Good morning. John 19, verses 1 through 11. We're going to begin turning there. Page 905 in the Pew Bible. There's a lot of kids. It's a good thing. It's good to be back with you. I missed you all last week. hate that I missed International Sunday, but it was good to be able to help out the saints at Linbrook Baptist Church. Pastor Keith asked me to preach there on John chapter 1 as he is beginning his ministry there, going through Mark's gospel, just like we did here. So he wanted John 1 to complement what he's doing in Mark 1. And it was helpful for me to go back and be reminded some of the beginning of this book that we have been in since this very week three years ago. And as Keith had me preaching on John 138, I opened last Sunday with Christ's question there, the same question I want to open with again today, as there's no way you remember this from three years ago. Anyways, I want you to be considering as we go today Christ's first words in John's gospel. First words matter. What are the first words out of Christ's mouth in John? What are you seeking? What are you seeking? Why are you here? What are you living for? What are you looking for? Christ's question there comes right on the tails of John the Witness crying out twice, behold the Lamb of God. Well, fast forward three years later for Jesus, and three years later for us, and 18 chapters later for John, and we come to the title of our sermon today and our focus, Behold the man. Who is this man that we are again called to behold? And what is emphasized about this man in this text in which we are called to behold him? The Bible that almost the whole church used for hundreds of years in Europe was the Latin translation of the Bible, referred to as the Vulgate. And the Latin Vulgate famously translates this phrase in our text, Homo, E-C-C-E, Eche Homo, behold the man. There are a number of classical paintings of this scene that take that name. It sadly even became an internet meme a few years ago. There was an amateur artist in the north of Spain who botched an attempt to restore an Eche Homo, a fresco of Jesus. And they botched it so bad that it became this running joke. You can go and look it up. But I want to consider with you this morning an even more tragic use of this phrase. Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher. Few people have read him. Few people understand him. I am not an expert. But he is one of the most important thinkers and architects of our current cultural insanity. And we're talking about him because the last work that he wrote before he famously lost his mind was an autobiography And he titled it, Ece Homo. Behold. the man. And it's Nietzsche's own take on his life and on his work. And so there's all kinds of disagreement over his philosophy and what exactly he means at times. And that's in part because it's not clear. He's not a very good writer. It's not very clear what he means sometimes. But this work, at least, toward the end of his life and his impending insanity, tells us what he thinks about himself, the man, Nietzsche. Behold the man. Behold me. Nietzsche says, when you behold him, the coolest thing about Nietzsche, the only good thing, he had this, it's no shave November, sorry, I look a little bit unkempt, it's beard season, but he had this massive, majestic mustache, which was really, really impressive. It was the best thing about the guy. Go look up a picture. of Nietzsche, but behold Nietzsche. What does he want you to behold about himself? Well, because I love you, I read the book for you last week to spare you from ever having to, but listen at least to a few of his chapter titles. This is his book about his life. Chapter one, why I am so wise. Chapter two, why I am so clever. Chapter three, why I write such excellent books. And so on, it goes. Some have tried to argue that Nietzsche's writing ironically. No, he's not. The translator who wrote the preface to the edition that I read disagrees. He says, no, Nietzsche was truly great, he argues, and it's only these silly notions of modesty and humility that Christianity has infected us with that makes us uncomfortable with these claims and these title chapters. Behold the man, Nietzsche, in all his greatness and glory. Ece homo. We're gonna come back to him. As we behold the man, Jesus, in all his suffering and shame. Christ is obviously the center of this story. We also have soldiers, we have Pilate, we have the Jewish religious authorities. And as this whole thing revolves around Christ, so this whole thing revolves around authority. The climax of the scene is going to be verses 10 and 11. And pilots claim to have authority versus Christ's claim to have authority. We have before us here competing claims of authority. Who's in charge? Who's really in control here? And listen, all cards on the table. This is one of those sermons that I'm already frustrated with, even before I begin, because I know that I'm not going to be able to adequately communicate to you how important this is. The significance of the question of authority cannot be overemphasized. Everything. comes down to authority. You are always dealing with the question of authority. You are always acting out of some sort of authority, assuming some sort of authority in your life. Authority is everything. It's the