We're going to deal with the first five verses of John chapter 19. I don't even know what number this is as far as the exposition. We're just slowly making our way through the gospel of John. We've been in it for quite some time on Sunday evenings, not steadfast every Sunday. There's times we take a break, but we're going to deal with the first five verses of John chapter 19. I want to read the text in its entirety and then come back and talk about some of these verses and we're going to close with verse 5 tonight. Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns and put on his head. They put on him a purple robe and said, Hail, King of the Jews. They smote him with their hands. Pilate therefore went forth again and said unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you. that ye may know that I find no fault in him. Then Jesus came forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man. That is our text tonight. Pilate is wanting with every fiber in him to let Jesus go. He's trying to think of some way, some excuse to be able to let Jesus go. But the Jews wasn't having it that way. The Romans didn't kill Jesus. The Jews didn't kill Jesus. It was done by the foreordination or the forecounsel of Almighty God. So Pilate took Jesus, therefore took Jesus, therefore took Jesus and scourged him. He had him whipped. He had him beat. with the cat of nine tails. I don't know if you know what that is, but it's a stick. It's about 12 to 18 inches long. And on the end of that stick is a big leather strap that comes out like a whip. And it gets to the end of that within a good striking distance. And that whip breaks off into about 12 little whips. And what they would do is they would take that leather and they would get bone. and sharp rocks and whatever they could find and they would tie that inside that whip. And when they scourged him with those lashes and that whip hit the back of the Savior, that whip got caught. And they would have to jerk that whip out. And it literally ripped the flesh from off of the back of Jesus Christ. That's what He did for you. And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns and put it on His head. I want you to notice that Jesus came as a servant, not as a king. One day He will wear His crown before the whole world. As a matter of fact, He's going to wear mine too, alright, and yours. But the only crown He ever wore while He walked this earth in the days of His ministry was a crown of thorns. I'm not talking about the little briary thorns that you get when you pick blackberries. I'm talking about a thorn tree. Has anyone ever seen a thorn tree? Folks, they took that and they wove that in a circle with the thorn barbs sticking out, some as much as two inches in length, and they pushed that down on the head of the Son of God. And they put on him a purple robe. Now why do you suppose the Romans would dress this man who's about to be put to death in purple? That is a color for royalty. It was done merely to mock him. There's his crown. Thorns. They scorned him. They scourged him. They smote him. They sped upon him. They plucked out his beard, and now they're dressing him in purple. And they said, Hail, King of the Jews! They smote him with their hands. Folks, I'm talking just literally slapping him in the face. Some of it may have been open-handed, some of it may have been just a fist. Imagine that. Folks, this is God in the flesh suffering. Pilate, therefore, went forth again and said unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him. This is the second time, by the way, Pilate declared him innocent. Look up at John 18, 38. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he said this, he went out again unto the Jews and saith unto them, I find in him no fault." Notice, you see that at all has been added. At all is in italics, right? What does that mean? Anytime anything is in italics, it has been added to the translation for a better understanding But you know, sometimes we get some mistakes in that, so we better be careful. That's why it's always good to look up an interlinear Bible and look up the original Greek and see what it says. But notice, this is the second time in 1904 that Pilate says, I find no fault in Him. Did you know, listen to me tonight, oh, this is good. Jesus bled from seven spots on the body. Jesus spoke seven times from the cross. And there were seven witnesses that declared Him innocent. We have Pilate's wife. Don't have nothing to do with this just man. I've suffered many a thing and a dream because of him. We have Pilate himself that declared him innocent twice. We have Judas Iscariot who brought back the money bag and threw it at the feet of the Pharisees and said, I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood. We have Herod. We have the thief on the cross, but this man had done nothing amiss. We have the Roman centurion who said, surely this was the Son of God. And we have the inscription that was put over him that declared his innocence. King of the Jews, Jesus of Nazareth. Seven testimonies, seven witnesses that declared the Sovereign Lord innocent. But I want you to look at verse 5. This is where we're going to take our main thought tonight from. We're going to camp out here for about 3 or 4 hours. No. I love this, folks. This is the coup de grace right here. This is what the Bible is all about. leading up to the cross, the sacrifice, the perpetuation, the reconciliation, the atonement. But this is what the entire Old Testament pointed to. Then came Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man. I want you to know that John the Baptist in John 1.29, John the Baptist said this, the next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and he said, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is He of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me. Do you know why Jesus was before John the Baptist? Because He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the first and the last. He is the beginning and the ending. He is from everlasting to everlasting. Behold the man. This entire book presents Christ. It's a hymn book. H-I-M. This entire book from Genesis to Revelation presents Christ. And then there's those fruit loops out there that want to say, well Jesus didn't show up until the New Testament. No, Jesus shows up