John Chapter 19:1-10

So we see Pilate keep saying that he doesn't find any fault in him.

It's kind of ironic, isn't it? He's saying he doesn't find fault in him. But at this point, Jesus has already been beaten and Jesus has already been scourged. Well, if he didn't find any fault in him, why did those things happen? Because Pilate knew what was right, but he didn't do what was right.

Came across this quote, a coward is someone who knows what is right and does not do it. Our struggles as Christians, because sometimes let's all, yeah, let's be honest, we know what is right. You know, we sit here on Sunday morning. This is what right is. And we fail sometimes and we fall sometimes.

But your life, is it built around knowing but not doing? Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of The Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. As we think about the cross and what Jesus did for us, it should change our way of life. Today, Pastor David encourages us in that change as he continues in the Gospel of John chapter 19.

Now, here's David McGee with part three of his teaching, The Trial. John chapter 19 verse 1 says, so then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. Now, understand something. We are so familiar with the events of this chapter that I think we gloss over it. I don't think we really stopped to consider what was going on here. Even that word scourge, I don't think we get the mental image of what was really going on.

Because here's what was going on. Scourging was an incredibly cruel punishment. There was a whip that had several pieces on it and in those straps were pieces of metal and pieces of bone. And what the soldiers would do is they would take those straps and they would fiercely whip the person. And what would happen with those little pieces of bone and metal is they would embed in the back of the victim. And then they would jerk those things out. And what would happen is it would leave the person's back in ribbons. A lot of times people did not survive the scourging.

I'm gonna be real honest and real upfront. Many times they died during the scourgings with their organs exposed, their spine exposed. We need to understand that. The scourging usually was for interrogation purposes. You can imagine that after very much of that, the person would give them whatever information they wanted and admit to whatever guilt they had. But see, with Jesus, Jesus was innocent. Jesus was not guilty of one single thing.

So there was no big horrendous crime that he could confess. Now, a lot of us understand the cross. Well, he went to the cross to die for our sins.

Why the beatings? Well, we're told in Isaiah chapter 53 verse 5, it says, but he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace was upon him. And by his stripes, we are healed. You see, the fact that we can be healed and have peace came from those beatings.

The fact that we can have peace came from the stripes. The fact that we can be healed came from those things as well. When I say healing, let me explain what I meant. I do include physical healing in that. Do you understand that God still heals people today? I don't understand some churches that say, well, God no longer does that. He did that in the age of the apostles, but he no longer heals people.

You know what? Show me that in the Bible. It doesn't say that.

It's not in there. God still heals people. Amen? And the thing that confuses me is if you don't believe God heals people anymore, how do you pray for the sick? I mean, we're told to pray for the sick. We're told if anybody's ill, anybody's sick among you, let the elders pray for them. So if God no longer heals people, what do the elders pray? Lord, we know you no longer heal people, so just take them on home because they're sick.

Amen. I mean, really, what do you pray? No, you pray for God to heal.

Why? Because God still heals. And he also heals us emotionally and spiritually.

Amen? Now, verse 2, And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe. Now, purple was the color of royalty, but they were making fun of him. Now, we think of thorns as briars or perhaps even a rose bush thorns, but the thorns in the Middle East were two and three inches long. And so when it says they twisted a crown of thorns on his head, these thorns embedded in his head at least to where his skull is, you can imagine the pain of that. Now, it's interesting in part because thorns are mentioned early on in the Bible.

They're a product of sin. Genesis chapter 3 verse 18 says, Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. So up to that point, I'm not sure thorns and thistles and mosquitoes and stinging bees and all those things, I'm not sure they were part of creation.

But at that point, thorns were introduced. And since sin introduced thorns, I think it's an appropriate picture that Jesus Christ took the thorns upon himself, suffering the consequences not for his sin, but for our sin. See, often we suffer for our sin, and justly so.

But Jesus wasn't suffering for his sins, he was suffering for our sins. Verse 3, Then they said, Hail, king of the Jews, and they struck him with their hands. 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. Again, we see Pilate, as we saw last week, looking at chapter 18, we see Pilate declaring that Jesus is innocent, finding no fault in him, saying that basically he's a good man. Let's stop for a second, because see, here's a common misconception in the church. And outside the church, people think, well, who is Jesus?

