The Art of Avoiding Jesus Christ

We return this morning again to the Gospel of Luke. But before turning to our passage we need to read a few verses from the Gospel of John. So turn your Bibles to the Gospel of John, chapter 18. John chapter 18. John chapter 18. We want to begin reading at verse 33.

Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, ‘Are You the King of the Jews?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me?’ Pilate answered, ‘Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?’ Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now My kingdom is not from here.’ Pilate therefore said to Him, ‘Are You a king then?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.’ Pilate said to Him, ‘What is truth?’ And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, ‘I find no fault in Him at all.’

Now we turn to Luke chapter 23 and verse 1. Luke 23, beginning to read at verse 1.

Then the whole multitude of them arose and led Him to Pilate. And they began to accuse Him, saying, ‘We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, saying that He Himself is Christ, a King.’ Then Pilate asked Him, saying, ‘Are You the King of the Jews?’ He answered him and said, ‘It is as you say.’ So Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowd, ‘I find no fault in this Man.’ But they were the more fierce, saying, ‘He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place.’ When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the Man were a Galilean. And as soon as he knew that He belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent Him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.

The tragic story of eighteen-year-old Peter Coe started on May the 16th of this year. On that day a Ryder truck was parked outside Fort Worth School District’s Professional Development Center, which is located on Lancaster Avenue in Fort Worth. The Ryder truck contained forty bags of concrete sprinkled with fertilizer and doused with diesel fuel. Acting on Peter Coe’s instructions, two other individuals telephoned the officials in the school and informed them that a bomb was placed in the Ryder truck.

Naturally this reminded everybody of the April 19th bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, in which at least 168 people died and over five hundred were wounded. And that bombing also—the bomb was situated in a Ryder truck and it was detonated by a combination of fertilizer and fuel oil. The officials in the Fort Worth school were not taking any chances. There were about a hundred students in the professional building who were preparing to take a calculus exam, and they were all evacuated and the examination was canceled. There was no bomb in the Ryder truck.

The day after the hoax Peter Coe disappeared along with his brother Michael, seventeen, and two other teenage friends. All four of the students were students at Paschal High School in Fort Worth. The FBI launched a manhunt for the four young people, and it was not until May 27th that they were arrested up here in Greenville when a store clerk recognized Peter Coe when the boys stopped for gas. When he was arrested the van in which the boys were traveling contained guns and knives and shotgun shells and bullets.

If I had Peter Coe masterminded this hoax—well, if you’re not familiar with this story—his reason was he wanted to postpone the calculus exam he was scheduled to take. He was scheduled to take the calculus exam, but somehow, however, his study materials had either been stolen or laid aside, and he was desperate to keep the exam from taking place before he was ready to take it. Even though he was an honor student, even though he was a finalist in the National Merit Scholarships, and even though he didn’t need the test in order to enter college.

Two weeks ago last Friday Peter Coe pleaded guilty in federal court in Fort Worth to federal charges of a telephone bomb threat and possessing an automatic semi-automatic rifle assault weapon. Sentencing will not take place until November 3rd, but Peter Coe faces the possibility of a maximum term of ten years in prison and a maximum fine of five hundred thousand dollars. Whatever the final judgment is, that’s a high price for trying to postpone an exam. Peter Coe is now still in federal custody in Fort Worth where he is being held without bond.

Now frankly, folks, that happens to be the most extreme effort that I have ever heard about to postpone an examination. And please remember I was a teacher for twenty-seven years, and I’ve heard some of the best excuses in the world from students as to why they should not be required to take the exam at the scheduled hour. But of all the stories that I’ve heard and been told, that one tops them all. And you know, it occurred to me that it is entirely possible that there may be one or more people in the audience this morning who are trying to avoid an examination. It may very well be that you’ve been trying to avoid this examination for years. And it’s only fair to warn you that one of my purposes in speaking to you today is to try to get you to take the exam.

And in order to do that I would like to talk to you about the following topic. The topic is the art of avoiding Jesus Christ. And that happens to be the title of my message to you this morning: The Art of Avoiding Jesus Christ.

You know it was quite a few years ago when I was still teaching at the seminary that I made an unbelievable mistake. I was scheduled one day to give an examination to a first-year class in the afternoon. And I went home over the noon hour and somehow or other—I don’t fully understand it to this day—I got mixed up about the time I needed to get back to campus or I misread the clock or something. At any rate I drove leisurely back to campus. I strolled down the hall toward my office and I was met by two of my students. And the first words out of their mouth almost were, “Where have you been?”

It turned out that they were a scouting party sent out by the rest of the class to find out what in the world had happened to their professor who was supposed to give them an examination that day. Well by the time I got to class, folks, I want you to know that they’d been waiting for me about twenty-five to thirty minutes. And it was much too short a time of that for them to take the exam. And I made them a concession which I never made before and never had to make after that. I told them they could take the exam home, take it at their leisure on their honor, and bring it back to me at school.