in the first four words of Genesis. In the beginning God created. In the beginning God. That word God is Elohim. In the Hebrew, which is plural, plural. Right there is Christ, right there. And then if you knew your New Testament, if you knew about Colossians 1 and Colossians 2, if you knew about Hebrews chapter number 1, you'll see that God the Father made all things to and by the Son. He spoke these things into existence and they're held together by His spoken word. Stronger than gravity. Behold the man. But I want you to notice something tonight. In verse 5, Pilate Everybody look down there at that name, Pilate. You see that name Pilate in verse five? What's up with that word, y'all? Come on. What is it in italics? Oh, my. Oh, my. So let's read that verse without reading Pilate, because the word Pilate was not in the original text. Then came Jesus forth, wearing a crown of thorns and a purple robe, and saith unto them, Behold the man. The Lord Jesus Christ has been dressed in a purple robe. He has been sped upon. He has been slapped. He has been smoked. He has had his beard plucked out. He's had a crown of thorns placed over him. He's been whipped with the cat of nine tails and scourged by Pilate. And Pilate brings him back out before all the Jews thinking he's going to get some sympathy now and he can let him go. and Christ comes walking out to stand next to Pilate, and Jesus comes to a stop and looks at the crowd, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the members of the Sanhedrin, Jews and Gentiles alike, and Jesus Christ presents Himself, and Jesus Christ spoke those words and said, Behold, the man. I'm here. I'm what your Old Testament has been telling you about. You say, I don't get it, preacher. Well, Pilate's been at it. So Pilate couldn't have been the one saying those words. It was Jesus saying those words. It was Christ walking out there and presenting Himself in the ultimate display of God's love for humanity. Behold the man. This entire book speaks of Christ. Behold the man. And here we have the Lord presenting himself. Behold, the man. Who is this man? Who is this one that Jesus is saying, claiming to be? Well, let's go back and we're going to see some things tonight. Go to the book of Judges, chapter 13. I've got three quick places I want to show you in the Bible. I just want to read and talk and read and talk and read and talk and we'll go home. Behold, the man. Oh my, from everlasting to everlasting. The Alpha and the Omega never changing. Behold, the man. I want you to look at Judges chapter 13, verse number one. You are very probably some of you are very, very familiar with this story. All right. Judges 13, verse one. And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines 40 years. I find it amazing that in the period of Judges, they went through five cycles and they repeated that seven times. Seven times through a 405 year span through the entire book of Judges. They repeated that five cycle of sin, servitude, submission, salvation, and silence. They repeated that seven times and the period of rest and the period of captivity was always about 40 years. 40. Wonder why 40? Wonder why God uses the number 40 so much? 40 is the number of testing. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights. Jesus walked on the earth after the resurrection before the ascension 40 days and 40 nights. The Lord was 40 days and 40 nights. The spies went in from Kadesh Barnea into the promised land and they were gone for 40 days and 40 nights. And the children of Israel had to wander around in the wilderness a day, a year for a day. 40 years. 40 is the number of testing. So the Lord, because of sin and evil in the nation of Israel, God raises up the Philistines again and causes the Israelites to be delivered unto them for 40 years. And there was a certain man of Zorah, the family of the Dantes, whose name was Manonih. And his wife was barren and barren not. Manonih's wife could not have children. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman and said unto her, Behold, now thou art barren and barren not, but thou shalt conceive a barren son. You want to talk about election? Right here's election, right here. Again, all through the Bible, there's no denying it. And now, therefore, beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine, nor strong drink, and not eat any unclean thing. For lo, thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall come on his head. For the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb. Is that election or is that chance? That's God's sovereign purpose of election. And the child shall be a Nazarite from the womb and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. Then the woman came and told her husband, said, a man of God, a man of God. Now, verse number two or I'm sorry, verse number three said it was the angel of the Lord. She might not have recognized him, might not have known him as the angel of the Lord. She tells her husband in verse 6 that a man of God came unto me and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God. Very terrible. And that's terrible, not in a bad way. That's terrible. Thank you, Brenda. That's terrible. Like him, awesome. Just wild, Ted. That's something else. Hot dog, like the little boy said. very terrible. But I asked him not whence he was, neither he told me his name. But he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive and bear a son, and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing, for the child shall be called, the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb to the day of his death. Sovereign election and eternal security. Right there in verse 7. Even in the Old Testament. Wow, preacher! Then Mononi... entreated the Lord. And he said, O my Lord, let the man of God which thou didst send come again unto us and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born. And God hearkened to the voice of Manonih and the angel of God. That's the angel of the Lord, my friend. That's not Gabriel. That's not Michael. That is Christ. A pre-incarnated appearance of Jesus Christ. And I'll prove it to you. The angel of God came again to the woman and she sat in the field. But Mononi, her husband, was not with her. And the woman made haste and ran and showed her husband and said unto him, Behold the