Well, good evening. Let me begin by saying how grateful I am to be with you tonight and by expressing my admiration for King's Cross Church and for the wonderful work of ministry that the Lord is doing in your midst. As Pastor Nick said by way of introduction, it's been an absolute joy for me getting to know him over these past two years. very encouraged by all of the reports of how God is working in this church and I just want to say on behalf of Emmanuel Reformed Baptist Church that we are personally praying for you for this congregation on a regular basis at least once a month we are interceding on your behalf at our prayer meeting and it is a joy to be able to lock arms together here in the Pacific Northwest to serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and to be gathered here tonight to remember what took place some 2,000 years ago on that fateful Friday. As we find ourselves gathered together on what has been deemed Good Friday, I wonder if we truly understand what we are declaring to a watching world as we take the time to gather for this service. Think about what we're doing here this evening. Some of us have taken time off of work to be here. Some of us have braved the Seattle traffic over the course of a lengthy drive to be here. Some of us have even temporarily set aside pressing issues in our personal lives to be in this place. And yet, regardless of the circumstances that have led us to this particular moment, everybody has nevertheless made it a priority to be here tonight. We're here tonight to remember the gruesome death of a man who claimed to be God. We're here to worship that same man as the one who would be resurrected some three days later, thereby vindicating everything that he claimed to be and everything that the scriptures foretold of God's Messiah, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. My friends, may we never allow ourselves to join the other millions of other Christians and non-Christians who will engage in Good Friday services like this one without giving any real thought to what it is that we're actually doing, to what it is that we are actually choosing to identify ourselves with. May we never allow ourselves, brethren, to grow apathetic to those astounding claims that are connected with Good Friday, that are connected with what we will be celebrating come Resurrection Sunday in just a few days from this time. as late 20th century author Norman Anderson has rightly said, and I quote, Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday is not primarily a comfort, but a challenge. It's either infinitely more than a beautiful story, or else it is infinitely less. If what is remembered on Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday is true, then it is the supreme fact of history. And to fail to adjust one's life to its implications means irreparable loss. Anderson concludes, but if it is not true, Christ is not risen from the dead, then the whole of Christianity is a fraud, foisted on the world by a company of consummate liars, or at best, deluded simpletons, end quote. The stakes could not be any higher as we find ourselves here on Good Friday, as we anticipate resurrection Sunday. If Jesus was not God incarnate, if Jesus was not the Messiah, if Jesus was not put to death to bear the wrath of God in the place of all who would ever be saved throughout human history, if Jesus was not bodily resurrected three days after his crucifixion so as to demonstrate God the Father's acceptance of His once for all sacrifice. If Jesus did not ascend to the right hand of God the Father in heaven, then everything that we're doing here tonight, and everything that we'll be participating in over the course of this weekend, is just a big waste of time. It will be absolutely futile to our soul If what we remember here tonight and this weekend be not true, and as the Apostle Paul says, if it be not true, then we are of all men the most to be pitied. Yet insofar all of these claims are true, as revealed to us in the New Testament, there's nothing more precious for us to remember than what was accomplished. through the death that Jesus endured on that Friday some 2,000 years ago, through His bodily resurrection that would occur on the following Sunday. And it's with a firm commitment to Scripture's claims regarding the person and work of Jesus Christ that I want to use the remainder of this Good Friday service to walk through verses 16 to 30 of John 19. John chapter 19 and looking at verses 16 to 30 over the course of our time together this evening. This will be a 30,000 foot flyover of this text. We'll not be able to exhaust all the wonderful eternal truths that are contained in this portion of God's Word. But nevertheless, we find in this narrative The Apostle John's eyewitness account of the events immediately preceding Jesus' crucifixion. And for our purposes here this evening, as we find ourselves preparing our hearts and minds for Resurrection Sunday, I want to invite us to linger for a few moments here, over the next few moments, over the next few minutes that we have together. And I want us to consider from John 19, verses 16 to 30, four timeless responses to the person and work of Jesus Christ. Four timeless responses to the person and work of Jesus Christ. In the final analysis, every individual who encounters the biblical Jesus will inevitably