John 19 Jimmy Draper

At a convention, the president of a church makes a statement about divorce and the importance of accepting the outcome of votes. The speaker discusses the significance of the last week of Jesus' life and the struggles of Pilate. Pilate finds Jesus innocent but is afraid of the consequences of releasing him. Jesus is mocked, beaten, and crucified, but still shows love and forgiveness. The speaker emphasizes the importance of the cross and the sacrifice Jesus made for our salvation. Through the cross, we are justified and cleansed of all guilt. That's very good. And it was a good convention. Bart Barber, our president, is at First Baptist Church Farmersville and did an excellent job guiding us through. His message to the convention on Tuesday morning was excellent, kind of set the stage. And I thought he did a really interesting thing. Just before they reported on how the votes went on the churches that were asking to be instated, he made a statement, he said, I just want to make a statement. He said, we have divorced people in our church, but we don't celebrate divorce. His point was, we're not going to have any celebration about whichever way the votes go. We're going to accept it and grieve a little and praise a little, but we'll do it to ourselves. So there was not a word of any kind, no cheering or booing or anything else when the vote was announced. So it was very, very good. Now, I am in a quandary today. I'm an expository preacher. I can't do a chapter at a time. My way is two or three, four verses at a time. I preached for over two years through 1 Corinthians. Took me 43 weeks to get through Hebrews. And now we come to the cross and we've got all these verses. I don't know that we're going to get through all of this today. So I just want you to know that I'm somewhat shackled a little bit this morning. There are 89 chapters in the four Gospels and 26 of them deal with this last week. Five chapters in John deal with one night. Now just think about that. So these are very important chapters. And since the Gospels made such a big deal out of this last week, we ought to also. So we'll talk about that as we go. It's a dramatic chapter. A lot is going on. Pilate is struggling greatly. Pilate three times in this chapter says, I find no reason for him. He's an innocent man. I find no way to accuse him of anything. The Jews, knowing that, then switched their complaint and accused Jesus of blasphemy. Pilate was not going to convict him or present him in any way as a violation of Roman law. But with the Jews, they switched it to blasphemy and then it became a theological issue and put Pilate in quite a quandary. There's no doubt that Pilate thought he was innocent. He said so three times. So there's no doubt about that. His struggle was, what's he going to do with him? Over the cross, he wrote a sign that said, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. We'll look briefly at that in a moment. Pharisees and chief priests and all those Jewish leaders didn't like that. So they said, why don't you say, he said he was King of the Jews. And Pilate, who put it up there in the first place because he knew their charges were trumped up against Jesus, said he wouldn't budge. He said, I have what I've written, I have written. So he refused to change it. He actually put it up there to taunt the Jews. He thought they were not doing the right thing. But he was caught in a fix. Toward the middle of this chapter, when he says, behold your king, they said, we have no king but Caesar, the Jews did. Now then, he's got a real quandary for two reasons. One is, a riot was about to break out, and Rome would never tolerate that. And if Caesar ever found out he had released a man who claimed to be the King of the Jews, his job, Pilate's job, would be history. And even his wife sent him a note telling him that he should have nothing to do with this just man. She'd suffered things about him from a dream she'd had. So he's in a mess. His wife's telling him one thing, crowds telling him something else. He thinks Jesus is innocent, but he's afraid of what Caesar might do. And so it's a real quandary. This chapter shows all the ambivalence that Pilate had. He started out by trying to give the crowd someone else. They had a custom. They'd release one person every year at this time. So he thought, well, here's Barabbas, who's a scoundrel, surely they'll take him instead of Jesus. So he said, presenting Barabbas, and which one do you want, Barabbas or Jesus? And they wanted to release Barabbas. So that just about was his last card that he could play. And his problem was that he was trying to release Jesus without offending anybody. And let's be honest about it. There is no neutral ground with Jesus. You either for him or you're against him. You either accept him or you reject him. There's no middle ground in this. So Pilate was trying to do something that is impossible. Now in the first three verses, we meet the soldiers who are