Please turn your Bibles to the Gospel of John chapter 19. We're going to be looking at the first 16 verses. John 19 verses 1 through 16. Hear now the word of the Lord. Pilate then took Jesus and scourged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and put a purple robe on him. And he began to come up to him and say, Hail, King of the Jews, and to give him slaps in the face. Pilate came out again and said to them, behold, I am bringing him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in him. Jesus then came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, behold, the man. So when the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out saying, crucify him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, take him yourselves and crucify him for I find no fault in him. The Jews answered, we have a law and by that law, he ought to die because he made himself out to be the son of God. Therefore, when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. And he entered into the praetorium again and said to Jesus, where are you from? But Jesus said, gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, You do not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and I have authority to crucify you? Jesus answered, you would have no authority over me unless it had been given you from above. For this reason, he who delivered me to you has the greater sin. 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 and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now, it was the day of preparation for the Passover. It was about the sixth hour and he had said to the Jews, behold, your king. So they cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, should I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, we have no king but Caesar. So then he handed him over to them to be crucified. Let us go to the Lord and ask him to bless the preaching of his word. Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning for your word. It is powerful and mighty. Lord, we pray that by your Holy Spirit, that you would bless this word, the preaching to your people, that you would bless them, that you would edify them, and Lord, that we would glorify you and what you have done through Jesus Christ for us. Thank you, Lord God. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So things are not always what they seem to be. In the life of the church, what often seems to be some tragedy, some great evil that has come upon her, some deep and great threat to her is actually the vehicle through which our Lord will bring some great blessing. It is not in spite of, but through or because of such an evil that God will work a great work in his church. And this is what our text shows us this morning. There is a great evil that is taking place and that has come upon our Lord Jesus Christ. The glorious King is ashamed and dishonored at the hands of wicked men. But it is this great evil that is the means by which God brings about his great plan of salvation for his people. In our text this morning, we continue to read of the trial of Jesus before Pilate. He was delivered over to him by the Jews, by the religious Jews, to be crucified. And the result of this trial is ultimately crucifixion. We will see this in a few weeks, but here we read of the evil that takes place upon our Lord, and that it is not what it seems to be. The abuse, the shame, and the dishonor that is given to him is part of the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. So as we consider our glorious King shamed and dishonored by wicked men, let us look at three things here in our text. First, the shameful presentation of the man. Secondly, the wicked collaboration against Jesus. And then thirdly, the glorious presentation of the King. So as I mentioned, this is a continuation of the trial of Jesus before Pilate that began in chapter 18. In this scene, we see Jesus being presented to the world as a man of shame and dishonor. Playing on the charge that has been placed upon him, that he calls himself a king of the Jews, Pilate, along with the Roman soldiers, perform a mock coronation. But before this, Jesus is scourged. Previously, Pilate had asked the Jews whom they wanted released, and having requested Barabbas, a known robber, murderer, and insurrectionist, John tells us here that Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. Now, Scourgine, one commentator, describes it as, in this way, it is likely that Jesus was stripped, tied to a post or thrown to the ground, and beaten with flagella, leather whips to which were attached pieces of iron, bone, or spikes, which would shred the skin, often leaving it hanging from the victim's back in strips. Unlike the 39 maximum lashes prescribed by Jewish law in Deuteronomy, the Romans did not limit to the number of lashes, thus leaving the victim helpless to the cruelty of the supervising soldiers. The flogging would have been a public event which added shame and familial humiliation to the physical pain. Even before the announcement of the verdict, the punishment of Jesus has been officially initiated. Now, if Pilate had previously said, I find no guilt in this man, why would Pilate do this? This was a common practice among Roman officials. They were known for the excess, for excess and brutality of flogging innocent men for very minor offenses just to prove a point or to show their power and authority. Scourging was used in both Jewish and Roman legal systems as a form of punishment. But the emphasis here is not so much the physical suffering that Jesus endured. This is why John doesn't give much more details about the scourging or other