Expositions by H. A. Wilson
Taken from Grace and Truth Magazine 1923
Memory Verse — II Corinthians 5:21
The hearts of men are naturally
the same in all generations. We are
liable to look hack upon the sins of the
soldiers and of the Jews of the time of
Jesus, and self-righteously condemn them.
We are inclined to swell up in our
pride and to think, if not to say, that we
would not have done such a wicked thing as
they did then, had we been there. But
we forget, when we take that attitude,
that we are naturally just as vile and
wicked as they were. Let us bear this in
mind as we study this lesson, and let us
remember that it is only by the grace of
God that men's hearts can be changed.
Underneath the ordinarily calm and
apparently sane exterior of men lurk hellish
tendencies which they themselves may never
realize until it is too late, and they
have done some terrible thing which they
thought was impossible for them to do.
God, Who sees not as men see, looking not
upon the outward appearance but upon the
heart, has recorded in His Word that
the human heart is "deceitful above all
things, and desperately wicked." But the
grace of God is sufficient for the worst
of sinners, and though we find in this
lesson a dark picture which brings out clearly
the natural sinfulness of men, still we
find the grace of God in the midst of
this terrible scene, giving a message of life.
Jer. 17:9; I Sam. 16:7.
I. THE MOCKERY OF THE GENTILES
John 19:1-5
Pilate, before delivering Jesus
up to be crucified, had Him scourged. The
soldiers took delight in this fiendish
act, and even when the body of their victim
was raw and bleeding with innumerable
wounds their bestiality had hot
'reached its limits. They plaited a crown of thorns
and pressed it upon the brow of
Jesus, then they mocked Him, and made sport
of Him. Oh! how our hearts should burn
within us when we realize the real
significance of that scene! Jesus had the power
to deliver Himself from the hands of
His enemies. He had the power to put an
end to their cruelties, but He did
not. He suffered them all for us. Let us
remember that as Jesus bore the insults
and as He patiently submitted His bare
back to the lacerating strokes of a scourge,
whose lashes were tipped with steel
hooks. He was doing that for love of our
poor unworthy souls. Those Gentile
soldiers must have broken His heart for
the love which He had for them, because
He had come to die for all men,
including His tormentors. But were they any worse
than many Christians who honor Him
with their lips but whose hearts are
far from Him? Surely that is just as
truly mockery as for those soldiers to pay
Him mock homage as they did, and surely
it cuts into the heart of Jesus more
cruelly even than the la-h cut His flesh.
Mark 7:6; Matt. 15:8; Isa. 29:13.
II. THE DEMAND OF THE JEWS
John 19:6-7
After the scourging Pilate led
Jesus forth before the Jews, in order
(so lie said) that they might know that
he found no fault in Him. When the Jews
saw Jesus their fury knew no bounds
and they cried, "Crucify Him! Crucify
Him!" The chief priests and Pharisees
stirred up the rabble to that cry, and they
were directly responsible for the
crucifixion of Jesus. But was their sin any
worse than the sin of those so-called
ministers and teachers who today crucify the
Son of God afresh and put Him to an open
shame in their denial of all the
essential teachings of the Word concerning Him?
Surely not. And as the chief priests
and Pharisees found many ready to follow
their leadership and to cry with them,
"Crucify Him," so today modernistic
leaders find many ready and willing to
encourage them in their denials of the
essential truths of the doctrine of Christ, and to
pay them for their destructive teaching.
Ezek. 34:1-10; II Tim. 3:1-9; I Tim. 4:1-2.
III. THE WEAKNESS OF PILATE
John 19:8-12, 16
One cannot help pitying poor
Pilate. He was torn between his fear of the
Jews, and the fear that perhaps after
all Jesus' claims might be true. We find
him at one time leaguing himself with the
Jews in their attempts to convict Jesus,
then we find him trying weakly to
release Him, and finally we find him
delivering Him up to be crucified. It seems
that Pilate was not certain in his own mind
about the One Who was before him. One
is reminded of the cry of Elijah to
the children of Israel, "How long halt
ye between two opinions? If the Lord
be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then
follow him" (I Kings 18:21). In his
weak vacillating, Pilate reminds us of
many who are trembling on the brink of an
acceptance of Jesus, but who have not
courage enough boldly to accept Him as their
Saviour and to confess Him as such. Like
Pilate many poor people who are in this
predicament waver until finally it is too
late. Their hesitancy proves their doom.
They go out into a hopeless, Christless
eternity. Mark 16:16; II Thes. 1:7-9.
IV. THE REJECTION OF THE KING
John 19:12-15
The Jews in insisting upon
their law broke it themselves. So intent
were they upon securing the death of Jesus
that when Pilate said to them, "Behold
your King," they cried out, "Away with Him!
Crucify Him!" And when Pilate
asked, "Shall I crucify your King?"
