the truth. That's the only accusation they have. of course, listens to this, and he recognizes as a human ruler, there's no ground for the accusation there. The whole trial was a mess of illegal action, secret meetings at night. They were hypocrites because they knew that what they were doing was illegal.

Yet, did you notice what it said, why they did not go into Pilate's headquarters? was Passover time. If they had entered into Pilate's secret inner chambers, that would have been contact in a Gentile's quarters, and that would have made it illegitimate for them to take Passover.

Put this in your mind. Here are these guys who are condemning, as Paul says, the Lord of glory, being scrupulous so they can keep the Passover, the very Passover that points to Christ. They're being scrupulous to keep it while they're putting to death the Lord of glory. They can't do it, but they're cooking it up so that Pilate can put him to death. They were really totally helpless to do anything about Jesus, so they had to go to the civil authorities, where they told lies, incited mob pressure to get what they wanted. They ultimately ended up denying the faith itself. Did you look at chapter 19, verse 15, when he read that? And Pilate says, behold, your king, shall I crucify your king of glory? And they say, we have no king but Caesar. That's blasphemy. Because one of the key things that you know from Scripture is Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

And that is a blatant denial of the kingship of our Lord Jesus Christ. The whole messianic hope of the Old Testament was that passage in Daniel that we read. The Ancient of Days, who is going to destroy human authority that sets itself up against God. Even the death of Jesus on the cross is God's judgment against such false religion. You have to understand what's going on here. The false religion that is the closest to the truth is the one that puts to death the King of glory. I mean, this was not Hinduism, or Buddhism, or some headhunter religion from some South Sea islander that puts Jesus to death.

This is people who have the Old Testament scriptures, who know the promises of a Messiah, who have read Daniel 9, But because of their self-turned-in self-interest in their false version of that religion, because that's really what it comes down to, they're willing to put to death the King of Glory. And in so doing, there's a judgment upon them.

Well, there's a natural human tendency to depend upon religion. All sorts of people would say that. Well, we're religious. Now, instead of the term religious, oftentimes there's the term, I'm spiritual. But that's meaning the same thing. I've got a religiosity or a spirituality that's disconnected from Jesus Christ and trust in Him. A lot of people assume, of course, that it doesn't matter which one, as long as you're sincere about it.

Yet ultimately, All false religions and all false spiritualities do the very same thing that these opponents of Jesus do. They are focused as expressions of self-interest. And Jesus exposes that on the cross. Because it was the self-interest of false religious teachers that puts Jesus on the cross. One of the key reasons, not the only reason, of course, but a key reason in the actual transactions that happen here, why Jesus ends up on the cross. It's the self-interest of false religious teachers. Not only does this call us to testify to the truth about Christ and who He is, but it calls us to self-examination to make sure we ourselves are not falling for a self-interested approach to religious and spiritual life.

Is our trust in Christ one that sees him as the one who's truly being glorified on the cross? That's what Jesus said. On the cross, when I am lifted up, I will be glorified. Or is our, quote, religion overwhelmingly and primarily on, it's gonna be good for me, so I gotta, this is why I believe this. The key here, of course, is gratitude.

We are truly grateful to see the cross of Christ is ultimately not about us. but about the glory of God. It's God's judgment upon all false religions, including those which tempt us. who are followers of Christ. We can sometimes see through the extreme versions of the health and wealth gospel and others and in the name of Christianity, the name it and claim it sort of thing. We recently had a grandson that was sick and some friend of Jenny's gave her a little pamphlet from one of these things about healing and it said, healing is in the atonement and you just pray and your grandson will be healed of his bad cold.

He may have symptoms still, but he'll be healed. You know, and we scratch our head at that and say, okay, he's got the symptoms still, but he's healed. What kind of, it strikes you, what kind of double talk does that come down to? But there are people who will say things like that. And then, you know, God wants you to be wealthy and he wants you to drive fancy cars and live in fancy homes. We can see through that. But let's face it, a self-interest is something we all struggle with.

And that's what our Lord Jesus is exposing here. in his judgment upon these false religious teachers. But there's also a judgment on the politics of this world, because Pilate is the representative of human governments here. He's a representative of the Roman Empire, the most powerful empire in the world, had known to that point. What's interesting is that the Roman Empire had also prided itself on its justice. Now think about that. If the Roman Empire prided itself in justice, what's one thing you notice about this trial of Jesus? The total lack of justice. This is all about power politics here. This is all about I scratch your back and you scratch my back. We have put pressure on you. Now let's think about Pilate.

