Jesus Before Pilate Part 3 - Behold the Men - John 19:1-15

2:44Well, these words do not come to us in a vacuum. They come to us in our current setting, which obviously is a big deal right now. As we think to reopen church, a very strange set of events. And so, by God's providence, he has us walking through this text this morning at this unique period of time. And he speaks to us through this word to our situation today. Last several weeks, the question in my mind has been repeatedly being asked: what is church all about? What is church all about?

3:42I hope to answer that this morning. As we look at the king, as we behold the king, and we see what he gave his life for, I think we'll find an answer for ourselves. What is church all about? Well, I want, as we go through this passage this morning, I want you to see three portraits of humanity. Three portraits of humanity, so you will do homage to the true King. Three portraits of humanity. I've entitled this message, Behold the Men. Behold the Men. And so, as we go through, we'll see three portraits of humanity. The first Is Jesus himself, the man of eternal goodness, the man of eternal goodness.

4:42As we just pick up, first thing we recognize is that he was scourged and mocked. Look at verse 1. Now, by this time, Pilate has already said he finds no guilt in him. The people have cried out for Barabbas instead of Jesus. So Pilate then takes Jesus and scourges him. He brings him back inside. Verse 1. So Pilate then took Jesus and he scourged him. Now there are three levels of flogging or scourging that takes place under Roman penalty. I believe this was the first level. It's more of a roughing up. I believe Jesus is going to be scourged again, a scourging that's going to lead to crucifixion. And the scourging that leads to crucifixion is to so render the criminal pretty much incapacitated nearly near to death. So he doesn't spend a lot of time on the cross. So these kind of floggings that led to crucifixion meant people would actually. Die in the floggings themselves. I believe this is more of a roughing up, a roughing up.

6:12And it's really kind of consistent. You remember in Luke 23, 16, I believe this parallels with what Luke had said, is that Pilate had already determined he was innocent, and he says, Therefore, I will punish him and release him. And so I think that's what's happening right here. I'm going to punish him. I've already found him to be innocent. Pilate doesn't want him crucified, and so he roughs him up a bit. He wants to please the crowd. He wants to release Jesus. They chose Barabbas instead, so he takes him back into the praetorium, and he scourges him. And look at verse 2. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and put a purple robe on him. And they began to come up to him and say, Hail, King of the Jews, and give him slaps in the face. So the emphasis, and he's going to bring this up again in verse 5, is on this crown and on this robe, dressing him like a king. So what you have here is a bunch of soldiers brutally delighting in mocking and scourging Jesus.

7:29They put their Robe, they're mocking him. They put the crown on him. Obviously, there's going to be blood everywhere. And they began to come up to him and say, Hail, King of the Jews. And the idea is, hail, you know, like to pay homage. In fact, another gospel writer writes about a reed. They put a reed in his hand, and they take the reed and they hit him in the face. They slap him. But you could get the picture here. Here they come up to pay homage to the king. Hail, King of the Jews. And they bow, and probably with the sharp upper hand, they hit him, or they take the reed from him and they hit him. But this is the homage. This is a mock homage. This is how they are paying homage to the king of the Jews. But something is important to understand here is they're not just mocking Jesus, they're mocking the Jews. The Romans do not like the Jews. And Jesus all of a sudden becomes this lightning rod or this punching bag where they can take out their aggression. So as they say, Hail, King of the Jews, they mock Jesus, they scourge Jesus, but their disdain of the Jewish nation.

9:01Is being vented upon the king of the Jews. Well, look down and so he's scourged and mocked. Look at verse 4. Pilate came out again and said to him, So Pilate comes out from the patorium, comes out to the crowd, Behold, I am bringing him out to you so that you may know I find no guilt in him. I'm going to bring him out to you once again to tell you, I find no guilt in him. And then Jesus comes out, verse 5.

9:44He came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said, Behold the man. So he was scourged, he was mocked, he was declared innocent, and then he is paraded out as an object of scorn. Behold the man. You can think about what's going on in Pilate's mind. Pilate is saying, Look, behold the man. Behold this pitiful man. He's roughed him up. Deep down, Pilate wants to let him go. And maybe by seeing Jesus as in this pitiful state, maybe they say, okay, he's had enough. Let him go. So here's Pilate. And when he says, Behold the man. It's like he's saying, Behold this pitiful man. But John, when John citing Pilate, John's not saying, Behold the pitiful man. What John is saying is, behold the perfect man to his readers, saying, Look, behold the perfect man. Pilate is saying, he cannot possibly be a king. Look at him. And John is saying, he is king of kings. Behold him. This is what he looks like. Pilate is saying, just forget about him.

