Behold, Your King | Sermon 03/17/2024

All right, it's great to see you all. Good morning.

Happy Lord's Day. We're going to briefly be in chapter 18 and we're mostly gonna be in John 19.

So if you want to turn there with me in your Bibles, 1838 through 1915 are the verses we're gonna be in.

The title of the sermon today, church, is Behold Your King. Behold Your King.

So starting in verse 38 of the gospel, according to John chapter 18, hear now the words of the infallible, the living and true

God. 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 guilt in him. But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the

Passover. Do you wish then that I release for you the king of the Jews? So they cried out again saying, not this man, but Barabbas.

Now Barabbas was a robber. Pilate 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.

Pilate 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.

Jesus then came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, behold, the man.

So when the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out saying, crucify, crucify.

Pilate said to them, take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.

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.

Therefore, when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. And he entered into the praetorium again and said to Jesus, where are you from?

But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, you do not speak to me? You do not, do you not know that I have authority to release you and I have authority to crucify you?

Jesus answered, you would have no authority over me unless it had been given you from above. For this reason, he who delivered me to you has the greater sin.

As a result of this, Pilate made efforts to release him. But the Jews cried out saying, if you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar.

Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar. Therefore, when Pilate heard these words, he brought

Jesus out and sat on the judgment seat at a place called the pavement. But in Hebrew, Gabbatha.

Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover. It was the sixth hour. And he said to the

Jews, behold, your king. So they cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him.

Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king? The chief priest answered, we have no king but Caesar.

This ends the reading of God's magnificent and holy word. Let's pray once more as his people.

God, I ask that you would be here with us in this moment. That you would reveal what you would like us to know and see in your word today.

Transform us by this glorious word, Lord. If anyone here doesn't know what's happening here,

Lord, show it to them supernaturally by faith. God, I pray that you would remove distractions from our hearts and our minds today.

So many things try to take the place of you in our hearts.

And so God, I pray that this moment you would show us how important it is that Jesus went through this and what his scourging means for us now, leading up to this crucifixion.

God, we praise you, we thank you. We pray this all in your mighty son's name, Jesus, amen.

So church, we are now in the final hours leading up to the death of Christ.

Although we have been going through John's account for months of that Thursday when

Jesus was privately instructing and encouraging his disciples. And then that evening walk from the city to the

Garden of Gethsemane, which then led to his arrest and unlawful interrogation and a trial by Annas and Caiaphas and the

Sanhedrin. He was then brought to Pontius Pilate early Friday morning.

And it has been a rapid change of events, very rapid, moving very quickly.

When you think about the gospel according to John, at the beginning, there was a sampling of various accounts over the several years of Jesus's earthly ministry over many chapters, but the end here will be like a microscope, okay?

Lots of detail over a short amount of chapters. When you think about it,

Jesus likely hasn't slept since Wednesday. It's Friday. Jesus hasn't slept since Wednesday.

He's tired. He has now since been betrayed, arrested, bound, denied, scorned, reviled, abused, mocked, slapped, beaten, spat upon, and falsely accused.

Truly, as the scripture says, he made himself of no reputation.

Very true. And so we ended last week looking at the dialogue between Pilate and the

Jewish leaders, as well as Pilate and Jesus one -on -one.

Pilate wouldn't bow to the priests and the Pharisees, but his resolve is slowly waning.

We're gonna see that today. Remember, Pilate doesn't necessarily want justice. He wants power.

He wants to maintain order, but he doesn't want to show the Jews that they can simply intimidate him and do whatever they want.

He's going to flex his power over them. He's gonna push back. In fact, he investigated and he pushed back.

Pilate didn't see Jesus as the political threat that they espoused him to be.

And so Jesus then, if you remember, properly affirmed his kingship and his kingdom.

It's not of this world. It's not of this world's evil system. It's heavenly in origin.

And it has already started to spread upon the earth with his coming.

We then looked at passages that indicated the kingdom of God has hit earth. Jesus's kingdom, rule and reign has now spanned realms and it spreads through the gospel and through transformed hearts.

Jesus even said he is here for his kingship and the truth.

And so the truth will be told and the truth will be heard by those given to him from the father.

But Pilate is faced with truth in the flesh. He's faced with truth incarnate.

And he's faced with the truth of the situation. This man is innocent of the

Jews' accusations and he will now try to make concessions and compromises to avoid offending this group.

And so when you think about it now, at the point we're at, Pilate is caught in a place where he can either do what is either right and difficult or wrong and easy.

So let's see how it continues. Verse 38, Pilate said to Jesus, what is truth?

And when he had said this, Pilate went out again to the Jews and said to them, I find no guilt in him. Remember the chief priests were concerned about ritual cleanness and uncleanness for that matter and the ability to participate in the

Passover, which in what they're doing, we talked about this, they're participating in something that defiles them, something that makes them unclean.

They have blood on their hands. They're already polluted with sin, these Jewish men, but they remained near the boundary of the praetorium, this

Roman residence of the governor. And when Pilate took

Jesus into his residence to question him more privately, he had to come back out.

And that's what's happening here in this moment. It's very possible now that the sun has risen,

Jerusalem residents are waking up. Their religious leaders are standing at the edge of the

Roman governor's property. And as these Jerusalem residents wake up and they look and see their religious leaders standing right there, a crowd starts forming.

