John 19 (Part 1) :1-30

John 19, and we're going to be going through the first 30 verses of this chapter today. John 19, beginning at verse 1. It goes like this, follow along with me.

We’re going to stop there, pray with me. Father, how do we even begin to approach such an incredible narrative as the one that we have before us that speaks of the greatest gift that we shall ever receive in the sacrifice of your Son, Jesus, for our sins.

He is the lamb, slain from the foundations of the world and Father, we approach this passage with awe and with reverence and pray that you would speak to our hearts as we consider the things that are said here. Be with us we pray we ask it in Jesus name, amen. You'll notice the chapter begins by saying that Pilate ordered Jesus flogged. Many of you know what Roman flogging entailed, so I'm going to spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say, some people didn't live through flogging. They actually died from flogging alone. But according to Luke's account of this situation, the flogging was really an attempt by Pilate to get the Jews to back off from their demands that Jesus be crucified. He thought that if he gave them a little blood and caused Jesus to suffer a little bit, even though Pilate was fully convinced this man was innocent of any charges they brought against him, he wanted to satisfy them with something. This is Pilate, throwing a bone, if you will, to the Jews, and you can see this actually in Luke's account, which we’ll put up on the screen for you. It says,

“You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him. (notice that) Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him. I will therefore punish (him) and release him.” Now I want you to think about that last line that Pilate says there. He says, “therefore I will punish him.” For what? You just got done saying this man was innocent of all of the claims that they'd been making against Him and so he says, therefore I will punish him? Well, you can see what's going on here. He says, I'll punish Him and release Him. In other words, let me give you a little bit of what you want, we'll put Him in the throes of death, how about? I know He's innocent, I think you do too but what we'll do, because you're so jealous and so hateful of this man, we'll draw blood, we'll make Him suffer and perhaps then you'll back away and we'll just release Him and go on our way. And by the way, we're also told in John's account that the flogging wasn't the only thing. Verses 2 and 3 tell us that’s when they took a thorny vine and put it together as a makeshift crown and put it on His head. And then put a purple robe around Him, and purple is the color of royalty, but they're doing it in a mocking way. They said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and (then they) struck him.” So there was physical abuse that the soldiers gave in addition to the flogging. And as we think about the suffering that Jesus endured just to this point, we are reminded of the prophecies in Isaiah that take on a much greater impact. The prophecies of Isaiah, which were laid out for us 700 years before the birth of Christ. 700 years before the birth of Christ, Isaiah wrote these words. Isaiah chapter 50 on the screen,

And then a verse from Isaiah 53, which we'll read in more detail later.

But the flogging we find out here from John did not satisfy the Jewish religious leaders. It says in verse 6, if you look with me in your Bible, “When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him.”” Which they weren't able to do, and they knew it. It was illegal for them to bring capital punishment upon anyone so Pilate doesn't really mean what he's saying. But he's simply saying, “I find no guilt in him.” The Jews came back by saying, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” You might say, well, what's the big deal about claiming to be the Son of God? It doesn't mean He's God. Oh, yes, it does. We've been hoodwinked in our culture to believe that when someone claims to be the Son of God, that means they're a God, but they are not one with the one creator God. And those people who said that to you, if anyone ever did, and that's what, by the way, those people that go out door to door and knock on your door and want to give you magazines and things like that, that's what they will tell you. Oh yeah, Jesus was the Son of God, they will tell you, we believe that, but He wasn't God. That is a virtual impossibility. You cannot be the Son of God without being God, it is impossible. That which is from God is God. We have to rearrange our thinking when we see that and that's why they're bringing Him, that's why they want Him dead. They say it right here, “he has made himself the Son of God.” Elsewhere in John, they actually explain it. They say, you claim to be the Son of God, therefore making yourself equal to God. (John 5:18) The Jews say it, right out, that's what they understood. But somehow, we got that twisted in our mind that it doesn't have to mean that, it absolutely has to mean that. And it says that, “When Pilate (verse 8) heard this statement, he was even more afraid.” This was a very difficult day for Pontius Pilate. I mean, I'm not saying that to justify anything he did or to say, he was actually a good guy. Pilate was a creep and he, as we're going to see here, he actually had some skeletons in his closet that he didn't want anybody going to look for either. But, we're told in another gospel account that it was right about this time that he received a very troubling note from his wife, and it didn't say you forgot to get the bread at the store. Check out Matthew chapter 27, and here's what it says.

