John 19, 12 through 16, page 905. Lila and I were driving down Queens Boulevard this week. We were getting cookies, of course. We had to go get cookies. And before Thanksgiving, we were noting that the Christmas lights were already up. They are very pretty, the blue and white lights in Sunnyside there on Queens Boulevard. And next Sunday, of course, does officially begin the Advent season in many or maybe most churches. I have not yet decided if I'm going to go on my annual Christmas Scrooge tirade. Maybe not. It's probably a lost cause at this point. But I do like Christmas carols. I just think we should sing them year round. As biblically, remember, there's no church calendar except for the weekly calendar. Anthony nailed this opening up. There are no holy days except for this day and next Sunday and the next Sunday and the next Sunday when we celebrate the birth, life, death, and resurrection of our Lord 52 times a year. Again, that's really neat. What if we got excited about the birth of our Savior 52 times a year instead of supposedly getting excited about the birth of our Savior once a year by really getting excited about presents and decorations and Santa Claus and all that stuff. But I said I wasn't going to do the tirades, so I'm not going to. I already did it. Christmas carols, though, I love them. What do we sing about so frequently in so many of our Christmas carols? What child is this? This, this is Christ the King. Hark the herald, glory to the newborn King. Joy to the world, joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her king. O holy night, behold your king, before him lowly bend. O come, all ye faithful, O come and behold him, born the king of angels. O come, O come, Emmanuel, O come, O king of nations, bind, be yourself our king of peace. your king. Last week, from verse 5, behold the man, ece homo. This week, behold your king, verse 14, ece rex. Rex is just king in the Latin. One of my favorite Puritan paperbacks is called The Letters of Samuel Rutherford. Rutherford was a 17th century Scottish pastor. He is one of the authors of our Statement of Faith. Remember, we have some Presbyterian friends with us here. We love you, Presbyterian friends. They had the perfect Statement of Faith, almost, so we stole it and we just tweaked it, slightly tweaked it. But Rutherford was one of the authors of the Westminster Confession of Faith that we so loved. But he also was a brilliant philosopher and political theorist, and he wrote a book in the middle of the English Civil War titled Lex Rex, or The Law and the King. It's one of the most important works of political philosophy ever written, and it would play an important role in the American Declaration of Independence and the Revolution and our Constitution. And Rutherford was writing into an ongoing debate, is it rex, lex, or is it lex, rex? Is it the king is law, or is it the law is king? And notice what this is an argument over. This is an argument over authority. That was last week. And that's this week. Everything comes down to authority. Well, politically, the argument then was, is the ultimate and final authority the king, or is the ultimate and final authority the law? And we know how the debate turned out, as we have in our country. Not a king, but a constitution. Not a lord, but a law. Again, that's not what we're talking about today. We are talking about far more important things as we behold your king. And as we do, we see both Rex and Lex, King and Law, perfectly come together in this one who is Revelation 19.16, King of Kings. That's also Handel's Messiah, more Christmas music. And he shall reign forever and ever, forever and ever, hallelujah, hallelujah. And if that's true, It would be wise for us to consider this Christ who is king and to consider if we are with him and if he is for us. The Jewish authority is about to say to the Roman authority, if you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Caesar is the king of the world. We've seen that Christ's kingdom is not of this world. And so I want you to be considering this morning whose friend Are you? Friendship is simply companionship and communion rooted in common interest. You either have companionship and communion with Caesar or Christ, with one king or another. Examine with which do you have most in common, with which are your interests most aligned? Who is your authority? Is it Caesar or is it Christ? Behold your king. What is your king? be considering that as we behold the king. We have five points to help us to structure and order our time. We're going to first behold Pilate's dilemma and your and mine as well. Then second, we want to come back to the friend idea and behold Caesar's friend. Then third, we will behold judgment's seat, behold Passover's fulfillment. And then finally, we want to behold Christ's crucifixion. Here is the king, and he has come, and this is what he has come to do. This is how he exercises his all authority. So please, this morning, behold your king. Let me read the text for you first. This is the most important part. This is the living and active word of God. So please pay attention as I read it for you. I'm going to read starting in verse 1 and read all the way to verse 16 just to set the context and get us into our text. But we will focus on verses 12 through 16. Please pay attention. This is what God wants to say to you today. John 19, verse 1. 