Good Friday
King of My Life
March 29, 2002
Intro:
A. [illustration]
In the opening scenes of the musical Camelot, we see King Arthur standing in a field dressed in the clothes of a common peasant.
To look at him you would have no idea he was king.
In fact, when Guinevere first met Arthur, she didn’t have a clue that he was king over all Camelot.
Arthur was, in fact, king, but his outward appearance gave no evidence of this fact.
1. Likewise the Scriptures say about Jesus in Isaiah 53:2, He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
2. I don’t know what you think of when you hear the world King.
3. Christ doesn’t fit the descriptions that most would think of in regards to a King.
B. Tonight, on this Good Friday, I want us to take a few glimpses at the end of Jesus’ earthly life.
1. I want us to see why some people then didn’t think of Him as a King.
2. But I also want to show you why I have made Him the King of My Life!
I. The adoration of the King.
John 12:12-15, The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna! " "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Blessed is the King of Israel!" 14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written, 15 "Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt."
A. On Sunday, the people were ready to make Jesus their King.
1. They wanted to anoint Him as their King.
2. They wanted Jesus to set up an earthly, political King.
3. They were shouting praises to their would-be King.
4. They loved Christ and wanted Him to be their King.
B. "They took palm branches and went out to meet Him shouting, Hosanna!"
1. They shouted, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!"
2. They shouted, "Blessed is the King of Israel!"
3. They adored Jesus and were ready to anoint Him as their King.
II. The mocking of the King.
John 19:1-3, Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they struck him in the face.
A. Later that same week, Jesus got arrested.
1. The man they wanted to be their King was arrested.
2. Pilate sent Jesus to be flogged (39 lashes with a cat-of-nine tails).
B. Then the soldiers began to mock Him.
1. Not only was the arrest not becoming of a King, as well as the flogging, but then the soldiers began to mock Jesus.
2. They made Him a "crown" out of thorn branches.
3. They ground it into His head.
4. They took piece of purple material (which was a color for royalty) and made a mock robe for the king.
5. Then they mocked Him by shouting, "Hail, King of the Jews" and hitting Him in the face.
6. They were making fun of Jesus because they thought He was a very weak King.
7. The soldiers were making fun of Jesus.
III. The rejection of the King.
John 19:12-16, From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar." 13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 14 It was the day of Preparation of Passover Week, about the sixth hour. "Here is your king," Pilate said to the Jews. 15 But they shouted, "Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!" "Shall I crucify your king?" Pilate asked. "We have no king but Caesar," the chief priests answered. 16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.
A. Many of the same people who had shouted "Hosanna" on Sunday were now shouting, "Crucify."
1. They wanted Him as their King on Sunday, but by mid-week they wanted Him dead.
2. They were ready to swear their allegiance to Him on Sunday and by mid-week they wanted to be rid of Him.
B. The Chief Priests and the Sadducees had convinced the people to crucify Jesus.
1. A few days later, they’d changed their minds from adoring Christ to rejecting Christ.
2. Pilate wanted to let Jesus go, but the people refused to let Him go.
3. Pilate told them that Jesus was their King, but they claimed Caesar as their King.
4. They were ready to anoint Him as their King and do away with Caesar on Sunday, but just a few days later they wanted to do away with Christ and keep Caesar.
5. The people rejected Christ.
IV. The irony of the King.
John 19:19-22, Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20 Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21 The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, "Do not write ’The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews." 22 Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."
A. Earlier, Pilate had told the Jews that Jesus was their King and now He’s writing it on the sign.
1. They put signs over those who were crucified to denote who they were or what they had done.
2. It was a sign to the people to avoid whatever criminal activity the person was guilty of or this would happen to you.
3. The sign that Pilate made for Christ said that Jesus was the King of the Jews.
4. However, the Jews didn’t like the sign and wanted it change to "He claimed to be the King of the Jews."
5. Pilate refused to change the sign.
B. The irony of all of this was that Jesus really was the King.
1. The irony of all of this is that Jesus still is the King.
2. Jesus is the King of the Jews and He is the King of all who crown Him the Lord of their life.
3. Jesus did not come the first time to set up His earthly Kingdom.
4. The Scriptures indicate that there will one day be an earthly, political Kingdom after His second coming.
5. He did not fit what they perceived as a king at the time, but one day everyone will acknowledge Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
6. Pilate didn’t fully understand himself, but He was right none-the-less.
7. The Jews were totally wrong.
8. The irony is that Jesus really was the King; He still is the King of all who make Him their King today; and one day He will be the King of an earthly Kingdom.