question at the center of our text. It's the question at the center of Nietzsche's writings. It's the question at the center of our culture. It's the question at the center of your life. It's the question at the center of your eternity. We're talking about authority today. When we are called to behold the man, we are being called to behold the authority over everything. And yet, what do we see when we behold him in John chapter 19? Point number one. First, we behold the man's suffering and shame. But any look at this man, the Christ, inevitably results at a look at ourselves. And so point number two, we're going to see and behold man's sin and powerlessness. As we focus in point two, not on the man, Christ, but on man in general. through the lens of Pilate and the Jewish authorities and ourselves. And that will then lead us back to close with point number three, behold the man's sovereignty and authority. Behold the man. What are you seeking? Who is your authority? Who really is in control? Let's read our text, John chapter 19, verses 1 through 11. Please pay attention. This is what God, the authority over all, wants to say to you today. Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him saying, hail, king of the Jews, and struck him with their hands. 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. So Jesus came out. wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, behold, the man. 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. 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. When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. 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? 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. Let's stop there. Let's begin first with a word of prayer. Father, God, King, Sovereign Lord, you are the authority over all. Father, we are the rejecters of the authority over all. We are sinful self-sovereigns seeking to claim that authority for ourselves, pursuing autonomy at the expense of your authority. Father, we have done everything we could possibly do to cast off your authority. And there is no greater sin, and there is no greater offense and injustice. Father, we have just read what you are doing about that sin, what you have done in Christ to solve our sin problem. Father, these are grand and glorious things that we have before us here as we behold the man, Jesus Christ. Father, I am not up to this task. Father, we can't accomplish anything apart from you. And so we ask that you would please help the preaching and the hearing of your word. Father, by your Spirit, take this word that is living and active and apply it to our hearts. Father, open our eyes to see Jesus Christ. Open our eyes to see how little we look to Jesus Christ and how much we look to ourselves. Father, please help us to see where we are seeking to live as our own authority. And Father, help us to see you as the true authority, the right authority, but the good and gracious and kind authority over us. Father, please, please, please help us in this time in Jesus' name. Amen. Point number one, behold the man's suffering and shame. Then our passage begins. What comes before the then? Well, last time we took a little detour at 1836 where Christ says, my kingdom is not of this world. Remember, the theme of this whole section, 18 and 19, is this otherworldly king and his otherworldly kingdom. And so we took a little time to consider what is called the doctrine of the two kingdoms or two kingdom theology. Why is that so important to understand? Because Christ says that his kingdom is not of this world, and yet we know that the whole point of this section is that Christ is a king. So in 1837, Pilate says, so you are a king. And Jesus affirms and does not deny that he is a king, as we're about to see the soldiers mockingly confirm. But he's not just a king. John is a very purposeful, intentional writer. He is clear. And he is writing to make it clear who this Jesus is. And that is the question. Everything hinges on the question whether or not this man is who he claims to be. And just so there's no risk of mistaking him, John writes in his very first verse, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. That is John's argument. This Jesus is God. And who is God? He's the king. Overall, Psalm 1016, the Lord is king forever and ever. Psalm 47.6, sing praises to God, sing praises to our king, for God is the king of all the earth, sing praises. Why is God the king of all the earth? Isaiah 37.16, oh Lord of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone of all the kingdoms of the earth, you have made heaven and earth. So remember, God is king of all because God is creator of all. In John 1, 3, all things were made through the word, the Christ, the Son of God. And so Christ is king of all because Christ is creator of all. This, this is Christ, the king. over all, sovereign over all, authority over all. But there is some way in which this Christ, who is king over all, can also say that his kingdom is not of this world. So we saw that he must be referring there to something else, something other than just creation in general, or the kingdoms of this world in general. He's setting up a different kind of kingdom, because he is a different kind of king. And that is evident in verses one through three. Jesus has been betrayed by Judas, abandoned by his disciples, denied by Peter, tried by the Jews, and condemned to die for blasphemy, claiming to be God. This charge, we know, won't probably stick with the Romans. And so the Jews bring Jesus to Pilate and the Roman authority representing Caesar the king, and they accuse Jesus of claiming to be a king. This was the focus of the first dialogue between Pilate and Christ. 