From Above

The King – Part 4
(John 19:9-11, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, June 27, 2010)

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.”

He entered his headquarters again... (9)
Pilate heard the accusation that the leaders of the Jews made: “He has made himself the Son of God.” These words, “the Son of God,” had an impact on Pilate. He had been afraid of what was taking place in the demand that a man be put to death, a man he had three times declared to be without guilt. Now he was more afraid. Pilate takes Jesus inside the headquarters again.

He says to Him, “Where are you from?” Where is Jesus from? He is God with God from before all eternity. He has come from above, in order to accomplish something here below. He came from heaven, and He came into the world. This is something that we have known from the opening words of this gospel. (See John 1:1-2, 11, 14.)

It is also something we were prepared for by the Old Testament. Just think of the title “Lord.” Jesus is Lord. According to His eternal divine nature, He reigns. He is robed in majesty. His throne is established from of old, and He is from everlasting. The floods of all the powers of men that are beneath Him, all the lesser authorities of kings and would-be kings, those floods lift up their voice in claims to absolute authority over the bodies and souls of people. But the Lord on high is mightier than all the thunders of many tumultuous waters. His decrees are trustworthy. His house is holy. He is Lord forever.

“You will not speak to me?” (10)
This great Lord of heaven and earth is facing an official of the Roman Empire. Pilate has asked Him what the governor must consider to be a very simple question: “Where are you from?” Jesus, the Lord, the Lord of heaven, will not answer.

Jesus' response or lack of response is a surprise to a man like Pilate. People in positions of authority come to expect that everyone will flatter them with attention and that everyone will do whatever is necessary to win the favors that the rulers themselves believe to be theirs to dispense.

Nothing could be further from Jesus' mind. He came to earth to do a job. The time has now come for Him to die. He will fulfill God's decree. He does not need or desire Pilate's strength in order to accomplish His mission, and He certainly is not seeking Pilate's help to abandon His mission.

Jesus answered him... (11)
Pilate assumes that Jesus, like any other normal person, wants to be released. He does not. He knows that He will be crucified. Without this one death Scripture cannot be fulfilled, and the people of God will not be forgiven. Jesus does not want to be released. Pilate also assumes that his own authority is the key to everything that is going on here. It is not. Jesus is a much higher Ruler than Pilate.

None of what remains here needs to be explained to Pilate, but at this point Jesus does speak. He says something about the the nature of all authority, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.” He then speaks a word as the coming Judge with all true authority concerning the relative guilt of Pilate and the Jewish authorities that have played their part in the murder of Jesus, “He who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”

Like everything recorded in John's gospel, all of the miracles, the events, the words, “are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” These words are recorded for our benefit. Jesus is telling us that all authority comes from above. He wants us to know that He is the King who has authority from above to save, to sanctify, and ultimately to perfectly judge.

Application: What does it mean for our duty to love, that certain things come “from above?”

The world that we live in has its own system of power. This includes the authority of men like Pilate. They assume that they are in charge within their sphere of influence. What does Pilate believe about the origin of his own authority? He might suppose that it comes from Rome, from the emperor. But where did the emperor get his authority? That is a harder question.

We often assume that rulers win their authority by their power. The emperor won, so he got to be in charge. That answer sounds self-evident, but it begs another question. How does one man win and another man lose? One becomes supreme ruler, and the other is put to death. How does that happen? At that point we might think about military advantage, charismatic leadership, societal circumstances, the list goes on... But where did all these things come from. Eventually we run out of answers, and we just settle on something like this: “That's just the way that it is.”

Jesus has a different answer. If Pilate has authority as a civil ruler, it is because it was given to him from above. There is Someone who rules over all. He is the only Being who just is. That is the point of His Name, Jehovah, or Yahweh, often simply translated by the word “Lord.” It means “I AM.” “I am who I am, I have been who I have been, I will be who I will be.” “I AM.” It is this Name that our Lord owned in front of His enemies when He said, before Abraham was, I AM, and they took up stones to stone Him.

