Chapter 19 of John's Gospel and
read together. Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged
Him. And the soldiers twisted together
a crown of thorns and put it on His head and arrayed Him in
a purple robe. They came up to Him saying, Hail,
King of the Jews! And they struck Him with their
hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, see, I'm bringing
him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.
So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple
robe. And Pilate said to them, behold, the man, when the chief
priest and officers saw him, they cried out, crucify him,
crucify him. Pilate said to them, take him
yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him. The Jews
answered him, we have a law and according to that law he ought
to die because he has made himself the son of God. When Pilate heard
this statement he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters
again and said to Jesus, where are you from? But Jesus gave
no answer. So Pilate said to him, you will
not speak to me? Do you not know I have the authority
to release you and authority to crucify you? And Jesus answered
him, you would have no authority over me at all unless it had
been granted you from above. Therefore, he who delivered me
over to you has the greater sin. From then on Pilate sought to
release him. But the Jews cried out, if you release this man,
you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a
king opposes Caesar. So when Pilate heard these words,
he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at
the place called the Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic, Gabbatha. Now
it was the day of preparation in the Passover. It was about
the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, Behold your king! They
cried out, Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him! Pilate
said, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priest answered, We
have no king. but Caesar, so he delivered him
over to be crucified." Now, of course, like with any narrative,
there are a lot of things to see here. Of course, we could
walk through it and talk about each thing in turn, and as a
commentator, we could look at what is actually taking place.
We could expose some of the details historically of what's going
on, and we may approach some of those as we look, but more
importantly, why is it that John wrote these things? What is it
that is continuing to happen here in the story or the narrative
of John's Gospel? What is it that theologically
we're supposed to see? Well, it's not that difficult
if we look with fresh eyes, if we look with universalistic,
holistic eyes. In other words, we look universally
over the Gospel of John in a complete manner rather than just this
story in itself. We know that they are at Pilate's
house. They are at headquarters versus
the reality that Jesus is accused of being a king. It is a violation
or a threat to the headquarters of Rome, to the headquarters
of the center of Jerusalem, which is occupied by Rome. Jesus and
his being, according to the accusations that are brought to him or for
him or on him, he is a threat. As we see later that we just
read today, the chief priest even say there is no king but
Caesar. So we have the story unfolding
and while the narrative is important for historical purposes, it is
also important for us to see the perfection of Jesus. It is
important for us to see the grace of God the Father. It is important
for us to see that this work of accusation, of arrest, of
false imprisonment, of false death is all in the sovereignty
of God. That the highest calamity that
has ever taken place and the greatest injustice that has ever
happened on earth in this human realm is when Jesus the God-man
was crucified at the hands of wicked men. Yet it was the very
thing that God the Father himself did. God did this, but he did
not make man do it. He caused it. He purposed it. And in his providence, it was
for the sake of his own glory and for the joy of his saints,
for the joy of his children. Many people still argue always
that God did not want this, but it's what he had to do. Friends,
that is an unbiblical statement. God wanted the death of Jesus. God decreed the death of Jesus. When God in His sovereignty said,
let there be light, He created all that there is in order to
reveal His plan of redemption in Jesus Christ. God did not
intend for Adam and Eve to maintain a perfect human race of strictly
obedient people. It was not His purpose. Had it
been His purpose, it would have come to pass. Now, philosophers
throughout the ages have a strange dichotomy with those assertions
because they include this idea of ethics or morality is lost
when man is not free. Well friends, men are not free,
but yet they are free. The freedom of the will of humanity
is to do that which it is most inclined to do. We need to look
at free will as instinct rather than decision. What are we instinctively
more probably, more probable to do? What is it that we instinctively
desire more than we actually choose? Though we do have opportunities
at times to choose all sorts of things in life, the reality
of the material world in which we live restricts that freedom. So though we may desire or wish
something, The very nature that we cannot fly because physics
and the laws of nature prohibit it doesn't mean that we don't
have the free will to fly. But in a real sense, we don't
have the free will to fly because it is impossible. So we must
use artificial means like the creation of an airplane or a
hang glider or Batman's cape or whatever it is that we might
decide to use. But there is no true freedom
except within the confines of the boundaries of who we are
as human beings. So Caiaphas can only do that
freely that he is able to do. He is only able to acquit or
to crucify Jesus. But even in his sovereignty as
the ruler representing Caesar, he is still bound by the crown
of Caesar. And even though the Jews are
sovereign over their own people and the chief priests are the
rulers of Israel, they are still bound. They are still bound by
the Roman people, the Roman occupation. They're bound by Caesar. They're
bound by their own blindness. They're bound by the judicial
hardening of their hearts. They cannot do anything outside
of those parameters. So the freedom of the will is
only operative inside the parameters of the reality of the human condition.
