Well, may it please God to bless
us this morning as we meditate in his holy word. Let's turn
to the gospel of John and chapter 19. And we just read three words
in the fifth verse. So that's the gospel of John
chapter 19. and verse 5 in the last three words. The last three
words spoken by Pilate was, Behold the man. It's interesting that
Pilate should in actual fact say that. Because Jesus was,
they 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. And we're told, Pilate
therefore went forth again and said unto them, behold, I bring
him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in
him. Then came Jesus forth wearing
the crown of thorns, and the purple robe, and Pilate saith
unto them, Behold the man. We perhaps in our thoughts go
back to the occasion when Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist
three years previously. And John the Baptist then had
said, Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the
world. Three years had passed. Three years when Jesus went about
doing good and preached the truth to many people and was wonderfully
blessed and now he has come to that situation which he had spoken
about. and that which had been prophesied
indeed throughout the Old Testament, that the Lord Jesus Christ would
die and that he would be crucified. And the reason for it was to
pay the price required to free all his people from the curse
of sin. That was the great reason why
the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world. And again, just to
cast our minds back to the earlier chapter in John, the third chapter
in verse 16, we're told there wonderfully, for God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. That was the great truth that
the Lord Jesus spoke and how wonderful it was. And again,
the three years more or less had passed since then. And Jesus
had done so much good. And yet, you see, the prophecy
was to be fulfilled. The Lord Jesus Christ would come
and give his life. for the sins of his church. And
what a painful time that was. What an awful time it was in
one sense. And yet for the church of God,
what a blessed time. It was a wonderful occasion. So here we have Pilate saying,
behold the man. And what did they see? What did
they see? They saw a man with a crown of
thorns. a scarlet robe, a lacerated back. Yes, what a sight that was. And
of course, they smote him with the palms of their hands so that
his face became disfigured. Hardly credible to think that
this was Almighty God himself. in the second person of the Trinity. And yet you see the Lord Jesus
was willing, willing to do this. And so we have this statement
here, behold the man. And yet what had happened just
previously? Well, we know the Lord Jesus
had been in the Garden of Gethsemane. We're told being in agony, He
sweat as it were, great drops of blood fall into the ground. And he prayed to his father.
And he prayed, if it be possible, let this cup, let this situation
pass from me, let me not have to go through it. And then he
said, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. And we see
their wonderful submission to the will of the Father. And what a blessing that should
be for us today, to realize that we should also desire to have
a right spirit to do the will of Almighty God. Not to therefore
just follow our own ideas, our own plans, our own life, We should remember that if we
are a born again Christian, the Word of God tells us, Jesus says,
we're not our own. We are bought with a price, and
that price was the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our freedom,
our eternal freedom, relies upon what Jesus did when he gave his
life and was crucified upon that cross at Calvary. It's very difficult. In fact,
we could say it's impossible for us to really envisage what
the Lord Jesus Christ had to endure because we're told he
carried the sins of his whole church. And when perhaps you
and I look into our own lives and realise that we've sinned,
perhaps we've sinned very badly, perhaps we've sinned much and
much and much, and that's just one person. And then as we think
about the whole Church of God, that ever existed and will exist
down to the end of time. The great weight of sin that
the Lord Jesus Christ was willing to bear, to carry, to carry to
the cross and to suffer that terrible death. It was not an
easy death, was it? And remember, he was in utter
weakness. His back had been lacerated,
he'd been beaten and too weak to carry his cross and yet we
see on the cross amazing love, amazing love to the Church of
God and in one particular instance with that thief there were two
other manufacturers, two other sinners, two other robbers crucified
with Jesus. And to begin with, they both
spoke and cursed the Lord Jesus Christ. But then we see the amazing
grace, the amazing favour of God towards one of those thieves
on the cross. And he made a wonderful statement
really. He said to the other one, you
and I receiving the due rewards for our sin, but this man hath
done nothing amiss." Now, of course, he didn't know Jesus
very well, but he clearly had faith to believe that Jesus had
lived that perfect life. And then he prays or speaks to
Jesus, and he says this, when thou comest into thy kingdom.
