John 19:12-16 “Behold Your King!”

You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.

Our passion is to experience and express grace.

Join us.

God, we bow before you now.

We come to adore you now.

We come to receive from you the one who owns all things.

We need you.

We worship you.

We ask your spirit would so work in our hearts now that we'd rather have Jesus.

Help us.

Help me.

Teach us from your word.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

In John's account of Jesus' life, we are inching closer and closer.

To the cross.

A cross where we know Jesus is headed to climb in a very unusual way up on his throne.

And that's because, as we saw earlier in Jesus' conversation with Pilate, he is a king from another world.

With a kingdom entirely different from what we might expect.

Just last week, Pilate has brought Jesus out before the crowd and said, behold the man.

And though Pilate himself finds no guilt in Jesus, the crowds keep insisting that Jesus be killed.

Now we pick up the reading at verse 12 of John 19.

Pilate's last attempt to release Jesus.

Already now, remember, beaten.

The bloodied head.

The bloodied head.

The crown of thorns pressed into it.

And we hear some sobering words that we'll contemplate together about Jesus as a king.

This is God's holy word given to us to point our often forgetful and wandering hearts to find hope and life in the right place.

From then on, Pilate sought to release Jesus.

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 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.

What a poignant scene unfolds here outside the Roman praetorium in Jerusalem during the Passover feast.

There's a lot going on.

Now it's Friday, the day before the Sabbath.

And the Jewish leaders turn up the heat on Pilate, don't they?

They're getting worried.

He's taking too long to deal with Jesus.

And they know Pilate is all too fearful of being found to have failed his boss.

His boss is a recently unpredictable and vengeful Tiberius Caesar.

And so the leaders make their closing argument against Jesus.

And Pilate finally walks out to render his verdict.

Although multiple times we've heard Pilate pronounce that he's found absolutely no guilt in Jesus.

Pilate makes a last ditch effort.

Maybe one more time he offers them Jesus as their king.

Certainly they don't want their king crucified.

They'll go for this maybe.

And the chief priests, the representatives of God's people reply,

We have no king but Caesar.

Wow.

Those are powerful words in the moment.

Get Jesus away.

Kill him.

Because we have no king but Caesar.

I want us to see how shocking those words are this morning for a few minutes.

But I want us to do that with an awareness that there are really only two types of people in this room in this regard.

There are those of us who explicitly reject Jesus as king.

And there are those of us who claim Jesus as king but still sometimes reject his kingship by bowing to another king.

All of us this morning need to consider how we say we have no king but Caesar.

And then we need to look squarely at Jesus and see him as king and know what that would mean.

We have no king but Caesar.

First consider what it means to say these words this fateful night in John 19.

Then we'll look at some background to this climactic moment in the story of God's people and their king.

We have no king but Caesar means first that God's people are rejecting him.

Rejecting Yahweh as king.

They're looking to other things.

Something else.

Someone else for life.

Caesar would represent to them worldly power.

Right?

Control.

Influence.

They're saying when they say these words that they want Caesar to give them life.

He gives them lots of things, doesn't he?

And they're saying they'll follow what he wants them to live like in order to get what he gives them.

Did you hear that?

That is a description of street-level idolatry.

Okay?

That's what it means.

That they will do what he wants them to do to get what he can give to them.

An idol is something or someone that you look to for life.

Something to shape you into its image in order to get what it promises to give you.

That's why when I was a young baseball player, it fits to say that I idolized Greg Maddox.

Wow.

I wanted to be just like him.

Although somehow I never won a Cy Young Award or a World Series.

Maddox, for those of you who don't know, was a great Braves pitcher who didn't throw 100 miles an hour like Nolan Ryan.

But he always seemed to make the ball move and end up right where he wanted it.

He was crafty, consistent, control pitcher.

So as a fellow pitcher with a fastball in the 80s, I idolized him as a pitcher.

Meaning I wanted to hold the ball the way he did.

I wanted to throw the ball the way he did.

I even wanted to wear my socks the way that he did.

That was the ticket to life, to pitch in his image.

Part of Israel's idolatry is preferring to find life living in Caesar's image.

That's the first part.

But part of idolatry is also looking to enthrone ourselves, isn't it?

Think about that.

Before you bow to another idol, another king, you are putting yourself on the throne.

It's really evident in this passage because part of the irony here when they say,

we have no king but Caesar, is that these Jewish leaders actually despised Caesar.

And Pilate knew it.

Caesar kept them under his thumb, the Gentile ruler of their promised land.

What are they really saying?

What they're really saying is that they have no king at all.

No king but themselves.

They're rejecting the messianic hope.

The promise of a king coming to deliver God's people.

They will bow, they've decided, to whoever or whatever gets them what they want right now.

Keeps them in control for now.

They want that king.

They're in charge.

But this moment, these fateful words where his own did not receive him have been building for centuries, for generations, haven't they?

I think that's part of why they're so often on our hearts and our lips too.

We love to be on the throne, don't we?

Don't we enjoy being in control?

Well, part of that's understandable.

All the way back in the beginning, God the king creates man and woman in his image.

And he tells us that part of that reflecting the image of the king is to rule on his behalf.

To be vice regents.

That's what he made us for.

To rule the way that Yahweh, the true king, would rule over his whole creation.

So our instinct, as a good one, is to rule.

But we can't do it right unless we're living in relationship with the true king.

Tending the garden.

Caring for the animals.

Creating beauty in the image of the king.

And listen, God's people definitely have a king.

It's not unclear.

They sing about him all the time.

Psalm 29.

The Lord Yahweh sits enthroned over the flood.

The Lord sits enthroned as king forever.

Psalm 47.

Sing praises to God.

Sing praises.

Sing praises to our king.

Sing praises.

For God is the king of all the earth.

Psalm 145.

They sing about his kingdom.

Your kingdom, God, is an everlasting kingdom.

Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

This is why the Hillel Passover prayer that would have been prayed over and over in Jerusalem this very weekend.

Says to Yahweh, we have no king but thee.

Wow.

Sound familiar?

We have no king but Caesar?

From the very first sin in Eden, men and women, boys and girls, have been rejecting the true king for our own idols.

Looking to what looks good to us, right?

What will give us life?

Adam and Eve, right?

The nation of Israel at the time of the judges.

Another great example of this.

Gideon rescued God's people.

God sent him as a judge to deliver them.

And they wanted to make this flawed man their king.

Gideon said, no way.

Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you.

My son will not rule over you.

The Lord will rule over you.

You have a king.

You have a king.

But the problem was they had quit acknowledging Yahweh's rule.

The whole book of Judges says over and over, in those days, there was no king in Israel.

Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Man, we go there quickly these days, don't we?

I know who I am, how I should live, what I want.

I know that.

When the Israelites do ask God for a king like the nations, Samuel, their last judge, is distraught.

And God says to Samuel, hey, don't take it personally.

Obey the voice of the people and all they say to you.

For they have not rejected you.

You're not the king, Samuel.

They have rejected me from being king over them.

They want a king that they can see and they can follow wherever he leads.

They don't care if he leads them after Yahweh or not.

See, they were made to look like Yahweh.

But they were longing to look like the nations.

To be remade in their image.

They reject Yahweh and they get Saul.

When that doesn't go well, God says, look, if anyone's going to be king of my people,

the point will be to point them to me with your whole heart.

Point them away from the idols of the nations around them.

Remind them to rule over my world in my image.

Show them, king, what the true king looks like.

And so David and Solomon come to the throne and it's repeatedly called the throne of Yahweh.

The throne of the Lord that they will sit on.

And many, many evil kings, if you've read through those books before, follow them.

They lead the people away from God.

Even many of those kings setting up new idols for the people to worship.

That's what happens all through the history of the Old Testament.

When you reject Yahweh, like we read earlier in Jeremiah chapter 2,

Jeremiah 2 · chapter mention

you look somewhere else for life.

Another idol to bow to.

Something to be shaped in its image to give you what you want.

We're always being shaped, right?

Formed into something's image all the time.

The question is, what is it?

