Jesus Came to Testify to the Truth (John 18:37-38)

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Advent: Jesus Came to Bear Witness to the Truth (John 18:37-38)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, December 14, 2025

In this Christmas series, we have been talking about why Jesus came to us.

When I was a child, Christmas was a big deal. I was so excited. It was exciting to come down the stairs and see presents under the tree. I did not grow up in the church, but I do know that Christmas was about Jesus. At the same time, Santa was a big part of our Christmas celebrations.

Who was St. Nicholas? A “Breakpoint” commentary shares the following:

Today, December 6, is the anniversary of the death of St. Nicholas in 343, a leader in the ancient Church in the city of Myra in Asia Minor, or modern-day Turkey. If you’ve ever heard of the Dutch tradition of children leaving their shoes out in hopes of finding goodies left in them, like gold-foil-covered chocolate coins, it’s based on a story that St. Nicholas gave three young women the funds to pay for their dowries. According to another story, likely a legend, St. Nick punched Arius at the Council of Nicaea for his heresy. 

Aside from his reputation for legendary generosity, what we know about St. Nicholas is that he was imprisoned and possibly tortured for being a Christian by the Emperor Diocletian, before being released from prison by the Emperor Constantine. That’s enough to make him a hero, and to honor him by hanging stockings in his honor. … Just remember that the True Gift of Advent is the Christ he was unwilling to forsake.[1] 

We talk and sing about Santa Claus coming to town, but why did Jesus come to us?

My theme today is: Jesus said that He came to testify to the truth.

