The King in Pilate’s Hall

The King in Pilate's Hall

(No. 2826)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 12, 1903.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY
4, 1884.

"Pilate therefore said unto Him, Are You a king, then? Jesus answered,
You say that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause
came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the Truth.
Everyone that is of the Truth hears My voice." John 18:37.

OUR Lord was being cross-questioned by an unscrupulous, vacillating,
contemptuous Roman official. So, as our blessed Lord and Master did not
escape the ordeal of malicious questioning, let no disciple of His
imagine that he will escape. "The disciple is not above his master, nor
the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he is as
his master, and the servant as his lord." Sooner or later the day will
come when the profession that you have made shall be questioned and
tested. To some of Christ's followers, this time of trial comes very
soon after their conversion. Others are assailed at a later period. The
cool, calm, calculating doubter suggests a question about this or that
and everything that can be moved is shaken. Just as Pilate said to
Christ, "Are you a king, then?" so will men say to you, "Are you a
Christian? Are you really believing in Jesus? Have you been born-again?
Are you a new creature in Christ Jesus? Are you fully sanctified?" And
they will make these enquiries in such a tone of contemptuous ridicule
that you will need all your strength, all your patience, an increase in
your faith and in all your graces if you are to witness a good
confession, as your Master did before Pontius Pilate.

When such a time comes to you, I cannot suggest to you a better model
for your answer than that which your Lord gave to the Roman governor.
At first, He did not answer Pilate. "Jesus gave him no answer." And a
large portion of the inquisitive questioning to which we have to submit
is not worth answering. Nor is it worthwhile for you and me to go up
and down the world fishing for questions, or inviting the objections
and quibbling of skeptics because we think ourselves so exceedingly
clever that we are easily able to answer them. Believe me, you will
have quite enough to do if you catch on your shield all the fiery darts
that come without your invitation! You will have no need to ask to be
led into temptation, or to seek permission to rush into it. Our Savior
invited no questions from Pilate–He did not even condescend to answer
all that Pilate had to say to Him–and the best thing for a Christian
to do, in many of his times of trial, is to say, with David, "I was
dumb with silence. I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was
stirred."

When the Master did reply, He set us an example that we may safely
follow. Observe how He replied without any tartness, without even the
appearance of anger. He was very courteous towards Pilate. He put what
He had to say in a fashion which would commend itself to him. He knew
that Pilate's chief jealousy was about His being a king and He tried to
remove it by explaining that His Kingdom was not of this world,
otherwise His servants would fight for Him so that He should not be
delivered to the Jews. I cannot conceive of replies, to such a man as
Pilate, more suitable, more calculated to have done him good if there
had been any soil in Pilate's heart upon which the Good Seed could have
fallen with the hope of growth. I pray that you and I, when we are
assailed and questioned, may be wise as serpents and harmless as doves,
giving a reason for the hope that is in us with meekness and fear,
answering not with the objective of displaying our own skill or
learning, but always with the motive of seeking the good of the
questioner, if, perhaps, God may grant unto him repentance that he may
come to the knowledge of the Truth of God. I admire and hold up as an
example to you the exceeding sweetness of our Savior's replies to His
carping critic.

Note, however, how bold He was, as well as wise and gentle–"You say
that I am a king." He does not flinch from admitting the Truth, however
distasteful it may be to His hearer. If this Truth troubles Pilate
after our Savior's explanation that His Kingdom is not of this world,
He cannot deny the fact that He really is a King, for He must speak the
Truth come what may of it. I fear that sometimes, in our endeavors to
be sweet in disposition, we have not been strong in principle.
"Charity" is a word that is greatly cried up nowadays, but, often it
means that in trying to be courteous, we have also been traitorous. Our
speech has been soft and smooth, but it has not been sincere and true.
Did you ever catch yourself wishing to trim off the corners of a Truth
of God–or, at least, seeking if you could not omit something that
might prejudice your hearer? If so, let me tell you plainly that he who
wishes to alter any truth has already began to lie! Though he may not
actually do it, yet the very wish to change the Truth of God in any
degree is a proof of perversity of heart which needs to be repented of
and forgiven! We have already turned aside from the right path when we
do not dare to say what God has taught us. Our Savior never acted like
that–He was always true, transparent, clear, faithful. There was never
in Him any holding back in the least degree. As He said to Pilate, "You
say that I am a king. To this end was I born and for this cause came I
into the world, that I should bear witness unto the Truth." Oh, that we
might learn from our Savior the sacred art of blending Christ-like
gentleness with holy courage–and Christ-like courage with gentleness
such as His!

