Our Substitute

Let me begin this morning with a question.  “What are you willing to do to preserve the life of the person sitting next to you?” 

 

If it is your spouse or your child, you would probably be willing to give your life, but would you be willing give your life for the person close by who is not your spouse or your child?  Most of us would not, and this is normal, but today, we look closely at the abnormal.

 

Last Sunday, we saw Jesus undergoing His Roman Trial at the hands of Pontius Pilate.  Today, we continue with that trial in John 19:1-16. 

 

It is Friday morning, and Jesus is at Pilate’s residence, and the Jewish religious leaders are outside demanding Jesus’ death by crucifixion.  Pilate doesn’t really want to act on this issue, but he is in between a rock and a hard spot.

 

 

1. The Humiliation by the Soldiers, John 19:1-3

1 Pilate then took Jesus and scourged Him.  2 And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and put a purple robe on Him; 3 and they began to come up to Him and say, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and to give Him slaps in the face.

 

Because Pilate didn’t want to sentence Jesus to death, he thought that beating Him and humiliating Him would pacify the Jews.  Therefore, he had Him scourged or beaten. 

 

Jesus’ hands were locked down on a stump with His back exposed, and two Roman soldiers took turns beating Him with a “cat of nine tails.”  This instrument had a wooden handle with strips of leather extending from it.  At the end of each leather strip were bits of metal or bone or glass and would tear the flesh into bloody strips.  Many criminals didn’t survive this flogging as these Roman soldiers beat Him up to 39 times. 

 

They then took a vine of thorns and twisted into a crown.  These thorns may have been 3 inches in length and pressed this crown down on Jesus’ head penetrating His scalp. 

 

At this time, they were also beating Him and slapping Him and spitting on Him.  Finally, they took a purple robe from nearby and draped it over His back and mocked Him as “King of the Jews.”

 

 

1. The Presentation of a King, John 19:4-7

4 Pilate came out again and *said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.”  5 Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate *said to them, “Behold, the Man!”  6 So when the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out saying, “Crucify, crucify!” 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 by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God.”

 

Again, we see in verse 4 that Pilate didn’t want to execute Jesus.  He was hoping that a severe beating would get the Jews off his back. 

 

Therefore, he presented the bloody Jesus to them, but they wouldn’t have it as they responded to the presentation of Jesus with chants of “Crucify Him.”

 

Now for the third time, Pilate told them that Jesus was innocent.  He did it in 18:38. He did it again in 19:4.  This is now the third time here in 19:6. 

 

38 Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all.

 

4 Pilate then went out again, and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him.”

 

6 Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!”

 

Pilate knew the truth, but he refused to act on the truth.  His lack of action was an action in and of itself. 

 

By the way, if you think your defense before God someday will be that you didn’t reject His Son, it won’t work.  If you don’t receive Jesus, then you are rejecting Jesus.

 

The Jews then told Pilate that Jesus had broken their law of blasphemy.  He claimed to be the Son of God and equal to God. 

 

For that, they believed Jesus was guilty of breaking the OT Law.  See Leviticus 26:14.

 

16 And whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him, the stranger as well as him who is born in the land. When he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death.

 

 

• The Condemnation from the Jews, John 19:8-16

8 Therefore when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid; 9 and he entered into the Praetorium again and *said to Jesus, “Where are You from?” But Jesus gave him no answer.  10 So Pilate *said to Him, “You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?”  11 Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”  12 As a result of this Pilate made efforts to release Him, but the Jews cried out saying, “If you release this Man, you are no friend of Caesar; everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar.”  13 Therefore when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha.  14 Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. And he *said to the Jews, “Behold, your King!”  15 So they cried out, “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!” Pilate *said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”  16 So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified.

 

Verse 8 tells us that Pilate became more afraid.  He was afraid that He was making a big mistake.  He began to wonder exactly who Jesus was. 

 

Jesus claimed to be a King and the Son of God, and remember that Pilate’s wife had a disturbing dream about Jesus.  See Matthew 27:19. 

 

19 While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, “Have nothing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him.”

 

Therefore, Pilate began to question Him again or interrogate Him, and initially Jesus remained silent fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 53.

 

In verse 11, Jesus finally responded after Pilate had grown frustrated with His silence.  Jesus reminded Pilate that all authority comes from God, and he would have no authority if it weren’t for God. 

 

We see here in this 11^th verse there is nothing beyond the control of God.  We may not understand it, but God is over all things. 

 

We also learn from verse 11 that there may well be degrees of sin.  All sin is unholy and an abomination to a holy God, but Jesus talked about a greater sin. 

 

I would suggest that He is talking about Caiaphas.  Caiaphas was the Jewish high priest and had the Old Testament Law to point him to the Messiah.  Yet, he missed it by handing Jesus over to Pilate to be executed. 

 

The Jews then made Pilate choose.  They gave him only two options.  He could choose to execute Jesus and follow their desires or he could release Him and be at odds with Caesar. 

 

For Pilate, his choice was clear.  He wanted nothing to do with the animosity of Caesar.  Therefore, he sentenced Jesus to be crucified.

 

In verse 13, after seeing and hearing that the Jews were not backing down, he brought Jesus one final time and put Him before the people.  It was mid morning on Friday, and he gave them their king.      

 

They responded with “Crucify Him.”  That word “crucify” or some form of it is in this text on 7 different occasions. 

 

This text is about Jesus being crucified, and so Pilate handed Jesus over for just that.  It is so strange that in verse 15, the Jews pledged their support to a Gentile, oppressive king and rejected their promised Messiah.

 

 

Conclusion

Let me be as simple as I can.  Today’s message is that Jesus went through all of this for you.  He died for you.  We owe God because of our sin, but yet, we have no means to pay God, but Jesus does. 

 

He lived a perfect, sinless life, and died in your place and for you sins.  He was our substitute. 

 

To receive Him as Lord and Savior is to have forgiveness of sins, heaven, and eternal life.  See Romans 5:8.