John 19:1-16
Jesus Sentenced to be Crucified
1Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they struck him in the face.
4Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, "Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him." 5When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!"
6As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, "Crucify! Crucify!"
But Pilate answered, "You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him."
7The Jews insisted, "We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God."
8When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9and he went back inside the palace. "Where do you come from?" he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10"Do you refuse to speak to me?" Pilate said. "Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?"
11Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin."
12From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar."
13When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge's seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 14It was the day of Preparation of Passover Week, about the sixth hour.
"Here is your king," Pilate said to the Jews.
15But they shouted, "Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!"
"Shall I crucify your king?" Pilate asked.
"We have no king but Caesar," the chief priests answered.
16Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
Jesus came and dwelt among us and is full of Grace and Truth...He taught and continues to teach us many things...He shows us His Power and His Divinity through His entire identity, His life, His Teachings, His death, and His resurrection...The four gospels tell us about His first coming, but He tells us that He will return again...Jesus in Matthew thirteen uses the phrase the end of the age to refer to that time in the future when the Kingdom of God is established, true justice reigns, and the wicked are judged and He will return to the Kingdom of Heaven...The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field...The Son of Man through the gospel and His Life sowed the good seed...The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom...The weeds are the people of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil...The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels...God has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed...God has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead...
The Jewish religious officials did not believe the Teachings and Truths about Jesus...Even though they saw Him in the Temple and saw Him in the many different villages doing many miracles...They even saw and/or knew He had raised Lazarus from the dead...So when they had Him arrested and handed Him over to Pilate they wanted Him dead...The Jewish leaders insisted and said, “We have a law, and according to that law He must die, because He claimed to be the Son of God.”...As the conversation between Pilate and Jesus unfolds, we see that Jesus is in control...Jesus had told His Disciple that there is no greater love than to lay down His life for His friends...When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace...“Where do You come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer...“Do You refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t You realize I have power either to free You or to crucify You?”...Jesus answered, “You would have no power over Me if it were not given to you from above...Therefore the one who handed Me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”...From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this Man go, you are no friend of Caesar...Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”...When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha)...It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon...
When Jesus told Pilate that you would have no power over Me if it were not given to you from God and from above, we see Jesus' Divinity...The Jewish leaders were supposed to know God...So Jesus told Pilate, therefore the one who handed Me over to you is guilty of a greater sin...He is our Sovereign King who died for us...Our Glorious Savior who dies for our sins, overcomes death, and defeats the evil prince of darkness and gives us the covenant of the new age - the Gospel of Jesus...And Jesus knew that He could at anytime call on His Father, and He would at once put at His disposal more than twelve legions of angels?...But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?”...
Stephen J. Wellum a Professor of Christian Theology and editor of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology wrote, “What a Glorious Savior He is!...Once again consider Christ in His entire identity, life, and work...In His birth, He is the divine Son and LORD who chooses to become our Mediator in obedience to His Father’s will...In His life, as the Incarnate Son, He is still the sovereign King who willingly and gladly chooses to die for us...In His death, He does not die as a victim or martyr but as one who is fully in control, choosing to die for us...By His death, He pays for our sin, destroys death, and defeats Satan by putting him under His feet in triumph...In His resurrection, which is inseparable from His life and death, the Father by the Spirit exalts the Son and inaugurates the glorious new covenant age of the new creation...From that posture of authority, the glorified and exalted Son pours out the Spirit, once again proof that He is LORD and Messiah/King...From that same posture of authority, the exalted and ascended LORD rules over His people, governs history, and will return in power to consummate all that He has begun in His first coming.”...