Jesus, the King of Truth

worlddic.com

John 18:37

Pilate therefore said to him, Are you a king then? Jesus answered, You say that I am a king. To this end was I born…

We are told by Paul, that our Lord before Pilate witnessed a good confession. It was a good confession —

1. As to the manner of it, for our Lord was truthful, gentle, prudent, and yet uncompromising, and courageous. His spirit was not cowed by Pilate's power, nor exasperated by his sneers.

2. As to the matter of it; for, though He said but little, that little was all that was needful. He claimed His own rights, and, at the same time, declared that His kingdom was not of this world, nor to be sustained by force. In our families, or among our business acquaintances, we may have to meet some petty Pilate; may we then also be true witnesses. Note —

I. That our Lord CLAIMED TO BE A KING. The question was but half earnest; the answer was altogether solemn.

1. Our Lord's claim was made without ostentation or desire to be advantaged. There were other times when, if He had said "I am a King," He might have been crowned amid general acclamations. He had no ambition for the gewgaws of human sovereignty. But now, when no good can come of it to Himself; when it will bring Him derision rather than honour; He speaks out plainly.

2. The clearness of His avowal; there was no mistaking it. When the time has come for the truth to be spoken, our Lord is not backward in declaring it. Truth has her times most meet for speech, and her seasons for silence.

3. Our Lord's claim must have sounded very singularly in Pilate's ear. Jesus was, doubtless, very much careworn, sad, and emaciated after recent experiences, and must have looked very unlike a king. Yet never earth saw truer King! None of the line of Pharaoh, or the race of the Caesars, was so intrinsically imperial. The carnal eye could not see this, but to the spiritual eye it is clear. The zeal Christ of to-day, among men, is unknown and unrecognized as much as He was among His own nation eighteen hundred years ago.

4. This claim shall be acknowledged one day by all mankind. To Him every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord!

II. Our Lord declared THIS KINGDOM TO BE HIS MAIN OBJECT IN LIFE. "To this end," &c.

1. He was always the Lord of all, but to be King through the power of truth, it was essential that He should be born in our nature.

(1) Because it seems unnatural that a ruler should be alien in nature to the people over whom he rules.

(2) That He might be able to save His people. Subjects are essential to a kingdom. But all men must have perished through sin, had not Christ come into the world and been born to save.

(3) Moreover, truth never exerts such power as when it is embodied. Truth spoken may be defeated, but truth acted out in the life of a man is omnipotent, Now, Christ was truth.

2. He added, "For this cause came I into the world."(1) Out of the bosom of the Father that He might set up His kingdom, by unveiling the mysteries which were hid from the foundation of the world.

(2) From the obscure retirement of Joseph's workshop. Since He was to he a King, He must leave seclusion, and come forth to do battle for His throne. He came not forth because He courted popularity; but that, the truth being published, He might set up His kingdom. It was needful that He should come out into the world and teach, or truth would not be known, and consequently could not operate.

III. Our Lord revealed THE NATURE OF HIS ROYAL POWER. We should have thought the text would have run to this end... "that I should establish My kingdom." But had our Lord said that He might have misled Pilate; but when He said that His kingdom was truth, and that its establishment was by bearing witness to the truth, then, though Pilate did not understand Him — for it was far above his comprehension — yet, at any rate, he was not misled.

1. Our Lord, in effect, tells us that truth is the pre-eminent characteristic of His kingdom, and that His royal power over men's hearts is through the truth. He dealt not with fiction, but with facts; not with trifles, but with infinite realities.

2. Jesus has power over His people because He testifies not to symbols, but to the very substance of truth. The priests lost their power over the people because they went no further than the shadow, and sooner or later all will do so who rest in the symbol. The Lord Jesus retains His power over His saints because He reveals the substance, for grace and truth are by Jesus Christ.

3. This power lies in the fact that He brings forth unalloyed truth, without mixture of error. His teaching is no combination of God's Word and man's inventions. Men taught of His Holy Spirit to love the truth, recognize this fact and surrender their souls to the royal sway of the Lord's truth, and it makes them free, and sanctifies them. Jesus taught —

(1) That worship must be true, spiritual, and of the heart, or else it would be nothing worth.

(2) That all false living was base and loathsome. He poured contempt on the phylacteries of hypocrites.

4. But our Lord came not only to teach us the truth, but a mysterious power goes forth from Him, which subdues chosen hearts to truthfulness, and then guides truthful hearts into fulness of peace and joy. Have you never felt when you have been with Jesus, that a sense of His purity has made you yearn to be purged of all hypocrisy and every false way?

IV. Our Lord disclosed THE METHOD OF HIS CONQUEST — "That I should bear witness for the truth."

1. Christ never yet set up His kingdom by force of arms. Mahomet drew the sword, falsehood requires the rack of the Inquisition, but truth needs not such unworthy aid; her own beauty, and the Spirit of God, are her strength. Moreover, Jesus used no arts of priestcraft, or tricks of superstition, None can say that He reigns over men by the glitter of pomp, or the fascination of sensuous ceremonies. No kingdom is worthy of the Lord Jesus but that which has its foundations laid in indisputable verities; Jesus would scorn to reign by the help of a lie. True Christianity was never promoted by policy or guile, by doing a wrong thing, or saying a false thing.

2. What truth did He witness to? Ah, what truth did He not witness to? Did He not mirror all truth in His life? In an age of shams, He was always sweeping away pretences and establishing truth.

3. This is the way in which Christ's kingdom is to be set up in the world. For this cause was the Church born, and for this end came she into the world, that she might set up Christ's kingdom by bearing witness to the truth. I long to see you all witness-bearers. You must do it personally and collectively. Never join any Church whose creed you do not entirely and unfeignedly believe. I would not retard Christian unity, but there is something before unity, and that is, "truth in the inward parts" and honesty before God. Let us bear witness to the truth, since there is a great need of doing so just now, for witnessing is in ill repute.

V. Our Lord described HIS SUBJECTS — "Every one that is of the truth," &c. Wherever the Holy Spirit has made a man a lover of truth, he always recognizes Christ's voice and yields himself to it. Those who love pure truth, and know what Christ is, will be sure to fall in love with Him and hear His voice.

worlddic.com