things. The real emphasis here is on what John does tell us and what John describes for us and what he shows us is a mock coronation. Thus, the emphasis is given more on the shame and the dishonor being applied to him on account of the charge that he was the king of the Jews. He was being shamed first by being stripped and scourged. Then on his naked body, they placed a painful crown of thorns, and then they mocked him by putting a purple robe on him. We know this is a mockery of Jesus as the King of the Jews by the details, again, that John has provided here for us. It says, regarding the crown, the soldier twisted a crown of thorns and put it on his head. Here the word crown, stefanos in the Greek, is a wreath made of foliage or designed to resemble foliage and worn by one of high status or held in high regard as a symbol of honor, victory, or as a badge of high office. Though an honorable crown, it was not the diadema, the royal crown of a king. This was given primarily as a reward to athletes in athletic competitions or at religious festivals to honor a person or as a mark of respect for the deceased. But here, it is not even the common wreath of victory, but a crown of thorns. The purple robe signified royalty. Here the soldiers are placing this robe on his bloodied body. They are placing his robe on his naked bloodied body that has just been scourged. The prostrating of the Roman soldiers also show this mockery of Jesus as they have slapped him and scourged him. Now they're saying hail to the king of the Jews. And so Pilate had done all of this knowing that Jesus was innocent. Many times he had said, I find no guilt in this man. He even asked the Jews, what accusations do you bring at him? He even asked Jesus, what have you done? There was nothing that he could find on Jesus. But yet he still continues to do this to please the crowds. And so after humiliating him, after placing shame and dishonor upon Jesus Christ, he presents him to the crowd. And he says, behold the man. As he stood there before the crowds, a sorry and disfigured man, what again, what would they have seen? Bleeding profusely, not only from his back, but from his face, from the crown of thorns. But again, as he stands there, This is the figure that the people see, the crowd, the Jewish religious leaders and the Jews that were there, they see a pitiable man, a man who's been humiliated and dishonored. A man that if we looked upon him, there would be no appearance of majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. He would be a man that looked despised by the world, forsaken by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and like one whom men hide their face and was despised. A man whom we did not esteem. This is from Isaiah 53. This is a description of what Isaiah had prophesied taking place right here. A despised individual, hated by his own countrymen. You wouldn't look at this figure and think of a great royal figure. He was a nobody to them. Again, this is a mock coronation. They are mocking and humiliating him in front of the people, in front of the world, both Jew and Gentile. And this, this presentation that we see here of this sorry, pitiable man is the presentation of the world of Jesus. This is how the world sees Jesus. This is how the world sees us as believers. They don't see us as anything great. They don't see Christ as anything great. He was a nobody. And so this is a picture again of the darkness, the world that hates Christ and how they see him and how they treat him. They mock Him, they ridicule Him, and place shame and dishonor upon Him. And us, again, as I mentioned, because we are His followers. Christ is no longer physically here on earth. He is at the right hand of the Father, but we, His church, His body, we are here. And it is upon us then that this world of darkness then focuses their attention, their attacks. It is upon the church. Shame is placed upon us for speaking and testifying of the truth of Christ. We are the ones to be shamed for defending the natural use of a man and a woman. We are to be ashamed for not celebrating the sinful lifestyles of others. They call us to be ashamed of who we are and what we believe because we don't follow them. We don't follow the ways of this world. If you testify of the truth of Jesus Christ and what he commands, then you too will be ashamed. As Paul says, that if anyone decides to live a godly life in this world, he will be persecuted. That is the natural reaction of this dark and lost world against those who seek to testify of the truth of Jesus Christ. So here in this first point, in this first thing that we see here, again, we see a presentation of Jesus Christ, the man, scourged, beaten, abused, humiliated, put to shame by the world, by both Jew and Gentile. But you will find that often very opposite groups, and even those that are hostile to one another, will often ally themselves with one another against Christ, against his church, against his people. And this is what we see here in these two groups with the Jews and Pilate and the Roman soldiers. This is the second thing that we see in our text this morning, the wicked collaboration against Jesus. So we see two things by these two characters in the narrative, that they're opposed to Jesus Christ. We see first, the final stand of the Jews against Jesus, and we see secondly, the final verdict of Pilate on Jesus. In these two, we see a wicked collaboration between these two parties, but again, it is not a friendly collaboration, but a hostile one. Both parties hate each other. Pilate hated the Jews, and the Jews also hated Pilate and the Romans. Pilate was a proud