They answered, "We have no king but
Caesar." The law definitely provided that
the Jews should not set a stranger over
them in authority. In thus choosing
Caesar as their king, and rejecting Jesus
they broke the very law to which they
appealed in insisting upon the death of
Jesus. Then, too, they refused to
believe the Word of God in which He clearly
promised to raise up a King unto
them of the seed of David. 'The King of the
Jews was the King of prophecy, but
the Jews shut their eyes to the
prophecies and stopped their ears to the
promises. They said, "We have no king but
Caesar." Many, like them, are enthroning
a strange king in their lives. When they
face the claims of Jesus upon them, and
hear His loving offer of life they
respond, "We have no king but gold, — We have
no king but lust, — We have no king
but pleasure," etc. How many false
"kings" might be named, and all of them
are superseding the Lord Jesus in the
lives and hearts of men who have been
bought by His precious blood. Deut. 17:15;
H Sam. 7:12-16; Psa. 18:50.
V. THE UNIVERSALITY OF GUILT
I Peter 2:24
The guilt of crucifying Jesus
and rejecting Him cannot be limited
to the men of His own time. We are just as
guilty as they were. It was for our
sins He suffered so. It was because we
were guiltly, hell-doomed sinners that it
was necessary for Jesus to die upon the
Cross. And in our stubbornness and
sinfulness we have multiplied His
sufferings. God reached down into our time by
His marvelous grace and gathered up all
of our sins, placing them upon His own
Son. Does it not make us tremble to
realize how many He had to answer for in our
behalf? When we catch the glimpse
of Calvary which God wants us to have,
we will think less of the sin and
brutality of the Jews and the Romans, and
more of our own sin and unworthiness.
Then we win find that the consciousness
of sin is swallowed up in an ineffable joy
because of the love which made Him
willing to suffer so for us. To the
question, "Who crucified Jesus?" we can only
answer, "We did it." Truly the Jews demanded
His death, and the Roman soldiers
performed the actual deed, but you and I,
dear friend, by our sins made it
necessary for Him to suffer. God looked down
through the years and saw us guilty and
helpless and undone before Him. He saw
that only through the acceptable
sacrifice of His Son could He save us, and He
gave Him to be the propitiation for
our sins. John 3:16; Rom. 8:3-4; II Cor.
5:21; Heb. 9:26, 28.
VI. THE MANIFESTATION OF GRACE
II Corinthians 8:9
In the sufferings
which Jesus
endured at the hands of the soldiers God
gives us a wonderful message of grace.
He was bruised and bleeding, — for us!
Many years before this time Isaiah
had cried concerning Him, "He was wounded
for our transgressions; He was
bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement
of our peace was upon Him, and with His
stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray, we have turned
every one to his own way, and the Lord
hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isa.
53:56). The bleeding, bruised body
of Jesus testifies eloquently of the love
of God in letting Him die for us. Then,
too, the crown of thorns upon His brow
gives a clear testimony. Thorns are
symbolical in the Scripture of sin, and the
resultant curse of God. It was not until
man had sinned that God said, "Thorns
and thistles shall the earth bring forth unto
you" (Gen. 3:18). The crown of thorns upon
the brow of Jesus testifies that God
laid upon Him the sin of men, — that He
Who knew no sin was made to be sin for
us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. II Cor. 5:21; Gal.
3:10-13. The simple story of Jesus'
sufferings contains power to save the
souls of men. Too often we hinder the power of
the Gospel by making it too
ornamental. Ministers have found that men and
women, boys and girls sit entranced
when they simply tell the story of Jesus'
sufferings. We need to hold before their
eyes the bleeding, lacerated form of our
Lord, and to tell them that He did this
for them. We need to point them to the
crown of thorns and the blood which
dropped from His pierced brow. We need to
make them see Him, bearing His cross up
the mountain side. We should let them
hear the angry cries of the rabble as
they push, and jostle Jesus, spitting upon
Him, buffeting Him and plucking the
beard from His face. We need to let them
hear the sound of the hammers as they
drive the nails through His quivering,
bleeding flesh. We need to let them look
upon the Son of God hanging in
unspeakable agony upon the cross, and to
hear Him saying, "Father, forgive them,
they know not what they do." We need to
let them witness His death agonies, and
to hear Him cry, "My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me!" Then we
should point them to the empty tomb and
tell them that the Lord has risen
again. After they have clearly seen the
sufferings of Jesus we should remind them that
all this physical suffering is but a
picture of the more awful spiritual suffering
which He endured in His separation from
God. Jesus literally endured the
torments of the damned in hell. He did it that
we might have eternal life, and that we
might not have to suffer so. If men will
only gaze upon Him by faith, God will give
them eternal life. Let us tell them
the simple story of the Cross and seek to
lead them to Him. Rom. 1:16-17.
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