Calvary Road Baptist Church
“A FAIR QUESTION”
John 18.29
I have served as the pastor of this congregation since November 1985. Almost from the beginning of my tenure here, I have attempted, not always with success, to convince anyone who would listen to me that we in the United States of America occupy an unusual place and time in the history of the human race in that we have enjoyed freedom, favor, safety, and several other blessings unknown to believers in Christ in any other place or at any other time in history.
I was reminded of God’s favor toward us as a nation and as a congregation by recently reading the autobiography of a 19th-century Japanese convert to Christ. His testimony is titled How I Became A Christian: Out of my Diary. He identified himself as the author, “A Heathen Convert.”[1] What challenges he faced as a Japanese man come to Christ in Japan in the 19th century. We cannot imagine.
I also read, some years ago, David Aikman’s Jesus In Beijing.[2] In that book, in which the author interviewed many Chinese House Church movement leaders in the days before Xi Jinping came to power, many Chinese Christian leaders expressed their concern for and sorrow toward American Christians. They indicated to Aikman that American Christians have it so good, with life being so materially prosperous and opposition to the expression of our Christian faith being so slight and incidental, that we are spiritually harmed and hindered in our development as Christians by such ease and comfort.
If you have taken notice lately, that is kinda changing. Under the Obama administration, recall that the Internal Revenue Service was weaponized. Remember Lois Lerner? She is an attorney and former director of the Exempt Organizations Unit of the Internal Revenue Service. She led the targeting of Christian and politically conservative non-profits, either denying them tax-exempt status outright or delaying that status until they could no longer effectively participate in the 2012 election.[3]
Only recently, we have learned of ongoing FBI surveillance targeting religious organizations under the present regime. “In a series of tweets, the House Weaponization of Government Committee pronounced its outrage at the spy operation that would present ‘serious consequences for the free exercise of Americans’ First Amendment rights’ and free religious expression.”[4] And if you think it is only a federal issue, think again. At least one California county used telephone cell tower data to evaluate the movements of known Church attendees to identify gatherings of worshipers in violation of Covid-19 lockdown mandates.[5] Do you imagine only one county did that?
“Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. It is a global phenomenon. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizations, such as organizations like the NSA, but it may also be carried out by corporations (either on behalf of governments or at their own initiative).”[6] The Twitter files have exposed such connections.[7]
There are whispers in the Second Amendment community that local jurisdictions are being fed illegally obtained information by the National Security Administration, using easy-to-obtain phone taps, especially Verizon users, of suspected activity that statists do not approve of. The local jurisdiction is then expected to fabricate probable cause evidence to obtain search warrants, whereby they (surprise, surprise) discover what the NSA gave them a heads up about without attribution from the NSA’s illegal wiretap.
It is terrible when the powers that be change the game plan from how it was initially drawn up. Our nation’s charter, the Constitution of the United States, authorizes the federal government to protect US citizens from foreign powers and criminals.[8] State and local governments are authorized to protect citizens from criminal activity and to punish wrongdoers after they have harmed us.
They don’t do that much anymore, do they? This world was already a terrible place to live, the Bible declaring that the whole world lieth in wickedness, First John 5.19. But in these last days, it is only getting worse. There used to be delusional young people who could imagine, “I don’t know what I will do with my life. What will I do for a living? Do I go to college or learn a trade?” In this country, one might imagine something approaching a future life of material prosperity and both ease and comfort in retirement near the end, during what used to be called the golden years.
But now, with a crime family controlling the federal government, the latest iteration of a state crime family occupying the governor’s mansion, and Oregon, Washington, and Arizona overwhelmed by proven voter fraud that results in certifiable loons elected governor, hopes for the future are rapidly dwindling. And moving out of the state of California is about as intelligent as the rats on a sinking ship scurrying to the last part of the boat to slip beneath the water.
What is the recourse for those of us who are Christians? We serve God and lift up Christ until we die, or Jesus comes first. This world was never our home. We have always been strangers and sojourners who sometimes forget reality when we are preoccupied with good weather, great food, or fine company.