Observe, too–for it is worthy of notice–how modestly and
unobtrusively our Savior answered Pilate's questioning. It is an
unhappy circumstance that some men seem as if they cannot speak boldly
without having somewhat of pride mixed with their courage. Full often
our very virtues lie quite near to the borders of vice. We aim at what
is right, but, alas, we go beyond it, or we fall short of it, or hit
the target where our shots do not count. Ah, Lord, what imperfect
creatures we are! But our Savior was perfect in every respect. He only
answered the questions of Pilate when it was right for Him to answer
them and even then He seemed to take the words wherewith to frame His
answer out of Pilate's own mouth–"You say that I am a king." "It is
even as you have said." Our gracious Master is very straightforward,
yet how modest He is! He seems to hide Himself even behind Pilate's
words. He does not hide the Truth, yet, in a perfectly sinless way, He
somewhat conceals Himself. I wish we could imitate Him in that respect.
Even when we are, like Bayard, "without fear, and without reproach," we
are very apt, at the same time, to be without any desire for the
conflict against evil, or any wish to impose ourselves in the least
degree upon the attention of others, even if a protest would be right
from us. We never see any of this false shame in our Savior. So, if we
have at all given way to it in the past, let us never repeat that sin.

The words of Paul, in his First Epistle to Timothy, are very properly
rendered in the Revised Version, "Christ Jesus, who before Pontius
Pilate witnessed the good confession." It was more than a good
confession that our Lord Jesus witnessed before Pontius Pilate, so the
definite article is rightly used and, "the good confession," stands out
prominently as an example for all His followers. It is concerning that
good confession that I am about to speak as the Holy Spirit shall
graciously guide me.

I. First, let us ask–WHAT WAS "THE GOOD CONFESSION" THAT JESUS
WITNESSED BEFORE PONTIUS

PILATE?

I think the good confession of our Lord was, first, His avowal of His
Kingship–"You say that I am a king." Dear Friends, do not forget that
our Savior was, at that time, a prisoner in bonds, on trial for His
life. As far as the eye could see, He appeared to be absolutely in the
power of Pilate–a man who was destitute of any kind of conscience and
who cared nothing about what means he employed so long as he could
attain his own evil ends. There stands Jesus, a bound Prisoner, before
one who can order Him to be put to death. And the judge contemptuously
says to Him, "Are you a king, then?" And He answers, with great
gentleness, but most decidedly and undoubtedly, "I am a king, even as
You say." I think I see Pilate's lip curl–I can imagine the supreme
contempt with which he looked upon the miserable Victim before him,
disowned by His own countrymen, who had brought Him there because, in
their hate, they wished to have Him put to death–yet He talks about
being a king! It may have been a merry jest for Pilate at the moment,
but he did not dare to make it one afterwards. His wife would have
stopped him had he sought to find amusement in Jesus of Nazareth!

At the time, it must all have seemed very strange to him. It takes a
great deal of courage for a man to avow that which seems to be
improbable and, indeed, impossible. He knows it is true, but the other
man thinks it is a piece of fanaticism. "Ridiculous nonsense," he says,
and he scorns the idea with a sarcastic grin. It is not easy, then, for
a humble-

minded spirit just as determinedly to acknowledge it. I believe that
there is many a man who could stand upon a public platform and announce
his convictions to an infuriated crowd, who would not dare to say the
same things to a single individual. It took more courage for Christ to
speak to Pilate, alone, as He did, than it has done for many a man to
stand and burn at the stake, yet the Savior did it. Calmly and
deliberately, He avowed the Truth of God, blessed be His holy name! "I
am a King," He said, and so He is. In our hearts, we acknowledge His
Sovereignty over us as individuals and His supremacy over the entire
Church. No, more, His Father has given Him power over all flesh, that
He should give eternal life to as many as He has given Him. He has said
it, "Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion." "And He shall
reign forever and ever," and all loyal hearts cry, "Hallelujah!" It was
a good confession for the Nazarene, clothed in the common smock frock
of a Galilean peasant, with gory sweat still upon His brow, with the
ropes that bound Him still about His wrists, with the howling savagery
of His countrymen behind Him, to say to Pilate, "I am a King."

Next, Christ's "good confession" was His announcement of a spiritual
Kingdom. Pilate could not comprehend what He meant when He said, "My
Kingdom is not of this world; if My Kingdom were of this world, then
would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews." A
spiritual Kingdom! Pilate would not have given the smallest Roman coin
for such a kingdom as that! Our Savior's own countrymen did not
understand what He meant by a spiritual Kingdom "not of this world."
They were looking for a temporal prince, an earthly leader who would
deliver them from the Roman yoke, but Jesus asserts that His Kingdom,
whatever it is, and wherever it is, is a spiritual'thing! This is the
testimony that we are also trying to bear today and, sometimes we have
to bear it before the very temporal power that thinks the church to be
an instrument to be used for its own purposes–a sort of mental and
moral police force to keep people in order–the officers themselves to
be kept in order and dressed, governed, fed and maintained by an Act of
Parliament and not able to lift so much as a little finger should the
State forbid them to do so! This is a doctrine which needs some courage
to utter it even now, but it is to be spoken, and must be spoken more
and more loudly! Christ's Kingdom is not of this world! It borrows no
power from the secular arm and would not accept it if it were offered.
It is a rule of spirit over spirit, of mind over mind, of the Truth of
God over the souls of men–and that man is a faithful witness for
Christ who can unflinchingly bear this testimony even before the
greatest and the proudest of the land! Our Savior did so when He said
to Pilate, "My Kingdom is not of this world."

Another part of Christ's "good confession" was a declaration of His
life purpose–"To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into
the world, that I should bear witness unto the Truth." There is many a
man who is pursuing a calling which he would scarcely like to
acknowledge. And there are others who think that their calling can be
best pursued by stealthy, crafty, Jesuitical plans. But it was not so
with the Savior. He boldly declared the purpose for which He had come
into the world–why should He conceal it? He who seeks to bear witness
to the Truth of God should be true enough to declare what the objective
of his witness is. And the Savior did so, before Pilate, and wherever
He was! All His life He was a witness to the Truth–He was the truest
man who ever lived! It is beautiful to notice the Truth of the Lord
Jesus Christ even in small particulars. There is no rhetoric about our
Savior's speech, because rhetoric is too often but a lie. He speaks as
simply as a child. There is no attempt at any display of learning in
our Savior's teaching. Because it is all solid Truth and Divine
Revelation, there is no need that He should use the jargon of the
schools, or call Himself a Rabbi or Doctor.

He spoke with authority and you can see how simply, how plainly, how
heartily He did it. There was no particular garb to attract attention
to the Savior, no priestly robes with which to dignify a kind of
babyish authority. He was a Man among men, speaking what He knew in the
language of the people which they could understand. There was no pomp,
or ceremony, or show about His life and, especially, there was no sham
or pretence. He was what He seemed to be, and He seemed to be just what
He was! If you look upon any other man, you can see some attempt to
hide his deficiencies, or to increase his influence by an appearance of
greater strength than actually exists. In the Savior, you see Him
altogether as He is. He wears His heart upon His sleeve. He speaks
straight on and never turns aside to crooked ways. He never blushes or
stammers–why should He? What has He to conceal? His teaching is
delivered as from a mountaintop and men may stand and gaze–and, the
longer they gaze, the better will they see what He wishes them to see!
He has no curtain behind which there is something concealed–all is as
open as the day. As a truthful man, He was a fit witness to bear
testimony to the Truth of God. And what a breaker of idols, what a
smasher of all shams He was! Pharisees and Sadducees, and Herodians got
but short notice from Him. Nothing false could stand before Him. Even a
scourge of small cords,

when it was held in His hands, sufficed to sweep the buyers and sellers
from the temple! And when He used the sledgehammer of denunciation, who
could resist Him? His fan was in His hand and He thoroughly purged His
floor. And this was His life purpose–that He might bear witness to the
Truth of God–and He acknowledged that purpose even before Pontius
Pilate.

