INTRO: 1. Few events in the course of history has been given more significance than has the crowning of a new king or monarch…the coronation of a nation’s sovereign ruler.
a. No expense is spared in this great event.
b. A priceless crown is commissioned to be designed and unveiled at the coronation.
c. Guest lists include the wealthiest, most famous, most powerful people of their day.
d. To not be at such an event would be social and political suicide.
e. Masses of people throng the sight of the coronation, no one wanted to miss what would be one of the most historical events of their lives.
f. Priests and religious leaders where called on to pray over this ceremony, even placing the crown on the King, to bring to this event some sense of solemnness and even holiness.
f. Yet, with all of it’s wealth, pomp, regalia, and religious trappings, we today would be hard pressed to remember the Coronation of a single earthly ruler.
2. Yet, there is a coronation that we will never forget… the mock crowning of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
a. It’s a coronation like none other in history.
b. It’s a coronation in which the crown is twisted vines of thorns.
c. It’s a coronation, not viewed by honored guests, but by the most cruel and ruthless spectators.
d. It’s a coronation, not meant for honor but for shame and degradation.
3. Yet, in the words of Joseph, what they meant for harm, God meant for good.
a. Little did they know the eternal significance of what they where doing.
b. More than history was being made, eternity was being made.
c. They had hoped to mark him for shame, but they marked him for glory.
d. But, there has never been a more holy or sacred act performed at the hands of sinners than when they crudely crowned my Savior.
e. He was never more a king than he was just then.
4. We must realize that the atrocities that took place right before Jesus went to the cross revolved around a claim that Jesus would not deny…he was the King of the Jews.
a. When asked by Pilate in John 18:37 if he was in fact a king, he responds with “Thou sayest that I am a king.”
b. In other words, what you say is true.
c. Had he simply said, he was a prophet, a teacher, even the Messiah‚— Pilate would have set him free…but he stood before that court as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
d. He made it clear to Pilate that what would take place that day would be out of Pilate’s hand, but never out of his hand…still Lord of all.
Vs. 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.
5. This morning I desire to take you back to the crowning, the coronation of the Christ.
a. The day when he ripped the throne from the prince of this world
b. The day he was declared even by his own judge… “Behold your king.”
6. Although the tools of his coronation were not made of gold and jewels they held more significance than all this earth’s wealth could buy.
a. Let’s take a look at the tools used at the Coronation of the Christ.
b. These tools still cry out that Blood-Stained gospel to this day.
I. MARKED AS THE KING OF OUR GUILT
a. Before we can understand the significance of what was taking place that day, we must understand a simple truth Paul reminded us of…Jesus was come as the "second Adam."
b. In other words he was come to reverse the mess that the first Adam got us in.
c. He came as man, because it was man that got us in this mess to start with and man who would have to pay the price.
d. He came as God, because God could be the only sinless sacrifice, only that God-Man could stand as a mediator between heaven and earth.
e. He held the perfect blood-line, the perfect pedigree to be made OUR king.
f. He came to serve as our substitute… to represent us and take our place.
g. A king had to first be a qualified representative of his people.
h. Something happened in Pilate’s hall that is very significant to us all…the encounter with Barabbas.
A. OUR CHAIN-WEARER
1. Barabbas was called by John a robber but in Mark’s account we get more information about him.
2. He was called an insurrectionist and a murderer.
3. It is clear that the reason Pilate chose to offer him was that he was an dangerous figure, a reflection of the worst that is in man, threat to society.
4. When Jesus took this man’s guilt and punishment…he was in fact taking us all.
5. Sin has left us all a death penalty…but Jesus came to take that penalty on himself.
6. Sin has left us bound by the chains of our sins and failure.
7. As a matter of fact the name Barabbas simply means ‘son of a father’ what an apt description of man.
8. But the virgin born Savior, son of God took the place of all of us sons of a father.
9. He didn’t merely go to the cross for Barabbas’ guilt but for all our guilt.
10. In his earthly coronation there was no jewels or gold adorning him…just your chains.
11. He bore the bondage and punishment that belonged to you.
12. Like, Barabbas, we weren’t fit to be set free…but the King has taken our place, our penalty, our sin.
ILL. It was said of the great early reformer Martin Luther that when he first realize the depth of what Jesus had endured for him, it was said that fellow monks found him in his room sobbing and crying “For me! For me! For me!”
