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Behold the Man! (Jn 19:1–16)Jaunting through John (Message 50)Dr. John Niemelä Grace Chapel www.mol316.com May 10, 2009INTRODUCTIONNEW EXPOSITION(19:1) Pilate had Jesus (whom he declared innocent) floggedThis is the first of two floggings. Mark 15:15 reports the more severe second flogging (the onedesigned to hasten death on the cross)(19:2–3) Soldiers pressed a wreath of thorns onto His head, put a purple robe on Him, hailedHim as King of the Judeans, and repeatedly struck HimThey mock Him as if He were king; but He will be Messianic King of Judeans & the whole worldPurple was the color of royalty, because purple dye was costly(It required the glands of 12,000 Murex mollusks to make 1.5 grams of purple dye)(19:4) Pilate went out & announced that Jesus was innocentOnly an unprincipled man would punish someone he knew to be innocent(19:5) Pilate [taunted them[, saying, Behold the Man! when Jesus came with a wreath of thorns& a purple robe(19:6) The chief priests and temple police shouted Crucify! Crucify Him!(19:7) Pilate [taunted them by] saying Crucify Him yourselves (which they could not do)The Romans alone could crucify. Pilate would not and could not give this right away. He said thisas a taunt, but it produced an interesting answer.

4. Jesus went on to say, “I did not come to destroy,but to fulfill. How did Jesus fulfill the law?(A) First of all, Jesus fulfilled the Law in HisSINLESS LIFE.Hebrews 4:15 says, “He was in all pointstempted as we are, yet without sin.”It is almost impossible for us to understand a manwho never sinned. None of us has ever met asinless person. We live with sinful people. We workwith sinful people. We shop with sinful people.We go to school with sinful people.It is hard to imagine someone who never had asinful thought…..never spoke a sinful word…..never did a sinful deed…..and never acted out ofsinful motive. And yet JESUS CHRIST was sucha perfect man.How could Jesus’ enemies ever accuse Him of“destroying” the law? Jesus was the only manwho ever lived who fulfilled the LAW to absoluteperfection!(B) Jesus fulfilled the Law in His SACRIFICIALDEATH.The Law prescribed a system of sacrifices to deal withsin. For 1500 years, day after day, week after week, andespecially year after year, the people brought theirsacrifices.These offerings signified that sin brings punishment andonly death and blood could release someone from thatpunishment. Those thousands of dead animals pointedforward to a sacrifice. That’s why John the Baptistexclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away thesin of the world” (John 1:29).

5. To illustrate how He came to fulfill the Lawto its fullest extent, Jesus says in verse 18.…..18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earthpass away, one jot or one tittle will by no meanspass from the law till all is fulfilled.What is “a jot?” A “jot” was the tiniest LETTER inthe Hebrew alphabet. A jot represented anythingthat was extremely small.What is “a tittle.” A “tittle” was the tiniestSTROKE of a pen. A period…..a comma…..or the dotting of the letter “i” would be examplesof “a tittle.”So what Jesus was saying was this: “Not thecrossing of a single “t” or the dotting of a single“i” will disappear from the Law until the Law iscompletely fulfilled.So has the LAW been fulfilled? YES! Through Jesus’ sinless lifeand sacrificial death, the PENALTY FOR SIN has been paid.CHRIST provided a way of SALVATION that meets all the all theOld Testament requirements and demands. CHRIST HASFULFILLED THE LAW!JESUS FULFILLED THE LAW IN HIS SINLESS LIFE.AND JESUS FULFILLED THE LAW IN HIS SACRIFICIAL DEATH.After speaking of His relationship to the Law, Christ nowspeaks of……….