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 struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, See, I am 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. Pilate said to them, Behold, the man. When the chief priests and the 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 him no answer. So Pilate said to him, you will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you? Jesus answered him, you would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given 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 a place called the stone pavement and an Aramaic Gabbatha. Now it was the day of preparation of 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 to them, shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, we have no king but Caesar. So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. Bow with me and let's begin with a word of prayer. Fathers, we come this morning to these verses that record for us the most important thing that has ever happened. Father, the thing upon which our lives and our eternities hang. Father, we pray that you would help us to give much attention to Christ, our King. To Christ, our crucified King. Father, we are called here to behold this man and to behold this King. Father, we know But until He returns, we behold Him by faith and we behold Him through this Word through which Your Spirit works to reveal Yourself to us and relate Yourself to us. So Father, these next few minutes are very important as we get to sit under Your Word, under the reading and the preaching of Your Word. Father, you have ordained to work through your word and to work through weak and imperfect vessels like me as I seek to faithfully and accurately proclaim and apply that word. Father, please help me and please help us. Father, help me to get out of the way. Help every single one of us to get out of our own ways as we seek to pay attention to that which is of most importance. Father, show us who our king really is. Father, show us Christ who really is the King. And we ask that you would draw us to Him this morning. And we ask this only in His name. Amen. Point number one, we first behold Pilate's dilemma. And just to be clear, Pilate's dilemma is your dilemma and mine. Pilate is confronted with a choice, as are we all, all the time. Our passage begins in verse 12. Look at it. It begins with from then on, Pilate sought to release him from when on. And why is Pilate seeking to release him? Well, because as we've seen, Pilate is convinced that Christ is innocent. It's been repeated three times, 1838, 19 four and six. Pilate says, I find no guilt in him. Yes, Pilate is a monster. We know that from history. But he's not a complete monster. There's a little bit of lingering morality here. He's obviously sharp, as this amazing back and forth between Pilate and Christ has demonstrated. He's obviously a shrewd political operator, as he holds this difficult and dangerous position for a long time. he probably understands that it's not generally wise or pleasant to run around slaughtering innocent people unnecessarily. Plus, he's convinced that there is something about this Christ. He doesn't know what it is. He can't place his finger on it. But remember, Pilate's wife has just come to him and warned Pilate, saying, hey, have nothing to do with that righteous man as she's been troubled. in some dreams concerning Christ. The Jews have just told Pilate in verse 7 that Jesus has been making himself out to be the Son of God. And when Pilate hears this, he's even more afraid. So Pilate, the authority, representing the authority, the most powerful man in the world, Caesar the king, he's come into contact with Christ the king overall, the king of kings. He's questioned him. He's listened to him. He has heard Jesus say that he is a king of a kingdom that is not of this world. He's heard Jesus say that he has entered into this world to bear witness to the truth, and that anyone and everyone of the truth listens to his voice. He's heard him claim that there's an authority even over Caesar. What a privileged man this pilot is, first off. And not privileged because of his position in power, but privileged because he got to stand before the king. He got to hear words out of the king's mouth, converse with and be confronted by the one who is the way and the truth and the life. And Pilate knows that this man is innocent and he knows that there is something about this man. Behold the man. Pilate has gotten to behold him. He's seen the Christ and he has heard the Christ. Here's the point I want to make at the beginning. So have you. If you have been coming these last three years, as we have walked slowly through this gospel according to John, this good news according to John, that he wrote down for a purpose. We're finally getting close to the purpose statement we've probably read hundreds of times. Next chapter, 20-31. Why is this here? Well, this is written, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ. the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. So John writes this thing that you may behold Christ, that you may behold your king, that you may see him and hear him. John was commissioned by Christ, empowered by the Spirit, not just to write down his own words, but God's words, living and active words that work and that work by showing us this man who is also king, this Jesus who is Christ, the Son of God, that whom beholding and believing is somehow life itself. How is that? Well, we're coming to that. But if you have been coming these last three years, or this last little bit, or even just today, in fact, if you have ever sat under the faithful preaching of God's Word, I'm not even talking about hearing a great sermon. I've been preaching for 10 years. I don't know if I have yet preached a great sermon. I'm simply talking about a sermon that has sought to open up the Word of God. Read the Word of God, faithfully explain and apply that Word all revolving around this Christ that the Word is all about. If you've ever done that, then you too have