John chapter 19. John chapter 19. We're working through the gospel of John. We've come now to the last part, the part about Jesus' arrest and crucifixion. All four gospels spend a lot of time talking about Jesus' suffering. That's the reason they're written. Someone has said all four gospels are just a long introduction to the crucifixion. They are. We're supposed to know this stuff, because it's repeated four times. It's good for us to be able to visualize this suffering, because this is what it means to bear our sins. This is what it means when God would crush his own son, when God gave his only begotten son. This is what that looks like. Here in John 19, let's start reading at verse 1. John 19, verse 1. Pilate then took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, put a purple robe on Him. They began to come up to Him and say, Hail, King of the Jews! And they gave Him slaps in the face. Pilate came out again and said to them, Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know I find no guilt in Him. Jesus then came out wearing a crown of thorns and a purple robe. Pilate said to them, Behold the man! So when the chief priest and the officers saw him, they cried out saying, crucify, crucify. Pilate said to them, take him yourselves and crucify him for I find no guilt in him. The Jews answered him, we have a law. And by that law, he ought to die because he made himself out to be the son of God. Therefore, when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. And he entered into praetorium again and said to Jesus, where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, you do not speak to me. Do you not know I have authority to release you? I have authority to crucify you. Jesus answered, you would have no authority over me unless it had been given to you from above. For this reason, he who delivered me to you has the greater sin. 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 him out to be a king opposes Caesar. Therefore, when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was a day of preparation for the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, behold, your king. So they cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king? The chief priest answered, we have no king but Caesar. So then he handed him over to them to be crucified. Now the ordeal so far, I think it's important every week we just catch up to where this is. I want us to have this in our mind that we can visualize roughly, at least the order of events. Because the gospel writers on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit want us to know this. After Christ is arrested in the garden, He's examined by Annas, the high priest. Remember, they slap him while he's there. Then while they're waiting for Caiaphas, the soldiers abuse him and beat him and mock him. Caiaphas has a pretrial hearing. They condemn Jesus to death. They spit on him. They slap him. They beat him. Then early in the morning, as soon as the sun's up, they go to the Sanhedrin. They just rubber stamp that. They say he's worthy of death. We're going to kill him. We want him dead. They take him to Pilate, the Roman governor, to be executed. Remember, he's been up all night. been beaten repeatedly, slapped repeatedly, spit on by probably dozens of men. Pilate quickly realizes that Jesus is innocent. Pilate's not stupid. And that these corrupt Jews are merely using him to get their way. They just want Pilate to kill this man. But Pilate knows he's innocent. So Pilate says he's going to release him with a Jewish protest. He made himself out to be a king. Then Pilate takes him inside and questions him. Are you a king? Remember, Jesus said, I am. I am a king. But my kingdom right now is not of this world. Otherwise, my men would fight for me. I am a king. I was born for this reason. But my kingdom is not of this world. Don't know what Pilate thought of that, but Pilate realized, this guy's no threat. This guy's innocent. He brings him out again and proclaims, I'm going to release him. And the Jews protest. They scream and yell, carry on. When Pilate hears he's a Galilean, Pilate then sends him to Herod. the King of Galilee. Herod examines him, mocks him, makes fun of him, they abuse him. He sends him back to Pilate. Then Pilate says this on his sheet. Luke 23, starting at verse 13. After all of that, Pilate summoned the chief priests and the rulers and the people and said to them, you brought this man to me as one who incites the people to rebellion. Behold, having examined him before you, I have found no guilt in this man regarding the charge which you made against him. No, nor has Herod, for he sent him back to us, and behold, nothing deserving death has been done by him." Over and over again, he's pronounced innocent. Pilate then attempts to free Jesus, remember with the prisoner release program we covered a couple weeks ago? He brings out Barabbas. While he's doing that, remember, his wife sends him a note. It's on your sheet there, Matthew 27, 19. His wife sent Pilate a note saying, have nothing to do with that righteous man. For last night I suffered greatly. Now Pilate's already pronounced him innocent several times. Now his wife has had this dream about him. He's righteous. You cannot condemn him. He's righteous. But of course, by this time, the Jewish leaders, there's a large crowd gathered. They're working with the crowd. Of course, Satan is as well. I imagine when these crowds came early that morning, Friday morning, and saw Jesus bound beaten, bloodied up, messed up, full