There have been numerous cases
throughout history where individuals were executed and later found
out to have been likely innocent. And these injustices were later
proven by modern forensic analysis. You've seen what they can do
today through science, including DNA testing. which has uncovered
many wrongful convictions of those that were executed because
of their conviction. But there's never, and I say
never, been a case of worldly injustice that proved God's heavenly
divine justice more than the wrongful and yet at the same
time necessary death of the Lord Jesus Christ to save his people
from their sin. This world with its fallible
judges are incapable of executing faultless and flawless justice. But the infallible judge of heaven
and earth killed his own perfect son that His fallen, ungodly,
yet chosen people might be made perfect and given life. And God
is God. I say that deliberately. God
being God cannot, and I repeat, cannot, spare the guilty apart
from His own divine justice and still remain God. It's impossible. If God just ignores sin, then
He's not God, He's not just. But God doesn't. He can by no
means clear the guilty. Sin must be punished. You hear
that all the time. It's true. Sin must be punished. So God being just must justly
put sin away and the death of a perfect substitute, that being
the Lord Jesus Christ, is the only, the only way. Christ is the way. You know, we say that. I see
it on posters at the YMCA. It's the post on Christ is the
way. That means he's the only way.
He is the truth. Jesus Christ is the only truth. And He is the life, the only
life. And no man, no woman, nobody
comes to the Father, but by Him. That'd be a good title for a
message. May preach that soon. But by Him. It's the only way. To Thomas,
that's what the Lord said. I'm the way, the truth, and the
life, and no man comes to the Father but by me. Therefore, in Christ's suffering,
now I want you to pay close attention to what I'm telling you today.
In Christ's suffering and crucifixion, we clearly see a few things. First, we see the depravity of
man. Our sin is so horrific that God
himself had to die to put it away. Secondly, we see, along
with our depravity, the unmatched humility of the Lord Jesus Christ. He laid down His life. He voluntarily
gave His life for the sins of His people. But we also see the
divine justice of God Almighty in the saving of chosen sinners. A worldly injustice was executed
when the Lord Jesus was crucified. But holy and divine justice was
satisfied when He was. And therefore, the innocent was
condemned and the guilty was set free. Now I want us to consider
two different passages this morning on a message that I have titled,
Behold Your King. Behold your King. So first turn with me to John
chapter 9. As a matter of fact, I don't
think, if I remember correctly, I don't think we'll turn anywhere
else. We may, but I also will read and consider the sister
text of this found in Matthew chapter 27. But let's look at
John chapter 19. I'll give you a moment to get
there. John chapter 19, we'll begin
in verse 1. Then Pilate therefore took Jesus
and scourged Him. And the soldiers, the Roman soldiers,
plaited a crown of thorns and put it on His head. And they
put on Him a purple robe. and said, Hail, King of the Jews. And they smote him with their
hands." Now it was here that Christ was mocked as king. But He is king. Actually, He's the king of all
kings. He's the king of kings. Now we're
told that Pallet took the Lord Jesus and scourged him. Now Roman
scourging, flogging, some call it today, was savage. It was brutal and it was, it
was torturous. Many people died from the scourging
alone. The flogging was designed to
weaken the condemned one and add to the suffering of their
execution. Christ was likely whipped with
a Roman flagellum, it's called, which was a sort of whip made
of leather straps. If you've ever been spanked with
a leather belt, it hurts. And these straps were embedded
with either metal balls or sharp bones, pieces of lead, which
tore the flesh and bruised the body deeply. And the goal wasn't
just to hurt the one that was flogged, but to maim and lacerate
the one which was scourged. The physical effects of scourging
was the, and I mean to be graphic, It ripped open the skin and it
exposed the muscle, sometimes even to the bone. And victims
often went into shock or even died from the blood loss and
the trauma of the scourging alone. The Lord Jesus was likely tied
to a post or a pillar of some sort, where he was not able to
flinch or move or to anticipate the flogging, you know, where
you could kind of give with it. He had to take the brunt force
of it straight on. And this was also done publicly. not behind closed doors, often
in front of a crowd that shamed the individual more. And in our
Lord's case, you add the accompaniment of mockery and derision from
the Roman soldiers. Our Lord's visage, according
to the scriptures, His physical appearance is said to have been
so marred, so bloody, so swollen, that He didn't even resemble
a man. More so than any man before Him
or after Him. I know you've seen pictures of
folks that have been in a horrific accident or whatever. They don't
even look like a man, don't have the features of a man. That's
the way our Lord looked. That's how brutal disgorging
was. And mocking him as king, the
soldiers put a thorn of crowns on his head. You ever been just
pricked by a little rose thorn? It hurts, doesn't it? But you
take a whole crown of them and pushed and shoved down onto your
head. And then to add insult to injury,
they placed a purple robe standing for royalty around him and they
mocked him and they said, Hail, King of the Jews. But he was
a king. He was a king of kings. Matthew's
account says that they stripped Him before putting on this scarlet
robe, which just added to the humiliation and the shame that
our Lord endured for our sin, for our shame, and for our guilt. I think sometimes we forget what
the Lord went through before He ever got to the cross, before
He ever paid for the debt of our sin. And yet, It doesn't
even begin to compare with the soul suffering that our Lord
suffered, His physical suffering. They then put a reed in His hand
as though it was some kind of a kingly scepter, and they bowed
in mockery on their knees before Him, saying, well, here's the
Jew's king. Isn't he something? Verse 30
of Matthew chapter 7 adds, and they spit upon him. They took
this makeshift scepter and they smote him on the head with it.