been confronted with the Christ. You too have seen him and you have heard him. You are in Pilate's same position and you are confronted with Pilate's same dilemma. From then on, Pilate sought to release him. And there's something about this Christ, something compelling to Pilate. He wants to release him. He wants to respond to him and relate to him in a way, at least somewhat, that is mildly understanding and positive. But, rest of verse 12, but, The Jews cried out, if you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. Pilate's got privilege, but Pilate's also got pressure. Behold Pilate's dilemma, and behold yours. Pilate has a choice to make, and so do you. But as we begin, I want you to see that Pilate is in some way drawn to Christ. I want you to recognize that he recognizes something right and true about Christ. He even believes some right and true things about Christ. He wants to, in some way, respond in a positive way to Christ. But here is what is going to be very clear and what you must hear. There is no neutrality. when it comes to Christ. There are ultimately only two responses to this Christ, who is the King. And so this is Pilate's dilemma. And this is the dilemma that really confronts and faces everyone who has ever lived, always. Point number two. Now, we know what he's gonna pick. Let's behold Caesar's friend. More verse 12, the pressure's on. This is a masterful play on the part of the Jews. And I will keep reminding you, the term Jews in John is not an ethnic designation for the people in general. Remember, John employs it as a technical term to refer specifically to the Jewish religious authorities. So look at verses 14 and 15. Pilate says to the Jews in verse 14, the chief priests answer, in verse 15. So again, those are the same things. So when you read Jews, read the religious authorities, the scribes, the Pharisees, the chief priests. So this is a battle of authority. This is a battle between the Jewish religious authorities and the Roman political authorities, a battle between the Jews and Pilate. And it's hard to know for sure some of the historical chronology here, but there's potentially even more going on than we are aware of. Remember, these are real people. This is history. This happened. And we know that the emperor at this time, the king, Tiberius Caesar, is a pretty paranoid and unstable man. Josephus tells us that before this point the Jews have already gone to Tiberius and complained to him about Pilate before, so there would be no doubt in Pilate's mind that they would do it again. And we also know that Friend of Caesar, at least by the time John was writing, had become an official Roman title. A Friend of Caesar was a title that acknowledged the supporters of the king, and thus also affirmed who had the king's support. What we don't know is the timing of some of the events going on in Rome in relation to the crucifixion here in Jerusalem. There was, at this time, an important man named Siannus who had become Tiberius's sort of second in command. There's a famous line that's used a lot here. There's a Roman historian, Tacitus, writing here in the first century. And he writes, the closer a man is with Sionis, the stronger his claim is to the emperor's friendship. And many argue that this man, Sionis, was the one who appointed Pilate to this position in Israel. The problem, sometime right around here, Sionis makes a play for more power. Tiberius is absent, he's away from Rome. Sionis makes his move, attempts to overthrow Tiberius Caesar. Doesn't work out very well, bad idea. Caesar has him and anyone and everyone associated with him quickly executed. And has that just happened? We can't be sure. But maybe, are the Jews playing off of that? Hey, Pilate. Your friend, Sionis, your sponsor, your connection, your claim on Caesar's friendship? Caesar just killed him. How is this paranoid Caesar, having just executed competition to his throne, going to respond when he hears that you released a man who makes himself a king, who makes himself a competition to his throne, who opposes Caesar? If you release this man, you are not Caesar's. Friend, there is great threat there. This is Pilate's dilemma. The loss of Caesar's friendship and support risk not just the loss of Pilate's privilege and position, but the loss of Pilate's very life. So let's not minimize the seriousness and the significance of the choice confronting Pilate. Pilate stands to lose everything in doing the right thing. He can lose all things, and the Jews know this, and so they press home the point confronting Pilate. Hey, listen, it's simple. It's Caesar or it's Christ. It's Tiberius the king or it's Christ the king. It's Caesar's friend or Christ's friend. And remember, we've actually seen this word recently, just a few hours before this. Back in chapter 15, Jesus uses this same friend word. Remember, chapter 15 is, I am divine, you are the branches apart from me, you can do nothing. John 15, 14, Jesus says, you are my friends, same word, philos, you are my friends if you do what I command you. Verse 15, I have called you friends for all that I have heard from my father I have made known to you. Now, remember, I'm sure you all remember well my sermon on chapter 15 many months ago. We need to be very careful in our understanding and our use of that friend word there. Remember the old hokey song that's on YouTube, the Jesus is my friend song that I hate so much. Nowhere in scripture is Jesus ever called our friend. Nowhere in scripture is God ever called the friend of anyone. We need to be really, really careful about that. Jesus is not my buddy. We are not peers. or acquaintances. The amazing thing is that he is Lord, and that he is King, and that he is