of spit and shame. In custody of the Romans, most of them concluded, this guy's no Messiah. This guy's not going to save us. And they reject him. The crowds reject him at that time. And the Pharisees and the rulers go out and work up these crowds to release Barabbas, which Pilate does. Then we saw chapter 19, verse 1. We covered this last week and the week before. Pilate then gets an idea. I'm going to have Jesus scourged. And his thinking here appears to be, if I just beat him up badly, bloody him up, that'll be enough. I don't want to kill him because he's not worthy of death. So Pilate has Jesus scourged. Remember what scourging is, that awful whip that rips your back open? It's torture. They scourge him. We don't know how many times they hit him. Even five or ten times would be enough to really rip you up. By this time, he's a bloody mess. He's bleeding badly. As people have said, after you're scourged, if you don't get medical treatment soon, you're probably going to die, just from loss of blood and open wounds and all the rest of it. He has him scourged. But then after that scourging, he's tortured by the Roman soldier. In fact, notice it again there on your sheet, in Mark 15. Mark gives the full account of this. Right after he's scourged, says, the soldiers took him away into the palace. That is a praetorium. And notice, they call together the whole Roman cohort. Now, a cohort is like 6,000 men. I don't know if he means 6,000 men. But the whole garrison of Roman soldiers were stationed inside the Praetorium. They're all there. There's a huge, huge crowd of Roman soldiers now abusing Jesus. So they dressed him up in purple. After twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to acclaim him. Hail, King of the Jews. They kept beating his head with a reed and spitting on him. and kneeling and bowing before him. And after they had mocked him, they took the purple robe off him and put his own garment. Jesus is surrounded by dozens, if not hundreds, of Roman soldiers, all of them beating him and spitting on him and mocking him. He's blindfolded. He's bound. They put a reed in his hand and are beating him with the reed. They put a crown of thorn on his head. Here's this prisoner who's already been scourged, who's bleeding, who's probably half dead. Now they're torturing him. Badly abusing him. We saw that last time. All I ask you to do is just try to picture that. You need to have that firmly in your mind, because remember why he's doing this. He's doing this because of me. Because of you. You need to have that firmly in your mind. Then, in verse 5 of chapter 19, Pilate brings him out, says, behold the man. Look at him now. We mentioned last time, I think what John is doing here, just like Caiaphas back in chapter 11 spoke better than he knew, and he said, One needs to die for the nation. It's probably true here as well that Pilate's saying more than he knows. Behold, the man, that God who became flesh, the man, the second Adam, that man Christ Jesus. Now, Pilate doesn't realize that. I think John's pointing that out for that reason. This is the man who was sent to save us. Anyway, Pilate says, here he is, look at him now, hoping that now you guys will be satisfied, you'll leave him alone. And of course they don't. The crowd just scream out, literally scream out. Crucify him. Crucify him. It's not enough. You know, Satan's working his crowd. This is what it means, though, when God would crush him, when God would put him to grief. Then we saw last week, and now Pilate really gets scared. Go to verse 7 again. Chapter 19. The Jews answered him, we have a law, and by that law he ought to die because he made himself out to be the son of God. Therefore, when Pilate heard this, he's even more afraid. Pilate's afraid already. He knows this guy doesn't deserve death. His wife had this dream. Remember, the Romans who were pantheists believed that God spoke through dreams. He's probably thinking, this guy, the gods are speaking through my wife. I've got to release him. But now he hears the Jews say, this guy claimed to be the son of God. Now, Pilate is a pantheist. We covered this last week. He's a pantheist, a Greek pantheist. He believed there were many gods. And the Greek gods sometimes became human. Sometimes the Greek gods had children who became human. Remember in Acts 14 when Paul does miracles, the crowd thinks he's one of the gods. They say, the gods that come down to us. They think Paul's a god. Pilate may be thinking, did I just scourge one of the gods? I don't know if he's thinking that. But Pilate, John says he really gets scared when he hears this. This guy says he's a son of God. So Pilate takes him back inside and says, where are you from? Now Pilate knows he's from Galilee. They've already told him that. He's not asking that. Who are you really? Tell me, where are you from? Pilate's starting to suspect this guy's more than just a man. He's scared. Really scared, John said. He was even more afraid. As he makes efforts to release him. Then Pilate says, remember Jesus is silent. You don't talk to me. Don't you realize who I am? Pilate says, I have authority to release you. I have authority to crucify you. And you know what Jesus said, we covered it last week. You would have no authority over me at all unless God gave it to you. And notice what he's saying there. He's not just saying you'd have no authority to crucify me. You have no authority to release me. God sent Jesus here. God is using all of this wicked activity to put his son on the cross. Pilate, as much as he may want to release Jesus, is not going to. As much as he may be sure he's innocent, Pilate believes he's innocent. Pilate's not going to release him. Pilate's about to do something despicable. But Jesus says, you're not in control of any of this, Pilate. This is all being orchestrated from heaven. And I kind of suspect Pilate's feeling that. Because it's out of control. I can't stop this. Jesus won't defend himself. He was amazed that Jesus wouldn't answer his detractors. But it seems like I can't stop this. It's like it's being driven along and Pilate can't stop it. I'm guessing he's thinking that. He was even more afraid. Look at the second half of that verse. We didn't cover this last time. Verse eight again. I'm sorry, verse 11. 