Die!

Intro

I really enjoy good foreshadowing in a story

For example, when Star Wars Episode 1: Phantom Menace released their first poster, it showed a young Anakin and the shadow he cast was framed out as Darth Vader

And sorry for the spoiler alert if you didn’t know that Anakin would grow up to become Darth Vader!

Similar to that, I was talking with someone about a nativity scene and I said that I thought it would be clever to put a sign above the nativity

That led to this [show the sign] - in Greek, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”

Thus foreshadowing the sign that Pilate would hang above Jesus’ head on the cross

And it is to that passage

Please turn with me in the Bible to John 19

And if you do not have a Bible, grab one - use it today or take it home as our gift to you

If you are using the Bibles in the back, we are on page 905

Scripture Reading: John 19:16-30

John 19:16–30 ESV

So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’ ” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” So the soldiers did these things, but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Pray

Setup

For the last several weeks, we have been looking at The Last Day in the gospel of John

The final 24 hours of Jesus’ life, where we have seen:

Jesus washing the disciples feet

Jesus sharing the Last Supper with them

Jesus betrayed by Judas

Jesus denied by Peter

Just this morning, we finished our walk through Jesus’ high priestly prayer in John 17 in the moments before his arrest

And now, that final 24 hours reaches its pinnacle with the crucifixion of Jesus - our last message in this series

Passage Recap / Main Point

Our passage opens with Jesus sentenced to death

He carries the cross out to a place appropriately called “The Place of the Skull” - or Golgotha

Side note: It is from the Latin that we get the term for this place being “Calvary”

Jesus is hung on the cross, between two criminals

Pilate orders a sign placed above Jesus’ head that reads, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”

The inspiration for my idea of the sign to hang above a nativity scene

Don’t worry, we’ll come back to that

Jesus’ clothes were taken from him and gambled off by the soldiers

Jesus speaks some close, intimate words to Mary (his mother) and John (his dear friend)

And then Jesus, after taking a drink of sour wine, said maybe the most important word ever spoken - τετέλεσται - “It is finished” - and died

Today, we want to focus in on 3 aspects of the crucifixion of Jesus

The inscription Pilate had placed above Jesus’ head

The phrase “to fulfill the Scriptures” and

The sour wine Jesus drank

But I want to look at these three topics in reverse order so we can ask

What are we to believe about God?

What are we to do in response to the crucifixion?

The summary: Jesus endured the full weight of sin on our behalf to rescue us and to proclaim himself King over sin, over death, and over us, his people

Sour Wine

As I said, I want to work in reverse, so we will start with the last couple of verses

John 19:28–30 “After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

I thought it interesting that “sour wine” is mentioned three times

And I got really curious when I realized that is said the “jar full of sour wine stood there”

What is this “sour wine”?

And why, at the foot of the cross, did there just happen to be a jar of wine sitting there?

Would be a really odd place to store your personal wine collection, so there had to be a better reason

What is the sour wine?

The sour wine appears to have been a really cheap form of wine that turned sour quickly because of manufacturing methods

Why was the jar there in the first place?

It was a military ration - typically provided by the Roman government for the soldiers

My conclusion (and I say it this way because there was not a lot I found in my research this week):

It was a cheap wine that could be made in volume for the purpose of getting the soldiers drunk

Crucifixion was so brutally vile that soldiers had to dull their senses just to carry it out

This sour wine was there to get the soldiers drunk because that was the only way to get them to do something as awful as crucify someone

Sometimes, 2000 years removed from crucifixion, we tend to miss the severity of it as a form of execution

The pain of crucifixion was so severe that they literally made up a new word to describe it: excruciating!

A death so painful that it required a new word to describe the pain it inflicted, so brutal that it required soldiers who were either extremists or inebriated to actually carry it out

That there was sour wine should only remind us of the extreme nature of the death that Jesus endured for us

Three more thoughts on the sour wine:

First, Jesus was previously offered wine just before being hung on the cross, but he declined

We learn from Matthew (ch27) and Mark (15) that the wine was mixed with something that acted as a mild sedative to ease the pain

But Jesus declined that drink

Here’s the significance: Jesus absorbed the full pain and torment on the cross

All that his death offered, he received

All the pain, all the torture… to conquer all the sin!

