Our text this evening will be found in John chapter 19. We'll be doing verses 12 to 22. That can be found in your pew Bibles on page 1076. As you're turning there, I thought it might be sort of funny to just mention that the last time I was up here and had the privilege to exhort before all of you, I was preaching on a text dealing with Christ's birth in Matthew 1. And this evening, if you know where we're at in John 19, we're dealing with the cross. So I've somehow managed in God's providence to preach on Easter and successive exhortations before all of you. So we're here in John chapter 19, and I'll be reading from verses 12 to 22. Hear now the word of our Lord. 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 a place called the Stone Pavement 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 priest 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 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 the king of the Jews. Pilate answered, What I have written, I have written. And that concludes the reading of God's word this evening. Rejection. It's generally a bad thing whenever we think about it. Perhaps you've had an experience where you were up for a job and you were rejected for that job opportunity. Perhaps it's a relational thing where you experience rejection, whether it's in terms of wooing someone of the opposite sex or it's in a situation where it's in the context of your family or in a context of friendship. Or, since it's March, perhaps you're like me and you've had the sad experience of going to make a shot while playing basketball and some giant comes out of nowhere and he rejects your shot, blasting it into the atmosphere. But rejection as an act is not always a bad thing. In some cases, it's outright good. Consider when you have viruses and bacteria and they come into the body. The body's immune system fights it off, whether it's through antibodies or other means. Still, sometimes rejection is a positive, but you don't see it right away. Again, think about a job opportunity. Perhaps when you were going for this job opportunity and you were rejected, you found later on that it was good that you were rejected for that job because it turns out it would not have been a good place for you to work. You would have been miserable. Things would have been terrible. Or perhaps you found out through the rejection process that you really weren't trained well enough for the job, and so you went down or went back, put your head down, and you worked harder and you got better in different areas. That way you were more qualified in the future for that job. Or still further, maybe, a job opened up that you otherwise would not have been able to get. The point being that in God's providence, sometimes rejection turns out for your good. And so when we read the passion narrative and we consider the text that we're considering this evening, it's this awesome and powerful thing that becomes clear to us. We are prone to read these texts, these gospel texts, and forget what it's like for us the first time we heard them, or the first time someone would have heard them or read them. Now, when we step back and we think about it from that aspect, and we ponder it, it becomes clear that the gospel is truly the good news. In this case, we find out that this rejected king actually became the true king. See, in this text, rejection is a theme, but in God's infinite wisdom, it is evident that rejection was the means to the end, the end being our salvation that would be obtained for us by this king. So in these events, we can discern why the king is rejected, how his enemies rejected him and that however in spite of that the king was actually doing the rejecting so for those that follow along and you're like me and you like to have the points listed you can put them under the why the how and the however and that's what we'll be looking at this evening so why was the king rejected. Well, plainly put, and we know this without reading this text, but it's sin and hard hearts. See, hard hearts care more about the things in this life than they do eternity. In the recording of events that we have here, it reveals to us actually that all of humanity is embodied by those that were present. When you stop and you think about it, you have Pilate and the Jews. Those are the two primary characters, if you will, in this narrative. But Pilate also represents all the Gentiles, being that he was a Roman official. He was the governor of the area. So we have, the whole world is present for this. And obviously we know that Jews and Gentiles would have been intermingling around Jerusalem at this time as it was so let's consider Pilate himself first what we see with his hardened heart is he knew Jesus was innocent but he didn't acquit him see Pilate loved power and status more than integrity let alone fearing the God of the Jews he cared more about these things if you go back and you look at verse 12 this becomes evident that the Jews knew this about him. We read, 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. Verse 13, so when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and so forth. The Jews knew how to manipulate Pilate, and again it was because of his love for status and power. To release Jesus would be the end potentially of his political career or worse. Pilate's job at this time was to make sure things were under control in Jerusalem and all the land of Judea. See the Jews had a history of going back to the exiles of any time a country or a nation or an empire would come in and try to overrule them they would fight back. Now we went through Joshua and we saw the conquest and going through there makes sense they took this land so they feel really attached to it they see the promise there but as history went on they lost sight of the reason why things were going on they didn't listen to the warnings but yet they still fought for their land now because of this the roman empire was very much aware of what they were dealing with when they took over this area so they set up a system where they allowed the jews to have some freedom to govern themselves but really, the Romans were still in charge. Now Pilate, on his end, he wasn't in the best