1833, are you the king of the Jews? He can't have two kings. Caesar does not like contenders and challengers to his throne, kings do not like Competition, kings kill competition. And so the Jewish leaders shrewdly use this to try and get Christ killed. Pilate's not dumb. He is a shrewd political manipulator and operator. He knows what's going on. Three times in our text, we read in 1838, 1904, and 1906, Pilate say, I find no guilt in him. He's just tried to get Christ released in 1838, but the people chose Barabbas instead. Substitution. Jesus is going to die in Barabbas's place and mine. But in our passage, Pilate is still trying to get Christ released, though it may not look like it at first. Verse one. Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. Brutal. Roman flogging was famously brutal and often fatal. But we need to be careful here, though, because the text doesn't give us a lot of specifics. And actually, if you're going to really step back and maybe step aside from how this is often preached and presented, if you really step back and pay attention, I want you to notice that the text doesn't pay all that much attention to Christ's physical suffering. I will probably provocatively tackle this more in a few weeks when we get to the crucifixion itself. But all that we're told in this text, briefly and matter-of-factly with no description. Verse 1, they flogged him. Verse 2, crown of thorns. Verse 3, they struck him. 17, he bore his own cross. 18, they crucified him. That's it. Now, of course, the reality of all this was horrible and terrible and painful, but I think it's noteworthy that the scriptures do not do what we tend to do today, which is to give great attention to the physical suffering, giving graphic and detailed descriptions of it. And listen, that's not always wrong. We'll talk some about physical crucifixion when we get there, but it's really not the point. Countless, thousands of people suffered the same, or worse, physically, at the hands of the brutal Romans. It's sort of like signs in John, how John uses them. The physical suffering is not the point, but it points us to the point. The physical suffering is not unique in itself, but the spiritual suffering never has one suffered like this Christ. This is kind of a side note, this is why movies like The Passion or TV shows like The Chosen are not only unhelpful, but are probably harmful. First of all, this is not meant to be entertainment. And so when it is kind of packaged and repurposed and presented as entertainment, that's a problem. But the main problem besides the second commandment is that they cannot communicate what's really going on here in the spiritual suffering of Christ. He is an otherworldly king of an otherworldly kingdom. We called it the spiritual kingdom last time. What must be done for spiritual sinners like you and like me to have access into this dawning spiritual perfect kingdom? Something must be done about the sin. And that's what Christ the King is doing in his dying. He is being made to be sin. He is taking on the full weight of the just wrath of the righteous God for all the sins of all his people. That is suffering the likes of which we cannot imagine. And that is what is really going on here. More on that in a moment. But don't forget the significance of the spiritual, of which the physical is just a sign. But the physical is terrible enough itself. Go back to verse 1. Pilate has Jesus flogged. In Luke 23.16, Pilate says, I will therefore punish him and release him. But then Luke actually doesn't record the flogging at all. Interesting that Luke, the doctor, talks the least about the suffering and the physical aspects of the crucifixion. Matthew and Mark both report not a flogging, but they use a different word that's translated in our Bibles as a scourging. And they report that it seems that they're reporting that it happened after. Pilate pronounced his final judgment. I'm not 100% sure on all this, but it seems that Jesus was actually beaten twice. And the Romans had three levels of floggings. I'm just trying to impress you here. It's the fustigatio, the flagalatio, and the werberatio, just Latin words. There's three increasing levels of torture. It was the last, the werberatio, that we often hear about with the heads of whips containing the bits of bone and metal, and it would catch into the flesh, and it would tear the flesh, exposing the organs. And it was often fatal. It seems that Christ received that before he was crucified, which would hasten the death on the cross. But here in 1901, it seems that Christ is receiving the first, the less severe whipping that was used for relatively minor offenses. Why? because Pilate is still trying to find a way to release Jesus, a cruel and cowardly way. But nonetheless, in his mind, he's trying to come up with some way to appease the Jews and still have