Behold The Man

“We have no king but Caesar.” That line is meant to win an argument, but it ends up revealing a heart that will say anything to get what it wants. We open John 19 with Jesus brought before Pilate, and we watch a governor who knows Jesus is innocent still try to manage the crowd through violence, politics, and half-measures. Pilate’s fear of Rome and the threat of unrest presses in on every decision, and it raises an uncomfortable question for all of us: what do we do when following Jesus feels costly in public?

We take time with the scourging, the purple robe, and the crown of thorns, then connect that crown back to Genesis 3 where thorns and thistles enter the world through sin. That one detail becomes a clear picture of the gospel message: Jesus takes the curse and the consequences of sin upon Himself so we can receive forgiveness and the righteousness of God. We also explore the back-and-forth with Pilate, the meaning of the judgment seat at Gabbatha, and why the Passover timing matters as the Lamb of God goes to the cross.

Finally, we land on the warning hidden in plain sight: it’s easy to deny Christ without announcing it, through our words, our entertainment, our comfort, and our compromises. If you’ve felt the pressure to blend in, stay quiet, or choose convenience over obedience, this teaching brings both conviction and hope, pointing us to John 3:16 and the call to be born again. 

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Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina. We have no king but Caesar.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

And they don't really mean that, but they're saying that in this opportunity, in this time, to complete the task that they have set their hearts to without even seeking after God what they should do. May we be careful to seek after the Lord, to get his insight, so we don't do things and say things or where we end up denying our Lord in front of other people.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

