John Chapter 18:28-34

Do you understand to a large degree, the world is coming to the church looking for answers? We saw 9-11. There was a huge spike in church attendance, but then you know what happened? It went right back down.

You know why? Because they came to the church in a general sense for answers, and we didn't give them any. Have you ever put money into a drink machine, pushed the button, nothing happened? How'd you feel at that point?

I mean, you were probably pretty frustrated. See, that's what the world does. The world comes to us for answers, and if we don't offer them the hope of Jesus Christ, guys, we've got nothing to offer them. Hypocrisy does not... Hippocrates is the Greek word. It's wearing a mask. It's playing in a play. It's not somebody that struggles and occasionally does something wrong. If you sin... Let me back up. When you sin, that doesn't necessarily make you a hypocrite. That makes you a believer that's trying to walk out his faith that occasionally struggles and stumbles.

Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is a senior pastor of The Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. It's very true that stale, lifeless, and hypocritical religion drives people away from God. Today, Pastor David explains why this is true and how you can overcome it as he continues in the Gospel of John chapter 18 with his teaching, The Trial. Come with me to John chapter 18. We finished up about verse 27, and we were talking about Peter and Judas and the difference between the two.

If you missed that, you may want to get that off of the website because we found encouragement in the fact that Peter was not permanently disqualified from ministry. That brings us to verse 28. Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium. It was early morning, but they themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. Now, let me explain a little something here because scholars are kind of different on the interpretation of this verse. Passover is the first night of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and yet sometimes in Scripture, those terms are used interchangeably, meaning that Passover refers not only to that first night but to the whole Feast of Unleavened Bread as well. Now, I need to explain that because you might say, well, I thought they had Passover the evening before, and I believe that they did.

It's apparent from the other three Gospels that they did. Now, it cannot mean the Passover meal, and here's why. Some scholars have actually said that it does, but I'm not sure they understand Judaism as deeply as they perhaps should. The reason it can't be talking about Passover meal, the Passover dinner, is because remember the Jewish day is from sundown to sundown, and when you're made unclean in this sense, you would be unclean till the end of that day, not unclean forever. So if it was talking about the Passover meal, obviously at sundown, because we're early in the morning, at sundown that day, they would no longer be unclean.

So I believe that it's referring to the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and there's actually a meal that had come into play, still in the place, the hakaga, that is an afternoon meal after the Passover evening, and I think that's what they're referring to because if it was referring to that, obviously they would be concerned about being made unclean that day. Now, and by the way, if you're wondering how I know it's morning, it's because, look at verse 27, the rooster's crowing. So that lets us know, and it says in verse 28 that it was early morning, so we know the sun's up. Now, there is in the Bible, there's what's referred to as Levitical law, and that is the law and the word of God, Levitical law and rabbinical law, and rabbinical law is the law that men came up with from the word of God. In other words, they read the word of God and they said, well, we think it means this, we think it means that, and they came up with 36,000 pages of do's and don'ts from the word of God. Some of them were an application of the word of God, some of them were not. Some of them, they got into really silliness as far as the Shabbat, the Sabbath goes, in the sense that there were certain things you could do, certain things you couldn't do, like if you had a kerchief in your pocket, then that was working because you were carrying that kerchief, but if you took that kerchief and pinned it to your clothing, then that was part of your clothing and you technically weren't carrying it.

So you could see they got into a lot of legalism, and they had kind of began to stray from the heart of the law. And even today when you go to Israel, it's interesting, you want to be careful which elevator you get in on the Shabbat, on the Sabbath, because see, in hotels there's Shabbat elevators. Now what happens on those elevators is they automatically stop at every floor. So if you get in the wrong elevator and you're on like the eighth floor, you're going to be kind of bumming out because it's going to stop it. It's almost like having a small child and they're going, you know, with the buttons. And as we hear this, we think, oh, that is so silly.

Yeah. But you know what? We've picked up a lot of silliness in the Christian church, haven't we?

Stuff that doesn't have anything to do with this word. Yet we've taken it, we've developed it, we've even elevated it to the point of doctrine when it has no basis in the word of God. So much of the world has been blinded by religion. See, we think, when we talk about, you know, the enemies of God, you know, we think about, I don't know, drug dealers or pornography or outright Satanist or you know, these sorts of things.