Do I need to tell you that that decision was greeted with universal warmth and approval by all of my students? As a matter of fact later in the semester I came to class one day and only a few students were there. All of a sudden the students started marching in through the door. And as they marched to their seats they were singing a song. Guess what it was? “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound.” And that was their way of thanking me for postponing the examination.

And yes, sometimes in life the important and crucial examinations that we have to face are postponed. And we can be glad for that. But there are lots of times, my friends, when these examinations come to us at times when we’re not quite ready for them. They come to us by surprise when we are unprepared. And that is most certainly what happened to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate whom we read about in our passage of Scripture just a few moments ago.

Now in order to really understand what is taking place in this passage of the New Testament it’s important for you to know that from historical sources outside the Bible we learned that at this particular time Pontius Pilate was skating on real thin political ice. You see he had gotten his appointment as the governor of Judea through the influence of a man Sejanus back in Rome. The reason was Tiberius. But after a while Tiberius retired to the Isle of Capri where he lived a self-indulgent life. And the government of Rome de facto was in the hands of Sejanus. And Pilate was doing very well during those days. In fact he could afford to offend the Jews and not worry about it because Sejanus protected him back in Rome.

But Tiberius was a suspicious kind of emperor. And after a while he became convinced that Sejanus had betrayed him. And he had Sejanus executed. And then Tiberius launched at Rome what might be called a reign of terror in which other people who were associated with Sejanus were executed. And now Pilate was back in Israel and he was skating on thin political ice. Because if he offended the rulers of Israel they might very well send a charge to Rome that he was somehow rather unfaithful to the emperor. And believe me the Jewish rulers understood this.

And when they brought Jesus to Pontius Pilate they phrased their accusations against Jesus in a way that really put Pilate on the spot. And they say to Pilate, “We found this fellow perverting our nation, disturbing our nation. Furthermore he forbids people to pay taxes to the Roman emperor. And not only that, he calls himself the Christ,” which is by calling himself a king. Those were the kind of charges that Pilate was in a poor position to brush off. If he ignored something like this it would have been easy to trump up an accusation against the governor.

You know what really surprises me in this passage is that Pilate didn’t respond to this in a way like this: “Okay gentlemen, just turn this man over to me. I want you to know that if there’s one thing I won’t stand for in Judea is somebody who disturbs the peace or somebody who interferes with the taxes that have to go to Caesar or somebody who claims that he is a king that Caesar doesn’t recognize as king. Just turn this man over to me. I’ll take care of him. You won’t have to worry about him anymore.” If I may borrow a phrase from contemporary society that would have been the politically correct thing for Pilate to do. But that is not what Pilate did.

And I am very surprised that instead of handling the case that way, instead he decides to question Jesus. And he says to Jesus, “Are You the King of the Jews?” And he gets from Jesus a very direct and stunning answer. Jesus says, “It is as you say.” In other words, “Yes I am.” And my friends this morning I wonder if you realize that at this moment in time Pontius Pilate was facing a crucial test. He was facing one of the most basic issues in human life. And that issue was the authority of Jesus Christ. The authority of Jesus Christ.

“Are You a king?” “Yes I am.” May I ask you a question this morning? When it comes to the authority of Jesus Christ, where do you stand? Where do you stand? Matt Glover grew up Black in Jacksonville, Florida. While he was growing up on one occasion he was beaten up by some white toughs. And a police officer was standing there and didn’t interfere at all. Glover was upset by this. He wept because he had run away from a fight. And he realized that what the police officer had done was wrong.

Matt Glover went to college at Edward Waters College in Jacksonville where he was a star running back, linebacker I think he was. Instead he served for two years as captain of the team. And the fans nicknamed him Cannonball. You can guess why. After college he went into police academy. He was the only Black officer in a class of about twenty white officers. As a rookie cop he crawled into a burning building and saved a man’s life. And just last April he set a record. At the age of fifty-two, after twenty-nine years on the police force in a city that is only twenty-five percent Black, Matt Glover ran for sheriff against two white men. And he won by a landslide.

And he became Florida’s first Black elected sheriff in this century. He took office in June. And in June he took over the combined forces of Jacksonville and Duval County. He is now head of one of the largest municipal law enforcement agencies in the country. And he is in charge of something like twenty-two hundred police officers and jail employees.

