The King on the Cross
Notes
Transcript
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17 Carrying His own cross, He went out to The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha.
18 There they crucified Him, and with Him two others, one on each side, with Jesus in the middle.
19 Pilate also had a notice posted on the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
20 Many of the Jews read this sign, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.
21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but only that He said, ‘I am the King of the Jews.’ ”
22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
Introduction:
Examples of Irony in History - where someone intended to do something and ended up accomplishing the opposite:
Many times decisions are made with good intentions but end up defeating the purpose for which they were intended:
Prohibition in the United States:
Good intent: The Prohibition era in the U.S. (1920-1933) was intended to reduce crime, corruption, and social issues associated with alcohol consumption.
Outcome: Prohibition led to an increase in organized crime, illegal speakeasies, and the black market for alcohol. Instead of achieving its goals, it exacerbated the problems it aimed to solve.
The Treaty of Versailles:
Good intent: The Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919, aimed to bring about peace and stability after World War I by imposing harsh penalties and restrictions on Germany.
Outcome: The harsh conditions of the treaty contributed to the economic and political instability in Germany, eventually fueling the rise of Adolf Hitler and the outbreak of World War II.
Other times people intend to do something evil or harmful, but it ends up leading to a positive outcome:
The Sinking of the Lusitania:
Harmful Intent: The German U-boat torpedoed the British ocean liner Lusitania in 1915 during World War I, with the intent to disrupt British supply lines.
Accidental Good Outcome: The sinking of the Lusitania, while tragic, increased public outrage and anti-German sentiment in the United States. This event played a role in turning public opinion against Germany and influencing the U.S. to eventually enter World War I on the side of the Allies.
Like the German forces that intended to cause great harm by their actions, those who put him on the cross and mocked him by putting up this sign ended up accomplishing God’s good purposes. Through the shame and suffering of the cross, Jesus was exalted and has become the Savior and King. And we as believers delight to receive His gracious gift of salvation and submit to His gracious rule.
In the song, “At Calvary” we sang the line, “Now I gladly own Him as my King.” Did you mean that? Are you happily submitting your life to His authority?
Jesus is the King.
The message proclaimed there on the cross was true, although many refused to believe it then.
He is still King today, though many continue to reject His rule over them.
And He will be the King forever. One day He will destroy His enemies, and all His people will gladly serve and worship Him forever.
Are you one of His subjects? Or are you resisting His authority over your life?
At the end of Jesus’s ministry as He was leaving His disciples with the Great Commission before ascending to Heaven, Jesus claimed,
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” Matthew 28:18
If you’re in either of those two places (heaven or earth), He has authority over you. And the important question for you is this: are you gladly submitting your life to Him?
He is the King. He has authority over your life. He deserves your full allegiance and loyalty. And you must acknowledge His authority and submit to His gracious rule by trusting Him, loving Him, and obeying Him.
The Proclamation of Jesus’s Identity (v. 19)
19 Pilate also had a notice posted on the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Jesus of Nazareth
The first part of the inscription reminds us that Jesus was really human, like you and me. The eternal Son of God, “the Word” became flesh and dwelt among us.
He was born in Bethlehem but raised in Nazareth, and as Matthew tells us both of those things are in fulfillment of prophecy.
Nazareth was a small town that people thought very little of, as we learn in John 1:46, where Nathanael asks Philip, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” People wouldn’t expect someone so significant to come from such an insignificant town.
In those days, people were often identified by the town they were from. Think of other examples - Simon of Cyrene, Joseph of Arimathea. So Jesus is from Nazareth.
The name Jesus would probably have been common in His day, since it’s the NT equivalent of the OT Joshua, “Yahweh saves.” So identifying Him with the town He was from would have distinguished Him from many others who had the same name.
He is Jesus of Nazareth, the King who came from nowhere.
The King of the Jews
This Jesus from Nazareth - a town in the middle of nowhere - is the King of the Jews. This is the charge that is made against Him, the reason He is being executed. He is the King of the Jews.
He is the true King!
Though the sign was meant to mock Jesus and the Jews in general, the message it proclaimed was true. Jesus is in fact the King of the Jews. He is the King that God had promised to send.