Second, verse 29 tells us that they dipped a sponge in the sour wine and stuck the sponge on a hyssop branch to lift it up to him

The significance is that if we went back to Exodus 12, at the Passover, we would see that it was a hyssop branch that was dipped in blood

Here is Jesus, the week of Passover, shedding his blood for the forgiveness of sins

And even the use of the hyssop branch to lift up that sour wine is a reminder that it was only through the shedding of blood that sin can be forgiven

And third, the irony of Jesus thirsting in this moment

Jesus, the One who turned water into the finest of wines for his first miracle, was now given a sip of 2 Buck Chuck

Jesus, the Living Water, drinking the cheap wine from Aldi

To Fulfill the Scriptures

Working backwards through our text, we saw the significance of the sour wine

Now notice a phrase that occurs twice in the passage: “to fulfill the Scripture”

John 19:24 “so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” So the soldiers did these things,”

John 19:28 “After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.””

Conservatively, scholars have estimated that Jesus, in his birth, his life, his death, and his resurrection, fulfilled over 300 prophecies from the Old Testament

What is most amazing is that while some were actively fulfilled by Jesus (such as asking for a drink), other prophecies were fulfilled by others (such as gambling off his clothes)

And, for all of it, the lesson is that God is in control

For all that has transpired during The Last Day of Jesus’ life, at no point was this outside the plan and providence of God

In the great eternal counsel of God - Father, Son, Holy Spirit - they devised a plan for the redemption of sinful men and sinful women - for you and for me

And yes, that even included the excruciating pain Jesus endured on the cross

King Jesus - The Inscription

According to the great plan of God, God the Son, Jesus endured the greatest of all pains

And all to declare his kingship - not just over people, but over sin and death

Let’s go back to the first part of the passage

John 19:18–20 “There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek.”

First, to fully understand this, we need to grasp the purpose of crucifixion

Because it was not simply execution

There are a thousand ways they could have executed someone

So why crucifixion?

Crucifixion was a statement - not just a punishment

Crucifixion was to be a deterrent to the next person, not simply justice for the criminal

And how do I know? Two things here:

“For the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city”

Who would set up a death site close to town if not to draw attention to it?

This would be the equivalent of Western movies placing the gallows in the center of town

People were supposed to see it!

And then the sign that Pilate had drawn up was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek

The only reason would be to make sure everyone who passed by could read it!

Again, crucifixion was a statement, not just a punishment

So what was the statement? What was the message people were to hear?

It was standard practice to post the criminal’s charges above their head on the cross

It only works as a statement if people actually know the message they’re meant to hear

So a sign would be drawn and placed above the criminal’s head so that everyone knew what that person had done to deserve execution

And, hopefully, to learn the lesson not to do what that guy did!

Of all things Pilate could have inscribed, he had this posted:

“Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”

Chief priests started complaining that the sign should say that he said he was the king of the Jews, not he is the king of the Jews

But no: Jesus not merely claim to be king of the Jews

Jesus is the King

The sign was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek

And in all of them, Jesus is the King

And in English, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Swahili… and every other language and dialect

Jesus is the King

Conclusion

Jesus could say τετέλεσται - “It is finished”

Earlier I said that the word - τετέλεσται - “It is finished” - may be the most important ever spoken

This was Jesus’ declaration not only that he was about to die, but that in his life and in his death, he fulfilled the great plan of God and forgiveness of sins was now possible

Because he drank the sour wine, not just the one set aside to get the soldiers drunk, but of the full wrath of God poured out on him for our sin

Before time began, God had a great plan to redeem sinful humanity so that all the Scriptures were fulfilled that anticipated the death of Jesus

And because Jesus is God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Savior, Messiah… and King

Earlier, I asked two questions

First, what are we to believe about God?

And that is it: We are to believe that God, the rightful King over all, had a plan to forgive sin through the death of Jesus

And second, what are we to do in response to the crucifixion?

You are to believe that Jesus is King and by him alone you are forgiven

You are to repent because it was your sin that was poured out on Jesus on the cross

And you are to praise him as the righteous and rightful King not only over sin and death, but of your life

If you have never trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, if you have never recognized him as the rightful King over your life, I pray that this Easter season - even this morning - that you would turn to the Lord and confess your sins to him

He will hear you

He will not reject you

There is nothing you have ever done, or ever will do, that will surprise him

And there is nothing you have ever done, or will do, that is outside of the sufficiency of Jesus’ work on the cross

All that excruciating pain, all that suffering, was to conquer sin

And today can be the day when you know that Jesus endured the full weight of sin on your behalf to rescue you and to proclaim himself King over sin, over death, and you

And if you have trusted in Christ’s death as the only path to be forgiven of all your wrongdoing, all your mistakes… all your sin… then rejoice that Jesus’ death is for you and be amazed all over again in the greatness of your God

Pray