The Husband of the church who calls us to love our wives with the love of the cross, the Lord who calls us all to love like He loves, is the I AM. When we hear the command to keep on loving even when it is so costly, even when you are being made to look ridiculous, even when the one you are trying to love shows you such disrespect, we could reasonably ask some questions.

By what authority do you give us such a hard command? The answer: “It came from above.”

Then we ask a very important follow-up question: “Where am I ever going to find the depth of heart necessary to keep on loving when I am being treated so badly by the one I am trying to love. You know the answer already, don't you? It is a very good answer. Where does my help come from to love like Jesus loves? “It comes from above.” Heaven and heaven's God is not only the source of all authority, with kings and kingdom rising and falling by His decree. Heaven and heaven's God is the source of every good gift. Ask God to help you to love like Jesus loves. That kind of love comes from above.

Jesus had a half-brother named James who wrote the book of the Bible that bears his name. James said, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” All authority is from above. All true love is from above. Jesus Himself is the Person, the Husband, and King who came from above. He can help you now in your calling to live out His love.

1. Where is Jesus from? Where is He going? How will He get there?
2. What is Pilate's understanding of his own authority?
3. What is Jesus' understanding of the authority of rulers?
4. Who is the one who delivered Jesus over to Pilate?

When Jesus gave His bride His best love, how respectfully did she receive that love?

The King – Part 3
(John 19:6-7, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, June 20, 2010)

19:6 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.

When the chief priests and officers saw Him... (6)
Psalm 45 begins with these words: “My heart overflows with a pleasing theme.” That theme is the great King of the Jews, the Son of God. Later in the song the psalmist addresses the young woman who is to be the King's bride. He says, “Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear: forget your people and your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him.” She must hear about the greatness of the man who is to be her husband, and she has to be encouraged to bow to him. Yet the psalm is expectant that this bride will surely come to her senses, and that she will be very happy to have this husband and King, about whom the psalmist also writes, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.” There can be no doubt that the New Testament authors understood Jesus of Nazareth to be the King and the true Son of God. Hebrews 1 quotes these words, “Your throne, O God,” and says that this is referring to Christ.

Though earlier in John's gospel a crowd wanted to take Jesus, the miracle worker, and make Him King by force, now the chief priests and rulers of the Jews give their judgment of the One who is the Husband of the Lord's people. Pilate presents Jesus to the crowd wearing a crown of thorns and a purple robe. When the governor says, “Behold the man,” they shout out, “Crucify! Crucify!”

Jesus has come to fulfill the words of the Old Testament. A soldier will soon pierce his hands and feet in fulfillment of Psalm 22:16. Why couldn't the people who were there have been sad about it? Why did they need to shout for the worst death that the Romans gave to criminals, the public humiliation of the cross? Couldn't this have been done in a different way, where people would have been cut to the heart right here and mourned the crucifixion of Jesus rather than demanding it? Why did the Messiah have to be so rudely rejected by His bride? Peter addresses people in Acts 2 not too long after this episode, and he calls the Lord, “this Jesus whom you crucified.” Three thousand people were added to the church by responding to that message. Some of the ones shouting for the death of Christ in the way we read about in John 19 would end up believing in Him as the Messiah King, and they would be baptized. He would be their eternal Husband, and they would be His heavenly bride. But not today. Not in John 19. “Crucify!” God's plan allows no room for the bride-to-be, the church, to have any positive role to play in the events that will secure her salvation. Christ loved to the uttermost a bride who rejected him and showed him the greatest disrespect. Salvation is entirely by the grace of God. The gift of deep repentance and sincere faith would have to wait until after Jesus saved us. The love He pours forth here comes to us without anyone's help or even anyone's respect.

Pilate said to them... (6)
Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” This is now the third time that the Roman governor has pronounced Christ's innocence. This is not only the judgment of one civil ruler. It is the verdict of heaven upon the Messiah. Jesus has no guilt. What a contrast with the crowd that is showing such hatred toward Christ. The chief priests and the elders of the Jews have plotted together to kill an innocent man. They have guilt. The crowd gathered there that day has gone along with their murderous plans. They are accessories to this crime, and share in the guilt.