You know what I think? I think Matt Glover is not going to get beat up again very soon. You see Matt Glover now is the law. Matt Glover has authority. And did you know that’s true of Jesus Christ? He’s a king. He has authority. When He went back to heaven He said to His disciples, “All authority is given to Me in heaven and on earth.” And the Bible says that God has given Him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

“Are You a king?” “Yes I am.” So are you ready for the first question in my examination to you this morning? Do you accept the authority of Jesus Christ? Please don’t misunderstand me. I hope all of you understand that I’m not telling you that you must bow to the authority of Jesus Christ to be saved. Christ died on the cross for our sins. And He paid our way into His kingdom forever. And all He’s asking us to do to be eternally saved from hell is to believe in Him for the free gift of everlasting life. Jesus said, “Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.”

But after you are saved, after you are saved, the major issue in your life—do you hear this?—the major issue in your life after you are saved is the authority of Jesus Christ. Do you accept His authority? You see what a critical moment this was for the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. The most crucial examination he had ever taken in his life. If it’s surprising that he turned to Jesus and got a statement from Jesus, it is even more surprising what he did next.

Because you see Jesus tells him, “I’m a king.” And Pilate could have gone out to the Jewish rulers and he said, “This man has just confessed that He’s a king. He claims to be the King of the Jews. He has given me a legal reason for executing Him because He has no right to make this claim.” He could have gone out to the rulers and said that. But how surprising. He goes out to the rulers and he says, “I find no fault in this Man.” What? Pilate, who is skating on thin political ice, has just been told by Jesus that He’s a king. And he finds no fault in Jesus.

Now to really appreciate what has happened here you have to remember that Luke is just giving us the bare bones of the interview between Jesus and Pilate. To get a fuller picture of what happened we need the passage that we read earlier from the Gospel of John. And that’s where we learned that Jesus was taken by Pilate into the Praetorium, into the judgment hall, away from the rulers. And it was there that Pilate asked Him the question, “Are You the King of the Jews?” And Jesus says to him, “Are you speaking for yourself on this, or did somebody else tell you this about Me?”

And I think Pilate is somewhat scornful when he replies, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the rulers have delivered You to me. What have You done?” And then he gets from Jesus a very majestic answer. Jesus says, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world then My servants would fight so that I won’t be delivered to the Jews. But now My kingdom is not from here.” And then Pilate says, “Are You a king then?” And Jesus replies, “You have rightly said I am a king. And for this cause I was born, and for this cause I came into the world to bear witness of the truth. And everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice.”

And Pilate with the skepticism of an ancient pagan says, “What is truth?” And we might have expected him to walk out of the Praetorium to the Jewish rulers and say, “I’m ready to execute this man because he claims to be a king.” And isn’t it obvious, my friends, that there was something about this interview with Jesus, something about the dignity of our Lord, something about the way He handled Himself, something in this interview that profoundly impressed Pilate. And even though he was politically unwise to release Him, he still wants to release Him. And he goes out to the rulers and says, “I don’t find anything wrong with Him.”

But he didn’t go far enough, did he? He didn’t go far enough. He should have gone out to the rulers and said, “I find no fault in Him. And therefore I’m releasing Him. He claims to be a king and I believe that He is a king. And therefore I certainly am not going to hold Him. I’m going to release Him.” He doesn’t do that. He simply says, “Well I don’t guess I found anything that I would consider a crime.”

Now listen closely. Sometimes Christians acknowledge the authority of Jesus Christ. They admit that He is the Lord. They admit that He is the King. And if they were to be asked, “Do you find anything wrong with Jesus?” they say, “No, there’s nothing wrong with Jesus.” Anybody in this audience think there’s something wrong with Jesus? Any fault that you’ve ever found in Him? But not finding any fault in Jesus is not the same as obeying Him. May I repeat that? Not finding any fault in Jesus is not the same as acting on His authority.

If Pilate had accepted the authority of Jesus Christ he would have released Him on a moment’s notice. And he doesn’t do it. So are you ready for the second question in my exam? First question was, do you accept the authority of Jesus Christ? The second question: do you act on the authority of Jesus Christ?

Way back in the days when there was a king of France, an Englishman by the name of Sir Leonard Wood was visiting with the king of France. And the king of France was very pleased with the visit. Sir Leonard Wood was a delightful guest. And he invited Sir Leonard Wood to come to the palace the next day for dinner. The next day Sir Leonard Wood showed up and he ran into the king in the halls of the palace. And the king said, “Why, Sir Leonard, why are you here? I’m surprised to see you.” And Sir Leonard was very surprised by that. And he said, “Did not Your Majesty invite me to come to the palace for dinner today?” And the king said, “Yes I did. But,” he said, “you didn’t answer me.”