He believed quite clearly on the Lord Jesus Christ. What a
blessing it was. And the Lord Jesus answered so
wonderfully and positively, this day shall thou be with me in
paradise. And so there's a very clear picture
there of that dying thief then dying, and his soul going into
glory, into heaven. We see the wonderful compassion,
and just not forget then, as I've said, the Lord was in a
state of weariness and aching, I'm sure, with those nails through
his hands and his feet, and yet you see his love to that man,
and not only that man, but also for the whole Church of God. He asked his Father, If it be
possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will,
but thine done. And it wasn't possible that he
could escape. If he had not died on that cross,
if he had not died to take away our sins, there would be no hope
for us of the great blessing of heaven eternally when we die. So we see there the Lord Jesus
Christ had to die. He had to die. It was a great
plan of Almighty God. Again, back in eternity, something
you and I cannot really fully understand. But nonetheless,
it was true. And therefore, we have this wonderful
exhortation today to behold the man, behold the Lord Jesus Christ. Be blessed with faith to believe
this Jesus, this Jesus Christ, the saviour of sinners, came
into the world for that one great and glorious reason, to save
sinners and to be blessed with faith to believe He came to save
you and He came to save me. You know, what should our response
be? Well, I believe our response should really be one of amazement
and stand and say, what a Saviour! What a Saviour! that this great
and glorious man should condescend to die in my place, to pay the
punishment due to me for my sins. And I had nothing to commend
myself, nothing good in me, as the Apostle Peter tells us when
he wrote to the Romans in the seventh chapter, In me, that
is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. Naturally, we're not good
people. Naturally, we're sinners. And
yet to realise the Lord Jesus came to seek and to save those
that were lost. Well I hope this morning on this
resurrection day that we commemorate as such, we don't know obviously
precisely which day it was, but nonetheless it's a day in the
year when we can commemorate the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And how wonderful that is, to
think of the Lord Jesus in that way. Rising from the dead. The first person to rise from
the dead. Yes, death could not hold him.
If death could have held him, there would be no hope for us.
But death could not hold him. And he rose. a conqueror, a conqueror
over sin and over death. What a wonderful occasion it
was. And yet you see the disciples,
and as we read this morning in that 20th chapter, Mary Magdalene
and the others, they could hardly believe that Jesus had risen
from the dead. And yet, you see, when Jesus
spoke to Mary Magdalene, just that one word, Mary, she realised
it was the Saviour speaking to her and she was able to say,
Rabboni, or Master. She realised it was the great
and glorious Saviour who was indeed risen from the dead. And so he then, as we know, he
was, he rose in the dead and he was shown to various people
and at one time about 500 people at once for 40 days. And then he ascended to his father. What an occasion that was. With his disciples, he went out
with them to the Mount Olivet and he was taken up into glory. Behold the man. See, Jesus today
is in heaven in his bodily form. He's in glory. To behold the
man, then we can behold him as Jesus was, a risen saviour, and observe Not only that, he is the conquering
Saviour. He conquered Satan. He conquered
Satan's plan. You will remember, I'm sure,
go back to Genesis, when the world was created, and Adam and
Eve were placed in the garden, and had only been there, it would
appear a short time, And Satan came and asked the question of
Eve, hath God said? And he uses the same plan today. He says to people, hath God said? Surely God hasn't spoken. Surely
God hasn't done this. He uses the same technique. And
as we know from that account in Genesis, the reality was that
Having said that, Eve then was tempted. She knew what God had
said and she was able to tell the devil what he'd said, that
she wasn't actually to actually eat of that fruit. But when she
saw it looked very delectable and something to be desired,
she ate of that fruit. Prior to that time, there had
been no sin in the world. The Garden of Eden had been,
in that part of the world, the only place where there was humans,
Adam and Eve, and they lived in perfect peace and harmony
until they sinned. And when you say, what is sin?