11:07John is saying, do homage to him. Pilate is saying, he is nothing. John is saying, he is everything. Pay him homage. And not the homage that the ruffians were doing. You know, a great leader leads people through difficult situations and difficult times. That's what a great leader does. And the most difficult situation in your life and my life is sin before a holy God. That is the human predicament. Guilty before a holy God. Our own conscience condemns us and causes us to flee.

11:56That is the difficult situation. We find ourselves born into this world, and by the exercise of our own choices, we find ourselves in an offensive predicament with God. And there's only one individual, one individual who can deliver you from that eternal disaster, for that eternal ruin that awaits fallen man. No other king on earth, pastor or present, can deliver this. And so here's John. He takes Jesus and he says, I want you to see the one, the one in whom all of God's delight is in, and pay homage to him.

12:55You know, when the auto manufacturers put together a sports car, something with a big engine, something with, you know, what they want to do? They want to get out there and make it run, right? You don't buy a sports car unless you want to put it to its paces, right? Let me tell you what God does. He wants man. To be put to his paces, he takes the perfect man here, and he wants us to see him. He wants us to see his eternal goodness.

13:45You know what happened in the fall of Adam? Adam, he had this thinking that all this is here for me because I am so special. We can fall into that, right? I am so special, therefore, the world is here for me. No, it's the other way around. God, you are special, or God makes man special, makes mankind special because all of this is in need of your care. Adam, I put you in this garden because it needs your care. It's not because you're so special that all this is for you. It is that, but more importantly, you are special, therefore, you are to take care of this. And so, when he comes into the world, the perfect man, guess what the perfect man is going to do? God's going to put him to his paces. It's going to show what man was created to do, what perfect man is created to do. And so, John wants us to see him. He is a man of eternal goodness, strength.

15:00Innocence, truth, glory, servant of all, living water, bread from heaven, source of life, giver of life, the good shepherd, and the one who gives and keeps and protects life. This is the perfect man. And I'm going to put him to his paces. And he is going to go through the cross. And he is going to take in himself the full bore of God's wrath. And he's going to come out of that tomb, having cleansed his people, having changed their eternal destiny, have changed their destiny from eternal disaster to eternal blessing. Now that's a leader. Behold. And that's the one that John wants you and I to see. And behold, the man.

16:04You know, one of the fundamental differences between Satan and Jesus is that Satan cannot stand to see God's favor upon humanity. It drives him nuts. That was what he was jealous about. But Jesus delights to see God's favor upon humanity. He loves to see humanity blessed. For this purpose, he went up to the cross. For this purpose, he endured the scourging, endured the mocking, because he delights to see God's favor upon humanity. We are so frightfully dependent upon him.

16:56And that's what John wants. Behold the man, look upon him, believe upon him, run to him, and pay homage to him. Behold the man, the man of eternal goodness. Well, there's a second portrait I want you to see, and this is Pilate. Pilate, a man of temporary power, a man of temporary power. Look at verse 6. So when the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify, crucify. Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.

17:45He heard. So here's Pilate. Here's this man with temporary power. And he hears the demand to crucify an innocent man. He hears that. And he says, Take him yourselves and you crucify him. Him. I find no guilt in him. Absolutely nothing causing offense. In fact, he could picture the, and notice that the chief priests are leading, but it's like a satanic drumbeat. Crucify, crucify, crucify, crucify. Something that the crowds would be able to pick up on. Crucify, crucify, crucify.

18:25And so he heard this demand. Pilate hears the demand to crucify, and he knows Jesus to be innocent. And then he finally understands why they want to crucify him. Look at verse 7. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because he made himself out to be the Son of God. We have a law. Probably Leviticus 24, 16, charged for blasphemy is to be killed. Of course, in there, the context is stoning, but they want to see him crucified. So they invite Pilate in. We have a law, and by that law, he ought to die.

19:17And here's the answer. Remember back in chapter 18 and verse 29, when Pilate first brought Jesus out, he says, what accusation do you bring against this man? And they answer. Answer, if this man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him to you. In other words, here's finally the answer. Pilate gets the answer. What accusation do you have against this man? Finally, he hears it. He made himself out to be the Son of God.

19:44Oh, not just a son. I mean, common. I mean, you and I could easily say, okay, we're children of God, and no one would want to crucify us because there's an incense or that. And even then, there was a specific claim that the Jews clearly picked up on. Jesus is saying, I am the Son of God, the one coming in power, that Daniel saw, to whom all the kingdoms of the earth will do homage. Oh, they know his claim, and they can't stand it.

