Now turn in your Bibles to John 19. John 19. We continue in the Gospel of John into the trial of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let's rise together and read John 19, verses 1 through 16. So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head. and they put on him a purple robe. Then they said, Hail, King of the Jews, and they struck him with their hands. Pilate then went out again and said to them, Behold, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no fault in him. Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate said to them, Behold the man. Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him! Crucify him! Pilate said to them, You take him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. The Jews answered, We have a law, and according to our law he ought to die, because he made himself the son of God. Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid and went again into the praetorium and said to Jesus, Where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. Then Pilate said to him, Are you not speaking to me? Do you not know that I have power to crucify you and power to release you? Jesus answered, You could have no power at all against me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin. From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, If you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the preparation day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour, and he said to the Jews, Behold your king. But they cried out, Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him! Pilate said to them, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. And then he delivered him to them to be crucified. Then they took Jesus and led him away. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, as we approach this sad day, but this glorious day, of our redemption. Father, give us your Spirit this day. Open our eyes to this truth. Father, may we see these things in a new light such that we haven't seen it before like this. God, we pray that you would open our eyes to see the beauty of this, the gloriousness of this event, but more importantly, the person of our Lord and Savior, Jesus, our King. Open our eyes that we might behold glorious things today. O God, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Just briefly, I'd like to go over the order of events the trial of our Lord and Savior, Jesus. Remember, it's Thursday night. He was arrested at the Garden of Gethsemane. And this trial is important to us. It is the most dramatic display of human injustice and wickedness in all of human history. But it's also introducing what God intended, the purpose of God working in human history. So it's a wicked event and a glorious event at the same time. This is truly a wonderful thing. Step back and behold what is going on here. There's a reason that the story is given in much detail in all four Gospels. For this, brothers and sisters, is the Gospel. This is it. We've finally arrived. The Gospel is a historical event. The gospel is history. Does anybody like history? Is it your favorite subject? It's my favorite subject as well. As you know, I write on history, but it should be your favorite subject because the gospel is your favorite subject. This is the work of God. This is what He did. Penetrating into our existence, our reality, as real as you are sitting there today, Jesus Christ came, died on the cross for your sins, and rose again from the dead on the third day. Amen. So the order of events on this Thursday night begins with the arrest and then our Lord is taken to the house of Annas. who is the house of the high priest. Annas is not the high priest. Caiaphas is the high priest. He's the son-in-law of this evil man named Annas. So, Jesus is taken first to the house of Annas, and then he is sent to the Praetorium. The Jews do not follow him into the praetorium. Why? Because it's preparation day and they need cleanliness. They don't want to be contaminated by any interaction directly with these Gentiles who are hanging out inside the praetorium. Pilate is inside the praetorium and that's where Jesus is sent. And then Pilate goes outside after a little while and he asks the Jews for the charge against this man, Jesus. And then the first exchange with Pilate occurs in the Praetorium while the Jews are waiting outside. Then Pilate goes outside again and he asks the Jews if they would release Jesus. He suggests that they release Barabbas, but the Jews say, no, we want you to release the Barabbas. We want you to release the murderer instead. Then Pilate Sends Jesus to Herod and that does not include it in this gospel Relating of the trial, but this is what happens. I believe right at this point Pilate sends our Lord Jesus off to Herod He comes back and that's when Pilate scourges the Lord and that occurs in the first verse of chapter 19 So that's where we are today Pilate scourges the Lord Jesus, and then he walks Jesus back out to the Jews, and the Jews demand crucifixion. Pilate then has second thoughts. They walk back into the praetorium. He questions the Lord again in the praetorium, and then Pilate walks back out of the praetorium with Jesus. They cry, crucify him, crucify him. and Pilate relents. So that's the trial of Jesus, including his visit to Annas' house, his visit to Herod, and his multiple conversations with Pilate. And interspersed throughout this conversation, Pilate's wife warns Pilate she had a dream don't have anything to do with this man, Pilate washes his hands of the foul deed. So that is what happened in the trial of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'd like to begin this morning with verses 10 through 11. I'm sorting this out as best as I can for