B. OUR GUILT-BEARER
1. We are as guilty as Barabbas was when it comes to Christ dying on that cross.
ILL. In a recent interview with Mel Gibson in the making of the movie, “The Passions of the Christ” I was taken by something that had happened in the filming. Mel Gibson said that it was his hand that drive the nails in the cross in this movie. He wanted to never forget that fact.
2. I’m here to tell you this morning, no it wasn’t merely the Jews that crucified him, nor was it the cruelty of the Romans…the hammer was in your hand.
3. Your guilt, your sin, your rebellion was the reason Jesus went to that cross.
4. A lamb wasn’t enough to cover the depth of our guilt, it took the Lamb of God.
II. MARKED AS THE KING OF OUR CURE
a. This was not a british cat-of-nine tails, this is a Roman Flagrum (whip)…the great difference is that this is more a weapon of torture than a whip.
b. It was embedded with sharp bone, sharp metal, nails, glass, weights…anything that would cut into flesh.
A. HIS SCOURGING
1. As soon as the leather wrapped around the back, the roman soldier would jerk the whip as if spinning a top so the sharp parts would catch and rip at the flesh.
2. The damage this Roman device made is not left up to our imaginations…Historians who lived in that day recorded what is meant to witness such an event…
ILL. First century historian Flavious Josephus testified in his writings to the fact that “certain rebel Jews were torn to pieces by the scourging before being crucified.”
3rd Century Historian Eusabious speaks of these devises still being in use in his time and witnessed that “their bodies where frightfully lacerated. Christian martyrs in Smyrna were so torn by the scourges their their veins where laid bare, and the inner muscles, sinews, even entrails where exposed.”
Other historians have described the skin being so lacerated that their rib bones would be visible through the shredded flesh.
3. Sometimes the flagrum had hooks on the end…giving them the name scorpions.
4. The criminal was made to stoop which limited his movement and exposed his back and tightened his muscles.
5. Two soldiers where used to scourge a victim leaving no time for one to catch his breath before the next flagrum plowed your back.
6. Those condemned only to be scourged would either die at the whipping post or would often die 2 or 3 days later from loss of blood and infection.
7. Although we often think of his lashes being 39…that is merely hebrew law, but the Romans had no such rule…they merely wanted the whipped to have enough strength to be crucified.
8. On many occasions men never made it to the cross, but died at the scourging post.
9. The deep tares, lacerations and abundant blood loss left the victim “half-dead” no wonder Christ could not carry his own cross.
10. Created originally to get information out of Rome’s enemies and it worked very effectively, as this device tore into the backs of the enemy… they would confess to anything.
11. One writer believed that this was why Pilate was said to been “more afraid” after Jesus’ scourging because he realized this man was not lying and the reality of his claim as the Son of God was overwhelming. Vs. 7
12. This may not measure up to some of the cleaned up versions of calvary that we’ve become accustomed, but it matches the words of the prophet Isaiah who declared…
Is. 52:14 As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
13. He was so horribly disfigured, his own mother and disciples would have a difficult time recognizing Jesus afer this scourging.
14. It also fulfills the prophecy in
Ps. 129:3 The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows.
B. BUT HIS STRIPES WAS FOR OUR HEALING
1. We can understand why Jesus spoke of his blood being “poured out” for many.
2. Why would we want to relive this horendous event… Jesus encouraged us to remember his body that was broken for us and his blood poured out for us.
1 Pet. 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
3. No matter how many stripes cut furrows in his back, every stripe and every drop of blood secured the power of healing on our behalf.
4. When that mangled back touched that wooden cross, healing was secured for us in that atoning blood.
5. You better beleive I believe in healing…he went through too much for me to shortchange the gospel and strip it of the power of His stripes.
