Secret Disciples, John 19:38-42

We live in a society today when death is portrayed in movies and television with all sorts of blood and gore and people are unmoved by it.  But on the other hand, in reality, in our day to day lives, we go to great lengths to avoid seeing death.  If the average person even saw a steer killed and butchered they would probably be so sickened that they would swear off meat forever.  

We have an unrealistic perception of death, and perhaps because of that, we have an unrealistic perception of life.  Even in the death of a loved one, it is rare that we really see much of the person as they die, or after they are dead, but rather doctors and nurses and morticians whisk the body away as soon as possible and what we end up seeing eventually at the funeral doesn’t even look real anymore. 

It must have been a tremendously shocking thing to witness the crucifixion of Jesus.  The savagery of it is something that is hard for us to fathom.  The suffering is something that would not be tolerated today even in the execution of the worst criminals.  The Romans view of a merciful hurrying of the death of the victims was to break their legs so that they ended up suffocating due to the pain required to push their chest up enough to breath.

Christ, as we saw last week, gave up His life before the suffering or the soldiers finally took it from Him.  But that doesn’t mean He didn’t suffer immensely. Not only did He suffer in His flesh, but He suffered shame that only a righteous God could suffer.  To be holy and innocent of all sin and yet be stripped naked and condemned by your countrymen to death, and then have your mother and a few friends watch you in your agony is beyond our comprehension.  But to have the wrath of God upon you as you take on the weight of the sins of the world is even more incomprehensible for our finite minds.

We are not given all the details of Christ’s crucifixion.  Even if we piece together the four gospels there are still gaps in what God has given us.  John says that there were many other things that he could have included, but that these were given that we might believe that Jesus was the Son of God and that believing we might have life in His name.

So as we come to this last section, the burial of Christ, it is important that we understand the full significance which John intends for us to gather from  this passage.  And I think that one of the main things that John wants to illustrate for us in the end of this chapter and the next chapter is the various responses of the disciples to the crucifixion and the resurrection.  There are many different responses that are presented in chapter 19 and 20. And I think that John illustrates these various responses in order to show that salvation is an individual response to the gospel.  Salvation did not come to all men simply through the cross of Christ, but salvation comes through man’s faith in what Christ did on the cross.  Salvation requires more than a head knowledge, or an intellectual assent to the facts, but it requires a response of faith to the cross for it to be efficacious.

To become saved is to not only be justified by faith in what Christ has done for us, but to be saved is to become a disciple.  To follow Christ, to follow His teachings, to be led by Him in all walks of our life.  Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, “Go into the world and make disciples of all the nations…teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.”  Discipleship then is the goal of evangelism. Not just to make converts, but disciples. Not just to have people raise their hand or repeat a prayer and then they have been saved from hell, but to have people become transformed into the image of Christ. 

Now in this last section of chapter 19, we see two men, who are called secret disciples.  I think that is somewhat of an oxymoron.  But if we give them the benefit of the doubt, let’s say that they had come to a saving knowledge of Christ, but that faith had not become public, and therefore not transformative.  I’m not sure such a thing is possible, but God knows the heart, not I, and He knows what are the intentions of the heart even before we act on them.  So if John, under the influence of the Holy Spirit calls them disciples, then maybe they have been saved prior to the cross.  However, I will remind you that in John 6, after Jesus said “my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink,” it goes on to say in vs66 that after this “many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.”  So there is a sense in which you could be considered a disciple of Christ but not be saved and turn and walk away from the Lord.  Not that you can lose your salvation, but that you never had it.  You were considered a disciple because you were in the group, but you never truly believed unto salvation.

And I think that this is indicative of many in the church today.  They have a head knowledge of Christ, they are following to a degree, holding on loosely so to speak to the things of God, but in times of difficulty they will expose their true nature; they will turn away and stop following.  They will turn to something more palatable to their mind.  Something not as demanding.  And so we have churches filled with people who move from group to group, from church to church, always avoiding the rigors and demands of true discipleship.

So Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were secret disciples up to this point.  Whether they had truly been saved or not we don’t know, but we do know that as they came face to face with the crucifixion of Christ they came all the way into discipleship. At the cross of Christ they faced the true nature of Christianity, and they choose to identify and  suffer with Christ.

Now who were Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus?  Well, I’m sure most of you are familiar with Nicodemus.  We met him in the third chapter, he came to see Jesus at night. And we are told there that he was a ruler, that means a member of the Sanhedrin.  Jesus calls him a teacher.  John also calls him a Pharisee.  That means that he believed in the afterlife, and he practiced the law to the nth degree. In that famous discourse in chapter 3, Jesus told him that he needed to be born again of the Spirit. And so we can assume that message resonated with Nicodemus, and eventually produced saving faith. 

There is one other note about Nicodemus in chapter 7, around vs 50, we see Nicodemus coming to the defense of Christ that He should be given a fair hearing before they judged Him.  And in that passage, the Pharisees rebuked him for that defense.  So at that point there is an indication of the Spirit at work in him, but he has not yet come forward completely as a disciple.