nothing to do with that righteous man, as his wife encouraged him. So look at verse 4. Here's why this seems like this is happening. He's not trying to kill him yet. Verse 4. So Pilate went out to them again and said to them, see, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him. So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, behold the man. Now it's impossible to know for sure how to take Pilate's words there, but it's hard not to read them as if just kind of dripping with irony and sarcasm. Behold the man? Verse 14, behold your king, this, this is Christ the king. Look at him, he's pitiful, he's pathetic. Look at this stupid crown and this stupid robe on this beaten and brutalized little man. This is a king and this is what Nietzsche despised about Christ and about Christianity. This central moment for the central figure of our faith, weakness. Reading Ece Homo this week was actually hard. I've read few things so evidently and unapologetically prideful and arrogant and boasting, and at the same time, so evidently and unapologetically dripping with contempt and hatred for Christ and his church. Nietzsche writes in this book, everything detrimental poisonous and slanderous and all deadly hostility to life was bound together in one horrible unit in him. He argues that Christian morality is the most malignant form of all falsehood, that which has corrupted mankind. And elsewhere he writes, I call Christianity the one great curse, the one great intrinsic depravity. I call it the one immortal blemish, upon the human race. Why? Because of Romans 19, because of John 19. Because of this, because of the suffering and shame, the weakness and the humility of the founder, of the God of our faith. For Nietzsche, this goes against nature itself. This goes against power itself. You've probably heard of his will to power. For Nietzsche, the driving force in man was this will to power, which seems to be his belief that it's simply the right and the power of man to define and to determine and to assert himself. And so for Nietzsche, this Christ is contemptible. this caricature of a king. Not just a caricature of a king, but a caricature of what man is and is supposed to be. Behold the man's suffering and shame. We have got to recover the scandal of this, the shock of this. No one was expecting this. No one was looking for this. No one could have made this up. You do not create a religion that you're gonna try to draw followers to with verse five. with the founder and God of your faith beaten and mockingly put on display. So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe for all to see. What a shameful spectacle. What a horrible humiliation. Isaiah 52, 14, as many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind. Behold the man, the man, John 1, 18, that we have been arguing for three years, the man who makes God known. This man, verse five, makes God known. What? How? This makes no sense unless there is some reason for this. a serious, sober, significant reason. Point number two, behold man's sin and powerlessness. Guys, let me be clear, we're moving here from the man to man in general, from the Christ to the other actors in our story, the soldiers, the pilot, the Jewish authorities, and us in them. Let's begin at the end. Look at the second half of verse 11. Jesus speaking to Pilate says, therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. Now, we're just not entirely sure who Jesus is talking about there. Who is the he that delivered Jesus over to Pilate? Some think he's talking about Judas. That seems unlikely. Judas entirely disappears after 1805. He's not a major player in all this. Some think it's Satan. doesn't seem to fit the context. Most think that it's Caiaphas, the high priest, or I like the idea of it being Annas, the member of the father-in-law who's the high priest behind the throne, the real power of the position. Not entirely sure. I think the simplest answer is that Jesus is either talking about the high priest or more likely he's talking about the Jews in general. But let's be careful and let's remember, remember this. In John's gospel, Jews is not so much an ethnic designation referring to the people in general. We've seen this a few times. John generally uses this term, this title, to refer to the Jewish religious authorities, to the leaders of the Jews. So look at verse 6. When the chief priest and the officers, the leaders saw him, they cried out, crucify him, crucify him. Look at verse 7. The Jews answered him. Those are the same thing. The chief priest and the officers, the Jews. These are the Jewish authorities. So there's no way to argue from this that John is somehow anti-Semitically arguing that Pilate and the Romans aren't responsible and it's all the Jews' fault. No, that's tragically been done, but it's not what the text says. John is a Jew writing about the Jewish Messiah to Jews and Gentiles to encourage them to believe in him live. The blame is rightfully placed on the religious authorities and Pilate, but here's what we cannot miss. The blame is rightly placed on us as well. Notice that what Jesus calls their doings, he calls them sins. Notice also that he says that there are greater sins, which implies that there are also lesser sins. There are degrees of sin If you are debating