Are you responsible to love as your King loves?
The King – Part 1
(John 19:1-3, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, May 30, 2010)
19:1 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.
Then Pilate took Jesus... (1)
The Roman governor has already delivered his official opinion after questioning Jesus: “I find no guilt in Him.” Despite this, he consents to Jesus being beaten. Would this satisfy the crowd associated with the religious leaders of the Jews who hated Jesus without a cause? Might the beating of Jesus be enough punishment to make this problem go away?
What about those who witness Him being treated with disrespect. Will they flinch in their murderous plot when they begin to see Him suffer? There is no sign of shame on the part of the accusers of Jesus. If a beating was supposed to satisfy the hatred against Him, it has not worked.
Nothing will stop this cross. The wheels of divine justice are turning. Jesus will suffer. By His stripes, by His facing the fists and lashes of men, we will be healed. This is for your happiness.
And the soldiers... (2)
Man is fearfully and wonderfully made. He has such potential for good. But the hands that could lift up a fallen child to give comfort or supply bread for the hungry are also capable of fashioning a wreath from the branches of a thorn bush, pressing into the head of the Redeemer, and mocking His title as our King. Give Him a robe of royal purple and everyone can laugh.
It must have seemed absurd to those who were part of the military might of that day that this broken weak man would be called a king. Was He there just to be the suffering object of their entertainment for a few hours, or did they treat Him in this way to make Him an example to other despicable people who would dare to think of themselves as someone of significance? Who can understand the cruelty of man? Yet this is the treatment of the Messiah that we were prepared for. How? When Job told us wretched people spit at him, when Joseph had to go so low before he was made second to Pharaoh in Egypt, when the prophet Jeremiah was lowered into a well to die in the mud, when someone built a gallows fifty cubits high for Mordecai the Jew in Persia, when Isaiah wrote poems about a suffering Messiah, and when David was given a song about the cross 1000 years before it happened, we were warned about something like a crown of thorns.
“Hail, King of the Jews!” (3)
But the soldiers who treated Jesus so poorly had something to say as they mocked Him. They said, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
The Bible speaks of kings of many other lands before we every hear of even the possibility of a king of Israel. Israel's God was the ultimate King over His people, just as He was the King of all Creation as he rested on the seventh day. God selected judges who would be saviors of the people when the nation faced great trouble, but the people wanted a king like the ones other places had, and they eventually demanded that. God gave them Saul, the king they wanted, but then He chose young David to be king, the same David who wrote that song about the cross 1000 years before His descendant Jesus died there for our sins. Jesus was the final King of the Jews.
About 500 years even before David, God had revealed to Israel in the Law of Moses that Israel would have a king. He gave several rules for the one who would be the King of the Jews. See Deuteronomy 17:14-20. 1. The Lord would choose the king, not the people, and not any man who thought that he would make a good king. 2. The king of the Jews would have to be an Israelite. That way the people could not give themselves over to some impressive foreigner who claimed to be able to protect them. 3. The king could not use his office for himself, surrounding himself with lovers and possessions. He was to be a servant of the people and especially a servant of God. But one final requirement is most unusual. 4. The king had to write out for himself his own personal copy of the Law of God under the oversight of the Lord's priests. He could not put it away in a closet as a relic. It had to be with him, and he had to read it all the days of his life. This is the way that the king was to remember to fear and to follow God. The king had to obey not only the ceremonial details of worship, but more importantly the most significant matter of the Law, the imitation of the love of God. This way of the Word would guard the king from the temptation to lift himself up in pride over the rest of the people.
On that day when they pressed a crown of thorns into Jesus' head, the soldiers did not understand the weight of their words. They said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” Then they slapped his face.
What do you expect from a king? Mockers looked at Jesus, and the idea that this despised and beaten man could ever be a king was a joke to them. He had nothing that they expected from a man of power. But He had everything that God revealed to be necessary for a King of the Jews.