And then Sir Leonard said something that was probably one of the greatest things he ever said in his life. He said, “The invitation of a king is not to be answered but it is to be obeyed.” The invitation of a king is not to be answered but it is to be obeyed. Now I bet you somebody out in the audience is thinking, “Oh Zane is pulling out his favorite club and he’s going to beat us all over the head because the king has invited us to the Lord’s Supper and we don’t come.” No, that’s a good question though, isn’t it? But no. You see if you don’t come to the Lord’s Supper the chances are very, very good that there are lots of other things the King wants from you that He isn’t getting.

And the fundamental question that we have to ask ourselves this morning is not only do we recognize the authority of Jesus Christ but do we obey? Do we obey? Do we do what His authority requires us to do? And don’t you see what a weak man Pilate was? What a weak man he is. He knows there’s nothing wrong with Jesus. He may even suspect that Jesus’ claim to be a king is genuine. But he doesn’t dare release Him.

And so when he comes out to the Jewish rulers with the statement, “I don’t find any fault with Him,” they’re all over him, folks. They’re all over him. And they say, “This man stirs up our nation. He teaches everywhere in your district of Judea. He teaches all the way from Galilee in the north to Jerusalem in the south.” And it’s easy to interpret their meaning: “How dare you? How dare you find no fault in a man who’s causing this much trouble?” Pilate doesn’t need to read between the lines very hard to know that the next step would be, “You’re not Caesar’s friend if you let this guy go free.”

So guess what Pilate does, folks? Guess what he does? I’m going to borrow football terminology: Pilate punts. How do you like that phrase? Pontius Pilate punts. You know when you have fourth down and twenty yards to go you know you can’t make it, you kick the ball. That’s punting. For all you ladies that don’t know what punting is in football. Or to put it in a way that we’re all going to understand, Pontius Pilate practices the art of avoiding Jesus Christ.

And as soon as he hears the word Galilee a little light goes on in his head. He says, “Aha, that’s my way out. Galilee is a district that belongs to Herod. I don’t like Herod. And Herod is here in the city for the Feast of the Passover. I know what I’ll do. I’ll punt this ball to Herod. I’ll dump this hot potato in Herod’s lap. It serves him right. I hope he gets burned.” And he sends Jesus to Herod.

And let’s be honest for a minute, okay? Real honest. You can afford to be honest because I’m not going to ask you to say anything. Have you ever thought to yourself, “You know I’m a Christian. I’m on my way to heaven. And someday I’m going to get serious and start living for God. But not today. I’m too young. I’m just getting my family started. I’m just beginning in my career. I know how to live for God but not yet.” You know what you’re doing? You’re punting. You’re practicing the art of avoiding Jesus Christ.

So that’s the examination. Are you going to commit to Him? Or like Pilate are you going to postpone the decision to another day? Back in the days when Queen Victoria was ruling in England she liked to go from time to time to the humble cottages of some of her poor subjects simply to visit with them. And on one occasion she was visiting in the cottage of a Christian widow. And she stayed for a while to have Christian fellowship with this widow. Queen Victoria was well known for her Christianity.

Sometime after the visit the neighbors of the widow began to mock the widow as they so often did because of her Christian profession. And they said to the widow, “Granny, tell us who is the most distinguished visitor that you’ve ever entertained in your home.” And they expected her to say Jesus because they knew she was committed to Jesus. But Granny surprised them. And she said, “The most distinguished visitor that I’ve ever entertained in your home is Her Majesty the Queen.” “The Queen, did you say? We got you now, Granny. What about Jesus that you’re always talking about? Isn’t He your most distinguished visitor?” And guess what Granny said? She said, “No indeed. He’s not a guest in my house. He lives here. He lives here.”

You know what worries me, folks? What worries me is that some of the people who are sitting here this morning may walk out that door and go back to a house where Jesus doesn’t really live, where He doesn’t really, really live. You see Jesus said, “He that loves Me keeps My word. And My Father will love him. And We will come to him and We will make Our home with him.” And the only way to have a home where Jesus lives is to have a home where the authority of Jesus Christ is acted on in obedience to His will.

I wish we had more homes like that in Victor Street because I think if we had more homes like that we’d have more of our children walking with God. But there’s still an opportunity to start. There’s still an opportunity to go back there and to make sure your household is a place that acknowledges the King. And then you will be able to say with the songwriter, “King of my life I crown Thee now. Thine shall the glory be. Lest I forget Thy thorn-crowned brow, lead me to Calvary. May I be willing, Lord, to bear daily the cross for Thee. Even Thy cup of grief to share Thou hast borne all for me. Lest I forget Gethsemane, lest I forget Thine agony, lest I forget Thy love for me, lead me to Calvary.”

Folks, let the Lord Jesus Christ be the King of your life and of your home.

Shall we pray? Father, we acknowledge Your Son as King of kings and Lord of lords. Help us to go out of this building this morning determined to be His obedient subjects. And we ask this in Christ’s name. Amen.