So look at the description of a pretty good king.

There are some.

Hezekiah.

2 Kings 18.

What does a good king do?

He tears down idols.

He rules God's way.

He points the people to Yahweh.

And to hope in his promises.

Because what's clear throughout these centuries in the Psalms and the Prophets,

over and over so many examples,

is that Yahweh is going to send a king for his people.

There's someone coming.

A king who will never leave the throne.

A king who will perfectly reflect God's image.

A king who will destroy every idol and any other pretender to the throne of God

and lead God's people in life everlasting.

That is where the term Messiah, anointed one, comes from.

That was the hope of generations of Jews, right?

They needed a king like that.

The Messiah.

The king.

The faithful servant of God who will rescue us once and for all

by bringing us back into relationship with the true king.

That's what they're longing for.

That's what they're looking forward to for generations and generations.

Yet on this night,

when Jesus stands before them in a purple robe,

with a bloodied face,

topped by a crown of thorns,

they reject messianic hope as well.

He came to his own.

People who grew up hearing about him all the time.

But his own did not receive him.

We have no king but Caesar.

Really, no king at all, right?

If you don't listen carefully to their accents,

you might think that they're American patriots.

Our country has a rich history of rejecting kings,

their tea,

and their taxes.

We're proud.

And we have a rich history of enthroning ourselves as king,

don't we?

Maybe we should be less proud of that part.

But I think that you and I inherit that heart from our spiritual fathers and our cultural fathers.

Just think for a minute.

I bow to idols all the time.

Shape myself in their image.

Enthrone myself.

Just thinking of a few ways.

I do worship Jesus as king,

but I reject him as king

when as a parent,

I think my hope for my kids lies

in my controlling what they do

and where they go

and what they believe.

I reject the messianic hope

that Jesus alone rescues them

when I quit praying so much for them

and I start pressuring them to perform the way I want them to.

God, forgive me.

That's idolatry.

We reject Jesus as king by searching for life,

for a firm foundation,

for a successful life somewhere else.

You know, I'll do things Jesus' way

and prioritize my relationship with God

once I get the next promotion

and settle into my long-term career

and have financial security.

Then I can live for Jesus.

For the time being,

I'll bow to Jesus on Sundays,

but honestly, I'm living my life

formed by another king

and another kingdom most of the week.

Friends, just in case you don't recognize that,

that's idolatry at its finest, right?

Honoring God with our lips,

with hearts far from him.

Focusing on our outward appearance

while neglecting our inward formation in God's image.

Living like the firm foundation

is worldly success

while singing about God being worthy.

Spending way less time pursuing God

than pursuing success

and somehow expecting to be formed into his image.

God, forgive us.

If you're there right now,

these idolatrous habits

and patterns of life,

they're hard to break, aren't they?

And we...

We still think we're worshiping God.

We just have forgotten

how to quit bowing to the idols.

We reject Jesus as king

when we say we love and follow him

but live according to our own designs.

We read God's design for our sexuality,

for marriage,

but we're pretty sure

we've got better ideas these days.

From where we sit,

on our throne,

this makes more sense

and it feels like more life,

better life.

Maybe we think in the back of our minds,

after all,

if Jesus doesn't come through,

I better have some hope

and some life already,

somewhere else.

God, forgive us.

Y'all, I've seen all this idolatry

and much more in my own heart and life.

Do you see any idolatry like this

in your own heart and life?

Can you think of anywhere

you're silently rejecting

the kingship of Jesus,

preferring your own rule?

It's understandable, friends.

You were made to rule

just as number two,

not number one.

In the name of the king,

not in your own name,

for his glory,

not for your own success and comfort.

Do you honestly think

you're managing life fine

without him most days?

Do you feel at peace

only when you're in control

and spend most days

deeply anxious,

worried, afraid?

Do you believe you know better

what to do with the time

that he gives you,

the body he made,

the others he made

in his image?

we have no king but Caesar.

It's a rejection of God.

It's idolatry.

It's a rejection of hope

in the Messiah.

All of us are guilty at times.

We need to repent.

