Our second song. John 19. Jesus of Nazareth, King of the
Jews. That's our subject this hour. Now Pilate had gone in and out
and talked to the Jews. trying to release our Lord, and
they wouldn't have anything to do with it. And when they, he saw that, or he
said that, they said he, the son of God, his scared pilot,
and he sought the more to release him. Now he's really seeking
to release him. before he was conversing back
and forth, but now he's really trying to release him because
he found no fault in him. You cannot find fault where there
is no fault, and there was no fault in him. Now, after our
Lord had told Pilate that he could have no power over him
except to be given to him from above, and Pilate sought to release
him, THE JEWS MADE A THREAT. THEY
KNEW WHERE TO HID HIM. THEY KNEW JUST EXACTLY WHERE
TO HID HIM. YOU SEE THERE IN VERSE 12, AND
FROM HENCEFORTH PILATE SOUGHT TO RELEASE HIM, BUT THE JEWS
CRIED OUT, SAYING, IF THOU LET THIS MAN GO, THOU ART NOT CAESAR'S
FRIEND. YOU KNOW WHAT THEY CALL THAT?
CHECKMATE. If you're playing chess, they
call that checkmate. You ain't nowhere to move now. They just
pinned him in. But Pilate, as depraved as he
was, he still had a conscience. He had a conscience and he didn't
want to put the Lord Jesus Christ to death. I believe that our
Lord had such a presence about him that Pilate knew, this man's
different. This man's different. There's
something about him. Just what few times our Lord
spoke, and the way he carried himself and handled himself,
Pilate is like, this is no ordinary man. Never a man spoke like this
man, even though he spoke a few words. This is no ordinary man. But what we see here is Pilate's
love of himself, of his power, and of his position. It's much
like Felix who trembled when Paul preached unto him. He couldn't let go of his life
for Christ. He couldn't do it. Paul preached
to Felix righteousness, temperance, and judgment. Righteousness and judgment made
him tremble. Temperance That's when he looked at his
life, and he looked at Christ, what Paul had to say, and he
loved his life more. He that loves his life shall
lose it. Loves this life, his natural
life, more than Christ. Christ said he shall lose it,
lose that life. If thou let this man go, Thou
art not the friend of Caesar, not Caesar's friend. Whose friend do you want to be? You know, it says Abraham was
a friend of God. And we know where Abraham is. Pilate was a friend of Caesar.
We know where he's at now. I want to be a friend of God.
You know the scripture says you cannot be a friend of this world
and a friend of God. That's what it says over in 1
John. He that is a friend of this world,
it's friendship, it's fellowship. The world's my friend. He says
he's an enemy of God because the world's an enemy of God.
It's an enemy of God. I want to be a friend of God. That's what I want to be. I want
to be God's friend. This is my friend. I want God
to say that about me and about you. These are my friends. Now whosoever makes himself a
king, he speaks against Caesar. Our Lord wasn't Our Lord was
not set against Rome. He was not set against Caesar
in particular. He was not setting up a political
kingdom of this world. The Lord's kingdom is a spiritual
kingdom. He's a spiritual kingdom. It's not of this world. But I know this. I know that
those who reject Him as Lord will not have Him as Savior either.
