Who is the Real King?

If you have a bible open up to the end of John 18 and Chapter 19 this morning. And pray with me.

I have titled the message this morning, “Who is the Real King?”

So if you were with us last week we saw that Jesus was brought to pilate after his interaction with the high priest and the interaction was quite interesting. See the Jews went to Pilate accusing Jesus of being a king that posed a threat to the kingdom of Rome. And when Jesus was asked by Pilate if this was the case he said my kingdom is not of this world, and he told Pilate nothing but the truth. And in their interaction Pilate did not find any guilt in this man who was brought to him by the jews. And in the closing moments of their interaction Pilate asked Jesus what is truth? And as we know through our study of the gospel of John, Jesus is the truth, but in that moment he did not tell Pilate that very thing. So today we transition to Jesus final moments where his fate appears to rest in the hands of Pilate, but we know that is not the case..

And what I want you to see today as our main idea is this..

Jesus is the real king and he came to die in the place of believers even though he was mocked and denied in front of others.

Let us read this powerful exchange and see what the Lord has for us..

John 18:39–19:16 (ESV)

39 But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” 40 They cried out again, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber.

1 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!” 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 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. 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!” 15 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.

So they took Jesus,

Today I want us to look at this text from few different Perspectives. A Perspective is the way you see something. As we read the text we can clearly see people look at this situation quite differently. And as we see this I want you to think for just a moment what what these different parties where thinking, and why they thought what they thought.

Perspective 1 Pilate

Pilate is the clear representative of Rome in the text. While he is not Caesar himself he is the closest thing the Jews have and he has the authority to dispose of Jesus. To have him crucified.

But the problem is he doesn’t see Jesus as the threat that the jews say he is. In fact he wants to let Jesus go during this passover, and in some sort of effort to appease the Jews he uses the power he has to mock Jesus to punish him and humiliate him amongst his own people.

So He flogges Jesus, and its important to know what kind of flogging he does when he first flogges him because there are levels to this flogging, and the roman names for them are names that most of us are not familiar with.. These three levels are known as fusti-gatio, flag-ell-atio, and verb-e-ratio.

The flogging that most likely was administered to Jesus by Pilate at first was the first level of flogging, but Jesus later on would get the worst of the three floggings. Now how this first flogging worked is those who were as scholars say hooligans would receive this beating and a severe warning and the next step would be to a beating that was really bad but not quite as deadly as the last. The last was so painful that it was the kind of beating that they gave people only who were going to die for their crimes. This kind of beating was so bad that they would have things like whips fitted with lead or metal on it, and would beat the criminal so bad that parts of their bones would be exposed and sometimes people would die from that, and this is the kind of beating Jesus would later in the day get.

But Pilate thought if i beat and humiliate Jesus it would be enough for the Jews, and he adds to this humiliation and pain by crowing Jesus with this crown of thorns, and this is not like the decorative thorns that I am sure you have seen. These thorns were 12 inches long, sharp edges, painful to the touch, and these solders drove that into the temples of Jesus, and the mocked him by saying hail king of the Jews, and put a purple robe, fit for a royal king like Jesus on him, but treated like a criminal. Humiliating the true king of Israel. Beating him further, and so Pilate says to the crowd I dont find guilt in him, but let me show him to you. and so he brings this blooded Jesus crowned with thorns, and wearing a robe, and he says Behold the man. I have this quote hanging in my house with the crown of thorns on it as a reminder of this very day that Jesus would go to die.

and I love what R.C. Sproul says.. Behold the Man!” Obviously we can’t pry into Pilate’s mind and extract the precise intent of that famous phrase. It may be that Pilate was saying to those who were watching this spectacle: “Look at His humiliation. How can anyone perceive this Man as a threat? He looks like a clown. Isn’t that enough? Let’s be done with this.” But even if that is what Pilate had in mind, he could not escape the invisible hand of Providence that was working in that moment. In a supreme irony, the One who was standing in the costume of a fool was not only the incarnation of God but a portrait of perfect humanity. This was what man was created to be. This was the second Adam standing in front of this crowd. When Pilate said, “Behold the Man,” the people in the crowd should have looked on Him and said, “Yes, here is man as God intended him to be, as God designed him to be, man with no fault in him.”