We need to quit bowing

to worthless idols.

We need to turn back

to King Jesus.

How do you do that?

Pilate,

whether he knows it or not,

is offering us

the path

to true life.

Behold

your

king.

It's the only way

that I know

to dethrone

the idols

of your heart,

to kick yourself

off the throne,

to behold

your king,

to bow

to Jesus.

What I mean

when I

say that

is instead of

the eyes

of your heart

looking to

other things

for life,

looking to

enthrone

yourself,

instead

look to

Jesus

desperately

as the

only one

in control.

Not him

with a little bit

of you.

As the only

king you can

trust

to rule

over all

things.

The one

without whom

you must

give up

hope

of peace

and joy

and life.

You've bowed

to other idols.

Only

King Jesus

can restore

you to God

and enable

you to live

the life

that you

were made

for.

That's

looking to

him

desperately.

Jesus,

I need

you.

And

look to

him

daily.

Not just

bow the

knee once.

Many of us

have done

that,

have acknowledged

Jesus as

king,

but actually

realize that

he is ruling

for you

in every

moment,

in every

situation,

even the ones

you can't

see it.

He's not

cheering you

on in hopes

that you

can win

the battle

yourself.

He's not

a cosmic

cheerleader.

He's coming

in to conquer

you,

to actually

to let you

off the

throne

and give

you rest.

So that

when you do

stand up to

fight,

it is in

his already

accomplished

victory.

That's the

kind of king

that he is.

When King

Simba comes

back to

Pride Rock,

there are

many lions

and other

good animals.

They've

been fighting

but mostly

cowering in

fear and

losing.

And he

doesn't just

provide inspiration

for their

fight so they

do better.

What happens?

They fall

back and

stand behind

him and

he steps

forward to

defeat their

greatest enemies

and then at

the end they

rush forward

and clean up

the scattering

hyenas.

just as David

defeated Goliath

on behalf of

God's fearful

people and

they then

rushed forward

to plunder

the fleeing

Philistines.

So Jesus,

our champion,

defeats all

his and our

enemies and

in so doing

this king

invites us

to rest,

to rejoice

in his victory

and then

in his train

to plunder

the fleeing

darkness

in the battle

that he's

already won.

Bowing to

King Jesus,

it actually

means really

truly looking

to him,

doesn't it?

Remembering

often that

he is on

the throne,

applying that

reality,

that truth

that we say

we believe

to the

relationships,

the decisions,

the situations

of my life

that seem out

of control.

Or they

seem harmful

to me.

I mean,

honestly,

ask yourself,

if you're not

at any point

in your day

remembering

that Jesus

is on the

throne of

your life,

how would

you expect

to be formed

in his

image?

What happens

when you do

behold him?

What happens

when your eyes

are fixed,

when you see

who's really

on the throne,

who the true

king is?

Then idols

are displaced.

self is

dethroned,

the true

king is

crowned,

and his

image starts

to be formed

in us

more and

more.

Behold

your

king.

That's what

I'd like us

to spend

the last few

minutes doing

together.

If you've

never seen

Jesus

as king,

I'd like to

encourage you

just to imagine

what it would

be like

to have a

king like

this,

to bow to

him.

I assure

you that he

is quite

unique in

ways that you

might not even

believe,

but if you'll

look at him

and just

imagine,

wouldn't it

be wonderful

to follow a

king like

this?

If you know

him but you've

started bowing

elsewhere,

I want you to

just take a

deep breath

and gaze on

his beauty

and his

majesty for a

few minutes

with me

and so rest

and find

hope and

find life

in Jesus

our king.

I'm grateful

for the

inspiration

and some

words from

Pastor Shadrach

Meshach

Lockridge.

What a great

name.

Shadrach and

Meshach in the

same.

He ministered in

California in the

last century and

he once preached

an Easter themed

sermon titled

That's My

King.

I'll say

that's our

king.

Just behold

him for a few

minutes.

He's the king

of creation.

He's the king

of righteousness.

He's the king

of promise.

He's the king

of redemption.

He's the king

of heaven.

He's the king

of glory.