you because I want you to understand all of the events that were going on, but also the meaning behind the events. And we get these insights from the testimony of our Lord and also from what I would call God's ordained prophetic statements that come from the Jews and from Pilate. But first here in verses 10 and 11. We find out what is going on behind the scenes. Why is all of this happening? What is behind all this? Who's in charge? Is Annas in charge? Is Annas the guy behind it all? Is it Pilate? Is it the Jews? Is it Herod? Who is it? Who is behind this? And Jesus' testimony here, the words of Christ, get down into the very, very nub of the grand philosophical question that the great philosophers of the day have interacted with through the thousands of years of world history. These are the big questions. If anybody has in their mind a question as to whether our Lord Jesus Christ understands the most fundamental metaphysical issues. Certainly, we get that answer here in this verse, verse 11. Pilate says to him in verse 10, are you not speaking to me? Do you not know that I have power to crucify you and power to release you? And Jesus answered, you could have no power at all against me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin. So here it is, the most profound insight into the ultimate questions of all of the universe. And as I said, the philosophical geniuses of the pagan world always stymied by these questions. This is the great debate all the way back into the Greek philosophers and into the present day where men have given up on the answers. But this is the question. What is it that causes what happens in the world? Is everything an accident? What brings together all of world history? What is it? Where are we going? What's the purpose of all of this going on in the world? The great philosophers say it is chance. We're here today by evolutionary chance, just random molecules bumping into other molecules and creating life for no purpose and no reason. It's an indeterminate universe, and some say it's a determinate universe. The Muslims say it's all wound up, it's all determined ahead of time. But the problem with both worldviews is that every version of this relieves man of his responsibility for sin, for evil. That is, if it's just all an accident, then I'm not responsible. There's no possibility for morality. No possibility for right and wrong. We can't say that somebody robs a bank. Or somebody that murders somebody else is doing something wrong. It's all a result of chance forces on these men who are doing what they're doing. Or determinate forces, somebody else, some great and powerful cause in the universe caused all of this to happen. But Christ says no. It's not the way it works. It's not the way the universe works. That's what he says. In fact, I don't know of any other passage in Scripture that speaks to these deep issues like what our Lord gives us here before Pilate. Pilate says, don't you know I can put you to death? I can crucify you or I can let you go. And our Lord turns to him and says, you don't get any power but that which is given to you from above. My Father has all the power. He's in charge. Children, that's what we're saying. God is in charge. Evil men do terrible things. Demons do horrible things. But God is in charge. Nothing happens. Nobody has any power in any action that they take, but the power that God has given them to do. God is in charge of everything. And all these men receive that from God. There are no accidents. In fact, later in Acts chapter 2, we find that Jesus Christ was put to death. The arch crime in history occurred at the determinate counsel of God, the predeterminate plan and counsel and purpose of God. God intended it. God brought it about. God is in charge of every event that happens. But you say, how can God be in charge of these evil events and yet still be clear of the sin or the evil involved in the event? Was the destruction of six million Jews an accident? Did God, for a moment, lose control of the universe? Is God not sovereign over everything? Well, let me tell you this though. The arch crime in history. You know, we look at some of these crimes and we say, Hitler, or Stalin, or Lenin, or Mao, or whoever. We say, look at these guys. Look at what they're doing. God's in charge of them too. And the arch crime in history, brothers and sisters, was the murder of the innocent Lamb of God, the very Son of God. who is loved by God from all eternity. You can't think of a more serious insult against Almighty God than to kill His Son. Can you think of anything worse than that? They killed the Son of God. They murdered His Son. That's the arch crime in history. But God intended for it to happen. Now, I don't know how God foreordains the evil actions of men. And they retain full responsibility for it. But that's what it says here. And you either receive it, or you don't. Or you jettison human responsibility, or God's sovereignty. One or the other. You're going to kick one of those out of your worldview. And if you do, God's not God, or man's not responsible, and you've got a problem. A big problem. No, no, God is sovereign. God is in control of everything, of every event in history. And yet the sinfulness of the event itself lies in the lap of Judas and the others. The second question is who's responsible? And our Lord tells Pilate here, the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin. We did a radio program a few days ago on the most evil man and the most evil woman in history. We also added the most courageous man and the most courageous woman in history. So who was the most evil woman in history? Well, we had some runner-ups, but we chose Margaret Sanger as the most evil woman in all of history. And