And you know what, that's a really good question to ask people. What do you think about Jesus? A lot of people say, well, yeah, I believe this, I believe that. But what do you think about Jesus? Well, basically, he was a good man. He was a good teacher. Well, wait a minute, and I love what C.S. Lewis does with this.

It's called the trilemma, if you will. He was either a liar or a lunatic, or he was the son of God. See, a good man doesn't go around talking about, I'm here to save the world, to die for their sins.

That's not a good man, that's not even a good teacher. That's somebody that, well, as C.S. Lewis says, that's somebody that is like walking around saying they're a poached egg. If they're not who they're saying they are. So people that say, well, yeah, I'm okay with Christianity, I'm okay with Jesus, I believe he was a good man, are far from the truth. He was and is the son of God. I was talking to a Muslim who was saying, yeah, basically, I'm okay with Jesus Christ, that he was a good man. I said, you know what, we're not agreed on this. Because he was trying to say, let's all get along. I said, we're not agreed on this, and at some point, you have to make a decision about Jesus Christ, whether he is the son of God and died for the sins of the world, or he was just another prophet.

We need to understand that. Verse five, then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate said to them, behold the man, ecodomo. He is proclaiming Jesus in front of these people. Now, understand, this is the man, the God-man, but the man who will take away the sins of the world. This is not just another man, this is the man, the perfect man.

The earth had never seen anything like him, and until his return will never see anything like him again. And guys, men, he is our model of manhood in that. See, a lot of times we have this mistaken impression of what being a man is.

We get that to a large degree from Hollywood. What a twisted place to get your sense of masculinity. As little kids, as little boys, we grew up with that, watching John Wayne. I love John Wayne, but watching John Wayne and all, and oh, he-man, and we're told, look, big boys don't cry. And you start to read the Bible, and Jesus wept, and David wept, and you begin to wonder. You want to see true masculinity? Look at Jesus, taking the suffering, taking the beatings as he was hanging on the cross, asking God to forgive those who were crucifying him.

Not taking names, trying to settle scores. What a picture. Behold the man indeed. And when you think about this, when you see these things, he's got the crown of thorns and the robe on, and he's been beaten. It stirs the heart. And you can begin to have sympathy for Jesus. Now, I think that was part of Pilate's plan, is to get the religious leaders to be sympathetic to Jesus and allow Pilate to release him. But in their cold hearts, there wasn't any sympathy, which is a sad comment, I think, on organized religion. They were so hard-hearted. They were so calloused. They were able to look at Jesus and evidently feel little or nothing. Their religious hearts had long ago grown cold and hard to the suffering of people.

May that never happen here. When I see somebody that's hurting, I want to hurt. I want to feel for them. I want to look at them and go, wow, how can I help? What can I do? And as a church, we need to do that too. That needs to be our mentality here, is how can I help? What can I do? How can I encourage you? How can I help you through this struggle?

Look what you did to yourself. See, I've been in that position and had people encourage me in struggling in my faith and even falling away. I've had people look at me and go, I like a dog to his vomit. And that really encouraged me a lot.

I'm being facetious. It didn't encourage me at all. But on occasion, somebody would come up and say, hey, man, love you, pray them for you.

Is there anything I can do? I felt the heart of Jesus. Now, understand, as you look at this and your compassion and your sympathy is drawn into this, understand, that's not what Jesus is looking for.

Jesus isn't thinking, okay, well, as long as you're sympathetic, as long as you have some compassion. No, no, no, no, that's not the point. The point is that emotion needs to be awakened to action. See, it's not enough just to look into society, look into culture and go, wow, that's messed up.

Somebody ought to do something about that. No, we're the ones that God has chosen to do something about that. The life lesson here is when we think of what he suffered for us, it should change the way we live. It should change the way we live. When we think of what he suffered for us, it should change the way we live. Not just, oh, wow, gee, look what he did. Look, let's suffer. Oh, I feel bad.

No, no, no. How are you living in light of the fact that he took your punishment willingly? That should change the way your heart and your mind work. Unless you're, I mean, just a cold-hearted monster, as we look at these things, your heart's going to be stirred. But, again, is it just going to be stirred? No, okay, well, you know, I went to church and I felt a little stirred, got out of there pretty quick so I could get over it.

