John 19:1-5 - He Became Our Curse

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon. We pray that as we declare the Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who Christ is.

May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you. A question I want to ask in the beginning is why did Jesus have to suffer if he just had to die for us? Why couldn't he have died as an infant?

Why couldn't he have died while he was in his sleep. Why couldn't he have died a painless death if he's perfect and we needed his perfection. And he we needed him to switch places with us. He'd be perfect us be sinners and his death tone for our sin.

Why did Jesus need to die such an awful death such a brutal death? Was it? Was it just the Lord being unjust was it just the Romans? That's just the way that they did things or was their intention behind it.

What our salvation. Be possible if Jesus would have died a pain-free death. I don't think so. I actually think it's highly Intentional that Jesus suffered both spiritually and physically on the cross.

I believe that there's something going on underneath that that we need to understand and it goes all the way down into our covenant thinking. It goes down into covenant theology if you're not familiar with covenant theology.

It is it is the skeletal system of the Bible. It's what holds the meat on the bones. It's it's there even if you don't recognize it. It is the conduit by which God enters into relationship with sinful man.

He does not enter into relationship flippantly. He enters into relationship through covenant. Great covenant theological scholar and and that sounds very hoity-toity. In fact, but it's actually a great book.

It's very accessible. It's by O Palmer Robertson. It's called Christ of the Covenants. He defines covenant theology this way a covenant is a relationship wrought in blood sovereignly administrated. A Covenant is where God enters into a relationship with people who don't deserve to be in a relationship with him.

And he's got certain elements that go into that relationship that make the relationship possible. You think about marriage as a human covenant you think about your relationship with your bank who owns your house?

That's a covenant. If you don't pay we take your house. That's a binding agreement. Not not Sovereignly administrated and certainly not bound in blood at least I didn't sign my mortgage in blood. But the relationship that God brings to man is of such Difference the chasm between us and God and his holiness is so severe that we needed a relationship.

That was signed in blood. Now there's several elements of a covenant. There's stipulations. Every covenant has stipulations. It's it's you do this and then I will be your God. I'll be in relationship with you.

There's blessings for the person who obeys the covenant and there's curses. For those who disobey the covenant now curses is a Word that could seem like you're in the middle of Haiti and a witch doctor is after you.

That's not what that means in a covenantal sense. Curses are the punishments that God will pour out upon those who are covenant breakers and In order to seal the covenant God always seals covenants in his blood every single one of them.

Adam. The animal was killed in the garden. Abraham the covenant was sealed in the blood of circumcision. You go on and on through these. Now in Adam, there were clear stipulations given to him. You can eat of all the trees in the garden, but there's one that you cannot eat.

That's the knowledge of the tree of good and evil. You cannot eat of that or you will surely die. Everything else was permissible to Adam. He had clear stipulations he had clear rules between him and God.

If you want to be in relationship with me, you must obey these things and as we saw There's also clear curses and condemnations and judgments that befell Adam and his progeny because of his covenant. Lawlessness, that's what sin is.

Sin is breaking covenant with God. Sin is inviting upon yourself curses as We read in Deuteronomy 28. And with Adam the condemnation fell upon not just himself, but everyone he represented us. He was our elected representative.

Who his decision became the decision for all of us so that in him? Everyone inherits a fallen mind. Your brain doesn't quite work the way that you want it to. It thinks about wickedness when you close your eyes and you see things that you ought not see.

Your brain is at war with you. We have fallen this in our relationships like marriage where shame and turmoil and Words like divorce come to bear. We have dominion that is now thwarted. Because of sin we have a creation that is groaning where thorns and thistles and earthquakes and and Typhoons and everything else are swirling about because the earth is groaning under the weight of our sin.

There's connection between us and the earth. You know that when we send they fell. The more it even says that the more we Produce sin on the face of the earth the more polluted the land becomes. It says that in the law of God.

That's why homosexuality is such a wicked sin because it pollutes the land and it causes the land to go under curse. It's not just the people who participate in it. The land is cursed as well. Fallen physicality our bodies don't work the way that we want them to work.

Fallen emotions our hearts don't work the way that we want them to work. And I know I'm speaking to people who are totally together on their emotions. You never have lapses in that you never have moments where you've got a little sassafras going on right.