find themselves responding in one of the ways that are portrayed in this portion of John's Gospel, and that includes every person who happens to be gathered here tonight. So as we progressively unpack this narrative that will climax with Christ at the cross, my prayer for you, and my prayer even for myself, is that God would enable us to honestly determine how we've responded to the person of Jesus Christ up to this point in our lives. That every person might leave this service with a proper response to Jesus, and especially that we would do so in the buildup to Sunday. So, join me now as we turn our attention to verses 16 to 22. The first timeless response to the person and work of Jesus Christ as modeled by Pontius Pilate. Notice with me a response of self-preservation. A response of self-preservation. We're told in verse 16 that Pontius Pilate delivered Jesus over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and He went out bearing His own cross to the place called the place of a skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. And there they crucified Him, and with Him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priest of the Jews said to Pilate, do not write the king of the Jews, but rather this man said, I am the king of the Jews. And Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written. Brethren, this testimony from the Gospel of John reveals Pontius Pilate as a man who chiefly prioritized self-preservation at all costs. In addition to what we have just read from verses 16 to 22, we perhaps most clearly see Pilate's propensity towards self-preservation by harmonizing what we find previously in the chapter, namely in verses 4, 6, 7, 8, and 12. On two distinct occasions, John describes Pilate publicly declaring that he found no grounds for crucifying Jesus, and he even mentions Pilate making an effort to have Jesus released from custody. It's only after being accused of opposing Caesar Tiberius that Pilate acquiesces to the agenda of the Jewish religious authorities. And in doing so, Pilate sentences Jesus to death by crucifixion so as to appease those who zealously desire to see him executed, and at the same time, to appease his own conscience and to preserve his own life. Notice Pilate He even ascribes the King of the Jews on the plaque that was affixed to the top of Jesus' cross. We're told in Matthew 27-24 that at the time of Jesus' arraignment, Pilate took water and he stood before the crowd and he washed his hands saying, I am innocent of this man's blood. See to it yourself. Even though Pilate served as governor in the Roman province of Judea and Samaria from 26 to 36 AD, we don't know how much familiarity that he had with Christ prior to this encounter. But as we learned from John 19, 7 through 11, Pilate has now been directly confronted with the claim that had been circulating throughout the Roman Empire over the previous three years. He was told that Jesus had made Himself out to be the Son of God. And Pilate's response to this news was that of great fear. Here was a man who had the authority to release Jesus. To spare Jesus from receiving the unjust administration of capital punishment. Here was a man who was perhaps beginning to even wonder, could it be? Might there be truth to the claims of Jesus' divinity? I find no fault in this innocent man. Even Pilate's wife was quick to warn him in the midst of dealing with Jesus in the moments immediately preceding his crucifixion. We are told in Matthew 27, 19, she begged him, Pilate, have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream. And yet even with this degree of exposure to the identity of Christ, it was far too costly for Pilate to sincerely inquire as to whether these things were so. In the midst of being faced with public accusations of treason, Pilate knew that his political career and even that of his own life would be in great jeopardy if he released Jesus. And if he inquired all the more further, is this the Son of God? Even if this man is innocent of any crime, Pilate surely was reasoning around this time. Even if these claims about him being the Son of God are true. And what a wonderful truth that might be. I just can't allow my life to be negatively impacted by all of this. And is this not the same response? Is this not the same thought process that many exhibit after being granted with a glimpse of Christ's person and work as it is revealed to us in the Word of God? They hear the remarkable claims about Christ. They begin to ponder whether there is any legitimacy to those claims. They perhaps find themselves experiencing some sort of emotional response, such as a fear of hell. Perhaps even an emotional feeling of affection toward Jesus. And yet as soon as they discover the real cost of following Jesus, As soon as they begin to conceptualize what it might look like to identify with Him, they're quick to dismiss Him unto their own self-preservation. Even if that be true, I just can't ruin my life. My friends, this is man's first timeless response to Christ as depicted through the character of Pontius Pilate. Rejection unto self-preservation. And this organically leads us to a second timeless response that we find in verses 21 and even verse 20. Verses 20 and 21. We've already read those verses, so for the sake of time, I'm not going to re-read them for us. You can see them again in your Bible