So that no man can ever do anything that God has not warranted, purposed,
planned and empowered to take place. But man is still culpable
for his sin. Now this is a tragic thing to
have to deal with from the pulpit. But herein lies one of the greatest
problems, I could say blasphemies, against the nature of God in
our culture. That man is free to do as he
wishes and that with God's help he can come to faith. With God's
help, he can live a good life. With God's help, he can serve
his fellow men. Well, what about the many unbelievers,
the many cults, the many world religions who do exactly the
same thing without God? But there's only one thing that
man cannot do, and that is place himself in the redemptive arms
of God. God sacrificed Jesus Christ,
the Son, as Paul says in Romans 3, to be our propitiation to
satisfy His wrath, His righteousness, His justice, so that He could
forgive His elect alone. And the sins of the elect are
paid for, therefore now there is no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus. The payment of the sin, the work
of Jesus on the cross, is not conditioned on the decisions
of men. Just like the death of Jesus
was not conditioned upon the decisions of men. And God used
the circumstances and the boundaries and the parameters of the fear
of men in the first century to kill His Son and He did so perfectly. He did not have to manipulate
circumstances, He decreed them, there they were. Some people
call God a maniacal monster because he can do that. God's answer
to that is, who dares question God? How dare does the clay say
to the potter, why have you made me this way? How dare does a
child say to his father, get out of my face? Et cetera. So here in this narrative, we
need to see That there is a lot to do and much to say and much
to be concerned with about crowns, about kingdoms, about authorities.
And if you look at the politics happening in the arrest and the
crucifixion of Jesus, it reminds me so much of our present day.
Now in Christ Jesus, as a believer, as a shepherd of the church,
I am apolitical. That means I have no political
foundation. I have no political standing. I could care less.
It doesn't matter. It's not important. I wish it
would all just go away. It will not stand in the end
of days. Anyway, God will judge all politics as guilty as Babylon
and destroy all of the essence of these things as he has created
them and sustains them for his purposes. But in my flesh, and
I want to understand there's a difference, me in Christ, now
my flesh, the same flesh that fights against the Spirit, the
same flesh that condemns me, the same flesh that rattles me,
the same flesh that sin wages war in, is the same flesh that
politics are. It is a disciplinary offense
to divide over political issues as a Christian. It is also heavily
infantile. It is heavily infantile because
it means that our focus on the things of culture and the things
of nations and the things of economics are so far more important
than the crown of Christ. But if you must know, I'm a constitutionalist
and I can go up against almost any constitutional lawyer head
to head if I wanted to and feel confident in my understanding
of the establishment of that document. But it's not important. It's not important. I do some
social activism. I am part of a group of people
who just talk and do what's necessary in our local community. But Christ
is first. And every decision we make and
everything that we do, whether we're going to the grocery store
or buying socks or dealing with an election or looking at the
condition of our nation, we must do it. as being in Christ. In Christ. We must not separate
ourselves from Christ. And because of that, we must
always have Christ's people first. Their hearts, their fears, their
needs, their holiness, their strength, their assurance. Never should we ever put nation
above kingdom. Never ever should we put economy
above absolute needs of the poorest of poor among us. Never. Ever. And these are gospel indicatives. These are truths implicated by
the gospel. Indicated by the gospel. The
very nature of Christ Himself, whose mind we have, flows into
these things. So beloved, lay down the idols.
Lay down the idols. But these people couldn't. How
could they have such idols? How could they send Jesus to
be crucified? How could they accuse him of
that which he had not done? How could they not hear and see
that the mass populace of people adored his teaching and looked
at what he wanted, look at what he said and wanted to hear more?
I think that Pharisees gained power in the John 6 narrative
when Jesus preached that His body and His blood were their
only hope and all of them walked away. I think they stood there
in their regalness and saw that reaction of the masses and saw
Him standing on the hillside with His 12 disciples and said
to themselves, things are turning for Jesus. He's losing ground. Here we go. And as we see that
Jesus' ministry, though they wanted to arrest Him, though
they wanted to bring charges, though they wanted to get Him
out of the public eye, when He brought Lazarus back from the
dead, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. This
man cannot be stopped. He has done the impossible. He
is now the one who holds the reins of life and death and judgment. In resurrection, he must die. That shows you the blindness
of depraved men who have not been regenerated by the Spirit.