But the Jews did not see it that way. Which brings me to my second perspective.

Second perspective I want us to look at is the Jews.

Perspective 2 the Jews.

They had just seen Jesus beaten humiliated but the blood of Jesus running down his face must have caused them to be even more blood thirsty for his death. Because when they saw Jesus they wanted him crucified. In the fact this must have been shouted many times over and over again. Crucify Jesus, Crucify Jesus. They say we want him crucified. End him, finish what you started pilate. Lets get him out of our lives.

And then we see Pilate says… Take him yourself, I find no guilt in him… He knew they couldn’t legally kill Jesus he was just tired of dealing with this mob who wanted Jesus dead for what appears to him no reason…

And in there moment of passion they share with Pilate something they did not say before when they presented him to him at first… Look Pilate the truth is this. He made himself out to be God so our law calls for his death…

The Jews originally went to pilate claiming this man is a threat to Rome and its kingdom. They told Pilate his crimes are against Caesar, but the heart of the matter was that his crime even though it wasn't true was against their law not Romes.

Honestly these people would not have been the way they were with Jesus if Jesus was against rome when he came remember they wanted a king to take them out of the hands of rome, but Jesus did not do that very thing so they think he isn’t our messiah. See King’s had rescued them in the past, but to them, He is just a fraud who claims to be God, because in their minds our messiah would rescue us but they didn’t tell Pilate that part.

They wanted Pilate to kill their true king, because he claimed to be God. And something about that statement caused Pilate who had all the power in this place to be afraid.

Biblical scholar D.A. Carson says… As cynical as many senior Roman officials were, many of them were also deeply superstitious. To a Jewish ear, the charge that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God would be taken as a messianic pretension, and perhaps also, in the light of the continuing debate between Jesus and Jewish officials, as a blasphemous excuse to claim prerogatives that belong to God alone; but to a Graeco-Roman ear, the charge sounded quite different. It had nothing to do with blasphemy, and presented no threat to the Roman Empire; rather, it placed Jesus in an ill-defined category of ‘divine men’, gifted individuals who were believed to enjoy certain ‘divine’ powers. If Jesus was a ‘son of God’ in this sense, Pilate might well feel a twinge of fear; he had just had Jesus whipped. Moreover, the Greek word here indicates that Pilate ‘was very much afraid’.

Pilate had no idea who he was dealing with, So he asks the man himself..

Perspective 3 Jesus.

Pilate is scared he has no idea what is going on, or what he is about to do, so he gets Jesus… So he gets Jesus and he says where are you from… you told me you are a king but not a king of this world, you told me you came to tell the truth so where are you from? Tell me… And Jesus says nothing… Last week I was saying I wish Jesus told Pilate when he asked what is truth that he would say I am the truth. This week I wish he would have told him, what we learned all the way back in John chapter 1 and that is that I am from the beginning. I dont have an origin, I made everything including you. You could not comprehend if I even told you.

So in his silence Pilate says… “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you? He is telling Jesus… I am the judge and jury it doesn't matter what these people say about you I can let you go free. You dont have to die today, if i dont want you to… He is telling Jesus don’t be stupid, and so Jesus opens his mouth and he says… You would have no authority over me at all unless it has been given to you from above. Therefore he delieved me over to you has the greater sin.

Yes Pilate had authority, but only because God gave that to him. God had placed Pilate in this moment during this time to crucify Jesus. And it was in Pilate’s evil heart that made him want to do such a thing. Pilate despite him saying Jesus has no guilt is not a helpless victim he was a willing participant.

This happens in scripture in other places and its known as the doctrine of concurrence. Simply it means: That God works in and through even the evil actions of sinful men to accomplish his purposes.. That happened when Joseph was sold by his brothers to slavery and God saved those same brothers from starving to death even though they did that evil against Joseph.

But Jesus says hey you have sinned but someone else's sin is worse than yours.. Its only speculation of who this is, was it Caiaphas, or Annas, or Judas.. All those names though have something in common though that they were suppose to be God’s people and yet they have turned them over to someone whose presence could as we saw last week defile them.

Pilate didn’t seem to be to angry about Jesus words though, because it still says he wants to release him, but this is where we see Pilates true colors shine.