A crowd starts forming right here in front of the governor's house in Jerusalem. More lies likely are being spread of Jesus among the people.

They start telling others what's happening here and this crowd forms. In fact, the other gospels report that there were large crowds gathered through this

Friday morning. So Pilate returns to the outer colonnade and says,

I find no guilt in him. The word for guilt here is like grounds or the basis of the charges that were brought.

He doesn't find any basis for what they've told him. And Pilate then interpreted

Jesus' answers of him reporting that he is a king and that he has a kingdom that is not of this world.

He interpreted those statements as I'm not a king that threatens political power or danger to the

Roman empire. That's how Pilate looks at it. Because the Jewish leaders came before Pilate and accused

Jesus of sedition. This is a rebel. He wants to be king. He wants to overthrow you.

He wants to overthrow the emperor. And Pilate interrogates him and goes, I don't see a man that's ready to take over.

I don't see that with what Jesus has said. I don't see any armies coming for this man.

Now, if Pilate had true integrity, Jesus would have been released and the

Jewish officials would have been discharged, but there is a fear inside of him. There's a fear inside of Pilate, not a fear of God, but a fear of man.

He wants to save face. He knows these men have a lot of influence and it worries him greatly more than doing what is right.

So expecting their protest, Pilate makes an offer to them, verse 39, but you have a custom that I release someone for you at the

Passover. Do you wish then that I release for you the king of the Jews?

And so all the gospels assume this yearly prisoner release, something that had now since become a custom.

And Pilate asks if they want him to release Jesus. And he keeps calling him the king of the

Jews at this moment. And that antagonizes the chief priests. Do you want me to release for you the king of the

Jews? And they're like, it's just making them more mad. It's inflaming them. Matthew 27, verses 15 through 21, give more detail to this very moment.

You can look in your print out or look in your Bible, Matthew 27, verse 15. It starts, now at the feast, the governor was accustomed to release for the people any one prisoner whom they wanted.

At that time, they were holding a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. So when the people gathered together,

Pilate said to them, whom do you want me to release for you, Barabbas or Jesus who is called Christ?

For he knew that because of envy, they had handed him over. While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message saying, have nothing to do with this righteous man.

For last night, I suffered greatly in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to put

Jesus to death. So the governor said to them, which of the two do you want me to release for you?

And they cried out, Barabbas. This goes right in line with our verse in verse 40.

It says in John 18, so they cried out again saying, not this man, not this man pointing to Jesus, but Barabbas.

John reports that this man was a robber. And this word robber means someone that plunders.

But this man Barabbas was no ordinary burglar or bandit. He was more of what we would understand today as a terrorist, a terrorist against Roman authorities.

In fact, Mark reports Barabbas had taken part in the famous insurrection.

He's an insurrectionist. He helped lead an armed rebellion, Barabbas. He even committed murder in the midst of these endeavors.

So Barabbas is actually the one who truly deserves the accusations that the

Jews are giving. You get that? They're coming up to Pilate and said, this man

Jesus calls himself a king. He calls himself the son of God. He's going against Caesar and he's going against you.

But Barabbas, the man that they actually want to be released is the one who actually led an insurrection and riots and a rebellion against the empire.

That's the irony. And everyone's oblivious to it. Murder and man pleasing are mixed into a cocktail and everyone is drinking it down except for Christ.

Now, one thing I wanted to mention to you about Barabbas is that one textual variant of Matthew indicates that Barabbas' first name is

Jesus. That's right. That means that his full name could have been

Jesus Barabbas. Jesus Barabbas.

Bar means son of, Abbas means father. So who are the men who are being offered as two options at the

Passover prisoner released to the people? You have Jesus, son of a father, a father.

And then you have Jesus, son of the heavenly father.

Jesus, son of a father, the zealot murderer Barabbas, or you have Jesus, capital

S, the son of God, the son of the father. The people cried for the freedom and release of the false son, the false

Jesus. Barabbas was the kind of savior that people wanted though, a terrorist to rally against Rome.

And so they chose Jesus, son of a father, not

Jesus, son of the father. In Peter's second sermon in Acts chapter three, he says, pointing at the religious leaders in Jerusalem, he says, but you disowned the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be given to you.

They chose the one who takes life rather than gives it.

And you know, this makes me think about how many times that we choose other things over Jesus.

Like Pilate, we can choose to save face. We can save reputation over Christ.

We can be offered power in place of faithfulness to Jesus. And sometimes we take it.

You can get even better pay. You can get better careers if you just shut up about Jesus.

We can choose to maintain ungodly relationships over Jesus.

And so what you and I are doing in those moments is we're choosing a false Jesus, a false savior in our lives.

In other words, an idol, an idol. An idol that wants your fidelity to it rather than God.

But the grace of God works through that sovereignly. He calls us to repent from such wrong choices.

If that's you today, if you're a man pleaser, if you're someone who chooses others or things over Jesus, he calls us to repent today from that.

And by his spirit, may he help us. And he does help us to pick Jesus, the true son.

And he will bring good out of all of it like he will bring good out of people choosing

Barabbas over Christ. This was necessary. Barabbas had to be chosen.

You see, the story is ugly, but it ends in redemption. Go to verse one of chapter 19.