That everything, every ounce of common sense and absolute
reason goes down the drain when that which is true violates that
which is precious. When that which is sovereign
steps into that. which is in the realm of their
control. Pilate gave Barabbas back an evil man, a murderer,
an evildoer. And he kept Jesus. But Pilate
found nothing wrong with Jesus and he took Jesus, which was
custom, When you were condemned, you were flogged, the forty minus
one lashes, the thirty-nine lashes with the cat and nine tails,
where your body is torn to pieces. And they whipped Jesus. And they
flogged Him. They destroyed Him. And in Pilate's
mind, then him saying that he was a king, but not a king, not
of this world, in grand mockery, the soldiers force a crown of
thorns onto his head because every king must have a crown. And they tied purple linen to
his body, to his bloody, raw body. Later, to be ripped from
his body, and sold or traded, if you will,
through the throwing of dice. And they shoved him out there
on the platform and they came to him saying, Hell! King of
the Jews! The irony of that. Then they
punched him and struck him just like the soldier The temple guard
punching Jesus without trial, without conviction. Without conviction
here, they have beaten Him, they have mocked Him. The very crown
bearer of the cosmos is being mocked. Now think about that
for a moment. See, we all are quick to put
our focus on the death of Jesus on the cross, but we need to
understand the heart of men that put Him there. We need to understand
what God has ordained for Christ, God the Son, to endure. We need to understand when the
scripture says that Christ emptied Himself and removed Himself from
the place of glory. It was not just being out of
touch. It was not just being in a meat
suit of humanity. It was not just being in hostile
conditions around hostile people. It was being mocked for the very
thing that he was. There are a lot of things that
trigger me in life. Most of them I am able to just
subdue, shrug off. But when people accuse me of
something that I have not done, there is no holding that trigger. It fires. I hate to be wrongly
accused. I hate to be brought into a place
of reproach on something that I have not done because I want
to be vindicated. Do you? Of course we do. Nobody just loves being a punching
bag. Nobody loves being lied upon. Nobody loves being made a fool
of. But here is God the Son, who
is the King of the Jews, the King of the Romans, the King
of the Americans, the King of the Cosmos, the King of all Kings,
and the Lord of all Lords, the First and the Last, the Beginning
and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, the Eternal and One True,
the Lamb of God, the Creator of all things. Jesus is now naked. and bloody and abused and mocked. Because that is how we see the
kingship of Christ if we are not converted by the Spirit of
God. We see the kingship of Christ
as something to be mocked, something to laugh at, something to amuse
us. Oh, look at this king. Throughout
history, we see the monarchy always falling prey to what? When the peasants have had enough.
When the peasants have had enough of seeing how that they rule
with iron fist, that they lord over people, that they operate
in a sense not of fairness with justice and righteousness, caring
for and working for those that they govern, but they work on
the backs of those that they govern. And all of history has
shown us what happens to those kings. They are stripped of their
throne, their heads are severed from their bodies, and the birds
eat their entrails. That's a little harsh for a Sunday
sermon. The text of Scripture teaches
that. The text of Scripture teaches that type of thing. David and
Goliath. David did that very thing to Goliath's body. We don't have to powder up Scripture
to make it palatable. And here is a true king. So there's
something in men when they feel they can take those in authority
who are tyrannous and subject them to humility. There's an
empowering wickedness about that. Look what we've done. It's not
just simple justice. This man is guilty of crimes.
We get rid of him. It's not enough. History shows
that people you can read accounts of. I won't even say anything
like this, but you can read accounts of where people have just decimated
the corpses of leaders throughout history. Because they wanted
to just get one more jab. And in some sense, these leaders
deserve it. But not this one. And Jesus didn't
deserve this. Jesus was not a king. to be overturned. Jesus was not a threat, except
that He was the Master of all things. And so, for us to see
this narrative and to feel sorry for Jesus, it's understandable. But more importantly, we should
feel thankful. For Jesus subjected Himself to
this willfully, for it was the decree of Himself. He is God. So He, the Son, the Father and
the Spirit, decreed as God that He would do these things. And
so as they mocked Jesus, they crowned Him in a fashion that
I can guarantee you the crowd roared. It roared. It cheered. It laughed. Those leaders would say, now
look at this man now. They felt then in their mind
that Jesus was no longer a threat. But then Pilate comes out and
says this. See, I'm bringing him out to you, verse 4, that
you may know that I find no guilt in him. So they beat him, they
mock him, they dress him as a king. ingest and they declare him and
announce him as a king. And then he says, I'm bringing
him back to you because he's done nothing wrong, but you wanted
to make much of this king quote. So here's this king. We've, we've
dealt with this powerful king. We've dealt with him. Okay. Go
home and calm down. You silly, foolish people. So Jesus came out wearing the
crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate said, look at
this man, behold the man, look at him, look at him. Then he
said, take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt.