dealing with Jesus. It says, Pilate took Jesus, had him flogged, scourged. Soldiers also twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on his head, clothed him with a purple robe. They kept coming up to him and saying, Hail, King of the Jews. They were slapping him in the face, striking him in the face. So it's an ugly scene. Now John doesn't tell us how many soldiers there were. But we know that Mark and Matthew suggest that there was a whole company. Now if that's true, it would have been about 600 soldiers. So it was kind of a mob scene to begin with, unruly, misbehaving, punishing Jesus. And the scourging itself was the worst form of pain that you could possibly inflict someone with. The Roman scourge was a strong leather thongs attached to an ivory handle with pieces of metal and bone tied to the ends of it. And prisoners were often beaten beyond recognition. Some of them died from the scourging itself. And it's likely that Jesus was scourged more severely than the average person because Pilate was trying to get to the point where the Jews would give up and let him release him. It didn't work. The Jews wanted more blood. They wanted Jesus dead. That was their intent. And so we have that picture here of this flogging. And then the crown of thorns. The crown of thorns was likely the long spike-like thorns from the date palm tree. Now they were so sharp, if you would take a thick plastic down and try to stick one of those thorns through it, it would pierce through the plastic today. That's how strong and severe they really were. And they were pushed into his head until the blood ran down beneath the thorns. And we see the awful consequences of Adam's sin and the great pain that was laid upon Jesus. Since Jesus was providing redemption from sin, the absolutely depths of that sin and its hideous ugliness and extreme pain had to be seen. There was no justice in this. Jesus felt every blow, every curse, every pain, the vast suffering that should have been placed upon us. We need to come to this chapter and dwell on it because this is all about us. It's about God Himself becoming man, taking on Himself suffering that belongs to us so that we could be saved. Don't ever get casual about your faith. This is why we're saved, because Jesus paid the penalty as our substitute. The soldiers thought He was an illegitimate imposter, a false prophet. The purple or dark red robe that was put on Jesus was probably an old rug or cloak of some kind that one of the soldiers found and flung it around Jesus. And it was a caricature of the prominent cloak that an emperor would wear, but instead of paying homage to Jesus like they would to Caesar, sometimes they would give the kiss of loyalty to Caesar. They completely mocked Jesus, beat Him in the face, mocked Him as they called Him King of the Jews, and they ridiculed Him, held Him in contempt. In the ultimate attack, after discouraging, they nailed Him to a cross. Between two thieves, He was nailed to a cross. Verses 4 and 5, as He presented Jesus, Paul said, Look, I'm bringing Him out to you and let you know I find no charges, no grounds for charging Him. That was the second time that he made that statement. That ought to be enough. You'd expect him to say, Case closed, prisoner dismissed. He didn't do that. Even though he was convinced of Jesus' innocence, he mentioned three times that he found no charge against Him. This is really remarkable. A godless pagan examined Jesus and found Him having no fault, no guilt. Now you'd expect that from His disciples. You'd expect that from one of the 5,000 that He fed. But this is from the man who is going to release Him to be crucified. He found Him innocent, as did everyone that ever spoke concerning Him who opposed Him. Judas, after he betrayed Him, came back in deep remorse and threw the 30 pieces of silver at the feet of the Jewish leaders and said, I have betrayed innocent blood. The centurion who was there to participate in the crucifixion, when he died, said, Surely this was the Son of God. We just need to know that this was Jesus Christ dying for us. God declared Him innocent of any crime, but the Jews wanted blood. They said crucify Him. He was afraid that riots would break out and Rome would never tolerate riots in any of its colonies. And so, naturally, it scared Pilate to death. Beginning in verse 8-11, the term regarding Jesus is brought up, the Son of God. Now Pilate is genuinely afraid. It disturbed him greatly. Now, it might not have concerned the Jews, but for a superstitious Roman, that made a radical difference. The fact that Jesus might in some way be a divine man really distressed him. Oh, and I'm thinking it's about that time the note came from his wife. Matthew 27-19 says his wife sent him a note saying he should not have anything to do with that righteous man. That was another agitation for Pilate. Oh, and Jesus aggravated him even more because at first he refused to talk to him. He's asking Jesus all these questions and