Even early in His ministry, Jesus was recognized as such by His followers: John 1:49
49 “Rabbi,” Nathanael answered, “You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
Jesus as King fulfills God’s covenant with David
In the OT, we find a series of covenants that God makes with specific people - God enters into special relationships with people, giving certain promises and requiring faithful obedience on the part of those people who receive His covenants.
Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses (on behalf of Israel), and David are recipients of God’s covenants, all of which lead up to the New Covenant, which the NT tells us is fulfilled in Christ.
2 Samuel 7:12-16 records God’s covenant with David. God said to David,
12 And when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 He will build a house for My Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
14 I will be his Father, and he will be My son. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.
15 But My loving devotion will never be removed from him as I removed it from Saul, whom I moved out of your way.
16 Your house and kingdom will endure forever before Me, and your throne will be established forever.”
Clearly there is a sense in which God’s promise to David here was fulfilled in Solomon.
Solomon was David’s son
Solomon built a house for God’s name
God did not remove Solomon from kingship even though Solomon sinned
God brought His people to the place of greatest prosperity and peace in their history
But then Solomon died. Later the kingdom split apart and eventually both the northern and southern kingdoms went into exile, and there was no longer a king sitting on the throne.
Had God’s promise failed? That seems to be the concern of Ethan the Ezrahite in Psalm 89. He lived at the same time as Solomon, and perhaps he is writing at the end of Solomon’s reign or even after Solomon’s death, when things are really going downhill for David’s dynasty. He says,
49 Where, O Lord, is Your loving devotion of old, which You faithfully swore to David?
Several times throughout Psalm 89 he remembers God’s covenant with David, his promise of an eternal king, and he questions how this can be. Clearly Solomon was not the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise.
When will God fulfill His promise?
After many centuries of waiting and longing for this perfect King, God sent an angel to a virgin in Nazareth and told her how He would fulfill His promise:
30 So the angel told her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
31 Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus.
32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David,
33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end!”
Jesus is that King - the true Son of David, the heir to his throne, the eternal King.
Jesus, the King of the Jews, is God’s fulfillment of His covenant with David.
But even more basic than that, another truth we can see here is this:
Jesus as King fulfills God’s purpose for humanity
God’s Original purpose for humanity: Tom Schreiner puts it this way: “Adam and Eve were to be priest-kings in the garden, exercising God’s rule over the garden and mediating his blessing to the world while they depended upon him for everything… The man and the woman, however, were not to exercise their priestly rule autonomously. They were ever subject to the will of God, and thus they were to rule under his lordship.” - Thomas Schreiner (Schreiner, T. R. (2017). Covenant and God’s Purpose for the World)
Jim Hamilton puts it this way: “though Adam is not called “king,” there are at least four indicators that he is treated as a king: (1) he is told to reign over God’s creation; (2) he is made in God’s image and likeness and implicitly God’s son; (3) he is charged to serve and protect God’s creation; and (4) he exercises God’s own authority over God’s world when he names what God has made.” …
“The future king from David’s line will be a new Adam, and he will succeed as king where the first Adam failed.” - Jim Hamilton
In 1 Corinthians 15:45, Jesus is called the “last Adam.” This implies of course that there are more than 2, since otherwise Paul would have called him the “second” Adam.
In fact many Bible scholars have seen in the Bible’s storyline several “Adams” that lead up to Jesus Christ, the final Adam, the true Adam.
Noah is a new Adam
Abraham is a new Adam (Isaac & Jacob as well)
Israel is a new Adam
David is a new Adam
But each one of these “new Adams” failed to fulfill God’s purpose for humanity. Each one failed to live in perfect obedience to God.
Jesus Christ is “the last Adam.”
But then, Jesus Christ, the last Adam, came and succeeded in every way that every previous one had failed. He perfectly obeyed every aspect of God’s law and perfectly fulfills every intention of God’s will. And He died in our place to take away our sin and restore us to God’s original intention for His creation.
