John chapter 19 is our text for today. And just wanted to clarify that we've concluded our series on heaven. I hope that was an encouragement for many. I know a number of you have told me you're doing further study on your own. If you want to talk to me, I have several resources that have been extremely helpful to me in meditating on the subject of heaven. I hope that that can kind of continue to bask for us and that we can continue to consider our destiny beyond this world that is the North Star for the Christian. But now we come back to the book of John and we studied our way just a portion through John 19. We did the first 16 verses. So we're coming back today, kind of jumping in at a very emotional moment in Jesus' ministry, and that is at his crucifixion. But I decided we're just going to jump right back in. I hope you can pick up and remember where we left off before, but we are going to now fairly quickly I'll be covering the remainder of John here. And so I want to come back here and would remind you that John is wanting us to know some data that's not included in some of the other Gospels. And so one of the debates is over who is this man that's hanging on the cross? And then also, he, along with all the other gospel writers, do record that they cast dice for his clothing. They said, don't tear it, let's cast lots to see who has it. And so literally while Jesus is dying on the cross, there they are shaking their dice and casting them on the ground. in fulfillment of biblical prophecy. And then I think the emotional highlight of this passage is we're now even in his moment of death, Jesus is focused on those that he loves, namely here upon his mother. And we see some very, just a few words uttered by a man in agony, but nonetheless caring for his mother. So let's read John chapter 19, We'll begin at verse 17 and we'll read down through verse 27. So hear the word of the Lord, probably taking place between nine and 10 a.m. on this Friday of Jesus' crucifixion. Hear the word of the Lord. So they took Jesus and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of a skull. which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him and with him two others, one on either side and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this inscription for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. And it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, do not write the king of the Jews, but rather, this man said, I am king of the Jews. Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written. When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier, also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. So they said to one another, let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be. This was to fulfill the scripture which says, And now we're quoting here from Psalm 22 that we just sang. They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. So the soldiers did these things. But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, woman, behold your son. Then he said to the disciple, behold your mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home. This is the word of the Lord. Well, I want to ask you a fairly odd question today. When was the last time you stood under a sign that was about you? When was the last time you stood under a sign that was about you? I'm not talking about you stood under a sign that said men's restroom or women's restroom. I'm not asking you about an entrance or an exit sign. I'm asking about a place where you had to decide something about who you are and then go stand under the sign that says that about you. I remember this vividly when I was returning from Pakistan. It was actually a very emotional moment in my life. I'd been away from home for weeks and had made the first flight back to Abu Dhabi and was walking through the Abu Dhabi airport, and there was this long line of all brown-skinned people who were in the line, and I think the sign said, nationals. And then there was this other line, there were other lines as well, but there was this other line that said Americans. And there was nobody in the line. And so I walked by all the other people, and I walked with pride, kind of my hand over my heart, but also with gratefulness that I'm just about actually back to America. And one more flight. And I remember thinking, wow, that's me. Well, Jesus, there's so many things that are going on in the relatively brief time that he's on the cross. But one of the things is that there was actually a sign put over his head. And in fact, the content of that sign became a political issue that day. So we're talking about the sign of Jesus, that is, his death on the cross. But we're also talking more deeply about the identity of that man on the cross. We return today to our journey through John's Gospel. There's just two and a half chapters left. We're going to go through those, as I say, fairly quickly. But today we come right to the cross, to the inscription of the crucifixion. There was much turmoil that day, as there is today over the identity of the man crucified. Is he a human son? Look at what it says. It says in verse 26, right at the end, Woman, behold your son. Is that true? Do you believe that's true? Or is Jesus the promised Lord? of Psalm 22, which is quoted here as, this is being fulfilled in the person of Jesus. Who do you say that Jesus is? There are numerous answers to the most important question you will ever face. Some of you, I know, have wrestled through the answers to this question, who do people say that I am? Some of you will wrestle through that question. I want to look at this passage today in three parts. So the first is, I want you to look from the perspective of the Jewish priests. Point number one, the contention of the Jewish priests. I want you to see that even as Jesus is hanging on the cross, There is either a whole bunch