Behold The Man

“Behold The Man!”

John 19:4,5

Introduction: This world has had many examples of men that others have looked to as the epitome of perfect manhood. History is full of examples of men that people looked up to, followed, and wanted to imitate because of their manliness. In our time with the proliferation of photos and Hollywood, there are many men that the world has deigned as examples of manliness. In most of these cases the parameters used to determine who can make it into this exclusive club are not the ones that God would have us use.

This AM I want us to look at this second of three word sentences that Pilate uttered that day so long ago when he had the life of the Son of God in his hands. Remember, the first three word sentence that Pilate uttered was “What is truth?” Sadly, Pilate did not wait around long enough to get an answer to that question. Now, after having Jesus scourged, placing a purple robe upon him, crowning Him with a crown of thorns, spitting on Him, ect - Pilate now brings Jesus out to the jeering crowd with the hopes that by humbling their so-called “king”, they would turn away from the path they had chosen - to kill Jesus. I was going to preach a message entitled “The No-Fault Judge”, for several times in these verses, as in chapter 18, Pilate tells the people and himself, that this man Jesus is without fault and does not deserve what is happening to him, yet Pilate still had Jesus scourged and humiliated. But after looking at this three word statement by Pilate “Behold the man!” I felt led to a message that deals with the manhood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We will see more about the truth of Jesus being the Son of God next week in verses 7,8, but is not interesting that in a matter of a few minutes on the very day that Jesus was crucified - Pilate and all those there are given one more opportunity to come to a true understanding of Who really stood before them - Jesus the Son of man, and Jesus the Son of God - one and the same - even as Jesus had claimed throughout His earthly ministry.

Let’s take a closer look at what this statement, “Behold the man!” really means, even though Pilate did not have a clue as to the deeper things behind his statement. In understanding what the Word of God teaches us about Jesus being human, we then can fully understand why he had to come and why only He could do the job.

I. BEHOLD THE MAN - JESUS

In this statement is the fulness of the humanity of Jesus Christ. In this part of the message I want to lay out for you what the scriptures teach about the truth of Jesus’ humanity. His humanity is first shown:

A. By His human parentage

1. Made of a woman

Gal. 4:4 says, “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law” and Matt. 1:18 says, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.”

There are a number of other passages we could go to that prove this conclusively, but all these passages are a fulfillment of what it says in Gen. 3:15 “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

As Matt. 1:18 says, Jesus’ birth was a natural birth as well as a miraculous birth - it was miraculous because when Mary gave birth to Jesus she was still a virgin - an impossibility in the natural order of things.

Thus, Jesus’ entrance into this world was no different, other than his conception, than that of any other male, other than Adam, since the beginning of the human race. He was born of a woman; he had a human mother.

I am not going to take the time in this message to deal with all the objections that have been raised concerning the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, but suffice it to say that every one of those objections “holds no water.”

The fact is, that the OT taught that the Messiah would be conceived and born of a virgin. Isn’t that what Isaiah 7:14 teaches? “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

But Jesus’ human parentage is not only proven by His being born of a woman, but also that he was: