Sermon Tone Analysis

John 19:1-30

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen Caswell © 2005

The Worst Sin

 

/What is the worst sin?

Is it destroying the life and body by drinking?

Is it prostitution?

Is it adultery?

Is it homosexuality?

Could it be murder?

Could it be drug abuse/?

God can forgive all these sins.

*/However, there is one sin, the worst of all sins: rejecting God’s love./*

Some may not be guilty of the sins listed above, but they are guilty of rejecting God’s love.

— Croft Pentz

 

Today is Good Friday.

Mankind has set this day aside to remember Christ’s death.

We remember the tremendous sacrifice made to purchase our salvation.

*John 3:16:* /tells us that God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life./

*/The Lord Jesus Christ is God’s best gift to mankind.

Yet tragically the world rejected Him./* /They rejected Christ and put Him to death on a cruel cross./

This morning we will reflect briefly on 3 things they rejected about Christ.

*/1.

They Rejected the Son of Man. 2. They Rejected the Son of God. 3.

They Rejected the King of the Jews.

/*

 

1.

They Rejected the Son of Man

 

/a.

The Pharisees & Priests/

 

*John 18:29-30:* /Pilate then went out to them and said, *What accusation do you bring against this* *Man?*

They answered and said to him, if He were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him up to you./

 

*/The religious leaders rejected the Son of Man./* Pilate called Jesus Christ the */Man./*

/Sadly, the religious leaders rejected His perfect life./

They made up some charges against Jesus and took Him to Pilate.

/They wanted Him to be put to death; No they demanded it./

*/What were the charges brought against Him?/*

They told Pilate that Jesus was an */evil doer.

/*This word,*/ /**κακοποιός**, *means,*/ to be a criminal, an injurious person, to be /**/evil, injurious or dangerous/**/.

/*/What evil had Jesus done?/ None.

The religious leaders rejected the Son of Man for exposing their sin.

Let’s review Christ’s life on earth.

The Religious Leaders heard Him speak to the people because He openly taught God’s Word.

Christ pleaded with the people to repent and believe in Him.

Although Jesus always spoke the truth many people hated Him because of it.

The religious leaders saw how the Son of Man came to serve.

Jesus cared for the poor and the sick.

He provided wine at a wedding so the bride and groom wouldn’t be embarrassed.

He fed 5,000 men along with their wives and children.

He had compassion, seeing people as sheep without a shepherd.

He wept with Mary and Martha when Lazarus died.

Christ understands our weaknesses.

He was often tired, weary and hungry.

He walked among us.

*John 1:14:* /And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth./

He set free those possessed by evil spirits.

He ate with tax collectors and saved some of them.

Jesus forgave the immorality of an adulteresses.

The Pharisees saw all of this.

Yet, they said that He was the friend of sinners.

/The Son of Man was the only perfect human that has ever lived./

*/He lived as a man so that He could save us and be a compassionate and merciful High Priest./*

/He lived as a man to save us! /Yet the religious leaders rejected Christ for healing the sick on the Sabbath Day.

They rejected Him for being merciful to sinners.

Christ incurred their wrath by cleansing the temple.

The religious leaders rejected the Son of Man because He exposed their sin.

*/ /*

*John 1:10-11; 3:19-20:* /He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.

*He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.* *And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.*

For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed./

/b.

Pontius Pilate/

/ /

*John 19:4-6a:* /Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him.

Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe.

And Pilate saith unto them, *Behold the man!*

When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him.

/

/ /

Pontius Pilate examined Jesus Christ and found Him without fault; none of the charges  against Him were true. 3 Times in John’s Gospel, /Pilate said that he found no fault in Jesus Christ.

/He realized that the Jews wanted an innocent man to death.

*Matthew 27:17-19:* /Therefore, when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ? *For he knew that they had handed Him over because of envy.*

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

/ /

Pilate sought to release Christ a number of times.

I am sure that Pilate had heard of Christ’s miracles and teaching.

Certainly King Herod had.

The other Gospels tell us that Pilate informed the religious leaders of Herod’s and his own judgment; Christ was a just man.

But the religious leaders stirred up the crowd to call for Christ’s death.

They yelled out crucify Him until eventually Pilate consented.

Before doing this he washed His hands of the matter.

Pilate sought to remove his own guilt for killing an innocent man.

A Unique Trial

 

They brought Him before the judge, They pressed for sentence of death

He voiced no plea of innocence, … And He was condemned to die.

Was He really guilty?

Or was He, mistakenly condemned?

The judge proclaimed Him innocent.

Yet the judge sentenced Him to death.

Found free of guilt, He yet died under judicial sentence.

Not a transgressor Himself, He was numbered with transgressors.

*Acts 3:13-15a:* /The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go.

But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life.

/

/ /

*/The religious leaders rejected Jesus Christ as the Son of Man/*/.

They called His good life evil and released a murderer instead.

*What hypocrisy and injustice took place that Day.*/

* *

2. They Rejected the Son of God

 

*John 19:6b-8:*/Pilate said to them, you take Him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him.

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.*