of running on the part of the chief priests, I think more likely through messengers is probably how this dialogue took place. Pilate had already decided, I am going to put a sign. I'm the procurator of Israel. I'm in charge here. I'm going to put a sign over Jesus' head. And so again, I imagine the cross being erected with Jesus on it, probably. And then somebody comes up, there's a whispered conversation, and somebody has to go find a stepladder. And they set the ladder up against the cross, and now they bang this nail into the cross where Jesus is hanging on. different kinds of nails, and now there's this sign over Jesus' head. I've included in your bulletin today an imaginary, this is not based on any absolute certainty, but an imaginary picture of what this sign might have looked like. At the top, you'll see Hebrew. There are some translations that translate the word in verse 17 as Hebrew. I think Aramaic is better. That is, it's another language using the Hebrew script. And so, the top line there is Aramaic. And the middle line then is Latin, Iesus Nazarenes Rex Iudaeorum. And then the bottom line is Greek. All three of these are saying the same thing. Jesus of Nazareth, or the bottom one says Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews. And again, some have definite articles, some don't. There's ambiguities as you move between languages. But I want you to see that Pilate has now taken to himself the privilege of identifying Jesus. And the priests say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And again, I imagine them turning around in horror, thinking through, oh wait, Pilate has just identified Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth. I imagine some people say, hey, do you know where Nazareth is? Nazareth is not a big deal, but Jesus had made Nazareth a pretty big deal. Jesus, the Nazarene. Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Wait a minute, they had just said back in the early part of this chapter, we have no king but Caesar. Which is it? Do you see the irony here? John is building tension by putting these two seeming contradictions side by side. So the contention of the Jewish priests is that the inscription is factually incorrect. The word translated by the way here, inscription, in verse 19, Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross, is the Greek word titlos, from which we get our word title. So the title to your house, or the title to your car. It is this kind of identifying notice. This is you. It could be translated notice as a public explanation for a person's death. There was some way that the Roman authorities wanted to say publicly for anyone who walks by, this is why this person is being executed. But the problem was the title identified Jesus as King of the Jews. And there were two people, it's interesting, two people who noticed this in particular. I want you to notice in verse 21, the chief priests. Now notice it doesn't say the high priest. That's because there's actually a conflict going on at the time, who is the high priest? Because the Romans wanted to keep changing who was high priest, and so they said, well, it's Caiaphas who, or sorry, no, it's Annas who is high priest. They want to keep changing. I'm sorry, I said that backwards. The Romans want to keep changing the high priest so he doesn't accumulate too much power. So they regarded Caiaphas as the high priest. But faithful Jews, who understood that the only way that a high priest left office was to die according to God's law, still regarded Annas as the high priest. And so he's not referring to the high priest, but to the chief priests, that is, Annas and Caiaphas of the Jews. They probably, through a messenger, send a letter to Pilate. Sir, don't write the king of the Jews. Write, this man said I am the king of the Jews. He is being executed because he had a wrong opinion about himself. Do you see the difference? In fact, Annas had seven sons. They were all high priests at one time or another. Caiaphas was the present high priest, but Annas was the shadow behind the curtain of priestly politics. But these men said, this sign needs to change. In fact, if you look once again at the sign at the bottom of the bulletin, I want you to see that, and again, probably some of you can make out some of the words, but all three of these in their language are missing one key word. But it's implied in what is said there, Jesus of Nazareth, comma, King of the Jews. What is the implied word? Take out the comma and put in a word. Jesus of Nazareth is the King of the Jews. Do you see the problem? The problem is that the sign is actually making an identification that is the whole point of the Jews getting him crucified in the first place. He says he's the king of the Jews, but he's not the king of the Jews. We have no king. We are Romans. That's what they said earlier in chapter 19. And so the contention is Not that God is our king, or that Christ is our king, the Messiah is our king, but that Caesar is our king. We're gonna come back to them in a little while. But this message gets sent, please don't write the king of the Jews, but rather this man said I'm the king of the Jews. And Pilate quickly turns the messenger around with a message back to the chief priests. Now, I don't know for sure where these chief priests are. We know that at least at one point they were out at the cross site. Now, again, I think I have an idea in my own mind about how far those were apart, not very far apart, probably a five minute run. So it's not a grand distance. But now here, the messenger comes huffing and puffing back to the chief priests, and they open the little slip of paper and Pilate answers, what I have written, I have written. What was Pilate saying here? Well, point number two, the contempt of the Roman Pilate. I think that this second portion of our text today contains Pilate's answer, and