Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2006 : November 26, 2006

Theme: Testify to the Truth

Church year occasion: Christ the King Sunday - 4th Sunday of End Time

A few years ago (March 3, 2003), the sports writers at USA Today came up with a list of what, in their opinion, were the 10 hardest things to do in sports. Among the top ten were bicycling the Tour de France covering 2114 miles, running a marathon and landing a quadruple toe loop on figure skates -- with grace. But they decided, perhaps surprisingly, that the number 1 most difficult thing to do in sports is hitting a major-league baseball pitch thrown at 90+ mph by judging it in 1/1000th of a second. If you can pull it off successfully three out of 10 times you'll land a multimillion dollar contract.

Sports feats are difficult. They take endurance, skill, training, talent. But ultimately they're not important. Life itself is considerably harder and much more challenging. But that doesn't mean you should be waiting by the phone for someone to offer you a multimillion dollar contract for living on this planet. You simply do it, as difficult as it is.

So if we were to come up with the top 10 hardest things to do in life, what would they be? How about raising children, saying you're sorry (even when you're not to blame), living homeless, burying your child? Cutting it down to the top 10 things that make life difficult is impossible. And then factor in living a Christian life, and those top 10 hardest things in life just became the top 10 impossible things in life -- forgiving someone who has wronged you, saying no to ungodly peer pressure, loving your enemy. As he stood before Pilate a few hours before his death, Jesus said that his sole purpose in coming into this world was to testify to the truth. If you had to come up with the most difficult thing to do as a Christian in this world, maybe we could use that same phrase that summarizes them all -- always using every opportunity to testify to the truth of Jesus and his Word. That is much more difficult than hitting a 90+ mph fastball. Yet that is God's will for us -- in all we do, say or think, to testify to the truth of Jesus and his Word. God wants us to step up to the plate and, as every problem and every difficulty come hurtling toward us, to make our decisions in life as a Christian should.

Pilate had a huge decision to make. And like trying to judge a fastball in 1/1000th of a second, he didn't have much time to think about his decision. He woke up early on that Friday morning, and maybe even was woken up out of sleep at an early hour because of the situation he found himself in. The Jewish leaders, with whom he'd had many run-ins before, wanted a decision from him. And suddenly, before he knew what was happening or could know what was happening, he had to make a decision that would change human history. It was a 50/50 chance that he would get it right, or that he would get it wrong. But either way, it would be a decision of literally Biblical proportions.

Pilate was at a disadvantage. He didn't know who Jesus was, as we do. Oh, sure, he had heard of this Jewish peasant who was raising everyone's eyebrows and many people's ire. He had to deal with many people in Judea looking for the one they called the Messiah. He had heard of Jesus, but he didn't know that Jesus had called himself "the Way, the Truth and the Life." He asked him if he was a king because that was the charge leveled against him by the Jews. But he had no idea that when Jesus admitted he was a king, that Jesus meant that he was the King! God himself! It was definitely a fastball that was thrown at Pilate that morning. And after weighing the evidence he had to make a decision. And he discovered in the short time that he talked to Jesus that Jesus was indeed innocent. If justice were the only thing in consideration, he easily could have made the right decision.

But justice wasn't all that went into Pilate's decision. No, you couldn't rise to Pilate's position as the most powerful man in Judea, as prefect of Rome, by always doing what was right and just. Pilate also had to think about what the consequences of his decision would be -- for him. And in that case, he was more concerned about his own skin than about making the right decision. If he let Jesus go, as he tried to do, the Jews would make his life miserable. Not only would they be even more unruly (something akin to keeping peace and stability in Iraq these days), but the Jews also threatened to tell Caesar that Pilate had a chance to keep the peace in Judea, but instead chose to save the life of an insignificant man who posed a threat to Roman rule. Pilate knew he wouldn't last a month politically. In fact, according to tradition, Pilate would just a few years later fail to put down a Samaritan rebellion, and as a result, he was relieved of his position as governor and exiled to Gaul, where he later committed suicide. And all of that pain and misery would go away for him in this instance if he simply let justice slide this one time, and instead let the innocent Jesus take the fall instead of him. Pilate swung at that fastball -- and missed.

How many fastballs do you have coming at you? Some come so fast you don't even know what hit you. Others could be lingering problems or difficulties that just seem to hang around and never go away. Pilate decided to take the easy way out, and we are amazed at his godlessness. But do we ever take the easy way out ourselves? Life is tough. We have decisions that we make and have to live with every day. When you have to bury a child or learn that you have an incurable disease or discover that your child was abused or raped -- those are real-life fastballs. You have one of two decisions to make. You can blame God in some way and maybe take it out on those around you -- that's the easy way out -- or you can acknowledge that even in this God is working his good in your life because he still loves you and always will and promises never to leave or forsake you. When your financial security suddenly evaporates because of some bad investment decision, or because you just don't have enough money coming in to keep your family fed and housed and clothed like you want, you have a decision to make. Do you think that God has let you down and as a result stop striving to live for him? That's the easy way out. Or do you trust in his promise to keep you and protect you and give you everything you need and even everything you want that is according to his will? When you are faced with an opportunity to let your friend or neighbor know what life is really all about -- it's about Jesus, the King of kings who gave his life as a ransom for all sinners -- do you testify to the truth, or do you take the easy way out? If you take the easy way out in these situations, your life might be easier, just like Pilate's was for a time. But then you just decided not to testify to the truth. We've missed many fastballs in our lives, when we've failed to testify with our Christian lives to the Truth.

And that is the very reason why Jesus' words are so comforting to us when he said to Pilate: "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth." Jesus, the King of kings, Lord of the universe, the almighty God in the flesh, came into this world for one reason -- to testify to the truth. And that great truth is this: "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) We could never have hoped for such a truth. But God made it reality. Instead of always testifying to the truth, many times we took the easy way out. But Jesus' life and death proclaim to all the world that he came never to take the easy way out. Think about it -- the easy way out for God would have been to sit up in heaven and condemn you and me for every time we took the easy way out. That would have been just and right to do. But God didn't choose the easy way out. And that led him to Pilate to be condemned. And that led him to Golgotha to be crucified. But as a result of Jesus' work, God can now say that the whole world has been redeemed. The sins of the world have been paid for. Jesus did it all. That's why the King came into this world -- to assure you that he hit every fastball out of the park for you. He didn't just win the game for you -- he won eternal life for you. He proved it by not just dying, but by rising from death in victory, guaranteeing your place in heaven simply through believing in him.

Does that make a difference when you are faced with huge decisions in your life? You bet it does! Now you can even see the suffering or death of one of God's children as a blessing in disguise -- because God is working behind the scenes to do his good and gracious will in your life. And you simply trust him because he promises he is. When you have the opportunity to tell others about Jesus, you won't need to keep your faith hidden. Instead, you will be able to testify boldly to the truth of Jesus -- that he is your Savior and theirs.

You just woke up to another day of your Christian life. You will have more fastballs thrown at you. Will it be scary to testify to the truth? At times, but then you remember what that truth is: Jesus didn't take the easy way out, so all the times you did are forgiven. Will it be tough to testify to the truth? Absolutely, but you also remember that the Holy Spirit is steadying your bat and helping you swing and keeping your eyes on the ball as you make your decisions. Will testifying to the truth complicate your life? You can count on it, but you will be seeing clearly what your life is all about -- it's all about Jesus and testifying to the truth about Jesus. Fellow Christian, it's time to stand up and testify to the truth of Jesus -- the King of kings, the Lord of lords, your Savior. It's time to step up to the plate. And swing away. Amen.