John 19: 1-16-"Who suffered under Pontius Pilate"

Summerstrand March 18, 2018

Welcome

Ourcommunity rewards popularity.The most popular people are the greatest people.Jesusworks completely different.He says that the greatest oneisthe Onewho serves, in his case untilhis death onthe cross.

We confess in theApostle’sCreedaboutJesus:“He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried."

Today we focus onJesus before Pilate, next week on thecrucifixion, Good Friday onhisdeath and funeralandEaster SundayfromJohn 20on theresurrection, as we confess: "on the third day he rose again."

In between we also have aTennebrae(dark)service which will take place on Thursday night 29 March 18:00.We focus on Jesus' crucifixion with video, word and song:It's finished!

TheSource ofMihály Munkácsy(1844-1900)Le Christ Devant Pilateserve asbackground fortoday'sPowerPoint.

Entry

Song 396Behold the Saviour, see the cross - Heavenly Prince, despised, reviled– stand

Votum and Blessing

Prayer from Song 389

1.Is this, is this is my King - look there, look at the Man!Is this his coronation - who wanted it so?Is this his royal tribute - the reed, the garment, the crown?Is this how He pays for my debts, displayed as God's Son!

2.Yes, I cost him the beatings, the sorrows and the jeer.For me,Hehangs, deserted and naked, with crown of thorns.For me were those wounds, He had to stand there;He had to go the bitter crossroad for all my sins.

3. O Jesus, Man of Sorrows, o Love unlimited, write deeply in all hearts the word: "Look at the Man!" Oh, never let me forget that crown, that robe, that reed!No greater comfort in suffering - it's all happenedfor me!

Worship

Vonkk 194Were you there when the Lord was crucified?(choir v1, congregation v2 and 5) - sit

Song 384Jesus, o think of me- choir

Humbling

Song 387: 1.3O Lord, through blood and wounds, through cross, hatred and jeer, it clearly shows how sin rewards love!- sit

Children

I want to talk to you aboutJesus.

The Jews were angry with Jesus.Why?Because Jesus said that He is God's Son.However, they thought that He just lied about that.

The Jews brought Jesus to Pilate.He was the Roman ruler of the country, like our president.They were so angry with Jesus that they wanted Pilate to kill Jesus.

"WhatdidJesus dowrong?"Pilate asked.

"Jesus didbad things.That is why we brought him to you,"they said.

But, that was not true.Jesus did just good things.He made people healthy.He told them about God.He gave them food.He helped people love each other.He forgave people's sin.

But, why didJesusdo nothing?Why did He not stop the Jews?Why did he not stop Pilate?Whydid he not just say, but you're wrong?I only did good stuff!

Why did Jesus do nothing?Because Jesus wanted to show everyone that Hereally isGod's Son.And God's Son had to die on the cross.For that, Jesus came to earth.He wanted todie on the crossforall the world's sin, so that anyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

We all have sin.We are doing wrong things.And Jesus wants to forgive us.He wants to cleanse our sin.He wants to help us to live for Him.

And He wants to give us eternal life.

What is eternal life?It is to live with God in heaven.For ever and ever and ever.Jesus therefore wants us to live with Him and His Father forever after our death.In fact, He is already living in our hearts as we believe in Him.

How can we gotoheaven?How can we also have Jesus in our hearts?By believing in Jesus.He is the Son of God.And if you believe in Him, you can know today that you will not perish but have eternal life.

Who of you want to believe in Jesus today?

Let's pray together and you pray in your heart.

"Lord Jesus.I believe that you are the Son of God.I believe that on the cross you died for my sin.I believe you forgave my sin.I believe that you are living in my heart.I believe that you give me eternal life.Thank you that I will not be lost, but live with you in heaven forever.Amen."

Prayer

Scripture

John 18: 39-19: 16:"Who suffered under Pontius Pilate"

38“What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. 39But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”

40They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.

Jesus Sentenced to Be Crucified

19:1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.

4Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” 5When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

6As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”

But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.”

7The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”

8When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10“Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”

11Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

12From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”

13When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 14It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.

“Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.

15But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”

“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.

16Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. (NIV)

Preaching

The temptation is great to analyze the interaction between Pilate and Jesus, to focus on the Jews' role in the abuse of the legal system, and to highlight the injustice of the situation.

And there are a lot of thingsto say about it:

  • Barabbas, a convicted criminal, is chosen to be released before Jesus.It is anabuse ofthe Jewishlegal system.It is an absurd choice, an immoral decision.One that shows that their obedience to the Word is null and void.Their own interest always triumphs over the Bible.
  • Jesus had to endurethepainof thewhippping.He was beaten witha whip consisting of a lot of thongs, bonded with pieces of bone and metal.This without being found guilty, justbecause Pilate wanted tosee if the Jews did not regret their decision and let him go.
  • Jesus is humiliated with the crown of thorns and the purple robe and the soldiers who made fun of his kingship. They spit and clapped him. Without himprovoking them. Without it being a punishment for something he did wrong.
  • PilateclearlyfoundJesusnot guilty and brought him to the Jews to show that it is his finding.He wanted nothing to do with his death.But theydidnot want to know anything."Crucify!Crucify!Crucify Him!"
  • Pilate were persuaded, clearly by fear ofwhat the Jews could do to him as governor if he does not give them their way.In fact, he really tried to release Jesus, but the political pressure on him was just too much.He was too scared about what they could do to him if the emperor heard of his poor handling of this situation.If only he knew what was waiting for him, because the emperor did act against him anyway.Pilate committed suicide six years later.