That's what we think of. But do you understand that one of the strongest, longest enemies of God is blind, hypocritical, man-based religion? That more people have been led to a life away from God, to actually eternal condemnation. More people have been led that way by the church than all these other things combined.

That's a sad fact because so often the church portrays what? Well, it's all about your good works. It's all about you doing the best you can. If you do the best you can long enough, then God will accept you into heaven based upon those good works. If you don't believe that exists, just ask people today as you go to restaurants or whatever, see other people today, say, you know, how do you get to heaven? And most people say, well, you know, you keep the 10 commandments or you go to church. Where did Jesus say that? Keep in mind, I'm a pastor. I want people in church to be engaged in Bible study, but it's not like we're stamping your ticket and you know, after your ticket gets stamped 10 times or something, you get to go. See, we need to be careful of this.

Why? Well, the first life lesson, stale, lifeless and hypocritical religion drives people away from God. Stale, lifeless and hypocritical religion drives people away from God. Do you understand to a large degree the world is coming to the church looking for answers? We saw 9-11. There was a huge spike in church attendance, but then you know what happened and went right back down. You know why?

Because they came to the church in a general sense for answers and we didn't give them any. Have you ever put money into a drink machine? Push the button. Nothing happened. How'd you feel at that point? I mean, you were probably pretty frustrated. You know, I will never forget as long as I live, we went up to Stone Mountain, North Carolina and we were doing all this hiking. And if you go there, be careful because I think the signs are all wrong about the mileage distance on the trails. But we came up off this huge hike.

I mean, it was like three miles or something on this one loop. And man, I was parched. I drink a lot of water and I was parched. So we got to a drink machine, went up to the drink machine and my money got stuck. And I could see the quarters right there. You know, and I was, your pastor was a little flustered.

He was frustrated. So I had this plan to get some sticks and try to push it, you know, push the quarters down in there. And so I'm sitting there trying to push the quarters down in there. And then all of a sudden like a family comes around the corner and they're looking at me. Do you need some change or something, sir? No, I'm just trying to break into this machine.

It'll be all right. But that was very, see, that's what the world does. The world comes to us for answers. And if we don't offer them the hope of Jesus Christ, guys, we got nothing to offer them.

That is what we offer them. And I understand this hypocrisy is not contained just to the church, but obviously the church is engaged in it. And hypocrisy does not... Hippocrates is the Greek word. It's wearing a mask. It's playing in a play. It's not somebody that's struggling that occasionally does something wrong. If you sin... Let me back up. When you sin, that doesn't necessarily make you a hypocrite.

That makes you a believer that's trying to walk out his faith that occasionally struggles and stumbles. But if you're wearing a mask, man, you need to take the mask off. That's not what we're about. This is a place where you can feel safe about taking that mask off, about calling us and saying, hey, I'm really struggling with this.

Can you pray with me through this? But again, the world is engaged in hypocrisy. If you think about it, they got pro-choice.

I refer to it as pro-death. And kill the babies, save the whales. I don't understand that. So that hypocrisy is all through society. And regrettably, it's actually in the churches. Well, verse 29, Pilate then went out to them and said, what accusation do you bring against this man? And they answered and said to him, well, if you were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him up to you. That's definitely what you would call circular logic. Obviously, if he's here, he's guilty of something.

They didn't really answer the question. Now, let me explain a little bit about where Pilate is and politically. Pilate was given the governorship of this area, if you will, because there were some problems. Pilate, when he went to Israel, wasn't really familiar with the way they did things. And so he actually marched into Jerusalem and had a bust, a statue of Caesar, and also had the eagles on top of the Roman flags. Well, obviously, the Jewish people who didn't believe in having idols, making idols, just totally freaked out.

Guess what? Rome heard about it. So then Pilate thought he would settle them down and he built an aqueduct, which parts are still there. But the way he funded the aqueduct is he took money out of the temple. So again, the Jewish people got upset. Guess what?