Savior, and he is everything, and yet he still calls us his friend. Again, that doesn't go both ways. Just be careful with that. Notice that he says, you are my friends if you do what I say to you. So surely we cannot say to Jesus, hey Jesus, you're my friend if you do what I say to you. That's how we often approach most of our prayers. Here's the thing that you need to do, so here, do this thing. No, the point of that, just be careful with this friend concept. It's wonderful, it's precious, it's intimate, it's great. Let's make sure we use it carefully and correctly. But again, here's where the contrast and the choice between Caesar's friend or Christ's friend can be helpful. Remember, friendship is companionship and communion rooted in some sort of common interest. Or to annoy you with alliteration, companionship and communion rooted in common care and concern. Come on. Companionship and communion rooted in common care and concern. But notice that when Christ defines our friendship with him, notice that he specifically connects that friendship to obedience and to revelation. Obedience and revelation. You're my friends if you do what I say. You are my friends for I have revealed to you the Father's word and will. So this kind of brings us back full circle to what I want to focus on for the rest of our time, back to this fundamental question and issue. If friendship is obedience and revelation, then the question that you need to ask yourself is, who are you listening to and who are you obeying? Revelation and obedience, who are you listening to and who are you obeying? Which means that we are right back to the question of authority. Says who? Who are you required to listen to? Who really has not just the power, but the right? Remember, it's not just power, it's not just might, but it's right. The right to determine, declare, design, decide, do. That's authority. And I'm really kind of trying to bang this drum and encourage you to understand that authority is everything. Everything comes down to authority. All of our cultural insanity, everything that is happening is revolving around this question of authority. Is there some sort of authority external to us and outside of the self, or is there not? And if we are the only authorities in our own lives, everything comes down to that. And Jesus, the authority, tells us that we are his friends only if we receive his revelation. and do what he commands. This is simply what it means to be a Christian. My next line here says, this is what we talked about in Sunday school, but I didn't even get there. We still ran out of time, I did such a poor job and time use that we didn't even get here. But discipleship is this, a disciple is one who follows Christ the King. Matthew 16, 24, Christ the King tells us, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." So denying self as authority, dying to self as authority, and following Christ as authority, that's discipleship. And we need to recover that, and we need to reemphasize that. There are thousands, probably millions, sitting in churches today around this country who think that they are Christians, and they're simply not. And statistically, there are some in this very room as well. And it comes down to this issue of authority. We've been observing that since there seems to be a lot of confusion about what it even just means basically to be a Christian and how one becomes a Christian, that maybe it's time to step back and talk a little more specifically about soteriology. That's just a fancy word which means salvation, the doctrine of salvation. If all are sinners and the wages of sin is death, and death doesn't do, right? Dead people don't do anything. If that's the case, there's nothing more important than an accurate understanding of how God saves sinners. and what the result will be when he does, and how we can recognize that. So in the new year, once we finish up John's gospel, we're gonna take a few weeks, we haven't done a topical series in a long time, we almost never do it, but it's okay every now and then, but we're gonna take a few weeks to lay out for you systematically the doctrines of grace. For sinners, grace is our only hope. Do you know why that is? Do you know what grace is? Do you know how grace works? Do you know the result of God's grace? We're gonna tackle that together next year, for life is on the line. But for now, I want you to be asking yourself again, whose friend are you? Who are you listening to? Who are you obeying? I mean, companionship, likeness, who are you most like, the world or the word, Christ or Caesar? Caesar is the king of the world. Christ's kingdom is not of this world. And so James writes in 4.4, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Who are you listening to? What are you obeying? All right, what about Pilate? Let's get back to our text. Point number three. Let's behold judgment's seat. We've seen Pilate's dilemma. What's he going to do? Look at verse 13. So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the stone pavement and in Aramaic, Gabbatha. So Pilate's made his choice. He is declaring here his allegiance. We move very quickly from verse 12, from then on Pilate sought to release him, to verse 13. So when he heard these words, he brought Jesus out. All because of Pilate's desire to be Caesar's friend. And since he is Caesar's representative, since Pilate is the Roman authority in Israel, he's out of options. It's time for him to do his job and to exercise his authority. Verse 10, his authority to release the Christ or his authority to crucify the Christ. And so it's judgment time. And so they come out. There'll be this raised stone pavement. There will be this seat, almost like a throne, kind of sitting