Our Savior also witnessed "the good confession" by His acknowledgement
that there is such a thing as positive Truth–"To this end was I born,
and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness
unto the Truth." There is need of just such witness as that today. "Now
be very careful upon that point," says one. "Do you mean to say that
there really is such a thing as the Truth"? By your leave, dear Sir, or
without it, I will venture to assert that there is! "That reply is a
very bigoted one because if there is a Doctrine that is the Truth, then
that which is contrary to it is a lie." Precisely so, and by your
leave, or without your leave, I say again that it is so and it must be
so in the natural order of things. If this Doctrine is true, then that
which contradicts it cannot be true! If God has spoken thus, that which
is opposed to God and His Truth, is not from Him and cannot stand on
the same footing with that which is Divinely revealed. It takes a good
deal of courage to say that, nowadays. If you go into society, you will
get three cheers if you declare that you are an Agnostic–that you do
not know anything–you are not sure of anything.

Others say that whatever a man believes, or does not believe, it really
doesn't matter provided he is perfectly sincere. That is to say, if a
man sincerely takes cyanide, it will not kill him! And if he sincerely
goes without food, he will not starve. And if he sincerely refuses to
breathe, he will do as well as those who do breathe, which is another
lie. The statue of Christ was set up among the statues of Plato,
Socrates and other notable men–and some thought it was an honor to
Christ, but it was not. They would crown Christ, so they say, among the
great ones of earth. Ah, but they cannot crown Him unless they "crown
Him Lord of all." Our blessed Savior is honestly intolerant! He says,
"He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, but He that believes
not shall be damned." Because He loves the souls of men, He will not
bolster up the fiction of universal charity. And even before the
Broad-church or No-church Pilate–He says that He has come to bear
witness to the Truth. So there is the Truth, and that which is contrary
to it is not Truth!

One other point in our Lord's "good confession" was His separation of
characters, for He went on to say to Pilate– and I fear that most of
us would have left out that sentence–"Everyone that is of the Truth
hears My voice." Do you hear that declaration, Pilate? You are the
Roman procurator–a very great man–and this poor Prisoner of yours,
whose life is now at your mercy, tells you plainly that everyone that
is of the Truth hears His voice. Then, Pilate, if you are of the Truth,
you will have to sit at His feet and listen to His words, and learn of
Him! I can well conceive what Pilate thought as he turned on his heels
and contemptuously asked, "What is truth?" He had heard quite enough of
such talk as that–he did not want any more of such close dealing. But
therein lies the Glory of the Master, that He is not content with
merely teaching Truth of God, but, in His good confession before
Pontius Pilate, He presses it home even upon His judge! And He divides
and separates between the precious and the vile. So must you and I do,
dear Friends, if we are faithful followers of "the faithful Witness."

I dare not preach to this congregation as if you were all Christians,
for you are not. I dare not deliver even one discourse under the
delusion that all my hearers are saved, for, alas, they are not. This
is the fault with multitudes of sermons–that they seem to carry the
whole congregation to Heaven when possibly the major part of those
present may be going down to Hell! That will not do. Remember what the
Lord said to the Prophet Jeremiah, "If you take forth the precious from
the vile, you shall be as My mouth." But if there is no winnowing fan
in our hand to separate the chaff from the wheat, we are not like
Christ, nor has Christ sent us on His service. In this "good
confession" of His, we see how clearly and solemnly–gently, I admit,
but still most decidedly–He made a division and separation of
characters and gave a test by which Pilate could judge himself if he
had been willing to do so.

II. The time will not suffice for me to go fully into all the teaching
of my text, but I want to ask, in the second place–TO WHAT TRUTH DID
OUR LORD WITNESS?

He said to Pilate that He was born–that proves His Humanity. He also
said that He came into the world and that, I think, shows His Divinity
as well as His Humanity. He came on purpose to bear witness to the
Truth and I believe that the life of Christ witnessed not only to all
Doctrinal Truth, but also to everything that is true, especially to
true-heartedness, simplicity, sincerity. His life was a testimony
against all guile, craftiness, cunning, concealment–in that sense it
was as testimony to the Truth of God.

But with regard to special Truths to which He testified, did not His
very coming here and being born, bear witness to the grand Truth that
God is love and that God loves men? The Infinite takes upon Himself the
nature and form of an Infant. The Illimitable is encased within a human
body. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." We never can have
a clearer testimony to the thoughtful care of God to men than we find
in the coming of the Son of God as the Son of Man, except this–that,
being found in fashion as a Man, He proved the love of God to sinners
by the tears which He wept over the guilty and perishing and, best of
all, by the blood which He shed for many for the remission of sins. As
you see Christ dying on the accursed tree, say, "Behold, what manner of
love the Father has bestowed upon us." He wills not the death of any,
but longs that they should turn unto Him and live. The Savior's death
for the guilty proves that "God so loved the world that He gave His
only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life." All His life the Savior was bearing witness to
this grand Truth of God. Oh, that we may, none of us, dare to doubt it
after He has backed it up by a life of self-abnegation and a death of
sublime self-sacrifice!