Fallen spirituality we died that day. We fell into spiritual death. Adam broke covenant and we fell with him. Now that's not the end of the Bible praise God because if it were it could have stopped at Genesis 3.

They send stories over and yet the rest of the Bible is God entering into Relationships with sinners in order to reinvigorate the covenant. He does that with Adam after they send. He does it with Noah.

He does with Abraham. He does it with he repeats those covenants to Isaac Jacob and Judah. He does that to Israel. He does that to David. He does that through Christ. God pursues his people. But the problem is that the curses are still there.

Sin requires a punishment and if God does not punish sin God would be unjust. Just like if you and I went to a courtroom and we watched a judge and there was a woman there who had had been Violated violently and the judge says no big deal.

I'm gonna offer the criminal grace. You would think that is a disgustingly wicked judge. So God and his justice will by no means leave the guilty unpunished and yet in some way somehow God is going to reverse The curse for us.

He's going to pay that curse. He's going to pour out his wrath upon that curse and What we're gonna see today is he's going to do that. By pouring out what we deserved on to Jesus. He became our curse.

So that we could become The blessing. I want you to think about it like an umbrella. It's not that God when he saved us Did away with his justice in order to save us. The wrath is still happening just like when you go outside and you and you walk out into the world.

There's not a space of non rain all around you as you walk out. The umbrella is what protects you from getting soaking wet. The rain is still pouring. The rain is still coming down. But you have a covering.

That's the same with Christ. The wrath of God is poured out and it's poured out against all unrighteousness and wickedness. You will either stand under the shadow of his covering or you will be drowned in the fury of his wrath.

That is your only option.

So today I.

Want us to see Six or just for five things five things. I want us to see five things. I Know when I say six, you know, you're in for a long ride. So we need to install seatbelts in here for that reason.

It's five today. So don't worry. Don't fret this week. We're gonna look at the curses that were poured out on Jesus to save us next week. We're gonna look at the curses that Israel invited upon her own head in Rejecting Jesus, so it's a two-part in these John 19 verses today.

We're gonna look at those five aspects. Jesus number one. He took the curse of Abraham. Number two He took the curse of Adam number three. He took the curse of Israel. Number four He took the curse of creation and number five He took the curse of our guilt and our shame and the application.

Of course is that all those curses that were stacked against us? He will have poured out on him for us so that his children will be saved. They will be safe. You will float on the little ark as The wrath of God is poured out all around you.

So if you will join me in John 19 verse 1 through 5 as we examine the text together. It also I think be up on the screen maybe or maybe it won't. Maybe go ahead and turn there. John 19 1 through 5 says this.

Then pilot then took Jesus and scourged him and the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and put a purple robe on him and they began to come up to him and say hail king of the Jews and To give him slaps in the face.

Pilot came out again and said to them Behold, I am bringing him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in him. And Jesus then came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And pilot said to him behold the man.

So when the chief priest and the officer saw him they cried out and said crucify crucify. And Pilot said to them take him yourself and crucify him for I find no guilt in him. What a statement. The Jews answered him we have a law and by that law He ought to die because he made himself out to be the Son of God.

We just read in John 11 that they convened a council against him. Now, the council has got him and they're ready to kill him. Let's pray Lord Jesus. We thank you that your death was more than just a Display of your affection, although we praise God for that Lord we thank you that your death was more than just Roman propaganda that we that you should not.

That you should not go against the Empire or Lord that it was more than just a display of Jewish hatred towards Christ. Lord, we thank you that underneath the brutality of this moment. That there are covenant realities that are happening that there are that there that the curses that we deserved are being intentionally poured out on Jesus.

So that all of us can hide in the shadow of his wings so that we can hide in his safety so that we can Hide in his victory so that we can hide in his love. Lord you have carved out a safe space for us to live as you absorb the violence of God's wrath Lord.

Let us see that today Lord let it affect our hearts and also let it affect our gratitude and our worship in Christ's name. Amen. The first point I'd like to bring up is that Jesus took the curse of Abraham and We have to do a little background for us to see this now.