man! What did Jesus say when He came out? He said, behold the man, the one that Moses wrote about, the one that Joshua wrote about, the one that Isaiah, Zechariah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Micah, Amos, Micah, all of the prophets wrote about. Jesus said, behold the man. I am He and I am here. Mononi's wife ran and made haste and went to him and said, Behold, the man hath appeared unto me that came to me the other day. And Mononi arose and went after his wife and came to the man and said unto him, Art thou the man that speaketh to the woman? And he said, I am. And Manonah said, Now let thy words come to pass. How shall we order the child? And how shall we do unto him? And the angel of the Lord said unto Menonah of all that I have said unto the woman, let her beware or let her take heed. Let her fulfill. She may not eat of anything that come of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink. neither eat any unclean thing, all that I command her, let her observe. And Monona said unto the angel of the Lord, I pray thee, let us detain thee until we shall have made ready a kid for thee. And the angel of the Lord said unto Monona, though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread. And if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it. unto the Lord. For Manonite knew not that he was an angel of the Lord. And Manonite said unto the angel of the Lord, What is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass, we may honor thee? And the angel of the Lord said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret? Oh, he beareth upon his thigh a name written that no man knew. but He Himself. And Manonite said to the angel of the Lord unto him, Why askest thou after my name, seeing it is secret? So Manonite took a kid with the meat offering and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord. Notice who he's offering to. Not to the one who he thought was an angel. But the angel told him, said, Offer it unto the Lord. Offer it unto Jehovah. Jehovah God. And the angel did wondrously. And Manonah and his wife looked on. For it came to pass that when the flame went up toward heaven from off of the altar that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manonah and his wife looked on and fell on their faces to the ground. But the angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manonah and his wife than Manonah knew that he was an angel of the Lord. And Manon I said unto his wife, we shall surely die. Why? Because we have seen God. Behold the man, God in the flesh, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the man. He is the blessings, all of the blessings of God. Turn to Ezekiel, chapter nine. Behold, the man. Ezekiel, chapter nine, verse number three. Ezekiel 9 3. And the glory of God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was to the threshold of the house. He called to the man clothed with linen. which had a writer's acorn by his side. And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city and through the midst of Jerusalem and set a mark on the foreheads of all the men that sigh and cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. Verse five. And to the others, he said, In mine hearing, go ye after him through the city and smite. Let not your eyes spare, neither ye have pity. Slay utterly, old and young, both maids and little children and women, but come not near any man upon whom is the mark. What does the Revelation say about the mark of the living God in the seal in their forehead? Oh, and all the others are going to be slain. Oh, let's keep reading. Slay utterly, old and young, both maids and little children and women, but come not near any man upon whom is the mark. and begin at my sanctuary. You know why? Because judgment starts in the house of God. Amen. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house. And he said unto them, Defile the house and fill the courts with the slain. Go ye forth. And they went forth and slew the city. And it came to pass while they were slaying them and I was left. And I fell upon my face and cried and said, O Lord God, wilt Thou destroy all the residue of Israel in Thy pouring out of Thy fury upon Jerusalem? And He said unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the hand is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness. For they say the Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not. And as for me, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head. And behold the man, clothed with linen, which hath the acorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done all as thou hast commanded me. Who's the man that went forth with the ink horn and done the slaying? Who's the man that went forth and displayed the wrath and the fury of Almighty God, Jesus Christ? Behold the man. as a lion out of the tribe of Judah. He shall rule the earth with a fist of iron and he shall tread out the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. Judges 13 says, Behold the man, it shows us the blessings of God. Ezekiel chapter 9 says, Behold the man, it shows us the fury and the wrath of God. But now go to Zechariah chapter 6. Zechariah chapter 6, second to last book in our Old Testament, right before the Italian prophet, the book of Malachi, Zechariah. Look at chapter 6. We've saw, behold the man, we've saw the blessings of God. We've saw, behold the man, we've saw the fury and the wrath of God. That's Christ, folks. painted in the Old Testament. And Jesus walked out on those steps of that portico of Pilate's hall that day, beaten, battered, bruised, scorned, and dressed in purple with a crown of thorns upon His head. And He looks at the crowd and He says, Here I am. Behold the man. I'm the one that Samuel wrote about in Judges. I'm the one that Ezekiel wrote about. I'm the one that Zechariah wrote about. Behold the man. Behold the man. Zechariah chapter 6 verse 9, And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Take of them the captivity, of the captivity, even of Hadeli, and Toah Jebon, and Jedidiah, which come from Babylon. And come thou the same day, and go to the house of Joash, and the son of Zephaniah, Then take silver and gold, and make crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of Jodesh the high priest. And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is