I mean, even Pilate in his humanity saw this man as a meek person,
saw Jesus as no threat. Saul, Jesus, is someone who was
very wise and very mysterious, yet had no kingdom that had any
kind of ambition for this world or any other. For his kingdom
was not of this world. And so Pilate does the least
that he can do. This troublemaker, he's been flogged. We've made
fun of him. Here he is. Look at him. You
really are telling me that you're worried about this man? Look
at him. This man's not going to go anywhere.
He's condemned. We've beaten him. Your people
aren't going to follow him anymore. Why are you worried about him?
He's free to go. But if you want him dead, you
kill him. I'm not having anything to do with this. I mean, look
at this. Haven't we already gone back in two here? If this man
were not doing evil, they said to Pilate, we would not have
delivered him to. And then Pilate said to them
over in chapter 18, well, why don't you judge him by your own
law? And then they say, well, we can't kill him because of
your law. They wanted Jesus dead, not just
weakened, not just beaten, not just destroyed. And they wanted
Him dead not because He was usurping their authority. They wanted
Him dead not because they were threatened by the ministry of
Jesus. They wanted Him dead because though they hated everything
about Him, He called Himself God. He said He was ontologically
the eternal I Am. He said that He was God Almighty. That He was the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. That Moses, He spoke to Moses. And he saved Abram and he established
the throne of David. And now he stood before the people of David who
wanted him dead. And they wanted him dead because he said he was
God and he said he would save his people from their sins. And they couldn't handle that. Go crucify him for yourself. And the Jews answered him, verse
7, we have a law and according to that law he ought to die because
he's made himself the son of God. When Pilate heard this statement,
he was even more afraid. So what does that say? What is
John telling us? That Pilate was scared already. That he was
trying to do things in a way that would show and assert his
authority without inciting riot. He was trying to appease this
crowd. He was trying to appease these
rulers, these Jews. But it wasn't enough. And then
when Pilate heard that their law said he should die, that
it was a capital crime, and I believe that when he heard the charge,
there's something inside of his mind that went, Son of God, The Son of God. Which God? Doesn't matter. God's a powerful.
Kingdom is not of this world. What God is it? Oh. So in the
superstition of Pilate, he knew better. It unnerved him. In the politics of Pilate, it
unnerved him. He's thinking these people want
him dead and their law says he must die. Now, what am I to do
for my law says he's innocent. And so what does he want to do?
He goes in and to his headquarters, verse nine, and he asked, Where
are you from? Now, see, this would have settled
some things in Pilate's mind, I believe. If Jesus had said,
I come from the father. Who sent me? Pilate, whatever that is. Listen,
this man says he's from God. I'm not killing him. Maybe. But
God, in his sovereign wisdom, after the counsel of his own
will, kept quiet. Jesus had, for three and a half
to four years, already proclaimed where he was from. He told Nicodemus
where he was from. He told the multitudes where
he was from. He preached to the Samaritans where he was from.
They knew where he was from. They knew that he claimed to
be from the Father. They knew that he claimed to
be God. But Jesus gave no answer. Then
Pilate says, you will not speak to me, you're not going to talk
to me, you're not going to answer me. I'm trying to save you, Jesus. Much with the same style of Peter. Now we're going to save you,
Jesus. Of course, this man didn't love Jesus. Pilate did not love
Jesus, but Pilate did not want to kill an innocent man. And so as we see Pilate continuing
to ask questions, he asked Jesus in verse 10 of chapter 19, he
says, Do you not know that I have authority to release you? And
do you not know that I have authority to crucify you? Would you please
save yourself and answer these questions? Where are you from?