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. Jesus adds a note there. You would have no authority over me at all unless God gave it to you. And because of that, the ones who delivered me here have a greater sin than you do. Now, what's he talking about? I've often wondered, exactly, what's he talking about? Remember, Pilate didn't start this. Jesus, as it were, was kind of dumped on him. It wasn't his idea. It's the Jewish leaders who did this, who brought him there. And while Pilate is certainly not innocent, and Pilate's about to do something absolutely despicable, and he won't release Jesus, Jesus says here, you're just like a chess pawn here, Pilate. You're being used. God is running the show. Those who brought me here have a much greater sin than you do. Note, first of all, there are degrees of wickedness. Some sins are worse than others. And Jesus here is saying, he's not exonerating Pilate. Pilate is going to do something horrible here in a minute. He already has, he had a flaw. But he says, those who brought me to you, those who handed me over, literally what the word is, they have the greater sin. Now who's he talking about? I think he's talking about Caiaphas. The Jews should have known better. Caiaphas, Annas, we hear the chief priests mention, they should have known better. They're the ones who handed him over. Something disrefers to Judas. I don't think it does. Judas did not plan on this. Judas didn't hand him over to the Jewish leader. Judas betrayed him. Judas had no idea they were going to do this. So Jesus is saying, Pilate, you're not in charge here. And for that reason, those who handed me over have even greater sin. And I believe he's talking about Annas, Caiaphas, the high priest, the Jewish leaders, the wicked men who brought me here. Note that word delivered. It's the same word used in John 18.10, 18.35 for how they delivered him to Annas. They delivered him to Caiaphas. They then delivered him to Pilate. I think that's what Jesus is saying. The guilt, the greater guilt belongs to these Jewish leaders. And what they did, they should have, remember Jesus said in Matthew 23, you guys sit in Moses's seat. You should know the law, yet you don't enter into God's kingdom. You keep everybody else from entering it. The Jewish leaders, by corruption, by what we call today lawfare, by cheating Jesus, that's how they brought him to Pilate. So Jesus is saying to Pilate, Pilate, you're not in charge of this. And those who brought me here have the greater sin. They do, they really do. So now, this is where we left off last time, verse 12. Note again, for the second time you read these words. In fact, look at verse 8. Therefore when Pilate heard this, look at verse 12. As a result of this, because Pilate heard this, Pilate made efforts to release him. Think about that, what he just heard Jesus say. When he heard him say back in verse 7, this guy claims to be God's son. Pilate goes inside and says, who are you? When he heard that, he was really scared. Now when Jesus tells him, you're not in charge of any of this, Pilate. My father in heaven is doing this. So when Pilate heard this, notice the words there, he sought even harder to release him. Now all along here, Pilate's been trying to release him. I'm trying to be fair here. I thought this was all week long. There's always a side of Pilate you have to like. It seems he admires Jesus. He knows he's innocent. He sees something in Jesus he likes, or at least that he's afraid of. Now Pilate's about to do something cowardly and despicable, but Pilate sees in Jesus something that he says, I have to release this guy. This guy's innocent. And notice it again there, verse 12. As a result of this, Pilate made efforts. Now we're not told what he did. John's giving us the overview here. He made efforts to release him. Now the words Jesus's words, and I'm sure his attitude, here's this bound, beaten, bloodied, half-dead prisoner. Pilate had probably interviewed hundreds of prisoners like this. He never met anyone like this. And something about the way Jesus composed himself, the look on his face, his attitude, the tone of his voice, and especially the words he said, you have no authority over me at all, Pilate. It's coming down from heaven. And Pilate said, when he heard that, he said, I've got to release this guy. I have to set him free. But outside, there's a huge howling mob crying for his death. What's he going to do? So Pilot says he made efforts. Now the word there, made efforts, literally means made every effort where Pilot sought to release him or tried to set him free. Pilot kept trying. That's what it means. I suppose that means Pilot probably brought his advisors in. What do I do? How can I legally get him out of here without a riot? What can I do? Now, if I have