The other man we know less about.  Mark tells us that Joseph of Arimathea was a prominent member of the Sanhedrin as well. Matthew says he was a rich man. And Mark also adds that he was waiting for the kingdom of God. That means he was looking for the Messiah. Some traditions say that Joseph and Nicodemus were actually brothers.  They both were rich men, they both were members of the Sanhedrin. They both were very prominent in Jewish religion and society.

And because of those things, they had a lot to lose for becoming disciples of Christ.  John says that Joseph was a disciple, but secretly for fear of the Jews.  He doesn’t mean just the Jewish people at large necessarily, but the Jewish leaders, the ruling party.  There were 70 men that were part of the Sanhedrin.  And there were undoubtedly thousands of Pharisees.  These were the leaders of the community, and these two men were considered the most prominent of the leaders. And so to come out publicly as Christ’s disciples meant the possible loss of their positions in society, their careers, and their wealth. So up to this point they hid their growing faith.

I think that it’s obvious God does not save us, He does not shine His light in us, that we might hide it under a basket. Jesus said in  Matt. 5:14, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”  So we are not saved to hide our discipleship, but to reflect the light of Christ.

The application to disciples today should be pretty obvious as well.  Christ died to save us not just to escape hell, but that we might shine His light through us to the world by looking like Christ, by acting like Christ.  That the world might see our good works, and bring glory to our Father in heaven.  

What stops us from doing that?  Well, it’s the same things that stopped Joseph and Nicodemus.  They feared the excommunication of the ruling party.  They feared what their community might say if they really stepped out and followed the Lord.  They were afraid they might lose their friends.  Lose their social standing in the community.  And I’m afraid that the same concerns keep many of us from truly following Christ today.  If we really gave Christ 100% it would cost us friendships or jobs or money or something that we hold dear.

You know, tradition says that these men did eventually lose all those things.  Not as much is known about Joseph, but there are traditions about Nicodemus that say that as a result of his coming forward to claim the body of Christ and becoming a true disciple that  he lost his position in the Sanhedrin, he lost his wealth, and one historian recounts one of his daughters being so destitute that she was seen picking grain from manure.

Jesus speaks of what it means to truly follow Him, to be a true disciple.  In Matt. 16:24

Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”  

So I think that Joseph and Nicodemus were at the cross. They would have had to have been there, to be able to respond so quickly to Jesus’s death that they were able to appeal to Pilate for His body and prepare His embalmment before nightfall and the Sabbath began.  It’s ironic, all His disciples save John had fled Him in the darkest hour.  And yet in the providence of God, these two fearful, secret disciples are the ones who are there to take Him to a tomb and prepare Him for burial.  

Somehow in the death of Christ, these men’s reservations fell away.  When they saw the way that He died, they must have come to the same conclusion that the Roman centurion did, saying, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”(Mark 15:39)  All their reservations fell away.  And in that moment, they realized that they had participated in some way in the crucifixion of the very Son of God. They knew that their sin had caused the death of God’s Son. And in light of that realization, they knew that their lives meant nothing if they were not sealed in Christ.

I can’t help but think that Nicodemus remembered what Christ had told him back in chapter 3:14, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.”  When He saw Jesus lifted up on the cross, I’m sure this statement came flooding back to him, and He realized not only the fulfillment of prophecy, but also realized that for the deathly sting of his sin to be removed, he had to look unto Christ as his Savior and Lord.  That instead of death from the serpent’s sting he might receive the eternal life that God promised to those who believe in Him.  And so I believe Nicodemus and Joseph came to complete discipleship when they saw Jesus hanging on that cross for their sins.

And that is where true discipleship starts for us as well.  When we consider the horror of our sins, when we consider the Son of God taking my penalty by His death, when we consider the shame and suffering that we deserved, placed upon Him who did not deserve it, then the least that I can do is to follow Him in forsaking my sin, being willing to give up my hold on this life, so that I might have real life, even eternal life through Him. 

So I think that Joseph and Nicodemus not only got a vision of the cross, but they considered the cost of discipleship in light of what Christ did for them, and they realized that whatever it cost them, He was worth it all. In Mark 15:43, it says Joseph went in before Pilate and gathered up his courage, and asked for the body of Jesus.  I think it took a lot of courage to do that.  Pilate had after all just condemned Jesus to death.  What prevented him from doing the same to Joseph for revealing he was Christ’s disciple?  

But it also took a lot of courage because it would have been known to all his colleagues in the Sanhedrin.  With this one bold act, he pretty much sounded the death knell on his career.  That kind of courage and commitment to Christ no matter how great the cost is what is required of disciples.   Jesus said in  Matt. 10:37, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.”  So to take up your cross means to count the cost, and consider as Paul said the things I once thought valuable in this life as nothing but rubbish for the sake of knowing Christ.  Phil. 3:8

“More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.”  

That kind of abandon in following Christ is illustrated in two sacrificial gifts that each man gave to the Lord in His death.  First of all, Joseph gave Jesus his own personal tomb.  If not for this act of love on the part of Joseph, Jesus’s body would have been dragged off to Gehana, a trash pile outside of town that was always burning.  It was a picture of hell that Jesus had often referred to.  But Isaiah 53:9 had prophesied that  “His grave was assigned with wicked men,Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.”  

John gives us some information about this tomb.  It was a tomb fit for a King.  He says that no body had ever been laid in it.  And he also mentions that this tomb was in a garden.  It’s interesting that when the first Adam sinned it was in a garden, and when the second Adam atoned for that sin, He is laid to rest in a garden.The fellowship that had been broken by sin in the first garden was restored by atonement in the second.  

So Joseph’s gift to Christ was fit for a King.  A new tomb, in a garden.  An extravagant gift to honor Christ as his King in death.  And of course God used this gift of Joseph to prove conclusively that the resurrection of Christ had taken place.  If Jesus’s burial had not been well known, there would not have been the numerous witnesses to His resurrection.

And then Nicodemus also gives an extravagant, sacrificial gift suitable for a king. John tells us that he brought a hundred pounds weight of spices, made from myrrh and aloes.  Myrrh was brought at the birth of Jesus as well, by the wise men, who noted that a King had been born and came to worship Him.  Now in Christ’s death, another wise man brought myrrh to honor the King.  A hundred pounds weight would have represented a fortune in perfume.  Much more than simply sprinkled in the folds of the shroud, it would have filled the tomb where Jesus’s body was laid.

And so I suggest that a true disciple is known by his extravagance, by sacrificial giving to honor God.  Material things are recognized as merely offerings we give back to God.  Whether it be our time, or treasure, we realize that no sacrifice is too great, when we consider the sacrifice He gave first for us.

When Joseph and Nicodemus stepped up to full discipleship, they claimed Christ’s body and boldly took on all the associations that came with that.  So we too as Christians  must  claim His body, His church, and embrace all the associations that come wth that.  All the stigma.  All the social rejection.  There is no cost too great for the sake of Him who suffered for me.  It requires stepping out of our comfort zone.  It requires fellowship in His suffering.  It requires sacrifice of time, money and resources for the sake of the Kingdom of God.  Being a true disciple requires that we lose our identity, and claim our identity with Christ.  And when we give up our hold on this life and follow Him completely in true discipleship, then we will know the real, abundant life that God promises to those who trust Him. 

I would ask you to consider your relationship to Christ this morning.  Are you living in effect as as secret disciple?  Are you trying to hold on to control of your life?  Are you holding onto things that are keeping you from fully committing to the Lord?  True discipleship demands our all, renouncing sin and clinging to the cross of Christ.  And when that kind of commitment has been made in our life, then it will be revealed in an extravagant love for Christ that considers anything that was once considered gain as loss for the sake of knowing Him.  I pray that today you see clearly what Christ did for you at the cross, and that you fully commit to take up your cross as well and follow Him.

Four vignettes in the crucifixion; John 19:23-37

For many Christians, the passion, or the events surrounding the crucifixion of Christ, are very familiar.  We’ve heard countless messages on the crucifixion and even possibly seen movies or plays depicting it.  Not to mention, there are four gospel accounts in the New Testament.  However, not all the gospels offer the exact same details.  One might include some things which others leave out.  In John’s gospel, he includes some details which others have not, but at the same time, he has left out some events that others included.  So the tendency among preachers and expositors is to fill in the blanks, so to speak, as if to make up for what John was lacking. 

Now in the case of the other gospel writers, Matthew, Mark and Luke, that could be considered an appropriate method of exposition, since you could make the case that those three writers were not actually in attendance.  However, that’s not the case with John.  He makes it clear that He was there.  He is the disciple whom Jesus loved mentioned in vs.26 and 35 who was there and witnessed himself the proceedings.

So then the question is, why did John include some things and not others?  Well, the answer is that John is not writing a biography, but a gospel.  He is telling and emphasizing certain events to present the gospel of Jesus Christ which leads to salvation.  That’s what he says in chapter 20:30, 31, “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”  

My dilemma then is to figure out exactly how to present this gospel message that John is endeavoring to give us.  And as I prayed and studied this text, I came to a very simple conclusion; John is presenting the fact that Jesus gave His life to accomplish salvation, not focusing on the morbid aspects of the crucifixion, but on the aspects which teach principles of Christ’s atonement for us.  So as someone said, Christ gave His life not to engender sentimentality but spirituality.  Not that we might be mortified by the physical torture and bloody gore of the crucifixion, but that it teach us the knowledge leading to salvation. As another writer said, Salvation is based on believing. Believing is based on truth. And truth is revealed in Scripture.  That believing we might have life in His name.

So then, we will examine this principle of Christ giving His life to accomplish salvation through four vignettes which John presents to us.  The first is He gave up His clothes, then He gave up His mother, then He gave up His Spirit, and finally He gave out water and blood.