Wow! Boy, if there was ever a time to take good advice from your wife, this was it for Pontius Pilate. That's not to say that he's going to do it, but that certainly added to the stress of everything that was going on with him that day. And it was at this point that Pilate took Jesus back inside his headquarters and in verse 9 we're told that he began to question Him. He said, “Where are you from?” And he, and I'm sure he questioned Him about many other things, but

--- we're told that Jesus gave no answer. And that is in keeping with what Isaiah said that, “he opened not his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7) But there was something that Pilate said that demanded a response and that was when he said, don't you realize that I have the authority to either release you or to crucify you? Well, Jesus couldn't let that one go, authority? You think you have authority? And that's when Jesus said, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.” Meaning from heaven or from God and we've been kind of touching on this idea for the last couple of weeks. We've been talking ever since we started the previous chapter about how His hour had come and because His hour had come, He could now be arrested because God allowed it to happen. He could now be taken to be crucified, why? Because His hour had come and God was now allowing this to take place. And we looked last week how Jesus said,

(John 10:18) Who raised Jesus from the dead? He did, He did. You know, it's interesting when you actually look at references to the resurrection, you will find the resurrection credited to all three persons of the Trinity. Did you know that? It'll talk about how the Father raised Him from the dead. It'll talk about how through the power of the Holy Spirit, He was raised from the dead and Jesus Himself declares, I will take it up again, I will do it. So we see the fullness of the Godhead represented in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which of course we'll get to here in our study of John. I want to just, I want to just emphasize here to you again, that Jesus was so aware of the sovereignty of God throughout the course of all of these events that were going on, that He was able to say to Pilate, your authority dude, does not come from Rome, okay. You think it does, but your authority comes from God. It is God, and this is what Paul tells us in Romans chapter 13, when he talks about the authorities that are created among mankind. He says that they are actually established and given authority by God and that's why you and I are exhorted in the Word to obey the governing authorities because the authority has been given by God. And of course that speaks of order and a lawful sort of attitude. As Christians were to be lawful people, we're not to be lawless people. And the only place that we're ever given the freedom to go against the established law is if it specifically violates the Word of God, but that's the only time. ---

But Pilate was told in no uncertain terms, the only reason that you are walking in this authority right now is because it's been given to you from God. And I've shared with you before and I will share with you again, I believe that same dynamic touches the lives of every born again believer. That the things that are allowed into your life are allowed by God. And you might say, well, Pastor Paul, I don't really like to hear that because there've been a lot of things in my life that have not been fun. They've not been good in my estimation and in fact, I struggle a little bit believing that God allowed them because that kind of makes Him out in my mind to be a not very good God. Can I just say to you, that the reason that you and I look at the events of our life and many times find them wanting, and we struggle with any sort of an idea that God may have allowed those things in our life. The reason we struggle is we just don't see the big picture. Over and over and over again you hear people say, if God is good…, it always starts that way. And if God is good, then how could He allow…? Well, you know, I don't have an answer to that question except to say, take off the if first of all. God is good and there's no if about that, but the second part of it is essentially that we see through a mirror dimly, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians. You don't…, listen, it is the height of human arrogance to look at a situation and think you understand it. You don't, and neither do I, and only God does. He sees, He knows, and He is good and there is going to come a day, and Paul tells us this in 1 Corinthians. There is going to come a day when we're not going to see through that mirror dimly any longer. Paul says, we're going to see as we are seen, and we are going to know as we are known.

How does God know you? The Bible says He knows you so intimately so as to know the number of hairs on your head.