my soldiers grab him and just take him out, they'll riot. What can I do? He has his meeting. I've got to find some way to release this guy. But then the Jews, I'm sure, who know what he's doing, look at verse 12 again. As a result of this, Pilate made efforts to release him. But the Jews, when he says, the Jews kept crying out, saying, if you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar. The Jews hit Pilate where it hurts. At that time Caesar was Caesar Tiberius. Tiberius was known to be cruel, paranoid, a lot of those Caesars were. Caesar Tiberius. And he said, and the Jews cry out, if you release him, You're no friend of Caesar. We're going to go over your head. We're going to tell Caesar, you left a guy who claims to be king go free. That phrase, friend of Caesar, eventually that phrase became like a technical political term. If you were, quote, friend of Caesar, it meant you had access. It's like a president has his closest advisors. You have access to the president. If you were a friend of Caesar, if you had that title, You had access to Caesar. You had his ear. You were part of his inner circle, part of his advisors. Josephus, and I think it's Pliny the Elder, historians mention Pontius Pilate was trained and mentored into the army by a guy named Aelius Sejanus. Aelius Sejanus was highly favored in Rome, very highly placed by the Caesars, very highly respected man. He's the one who who brought Pilate into the military, who trained him, who mentored him, and many others. And it was said that if you're a friend of Sejanus, you're a friend of Caesar. Well, Pilate was mentored by Sejanus. It means Pilate's probably in that circle somewhere, a friend of Caesar. But Caesar Tiberius at some point heard some rumor about Sejanus, heard some issue about Sejanus, and had him and his whole family executed. Now think how that would sit. Now I don't know if that's what's exactly happening here. Now before this, Pilate's only been procurator of Judea for about three years at this point. But already the Jews have complained to Caesar about how he's causing trouble and making several sit-ins and minor riots and stuff. So Pilate was already put on notice. Keep those Jews quiet. Keep peace down there. He's already put on notice. It kind of sounds like possibly Caiaphas would know this. And Caiaphas may be thinking something like, do you want to end up like your friend Sejanus did? If we go over your head and tell Caesar you let go, a seditionist, a dangerous threat to the throne, what's Caesar going to do to you, Pilate? They're pulling this trump card on him. Pilate was aware of this. He was warned already. So think about that. They're actually playing dirty here. Now, if they do that, this could not only end his political career, it could end his life. In fact, years later, Pilate's going to do something stupid. He's going to hear about in Samaria how they're raising an army. And what they were actually going to do was go up Mount Gerizim, I think, and look for gold. But his spies told him they were raising an army. Pilate sent soldiers into Samaria and killed hundreds of Samaritans. Well, they sent a complaint to Caesar. Caesar Tiberius called Pada back to Rome. And there's two counts of this. Either he was ordered by Tiberius to commit suicide, or he was executed by Tiberius about eight years later. But try to see this first of all from Pada's point of view. They're going to go over my head again. They're going to write letters to Caesar complaining about the fact that I'm not doing my job. And then Caesar's going to take me out of here. They're going to arrest me and probably kill me. They'll ruin my career. Luke picks it up here, it's on your sheet there, Luke 23, starting in verse 14 and 15. Pilate, at this point, Pilate says, I've added these up for you. This is first of all, how many times has this happened? He said, Luke 23, 14, I find no guilt in him. Verse 15, no, nor has Herod nothing deserving death. In Matthew 27, 19, his wife's had nothing to do with that righteous man. Pilate's already said, he's innocent, he's heard, he's righteous. Now, and Matthew picks it up, Matthew 27, 23 to 25 says this, Pilate said to them, then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? They all said, crucify him. And he said, how do you think he said this? Why? He's shouting, why? Why? What evil has he done? He's shouting at them. What should I do then with Jesus who is called Christ? They're screaming, crucify him. Pilate's going, why? He's done nothing wrong. But no. What evil has he done? But they kept shouting all the more, saying, crucify him. And here it is, when Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing. Remember, Jesus said, you have no authority over me? But rather that a riot was starting. A riot's the last thing Pilate wants. He took water, washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, I am innocent of this man's blood. See to that yourselves. And of course, all the people said, his blood shall be on us and our children. Luke 23, 23 adds, they were insistent with loud voices asking that he be crucified, and their voices began to prevail. Remember Jesus said you're not in charge here, Pilate. And Pilate pronounced sentence that their demand be granted. Think about it. Pilate wants to release them. Pilate's shouting at them. Why? What has he done? But they're shouting even louder. Crucify him. Crucify him. Pilate sees they're getting violent. A riot is starting. a riot on Passover. Remember, there's over a million Jews in and around