Now, I also want to add at the beginning that John correlates some of these events with Old Testament prophesies, showing that they were fulfilled in Jesus’s crucifixion.  And I believe three of the references he mentions are found in Psalm 22, and one in Psalm 34.  And I just want to point out that the Psalms was written 1000 years before Christ.  There is absolute proof of that.  It is indisputable.  In fact, the enemies of Christ, the Jews, would have been very familiar with these Psalms. They probably did not consider these references as Messianic prophesies. So they would not have connived to correlate Christ’s crucifixion with the prophesies even if they had wanted to.  The Romans did what Roman soldiers did, irregardless of what the Jews wanted.  And those Jews would not have wanted to confirm Christ’s Messiahship. So these prophetic fulfillments are very important to John to point out, so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ.  And I don’t want to gloss over that.  But now let’s focus on the four vignettes of how Jesus gave His life to accomplish our salvation.

First. Jesus gave up His clothes.  We’ve all heard the phrase, “he didn’t own anything but the clothes on his back.”  Well, that was especially true of Jesus.  He had no possessions, no home, nothing of any value.  All that He had were the clothes on His back.  And we see in vs 23, that the soldiers took those clothes and divided them up between themselves.  When Jesus came down from heaven’s glory to earth, He came all the way down to the bottom to accomplish our salvation.  He let go of all His pride, all His clothes, becoming completely poor for us, so that we might become rich in Him.  He became naked, bearing all the shame which that brings.  It’s the same shame that Adam and Eve felt in the garden of Eden when they realized they were naked and hid from God.  Christ became naked for us, bearing the shame, the scoffing, the stares, so that He might be our substitute for sin.

2 Cor. 8:9 says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”  Now how does this incident illustrate that we became rich?  Because these four soldiers each received a part of His clothing.  There were no more vile sinners than these soldiers who stripped Jesus’s clothes from Him and nailed Him to a cross.  And yet we know that even as they did so, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  

What John pictures here is that the clothes of Christ were made available at the cross for the covering of sinners.  Just as God skinned animals to make clothing for Adam and Eve, so also He skinned Jesus to make clothing for you and me.  Isaiah 61:10 says, “For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness.” 

The hymn we sing, The Solid Rock, says, “dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.”  2 Cor. 5:21 says, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  There is no better picture of our sin situation than that we are naked and ashamed before God.  Christ took that upon Himself, that we might become clothed in His righteousness.

But John adds that there is another piece of clothing there, which was not divided, because it was made in one piece.  It was a tunic, worn under the outer clothing.  And I find two pictures in this; first it is the inner garment, signifying the spiritual. And secondly, it was without seams.  It’s not in part, it’s complete.  The Spirit of Christ is not given piecemeal.  Then thirdly, it is the garment of the High Priest, according to Exodus 28:31-31.    Christ as our High Priest is described in Romans 8:34 saying, “who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”

Now as we see this dividing of His clothing played out by the soldiers, it may seem that Jesus has no control over these events. Yet John informs us that the invisible hand of God guides all things, so that specific prophecy is specifically fulfilled.  The fact that it was foreordained indicates that Jesus gave His clothing willingly, even as He gave His life willingly.

The picture teaches us that we need to be clothed in His righteousness if we are to be saved. It is the means of our justification; Christ’s righteousness given to us in exchange for our sin. And when we are saved, then we receive the spiritual covering of  His Spirit, so that we might be like Christ. Then in response to Christ’s likeness we also are willing give up our possessions for the sake of the kingdom. Matthew 5:40 “If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also.” 45, “so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

Secondly, Christ gave up His mother.  I know that heading sounds awkward.  Maybe it would be more palatable to say, He gave up His family associations.  But all we have presented here is His mother.  There are indications from this text and others that Joseph was long dead and Jesus had, as the eldest son, taken on the responsibility of His mother and His brothers.  His brothers at this point had not believed in Him.  There is no evidence that they were there at the crucifixion.  In fact, all his disciples had fled except for John and these four women.  

Jesus would have been very aware of the pain that His crucifixion was causing to Mary. She was the only one out of His family that believed in Him.  And now as Simeon prophesied to her 33 years earlier,  a sword would pierce her soul.  I’m sure in His humanness, Jesus would have loved to have used His divine power to come down from the cross and spare His mother this grief.  But He was obedient even unto death to the will of the Father, knowing that in His death He would spare not only her soul, but millions more.

So John records here that Jesus gave up His mother, His family, and He gave over her care to John.  He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!”  Not only was Jesus concerned about her physical care, but He was emphasizing also the nature of family in the kingdom of God. There is a new family dimension in the Kingdom of God.  Our brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers are those in the kingdom. In Luke 8:21 Jesus said, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”

He not only gave up His earthly family, He gave up His friendships.  Note that John is always described as the one that He loved.  This attitude of Christ also must be our attitude. This principle of consecration to God is stated by Christ in  Matt. 10:37, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”

Thirdly, He gave up His Spirit.  Phil. 2:8 says, “And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Giving up His Spirit means first of all, that He gave up His life. That is a tremendous thing.  It was not an act of suicide.  His hands are nailed to a cross.  He can’t take His life by violence against Himself. But what He does is an act of divinity.  He gives up His life willingly, of His own volition. 