And reeds in the Scripture serve as a metaphor of weakness and
instability and unreliability. And that's why they smote the
Lord with this reed. It was a declaration by them
that he was nothing No one, nobody, certainly not a king. But he
was a king. He was the king of kings. Just
another part of the Romans' sarcastic parody of his kingship. But listen
to me, human reflection. doesn't change divine reality. He was a king. He was a king. You know, the world today still
mocks our Lord. Yet, He still rules and reigns
as the King of heaven and earth. The scourging of Christ wasn't
just a prelude to His crucifixion. It itself was a brutal form of
execution. It was intentionally degrading
and physically devastating. It was the fulfilling also of
the prophecy of the Messiah in Isaiah 53, 5, which was foretold
that by His, Christ's stripes, we, His people, are healed. This
wasn't just an afterthought by the Romans. This was ordained
by God from the beginning of time. Through the sufferings
of the Lord Jesus, our sins are forgiven and God's justice is
satisfied. That's what's happening here.
Christ suffered for our sins because it was the only way to
reconcile us to God. God's angry with His wicked every
day. But in Christ, He's no longer
angry. We've been reconciled. He suffered for our sins. For
if we, when we were enemies, were reconciled to God by the
death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved
by His life. Romans 5, 10. Now there's three
important things there in that verse. First of all, we're enemies
of God. And we're enemies of God because
of sin. Now you might not think you're an enemy of God, but you
are. By nature, you're an enemy of God. Secondly, reconciliation
comes through Christ's death. There's no other way to be reconciled
to God. Jesus Christ is the one and only
mediator between God and man. He's the only one that can plead
our case and our cause before God and God accept the reconciliation. Because it came through His death.
It was by the shedding of His blood. Reconciliation is God's
initiative, it's not ours. If God had waited for us to try
to reconcile ourselves to Him, we'd have never been reconciled.
Never. Salvation is much deeper than
just being reconciled. Our salvation is eternal. Not
only because of His death, but because of His resurrection.
That's why I get I don't know what the word is, irritated and
even somewhat find it humorous, you know, that on Easter, now
it's called Resurrection Day. You know, it's the one day a
year that we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Listen, the child
of God, the believer, celebrates his resurrection every day. It's
the proof that God accepted his finished work. It's the proof
that everything is now all right between me and God. We've been
reconciled. Oh, isn't that good news? God accepted His finished work
and He accepted us in Him. Christ took the punishment that
we deserve, not only on the cross, but in His life. He suffered
emotionally and socially. Listen, from the time the Lord
Jesus was born, He suffered. He suffered. They sought to kill
Him all the days of His life. He was betrayed by Judas, who
was a close friend. He was abandoned by all His disciples, even in His darkest hour. Peter
denied Him When He said He would die for him, He said, all these
others might betray you and leave you and forsake you, but not
me. And He was the one that denied him. The Lord said before the
rooster crows three times tomorrow morning, you're going to have
denied Me, and you're going to have been behemoth about it.
You're going to, in cursing, say, I never knew the blankety-blank
man. He was mocked. He was spit upon. He was publicly humiliated, rejected
by those who had once followed him. He was despised and rejected
by men. The scripture says he was a man
of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Now listen, to be acquainted
with grief, you've had to experience grief more than once. He was acquainted with grief.