Since coming to Christ, life properly has only and always been the work of faith, the labor of love, and the patience of hope, Paul declared to the new Christians in Thessalonica.[9] We work to see people saved, labor to minister to other believers, and, while doing that, “wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”
For me, then, and other Christians, it is all good. But what about you? What are you going to do? The world is collapsing around you. The country you live in is being undermined and weakened to insignificance. The economy is being systematically destroyed, and there is nowhere you can go to find relief. So, what do you propose?
The situation you find yourself in is similar to that faced by a group assembled more than 2,000 years ago one morning just after dawn. They lived in a country that was riddled with corruption. Religious corruption. Political corruption. Economic corruption. Legal corruption. You name it.
God offered His Son to the Jewish people and also to the Gentile world, but they did not want Him. Everything was a mess. Disease, poverty, oppression, discrimination, injustice, lies, slander, cruelty, slavery, you name it. Yet, right in the middle of that chaotic and demonized mess, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ.
Virgin-born, He lived a sinless life, worked miracles that stunned even His enemies, on occasion suspended what we would call the laws of nature, and told anyone who would listen,
“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”[10]
Yet the people who lived lives of confusion, corruption, condemnation, and contamination rejected Him. Imagine that. Their lives were terrible, yet they refused the deliverance He promised them, backed up by miracles and fulfillments of prophecy they acknowledged and then ignored. Does that not sound like what so often happens in our day?
People’s lives are so filled with despair that they sometimes contemplate suicide. They are so miserable that their existence is devoid of any real meaning. Their marriages have no intimacy if they are married, and their kids barely tolerate them. Yet they reject the only option presented to them. My text is John 18.29:
“Pilate then went out unto them, and said, What accusation bring ye against this man?”
The Lord Jesus Christ was delivered to Pontius Pilate for a trial of violations of Roman law following His arrest the night before in the Garden of Gethsemane, and three trials by the former high priest Annas and the current high priest, Caiaphas. Records indicate Pilate was appointed to his position by the Roman emperor Tiberius in 26 AD and held the office for about ten years.
Notice how the verse begins, “Pilate then went out unto them.” This suggests Pilate was not waiting for them all to arrive, though he certainly knew they were coming. This meeting had been arranged. Pilate went out to them after keeping them waiting a bit after their arrival.
Having appropriately demonstrated to all the Romans and Jews in attendance who the wielder of absolute power was, Roman power, by making his audience wait for him to join them, Pilate then asked,
“What accusation bring ye against this man?”
Before considering this question, reflect on what we know Pilate already knew. The night before, he had authorized hundreds of Roman soldiers to accompany Temple guards and several Jewish civilians to search for and take this troublesome Jewish man from Galilee into custody.
So, when Pilate asked that question, it was with formal intentionality that he worded his question the way he did, using the Greek word kathgorίa, the word for a legal accusation in matters of law.[11] This was the trial’s opening by a Roman authority figure and a request for formal charges. The trial had begun.
We know how everything turned out. Pilate found Christ “Not guilty” of all charges, turned the Lord over to Herod on a technicality for political reasons for a trial, and then tried Him again and ordered His crucifixion. After His death, the Lord’s dead body was entombed, and three days later, He rose from the dead in a glorified body. Where is He now? He is enthroned at the Father’s right hand in heaven until the time of His glorious and triumphant return.[12]
All of this is good for me and those of us who are believers in Christ. But what about those miserable wretches Pilate questioned before ordering the Lord’s crucifixion? And what about you, whose life is not all that different from the men Pilate questioned? You are not happy. Your life is without meaningful significance. You move about in a repetitive daze most of the time until you die.
“What accusation bring ye against this man?” What Pilate said to those gathered that morning so long ago is the question I pose to you. If I modernized the question, I would say, “What problem do you have with Christ?”
May I rehearse with you what problem you might have with the Lord Jesus Christ? I might be mistaken. But follow along with me; perhaps your grievance against the Savior will surface or crystallize, giving you clarity. I have come up with seven possibilities:
First, THERE IS NOTHING LEGALLY WRONG WITH HIM
During His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus was subject to two jurisdictions of law, the Law of Moses and the laws of Imperial Rome. What can be said about His legal standing and compliance with the law, especially leading to His crucifixion?