1. God chose Jesus to be King. He was conceived in the womb of a poor virgin who came from Nazareth, but was a descendant of King David. The Lord's chosen King actually came from heaven as the eternal Son of God who was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He demonstrated that He was the true Sovereign in His deeds of resurrection power. The crowds wanted to take Him by force and make Him their king, but they did not understand Jesus or His kingdom.
2. Jesus was a Jew. He did not come from the superior powers of the world, but was part of the Lord's subjugated people. He was born under the Law as a Jew, and He lived as a Jew. He had no intention to establish His kingdom by going to the more impressive nations of the world and gaining their support. He knew that God was King over His people forever, and He was establishing His Kingdom on earth through the building of His church. This worshiping community of faith would be the new Israel. To say, as the Apostle Paul does, that Jesus is the Head of the church, is nothing more than saying that Jesus is the King of true descendants of Abraham, the King of true Jews gathered from both the circumcised and the uncircumcised.
3. Jesus did not come making a claim of royalty in order to gratify Himself. He did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. He did not gather wives, horses, houses, gold, jewels, or any of the things that worldly kings surround themselves with as a mark of their greatness before others. He came to reclaim His people through willingly giving Himself as a sacrifice before God for the people who would be His subjects forever.
Most of all, 4. Jesus loved and obeyed the Word. He came in person as the Love of God taking upon Himself the costly justice of God. He knew the Word as the One who is the Word. By the sincerity of the cross, He proved that His love for God and man was more than idle talk. The one who was treated so ruthlessly by the spiritually blind, is the only one who can make the blind see. Do you see who He is? He is the King of the Jews. Receive His love, inherit the kingdom that He has won for His beloved people, and follow this great King. Jesus is your King. Do not mock Him or strike Him with your hand. Take up His Word, and serve Him in love.
(John 19:1-3, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, May 30, 2010)
19:1 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.
Then Pilate took Jesus... (1)
The Roman governor has already delivered his official opinion after questioning Jesus: “I find no guilt in Him.” Despite this, he consents to Jesus being beaten. Would this satisfy the crowd associated with the religious leaders of the Jews who hated Jesus without a cause? Might the beating of Jesus be enough punishment to make this problem go away?
What about those who witness Him being treated with disrespect. Will they flinch in their murderous plot when they begin to see Him suffer? There is no sign of shame on the part of the accusers of Jesus. If a beating was supposed to satisfy the hatred against Him, it has not worked.
Nothing will stop this cross. The wheels of divine justice are turning. Jesus will suffer. By His stripes, by His facing the fists and lashes of men, we will be healed. This is for your happiness.
And the soldiers... (2)
Man is fearfully and wonderfully made. He has such potential for good. But the hands that could lift up a fallen child to give comfort or supply bread for the hungry are also capable of fashioning a wreath from the branches of a thorn bush, pressing into the head of the Redeemer, and mocking His title as our King. Give Him a robe of royal purple and everyone can laugh.
It must have seemed absurd to those who were part of the military might of that day that this broken weak man would be called a king. Was He there just to be the suffering object of their entertainment for a few hours, or did they treat Him in this way to make Him an example to other despicable people who would dare to think of themselves as someone of significance? Who can understand the cruelty of man? Yet this is the treatment of the Messiah that we were prepared for. How? When Job told us wretched people spit at him, when Joseph had to go so low before he was made second to Pharaoh in Egypt, when the prophet Jeremiah was lowered into a well to die in the mud, when someone built a gallows fifty cubits high for Mordecai the Jew in Persia, when Isaiah wrote poems about a suffering Messiah, and when David was given a song about the cross 1000 years before it happened, we were warned about something like a crown of thorns.
“Hail, King of the Jews!” (3)
But the soldiers who treated Jesus so poorly had something to say as they mocked Him. They said, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
The Bible speaks of kings of many other lands before we every hear of even the possibility of a king of Israel. Israel's God was the ultimate King over His people, just as He was the King of all Creation as he rested on the seventh day. God selected judges who would be saviors of the people when the nation faced great trouble, but the people wanted a king like the ones other places had, and they eventually demanded that. God gave them Saul, the king they wanted, but then He chose young David to be king, the same David who wrote that song about the cross 1000 years before His descendant Jesus died there for our sins. Jesus was the final King of the Jews.
