The Head of Creation in a Tale of Two Cities
No Other King • Sermon • Submitted
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· 10 viewsThe romans believe they are in control, but John wants us to understand three things: Jesus in control, God's promises fulfilled, and Jesus is the Lamb of God.
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This is a Like-New Silver Dollar from 1895.
SILVER DOLLAR NEW
It has two sides: Heads and Tails.
The Gospels are kind of like this
They provide two sides of the same coin:
Heads and Tales
The First three Gospels Matthew, Mark, and Luke are call the Synoptics
These Synoptic Gospels are Tales of Christ’s Humanity
The Forth Gospel, the Gospel of John looks at Christ as the Head of creation
We saw this at the beginning of this book
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
SILVER DOLLAR WORN
Now this is a picture similar to the Silver Dollar my Grandpa carried around in his pocket for over 60 years.
You can’t really tell which side is which, they blend together.
This coin gives us a truer picture of all 4 Gospel accounts.
Jesus is 100% Man and 100% God.
Each Gospel contributes to this picture of Jesus.
This idea brings us to the title of our sermon:
The Head of Creation on a Tale of Two Cities
We are in John 19:23-37
The romans believe they are in control,
but John wants us to understand three things:
Jesus remains in control of His destiny.
God’s purposes are completed in these events.
Jesus is the victorious Lamb of God.
1. Jesus remains in control.
1. Jesus remains in control.
He specifically told us this truth earlier:
The Good Shepherd lays His life down willingly
17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.
18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
These are some of the same words we heard last week in Pastor Matt’s sermon from the end of chapter 18 and the beginning of chapter 19.
When Jesus is talking to Pontius Pilate, look at 18:26:
36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
and again in 19:11:
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.”
Not only does Jesus have authority, but even as he is dying an excruciating death on the cross,
He takes control of the care of His mother.
Look at 19:26-27:
26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”
27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
This act of kindness to His mother isn’t the only thing Jesus is taking control of—
John’s choice of words show this control:
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”
This is one of those instances where our english translations veil something. John uses two words here in the perfect tense. Hang with me here: these words describe something that happened in the past but is still significant in the present.
Here’s an example: I have turned 40 years old. Now, it happened several days ago but I’m still 40 today. Those of you over 40 know there is some major significance to this statement. Case in point: I didn’t jump out of bed this morning, I kind of just slide out.
So what happened in the past affects today. John is making the point that Jesus already knew that He had fulfilled all things.
We will get into what these things were that He fulfilled in the next point.
But first look at verse 30:
30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Now this “It is finished” is another perfect. Jesus is saying “Is has already been completed.
But John is telling us something significant with the verb he uses for “gave up”.
It’s active. That means Jesus is the One who is doing this action.
No one took His life! He gave it up! It was his willful action!
Some commentators go so far as to say that when Jesus knew He had done all that was required then He simply decided to die.
Jesus is in control and He knows that He knows that all was now finished.
So what are these things that Jesus knew He has fulfilled?
This question brings us to our next point:
2. God’s purposes are fulfilled.
2. God’s purposes are fulfilled.
John wants us to know that Jesus is not on the cross by accident.
John says three times in these verse that these things fulfill the Scriptures.
When I was growing up I was a huge fan of the WWF - World Wrestling Federation!
SHOW WWF LOGO
Now as a kid you don’t know what’s going on but you start to catch on as you watch.
All you see at first is some totally jacked dudes flipping around, dropping the elbow on each other.
Here’s the guys I grew up watching:
SHOW WWF PERSONALITIES
Here’s how it goes:
Their theme music starts, the lights go down and they walk or run out and the place explodes!
There is a ton of trash talk. At some point during the year the hero has disrespected the villain.
3. Once the match starts the hero is totally beating the villain, there’s no way the villain can win.
4. Then some other wrestler comes in and grabs a chair underneath, or one of the people on the side of the ring sucker punches the hero. The villain starts to win.
5. The hero is down for the count and the villain is eating it up! They’re taunting the crowd and they get ready to do some huge back flip move of the top rope.
6. Just as they leave the top rope and start spinning the hero manages to just move!
7. The villain is stunned but he gets up and tries to hit the hero, but he moves again!!
8. The hero starts to get up and the crowd is coming unglued!
9. Finally the hero does a few moves, then destroys the villain with his signature move.
10. The hero pins the villain and it’s over! Until the next match—lather, rinse, repeat...
This is not the story we have with Jesus. He is in control, and everything that is happening to Him has been planned since before the foundation of the world!
Look at 2 Timothy 1:8-10
8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God,
9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,
10 and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,
And Revelation 13:8 says that the names were written in the Lambs book of life before the foundation of the world
8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.
I want to read the passage in John and then look at the Prophecies fulfilled.
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,
This prophecy comes right out of Psalm 22:18.
18 they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.
In Psalm 22, King David speaks of how his own enemies plan to attack and plunder him. He poetically records the pattern of the righteous suffering. His figurative language points to THE righteous sufferer, Jesus.
We also see the fulfillment of Scripture in verse 28-30.
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”
29 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.
30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
These words of Jesus could point also to Psalm 22.
15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.
or also Psalm 69
21 They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.
We’ll look at verse 29 in the next point.
Lastly, we come to the last two verses we are looking at today
36 For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.”
37 And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”
I want to look at the second Scripture first then come back to the first one.
John is quoting Zechariah 12 here:
10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
there is also an allusion to Isaiah 53.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
I save the first part till now because it goes with our last point:
3. Jesus is the victorious Lamb of God.
3. Jesus is the victorious Lamb of God.
If you are taking notes, add Passover Lamb next to Lamb of God.
Jesus is likely crucified on the day the Passover lambs were slain.
We read in John 19:31
31 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.
It is the day of preparation. This is the second time John has told us this:
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!”
Why does John tell us a few verse later again that it is the day of Preparation of the Passover?
One of the ways the writers of the Bible emphasize something is to repeat it.
They are writing with ink on parchments. They can’t BOLD or ITALICISE things so they repeat them.
John is pointing to Jesus as the fulfillment of the Passover Lamb that would take away the sins of the people.
John gives us a few direct hints at Jesus as the Passover Lamb in these verses:
29 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.
The Israelites were instructed to use a Hyssop to cover their door posts during the Passover.
22 Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.
We skipped over verse 36 earlier, so let’s look at it now:
36 For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.”
The Scripture quoted is a few verse after the passage we just read in Exodus 12:
46 It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones.
We see this also in Numbers 9:
12 They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break any of its bones; according to all the statute for the Passover they shall keep it.
SO we start where we began:
The romans believe they are in control, but John wants us to understand three things:
Jesus remains in control of His destiny.
God’s purposes are completed in these events.
Jesus is the victorious Lamb of God.
I’ll leave you with this quote:
If Satan fume and roar against you, whether it be against your bodies by persecution, or inwardly in your consciences by a spiritual battle, do not be discouraged, as though you were less acceptable in God’s presence, or that Satan might at any time prevail against you.… I have good hope, and my prayer will likewise be, that you may be so strengthened, that the world and Satan himself may understand and perceive, that God is fighting your battle.
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