Read through the Gospel accounts, and three things become very clear. First, with respect to the Law of Moses. To be sure, scribes and Pharisees were enraged by things He did that seemed to them to be violations of the Law, such as healing and raising the dead on the Sabbath. However, those miracles were not violations of Law, but violations of the traditions of men.[13] In fact, concerning the Law of Moses, our Lord said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”[14]
First, Jesus Christ knew the Law of Moses far better than any of His adversaries.[15] Second, His adversaries violated the Law of Moses while He fulfilled the Law of Moses.[16] Third, His crucifixion was both a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy and a violation of the Law of Moses since He had committed no sins at any time.
Indeed, for Jesus Christ to be the proper sacrifice for sins as the Lamb of God, He had to be sinless. In fact, He was sinless, Hebrews 4.15 and 9.28.
So, what about Roman law? Was the Lord Jesus guiltless under Roman law? You may remember that His enemies tried to entrap Him into violating Roman laws when it came to the matter of taxation. However, He said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”[17] It was not the Romans who had issue with Him. He was so clear of any violation of Roman law that the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, both privately and publicly stated concerning Him, “I find no fault in this man.”[18] In fact, the Lord Jesus was crucified for political expediency and not because He had broken a single Roman law.
Second, THERE IS NOTHING MORALLY WRONG WITH HIM
Someone can be in the wrong without actually violating any law. Therefore, while Jesus Christ violated no aspect of the Law of Moses or Imperial Rome’s laws, it is well that we consider the possibility of some moral lapse on His part.
The closest that His enemies came to accusing Him of any moral defect was in relation to His mother, Mary, who was obviously unmarried at the time of His conception. His enemies certainly researched His background and childhood. They knew when He was born and when His mother and Joseph married. They no doubt talked to all the gossipmongers in Nazareth about it.
This is why, in John 8.41, they said,
“We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.”
They were attempting to indict Him for what they claimed was the moral lapse of His mother, insinuating that she had committed sexual sin prior to her marriage to Joseph. However, the Lord Jesus challenged their accusation, saying, “Which of you convinceth me of sin?” verse 46.
Thus, just as Jesus Christ was legally guiltless, so was He also morally spotless. Even if Mary had done something wrong (which she did not), no child is guilty of any of his parents’ offenses. Legally and morally, there is nothing wrong with Jesus Christ.
Third, THERE IS NOTHING ETHICALLY WRONG WITH HIM
Is there a record anywhere of Him lying to anyone? It is a problem with many these days to shade the truth, equivocate, insinuate, and employ subtlety. I remember the case of a pastor leading a man attending his Church to believe that if he replaced a bus engine, he would be handsomely paid. However, the pastor never actually promised the man, though he allowed the man’s expectation to persist so he could get a new engine for the Church bus. That kind of thing is unethical, as the rage of the mechanic for being made a fool of suggested.
Is there any indication in Scripture that our Lord was guilty of ethical violations? Did He ever do anything in a sneaky or sly fashion? Did He ever mislead people or insinuate so as to cause people to draw false conclusions? Not at all. As a matter of fact, whenever crowds of people began to draw erroneous conclusions about Him as the Messiah, He corrected them.
Of course, the essence of ethical violations is twisting and distorting the truth. Ethical violations are part of a pattern of deception whereby the truth is not strictly adhered to or highly prized. However, Jesus Christ not only told the truth at all times, He is full of grace and truth (John 1.14) and He is the truth (John 14.6). Thus, He was guilty of no ethical violations, and anyone who thinks He was unethical is mistaken.
Fourth, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH HIS PERSONALITY
Every one of us has known someone that we just did not like. Not that there was much you could put your finger on, you just did not like him. It may be that you did not trust him. It may be that you were a bit suspicious of him. It may be that there was just something about him that did not sit right with you.