man, the governor of that Roman province, whom you see here frequently snide and mock the Jews. One way he did this was by condescendingly reminding them of their inferiority and his superiority. He was in power and they were not. But the Jews swallow their pride just enough to play along and use this against him. They reel him in and get him just where they want, and before he knows it, Pilate is being manipulated and bullied and pressured by the Jews. Pilate is concerned, and though he tries to save face and maintain the upper hand, he is ultimately unable to do so. It is a heated and intense power struggle that John here describes between the Jews and Pilate. But in the end, these two forces collaborate to bring about the death of Jesus Christ. So first we see the Jewish religious leaders double down on their stand against Jesus. And this is their moment. They've been waiting for this for a long time. And they are not going to let it slip. They've been wanting to kill Jesus for a long time. But as we read in the gospel that he kept slipping away, they were not able to do so because it was not his hour. But now that his hour has come, This is what Jesus is going to go through. And so the Jews finally have this moment. We have him. We can't let this moment slip out of our hands. We need to have Jesus crucified. And so they cry out, crucify, crucify. They're doubling down. They want this man dead. But the Jews know he was innocent. Remember, they had no real charge against him. And even the charge that they did have that he was king, they were making them greater than they were. They were twisting them in order to gain Pilate's favor to crucify him. And we will see that continue in this section. But the man who had healed so many, raised people from the dead, was now here before them. And instead of having compassion on him, they cried out, crucify, crucify. But Pilate, being the unpleasant and sarcastic self that he is, he mocks them again and tells them, take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him. Now, he knew very well that they could not crucify him. He knew that they had no authority to do so, but he tells them, you do it. So again, this is just him playing, mocking them, saying, oh wait, yeah, you can't do that because you don't have the power, I do. And so he's, again, he's mocking them, he's playing with them. But again, the Jewish religious leaders here are playing along. They swallow their pride for the moment and keep playing this game of power struggle. They know what they are going to do and so they wait their turn. So they bring up a charge against Jesus, similar to the one that they had brought up before. One that they had brought up before in verse 29, when they brought up the question that he was a king. So this is similar to that. But this time, they kind of take it a little bit further, not just kind of insinuating that he's a king, that he wants to make himself out to be a king, but what they use here is very clever on their part. The Romans, at this point, were very superstitious, religious and superstitious. The Roman state was wedded with all these religious and mystical things that they incorporated. The religion and the state were pretty much one. And so they're going to use a title that is going to really strike fear into the heart of Pilate. And so the new charge that they bring against Jesus and that they tell Pilate is that this man was making himself out to be the son of God. Now this was true. Jesus did say he was a son of God. And for the Jews, this was a religious matter. But again, they want the Roman state to crucify him. So they're taking that and they're kind of using that against Jesus and against Pilate here. And so they bring this up. because of the importance of this title, Son of God, not only to the Jews, which was religious, but also to Pilate and to the Romans. Notice Pilate's reaction in verse eight. He says, therefore, when Pilate heard the statement, he was even more afraid. And so he enters back into the praetorium and asks Jesus, where are you from? But Jesus gave no answer. So Pilate was even more afraid. Why did Pilate fear? Why was he even more afraid? Keep in mind also that at some point, and it was probably before this, Pilate's own wife also came to him and said to him, have nothing to do with this righteous man, for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of him. So even though he knows that Jesus is innocent, he knows there's something different about this guy. And there's fear that's starting to build up in him, fear of the Jews, but then fear about this kind of this enigmatic, this figure here, this Jesus, that he doesn't know what to make about. He doesn't know what to think about him. All he knows is that there's no charges. He's innocent. But now the Jews say, this man is claiming to be the son of God. And that really strikes fear into his heart. He is in great turmoil. He wants to release Jesus. But again, there's this pressure from the Jews. And now with this accusation, he's even more in turmoil. He does not know what to do. So this was a reality check for Pilate. Because when he talks to Jesus and asks him, where are you from? And Jesus doesn't say anything. In his fear, he tries to then act tough and be like, don't you know I have authority to crucify you? I have this great authority over you. And what does Jesus say to him? You would have no authority over me unless it had been given you from above. For this reason, he who delivered me to you has the greater sin. So he tried to stay tough, but then Jesus just calmly responds to him with the truth. and telling him that