the branch. Behold the man whose name is the branch, and he shall grow up out of this place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord, even he shall build the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be priest upon his throne, and the counsel of his peace shall be between them both. Behold the man What did Jesus say when He stepped out? Folks, that wasn't Pilate speaking those words. You say, I've got a red letter edition now, Brother Doug, and that ain't in red in my Bible. It ain't in red in my Bible either, but Pilate's in italics. Pilate never said, Behold the man. Jesus said, Behold the man. He said, Here am I, Jerusalem. Now what are you going to do with me? Imagine that. What are you going to do with me? I'm all the blessings of God that spoke to Manoni and his wife. I'm the fury and the wrath of God that Ezekiel the prophet wrote about. And I am the glory of God that Zechariah wrote about. I am the man that come out of the branch of the stem of Jesse, the root of the offspring of David. I am a lamb I am a lion. Behold the man. What are you going to do with him? What are you going to do with him tonight? He stands right there. If I love him, then serve him. I love him, then worship him. I love him, then praise him. I love him, then be obedient unto him. Behold the man. And you know what's so special about him being a man? Tony, he was God, but at the same time, he was man. John, he was man, but at the same time, he was God. He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. Behold the man. He had to become a man too, Tony. If he didn't, he could have never died. Go to Philippians 2, in closing. I want you to picture this before we read this in Philippians 2. Go ahead and find your place there in Philippians 2. Wish we had little Colton here doing those Bible books. That was good the other night, getting those kids involved. I want you to picture this. Here he is, the one that the entire Old Testament told us about. In verse 1 of John 19, he's been scourged. In verse 2, he's crowned. In verse 2, he's dressed in purple. In verse 3, he's mocked. In verse 3, he's smoked. And verse 4, he's found innocent by Pilate. All of that in John 19. And he says in John 19, 5, he says, Behold the man. Let's look at it right here in Philippians 2. Philippians 2, 6. Let's read 5, because you really, that's the beginning of the paragraph. Verse 5 is actually the beginning of the paragraph. And there's a colon after verse 5. Because what Paul is trying to teach us here, he's trying to teach us to have a servant's heart. Just like Jesus did. And he said, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, colon. In other words, Jesus came to behold the man, but he came with a servant's heart. Jesus said, I come not to serve, or to be served. That's in the Bible two times now. I'm paraphrasing it, but you can look it up. It's in Matthew and Mark. Jesus said, I come not to be served, but to serve and to give my life a ransom for many. That's what he said. That's the whole verse now. Let's not quote half of it. Let's quote it all. Okay. He came with the heart and the mind and the soul and the spirit of a servant. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Behold the man who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Why? Because in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. It pleased the Father, Colossians said, that in Him should all the fullness of the Godhead dwell. with God. It's not just the fact that He's God in the flesh, but He is part of the Godhead. In total agreement with the Father. In total agreement with the Holy Spirit. Three in one. But made Himself, behold the man, of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of, behold, the man. That's Jesus. That's what He did for you, my friend. Now, what are you going to do with Him? He's standing there right now saying behold the man who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God because he is part of the Godhead. He is co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He made himself of no reputation and being found fashioned as a servant came as a man. Behold the man. Being found fashioned as a man. He humbled Himself and became obedient to what? Unto death? But what was that death? The will of the Father. It was the will of the Father. Pilate wanted to let Him go, but it was the Father's will that He die. It pleased the Lord. to bruise Him and behold the man came humble and obedient even unto death, even the death of the cross. And did you know because the God, man, Jesus Christ, the one who walked out there that day and said behold the man, what are you going to do with Him? Because He pleased the Father, because the Father was satisfied With the payment? Because the Father approved that? By my Holy One shall not see corruption. He be raised from the dead. Look at verse 9. Because of that, God raised him, he walked forty days, and then ascended to the right hand of the Majesty on high. And verse 9 now. Behold the man. Christ Jesus the Lord wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus behold the man that every knee should bow behold the man of things in heaven behold the man and things in earth behold the man Things under the earth, behold the man. That every tongue should confess, behold the man. That Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. This entire book. This book ain't about salvation. It is and it ain't. This book ain't about heaven. It is and it ain't. This book ain't about hell. It is and it ain't. You know what this book's primary focus is to reveal? Behold the man, Christ Jesus. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you tonight. Even though being equal with God, and obedient. And you said, behold, the man. And the Father put my sin upon that man, the God-man, Jesus Christ, who was holy, harmless, and undefiled, and separate from sinners. You, Father, placed my sin upon Christ and poured out your full measure of wrath and my sin was taken out of the way. He nailed it to His cross. God, I praise You, I thank You, I honor You, and I glorify You that Your Spirit has made me to know that. And I have been made to know who He is. Behold the man, Jesus Christ. We honor you, Lord. We give you praise and we give you the glory in your precious name and amen.