if you've forgot what they say. But in this second timeless response, I want to set before you a response of religious hard-heartedness. A response of religious hard-heartedness. The more you read through the account leading up to Jesus' crucifixion, the more staggering it becomes to see the hatred that the Jewish religious authorities had for the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, it would have been wicked enough to orchestrate an uprising against an innocent man, and having him flogged to the brink of death, and thrown into Roman imprisonment, or even put to death through a means like stoning. That would have been bad enough. But never mind the fact that this innocent man, he also claimed to be the son of God. He performed indisputable miracles at a rate that had never been seen in human history. He spoke with a measure of authority and wisdom that could only be attributed to God himself. And yet if all this wasn't already the highest pinnacle of corruption and injustice by men who were supposed to be Israel's spiritual leaders, they chose to collaborate with their Roman oppressors. And they facilitated one of the most horrific forms of capital punishment that can be found anywhere in human history. Have you ever wondered what drives a person or a group of people to zealously desire seeing a person of this stature bear His own cross to the streets of Jerusalem, to be led to a notorious area for public executions that was called the Place of the Skull, and to have metal spikes driven through the wrists and feet of that man so as to hang naked on the cross outside of the city gates, being mocked and ridiculed and laughed at. And on top of all of that, to be left to die, suffocating under the weight of his own body, alongside two wicked men, all deserving of the punishment that they received in their crucifixion. Have you ever wondered What fueled those volatile declarations from the religious elite? Crucify him! Crucify him! We want Barabbas! That man's not our king! Get him out of our sight! He's an imposter! He saved others! He cannot even save himself. What is it that motivates this kind of religious hard-heartedness that we see manifested in the Jewish religious authorities? What culminated this graphic scene? What led to this point in the gospel narrative? Well, we certainly know it was not due to a lack of evidence regarding the person and work of Jesus Christ. These men, The Jewish religious authorities, they witnessed Jesus perform many miracles as indisputable attestation to his divine personhood. They'd heard Jesus teach with greater ability and with greater wisdom than any other prophet or teacher to be raised up by God throughout redemptive history. They'd been confronted with undeniable proof that Jesus fulfilled numerous Old Testament prophecies that were reserved for the Messiah. These men could not justify their efforts to crucify Jesus on the basis of any legal or logical or theological grounds. And yet, here we are. But God is to this point. Well, aside from ignorantly fulfilling the predetermined plan and purpose of Almighty God, these men, these Jewish religious leaders, they were willing to set aside every indicator of Jesus' true identity, and they did so because they loved their own religious ideals more than they loved God's. Listen to how John describes this perspective in verses 47 to 53 of chapter 11. This is what led them to the moment we have read of in John chapter 19. Verses 47 to 53 of John 11. Notice what we find in the narrative. We are told that the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, what are we to do? For this man, he performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and they'll take away both our place and our nation. One of them, Caiaphas, It was high priest that year said to them, you know nothing at all, nor do you understand that it's better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish. Caiaphas did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on, these men, the chief priests, the Pharisees, the Jewish religious authorities, from that day on, they made plans to put Jesus to death. My brethren, this is a willingness to sacrifice truth at the expense of personal and self-centered religious agendas. And yet, even today, an all-too-common way, an all-too-common response that sinful man will offer when confronted with the biblical Jesus. Everybody loves Jesus. until he begins to challenge preconceived notions about what one ought to believe or how one ought to live. We love a Jesus that's not defined by the Word of God. We love a Jesus that condones our sin. But we don't love a Jesus that begins to expose hypocrisy in our lives. and convict us of unrepentant sin. Such was the case with Jesus' dealings with the Jewish religious authorities. Just as it was religious hard-heartedness that prompted hatred for Jesus in the first century, so also has this remained the case for every person who rejects Him on these grounds in every generation since. This world is full of men and women and even children who would like a Jesus made after their own image, versus the Jesus that came and died and was resurrected again in accordance with the Scripture. But there's a third timeless response to Christ's person and work that we find in this narrative in the Gospel of John. Given the contents of verses 23 and 24, we learn