What are you trying to do? Where is your kingdom, you see? And Pilate asked and asked and
asked. And in this line of questioning,
Pilate asserts some type of authority over the life of Jesus. Do you
not know that I have the authority to release you? And I have the
authority to crucify you. This is where we need to understand.
This is why I started the sermon this morning with this philosophical
triage of thinking. Pilate did not have free will because his will was encumbered
by the fear of the Jews, his will was encumbered by the authority
of Caesar, his will was encumbered by the answers of Christ, his
will was encumbered by his own conscience, and his will was
encumbered by the sovereignty of God. Pilate, no matter what he wanted,
could not let Jesus go. He could not. Even when all justice
says that he should. And then Jesus, even in this,
I've recently told government officials that they will do what
the people tell them to do or face the consequences. And that
is true. They will. Or we will vote them
out with prejudice, locally. They will. And if they enact
or pass laws that are illegal, we will ignore them. We will
not obey them. And it's nothing to do with assembly.
It has everything to do with other types of things. It's not
a scandal, it's just clarification. And when I said that to some
of them, they were enraged. How dare you tell us? Because
you are my servant. I tell you what you will do and
you will do it according to the law. Or you will be removed by my
will and my pleasure. See, that's where Pilate thought
he was. I'm going to tell you one thing, Jesus, I can save
you, but you better answer me. When Jesus answers this, I would
think it would enrage Pilate. But, but, but Pilate knows this
man is innocent. And when Jesus says, you have
no authority over me. Unless it has been given to you
from above now, awesomely. Jesus answers all of his questions
with that statement. Jesus answers all his questions.
Where are you from? The authority that you have over
me comes from where I come from, from above, from heaven, from
the Father. You're only doing what the Father
is making you do. You see that? You're going to
kill me because God gave you authority over me this day, without
which you have none. You have no idea what you're
dealing with. Jesus is helping him see in his
mind. So God has given me to you to
destroy, but it is not your sin to destroy me. It is theirs who
stand outside so that they're not defiled. You remember, that's
why they're outside. They're not even witnessing this. He who delivered me over to you
has the greater sin. Those people that handed me that
they have the greater sin. Of course, it is a sin to execute
an innocent man. But in Jesus explanation here,
he's showing. Not about what is a greater sin
and what is a lesser sin, he's teaching by what authority he
is going to die. And it's not the state. And I
will say this in the context of our present circumstances,
of history past, that when martyrs become that, it is not because
evil men have destroyed them. It is because their father has
brought them home. It is not bad for saints to die. It is not bad. It is promised. And not only is it promised that
we will die, it is promised that in our death we live. It is also
promised that the means of death for the body of Christ overall
will always be persecution, pestilence, plague. We will not escape it. And so when we die, we die with
hope. To live as Christ, to die is
far better, Paul says. I get more than life when I leave
it. That's why usurping the crown
of Jesus for political nonsense is childish at best. That's the
only nice thing I can say about it. If you want to run this mess
up in my house, watch my fury. Watch it. I will destroy everything
you ever thought precious until you have nothing but Jesus. Not
because of who I am, but because of what the Word of God will
say to you from my mouth. We are not subject to anyone
but Christ. Christ is not subject to anyone
but the Father. And the Father gave Him over
to die. And this is the authority that
has been granted to Pilate. And if I were Pilate, I'd have
shown Jesus something. I'd have shown Jesus something
right then. I'd have said, boy, you don't know who you're talking
to. I am almost God here in Israel. You see? Don't tell me I don't
have authority over you. See, that's what a poor leader
does. That's what a poor shepherd does. That's what a poor governor
does. That's what a poor, sorry excuse
of someone who is supposed to take care of people. That's what
oversight's about, taking care of people, not lording over people. That's what they do. So in that
sense, Pilate was an honorable man. But even with that statement,
it's almost like he received it. Because it says in verse
12, from then on Pilate sought to release Jesus. When Jesus said that to him,
he goes, you know what, I've got to let this man go. I have no authority. I have no
authority over this man. I've got to let him go. Who am
I to hold this man? What am I to do with this man?
You see? See how confusing it is right now in the American
economy of grace? The American economy of justice? The American economy of sovereignty.
To some people are going to be caught off guard with these little
statements that I've made in the sense of politics this this
morning. But it proves something by the
answer of the Holy Spirit, it proves something that it triggers
you. To pull out that idol that is more important at times than
Christ himself or his people. That you would rather lay down
on the sword of nationalism, or the sword of politics, or
the sword of whatever, than Jesus. Than the gospel. And as a shepherd,
I care enough to show it to you. Pilate wanted to let him go.