of relationships with the Jews, but he also wasn't in the best of relationships with the Roman government. Outside of our biblical texts, history is noted that the last we hear of Pilate was he was being summoned to the emperor Tiberius, or Caesar Tiberius, to answer for some actions that he had he had done now lucky for Pilate Tiberius passed away and then we never hear about Pilate ever again but what we come to believe or what we're led to believe is that this was not going to be a good thing for Pilate to be summoned by the Caesar so with all of this in the background Pilate simply acquiescing to the Jews was the easiest way to keep peace and prevent rioting or a revolution at worst. He was simply, not to make light of it, but he was truly trying to wash his hands of the situation. Now along with Pilate, and considering everyone that was present at this time, the Gentiles, they as a whole also feared Caesar. And for them, whatever it took to keep their lives and not have interference from the government and have attention draw to them, that was a good thing for them as well. So they naturally would not oppose to what Caesar wanted either in that sense. But fear of Caesar aside, a hard heart was at the core of their earthly focuses as well. It's just the same. See, we know from our New Testament, reading what the Gentiles lives were like. Briefly, I'm just going to gloss over it, but they were pagans in terms of their religious views. They were very depraved morally. One note, and I think Reverend Gordon has mentioned this in the past, but their sexual culture back then, they could have easily stepped in today and not missed a beat. There's a lot of overlap and similarities. There's a lot of depravity that was going on. Also, and it's closely tied to that, they were all about gratification and self-gain. All of these things in play. Think about Romans 1. We're not going to turn there, but think about Romans 1. It makes it clear. Their hearts were hard and sinful. And God handed them over to the less of their flesh. Now, the chief priests and the Jews, the ones we expect to have a different heart, their hearts were just as hard. The chief priests, in particular, they were the ones leading the charge amongst the Jews. They were threatened by Jesus. For them, earthly power was of more importance to them than heaven or honoring and glorifying the God that they said that they follow. See, Jesus was upsetting the status quo. He was challenging the religious teachings. For the Pharisees, he was challenging their legalism. For the Sadducees, he was challenging their teachings that there was no resurrection. Or he was also affirming scriptures that go beyond the first five books of the Bible. that is, the books of Moses. They also saw that if the people were listening to Jesus and they were turning themselves back to God the Father, that was going to impede on their influence over them. Now, the Jewish people, they're not so innocent either. They were there at the same time. And where they fall is they knew the power of their leaders. And at this time, they depended on them in various ways. Even in spite of what we know the religious failings were of the Pharisees and the Sadducees of the day. Now it wasn't like today where they could have gone off individually and sought out cross-references and studies of what really should be going on religiously. They had to just trust the leaders and what they told them. And with that, if the religious leaders were giving them the okay, then they were going to do what they had to do. an example is thinking about the prominence of the temple and having access to it having access to the temple was like having access in some ways to the supper like for us if they were told they couldn't do it because of something that the leaders were saying they were going to do whatever they had to do to be able to still access the temple politically they also knew that their leaders were the ambassadors so to speak with the imperial governing authorities that's how we know or why the chief priests were able to go to Pilate and have that easy access to him and so we see that the Jewish people in spite of saying that they don't care for Caesar also cared about not upsetting Caesar they cared about the here and the now and the peacefulness of their lives but they also had sin issues so beyond wanting to just live their lives we know the sin issues were present there as well think about the tax collectors and what they were doing for their gain we also know that Jesus had interactions with adulterers and prostitutes so sin was also very prevalent with them they're not they're not exempt from that But the Jews also reveal hard hearts that are self-condemning. Did you pick up in verse 15 what they say? Reading verse 15, they cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king? The chief priest answered, we have no king but Caesar. See, in this crucial moment in history, the most tragic words are uttered by the Jewish leaders. We have no king but Caesar. It is here, with all the world figuratively present in and around Jerusalem, that this pronouncement from God's people is made. The ones who are supposed to be his people. And they say they have no king but Caesar. See, in their hardness of hearts, the Jews had rejected Yahweh's anointed one. And this wasn't the first time the Jews in their history have ever rejected God in favor of earthly leadership either. Recall 1 Samuel and what takes place there. The people rejecting Yahweh for an earthly king to be like everyone else because they felt that that would bless them most in the here and the now. Now with this history lesson in examining the players, so to speak, in this narrative, the thing about this narrative is that it's symbolic of humanity as a whole and our condition even now. consider this. All the people involved embody non-believers inside and outside the visible church today. Considering the outside non-believers, they're just like Pilate and the Gentiles. Their concerns are for the here and the now and how best to live. They're driven by pleasure, power, status, among other things. With pleasure, we see it in the sexual revolution today. We see it with