March 21, 2010
Evening Service

St.Jn. 19

 

Review:

I came away this morning with these thoughts.

1.      We are seeing God’s divine plan for salvation being worked out. 

2.      The weakness of man without God in their life.  Through Peter’s denials.

3.      The hypocrisy of the Jews.  Worrying about keeping their traditions, and having all the hate in their hearts.

4.      And then seeing Jesus as King of kings, and Lord of lords.

 

Joh 19:1-42  Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him.  (2)  And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe,  (3)  And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands. 

• Isa 50:6  I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
• Isa 53:4-7  Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  (5)  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.  (6)  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.  (7)  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

 

(4)  Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him.  (5)  Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man! 

• Behold the man!  There was no bending over and writing in the sand this time, it is time for the will of God for mankind to be worked out.

(6)  When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him.

• These same men that are crying out for Jesus to die, will soon understand He is dying for them, not Himself.

Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him. 

• Even Pilate a blood thirsty Roman knows this is wrong.

(7)  The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.  (8)  When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid;  (9)  And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.  (10)  Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?  (11)  Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. 

• You see how we understand that God is in control of every situation.

(12)  And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. 

• The cunning craftiness of the Jews.

(13)  When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.  (14)  And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! 

(15)  But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. 

(16)  Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.  (17)  And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:  (18)  Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.  (19)  And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.  (20)  This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.  (21)  Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The king of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews.  (22)  Pilate answered, What I have written I have written. 

• You see, God was even in control of this.

(23)  Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.  (24)  They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots.   ( Psa. 22:18 )

These things therefore the soldiers did.  (25)  Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.  (26)  When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!  (27)  Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. 

• This is a very sad picture.  The 3 Marys that were prominent in His life.
• His earthly Father, Joseph must have already passed on, for Jesus turns to John for His Mother’s care.

(28)  After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. 

• Psa 69:21  They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

 (29)  Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.  (30)  When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. 

• This was a terrible happening.  It is described here the way God wanted it described.  Men have made it look ghastly terrible, and it was, but you have the description that God wants you to have. 
• The fulfilling of the Scriptures, and the death is what is important.

(31)  The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was a high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. 

• Deu 21:23  His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
• Jesus took our curse, not His, but ours.

 (32)  Then came the soldiers, and broke the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. 

• Again God in control saw to it that Jesus was already dead.  Listen to Lactantius;
• Lactantius says that it was a custom to break the legs of criminals upon the cross; which was done, we are told, at the instep with an iron mallet; and appears to have been a kind of coup de grace, the sooner to put them out of pain.

(33)  But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they broke not his legs: 

(34)  But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.  (35)  And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. 

(36)  For these things were done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. 

• Psa 34:20  He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.

(37)  And again another Scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced. 

• Zec 12:10  And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

(38)  And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.  (39)  And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pound weight.  (40)  Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.  (41)  Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulcher, wherein was never man yet laid.  (42)  There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulcher was nigh at hand.

 

Even in His burial God was in control.

• Isa 53:9  And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

 

Christian, we will never forget how terrible the cross was.  We will never forget that it was this work that Jesus did on Calvary shedding His life’s blood, so that we could redeemed back to God, and live eternally one day with God.

 

Let us never forget, and forever be looking upward for His soon return.