He suffered not only physically, but spiritually. And that was
the deepest of his sufferings. On the cross, the Lord Jesus
bore the full wrath, condemnation of God for human sin. He's, as our substitute, experienced
separation from God. That's something that he had
never known throughout all eternity. He cried out, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? He knew why, as we saw in the
first hour. The Lord Jesus died the death
that we deserved. Now, if you don't believe you're
a sinner, if you don't believe that you deserve death, then
this won't mean anything to you. But if you see who and what you
are and that you're, Offense is against God. You've offended
His law. It's His law that we've offended.
That against Him and Him only have you sinned and done evil
in His sight. Then this'll mean something to
you. The Lord Jesus didn't die as
a martyr. The Lord Jesus didn't die as
just a symbol of love. That's the way He's preached
today. Men have reduced His death to just that. Oh, He's a symbol
of love. The Lord Jesus died as an actual
substitute for sin. Who? His own self. Bear our sins
in His own body on the trip. Do you see? He don't resemble
a man. He did that for you. That's what
you deserve. For our sake, Christ, who knew
no sin, was made sin for us. 2 Corinthians 5, 21. The Lord
laid on Him, not on you, not on me, He laid on Him the iniquity
of all God's chosen people. Isaiah 53, 6. Christ died to satisfy God's
justice against us. That's what we deserve. That's
what we earn. The wages of sin is what? Death. But the gift of God is eternal life. In 1 Corinthians 15 verse 3,
Paul wrote, Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. What does that mean? It means it wasn't a surprise
twist of fate. This was not an afterthought
of God's. It was promised, it was purposed,
and it was prophesied throughout the Old Testament Scriptures.
This was not something man devised. God purposed it from the foundation
of the world before man was ever born and could take credit for
anything. In Isaiah 53, Christ is the suffering
servant. In Psalm 22, it was foretold,
they had pierced my hands and feet and cast lots for my clothing
long before it ever came to pass. It was pictured in Abraham's
offering of Isaac in Genesis chapter 22. It was typified as
the Passover lamb whose blood was shed to spare his people
from judgment. As we sung about, when I see
the blood, I'll pass over you. That's the only way he will pass
over you, John, is if the blood of Christ is found upon you.
Sin isn't just bad behavior. It's rebellion against God. It
separates us from Him, Isaiah 59 too. And God's justice demands
payment, and He demands payment in full. Are you hearing me? Gotta be paid in full. And you can only be forgiven
and reconciled to God because Christ paid it in full. Without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission. You know what remission
means. No forgiveness of sin. Without
the shedding of blood. God only takes blood as payment. Your blood won't suffice. It's
tainted with sin. But His blood suffices. It's
sufficient. Because it's not. Christ's death
was intentional. Christ's death was sacrificial. Christ's death was substitutionary. Salvations of the Lord, period,
period. Nothing else to be added. Look
at verse four. Pilate therefore went forth again
and saith unto them, that being the Jewish people, behold, I
bring him forth to you that you may know that I find no fault
in him. Then came Jesus forth and Look
out, look how he comes. He's wearing the crown of thorns.
He's wearing the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, behold
the man. And when the chief priests therefore
and officers saw him dressed as a king, they cried out saying,
crucify him, crucify him. And Pilate saith unto them, take
ye him and crucify him, for I will find any fault in him. And the
Jews answered him, we have a law, and by our law, he ought to die,
because he made himself the Son of God. And we say the innocent
was condemned, but I think better said, the innocent became guilty. Christ was condemned, now listen,
because he became guilty. Christ died as a guilty man. Yes, it's true that he knew no
sin. He never committed the first
sin. He didn't know any sin. He was not in the sense, as we
are, a sinner. There's people wanna argue about
it. Are you saying Christ was a sinner? I'm saying he never
sinned. He was made sin, is what 2 Corinthians
5.21 says. Sin wasn't just pasted on him. He didn't take one of these post-it
notes and stick it on and say sin. Well, it might fall off. He was made sin. He became sin. Made means to make, to do,
to produce, to cause. It's something that God did.