He also bore witness, all His life, to the spirituality of true
religion. He was always teaching Truth like this–"God is a Spirit: and
they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." He wore
no phylactery, He assumed no airs of an ascetic. Even in His eating and
drinking, He was like other men, insomuch that they said of Him that He
was "a man gluttonous, and a wine bibber"–a vile charge, without an
atom of truth in it! He taught that true religion consisted not in long
prayers, but in entering into the closet and sincerely seeking the
Father's face. It was not fasting thrice in the week, but it was truly
praying, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." It was not giving alms in
public and sounding a trumpet before him, and in secret devouring
widows houses, but it consisted in love to God and love to man. It was
the work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart that Jesus preached–and He
grandly witnessed against all the idolatrous and false forms of faith
which, even down to this day, prostitute His blessed name!

In that sad hour our Lord Jesus was also a wonderful Witness to the
enmity of men to God. He in whom there was no roughness or sternness,
as there was in John the Baptist, came as the Messenger of love and
mercy, for God sent Him not into the world to condemn the world, but
that the world, through Him, might be saved. He was the great
Householder's Son, who was, "last of all" sent to receive the fruits of
the vineyard, but the husbandmen said, "This is the heir; come, let us
kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance." The men of this world
were never so base–they never displayed so much of their utter malice
against God as when they took His Son and put Him to a cruel and
ignominious death. This was the culmination of human guilt. All the
adulteries, murders, unnatural vices and accursed blasphemies that had
ever defiled the race of mankind have not so certainly proved it to be
a desperately fallen thing as the murder of the Son of God, the Savior
and the Friend of men! This appalling crime of Deicide stands out
without a parallel in the history of the universe! There was no guilt
in the Lord Jesus for which He deserved to die, yet, with wicked hands,
they crucified and slew Him.

Our Savior was also always a Witness to the great necessity of a new
creation, a change of heart, a regeneration. To Nicodemus He said, "You
must be born-again." And to His disciples, "Except you are converted
and become as little children, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of
Heaven." He also preached the absolute necessity of faith in Himself
and did not mince the matter in the least–"He that believes on the Son
has everlasting life: and He that believes not the Son shall not see
life, but the wrath of God abides on him." To all this Jesus
steadfastly witnessed in life and in death.

And to this Truth of God He also bore witness, that salvation was to be
found only in Himself "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever
believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." "If any man
thirsts, let Him come unto Me and drink." His teaching was always
concerning Himself–"I am the way, the truth, and the life." "Come unto
Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
He never hesitated to bear witness to the Truth of God so it was but
natural that part of His "good confession" before Pilate should be this
plain declaration, "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I
into the world, that I should bear witness unto the Truth."

III. Now I will try briefly to answer a third question–WHAT HAD THIS
"GOOD CONFESSION" OF JESUS TO

DO WITH PILATE?

I answer, first, that it gave Pilate a reason for acting justly It
ought to have helped to stir any little conscience that Pilate still
had and, also, to allay the jealousy which he may have felt because of
the Savior's royal claims. Our Lord spoke thus out of kindness to
Pilate.

I think, however, that the main reason for our Savior's testimony was
that it gave Pilate an opportunity to learn the Truth. Had his soul
been like the good soil–had he really ever been the subject of
Sovereign Grace, he would have said to Jesus, "I will gladly hear what
this Truth is if you will tell me." He would, at least, have spared
time enough to hear from his strange Prisoner what this Truth was.
There must have been an unusual force about our Savior's few short
sentences that ought to have convinced even Pontius Pilate of His
evident sincerity. Those eyes, so gentle, yet so piercing, must have
looked Pilate through and through. The tone of His voice must have been
very different from anything to which Pilate had been accustomed in the
courts of Nero. Jesus spoke as no other man had ever spoken in Pilate's
Hall before–and had there been anything hopeful about him, he would
have said, "Good Master, tell me what that Truth is to which You bear
witness."