on that pavement. It's official. Here's where the judge sits. Think of a courtroom. Think of the judge up on his bench, exercising his authority, proclaiming his decisions and his judgments. That's what Caesar is doing. That's what he is sitting down on, judgment time. And again, this has been an important theme for John, all building and coming to a climax here. We read all the way back in 3.19, and this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and the people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. John 5.22, here's the important one that I want you to pay attention to on this judgment theme. Here's the point. Contrast is the point of much of this scene. You are supposed to see the seeming contrast between Christ the King and Christ the crucified. You are supposed to be captured and compelled and convinced by this contrast. And this contrast is so evident in verse 13. Listen to 522. Listen to what this Christ says in 522. The Father judges no one. but has given all judgment to the Son." John 5, 27. And He, the Father, has given Him, the Son, authority to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man. Don't miss that. Jesus is the judge. Sunday school this morning was Matthew 28, 18. All authority has been given. to me. Judgment is an exercise of authority. The Greek word krino means it just needs to pick out by separate. It means to separate out, to discriminate, to distinguish, to choose authoritatively and decisively. This is true. This is false. This is right. This is wrong. This is good. This is bad. Remember, this is now the right that our culture determines and declares that only you have for yourself. You're the one who gets to determine, decide, and declare these things for yourself. But the Bible claims very clearly that only God has that right, and only Christ has that right, this right to determine and declare and decide. Judgment is authority, and Jesus has it. He has all of it. Jesus is the authority as the king. He is also the judge. So we try to get this scene and the contrast of all this in your head. Remember the humiliation and the shame of verses one through five. Jesus has been beaten. He has been mocked. He has been crowned with thorns, arrayed in purple. And then he has been paraded out. Verse five. So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, Behold, the man. Remember, like dripping with scorn and contempt, behold, this pitiful, pathetic, weak, worthless spectacle of a man. This this is Christ the king. Look at him. Behold, The king treated with utter contempt as if he was completely worthless. And here we are again. Here he is brought out again. Verse 13. So Pilate brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat. Behold, the judge. Standing before and under the judgment of this cowardly, evil friend of Caesar, the judge. is himself about to be judged. Why? Point number four, behold Passover's fulfillment. Look at verse 14. Now, it was the day of preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. Stop. There are a couple of details that we need to sort out there before we can really continue. Notice that John writes that it was the day of preparation of the Passover. Some have taken that to mean that this must be Thursday. the day of the preparation for the Passover meal. And the Passover meal was Thursday night. So this must be before that on Thursday. But the other gospels, the synoptics, are clear that the Last Supper was a Passover meal. So that happened, remember, the night before this. All that upper room discourse. Jesus with the disciples. That's the Lord's Supper. That's the Passover meal. That means that this, the following morning, has to be Friday. Has to be Friday morning. And so Mark, puts it like this. Mark 15, 42 reads, it was the day of preparation that is the day before the Sabbath. And the Sabbath we know is Saturday. So again, I think that's what John means here as well. This is Friday. It's not the preparation for the Passover meal. Passover was a week-long affair. This was the day of preparation within that Passover week. It's the preparation for the Sabbath. of that Passover week. So again, I don't think there's some argue that there's conflict between John and the synoptics here. Look, John says it's Thursday. The others say it's Friday. I don't think so. I think John is saying that it's Friday as well. This is the day before the Sabbath. This is Friday. Now the time. This one's even harder. Much has been made of this one. Notice what John says. He says it was about the sixth hour. So the sixth hour from sunrise means that it's about noon. Why has been much made about that? Because Mark writes in 1525, and it was the third hour when they crucified him. And so the third hour would be about 9 in the morning. Mark says Jesus was crucified at 9 in the morning. John says that Pilate makes his pronouncement of condemnation at the sixth hour about noon. See the potential problem. let's consider a little more carefully what it is that they actually say. And to do so, we have to keep in mind that we are a time-consumed and controlled culture unlike any before. Our concept of time is completely different than everyone else's for thousands of years. We've all got digital devices in our pockets and on our wrists connected magically to satellites that tell us the time at any time down to the second I was grumbling to Melissa two weeks ago. I was trying to get back quickly for International Sunday. And so the Saturday night I was pulling up the service, I was preaching out in Long Island, you know, and I saw that Linbrook Baptist begins their service at 11.15. You can't start your service on the quarter of an hour. Hopefully Keith won't listen to this. But it