Monday, March 28,
2016, 12:18 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song, “Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken.” Speak,
Lord your words to my heart. I read John
19 (select ESV).
They Mocked Him
(vv. 1-6)
Then
Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of
thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to
him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. Pilate
went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you
may know that I find no guilt in him.” So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of
thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” When the
chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify
him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no
guilt in him.”
Many people tend to oppose, mock, and/or make fun of what
they don’t understand, or what appears strange or unlike them. Television
promotes such mockery so much so that many Christians who are avid TV watchers may
find themselves regularly laughing at those who are different from them,
including treating other believers in Jesus in such a manner as this, too. Thus,
these mockers are being regularly entertained at the expense of others.
They didn’t get Jesus. He was strange to them. He didn’t do
things their way. He didn’t follow all their rules and customs. Some thought he
was crazy. Others may have considered him too radical for their tastes. Some
felt he was blasphemous. There were those who were jealous of him because of
his popularity among the people. They felt threatened by him, and believed their
own positions of power and influence among the people were in jeopardy. Many
hated him, though some loved and admired him. Many turned against him, though
there were those who truly followed him, but even some of them abandoned him
temporarily. Jesus said that in like manner as he was treated, we will be
treated also.
No Authority Unless
Given (vv. 7-11)
The
Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die
because he has made himself the Son of God.” When Pilate heard this statement,
he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus,
“Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, “You
will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and
authority to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority
over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who
delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”
Satan and humans have no power over us, though, unless it is
given to them by God, and for his divine purposes and glory. So, we never have
to be afraid. God is completely in control over all things. Nothing escapes his
notice. Nothing surprises him or takes him off guard. Just as the Father in
Heaven allowed Jesus Christ, God the Son, to suffer all he suffered for you and
for me so that we could be saved out of our sin, he will allow us to go through
hardships and persecutions, too. We will be hated just as he was hated, and
there will be those who will want us dead or gone, too, so that we no longer
pose a threat to them and to their earthly kingdoms, or to Satan and to his
followers.
If laws do not already exist which they can use against us
in some way, they may create new laws to justify getting rid of us. I believe
some new laws may be in the works right now, and that there are earthly powers
who are presently creating situations in order to justify the persecution of
followers of Christ, even here in America. World leaders, both in government
and in the church, are pushing for a one world order and a one world religion,
and they are already working to outlaw the gospel of Jesus Christ as taught by
Jesus and his NT apostles. They consider the true gospel and its adherents to
be prejudicial, hateful, unloving, bigoted, unwelcoming, and intolerant, and so
we must be targeted for removal.
Peer Pressure (vv.
12-16a)
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, 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.
Pilate was pressured into handing Jesus over to be
crucified, although he found no fault in him. And people today, even among
those who call themselves Christians, will try to pressure us into rejecting
the true gospel of salvation, too, and its messengers. They will use all kinds
of pressure tactics, such as trying to shame us into rejecting the true gospel
by trying to convince us that it teaches works-based salvation, and that if we
follow it that we are actually opposing Jesus instead of following him. They
will try to persuade us to accept that the true gospel is hateful and that it
does not represent the true character of Jesus, and thus it must be abandoned
in favor of a more tolerant Jesus and gospel which embraces all people and all
religions and all walks of life. We must guard our hearts against this.
Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny
self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and self) and follow (obey)
him. He said if we hold on to our lives (of living for sin and self) we will
lose them for eternity, but if we lose our lives (die with him to sin), we will
gain eternal life (Lu. 9:23-25). Jesus died, not just so we can escape hell and
have the promise of heaven when we die. He died that we might die to sin and
live to righteousness (1 Pet. 2:24). He died that we might no longer live for
ourselves, but for him who gave himself up for us (2 Co. 5:15). And, he died
that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not
after the flesh, but who conduct our lives after the Spirit, for if we walk
after the flesh, we will die, but if by the Spirit we are putting to death the
deeds of the flesh, we will live (Ro. 8:1-14).
So, if someone tries to convince you that this teaching is
works-based salvation, don’t listen to them, because they are telling you to
reject the Word of God in favor of the teachings of humans. If we say we have fellowship
with God, but we continue walking in the darkness (in sin), we are liars, and the
truth is not in us (1 Jn. 1:6). When we believe in Jesus to be Lord and Savior
of our lives, we are crucified with Christ of the Spirit in death to sin, and
we are resurrected with Christ of the Spirit in newness of life, “created to be
like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:24). God’s grace to us in
saving us from our sins is not a free license to continue in sin. His grace,
which brings salvation, teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly
passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives while we wait
for Christ’s return (Tit. 2:11-14). The Christian life is a crucified life.
Yet, when you believe and share the true gospel of
salvation, expect to be hated and rejected just as Jesus was hated and rejected.
But, keep on obeying Jesus with your life.
Bearing His Cross
(vv. 16b-22)
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 King of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have
written.”
Being a follower of Jesus Christ means that we follow him
wherever he leads us. And, where he leads us will often get us rejected and
hated, because we stand in opposition to the things of this world, because
Jesus called us out of the world, to be separate from (different, unlike) the
world of sin, because we are becoming like Jesus. This is what it means to be
holy as God is holy. And, this is our calling as disciples of Christ.
Yet, we must be willing to suffer disgrace for the sake of the
gospel so that others might be saved and have eternal life with God. We must
not shun the cross in order to gain popularity and acceptance among the people
of this world, including within the worldly church. We must stand strong on the
truths of God’s Holy Word, and be intentional about sharing the gospel with
others so that they, too, can know Jesus as Lord and as Savior of their lives. Many
will be those who will not acknowledge that we are followers of Christ, and
they may assign us all kinds of false motives for why we do what we do, but
that is ok. We have to know who we are in Christ, and we must obey God rather
than humans, if humans ask us to do what is contrary to God and his Word. Following
Christ will have its hardships, but greater are its rewards and blessings.
Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken / Henry F. Lyte / Mozart/ Arr. Hubert
P. Main
Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to
leave and follow Thee;
Destitute, despised, forsaken, Thou,
from hence, my all shalt be.
Perish every fond ambition, all I've
sought, and hoped, and known;
Yet how rich is my condition, God and
Christ are still my own!
Let the world despise and leave me,
they have left my Savior, too;
Human hearts and looks deceive me; Thou
art not, like man, untrue;
And, while Thou shalt smile upon me,
God of wisdom, love, and might,
Foes may hate, and friends disown me;
show Thy face, and all is bright.
Man may trouble and distress me –
‘Twill but drive me to Thy breast.
Life with trials hard may press me;
Heaven will bring me sweeter rest.
Oh, ‘tis not in grief to harm me, while
Thy love is left to me;
Oh, ‘twere not in joy to charm me, were
that joy unmixed with Thee.
Go then, earthly fame and treasure!
Come, disaster, scorn, and pain!
In Thy service pain is pleasure; with
Thy favor loss is gain.
I have called Thee, Abba, Father, I
have stayed my heart on Thee;
Storms may howl and clouds may gather;
all must work for good to me.
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