But before He acts in divinity, John shows His humanity.  Jesus became thirsty and asks for a drink.  So they give Him vinegar to drink.  He suffered as all mankind would suffer  the pangs of the cross.  His divinity did not prevent His suffering. As a man, He thirsted.  As God, He had the power over His life. 

He gave up His life, voluntarily. As Jesus said, “I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” (John 10:17-18)

The gospels record 7 statements or words of Jesus on the cross.  John only gives us three.  One was the statement to John and His mother.  The second was He was thirsty.  And now John records another statement that Jesus made as He gives up His Spirit.  He cries, “Tetelistai!” it is finished.  Tetelistai means it is complete, perfect.  His life on earth as a man was complete.  He lived from the first moment to the last, sinless, perfect.  By the death of His perfect life He paid in full the debt of mankind who could never live a perfect life.  And by dying, He paid the complete price which we owed; a life of perfection, righteousness, that God might place upon Him our sins as a substitute for the world.

1Peter 3:18 “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison.” Not only did He give up His life, but He surrendered up His Spirit to death, to the abode of the spirits.  Very little in scripture is given to us concerning the three days Christ spent in the grave.  But according to both Peter and Paul, though His body was in the tomb, His Spirit was alive in the abode of the dead. I don’t want to speculate where the Bible does not indicate, but I cannot help but wonder if there was not an element of the punishment He bore for sins which was accomplished in the Spirit while He was in Hades.  For it is certain, as the Apostle’s Creed confirms, that “He descended into Hell.”  Though we are not privy to all that means, one thing is certain, He went to Hell, that He might triumph over death and Hell, that we who have faith in Him might never experience it. 

The human body is spirit, soul and body.  Our spirit is the spiritual part of our being that is connected to God, which then rules over the mind and the body. That is what it means to be born again.  We must be born of the Spirit, if we are to be spiritual. And then we must give up our self rule to the rule of the Spirit if we are going to live as God would have us live, to be obedient to death, even as Christ.

Finally, the last vignette John presents for us is He gave up water and blood.  The soldiers, in order to hurry the death of the crucified, broke their legs, which would cause them to suffocate.  But coming to Jesus, these executioners realize that He is already dead.  So one took his spear and stabbed Him in the side, presumably to prove He was dead, and John tells us that blood and water comes out.  Now doctors have said that this clear liquid was from the pericardium surrounding the heart and partly coagulated blood.  That’s the physical explanation.  Other, more sentimental explanations have said it was a sign of a broken heart.  I’m not sure that such a thing has been established as physically possible.  But there is no doubt that there is a symbolic reference in the blood and water coming out of His side.  And perhaps it is best stated in the old hymn, Rock of Ages, which says, “Let the water and the blood, from thy wounded side which flowed, be of sin the double cure, save from death and make me pure.”  The blood therefore representing justification from sin, and the water being purification from sin. 

Matthew Henry, the great theologian said it like this; “The blood and water that flowed out, signified those two great benefits which all believers partake of through Christ, justification and sanctification; blood for atonement, water for purification. They both flow from the pierced side of our Redeemer. To Christ crucified we owe merit for our justification, and Spirit and grace for our sanctification.”

Therefore, we can say that He gave His life to save us not only from the penalty of sin, but the power of it.  As I have said numerous times, there are three phases in salvation.  All must be accomplished for salvation to be complete.  Justification is deliverance from the penalty of sin.  Sanctification is the deliverance from the power of sin.  And glorification is the deliverance from the presence of sin.  The last phase will not happen until the resurrection when we will be given a glorified body.  But all three phases are necessary in our salvation. 

John has given us these vignettes of salvation tucked into the greater story of the cross, so that we might get a better understanding of what Christ gave His life for.  Salvation must be more than just believing intellectually in Christ’s existence, otherwise everyone attending the crucifixion would have been saved that night.  But we know that is not the case.  Salvation is more than just some sort of superficial belief in the historicity of the events.  And I will add something else that you may find disconcerting; salvation is more than just what Christ did on the cross.  If salvation was accomplished for men by what Christ did on the cross, then all men have been saved.  There is no need to evangelize. Christ has done everything.  We do nothing.  Well, we must do something, we must believe.  But we must believe with saving faith. And faith is not merely intellectual, but it is also a matter of the will.   Romans  10:10 says, “with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”  Faith is a matter of both the intellect and the will. And in those two aspects of faith are couched justification and sanctification. So that James may rightly say, “show me your faith by your works. Faith without works is dead.”