And the people chose to release Barabbas. It says, Pilate then took

Jesus and scourged him. This is very much in line with the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

In Luke 23, Pilate tells the chief priests and rulers that he has found no guilt in the man named

Jesus, and he has done nothing deserving of death, but he indicates that he will punish

Jesus. He says, I'll punish him, then I'll release him to you. That's in Luke chapter 23.

Now you might think, why? If Pilate has come out multiple times now and said,

I find no fault in him, this man doesn't deserve death, why then would he punish

Jesus? If Pilate finds no fault, why would he flog him?

I think in Pilate's mind, he thinks ordering the scourging will meet the

Jews' demands, the demands that cried out, that said, blasphemy has been done, and perhaps in scourging

Jesus and sending him out to these Jewish men, he might gain their favor and relent, and the cries of crucifixion might be quieted.

Maybe that's what he's thinking in his mind. He punishes Jesus, they'll stop crying for crucifixion, he'll at least do that.

He himself has already determined Jesus is not a threat. His wife has had a troubling dream concerning Jesus.

She told him, she sent a note to him, have nothing to do with this just man.

But this moment though, this is when the humiliation and suffering of Jesus truly begins.

Now, some scholars have wondered if there were two scourgings, that this was possibly a lighter scourging that happened first for those who were a public nuisance to society, and then another second flogging would come.

One that would have occurred with the declaration of crucifixion.

When crucifixion is handed down, a terrible flogging would occur, and so that second one, that very terrible one is called verbaratio.

The point is, not whether or not Jesus was flogged once or twice, or if this is the severe one or not, all of it would have happened within that hour, or very shortly anyways.

We don't know if it was one or two, but what we do know, according to scripture, is that they would have absolutely given the worst scourging

Romans could possibly give to Jesus. They did. This isn't like the 40 lashes minus one in Deuteronomy 25 that the

Jews had for each other. The Mosaic law said, then it shall be if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall make the man lie down, and he will be beaten with the number of stripes according to his guilt.

The man may beat the other man 40 times, but no more so that he does not beat him with any more stripes than these, and your brother become degraded in your eyes.

You see, that was a law for those who received scourging or whipping punishment, and so the

Jews would say, let's not even go to 40 whips, let's do 39, because what if we accidentally miscounted, and we accidentally did 41, and we degraded our brother in our sight?

So the Jews famously did the 40 minus one stripes, 39 stripes,

Paul talks about that. Paul talks about how he received that multiple times. But the

Romans did not abide by that law, with the Jews. The Romans had torturers that were so astute with anatomy and pain that they would whip a man senseless, but keep him within inches of his life so as to endure more pain.

So Jesus will absolutely become degraded in the eyes of his kin and his brethren.

That Hebrew word degraded means he will become despicable, he will become pitiful, he will become disgusting.

He will become a curse in front of them. And so if you can imagine it, they're standing at the edge of the praetorium, they're looking out on the grounds, and Jesus is stripped of his tunic.

His chest is laid bare, his back is laid bare. This was purely for humiliation.

They wanted to humiliate these people as well. And so he's only got something covering his lower half, he's bare up top, and his hands would have been bound, and then he would have been tied to a wooden post that comes out of the ground.

Not one, but several Roman torturers would have been summoned, they would have been called.

And these are men with a sick and insatiable desire to inflict pain upon others.

They came greedily with bloodlust. The commanding officer would oversee the scourging, and in fact, it was known that the

Roman torturers were said, you can go as long as you still have energy.

They would tell the torturers, you can go as long as you can, once you're tired, we'll stop. It wasn't when the person being scourged was tired or worn out, it was when the torturers were out of breath.

When you're out of breath, you can stop, you can be done. The most favored instrument for whipping and scourging was not a single strand leather whip, it wasn't even a leather whip with a couple strands.

The Romans would take a whip with many leather cords and they would fit pieces of bone and rocks and pottery shards and pieces of lead and sharp pieces of metal, and they would tie them along the strands of these whips.

According to historians, the flagellation was so vicious, it would expose muscle, sinew, tissue, even bones and sometimes organs in their side.

And that's what they would do. There'd possibly be three of them and they would come to Jesus and they would keep whipping him, keep whipping him.

On every side, every angle, he can do nothing but be tied to the post.

When his back was like raw meat, they would turn him over and it would come onto his chest and on his belly and on his legs.

They would strike him everywhere with this horrible whip. It was pure agony.

His body was becoming flayed. The Bible says that he was marred beyond recognition.

And those who love him are looking on and they're thinking, goodness, what does this accomplish? What comes to mind is

Isaiah chapter 53. Do you know what it says? It says, by his what we are healed.

By his stripes, we are healed. By his scourging, we are healed.

That verse is often used when people are praying over others to heal them. They cry and they say, by his stripes, you are healed.

And they say that in a moment of faith. But what we actually see is in Peter's first epistle, he uses that Isaiah 53 verse in the context of Jesus's substitutionary atonement, meaning that by Jesus's stripes that he's receiving here in John 19, there's not necessarily a promise of physical immediate wellness of the body, but Peter shows a wellness of the soul.

A regeneration, a death to life reality, a total healing that comes only with eternal life.

By his stripes, you are healed. These stripes are part of the reason why you have salvation today.

These stripes are why you can enter the kingdom of heaven with gladness. These stripes are for you.

As Jesus grows weak and the lashings no longer feel hot, they would have felt hot on his back at the beginning, but eventually the nerve endings get damaged and soon he starts shivering.