20:27Well, Jesus ought to die if that claim was false. But if he's true, then homage is due to him. But the chief priest never really could prove anything against Jesus, right? And so Pilate had already realized in his first interrogation round with Jesus, had already understood that Jesus is. Indeed, he saw himself as a king, and now with this accusation coming from the Jews, Pilate realizes: okay, this is one with the power. Jesus sees himself as a king. He is one that the Jews are seeing as somebody who is claimed to be a king, but with a power that rivals the realm of the gods.

21:28And this frightened him. Look at verse 8. Therefore, when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid, or he much he became afraid. That's the idea. He heard this and it scared him. Perhaps Pilate's got some Roman superstition. Of course, they've got all kinds of gods and deities, basically the Greek gods with a bunch of different names, but it frightened him. I mean, he just scourged him. Who did I just scourge? Who have I just mocked? And maybe the question is becoming more in Pilate's mind: not what have you done, but what have I done? I need to reevaluate. And by the way, in Matthew 27:19, Pilate's loving wife doesn't help ease Pilate's concerns. She sends him a message while sitting. On the bench, about to give his judgment. He's saying, She says, Have nothing to do with this guy. Have nothing to do with this man, with this righteous man, because I have suffered a great deal in a dream because of him. So Pilate, now having heard this, understands the accusation and he goes back in to talk to Jesus, takes Jesus in.

23:08Sorry. By God's grace, there's a page of my notes missing. But I can tell you, Pilate, when he hears this statement, let me pick up in verse 8, he enters into the praetorium again in verse 9 and said to Jesus, Where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. So now the question that was originally, What have you done? Now, in Pilate's second round of interrogation, it's, Where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, You do not speak to me?

24:01Do you not know that I have authority to release you and I have authority to crucify you? Do you not speak to me? Do you not know who I am? And Jesus is like, Yeah, I know who you are. In fact, I know where your authority came from. You ask where I am from? Your authority comes from the same place that I am from. Do you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and the authority to crucify you? Jesus said, You would have no authority over me unless it had been given to you from above. For this reason, he who delivered me to you has the greater sin.

24:59You'd have no authority over to me. It's given to you from above. You want to know where I'm from? From above. The authority given to you is from above. I know the one who gave you your authority. I also know that your authority is limited. I also know that your authority is temporary. Use it wisely, Pilate. I've already told you that I am a king, and whoever listens to me listens to truth. Pilate, are you listening?

25:35Then there's an interesting statement here that Jesus makes. It's almost an act of mercy. He says two things to him: you have no authority over me, unless it was given to you above. But then the second thing he says to him, for this reason, he who delivered me to you has the greater sin. It's almost like there is a little twinge of mercy that Jesus gives to Pilate here. For this reason, why would Jesus tell Pilate? Pilate is responsible. Pilate knows Jesus is innocent. He's already roughed him up. He's already completely perverted justice.

26:20He is enslaved to his own political interests. Your authority isn't at all what you think it is. You're far more enslaved than you realize. But then he says, For this reason, he who delivered me to you has the greater sin. It's like he's telling Pilate, and Pilate, you can tell Pilate is torn. And here's Jesus says, Well, for this reason, he who delivered me to you has the greater sin. Now, who's the he? Well, I would rule out Judas. Judas didn't hand Jesus over to Pilate.

27:01It's not them, it is a singular he, an individual, and I see that as Caiaphas. For this reason, he, Caiaphas, who delivered me to you, has the greater sin. I don't think this is, and certainly Caiaphas is energized by Satan, and I don't think Jesus is saying, okay, Satan has a greater sin, obviously. But I think for Pilate, to get his mind around what's happening, Jesus is speaking in plain language to Pilate, the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.

27:39As if to give Pilate just a little bit of reprieve. Still culpable, still responsible. Some people have made the case, based on some historical documents, that Pilate may have become a Christian later on. I don't know, certainly cannot conclude that, and certainly John gives us no indication of that here, but you do see a man who is torn, torn between what's right and what is wrong, torn out of his own interests, temporary power. Listen, we are all here with power for just a little while.

28:30All of our power to judge Jesus, to look, to examine Jesus, just like Pilate, he had his day. He had his time to examine Jesus, to look at him, to find out who he was, and to make a sound judgment. All of us, we have limited time. Listen, look around. This world speaks of a man named Jesus Christ who has come and walked upon this earth. No ordinary man. Do homage. Come to him. In truth, hear him, believe, pay homage to him. Soon, your power, your authority will be gone. How did you steward it? becomes the question.