then for the most evil man in history, there's lots of runner-ups. There's a lot of them. It's hard to choose, except that we get it here. Who is guilty of the greater sin? The answer is the most evil man in human history was Annas or Judas. I'm not sure which. They both share responsibility. But Annas is right there at the top with Judas. These men were evil. They expressed intense evil against God and against His Son. Pilate did not belong to the church. He was a pagan. He was raised in a pagan household. He had no access to the oracles of God like these men did. They didn't have the prophetic books of the Bible. They didn't have the knowledge, the blessing of the revelation of God. They didn't have these things. And so these were the men who had the greater sin because they had the greater knowledge. Moreover, they drove it. It's obvious they drove it. Pilate was dragging his feet on the execution of Christ. These men were not dragging their feet. These men were gung-ho to bring about the destruction of the Savior. This is what they wanted. Now, let's take a look at the two perspectives working in this trial between Pilate and the Jews. I want to compare these perspectives for just a moment. The Jews' perspective. Let's look at that. Have you ever seen people so mad in all your life? I mean, it's shocking, isn't it? I mean, the degree to which they go. These people are bloodthirsty. These people are bound and determined to do away with the Christ, aren't they? Now, this is shocking. It seems odd to us. But it shouldn't. Because brothers and sisters, this is us. Have you ever seen your own heart? Now this displays it for us. In living color it gives us an idea of who we are. The evil potential of our hearts is breathtaking. How ungrateful we are. How malicious we can be in our thoughts. How envious. How quickly we move into evil surmisings. We all do this. Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of flesh. I'm sick of it, to be honest. Are you sick of your own mind? Are you done with it? Like, I'm done with this mind. Wretched man that I am, deliver me from this body of flesh. That's the cry that I think we all relate to. But see, in this case, the Jews were assuming the very worst of the very best person that ever lived. Have you ever assumed something bad of somebody else and it turned out you were the one that was the problem? We know what this is like. Well, they were assuming they were doing the right thing. as if they were crucifying the worst person on earth, who turned out to be the best person on earth, and they turned out to be the worst people on earth. Isn't that extraordinary? Boy, if that isn't me, if that isn't you, if that isn't a picture of who we are by nature, we tend to be critical, we're judgmental. We go straight to criticism, straight to judgmentalism, straight to jumping to a conclusion that's the worst possible conclusion about a brother or a sister. You know how quickly you do it, don't you? We are these dirty, rotten people that are given so quickly to these rotten assumptions about everybody else. And brothers and sisters, let's start here first. The problem must be me. Wouldn't it be something if somebody in the Sanhedrin at that point had said, guys, guys, I wonder if the problem is me. Wouldn't that be something? I wonder if we're the problem here. Just for a moment, if somebody who is critical and criticizing and judgmental and so forth, if just for a moment you say, just consider it for a moment. I wonder if the problem is me? Boy, that would resolve a lot of issues, wouldn't it? Certainly would have here. This is reflected in the story of Joseph. Joseph is a nice guy, wouldn't you all say? What did he ever do wrong? By the way, I'm convicted of this. When I was a little boy, I hated my brother Eric. And here's the thing about Eric. Eric was the sweetest, nicest kid. He was the best of the family. He was the Joseph of family. I'm like Reuben. That's who I am. I'm terrible. And I told you this story before, but children, this is how much I hated him. I competed with him. I was jealous of him. I was envious of him. This dirty, rotten heart of mine was so sinful, we were racing away from where my dad parked the car, down the road, around towards our house. and as I was rounding the corner I could hear his footsteps approaching me and I knew that he would overtake me and then humiliate me and so just for a moment I left my foot out just a tiny little bit you know I mean nobody would have noticed it but God And I left my foot out as I rounded that corner and he tripped over it and went airborne. Something else about Eric, he was fairly clumsy as well. So that, you know, that contributed a bit. I'm sure I was betting on it. And he went airborne and landed in this concrete ditch and cracked up his mouth. Oh, it was horrible. Horrible. And children, that's me. Your pastor. Wicked horrible sinful. This is us Children, isn't this us? We're we're a mean horrible malicious lot of people That's who we are and by God's grace, I don't do that. I love my brother. I'm so I feel bad. I feel terrible I still ask for his forgiveness, you know 58 years later, whatever it is Brothers and sisters this is who we are. In the depths to which they descend, we find in verse 15, they even put a guilt trip on Pilate. Pilate, you don't stand for Caesar. We're standing with Caesar. We love Caesar. Get me a button. I love Caesar. Bumper stickers. Caesar is number one. We love Caesar. Caesar's our guy. What is this? anything to kill the Messiah. We'd rather subject ourselves to Caesar. We'll give up on the notion of national independence, which has been a value to the nation for 400 years. We'd rather be tyrannized by human powers than accept the salvation