  1. We are going to look at John 18:37, but what is the context?
    1. This passage is during the trials of Jesus.
    2. In John 18:12, Jesus was arrested.
    3. In John 18:19 and the following verses, Jesus is questioned by the High Priest.
    4. Starting in John 18:28, Jesus is taken from Caiaphas’s house to Pilate.
    5. Jesus is before Pilate from John 18:28-40.
    6. Starting in John 19:1, Jesus is flogged and mocked. Pilate says that he found no guilt in Jesus (John 19:6). The crowd wanted Jesus crucified, and Pilate was afraid of the crowd. Pilate delivered Him over to be crucified (John 19:16).
  2. Pilate questions Jesus about kingship (John 18:33-36).
    1. John 18:33–38 (ESV) 33 So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” 37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” 38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”
    2. After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.
    3. In John 18:33, Pilate enters his headquarters “again.” Why does it say “again”?
    4. This is because in the previous few verses, Pilate told the Jewish people to judge Him themselves.
    5. Pilate is going in and out of his headquarters. He is speaking with the Jews and then with Jesus.
    6. In John 18:33, Pilate asks Jesus “Are You the King of the Jews?”
    7. Jesus answers with a question.
    8. “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?”
    9. Pilate answers:
    10. “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?”
    11. Notice that Pilate admits that he is not Jewish.
    12. Pilate seems amazed that Jesus’s own people handed Him over to Pilate.
    13. Pilate was likely used to certain uprisings, but in this case, the Jewish people handed Jesus over to Pilate.
    14. Pilate wants to know what Jesus has done.
    15. Verse 36 is critical:
    16. 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
    17. Jesus is saying that His Kingdom is not of this world. Pilate said that His own people handed Him over, but Jesus said, “No, they are not from My Kingdom.”
    18. If His Kingdom were of this world, His servants would be fighting so that He would not be delivered over to the Jews.
    19. Remember, just earlier, Peter cut off the ear of a servant of the High Priest when they came to arrest Jesus.
    20. Jesus restored the ear (John 18:10-11; Luke 22:51).
    21. Sproul shares:
    22. He did not say that His dominion and authority did not include this world or that His realm was a transcendent spiritual Neverland. This was the same Jesus who affirmed, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18). He told Pilate: “My kingdom is not like your kingdom. My kingdom is not built on violence, on blood, on war. That’s the way the kingdoms of this world function. My kingdom is not a world-like kingdom.” In other words, Jesus said that He did not plan to establish a kingdom by force. He had no intention of leading a rebellion against the Romans, no matter what the Jews might say.[2]
    23. In the next verse, Pilate asks Jesus if He is a King.
  3. Jesus says why He came (John 18:37-38).
    1. John 18:37-38: 37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” 38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”
    2. Jesus does not respond to the Kingship, but to why he came.
    3. Notice that Jesus says:
    4. For this purpose, He was born;
    5. And for this purpose, He came into the world;
    6. To bear witness to the truth.
    7. He was born and came into the world to bear witness to the truth.
    8. Interestingly, Jesus says He was born, but that was not His beginning.
    9. Jesus says that He came into the world.
    10. That was His incarnation.
    11. As John Piper writes:
    12. The uniqueness of his birth is that he did not originate at his birth. He existed before he was born in a manger. The personhood, the character, the personality of Jesus of Nazareth existed before the man Jesus of Nazareth was born.
    13. The theological word to describe this mystery is not creation, but incarnation. The person, not the body, but the essential personhood of Jesus existed before he was born as man. His birth was not a coming into being of a new person, but a coming into the world of an infinitely old person.[3]
    14. Micah 5:2 (ESV) But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
    15. Further, from Piper: The mystery of the birth of Jesus is not merely that he was born of a virgin. That miracle was intended by God to witness to an even greater one; namely, that the child born at Christmas was a person who existed “from of old, from ancient days.”[4]
    16. He came to bear witness to the truth.
    17. Jesus did not say that He came to testify to “my” truth. No, He came to testify to “the” truth.
    18. New American Commentary:
    19. The theme of truth is a foundational idea in John. For Jesus and for John truth is not merely some intellectual concept of correct facticity. It also involves life-oriented integrity. Accordingly, we misunderstand Johannine truth if we merely speak of the truth about Jesus or doctrinal formulations about Jesus. Jesus is himself truth as he states: “I am the way, the truth and the life” (14:6). Jesus was not proposing to give the disciples a map or “triptik” to heaven or a theological description about himself. Jesus gave them himself. There is no doubt that truth is related to ideas and matters of facticity, but Jesus’ mission was to bring people to himself and to God and in the process thereby bring them to integrity of life. It is clearly possible to be academically right and theologically correct but still lack integrity in life.
    20. Jesus’ mission was to integrate truth into life. That is the reason the text here defines people who are of truth as those who hear the voice of Jesus. Hearing or obeying Jesus is not the same as affirming correct ideas. The Pharisees and legalists in Jesus’ day were very precise in their theological formulations, but God was remote for them. Moreover, they schemed his crucifixion in their correctness because they missed hearing the voice of God. That can still happen today. What Jesus did in this story was confront Pilate with himself and with the genuine nature of truth.[5]
    21. Pilate asks, “What is truth?” That is what people ask today.
    22. Keller: Pilate says at the very end, “I am Rome, I have power, and I could crush you like a bug [John 19:10].” Do you know what Jesus says? There is a George Herbert poem in which the words of the Christian or Christ go like this …Spare not, do thy worst. I shall be one day better than before;
    23. Thou so much worse, that thou shalt be no more.
    24. Here’s what Jesus is saying. “You don’t realize this is all part of the plan. If you abuse power, you’re just going to bring your own house down. Go ahead. Try to destroy me. All you’ll do is put me on a cross and make me the Savior of the world. All you will do is put me up there as an emblem and a sign and a token and a power in the lives of people who eventually are going to turn your entire Roman world upside down. By you abusing your power, you are helping me show the world what power is for: giving, serving, giving away. Come on.”[6]

Prayer

[1] “The Story of S. Nicholas.” Breakpoint article on Dec. 6, 2022. Accessed on Oct. 27, 2025

https://breakpoint.org/saint-nicholas-a-christian-hero/

[2] R. C. Sproul, John, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary (Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2009), 352.

[3] Piper, John. The Birth of the Ancient of Days. Advent|Day 21. Accessed on Oct. 27, 2025

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-birth-of-the-ancient-of-days?utm_campaign=Daily%20Email&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=80303787&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9WEOIi2rYuV6UDnfnl0O72kQMpoTFnHsDxDrIwwgvnPvNER9sSX6DhFqLBz_hSE1G2KxQ8FzJ43G8PmbCrw2ZELfPCHA&_hsmi=80303787

[4] Ibid.

[5] Gerald L. Borchert, John 12–21, vol. 25B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002), 243.

[6] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

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