Pilate and the Kingdom of Christ

February 21, 2021

Rev. Bruce Brown  

John 18:28-40

I.    The Accusation: A Kingdom of Righteousness  (verses 28-32)

II.   The Question: A Kingdom of Truth  (verses 33-38a)

III.  The Substitute: A Kingdom of Grace   (verses 38-40)

“Our LORD did not come (in His first advent) to win a kingdom with the sword, and to gather adherents and followers by force. He came armed with no other weapon but "truth." To testify to fallen man the truth about God, about sin, about the need of a Redeemer, about the nature of holiness--to declare and lift up before man's eyes this long lost and buried "truth,"--was one great purpose of His ministry. He came to be God's witness to a lost and corrupt world. That the world needed such a testimony, He does not shrink from telling the proud Roman Governor. And this is what Paul had in view, when he tells Timothy, that "before Pontius Pilate Christ witnessed a good confession." (1 Tim. 6:13.) … If we love life, if we would keep a good conscience, and be owned by Christ at the last day, we must be "witnesses.””          J.C. Ryle