of God. So many Americans lost in their addictions. I'd rather come under the chains and the domination of 10,000 tyrants and be released from the sin by the redemption of Jesus. That's what it is. That's what it is. But what we see here is the greatest demonstration of the evil of man, the enmity of man, the ultimate display of man's hatred of God. See, by nature, brothers and sisters, we do hate God. We have it in for God, and we can hide from there, we pretend like it's no big deal, we're bored in His worship and such, but we can pretend that we kind of like God, but by nature we are at enmity with God. That's why Americans like to take His name in vain, because they really do hate God, and all of us do by nature. We're born with these hearts that are enmity against God, that don't want to submit themselves to God, to the will of God, to the law of God. In every opportunity, we break His law. We shake our fist against Him. We lift ourselves up in pride and present ourselves as wonderful, but we won't worship God. We're not intensely interested in the worship of God, but when it comes to glorifying ourselves, winning some great contest, and receiving the accolades of men, we're all there. That's who we are. Constantly saying, God, I'm competing with you. God, I hate you. I'm enmity against you. This is where man is by nature. So man displays his hatred to God in the most obvious way possible here at this scene when they're screaming out, crucify him, crucify him. But what else do we see? Who is this man standing there? What is he doing there? He has come to be a sacrifice. He's come to make peace. He is God's peace offering. who has come to receive the brunt of the wrath of God in order to reconcile these angry, bitter, rebellious people to God. That's the other thing that's going on here. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. Here we see the wrath of man. but also the peace of God, propitiating the wrath of God, which by the way is far more intense than the wrath of man. So, here is the most evil scenario in all of human history playing out before our eyes. And here, guys, guys, the most amazing, the most wonderful, the most beautiful, the most loving, the most gracious sacrifice of all, here we have contention and rebellion. And while we were yet sinners, while we were rebels against God, He sent His only Son to be this propitiation for us. Alright, so let's move on to Pilate's perspective. Pilate's perspective is interesting. It's kind of hard to read. He's going all over the place here. Pilate's impressed. He's impressed with the Lord. Pilate's torn. Pilate's afraid. Three times he walks outside. He's questioning the Jews about this crucifixion again and again. Over and over again, Pilate affirms the Lord's innocence. But then he scourges an innocent man in the first verse of chapter 19. And then he sort of regrets that he did it. By the way, you need to know that six years later, in A.D. 36, Pilate was ordered to Rome to face complaints of excessive cruelty. And he was exiled to France where he probably committed suicide. That's the end of Pilate. But here, this is interesting, a cruel man is arguing half-heartedly for the innocence of Christ. I just think that's interesting. Pilate is doubtful. Pilate is insincere, and Pilate is non-committal. That's who Pilate is. And this so represents most people. Most people I think you run into are not exactly the people who are saying, hey, let's crucify Jesus again. They're not exactly saying that, but they tend to be noncommittal. They're running away from God. They're rejecting truth. He asked the question, what is truth? Towards the end of chapter 18. So he's not sure. He said, what is truth? Do we really need to know the truth? Is it important to commit to anything? This is the postmodern age too. People want to be certain. Someone comes out and starts preaching with certainty. As if this is true, eternally true, and always true. What's the impression most postmoderns present to that? They're turned off. But they don't want it. What? There's truth? There's absolute truth? Something to be believed? Something to be committed to? With your very life? Most people today wouldn't want to go there. That's Pilate. He's doubtful. He's all about doubts. He's not sure. He's non-committal. Is he being sarcastic? Is he mocking Christ with the purple robe? Or is he being truthful? He steps out and says, Behold the man. He says, Behold the king. Is he truthful? Is he considering there might be some truth to it? He's just not committal. Is he expressing irony? Or is his expression of irony another divine irony? Does that make sense? In other words, is God one-upping him on the irony? He puts the sign up on the cross, Jesus, the King of the Jews. Ha, ha, ha. Is there irony here or is there another irony working? Is there a divine irony working here? Who gets the last laugh with this irony? That's why we want to look at these three prophetic statements. I call them truthful statements. Whether or not Pilate or the Jews would commit themselves to these statements, I still say, brothers and sisters, we do. We commit ourselves to these. The first of which is this. Here it is, verse 5. Three statements. We'll end on this this morning. Verse 5, Behold the man. Let's take a look at that. First thing he says, look, behold, take a stare, the man. Ha Anthropos. Behold the Ha Anthropos. Most definitely a definite article there. I checked it out for myself. The definite article is really important. Behold the man. Here he is, the man. Several of the kings of the earth have had the nerve to call themselves the man. In my survey of the great empires and the great kings of the earth over 2,000 years before Christ, I find the first