Jesus is going through what's called a scourging. A scourging is 40 lashes from a Roman Instrument called the flagellum that he would have been it would have been done before the crucifixion. It was the punishment before the crucifixion to intensify the crucifixion.

He would have been tied to a whipping post in the middle of the courtyard. They would have stripped him Naked so that his back and his buttocks and his legs were exposed and they would have taken this instrument called a flagellum.

And they would have whipped him and beaten him 40 different lashes. Which means that this instrument with nine leather straps with bone and glass and metal hooks would have wrapped around his body. The hooks would have sunk in him like sinking into a fish when you catch it and then they would have ripped Flesh away from his body 40 different times.

So that at the end of this he would have had muscles and bone. His circulatory system exposed he would have been under circulatory shock. He would have been ready to collapse. Under the agony of all of this.

The only thing that would have kept him conscious would been the adrenaline coursing through his veins. On top of that they add to Jesus's punishment the mockery of a crown of thorns now. There's debate on what kind of thorns these were from the research that I did anywhere from 3 inches to 12 inches long.

These aren't little rose thorns. These are serious thorns that could pierce the crown of Christ going down even towards touching his skull. And they would have donned him with this fake crown in order to mock him.

They would have put a purple robe upon him and that that Creates a certain image for us because we know purple is the color of royalty but back in those days purple was extremely rare. Purple was only the color was only gained by these particular sea snails that emitted a purple dye.

And it would have taken Hundreds of these in order to die, maybe even a thousand of these in order to dye an entire robe. It would have been expensive. It would have been something that only a king could have afforded and they're wasting This robe in their mind not in ours, but in their mind they're wasting this robe on mockery.

They're soaking the purple robe that would have been tens of thousands of Dollars in our economy today and they're soaking it with his blood and mocking him as they spit in his face. He would have been the epitome of curse.

When you looked at him, you would have sent you would have not seen a human you would have seen someone who had been treated like an animal like a Sacrificial animal in the Old Testament and you would have seen that the curse really truly had fallen on this man.

And that takes us all the way back to Genesis 15. In Genesis 15, we have this peculiar story and I'm gonna tie these two stories together. Abraham is in a deep sleep. Abraham is in a a very heavy slumber and he wakes up in Genesis 15 and he sees God walking through severed animal parts.

And marching through those now, do you know what that means? We've talked about this before but I'll explain it in Those days when two people wanted to enter into a covenant with one another. It's called a suzerain and a vassal treaty.

That just means you have a powerful person and a non-powerful person who are entering into covenant together. The powerful person will make stipulations you do this you give me your money and then I'll let you live.

It's kind of like the mafia back in in Southie, you know, hey sure would be sure would be a bad thing. If your sub shop burned up. Oh, yeah, it would be a bad thing. What do I need to do if you give me money then I don't think it'll burn up.

Okay, that that's kind of the way that suzerain vassal agreements went in those days. You give me all your money and I'll make sure you live. Well when God comes into a suzerain vassal treaty agreement with Abraham.

God is infinitely more powerful than Abraham and God requires certain Obediences from Abraham and in those days the curse the punishment would be that they would take animals and they would literally Saw them in half Laterally down their torso and they would flay them in half and they would lay them on the left and the right and they would Create a bloody walkway where the suzerain and the vassal the powerful man and the non-powerful man would walk arm-in-arm together through the severed animal parts and The symbolism that was being communicated was if you Vassal don't obey me.

Then I will do to you what I just did to the animals. I will rip you in half. I Will slaughter you So when Abraham wakes up and he sees that God has not invited him to join him in this walk. What he saw.

Was the gospel?

That God was not going to slaughter Abraham if the Covenant did not come true. God himself was going to die By being slaughtered so that the Covenant would come true. And now you get to John 19 Where Jesus is being severed and ripped in pieces.

He is the animal of Genesis 15. All those years ago when God showed up as the smoking fire pot and and the torch and he walked through need declared I am the Lord and I'm gonna do this. Now in John 19 the smoking fire pot has come in the in the person in the flesh of Jesus Christ the Son and now he is walking the path of.

Destruction.

He is being ripped apart like the animal in Genesis 15 so that you and I can walk away unscathed. He is living out the very Covenant curses. He's inviting them upon himself. He is being ripped to shreds for us brothers and sisters.