You know that? I know in our day, I hear this
so many times, so many times, accept Christ your personal Savior,
let Him be your personal Savior, let Him, He wants to save you,
let Him be your Savior, and then leave the Lord part out of it. He is Lord and Savior in that
order. It's really who's your Lord,
then I can tell you who your Savior is. It's who your Lord
is. He's the Lord Jesus Christ. And
I think also this is going to happen just like Pilate. Pilate,
he doesn't have a clue with what he's actually been faced with
here. He's faced with the love of the
world, the love of his position, the love of his power, or the
love of Christ. When the Lord met Peter after
his resurrection, we'll see this later on in another message. He said this to Peter, Peter,
do you love me? Now listen, more than these,
whatever these are in my life, do you love me more? Pilate loved
his position, his power, His way of life, more than he loved
Christ. He had no love for Christ at
all. But once they said this, Pilate had no room, it was over
with, Pilate had no room to move. In verses 13 and 14, when Pilate
therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth and sat
him down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the
pavement, but in Hebrews, Gabbatha, but he brought him outside. See,
the judgment seat was set outside and the pavement was these smooth
stones all around the pavement. It's called the pavement. And
the judgment seat is outside and it's public. It's made public. This is going to be a public
execution. This is going to be a public
condemnation by the world of Christ. A public rejection of
Him. So he sat down in the judgment
seat, which means he's going to now condemn him. He's ready
to pass the death sentence on the Lord Jesus Christ. As I was
reading this, my mind just kept going back and thinking, this
happened in this world. This happened over there in Jerusalem,
over there in Israel. This happened 2,000 years ago.
It really happened. And John makes a special note
here, he says, it being the preparation of the Passover, the sixth hour.
Isn't God so meticulous? Christ says my hour has not yet
come, my hour has not yet come, but when His hour does come,
it's at the Passover. Wow, isn't that a coincidence?
I don't think so. God brings His lamb at the time
they're going to have the Passover, because this is the Passover. Jesus Christ is our Passover. He's the Lamb of God. He's the
Lamb of God. He's God's Lamb. This is God's
Passover. You see, when it first started,
when it first started in Egypt, it was called what? The Lord's
Passover. Then it became known as the Jews
Passover. But now it's the Lord's Passover. This is the Lord's Passover.
This is the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Lamb. He's going to be
slaughtered. That's right, he's going to be
slaughtered. The Son of God is going to be
slaughtered. Everything's now ready. Here's
the hour. And Pilate makes a bold statement. And he says to them out in public,
now this is out in public for all of them to see him and they
can hear. He says, BEHOLD YOUR KING! I could just go off on that for
a long time. Behold your king. Now he either
did it out of ridicule or it was prophetic, but either way
it's right. This is our king. This is our
king. And you know when he comes back,
when he comes back, He's gonna come back as king. It's not gonna
be a crown of thorns. It's gonna be a crown of glory.
It's gonna be a crown of power. It's gonna be a crown of authority.
And when he comes back, and he's coming back, every knee's gonna
bow, every tongue's gonna confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. They're gonna bow and confess
this. They're standing there now crying,
CRUCIFY HIM! AWAY WITH HIM! But one day they're
going to acknowledge Him, Lord. And I'm sure those who've already
been cast into hell from this crowd is calling Him, Lord. They
know it. They know it. But I want you
to see the cruelty of man here in verse 15. But they cried out,
AWAY WITH HIM! AWAY WITH HIM! CRUCIFY HIM! KILL HIM! EXECUTE HIM! And Pilate
said, Shall I crucify your king? You want me to kill your king?