record of it in China in 1766 B.C. It's one of the very first of the ancient writings available in Chinese. And the very first emperor of the Shang Dynasty, Emperor Tang, referred to himself four times in his opening speech, which, by the way, is carved into this rock, this stelae, which is still available. And if you're going to give a speech and put it on a stone stelae, it's going to be there for a while. And his big deal was referring to himself as the one man, four times. The man, the one man, the ideal man, the optimum man, the ultimate manifestation of humanness on earth. Turns out Shang was not the man. But it's interesting that even unbelievers were impressed by Jesus. I find this interesting. was impressed by the Lord. Now, I can't give you all the reasons, but he was obviously impressed. Now, he whipped on Jesus, but he was impressed by Him. Think about John 7, verse 45, when the officers went to arrest our Lord and they came back, the chief priests and the Pharisees, they said, why have you not brought Him? And what did they say? No man ever spoke like this man. He was impressive even to unbelievers. Well, I would say that anybody who would speak as Jesus spoke, or cast out demons and legions, you'd go into the land of the Gadarenes, where, you know, this man had been under the influence of a thousand demons, and he'd cast out all the, and everybody knew about him, he was the talk of the town for the previous 25 years, or however long it had been, and Christ comes and smacks out these evil demons, just like that. That's impressive. There's all his healings and the resurrection of Lazarus and the Word had gotten around by this time that he had raised Lazarus from the dead. All of this indicated this man was no ordinary man. And even the unbelievers were aware of this. He was the sinless man, the perfected man, the God man, the unique man. He was truly the second man. This is important because all of us by nature, we are part of the human race, but there are two races. Do you know there's two races? There's the human race and we are all derivative of Adam. And then there is a new race that begins with the second man. Bible refers to him as the second man. So there's the first man, there's the second man. Let me ask you this, was the first man important? Significant. Does the first man have any influence on you and your children? Have any of you had children where they come out of the womb and they're acting a certain way and you're thinking they seem to resemble their grandfather? It's an amazing resemblance. Grandpa Adam right there with our children. Adam has had a huge influence on all of his posterity. Well, Christ is the second man. Romans 5 in verse 15. What do we read? For if, by the one man's offense, many died. Okay, what is that? That's Adam's offense. The one man, Adam ate of the fruit, many died. How many died? Roughly. 10 billion? 10 billion people? How many people have died over 4,000 years? There's a possibility before the flood there were as many as 12 billion people on the globe. The maximum number is 12 billion. The minimum number would be about a billion. So before the flood, there was a billion to 12 billion, and now we have upwards of 7 billion, and there's been a few billion since then. I would say safely, you could say there's been about 12 billion deaths in the world since Adam ate of the fruit. That's 12 billion people dead. Now, is that a lot of responsibility? Well, it is. And Adam was important, but Christ is more important. Do you all agree with that? Is He more important in the sense that He came to solve death? To save us from sin? To bring us to God? Absolutely. So Christ is more important. He is the new race, the new man and the second man. Romans 8 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers." Have there been other people born before Jesus was born? Yes, there were quite a few others. But Christ is the firstborn among many brothers. He is our older brother. Christ is the first of the new man. He's the first new human, and we are part of that. Listen to Hebrews chapter 2, and behold the man. Again, behold the man. Behold Jesus here. We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone, for it was fitting for Him. for by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all one, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly. I will sing praise to you." Jesus came in order that he would be the first of this race and that we would be his brothers. And by the way, those brothers come from every tribe and nation around the world. And all of these are part of his family. We're all his brothers and he sanctifies us and we are being sanctified and we are all one in Jesus. So in God's ordination there was another federal head, a man to represent us. Adam failed and then came Jesus who succeeded. Now there are two natures in this one person. Now we are beholding the man. You know some don't have much interest in doctrine. But brothers and sisters the doctrine is critical for our salvation. We would not be saved had it not been for a God-man to come to save us. So the doctrine is critical. If you deny certain doctrines and join other cults who reject the deity of Christ or the humanness of Christ, you're not a Christian. These are essential doctrines that Christ came in the flesh that the father he was with the father at the beginning the father sent him to us and he became flesh like us that he would save us. These are critical. two natures, one person, without separation, without mixture. Without mixture, the communication of the attributes from the divine to the human would have made it difficult for Jesus to have said, the Son of God does not know the day or the hour of his return. So if you say that