He becomes so cold and he has blood loss and he's exposed and his back is wet with blood.

His chest is wet with blood. He's freezing. Early spring

Friday morning. I can only imagine what he's thinking.

As each whip strike comes down, what is Jesus thinking? And I can only imagine what he's thinking.

Maybe he's thinking back to that prayer from John 17. Father, glorify yourself.

Whip. Father, glorify me with the glory that I shared with you before the world was.

Whip. Father, for the sake of those who hear through the apostles.

Whip. God, for my people. Whip. Over and over and over again.

You know what I don't think he was thinking? I don't think he was thinking any curses towards any of these people.

I don't think he had any hatred in his heart in that moment. I don't even think he had righteous indignation.

Willingness. Grace, love, sacrifice. That's what's in his mind.

His mind wasn't even on Annas or Caiaphas or anyone who accused him. In fact, later on at the cross, when the jeers and mockers come, he'll even look at them with an amazing love.

They have the most hatred in their face you could ever see, staring at him up at the cross and he'll say, father, forgive them.

They know not what they do. Unbelievable. That's grace.

Unbelievable grace. So our

Lord's torture and agony continues. Look at verses two and three. And the soldiers twisted together a crowd of thorns and put it on his head and put a purple robe on him and they began to come to him and say, hail, king of the

Jews, and to give him slaps in the face. So Jesus' title, king of the

Jews, has now spread among the people. It's even spread to the Roman soldiers. How depraved do you have to be to continue to abuse a man whose flesh is already ripped open?

There's no sense of pity. There's no sense of sympathy. Only to inflict more pain.

And this is only the beginning. The wrath will come at the cross. And so they twisted branches to make a crown of thorns.

It's possible that they used the long spikes of a date palm. You see, there were date palms all in the area in Jerusalem and so they could have taken these date palms and they would have cut off the soft green leaves.

And at the base of these branches were these long spikes. If you ever visit

Arizona or something like that, you'll see palm trees everywhere. There's a Las Vegas even, there's date palms.

And at the base are these spikes. And I'm telling you, some of these spikes can range from six inches to 12 inches long.

And so some have thought that maybe these were palm spikes that they had woven.

That makes me think about the fact that just the Sunday before this moment, it's

Friday, right? It's Friday. The Sunday before this was what? Palm Sunday. It was the triumphal entry.

And what were they doing? They were saying, as Jesus came in riding lowly on a donkey, they were taking palm branches down, right?

Soft ones. And they were laying them with their jackets, their coats at his feet, like a red carpet for a king.

And they were shouting, Hosanna, Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. They considered him a king.

And they put these palm branches down. And what's crazy is they go back now, days later on Friday, and they go back to the same palm trees, and they find the bases of them, and they take them and they weave spikes out of them.

That's radical. They mock him as king to continue to inflict more pain.

The thorns would have been jammed onto his head, possibly the one place that didn't get any whipping, right?

The one place that's maybe not fully inflicted and damaged yet, the top of his head, his hair.

And so they shove this crown of thorns on his head. Others, other archeologists and historians have believed, well, maybe it wasn't the palm branches, it's possible.

There are these perennial shrubs that are all along the hillside of Judea and Jerusalem.

And these shrubs have these nasty spikes. In fact,

I decided to, this is straight from Israel. I'll let you see that later.

It's probably hard to see the spikes coming off of it. But this is from one of those desert shrubs near Jerusalem.

Still, that's gnarly. That's nasty. They would have shoved that on his head. So that's a possibility there.

Whichever of the two, whether it was the palm branches or this desert shrub, whatever it was, they wanted to mock our

Lord Jesus Christ. They wanted to hurt him. They hurt our precious

Lord. And then they put a purple robe around his shoulders.

They would have taken purple.

They would have put it over the Lord Jesus Christ, wrapped it around his shoulders.

They would have draped down over him. Purple robe, crown of thorns.

And purple, if you know then, is the color of royalty.

It's the color of royalty. And so what possibly happened is you had a soldier who wove one of these.

He made a crown. Then the other soldier went back to his quarters because soldiers and officers in the

Roman army, they would have had, as you see in our army today, there are kind of utility garb, right?

There are uniforms for utility moments. Then there are uniforms for what?

Like formal events, you know, seeing an officer visiting town.

They would have dressed better. And so Roman soldiers would have maybe had their own purple robes for themselves.

And so a soldier weaves this. Another soldier goes back to his quarters. He grabs this and says, yeah, let's show him how much a king he is.

And they put these things on our Lord Jesus Christ. And I can't help but think about the colors that are happening right now with Jesus Christ.

Think about it this moment. His blood all over his body, scarlet red.

The purple robe, purple. All the hits that he got from the day before, the night before, the hits that he's been had his face, he must have black eyes.

He must have bruises on his body. What color is that? That's typically about a blue color. And so Jesus is now scarlet red, purple, and blue.

And you know what's interesting is, God came to the Israelites and through Moses, he told them, when you make my temple, when you make the holy of holies,

I want you to separate my presence from the people with a veil that's made out of scarlet, purple, and blue.

That's the way to God's presence. And Jesus is showing that he is that.

He is those colors. He already called himself in John chapter 10. He says, I am the door.

He is the way. He is the way to the holy of holies.