And I say to you who are not converted, if you desire to be right with
God, you will want to know what this Truth is for which the Lord Jesus
lived and died. And when you do know it, if there is the right
principle in your heart, then you will believe it and, believing it,
you will assuredly be saved! There is such life-giving Truth in the
Savior's teaching that you have but to hear it, and turn it over in
your mind, and weigh it with the best judgment that you have, to be
convinced that it is most certainly true! So I put it to you–if it is
true, will you not believe it? Believing it, will you not yield to it
and let it reign over your whole being, for it is the Truth of God from
the mouth of the King? It is the scepter in the hand of King Jesus with
which He rules over the hearts of all His loyal subjects!

IV. Now, to finish, I have to ask–WHAT HAS THIS TO DO WITH OURSELVES?

It has something to do with everyone of us, whether we acknowledge
Christ or not. First, it suggests to our hearts this question–Are we
of the Truth?For, if we are of the Truth, we shall hear Christ's voice!
It is the voice of the King eternal, immortal, invisible! He is the
King of Truth and He rules over truthful minds. Coming to be the Chief
Witness to all Truth, He really occupies the throne of Truth. Now, dear
Friends, are we of the Truth? For, if we are not, we shall not accept
Christ. But if we are, we shall be glad to have Him as our King. I ask
any man or woman here who has up to now refused Christ, whether he is
not conscious of something missing from his life? Are you not sometimes
half-inclined to believe in Jesus? Do you not have to do violence to
your conscience by what you call, reason, but by what I venture to say
is a most unreasonable travesty of all good reasoning? If you would but
let that reason of yours go its own way and follow the track of the
Truth of God, I believe that, before long, by God's Grace, you would be
sitting at the Savior's feet and learning of Him!

The next thing that this testimony of Christ has to do with us is this.
If, on our behalf, He witnessed "the good confession" for the Truth of
God before Pontius Pilate, then it behooves you and me, not only to
believe, but to bear witness to the Truth. Brothers and Sisters in
Jesus, this looks to me to be but a small thing for us to do. If the
Son of God has come into this world on our behalf and has not been
ashamed to call us brethren, and to espouse our cause even at the cost
of His life, I say that it looks to me to be but a small thing that He
should ask of us that, if with our heart we believe in Him, we should
with our mouth make confession of Him–that, if we believe in Him, we
should also be baptized in His name, for it is His will that we should
make an open confession before men if we really are His disciples.

There are new fashions in theology and new gods lately come up, and
even new Christs and all manner of nonsense and novelty. But I am a
follower of the old Christ who is the same yesterday, today and
forever–and I glory in being a fool for Christ's sake if it is a
foolish thing to follow the Man of Nazareth, the Christ of Calvary who
died as the Substitute for all who believe in Him–that by the shedding
of His precious blood He might reconcile them unto God forever!

I appeal to some who I believe really do love my Lord and Master, but
who are, like Saul of old, hiding away out of sight. Are you never
going forth to fight for your King? Will you still continue in the ways
of the world and yet profess to be a lover of the Lord? Cowards that
you are, come out boldly for Jesus! If you are on Christ's side,
acknowledge it. There never was a cause that better deserved to be
openly confessed than His! If Christ is God, follow Him! But if Satan
is God, serve him. If the world is worth your love, give your love to
the world and say so–do not come sneaking in among Christians as if
you belonged to them! But if the Lord Jesus Christ is worthy of your
love, give it to Him and say that you have done so. Come to the front,
unite with His people, share the scorn that falls upon them and
whenever any man wishes to set Christ in the pillory, say to Him, "Put
me there, too, for I am one with Him and have taken up His cause." When
He comes–and He soon will come in all the Glory of His Father and of
His holy angels, he who has denied Him before men, He will deny before
the assembled universe! But he who has confessed Him before men, him
will He confess in the

Presence of His Father and of His holy angels. May that be my lot, and
yours, dear Friends, without a single exception, for His dear name's
sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN18:28-40; PSALM2.

John 18:28. Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas unto the Hall of
Judgment: That is to say, Pilate's Hall. Pilate, at that time, was
probably residing in one of the old and sumptuous palaces of Herod,
there holding His court during the time of the Passover.

28. And it was early. They were very eager to prove their enmity to
Christ. They had spent the night and the earliest moments of the dawn
in examining their illustrious Prisoner, condemning Him, abusing Him
and now they were off to Pilate.

28. And they themselves went not into the Judgment Hall, lest they
should be defiled; but that they might eat the Passover What could
defile such wretches as these? Yet they were afraid of ceremonial
defilement, though neither afraid nor ashamed to saturate their hands
in the blood of Jesus!