Remember, he's operating out of what? Fear. He's operating
out of fear, just like most of us, just like our government,
just like our doctors. Everybody's worried. Everybody's
fearful. We don't know what to do in times
like these. The disciples didn't know what
to do in times like this. Pilate didn't know what to do
in times like this. The Jews didn't know what to do in times
like this. But everybody in every group had their desire and their
wish list. Everybody knew what they wanted
out of it and were willing to do whatever it took at any cost
to maintain or obtain their desire. Pilate had a desire to let this
man go. He was innocent, but out of fear, he flogged him.
Out of fear, he mocked him. Out of fear, he took him back
in for questioning. With the stroke of a pen, Pollock
could have had every Pharisee dead within the day. You can't
fight Roman soldiers. I'm a fanboy of military tactics. I'm a fanboy of hand-to-hand
combat. I have studied it from antiquity
to present day to possibility of robots fighting for us. And Roman soldiers were impeccable
fighters. I'm sorry, the Mossad was not
around in the first century. Caesar is now invoked. The Jews cried out, if you release
this man, you are not Caesar's friend. There was the trigger. There was the greatest fear of
Pilate. That was the that was the core. It stopped his heart.
And then the instrument of fear began to beat and flow through
his veins. And he was more concerned about Caesar than he was about
the Jews or this man or the law. Though Caesar would have said,
what has this man done? And probably given into Pilate
the very fact that the Jews themselves occupied by Rome under the rule
of the Lord Caesar. If they accused this man of usurping
Caesar and Pilate did nothing, the very fear of that caused
Pilate to shake. Everyone who makes himself a
king opposes Caesar. And that was true. That was true. So when Pilate
heard these words, he brought Jesus out and he sat on the judgment
seat at a place called the Stone Pavement and in Aramaic, Gabatha. Here we see that now Pilate in
his private chambers, his headquarters, his house, he stops this judicial
hearing and puts it into an official capacity. He brings it out for
all to see so that he can exercise with Caesar-like authority that
which is good for Caesar. But beloved, everyone who makes
himself a king opposes Caesar. Jesus Christ is the King of Caesar.
He's the God of Caesar. He's the Lord of Caesar. Jesus
is the Lord of the living and the dead, the reprobate and the
elect. Jesus is the Lord and the King
and the God of them all, of all things. In like manner, when
someone makes a friend of the king, of kings, they are enemies of
Caesar. So that In basic logic, then, if someone is a friend
of Caesar, he is an enemy of the king of kings. Consider that as we continue
in our lives today. So he brought him out, and for
an understanding, it was the day of preparation, verse 14
of the Passover. They were preparing for it, and
it was about the sixth hour. As he was there on the platform
of judgment, On the stone pavement on Gabbatha, Pilate says, Behold your king. Now, why would he say that? What
did he say first? He came out first and said, Behold
the man. Look at this man, this weak, broken, frail, humble man. Look what we've done to him.
We've brought him down. He's finished. I want to let you go, Jesus.
I'm going to let him go. Crucify him. He's done nothing
wrong. Crucify him. I'm going to let him go. You're
an enemy of Caesar. You stand against the government
of the God of this realm. And I find that so fitting when
Jesus called the Pharisees the sons of Satan and said that they
worship the devil, not the God of the Bible. Now they subject
themselves also to the law of Rome, but they subject themselves
to be under the headship of Caesar. And then they use that very usurping
role over Yahweh that Caesar granted himself, and they use
it for their own benefit. You can't have both your hand
in the world, in the coffers of men, on the scepters of governments. And in the sight of Christ. He says, Behold, your king for
all to see this man declared himself king, you said he did.