The brutality of the cross is not.

Meaningless.

Jesus is.

Dramatically demonstrating Genesis 15. And he's saying that you will be God's people. You will be the families that are blessed under the seat of Abraham because I was ripped apart. For you that is the gospel if you lose the cross if you lose the brutality if you lose Jesus being Shredded for us you lose the Covenant symbolism.

Now, let's go deeper. That's point one. The second point is that he's not just taking upon himself the Covenant imagery with Abraham. He's taken upon himself the Covenant curse of Adam. When Pilate says.

And do we really think that Pilate said these things apart from the sovereignty of God forcing this through his.

Pagan mouth.

He said behold the man, did you catch that? Behold, I mean he said behold a man. He didn't say behold. Look at this guy. He said behold the man. He is calling Jesus unintentionally. He didn't do it on purpose.

He's doing it unwittingly. He's calling him the man the prototypical man the man that pointed to Adam and in case we forget There already was one of those. Adam was the man in the beginning was the only man.

So he was the man. He wasn't one of many. He was the man. So Jesus being called the man not a man the man. Let me give you an example of this. I Had to ask Derek because I've stopped paying attention to football.

But apparently in college football, there's things called bowl games. There's the sugar bowl the orange bowl the Rose Bowl the cotton bowl there. Whatever the blimp is there's a blimp bowl. There's there's all kinds of bowls and I would say that in one degree or another they are super.

Those are super bowls. It is a super kind of bowl game. But none of you are confused and you don't think that I mean, it's the Super Bowl. It's a Super Bowl game. It's not the Super Bowl game. You know the difference the a is in is an indeterminate amount of items.

But the V gives it something special and superlative. We know what the Super Bowl is is the pinnacle of Football, it's it's the the height of these championship games. If you if you watch men in tights, I'm just kidding.

Jesus is not a man among men. He is the man. The words even though pilot had no idea what they meant. The words are very intentional. He is the one and only man he is the man to which all men must craft their lives after and all of this drips with Adamic imagery, it means it points back to Adam.

Adam was the first perfect man. He was created in perfection. He was created sinless. He was created spotless. He was created the man who would obey the Lord and yet he fell from his perfection. He went from being a from the man to a man and his progeny Inherited his rebellion here pilot calls Jesus the man and in signaling that the royal thee has returned.

After Adam there wasn't any these there was only a's. He's a man a sinner a scoundrel a rebel a this a that here's the man the has returned. The new man the new Adam the new head of a new creation God in Genesis, did you know that God in Genesis said behold the man also?

Did you know that? When God made Adam he looked at creation and he said behold the man. God is bringing his prized man in front of the Sun the moon and the stars in front of the trees in front of the Swarming beast and the creeping things and he's saying the man look at my prized creation.

He is presenting Adam to the cosmos and he's saying behold the man and in a dramatic turn of irony pilot quotes God and he quotes and he parades Jesus in front of the fallen creation who had turned on God and He says behold the man.

Adam was presented as the man to all creation and with Adams life. He ruined it. Jesus the second Adam the better. Adam is now being presented as the man to all creation and by his life. He would heal it.

He's taking the curse of Adam. He's switching places with Adam. He's taking Adams disobedience and he's turning it into obedience. He's taking Adams cowardice and he's turning it into courage. He's taking Adam's sin and he's replacing it with righteousness.

He's taking Adams squandered life. And he's replacing it with a legacy. Pilot announced the covenant reversal, which I think is pretty ironic and pretty beautiful. Number three. He's not only taken upon himself to sit or the curse of the animal in Genesis 15.

He's taken upon himself the curse of Adam. He's also taken upon himself the curse of national Israel pilots not the only person who said something about Jesus in this passage the Jews in this passage say that he's Made himself out to be the Son of God.

They use this term Son of God.

So.

Pilot calls him the man the Jews call him Son of God. That's ironic in and of itself. That they call him what he is and they could not see it. But I also think there's another layer of irony here. Do you know that Israel was called the Son of God in the Bible?

Did you know that the nation of Israel is called God's Son? So when they look at Jesus and they say he's making himself out to be the Son of God. Think about the ignorance because they themselves were called God's Son.