And that's why later at the cross, when he says it is finished, in the other gospels it says that the temple veil, which was actually very thick, it wasn't thin, it was very thick.

You can't rip it, you can't do anything like that. An earthquake couldn't have caused this thick fabric, this heavy stuff to tear.

Supernaturally, this veil, it says, torn too. Why? Because the scarlet, purple, blue Jesus Christ is the way to the holiest place.

He is the way to God's presence. He is God. In Matthew, it says at this moment with the crown of thorns and the purple robe, it says that also the soldiers found a reed or a stick and they shoved it in his hand.

They gave him like a scepter, like a king's rod. And they put it in his hand and they mocked him.

And so Jesus is pale, he's bleeding everywhere, flesh and tissue is exposed, he's dirty, he's sweaty, he's shaking, he's wearing the crown, he's wearing the robe, he's holding the scepters.

And the soldiers, all of them get in line and they come before this scene of Jesus and they all kneel before him and say, hail, king of the

Jews, and they mock him. And as each soldier goes down and kneels and says, hail, king of the

Jews, as they come up, they slap him, every single one of them. Every one, they get up, they slap him.

And then it's the next guy's turn. Hail, king of the Jews, slap in the face. And we don't even know the number.

It says that there were hundreds of soldiers here at this moment. We already saw that in the garden, there was a cohort, 600.

How many soldiers would have done that and stood up and slapped the Lord Jesus Christ across the face?

No idea. It's unimaginable. It's unimaginable.

This is the same hail Judas used in the garden when he betrayed Jesus with a kiss. And so according to Mark, then at this moment, when each soldier was done, when each soldier got up and smacked him in the face, when they all had their fill of mocking the

Lord Jesus Christ, it says one of them grabbed the reed and then Jesus cowered and they started to beat him over and over with the reed that they used as a rod in his hands, as a scepter.

Beat him over and over again with that very rod. And it says that since others had not gotten the rod, there was only one, so only one could have it at a time and maybe they even gave the rod to another person so that the other soldiers didn't feel left out.

It says that the rest of them spat on him over and over again. They were spitting all over Jesus as the other one was beating him with the rod.

And so at this point, the cruel spit and saliva of both Jews and Gentiles, the

Jews did it the day before. The Jews and the Gentiles spit was all over him.

Isaiah chapter 50 verse six speaks of this moment so many hundred years prior. It says,

I gave my back to those who strike me. This is Isaiah 50. I gave my back to those who strike me in my cheeks, to those who pluck out my beard.

And I did not cover my face from humiliation and spitting. It was prophesied.

How the Jews could know these messianic servant passages of torture and sacrifice and not recognize it here,

I don't know. Only the spirit of God. In the Bible, to spit on someone is to cause great shame, right?

It's one of the, you see police officers, one of the worst things that they could ever want happen and they, you have guys, my uncles were police officers, several of them in Los Angeles.

And they would say, I'd rather have someone slug me in the face than spit in my face. I'd rather someone beat me than spit on me.

And that's true. And this is what they're doing. You know, again, what is marveling to consider is that Jesus has no hatred in his heart at this moment.

He's not cursing them. He's not defending himself. Each sting of the whip, each hit of the face, each disgusting drop of saliva from his assailants, all the mockery, all this suffering is for something.

It means something, it has meaning, it has purpose. And he's not gonna let it stop now.

Too much hangs in the balance. And so Jesus continues to receive this treatment. And what makes this so infinitely offensive, and here's what it is.

I've seen atheists say, what is this? People were treated like this in the ancient world.

What's the big deal here? Well, we'll see what the wrath of God is like at the cross. But what makes this act so atrocious is how innocent

Jesus is. How pure he is, so blameless, so perfect.

To do this to someone so perfect is such an atrocity. This is the highest sin that could ever been perpetuated since the fall of man, the very first sin from the garden thousands of years prior.

You see, one day, if these men don't repent, they will not bow or kneel in false allegiance or mockery, but on the day of judgment, they'll be crippled under the weight of their just condemnation.

So let's continue, look at verses four and five. Pilate 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. Jesus then came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate said to the people, behold, the man.

Pilate comes out of the praetorium, the crowds of Jews along with the chief priests. The crowd has grown considerably.

Word of Jesus's so -called blasphemy has spread, and Pilate reports the verdict again.

He finds no basis, no guilt for what they're accusing him of, and then he walks back.

He says, I find no guilt in this man. Then he walks back into the praetorium, and he comes out, and he brings

Jesus Christ with his crown of thorns and his purple robe, and this

Jesus is covered in blood and wounds and exposed, and he says, behold, the man.

He's trying to show them that their accusations are unfounded. You see, this man is beaten almost near death, and he has no armies to invade.

This man's harmless. Behold the man. Look at this man. You think this man's a threat to the

Roman Empire? Look at this man. Behold the man. This ridiculous sight of a man is no threat to you,

Jews. Behold the man.

He's harmless, but he is the man.

He is the man, right? He is the word who became flesh. He is the logos from eternity who took on humanity.

You see, church, we needed a true representative. It was crucial that the one who paid for our sins wasn't only divine.

You see, Jesus isn't only divine. He's also totally man. Behold the man. Jesus had to represent us.

He could not be angelic. He could not be only divine. He could not be only spiritual.