whatever authority you have is limited. Whatever authority you have is not ultimate authority. Your authority has been given to you by God, by my Father, who has put me here. You are no God. You are nothing in and of yourself. Pilate falsely believed that what he had, his authority, came from him. He was boastful. He was arrogant and proud. But we need to remember that whatever any power or authority that any one of us have as a ruler, whether good or bad, I'm sorry. Whatever power or authority anybody has in this world, whether good or bad, this authority has been given to them by God. God is the one that appoints rulers, that God is the one that ordains all these things. In the book of Daniel, in the Old Testament, the wicked king Nebuchadnezzar boasted of his kingdom, that he was the one that accomplished, through his power and might, this great and vast kingdom. And what did God do? He showed him how completely dependent he was on God. He humbled him by removing his sovereignty and his reason. He was driven away from the people and lived like an animal for quite some time. But then after a period, the Lord gave him back his reason, his sanity, and he was normal again. God showed him that, in fact, it was God who had given him those things. He owed God worship, praise, and thanksgiving. He owed God the glory due to his name. Yet Nebuchadnezzar took it all, all the glory for himself. And this is helpful for us as God's people to understand when we face great opposition from our own authorities here on earth. at the workplace, from the public sphere, from our government, or from an invading government. It is comforting to know that whatever authority they have, whatever power they have, is one that is given to them by God. They could have no more power, no more authority than what God gives them. Whatever power they have is from above, and this is even true over the dark spiritual forces. If you remember the story of Job, Satan had to get permission from God to afflict Job. He could not just do anything he wanted to Job. He had to get permission from God and God allowed it for his purposes. But even then we see that Satan's power was limited. And we can also recall Peter, which we've mentioned before, that Satan asked Jesus to sift Peter as wheat, and the Lord allowed it for his purposes. But again, what we see here is that God ultimately has authority and sovereignty over these things. He has sovereignty and authority over the powers, the physical powers here on earth, and the spiritual forces as well. And in both of these cases, it was as hard and tough as these trials were for Job and Peter, it was ultimately for their blessing. God allows these deep trials to come our way for our blessing, for our growth, for our sanctification. But then ultimately, it is to show and manifest the goodness and kindness and glory of God. and that we may see his glory, his sovereignty over all these authorities and principalities in the world. But we must be careful not to think that because we are not in these kinds of positions of authority that we are exempt as believers from falling into Pilate's false thinking. Paul warns the believers in Corinth, for who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did not receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? And sometimes, not sometimes, the Lord blesses his people with gifts. He blesses us with abilities and things that we often think, well, this is me. I'm so greater. This is my own strength, my own wisdom, my own gift, and my own, you know, so we exalt ourselves thinking that what we have is something that comes from us. But we are warned that no, all that we have comes from God. All those good things that we have and talents and gifts, all of that comes from God. And he's given them to us that we may bless one another, that we may bless the body of Christ, that we may be a light and salt in this world. So we need to be careful. We need to remember to give thanks and praise to God for all that we have, to be humble. But going back to Pilate, again, why did he fear? Why did he fear at this new charge of Jesus Christ being, calling himself the Son of God? Remember, as I mentioned, the Romans were very superstitious people. Their superstitions, the superstitions of their pagan religions held many captive in fear of the unknown. They feared curses and hexes and stuff of the sort. Romans believed in various gods and there were always power struggles among the gods. So religion and state were wedded together. Roman emperors also were often treated and honored as gods. And frequently after the death of an emperor, it was common for the Roman Senate to officially deify a deceased emperor as a god. Tiberius Augustus Caesar was the emperor at the time of this confrontation between the Jewish religious leaders and Pilate. He was only the second emperor of Rome at the time. During his reign, the common tribute coin, also known as the denarius, had his image on the coin. On the image was an inscription that read, Tiberius Caesar, son of divine Augustus. Now, what does this mean? Tiberius was the stepson and son-in-law and later adopted as son of the first Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus. After his death of Caesar Augustus, the Roman Senate officially deified him and made him a god. So to deify or to make a person a god was an official act of the Roman government. So in Pilate's mind, his emperor, Tiberius, was the son of a god, namely Caesar Augustus. So this fear had a twofold origin. On the one hand, it was religious and superstitious. Was Jesus, this king of the Jews, also a son of a god? Could his god bring ruin upon him? This is why he asks, where are you from? And this question is important because it gets at the idea of who Jesus is. This is the question that John the Apostle is answering in this gospel. All the gospels ask the question, who is Jesus? But John goes about it differently. He doesn't just tell us, he shows us who he is by showing us his origin. And so we see throughout the gospel, From the very beginning, we see the origin of Jesus to point out who He is. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. So we see His origin. He's in the beginning, in eternity with the Father. And then from that, we see the movement go from him being in heaven to now he's incarnate in verse 14. The word becomes flesh. So we see this coming down from heaven. And then throughout the gospel, at the end of chapter 1, at the end of John the Baptist's ministry, What does John say about John? John is of the earth and Christ is from above. He is from heaven. His origin is heavenly. At the end of chapter 3, Jesus is talking to Nicodemus and he says, talks about him descending from, who is he who ascends, but he who first descended, right? So the idea of Jesus coming down, coming from the father and even his hour, what is his hour? But him going back to the father, back to his place of origin. So origins, where he is from, is key in John's gospel to show who Christ is, that he is, the son of God, he is true God and true man. And so this question then, where are you from, is getting at where is your origin from? Are you from a God from above? Where are you from? Because obviously he knew he was a Jewish man from that area. So there's that plane in Pilate's mind as well, but there's much more to this fear of Pilate. There's a political aspect to it as well. Again, he wants to let Jesus go, but he's kind of, now with this new charge, he doesn't know what to do. But again, as I said, there's also a political connotation to this word, son of God, because this title of son of God was an imperial title. It was claiming to be, like Caesar Augustus, it was claiming to be king of Rome. And this is brought out more in verse 12, where the Jews then tell him, this is like the last thing, the last draw, the last card that they bring out. He says, if you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar. So again, this comes right after they said, this man claims to be the son of God. And now he's saying, whoever makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar. So there's not only a religious part to this title, but a political aspect to it. Why is this important? This goes back to the shaky relationship between Pilate and the current emperor, Tiberius Caesar. Tiberius Caesar was not a very political man. He was to some degree manipulated and forced to be in power by his stepfather, Augustus Caesar. From 8026, Tiberius moved to the island of Capri to isolate himself from the world of politics. In his place, He left a man, someone from his inner circle named Sejanus, to exercise executive power in his place. But Sejanus overreached himself and rumors reached Tiberius that Sejanus was becoming a rival of Tiberius and planning to take over the empire. So what does Tiberius do? He had Sejanus executed. And this happened just a couple of years before the event here in John chapter 19. Now, why is this important to the Jews and to Pilate? Well, Sejanus was the patron of none other than Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate was his protege. He was one of Sejanus' appointees. So Sejanus, this man who was rumored to want to rival and take the kingdom away from Tiberius and was executed, this man had appointed Pontius Pilate to be the governor here. He was his protege. So now Pilate is in great distress and fear. He thought Jesus was innocent and still finds no fault in him. He can't confirm anything the Jews have said, but what they have said has really brought confusion and distress to him. Is he the son of God? Is he seeking to make himself king and overthrow Rome? What if Tiberius finds out and thinks that I am fostering some kind of rebellion against him? What would happen? He would be executed. So a friend of Caesar was a title for those in the inner circle, which Sejanus was, who betrayed Tiberius. So the Jews know what they are doing when they say these things, when they're calling him the son of God, and they're saying, hey, if you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. So they're manipulating him. They're being deceitful. And so this is the power struggle here that we see. But in the end, though the Jews hate the Romans, the Romans hate the Jews, in the end, they both work together to do what? To bring about something that God had decreed from the very beginning. And eventually, the verdict is going to be that Jesus is going to be handed over to be crucified. But even in this, we see not only this kind of deceitful and manipulative kind of power struggle, but we see, as we saw last time, the Jews being hypocritical in this. When Pilate brings out Jesus for the second time and says, behold, your king, what is their response? We have no king but God? God is our king. No, we have no king but Caesar. They hated Caesar. They didn't want to pay taxes to Caesar, but yet they're using this for their advantage to get Jesus crucified. And so we see again, two wicked parties here working together to bring about this end that God had determined from the beginning. So we've seen Jesus being presented as the man of sorrows, a man crowned with shame and dishonor by his enemies. But what the physical eyes see is not always what the eyes of faith