Listen, the water and the blood streaming from the cross of Christ destroyed the enslavement to sin that the devil has held all of mankind in for all who believe.  The symbolism of the blood and the water is the crux of the gospel, it is powerful for the destruction of fortresses. And it provides complete salvation.  It is able to justify us, to deliver from the penalty of sin, but it is also powerful to sanctify us, to deliver us from the power of sin.  Sin no longer needs have dominion over us.  The truth will make us free when we embrace the whole truth of the gospel.  Let us take up our cross and follow Christ, dressed in His righteousness, our justification.  And being made free from the penalty of sin, let us live as free from the power of sin as we yield to the Spirit who lives in us and rules over our will. 

The apostasy of government, John 18:38-19:22

In the last few weeks we have been looking at the various aspects of apostasy.  Apostasy, as you know, is the act of turning away from the truth.  We started out examining the apostasy of the church in the example of the disciples at the arrest of Jesus.  Peter’s denial of Christ exemplified the apostasy of the church.

Then last week we looked at the apostasy of the world, particularly as evidenced by religion and politics.  The Jewish religious leaders under Annas exemplified apostate religion, and Pilate illustrated apostasy in politics.

Today we are going to look at one last example of apostasy, and that is the apostasy of government.  Government is a divinely appointed institution, which God uses for HIs purposes.  Romans 13:1 says, “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.”  However, even though God has established government, and has given it the authority to govern, we will see in this passage how as an institution it has turned away from the truth of God, or become apostate.

We might further define those three categories of apostasy as follows; Religion is man’s attempts to reach God; attempting to administer divine truth by mans methods. Politics is the art of compromise; attempting to manipulate truth to reach a consensus. And government is the rule of the people (the rule of law); attempting to enforce man’s truth through law.  In each case, truth is subservient to man and not vice versa, as God intended it.

Now as we go through this passage, we will see seven ways in which government has turned apostate.  As I have previously pointed out, Truth is on trial.  Jesus is the embodiment of divine truth.  And He is on trial for that truth which He represents on behalf of God.  

So in rebellion against the Truth, Jesus is arrested and put on trial.  And we see seven aspects of this apostasy on the part of the government which I have categorized as follows to help us see how this apostasy on the part of government is played out; they are exchanging the truth, mocking the truth, rejecting the truth, examining the truth, judging the truth, killing the truth, and rewriting the  truth.

First let’s consider exchanging the truth.  In chapter 18 Pilate declares, “what is truth?”  And ironically, Truth is standing right next to him, and yet he does not recognize it.  So Pilate does what people have done for centuries, what people do even today.  As the representative of government he offers the people a choice; man’s version of the truth versus God’s designation of the Truth.  He offers them either Christ or a man called Barabbas.  Now John tells us that Barabbas was a  robber.  He was a convicted criminal. And yet when faced with the choice of choosing a criminal or an innocent man, they chose the criminal.  So basically, they chose to exchange the truth for a lie.

Paul in his letter to the Romans, says the world is condemned because of that very thing.  He says in Rom.1:25, “For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.”  Paul isn’t just talking about pagan idolatry here, he is talking about serving the devil himself, the father of lies.  

I want to point out an interesting feature in the name Barabbas.  Barabbas means "son of a father”.  So we have here son of the father, Barabbas, and on the other hand Jesus whose name means Jehovah is Salvation who claims to be the Son of God the Father. So here is the choice that Israel is faced with. Will you release Barabbas, son of the father? Or shall I release to you Jesus, Jehovah is salvation, the Son of God the Father?  And of course we know that they chose the creature, rather than their Creator.  So given a choice by government, the people chose to exchange the truth for a lie.

But in this travesty of human justice, let us not miss the picture of divine justice presented for us here.  In God’s court of justice, mankind stands before God as Barrabas, guilty and condemned.  But God offers His Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place, so that we might go free. It is the divine principle of the just dying for the unjust, the innocent taking the place of punishment for the guilty pictured in the law as the innocent, spotless lamb slain for the sins of the people.  And this principle is stated succinctly in 2Cor. 5:21, “ [God] made [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Secondly, in it’s apostasy, government mocks the truth. As we look at the beginning of chapter 19, we see Jesus mocked by Pilate and his soldiers.  Pilate is almost obsessed with this concept of Jesus as King. Pilate of course is only a governor of Judea.  He would have to bow to a King. So when He asks Jesus in chapter 18 if He was a King, Jesus asserts that He is in fact a King, but not of this world. He is really saying “I am a King, but not of this government.” He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords reigning throughout the world spiritually.  But rather than that statement denouncing Christ’s authority, in reality it means that Pilate’s authority is subservient to Christ’s authority.  But perhaps Pilate fails to comprehend this principle in entirety, or perhaps he does comprehend it, but instead of bowing to Christ as Lord, he mocks Christ’s rule.