between punching me and murdering me, please choose punching me, right? Both are bad, but the punching is not quite so bad as the murdering. There are obviously degrees of sin, but all sin, the greatest and the least, separates us from the perfect God of life. All sin, the wages is death, and that's why we're here. That's why Christ is here, because of your sin and mine. 1 Peter 3.18, Christ suffered four sins. 1 Peter 2.24, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. This is the gospel. This is the good news. 1 Corinthians 15.3, For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins. That's the only thing that makes sense of this scene. Sin. And sin is all over this scene. Their sin and ours. Quickly, let's start with the soldiers. Go back to verse two. Let's see the sentence. And I have no evidence for any of this, but it at least seems somewhat likely that these are some of the same soldiers that we saw back in 1806. Remember when Jesus says, I am? And they drew back and they fell to the ground. Roman soldiers, an army. There's been some sort of revelation of the identity and the glory of Christ, and these hardened killers are knocked flat. Well, here they are again. Who's going to be knocked flat this time? Verse two, and the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. Verse three, they came up to him saying, hail king of the Jews, and struck him with their hands. Man, it's hard to read. Brutality and cruelty. Cruelty is the craft of cowards. It's not hard. There's no risk in mocking and beating a chained and already flogged man. When you see cruelty, you know you have a coward there. But again, I want to draw attention to how little John draws attention to the pain of all this. What I want you to see is that John is drawing attention to the shame of all this. We've seen multiple times that Christ the King is in full control here. We're about to see it again. But if that's the case, and if the wages of sin is death, then why all this? Why does he submit himself to this? All the mocking and humiliation and shame, and not just the death. It's because he's dying for sin, and sin is shameful. Sin is shame. We've almost completely lost the concept of shame. in the church today. Shame has become a swear word. But this is a critically important biblical truth. What is the first sin mentioned? What's the first result? No, what's the first result mentioned after the fall and sin in Genesis 3? We read in 225, and the man and the wife were both naked and were not ashamed. There's the sin. 310, the man says to God, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. Sin, fear, and shame. Those are the first two things that result from sin, fear and shame. He was afraid of the holy God he had known and loved because he knew that in his sin he was now guilty and filthy. We so focus only on the guilt sometimes, and we miss the filth and the uncleanness. That's the shame. Shame is the awareness of our wrongness, our uncleanness, and our separation from the holiness and the one who is life as a result. We don't just sin, we are sinners. And in taking on our sin, He also must take on our shame. Jesus in my place, Jesus in my shameful place. Do you know the shame of sin? Calvin writes, only those who have learned well to be earnestly dissatisfied with themselves and to be confounded with shame at their wretchedness truly understand the Christian gospel. And we see that shame here clearly in the shameful treatment of Christ at the hands of the soldiers, a shameful treatment that he willingly submits himself to because of our shameful sin. Now, what about the religious authorities? We'll spend some more time with them next week, but you get a pretty good sense of them in verse six and their cry, crucify him, crucify him. In the Greek, there's no pronoun. It's just a cruel chant, crucify, crucify. Pilate again tries to pawn off Christ. Look at their response in verse 7. We have a law, and according to that law, he ought to die because he has made himself the son of God. And what's their sin ultimately? We talked about the pride. Well, here, it's unbelief. They understand Christ's claims. They understand that he's claiming to be God. They just do not believe him. They hate him. because he is a threat to them. He is a threat to their privilege, position, and power. He's a threat to their authority. That's where we're going. One more, Pilot. We'll consider them more next time. Let's go to Pilot. We've asked the question, who's in control? If anyone is in control here, it seems to be Pilot, but he's obviously not. Pilot is powerless. Pilate is stuck. He knows that Jesus is innocent. He knows that the Jews are just jealously trying to get rid of him. He's tried twice to get Jesus released. Pilate is not in control at all. Pilate is afraid. Look at verse 8. When Pilate heard this statement, that Jesus made himself the Son of God, Pilate was even more afraid. So he was afraid. Now he's even more afraid. Why? Because Pilate's a pagan. Pilate is a superstitious pagan, and they had no problem believing in many gods. And lots of those gods would go, and they'd sleep around, and there'd be sons of gods and these powerful other figures. He's already been warned about this man by his wife. Now he's hearing something about this guy claiming to be a god. He definitely doesn't want to mess with a god or a son of a god. That's why he asks Jesus in verse 9 where he's from, but Jesus gave no answer. And that's how we finally get to the real crux of the matter. Man is sin. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no not one. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, and dead doesn't do. Just like Pilate, the dead are powerless to do anything about their sin and their death problem. The soldiers are sinners. The religious authorities are sinners. Pilate is a sinner. You are a sinner. I am a sinner. Who really is in control? Who really is the authority? Point number three, behold the man's sovereignty and authority. And that's the main idea of the text. Here's the main idea. The man of suffering and shame is also the man of sovereignty and authority, which is the only hope for man in his sin and powerlessness. Look at verse 10. Here it is. This feels like a frustrated, angry outburst. 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. Stop there. Authority. It's the main idea. What is it? Why is it so important? If you are following along in the King James, it translates Pilate's words as, knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee. That's not the best translation. Power and authority are, of course, closely connected, but they're not the same thing. playing off of an old famous G.K. Chesterton quote. If a rhinoceros were to come into this room right now, there's no denying that he would have great power here, that he's a rhino. You should run. You should get out of the way. He's more powerful than you. He's going to be flipping over some pews. But as Chesterton says, but I would be the first to rise and assure the rhinoceros that he had no authority here whatsoever. It's just this hilarious, dry, wonderful British wit that he had. You see his point, right? A rhino would have great power in here, but it doesn't have any authority in here. He's a rhino. This is a church. What's a rhino doing in a church? He has no right to be in this place, and that's authority. You can think of it simply as the difference of might versus right. Do you know that I have authority pilot says. The Greek word is exousia, and it's a really neat word. I don't think it's been given enough attention, and I'm not Greek intelligent enough to sort it all out, but it's literally, it's the prefix out of or from, that's just the X, and ousia is just a form of the verb to be, or I am. So it's the power or the right that comes out of being or out of existence, or think of an author, An author creates something out of himself. And he has authority over that something. Remember, author assumes authority. That's exousia. It's right power or authority rooted in identity. It's X and the same root word for I am. Remember, that's the identity that Christ keeps claiming over and over again, seven times. I am. something, light, door, vine. Ultimately, I am life. And then there's the eighth, I am period. And he's just done this twice more in the last chapter. I am, all of it building off of God's self-revelation in Exodus 3 as I am who I am. Yahweh, he is, I am. He's the Lord. He's the king. as the only one who is. The only one who is, it's called, it's a-se, is from himself. We are dependent creatures. He's independent. We can't grasp this, but he's somehow independent of anything and everything else. And thus, anything and everything else is dependent on him. And thus, he has all authority over it all. He's sovereign. That's a king. word, a ruling, reigning word. He is author and authority. And authority is not just might. It is the right to exercise that might. And as God, he has the right to command us, to tell us what we should and should not do, should and should not be. And we have the responsibility to hear and obey. That's authority. It's simply the right or the ability to control or command, to do and decide. It's the ability to do what one desires. Authority means that God is free in every respect to do what he desires, which means that you are not. Authority answers the question, says who? And it's not you. And it's impossible to overemphasize how fundamental this question is. This is arguably the first and fundamental question. Who's in charge? Who gets to decide? Who gets to determine what is right and wrong, good and bad? Who are you required to listen to and obey? The authority question is the most important question, and it's the most important question because God, the authority, the creator king of all, has sovereign rights and authority over all, and he has created us to live under authority, and he calls us to live under his authority. We are all of us under authority, whether we know it or not. And the authority that we realize and recognize and submit to determines the eternal destiny of our souls, determines everything. But we've talked about this. There are few things that more characterizes our culture than a hatred and a rejection of all external authority. And that is subtly, or not so subtly, creeping into our churches. And so we need to be aware of this. And we need to work hard to see and maintain and teach the goodness of godly and biblical authority, rooted in God's authority, because everything ultimately comes down to authority. As we're