perceive. What the world does and so intends as attacks on Jesus and his people is not what God does or so intends. So we see with the eyes of faith, with a divine and heavenly perspective, is that there is more to this presentation of Jesus than meets the eye. We not only see the shameful presentation of the man, but we also see the glorious presentation of the King. And this is our third and final point, the glorious presentation of the King. In verse 14, Pilate presents Jesus one last time to the Jewish crowd, but this time he presents him by saying, Behold your king. This kingly authority of Jesus becomes the primary theme of this section. He is not to be crowned with his royal crown of king by wicked men. But here, the Stephanos, the victory wreath, though given to him in derision, nevertheless points to his victory over the wicked sinful hands that conspired together to murder him. It points to the victory over the curse of mankind, which is death. It is precisely through this death that he overcomes. As we mentioned in point one, Jesus is presented to the public as a lowly and pitiable figure. He is crowned with shame and dishonor. His appearance was not a lovely and glorious sight to behold. But the emphasis on behold is key, and is a key here in John's picture. They are coronating him, though mockingly, and presenting this great king of the Jews. Behold, the word behold was typically to draw attention to such greatness. In this we see the irony in what is going on. Pilate and the soldiers are coronating him to bring about shame upon him and on the people. They are mocking and ridiculing him and they don't think he's actually a king. It's all to show off his power and mocking them. They are doing these things from the wickedness of their own heart, yet God is doing something far greater here. His King is in the process of overcoming the shame and the dishonor of mankind that has come upon us because of Adam's sin. He is doing it by wearing that shame and dishonor, one that is not his own. He is righteous, and this is how our king has great victory, because it is sin and the shame and dishonor that comes from it, the real great enemy and condition that has fallen upon mankind, and this is how he destroys and overcomes this great enemy. And as we consider Jesus as King, as one who is overcoming the sinful and falling condition of man, there is another figure that we have already seen before that is being recalled once more here. Given that John makes frequent allusions and theological connections to the book of Genesis and to the creation account specifically to point some aspect of the person of Jesus, it is not a stretch to see an allusion to Jesus here as the second Adam. John has already done so in this gospel, and most recently he did it in John chapter 18 with Jesus' arrest in the garden. And what we see here is a confirmation of what Paul also taught in Romans 5, that there is a parallel between Adam and Jesus. Adam is a type of Christ because of the kind of persons that they are. They are both representatives of humanity. For Adam, he represented those He had that natural relation to him, or those that had a natural relation to him, and to Jesus, those that have a spiritual relation to him. So Adam, we see here, or not here, but in Luke 3, he is called what? Adam is called the son of God. Adam is the first son of God. At the time, he points to Jesus as the son of God. And then in verse seven of this chapter, Jesus is called the son of God. So there's a connection there between Adam as a son of God and then Jesus here as a son of God. But then there's a few other things that I want us to consider. First, in Psalm 85, the psalmist is speaking of God's work of creation. And he's speaking of man. And of man, he says, what is man that you are mindful of him? And the son of man that you visit him. And he says, for you have made him a little lower than the angels and you have crowned him with glory and honor. This is referring to mankind in Adam, Adam before the fall. Adam as a representative was created and crowned with glory and honor. He was God's vice-regent, his kingly representative here on earth. He was to rule over all of God's creation. But of course, we know that because of his disobedience, he ruined it for all mankind. And he brought upon us sin and misery, the shame and dishonor. But here we see Jesus being coronated as king, even though It's being done so mockingly. He is being coronated as a king. And here is, again, is the irony. It is a man who had been crowned with glory and honor, now fallen and sinful, crowning the second Adam with shame and dishonor. So a fallen, sinful man who was truly crowned with shame and dishonor is attempting to dishonor the true righteous king. And as he is being crowned, He is presented to the world with the words, behold, the man. And this is no coincidence. Adam in Hebrew, the word Adam in Hebrew means what? It means man. Here in the Greek, the word Anthropos is used, which means the same thing, man. But Adam in Hebrew does also translate as the man. So for example, in Genesis 3, verse 22, after Adam and Eve sinned against God, Moses records these words from the Lord. It says, Behold, the man has become like one of us to know good and evil. And in John 19.5, it does not just say behold the man or a man, but it says behold the man. There's a definite article here before the word man for emphasis. It is a particular man. Jesus is the man, the second man, the second Adam. And in order to receive his true coronation that he deserves, he is first to be crowned with the shame and the dishonor brought upon by the first Adam. In