Could that be said about the Lord Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry? To be sure, Isaiah 53.3 predicted that He would be despised and rejected of men. However, did sinners despise Him and reject Him because of His personality? Was He a mean man? Was He an unkind man? Was He a harsh man? Was He a judgmental man? Did folks feel like He was always scrutinizing them? Did His men live in fear of His temper or of His scathing rebukes?
Consider those men who became His inner circle of disciples and were chosen to be His apostles. They were fairly successful men in their own right, with Matthew being a tax collector and a number of the others having a fishing business. The point I seek to make is that those men had options. They did not have to hang around Jesus Christ if they did not want to. But they wanted to. I would suggest to you that Jesus Christ did not have an off putting personality, with those men being evidence of what I say.
Indeed, His personality was such that even Pharisees invited Him home on the Sabbath after attending the synagogue.[19] The publican, Zacchaeus, invited Him to his home when He was passing through Jericho.[20] Then, of course, there were those occasions when He stayed with Simon the leper and with Mary, Martha and Lazarus in Bethany.[21] Evidently, He was a nice man to be around and was well-liked.
Fifth, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH HIS DEPENDABILITY
Can you think of anyone the Lord Jesus Christ ever let down or disappointed? Mary and Martha come immediately come to my mind as two women who were very devoted to Him. You will remember how profoundly disappointed they were when their brother Lazarus fell seriously ill, and the Lord Jesus did not immediately come when summoned. Then Lazarus died and was buried, but still no Lord Jesus Christ. Did that show Him to be less than dependable?
Dependability is important to me. It bothers me when someone says he will be somewhere at 4:00 only to show up at 4:15 or not to show up at all. Always knowing an apology is coming for preventable irritations irritates me. I get quite upset when someone says he is going to do something and then does not do it. Perhaps the thing you think is wrong with our Lord is that He is not dependable. It would certainly bother me if He was not dependable. I am sure Mary and Martha began to doubt His dependability when Lazarus fell ill and more so when their brother died and was buried.
Like Mary and Martha, we oftentimes arrive at hasty conclusions about the Lord Jesus Christ not being dependable, when the problem lies with us arriving at hasty conclusions before all the facts are in that show the Savior to be the most dependable man who ever lived. They clearly expressed their disappointment to Him when He finally arrived.[22] However, He made up for their concerns by raising their brother from the dead in front of a large audience of unbelievers.
Sixth, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH HIS FRIENDLINESS
Friendliness seriously overlaps personality. However, I have chosen to distinguish between the Lord’s personality and His friendliness to differentiate between His likeability to adults and children. Why so? Because children and adults evaluate by different criteria. There are adults that adults like but children do not like, and there are adults that children like that adults do not like. The Lord Jesus was an adult who was well-liked by both adults and children.
This is easily established by the rebuke directed to His disciples who hindered children’s access to Him, in Mark 10.13-16. It is in Mark 10.14 that our Lord said,
“Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not.”
I think it reflects poorly on the Gospel when anyone in the congregation is impatient, intolerant, and otherwise distant from young children. Kids know who does not like them, and there is something wrong with any adult who does not like kids. The Lord Jesus Christ did not have that problem.
Finally, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH HIS MOTIVES
Why did Jesus Christ do what He did? Why did He leave heaven’s glory and come to this wicked place? Why did He suffer the indignities associated with life amongst the sinful? Why did He allow men to take Him captive, torture Him, and crucify Him? We know this all happened because of God’s love for the world, John 3.16, but what expressions of Christ’s motives are we given? In Matthew 9.36, we are told that He was moved with compassion because the multitudes “fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.” And who is not is familiar with His reaction to His friend Lazarus’ death? John 11.35 tells us “Jesus wept.” Why did He weep? “Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!”[23]
However, remember that the Lord Jesus did not love and have compassion only for His intimates and followers. Remember the rich young ruler who ran up to Him, knelt before Him, and asked Him what he could do to inherit eternal life? Though he showed that he loved his money more than he loved his own soul, and left Christ as lost as he had approached the Savior, we read these words concerning our Lord’s motivation as He looked at the young man kneeling before Him: “Then Jesus beholding him loved him,” Mark 10.21.