seeking to better understand and appreciate the true nature of sin, we've just seen man is sin. Man's problem is sin. You solve every other problem for someone, and you don't solve the sin problem, what have you ultimately done for them? So what is this sin? Well, listen, when talking about authority, it's helpful to think of and emphasize sin as autonomy. Autonomy is just two Greek words shoved together, self, law, that's autonomy, self and law. Listen, we hate authority because we love autonomy. Sin is fundamentally the casting off of God's authority. Sin is the assertion of the self as the only one and ultimate authority. Sin is autonomy. It's self-law. And the rejection of God's law and the wages of such sin is death. The just penalty of such sin is death. And that's why we're here. That's why Christ has come. That's why the author and authority himself, the sovereign one, is submitting himself to such suffering and shame. That's why Jesus says to Pilate in verse 11, you would have no authority over me at all unless it was given to you from above. Yeah, so yeah, Pilate does have some authority, but it is a given, delegated authority. That makes it a subservient authority. Pilate thinks the only authority that he's under is Caesar's, the king. Yeah, Caesar's the most powerful man in the world, with the most authority in the whole world. But Christ corrects him. There is an ultimate authority. Romans 13, one, there is no authority except from God, who is the authority. And Christ, who is God, is the authority over Pilate, with all power and authority, in perfect control, sovereign over all, even as he stands there beaten and humiliated before Pilate, moments away from his death. And this is how the God of all authority uses his authority. Christ, the King, came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. For us, this is an authority that you would be wise to submit to. This is an authority that would be at the height of foolishness to reject. Authority is everything. He is the authority. See what he's doing with it here. Now, two points of application, and I'll be done. Here's your first point of application. Simple. Pay attention to authority. Pay attention to authority. I want you to be considering this week, asking yourself, whose authority am I under? Or better yet, what does my thinking, feeling, and doing reveal about whose authority I really believe that I'm under? And there are ultimately only two answers. We considered Nietzsche at the beginning, and at the middle, let's consider him at the end. Everyone argues about how to interpret and understand him. because he's complicated, but he tells us in his last book, he tells us in his Ece Homo, and the very last line of the book makes it very clear. He writes on the last page, he sets it apart, he gives it its own section, section nine, his last thing, it's only seven words in the English, he boils his whole system of thought down to three words. And he writes on his last page, his last line, before he goes crazy, basically. He says, have you understood me? Dionysus versus Christ. That's Nietzsche's philosophy. Dionysus versus Christ. Or some translations go with Dionysus versus the crucified one. What does that mean? Nietzsche writes at the beginning of the book, I have given my fellow man the greatest gift that has ever been bestowed on them. Again, quite a claim. What gift? The book. It's his book called Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Don't waste your time. What's it about? Well, arguably, the big idea is the revelation that God is dead and the solution, which is Superman, not the comic book character, the ubermensch in German. It's maybe better translated overman in English in light of the DC character. This overman, according to Nietzsche, will transcend the limits of humanity, and he will overturn all morality. That's what Nietzsche declared himself the first immoralist, right? He's trying to overturn all morality, all systems of authority outside of the self. And that's why he boils everything down to Dionysus versus Christ. Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, fertility, festivity, ironically, even ecstasy and insanity. That is, the god of casting off all else, all external restraint, all external authority, and the unabandoned assertion of the self as authority and identity. Nietzsche's whole philosophy was nothing more than an absolute affirmation of autonomy. And you don't need to read Nietzsche, you don't need to waste your time, but you need to understand that's the very heart and soul of the culture in which we live. The absolute affirmation of self and autonomy. Who's really in control? And who's really the authority in your life? Who gets the last word? The final say, who declares what is good? Who directs where you're going? It's either you or it's God, that's it. It's either autonomy or his authority. It's either death or it's life. And again, I'm here and I'm frustrated because I know I'm failing to communicate how important this is. Probably too much Nietzsche. But, listen, you're constantly confronted with this question, constantly. Who is the authority? Every temptation, every struggle with sin, every doubt, every time you're grumpy, every time you're rude, Every decision with which you are faced is a question