Jerusalem. If a large riot starts and Pilate has to call his soldiers out there to start beating up the crowds, word gets back to Rome real quick. Pilate was ordered to make sure this never happens again. So he says, what can he do? Pilate gives up. Pilate goes in. Notice what he does is he takes water and washes his hands. I'm innocent. He is not innocent. This is a wicked thing he's doing. Regardless of whether Pilate would lose his job or his life, he had a moral obligation not to kill an innocent man. He knows Jesus is innocent. He knows that to the core of his being, he's afraid of Jesus. Because he's afraid more for his political career and his life. We see so much of that today, don't we? How many people in Washington are Catholic? Yet they put their whole religion aside because politics always comes first. Pilate's one of them. Whatever he believes about Jesus, Pilate's not stupid. His career comes first. So he's not, no matter how much he may wash his hands, he is certainly not innocent. He's just done something despicable. He knows he's innocent. Pilate should have had his soldiers grab Jesus and take him far away somewhere. Notice here, three times we see, when he heard this, then. When he heard this, then. Now, when he sees this, then. He's driven. He's being driven along by the crowd, by what's going on here, by all these events. They were insistent, over and over again. In fact, notice it there, for the third time, verse 13. Therefore, when Pilate heard these words, you're no friend of Caesar. When Pilate heard that, he brought Jesus out, sat down on the Judgment Sea is a place called The Pavement in Hebrew. By the way, they know where this is. They're almost very sure where the Fortress of Antonia was and where the Praetorium was. When Pilate came outside, he would sit in this little stone chair. It's about 3,000 square feet of stone. Back off to the right about 50 yards is where Jesus would have been whipped. They know where this is. He comes out and sits down on this special spot where he's been sitting all along. Notice it. John adds this note, verse 14. Now it was a day of preparation for the Passover. It's about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, behold, your king. Pilate brings Jesus out to this judgment seat, the bema. We covered that last week. He sits down. There's Jesus standing right next to him. Behold, your king. Pilate's disgusted by this point. He's mocking them again. The soldiers mock Jesus as a king. Pilate's already mocked him as a king. Behold, your king. And once again, I believe Jesus, our pilot here is speaking, barely knows. Jesus is their king. Behold your king. Jesus is the ultimate son of David. Jesus is Israel's rightful king. Behold your king. But notice what John says here. I'm getting ahead of myself. Verse 14, it was a sixth hour. That's around 9am. They didn't keep, they didn't keep hours like we do. It's around 9 a.m. He's about to be crucified, about 9 in the morning. He also says, on the morning of the preparation for the Passover, at 6 o'clock that night, the Sabbath will begin. It's a Passover Sabbath. The whole weekend is basically Passover. When the sun goes down, that Friday evening begins the actual Sabbath, Passover Sabbath. So we're getting ready for this. It's the day of preparation. Remember, you've got to get ready before the sun goes down, before Passover starts. John's reminding the reader, he's reminding us, as Dean just said, this is happening on the day of Passover. Now, the day before, they celebrated their Passover meal the day before. But this whole weekend is a Passover celebration. And that night, thousands of people are going to be celebrating Passover, as Jesus was hanging on the cross that evening, that afternoon. It's a Passover. I have a sheet there that actually says, remember what the Passover is. And it should say what the Passover was. There's no longer any reason to celebrate the Passover. Why? Because Jesus changed it. We're going to do that today. Jesus changed the Passover into the communion table. But Exodus 12, 23, the Passover was the last plague when Israel was slaves in Egypt. So for the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will allow the destruction would not allow a destroyer to come into your house and smite you. They would take a lamb, an unblemished lamb, a year old, don't break its bones, slaughter it, paint your door lintel at the top of the two sides with the blood of that lamb. And God says, when I come through Egypt to bring death to the Egyptians, when I see the blood, I will pass it over you. And God told them, from this point on, this is the first day of the year for you. From now on, your calendar starts here. And from now on, For the rest of your days, you're going to remember this. You're going to celebrate it. This is one of the biggest celebrations that Jews have is Passover. To remember how God rescued them by the blood of the lamb. Well, think about it. Think what's happening here. First Corinthians 5.7 is on your sheet. Paul says, Christ our Passover. Jesus is what that Passover only pictured. The Passover pictured God seeing the blood of the lamb and sparing That's one of the beautiful Old Testament pictures of what's coming. Remember the whole Old Testament that Pastor Dave says, someone's coming. The Passover was pointing ahead to what's about to happen. Jesus is that lamb. God says, when I see the blood of Jesus applied to your life, I will pass over you and judge. We're going to preach that today in the morning