money or material gain and doing whatever it takes to gain. Now, I'm not saying that it's wrong to make a living. I'm not saying it's wrong to make money. But this is what consumes their lives. It's the sole focus of their lives. It drives their passions. Or, still thinking about pleasure, consider gluttony. Now, the obvious ones we have are food, alcohol, or drugs and consumption of that. But what about the entertainment consumption? We hear the term binge-watching, and with our various services that are out there, how many hours do people waste spending time in front of a television or a computer or a phone? Still further, they're driven, though, by power. Leaders will say anything to get votes, anything to keep control over those that they're vested control with. This happens, brothers and sisters, on both sides of the aisle, though. This is not an indictment on one side or the other. This is true of both sides. Power is addicting to them. And lastly, they're driven still by status. What is the in ideology of the day? What is to be accepted? It seems like there's a new thing every other month. It just gets changed from one thing to another, or it builds, I should say, because they're all closely tied. Broadly speaking, we can say conformity is the essence of their religion today, and for those or anyone to not conform is blasphemy. Sadly, however, in the church there are also non-believers who profess to be believers that are not unlike the Jews in this instant. Now some are in leadership and will do whatever it takes to stay there. They simply enjoy the status, the power, the fame, the wealth that they're afforded by being at the head of a church. Eternal truth does not matter when they're called to account for it because they don't really believe it. They just like the place that they're in. They and others that are inside the church, they'll profess Christ, but at the same time, they'll willfully reject his body, the church. They'll willfully reject God's sovereignty, and they'll willfully reject God's word. Now, briefly, I want to say, I'm not talking about those that struggle with those issues. There are certainly those who have been hurt by the church in instances that have happened. There are also those that struggle with the idea of God's sovereignty. And there are those who struggle to know if the words we have in God's holy word are trustworthy or not. Those honest struggles are not what we have in mind here. What we have in mind are those who are obstinate, willfully rejecting the body, God's sovereignty, and his word. And still, for others, and we're still considering those who are inside the visible church but aren't believers, they also go along with the culture. See, for them, their real religion is that religion we spoke of with conforming to what is the in ideology. They like the acceptance that they get by the world's eyes. And so, in the hardness of their hearts, going back to Pilate, who's representing the Gentiles and the Jews, all of humanity then, and as we just mentioned, all of mankind now have rejected Jesus. All of humanity throughout the ages has done this, and they continue to do this. How in our narrative did the world reject Jesus 2,000 years ago? Obviously, it's the cross. In the hardness of their hearts, in the rejection of God's anointed, Jesus was condemned to crucifixion. Now for the Gentiles, for the Romans, if you don't know, crucifixion was one of the most gruesome executions that were set aside for the worst of criminals. It was so grueling that Roman citizens were not even subject to it. We know this in church history as tradition holds the way that Peter and Paul were martyred were differently. If you recall from Acts, Paul had Roman citizenship. And so when he was martyred, he was martyred with his head being chopped off. For Peter, it was said that he was crucified because Peter didn't have that Roman citizenship. But Pilate and the Gentiles cared so little about whether Jesus was innocent or not that they were willing to let him be subjected to this and they did nothing to prevent it but for the jew the cross or the image of a man being on the cross it would have evoked the words of scripture cursed is the man who hangs from the tree and so for them they were looking at this with their own agenda and their own meaning but beloved this was more than just killing a man when we read and think on the crucifixion we're prone to jump ahead to justification and our salvation and we are going to get there tonight but when we stop and think there's more going on here than just killing an innocent man or killing the son of god what were they trying to do they were trying to get rid of jesus they were trying to wipe him off the face of history they were trying to erase him so as to never be worried about him again eliminate him and things will die down and we can go on living as we have been again for pilot he doesn't have to worry about a revolt or rioting for the jews they can go back to the status quo of how things were and can and having their religious control over the people. But this is emblematic of the non-believing heart today and the hostility that exists towards Christ and his church. They say, if we just discredit the gospels, we can discredit Jesus. If we just discredit the resurrection, this will go away. If we eliminate the gospel as laid down in scripture, we're not accountable to anything but what we think is right. If we eliminate the authority over us, maybe we can live a life according to our own standards. If we eliminate that authority and reality, maybe we can quiet that still small voice that has been telling us we're living in sin and headed for destruction. Before moving here to Southern California and going to seminary, I was youth pastoring in maine and i had a student in my youth group actually there's a couple students that this example can kind of fit with but i had one student who he was wise above his peers in fact he was wise above many adults who had grown up in church their whole lives in terms of his mental knowledge and comprehension of the gospel and various things associated with it but this young man he struggled with assurance and as he struggled