But we have come to understand the meaning of the cross. On the cross, Paul says, God “made Him (Christ) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” We know this through the words of the Bible, but also through our worship, our celebration of the Lord's Supper, and the hymns of the church. We sing, “Mine is the guilt, but thine the cleansing blood.” We have guilt. He had no guilt, only righteousness.

The Jews answered him... (7-8)
The leaders of the Jews took issue with Pilate's public declaration of the innocence of Jesus. They said “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” The Jews did have a law. That law had something to say about the events unfolding before us in John 19. The law said, “You shall have no other gods before me.” But when God visited Israel to become a sin offering, He came to His own people, the Jews, and they would not receive Him. The law also said “You shall not murder.”

The contention of the religious authorities was that Jesus had “made himself the Son of God.” In fulfillment of the Old Testament prophesies about Him, Jesus has not been loudly proclaiming His divinity. Read Isaiah 42:1-9. The divine Suffering Servant who would bring righteousness to the nations would “not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street.” He was the eternal Son of God, the Word, through whom all things were made. He displayed the power of His divinity in His resurrection signs, patiently displayed before Israel. Jesus is the Son of God. He is the King. He is the Husband. And He was rejected, not by some stranger, but by His bride.

When Pilate heard their accusation connecting this innocent man with the title “Son of God,” he was even more afraid. Who wants to be involved in the death of any innocent man? Who wants to think about that for the rest of his life? But it is especially this title, “Son of God,” that makes Pilate more afraid. Who is this particular innocent man, and will the governor's role in such a death come back to haunt him all the more?

Application: The love of the cross
As we consider the details of the cross we are trying to better understand our King's love displayed there. We want to see what this love means for us who are also commanded to be imitators of Christ. In particular the Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 5, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”

The love that husbands are supposed to give to their wives is a costly love. It seeks the good of the bride, even though the one who is being loved might show deep disrespect for her husband. That is hard to take. Wives should respect their husbands, but a man who wants to imitate Christ and obey Paul's instruction in Ephesians, cannot wait for his wife to appreciate his qualities before he decides to prefer her well-being to his own.

Not everyone in the church is a husband, but everyone is called to follow the King of love. What is love, and how is it to be expressed? Love is willing to endure pain, that the one who is loved might be granted the gift of the best kind of happiness, not overspiritualized, but not trivial or false. Where would we be without this love of Christ for us? Have you been rejecting the love of Christ? Come to your senses. See the greatness of the Son of God. Receive and imitate His love.

1. Is the demand of the chief priests and the rulers surprising?
2. How do you evaluate the response of Pilate to this demand?
3. What is the meaning of the accusation against Jesus?
4. What is the love of the cross and how are we to live it out?

The power of weakness

The King – Part 2
(John 19:4-5, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, June 6, 2010)

19:4 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!”

Q: What words did Pilate speak to introduce Jesus to the crowd?
A: “Behold the man!” (John 19:5)

Pilate went out again... (4)
History is the study of the past. In it, historians may bring forward their theories about why the past has turned out the way it has. They tend to focus on powerful individuals and nations in order to explain events that have taken place. Yet to explain how people have come to power they may be forced to speak of events causing the rise and fall of people. People of power bring about events which bring about the rise of people of power. Something like that. It is all very mysterious. Why do kings and kingdoms rise and fall?

The Bible tells us that God reigns over all. “God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne.” Psalm 47:8 “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'” Isaiah 52:7 We understand that we do not yet see the perfection of God's reign. But the movements of people and nations toward that final day is presented to us as the result of God's sovereign will, until one day we experience what we read about in Revelation 19:6, a fact that all of heaven already proclaims, “Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, 'Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.'”

Pilate is a man of power. He serves as an official in the great Roman Empire. He presides over an event that would have perhaps looked insignificant. Of course, what happens to the seemingly powerless Man he presents to the assembled Jews and Gentiles that day is not unimportant. The entire story of humanity turns on the events of John 19 that we refer to collectively as “the cross.” In this chapter we come to the hinge of all history. Because of this one Man and this one event in His life, the story of heaven and earth is forever changed. The person that Pilate brings out to present to the crowd is the God Man, Jesus the Messiah, and He is the King of history. He is our King.