this lack of knowledge on Jesus's part, that he betrays to us in his human nature, affects his divine nature, you're saying that Jesus isn't God. You're saying He's not omniscient because you mixed the natures. You denied the deity of Christ. And that, brothers and sisters, is fatal for our faith. But secondly, He is without separation. The separation of His natures would have produced two persons. and you don't ordinarily fall down at the feet of a human being and worship Him, but you do in the case of Jesus. Why? Because there is no separation. It would have been strange for us to fall down and worship the divine, invisible nature of Christ, but not worship before the physical, visible human nature of Christ as the wise men did and others. We come closest to God. And this has been ordained by God from all eternity. We become closest to God by the two natures that are distinct but not separate. Zero separation between them. such that our separation from God doesn't exist. Now, the worldly positions of every person born by nature and all of the worldly religions, man's intent is to become God. That's the way it always works. The Egyptian pharaohs wanted to become God. The Japanese emperor wanted to become God. You want to become God. By nature, we all want to become God. You know, that's just what humans do. We want to ascend up to Godhood. So by nature, man wants to ascend to God. But in the true faith, God descends to man. And that's the difference between your humanist religion you're born with and the true faith. We don't ascend to God. We don't ascend to Godhood. God descends to us in the form of His Son who takes on human flesh that we would be in relationship with Him. And the Son of God takes on this human flesh. There is zero separation between the human nature and the divine nature such that we become brothers to Him in His human nature. And because there is zero separation between His human nature and divine nature, we are forever in Him and in relationship with God to the closest possible degree, forever and ever. That's why there's no separation. Our relationship with God is the closest it could possibly be. If there is no separation between the human nature and the divine nature, and there remains a oneness in the Trinity itself. If we were one with the divine nature, we would become gods. But that's not how it works. We don't become God. We are in relationship with the human nature. The human nature has no separation with the divine nature and the divine nature is in eternal relationship with the Trinity forever and ever Now I know these doctrines are very deep, but they're very simple children Children, this is very, very simple. Jesus Christ comes to us. He is God. He is man. And the purpose is that we would have a close relationship with God forever because God wants to live with you. God wants to live with me. God wants to live with us. God wants the closest possible relationship with us forever. And that's why there are two natures, distinct but not separate, as established by the creeds. This is the greatest longing of the human heart. This is why men try to ascend to God. That's why they try to become God. This is the deepest longing of the human heart. This is it, we're there. It is to be in relationship with the God who made us. Otherwise, we're just too lonely. We would be just too lonely forever if we weren't in relationship with the true and living God because we were made in His image with the capacity for relationship and relationship to personality forever. Is there anything more beautiful than that? Behold the man. Behold the man. Behold the man who draws us to God. Behold the man, the perfect man, the second man, the ideal man. Behold the man that begins a new humanity. Behold the incarnated, preexistent person of the Son of God standing there in human nature. Behold the perfections. Behold the mercy. Behold the power to heal, to save. Behold the power over the demonic realm. Behold the wisdom. Never man spoke like this man. Behold our brother. Behold the man. Brothers and sisters, are you in awe of this man? Secondly, behold the Son of God. These are the words of the Jews, who in verse seven said, we must believe that he is, I'm sorry, let me read it for you. Verse seven, the Jews answered, we have a law, according to our law, he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. Behold the Son of God. They would not behold the Son of God. This would be the problem with the Jews. Now, why is it important that he be the Son of God? Because the one thing we know about salvation, the one thing we know very well about salvation, is what Jonah learned in the belly of the fish down in the deep, deep blue sea. What did Jonah learn? Salvation is of the Lord. That if Jonah was going to be saved, God would have to do it. And this is exactly in line with our brother's exhortation this morning. If God is going to save, if anybody is going to save us, God must save us. We reach out to God for His salvation. This is the most fundamental belief concerning salvation. God must save us. Now I don't care if You take this position or that position on the five points and other points and such, but fundamentally the one thing you need to know for sure is that God saves. Salvation is of the Lord. If God saves, then God's Savior must be God. The Savior must be the Son of God, and He must be God. Listen to Isaiah 35 and verse 4. This is the point of the whole Old Testament. This is the point of the Red Sea. This is the point of Gideon. This is the point of the whole Old Testament. You want to know the point? What is the point that God is driving home through the prophets and all the others? What's the point of the whole Old Testament? This is in Isaiah 35, verse 