What was he like? Well, the Bible shows him a way that is collaborated by what our history texts tell us about him. That he was a weak and vacillating governor, and he was caught up between the demands, for example, of the Jewish leadership, and we also should say that the warnings of his wife. Look at Matthew chapter 27, his wife warned him, don't have anything to do with that righteous man Jesus. Our history books will tell us that later Pilate was exiled because he had been such a failure in the land of Israel as governor of Judea. He had originally been a nobody who had married well, and he was extremely nervous about his position.

There are people like that. They are nobodies, and they marry the right person, and then they all of a sudden get power and prestige because their money has helped them get that. That's what Pilate was. He lost his position, he was exiled, ended up in France, and our history texts tell us he committed suicide in despair. Now here's the dilemma that Pilate found himself in.

If he had listened to the crowds, he knew that a miscarriage of justice was going to occur. And he also knew, though, that if he listened to his wife, which said, don't have anything to do with this, and she actually told the well-connected people that his career might also be in jeopardy, but there also might be a riot. So here's this guy, Pilot, who's looking at the situation, trying to make a decision, and he's basing it all on how I will look good. how I can maintain my power.

He's only interested in power and prestige and what he can do to keep it. Now it's interesting, if that sounds an awful lot like with the religious leaders, that's because it was. It's just showing up in politics rather than the religious community. The only thing that he does is he asks Jesus some questions. He almost seems slightly amused, it seems to me, at the answers, Jesus, because Jesus says, He says, I understand that you're on trial for being a king.

What kind of king are you? And Jesus says, My kingdom is not of this world. And you can just sort of read between the lines and pilot thinking, okay, what kind of kingdom is that? I know about kingdoms where I can call Roman legionnaires and they can, at the point of a spear, they can get power done, but what's this kingdom that's not of this world?

I don't get that. It doesn't operate. He realizes Jesus is not operating under the notions of kingship that he was used to. The only thing that really seems to frighten him is when he knows that Jesus is calling himself the Son of God. He finds Jesus' silence frustrating. He tells him now, he says, you know, you don't understand here.

I've got the power here to let you off the hook. If you give me the right answers, I can get you off the hook here. That's what Pilate is saying. Just bear with me a little bit. You know, I sense that you're really not a threat, that you're really an innocent man, but just say the right answers, and me, Pilot, the guy with the power, I'll get you off the hook.

But Pilot is the one who's really on trial here. Because as a representative human government, he's seeking power without recognizing the kingdom of God. And he boasts of his power. He says, don't you know? He says, I have the authority to release you, an authority to crucify you. I'm in charge here, is what Pilate is basically boasting.

But Jesus puts him in his place. Did you see what Jesus said here? You have no authority over me at all unless it has been given to you from above. Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin." The more Pilate tries to get Jesus off the hook, the deeper he's digging his hole. He ultimately capitulates to the crowds, and then he does that action, which one of my favorite writers, J.I. Packer, said is one of the goofiest acts of human history.

He washes his hands of the results. That has even come down as a cliché in our culture. Have you noticed that? If someone washes his hands of something, where does that come from? That comes from pilot's action. As if to say, if I just wash my hands of this, all my guilt is gone. I don't have any responsibility. I've washed my hands. That's what that has come as a cliché in our culture.

So Jesus is condemned to die at the hands of Rome showing that a government that prides itself on its justice is quite willing to tolerate injustice and unwilling to tolerate a kingdom that holds it accountable and judges it. Because Jesus is saying, no, Mr. Pilate, you have no authority. I am the one who ultimately has the authority here. Now let's think about this, because this is also a temptation that people have.

And it's a temptation to see government as the solution to nearly everything. Think of all the utopian schemes that have been hatched throughout human history. Now, immediately some of you might be thinking, well, I'm a political conservative, and I distrust governments, and so that's them liberals. They're the ones that have all these things, you know, trust me, with my government schemes, I can solve everything. Well, let me tell you, there have been equally conservative governments that have done, and people who claim to be conservative politicians who've done the very same thing.