Jesus had to be man. He had to represent Adam and all his descendants He is, according to scripture, the last

Adam. He is the man. Jesus is the best man who has ever walked this earth and will ever.

Behold the man. Look at verses six through eight. So when the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out saying, crucify, crucify.

Pilate said to them, take him yourselves and crucify him for I find no guilt in him. And 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.

Therefore, when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. So the governor's plan didn't work.

If anything, beating and scourging Jesus and bringing him out and saying, behold the man, even though he laid off and he didn't say behold your king, he said, behold the man.

This only made them angrier. The Jewish rulers and priests can't be so easily pacified.

Their hatred for Jesus mixed with their disdain for Pilate causes them to go straight for it.

Crucify, crucify. Nothing less will do. Crucify him.

Every little thing occurring here is only hardening their hearts more. They are sinning.

They are sinning. They're doing what they want. But at the same time, the sovereign hand of God is ushering things forward to the most important moment in history.

They have accused Jesus of sedition or rebellion against the Roman occupiers.

And for anyone who is not a Roman citizen, if you're accused of sedition and you're not a Roman citizen, you don't get a trial, you don't get a formal trial and you get execution.

You get the death penalty. And so they continue to shout, crucify, crucify.

And Pilate responds with a sarcastic remark. He says, take him yourself and crucify him.

Essentially, Pilate is frustrated. He's like, you brought this man to me. I investigated and I find no fault in this man and yet you don't honor my verdict.

If you want crucifixion, if you wanna just kill this man, kill him yourself, kill him yourself.

But they can't do that right now. It's Passover and they're not allowed to perform capital punishment, but they say

Jesus must die. They point to blasphemy. They point to the fact that he calls himself the son of God.

Leviticus 24, 16 says, moreover, the one who blasphemes the name of Yahweh the Lord shall surely be put to death.

When he blasphemes the name, that man shall be put to death. This man has made himself out to be the son of God.

And it's not in the way that the Old Testament does. You see, there are times that in the

Old Testament that kings or certain men were given the honorary title of son of God or God's son or God's child or something like that.

David was called God's son. Even King David was just a man. That's not what they're mad about.

Jesus has inferred messiahship and more than that, he has inferred and plainly stated equality with God, equal authority and equal status with the one true

God. That is to say Jesus has shown and said that he is divine.

So he must be put to death. You see, according to historians, a

Roman prefect did not only have to uphold Roman law and keep the peace, but often if the law was not considered bad, they would adopt the statutes of the locality they were at.

And so in this case, Pilate's job is to uphold that Leviticus 24 law.

He has to maintain it. And so the Jewish leaders use political manipulation.

They say, this man has done something worthy of death, maybe not in your law,

Pilate, but in our law. He's called himself the son of God. And so therefore you,

Pilate, you have to carry this out. They pressure him. It says that after this,

Pilate became even more afraid. And now Pilate may be even more afraid at their expansion of the accusations and the bringing up of their law.

Maybe that's why he's more afraid. Or to a

Roman like Pilate, part of a people who were largely superstitious in their pagan beliefs, maybe he was afraid when he heard the fact that Jesus has called himself the son of God.

Maybe he was thinking, could this be a gifted individual? Could this be someone with divine powers?

Is this the kind of man that I've heard in myth or legends or rumors? And then he's like,

I just had this man flogged and beaten and mocked between what he just heard and his wife's dream.

The question is, is he a pagan Gentile more likely to consider

Jesus' claims than Jesus' own people? It's hard to tell why he's feeling the way he is.

He's so afraid. I think it's for a multitude of reasons. It's definitely not because he wants to do the right thing.

He's not going, oh gosh, if only I could do the right thing, because then he would do it. Go to verse nine.

And Pilate entered the praetorium again and said to Jesus, where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer.

And so what I surmise is that Pilate didn't take Jesus' answers in the interrogation earlier seriously, but after what he's just heard, that this man makes himself to be the son of God, after he's heard this about their law, question is, is he interested in truth?

I don't really know. Where are you from? Where are you really from?

Jesus already told him that. He told him he's from the kingdom of heaven. And so Jesus won't answer him here.

Pilate doesn't deserve the straightforward answer of truth. He knows.

Jesus knows Pilate isn't interested in justice or righteousness, but more political shuffling with the

Jews. You see, we've seen it over and over again. Pilate doesn't want these

Jewish leaders to tell him what to do. He doesn't want to be pushed around. But the silence seems to get to the governor.

Look at verse 10. So Pilate said to Jesus, you do not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and I have authority to crucify you?

And this phrase speak to me is in the emphatic form. It's like Pilate is saying, you don't speak to me?

You don't speak to me right now? And the implied rebuke from Jesus is that any other man in Jesus's situation would be answering questions, right?

Any other man in Jesus's situation would be groveling and say, don't kill me, don't kill me.

No, I'm not who they say I am. He would answer where he's from.

He would appeal to the governor with everything he could, but Jesus doesn't even respond.

What this shows here is that in this whole situation, God is in control.

Jesus is in control. Pilate thinks he's, Pilate comes back in, where are you really from?

And Jesus doesn't answer because Jesus is in control. This bloody beaten and soon to be hung on a cross man won't speak to the

Roman ruler over the entire land of Judea. Pilate's like, don't you realize

I have the authority to release you or the authority to crucify you? Don't you realize that?