That's obviously a symbolic way of saying He knows you completely. Well, Paul says, one day you're going to know as you are known. In other words, you're going to know and understand, you're going to see all things from God's perspective. And not one of you is going to look at what's happened in the timeline of your life and say, yeah, but boy, you really messed up right there and I knew it at the time, too. And I was mad at you, and it took me a long time to get over it, that's not going to happen. You are going to praise God and you are going to thank Him for those speed bumps that came along in your life that caused you to take a deep breath and maybe even wonder for a while, if God really is good. And you're going to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that not only is He good, He has been good to you through your entire life. And the things that you didn't understand at the time, you will come to understand and you will come to know. And that's the kind of perspective that Jesus had. Sitting here as He is being interrogated, being mocked, and beaten, and flogged, and He knows that crucifixion awaits Him and He knows that this is the glorious purpose of God. We're told in verse 12 that, “From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend.” And they followed it up by saying, listen, “Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” I don't know, you think Caesar's going to care that this guy says His kingdom is not of this world just for claiming to be a king. That's enough, and if you let this man go, it will be known far and wide that you are willing to violate Roman law and you're…, and so on and so on and so on. And even though Pilate was convinced of the innocence of Jesus, and he knew that it was because of jealousy that the religious leaders had brought Jesus to this place, he also had a button. And do you know we all have buttons? You know that, right? Some of us have more than others. I've got a lot of buttons and the enemy knows how to push them. The people who are close in my life know how to push them. You hope that if somebody really loves you, they won't. But they're going to learn your buttons and I learned the buttons of other people, right? And Pilate had a button, and it had to do with his life as seen, or his job as seen through the eyes of Tiberius Caesar, who was the emperor at that time of Rome. And what you may not know is that Tiberius Caesar was sick during this very, very time in history and because of his sickness, he lived in a state of constant suspicions that often caused him to be violent and to do violent things. And frankly, Pilate had a lot of skeletons in his closet that he would just assume the authorities didn't come and investigate. And so, rather than to open up some situation where his life and ministry and job is going to be scrutinized by the Roman government, he was willing to capitulate to the Jews because he wanted to stay on Caesar's good side. And that's why it says in verse 13, “So when Pilate heard these words,” what words? Hey, dude, you're no friend of Caesar, if you let this man go. “He brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha.” You know what's interesting about this scene? It says that he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat. The words, judgment seat, in the Greek are the words, Bema. That's kind of interesting. The words, Bema, or the word, the Greek word, Bema literally means a raised place, that's all it means. That's the literal definition and it was used to describe a raised platform where a judge would either sit and view and judge athletic games and the athletes to make sure they operated within the rules. Or a judge who sat on a raised spot to render judgments in a case like this, like a court case or something like that. What Christians often use that word to describe is the judgment of rewards that is coming our way and it's used to differentiate the judgment that believers will receive versus the judgment that unbelievers will receive, which is called the Great White Throne Judgment. We call it that because John saw a great white throne, so we were very creative and we came up with that name. But that speaks of the judgment, which is the rendering of judgments to unbelievers, or in other words, those who have rejected Christ. But this other word, Bema, is used typically to describe the believers judgment. Although it really doesn't mean that, but it's okay, we can go ahead and use it that way. But it's interesting I think, that Jesus is being condemned at the Bema seat of Rome. So anyway, it's here that the Jews make what I think is one of the most telling remarks, or maybe we should say confessions of the entire day and that is what they say at the end of verse 15. Did you see that? They said, “We have no king but Caesar.” These are Jews who have been for many, many years under the theocratic rule of God in Israel. Now that has been interrupted by Rome who has conquered them as a people militarily and essentially forced them to live under a Roman sort of a way of life to some degree. But for the Jews, that shouldn't have changed the simple fact that God is still their King, God can't be unseated. The Jews could be conquered as a people, but their God cannot be conquered. So for what reason should they ever say, “we have no king, but Caesar,” except to get their way in this particular situation. And now, as we go on, verse 17 tells us, “and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called

--- Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.” We know that there was some squabbling over the inscription that Pilate had put on the cross. They didn't want it to say what Pilate had written, so on and so on. If you skip down to verse 23, it tells us that, “When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they” began to divide his garments among them. And we are told that that is, in fact, a direct fulfillment of a statement that is made in Psalm 22, verse 18. And you can look at that later if you want to, Psalm 22. In fact, it says that very thing, they divided my garments among them, cast lots for my clothing. There were people, there were many prophecies fulfilled in the crucifixion of Jesus but we're told that something very beautiful also happened at the cross in verses 25 and following. And that was where all these women are gathered around, they're watching this horror take place and Jesus is there hanging on the cross and He sees His mother and she's standing next to, as it says here, the disciple whom Jesus loved, that was John. So here's John standing next to Mary and Jesus speaks to His mother in a very tender way. But also, rather than referring to her as mother, He says, “Woman, behold, your son!” And that was appropriate because right now, at what He's doing right now, He is doing for her as well as all of mankind and He is doing it as the Son of God, not the child of Mary. And so He says, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to (John) the disciple, “Behold, your mother!”” And we're told that John then took Mary into his home and cared for her from that time on. And you might say, well, why was this necessary? Well, we believe that Joseph had long since passed. It's believed that Joseph was some number of years older than Mary and so he had died by this time and there was no one to take care of her. You might say, well, wait a minute, I thought she had other kids. She did have other kids, but they weren't believers yet. James and Jude, or Jud-as, are going to come to faith, not Judas the betrayer. Jesus had a half-brother named Jude. And James and Jude are both going to come to faith and they're going to realize their half-brother was in fact the Messiah. The Son of the living God who died on the cross for their sins and in fact, they will become leaders. James will become the pastor of the church in Jerusalem and he will write a letter that's in your New Testament by the name of James. And Jude will write a letter that is in your New Testament, and it's called Jude. ---

