INTRODUCTION – Stand Back and Be Amazed by the Arrest, Trial and Sentencing

There are many ways to talk about the Gospel. Jesus and the apostles were consistent on what the Gospel was but they had many ways of saying it. Here is a helpful way to talk about the Gospel and its message:

Tim Keller says it this way:

“You are more wicked than you ever dared believe, and yet you are more loved and excepted in Jesus Christ than you ever dared hope.”

We saw that last Sunday as we summed up John 17 – God is FOR US!

I don’t think we truly grasp fully this reality. The reality that we are more wicked than we ever dared to believe. Yet, if we make the cross central to our eyes (our gaze), and if we are honest, we will see that the cross condemns us.

Tonight we heard these 3 passages in the passion section of John. These passages give us the account of Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, trial, denial by Peter, His interrogation by Pilate, His beating by Roman soldiers, and His sentence to death by crucifixion.

Many people have felt that it is dangerous for Christians to focus on passages like this because it can lead to anti-Semitism. And unfortunately through the centuries, many Christians have wrongfully persecuted Jews with the self-justifying accusation that they are “Christ-killers.”

It is possible for Christians to wrongfully look at these events with distant distain and disgust.

It happens far too often, that we gaze upon the passion of Jesus Christ with arm-stretched judgment and condemnation of first century Jews and Romans.

However, when we truly understand the sinfulness of our own hearts and the purpose of the cross for our own guilty souls – we must fall on our knees when we hear and read these accounts and say – “It was me that put Him there!”

As we sang:

Behold the man upon a cross, My sin upon His shoulders;
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice -- Call out among the scoffers.
It was my sin that held Him there  -- Until it was accomplished;
His dying breath has brought me life –  I know that it is finished.

I want to look at these passages tonight and see ourselves and our depravity. We need to be able to say – “That is me, apart from the grace of God.”

Here are 9 quick glimpses of the wickedness of Man:

1. Judas’ Betrayal  -- verses 2-3

§    Jesus was betrayed by a man he mentored for 3 years

§    Jesus was sold out by Judas for 30 pieces of silver

§    What about us?

2. Harden Hearts to Jesus’ Self-Identification  -- verses 4-6 (“I AM”)

§    They fall down on the ground (not sure what this was about)

§    Yet, they do not worship in awe but get up and carry on

3. Sanhedrin’s Unfair and Unjust Monkey Trial – verses 19-23 (seen in the other Gospels)

§    Defendants were not asked to speak for themselves

§    Witnesses were suppose to do the talking

4. Peter’s Threefold Denial of Jesus – verses 15-18; 25-27

§    Peter is one of the closest disciple who had been given much grace

§    Why does John break it up?

§    To show the contrast of Jesus’ faithfulness to His disciples and Peter’s betrayal of His Discipler

5. Imbalanced/Hypocritical Piety of the Jewish Officers  -- verse 28

§    They are worried about being unclean for the Passover

§    Carson writes:

The Jews take elaborate precautions to avoid ritual contamination in order to eat the Passover, at the very time they are busy manipulating the judicial system to secure the death of him who alone is the true Passover.

6. Wimpy Injustice and Abdication of Authority by Pilate – verses 38, 19:12ff

§    “I find no guilt…” yet he has him flogged

§    He does not treat an innocent man fairly but caves in to the prosecution

7. Mockery by the Roman Soldiers  -- Verses 19:2-3

§    They put a crown of thorns

§    They put a robe on him and jeer him and hit him

8. Judgment to Wrongly Kill an Innocent Man  -- verses 19:6, 15

§    They cried “Crucify Him”

9. Spiritual Treason by Jewish Leaders – verse 19:15

§    “We have no King but Caesar”

§    Carson writes:

By vehemently insisting they have no king but Caesar, they are not only rejecting Jesus' messianic claims, they are abandoning Israel's messianic hope as a matter of principle, rejecting any claimant ('We have no king but Caesar'), and finally disowning the kingship of the lord himself. 'Their repudiation of Jesus in the name of a pretended loyalty to the emperor entailed their repudiation of the promise of the kingdom of God, with which the gift of the Messiah is inseparably bound in Jewish faith, and Israel's vocation to be its heir, its instrument, and its proclaimer to the nations' (Beasley-Murray, p. 343). This is the ultimate evidence in support of the Prologue's pronouncement, 'He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him' (1:11), and of the terrible blindness depicted in 12:37ff.

Isaiah 53:3-7  He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  (4)  Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  (5)  But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.  (6)  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  (7)  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

“You are more wicked than you ever dared believe, and yet you are more loved and excepted in Jesus Christ than you ever dared hope.”

In Christ we are more loved and excepted than we ever dared hope!

John 10:11  I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

John 13:1  Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

John 15:12-13  "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  (13)  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

1 John 4:10  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

John 3:16  "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.