You're listening to Mountain View Church Audio, Christ-centered teaching from the Wilderness City, Whitehorse UConn. Here's this week's message. What's good about Good Friday? The day our Messiah, Savior, and King, fully innocent, fully sinless, would be nailed to a cross and crucified to die a gruesome criminal's death on our behalf. Think about it. For Jesus' disciples who had been following him, watching him perform miracles, even raise people from the dead, proclaiming him as Messiah, they had just watched Jesus die. They watched him hanging on a cross, bleeding, breathe his last breath, and water pour from his side. They must have thought it was the end.
I can't imagine the questions going on in their mind. Questions that would eventually lead Peter to deny Christ three times. What Good Friday means to me is that we have a God who's been through the worst imaginable pain and suffering that any of us can think of. But there's comfort in that because he's a very relatable God and he's understanding when we go through pain and suffering ourselves. Well, every year as we approach Good Friday, I personally always am reminded of the verse from John 15, 13. It says, Jesus gave the perfect example of how to surrender into God's will, even though it was incredibly painful, lonely, and I imagine even terrifying. Good Friday always reminds me and challenges me to stop and take a personal inventory of my life and ask questions like, how am I actively being broken bread and poured out wine for those around me? What does it look like to do this for my family, friends, and strangers that I meet along the way? So the blessing for folks like us born on this side of resurrection.
is that we know it's not the end. Just like Peter and the disciples and Jesus' own mother would soon find out, Jesus would rise again three days later to conquer death, conquer the grave, and defeat Satan, to restore our relationship with our Father. It was the most good, most holy, most humble act. Such pain, but all out of love. Good Friday is not the end. It is the beginning of it all. Our restored relationship with God the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit. On Palm Sunday, the crowds had celebrated Jesus as King. Then less than a week later, they turned on Him.
He was arrested and sentenced, although he was innocent. Then he was beaten, whipped, and nailed to a cross to die. If you'd been standing at the foot of the cross that day, you would have assumed that this was a failed king. And yet, thanks to John's record of the account, we find details that point in a completely different direction. Woven throughout chapter 19 of John's gospel, we find five important details that build a case that Jesus was and still is king.
Today, we'll see that the cross isn't where Jesus' kingship ended, but where it went public, finally declaring to the whole world in three languages, nailed above his head for everyone to see. Welcome to Good Friday with Mountain View Church. My name is Jeremy, and I serve as lead pastor. Over the next 20 minutes, we're going to walk through the first half of John 19 together. We'll see that although Jesus was rejected, tortured, and crucified, God had a plan. The authorities had issued an execution, but God had staged a coronation.
My name is Nicole. Our scripture reading is from John 19, 1 to 30. You're welcome to follow along with the physical Bible. Search the table of contents to locate the corresponding page number for John. Alternatively, you can download BibleApp or visit Bible.com. 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 for yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and according to the 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. From then on, Pilate sought to release him. But the Jews cried out, If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.
So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at the place called the Stone Pavement and in Aramaic, Gabbatha. Now it was the day of preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, Behold, your king. 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 delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross to the place called the Place of the 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, 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.
After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the scripture, I thirst. A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Let's begin by unpacking the crown that they gave Jesus. John states that the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head.
The goal of crowning Jesus with thorns was twofold, primarily to mock him and humiliate him, but secondly, in the process, to inflict terrible pain, driving the thorns into his head. But they didn't understand the significant imagery they were being a part of, that they were issuing. You see, those thorns were a pointer back to the beginning, when humanity fell and sin first entered the world. That's when thorns and thistles made their appearance. In Genesis chapter 3, we read, Cursed is the ground because of you. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.
When sin entered the world, God cursed the ground, and thorns and thistles grew up among the plants that were designated and designed for food and beauty. If you were reading the Genesis account, that detail might be easy to just repass, totally miss. But those thorns carry an important symbolism of sin's curse on creation as a whole. Everything that went wrong between humanity and God, the broken relationship, the shame, the death, it's all wrapped up in that image. So now coming back to those soldiers that are inflicting pain and humiliation on Jesus by pressing that crown of thorns on Jesus' head, they had no clue the proclamation that they were making. Our king was about to take the curse of sin on the cross, but before it had started, these mocking soldiers showed us that even the curse of sin on all creation would be paid for in full. That crown of thorns represents the sin of all creation placed upon our king's head, although he had carried no sin.