We can learn from this story that it's easy to get caught up in the world and maybe unknowingly deny Christ with our actions. Even our words can thoughtlessly come out. We tend to choose our wants and our comfort over Him. We start saying things or listening to music that is not honorable to Him. In today's message, Pastor Carl will encourage you to think through your every action, thought, and word. Don't entertain something or someone who will cause you to stray from God or disobey God. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Well, let's get into our study this morning. We're in John chapter 19. And last week, of course, we looked at John chapter 18. That was when Jesus was arrested. He was betrayed by Judas, and he was brought to the high priests, and there were two high priests at that time. Listen back to the study. It was very interesting how that all played out. And now we find Jesus before Pilate. So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. Now, I'm sure you've heard many of sermons in the past that describe the scourging of Jesus. It was terrible, it was horrible, it was awful. Most people died at the experience of the scourging. And Isaiah talks about how Jesus would look not like a man anymore. Just you couldn't recognize him after this scourging. And it was it was sort of Pilate's way of doing Jesus a favor because you know Pilate had this problem because he'd gotten in trouble with Rome for a couple of uprisings that have happened before. And if something else happened, he would be fired. And so he's he doesn't know what to do in this situation. He's talked to this man and and he sees this man really hasn't done anything wrong. He might be a little crazy, but uh he's trying to get him out of it. So some commentators believe he had him scourged so he could present them to the people, and the people would have pity on him and and not want to crucify him. Uh that that's the mind of man. I'm trying to help you by doing this. Without the mind of Christ, our thinking is out there. Our mind is deceitfully wicked above all things. Who can know it? And Pilate is stuck in the middle of this. So he had him scourged and he gave them over to the soldiers, and then they had a good time with him. The soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put on a purple robe and said, Hail, king of the Jews, and they struck him with their hands. Just took an opportunity to mock this man who has not really been on trial yet. He hasn't been found guilty yet. Yet they're already doing all these things to him. Now it's interesting about this robe that they put on him to worship him as the king. Uh some commentators say they just found some purple garment that was left over that was tore up that they they put on Jesus. Uh I had a thought this week. I thought maybe somebody was had access to Pilate's closet and they got one of his robes out and they put it on Jesus. Uh, and and he probably wouldn't say anything about it at that moment because of the trouble that he was in. Whatever the situation was, wherever they got this purple robe, it was not to honor the Lord. It was to mock the Lord, which fulfilled much prophecy. And you notice they put a crown of thorns on his head. You know, as in the Greek Olympics, they would put a crown on your head, but they they wanted to mock him, so they put a crown of thorns on his head to add more pain and pressure and just uh insult to injury. But I don't think they realized what they were doing. Where do you recognize thorns from? Back in Genesis. Back in Genesis chapter 3, Adam and Eve had partaken of the fruit that they were not supposed to, sin entered the picture, and now the Lord is having a talk with Adam, Eve, and with the serpent, Satan himself. And one of the things that he told uh Adam in Genesis chapter 3, the second part of 17, beginning there, cursed is the ground for your sake, in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life, both thorns and thistles shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face, you will eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and dust you shall return. Sin brought a consequence to the whole creation. Now it would be difficult to work. Now we would have thorns and thistles and weeds, and when you're gardening, it's so easy to grow weeds, isn't it? It's hard to grow the good stuff. It's a picture of sin that has come into this world as a result of the fall. And that sin is something that Jesus took upon himself. He was crowned with our sin so that we could be given the righteousness of God. Our salvation comes because he's taking upon himself our sin, the sin of the world, and the wrath of the Father upon that sin. So in return we could be forgiven. Because there was nothing that we could do to earn our salvation. He made it. He made the way where there was no way. And what a picture of this when they they're mocking him, putting a crown of thorns on his head, and yet that is exactly what he's doing, taking the result of sin upon himself, so that we could be freed. Verse 4, Pilate then went out again and said to them, Behold, I am bringing him out to you, that you might know that I have found no fault in him. And then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and a purple robe, and Pilate said to him, Behold the man. Here's the man that you've been waiting for. Here's the troublemaker that you've been waiting for. He says he's the king of the Jews. Here he is. I present him to you. You can't even tell what he is anymore. Is this is this what you're after? Is this really a troublemaker? Is this what what do you have to fear about this man? Is some of the things behind that statement. Behold the man. And of course, in his twisted thinking, he's he's trying to do Jesus a favor, and yet he's mocked him, he's scourged him, he's nearly killed him already. And he brings them out, pulls them out before the people. And therefore, when the chief priests and the officers saw him, these are the chief priests of the nation of Israel, the representatives of God to man. These are the people that represent man to God and God to man, and and and yet look at their reaction to the Messiah, the one that they were waiting for. They cried out and they said, Crucify him, crucify him! He hasn't suffered enough yet. We need to get rid of him completely. Pilate said to them, You take him and you crucify him, for I find no fault with him. If you found no fault with him, why did you do what you did with well, just leave that alone. It is what it is. But he's saying he's found no fault with him. And the Jews answered, We have a law according to our law that he ought to die, because he made himself out to be the Son of God. And some commentators say that the only one that could be addressed in any Roman area as the Son of God is Caesar himself, because Caesar is considered God. And what they're making here is a case that says this man is not only a threat to our people, but he's a threat to Rome itself. And again, Pilate is in this situation where he doesn't know what to do, because it seems like any way he goes, he's going to get in trouble. Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid. He was the more afraid because the crowd is now making an accusation that this Jesus that he just pummeled to nearly death is a threat to Caesar himself. And so he went back into the Praetorium and said to Jesus, Where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. He was looking for something. Something to get himself out of this situation. But Jesus gave him no answer. And Pilate said to him, Are you not speaking to me? Do you not know that I have the power to crucify you and the power to release you? Come on, man. I'm trying to help you here. 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. Even here you see Jesus in his grace and his mercy and his love appealing to Pilate not to be set free, but that Pilate would come to know him personally. Yes, what you're doing is very sinful, Pilate. But these people, the leaders of Jerusalem who sent me here, the high priest Caiaphas, who sent me here, has a greater sin because he's a representative of God. In word. But he doesn't know me. You're not a self-made man. You are there because my father put you there. For his reason in his time. Verse 12. From then on, Pilate sought to release him. Pilate knewing that this just isn't right. From a man who said, What is truth? Situational ethics. Somewhere deep inside, he knew that this wasn't right. And that was an absolute conviction. Now, of course, he has different reasons why he doesn't think it's right. Of course, one of the biggest motivators again is so he wouldn't get in trouble with the Roman authorities again. By the way, did you know that Pilate, and I forget the names of the people, Pilate was put into power by a man who was second in line to Caesar, but had other motives involved. He wanted to uh take out Caesar and become Caesar himself. So he already has an association with some rebels in the kingdom. And so Caesar is watching his every move. But the Jews cried out, saying, If you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend. There they're bringing up that appeal again. That this is uh an enemy to the government. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar. Nobody can declare themselves a king. They have to be appointed by Caesar, and this man is nowhere near being appointed by Caesar. And Pilate also thinking, I wasn't appointed by Caesar, I was appointed by Caesar's enemy. I am in a bad place here. Verse 13, when Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place called the pavement, but in Hebrew it's called Gebatha. Um and I wanted to show you that in uh from the Easton's Bible dictionary, Gebatha is the ridge of the house or the temple mound on a part uh of which the fortress of Antonio was built. This is where uh the house of Pilate was. This temple mount was covered with a tessellated uh pavement. Any wordsmiths out there know what tessellated means? It's like a uh a checkerboard, not necessarily black and white, but that's how it was put is put put together, the pavement there. It was stone paved. And a judgment seat or a bima seat, does that sound familiar? Christians will go before the Lord at the bimah seat and will be judged for the works that they did as Christians, the works that they did in Christ, and the works that they did outside of Christ, and those works that would were done outside of Christ would be burned up like wood, hay, and stubble, and those that they had done in Christ would be like precious gold, silver, and other metals. And they'd go through the fire and be refined, and we'd get rewards for that. And of course, when we get those crowns from the Lord, we'll cast them back at his feet and say, We're not worthy of this. It's because you have done this work in and through us. You are worthy of the praise. Well, this Bhima seed was something that was done at this time. It's the place of judgment. And it was placed on the pavement outside the hall of the Praetorium, which is the judgment hall. So that's what Gebatha means. And this is a place of judgment. So even without a trial, Pilate is in the midst of making a judgment call on this man. Now it was the preparation day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, Behold your king. Again, he brings them out to them. The preparation day of the Passover. Of course, this was the Passover season, and it was the beginning of a week of celebration. The first day of the Passover would be the day that the lambs would be sacrificed. Then the rest of the week would be spent uh eating, eating uh the feast and just celebrating the goodness of God and how he freed them from Egypt and sent them out into the promised land. They remember that in the in the Passover. But the preparation day refers to uh what every Friday was as they prepared for the Sabbath. This was the preparation day during the Passover, and later on we'll see that there is a it was a special high Sabbath day because it was a Sabbath day during a holiday celebration. And so this was the preparation day during the Passover, preparing for Sabbath. So the preparation day is the day that you get ready for the Sabbath. And if you remember in the wilderness when they were gathering the manna, they were instructed to gather six days, but not on the seventh. But on the sixth day you gathered double, so you'd be prepared for the Sabbath. Same sort of idea here. Get everything ready for your Sabbath, and then you don't have to do any work on the Sabbath day. There's also a little conflict between one of the other gospels and this one about what hour