I think that in a very underhanded way, Pilate is showing contempt. It's as though he's saying, well, I asked him if he's a king, And he said, for this reason I was born to bear witness to the truth. He says he's your king. You all are killing him. You don't even know who your king is. You all are a bunch of Jews. In quotation marks, this is Pilate being a racist. Friends, this is not a new problem. I want you to notice though, I already said what I'm going to say. He's your king and you killed him. Pilate is not a believer at this point, but Pilate is rubbing it in the faces of the chief priests. Pilate can say whatever he wants to say. Because he has soldiers. Because he has the official stamp of authority. Because he is feared throughout the nation. He is the prince of this region of the earth. And he can make true, quote unquote, whatever he wants to make true. This is actually getting interesting. Do you see how the Jews are reducing the sign to a matter of opinion? This is relativism. And now, here's Pilate saying, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh. It is whatever I say it is. Friends, this is nothing new. There are people who enforce in society, there's only opinions. I say, absolutely. And I say, so is that your opinion or not? And then we'll enforce that. And there are people who say it is because I declare it to be so. These are the authoritarians, those who would try to force their understanding of reality on everyone else, regardless of the truth. But I want you to notice that there's a third kind of person here at the cross on this day. Well, before we go there, let me just point out. So, what I have written, I have written. And now, in verse 23, we have the soldiers. We have these soldiers. who are there at the command of Pilate. These are the Roman soldiers. And even as Jesus' life is ebbing from his body, here they are worrying about who gets what part of his clothes. They divided it into four parts. I don't know what those four parts were. But finally they came to his tunic. This is like, basically would be like the equivalent of an undershirt. And it was one piece, and they said, don't tear it, let's throw dice to see whose it will be. Little knowing that that selfish activity under the cross of throwing those dice in the dust are fulfilling the great prophecy about the Messiah in the Psalter, Psalm 22. says the soldiers did these things. But now, point number three, there is this third group standing at the foot of the cross. They have no power, but because of the revelation of God, they have a more fulsome understanding, although not a complete understanding of what's going on. Point number three is the conviction of the Christian participants. Now I think there were numerous others there, but I want you to notice that John identifies three in particular. In verse 26 he identifies, oh, and I was there, the disciple whom Jesus loved. This is yet another time when he identifies himself in this way. It's interesting that the three that are here are all named Mary. So first we have Jesus' mother, we know her name is Mary, and his mother's sister, and then we think that the name that comes after that is the name of the sister, Mary the wife of Clopas. Notice in the ESV it's spelled C-L-O-P-A-S. There's a name that's almost identical to this in Luke 24, 18, Cleopas, C-L-E, and the E is the only word, the only letter that's different. This is one of the name of one of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. And so it's possible that that man that was on the road to Emmaus, we only know one name, is the husband of Mary's sister, Mary. So there were two girls, and by the way, this is common in the East, even today, there were two girls named Mary in their family growing up. And then we also have Mary Magdalene. These are followers of Jesus who have now come to the cross and are standing there with courage. Now we do learn toward the end that Jesus is speaking to John who is also there, but there are three women unaccompanied at first. We don't know of those who are accompanying them. to a place of execution surrounded by these big and probably very bad men. But they're there as eyewitnesses. They're there in faithful loyalty to Christ, even in the face of his death. Then, Jesus speaks. Notice He doesn't say very much. But these are words coming out of His agony. As in the moments before His death as a firstborn son. He is showing ethical integrity about the well-being of His mother. There's not much He can do. But I think probably gesturing with his head, he says, woman, behold your son. Now, who's the son here? Well, is he saying, look at me, mom? I think what he's saying is, look at him. He's going to be your son, your firstborn son who cares for you now. Speaking of John. And then he says to the disciple, behold your mother. And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. Friends, I want us to see the courage and remember and applaud the courage of those who have followed Christ in the generations before us. I don't think we do a very good job remembering our history. I think we need to turn and remember the faith of our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents. In an age of individualism, it is vital that we remember the rock from which we were hewn. Where have we come from? What kind of stock are we? We need to remember The traditions of those who have gone before us. What were the things that were most important and valuable? We need to remember that we stand at the foot of the cross as those who are empty with nothing to offer to God except the sacrifice of Christ. I've been pondering the phrase recently, you are saved by works, but not your own. Jesus fulfills the covenant of works on behalf of those who are His. The shepherd has laid down his life for the sheep. The question that we have to wrestle with is, are we his sheep? If we are, then