Here is your king. And if the people then had said,
release him, they would have been under the judgment of Caesar,
for they would have agreed that this was the man who was to be
their king. Now, how many of them wanted Jesus as king? Most
of them. if He could take them out of
Rome or take Rome out of them. But Jesus' ministry and Jesus'
kingdom was not of this world. Jesus' teaching was that He would
save them from their sins to which they replied, What sin? I have no sin. I'm not an idolater. I wasn't
born in sin like Jesus. And so they respond to this public,
to this public assertion, this public proclamation. And they
cried out away with him, away with him, crucify him. So Pilate said to them, shall
I crucify your king? You ever thought about that? Shall I crucify your king? But
see, Jesus in their minds was not their king. Because they
could not see. Because they did not belong to
him. They were not his subjects. They could not see. They did
not belong to him because God had closed and blinded their
eyes. They could not see because they
were not His sheep and they had not been given to the Son by
the Father. The Son would not die for them,
even though Caiaphas would say prophetically it is better for
Him to die than the nation to perish. Even though prophetically
Barabbas the murderer would be let go and Jesus would die in
His place. Even though time and time again
we see this amazingly impossible plan of God play out without
a hitch. Without a hitch. The whole of
the authorities of Israel had been trying for over three years
to arrest and charge Jesus without success, even when he was in
the temple, as we saw over earlier in John 12 and 13 and 14, even
when he was there. John 12. What does it say? That they send
the temple guards to arrest Him. And what do the temple guards
do when they stand there with the warrant for arrest? They
see Him and they're not able to touch Him. This is not something that these
men came to conclude on their own. This was a fear put in them
by the Holy Spirit. That they can't do anything to
this man. Let him continue to teach. To
go back and tell their superiors, we just couldn't arrest him right
now. We just weren't able to. We can't. Shall I crucify your king? One more opportunity here for
the Jews to recognize Jesus' authority. For the Jews to believe
on Him. But the witness of Jesus himself
was the witness of the prophets, the witness of God, the spirit,
the witness of the scripture. That he would come to be king,
but he would be king in his death and in his resurrection to be
king of his people and lead them to eternal life and grant them
eternal life and rule them as the resurrection and the life.
So there is no opportunity for eternal life to just receive
Jesus as Lord. You cannot receive Jesus at all.
Jesus must receive you from the Father, who has you before the
foundation of the world, lest you be an instrument of wrath,
an object of wrath. For only the Father can give
to the Son those whom He already possesses. Period. And He did not possess the chief
priests. We have no king but Caesar. Talk about failed opportunity.
Talk about the reality of where I believe most evangelicalism
is today. We have no king but Caesar. And people are more concerned
with what Caesar's doing or not doing that they give time to
him. Even those the ones who would
say that Christ is king. But they will yield to a false
gospel. They will yield. to social justice. They will yield to critical race
theory. They will yield to free will decisionism. They will yield
to cultural gospel indicatives. They will yield over and over
and over again to things that are not wholesome and pure found
in the witness of scripture. But call it gospel, call it Christ,
call it good. We're so quick to state the obvious. Well, the sun is out today. Good. Well, I'm here. I have eyeballs. So on and so forth. We're quick
to state the obvious. It is obvious what is sinful.
It is obvious what is evil. It is obvious what is a sinful
act of the flesh, fornication, adultery, lust, greed. Hatred, murder, all these things.
Obvious! Everybody in every realm of every
human condition in the entirety of history from Adam to eternity
knows these things as evil. But we are so slow to call evil
that which blasphemes our Lord. And many, many, many would rather
say we have no king but Caesar than to face the suffering that
comes with being identified with Christ. Because when we are identified
with Christ, we have been crucified with Him. And when we are identified
with Christ, we will suffer as He suffered. Hated, mocked, ridiculed,
abandoned, persecuted. There are many who will love
us this moment, but then because of our strong, myopic, angelic,
glorious focus, laser beam precision on the explicit gospel, they
will begin to fall away. And the circle gets smaller and
smaller, just like the circle got smaller for Christ, and the
circle got smaller for the 1st and 2nd and 3rd and 4th century
church, and the circle got smaller until large mass populations
of people began to massage things that were more palatable, began
to make regulation more Christian than truth. To make the religion
of Christ more emphasized than the person of Christ. And beloved, all of us are guilty.
All of us are guilty in some sense, in any way that we could
measure it. If God would show it to us, we
would probably die of horror. But all of us are guilty from
saying we have no king but Caesar. In some sense, Peter said that,
didn't he? I'm not going to stand with Christ.
I don't know him. But what did we learn there?
What did we learn a couple of weeks ago about that? Christ
approved of Peter. Christ loved Peter. Jesus died
for Peter. Jesus saved Peter. Jesus prayed
for Peter. Jesus sealed Peter. Jesus secured
Peter. So even when we find our flesh
weak, we stand. Beloved, our flesh is going to
be weak in times like we're experiencing. We're going to worry and doubt.