29:32Well, so as we're beholding the men this morning, we've looked at Jesus, the man of eternal goodness. Second, we've looked at Pilate, a man of temporary power. Third, I want you to see the chief priests, the men behind a national tragedy, the chief priests, and these are the men behind a national tragedy. So here's Pilate. Final verdict. Look at verse 12. And they hear Pilate's final verdict. Look at this, verse 12. As a result of this, Pilate made efforts to release him. But the Jews cried out, saying, If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar. Therefore, when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, sat down at the judgment seat at the place called the pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha.

30:33Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, Behold your king. There's Pilate's verdict after examining Jesus, for going back and forth, after all the. Here he is. Behold your king. It's interesting that John makes the connection with Passover. Passover, behold your king. It's like John is going to give us this graphic picture. Do you want to see, do you see this king? Passover Lamb, your king. Now Pilate is saying, Do you want to own this king?

31:26Do you want this king? John is saying, Do you want to own this Passover lamb, king? He's the one who takes away the sins of the world. Well, Pilate, you know, here they are. They're saying, okay, well, if you release this man, you're no friend of Caesar. Well, Pilate could release an innocent man and still be a friend of Caesar. But Pilate's political situation with Rome was so tenuous that he did not want to invite an imperial audit. And he took these words as a threat. The Jews are basically saying, Look, if you don't deal with this guy like we think you should, we're going to go to Caesar and we're going to say, you are no friend. You let a traitor go. How dare you? And so this scares Pilate.

32:23He could have released him, but he did not want to invite a political audit from his higher-ups. So when he heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down at the judgment seat, the Bhima seat. He sits down, and that's now bringing this trial to a conclusion. He's going to render his judgment, the pavement, place called the pavement, probably maybe a mosaic place, very well known in both Greek and Hebrew. Time is about 6 a.m.-ish, sometime in the morning. John is accounting by Roman time.

33:10But it's an interesting statement. He brings him out. Behold your king. What a dramatic moment. Here is Gentile governor speaking to the religious leader, saying, Behold your king. And with all that's been going on in Pilate's mind, you don't really know what all he's thinking. Does he really suspect maybe this is the king? Or was he just trying to aggravate the Jews again? But Pilate is in fear at this moment. His tone, his interaction with Jesus, has led him to believe not only is this man innocent, but this is no ordinary individual. Every turn, every question, every response, this is no ordinary individual. It's like he knows he's going to the cross. He wants the cross.

34:18Can't for the life of me figure out why. Behold your king. And John. Behold your Passover Lamb and King. Well, this leads to the greatest national tragedy that unlike anything in human history. Look at verse 15. So they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. Notice who's leading the charge, the chief priests. The chief priests are leading the Jewish nation into the most profound national tragedy in all of human history, and they do so in two steps.

35:28First of all, they reject the true king. Look at this, away with him. So behold your king. And what do they respond? Away with him, away with him, crucify. So you almost get this satanic drumbeat again. Away, away, crucify, crucify. They rejected the true king. Second step in this national tragedy. Look at this. Pilate says, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. So first, they led the nation in rejecting the true king. Second, they led their nation in abandoning the promise of a king. When they say, We have no king but Caesar, they are abandoning the messianic promises.

36:39It's profound. We have no king but Caesar. The secularists won the day. The secularist chief priests won the day. It was very costly what they gave up in crucifying Jesus. They crucified, they rejected their true king, and then they abandoned the promise of a king. We have no king but Caesar. Well, these are the blind guides Jesus warned about throughout his ministry. And you know why they were blind? You know what happened to them? In Matthew 15, Jesus says what happened to them.

37:30They preferred their tradition over the commandments of God. They preferred their traditions over the commandment of God. And that led them to be blind to the truth, plugged their ears to the truth, and they got to where they couldn't tell the difference. And they got to where they preferred their tradition, their ways, over the word of God. And this is what postured these individuals to lead the people into national tragedy. Jesus said in verse 14 of Matthew 15, Let them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit. Well, here they are, blind guides, leading, they themselves leading into a pit, and all those behind them. Now, what is the pit? The pit is this national tragedy, rejecting their true king, abandoning the promise of a king.