The Jews say to him Pilate if you release this man you are NOT Caesars friend. In fact everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. Imagine the emotions going through Pilates body… He is really backed into a corner here. He thinks Jesus is not guilty, but who is he more afraid off. Jesus or Ceasar. Tiberius Caesar would often kill those who at one time appeared to closest to him. One example scholars like to use Sejanus,

Sejanus who was very high in the elite inner circle of the Emperor Tiberius in Rome. Sejanus was a true friend of Caesar. It was by Sejanus’ recommendation that Pilate was given the position of governor of Judea. We also know that in AD 31, Sejanus got in trouble with Tiberius, and the emperor had Sejanus and his most intimate cohorts executed in Rome. We do not know exactly when Jesus was condemned; many think it was in AD 30, but some place it as late as AD 33. Let’s imagine that this conversation between Pilate and the Jews took place after AD 31, after the execution of Sejanus, the friend of Caesar. It may be that the Jewish officials were saying: “Remember your friend Sejanus, Pilate. If you don’t do what we want you to do, you will be next.” Thats powerful stuff..

Some scholars believe that the phrase friend of Ceasar that the Jews said to Pilate that would become famous years later originated by Pilate himself. If that is the case there is some irony here. Because if he does not crucify Jesus he does not get to hold that title anymore. Pilate is now afraid that he might meet the same fate as his former friend did.

Jesus divinity scared him and rightfully so, but it appears that what Caesar could do to scared him more than anything else.

Which is foolish because of what the scriptures say in Matthew 10:28

Matthew 10:28 ESV

28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Those are Jesus own words.. and so all this leads to the judgement. And Pilate sits Jesus down and seals Jesus fate. And says to them after all that has been said and taken place… Here is your King… And rather than them saying just he is not our king, but lets go ahead and through salt in the wounds of Jesus. Our rightful Lord.. They say we have no king but Caesar. WE have no king but Caesar.

And if you know Israel well this isn’t the first time they did this, because in 1 Sam 8:7 we see this…

1 Samuel 8:7 ESV

7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.

The people of Israel did this a thousand years before Jesus came, and they are still doing in the moments leading up to Jesus crucifixion. They themselves reject the true king of Israel who is God. Israel never needed a king because they had God, but in the moments before Jesus death they pick a king who they don’t really claim over God.

So Pilate delivered over Jesus to be crucified.

Now lets look at another perspective.

Perspective 4 Barabbas.

So Barabbas is introduced in this gospel for the first time and he is introduced in this gospel as a robber. As a thief. In the other gospels Barabbas is said to be a notorious prisoner, and murder. In the book of Acts Peter speaks of this trail and the release of barabbas in preaching a sermon he says.. Acts 3:14-15

Acts 3:14–15 ESV

14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.

The greek implies from the text in john that he is a terrorist. So I am sure in his mind he thought there is no way they are going to release me I have greatly troubled these people.

One Scholar said, According to tradition, Barabbas’ full name was Jesus Barabbas, and the name Barabbas can mean and probably did mean “son of the father.” Thus, the people cried for the freedom of this Jesus, “son of the father,” rather than the Jesus who was ultimately the Son of the Father.”

I wish we knew more about Barabbas but we know one thing is true. Barabbas did not have to face the consequences of his sins. Its possible that Barabbas would have been the one crucified on that day if not for Jesus standing in his place.

One pastor in a sermon provides a unique perspective about this moment…

We see the story of Jesus going to the cross, and everything seems to be kind of hand in hand, and there′ this one character that seems to interrupt a little. His name is Barabbas. We don't even know much about him, except that he′s a murderer, the leader of an insurrection and a rebel. Why he's even mentioned – sometimes I'm not so sure. It′s like ′This is about Jesus going to the cross.' but no, it′s a love story.

So in this moment, pilate thinks 'I hold the destinies of these two men in my hands. I know the Jews have a tradition that on a holy day – I will release one of the prisoners on death row.′ Pilate stands on this audacious stage who now presents Jesus, son of God – verses Barabbas the thug and rebel. And says 'Alright, who do you want?′

This is blasphemy, this is gone too far, there's no comparison, this is a rightful prisoner, a man who should be on death row. He is a rebel against wrong, and he is a bad man, a thug and a crook. He deserves the chains, and he deserves the crucifixion. Jesus? What has He done but heal, restore, deliver, set free, open blind eyes, and open deaf ears, heal the lame and the leper... What has Jesus done? Who do you want?'