the blood covers over all of our sins. But if we're not, Jesus says, many will say, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform miracles? And I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." Notice that these people who think they're Christians are not being counted in Christ. What are they being counted in? Their works. You workers of lawlessness. They're breakers of the commandments. We need to see and we need to remember that at the bottom of the pile, at the heart of Christian conviction, is that Jesus alone is able to save sinners from sovereign wrath. Let me say that again. Jesus alone is able to save sinners from sovereign wrath. There's numerous parts of that statement that rub us as Americans the wrong way, alone. Well, I want to have options. I'm the customer. Give me options. I don't want one way to do it, but Jesus alone is able to save sinners. That's identifying us from sovereign. Well, we don't have sovereigns. We have democratic representation. from sovereign wrath." Oh, there's the word. The righteous wrath of God is due to sinners. Do you see how, in a sense, the three Marys and John had nowhere else to go? They had finally found the Lamb of God who takes away their sins. They had come and been persuaded that you are the Christ of God. You are the Savior of the world. They lived like the nations do today under this burden and weight of sin. Now, it used to be that people would say, well, God's law doesn't really apply to us. That's the old way that people dealt with this. You know the new way people deal with this? God doesn't exist. If God doesn't exist, then I don't have to deal with the problem of sin. Because God makes the problem of sin. Well, we all know in our consciences that we fall short of God's glory. God has commanded us to love, and we love ourselves. God has commanded us to be servants of all, and what do we do? Well, that's not my job. I'm looking out for number one. Friends, we need to see here that the gospel that Jesus had preached in His ministry had brought these Christian participants to wait at the cross. By the way, It would be these three women who were involved in preparing Jesus' body. Who would go home and then early, early on Sunday morning would come back to the tomb. Some of these women are specifically mentioned as being those there who had gone to the tomb. In fact, it was Mary Magdalene, we'll learn in chapter 20, who then stays behind and becomes the first eyewitness to the resurrected Christ. So let's pull this together here. First of all, Jesus, in the moments of his death, is still concerned about Christian ethics. In the moments before his death, he's concerned about the physical well-being of his mother. We need to see the noble place of women in the Christian tradition. that women are here of their own volition, they're standing for themselves, they're having courage in the face of bad men surrounding them. We need to see that Scripture is being fulfilled in real time at the foot of the cross. We need to see that even ignorant and violent men are bringing the will of God to pass He has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. God's purposes are being fulfilled in the world, not just at the macro level, but at the micro level. But above all, I want to return to this issue of the signs. The sign that is hanging over Jesus' head. I have a vision in my mind, it's humorous, but remember the bachelor. I remember when they have all the handsome young men standing there and they get referred to by their sign. At one point, they actually had signs over their heads. Well, bachelor number one. And then the girl gets to ask bachelor number one questions and bachelor number two questions. Well, here's Jesus. This sign has been placed over his head. And people are reacting in different ways. The Jews, and here's maybe some application, the chief priests of this chapter represent for us the moral relativist. The moral relativist has no care about what is true. This is often associated with politics. How much money do you think the Republican candidate for president is spending on communications these days? I can't get on YouTube without communications coming my way. Well, I've worked in the realm of communications. Communications isn't concerned about what's true, it's concerned about what people's opinions are. Have you been called for an opinion poll recently? Friends, we need to be aware that our society is progressively moving away from truth to the absolute that there are only opinions. The Pharisees aren't asking, is Jesus Lord? They're saying, well, no, no, no, no. He said He's the King of the Jews. In Pilate, the procurator of Judea, we see the pragmatist. This is another temptation. Don't worry about integrity, just worry about outcomes. It doesn't matter how you do something, it only matters that you do it. Pilate was a racist. His attitude is, well, he probably is your king, but if he's your king, he's dead. Survival of the fittest. We've put down another revolution. Might makes right. And friends, this is also a message that is gaining a lot of traction in our culture. It doesn't matter how we get an outcome. It matters that we get an outcome. My outcome. There's a ruthlessness to Darwinism that terrifies me. And that if we as a nation turn from God, we will become more and more heartless and ruthless and violent. That's Pilate's world. Claw your way to the top. There's a lot of that going on these days. But finally, we have the believers here. They're not powerful. They're not influential. They can't change opinion. But they know it's true. The three Marys, Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary the wife of Clopas, Mary of Magdala. They show courage. They show quiet conviction, even in the face of their master's death. They do not have all the answers or the explanations. But they will in time. For God's