has to be the hour or at least the half. A quarter's crazy. You just can't do that. But that would have been impossible in times past. Hey, like the synagogue service is gonna start at 11, 15 in the morning. No, that would have been impossible. They weren't running around with sundials in their pockets. And they weren't all that concerned with the minutia, the minutes of time. They didn't even have minutes. That wasn't even a marker that they used. Without clocks and electric lights, everything was based on the sun. And they broke the daytime down into four three-hour segments, beginning at sunrise and ending at sunset. And so when Mark says it was the third hour, he could refer to anything generally in the late morning. It doesn't mean, hey, 9 AM sharp, like it does for us. And when John says it was about the sixth hour, that could refer to a whole range of time before and after noon. 2,000 years ago, you could have two people look up at the sky and estimate the position of the sun. And one could say, oh, it's around the third hour. And the other would say, oh, it's around the sixth hour. And we could look down at our Apple Watch and be like, oh, well, it's 1057 exactly. They didn't have that. So there's no conflict here. Their time considerations were simply different than ours. These were approximations. This is sometimes late morning before noon because we know the crucifixion's coming. We know that darkness is going to settle on the land from about noon to about the ninth hour. There's no conflict between Mark and John. Let's get back to the point. What is the point here? The point is Passover. John could have just said, hey, it's Friday. He doesn't. He says, now it was the day of preparation of the Passover. John is intentionally and significantly and symbolically situating all of this in the context of the Passover. This somehow points back to the Passover, and the Passover somehow points forward to this. The Passover is a preparation For this, keep that in mind and then go back to the end of verse 14. Pilate said to the Jews, behold your king. This is it. All those Christmas songs, singing about a king. This is the point. This is the point of our text. This is the point of everything really, this king. But again, you can almost feel Pilate's contempt. Pilate knows he has lost. He has been confronted with a dilemma. He has made his choice. He has quickly capitulated. But he is going to go down swinging. He's going to take every shot that he can before he's done. And so he again mockingly puts Christ on humiliating display. I don't know about you, but is there anything that we hate more? than ridicule and to be mocked and to be considered. I don't dance, right, because of this, because of how much we hate this idea of being seen as foolish and silly. Look at what Christ is submitting himself to, this spectacle, the shame, the humiliation. Pilate is both mocking Christ and mocking the Jews, but we know that there is this beautiful irony and this beautiful double meaning that John loves to employ throughout his book and that he uses at its best here. And we know the beautiful and meticulous sovereignty of the God who decrees and directs all things. We know that Pilate speaks far better than he knows. He speaks to mock, but he speaks the truth, though he cannot see it. Though the Jews cannot hear it. But when John references the Passover, and then right away we hear this call, Behold. How can we not be driven back to the first Behold of the book? Anticipating this very moment, three years before this, when John, the willing witness, cries out in 129, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And now here is Pilate, the unwilling witness, crying out, Behold your king. The king, the Christ, is the Passover lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. How? Point number five. Behold Christ's crucifixion. And we're going to do that for the next couple of weeks. For after the incarnation itself, this is the most important thing that has ever happened. The most amazing thing that's ever happened is that God has become man. That God himself has entered into his own creation. And that's supposedly what we celebrate at Christmas. But the purpose of his doing that is the next most amazing thing that has ever happened. This God who has become man has come to die. And that's supposedly what we celebrate as Easter. So listen, there's nothing for us without this. There is only death for us. without this. So we will give to this great attention in the coming weeks as we consider the crucifixion of Christ, the king. Look at verse 15. They, the Jews, cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, we have no king but Caesar. It really is masterful how well John has constructed this whole account to communicate the core issue. The back and forth between Christ and Pilate has been all about power and authority. The back and forth between Pilate and the Jews has been all about power. and authority. Pilate is the political authority in Israel. The Jews are the religious authority in Israel. And standing in the center of it all is this beaten and bruised, suffering and shamed, reviled and ridiculed man. And as we've seen, it's he who has all the power and all the authority. And John has been preparing us for this all along. Jesus has been preparing us for this. Jesus spoke of this very moment back in 10 verse 18 when he says, no one, let me be clear ahead of time, 10, 18, no one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. Why? I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. He has authority over his life and over his death. Remember, this is the question. We cannot emphasize it and repeat it enough. Authority is everything. Who is your authority? Jesus is the authority, whether you recognize it or not. Authority is the right, the ability, the freedom to do what one desires. What does the king desire? What does Christ do? He dies. Verse 16. So Pilate delivered him over. delivered him over to them to be crucified. Christ the King condemned to be crucified. What are the charges again? I think this is important. Remember, the charges have been two, blasphemy and treason. Blasphemy has been the concern of the Jewish authorities first. Number 1033, you being a man, make yourself to be God. Treason is the concern of the Roman authorities. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. Jesus is on trial for blasphemy and treason. Jesus is going to be condemned for blasphemy and treason. Jesus is going to die for blasphemy and treason. Why? Because you're a blasphemer and because you are a traitor. And so am I. We saw it last week, 1 Peter 3.18, Christ suffered and died for sin. And what is sin? Sin is blasphemy. And sin is treason. From the beginning, Genesis 3.15, 3.5, Satan says, you will be like God. That's blasphemy. That's the lie that you are listening to. And that's what you are doing every time you sin, every single time. You will be like God. Blasphemy. Genesis 3, 1, and 4. Did God actually say, and you will not surely die? That's treason. That's the rejecting and disobeying the authority, the command of the king. Remember, sin is substitution. The very heart and soul of sin is man's blasphemous and treasonous attempt to be God. There can be only one God. And so in its attempt to be God, sin attempts to kill God, to kill the king. The killing of a king is regicide. The killing of God is deicide. Sin is deicide. It is God's would-be murderer. This is what you have done in your sin. This is what I have done. in my sin. This is the wretched, rebellious reality of sin. We have got to move beyond our simple, silly, slight conceptions of sin. Sin strikes at the very fabric of reality itself. Sin strikes at the deity himself. There's nothing more condemnable than the rejection of the authority over all. The good and gracious and benevolent and beautiful authority over all. and our attempts to be that authority ourselves. And you have done it, and I have done it, and this is why Christ has come. So if you are ever tempted, you're gonna be tempted this week, if you're ever tempted to minimize your sin, you know, this one, not a big deal. I've stopped doing this big thing, so this, eh, you know, comparatively light and little. Son, if you're ever tempted to minimize your sin and treat lightly with it, behold your King in John 19. Behold the authority, the judge, judged, condemned to be crucified for sin. This is what sin is. This is what sin deserves and demands. It is so terrible that the only thing that can be done about it is the death of God become man, Jesus Christ himself. And he does it. This is the gospel that is of first importance. This is the good news that while we were yet sinners, enemies of God, Christ died for us. That while we created an eternal death problem with our sin, God provided an eternal life solution with his son. The gospel is that the king has come to take the place of his wicked, rebellious subjects. The authority of life, the authority over life, has come to submit himself to death for us in our place. This is why soteriology is so important. This is why grace is so important. Man sins, God saves. Man sins, Christ dies. He does it. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, and dead doesn't do. The God of life does all for us that we might live. And that is why Jesus, the King and Judge and Authority over all, is willingly submitting himself to all of this suffering and shame and death at the hands of sinners. He's doing it for sinners. He is taking my place. Behold. your king. That's your application. It's behold, look, don't glance, look long at this Lord. I have used behold in every one of our points for the last two weeks. I've made every one of them an imperative beginning with behold on purpose because this is what we most need to do. This is the discipline we most need to learn, beholding the all-glorious Christ who is King, who is crucified. I am almost fully convinced that this is almost entirely our problem. I hope that if I stood up here, I hope that you would completely write me off if I stood up here and claimed to be a fitness expert or something. And then I told you, here's how you do it, here's what you do. You can get strong and fit in just one month by eating as much of whatever you want, and by sitting on your couch all the time, and by playing on a screen. No, that's dumb. You would laugh at me, you would not listen to me. For we know that's not how physical fitness and health works. And yet for some reason, We assume that we can develop spiritual fitness and health and spiritual mindedness with a similar lack of effort. But guess what? That's not how spiritual fitness and mindedness, that's not how maturity and peace and contentment and joy work either. It takes time and it takes a commitment to setting apart time for the setting of our minds on the Lord. One, it's the first psalm for a reason. The blessed man meditates on God's law day and night. What's the second psalm about? The King. God's law and God's King. Blessing. Rex and Lex. It all comes together in this Christ. And the blessing is found as we fix and fill our minds with Christ who is this King. And I'm increasingly convinced that it is our unwillingness to set aside this time and to put forth the grace-fueled effort to behold our King, to commune with our God. This has to be one of the primary reasons that we so enjoy so little contentment and joy and