God calls God appointed Christ who was sinless to become sin
on our behalf. And if the Lord had not actually
become sin, now listen to me, you consider this, you think
about this, if he had not actually become sin, then God could not
have punished him justly. This is the only time And on
the only person who was ever actually, truly, genuinely, definitely,
undeniably, was claimed to be guilty, that never did anything
to make him so. And though myself and no one
else can explain it or for that matter even understand it, I
don't understand that. How can one's perfect become
guilty? Well, I can just tell you what
the Scripture says. God made him. God made him sin
and God made him guilty. But this transfer of sin that
was charged to the Lord Jesus, we call it impute or imputation,
was much more than just a legal transaction of imputation of
sin. How so? Because His embodiment
of our sin bear the full weight and punishment of God on Him. And righteously so. I don't understand it, but I'm
sure thankful for it. because there's no way I could
be saved apart from it. Even though he was God's chosen
people's sin bearer, God saw him as guilty and punished him
as the guiltiest of all. And no one can fully understand
or explain what that entails. But this is why our Lord is to
be worshiped and to be praised and to be honored and to be given
all the glory with every fiber of our being. It's why the Lord
Jesus should receive all the glory. It's why we should say,
not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be glory. And what blasphemy, I'm telling
you it's blasphemy for a man to take any credit for so-called
participation in their redemption and share in any glory at all. Pilate said, I find no fault
in it. The Jewish leaders, his own nation,
they didn't care what Pilate said. They were there for one
reason, to put to death the Lord Jesus Christ. As our Lord came
forth wearing that crown of thorns, wearing that purple robe, Pilate
said, behold the man, and the chief priests and elders cried
out, all the more, the scripture says, crucify him. but he's your
king. He's not our king. He said he
was king, but he's not my king. And yet I say to you, behold
your king. Look what they said in verse
seven. The Jews answered him and said, we have a law and by
our law, he ought to die because he made himself the son of God. No, he didn't. God made him.
Well, I guess in a sense he did because he is God. And here we see the true motive
of the Jewish leaders. It wasn't politics. They rejected
His divine claim as God. And many today still do. Islam
claims that Christ was a prophet, born of a virgin, performed miracles,
but was and is not God or the Son of God. Judaism, Jesus is
seen as a historical leader, possibly a false messiah, but
he's not considered the promised messiah. Hinduism, Buddhism,
is in general agree that the Lord is a holy man, an enlightened
teacher, but he's not the Son of God. Jehovah Witness, they
ever come by and see you? believe that Jesus is a created
being. Specifically, they believe he's
Michael the Archangel. I don't know where they get that. I guess that man Joseph said
that in his book. But he's not God. He's just God's
first creation. And the Mormons, Latter-day Saints,
I believe Jesus is the spirit brother of Lucifer, a separate
being from God the Father. He's divine, but he's not equal
to the Father in the traditional Trinitarian sense. And many, many today see Christ
as a moral teacher, Many non-religious people claim Jesus was a wise
philosopher. I've heard all these things.
Someone who taught love and peace and compassion, similar to Gandhi, Socrates. Some say that Christ
is no more than just a mystical figure. He never existed, just
a patchwork of myths and legends. Some believe Christ to be a revolutionary
political figure, a radical reformer, one who rebelled against oppressive
religious and political systems. In Western culture, especially
in the United States, man, there is a wide view of the Lord Jesus. Some envision Him as hippie Jesus,
you know, claiming peace, peace, where there is no peace. Peace,
brother. Some suggest him to be a social
justice Jesus, one who defends the rights of the unfortunate.
Others declare a prosperity Jesus, one who wants everyone to be
healthy, wealthy, and wise. Other imagines a therapeutic
Jesus who emphasizes emotional well-being Self-esteem and personal
fulfillment to everybody. Everybody want everybody to be
happy. Everybody want everybody to be doing well. Want everybody
to have money. It's a lot. But what does the
Bible declare him to be? Huh? Isn't that all that matters? Declares him to be the King of
Kings and the Lord of Lords. The same question our Lord asked
in Matthew 16, verse 15, should still resonate today. Who do
you say I am? Huh? Who do you say He is? That's the question each person
ultimately has to answer. And I, by God's grace, no other
reason, by His divine intervention, would give the same answer that
Peter gave. And so will you if you are a believer. Simon Peter
answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. And Jesus answered and said,
Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
this to you. but my Father which is in heaven,
he revealed it to you. That's the only way it can be
revealed. Look at verse eight. When Pilate therefore heard that
saying, he was the more afraid and went again into the judgment
hall and saith unto Jesus, when sought thou? But Jesus gave him
no answer. And then Pilate said unto him,
speakest thou not unto me knowing that Not that I have power to
crucify thee and have power to release thee. And Jesus answered,
thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were
given thee from above. Therefore, he that delivered
me unto you hath the greater sin. I'm the king of kings. And from
henceforth, henceforth, Pilate sought to release him. But the
Jews cried out, saying, if thou let this man go, thou art not
Caesar's friend. Whosoever maketh himself a king
speaketh against Caesar." And here we see something of the
fear of man versus the fear of God. From that point on, Pilate
sought to release the Lord. He's afraid both personally and
politically. You see the mention of Christ
as the Son of God unnerves him, it seems. He fears Caesar, though,
more than he does Christ. Now, remember that Pilate was
a Roman pagan. He wasn't a Jew. The idea of
a man claiming to be the son of God might have struck him
as not being just a religious claim of the Jews who hated him
without a cause, but potentially some kind of a supernatural divine
figure in mythology. That's what they believed in.