of a response of irreverent flippancy. A response of irreverent flippancy. An attitude of so what? What's the big deal about this man? Notice verse 23. The Apostle John continues to unfold the drama by saying that when the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts. One part for each soldier. Also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, so they said to one another, let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to see whose it shall be. This was to fulfill the scripture which says, they divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Now, this stage of John's eyewitness account is intended to draw the reader's attention to the Roman soldiers, which really is a continuation of what was already portrayed back in verses 2 and 3 of this same chapter. We also read of this in some of the passages that we read prior to this message. We're previously told that these men, the Roman soldiers, they twisted together a crown of thorns to put onto Jesus's head. They arrayed him in a purple robe. They struck him with their hands and they sarcastically mocked Jesus amongst themselves. And then they crucified him. And it's clear that nothing has changed in their attitude up to this point in the story. These soldiers stand in the shadow of the cross without showing any concern for the agony that Jesus is enduring in these final hours of his life. From their perspective, Jesus was nothing more than another assignment to be carried out, another subject to be executed. These soldiers couldn't care less about the animosity that the Jewish religious leaders had for Jesus. They had no awareness. And they're part of fulfilling Old Testament prophecy. They showed no interest to investigate whether Jesus was actually the Son of God. Matthew 27.54 actually tells us that it's only in the aftermath of an earthquake following Jesus' death that at least one of these men finally had their eyes opened. Truly, this man was the Son of God. But at this stage in the narrative, these Roman soldiers confirm precisely what the Apostle Paul writes in a text like 1 Corinthians 1.18 and 1 Corinthians 1.23. That the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. And that a crucified Christ is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. As we gather here tonight at Kings Cross Church, there are currently untold amounts of people in the greater Seattle area that think we are absolutely crazy for wasting a Friday night to be here. As they drive by our parking lot, perhaps some are talking in the car with their family or thinking to themselves, what's it going to take for these religious wackos to get through their head? There's no God. There's no life after death. And even if there is, do they really think that some crucified guy is the only way to experience it? Such a weak, insignificant figure? I mean, think about all the stuff they're missing out on by wasting their time on that Jesus nonsense. These are just a few of the G-rated samples of the mocking that most of us have heard, at least at some point in our life. Perhaps some of us were even guilty of participating in such mockery prior to our time of conversion. But just as the Roman soldiers were consumed with matters of the present world as they fought over Jesus' belongings and scoffed at his helpless state some 2,000 years ago, so also will myriads of sinners continue to do the same, and they've done so in every era since. They hear about the biblical Jesus, And they're flippant toward the claims. They're irreverent toward the cross of Christ. They mock the identity of Jesus. And they follow Pilate. And they follow the Jewish religious authorities, ultimately in their rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ, as they plunge themselves to eternal judgment and hell. That brings us to a final timeless response to the person and work of Jesus Christ that we need to consider in the final moments that we have together. This ultimately, this fourth and final timeless response, it ultimately stands in contrast to each of the three that we've considered. We encounter it in verses 25 to 30, and we could summarize this response as a response of sincere devotion. And I hope and pray this is our response tonight. A response of sincere devotion. We find it in John 19, verses 25 to 30. Notice with me. Standing by the cross of Jesus, where his mother and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, and imagine the agony that Christ is experiencing in this moment. The wrath of God poured out upon him for the sin of all who would ever believe, and the physical torment at the cross. And he looks to his mother. Woman, behold your son, pointing to John. And John, behold your mother. I wish we could unpack that, but we don't have the time. Verse 27 continues. From that hour, the disciple took her to his own home. And after this, Jesus, knowing that all was now fulfilled, said to fulfill the scripture, I thirst. A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit. While there's so much to potentially glean from this series of verses, I just want us to focus on two key aspects of the text over the next few moments. First, notice the willingness of John and the three Marys to follow Jesus all the way to death. Despite all of Christ's other disciples running away in fear of their life, this quartet of believers were prepared to