So Pilate takes a man who is innocent by his own admission, and has Him scourged.  John doesn’t give us the details of this scourging, but typically it was with a whip called a cat of nine tails, whose lashes were tipped with bits of glass or steel.  The law had limited the number of strokes to 39, because 40 were known to kill a person.  So they scourged Jesus, probably to within an inch of His life, though He was innocent of any wrong.  Pilate reveals how cruel and evil he is, being willing to scourge an innocent man for the sake of appeasing the Jews and perhaps satiating his own jealous hatred of anyone challenging his authority.

Their mockery though is even more revealed by the crown of thorns and the purple robe the soldiers placed on HIm, and then parading the bleeding, lacerated Christ before the mob pronouncing “Hail, King of the Jews!” and slapping Him in the face.

The mockery of apostasy as revealed in this example shows that it’s possible to espouse the truth and yet not really believe it. It’s possible to proclaim Jesus is Lord and yet live for the devil.  It’s possible that one’s actions can make a mockery of their professed faith in God.  2Peter 3:3 says, “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts.”  Truth is made a mockery by living in sin. Faith must be more than just lip service.  As James said, “show me your faith by your works.”

Thirdly, the apostasy of government rejects the truth. Vs.4, Pilate came out again and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.”

Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold, the Man!” So when the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out saying, “Crucify, crucify!” Pilate *said to them, “Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him.”

Pilate asserts again and again that Christ is guiltless of any crime.  Yet in spite of that, the Jews still reject Him.  This rejection of Christ really began a long time before this trial.  Jesus spoke of this rejection in a parable found in Luke 19:14, in which the citizens of the kingdom say, “We do not want this man to reign over us.”  Jesus was speaking allegorically of the citizens of Israel, who would reject God’s reign.  And as Christ prophesied in yet another parable, they would kill the Son in order to try to thwart God’s sovereignty over them.

Government either recognizes God’s rule over the world, and they are merely stewards of that responsibility given to them by God, or they have rejected God’s rule, in order to rule themselves according to their lusts.  And far too often in our society today, we see government capitulate to protests, to mob lust for blood, in spite of whether or not the placards and slogans of the crowds are true or not.  As Isaiah 59:14 says, “Truth has stumbled in the street, and uprightness cannot enter.”

And I would suggest that this is the crux of man’s rejection of salvation.  Man rejects the idea that Christ should rule over them. They may not dislike the idea of Christ dying in their place, but they reject the notion that they give up their right to self rule.  Most people reject salvation because they want to live their life by their standards, by their rules, and as such reject the rule of Christ as Lord of their life.

That brings us to the fourth aspect of apostasy in government, and that is the examination of the truth. When Pilate has said they should crucify Him themselves, they respond, “We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God.”  This accusation strikes fear into the heart of Pilate.  Pilate was more than willing to punish an innocent man who claimed a spiritual kingdom, but the thought that Christ was actually God in flesh concerned him greatly. 

So Pilate brings Christ out to the Praetorium, his private residence, in order to examine Him. In effect, Pilate had already examined Christ by scourging, a method used to soften up the criminal so that he would be ready to confess.  But at that point, Pilate had no charge to condemn Him with.  Now he has this assertion by the Jews that Christ had committed blasphemy by declaring Himself as the Son of God. 

But the Jews appeal to their law, probably referring to the law of Moses concerning blasphemy.  However, they do not examine Him according to truth.  Truth affirms that He is the Son of God.  He was foretold by the prophets, heralded by angels, acknowledged verbally by God in the heavens, transfigured before His disciples, and He had performed hundreds of miracles that could only be of God and which served to validate the truth of His teaching.  All of which, if they would have considered, would have eliminated the charge of blasphemy and caused them to fall on their knees in worship.  But they aren’t interested in the truth, only in finding fault.

For Pilate, however, the possibility that Christ was the Son of God was alarming, and he takes Jesus privately into his quarters and begins to question Him saying, “Where are you from?”  But Jesus gave him no answer. 

Listen, God is not obligated to answer man’s questions as to where He came from, or how or why He does certain things.  Job became angry with God and asked God for answers on the assumption that God wasn’t fair and just, and when God finally did respond, He did not answer the question “why”.  God is good and just and merciful, but He is God.  He is sovereign, and finite, mortal man cannot ascertain Him.  So Jesus did not answer Pilate.

Vs.10,11So Pilate said to Him, “You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?” Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”

  

As we looked at earlier, Romans 13:1 says, “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.”  Pilate thinks that he has authority to judge, but he fails to realize that actually the great Judge of all the earth is judging him.  

I find it ironic that just this week we had a decision by a panel of judges that rendered the Presidents order as unconstitutional.  I don’t want to make political statements here, but I will say that judges do not have unilateral authority to determine truth.  Judges have to be accountable to the truth, and as the law is the expression of truth then they must judge according to the law.  Judges cannot legislate; they interpret and apply the law.

Thomas Jefferson wrote that the the General Government has no powers but such as the Constitution gives it.  And as I said last week in regards to the American Constitution, the founders recognized that certain truths from God were evident, from which they established certain laws.