Rome heard about it. So here's two strikes against him. The man is in somewhat of a political sensitive situation. So that's two strikes against him already. And it's interesting, they say, well, if he hadn't done something wrong, we wouldn't have delivered him up. I went to the Book of Luke, as I was studying through it one time, and I counted 24 times in the Book of Luke where they accused Jesus of wrongdoing. Now, the thing that's significant about that is Jesus never did anything wrong. But that didn't stop them from accusing him 24 times of 24 different things.

That's interesting. And I think it also is significant in the sense, you know, you can't silence accusers. That's God's job. I learned a long time ago in ministry, if you try to defend yourself, God will let you. But if you trust on God to defend you, God will defend you. And again, who do you want defending you?

God or yourself? I'll let the Lord defend me. Now, again, they make these accusations against them and they obviously don't have a lot of merit, but that doesn't stop them from making them. And understand, and I tell the staff and leadership a lot, you know, oftentimes an accusation can hurt a ministry.

Not even an action, but an accusation. We'll be right back with more from David Magee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor D.A. Brown. We want to take just a minute to pray for a few cities in our listening audience.

In Montana, Gallatin, Glendive, Great Falls, Hamilton, Helena, Kalispell, and Missoula. Lord, we thank you for everyone listening right now. We thank you for the work that you're doing in their lives. Lord, I pray that you would fill them with the faith that they need to say yes to you. God, we pray that if anyone in these cities does not yet know you, if they've not put their trust in you, that today they would. Lord, we pray for the churches in the area that you give the pastors wisdom. Lord, I pray that people will get plugged into these churches and grow. And Lord, we pray for the city leaders, the mayor, the police chief, the fire department, the town council, everybody in leadership. Lord, that you give them wisdom and discernment, and we pray for unity amongst the government. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse 31, then Pilate said to them, you take him and judge him according to your law. Therefore, the Jews said to him, it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death. Now, this is interesting, because the Romans had done something that no other society or culture had done, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the times of captivity. The Roman government had taken away from the Jewish people the right of execution. Now, you may think, well, is that really an important deal? Well, it is, because see, when they did that, they took self-rule away from them.

In other words, even if they found somebody guilty of a crime, they could not punish them as they saw fit. So Rome had taken from Israel that right of self-governing. Now, this is very significant, and perhaps you're sitting there and go, okay, well, is that important?

It's extremely important, and I'll tell you a couple of reasons why. You see, there was a belief that they would stay self-governing until the Messiah came. And they got this from Genesis chapter 49 verse 10. And it says, and the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes.

Shiloh is Shalom. It's another word for the Messiah. And to him, notice the capital H, to him shall be the obedience of the people. This was a messianic verse. This was talking about the messiah, the Messiah, the coming Savior. And the belief was Judah would be self-governing until the Messiah came. So this is interesting, because what happened in about 20 AD is Rome made this move and said, you guys no longer have the right of execution. And at that point, history records that rabbis and other Jewish leaders were mourning in the streets, tearing their clothes, sackcloth and ashes.

Why? Because they thought that God had broken his word. God had not broken his word. But their perception, oh, this is key, guys, their perception of circumstances made them believe God had broken his word.

Has that ever happened in your life? Your perception of circumstances, you thought that God had not fulfilled a promise? But see, even as they were mourning in the street and tearing their clothes and having sackcloth and ashes, there was a young man up in North Galilee in his father's carpentry shop. Jesus. Shiloh was on the scene. Shiloh had come.

Now, here's the other thing, family. Here's the thing that's really intriguing. You see, 20 AD, they took this right away. You remember 70 AD, you may be familiar with these dates, 70 AD, Rome laid siege to Jerusalem, put the temple in ruins, and basically overran the whole country. And we have, we know that, we know that historically, we actually still have the Arch of Titus. This is in celebration of them winning and putting down the Jewish revolt. And this is in Rome today. You can still see this.

Why is that important? Well, remember, Jesus not only predicted his death, he predicted the way he would die. John 3, 14 says, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up. John 12, 32 and 33, it says, and I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. This he said, signifying by what death he would die.

But even long before the earthly ministry of Jesus, his death had been spoken of in the Hebrew scriptures in Exodus chapter six, verse six. It says, therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the Lord. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

I will rescue you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. Deuteronomy chapter 21, 22. If a man is committed a sin deserving of death and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day so that you do not defile the land, which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance for he who is hanged is a curse of God. There's a lot of scriptures, but I'll just give you one more. Zechariah 12, 10 says, I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication. Then they will look on me whom they pierced.

