John 19 Part 2

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Father, we thank you for this day that you have given us and your many blessings and your mercy, grace and goodness. Father, thank you for bringing us together to worship you and to hear from you in your word today. Father, I pray that our hearts will be moved today as we read about what you did 2000 years ago for us as you died to pardon our sins upon that cross, I pray that you will hide us from the distractions of the world around us, that we may hear from your spirit today. In Jesus name, amen.

Okay, so we started John 19 last week, and we got through the first 15 verses of it. And we left off where it says they handed him over to be crucified. By this point. Remember, the trial had already taken place. And what we saw last week was the beginning of the torment of Christ.

Right? They whipped him. When they whipped him, we talked about that whip and what it was made out of and how it tore the flesh of his back. And they put this crown of thorns upon his head and mopped him and spit on him. They were slapping his face.

And then here, at the last moment, Pilate questions Jesus one final time about where he is from. Pilate has this moment of fear. You know, I cannot crucify God. I can't crucify a deity, right? This is what's going through his mind.

And so he questions Jesus and says, where are you from? Remember how Jesus responds? He doesn't answer him. And Pilate gets frustrated. He said, why won't you answer me?

I'm trying to help you. I have the power to crucify you and the power to set you free. And Jesus says that you have no authority over me at all except for what is given to you from heaven. With this, Pilate sets forth to set him free. But they shall crucify him.

Crucify him in verse 15. And so Pilate hands him over to be crucified in verse 16. That's where we're going to pick up today with verses 16 through 18. So then he handed him over to be crucified. And they took jesus away.

Carrying the cross by himself. He went out to what is called place of the skull, which is in Aramaic called Golgotha. There they crucified him and two others with him. One on either side, with Jesus in the middle.

Okay? So Pilate hands him over to be crucified, sentences him to death. Now, it says that he was carrying the cross by himself. A couple things here to point. Point out when the criminals who were executed by Rome.

Were required to carry the arm piece, the part that goes across like this, or the cross with them up to their place of their execution. However, we do know from the other gospels that Jesus did require assistance to carry his cross. From how badly that he had been injured through the whippings and the scornings.

But this brings new meaning too. When Jesus says, if you would come after me, if you would follow me, he says, what? Pick up your cross and come after me. Day one. This brings some new meaning to it.

When Jesus was saying to pick up our cross, he meant it. Right? We need to pick up and follow him right now. This is not. We literally don't carry a cross on our shoulders to follow him, but we're to be crucified with him.

We hear that in Romans six that we are to be crucified with Christ, crucify our flesh. And we need to carry that and follow him. And they crucified him in a place in. Let's call the place of the school. There's a lot of speculation on why it's called place of the school.

Some people speculate because if you look at the geography of Jerusalem and the area where he was executed, there are some hills that might look like a scroll. But then there's also with that place, there's also a question of whether or not that's where Jesus was crucified. But others say it was called the place of the school. Due to it being a common execution ground. Where people were regularly executed and killed in Aramaic.

This place is called Golgotha. And they crucified him with two other people. Right? And he was in the middle.

Here's what we know about these two other people. We know that one of these people gets saved on the cross.

And we know the other person mocks Jesus. And I point this out because even in the, you know, at the brink of death in our very last moment jesus can still pardon our sins. These two people on the cross, one of them mocked him and said, you know, if he really are who you say you are, you know, get yourself off of this cross. And the other one looks to jesus for his salvation, for forgiveness. And he tells that guy, he says, tonight you will be with me in paradise.

So we do see the extent of the power of God's grace is up to the moment of our death. We can look to Jesus for forgiveness and be found with him on the other side.

Okay. Verses 19 through 22 says that pilate also had a sign made and he put it on the cross. It said, jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this sign because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. And it was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek.

So the chief priest of the Jews said to Pilate, don't write the king of the Jews. But that he said, I am king of the Jews. And Pilate replied, I have written what I have written.

When you were executed by Rome 2000 years ago your name and your crime was written on a plaque that was nailed in to the cross above your head. It told the public, for what crime you are being executed for. So Jesus has a plaque. It identifies him as Jesus of Nazareth. And here is what he is guilty of being.

He is guilty of being the king of the Jews according to verse 19. This is significant to me. It's really the big thing that's significant is if we went to trial before a court today, take any one of us, they could find us guilty of some. Something.

There is not a person here tonight who, if you stood before a judge and they poked and prodded and pried enough that they would not find something to convict you of. The FBI says the average American commits at least ten felonies in their lifetime.