of authority. Who is in control? Who gets to decide and declare? Says who? When God tells me, rejoice in the Lord always. When he tells me, love one another. Hey, love all these difficult people out here. And you have to love me as well. When he describes 1 Corinthians 13, love is patient and kind, not arrogant or rude, not irritable, not irritable. when he tells me to count others more significant than myself, and to look not only to my own interests, but also to the interests of others, when he tells me to show perfect courtesy toward all people. He's the authority in every situation always, and he is always present, and he is always good, and I am always faced with the decision, am I going to submit to his good word, to and about me his good law, and listen and obey? Am I going to combat my grumpiness with the gladness that comes from grace? Am I going to fight my selfishness with the goodness of focusing on others? Am I going to resist sinful pleasure by trusting that there is more pleasure and joy to be found in Christ than I can find anywhere else? Pay attention to authority. It's everything. You are always operating under some authority, and it's self or God. Parents, me, you have been entrusted with the single most valuable thing in the whole world, the immortal soul of your child. That child, I hope you know this, comes into this world as a sinner, just like the rest of us. They come as sinful self-sovereigns seeking to assert their autonomy and their authority. That's what they're doing every time they pitch a fit. It's an assertion of autonomy. It's an assertion of authority. Listen, again, you give them what they want when they pitch the fit, you're affirming their autonomy and you're affirming their authority. Do not give them what they want when they pitch a fit. Discipline them when they pitch a fit. Parents, your children desperately need you to teach and train them that there is already an authority in this world and that they are not it. Love them and discipline them. Teach them to honor God and to keep his word by teaching them to honor you and to keep your word. You are the authority in their life, sovereignly placed there by the authority to teach them about authority, to train them to submit to his good and gracious authority. For it is there only that your children will find life. These stakes are too high to abdicate. our authority role. The stakes are too high to give our children over to be shaped by the world and by screens, which will only teach them to hate authority and to cast it off and to assert themselves. Parents, parent your children. Children, my children, honor your father and mother. It gets a whole commandment. It's pretty significant. Number five, children obey your parents. They may not even be that great of parents. I'm not, but you're stuck with us. And we're trying, and hopefully your parents are trying too. God gave them to you, and God tells you to love them, and to listen to them, and to obey them, and it will be good for you. Everything God tells us to do is good and for our good. So children, honor God by honoring your parents. Obey God by obeying your parents. Again, two points of application, pay attention to authority. Second, obviously, pay attention to the authority. And that's the whole point, is behold the man. That's what faith is. It's beholding Christ. This is what the Christian life is all about. We sometimes miss the most simple, basic thing. It's about Christ. It's about the incomparable Christ. It's about the all-glorious Christ, the man who is also God, the man of suffering and shame, who is also the man of sovereignty and authority. There is no one else like this. He is the treasure hidden in the field. He is the jewel in the gem. He is the good, the true, and the beautiful. He says again and again and again, I am life, and I came that you may have life and have it abundantly. How? I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Pay more attention to the authority, Jesus Christ, than you have. Think more on Christ. Think long and think deep. on Christ. Give more of your attention and pray that as you do so, more of your affection will be given to Christ. He and he alone is where you will find what you are looking for. Submit to his good and gracious and saving authority. Oh, taste and see the Lord, that the Christ is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Behold the man. Behold the God man. Behold your King and authority, Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, help us to behold the wondrous mystery. Help us to behold Christ, our King, in suffering and shame, dying on the cross for us, for our sin, that we might live. Father, this is it. This is the most important thing. Father, help us to care most about the most important thing. Father, my prayer is simply that you would help us to behold the man. Give us eyes to see Christ. Give us eyes to love him. Father, show us our sin. Show us how prone and where we are prone to continue to seek our own authority and to assert our own authority. Father, forgive us, help us, help us to kill that sin. and help us to see the good and gracious authority of it is Christ. And help us to love him and submit ourselves to him and find great rest and peace and joy in him. We ask this in Jesus name, amen.