Jesus won't answer him. When Jesus finally answers him, he says, Look, if God hadn't given me over to you, you wouldn't have any authority at all. But when he did speak, he did not speak kindly of Pilate. Verse 12 tells us that from that point on, Pilate tried every possible way to release Jesus Christ. But the coup d'etat for the Jews, they shouted, If you release this man who claims to be the king of the Jews, you are no friend of Caesar. Wow. Now his very position is compromised. If word ever got back to Caesar that he had let go of someone who claimed to be the king of the Jews, Pilate's job would be absolutely over, be the end of his career. So he brought him out before the people and says he sat down at the judgment seat where official decisions were made. And so he had failed to release Jesus, but he felt he could no longer oppose the Jews With intentional sarcasm, Pilate said, Here is your king. And their reply, We have no king but Caesar. With that, John just simply says Pilate turned him over to be crucified. Now Jesus knew that his ultimate purpose was to die on the cross. It seemed like it was a defeat for him, but it really was the ultimate victory over Satan because by his death on the cross, man's redemption would be completed. And now, now we stand at the cross. We're standing in this chapter at the Holy of Holies of the New Testament. Who of us is worthy to speak of it? Who of us are worthy to look at it? One author has said, This is where two eternities meet. The streams of ancient history converge here and the rivers of modern history begin. The eyes of the patriarchs and prophets strain forward to Calvary. Now the eyes of all generations look back to it. We're standing in the most sacred place we could possibly stand. Oh, but we've gotten used to it. It's not new news to us. When Jesus was crucified, that was a sign of punishment and a sign of evil. But when he died upon that cross, he made it a sign of blessing and an instrument of salvation. So we glibly wear our crosses around our necks or in other places on our belt buckles. Now I guess the earrings for men are women. We just glibly wear that and I find it interesting. I've gotten to where when I'm watching some event, like one of the events surrounding activities by the news and all of this, I'm always interested to see who is wearing a cross. It's become jewelry, something that we adorn. But this is the most sacred place that we could be. I mean, if this didn't happen, we'd have no salvation. We could never get casual about that. We could never forget about that. And what Jesus went through, in verse 16, Pilate handed him over to be crucified. They didn't waste any time. They started right away taking him to the cross. Now, all the Gospels that report this say that he started out carrying his own cross. But somewhere along the line, somewhere along the line, he apparently stumbled and fell. And the Scripture says they compelled Simon of Cyrene to carry his cross the rest of the way. Just think about that, what I just said. They compelled Simon of Cyrene. Nobody else was willing to do it. They had to make somebody do it. None of his disciples, none of his friends, no one stood by his side and said, I'll carry it. They had to bring in someone who was a stranger. We know very little about him, only his name, that he's from Cyrene. And they made him, they forced him to carry the cross. No compassion for Jesus. Think about this, no compassion for Jesus at all. The Scripture describes Simon Peter's betrayal as well as Jesus. But there's a simple little verse in the Gospels concerning disciples that said they all forsook him and fled. They all left him. Nobody offered to pick up the cross. This is Jesus, Son of God, bearing the reproach of one who knew no sin becoming sin according to 1 Peter 2. He literally became what he had no point of reference to. He paid the price that he didn't owe. He experienced suffering that didn't belong on him. It belonged on us. And we must never forget that. Let's never make light of the fact that by his death on the cross we are saved. It was a terrible injustice. He was rushed to the mockery of trials six times in a night when it was illegal to have trials at night. It was all a shotgun type of situation. He was battered and bruised and mocked, nailed to a cross. God wanted us to know that that's what we deserved. So don't get cocky about it. Jesus didn't deserve this. This is the holiest place in the Bible where the Son of God, who is God, became sin so that we could become the righteousness of God. And he paid the price, every bit of the price for us. They crucified him between two thieves. That's interesting. What's really interesting is that in all the suffering Jesus had, he was beaten beyond recognition. Unrecognizable. They nailed him to a cross. But he still loved hard enough and deep enough to promise a believing thief on the cross to take him with him to paradise. The love of God that is demonstrated here is