There are even greater estimates than that, but that's the FBI's estimation. Felonies. So, not misdemeanors, but felonies. What we consider in the US to be high crimes. The average American will commit ten felonies in their lifetime.

If we stood before a trial today, they would find, whether it was a felony or a misdemeanor, they could find a criminal charge to put on me and to put on you. But the significance about Jesus when we say that Jesus had committed no sin, that he had violated no law, the only thing that they could find him guilty of was being king of the Jews. They couldn't find anything to condemn him for. They could find no sin, no law, no misdeed wrongdoing, nothing to condemn this man for except that he was king of the Jews. Now, when I said, I found this interesting for more than one reason, when did Jesus claim to be king of the Jews?

Never. I find this. We know that he's king, but if you look in his trial, when Pilate says to him, are you the king of the Jews? He responds, you say that I am.

He never outright actually said, yes, I'm king of the Jews. He did say, my kingdom is not of this world, and my kingdom is of another world. World. But he never directly claimed to be king of the Jews, and yet that's what Pilate charged him for.

Now, it says that the Jews, the place where he was crucified, was near the city. And they are reading the sign.

They're looking at it, and it says, jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jerusalem. To make sure that it's clear what he's being charged for. It's written in three languages. It's written in Greek, Aramaic and Latin, the three primary languages of the day. Right?

Greek by the Greeks, Aramaic by the Middle Easterns, and Latin by Rome. So no matter where you were from, you could read. And they're looking up there, and they're getting upset with this. They're getting upset, we're not killing him for being our king. We're killing him because he claimed to be our kingdom king.

And they say to. They say to Pilate here, you need to change this. This isn't what we're killing him for, but it's exactly what they killed him for. They killed him because they had a power trip. They had a big ego and the political and religious power that the Sanhedrin hill was at a threat of being lost to Christ.

They feared that the people would quit following them and follow him, and they killed him for it.

So Pilate replied in verse 22. He says, I have written what I have written. He says, this is what he is being charged with. He's already been sentenced. He's already been convicted.

We are. He can. His crime cannot be changed.

So, officially, the mandate of Rome is that Jesus of Nazareth shall be executed because he committed the crime of being a king. Let's pick up verse 23 and 24. So when the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, a part for each soldier. They also took the tunic, which was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. So they said, one to another, let's not tear it, but cast lots for it, to see who gets it.

This happened that the scriptures might be fulfilled. They divided my clothes among them, among themselves, and they cast lots for my clothing. This is what the scriptures, this is what the soldiers did. So this prophecy was actually prophesied by David, right in the psalms, that they would divide the clothing and cast lots for it. This is a prophecy of King David, and it's written here to let us know this prophecy was fulfilled.

We'll read about another prophecy fulfilled. A lot of prophecies are fulfilled, too. The fact that Jesus died is fulfilled. The fact that in this night he did not defend himself was fulfilled. His clothing being divided and not torn is a prophecy that will be fulfilled.

But there's other prophecies as well that have not happened yet in this chapter, such as they will not break a bone of Jesus that was prophesied in Isaiah, Judaia, verses 25 27. Standing by the cross of Jesus, where his mother, his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there, he said to his mother, woman, here is your son. Then he said to the disciple, here is your mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her into his home.

So there are a few people here at the foot of the cross. Notably to me is the absence of those who are not there. Where's Peter? Where's James? Where's, where's all these other disciples?

Where are they hiding?

But here we have Mary, the mother of Jesus. Another Mary and another Mary. We got the triad of Marys gathered here at the foot of the cross. And with the Marys is standing a disciple who is mentioned here only as the disciple who Jesus loved. John.

I don't know if he. If he writes that way because he wants to write, I don't know. He never refers to himself by name, except he will directly refer to himself at the very end of the book when he claims to be the eyewitness writing. But he will never refer to himself by name. He always refers to himself as the other disciple or the disciple who Jesus loved.

But sometimes I wonder why he refers to himself that way in his writing when we know he was very much loved by Jesus. We assume that John the beloved, the author of this book, was the youngest of the disciples. And we assume that because he lived the longest, granted, all the others were killed, but not only did he live the longest, but he always sat to the side of Jesus which was the place typically of the youngest in their. So John probably felt an additional level of love from Jesus, of intimacy that the other disciples did not receive just because of where John sat with him. You can read in the other gospels that John often would lay on Jesus.

