I am going to take you back again. We read a few minutes ago this great, wonderful story of the Lord Jesus giving His life. Amen.
You will have noticed that this whole scene circles around and centres in one issue. It was that which brought things to this position, because that governed all that was happening. And that issue was the claim of Jesus Christ—the kingship of Jesus Christ.
You notice how that was the trouble with the Jews: their rulers, their priests, and many of their people. The charge that they levelled against Him was that He claimed to be a king. He claimed kingship.
You notice that it was that which troubled and worried Pilate, the Roman ruler. He says, “Ah, okay, all of that involves, for him, no small matter.”
As to the Jews, as a nation they had been without a king for hundreds of years. David, the great king of Israel, with his son Solomon—well, really, the last of the great kings.
Quite a few other men took the throne and tried to be king, but every one of them was a failure, a terrible failure, and died in tragedy. It could be said over the whole line: hardly one of them was really king. Kingship came to an end with Solomon, and there were all the centuries after that time which we were reading about. They had no king.
At this time, Rome had overrun their land, and the Roman representatives, like Pilate, were in charge. The Jews, for hundreds of years, had been without a king; but the one thing that they wanted and needed more than anything else was a king.
All their prophets during those hundreds of years were prophesying about the coming of a king—their King. The one thing they longed for was this King. And the one thing they certainly needed, for their salvation and for peace and prosperity, was a king: a true King.
When David reigned, the situation was such as to bring the nation into real blessing and prosperity. It had all gone. Jesus came.
He presented Himself, or was presented to them, as the King in answer to all their hopes, expectations, desires, needs, and longings, according to all the Scriptures and the prophecies. He came in fulfilment of them all. Here He is.
It is not a false issue. It is not a wrong thing. He is not pretending; He is no pretender. He is the King. He is the One that they need. He is the One of whom the prophets have spoken.
But although He was God’s appointed King—there is no doubt about that, as I think we shall see before we are through—you see what happened where the Jews were concerned. They had their own ideas of the kind of king they wanted, and He did not fit into their ideas.
What they wanted was a king who would just make possible the gratification of every earthly, selfish desire, who would answer to all that they wanted in this world—perfectly selfish things. For them, the question of righteousness, purity of life, and all such matters was of quite secondary importance.
Jesus was not that kind of King. Jesus put the matter of the right kind of life—the kind of life that satisfies God—first.
He was to be King in this sense: He was to reign over the hearts of men, and not just over their bodies to gratify and satisfy them, but to change their hearts. These people were not interested in that. They were not concerned about that.
And when they saw Him, in many ways He did not fit into their ideas of a king. And so this is what happened.
You see, it was the question of sin. Jesus as King must deal with the sin question. He knows quite well that that is the trouble—that it is sin that ruins and wrecks men’s lives, that robs them of the peace they need in their hearts.
It is sin that lies at the root of all human troubles. And the King, in His case, means that that has got to be dealt with. That has got to be different. Right at the root of all men’s misery, disappointment, suffering, mental darkness, and the evil that is in this world because of men’s nature, we must get right at the root of that and deal with that. That is the kind of King He is.
But they did not want that sort of thing. No, that was not what they wanted. As He continually pointed out this cause of trouble in them, it made them rebel, and this awful thing grew in their hearts until, at last, when they got their chance, they took Him and brought Him before the ruler.
That cry was, “Away with Him! Crucify Him!” That was their choice. That was their end.
You notice how far men will go when they get right down there, where really the cause of the trouble is, and they are not prepared to have it dealt with. If you had gone to any of those Jewish rulers or priests at any other time and said to them, “So Caesar is your king, is he?” they would have killed you on the spot. Your life would not have been worth anything.
If you had suggested such a thing to them—that Caesar was their king—they would have said, “We absolutely refuse to recognise Caesar. We will not allow the suggestion that Caesar is our king.”
Why should we, for a moment, admit that a foreigner who has come in, taken possession of our land, subjected us to him, and made us pay tribute and taxes—why should we admit that he is king? Never!
See how far they would go when this sin question is touched—this matter of life:
We have no king but Caesar.
