Behold, The Man

Today is the second Sunday of Advent – the time in which many Christians make an additional attempt to better prepare ourselves for the celebration of the Lord’s birth in that little town of Bethlehem some two millennia ago.

Jesus told us He left His throne with the Father and the Holy Spirit to rescue us from the domain of darkness, of sin and of death. And He did that on Calvary’s cross where He died as our substitutionary atonement. It was there that He paid a debt He did not owe for you and I who owed a debt we could not pay.

 

A problem many Christians face with this knowledge, however, is that its truth tends to become rote in our minds. We know the story. We’ve heard it all our lives. And so, the sacrifice of the Cross slowly over the years loses its power to move us. It no longer affects us as it did years ago when we first came to faith.

 

And so, Holy Spirit, please, soften my heart and your heart as we hear the story again, for it is because of Calvary’s cross that the Bethlehem cradle held Mary’s newborn son in the first place.

My text for this second Sunday of Advent comes from the 19th chapter of John’s gospel. It is a bit of a long text, but we need to capture the context of the scene John records for us.

John 19, beginning at verse one: Pilate then took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and put a purple robe on Him; and they began to come up to Him and say, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and to give Him slaps in the face. 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.” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God.” 

Therefore when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid; and he entered into the Praetorium again and said to Jesus, “Where are You from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. So 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 a result of this Pilate made efforts to release Him, but the Jews cried out saying, “If you release this Man, you are no friend of Caesar; everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar.”

The title of today’s message is: Behold the Man. The subtitle of today’s message is: And What Will We Do With Him?

So, just who is this Man Pilate told the crowd to behold?

When we ask that question, we are not alone. The disciples asked it of themselves time and again – until the resurrection. Here is Matthew 8:25-27 “ When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. The men were amazed, and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

Jesus’ former neighbors and friends also asked it: Matthew 13:54-56  “He came to His hometown and began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?”

And then, of course, Jesus Himself asked it of His disciples. Here is Matthew 16:13-16  “Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

And, oh, by the way, don’t think for a moment Jesus is not asking that same question of you and of me this afternoon – “Who do YOU say that I am?”

 

Now, I am fairly certain that most everyone here will answer that question correctly. Jesus is ‘Emmanuel.” Jesus is “God with us.” Jesus IS Jehovah God in the flesh. But I submit to you that it is not enough to correctly answer that question. The critical point to that is this: What will we do with that confession?

 

We believe Jesus is Lord – but do not routinely do as He says? I’m not talking about the occasional sin everyone falls into, but rather a lifestyle of living life your way instead of His way, according to His commandments, as clearly delineated in Scripture.

 

It will not matter at the Judgment Seat of Christ what the Supreme Court of the United States declared to be wrong or right. It will not matter what your pastor or even your mother told you is right or wrong. What will matter is, what does your CREATOR says is right or wrong.

 

Is the Man Pilate brought out to the crowd, is that Man the Lord of your life? Is He Lord of my life?

 

Let me give you a rather ordinary and familiar illustration. All of us have in times past had a salesperson knock on our front door, trying to sell us something or another. When it happens to me, I usually listen a few moments before politely declining his offer.

 

As are most people, I’m particular about whom I invite into my home. Salespeople don’t usually get beyond the front door. Others, like UPS or FEDEX get as far as the foyer while I sign for a delivery. Friends, on the other hand, make it into the living room. But the circle becomes very small when I consider how many people have permission to roam my house. And the circle closes at the checkbook. No one except my wife has access to that.

 

I wonder if I sometimes treat Jesus the same way as I treat those who come to the door of my heart trying to offer me something about quietness with Him. But I am usually so preoccupied with the “busy-ness” of my life that I flash Him a polite smile as I close the door.

 

Then there are times I permit Him as far as the foyer, especially when He brings the answer to a particular prayer request. He stands quietly at the entryway while I sign the receipt, thank Him for the gift – and then send Him on His way.

 

At other times, He gets as far as the living room where we chit-chat for a while – until He attempts to move our conversation toward awkward subjects such as my tacit rebellions, partial obedience, and my sometimes intractable opinions.  

 

How often do I actually permit the Lord Jesus the Lordship over my entire heart? How often do I permit Him full access to the closets and drawers in my life where lies things I like to hide even from myself – my pride, my excuses, and my transparent self-deceptions? Do I permit Him complete control over my finances? Or am I too often content to give Him only the tithe when He deserves it all?

 

Jesus is not at all like a salesperson outside the door, or a deliveryman in the foyer, or a friend in our living room. The Man before the crowd in Pilate’s courtyard is Lord of creation. And we must make Him – and KEEP HIM – Lord of our life. Jesus does not give us any wiggle room when it comes to our obedience to His commandments.