That's our

king.

The king of

kings.

The lord of

lords.

Look at him

there for just a

moment in this

passage we just

read.

There he is.

He's bloody.

Yet he doesn't

fight back.

He's misunderstood.

He's accused

falsely.

He's mocked

unjustly.

unjustly.

He sits silent

when he knows

he's being led

to the slaughter.

Y'all he is

absolutely committed

to seeing this

through.

To the death

in our

place.

When betrayal

is rearing

its ugly

head.

When the

awful cross

looms

nearer and

nearer.

when the

terrors of

bearing sin

torment his

soul.

Our king

stands

firm.

So listen

nothing in

heaven or on

earth will keep

him from

loving you.

From rescuing

you.

From holding

you.

He is

enduringly

strong.

He's entirely

sincere.

He's eternally

steadfast.

He's immortally

graceful.

He's

imperially

powerful.

He is

impartially

merciful.

He's our

king.

His promise

is sure.

His goodness

is limitless.

His mercy

is everlasting.

His love

is unfailing.

His word

is eternal.

His grace

is sufficient.

His reign

is righteous.

His mission

is accomplished.

And his

yoke is easy.

And his

burden is

light.

That's our

king.

Marvel at

him for a

minute.

Close your

eyes if you

need to.

Y'all he

dignifies his

followers with

high callings

and forgives us

when we fall

short.

He is

condemned

right here

at the

judgment

seat so

that there

will be

no

condemnation

at the

judgment

day for

those who

are in

Christ

Jesus.

Amen.

He conquers

all of

his and

our

enemies

except for

those that

he picks up

off the

ground long

enough to

hang him on

a cross

where he

conquers our

greatest

enemies once

and for

all.

And he

lifts us up

then from the

ash heap to

seat us with

him in the

heavenly places

far above all

other rule or

power or

dominion that

ever existed or

ever will

exist.

that's our

king and

we're seated

with him.

He's the

visible image

of the

invisible God.

He shows

us what

God is like

in the flesh

standing there

as you

look up at

him.

He shows us

God's heart.

He shows us

God's commitment

to us

as he

restores us

to God

and to the

very image

that we

were created

to reflect.

Religious

leaders couldn't

stand him

but they found

out they

couldn't stop

him.

Pilate

couldn't find

any fault

in him.

The people

couldn't decide

about him.

The witnesses

couldn't agree

about him.

Herod couldn't

kill him.

Death

couldn't handle

him and the

grave couldn't

hold him.

That's our

king.

He's risen

and reigning.

Listen,

he's never

out of control.

Never.

He's never

out of love.

He's never

out of patience.

He's never

out of grace.

Our good

and gracious

king,

you need to

see him and

know he's

never out

of control.

Nowhere in

your life

never is he

out of control.

He strengthens

the weak.

He helps

the tempted.

He sympathizes

with the

downcast.

He draws

near to the

brokenhearted.

He forgives

sinners.

He heals

the sick.

He discharges

debtors.

He sets

captives free.

He defends

the feeble.

He blesses

the young.

He regards

the aged.

He beautifies

the meek.

He's the

son of God.

He's the

savior of

sinners.

He's the

friend of

failures.

He's the

shepherd of

the sheep.

He's the

light of

the world.

He's the

hope of

the nations.

And he's

our king.

He's the

alpha

and the

omega.

The beginning

and the

end.

He always

has been

and always

will be.

He had no

predecessor

and he will

have no

successor.

He's not up

for re-election

and he will

never resign.

He is

unparalleled.

He's supreme.

He is

pre-eminent.

that's our

king.

He wants

you to see

him.

He wants

you to see

him like

that.

He invites

you to rest

in him.

He calls

you to

worship him.

He enables

you to find

life in

him.

He offers

you to have

hope in

him.

He urges

you to

trust him.

That's our

king.

O king

Jesus,

give us

eyes to

see.

Give us

knees to

bow.

Give us

hearts to

worship

and to

light in

and rest

in you.

our

king.

We ask

it in

your

name.

Amen.

For more

information,

visit us

online at

southwood.org.