Or my heart was stirred to action. And you know what? I'll be hurt in that process. I've been hurt before, reaching out, exposing my heart to somebody only to have them slap it away.

That's okay. That's part of ministry. People mess up. People fall.

They stumble. Do you understand that? That's part of serving God, is feeling that pain.

Because look at our leader. No point in this chapter does he go, oh, you know what? I didn't know it was going to be all this.

I'm out of here. I can't believe that they looked at me wrong or said something about me. No, he endured beatings. I would venture to say there's very few people here this morning who have endured beatings for Jesus Christ. But sometimes just somebody saying something they're looking at us weird is enough to drive us out of ministry. Family, loved ones, that shouldn't be.

That shouldn't be. We'll be right back with more from David McGee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor D.A.

Brown. Hey, we want to take just a couple minutes to pray for some cities in our listening audience, specifically Polson and Whitefish, Montana, and also Franklin, Norfolk, and Scottsbluff, Nebraska, and Battle Mountain and Carson City, Nevada. Lord, thank you for the people tuning in right now listening in these cities. Lord, we pray that they would be encouraged, that you would fill them up with faith to say yes to you, and, Lord, that they would trust you with all that you want to do. God, we pray for the churches in the area, that you give the pastors wisdom. Lord, that you fill the churches up and that people would grow and thrive and begin to serve you. And, Lord, we pray for those in government positions.

Lord, the mayor, the police chief, those on the town council, everyone with authority. Lord, we pray for unity. We pray for wisdom, discernment, and peace.

God, we pray that you bless these cities and that many people would put their trust in you. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. We are called to suffer, to sacrifice, and to serve. And here you see Jesus declaring hope to a hopeless world, declaring love to a cold, hard world without meaning.

And that's what we're supposed to do. You know, we should consider the cross, but we should do more than consider the cross. Jesus didn't say, every day, consider the cross.

That's not what he said, is it? Pick up your cross daily. You ever thought about the word daily?

Why is that in there? Because he knows us. Sometimes he couldn't use weekly or monthly or yearly. And too often, to be honest, in Christianity, we think in terms of huge events and, you know, I rededicated my life. And praise God if you rededicate your life.

That's an awesome thing. Praise God if for the first time you ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins. But don't stop there. Pick up your cross daily. Not just think about the cross, but actually pick it up and carry it. Why? Because Jesus did.

They don't understand. Why is he doing all this? Why is he enduring this pain and the suffering? He's doing it for you.

He's doing it for me. And now we're to go and tell others about what he did and why he did it. The world too large to agree, they don't understand this chapter. They think it was a political conspiracy. Well, it was. They think, well, it was a tragedy. Well, it was. They think it was an accident. Well, kind of.

Much more than that. That's the plan of God. Created from the foundation of the world so that Jesus Christ could forever tip the scales of the world in favor of hope for you and I. It's the good news. That's why they call it the good news. In verse 6, therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw him, they cried out saying, crucify him, crucify him. And Pilate said to them, you take him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. So we see Pilate keep saying that he doesn't find any fault in him.

It's kind of ironic, isn't it? He's saying he doesn't find fault in him. But at this point, Jesus has already been beaten and Jesus has already been scourged. Well, if he didn't find any fault in him, why did those things happen? Because Pilate knew what was right, but he didn't do what was right.

Pilate knew what was right, but Pilate didn't do what was right. It came across this quote. A coward is someone who knows what is right and does not do it.

A coward is someone who knows what is right and does not do it. I'm not talking about our struggles as Christians, because sometimes let's all, you know, let's be honest. We know what is right. You know, we sit here on Sunday morning. This is what right is. And we fail sometimes and we fall sometimes.

But your life, is it built around knowing but not doing? See, that's why I encourage you to put wheels on your faith, and have your faith as an active one so you can begin to do some of the things that are right. Let's read on verse seven. The Jews answered him, we have a law, and according to our law, he ought to die because he made himself the son of God. So apparently even the enemies of Jesus understood what Jesus had said. You know, while the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Dan Browns of the world say, well, Jesus never claimed to be God. Wait a minute, Jesus was put on trial, condemned and executed because the people, they understand, he was claiming to be God. The Jewish people said as much right here. He claimed to be the son of God. So he should be condemned.