You get this picture. Here the Lord is standing, unrecognizable. The scripture says His visage
was more than anything. He's unrecognizable. And He's
standing there. Only God can enable Him to stand,
being beaten like He was. But he's standing there, blood,
just blood from top of his head to his feet, blood just draining
down. Just a blood pool standing there. And he says, you want me to crucify
your king? And I know he's making fun of
them, but God's not making fun. God is saying your king is dying
for you. for His Israel, God's true Israel. Your King is dying for you. Your
King is fighting the battle for you. Your King is putting away
your sins. This is the Lamb and this is
the King, the King Lamb. That's who He is. That's who
He is. And this is exactly, listen,
they cry away with Him, away with Him. This is exactly what
natural religion thinks of God. What was it says over in the
psalm, no God for me, the fool has said in his heart, no God
for me. Could there be any greater fool than those standing there
looking at him saying, crucify him, crucify him, away with him. Shall I crucify your king? But
here's something else about that statement. God brings out that
natural enmity that they have towards him and he makes them
confess THEIR OWN GUILT. WE HAVE NO KING BUT CAESAR. GOD MAKES THEM ADMIT THE REJECTION
OF HIM. THEY COULD HAVE SAID, WE HAVE
NO KING BUT GOD. Look what it says in Psalm 47,
7, For God is the king of all the earth. THEY COULD HAVE SAID
THAT. THEY COULD HAVE SAID GOD IS KING. But they're playing a game here. This is a political game they're
playing. I bet they wish they hadn't played it. We have no
king but Caesar. You know what they did in saying
this? They rejected the Lord Jesus Christ as king and bowed
to the God of this world. They bowed to the God of this
world is exactly what they did. They bowed to him. As much as
they hated Tiberius who was Caesar at that time, they were willing
to own him as king instead of Christ. Christ said in one place,
He said, Let another come in his own name and him you will
accept. It doesn't matter how STUPID and RIDICULOUS it is,
you will accept him. But me, you won't accept. You
won't receive. And in verse 16, then delivered
him, Pilate delivered our Lord unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus and they
led him away. Turn over to Isaiah 53. They are, I mean, they are going
right by the script and don't even know it. It's amazing. Look in verse 4, verse 3. He's despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We hid, as it were,
our faces from him. They turned on him. He was despised
and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our grief
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him strict
and spitting of God and afflicted. We said, God did this. But he
was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, and
the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes
we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid
on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was
afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a
lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shears is
done, dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from
prison and from judgment. Judgment was taken away. They
lied on him. And who shall declare his generation?
He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression
of my people was he stricken." That's what's going on right
there. It's like you want to just, well,
I mean, of course, we know the gospel, but you want to holler
away, turn over to Isaiah 53 and read what you're doing. But God's hand is in this. They
said he was strict and smitten of God and afflicted. They said
that because of his own sins. They thought God was doing that
because of his own sins, making himself a son of God, equal with
God. Oh, God's hand is in this, and
he is strict and smitten of God, but for our transgressions, our
sins. THIS IS WHAT I DESERVED! THIS
IS EXACTLY WHAT I DESERVED! And then it says there in verse
17, And he, bearing his cross, went forth to a place called
the Place of the Skull. They had killed so many people
there, crucified so many, and buried them in shallow graves.
They say that over time you can see some of the bones laying
around. which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha. He bearing his cross. I think this is one of the things
that keeps many away. They like going to heaven. They
like going to heaven part don't they? People like going to heaven
when they die. Everybody knows they're going
to die. They like the thought of going to paradise. Everybody's
going to go to paradise. But they don't like that cross
part. Lose your life. Take up the cross and follow
me. Is it too much for our Lord to ask us to bear our cross seeing
that He bore the heaviest part of it? Luke 9 23 and he said to them
all if any man will come after me see our Lord doesn't sugarcoat
this matter of following him you know one place he says before
you join up Before you join up, he gives a parable, he says,
it's like a man who starts to build a house and he sees if
he has enough to finish it, because unless he doesn't, he'll end
up being embarrassed. Or if you're going to go to war,
you're going to make sure you've got enough men to fight that
battle. He doesn't con people into following him. He doesn't
promise riches in this life, and material things, and blessings,
and health. I mean, I've known a lot of believers sick, and
I've watched them die of cancer, sick. He doesn't promise His health
and wealth stuff. What He promises is spiritual.
What He promises is acceptance, forgiveness, pardon, justification,
righteousness, sanctification. These are His promises. you know that rich man the Lord
said that rich man he said go sell all you have and sell it
give it to the poor listen and he says this in one of the gospels
and take up the cross and follow me being a believer in this world
I'm talking about being a genuine believer is not easy and it never
will be it never will be Our Lord never sugar-coated it, and
I'm not going to either. Even though salvation's free,
it'll cost you your life. You know that? This life, this
life. You're my servant. I'm His servant
now. Lord, what would you have me
to do? Where would you have me to go? Where would you have me to live?