beyond anything we can possibly imagine. It is incredible that Jesus had such passion to reach that thief on the cross. Oh, and he also prayed, Father, forgive them, speaking of all a part of the crucifixion, because they don't understand, they don't know what they're doing. It's a bad moment, it seems, and yet it's a glorious time because this chapter reveals the depths not only of human depravity, brutality, evil, but the depths of the love of God in spite of all of that. I tell preachers this, and I'll tell you. I say to my fellow preachers, God doesn't use any of us because of us. It's always in spite of us. I say to you, God doesn't save any of us because of us. It's always in spite of us. This is what he did. And remarkable. This is the end of all roads. Our sinful, weary hearts find peace and love and life at the cross. The amazing love of God, even in the midst of brutal anguish on the cross, Jesus still loved them. He forgave those who spat upon him and mocked him and beat him and drove nails into his hand and feet. This is beyond understanding for us. This is the holiest place we could possibly stand. Crucifixion itself is the cruelest form of execution. It's the most lingering, the most shameful, the most agonizing method of execution. Until he hung on the cross, it was a symbol of slavery and brutal evil, but he changed it into a symbol of self-sacrifice and Savior. Oh, and while this was taking place, verse 23 tells us the soldiers were gambling for his seamless robe. Totally disinterested. Imagine this. Here's a man dying there at the foot of the cross gambling to see who's going to get his clothing. Total disinterested in what is taking place. And John does not record this. The other three Gospels do. But as Jesus hung slowly dying, mocked by onlookers and those who passed by, God cast a blanket of darkness over the entire land. That darkness signaled the time when the sins of all the people who had ever lived and ever would live were laid upon the shoulders of God's only Son, and the world was darkened. Three hours. John doesn't mention it. May well be because he had access at least to one of those Gospels when he wrote this. But the three hours of darkness. Darkness reigned at midday. And Scripture says that the veil of the temple was torn from the top to the bottom as if God in His hand, in His fingers, started and cut that curtain, not from the bottom up, from the top down. And the reason was that now then, the avenue to God was open to everybody. No more cross is going to be needed. No more sacrifice. No more sacrifice of animals. There will be no in-between us and God. We can go to God for ourselves. We don't need a priesthood anymore. We are our own priests in Jesus Christ. Priestshood of the believer. We all have access to God. That's what was happening. The ultimate sacrifice had been made once for all. The innocent blood of Jesus Christ was sufficient to cover the sins of all people and establish Himself as the sole mediator between man and God. Oh, and I keep coming back to this, but I don't want you to forget it. Three Persons. One God. When the Holy Spirit speaks of God, He's talking about God. When He speaks of the Holy Spirit, He's talking about God. When He speaks of Jesus, He's talking about God. So, the Holy Spirit doesn't have something God doesn't have. The Holy Spirit is God. And by the way, I'm going to be very egotistical. I just finished my book on the trail of the Holy Spirit from Pentecost to today in the growth of the church. And I will meet with the publisher tomorrow for us to go over the final draft. And it's been a fascinating study. Every historian that had any sense of objectivity about Him throughout all the history of Christianity continues to mention the role of the inner dynamic, the Spirit or the Holy Spirit played. And you can find it historically. And I look forward to you reading those pages. Which, by the way, unless I go broke, I'm going to give you a copy of it when it does come out here. And it will be out before September. So, anyway. But the Holy Spirit is important because He is God Himself. And through the cross now, God justified those who received Christ. Now, to justify means to remove guilt. But it means more than that. Has to mean more than that. Sin must be put away, for we're not only forgiven, we're cleansed. Now, follow me a moment. A guilty man may be forgiven or even pardoned, but that does not erase his guilt. He's still guilty. But when we're justified, as some like to say, it means just as if I'd never sinned. Christ made it possible not only for us to be forgiven, but to be cleansed. Think about that. When God looks at you, He sees Jesus. None of you are good. Not any of us are worth it. But He is in us, and He not only has forgiven us, He's removed our guilt. That's not possible humanly. Now, you can be pardoned, but you can't be free of the guilt. We just can't do that, but God can. And so here we are, guilty as hell, and we're forgiven and we're