Next, we move on to the robe that they gave Jesus. Continuing in chapter 19, verse 2 says, the soldiers arrayed him in a purple robe. Purple was the color of royalty, mainly because the dye used for that color was extremely expensive. The dye was called Tyrian purple or royal purple. The process at the time was to either crush or extract the secretion from sea snails and then expose them to sunlight to develop that purple color. Get this, it took roughly 10,000, you heard that right, 10,000 snails to produce about one gram of dye, which is why it was worth more than gold. It's weight in gold. So any garment that was dyed purple was rare, expensive, and it was reserved for emperors and kings.
But let's come back to those soldiers. They may have confiscated or at least had access to confiscated goods like purple garments. They took what they wanted when they wanted. But it is a mystery to this very day as to why the soldiers would place such an expensive robe on Jesus instead of selling it. It would then be covered with blood and sweat. It wouldn't be as valuable unless there was something bigger going on. You see, from a Roman perspective, it would have been a waste to place that garment on Jesus unless there was a bigger story being told without their knowledge.
Over the torn flesh of our king's body, these soldiers shrouded it in the most expensive garment at the time, reserved for royalty. Once again, within their mocking, God was actually making a statement. He is our king. Let's move on to the third point. We move on to the title. The soldiers continued their mocking by saying, Hail, king of the Jews. And then they struck him with their hands. Every word out of their mouths was meant to wound and humiliate Jesus. And yet every single word held significant truth about who he was and who he had been sent to become and who sent him.
You see, in hailing Jesus as king of the Jews, the soldiers were staging a mock coronation, you could call it. They were playing a game, but without knowing it, they were echoing a psalm that was written a thousand years earlier. In Psalm chapter 2, it opens with the nations raging against God and against his anointed king. In the middle of the opposition, God says, as for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. The hostility of the nations isn't a surprise to God. His response is simple, to point to his king and say, he's already on the throne. You just don't see it yet.
And so this proclamation by the soldiers is the first of a few. We soon see that the religious and political authorities get into the mix of this whole title. The raging nations mock God's king once again, missing the bigger picture. And so our fourth detail of Christ's kingship is witnessed in his subjects. Scrolling down to verses 19 and 20, after Jesus has been nailed to the cross, we read, Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews. And it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. The three most common languages of that day. Can you imagine?
Every person passing through Jerusalem that day could read that inscription. They would remember it, I'm certain, and it would be passed down for generations. You see, after seeing that inscription though, the Jewish authorities didn't like it. They actually pushed back at what the inscription said. They said, do not write the king of the Jews, but rather this man said, I am the king of the Jews. Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written. Once again, a bigger scene is happening here. You see, the religious leaders knew the ancient biblical texts. They knew that centuries earlier, God had made a promise to King David.
He said, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Pilate was unknowingly proclaiming something prophesied for generations, that this king of the Jews would one day be the eternal king for all people, for the Jew first, and then for every single nation, tribe, and tongue. You see, he thought he was just writing a criminal's charge, then being dismissive of the Jewish authorities, who had pressed him and pressured him and wanted Jesus to be executed. But all of it, all of it had been writing a declaration by God long before. And so a Roman governor posting it was actually a message to the world to read aloud, to reverberate. And so this king would one day rule without borders for all people, Jews, Gentiles, and Greeks alike. And so this inscription, it fit perfectly. Finally, we receive the king's decree. John writes, a jar full of sour wine stood there. So they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. The soldiers were just doing their job. Offering sour wine to a dying man was standard Roman crucifixion protocol. It prolonged his life so the suffering would last longer. To them, this was routine. Just another execution, just another afternoon, waiting for a man to die. But for us now, the hyssop branch is an important detail for us to look into. It takes us all the way back to Egypt, the night God rescued Israel from bondage.
God told Moses to give each household these instructions. Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it into the blood that is in the basin and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of this house until the morning, for the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians. And when he sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door. You see, hyssop had an important historical connection to the Passover lamb.
which led to the earthly salvation of God's people. Without knowing the significance, the Roman soldiers used a hyssop branch to offer sour wine to a dying man on a cross. Unknowingly, they were connecting this moment to that night in Egypt over a thousand years earlier. King Jesus would be the final Passover lamb. The first time hyssop appeared, it saved God's people from earthly bondage. But this time, it marked the moment that saved us from eternal bondage. And so after receiving the wine, King Jesus gives his dying decree. It is finished.