Because they will make claims, just trust me. I'm the one who's going to save you. I'm the one who's got all the right plans. I'm the one who can solve every problem. Just do what I say and everything is just fine. That seems to be the very nature of human politics, is that politicians make grandiose claims that if you just do what I say, all their problems will be solved. Many of us might say, well, I try to work for trustworthy political candidates and all of that. And there's nothing wrong. That's good. I'm not condemning that. That's very good.

The temptation is when we cross that line and start seeing human political authorities as the ones who will save us, who will bring justice in this world, forgetting that those people who make those claims, those people who hold those powers are sinful creatures who have the temptation to abuse power, no matter whether they stand on the right or on the left, or for that matter, in the middle. Because this is a perennial human temptation. Jesus judges human government in the person of Pilate. Think about this.

This was the best government that the world had known to that time. And what did the best government the world had known to that time do? It agreed to the false claims of the religious leaders that Jesus needed to be put to death. You might say, well, would we have done that today? I have a strong suspicion that we would have done the very same thing. we would have done the very same thing today. Some reason to put the Lord of Glory to death would have been found if Jesus had showed up in our time.

I'm reminded of your heritage in the Reformed Presbyterian Church. You ever notice on the front of your church, there's that blue banner that flies over there. And what's that all about? Well, that's something that the old Scottish covenanters, as they were called, had a blue banner. And why did they fly a blue banner? Because they talked a lot about the crown rights of King Jesus. The crown rights of King Jesus.

And there were people in the so-called killing times in Scotland who said, will be put to death, rather than admit that there's any king other than our Lord. Now, you may disagree with some of the areas that took the stand, and that's not the point we're talking about here. The point is that their willingness to say the crown rights of King Jesus go over everything. They stand over every other claim is absolutely where every Christian today needs to be standing. Doesn't mean we stop working for good government.

But we realize that our only hope is the kingdom of God. The kingdom that only the death of Christ could really bring in. It's because Jesus was rejected by the government authorities and condemned to death that he triumphs over them. Jesus says, that's when I will be glorified. Now is the kingdoms of this world cast down. Only the death of Christ can overcome the self-interest that brings true justice. But lastly, we see the people are put in trial in the death of Jesus.

Pilate has tried his ace in the hole here. And he has said, you know, I know there's this popular idea that once a year we'll release somebody. You see that at the end of chapter 18. He says, but you have a custom, I should release one man. So he goes to the crowd, you want me to release King Jesus?

And they cry out, no, not this man, but Barabbas. And he says, now Barabbas was a robber. The crowds were stoked up in such that they were willing to cry out for a no good criminal to be released rather than Jesus. He has already had Jesus beaten to look like a pitiful figure. He brings him out and gives the crowd the choice between Jesus and Barabbas, who was a robber and probably, from what we can gather, a zealot revolutionary. Pilate is trying to get himself off the hook here, of course, and say, we're going to leave it to the people. Because he assumes the crowd won't have the same attitude as the religious leaders who have it in for Jesus. But Mark 15 says that the crowds were stirred up by the religious leaders to yell even louder, crucify him! Crucify him. They asked for Barabbas instead of Jesus.

Now, interesting question that can be asked. Were these among the same people who just a few days earlier on what we call Palm Sunday were saying, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord? Possibly. We don't know. We don't know if it's the same crowd or not.

But it's clearly there's a crowd yelling, crucify him, crucify him. Maybe they liked Barabbas' style better. Barabbas may have looked heroic. He was out there really doing something. He was out there really fighting. He was a guy who said it like it was. I hear people say that about politicians sometimes. That guy says it like it is, so I like that guy. You know, as if that's the only criteria for a good politician. He says it like it is. Maybe they said that about Barabbas. He says it like it is. This Jesus doesn't do that. At least not the way we want it to be. Whatever it is, they chose Barabbas, a criminal, rather than the Lord of glory. What's clear is that the crowds are no help to Jesus on that day. They proved to be just as fickle and as self-interested as the religious leaders and Pilate.

One of our founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton, said a number of very brilliant things, but the thing that has always struck in my mind was this statement, Alexander Hamilton. Somebody was saying in the heady days after the American Revolution, the people have spoken, the people, the people, the people. And Alexander Hamilton looked at him and said, remember, the people can sometimes be a great beast. The people can be a great beast.

If you want to see that in living colors, read the history of the French Revolution. People who cried out, away with the king, away with this one, guillotine him, la guillotine. You know, that machine that chopped off heads. Thousands were sent to the guillotine.