service. When I see Jesus's blood applied to your sin, I'll pass over you. He's here for this reason, for this reason, to come and be that Passover lamb. And just by three in the afternoon, he's on the cross. He's home from about 9 a.m. to three in the afternoon. As he's hanging on that cross, they're all celebrating the Passover. And as Dean mentioned earlier, remember what the Pharisees said. It's on your sheet there, Matthew 26, 5. Their instructions, and they decided we have to kill him. They said, but not during the festival. Otherwise, a riot might occur. We can't do this during a Passover. Oops. Because guess what? It's Passover, and they're doing this. Who's in control here? The Pharisees, with all their power and might and influence. We don't want him killed during a Passover. Well, guess what? He must be, because he is the Passover. Jesus drove this along. Jesus made this happen. God is working. As he told Pilate, you're not in charge here, God is. I am the Passover lamb, and Jesus must be crucified on Passover. And he will be, Jane. But God. But God. I love that. But God. This is a great demonstration of what he told Pilate. This is all being orchestrated from heaven itself. But notice what he says there. He sits down on his seat. Jesus is standing there all bloodied, half dead. Remember, he uses it up all night. How many times have they been beaten, and spit on, and kicked, and punched, beard pulled out, flogged, mocked, crown of thorns on his head. He's a bloody beaten mess. What should I do with your king? Behold your king. He's mocking them again. And note what they say. This is absolutely amazing. Verse 15, so they cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate mocks him again. Pilate says to them, shall I crucify your king? The chief priest answered, we have no king but Caesar. Do you realize what they just said? The enormity of what they just said. Think about this. We have no king, but he's mocking him twice. Here's your king. And they're screaming, crucify him. What? You want me to crucify your king? He's mocking them. And notice the chief priests. If anyone in Israel should have known God, it should have been the chief priests. They technically were the closest. They should have been the closest to God. They were the ones who ran the sacrifices, who ran the temple, who were in charge of the most holy day. The chief priests, if anyone in Israel should have known God, they should have. Yet these men are wicked and corrupt. It shows you why Israel is about to be destroyed 40 years later. We have no king. But Caesar, what a bunch of lying hypocrites. We have no king but Caesar. They hate Caesar. In fact, the rabbis had a law, if anyone praises Caesar as king, he's blaspheming. God is our king. That was in all their Jewish, we praise you, oh Lord, king of the universe. Every prayer, every meal was that. Every Israelite was raised to be trained to say, God is our king. And here he said, we have no king but Caesar. Can you imagine the hypocrisy? Not only are they denying Jesus, they're denying that God, Jesus is the true king of Israel. They're denying God himself in favor of Caesar. They don't believe this. They don't believe Caesar's their king. They're only saying this to influence Pilate to kill Jesus. We have no king but Caesar. They hated the very name of Caesar. Remember when they brought that coin to Jesus? They're thinking they're so clever. Oh, we're going to get him now. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar? They hated Caesar. They were hoping Jesus would say, yeah, pay your taxes so they could, they could condemn him as a friend of Caesar. They hate Caesar. And rightly so. The Romans were oppressive. Their taxes were through the roof. They were cruel. They hated their overlords. We have no king but Caesar. Acting all pious and political. What horror. In this statement, they denied God's covenant. Remember, God's covenant promises, they knew well, was to David. David is their king. David is the kingly line. By this time in Israel, the Davidic lines fall on hard. I remember Joseph was a carpenter. He's a descendant of David. He's not living in a palace, he's a carpenter. I have on your sheet there, 2 Samuel 7, 16, God said to David, your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever, Your throne shall be established forever. They had songs and psalms they sang every day at every event, praising God's king, praising the Davidic line. Here they are saying, Caesar is our king. Psalm 149, till Israel be glad in his maker, let the sons of Zion rejoice in their king. I gave you many verses that say that. Isaiah 32, 33, 22, the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king. And the rabbis taught, and Jewish boys were taught from the first time they went to Jewish school, God is our king. God is the king of Israel. So it's the only hypocrisy here in the wickedness of these Jews. When they say to Pilate, let his blood be upon us and our children, they're talking stupid when they say that. But they're saying something awful. They're saying what they've just done to the son of God, to their true Messiah, to their true king, and just the wickedness of it, even if Jesus wasn't who he said he was. For them to do this to anybody, to treat anybody like this, and then, Caesar's our great king. It's horrible for Jews to do that, Jewish leaders. So in verse 16, and we'll come back to this in two weeks, so then he handed him over to them to be crucified. Pilate says, okay, I'll crucify him for you. Think what just