He would rest his head across Jesus. So we get this picture that John was very and likely the youngest and had this level of intimacy. So Jesus says to his mother, woman, here is your son. This is not the first time that we have seen john refer to his mother as woman. The first time we see it is actually in John chapter two, at the wedding in Cana, when his mother asked him to help.

They're out of wine, and it would be an embarrassment to run out. And he says, woman, what have I to do with you? When we read woman, often, you know, he's talking to his mom. And when we read this, you know, sometimes I imagine that the way that would sound if I refer to my mom, woman, what have I got to do with you? My mom would likely take offense at that.

And we all, you know, we often read when Jesus refers to his mom that way. We read into it that same way often. I like to read it that way when I'm reading John chapter two, when he says, woman, what have I to do with you? But he's not disrespecting his mom. The phrase woman was not a phrase of disrespect.

It was not harsh the way that we often would read it, because we're not used to referring to our mothers that way. It was not harsh, it was not disrespectful, but it was soft, it was polite. It was an endearment to her. And now we see that reappear here in verse 26. He said, you know, it's not woman, but it's woman.

It's almost as if we're saying, mother, right? Here's your son. He is committing John the beloved to his mother. And then he says to the disciple, here is your mother. There's a reason for this.

A lot of people have wondered what the reason is, and I believe that the reason for this is one I believe by now the father of Jesus has likely died. The reason I believe that is because this interaction would not have to happen if Joseph was still around. If Joseph was still around, Mary would have someone there to take care of her. But if Joseph were out of the picture and Jesus, her son, is now out of the picture, then she needs someone, particularly someone trusted by Christ, to look after her. So Jesus is committing her to John to provide, to look after, to care, to assist.

By now, Mary is an elderly woman in this time period.

From this moment on, it says that John took her into his home, that John provided. This also is why I believe that Joseph has died. If Joseph was still living, she would be living with her husband. She'd be live, you know, go back to the home of Joseph. But John took her into his home.

So again, I believe the reason for this is with Christ dying, Joseph dead, he needs to give her to someone. As of this point, it's important to remember that the brothers of Christ are not yet followers, right? As of this point, the brothers of Christ still doubt him. They still don't believe that he's who he claims to be picking up. In verses 28 and 29, it says, after this, when Jesus knew that everything was now finished, that the scriptures might be fulfilled, he said, I'm thirsty.

A jar of sour wine was sitting there. So they fixed a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it up to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. Then bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. So Jesus knew.

He said, as of now, with the exception of him actually dying, everything that Jesus set forth to do is finished. He's hanging on the cross right now. He is currently hanging on it, suffering in pain. He's done all the preaching he can do. He's done all the miracles he's going to do.

He has done everything with the exception of dying. And he says, I'm thirsty. Now, in my version, it says that a sponge of sour wine was given to him. Depending on the version you have, it'll tell you that Vinegar was given to him.

Vinegar is likely a proper interpretation. What he was given while hanging upon that cross is likely akin to what we would call vinegar today.

How many of you want to drink vinegar?

I'll be honest. I like to drink it mixed in water, but I would never drink it straight. I would never just take vinegar and drink it. How many of you want to drink vinegar when you're parched and dehydrated and thirsty? When my mouth is that dry, all I want is water.

I don't even want things that we enjoy like Gatorade or anything else. I want water when I'm parched. When my lips are dry, my mouth is dry. The last thing I want is vinegar. But now, now at this point, you're in pain, you're in misery, you're hanging.

And this vinegar, it's put into his mouth right they lift it up on a stick and they just, you know, press it into his mouth. Mouth.

Just what, what cruelty that is expressed toward these people, toward Christ. Remember we talked about this last week? Typically, you could not be doubly punished in Rome. Rome had a policy. If you were whipped, that was the end of your punishment.

You couldn't also be crucified. In fact, the whipping more often than not, killed people, if not during the whipping from the infection that they remember. It was these. It wasn't a single end striking his back, but it was multiple ends with shards of glass or bone or other things. And it designed to rip his skin off of his bones.

So people who did not die from that often died from the infection that followed. And those who survived were deemed as having paid the penalty to society. So Jesus not only went through that, but then he's forced to carry his cross, he's nailed to it, lifted up, and then they are given him vinegar to drink. On top of that, after Jesus drinks the vinegar, he says it is finished, and gave up the ghost.

Jesus just died.

These three words, it is finished, are the three most. Other than the name of Jesus itself, these are some of the most powerful words we read in English. It is finished and it does not convey what it really says. What's finished. I mean, you would say he died.