 

And so, what else do we know about the Man Pilate presented to the mob? Do we know that we know He is the ONLY mediator acceptable to God to intercede and intervene for you and me? Or do we believe there are others, besides the Son of God, who can bring us before God’s throne? Here is what Scripture tells us through St Paul’s letter to Timothy: “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.” (1 Timothy 2:5-6)

 

This idea of only one mediator between God and man is not an insignificant point. If we liken the glory of Jesus to the vast waters of the Pacific Ocean, then for us to take even a droplet of the full glory that belongs to Him and give it to another mediator is nothing less than a slap in Christ’s face. He alone – He ALONE deserves every drop, every molecule of the glory of our prayers, our reverence, our devotion, our worship, and our praise.

 

And what else do we know about this Man Pilate stood before the angry, jeering mob? Well, we know He became the ransom the Triune God paid for our redemption and salvation. Matthew 20:28, Jesus said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

 

A ransom, of course, is a payment made for the release of a prisoner. Let’s be clear as to WHO made the payment to whom, what that payment was, and who was the prisoner.

 

So, who is the prisoner? Unless a person belongs to Jesus the Christ by faith in His sacrifice for our sins, the rest of humanity is Satan’s prisoner. All humanity lies in his power. That’s what God tells us in 1 John 5:19 (which is only one of many such Scriptures) – “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”

 

And because the whole world lies in the power of Satan, Paul gives us the good news that although “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” We who have come to Christ by faith are now “Justified as a gift by [God’s] grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.” (Romans 3:24-25a)

 

Christ is the redeemer, and His blood the redemption price to win us back from sin, death, and the devil.

 

The dictionary defines redemption as: Regaining or gaining possession of something in exchange for payment, or the clearing a debt. In the Old Testament, redemption involved the payment of some price by the redeemer to set the prisoner free. The same is true in the New Testament. Redemption requires the payment of a price, or the provision of a substitution for the person to be redeemed.

In that passage I quoted from Romans 3, Paul used the word, ‘propitiation.’ The word means to appease someone, to reconcile two parties. The word is similar to what happens in an atonement in which Jesus substituted Himself and paid the penalty of sin which we deserve to pay. It is through the redemption Christ paid in atonement for our sins that God provided as a way for humankind to be restored into a relationship with Him.

And so, once again, St. Paul wrote: “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross . . .” (Colossians 1:19-23) 

Finally, at least for today’s message, the Man Pilate displayed to the mob is The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But what does it mean that Jesus is the Lamb of God?

Lambs played a major role in the Old Testament sacrificial system. Moses tells us in Exodus 29:38-46 of the twice-daily sacrifice of year-old lambs. The offering of the lamb symbolically atoned for the sins of the people so that they could be reconciled to God.

Jesus is called the Lamb of God in John 1:29 and 36. That is because He is the perfect sacrificial atonement for our sin. But the serious and eternally deadly problem of many of those in the pews each Sunday is that they do not think of themselves as sinners bad enough to spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. “Sure, we do bad things from time to time” – they will say of themselves.

 

But God is abundantly clear throughout the Scriptures, that without faith in – and obedience to – Christ, we all are worthy of God’s righteous wrath. That is why the Man Pilate mocked said to anyone with ears to hear His warning: “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17)

 

When a man or woman realizes that their imperfect keeping of all ten of the Ten Commandments justifies God’s wrath, only then will they come to their senses and beg God for mercy. But if we don’t know we’re lost, we’ll never seek to be found. If we do not think we are sick enough for a doctor, we will not seek the Great Physician.

 

According to a 2018 report, 25% of Christians self-identify as evangelical Christians. Twenty-one percent of Christians identify as Catholic. That means that at least 46% of those in churches each Sunday identify themselves as followers of Jesus Christ. And those numbers do not include another 15% who identify and non-evangelical Christians.

 

But all those numbers tell us is there are multitudes of pew-sitters in thousands of Catholic, evangelical, and other Protestant churches who fall into that tragic category of not realizing how lost and how sick they really are. How else do we explain the nose-dive our culture has taken into the moral sewer? How else can we explain the way so many millions of alleged Christians vote the way they vote to permit such evil to take over our nation and our churches? Fornication, adultery, homosexuality, are the new societal norms. And even from the highest courts and governments we’ve been told murdering babies in the womb is a woman’s right.

 

And so, I will conclude with these questions. Just who do you say is that Man standing before Pilate? And just as important is the personal question: What is He in your life?

 

Is He almighty God in the flesh who demands of us a holy lifestyle, holy as defined by Scripture? Are we to the best of our ability living a godly lifestyle before Him and others? Do we avoid sin with our minds, and with our tongues and our actions?

 

Do we believe Jesus is the only mediator between God and us, one Person alone who can intervene to restore our relationship with the Holy God?

 

Is that Man your redeemer? Is He your sacrificial substitute, who paid the debt of death that you owed to a holy God because of your sin? Is He your sacrificial lamb, sent by God and prophesied by the prophets, to cleanse you of all of your sins?

 

Who is that Man to you? And what are you doing to establish and maintain your relationship with Him?

 

Next week we look at something else Pilate called Jesus. He called Him, “King.” What does it mean to call Jesus, ‘King’?