10-04-2020 (Good Friday)
John 19:1-5 New International Version (NIV)
Jesus Sentenced to Be Crucified
19 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.
4 Once 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.” 5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”
John 19:5 New King James Version (NKJV)
Pilate’s Decision
5 Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, “Behold the Man!”
John 19:6-7 New International Version (NIV)
6 As 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.”
7 The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
John 1:29 New King James Version (NKJV)
The Lamb of God
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
John 1:36 New King James Version (NKJV)
36 And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!”
John 19:8-14 New International Version (NIV)
8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9 and 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?”
11 Jesus 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.”
12 From 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.”
13 When 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). 14 It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.
“Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.
John 19:14 New King James Version (NKJV)
14 Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, “Behold your King!”
John 19:15-37 New International Version (NIV)
15 But 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.
16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
The Crucifixion of Jesus
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
19 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews. 20 Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21 The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.”
22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
23 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
24 “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,
“They divided my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.”[a]
So this is what the soldiers did.
25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman,[b] here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
The Death of Jesus
28 Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. 32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,”[c] 37 and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”[d]
This word "They will look on the one they have pierced" reverberates through history and every time, by the Spirit of God and by the eyes of faith, when we look on the one they have pierced, we are healed.
Lord, I ask that by Your Spirit, You would come and that You would open our eyes that we might behold the man, the lamb, the King, that we might look on You who had been pierced and that we be healed. In Your precious name we pray. Amen.
Isaiah 53:5 New International Version (NIV)
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
1) Behold the Man
Isaiah 53:1-4 New International Version (NIV)
53 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
It is God who became the Son of Man and gave Himself for each and every one of us, that we could now live. God became Man. He started on the level we are. He's met us where we live. He had borne our earthly frame of dust and clay and gave himself for us. Behold theM an! For there is only one God and only one mediator between God and man, and the man--Christ Jesus--gave his life and purchased freedom for everyone. Behold the Man! He was so ordinary that people could not even recognise Him. I believe one day when we go to heaven, we will find out those instances that we met Christ. We wouldn't have known but He was an ordinary man who probably had sat with you on the bus and probably had his hand upon you. He probably had walked with you in your loneliness and set beside your sick bed. Behold the Man who was so ordinary.
2) Behold the Lamb
Isaiah 53:5-9 New International Version (NIV)
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression[a] and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.[b]
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Behold the Lamb! The nature of the lamb is to take something upon itself. The nature of the sacrificial lamb is to take upon the sins of the people upon himself. And the lamb is a lamb that takes readily the sins of the people upon himself. Whenever we talk about sins we think of various things but one author that put it, "Some of us say, "I have not committed a great sin, I have not committed adultery, I have not killed anyone, I have not stolen anything. How can God judge me?" But the Bible says in verse 6 that "We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all." Iniquity, in the original language, means to go in our own way and that is the root of rebellion. You might not have committed murder. You might not have committed adultery. But many a time we have gone our own way. We are all guilty of going our own way. And the Bible says that is iniquity. And Jesus has laid it upon Him.
Behold the Lamb because He became a sacrifice for us. Behold the Lamb because He bore our sins for us. He personally carried the load of our sins.
1 Peter 2:24 New International Version (NIV)
24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”
We don't have one sin but a load of sins. He personally carried the load of our sins. He himself bore our sins in His body on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness for by His wounds we are healed.
1 Peter 4 New Living Translation (NLT)
Living for God
4 So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin.[a]
Isaiah 53:7 reads, "He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth."
If you had worked in a farm, you would know. When you take animals to the slaughter, look into their eyes and you would see that they have absolutely no idea what would happen to them. There is such innocence upon them. If you are acquainted with the sheep in a personal way, your heart breaks because you know what is going to happen to that sheep. Have you seen the eyes of the sheep, not knowing what is to come?
But Jesus knew what is to come. He went on the cross willingly but He was silent. Behold the Lamb because He became a sacrifice for us. Behold the Lamb because He bore our sins for us.
3) Behold the King
Isaiah 52:13-15 New International Version (NIV)
The Suffering and Glory of the Servant
13 See, my servant will act wisely[b];
he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him[c]—
his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being
and his form marred beyond human likeness—
15 so he will sprinkle many nations,[d]
and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
and what they have not heard, they will understand.
Isaiah 53:10-12 New International Version (NIV)
10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes[a] his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life[b] and be satisfied[c];
by his knowledge[d] my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,[e]
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,[f]
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
Behold the King because He took the form of a servant for us. Though He was God, He took the form of a servant. He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death on the cross. Therefore God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name that is above any other name, that in the name of Jesus Christ, every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God. Behold the King because He took the form of a servant for us.
Hebrews 2:7 New International Version (NIV)
7 You made them a little[a] lower than the angels;
you crowned them with glory and honor
God crowned Him with glory and honour. He's the king of glory. Yet, He is the one who bought our pardon. Even today the principle is applied. The King of kings and Lord of lords took the form of a servant and died on the cross for us.
Behold the Man who gave Himself for us because He loved us.
Behold the Lamb who became a sacrifice for us--He bore our sins.
Behold the King who took the form of a servant for us.
In all these, Jesus Christ made an exchange for us at the cross. That is why, while we look on the one who had been pierced, we would be healed. At the cross, Jesus Christ made for us an exchange.
2 Corinthians 5:21 Living Bible (TLB)
21 For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God’s goodness into us![a]
All the evil due to us came on Him. All the good due to Him came on us.
At the cross, Jesus Christ made an exchange for us. While we see the historical event, and in Isaiah 53 we see the spiritual meaning, we have to apply in each and every one of us personally.
Jesus was wounded or pierced that we might be healed. It means that we bring our sins to the cross, deserving punishment but we walk away forgiven. No matter how great how our sins may be, when we come to the cross with our sins, when we came to know the Lord, there were sins in our lives that we don't even want to name--the sins in thought, word and deed. But when we come to the Lord, at the cross, an exchange takes place. He took our punishment on our behalf and we walk away forgiven. We come with our sins to the cross and we walk away with His righteousness. We come with shame to the cross and we walk away sharing His glory. We come to the cross with all the curses that had been poured on us either culturally or personally, we walk away with His blessings. We come as dead men and dead women to the cross but we walk away with His life in us. We come with enmity with God but we walk away with peace in our hearts. We come with the wrath of God upon our heads because of our sins but now we walk away with His acceptance. We come to the cross with all of our weaknesses but then we walk away with His strength. There is a divine exchange at the cross.
Finally, what should be our response?
John 19:35 Living Bible (TLB)
35 I saw all this myself and have given an accurate report so that you also can believe.[g]
You believe the one who has been pierced and He is the son of God. Behold the Man! You receive Jesus Christ as the Saviour. Behold the Lamb! You accept Jesus Christ as your Sovereign Lord. Behold the King! An exchange takes place. Acknowledge Him as the Son of God and receive Him as your personal Lord and Saviour. Not only He gave Himself for us, not only He became a sacrifice for us, not only He became a servant for us, He made an exchange for us--that we who were dead had come alive, that we who were unholy had become holy, we who were unrighteous had become righteous, and we who were folly had become wise.
As we ponder and meditate upon this narrative of the passion, it is the place of the cross where we need to come.
And today some of us who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to come to that place of the cross and believe that He is the Son of God and receive that He is the Saviour and accept Him as the Sovereign Lord. And when you do that, you walk away with your sins forgiven, you walk away with the righteousness of God, you walk away with life in your soul, you walk away with the acceptance and peace of God.
1) Live to do God's will
2) Live to share the gospel
3) Live to love God and others
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