happened. Think of this in Pilate's point of view. Pilate knows full well this guy's innocent. He's been screaming at them, why, what has he done? He said now, Pilate himself has said five times he's innocent. His wife had a dream saying he's innocent. Herod said this guy's innocent. Pilate just said, well I'm going to kill him anyway. And I'm not only going to kill him, I'm going to kill him in the most despicable way we know. I'll crucify him for you. He's already been whipped and tortured. He's already half dead. You see that when he tries to carry his cross, he can't. The other two can. He can't. What Pilate just did here is absolutely despicable. A lot of the commentators point out Pilate is representing the world, and he is. He's typical of the world. A Roman citizen could not be crucified. And only the worst of criminals were crucified. Usually in Rome, you were either stabbed or behind them just strangled to death, normally. Crucifixion was for the worst. But think of it now. After all that just went on this whole night, all that Pilot tried to do, he tried to stop this in every way he could. He was afraid. He was desperate. He tried all the more harder, over and over and over again. Every scheme Pilot tried to do was fail. And now Pilate gave them permission. The Roman soldiers are going to crucify him. That's exactly what Jesus prayed, wasn't it, in the garden. Remember how scared he was? He was sweating great drops of blood. And he's begging his father, if it's possible, just cut the passage. What did he say to him? If not my will, your will. You've got to see in all of this horror, in all of this wickedness, in all of what these evil people are doing, This is God's will. It was God's will that his beloved son would die on a cross. Jesus is now being led off by these Roman soldiers to be crucified, exactly as God the Father said must happen. Now let's think about this. Look at some verses here. Again, we gotta go back to Isaiah 53. It's on your sheet. I keep coming back to this. This was written about 700 years before this. I often wonder when Isaiah the prophet received this revelation, when he's done writing this, he probably sat down and goes, who is this? Who is this? This is the servant of Yahweh. All through Isaiah, he's been mentioning this servant of Yahweh, how great he is, how God's going to accomplish great things. But now he mentions how this servant is going to have all these terrible things. This is really, I can convince this for you again. Isaiah 53, starting in verse 5. 700 years before this, But he was pierced through for our transgressions. Looking way ahead, 7th century, someone is coming, this servant is going to be pierced because of our sin. He was crushed. Get that word crushed. This is what being crushed looks like. When you're beaten, when you're kicked, when you're spit on, when you're slapped, when there's a crown of thorns, when you're flogged, when you're betrayed, is corruption. Then when you're nailed to a cross, that's what being crushed looks like. And more than that, when God laid our sin on Him, it crushed Him. He was crushed under that load. That's what's said here. Read on, verse 8. By oppression and judgment. Boy, we're seeing that. This whole trial, this whole thing before Pilate is false judgment and oppression. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. As for his generation, who considered, or who knew that he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people to whom he was struck? Who knew? Who got it? Who understood at that time, this is all happening because of my sin? Nobody did. Even his disciples don't get it yet. Who knew, he said? Who realized that all this horror that he's going through was to pay for our sin? Who knew? Well, they're going to find out. Quickly, verse 10, but the Lord was pleased to crush him. That word please, I always have to stop at that. God the Father was pleased to do this to his son so that you could be saved, that I could be saved. Think what God did. If this does anything, this should humble us. that he would do that for me. I needed this. There's no other way for me to be saved. But God was pleased to crush his son so that I might get saved, so that you might have redemption. That should humble us. That should fill our hearts with joy. We should love Jesus. These are written for us to think this way. Visualize what he's going through, what God is doing to his son, and what his son is willingly submitting to. I realized that's what it took to save me. We should think this way. Read on. Verse 10 again. The Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief, if he would render himself as a guilt offering. As Sidney said, behold the Lamb of God, a guilt offering. The righteous one, my servant, will justify the many as he will bear. Get that word, bear. This is what bearing our victory looks like. being flogged and whipped and kicked and beaten and crucified. This is what bearing sin looks like. He will bear their iniquities. Read on. He poured out himself to death. He himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. This was all predicted 700 years before Christ went to the cross. He will bear their iniquities. Read on. Luke 24. Jesus spoke of that. He rose from the dead. Jesus spoke of this, Luke 24, verse 46-47. He said to him, thus it is written, long ago it was written that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations. Jesus said, you should have known this. He told those guys in the road to Emmaus, slow of heart and foolish to believe. This was written for you. starting way back in Genesis. It was written for you. Salvation only comes through the death of an innocent substitute. Only. You should know this Jesus. Acts 2.23. We saw this last time. Peter says, This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. God had plans from eternity past. They would reject him. They would hate him. They would kill him. It was God's definite plan and foreknowledge. It had to happen. Acts 4, 27, when the disciples were all taken in and whipped. It says, truly in this city there was gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predetermined. Pilate, Jesus says, you are not in charge of this. My father has already preplanned all of this. It's been predetermined. And the reason is because this is all to save God's people. 