Yes, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn. Now you may be thinking, okay, well, what's the history stuff have to do with what you're talking about now? Again, Jesus not only predicted his death, but he predicted how he would die.

Why is that important? How did Jewish people execute people by stoning? They would stone them with rocks, right? So there was a 50 year period in a 3,500 year history where a Jewish person would have been crucified and not stoned. Yet another fulfillment of prophecy. And that's an amazing thing to stop and consider that in the history of mankind, there's only that brief period where a Jewish person would have been crucified. Speaks of the validity and the power of the word of God. And verse 33 says, then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus and said to him, are you the king of the Jews?

Now, let me explain something to you. Verse 31 through 33 and actually 37 and 38 are part of, we have very early copies of this, part of the Rylands fragment. It's in London today. And these have been dated somewhere between 50 AD and about 125, maybe even 150 AD. And they were found in Egypt. So they had to go from Israel to Egypt. And yet most scholars are agreeing on that date.

That's an early date. And guess what? They read just like your Bible reads today. These verses do. So again, it reinforces that this is an accurate and valid Bible. And you ask him, are you the king of the Jews? It reminds me of Isaiah chapter nine, verse six and seven. He says, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the government will be upon his shoulder and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Of course, we refer to those verses oftentimes at Christmas. The reality of this is that if you're a follower of Jesus, you're a Christian believer, you need to understand that our enemy is on borrowed time.

See, a couple of transactions happened that you need to be aware of. In the garden, we had, mankind had the title deed to the earth. We gave that to the enemy. We gave him jurisdiction, the prince of this world. But he's kind of like, he doesn't own the world.

He's just kind of renting, if you will. Now, some people don't understand this, but see, if you remember, he's called the prince of this world. And if you remember what in the transaction with Jesus that the devil said, look, I'll give you all this. And Jesus rebuked him with scripture. But notice what Jesus didn't say. Jesus didn't say, well, it's not yours to give.

He didn't fight with him about that. But again, he is on borrowed time. At some point, our Messiah, the savior of the world walks up to him and tears that deed out of his hand and says, this is mine.

I bought it. And that's something we can look forward to. That's something we can look forward to. Why is Jesus waiting to do that? He's waiting on us to tell people. He's waiting on other people to hear.

He's waiting on other people to respond in his love for us. Jesus, in verse 34, Jesus answered me, are you speaking for yourself about this or did others tell you this concerning me? He says, are you asking for yourself or are you just talking?

I mean, do you really want to know? And this is a good question where we're talking about spiritual things with people, because you know, some people just want to argue. They just want to argue. I don't get in arguments.

I try to avoid them. Occasionally, somebody will go, well, you know, why do y'all believe this? And understand when you do that, you're asking me to explain my position on something in the Bible.

And in love, I have not asked you your position. See, because here's what can happen. We can get in this discussion and we can get in an argument. And at the end of the day, you know what? I'm totally committed to this book, not necessarily what some man might say to me. If you're in that, I understand, you know, not everybody agrees with everything we do here.

That's fine. Somebody can be heated and still be wanting to discuss things. Just because somebody raises their voice or gets passionate, don't think, well, you're just trying to argue. I'm not going to talk to you anymore. But keep that in mind in discussions because I think sometimes we engage in the arguments when we should just say, you know what?

I'll be praying for you. Read the Bible. We can discuss it later instead of arguing. And Jesus says, well, you know, you want to argue or is this something you want to talk about? Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Now, God wants you to pray this prayer so much that he died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. Jesus said he would not turn anybody away who comes to him.

And he came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at P.O. Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. You know, the Bible tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But it does cost for us to come and bring that message to you and to others in your neighborhood through radio, through the internet, and through the mobile technologies that God has gifted us to be able to use. So if you'd like to support this ministry, please go to crossthebridge.com, click on the donate button, and ask God how much he would have you give either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's Word continues to go out through Cross the Bridge.

Thank you so much. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God, with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Those are terrific, and it's easy and it's free. So folks, sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.