What Will You Do With Jesus?
Will You Dethrone Him?
John 19:1-22
Introduction
William Barclay wrote, “There is no escape from a personal decision in regard to Jesus; we must ourselves decide what we will do with him, accept him or reject him.” What will you do with Jesus? As we have explored the final hours of Jesus before the cross. We see Peter denying Jesus. We see Pilate dismissing Jesus. Today we see the Jewish leaders dethroning King Jesus.
Last week we left Jesus standing in Pilate’s Hall. He has appealed to the crowd, to no avail. Barabbas is released, still they called for Jesus to be crucified. Pilate, can find no fault in him, and doesn’t want to kill him. This is not out of kindness - Pilate is a cruel Governor. He seeks to irritate the Jewish leaders. In our text today, John Presents King Jesus to us - but not a King like we might imagine. Seven words describe King Jesus in the most painful moments of his life.
1. HUMILIATED
John 19:1-5 Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. 2 And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. 3 They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. 4 Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” 5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”
Pilate humiliated Jesus in an attempt to stir crowd’s pity. Jesus was beaten, at the order of Pilate (1). Jesus was dressed mockingly as a king. (2-3). A crown made of thorns. A kingly purple robe. The soldiers mockingly worshiped him (3). They also hit him in the face. Pilate presented the innocent, but beaten Jesus to the crowd (4-5). Lucado: Not once did Christ use his supernatural powers for personal comfort. … With an arch of his brow, he could’ve paralyzed the hand of the soldier as he braided the crown of thorns. But he didn’t… He wore that crown of thorns for you.
2. HUMAN
John 19:6-13 6 When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” 7 The Jews[a] answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” 8 When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. 9 He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.” 12 From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” 13 So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha.
Jesus was a real man who experienced suffering. He suffered physically. He suffered relationally – abused at the hands of others. He suffered emotionally – he was rejected even as a broken pitiful figure with tattered robe and grotesque crown on his head.
Isaiah 53:3 NLT “He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.”
3. SACRIFICIAL
John 19:14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!”
Jesus was a representative man, SACRIFICED FOR US. John notes that it was the day of Preparation for the Passover”. Swindoll: “At noon on the day of preparation, priests in the temple began slaughtering the passover lambs … Because they had so many worshippers to serve - as many as 100,000 pilgrims - the priests worked through the afternoon until sundown. John wanted to stress that Jesus had been sentenced at noon and would be hanging on the cross as the Passover lambs were being sacrificed in the temple.”
1 Peter 3:18 NLT “Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit.”
4. INNOCENT
Jesus was an Innocent Man. Pilate says three times that he can find no fault with him. John is presenting Jesus as “The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (1:29). When God first told the children of Israel to sacrifice a lamb whose blood would deliver them from the Destroyer, God said the lamb must be “without blemish” (Exodus 12:5). Pilate recognized this quality in Jesus, the Lamb of God. He was without sin, guilt, without blemish, and was the perfect sacrifice for us all. He was, not guilty.
5. REJECTED
John 19:14-16 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.” 16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.
Jesus the innocent is a rejected king. (John 19:15-16) Wright: The Jewish leaders find themselves driven back into the arms of pagan empire. ‘We have no king but Caesar!’ It’s a devastating thing to hear, coming from the lips of the official representatives of Judaism. The scriptures, songs and revolutionary slogans of Judaism had spoken for a thousand years of its God as the true king, of the coming Messiah as God’s true king, and of pagan rulers as a sham, a pretence, a bunch of trumped-up idolaters. What would Isaiah have said to the chief priests? How would they feel, next time they heard the psalms sung in the Temple?
6. HIDDEN
John 19:17-18 So they took Jesus, 17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.
Bruce Milne: “Never was one less kingly or possessed of so little evidence to support his claim, than Jesus at this moment.” We are called to believe in Him in spite of what we see here. Crucifixion was a horrible method of execution. Cicero : “the most cruel and horrifying death.” Tacitus said that it was a “despicable death”. The Place of the Skull ( Hebrew: Golgotha; Latin: Calvary) Jesus, in his suffering, fulfills the Word of God.