So, yeah, it's finished. He's dead. But no, specifically, the word here, I'm going to butcher it. I butcher it every single time I say it. But it's.

It's tet. Tetelestia. I know I butchered it. So you can look it up on your own if you would like to pronounce it on your own, the word does not mean finished. It means paid, as in there is a debt, and that debt has been paid.

When a criminal 2000 years ago was sent to prison, their crime and sentence was on one side of the scroll. And then every single day, a tally was put on that scroll until their sentence was finished. And then on the back of that scroll would be inscribed the word. I'm going to just say the root. I'm not going to try and pronounce the whole word.

Teleo is written on the back, only it's the full word written, not just Telio. The abbreviation Teleo was written. What that said is, it's paid. My debt has been paid. Paid.

So now when this criminal is on the street, if he gets stopped by a guard who says, hey, you're supposed to be in prison, he could unroll the scroll, show the sentence, show the days and on the back show with the roman seal that my debt's been paid. When Jesus says it's finished, he's saying the same thing. But it's not his debt that's been paid. What has just been paid right now is the ransom, the debt payment for our sins.

The Bible says that the wages of sin is death.

The law of God requires death to pay for sin. There's no other way, right? The wages of sin is death. If you sin, you are condemned by the law to die. And Jesus says right here, it's finished, right?

He lived perfectly righteously. He was holy. He is God. The reason he could pay it is this is the blood of goddesse. Not just human blood, but the blood of God being spilled out upon the ground.

The very thing that the law demanded was just given.

The law demanded death. And here came a righteous man, having never violated the law, and he gave his blood for us. And with that blood, our debt has been paid.

So Jesus received the sour wine and he said, it is paid, right? It's paid. And he gave up the ghost.

I don't want to move on without taking a moment for us to understand the implication of this verse. These three verses for us, we have a debt. If you don't know Jesus right now, you still carry this debt. The wages of sin is death, and your sin will demand your debt. Death, you still carry that burden.

And for those who know Christ, right, this was a burden that weighs us down, that would have condemned us to an eternity in hell. That has been paid, but that's been lifted. And that burden, you should feel the release of that burden. Burden.

But it's also why Jesus, what was he crucified for? We read it at the very beginning of tonight's message for being a king. It is this very reason why we should follow Jesus, why we should take our crowns off, why we should say, Lord, I will follow you, and Lord your will, not mine be done. Because he paid the debt, he satisfied the demand of the law for us.

We would never be able to do that because we would have to die eternally we to satisfy the law.

For those of you not saying, like I said, you have this debt, you carry this burden right now. But I want you to know something. When Jesus paid the debt, he didn't just pay it for ten people or 100 people or a thousand or a million, but he paid it for every person who would trust him. Him, it's a one for one exchange individually from him to me, and him to you, and him to the next person, it is sufficient for you, and this burden can disappear.

This debt can disappear. Today, at the end of our message, I'll tell you how. Let's continue with verses 30 through 37 or 31 through 37. Since it was the preparation day, the Jews did not want the bodies to remain on the cross on the Sabbath. For the Sabbath was a special day.

They requested that Pilate have the man's legs broken and that their bodies be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who have been crucified with him. When they came to Jesus, they did not break his legs, since they saw that he was already dead. But one of the soldiers pierced aside with a spear, and at once blood and water came out. He who saw this has testified, so that you also may believe his testimony is true.

And he knows he's telling the truth. For these things happened so that scriptures would be not. One of his bones will be broken. Also, another scripture says they will look at the one they pierced. Okay, break it down.

It's the prep day. This is Friday night. Remember we talked last week about their timekeeping? Our days end and begin at midnight. The jewish day ended and began at sunset at Eastern.

So as soon as the sun sets, it's the Sabbath. But it's not just any Sabbath. It says here. For that Sabbath was a special day. What made this Sabbath more special than the others?

It was Passover. It was Passover. So they could not have the bodies on the cross. So now it says that they were going and breaking these. Let's talk about cruelty.

Thank God that Jesus did not have to go through this part right here. When you were hanging on the cross, how long it took you to die was really up to you for the most part. So here's what makes crucification so horrible is you. You have to decide when to suffocate yourself.

So with their arms out like this and all their weight hanging on it, they cannot breathe. In order to breathe, they have to. And remember, there's nails not only in their hands, but in their feet. In order to breathe, they would have to lift their whole body weight with their feet nailed to a cross off of their arms so they could take a breath and let themselves down to exhale. So how long it took them to die depended on how long they wanted to drag it out before they either decided to quit lifting their bodies up or until they became so tired they were physically incapable of lifting themselves up.

