JESUS IS PUNISHED AND REJECTED
JOHN 19:1-15
Introduction:
The Lord stands before Pontius Pilate in His last judgment scene. Pilate had tried to release him and again seek to release Jesus saying that he had found no fault in Him. However, the unruly crowd incited by the priest demand that Jesus be crucified. The Lord suffers in quiet submission.
I. JESUS SUBMIT TO THE PAIN AND SHAME
A. That the scripture might be fulfilled, Isaiah 53:5, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
B. God spared not His Son, Romans 8:32, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
1. Jesus truly suffered for our sins, Isaiah 50:6, “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.”
2. The Roman scourgings were ordinarily very severe, not limited, as among the Jews, to forty stripes, Psalm 129:3, “The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows.”
C. Jesus himself likewise had foretold it, Matthew 20:19, “And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him : and the third day he shall rise again.”
II. PILATE PRESENT JESUS SAYING, “BEHOLD THE MAN”
A. Now Jesus was a bloody figure wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Isaiah 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:”
B. The Jewish leaders rejected Jesus and shouted for His death, vs. 6-7.
1. They raged against the Lord, Psalm 2:1-3, “Why do the heathen rage (tumultuously assemble), and the people imagine a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, 3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.”
2. Crucify Him! They cried out DESPISING the Lord, v. 6; Isaiah 53:3, “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
3. Pilate again states that he had found no fault in Him, but SUBMITS to their demands, v. 6.
a. In verse 4 Pilate had sought to release Jesus having found no fault in Him.
b. At this interval in v. 6, it was that Pilate’s wife warns him, Matthew 27:19, “When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.”
4. Now the REAL REASON for His death comes out, v. 7, “The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.”
a. The council had questioned if Jesus was the Son of God, Matthew 26:63, “But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.”
b. The Lord’s reply was, “You said it”, Matthew 26:64, “Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”
C. Pilate reacts and asked Jesus, ‘Whence art thou?” Art thou from men or from heaven? vs. 8-9.
1. He had before asked directly, Art thou a King? John 18:37, “Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then ? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.”
2. The Lord did not reply. It was a PATIENT SILENCE that the SCRIPTURE MIGHT BE FULFILLED, Isaiah 53:7, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.”
a. His silence SPOKE LOUDLY HIS SUBMISSION TO THE FATHER’S WILL, Hebrews 10:9, “Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.”
b. “If Christ had avowed himself a God as plainly as he avowed himself a king, it is probable that Pilate would not have condemned him (for he was afraid at the mention of it by the prosecutors); and the Romans, though they triumphed over the kings of the nations they conquered, yet stood in awe of their gods.” M. Henry.1 Corinthians 2:8, “Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”