Psalm 22 NIV - partial reading
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.
I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
"He trusts in the Lord,” they say, “let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.”
Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast. From birth I was cast on you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me.
All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.
But you, Lord, do not be far from me. You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations.
7. UNIVERSAL
John 19:19-22 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20 Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. 21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”
Swindoll: A criminal being crucified would wear a sign mourned the neck with a list of his crimes. The sign was nailed above the victim’s head so that, once he was lifted up on the cross, everyone would know why he was hung to die." The languages in which Jesus’ kingship was proclaimed embrace three great sectors of human experience.
Greek – the language of culture, beauty and arts. Almost universally spoken.
Latin – the language of governments, law, and institutions. The official language of the empire.
Hebrew – the law of religion; the local language.
King Jesus was a universal King!
Wright: this is what John believed. Israel’s Messiah, after all, will rule from sea to sea, from one end of the world to the other. All nations will do him homage (Psalm 72).
John 12:30 “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
Conclusion
1. King Jesus: Humiliated, Human, Sacrificial, Innocent, Rejected, Hidden, Universal. This is not the end of the story but we need to sit here now. We will never comprehend the sacrifice made for us, but we cannot forget it.
2. Trading your life, For my offenses, For my redemption
You carried all the blame, Breaking the curse, Of our condition
Perfection took our place, When only Love could make a way
You gave Your life in a beautiful exchange - Joel Houston
3. William Barclay wrote, “There is no escape from a personal decision in regard to Jesus; we must ourselves decide what we will do with him, accept him or reject him.”
4. What will you do with Jesus? Deny Him? Dismiss Him? Dethrone Him? Or Accept Him, Embrace Him, Enthrone Him?
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Video of this message will be available on our YouTube Channel.
https://www.youtube.com/c/ForsytheChurchofChrist
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Discussion Questions for John 19:1-22
1. As we read of the suffering of Jesus, the Gospels are extremely reserved in describing Jesus’ sufferings. Why do you think this is true? Contrast this to the depiction of the brutality in The Passion of the Christ. Why do you think that specific details about the physical suffering of Jesus are helpful / unhelpful?
2. What was the point of the robe and thorns?
3. The suffering of Jesus is hard to read. How does seeing Jesus this way impact how we understand God’s presence in the midst of our own suffering?
4. The Jews’ true charge against Jesus comes out in verse 7: “he claimed to be the Son of God.” Why do you think Pilate reacts to that statement the way he does (19:8-9)?
5. Why doesn’t Jesus say more to Pilate and defend himself more vigorously (19:9-11)?
6. Why is it so devastating to hear “We have no king but Caesar!” (Vs. 15) coming from the lips of the official representatives of Judaism?
7. Why are the chief priests furious with Pilate about the notice he hangs above Jesus’ cross (vv. 19-22)? What is ironic about the notice Pilate wrote?
8. How are the soldiers’ (19:1-3) and the chief priests’ (19:6, 15) treatment of Jesus like the way people continue to treat God?
9. Of the seven descriptions of Jesus presented in the sermon, which affect your life more deeply?
10. Was there something else you wanted to discuss from the text or sermon?
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Resources
Connelly, Douglas. John: The Way to True Life. InterVarsity Press, 2002
Houston, Joel. Beautiful Exchange. https://youtu.be/BmOKQUkmqTI
Lucado, Max. He Chose the Nails. https://maxlucado.com/gods-promise-in-the-crown-of-thorns/
Milne, Bruce. The message of John: Here is Your King. InterVarsity Press, 2020.
Navigators. The LifeChange series: John. NavPress, 2010.
Swindoll, Charles R. Swindoll's Living Insights: John. Tydale, 2014.
Wright, T. (2004). John for Everyone, Part 2. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
Wright, N. T. For Everyone Bible Study Guides: John. InterVarsity Press, 2009.