38:37And the subsequent history of the Jewish people is very sad. Matthew 27, 25, you hear these horrible words: His blood shall be on us and on our children. Sadness. Caesar proved to be unsympathetic to their cause. Right? Here they are. We have no king but Caesar. Maybe they didn't really believe that. It's obvious they revolted against him, but certainly we have no king but Caesar. And Sievets are proved to be very unsympathetic to their cause. They were expelled from the land. They've been out of the land, or they experienced time out of the land much longer than they were in the land.

39:29And they were not treated well in many of the nations that they have been. Pilgrim, Holocaust. In fact, I don't know if I've visited a city in Europe or even in Eastern Europe where there were not Jewish ghettos. And you could go and see today. This world speaks of the truth of this Christ. It speaks of the truth of the rejection of this Christ. And they were led into such rejection by those who preferred their tradition over the clear teaching of Scripture.

40:18So, John 19, verse 16, so then he handed them over, handed him over to them to be crucified. In other words, yes, handed him. Over, gave in to their wishes to be crucified. Well, certainly, three portraits laid out for us. We see Jesus, the man of eternal goodness, Pilate, a man of temporary power, and chief priest, the men behind a national tragedy. And I wanted you to look at these this morning so that you and I will pay homage to the true king, to our king.

41:00That we would not only avert ourselves from national tragedy, but personal tragedy. A soul rejecting his or her creator, that is personal tragedy. If you have rejected him, that is personal tragedy. And I would say not giving him everything he is due is also personal tragedy. To miss the man of eternal goodness is to miss everything. Well, there's the big question. The big question comes out of these passages in history and almost get in trouble for just asking it, but it's one that comes out: who killed Jesus?

42:00Who killed him? You see, John had to explain this. John had, John, in his, he had to communicate. One of the number one apologetics that he's dealing with in his day is: okay, if the Jews rejected him and the Romans crucified him, how in the world can this be someone we should follow? It's one of the biggest apologetics that John is dealing with. And so he's showing that Jesus is a man in control. He was God in the flesh. He came and he did what he did willingly and out of his own volition. They handed him over unjustly, and Pilate himself found him innocent and yet crucified him anyway. So who killed Jesus? Romans? Well, certainly the Romans play their part. The Jews, of course, turn over. In fact, Jesus himself attributes them the greater sin.

43:09Or maybe you look back, you always will hear somebody say something like, you did it. Was it you who did it, right? You know, well, that's another one that comes out of this. You, Satan. Well, certainly Satan energized this whole system. Now, the human condition did. It. The human condition, our fallenness, that's what drove him to the cross. Certainly, there's truth in all of this, right? Jesus is Jesus. Yes, Jesus laid down his, he wanted to go to the cross. That's very clear. The Father, the Heavenly Father, yes, the Heavenly Father, He gave His Son for this purpose. Who put Him on the cross?

43:54Ultimately, God put Him on the cross. And all this, because in Genesis 1:26, God said, Let us make man in our image and according to our likeness. Let us make man who is going to have real volition, a free volition, and yet he's going to sin. And there's going to need to be payment. Yeah, I'd say the cross was brought about in the very beginning. The enterprise that God set Himself on doing necessitated that there would be a fall.

44:52It didn't make it. Or let me say that a fall was. Inevitable. And so payment for that fall was inevitable. So bring that today. What is church all about? As we think about doing homage, paying homage to our Lord Christ, what does homage look like today? Well, he's already laid this out for us. John 14, John 13. I've given you an example to love one another. And that's where he brings his disciples through all this. And as we finish the book of John, you're going to see this emphasis again. If you love me, if you're going to do homage to me, you're going to take care of those that I love.

45:52Just like Adam in the garden, God gave Adam everything, all of his faculties, so that he could serve and take care of the place that God put him in. And likewise, today, why has God given you a capacity, a redemption, giftings? What has he done? All of that that you might take care of that which he's given you and pay homage to him, not like the soul. You think about soldiers coming up, bowing down, hail, King of the Jews, and then, listen, we can do the very same thing by the way we relate to one another here at the church.

46:43And as we enter into this time of coming back as a body of Christ, let us do homage to the true King. Let us honor Him by loving His people and not by making church all about us, making it about Him and His people. Let's pray, Heavenly Father. Thank you. Thank you for this man of eternal goodness who is paraded around like a criminal. Father, we saw through the words of Scripture what the perfect man did and can do, and why you gave him his strength.

47:39You gave it so that it could be used for the benefit of your good pleasure, which is seeing a whole race of people just like him that would come forth. Honoring Him. And so we want to honor Him. Give us that capacity, give us that insight, give us that new spirit, renew us, revive us, strengthen us, help us use what you've given us to do homage to you.