1 Peter 1.20, he was foreknown before the foundation of the world. This was all set up in eternity past. In the verse I love, Revelation 13.8, the land slain from the foundation of the world. What does that mean? Crucified already before he was even born. This was determined Way back in eternity past. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. How will we save my chosen ones? It can only be done through the death of an innocent, perfect substitute. And Jesus will become that substitute. Jesus came into this world for one purpose. Christmas is all about Easter. For one purpose, to go to that cross. And that Jesus here is marched out to be crucified. All of God's planning is coming together. And again, you have to think this through. I know I keep hitting this. If all we're going to get here is facts, he said this, and he did this, and he said that, you're missing the point. The gospel writers, I'm sure, want us to know this is what it took to save us. Our sin is that path. If Jesus had to go through all of this just to save my worthless soul, my sin must be awful. Sin must be an awful thing if it took this, isn't it? If there was some other way, God would have done it. Jesus begged his father, there's some other way. There is no other way. The wages of sin is what? Death. Only by the shedding of what is remission? Blood. It has to be. An innocent substitute has to be sacrificed in your place. And there are no innocent substitutes among the human race. So God had to become one. And all of this, all of this horror, we're going to see this is going to get worse. You know the story. When he's crucified, you think the flogging and everything else is awful. Crucifixion. In their day, it was one of the worst ways to die imaginable. and more than the physical suffering. For the innocent, spotless Lamb of God to have all of our guilt laid upon His soul, and God crushing Him. Galatians 3.13 says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. How? By becoming a curse for us. God the Father had to curse His own Son. God the Father damned His own Son in my place. He treated Jesus as if He had done the things I've done. That's why he died in the cross. He was forsaken so that we will never be forsaken again. This is all for us. So when you think through these things we're teaching here now, we're going to have more to come. Just always remember, this is for me. I really think everybody ought to, at least every now and then, picture Christ on the cross with all the blood and the agony. He looked like hamburger. Isaiah 53 says he was beaten beyond recognition, bleeding and dying and suffering. And his soul is going literally through hell. All of it, Jesus would say, I'm doing this for you. He had no sins to die for. God gave his only son. That's what gave. John 3.16, everybody knows that verse. God so loved the world, he gave. That word gave is this. God gave his son to be arrested. God gave his son to be beaten and mocked, sentenced to death falsely and wrongly, to be punched and kicked and spit upon, to be whipped, to be betrayed, and then to be crucified. God so loved the world, he gave his son. So whosoever believes in him should not perish. That's the loving God we have. This world, if they could, would do this all over again. Though next time, they're not going to get the chance. But this world still hates Him. They still cry out away with Him. We want nothing to do with Him. Psalm 2, they shake their fists in God's face. Remember what God does? He laughs. Christ is now exalted to the right hand of the Father. And God says, I have set My Son upon the throne and you all better use that idea or you're going to perish. We'll see that more in the morning service. Pastor Paul, I'm so glad you're back. Would you close us in prayer please? Right here, Heavenly Father, when we look at a passage like this, we know that it's all a scripture coming to fruition. Yes. For all the Old Testament was looking forward to this one time. Yes. And now that it has come, where there should have been rejoicing and praising, there was hatred and rejection. But we know all of that was according to your sovereign plan to bring about our glorious salvation. Yes. We are in such debt to you for our salvation. That it took such a sacrifice, such a humility to accomplish our salvation. How grateful we should be for the being known for our sin. Thank you so much. You paid it all off. We have nothing more to pay. It's done. It's accomplished. We thank You that through that sacrifice of Your Son, Lord Jesus, through Your willing sacrifice, we can have this glorious salvation, the forgiveness of sins, the hope of everlasting life in glory. into the praise for accomplishing that for us. In the name of the Father, amen.