Now, the Jewish leaders obviously, clearly understood his claim to deity. In verse eight, therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid, and went again into the praetorium and said to Jesus, where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. Notice it says he was more afraid. Not that he was afraid, but he was more afraid. See, that makes us think that he was already fearful for what he was seeing.

Why? Because in the midst of all this, Jesus was very composed. Jesus was not losing it in the spite of being in such a vice grip of life at that moment. He was at peace.

What a model for us. You understand, a lot of times when we get in the vice grip of life, people are watching to see our reaction, and if we stay composed and we stay at peace, at rest, it piques their interest and actually can create an opportunity for us to share the truth. So Pilate is more afraid, and he comes back and he says, where are you from?

That's interesting to me. He didn't come back and say, wait, are you crazy walking around telling people you're God? No, there was something that he saw in Jesus.

Well, what was it? It was probably the halo, you know, that we all see in the photos of Jesus, right? No, Jesus didn't have a halo. Oh, it was his beautiful blue shining eyes.

It's kind of interesting he was Jewish, but anyway, what was it? Well, his face was glowing. I mean, Jesus, his face glowed everywhere he walked. It just glowed.

No, it didn't. The things that we attribute to Jesus, obviously if he had halos or if his face was glowing or if he was floating six inches off the ground, it had been kind of easy to figure out there was something different about this man. So what was it that was piquing Pilate's curiosity? It was his peace. It was his peace as he said, you know what?

My army is not of this world. Pilate was amazed. And among the Romans and among the Greeks, there were stories, there were fables, if you will, about God's liturgy coming to earth as men. And so Pilate wondered, could this be?

Could this be? Is it true is really what he was asking? And look, Jesus gave him no answer. I find that interesting. You know, when people came up to Jesus and asked him legitimate questions, he answered. When they really wanted to know the answer, he answered them. But when they didn't, he didn't. That's interesting.

And I think, again, it's a role model for us. You can find all kinds of people who want to argue. While I'll have heated, passionate discussions sometimes, if I get the sense that somebody just wants to argue, I'm not gonna argue with them. All they're trying to do is convince me of what they believe. Be very careful as Jehovah's Witnesses or some people come knocking at your door of having a man in discussion, the Lord. No, if God leads you to do it, do it. But understand, they're there for a purpose of evangelizing you.

And a lot of times, it's just not very productive. In that discussion with the Muslim, I ended up ending the discussion. And he said, hey, can we talk some more later?

I said, no, you need to make some decisions. Because he was like, oh, I love talking about religion. I love talking about theology. I like talking about Jesus. And you have to make a decision about Jesus.

So Jesus doesn't give him an answer. Verse 10, then Pilate said to him, are you not speaking to me? Do you not know that I have power to crucify you and power to release you? Wow. Notice something. Jesus has already spoken truth to him.

Are you the king of the Jews? And he said, you said it. But Jesus is unwilling to reveal deeper truth to him.

I think there's a concept. There's a spiritual truth there. Rarely does God reveal deeper biblical truth to somebody when they are neglecting or rejecting the truth that he's already given them. He doesn't take them to a deeper truth when they've thought, ah, understand that. If you're making application of God's truth in your life, what he'll do is continue to speak deeper and deeper truth to you.

But if you're rejecting what he's already speaking to you, or you're not acting out what he's already spoken to you about, he won't give you deeper and deeper truth. If you're here this morning and you don't feel like the Lord has spoken to you in a while, go back to the last thing he said and begin to apply that and act on that. And let me promise you, God will speak to you again. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned, and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things.

Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name, amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at P.O. Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. You know, the Bible tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But it does cost for us to come and bring that message to you and to others in your neighborhood through radio, through the internet, and through the mobile technologies that God has gifted us to be able to use. So if you'd like to support this ministry, please go to crossthebridge.com, click on the donate button, and ask God how much he would have you give, either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's word continues to go out through Cross the Bridge.

Thank you so much. Well, D.A., before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God, with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Those are terrific, and it's easy and it's free. So folks, sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.