Look at verse 11, Jesus answered this though. You would have no authority over me unless it had been given you from above.

For this reason, he who delivered me to you has the greater sin. This literally says, you would have no power against me in this, unless it had been given you from above.

In other words, God is in control over this whole situation as much as Pilate thinks he is.

Even the most profound evil that could ever take place in this world is not outside God's authority and oversight and predestination.

In fact, Acts chapter four, verses 27 through 28, Peter and John were standing before the

Sanhedrin. These same men who are outside the praetorium now in John 19, Peter and John were standing before the

Sanhedrin. They were giving an account of speaking in the name of Jesus in Jerusalem and eventually they were released.

And so when John and Peter are released from the

Sanhedrin, they get outside and it says that they lift up their voices to God and they say this, listen to this.

With one voice to God they say, for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant,

Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the

Gentiles and the people of Israel to do whatever your hand and your purpose predestined to occur.

They look to God and they don't dismiss anyone. They say it was Herod, Pontius Pilate, the chief priest.

It says it was the people of Israel. It was the Gentiles, a

Roman governor. And then at the same time, looking up to God, when

Peter and John say this, it was them. They said, but it was your hand,

O God, your purpose, whatever you wanted occurred.

So while all their decisions and all their evil were voluntary, nothing would thwart

God's plans. These evil men did what you purposed,

God. And the apostles saw this. This wasn't a controversy back in those days.

These men are culpable, these men sinned. And yet they continue to say this throughout the

New Testament and through the book of Acts. It's like these men sinned, these men did this to Jesus, but God, you worked through it, you predestined this.

There was no controversy with this. They knew that God was sovereign over everything.

God doesn't merely outsmart his enemies. He doesn't even move his enemies around on a chessboard.

There is no concern that this is not going to plan. It's going exactly to plan.

The one from above is working his perfect will. And you can see it here in Jesus's statement.

He says in this statement, he says that there's power from above and then there's sin in you and these men, he tells

Pilate. There's sin here. There's God's power and there's human sin. God's power, human sin.

He doesn't let anyone off the hook. The sin is

Pilate's and the Jews' possession. It's not God's. God does not sin.

God does not commit evil. This is human sin.

It's our sin. God will use it though in this moment for his glory and our grace. Now, Jesus's words about the greater sin in the ones who delivered him isn't meant to exonerate

Pilate. Nor does the sovereignty of God remove

Pilate's sin. It only makes it slightly less than the priests and the

Pharisees here. That's what Jesus says. Pilate will give an account for his man -pleasing and his cowardice and his hand in this murder.

He will, but his part in this plan, this murder of Jesus is comparatively passive opposed to the active murder and sin of Annas and Caiaphas and their cronies.

He says your sin is less, but does he, he still says your sin, right?

He still says your sin. He doesn't say you don't have sin now. He says your sin is lesser.

You have the lesser sin. And so on a side note, right? I've heard many people say in my years as a

Christian, they've said, look, all sin is sin. Sin is sin is sin, you know?

I've heard Christians who love sodomy and homosexuality and transgenderism and say like, look, it's sin.

It's no different than lying, right? You know, you just, you repent from something like that. No, actually

God calls that an abomination. There are things in God's word that he detests more than others.

The question is, does all sin, every sin of every degree condemn us before a holy

God? Absolutely, in that way, all sin is equal. But here, Jesus in this moment, and even in other parts of the gospels, he has shown that the sin of the rulers was even greater than the sins of the people, the people who were deluded or deceived.

And so there are different types of sin with different degrees and hierarchy. You can kind of even see that in the 10 commandments, right?

Murder is worse than stealing. I think we can all go, yeah, murder is worse than stealing. Murder is worse than lying.

And so Jesus affirms that here. God sees it, of course, as all sin, but he also sees what

Jesus is saying here. Verse 12, as a result of this,

Pilate made efforts to release him. But the Jews cried out saying, if you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar.

Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar. So apparently,

Pilate then goes back out to the crowds. He just had this moment with Jesus, and Jesus says, you have no power over me.

You have no power over this situation. And Pilate is even more affirmed in his mind, like this man is not committing sedition.

This man is not in rebellion against Rome. I don't even know what

Pilate is thinking besides that, but we see clearly that he goes back outside.

He appeals to the Jews. Now, the crowds are huge, and he says, look at this man, we punished him.

I just went back and questioned him again. There's nothing, none of your accusations are valid.

And so he tries to release him. What he tried to do, we don't know. Did he try to make different compromises, or I'll give you a few more prisoners if we could just release this one too, or whatever.

But they threatened him so very well. This is a forceful and cunning threat of the

Jews. If you release this man, you, Pilate, are no friend of Caesar.

Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar. Now, according to one commentator,

Tiberius Caesar was the emperor at this time, and Tiberius Caesar was often paranoid.

He would think that people around him, people in leadership were gonna be quick to go against him, betray him.

He was a paranoid man, and he would often entertain suspicions about his subordinates without any evidence.

He would entertain it. He would receive the accusations, and he would exact swift punishment.

Actually, according to one historian, on an earlier occasion, these Jewish leaders had already gone to the emperor for something else regarding Pilate, and Pilate was confronted.

He wasn't punished, but these Jews had already done something before because of their displeasure with him, and so Pilate had to think, they might do that again.