cleansed through what happened on Calvary. In Christ, we're so clean that there's no spot, no blemish, no shame on our record or our hearts. In Christ, we're forgiven, justified, and made pure. To receive the finished work of Christ on the cross means to be so cleansed that no trace of guilt remains in us. To be justified means that if we had not ever committed a sin at all. He did it because He stood where we should have stood. He did it for us. He created a value that He didn't need Himself. It was for us that He bore our sins in His body on the cross. So then, as Peter said, we might die to sin and live to righteousness, for by His wounds you were healed. Now, if you were healed of your sins, then they're no longer there. You're no longer guilty of those sins. Only God can do that. Now, we see here at the cross when we come to verse 25-27, right in there, we see both the human and the divine side of Jesus. Remember, Jesus is fully God, but He's fully man. Now, I don't understand that. But I know that Hebrews says we have a great Savior who was tempted in all manners like we're tempted. But He was fully human, never sinned, fully God, never made a mistake. So He's dying. Now, think of all He's been through. He looks down and there's His mother. So He says, Mary, behold your son. Pointed at John. He looked over at John and said, John, behold your mother. Taking care of mother. Why did He do that? Well, several reasons. One is He knew John would do it. He knew John would take the place. But in His human self, He wanted to make sure His mother was taken care of before He died. But we see His divinity. And that He was offered, according to Matthew 27-34, a mixture of gall and vinegar. And He refused it. Now, I know you're not as curious as Jack and I are, but why did He refuse it? Well, I'm going to tell you. Gall and vinegar was given to alleviate pain and suffering. And Jesus wanted nothing of that. He received nothing to lessen His pain. His suffering was the complete sacrifice for our sins. His mind was clear. His memory was sharp until the last moment when He delivered His spirit back to God. Now in verse 30, He did receive the vinegar that came. Well, there are several reasons for that. One is that was prophesied in Psalm 69-21. So it was a fulfillment of prophecy. But He was given vinegar to drink, and it was at the moment of His death, not in the midst of His suffering. You see, the cross not only reveals the awful suffering of Christ, but also the extent of human depravity and degradation in the cross of Christ. We see sin revealed in the densest, darkest moment. And yet at that moment, grace breaks through with great brilliance. A death struggle is taking place in the darkness between love and sin. And that's what's taking place on the cross. Well, we actually come back to where we began. We cannot leave this picture like it is because He's not through yet. But in verse 30, He issues that cry, It is finished. It is finished. You know the word. You know it even though you don't know Greek. But it's the word tetelestai. You hear a preacher talk about it at Easter time or any time? Tetelestai. It's an economic term. It means it's paid in full. On the cross, Jesus signed the deed for our souls, for our salvation. It was finished. He didn't die accidentally. He didn't die because of the brutality. He died because His task was finished. What He had come to do was to magnify the Father and to reveal His love and His grace and to build a foundation upon which the salvation of mankind could be saved. He had done that. He said, It is finished. It is finished. And my page is upside down. What a terrible time for that to come. He signed with His blood the deed to eternal life. My dad used to say, He said, I imagine that as Jesus hung on that cross, angels looked down from heaven breathless because they knew that if He didn't die on that cross, there'd be no salvation. And I have an idea that Daddy used to say that the cry, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It must have brought showers of tears from weeping angels. Imagine it. Forsaken by God. Now, this is not a dying moan. He's not whispering to somebody's ear. Tell us, it is finished. And one commentator put it like this. On the cross, two eternities met. Jesus reached out with one hand and took all the sins from Adam to Calvary. With the other hand, He reached to the end of the ages and took all the future sins of mankind, nailing them to His cross. Therefore, it is no longer the sin question, but the son question. S-O-N. As Matthew 22 tells us, What do you think of Christ? Whose son to see? Well, we're going to end up here quickly. But verses 31 to 37 give the scene. The sun's coming down and the Sabbath is about to begin. They could not leave dead bodies on the cross during the Sabbath. So they had to be taken down. And so the soldiers came back to break the legs of those on the cross because that would hasten their death. Without strength in your legs, you