4. Say to those who have an anxious heart. By the way, does anybody have an anxious heart? Anybody have any anxiety? Anybody have a concern about something? Does anybody lack peace in your heart? Here again, a prophetic announcement to you. Say to those of an anxious heart, be strong. Fear not. Behold, your God will come with a vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and He will save you. Isn't that beautiful? In other words, the point of the Old Testament is, man, we are so far gone. Jonah was far gone. Would you all agree? Jonah, far gone. You're in the belly of a fish at the bottom of the ocean. That's far gone. How are you going to save yourself? Jonah said, salvation is of the Lord. Got it. Got it. Salvation is of the Lord. Got it, Lord. And this is what we need to get to. Salvation is of the Lord. If God is going to save us, He's going to save us. He's going to come and save us. Listen to Ezekiel 34.10, Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my flock at their hand. I will cause them to cease feeding the sheep, and the shepherds shall feed themselves no more, for I will deliver my flock. Indeed, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out as a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day he is among his scattered sheep. So will I seek out my sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day." In other words, what God is saying is, all these bad shepherds, you guys have failed. You have failed. I will come and I will personally save you. I'm getting involved, personally. And I can't think of any more personal involvement than God in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Can you? That's involvement. Somebody say, that's involvement. That's involvement. That's real involvement. God is saying, it's like he's rolling up his sleeves, saying, okay, y'all have missed it on the salvation bit. Y'all haven't shepherded my people right. Well, I'm coming and I'm going to do it myself. I will personally take care of this salvation. Now, who was the shepherd? Does anybody know who the shepherd was that came to save and to deliver his sheep? Jesus Christ, the very Son of God. Now, when you say, yeah, but Jesus wasn't God, then what are you saying? You're saying, I don't need God to save me. I'm not that far gone. which is what the cults tell you. The cults will tell you that. You're just not that far gone, don't really need God to save you. But we do. The Messiah must be the very Son of God, because only God can save us now. Then thirdly, this is the third statement that was made, somewhat sarcastically, but we receive it, brothers and sisters. Here we go, verse 13. Behold your king Behold your king There he is standing before the Jews decked in the crown of thorns blood no doubt dripping down his face Bloody furrows up and down his back from the cat of nine tails a scrape down his back Making bloody furrows all the way down his back matted into the purple robe mocked by man rejected by his own people And the Jews are saying, ridiculous, absurd, absurd. King? Ha, ha, ha. But what do we see? Our King. Behold our King. What do you see? What do you see? Behold the King. Behold our King, our victor. riding into battle to conquer enemies 10,000 times stronger than Caesar and all of his legions. He was riding to overcome sin and to restore relationship with God by his sacrifice. What does this scene elicit in your own heart, brothers and sisters? I trust Psalm 45. Your hearts right now, I know it's filling with appreciation and joy and a sense of wonder. Here's our King, mocked by men, received by God, the sacrifice of the Father for the sins of the world. My heart is overflowing with a good theme. I recite my composition concerning the King. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. You are fairer than the sons of men. Grace is poured upon your lips. Therefore, God has blessed you forever. You love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore, God your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness before then, more than your companions. This is our King. This is Christ our King. Behold the man. Behold the Son of God. Behold your King. Not an intellectual idea to be demanding about not any person, but the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the man, the King, the very Son of God. Better than all the cheap salvations that man offers. Better than romantic love. Romantic ideals. Romantic feelings. Better than all of your escapistic experiences. In all of your entertainments. In all of your novels. In all of your wonderful stories that end, they lived happily ever after. This one is better than all of that. Behold your king. Behold the man. And as you see him, you must believe in him. It's what Josh read last night, John 6, 40. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the last day. So can you see Him? Can you see Him standing there? Can you see Him on the cross? Can you see Him in the tomb? Can you see His eyes begin to open in the tomb? Can you see Him folding the handkerchief? In the tomb, can you see him beat death? Can you see him on the throne? Can you see him conquering his enemies? Can you see him putting an end to the religious vipers of Jerusalem in A.D. 70? And the proudest, most powerful empire that man had ever had in A.D. 475? Can you see him crushing the enemy again and again throughout history? Have you seen it in this church? Have you seen Him arrest Paul and you and me on the road to Damascus and making us willing in the day of His power? Have you seen this King? Do you glory in this King this morning? The princes of the world could not see Him and they killed Him. But do you see Him? Do you love Him more than yourself? Behold, the man, behold