V. The pouring out of the King.
John 19:31-37, Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. 32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken," 37 and, as another scripture says, "They will look on the one they have pierced."
A. The King was crucified on a cross.
1. This is clearly not what the people were looking for on Sunday.
2. This is not what the crowds waving the palm branches expected to be happening by the end of the week.
3. The King was crucified on a cross.
4. They thought He was somehow less of a king simply because he couldn’t even prevent his own crucifixion.
5. But the truth is that the crucifixion made Him even more of a King.
a. The crucifixion enabled Him to provide forgiveness of sins—something no other king could do.
b. The crucifixion enabled Him to conquer dearth—something no other king could do.
c. The crucifixion enabled Him to provide eternal life through His shed blood—something no other king could do.
d. The truth is that the crucifixion made Him King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
B. The soldiers were professional crucifyers.
1. They knew how to crucify people.
2. They knew how to speed up death.
3. There was a holiday coming which began at what we call 6:00 PM, so they wanted the three dead before that time.
4. The way they sped up deaths was by breaking their legs.
5. You see the truth is that those crucified died by suffocation.
6. The way the body was hung on the cross, it was impossible to take a breath while the weight of the body was hanging by the arms.
7. It was physically impossible to take a breath unless the legs were holding the body up.
8. The legs had to push the body up in order to take a breath.
9. So the soldiers would break the legs in order to speed up the death process.
10. But when they came to Jesus, they found that He was already dead.
11. And just to make sure, they ran a spear through His side.
C. The King was poured out for us all.
1. When the soldier ran the spear through His side, blood and water poured from the opening.
2. Jesus was already dead; His blood had separated.
3. His blood flowed from His side.
4. His blood was shed for my sins and your sins.
5. The King was poured out.
VI. The burial of the King.
John 19:40-42, Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41 At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
A. Two men named Joseph and Nicodemus took Jesus’ body down from the cross.
1. The two of them wrapped the body with material.
2. They wrapped the body with strips of material that they had soaked in spices.
3. This was in accordance with their burial customs.
B. Near the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a new tomb.
1. Since it was so close to the holiday, they just put Jesus in that tomb.
2. They laid the body of Jesus in a nearby tomb.
VII. The great question of the King.
Mark 15:29-32, Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, "So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, 30 come down from the cross and save yourself!" 31 In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. "He saved others," they said, "but he can’t save himself! 32 Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe." Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
A. The people asked a very important question that day.
1. Oh, they were mocking, their attitudes were bad, but it is a very important question for us today.
2. The answer has great significance for us.
3. Why did Jesus allow Himself to die?
4. The people wanted to know why He didn’t save Himself.
5. They wanted to know why if He could save others, why He couldn’t save Himself.
6. They said that if He got down from the cross, they would believe in Him.
B. Of course the people were right, He could have saved Himself—He said so Himself before His arrest.
Matthew 26:53-54, Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?"
1. When Jesus was arrested, Peter tried to save Him by cutting off the ear of one of the soldiers.
2. But Jesus simply restored the man’s ear and asked Peter why Jesus would need Peter’s help.
3. Didn’t Peter realize that Jesus could call tens of thousands of angels to rescue Him if He wanted?
4. Jesus Himself, said that He could have called tens of thousands of angels to help Him.
5. Why didn’t He?
6. If one angel slew 185,000 of Sennacharib’s men (2 Kings 19:35; Isaiah 37:36) in one night, imagine what tens of thousand of angels could have done.
C. So why didn’t He save Himself?
1. Max Lucado has said, "Nails don’t hold gods to crosses."
2. So why did He allow Himself to undergo the agony of crucifixion?
3. Why did He allow Himself to go through the humiliation of those court trials?
4. Why did He allow Himself to go through the humiliation of being dressed up like a king?
5. Why did He allow Himself to go through the humiliation of being beaten and spat upon?
6. Why did He allow Himself to go through the humiliation of being stripped to His underwear and being hung on a cross to die?
7. Why didn’t He get Himself down off that cross?
8. Why didn’t He save Himself?
9. Why didn’t He call 10,000 angels to save Him?
Conclusion:
Solo: "Ten Thousand Angels"