29. Pilate then went out unto them. He loathed and detested them, yet,
for his own evil purposes, he would yield to their wishes and whims.

29, 30. And said, What accusation bring you against this Man? They
answered and said unto him, If He were not a malefactor, we would not
have delivered Him up unto you. As much as to say, "You may take that
for granted. We would not have brought Him if He had not done wrong.
You need not look into the matter, we have already heard the evidence,
and convicted Him, and so saved you all the trouble of trying Him. We
only bring Him here for you to condemn Him."

31. Then said Pilate unto them, You take Him, and judge Him according
to your law.' 'That is your way of doing such things, but it is not a
method into which we shall fall. Our law does not condemn a man before
it hears the evidence against him. I am not going to be your tool, to
put this Man to death without hearing what is laid to His charge, and
the proofs of His guilt. If you want that done, you must do it
yourselves."

31. The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put
any man to death.' 'You Romans have taken from us the power of life and
death, and we want Him put to death." There was a clear confession that
nothing short of Christ's death would satisfy them.

32. That the sayings of Jesus might be fulfilled, which He spoke,
signifying what death He should die. Crucifixion was a Roman, not a
Jewish method of capital punishment, so God overruled the wanton
wickedness of the worst of men for the accomplishment of His own
eternal purposes, without, however, diminishing their responsibility
and guilt in the least degree. It was "by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God" that Christ was put to death, yet it was "with
wicked hands" that they took Him and crucified Him.

33. Then Pilate entered into the Judgment Hall again, and called Jesus,
and said unto Him, Are you the King of the Jews? He did not look much
like it. There was little enough about His appearance or His apparel to
suggest the idea of royalty.

34. 35. Jesus answered Him, Say you this thing of yourself or did
others tell it you of Me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? I can imagine
him throwing all the scorn and contempt possible into the question. It
was characteristic of the Romans, as we learn from the works of their
great writers, that they utterly despised and detested the Jews.

35-37. Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You unto
me: what have You done? Jesus answered, My Kingdom is not of this
world: if My Kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight,
that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is My Kingdom not
from here. Pilate therefore said unto Him, Are you a king, then? Jesus
answered, You say that Iam a king. To this end was I born, and for this
cause came I unto the world, that Ishould bear witness unto the Truth.
Everyone that is of the Truth hears My voice. We might have expected
that He would have said, "I came into the world that I might be a
king." But He explains that, as a Witness to the Truth, He wasa King.

38. Pilate said unto Him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he
went out again unto the Jews, and said unto them, I find in Him no
fault at all He did not want an answer. He merely thought it such an
unnecessary piece of trifling

to talk about truth. He had so slight an idea of what the word might
mean, that when he had said, "What is truth?" "he went out again unto
the Jews, and said unto them, I find in Him no fault at all." That was
the truth about the Truth, from the lips of a man who cared nothing
about the Truth of God, yet who was compelled to bear this testimony,
"I find in Him no fault at all."

39. But we have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the
Passover: will you therefore that I release unto you the King of the
Jews?Now Pilate may have thought if Christ were their King they would
certainly prefer Him to a thief and a robber, so he was putting before
himself an opportunity of escaping from judging Christ–and before them
a test as to whether there really was in them any liking for the
Christ, or any possibility of His becoming their King.

40. Then cried they all again, saying, Not this Man, but Barabbas. Now
Barabbas was a robber.

Psalm 2:1, 2. Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain
thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take
counsel together against the LORD, and against His Anointed, saying.
This raging company of the Jews was but a example of the universal
opposition which there is to the reign of Christ, for it is not alone
in Israel, but among the heathen, and among all people, that there is
this opposition to the Christ of God!

3. Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
The bands of Jehovah and the bands of the Christ, His Anointed.

4, 5. He that sits in the Heaven shall laugh: the Lord shall have them
in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them
in His sore displeasure. His word, it seems, vexes them. There is no
need of sword or javelin. The weapons of God's warfare are His words.

6-12. Yet have Iset My king upon My holy hill of Zion. I will declare
the decree: the LORD has said unto Me, You are My Son; this day have I
begotten You. Ask of Me, and I shall give You the heathen for Your
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron: You shall dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O you kings: be
instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and
rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish
from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all
they that put their trust in Him.