How far they went to get rid of this One who was really touching the cause of all human trouble: sin. Hold on to that for a little while. You see what they do: “Away with Him! Crucify Him!” They will accept no argument. They will accept nothing other than death by crucifixion for this One who touches the sin question.
Leave that for a moment and look over to Pilate. Pilate, this representative in their city, their capital, their country, of the Roman Empire.
It is a very impressive story. If you read the different accounts in the different Gospel records, it is tremendously impressive. This is the thing that is so impressive: this man Pilate is like a rat in a trap—but that sounds too strong—like a lion in a cage.
He is a man who has been trapped, who has been caught, and he is doing everything conceivable, resorting to every imaginable course, to get out of this predicament, out of this situation. Look at him. He is writhing. He is doing everything. He tries this; it does not work. He tries that; it does not work. He tries something else; it does not work.
Every time he tries to find a back door out of this situation, he finds there is no escape at all. He has to come to the front door again. You notice how it is in the story that we have read: then he came out, then he came out. He went in and made an effort to get out of the predicament, but he did not get out, and he had to come out again to the front door. Like that, the man is just trapped.
In the government of God, Pilate was confronted with this issue. Jesus, God’s appointed King and Saviour, had been presented to Pilate—in a sense, put into his hands. It is as though God was saying, “What are you going to do with My King? What are you going to do with Him?”
You have got the chance of a lifetime. What are you going to do about it?
This man is wavering between what he knows in his own conscience he ought to do. His conscience is working, and he says repeatedly:
I find no crime in the Man.
“I do not find any fault in Him. So far as I can see, there is nothing wrong with Him.” Then, if that is true, and I am in a position to do anything about it, what is the right thing for me to do?
Ah, but then, you see, my position, my interests in this world, my name—all that, though. These are matters that I have got to think about: policy, diplomacy, my future, how it is going to affect me. Am I going to lose or gain? These are things to be weighed quite seriously.
And so he prevaricated with his conscience, his duty, and what he thought to be his worldly advantages. But the point is this: God was shutting him up to a definite and deliberate decision. He could not get out of it. He had to do it in the end.
Do you not think it is a terrible thing? I do not think there is anyone here, however low we might have got, however many lies we might be prepared to tell in life, who does not feel, as we read this story, “Well, he is not a very admirable kind of man—not really the right kind.”
Pilate did wrong. We all have sufficient moral sense to say he was a coward. He was afraid. He was thinking of number one when he knew quite well—he knew quite well; he said with his own lips—what he ought to do.
With this conviction that the Man was not wrong—no crime in Him, nothing worthy of death—it says at last, “Then delivered Him unto them to be crucified.”
Now you say, “That is all right. That is in the Bible. That is a story of history, long, long ago.” What is the point? This is the point: God has set aside a whole period in the history of this world—and that is the period in which we are living tonight.
He has set aside this period to bring men and women to that decision: to present His Son, Jesus Christ, to them as King, as Lord, as Saviour. And He just presses them up with this issue.
Let us not think that it is just an accident, or a hazard, or a chance, or a coincidence that we are here in this place tonight. There is a sovereignty of God behind all this.
This is the age in which God, throughout this whole world, is presenting His Son to men and saying, “What are you going to do with Him? What are you going to do about this matter—whether My Son is to be King in your life or not? What is your answer?”
When Jesus rose from the dead—after they crucified Him—He called His disciples together, the first group of men, and He said, “Now you go into all the world.” What did He say?
All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth.
He is King. Go into all the world and preach it. Present Me as King to men. That has been going on all these years. It is going on all over the world today. Everywhere, men and women are being presented with this issue: Jesus is God’s appointed King for your life. What are you going to do about it?
You can go over this world today. Some of you, no doubt, have been in different parts of the world, in countries of this world, and you can see all the difference that it has made to the lives of men and women who have allowed Jesus to become King of their lives. Tremendous difference. Marvellous difference.
On the one side, it does mean salvation. It does mean peace within. It does mean fellowship with God. Oh, it means so much. You can go to some here tonight and ask them about it. They know the difference that Jesus has made.