Genesis 3.22, behold, the man is drawing emphasis on a man crowned with honor and glory who has now brought upon himself and his posterity shame and dishonor, sin and misery. And the scene that is being described, or the scene is describing one of alienation and separation from God as Adam and Eve are exiled from paradise and are prevented from eating of the fruit of the tree of life and living forever. So in this text, there is a reversal going on here. There is a reversal of that fallen condition and its consequences. Jesus is the life. We see that in John 1, 4. Jesus is taking upon himself man's shame and dishonor, and in a few moments, he will be experiencing the ultimate alienation and separation from God as he hangs on another tree. And it is this tree which becomes the new tree of life. And this is why the Genesis motif is so central to the Gospel. What started in the beginning, in the first week of creation, will be finalized by a renewal of Adam in the garden. In Christ, the crowning of man described in Psalm 8.5 is fulfilled. This is why there has been great emphasis on Jesus' hour as an hour of shame and suffering, but also one of glorification and exaltation. It is in his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, one great event that Jesus, the man, is crowned with glory and honor by his Father. This is not to say that Pilate knew what he was doing. This is the beauty of the gospel and of God's providence. In all of this, we see Pilate, we see the Jews, they are doing this out of their own wicked hearts. They don't know what they're doing. They hate Jesus and Pilate's just afraid of him and of the Jews. And for whatever reason, they are doing these things out of their own wickedness. But above and beyond this, God is working this out for the salvation of his people. Lastly, John makes reference to the preparation of the Passover. And so in this, we see another figure here that Jesus is fulfilling, and that we will see more clearly in a couple of weeks. Now, it says preparation of the Passover, not that this was a day of preparation, of preparing the Passover lambs, that were to be sacrificed and eaten at the Passover meal. This was done the night before on Thursday. The Passover meal that the Jews desired to eat that day were the meals of the other sacrificial feasts celebrated that week. So for example, on the 15th day of Nisan, there was a celebrated, another feast which was called the Well, it's a feast that was of great joy, and it was contrary to the solemn feast of the Passover. But there were other feasts during this week that people celebrated, so this is what they were talking about. But here the preparation of the Passover was simply, what John means here is that this was the preparation of the Sabbath of the Passover week. So they're preparing for that, but Luke even confirms that he says the preparation of the Sabbath in his gospel account. But the point here is that The last Passover, I want to say typological Passover, has passed. The last Passover of the Old Testament types and shadows has passed. The night before it was celebrated, that was the last one. But now, here, before them, before the Jewish religious leaders, before Pilate, is the true Passover lamb being prepared for the slaughter, being prepared to take upon himself the sins of his people and bring eternal salvation for them. And so this is what we see here, not just a man of sorrows, not just a man who's bloodied and has nothing glorious about him physically, But we see here the presentation of a great and glorious king, of the second Adam who undoes what the first Adam did. We see a presentation here of the Passover lamb that takes away the sin of the world. And this is what the eyes of faith, and only the eyes of faith, can see. Because to the world, they just see a little Jewish man who was murdered. A tragic ending to this man. But for the eyes of faith, for those who believe, we see something far greater because God did something far greater here. And so, as we conclude, again, let us just consider this. Who Christ is, as he's being presented here, that he is the true king, being judged by the kings of the world. He's a true high priest who was being judged earlier by these other high priests that pointed to him. He is the true Passover lamb that takes away the sin of the world. And because He endured this, He did what we could not. We can trust in Him. And then as we are attacked, as evil comes upon us, we don't need to worry about whether we're going to fail or not, and are we going to lose our salvation if we mess up. Christ has already done all things for us. He has fulfilled the law on our behalf, but he has also given us an example of how to act, how to react to when the world attacks us. We are to act like Him. We are to speak the truth. We are to speak it in love. We are to remain faithful to what we have been called to do by God the Father. And the beauty, as we read in the scripture reading, is that Right now, we have been made priests and kings. We are kings because of what Christ has done for us. Now, we don't see that right now, right, as the world attacks Christianity. We don't see that right now, but one day our Lord will come. He will establish his eternal kingdom, and we will rule and reign with him forever, and that is our hope. But even now, we have that reality with us, and Christ has enabled us to walk in his footsteps, to walk as he walked. And so when we do so, we do so out of thankfulness and gratitude for the great salvation that our King has procured for us on the cross. He has overcome the world, and by faith we have that same victory.