III. MARKED AS THE KING OF OUR CURSE
a. Why a crown of thorns? (Crown of thorns)
b. Is there any significance there?
A. THORNS AND ADAM
1. If you go back to the garden of Eden, you will discover that in God’s original creation there was no thorns, only beauty, only fruitfulness.
2. Our work was easy, our tasks a pleasure.
3. But when man sinned, his failure cursed not only himself, but the ground with thorns…
Gen. 3:18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
4. The writer of Hebrews adds…
Heb. 6:8 But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.
5. That crown of thorns represented the curse of sin on our life.
6. The curse of a futile life that produces more pain than fruit.
7. Sin bears more pain, more frustration, more death into your life.
8. The curse of a future punishment… “whose end is to be burned.”
B. JESUS TOOK OUR CURSE
1. Jesus didn’t just recognize that curse, but was crowned with it…He became the curse for us.
Gal. 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
2 Cor. 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
2. Harshness and cruelty entered nature because of the curse of Adam’s fall.
3. What a cruel chore that must have been for some Roman soldier to create.
4. What would possess a man to think of such a thing and go to that much trouble for this sick pelasure.
5. It would take malice of forethought and meticulious effort, even pain to make a crown of thorns for Jesus.
6. That crown he never asked to be removed, it will go with him to the cross.
7. He wears the crown of death, so that we can wear a crown of life.
10. Because he became our curse…he has reveresed the curse for as many as will embrace that blood-stained cross.
ILL. Like Abraham after trying to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, we have found our sacrifice among the thorns.
III. MARKED AS THE KING OF OUR SHAME
a. Matthew says that after they had scourged him they first stripped him.
A. THE SHAME OF SIN
1. As I see them strip the clothes off his body, my mind can’t help but go back to that garden, when Adam and Eve’s purity had been stolen by sin and they realized they where naked…the shame of sin had entered their life.
2. Oh, the open disgrace and shame Jesus bore was due to the sin that Adam and Eve committed.
3. Adam chose to hide himself in his shame, but Jesus chose to be paraded before the mocking eyes of his accusers…He chose to bear my shame.
4. But something else happened…
B. COVERED WITH HIS BLOOD
1. Then they placed upon the open wounds of his back a purple robe.
2. No doubt as soon as the robe touched his body, it became dark and soaked with his own blood.
3. I am again reminded of Adam and Eve, who when they come before God in their shame, God sacrificed animals and shed their blood to clothe them.
4. Now the lamb has given us his blood-soaked covering to take away our shame.
C. TOOK THE FULL LOAD OF OUR SHAME
1. They did this to mock him, to make fun, to heap shame upon him.
2. They would mockingly bow before him, but that would not be the last time they would bow before this king.
Phil. 2:10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
3. The reed they had placed in his hand, then becomes a weapon against him as the strike his head, driving the thorns deeper with every blow.
4. The reed was not a thin, light stem from some weedy palnt, but was a heavy piece of bamboo-like cane.
5. The greek word here for “smote” is a word in the imperfect tense, meaning they kept on striking him over and over again.
6. Realize that by the time he stood before that crowd again the thorns wasn’t merely on his head, but in his head.
7. But with every blow blood coated the thorns…things would never be the same again.
V. YET, HE WAS THE REJECTED KING
a. Pilate then present Jesus again before his accusers, but dares to say “Behold, your king”
b. Will you behold him this morning and reject what he has endured for you?
c. Will you, like them, refuse to give Jesus the Lordship over your life?
d. You may be sitting here today like Pilate did declaring “This has nothing to do with me.”
e. But, let me tell you it has everying to do with you.
A. WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH HIS BLOOD?
1. The crowned Christ has been presented to you this day.
2. There is no neutral ground… you either accept him or reject him out right.
3. Either his blood will be upon your heart, or upon your hands.
4. No matter how much water Pilate used, he could never wash his hands of the blood of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
5. It’s not merely a choice to Jesus…it’s his blood we’re talking about.
CONCLUSION: The choice is yours today? Will His blood be on your hands or on your heart?