The title was first given to Adam it's only given of three people in the Bible Adam Israel and Jesus. And It was given to the Jews in Exodus 4 22 also given to a pagan the Pharaoh. God says through Moses thus says the Lord Israel is my son my firstborn.

They were the firstborn Son of God. They were the Son of God not in the divine sense, but they were God's child. They were supposed to love him and live under his fatherly rule. They were supposed to obey him like like joyful little children and they failed to see the irony of what they were saying.

They were supposed to act like children of the Living God and in John chapter 8 Jesus tells him that you are not children of God. You are not children of Abraham. You are children of your father the devil.

The irony is as they called Jesus the Son of God. They were announcing the fact that they had been replaced as God's Son.

Do you see the irony.

They didn't say He makes him out to be what we are. They didn't even see it. They missed it. They had emancipated themselves from the rule of their father. Jesus calls them children of Satan. They had prodigalized themselves squandered their legacy and severed themselves from the vine.

Matthew 21 it says that that this kingdom will be ripped away from them and given to a people who will bear Its fruit. In John 15. He says that they will be severed from the vine and they'll be thrown among the bramble.

Jesus came.

To replace.

Israel as the true Son of God. They were the false Son of God. Who failed Jesus came as the true Son of God to succeed. I Want to show you a couple examples of this because I know that this is Maybe something you've never heard before.

Maybe I'll start off by saying the most controversial thing. I'll say today National Israel the country of Israel. There is nothing biblically or eschatologically significant about national Israel today.

God has not made a covenant with national Israel. National Israel is a secular nation who hates Christ. Now that does not mean that revival will not come to every tribe tongue and people including the Jews.

That doesn't mean that if the Jews continue along until the very end that they won't be redeemed and saved. They will. Romans 11 even makes an argument for how the Jews will come to Christ. So I just want to make a point here that national secular Israel the government of Israel is not God's chosen people.

That title is given to the church the Israel of God. There is no difference Spiritually speaking. Politically geopolitically there is a difference in what I'm getting ready to say spiritually. There is no difference between Israel and North Korea.

North Korea believes something that's going to damn them and send them to hell. Israel believes something that will damn them and send them to hell. If they do not repent both Nations will fall headlong into the fires of hell.

We pray for their repentance. We don't wish Bad on them, but we pray that they turn to Christ because there is no salvation apart from Christ. He is the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the father but through him.

And as we talk about praying for the Jews, I Do want you to pray specifically for that nation? I Have never in my life Seen a nation that hates and despises Jesus so ferociously as modern-day Israel because of dispensationalism in this country and because of our Geopolitical situation where we're allies with Israel, which I'm not saying anything about that.

That's for our government to decide. I'm not speaking on politics politics. What I am saying is that spiritually? There is a hatred of Jesus that I don't see in the most ardent atheist in the people of Israel today for instance in their own religious book the Talmud.

The Babylonian Talmud, which is just called the Talmud. It's their sacred scripture in the in the 200s to 400s AD. They had to invent a new religion because their temple and their sacrificial system were wiped out by Rome.

So modern-day Judaism is not biblical Judaism. Modern-day Judaism is not Toraic Judaism where they're following Yahweh in the way that the Torah describes it is not it is Rabbinic Judaism based off of the writings of the rabbis and the writings of the rabbis are written down in the Talmud.

In The Talmud, I'm not going to quote it directly because I'm trying to clean it up a little bit. The Talmud describes Jesus as Being the greatest scum on earth. That the Pharisees were righteous in murdering him that God as a reward for the Pharisees righteousness through Jesus into hell and for all of eternity.

According to the Talmud Jesus will be boiling in a pot of liquid feces and semen. That's what the most pious and the most righteous Jew today believes about your Lord and your Savior. There is a visceral hatred that Began 2 ,000 years ago when they convened that council in John 11 and it has stuck with them ever since and Yet for the grace of God, so would we?

So would we we would hate him? We would turn on him Paul says. For us not to be puffed up with pride as Christians. Because they were cut off from the covenant and we were brought in do not be puffed up with pride.

Because the same thing could happen to us if we turn on Jesus like they turned on Jesus. The point I'm making is that there was a hatred that formed in them a Covenantal curse that fell on them that we pray that the Lord would break even to this day.

We pray that the Lord would save them out of it and they would turn to Jesus for their salvation. So pray that those are. These are our in some ways prodigal brother who's gone. Who we pray will return.

But don't be confused. They are not the chosen people of God anymore. They will not join that rank until they come back to Jesus. Now, how does Jesus show that he's.

Replacing.

Them as the as the Son of God and that he's going to now stand in that office forever. Well, he reenacts their entire story. This is not coincidental. Jesus marches through the entire story of Israel in the Gospels and he redoes every area where they failed.

Everyone. Have you ever wondered why Jesus was called out of Egypt as a As a baby just like Israel was called out of Egypt as a baby. Have you ever wondered why Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River?

Just as Israel as a little toddler entered into the promised land through the Jordan through a baptism. If you ever wondered why Jesus Wandered in the wilderness for 40 years or for 40 days just like the Jews wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.

Right after he's baptized in the Jordan. He goes to the wilderness led by the Spirit of God just like Israel was led by the Spirit of God. Flame by night and cloud by day. If you ever wondered why Jesus was tempted in the wilderness just like Israel was tempted in the wilderness.

They were tempted with bread. Remember he said you can't gather on the Sabbath. They were tempted with bread. Jesus was tempted with bread. Turn these stones into bread. That's what Satan told him. They're tempted in the same way Israel was they're tempted with the Midianites who came in and took them to the high places like Balaam.

Took them to the high places and tried to curse them. Satan takes Jesus up to the high place and tries to evoke a curse on Christ. Israel was supposed to conquer the nations. Satan offers Jesus the nations.

Do you see what Jesus is doing? He's marching through their defeat and he is rotting.

WRO.

Victory, isn't it? Interesting that after these things he was brought into the garden land. He sent out his 12 disciples To do ministry just like the Jews sent out their 12 spies to see if the land could be tamed.

Then he enters into at the end of his life his faithful garden just like the Jews were supposed to come into a garden land. It was flowing with milk and honey. They were supposed to live according to the truths of God and Every aspect of Jesus's life.

He's being successful where Israel failed. He's overturning their curse. They were acting like orphans for their entire history. Now He's saying the Sun has come and because the Sun has come Israel cannot bring you into blessing Israel's temple can't bring you into blessing Israel sacrificial system can't bring you into blessing their their feast their priest.

None of it can bring you into the blessings of God because it was a type and shadow of the things to come. Jesus comes as the true son of God making you and I not having to go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

But now he's made us walking talking temples according to the Spirit of God. He has brought us into the forever feast. He has brought us into the blessings of Yahweh. He is the true son who's made us a part of the family.

In a way that Israel never could in a way that Israel. I pray will join and bowing the knee to Jesus Christ. The greatest way to love Israel and every other fallen nation is to tell them about Jesus. The most loving thing we can do is pray for them that they would repent and turn to Christ.

Jesus took the curse of that people and he became the servant the true son and guess what he's done. Israel was a fallen nation. What has he made us into a? kingdom of priests and a holy nation. If you're in here and you're a Christian, you're not an American.

That's secondary. You don't even need citizen citizenship papers to be an American anymore, but that's also tertiary. If you're a Christian in this room your citizenship is in heaven and you await your king to come and bring you home.

It doesn't matter where you're at on planet earth we in this room have more in common. With a single mother in Palestine if she's a Christian. Then we do with a rabbi in Jerusalem. Jesus has overturned the curse of Abraham of Adam and of Israel number four.

He's also taken upon himself the curse of creation. If you remember in Genesis in the garden the curse affected more than just Adam even their children it affected the land as we've talked about before.

Genesis 3 17 and 18 says cursed is the ground because of you and Toil you eat of it all the days of your life both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you again. The ground the earth the land the atmosphere the oxygen all of it was brought under a curse because of Adam.

Instead of gardens, it turns into thorns and thistles. How does Jesus bear the curse. I Want to say something. I Could talk about this for a long time and there's so much to say so I will. I will measure my words in Christian circles today, especially in the Reformed Church.