We're going to suffer. It's going to be tough. And some
people will not suffer as others will. And as siblings in the
Lord, they have a mandate from the Lord Jesus Christ to be there
and encourage and provide for those who are suffering. God's
grace is given to us. We are all gifted in specific
ways for the sake of the assembly. But our hearts are divided, just like the hearts in the first
century were divided. And they delivered Jesus over
to be crucified because it was the sovereign will of God. And we are not to pity Him, though
we ought to be disturbed by his suffering, we should be thankful
for it. We should be thankful for it
because Christ in every way has suffered and been tempted in
every way, yet sinned not. He who is the righteousness of
God is truly our King. And when He rose from the dead
and we proclaim the gospel of grace, we are saying, behold,
our King. We show the world and everyone
in it, this is our King. Not ministry. Not this, not that,
not the other. Jesus is our King. Christ is
our answer. He is our Lord. He is our Savior. He will not let us go and no
one will snatch us out of His hand. And beloved, whatever God
is going to do in this world is God's business. May His will
be done. I want the will of God the Father
in all things. Because if I were around in the
first century and I were standing there amongst the disciples,
I would be like Peter who would try to gather up some swords
and go deal with this. I'd be Peter who would do what
he could to establish a system of security to prevent Christ
from dying. Yet, behold my king. who gave Himself
as a ransom for His people and who has satisfied the wrath of
God. Jesus, who in all ways established
Pilate for that very purpose. Do you know that's why Rome invaded
Israel? So that Jesus could be condemned
on a cross. It was an absolute impossibility
that a Jewish man could die on a Roman cross until this day. At the perfect time. The only death Jesus could have
ever suffered had God not invaded Jerusalem with Rome was stoning. But it was written that he would
hang on a tree and that He would die for His people. He would
save them from their sins. That's why the saints of old
couldn't understand it. They had no visual picture of
what it was talking about. And as Jesus hangs on this tree,
as you'll see, He speaks many words and He accomplishes the
will of the Father. And so next week we will look
at the crucifixion of Jesus. the point and the pinnacle of
all history, and the anchor at which we look that satisfies
our very longings this day, and that satisfies our fears, and
that satisfies our division, and that puts us all together
under one blood, under one Lord, under one baptism, Jesus Christ,
the righteous, who gives his righteousness to his people,
whom he saved before the foundation of the world. Let's pray. Father, my heart is overly burdened. I'm troubled in my mind and my
spirit, my flesh. I'm weak. Unable to think, I'm
not speaking correctly, my words. are not coming to my mind as
they should. I'm fatigued. My spirit is overcome
with fear for the Saints, for the body of grace truth for our
family, for the peripheral sheep who depend upon our intimacy. Father, I'm concerned about our
joy. I'm concerned about our hope
in the midst of these times, I'm concerned about dividing
our minds and being tossed to and fro with the fodder of news
and social media. I'm afraid, Lord, that that you
may have purposed a fleecing. And that you will remove people
from us. And from the gospel, because they are not yours. And it horrifies me and I want
to do everything in my power to stop it. And I want to do
everything that I can, Lord, to establish a firmer foundation. And everything that I consider
is sin. Because if I do not preach your
son, Jesus. And just be quiet, otherwise.
I am not trusting in the promises you've made concerning. His finished
work. So Lord, in all of our fear,
help us to have that lifeline. Show us our pride. Show us our
self-sufficiency. Show us our self-righteousness.
Show us our high and holy platforms that we stand upon and tear them
down. So that our joy would be only in you. So that our intimacy
would be only in you. And that when we help one another,
and we pray for each other, and we encourage each other, and
we teach each other, it would not take the flavor of the world. That Caesar would not season
our tongue, minds, and hearts. But that we would see only Christ
and His body. and realize that we love you
only when we are loving one another and that when we infuse the world
into our hope, we are tainting the gospel. Father, give me strong
resolve to stand firm without fear. Knowing that you have called
us all to this place, Father, bring whatever it is that you
have brought. For there is no virus. There
is no sword. There is no fear. There is nothing
in all of creation that can separate us from your love, which is in
Christ Jesus, our Lord. And there is nothing. Nothing. That can stand in the way of
your purposes. So help us not to put our time and strength
on those things, but do what we have to do for the sake of
civility, for the sake of being good citizens, while helping
us to keep our hearts tethered to our true citizenry, which
is not of this world. Keep us from playing politics
with the crowns of many kingdoms, And Lord, keep our eyes on the
one true crown, the crown of Jesus Christ. In his name we
pray, amen.