Go all over this world and you will hear what men and women have to say: “Yes, I should never be the same without Jesus.” You go to a country like India, for instance. Now, it is a dark country, a country of awful sin. Well, we ought not to talk like that about another country, because this country is pretty awful in its sin; but sin seems to be so naked in such countries as those.
There is darkness and misery—people of that country so oppressed and depressed, so evil and so miserable and so unhappy. But then, as you move about, you see other kinds of people.
This is the thing that impressed me more than anything else when I first went to India, and every time I went to India: here are people whose faces are wreathed in smiles, who are singing and are happy—yes, really happy.
There they are together, having such a good time; and clocks and watches do not matter in that country. Indeed, there is no patience with watches and clocks. Hours and hours and hours together—what is the secret? They have let Jesus be King.
You ask them. That is what made the difference. Here are these two entirely different kinds of people: the depressed, miserable, wretched, unhappy people, and the happy and joyous people. It is because, when God through His messengers brought Jesus before them and presented Him as King, they answered the question, “What are you going to do?”
To use the words of Pilate:
What shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?
And these people say, “He will be what God intended Him to be: King of our lives.” Oh, the difference!
What a difference it would have made for the Jews if they had taken that course. But, you see, on the other hand, what a difference it made. I told you a few minutes ago to hold on to something:
We have no king but Caesar.
They chose Caesar, and they got him. A few years after this, Caesar’s legions came in full force to their country, destroyed their city, brought it level with the ground, destroyed that temple, killed their priests, and drove the people all over the earth, scattering them.
From that day to this, they have never had a king. They have never had a temple, a house of God. They chose Caesar; they got him. We can choose something as an alternative to Jesus Christ—and get it. That is a terrible thing: to choose an alternative to Jesus Christ.
Pilate represented the Roman Empire. He made this decision about Jesus. He said, “No, I am not going that way. I am not going to accept that. I have my own interests to look after. I am not going that way.” He decided.
What happened? Presently, the Roman Empire followed the way of the Jews. The whole mighty Roman Empire, from Caesar downward, followed that way to destroy everything that belonged to Jesus Christ. All over the world, they massacred millions of Christians.
They said:
We will not have this Man reign over us. Crucify Him.
I ask you today, where is the Roman Empire? Where is it? Well, it is in the history books, and you can see the ruins of it if you go to Italy and Rome today. It is not. It is gone. It suffered an awful destruction. The greatest empire that this world has known has passed out.
Where is Jesus Christ today? In millions upon millions of lives all over this world today. You will find His subjects in almost every country of this world, and that has been going on for nearly two thousand years.
Think of the vast, vast host of subjects of the kingdom of Jesus Christ that there must be in heaven as well as on this earth. No wonder the last book of the Bible puts it like this:
Ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.
Language is beggared to describe the number of those who have made Jesus King. The Jewish nation—oh, how it has suffered through the two thousand years. The Roman Empire—how it has been wiped out. And that is true of every other one who has tried to take the place of Jesus Christ as universal King.
In our own lifetime, we know some men who have done that, who wanted to have the whole world under their control. What happened to them? What happened to Hitler, to Mussolini? They all set themselves to be the reigning force over the whole world. What has happened to them?
God has reserved this for One, and that is His Son. It is a tremendous thing to reject Jesus Christ. It is a glorious thing to accept Him.
That is all you have to say. You have to say tonight to your own heart, “What shall I do with Jesus?”
I am quite sure that if you knew all that is involved in your decision—for good, if you let Him be King; for loss, for tragedy, if you refuse to do so—you would say tonight, “I make Jesus King. I accept Him as my Lord, as my Saviour.”
I think probably, before you go out from this place, you would know at once in your heart that you have done the right thing and you have done a glorious thing. For that has been true of many, many, many in this world.
They have received the Lord Jesus Christ into their hearts as Lord and Saviour. They have done the best day’s work that ever they did, and a better day’s work than ever they thought they would do. It is like that.
We pray.
We ask, O Lord, that Thou wilt come upon this simple word and press Thine own issue upon every heart. Give to any here who have not come to a decision about this matter the help tonight to say, “Jesus shall henceforth be my Lord, my Saviour. He shall reign over my life.”
So help us, we ask it in His name.