Why? Because the crowds turned against him. You couldn't trust anybody, because if they ratted on you and said you had said something against the republic, the crowds would yell, la guillotine, la guillotine. So much for the popular crowds. They liked the blood and gore. They liked to feel like they were empowered, but they had just become a bloodthirsty mob. Well, the crowds were judged by the death of Christ, and they are representatives of the judgment of God against the mass of people in this world. Human nature oftentimes does not clamor for real justice, but it clamors most often for self-indulgence.

Ever notice that? All sorts of people say something is great until it affects them. I want this, but oh, if it affects me, oh no, not, I didn't intend that to help me. when they pass prohibition, and I've been teaching a class over at the community college, I got called out of retirement to teach that class over there, and we were talking about prohibition, and I pointed out that when they pass prohibition, the same time they're passing prohibition in the White House, they had their stash of high-level whiskey in the back, because the people in the White House, well, that's fine for the common people, but that doesn't affect us. And all kinds of people thought that was great for everybody else, but not for us. Isn't that how people respond? Oh, it's great, great, great, great. As long as it doesn't affect me. I mean, I didn't really want that to happen to me. This is the self-indulgence that people have. Great for everybody else, but not for me.

The world always puts on a cloak of self-righteousness, self-righteous concern for justice, but Jesus exposes that on the cross. It was self-indulgence that put Jesus on the cross, and He can only be overcome by His death on the cross. Only the death of Christ on the cross can transform us, as well as forgive us, into those who love God and love our neighbor. Only the cross of Christ can lift us up out of the shallowness of pop culture that knows nothing else but self-absorption.

What is in it for me? Because that's what the crowd is always going to look for. What is in it for me? One theologian put it this way. In the cross of Christ, the judge is judged in our place. Darkness came over the earth, of course, and showed that God was truly judging the earth. Because darkness usually accompanies divine judgment in the Bible. Jesus cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

He was understanding that he was taking our judgment. Oftentimes people will talk about the day in which Christ died as Good Friday. And we often maybe puzzle, why is it good? It's good because Jesus is taking our judgment. Human sin at its heart is a refusal to accept God's judgment about ourselves and attempt to judge ourselves and the world around us according to our own standards.

Such self-judgments will always lead to travesties of justice, such as the death of Christ on the cross and the most horrible forms of self-rationalization and self-justification. Yet God takes the judgment on himself. That's what he was doing on the cross. He was taking the judgment on himself. So those of us who trust in him won't have to experience the very judgment that we should deserve.

That's why Jesus so often claims to be the truth. And Pilate, did you notice, was very cynical about that. You see that comment in here when he said, Jesus says, I've come to testify to the truth. Everyone who listens to the truth listens to my voice. And Pilate is cynical. He says, what is truth? That's right, he says, what is truth? He's cynical about truth. But Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

The very Jesus who is judged by the people, is the very one who comes to bring the reversal of judgment against those who trust in Him. That's why Jesus could say He both came to save, but also to condemn the world at the same time. They're statements that are hard to put together. They seem to be contradictory until you understand that Jesus' action and His life and death and resurrection were doing both. The world is condemned in all of its sin, self-interest, and pride, yet this very act of condemning the world is the very salvation for those who confess that we would have been there crucifying Him apart from God's grace. next Sunday you're going to be celebrating the Lord's Supper. It's the time when you are drawn back to look again and be reminded again of the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ is taking that judgment upon himself. He is condemning the false religions. He's condemning the false politics of this world, he's condemning the false popular opinions of this world, but he's saying, I am taking that judgment on himself, on myself.

So as you come, as you gather around the Lord's table, come to trust in him next week. But you don't have to wait, of course, until the Lord's Supper is served. This is something we do regularly, on a day-in, day-out basis, because the answer to the question is always, what do we do with Christ? And the answer is always, we trust in Him. We lean on Him. We recognize that He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. And He is the one who reverses all the judgments that were against Him, the false judgments, and triumphs through His work on the cross.

Closing Prayer

Well, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your grace to us. Thank you for your word. Thank you that it strikes deep to us and teaches us how we should respond to our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for this truth, Lord, and pray that we would recognize that all the falsehoods of this world are judged by our Lord Jesus Christ. For it's in his name we pray, amen. Thank you for listening to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. We pray that you would be blessed as you grow in your love for God, your love for His Word, as well as your love for His people. Until next week, God bless you.