Disobedience to God. They disobeyed God. How easy
it is to think, well, I can just do that. I can just get away
with that. There's no harm in it. Well, are we disobeying God? Adam and Eve disobeyed God. And they ate of the forbidden
fruit, and sin entered into the world. And because of that sin,
it passed upon all mankind. And sin has passed upon you and
me. And the truth is that no sinner,
no sin can enter into heaven. We need to be washed. We need
to be cleansed. We need to have all our sin taken
away. And we have no ability to do
it ourselves because we are sinners. But Jesus, the Son of God, came
into this world to redeem us. And the price required to redeem
us, you know, when people have sinned, when people have done
something wrong today in our courts, they have to pay a price.
Sometimes they have to pay a fine. Sometimes they have to go to
prison to pay for their sin, pay for their wrongdoing. Well,
our sin had to be paid for. and you and I couldn't pay ourselves.
The Lord Jesus Christ came, willingly, and paid the price of sin. Indeed,
the hymn writer tells us, he only could unlock the gate of
heaven to let us in. You and I couldn't free ourselves.
What a glorious man this is. Behold the man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, gave his life a sacrifice. If you go back through the Old
Testament you will find that sacrifices were often up to atone
for sins and they all prefigured the Lord Jesus Christ. They all
set before us the great and wonderful plan of salvation. There's no
need today for any more sacrifices. There were those 4,000 years
or so when they offered sacrifices. There's no sacrifices required
now. You might ask why? Because Jesus
Christ offered himself as that all-sufficient sacrifice for
all who have sinned and come short of the glory of God and
who plead for mercy and seek for forgiveness to realize the
Lord Jesus Christ has come indeed to save sinners. What a great
and glorious saving we have. And so we have this very simple
statement this morning. Behold the man. Let us behold
him as being crucified upon that cross at Calvary. and dying and
finishing that work the Lord gave him to do. Remember the
last thing he said while he was alive on that cross, he said
this, three words, it is finished. He had completed the work that
his father, father in heaven had given him to do to pay the
price to take away our sins. Yes, and that price was his death. He kept the law of God. The Lord
Jesus Christ had never sinned. He never said anything wrong. He walked a perfect life. It's good sometimes to just try
and think of that because, you know, we are so different. You
might get up in the morning and think, I'm going to try and live
a perfect day today and it won't be many minutes before you realise
that you've spoilt that desire. When the Lord Jesus Christ lived
that perfect life, he lived it in order to stand in our place
and die that death upon the cross to take away our sins. The Bible
speaks of it as substitution. The Lord Jesus Christ was substituted. in our place. He bore the punishment
instead. He bore the curse of our sin.
He paid the price willingly. Now if you think of that, if
you realise the wonder of it, how glorious it is to therefore
behold the man as our Saviour. Wonderful, wonderful truth. And then to think that this blessed
Saviour ascended up then, after those 40 days after his crucifixion,
into glory. His disciples were there, they
saw him going up and the angels came and spoke and they said,
this same Jesus will come again. This same Jesus will come again. And he will come again. We're
told he will and we're told that every eye shall see him. All
those who have died and all those on the earth will come in the
clouds and we will all behold the man. We will all behold the
Lord Jesus Christ. That will be a wonderful day
for all those who believe. All those who receive faith to
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that would be a most wonderful
day. But for those who do not believe, those who turn their
back upon God, it would be a most terrible day. And you and I stand
on one side or the other. either amongst those for whom
Christ has died or those whom the Lord will say, depart from
me, I never knew you. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ will
return. He's now ascending up on high
as the disciples saw him go and he's seated on the throne in
glory there. to intercede for us, you may
say, well, why is that? Why is that necessary? Well,
if you read the Hebrews and the ninth and 10th chapters in Hebrews,
you'll find out very clearly there how the Lord Jesus Christ
is our great intercessor, the one who intercedes for us to
the Father. The Father is a holy God. He cannot look upon sin. And you and I on this earth are
sinners. So if we pray, we pray to God
the Father through the intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ. So behold the man, behold the
Lord Jesus Christ, then interceding for us, even today, whenever
we pray, whatever situation that is, to think that Jesus intercedes
for us. Well, it's a great blessing if
God gives us faith to believe as we pray. Our prayers accepted
through this man, the man Christ Jesus, not through anyone else. He is the only way. The Lord
Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life. What a wonderful
truth it is, how glorious it is to know the Lord Jesus describes
himself as that. You see, we have the Bible, which
is a wonderful book. It's a big book. There's many
pages in it. We should be very thankful for
it, for the great truths it contains. But it's very wonderful to think
that here we have the great and glorious truth of God that speaks
to us. and directs us in every detail
and directs us to the way of salvation. Well, behold the man,
the Lord Jesus Christ. I wonder whether you and I have
sat down at all and just tried by faith to behold the Lord Jesus
Christ and to go right through his life when he was born in
Bethlehem, when he was born in that manger, the poorest of poor
circumstances. There he was born there. Yes,
wonderful it was. And then he lived those life,
those first 30 years of his life where we don't read anything
about him apart from that one occasion when he went up to Jerusalem
with his parents and he was found speaking to the learned doctors
there. We don't read about him until he was at 30 years of age. He spent those 30 years, first
30 years, no doubt in just a normal life and yet without sin. And then we know that this great
and glorious Saviour then was revealed when John the Baptist
was on the earth. And he came to John the Baptist
and was baptized. You may remember the Holy Spirit
descended like a dove and these words were spoken. This is my
beloved son in whom I am well pleased. A wonderful occasion
to demonstrate from God the Father that here was his only begotten
son who'd come into this sinful world to save sinners. And so it's good to trace the
life of the Lord Jesus Christ and to see the wonderful example
that he gave to us. And you think how he was hated,
how people spoke against him. He never retaliated. He absorbed
all the opposition that was thrown at him. because he was doing
the will of his Father. And so what a mercy for us then
tonight, this morning, rather, to believe and have faith to
look and see this great and glorious Saviour now in glory, interceding
for us as we pray to our God so that we don't pray in vain.
We're not praying just as it were to the unknown God. You
may remember when Paul the Apostle was in Athens, he saw that was
written there, that statement to the unknown God, where he
was able to tell the Athenians, we worship the true God, not
the unknown God. My friends, what a blessing it
is for us today, if we have the evidence that we worship the
true God, Jesus. We go through him as our great
and glorious high priest. I don't intend to go through
that detail but you can go through it in the Old Testament, you
can go through it in Exodus showing that there was in those days,
there was a high priest that went into the holy place. There
was the tabernacle and later on there was superseded by the
temple and in the center of those two places there was what was
termed the holiest of holies and in there was the Ark of the
Covenant And the Ten Commandments were in the Ark of the Covenant.
And the only person who was allowed to go there was the high priest. Once a year, and we're told not
without blood. That signified the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ when he shed his blood. That signified what
he would do. Yes, and therefore we have this
going right through the Old Testament. There was, first of all, the
tabernacle, and then the temple, and the only way into the Holy
of Holies. And the Holy of Holies signified
really heaven. Very interestingly, it was a
cube, same height and breadth and length. And it was a beautiful
place all covered with gold. And in there was the Ark of the
Covenant signifying the blessed and glorious Saviour, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that was the picture that
the Old Testament had. And to enter that place, there
was a great veil. And no one could enter, apart
from the high priest, on that one time a year, and he had to
enter with blood, shed from a perfect animal. He took it and sprinkled
it on the altar and he was accepting himself and then he could plead
for the mercy and forgiveness of the sins of Israel in those
days. It was a very important occasion.
Once a year, the high priest. Well, what we are told is our
high priest is not the high priest of a natural person. Our high
priest is the Lord Jesus Christ. So we see the significance of
beholding the man by faith to believe that this great and glorious
savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, takes our prayers presents them
to his father and you may say well how about the blood he shed
his blood upon that cross at Calvary yes and his sacrifice
was a perfect sacrifice it didn't have to continue to be offered
he offered himself once for the sins of his people and now he's
seated on the throne in glory there to intercede for us it's
a wonderful It's a wonderful picture that we have in the Word
of God. Wonderful, glorious thing that
you and I, as unworthy sinners, naturally cannot approach to
a holy God, a holy Father, who could not look upon sin. But
we have a glorious Mediator, a glorious High Priest, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who takes our prayers. It may seem to be very poor.