Where would you have me to work? I'm your servant. I'm His, lock,
stock, and barrel. In verse 18 he says they crucified
Him, where they crucified Him, and two others with Him on either
side of one, and Jesus in the midst. There's no doubt He was
considered to be the chief criminal. They put Him right in the middle.
But I never saw this until yesterday. I never saw this. This scripture,
you remember it. I didn't write it down, but here's
a good example of this scripture. Preaching of the gospel is a
saver of life unto life to some and death unto death. One was
saved and one perished. They both heard the same Lord. They both heard him speak. And
that one gnashed at him and said, if you save yourself, save us
too. And that other one, he just feared
and he said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
And I never put that scripture together with that, hanging between
those two thieves. There's two men hanging on a
cross, dying just right there with Him. Hearing the same message,
hearing them speak, seeing what's going on. And to one of them,
it's a death unto death. And the other one, it's a life
unto life. And then Pilate wrote a title
and he put it on the cross, and the writing was, Jesus of Nazareth,
King of the Jews. It's interesting, he didn't just
say, because he said it first, he said, Behold your King. But
now, and I think he writes it out of a different motive than
why God had to write it. He said, Jesus of Nazareth. Remember,
Was it Nathaniel or Philip said, is there any good thing that
can come out of Nazareth? And Pilate writes up here, this
Nazarene is your king. This man, this mutilated man
here is your, this Nazarite is your king. And they're like, it ain't no
Nazirite going, ain't nobody from Nazareth any good, he can't
be our king. It was a form of embarrassment
to them. It was embarrassing for them to say, this man from
Nazareth is our king? Is it embarrassing to you? It's
an honor. It's an honor. You know what
this says, Jesus of Nazareth says, he's one like me. Can any good thing come out of
this? By His power and grace they can. Brethren, we have a King. We
have a King. Don't lose your mind over the
election. We have a King. We have a King. I will be just
as comfortable the day after no matter what happens. And I
know that people will shoot me for saying that. But we have
a King. And nobody's going to vote on
Jesus Christ in November. Nobody ever did vote on Him.
God chose Him. And this is your King. This is
your Commander-in-Chief. This is the Captain of your Salvation.
Never lose sight of that. Don't let Satan get you all tangled
up in anything. I don't care what it is. Don't
let your mind and emotions get so tangled up into this and that
that you miss Him. that you miss Him. Jesus of Nazareth, King of the
Jews. This title read, Many of the
Jews, for the place where Jesus was crucified, was neither the
city, and it was written, now this is interesting, it wasn't
just written in Greek, it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and
Latin. You know why? God has a people
out of every kindred tribe and tongue and nation under heaven.
He's our King. He's not just the King of the
Jews over there in the Middle East. He's the King of all of
God's Israel throughout the whole world. He's our King. And it's written in three different
languages. God made it so everyone will
know that Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords of
all the earth. That's why it's written. Pilate wrote it for
a different reason. He, you know, since he was backed
into a corner, he's going like, I'm going to jab him. But what
he's doing, what he's doing is, is God's will and purpose. He
thinks it's a jabbing them, but, and it probably was them, but
not you. You and I can see the hand of
God in this, the purpose of God in this. We can see our King
fighting our battle. We can see our King dying for
us. We can see our King putting away our sins. Then said the chief priest of
the Jews to Pilate, don't write that. It's like Pilate said, hey, you
all have had your way long enough. I crucified an innocent man.
So just shut up. I'm going to leave what I've
written, I've written. He finally got a little backbone about him.