Through Jesus, people will be restored to God’s original purpose. (2 Timothy 2:12; Rev. 1:6, 2:26-27, 3:21, 5:10, 20:4, 6, 21:24, 22:5)
At least 8 times in Revelation we are told of believers ruling or reigning as kings along with Christ - under His authority of course. This is how the story of the Bible ends:
5 There will be no more night in the city, and they will have no need for the light of a lamp or of the sun. For the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.
Those who trust in Christ and submit to Him as King will not only be part of His eternal kingdom, but will participate in His eternal reign. In this way, God fulfills His original design and intent for humanity.
Sadly, though He is in fact the King, Jesus was rejected.
The Rejection of the King (v. 21-22, 14-15)
Rejected by the Jewish Leaders
21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but only that He said, ‘I am the King of the Jews.’ ”
The Jewish Leaders - the chief priests, Pharisees, and other religious leaders rejected Him. They didn’t want Jesus for a King, and demanded that Pilate change the sign. They even went so far a few verses earlier to claim the Roman emperor as their king instead of Jesus.
15 At this, they shouted, “Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him!” “Shall I crucify your King?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” replied the chief priests.
Rejected by Pilate
22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
Pilate’s refusal to change the sign was almost certainly not motivated by faith but by a desire to get back at the Jews for the trouble they’d caused him. By hanging up this inscription over Jesus on the cross, Pilate was mocking him and the Jews.
Rejected by the People
The other Gospel accounts record that the people who passed by mocked him, the soldiers mocked him, and even the thieves crucified with him mocked him.
Rejected by Everyone (Adam, Israel, & Us)
Israel’s history was one of rejecting the LORD’s rightful reign over them. In 1 Samuel 8 we have the account of Israel asking for a king so they can be like all the other nations, rather than trusting in God. God says this to Samuel: “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their king. Just as they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking Me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.” -1 Samuel 8:7-8.
Of course, this problem is not unique to Israel. Everyone since Adam has expressed this same rebellion against the good commands of God. When Adam and Eve sinned in Eden, the essence of their sin is that they were rejecting the LORD’s authority over them. And we do the same when we sin.
It might seem like all is lost as the true King is nailed to the cross and dies. Neither the Jews nor Pilate had any good intentions in executing Jesus or putting this sign over His head. But even in the evil actions and intentions of men, God is working for good.
The Good Purposes of God in the Death of Jesus the King
Jesus was proclaimed as King for all nations (v. 20)
20 Many of the Jews read this sign, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.
Though it was meant to mock Jesus, the sign above His head was true, and it was a message proclaimed to all the world: Jesus is the King.
The fact that it was in these 3 languages testifies that He is not only the King of the Jews; He is the King of the World; He is the King of the Universe; He is the King of all kings and Lord of all lords.
By His death, the King established His kingdom.
Jesus is the rightful King, but the only way He could have any subjects is by rescuing them from certain death. And the only way He could do that is by dying in the place of sinners on the cross to take away their sins. Otherwise no human would be saved, and none of us could enjoy His kingdom.
But because the King died in our place, we will be saved, we will enjoy His kingdom, and we will reign with Him forever.
Through faith in Jesus, we are brought into His kingdom and will reign with Him forever.
By grace through faith in Jesus’s atoning death and resurrection we are saved. Paul describes our salvation this way in Colossians 1:13-14
13 He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son,
14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
John affirms for us in Revelation 1:6 that believers are even now part of Christ’s kingdom - a kingdom that is not of this world, but will one day fill the earth.
6 who has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and power forever and ever! Amen.
And by faith in Jesus the King, we will fulfill God’s original purpose for mankind, reigning together with Him, under His authority, for the glory of God, forever and ever.
C.H. Spurgeon, the “Prince of Preachers” has some good insights into this passage from his sermon “The King of the Jews” preached on December 6, 1874 (150 years ago this year)
The only one (humanly speaking) who could have written the inscription over Jesus was Pilate. The disciples, Peter and John, who might have wanted to say something like this, did not have the authority to do so and would have been stopped by the Roman guards. The religious leaders certainly didn’t want it there, so they wouldn’t have done it. The only way it could have been placed there is by Pilate’s authority, which is what happened. And because it was placed there by this high authority, no one could take it down. “Though his motive probably was to ridicule the Saviour, yet the thing was done as God would have it, and Jesus on the cross hung there proclaimed by Roman authority as “the King of the Jews.”
