Sermon Notes (11.7.21)
John 19:1-42
The Lead Up to the Cross
John 19:1-16
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers also twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and clothed him in a purple robe. 3 And they kept coming up to him and saying, “Hail, king of the Jews! ” and were slapping his face. 4 Pilate went outside again and said to them, “Look, I’m bringing him out to you to let you know I find no grounds for charging him.” 5 Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man! ” 6 When the chief priests and the temple servants saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify! ” Pilate responded, “Take him and crucify him yourselves, since I find no grounds for charging him.” 7 “We have a law,” the Jews replied to him, “and according to that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.”
8 When Pilate heard this statement, he was more afraid than ever. 9 He went back into the headquarters and asked Jesus, “Where are you from? ” But Jesus did not give him an answer. 10 So Pilate said to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Don’t you know that I have the authority to release you and the authority to crucify you? ” 11 “You would have no authority over me at all,” Jesus answered him,“if it hadn’t been given you from above. This is why the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.”
12 From that moment Pilate kept trying to release him. But the Jews shouted, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Anyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar! ” 13 When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside. He sat down on the judge’s seat in a place called the Stone Pavement (but in Aramaic, ‘Gabbatha’). 14 It was the preparation day for the Passover, and it was about noon. Then he told the Jews, “Here is your king! ” 15 They shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him! ”Pilate said to them, “Should I crucify your king? ” “We have no king but Caesar! ” the chief priests answered. 16 Then he handed him over to be crucified.
PROVISION, NOT PAIN, IS THE POINT
Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him…“Here is the man!”
YOUR VOICE IS PRESENT
“Crucify him, crucify him!”
AUTHORITY IS GIVEN
“You would have no authority over me at all if it hadn’t been given you from above.”
IDOLATRY KILLS
“We have no king but Caesar!”
Jesus on the Cross
John 19:16-37
Then they took Jesus away. 17 Carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called Place of the Skull, which in Aramaic is called ‘Golgotha’. 18 There they crucified him and two others with him, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle. 19 Pilate also had a sign made and put on the cross. It said: Jesus of Nazareth, the K ing of the Jews. 20 Many of the Jews read this sign, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. 21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The king of the Jews,’ but that he said, ‘I am the king of the Jews.’ ” 22 Pilate replied, “What I have written, I have written.”
23 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, a part for each soldier. They also took the tunic, which was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. 24 So they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it, to see who gets it.” This happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled that says: They divided my clothes among themselves, and they cast lots for my clothing. This is what the soldiers did.
JESUS’S PROVISION FOR HIS MOTHER
25 Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there, he said to his mother,“Woman, here is your son.” 27 Then he said to the disciple,“Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
THE FINISHED WORK OF JESUS
28 After this, when Jesus knew that everything was now finished that the Scripture might be fulfilled, he said,“I’m thirsty.” 29 A jar full of sour wine was sitting there; so they fixed a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it up to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said,“It is finished.” Then bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.
JESUS’S SIDE PIERCED
31 Since it was the preparation day, the Jews did not want the bodies to remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a special day). They requested that Pilate have the men’s legs broken and that their bodies be taken away. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other one who had been crucified with him. 33 When they came to Jesus, they did not break his legs since they saw that he was already dead. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out. 35 He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows he is telling the truth. 36 For these things happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: Not one of his bones will be broken. 37 Also, another Scripture says: They will look at the one they pierced.
THE CROSS IS THE CORONATION
Pilate also had a sign made and put on the cross. It said: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.
EVERYTHING IS ACCORDING TO PLAN
They divided my clothes…they cast lots for my clothing.
Psalm 22:16-18 – For dogs have surrounded me; a gang of evildoers has closed in on me; they pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; people look and stare at me. They divided my garments among themselves, and they cast lots for my clothing.’
YOU ARE ALWAYS SEEN & KNOWN BY JESUS
“Here is your mother.”
We all are born into the world looking for someone looking for us… – Curt Thompson
THE CROSS IS THE DECLARATION OF VICTORY
Accomplished. Fulfilled. Finished.
Psalm 22:15 – My strength is dried up like baked clay; my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You put me into the dust of death.
Psalm 22:27-28 – All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord. All the families of the nations will bow down before you, for kingship belongs to the Lord; he rules the nations.
Psalm 22:31 – They will come and declare his righteousness; to a people yet to be born they will declare what he has done.
Couldn’t Jesus just forgive us?
Forgiveness means refusing to make them pay for what they did. However, to refrain from lashing out at someone when you want to do so with all your being is agony. It is a form of suffering. You not only suffer the original loss of happiness, reputation, and opportunity, but now you forgo the consolation of inflicting the same on them. You are absorbing the debt, taking the cost of it completely on yourself instead of taking it out of the other person. It hurts terribly. Many people would say it feels like a kind of death. – Tim Keller, The Reason for God
Understanding your debt determines your devotion.
THE PROPHECIES ARE PERSONAL
He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe.
Exodus 12:46 – It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones.
Zechariah 12:10 – “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
Zechariah 13:1 – “On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.”
Most ailments need particular antidotes. Increasing the air pressure in your tires will not fix a troubled carburetor. Aspirin will not dissolve a tumor. Cutting up credit cards will not wipe out debt that is already owed. If your water pipes are leaking, you call a plumber, not an oncologist, but a plumber will not cure cancer. Any adequate solution must solve the problem that needs to be solved, and singular problems need singular solutions. Some antidotes are one-of-kind cures for one-of-a-kind ailments. Sometimes only one medicine will do the job, as much as we may like it to be otherwise. Mankind faces a singular problem. People are broken and the world is broken because our friendship with God has been broken, ruined by human rebellion. Humans, you and I—are guilty, enslaved, lost, dead. All of us. Everyone. Everywhere. The guilt must be punished, the debt must be paid, the slave must be purchased. Promising better conduct in the future will not mend the crimes of the past. No, a rescuer must ransom the slaves, a kindred brother must pay the family debt, a substitute must shoulder the guilt. There is no other way of escape. – Gregory Koukl, The Story of Reality
Will you believe?
Down from the Cross
John 19:38-42
JESUS’S BURIAL
38 After this, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus — but secretly because of his fear of the Jews — asked Pilate that he might remove Jesus’s body. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and took his body away. 39 Nicodemus (who had previously come to him at night) also came, bringing a mixture of about seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloes. 40 They took Jesus’s body and wrapped it in linen cloths with the fragrant spices, according to the burial custom of the Jews. 41 There was a garden in the place where he was crucified. A new tomb was in the garden; no one had yet been placed in it. 42 They placed Jesus there because of the Jewish day of preparation and since the tomb was nearby. (CSB)
NEW CREATION IS COMING
A new tomb was in the garden…
HOW WILL YOU RESPOND?
Repent.
Remember.
Rejoice.
A Prayer for Salvation
“Heavenly Father, I admit that I am weaker and more sinful than I ever before believed, but through your Son Jesus I can be more loved and accepted than I ever dared hope. I thank you that he lived the life I should have lived and paid the debt and punishment I owed. Receive me now for his sake. I turn from my sins and receive him as Savior. Amen.”