it was. I believe the other gospel was using uh Hebrew time, and this is using a Roman time. The point was it was early in the morning. Between 6 and 9 a.m., these things were happening. And so Pilate says, All right, here's your king. And they cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him. And Pilate said to them, Shall I crucify your king? You've said it, he's said it, he is the king. You want to crucify him? But again, the chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. Let that sink in for a little bit. They are now denying God altogether. We have no king but Caesar. And they don't really mean that, but they're saying that in this opportunity, in this time to complete the task that they have set their hearts to without even seeking after God, what they should do. May we be careful to seek after the Lord, to get his insight, so we don't do things and say things where we end up denying our Lord in front of other people. Then he delivered him to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led him away. Other gospels have even more details of what happened here. And Pilate tried to get him off, he couldn't get it. Jesus freed, the crowds were just too loud. They were starting a riot, and he couldn't have that on his record again. So he just said, fine, take him. Take him, and they led him away to be crucified. And then the journey from the Praetorium to the cross. Verse 17. And he bearing his cross, which was something the Romans would cause the prisoners to do, that they would bear their own cross, walking through the public streets as a spectacle to the crowds around, and as a hope that it would be a deterrent that other people would not fight against the Roman government. So he beared his cross and went out to the place called the place of the skull, which is called in Hebrew Gogotha. And the Latin word for that is Calvary, where they crucified him and two others with him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center. Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross, and the writing was Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. They would put the charge that they were convicted of on top of the cross. So people would know why is this guy being crucified? One's a thief, you know, one's a murderer, and one is the king of the Jews. That's why he was crucified, because he was the king of the Jews. Then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Three different languages that were common in that area, so everybody could read and know what this person had done. Therefore, the chief priests of the Jews came to Pilate. Again, the chief priests causing a lot of this trouble. Do not write the king of the Jews, but he said, I am the king of the Jews. That's not accurate. He's not the king of the Jews. He's a blasphemer. He said he was God. And that's just not, he needs to be, this needs to be accurate. And Pilate answered, What I have written, I have written. I've had enough of you people. I'm not going to change this anymore. This is what the problem is. He is on that cross because he is declared to be the king of the Jews. And so that's what it is. He's dying because he is the king of the Jews, and I'm not going to change it. Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts, to each soldier a part, and also the tunic. Now, this tunic is different from the robe that we saw earlier. The robe was an outside uh garment that was that you see on the outside. These tunics were actually an under clothing, uh an under robe, you could call it. And usually tunics would be in two parts. Um commentators believe that uh sometimes mothers would would uh would sew and create and weave. I don't know how they do that, I'm not a seamstress, but they would create one from the top down in one piece for their sons when they're ready to go. And there's no biblical evidence for this, but some believe that Mary, the mother of Jesus, actually made this tunic for Jesus when he went out to start his ministry. It was it's kind of like a priestly tunic that was placed underneath the robe, and then a robe was placed on the outside and and the other priestly apparel that was put on top. Now the tunic was without seam, woven from the top in one piece. That's what made it so uh uh so valuable. Don't tear it up, it's in one piece. And of course, they're they're they're gambling for all these parts of his clothing because these this might be worth something someday because we're crucifying the king of the Jews. This might be worth something. And they said therefore among themselves, let's not tear it, but let's cast lots for it, whose it shall be, that the scripture might be fulfilled, which says, They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Therefore the soldiers did these things.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

That's Pastor Carl of the Mountain Cross on Come On Up. We're currently going through the book of John. We're so glad you've been with us, and we know there's so much to get out of this gospel book. One of the most powerful moments is in a well-known passage in John chapter 3. Jesus is meeting with Nicodemus and explaining what it means to be born again, not physically, but spiritually. As you might have memorized, Jesus speaks this to Nicodemus, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. What a promise from God! It sounds so easy, right? But sometimes the pressures of life can push you further away from wanting a relationship with God. Let me tell you, the most important decision you'll ever make is being in right relationship with God. He wants you with him for eternity. So don't be waiting around for the right moment. The best time to choose Jesus is now. If you'd like to learn more about what all of this means, head over to themountaincross.com and click on How to Know God. The Mountain Cross is a group of believers in Jesus who seek to grow in faith by simply teaching the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter. We meet on Sundays at 10 a.m. at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville. We look forward to worshiping with you. Well, that's all for today, but come on up to the mountain with us again as we seek to learn more from the Lord through His Word. Come on Up is sponsored by the Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.