But at this time, they're not yet believers and so Jesus, as the eldest son, carried out His responsibility as the eldest son to take care of his mother, to make sure that she would be cared for, and He gave her into John's care. I have no doubt about the fact that after James and Jude came to know their brother, came to know Jesus as the Messiah, that they probably took over their family responsibilities. There's nothing in the Bible that says that, but I would be shocked if they didn't. But, at this time, it was important for Jesus to do just this. Verse 28 says, “After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished,” Jesus spoke a word saying, I thirst once again to fulfill the scripture. A jar of sour wine was dipped in a sponge and raised to His lips on a hyssop branch and it says that when He had taken the drink, we're in verse 30 here, He made a declaration, and I believe this was a cry of victory. He said, “It is finished,” and it was then and then, only then, that “He bowed His head and gave up His Spirit.” You understand, He gave up His Spirit. He dismissed His Spirit. In other words, He was in control of when He would die. He excused His Spirit, it's like, somebody would say to you, you're excused, you can go now. He said that to His Spirit, you can go now, why? Because it was finished and I think most of you know what those words mean. We've said it many, many times, I've shared it from this pulpit many times. This was a common Greek phrase that was used in the marketplace to describe a transaction that was now completed because the person who was making the purchase had paid the full purchase price. And so they would write on a receipt, paid in full. It is finished, it's done and that's what Jesus said. He said, paid in full, paid in full. Now I want you to think about the implications of that statement brothers and sisters in Jesus. Think about what it means when Jesus said, paid in full. Now I'm going to ask you a question, what is left for you to pay in order to be saved and go to heaven? Nothing, why? Because it was paid in full. Yeah, but pastor… I got…, I was telling Sue just this morning I was reading through some questions that we're going to be doing in our next Q&A here the end of November. A letter, a note comes in, “pastor Paul, if we don't pray for people who are lost and they end up going to hell, will we be able to go to heaven?” Can I just tell you how common questions like that are? They break my heart, but they're common as the day is long. And the reason they're so common is because people don't understand the implications of it is finished, it's done. There is nothing else left to do. There are some Christians who believe that Jesus even descended into hell and suffered there additionally after the cross. People, He said, it is finished, paid in full. There was nothing more to do for Him or for you. All you need to do is receive what Jesus did on the cross. I quoted a passage, a short passage from Isaiah chapter 53 earlier. But what I like to do often when we're going through a study of the crucifixion of Jesus, I like to read the whole chapter. It's not all that long and I'm going to do that, we're going to look at it together. Because once again, I want to remind you, Isaiah chapter 53 was written 700 years before Christ was even born, but it speaks so powerfully. It's one of the passages, that speaks so powerfully of foretelling what Jesus did for you and me on the cross. So here we go. Isaiah 53, it says,

---

Let's stand together. Father, I pray this morning for anyone here today, who is not completely confident of their relationship with you, their eternal relationship with you, that in the quiet of their heart right now, right where they are, they would say, Lord Jesus, I thank you for saving me from my sin and I receive you now as my Savior and my King. And Father, I pray in the name of Jesus that you would fill that person with your Holy Spirit and speak to them, Lord, of the love and the passion that you have for them and that you would give them the strength to walk with you, to live for you all the days of their life. I thank you and praise you, we worship you, Lord God who has given us life. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray and all God's people said together, amen. God bless you. If you need prayer, come on up. God bless. ---