our King." And there comes a point at which, brothers and sisters, we need to stop beholding how bad the world is. How bad you are, how good you are. How bad your brother is, how good your brother is, and how bad this church is. And behold God. And behold his Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. Father, nothing to see here, but everything to see there. Father, we would behold you more and more in your glory, in your wonderfulness, in your awesomeness. Father, in your mighty works of salvation. Father, we would behold your Christ more. We would behold the Son of God, the very Son of Man, who is our salvation. open our eyes to see these sights too wonderful to behold. But help us, O God, to see with new eyes our Lord Jesus Christ in all of His glory, in His kingship, in His priesthood, in His the Lamb on the throne, the glorious Savior of the world who overcame death and sin and the devil for us. We look to you Jesus and we say Hallelujah. What a Savior. In Jesus' name, Amen. We come now to the Lord's table. Just for the last 10 or 15 minutes, we have this time of communion together with each other and with Christ, who is the head of the church. Those of you visiting, take a look at the back of the bulletin. We have a little short synopsis on how we practice the table here at the church. But let me get back to this word, look. Behold our King. Behold the man. We see this throughout scripture. Take a look at this. Face it. Have you ever spoken the truth to an unbeliever and he won't look at you? He won't face you. And He doesn't want to face the truth. He doesn't want to come face to face. He kind of looks to the side. He tries to deflect it. He perhaps tries to change the subject. He's not facing it. And for us, brothers and sisters, we are beholding. We're not looking aside. We're looking straight ahead. We're not avoiding the subject. We're focused. We're beholding God and beholding the King, beholding the man, beholding the sacrifice in faith. This is essential to faith. We look, we look up, we face the truth. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. That's what John the Baptist said. or Isaiah 45, look unto me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no else. But I think the very best is Zechariah 12.10, which is repeated here in John 19. Here's Zechariah 12.10, I will pour out on the house of David, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication, and then they will look on me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son and grieve for him as the one who grieves for his firstborn. This is the picture of repentance that came 40 days after the crucifixion. They mourned as one who lost their firstborn. Because repentance came, there's no question. Repentance came 40 days afterwards. But see, it dawned on them. It dawned on them. They looked, they saw. It appeared to them. Suddenly, they realized what they had done. They faced the reality of their sin, of their crucifixion of the Messiah. They saw that they had pierced Him. And it dawned on them. It rushed in upon them like a flood, and they mourned over Him. They saw it. They saw the reality of their sin, the curse of the cross, and the salvation that He got for them and for us. So the emotions as we approach the table this morning I think are mixed. There's always this mix of emotions in the Christian life. Amen? Do you relate to this? Sometimes we have this deep sense of sorrow and grief. We had a little bit at my house this morning, just a heaviness and a weightiness and a grief, but that's okay. It's okay to have some grieving. There's some heaviness here, but there's a horror when we look at what we did, but there's also this gratefulness and joy that dawns on us when we look at what He did. See, they saw what they did to Him, and then they saw what He did for them. So, brothers and sisters, look at Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is real. He's like us. He's got a physical body like we do. I don't know what He looks like. Precisely, but he looks something like Jonathan, or Cormac, and Brenda Swanson. He looks like us. Christ is real. Christ really loved us. He took real nails in his hands. He shed real blood for us. He is the Son of God and someday we will look at Him and we will fall down at His physical feet and worship Him. Now the bread and the wine is real too. These are real physical signs of a real physical reality of flesh and blood. It's what it is. It's a real thing. You can touch it, you can feel it. And I'm gonna ask you to touch it. I'm gonna ask you to look at the bread and think about the real flesh that was broken for you. I'm gonna ask you to look into the cup and think about the real blood that was shed for you. This is real bread, this is real wine or grape juice, and Jesus shed real blood and took a real sword into his flesh, which tore it open and brought the blood out. And he did that for us, really. Okay, let's pray. Father in heaven, oh God, we come with gratefulness. We praise you, Father, we thank you. We offer this meager sacrifice of thanksgiving in terms of our prayers and our thoughts and our appreciations and our minds. Father, we say thank you. for the great grace that you showed to us by giving up your son. And Jesus, we praise you and thank you, our Jesus. We bow at your feet, we receive your service, we receive your washing of our feet, but more importantly, the washing of all of us by your blood. We receive your blood, we receive your flesh, we receive your life. Jesus, in humbleness, we say thank you for giving yourself to us, and now we give ourselves to you too. We pray these things in Jesus' name. By the power of the Spirit, and by the gift of the Spirit, we receive these elements. Amen.