It may seem to be very unworthy. My friends, the Lord takes our
prayers, may perhaps have been not much more than a groan. They're
taken and presented to the Father. And it is the Lord Jesus that
is seen instead of us as we approach to God. This is the glorious
plan, you see, the wonderful plan. And so we are to behold
the man. Behold the Lord Jesus Christ
as our great and glorious high priest, as our great and glorious
intercessor. And then you see, we need to
look forward, as I've already spoken, when that day when the
Lord God returns. And we're told every eye shall
see him. Again, that's hard for us to realise, isn't it? But
to think that everyone will be raised from the dead, from their
graves, from wherever they are, from the ashes, they'll all be
brought together and they'll all be formed again. Some to
everlasting life. What a wonderful, wonderful thing
it is. And to think that the Lord Jesus
Christ He said, when he was on the earth, speaking to his disciples
in the upper room, shortly before he was to be crucified, he said,
I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to repair a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. That's wonderful, isn't it? Behold
the man, this same Jesus will come again and receive us under
himself to be forever with the Lord. No separation. Eternal happiness. It's hard,
isn't it, for us to realize this great and glorious promise. But
let us remember the Word of God is indeed true, as we can read
in the previous chapter, 17th chapter of this same gospel,
thy word is truth, the Lord Jesus Christ says, and never, never
doubt it. Again, the devil wants you and
me to doubt the word of God and to cast doubt upon it and say,
well, I don't believe that. I don't believe that. It doesn't
alter the fact the word of God is true. And we are told about
the evil heart of unbelief. It's very easy to find sometimes
that we don't believe the truth of God. What a wonderful mercy
it is when God gives us that grace to believe, to believe
the Word of God. And it's a very solemn realisation
to think that you and I have the Bible, we have the Word of
God, and it is the truth of God. And we should not reject it.
We should not say, well, I don't believe it, I don't believe it.
Who are we? Who are we to make such a statement
when we are obviously before the great almighty God who created
all things, the ruler of the universe, the king of kings and
lord of lords? It's a wonderful blessing if
God gives you and me faith, faith to believe the word of God, to
believe in the great and glorious plan of salvation, to behold
the man, behold the Lord Jesus Christ as we have it revealed
in scripture when he was born, as he lived his perfect life
upon this earth, as he died upon that cross at Calvary, as He
rose from the dead, as He ascended into glory, and as He intercedes
for us now. What a wonderful Saviour we have. What a wonderful plan of salvation
we have. Well, here we have, you see,
this situation which we can read of in the 19th chapter. We didn't read it this morning,
but the 19th chapter of John speaks about, you see, Pilate. Well, Pilate almost believed. Many people almost believed. What a great blessing it is for
us today if God gives us grace, which it is. If you want to know
what grace is, grace is the free and merited favour of God, John
Newton speaks about it, amazing grace how sweet the sound that
saved a wretch like me and what a wonderful blessing it is when
you and I know that grace of God which has saved us and if
we are saved we are those who believe the great and glorious
truth of the gospel And we believe the Lord will return. And we
believe there is an eternity where, by God's grace, we shall
be forever with the Lord. Well, these times were very important
and relevant that we read of this morning, most important
for our faith. It's a wonderful blessing if
God therefore gives us faith to believe. It is the gift of
God, not something that you and I can merit. Nothing you and
I can deserve, but God gives grace. He gives faith. And what a wonderful blessing
it is then to receive the gift of eternal life. It's the greatest
gift you and I can ever receive, the gift of eternal life. We
could possess the whole world. It would never save our soul.
It will never be forever. The gift of eternal life is freely
given. What a blessing, therefore, if
you and I have the evidence that God has given us this gift and
the evidence is there if you and I are also blessed with faith
to believe. in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
therefore to be saved." Well, my friends, they're very easy
words to remember, aren't they, this morning? Three words. I
hope we do remember them, and I hope we do pray over them,
that we by faith may indeed behold the Lord Jesus Christ as our
great and glorious Saviour. Truly praise God, from whom all
blessings flow. Amen.