peace. Church, behold your King. That's what we're doing right now. But as long as my sermons are, that's not nearly enough time for you to behold your King. Think about it. What sustained Christ in this miserable moment? We know from Hebrews that it's the joy that was set before Him. We know that it was His knowledge of the father and of his communion and of his relationship with the father. I think one of the key components of that had to be his intimate understanding and awareness of the absolute sovereignty of God over every detail of his life. Remember, he's just said to Pilate that the only authority Pilate has over him is that which has been given to him by God, the sovereign God. And so, remember, we've been coming back to this point. John is making it very clear. John's doing things a little bit differently than the synoptics, but he wants it to be very clear that Christ is entirely in control here in this situation. Acts 2.23, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. Things seem entirely out of control here. They're not. This is the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. and be encouraged. If that's the case at this time, then that's the case all the time. If God has a definite plan for and for knowledge of the cross, then he has a definite plan for and for knowledge of everything, every detail in your life. And so as you seek to behold your king, behold him as absolutely sovereign and in control of all things, promising to work all things out for your good. And if that's the case, then you can trust him in all things. If he is in control here, he's in control in your circumstances. If he can work out the cross for good, the worst thing that has ever happened resulting in the best thing that has ever happened, the glory of God in Christ and the salvation of his people, if he can work that out for good, then he can work your circumstances, no matter how difficult and bad they seem. He can work even those out for your good. Trust him. But you will struggle to know this and do this if you do not give yourself and your time to beholding your king. So that's your application. Behold him. Behold him as sovereign. But you can only do that through his wonderful living and active word that reveals him to you and that relates him to you. We must grow in the grace and knowledge of this Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And that happens not only as we read the word, but as we meditate on it. Your mind is filled with something. This happens as we meditate and fill our minds with the truth of God and of his glory and of his grace and of his Christ. Give your time and attention to him and then seek to bring the word and the truth of the word to bear on all your situations and circumstances of life. This thing has happened. This thing is painful. This thing is difficult. I am sad. This is hard. What does what we just talked about for an hour have to say to this? How would I respond to this person or this situation or this thing if I believed that Christ the King has suffered, died, and risen again for me? That he is sovereign over every single detail of this circumstance and that he has promised to work whatever this thing is for good. Remember Thomas Watson? What? We're going to complain about that which works out for our good? Trust this sovereign and gracious God in whatever it is that you are facing. Behold your Look at what he has done for you here. In all our sin and selfishness, Christ has come. The king has suffered, and he has died for us. And in so doing, he has proven himself worthy of our time. and attention. He has proven himself kind and compassionate and caring. You will find life objectively only as you, by the grace of God, believe in him. You will find and experience life subjectively only as you, by the grace of God, behold him through the power of the Holy Spirit, through his living and active word. Behold your king. Let's pray. Father, please help us now to behold our King. Father, we are always beholding something. We are always fixing something before our sight and filling our minds with something. There is something that is ultimate and something that is authority, something that we are looking for and living for and pursuing. Father, make that something, Christ the King. Father, give us the eyes to see him and to behold him. Father, give us the discipline to set aside the things that tend to crowd him out, the foolish and worthless things, Lord, that take up our time and attention when we could be giving our time and attention to eternal things, glorious and good, fulfilling and satisfying things. Father, help us to behold the glory of Christ our King. Father, it's easy to pray, it's easy to say. So many of us are gonna sit down tomorrow morning and try to do it and immediately find ourselves distracted and confused and wanting to move on. Father, we just, we ask for your help. Teach us what it means to behold Christ. Teach us the discipline of meditation. Father, set aside the distractions and the cares of this world. Help us to leave all of those things in your gracious fatherly hand. and help us to give ourselves entirely to Christ the King. Father, there are many in here who do not know Christ as King and as Lord and as Savior. Father, I cannot convince them that all this is true and that Christ is life, but Father, you can. And you do so by your Spirit through your Word. And so we ask that you would work. Do what we cannot do for ourselves. Father, show us Christ. We pray that you would grant life this very day. He would grant repentance and faith and draw people to Jesus the Christ who is the King. Father, do this work now for your glory and for our good. We ask and pray in Jesus' name. Amen.