could not push up to take a breath. So they would die much quicker if their legs were broken. But this passage tells us when they came to Jesus, He was already dead. He didn't need to break His leg. Fulfilling the prophecy, by the way, of Psalm 3420, that His bones would never be broken. And in Exodus 12.46, I found this was interesting. Exodus 12.46, in describing the Passover lamb, said that you could not break any of the bones of the Passover lamb. Jesus is our Passover lamb. It would not be appropriate for His legs to be broken. And to fulfill Scripture, Jesus perfectly fulfilled that description. Oh, and there's one other. In verse 37, Zechariah 12.10 had prophesied that they would look on Him whom they had pierced. And when the soldier thrust the spear in the side of Jesus, and blood and water came out, that Scripture was prophesied and fulfilled. Oh, we've got to meet Joseph of Arimathea. The last verses of the chapter talk about Joseph. He'd been a secret disciple apparently, but he is a great illustration of the transformation that Jesus makes. Because this man who had been a secret disciple, now then, marched right into Pilate and asked for privilege of burying Him. Oh, and that wasn't a simple request. Roman law said that no one who died on a cross could ever be put in a sepulcher. But Joseph asked that he could bury Him. And Jesus was placed in a sepulcher against Roman law. But Joseph of Arimathea. Now, we don't know much about Joseph. In fact, we know very little. The only time he's ever mentioned is here in Scripture. So we know nothing about him. But God's sovereignty is seen when this man came to ask permission to place the body of Jesus in a sepulcher. Pilate said yes. Now Jesus' body lies in the tomb. It has to be a surreal time for the disciples. The cross seemed all too real, and the resurrection was only a hope for what might be. On that day, 100% God-man was dead. But 100% God-divine was very much alive. And He was not just lying in the tomb waiting for Sunday. Now, various ideas about what He was doing. There are Scriptures on that. We won't get into that. But His disciples were frightened severely and hiding behind locked doors in fear of their lives. This was the Passover Sabbath, and they should have been worshiping in the temple and rejoicing in the deliverance of God's people. Yet here they were hiding by grief and fear instead of sharing in joyful worship. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, Mark 61, says they were waiting for Sunday so they could take spices and ointment needed to prepare the body of Christ. John 19.39 describes Nicodemus bringing 100 pounds of mixture of myrrh and aloes to the tomb. Scripture tells us, however, that Jesus' body had already been anointed in advance of the burial, Mark 14.8. Isn't God smart? God knew in His ultimate plan that there would not be time from the death of Jesus to anoint the body of Jesus in a traditional way because they would be taken down and be buried too quickly. So He had the body of Jesus anointed ahead of time so they didn't need the extra time. Now, let me say a word to us. We like to skip this chapter emotionally. We like to go from He died to He's alive, He's risen. We want to rush through Saturday. We must not. The disciples needed time. They needed time to grieve. They needed time to try to understand the great weight of Jesus' death. It's too soon to celebrate the resurrection. We need to be reminded ourselves and understand the depth of what Jesus Christ did on that cross. We must not rush this day. The Lamb was slain. Hope seemed to be lost. But re-remember, Jesus talked about waiting three days and He would be resurrected. So here we stand, and like the disciples, we wait to let it sink in on us. The joyful songs we sang with enthusiasm came at a terrible price that we often don't think about. So dwell on this scene. The man Jesus is dead. The God-man Jesus is alive. His disciples have forsook Him, hiding in their own shadows somewhere in an apartment or house of some kind in Jerusalem. No one would even carry His cross. He's totally forsaken. Even God has forsaken Him. Here we stand. Let that soak in. And so we wait. Father, thank You that we do not stand without hope. We do not stand with false presumptions. We know that our Lord is alive, but let us never forget what took Him to get to the resurrection. He died for us. Everything we can understand and even imagine that happened to Him should have happened to us. So Lord, don't let us get carried away with our so-called importance or our own way or what we like, what we don't like. Let us never get away from the fact that every privilege we have in Christ came at the price of what we read in John 19. And we don't wait for the resurrection. But Father, You planted the Holy Spirit in us, and He is now our guide into all truth. As we wait for His return, may we relish and celebrate His presence in our lives, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you.