So what happens if you want to kill them faster? You break their legs. This is why it says they requested their legs be broken is by breaking their legs, you remove their ability to breathe. They can no longer lift their weight off their arms and take in a breath, and so they suffocate. Suffocation is what kills you when you're crucified.

So they go and they break the legs of the criminals on either side of Jesus so that they will suffocate and die. But then they come to Jesus and they see that he is already dead. However, how do we know that he's really dead? How do they know? At first, the Romans were experts at execution.

They crucified thousands and thousands of people. Wouldn't you think that someone who is. Who is killed, thousands of people will know what a dead body looks like?

I work fire and ems, and I have seen dozens of dead bodies. Not. Not hundreds, not thousands or tens of thousands, just dozens of dead bodies. And I know what a dead body looks like. Before I get to it, I can identify a dead body from across the room.

These people have killed thousands. They know what a dead body looks like. A lot of people will say Jesus didn't really die, but he did. However, one soldier said, let's make sure this man is dead before we break his leg. So what he does is he goes up and he has a spear and he stabs Jesus in the rib.

And it says that blood and water poured out of his side. This is unique. And the reason it's unique is we know today, right in the last hundred years, that death comes not only with bloating, but a buildup of fluids in the body. And if you pierce that body, the fluids will pour out. 2000 years ago, they didn't know that because they didn't know it.

They couldn't write it just to say that he died. The inclusion of the statement means that it actually happened. They want to include such a thing. If it didn't happen, they would have no reason to make it up. So they pierce his side, blood and water pours out upon the ground, and they conclude that Jesus is really dead.

Now, John says here, he says, he who has saw this testified so that you will believe. Remember, John does not identify himself by name. When he. He says, he who saw this is testified. He is saying, he who saw this is right in this to you.

And he says, I am right in it so that you will believe. That you will believe he happened, he died. Later he will say that you will believe he rose from the grave and that by believing, you will have life. So John wrote this so we would believe, and so that we would know the scriptures were for filled. The scripture said none of his bones would be broken.

They also said that they will look at the one they pierced.

Let's end this chapter. Verses 38 through 42. After this, Joseph Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might remove Jesus body. Pilate gave him permission, so he came and took his body away. Nicodemus, who had previously come to him at night, also came, bringing a mixture of about 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes.

Then they took Jesus body and wrapped it in linen cloths with the fragrant spices. According to the burial custom of the Jews, there was a garden in the place where he was crucified. A new tomb was in the garden. No one had yet been placed in it. They placed Jesus there because of the jewish day of preparation, and since the tomb was nearby.

So Joseph and Nicodemus both happened to be Pharisees who secretly followed Jesus. They received permission to bury him, and they bury him in a tomb, an inexpensive one that had never had a body laid in it before. For next week, we get to see Easter a little late this year, but we get to see Easter morning again next week. Chapter 20. Jesus will rise from the grave.

As we close tonight, I told those listeners who are not yet saved that I would tell you how this burden can be lifted, and it can be lifted by acknowledging your need for a savior. Right? You're a sinner, and you have to admit that we can't ask for help if we don't know we need it. With believing that Jesus is the Christ, that he is God, that he came here, he died on this cross, and he rose again. There was an empty tomb like we'll read about next week.

And with confessing him as your lord, if you are ready to trust in Jesus today, let me help you verbalize that to God and ask him for this free and precious gift. After our closing prayer, we will partake of the Lord's communion as we remember what he did on this night 2000 years ago that we read about here. Then I'll see everybody else on Wednesday at 630, here on Zoom, or in person, as we continue our study in the book of one Thessalonians. Let's pray. Father, I admit that I'm a sinner.

I admit that I can't save myself, that my deeds are corrupt and wrong. But I believe that Jesus is the God man who stepped into creation, who lived perfectly, who died on the cross. And who even rose again, leaving an empty grave. And I confess you, Lord Jesus, as my God, my king, my savior, and will remove my crown to follow you. And I ask you for this free and precious gift.

Father, we thank you for your love for us. Your love that would allow you to subject your only son to this. Your love that would put him through so much cruel acts to save somebody like us. And Lord Jesus, we thank you for your compassion and your willingness to go through this, to suffer these things and to die so that you could save us. Lord, I ask that you will help us reach the lost.

Help us tell people about you. Help us glorify you. In your holy name we pray. Amen.