As Pilate presents Jesus to the assembly of Jews and Gentiles, he reminds them that he finds no guilt in him. He wants the crowd to know that. There is no reason for Jesus to be put to death as far as Pilate is concerned. There is no necessity for him to die as far as the Romans are concerned. For a nation to take a man's life is not a small thing, That punishment is reserved for those guilty of offenses that are determined to be worthy of the greatest penalty that men can inflict upon a man. Pilate finds nothing of guilt in Jesus. He has been beaten and humiliated. Now he presents him as a man of obvious insignificance, a man without power. But God, who is powerful, presents Jesus as the unique Man who has no guilt. God has not forgotten His own words that He spoke from heaven: “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased.”

So Jesus came out... (5)
“So Jesus came out,” John writes. He said earlier that Pilate was bringing Him out as a prisoner, but this is better. Jesus is presenting Himself to the world, the Jews and Gentiles who observe this critical moment of history. He does not say anything. He just presents Himself for your consideration. What do you see? A man of power? A man who makes things happen? He appears to be just the opposite. He is a vision of weakness. He is a victim of events.

But that description does not go far enough. It is impossible to ignore the cruel joke. Jesus is not merely presented as powerless. A sick man near death could have come forward as a picture of a powerless man. Jesus has a crown of thorns and a purple robe of royalty. The vision is at once ridiculous and brutal. But one more word should be used to describe it: public. This is not a private humiliation. He is publicly humiliated. “So Jesus came out.” He endured this for you.

“Behold the Man!” (5)
Pilate adds to this gruesome picture these important words: “Behold the Man!” Jesus is a Man. He had a mother. She will be a witness of the cross. Only one woman and one man did not have mothers. Eve and Adam. Adam was the first man. He came as the representative of humanity, and he represented us in sin.

Now behold the second Man, the One that Paul calls the second Adam, the Son of God. His coming was announced to Adam and Eve after sin entered the world. He was called the “Seed” or “Offspring” of the woman. God announced that a descendant of Eve would crush the power of evil.

If you are telling the history of humanity, you will be left with a pretty large, “I don't know,” if you ignore the account of the first man in the opening three chapters of the Bible. Where did we come from? “I don't know.” Do we have any duty or purpose? “I don't know.” Why is there pain and evil in the world? “I don't know.” Is this problem every going to be fixed? “I don't know.” Can I live my life with hope and joy, knowing that God is doing something good? “I don't know.” We have answers to these question because God chose to give them to us.

It is a mistake to ignore Genesis 1-3. There are so many answers given there. But if you ignore the events of this King of mercy, if you will not behold the second Man in the love of willing suffering, you will miss the key to your highest joy, and the greatest blessedness of others. If you see the first man who represented you in disobedience to the command of God, and then see the second Man who had no fault in Him, then you are on your way to a sensible view of history, and a better view of life, despite the present suffering that you face.

Jesus is the Man. He stands before God as your representative in righteousness. He stands before the Almighty as your Sin-bearer. He is the Man who was willing to endure the cross for you, despising its shame. He did this for the joy that was set before Him. He presented Himself as a man of weakness, a man who lost, a man who looked ridiculous. He did not find the crown of thorns, the purple robe, the beating of soldiers, and the exposure before his enemies to be a happy experience, but He did find something important in the midst of these because of the joy that was set before Him. On that day He willingly secured your eternal happiness. Behold the Man! Behold God! Behold your King!

Application: How can you show the power of weakness in some important relationship of love? You have a personal history. Could it be that the turning point in your story and in your relationship with someone you love might come in your willingness to lose rather than to win?

1. How do you evaluate the scene described in these two verses?
2. What is Pilate's assessment concerning Jesus' guilt?
3. Why would an innocent man be treated in this way?
4. How does Jesus' role as second Adam help us to understand His reign as King?