delight, friends, is to honor The prayers and the faith of His people. God honors His saints in time. First comes our humiliation. Then comes our exaltation. First we're on the outside. Someday we're going to be on the inside. So let's return to the two questions. from the introduction today. Is Jesus a human son? Jesus says, mother, behold your son. The answer is, of course he is. Mary is his biological and human mother because Jesus is a true human being born without sin of his true human mother. But second of all, Jesus is also Lord or Master, He is the One that was promised in the amazing passage of Psalm 22. Jesus is the Savior and the King of Israel. He is the One who, like David before Him, would suffer. But unlike David, would suffer without sin, and would hang on the cross not for his own sin, but for the sins of another. If I could give you an assignment today, I want to challenge you to read in one sitting Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22. Do it with a pen and underline or highlight or maybe write out these two texts and think word by word through them and see Christ as the one who is the fulfillment of these wondrous promises from the Old Testament. Friends, it's so fascinating to see a sign over Jesus' head in all the languages of the world, at least in that part of the Roman Empire. In Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. Announcing the identity of the one who was on the cross. But isn't it amazing? He didn't stay dead. Pilate thought he had him. I wonder what the implications were after the resurrection on Pilate's career. By the way, let me just say, there's lots of speculation about that. There are fake old documents out there. We know nothing about the end of Pilate's life. Don't listen to what you hear on YouTube. I did a search on this. And there's some really crazy stuff out there. None of it's real. But just follow and listen and ponder that question. Pilot thought got him. This revolution is over. And friends, that revolution is still going strong today. Let's pray. Oh Lord, There's no place for pride or self-sufficiency at the foot of the cross. How we thank You for coming into this world and showing us in Your own body the consequences of sin. Lord, He became sin for us. And the faithful had to stand there and look. And Lord, thank You that it was Your wrath against sin that was on display that day, indeed was exhausted upon Christ. That He willingly took this role of being the Redeemer of those whom You had chosen. Lord, there is no more wrath for believers. Because Jesus of Nazareth is the King of the Jews, and of the Gentiles, and of all those who will put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Oh Father, we thank you that it's because of Jesus that you are truly our Father. And that it's in our union with Christ that we are adopted into your family and become sons and daughters of the triune God. O Lord, show us your power. Show us the desperate need that exists in human hearts to be connected with the eternal. Lord, we are not the Creator. We will never be the Creator. But Lord, it is such a simple thing to be connected to the Creator. He is the Creator. He is the Father. He is the Glorious One. And we are His creatures. We are low. We are dependent. We wait for Him. Lord, our hope is eternal. Thank You that what is given to us in the Gospel can never be taken away. That, Lord, truth is true all the way down. And we pray that You would help us to live as those who are connected to God. Lord, as Christians, as Americans, as Reformed Presbyterians, it's so easy for us to live as though you don't matter. Lord, that you're not the author of history, the author of mathematics, the author of logic and language. Oh Lord, we pray that you would help us to turn our heads and see Christ at the cross. to see the hope of the world, as that hope was apparently dashed, and then He rose again, never to die again. Oh Lord, we pray that You would help us to see that right here in this passage we have the views of the relativist, we have the views of the pragmatist, and Lord, we have the faith of believers. Lord, thank you for giving us your Word. Thank you that it meets us where we are. And Lord, we pray that you would transform us by the power of your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your Word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, if you would, in closing, turn with me to a psalm, I know a familiar psalm for us, but one that nonetheless shocks us. Psalm 22, selection E. We sang C just a few minutes ago. This is Christ's humiliation upon the cross. A, B, and C are all in that dark place. D, we sang this earlier, this is now Christ proclaiming the gospel to us, but the E selection is the one that's now turning our eyes to the nations. Remember God had promised, through you Abraham and your family, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. And this is where now this psalm kicks into hyperdrive. This is where now suddenly we're not looking down into the tomb, but now we're looking out to those around us. The Lord owns the kingdom. He rules above all earthly thrones. And look at stanza 14. A seed will rise to do His will. This is the word offspring in the ESV. This is speaking of Christ, but it's also speaking of all true Israel, who in their union with Christ are now made new. And they will rise to do His will. And so notice all the nations. Look at verse 31. The generations that are yet to come will declare His righteousness to people who don't even exist yet. He has done this. And then this last phrase, I want to remind you, it was He. This can be translated, it is finished. And this may be, this is the last phrase of the Psalm in Hebrew, and it may well be that in John 19 verse 30, which we'll be coming to next week, it was this phrase that Jesus is quoting. Let's stand and we'll sing in closing, Psalm 22E.