Romans were steeped in the myths of gods appearing as men like
Hercules and all the different sons of Zeus. And the idea that
Jesus might just be some kind of divine demigod could have
deeply unsettled him in fear. I don't know. They may have thought
this, he may have thought this Jesus of Nazareth is not just
a political troublemaker as the Jews says he is, but someone
who went far beyond his understanding. In Matthew's account, if you
remember, Pilate's wife, told him, he said, don't have anything
to do with this righteous man. For I've suffered much because
of him today in a dream. I've dreamed about this man.
Just don't have anything to do with him. And having this already
maybe in the back of his mind more than likely intensified
this fear that he might have. Maybe he's thinking this is no
ordinary man. Pilate is being politically cornered
here by the Jews. You see what they're doing? They
were great manipulators. And they mentioned Caesar's name.
And they suggest to Pilate that maybe you won't let him go because
you're being disloyal to Caesar. When the Lord asserts His own
divine authority, even in silence here, He didn't say anything.
He shows great humility and silence and suffering because the Lord
remains silent. Pilate suggests that the Lord
defend Himself if He knew what was good for Him. Don't you know
who I am? Don't you know what I can do to you? And the Lord
said, you can't do nothing to me. You can't do anything to
me that was not given you from above to do. You'd have no authority
unless it's given. from above, and so may we always
remember that the most powerful men on earth, no matter who they
are, are under the authority and sovereignty of God Almighty.
Pilate may have thought he had the power, the power of life
and death over Christ, but the Lord sets him straight. Men's
earthly powers are just on loan to men from God, and so for Him to manipulate as He says
fit. I say it often and I'll say it
again. Men with their wicked hands took and crucified the
Lord of glory, but it was by, this was the cause, the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. Acts 2.23. So before us this morning here,
we have the world's verdict on the Lord Jesus Christ. And this
is a moment of reckoning for Israel. And listen, it's a moment
of reckoning for us. It's a verdict that's gonna affect
you throughout eternity. What think ye of Christ? Behold your King. Verse 13, when
Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth and sat
down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the pavement,
but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of
the Passover at about the sixth hour. And he saith unto the Jews,
behold, your king. And his words dripped with sarcasm,
mockery, and truth all at the same time. But they're true. Behold your King. Pilate speaks
more truth than he knows. Jesus Christ is King. Not just
King of the Jews, but King of all creation. King of heaven
and earth. Behold your King demands a verdict.
Is He your King? Will you bow to this King or
are you going to reject Him? The people's verdict foreshadows
the cross. Verse 15, but they cried out,
away with him, away with him, crucifying. Pilate saith unto
them, shall I crucify your king? And the chief priests answered,
we have no king but Caesar. Well, Caesar wasn't their king.
The prophet Zechariah cried, behold, your king is coming to
you. The beloved John wrote, he came unto his own, his own
received him not. And these in our text rejected
the very Messiah they had long awaited. And they're confronted
with those three words that I confront you with this morning. Behold
your King. It's a call to see Christ clearly,
not as a man on trial, but as the suffering servant. Do you
see Christ as the true King? One who wears a crown of thorns
instead of a crown of gold? The crucifixion that followed
wasn't a defeat, it was the enthronement of the king who laid down his
life to be your king. Will you and I behold Christ
as our king? That's the question. Are we gonna
turn away and reject him? What kind of king are you looking
for? Are you looking for one like Caesar, one of earthly power,
or one who rules by sacrificial love? Behold your king in his
suffering. This reveals his true kingship. He's rejected by the world, but
he's enthroned by the way of the cross. What do you think
of this king? Is he your king? Well, he is,
whether you bow to him or not. Will you, like Pilate, wash your
hands with this King? Like Pilate did, will you cry
with the crowd to crucify Him? Will you have no King, but an
earthly King like Caesar? Who's sitting on the throne in
your life? Can I ask it that way? How do you see the Lord
Jesus Christ? His weakness, which is not weakness,
but his weakness, so-called weakness and suffering and death as a
man was actually his strength as the God-man who is your King. Have you submitted to Him as
your King? It's with great honor and privilege
and reverence that I present Christ to you in three words.