That principle is expounded in Jesus’s statement which is that government’s authority comes from God and God alone.  Without such truth as a foundation, there can be no justice.  But in the case of the government under Pilate, we see that truth is rejected for what is considered popular and expedient.  And so he judges Christ according to the dictates of a mob, and the pressures of the moment.

And by the way, we see that being played out today as well. Society is trying to change laws and influence government by protests, by mob violence.  And as we have seen it is effective to a great degree.  That method has been used with great effect since the 60’s to change American policy, to make the general populace and particularly the politicians think that it is the majority opinion, when in fact many times it’s just the louder opinion.  The silent majority suffers injury from a more vocal and violent minority.

That leads us to the next aspect of the apostasy of government;  judging the truth. Vs.13, “Therefore when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha.” 

John’s gospel is full of irony.  And the height of irony is that Pilate sits on his judgment seat to cast judgment upon the Son of God.  This same Jesus, whom Pilate and worthless men put to death, will one day sit on the Great White Throne.  And all judgment will be given to Him to judge every man according to his deeds.  John writes in  Rev. 20:11 “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, [that includes kings and governors and celebrites and all who are considered great in this world) standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.

And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

So here is the puny prefect of Judea, sitting in judgment of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Judge of the whole earth.  What irony.  Who is man that dares to judge God?  And how will God judge him that has passed judgment on Christ by refusing to submit to Him as Lord and King? 

Vs.14, “Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, ‘Behold, your King!’ So they cried out, ‘Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king but Caesar.’ So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified.”

In their judgment of Christ they sealed their own judgment. Here is the nation designed to be a theocratic nation. Here is the nation that claimed Jehovah as their God and King. But here they renounce their theocratic relationship to Jehovah God, by saying, "We have no king but Caesar." And so Israel, guilty of blasphemy in the denial of the Son of God, and guilty of apostasy in turning from God as King to Caesar thus denounces the theocracy, their own unique position before God, and in a few years they will receive their judgment and be scattered to the four corners of the earth, until there is no longer any Israel at all. 

God is patient with the government of mankind, not wishing for any to perish but all to come to repentance.  But one need only look at history to see the long line of governments that have abandoned God and become apostate, and as a result are no longer a power any longer on the earth to be reckoned with.  The great Egyptian empire is no more.  The Roman Empire has crumbled.  The Greek Empire is no more to be found.  England’s once grand empire is no longer.  Nazi Germany’s empire was destroyed.  And America, as the  modern world’s greatest superpower, is on the brink of imploding under the weight of it’s own corruption.  But the truth of God endures forever.  God’s empire is increasing and will never end.

So the apostasy of the government results in killing Truth.  That is the only solution to a world who hates the truth.  That is their only way they think they can silence the truth, and thus silence their consciences.  So they crucify Christ. Vs.17,  “They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha. There they crucified Him, and with Him two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between.” 

And governments have been killing Christians ever since, trying to silence the gospel.  Trying to silence the truth of God.  Christianity Today magazine has put the number of Christian martyrs since Christ walked the earth at 70 million people.  And the persecution has not slowed down.  Many sources say that Christians are the most persecuted group in the world today.  Jesus said in John 15:20, “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.”

There is one final aspect of apostasy in government that we will look at today, and that is rewriting the truth. Vs.19, Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written, “JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” Therefore many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews’; but that He said, ‘I am King of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”

Pilate wished to frame the argument his way.  His argument was that Jesus was a Jew, and his death was a result of Jewish law.  He wanted to absolve himself of any responsibility in the matter. He wanted to wash his hands of the whole affair.  But Jesus did not let Pilate off so easily.  Jesus made it clear that He was a King, but not of this realm.  However, He also made it clear to Pilate that His realm superseded Pilate’s realm.  He said Pilate would have no authority if God did not give him that authority. 

So Pilate in one last desperate brazen act, writes a sign to be placed on Jesus’s cross, “The King of the Jews.”  In one sense it was true.  But it was only part of the truth.  The full truth was that Jesus is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.  He was the very Son of God.  And as is so often the case, a half truth is little more than a full lie.  

Pilate writes his version of the truth.  And says, “what I have written, I have written,” as if to say that his word was law.  But as we have already stated, God’s law is the final authority.  Man may write enough books to fill up the Atlantic Ocean, but all of them cannot equal the truth of God’s Word, the Bible.  It is the sola scripture; the sole authority for life and practice.  It is the source of truth, regardless of the revisionist historians, regardless of the scientists, regardless of the consensus of the courts of men.

The question for Pilate is the same for men today.  What will you do with Jesus? If he was just the king of the Jews 2000 years ago, that was martyred, then we can write him off as inconsequential to 21st century Americans.  But if He was the Son of God who gave His life as the Passover Lamb for the sins of the world, so that we like Barabbas might be set free, then we must fall at His feet and worship Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Do not turn away from the truth.  Everyone will one day stand at the Great White Throne Judgment and answer this question:  “What did you do with Jesus Christ?”