Finally, who can ignore one of His final remarks while hanging on the cross of Calvary?
“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”[24]
What is wrong with Jesus Christ that you refuse Him, reject Him, and will not come to Him that you might have life? Is He not flawless with respect to His power, His prestige, His knowledge, His wisdom, His grace, His mercy, and all the other attributes related to the greatness of His glory? Furthermore, did He not shed His blood for the remission of sins?
No one can have an issue with Him on those counts. However, it is possible some sinners would have an issue with Him regarding His humanity, which is why I have set before you seven considerations related to His humanity and His earthly ministry.
We have seen that there is nothing wrong with my Lord legally, either with respect to the Law of Moses or Imperial Roman law. The scribes and Pharisees would have proven Him guilty of violating the Law of Moses if they could have, and the Roman governor Pontius Pilate pronounced Him faultless with respect to Roman law.
What about moral or ethical shortcomings? Did Jesus Christ ever do anyone wrong, leave anyone short, mislead or misguide anyone? Was He devious, or was He honest? Was He secretive, or was He open in His dealings?[25] Did He conceal, or did He reveal? What could be wrong with Him morally or ethically?
Yet some of you, by your actions and the friends you choose, obviously prefer the company of a known cheat and liar, a swindler or a thief, to the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of you are liars and thieves if truth be told. Is that it? Do you hold His moral and ethical purity against Him? The woman at the well and the woman taken in adultery did not.[26] Aren’t you glad?
How about His personality, His dependability, and His friendliness? Do you hold it against Him that He is kind, gracious, merciful, tender, compassionate, forgiving, dependable, and loves the unlovely and children? Would you rather a savior who was harsh and ferocious toward you, unfeeling and without compassion?
What we see during the course of His earthly ministry is the icing on the cake. His motives are clearly open for all to see. He did not have to leave heaven and come to this earth. Had His motives not been loving and gracious, He could more easily have stayed where He was. That He came, and that He was crucified, shows His motives aplenty.
I make no claim that people are all that logical or reasonable. However, just as the goodness of God leads to repentance, perhaps these traits that we have considered will cause you to want Jesus Christ to be your savior. After all, there is nothing wrong with Him, and there is everything right with Him. Therefore, why not trust Him as your savior now?
__________
[1] A Heathen Convert, How I Became A Christian: Out of my diary (1895), (Tokyo, Japan: Keisheisha, reprinted LiteraryLicensing.Com)
[2] David Aikman, Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity Is Transforming China And Changing the Global Balance of Power, (2006)
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Lerner
[4] https://ijr.com/jim-jordan-leaked-fbi-memo-shows-disturbing-plot-spy-christians/
[5] https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/03/08/phone-data-surveillance-used-to-monitor-san-jose-church-that-violated-covid-rules/
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance
[7] https://twitterfiles.substack.com/
[8] Article I, Section 8
[9] First Thessalonians 1.3
[10] John 10.10
[11] Rogers, page 223.
[12] Psalm 16.11; 110.1; Matthew 26.64; Mark 12.36; 14.62; 16.19; Luke 20.42; 22.69; John 3.13; 13.1; 14.2-4; Acts 1.9-11; 2.33, 34-35; 7.56; Romans 8.34; Ephesians 1.20; 6.9; Colossians 3.1; Second Thessalonians 1.7; Hebrews 1.3, 13; 8.1; 9.24; 10.12-13; 12.2; 1 Peter 3.22; Revelation 19.11
[13] Matthew 12.1-21
[14] Matthew 5.17
[15] Matthew 22.29; Mark 12.24, 27
[16] Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah: New Updated Version, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1993), pages 851-857 and Alfred Edersheim, The Temple - Its Ministry and Services: Updated Edition, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1994), page 201.
[17] Mark 12.17
[18] Luke 23.4, 14; John 18.38; 19.4, 6
[19] Luke 7.36
[20] Luke 19.6
[21] Matthew 21.17; 26.6; Mark 11.11-12; 14.3
[22] John 11.21, 32
[23] John 11.36
[24] Luke 23.34
[25] John 18.20
[26] John 4 & 8
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