“Accept or Reject” John 18:33-40 NIV 33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” 34 “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?” 35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?” 36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” 37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” 38 “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. 39 But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?” 40 They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising. Pilate faced the same question that everyone who has ever met Him has had to answer, “What will you do with Jesus”? We meet new people all the time and almost instantly decide if we accept them or reject them yet that is seldom the case when deciding about Jesus. Something inside us instinctively knows that there is something different about Him and that the decision is not that simple, that it has significant and lasting consequences. What’s interesting is that for many, pride affects this decision when it shouldn’t. Pilate ultimately surmised “I find not fault in Him” but yielded to the will of those who accused Jesus. By the way, no decision is a decision to reject since we are not guaranteed we will have another chance to decide later. What will you do with Jesus? Love you guys.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 12:29:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015