The rejection of Jesus as King is typical of the world. Though God offers the world the most precious gift in His Son, the Savior they desperately need, the world rejects Him.
In the execution of Jesus the King, the world is seeking to get rid of God. Jesus is God incarnate - the Word made flesh. Spurgeon says this:
“In other words, they said, “This is the God-man; let us do with him what we would do with God if we could;” so they hanged him up like a felon, and put a label above his head, as much as to say to God himself, “This is what we have done to One who was more like thee than any man we have ever heard of before, and One who says that he and thou are one.” O sirs, this wicked world never went so far in wickedness as it displayed on that occasion. The essence of every sin is enmity against God; and when any sin is analyzed, it is always found that its essence is this, “No God.” Sin is a stab at the heart of God. Every time we sin, we practically say, “We do not want God’s government; we do not want God’s laws; we do not want God.”
“[The world] cannot actually put God to death, but it would do so if it could; and in putting Christ to death it showed the enmity towards God that was really in its heart.” -Spurgeon
The charge against Jesus shows that the primary objection of the Jews and Romans against Jesus is that He claims to be the King. The charge against Him was “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews”, not Jesus the Teacher (though He certainly was that) or Jesus the Prophet (though He is the ultimate prophet). Jesus’s claim of authority as King and Son of God was the charge written against Him at His death. This is Jesus the King. And they crucified the King because they did not want to submit to His rule.
The charge against Jesus also reminds us of His innocence. He was not charged with a real crime. The charge written against Him was true, and there was no wrongdoing He was accused of.
At His death, the reality of who Jesus is was proclaimed. In fact, God Himself made sure it was proclaimed in three languages so that anyone in the world could understand. Spurgeon says this:
He claims to be King, so stand at the foot of the cross, I pray you, and admit his claim. If you would have Jesus to be your Saviour, you must have him as your King; you must submit to his government, for he claims the right to rule over all who acknowledge him to be Jesus; yea, more than that, he claims to rule all mankind, for all power is given unto him in heaven and in earth, and we are bidden to proclaim his kingdom throughout the whole world, and to say to all men, “Jesus of Nazareth is your King, bow down before him. Ye kings, bow before him, for he is King of kings; ye lords and nobles, bow before him, for he is Lord of lords; and all ye sons and daughters of men, bow at his feet, for he must reign; and even if you are his enemies, he must reign over you; in spite of all your enmity and opposition, you must be brought to lie at his feet. The claims of Christ, therefore, were published even from the tree on which he died; so do not resist them, but willingly yield yourselves up to Jesus now, and let him be King to you henceforth and for ever.
In God’s providence, although the Jews wanted the sign to be changed, Pilate refused.
22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
In this way God shows us that this is a message that will never change. Jesus is the King and He always will be. His kingdom is everlasting, and His rule will never end.
Conclusion from Spurgeon’s message:
Dearly-beloved friends, this is the conclusion of the whole matter, let us cheerfully accept him as our King. Have we done so? Then, let us try to push his conquests on yet further, and seek to extend the boundaries of his kingdom. Are you doing this? Then, do it yet more earnestly; and do it with the right instrument, for the great weapon of conquest is the cross.
Are you part of His kingdom? Whoever is not with Christ is against Him. So make sure you’re with Him. Have you trusted in Him and received Him as your King? He is the King whether you recognize Him as such or not. But it is to your advantage to do so.
Are you seeking to submit every part of your life to Him?
Your time belongs to Him - so spend time with Him and use your time for Him.
Your money belongs to Him - so spend your money for Him and His purposes.
Your gifts and abilities belong to Him - so serve Him with your gifts and use your talents for Him.
Everything belongs to Him, so we must seek to submit everything in our lives to Him as our King. This will affect every decision we make.
Are you working toward the growth of His kingdom? (“Your kingdom come”)
Are you proclaiming Christ as King with your words? (Acts 17:7)
Are you proclaiming Christ as King with your actions?
Jesus is the King. The King gave His life for us to deliver us and make us part of His kingdom. Let’s gladly submit our lives to the King and call others to do the same.