But what we need to see is that Pilate and the Jews, injustice and hatred, pain and rejection, are onlyenvironmental noise.Apower strugglewhich Pilate and the Jews woninitially but had consequences whichthe leaders of the Jews and Romans totally miscalculated.

Here the Jews and Romans entered into a cosmic chess game where their apparent victory over a pawn in their way opened the door to God's decisive end game, a deadly checkmate.

Like Pilate, we must see the one in the midst of all this: "Here is the man!"But, not as Pilate saw him in his weakness, but seeing Him in his strength.For, thisOne, this Man, is the One whobroke the power of the devil and death and sin through his crucifixion.Jesus' weakness was his strength.His crucifixion was his victory.

As Paul wrote about it, "None of the rulers of this world knew this wisdom(the hidden truth of God).If they knew it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." (1 Cor. 2:8).

For the gospel in the passage lies in what Jesus does, what He says, what choices he exerciseswithout the perpetrators who carry out the sentence being aware of it.

1. Jesuschoosesthe road of the cross

That Barabbas is chosen above him does not make any difference to Jesus.Ironically, Barabbas's name means in Aramaic "son of the father".He is the representative of man.But Jesus is the actual "Son of the Father", the representative of GodHimself!Matthew even tells us about Barabbas's other name, Jesus, which further underlines the irony.The person who is preferred to God (Matthew 27:16).But Jesus just leaves the injustice there.

That Pilate had him whipped, that the soldiers mocked and slapped him, that the Jews rejected him, even though Pilate found him innocent, all this made no difference to him.Even when he realized that Pilate was very uncomfortable with the situation and tried in every way to release him,he did not exploitit to hisbenefit.The extradition of an innocent Jesus to the Jews isamassiveabuseof the Roman justice system.But Jesus did not respond to it at all.

Jesus does not challenge the evil of the murderous, hypocritical Jews or the strategic conniving Pilate. He chooses the road of the cross, because that is what he came to the world for.

When the Greekscameearlierto worship him,healreadyrealized his time had come:"Now I am deeply upset.And what should I say?Should I say, Father, save me from this hour?But just for this I came to this hour.Father, glorify your name!"(John 12:27-28).

And from that moment on, He decided not to limit the evil, but to trick the evil with his death."Should I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?"He says to Peter in the garden of Gethsemane (John 18:11).For He knew that His Father's promise was that by His death He would reconcile the world with God.

As the Hebrew writer says, "For the sake of the joy which was before him, he endured the cross without relenting, and now he is sitting at the right hand of the throne of God." (Heb. 12:2).

2. Jesustrusts God to the end

What one thus sees is a calm,calling-conscious Jesus who plays the role God has given him to the end."Her is the man!"Indeed.The person who gives Himself up to death.The Man Jesus.And this is the gospel of the passage.

This is whatJesus cameinto the world for to give his life for his sheep, those who believe in him - and this is whatHe is giving Himself to now.

Notice, He does show Pilate the meaning of whathedoes,as before in the hearing at Annas and Caiaphaswith the Jews,but hedoes not stop Pilate fromcarrying outhisplans and choices.Just as He did not stop the Jews.

WhenPilatesaidtohim:"Do you refuse to speak to me?Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?"ThenJesus answered him:"You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin."

With that He showed hisincredible,uncompromising,unwavering trust in God.This suffering is part of God's plan.Every drop of sweat and blood that he sheds, every undeserved complaint andblow that He endures, every thorn on his head and every nail in his body, brings him closer to the purpose of his life, the salvation of this world.

Thus, as they lead Jesus away to be crucified, He does not contradict Pilate, He enduresthe corruption, He enduresthe rejection, He enduresthe pain because He holds fast to God who will use this sacrifice as a complete reconciliation for all our sin.

3. Jesus puts you before a choice

Jesus' last journey is from Gabbatha to Golgotha, from where thecondemnationby Pilate and thebetrayalby the Jews occurred totheplace where theredemptionof the cross occurred.

Pilate chose to deliver Jesus and crucify him.The Jews chose to shout:"Crucify!Crucify!Crucify him!"How awful theirwordssound:"We have no king,onlythe emperor."And so they also execute judgment on themselves, because they reject the Onewho could give them life.

Which means that we are also given a choice.As I spelled out for the children, so I do it for you too.

Jesus showed us all with his crucifixion that He really is God's Son. That is why Jesus came to earth. He died on the cross for all the world's sin, so that anyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

We all have sin.We are doing wrong things.And Jesus wants to forgive it.He wants to cleanse our sin.He wants to help us to live for Him.

And He wants to give us eternal life.

He asks you to believe in Him.Jesus is the Son of God.As you believe in him, you can know today that you will not perish but have eternal life.

Let's pray together and you pray in your heart.

"Lord Jesus.I believe that you are the Son of God.I believe that on the cross you died for my sin.I believe you forgave my sin.I believe that you are living in my heart.I believe that you give me eternal life.Thank you that I am no longer lost, but forever will live with you in heaven.Amen."

Prayer

Thanksoffering

Choir:Oh come see him on the cross

Final Song

Song 260:2,3I believe in Jesus Christ ... Under Pontius Pilate He suffered grief and pain–stand

Blessing

Response

Song 314Amen

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