About 500 years even before David, God had revealed to Israel in the Law of Moses that Israel would have a king. He gave several rules for the one who would be the King of the Jews. See Deuteronomy 17:14-20. 1. The Lord would choose the king, not the people, and not any man who thought that he would make a good king. 2. The king of the Jews would have to be an Israelite. That way the people could not give themselves over to some impressive foreigner who claimed to be able to protect them. 3. The king could not use his office for himself, surrounding himself with lovers and possessions. He was to be a servant of the people and especially a servant of God. But one final requirement is most unusual. 4. The king had to write out for himself his own personal copy of the Law of God under the oversight of the Lord's priests. He could not put it away in a closet as a relic. It had to be with him, and he had to read it all the days of his life. This is the way that the king was to remember to fear and to follow God. The king had to obey not only the ceremonial details of worship, but more importantly the most significant matter of the Law, the imitation of the love of God. This way of the Word would guard the king from the temptation to lift himself up in pride over the rest of the people.
On that day when they pressed a crown of thorns into Jesus' head, the soldiers did not understand the weight of their words. They said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” Then they slapped his face.
What do you expect from a king? Mockers looked at Jesus, and the idea that this despised and beaten man could ever be a king was a joke to them. He had nothing that they expected from a man of power. But He had everything that God revealed to be necessary for a King of the Jews.
1. God chose Jesus to be King. He was conceived in the womb of a poor virgin who came from Nazareth, but was a descendant of King David. The Lord's chosen King actually came from heaven as the eternal Son of God who was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He demonstrated that He was the true Sovereign in His deeds of resurrection power. The crowds wanted to take Him by force and make Him their king, but they did not understand Jesus or His kingdom.
2. Jesus was a Jew. He did not come from the superior powers of the world, but was part of the Lord's subjugated people. He was born under the Law as a Jew, and He lived as a Jew. He had no intention to establish His kingdom by going to the more impressive nations of the world and gaining their support. He knew that God was King over His people forever, and He was establishing His Kingdom on earth through the building of His church. This worshiping community of faith would be the new Israel. To say, as the Apostle Paul does, that Jesus is the Head of the church, is nothing more than saying that Jesus is the King of true descendants of Abraham, the King of true Jews gathered from both the circumcised and the uncircumcised.
3. Jesus did not come making a claim of royalty in order to gratify Himself. He did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. He did not gather wives, horses, houses, gold, jewels, or any of the things that worldly kings surround themselves with as a mark of their greatness before others. He came to reclaim His people through willingly giving Himself as a sacrifice before God for the people who would be His subjects forever.
Most of all, 4. Jesus loved and obeyed the Word. He came in person as the Love of God taking upon Himself the costly justice of God. He knew the Word as the One who is the Word. By the sincerity of the cross, He proved that His love for God and man was more than idle talk. The one who was treated so ruthlessly by the spiritually blind, is the only one who can make the blind see. Do you see who He is? He is the King of the Jews. Receive His love, inherit the kingdom that He has won for His beloved people, and follow this great King. Jesus is your King. Do not mock Him or strike Him with your hand. Take up His Word, and serve Him in love.
Application: Are you a follower of the King of Jews, the King of suffering love? Are you willing to be responsible for the happiness of someone else in this world when your flesh fears an assault against your own dignity?
1. Why would Pilate have flogged Jesus?
2. How are we to understand the behavior of the soldiers toward Jesus?
3. Is Jesus the King of the Jews?
4. What does it mean to follow a king who suffered so deeply for us?
2. How are we to understand the behavior of the soldiers toward Jesus?
3. Is Jesus the King of the Jews?
4. What does it mean to follow a king who suffered so deeply for us?
posted by Pastor Magee at 6:27 PM
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