And they say… We want Barabbas, give us Barabbas. They say ′Give us Barabbas′ and the soldiers come up and they put the key in they take his chains, and unlock Barabbas from his chains and shackles, and he walks down the platform. Welcomed by all of his thug friends. " Yeah, the people love me, the people love me. I don't even know who this Jesus guy is, but all I know is my people love me." There seems to be no conscience in Barabbas. There′s no record of him turning to Jesus and saying " I owe You everything now, for You have set me free." No. You don't see any of that in Barabbas.

God knew that. Jesus stood there silent. For He knew the will of His Father, and He said " It′s fine Father, let them have Barabbas." For Jesus knew that the Father would have to treat Jesus like Barabbas, so He could treat Barabbas like Jesus. Barabbas thought it was the people that set him free... No, it was the love of of a heavenly Father. And when I look at the story, I realize who Barabbas really is. That's me. That′s you. That's us.

Speaking of us one more perspective.

Perspective 5 You.

Just like last week when I said it matters what you think truth is, it matters as well what you think about this very event. Where do you land today?

What do you think about these people involved in the final moments of Jesus life. Now there again is only one right answer. It matters if you think Jesus is the rightful king.

The reality is if we were there during the crucifixion we would be the ones yelling crucify. Especially in our pre christ state, because of what I said last week if Jesus is telling the truth then we are condemned for not believing in him. So the Jews in their own guilt just like we would have wanted Jesus dead, want him out of the pictures. Because he exposes us for our own unrighteousness.

But If you are in Christ we are also much like Barabbas. See barabbas got to walk away even though he was great sinner, he commited the worst of crimes, and yet the Jews wanted him to go free, instead of Jesus, and let me tell you something and the other pastor said this as well in the quote I read for you. But if you are a child of God he loved you so much that he said send my son to die and let them go free....

See we don’t get to control time or when we are born like God does, but in that situation it could have been us next to Jesus or us in the crowd, now we could have been like Barabbas and not know about Jesus, but still in our own hearts know that what we have done are some great horrible acts before God, and know that we should not be pardoned for it, and the bible is clear we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All of us outside of Christ is a sinner. We could have be in the crowd yelling crucify. Wanting Jesus out of the picture.

Now The bible says while we were still sinners Christ dies for us, it also says the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. WE don’t know if barabbas or any in the crowd recieved the gift of eternal life but have you? Have you believed that Jesus on that very day had you in mind when he said barabbas can go free so that others can find freedom in me…

If you havent ever said that today the bible makes it clear that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe that God raised him from the death that he is about to face you will be saved. One thing I havent touched on this morning is why he can do that very thing. John makes it clear it was the day of Preparation for the passover. This was the day where they slaughtered the lamb of God to be sacrificed to the Lord on the passover. And Folks you must not miss this. Jesus was slaughtered on the cross so you and I could have eternal life. Heb 9:22

Hebrews 9:22 ESV

22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Because of Jesus blood you can be forgiven. See we know that barabbas has recieved that freedom, but we don’t know what he did with it.. If you are in Christ what are you going to do with your freedom that was bought for you when Jesus Christ said not you but me..

We have to be done with the days where we live lives for ourselves… This church is not about us, its about him, we come to worship on the Lord’s day to worship him, and we take the lives that he bought for us and we must live them for him… Church what are you doing with your freedom if you are free. We may be mocked and beaten for our own faith one day, but Christ holds the victory over sin and death. So keep pursuing him if that happens to you.

Today if you feel like Pilate not knowing what to do with Jesus repent and believe. If you are like the one who has been in the mob yelling crucify Jesus, get rid of him so i dont have to answer to him, be thankful that God despite your rebellion against him took your place and died the death you deserve if you turn to him. If you are like barabbas today full of past sins in your life know that even though you are guilty of your sin. God can forgive you through Jesus Christ.

Let us not be remembered like Barabbas as those who have only been forgiven but also what we did with that forgiveness.

It matters if you believe that Jesus is the real king and he came to die in the place of believers even though he was mocked and denied in front of others.