In Egypt, the Passover lamb's blood on the doorpost meant protection, leading to freedom. This is what Jesus is declaring from the cross. The final Passover lamb had been sacrificed. The power of sin that held humanity in bondage, the separation from God that went all the way back to Genesis 3, and the curse that no religious system or human effort could ever fully break. It was finished. Now, most of us come to Good Friday carrying something. Sometimes we don't know what to expect, why we're here, why we're listening, why we're watching.
Maybe it's shame over something you keep failing at. Maybe it's the exhaustion of trying to be good enough, do enough, or pray enough. Maybe it's just a vague sense that you're not quite where you should be with God. Maybe it's just tradition. Wherever you're at, I want you to hear Jesus' words one last time. It is finished. Sin is finished. Hurt is finished. Shame is finished. We don't have to keep striving, performing, or trying to earn something that our king has already declared complete.
So this is what makes Good Friday so good. It's a day to simply receive with thanksgiving what our King has declared over us. It is finished. Now, a couple of years after Christ's crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, the Apostle Paul describes what God accomplished through Jesus on that first Good Friday. He wrote, He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
This is what the crown, the robe, the title, the subjects, and the decree were all pointing to. When God sent Jesus to step into humanity's darkness, absorb our curse, and make a way for us to be transferred into his kingdom, even though we never earned it and we didn't deserve it. That is so good. It's so good that although we didn't earn it or deserve it, we received it. But remember, Good Friday isn't the end of the story. Although the king who was crucified died and was buried, he didn't stay in the tomb. Three days later, he walked out alive. And on Sunday, we'll be back to celebrate. And I hope you come back as well. We're going to celebrate the resurrection when God confirmed our king's decree. But right now, in this moment, we need to let it rest. We need to rest in the it is finished goodness of this Friday. And so wherever you're at, maybe you've accepted Jesus as king over your life. And that's a beautiful thing. And we should affirm that today.
But if not, I want to give you an opportunity. If you would like to make Jesus king, to accept his sacrifice and forgiveness, would you pray this prayer with me? Dear God, I know that I am a sinner and that my sin separates me from you. I believe you sent Jesus to be my king. I believe he went to the cross for me, took the curse I deserved, and finished the redemptive work I could never do on my own. I believe he raised him from the dead three days later, confirming that the work was complete.
Today, I choose Jesus as king over my life. And it's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Thank you for watching or listening today. It means so much that you'd spend part of your Good Friday with us. And we would love to have you back this Sunday for Easter. We're going to pick up right where we left off, moving from John 19 to John chapter 20.
Because Good Friday is only half the story. Sunday's coming, right? And we don't want you to miss it. And so all of our online options will be available or you could attend one of our in-house gatherings. We have English gatherings scheduled for 8 a.m., 9.30 a.m. or 11 a.m. Or for our Filipino community, we have a Tagalog gathering planned for 3 p.m.
That being said, seating is limited for our English in-house gatherings, so we'd ask you to pre-register to save your spot at mountainview.church slash Easter. That's mountainview.church slash Easter. And related to Easter Sunday, if you've been thinking about taking that next step in your faith, moving from the heart change to the outward declaration in baptism, we would love for you to consider it. Baptism is that public declaration that your old self is gone and that you have been transformed into a new person through Jesus. Now, if you want more info or you want to sign up, you can visit mountainview.church slash baptism.
That's mountainview.church slash baptism. We hope to see you this Sunday. Bring your family, invite a friend, and come ready to celebrate our resurrected King. The King on the cross will then be the King of the empty tomb. Hope to see you there. If you pray to receive Jesus today or would like to connect with our church community, visit mountainview.church and click the connect link. If this podcast and radio ministry has been a blessing to you, please consider partnering with us or making a tax-deductible donation at mountainview.church slash gift.
Thanks for listening to Mountain View Church Audio. Join us next week for more Christ-centered teaching from the Wilderness City, Whitehorse, UConn.