They might do that again. If Caesar heard the Jews brought a man to Pilate accused of sedition against Rome, and Pilate did nothing, and worse than that,

Pilate actually let him go, especially when the high court of the priests came to this verdict of guilt.

Then Pilate would be in big trouble. The emperor would be like, you're telling me in the

Jews' court, this man was accused of rebellion. They gave the verdict of the death penalty, but you fought hard to release this man at the end of this?

He would be in big trouble, but isn't that incredible?

The Jews made themselves out to be more of loyalists to the empire, the

Roman empire, than even this Roman governor. This is why

Jesus said, their father is the devil. This is why he said, you guys are slaves to sin.

That these men love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil, and this isn't to pick on Jews.

This is the context. The application is for all mankind.

All mankind is slave to sin. Father of the devil until we're changed and saved.

Let's finish up here, verses 13 through 15. Therefore, when

Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha.

Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover. It was about the sixth hour, and he said to the

Jews, behold your king. So they cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him.

Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king? And the chief priests answered, we have no king but Caesar.

And so Pilate sees no other way out. He gives in, he chooses himself over this man.

As much as maybe you had moments of sympathy and empathy with Pilate just now in this sermon, at the end of the day, he feared man.

He saved himself over Jesus in this moment. And he makes it official.

The judgment seat is brought out, he sits down, he declares it, and what's interesting is

John decides to bring up the Passover at this moment. He brings up the

Passover. This is the time of year in which the spotless lambs were chosen and brought in through the sheep gate into the city where the priests would slaughter them.

And sure enough, the slaughter of the true Passover lamb has been ordered.

And think about it. John the Baptist said earlier, behold the lamb of God.

Pilate said, behold the man. Then he says, behold your king.

And he means one thing, but we know the glory behind these statements.

The Jews yell, away with him, away with him, crucify him. And maintaining his political mocking,

Pilate says, shall I crucify your king? He resorts back, do you see, he resorts back to his mocking.

Shall I crucify your king then? Because he had determined what he was going to do. And they cry, we have no king but Caesar.

In the other gospels, they cry out, let his blood be on us and on our children.

We're responsible for this. And Pilate washes his hands in front of them.

But here they cry, we have no king but Caesar. And for the first time, they're speaking in truth.

You see, in the Old Testament, there were earthly kings. But the ultimate king in the

Old Testament was to be always the Lord God Almighty, Yahweh.

And so in this final statement of the Jews, they reject not only God's Messiah and son, but they reject

God himself. Just as John reported in the prologue in chapter one, he was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him.

He came to his own and those who were his own did not receive him. He came to his own, but they didn't receive him.

We see it here. And so John, decades after this moment right now, writes this gospel, the fourth gospel that we have in our

Bibles. He writes John. And he writes it, I think, even especially to Jews, his

Jewish brethren, in hopes that they would see from chapter one until now that they have committed betrayal against their one true

God. And he wants them to know that Jesus is the true king.

For many, the new covenant will not be their possession, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born this time in the new covenant, not of blood, doesn't matter if you're of Israelite descendants, nor of the will of the flesh.

It's not who's your father. It's not who you came from, where you came from, nor is it of the will of man.

It's not your choice. It says, but of God. He gave them the right to become children of God.

And so as we wrap up, I will repeat Pilate, but in a different way.

Behold your king. See your king, church.

You see, there have been very few benevolent kings throughout the history of the world, and the few who were never did anything like this for his people.

This king became lower than a murdering criminal named Barabbas for you.

He did not keep back any of this punishment for you. It's hard to fathom.

You know, you and I would be shocked at this kind of treatment toward even a criminal. But what makes this so infinitely appalling is that Jesus was so far in the other direction of a criminal to inflict such abuse on one so pure, so holy, so righteous, so good, unthinkable.

The perfectly innocent went through this torture for the truly guilty party, the transgressors, the sinners.

It's all of us. And so behold your king. No one has ever or will ever sacrifice this much for you.

Behold your king. And I suppose that when this life is over, that's our highest desire, right, as Christians?

Because all of this truly happened, because all of this is real, and we're gonna see next week the crucifixion, and that he actually took the wrath that you and I deserve because this is real, and he sits on a throne in heaven now, and he's coming again one day, and those who are in Christ, when they die and they go to be with him because this is all true, one day you and I will behold our king.

It won't be like a man, like Pilate saying, "'Behold your king.'" The angels will shout, and the trumpets will sound, and we'll enter into the halls of heaven, and we'll hear with our own ears and see with our own eyes.

Behold your king. That's the promise. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. We thank you for your word.

God, how many times do we go through this season of Passion Week, of Palm Sunday, Good Friday, the time that Jesus was in the grave, and Resurrection Sunday?

How many times every year, year after year, we're exposed to this.

Year after year, people in this world are exposed to this, Lord. I pray today that we saw it new.

We read this so much, God. Let us never lose the wonder of Jesus's atoning work, of Jesus's suffering.

Let us never not marvel at what he has done here, Lord. God, let us see that he did all that for us in our place, and that believing in him and having faith in his name, that he did this, and he died on the cross, and the wrath that was meant for us was poured out on him, and that he truly did pay for it, and that he rose again on the third day, showing that death and the grave are under his power.

He can grant eternal life, and for that reason, we have it. So, Lord, help us to see this new and fresh.