It wasn't his fault, God made him do it. Don't write he's king of the
Jews, just say he said that. And Pilate said, what I've written,
I've written. And all this was done, now listen,
verses 23 and 24, I'll wind this down. Then after this was done, and
he's crucified, he's hanging on a cross over there, crown
of thorns on his head, mutilated, blood running down that wooden
cross. The soldiers, when they had crucified
Jesus, they took his garments, and they made four parts to every
soldier part, and also his coat. Now the coat was without seam,
woven from the top throughout. And they said, therefore, among
themselves, and they had no clue God's hands
in this. They have no clue what they're
doing. Let us not rend it, but let us
cast lots for it, whose it shall be, that the Scripture might
be fulfilled. They didn't say that. They didn't
say, let us cast lots so that the Scripture be fulfilled. That's
what John's saying. John said that's what they said,
that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Do you see how meticulous the
Word of God is? He fulfilled every jot and tittle. They fulfilled the Scripture
which said, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture
they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers
did. Turn over to Psalm 22. Psalm 22. Verse 18, they parted my garments
among them and cast lots upon my vesture. How many hundreds
and hundreds of years was this written before they did exactly
what the Lord said they're going to do? How accurate the Word
of God is. How accurate. NOT ONE SCRIPTURE WAS LEFT UNFULFILLED. And then our Lord, listen, our
Lord does the most tender thing. He does the most tender thing
that any son can do. Now there stood by the cross
of Jesus, his mother Mary, who she is, and his mother's sister
Mary, and the wife of Cleophas, Mary Magdalene. That's the one
whom the Lord cast out seven devils. Only grace can unite such characters. Only grace. Only around Christ, only around
Christ crucified can such sinners meet and fellowship together.
Only around Christ can people of all different societies and
all different languages and tongues and nations, only around the
cross of Christ can we come together and fellowship. I mean really
fellowship, not have our differences. Not have our differences. We're one in Christ, aren't we?
Out of every kindred, tribe, tongue, and nation under heaven.
God has chosen a people out of every kindred, tribe, and tongue. And then the Lord here, He looks
at Mary, He says in verse 26, 27, and I'll quit. When Jesus
therefore saw His mother, when He looked upon her, I have no
doubt his eyes swollen, face swollen. They slapped him, beat
him, plucked out the hair of his face. And he's looking at
her in agony. Is there any sorrow like my sorrow
to all you who pass by? Is there any sorrow like mine?
Is there any suffering like mine? Is there at the hand of God?
But he looks at her, and it's evident Joseph was dead, or he
had passed away. He's not dead if he's with the
Lord. I try my best not to call any saint dead, any believer,
anyone that I have confidence that believes. I don't like to
say, well, they're dead, or he died. I know he died, but the
body did. He didn't, or she didn't. believers over here in this graveyard,
the ones who believe God, they're alive and well. Every last one
of them, they're alive and well. But our Lord looked at His mother
and the disciples standing by, which is John, the writer of
this gospel, whom He loved, and He said to His mother, Woman,
behold thy son. And He's looking at John. You
see, his hands and feet are nailed to the cross, so when he's spread
out like this, and he looks at his mother, Mary, and then he
looks at John. He said, Behold thy son. He looks
over at John. And then he said to his mother,
Behold thy son. Then said he to the disciple,
Behold thy mother. This is your mother. You treat
her like a mother. You treat her just like your
mother. Take care of her. And from that hour, that disciple
took her unto his own home. And I'm sure she stayed there
and was taken care of by him until she passed away, until
she went home to be with the Lord. Our Lord, the one who said, honor
your mother and father, is the example of it hanging
right here on the cross. You take care of him, you look after
him. And he did. In his greatest agony, in his greatest
torment, he's still thinking of the one he loves and not himself.
He's not paying any attention to himself. His heart is poured
out to her. John, take care of her. Look
after her. Isn't that something to say that
right before our Lord dies on the cross before He gives up
the ghost? He didn't perish. Take care of her. The King, the King always takes
care of the King of Heaven. Always takes care of His subjects,
doesn't He? He's taking care of you and me
right now. That's who's taking care of us. The King is taking
care of us. Ain't no business, no place I
work, no government, it's the Lord taking care of us. And He will do so all the way
to the end and then deliver us up to glory. What a gospel, what
a gospel we have.