with his assurance the problem that was coming up more and more was that he had certain sins that he was involved with and that he liked those sins and he was wrestling with it because he knew that on one hand these sins were not good to be involved with and on the other hand he knew that he liked these sins so as he's wrestling with this he finds himself getting into despair or what he thought was despair and finally he came to me and he just informed me that he was walking away from the faith and as we we talked about this and he understood sanctification as a process and all of that we talked and what came out for him was that it was easier and more peaceful for him to not believe than to believe peaceful to him that is see this false illusion of peace i believe often is what leads people to reject christ nowadays deep down there is a knowledge that this is true but they do not want anyone impinging on their lives they feel they'll they'll be at more peace living following their own hearts, doing whatever they want to do, than the peace that truly comes in knowing Christ. Now, despite the rejection and condemnation, both then and now, the attempts to wipe Christ away, both then and now, the real rejection that was taking place was taking place on the cross. See, the real rejection is what God did in Christ's work on the cross. God reveals this truth as the crucifixion, which is meant to be the final rejection of Jesus, the king. He reveals the truth that Jesus is actually truly the king. See, God was rejecting sin and mankind, even though man was trying to reject their king. And how does he do this? He reveals this truth through the means of a sinful man. If you look down at verse 19, we pick it up, said 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 the king of the Jews. Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written. Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews. These inscriptions or the titleists, They were normally reserved to lay out the charges and identity of those that were being crucified. But God, in his providence, uses this to declare to the whole world, as it were, that Jesus is the king. And rejecting man's attempt to say otherwise. When we read this, at first, it might seem to us that Pilate was just trying to slight the Jews. He was just trying to make them upset, take a little jab at them. But it's not that. There's more than that going on. See, just as God used Balaam, who was supposed to curse Israel and bless Israel's enemies, but God used him instead to bless Israel and curse the enemies, so it was here. God was using someone who didn't believe in him to do his work, essentially. But there's more going on here in terms of the divine ordering of these events. When was Jesus crucified? Well, he was crucified during Passover. What did this mean? That Jews from all over were going to be coming to Jerusalem and that they would see Jesus hanging there. Jerusalem was going to have a ton of people there. Notice what it says about the languages on the inscription. Aramaic, Latin, Greek. These were the three most prominent languages of anyone that would have been living there at that time. And God's providence, knowing that the whole world, representatively, would be there, is proclaiming high up on that cross that Jesus is the King. He's declared the King. But we also know that God, in rejecting man's attempt to reject Him, God was also rejecting Jesus himself, albeit differently. See, mankind, they thought they were getting rid of their problem. But God was actually dealing with their real problem. God was the one that was dealing with their problem of sin. And in his rejection of Jesus at the cross, it was the rejection because our sin, the sin of all who would believe, Was being put on him. The tormenting pain. The suffering. The weight. The shame. The embarrassment. All the emotions. Every physical experience that you can think of associated with it. That was meant for you and I. Was put on Christ. On that cross. But the beauty of the cross. Is that the king's rejection. Reversed our rejection. see the again the amazing thing about this narrative of the crucifixion is how revealing it is regarding all of mankind as we saw you and i were both there essentially and we're told that this death of christ that happened two thousand plus years ago was a death that was once and for all for all who would believe now the hardness of hearts that exists within the non-believer you and i both know those things linger still in our hearts hearts that god has graciously softened the sins we struggle with and fight the sins we've committed and will commit the times we've attempted even while believing in jesus the times we've still attempted to reject christ for our own desires they were all dealt with at the cross as we close this evening i've been studying for a paper in school in colossians and what came to my mind was something Paul wrote that I felt was the perfect ending to this message. So if you want to listen, you can just listen, or if you want to turn, it's in Colossians chapter 2, and I'll be reading from verses 13 to 15. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and the authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. Beloved, if you've trusted in Christ, He has softened your heart, and He's justified you. Your death sentence was rejected as well as your condemnation. And for this, we praise Him, and we are evermore and always grateful to Him. Let's pray. Gracious God, we come before you. We just ask that your word, which we have heard, Words we've heard, narratives we've heard over and over throughout our lives. We pray that the truth that is in these events, that they would be sealed inwardly on our hearts. As we receive your word meekly with pure affection, may our hearts be filled with love and reverence for you. Cause us to bear the fruit of the Spirit and to live in holiness, diligently following your commandments. And may it please you to use us to lead those who are lost, wandering, and confused into the way of truth. All this we pray for the honor and the praise of your name, through Jesus Christ our Lord, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.