boldly and publicly stand with their Lord all the way until the very end. Even if it meant having to face their own death. Nothing was going to stand in the way of John and these women being in the presence of Christ as his earthly life came to a close. Friends, this is a picture of sincere devotion to Christ, which is the overflow of saving faith. This is a practical example of what it looks like to embrace the teaching of Matthew 16, verses 24 and 25. That if anyone would come after Jesus, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Him. For whoever would save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Jesus' sake will find it. If we are to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, this remains our timeless standard. We are to respond to His person and His work with a sincere devotion, even if it leads us to suffer or to die for Christ. But as we discover from a second aspect of verse 25 to verse 30, We can have unshakable hope in the midst of potentially suffering and in the midst of potentially dying because Christ's suffering and Christ's death on the cross was not done in vain. After hanging on that cross for some six hours, after bearing an eternity's worth of divine wrath for the sins of everyone who would ever believe, Jesus declared the greatest promise that we find recorded in the pages of Scripture. This wasn't a whisper of a defeated man. This was a proclamation of a triumphant and conquering king. Tetelestai! It is finished! And he gives up his spirit. And he guarantees perfect atonement that every person that the Father sent him into this world to save would be perfectly and fully reconciled to Almighty God. Regardless of how disobedient we may have been in relationship to God's commandments. Regardless of how grievously you and I have sinned against a thrice holy God. Regardless of how wicked our past may be. Regardless of what all of us may have brought into this place. We can know on the basis of this perfect work of atonement made by the God-man Jesus Christ. That everlasting forgiveness is freely and forever found in Him. Think of the finality of Christ's atoning work. When He cried, it is finished, He perfectly accomplished the reconciliation of all the elect. Think of the sufficiency of Christ's atoning work. There's nothing for believing sinners to do so as to add to Jesus' once for all finished work of atonement. Think of the exclusivity of Christ's work of atonement. There's no other means of being reconciled to holy God. There's no one else to pursue. than that of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think of the eternality of Christ's eternal work. All sinners who've been reconciled to God will never again be in a place of alienation and estrangement and judgment. Your sins are forgiven. You're an adopted son or daughter in Christ if you would come to Him by repentance and faith alone. Think of the sovereignty of Christ's atoning work at the cross. He willfully goes to the cross, and He willfully offers His life, and He willfully declares with finality, it is finished. I paid it all for My Beloved. Are you resting in that sacrifice tonight? Have you come to this man, this God-man, Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect life that we owe to God but have never rendered to God for a second? He died bearing the full penalty that you and I deserve to receive for our sins committed against a holy God. It pleased the Father to crush Him that we might only know His smile for all time in eternity future if we would only come to Christ by faith. And as we'll celebrate in just a couple of days, He was resurrected from the grave. And the Father put His stamp of approval upon Christ's work, His active and passive obedience for us. Have you responded to this one, the one mediator between holy God and sinful man, Jesus Christ, with sincere devotion? Or are you in one of the other three categories here tonight? My prayer for all of us would be that as we enter into the Lord's Day, this Resurrection Sunday on the heels of what we've done tonight, worshiping together on Good Friday, that there would not be a single one of us who has yet to come to sincere devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a friend. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for sending your Son into this world to perfectly accomplish salvation. A salvation that is exclusively to be found through trusting in His perfect life, His substitutionary death at the cross, His bodily resurrection from the grave. Truths that we do remember and celebrate every Lord's Day, but we especially do so at this time of year, this special time. that we have to consider how Your Word declares salvation is found and accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ. May every person here, Father, if they've not done so already, Would they come to respond to Christ's person and work with a sincere devotion that they would repent, turn away from their life of rebellion against you. And that they would freely receive by faith all that Jesus is. That they would know reconciliation to their God. and eternal citizenship in your household and family of faith. Bless us now, Father, as we prepare to dismiss in the moments to come, and prepare us to gather again with our church families on the upcoming Lord's Day. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.