II.The CHRISTIAN’S Relationship To The LAW(vs. 19,20)19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of thesecommandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in thekingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shallbe called great in the kingdom of heaven.20 For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds therighteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no meansenter the kingdom of heaven.1. Is the Old Testament Law still binding upon Christians?If so, to what extent? If not, then does this mean theOld Testament is meaningless to us?2. To answer those questions we need to look at verses 19,20in their proper context.Let’s look at some key words in verse 19.…..-First, Jesus says, “Whoever.” Whoever is a generalterm referring to all disciples of Jesus.-Secondly, I would draw your attention to those twowords, “these commands.” In the context of thispassage, Jesus is not referring to the Old Testament Lawthat He spoke of in vs.17,18, but rather He is referringto the LAWS OF THE KINGDOM.Beginning with verse 21 to the end of this chapter,Jesus gives six examples of how the “Law of theKingdom surpasses the Old Testament Law.”Jesus will preface those six examples with thesewords, “You have heard that it was said to thoseof old…….But I say……..”

3. Now you notice also in verse 19, that some will be called“least” and some will be called “great” in the kingdom.Jesus is talking about the eternal REWARDS of Hisfollowers. One day each and every Christian will standbefore the Judgment Seat of Christ. On that daywe will give an account of our lives. This is not todetermine whether or not we are saved. It is to determinethe greatness or the smallness of our eternal reward.And what Jesus is telling us in VERSE 19 is that ourresponse to THE LAW OF THE KINGDOM will determineour reward.*If we did not take God’s word seriously……ifwe didn’t faithfully obey God’s word and by ourwords and our example taught others to do thesame, Christ will call us “the least” in the Kingdom.*On the other hand if we took God’s word seriously,and faithfully obeyed it, and sought to live by it,and by our words and our example taught othersto do the same, Christ will call us “great” in theKingdom.4. So what does this tell us about our RELATIONSHIPTO THE LAW?It tells us we are no longer under the Old Law or theOld Covenant that God established with the Jewishpeople. We are no longer required to make animalsacrifices or to worship in a tabernacle or a temple.

Does this mean the Old Testament is of no value tous? Absolutely not! The Old Testament is extremelyimportant to us because it teaches us the history ofour Christian heritage. It teaches us how powerlessman was to do anything about his sin. It teachesus God’s moral principles for all generations. Andmost importantly the Old Testament teaches usWHY WE NEEDED A SAVIOR!5. While we are NOT saved by our outward observanceof the LAW, our obedience to God’s law is evidencewe are truly saved.JOHN 14:15 (NKJV) “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”JOHN 15:10 (NKJV) “ If you keep My commandments, you will abide inMy love, just as I have kept My Father’scommandments and abide in His love.”I JOHN 5:3 (NKJV) For this is the love of God, that we keep Hiscommandments. And His commandments are notburdensome.You see, we still have commands. We still have LAWSthat govern our lives as citizens of the Kingdom ofheaven.But now, we obey God’s laws out of our LOVE andREVERENCE for our Heavenly Father, not out oflegalism or a cringing fear that God will punish usif we don’t obey.As citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, you and I areno longer to look at God’s Law as a bunch of “religiousrules” to weigh us down, but rather we are to viewGod’s Laws as the pathway to an abundant life inChrist!

7. Let’s quickly move on that 20 th verse…….20 For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds therighteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no meansenter the kingdom of heaven.8. These words must have come as a complete shock to thoseseated on the mount listening to Jesus.In those days, people believed the scribes and Phariseeswere the most righteous people in the world. In fact theyeven had a saying that “If only two people are allowedinto heaven, one will be a scribe, and the other aPharisee.”9. But Jesus has just “popped the self-righteous bubble”of the scribes and Pharisees, when He told the disciplestheir righteousness would have to “surpass” that of thescribes and Pharisees to enter into the Kingdom ofheaven.10. The scribes and Pharisees had divided the Old TestamentLaw into 365 negative commandments and 250 positivecommandments, and then added hundreds of their owncommandments to go along with them. They also dividedthe commands into “lesser commands” and “greatercommands.”And they taught the people in those days that if theywould live up to “their” interpretation of the Lawthey would become “righteous” and thereforeacceptable to God.11. The reason why people in those days thought it wasimpossible to surpass the righteousness of the scribesand Pharisees is because they had turned righteousnessinto “keeping a million religious rules.” In fact , thescribes and Pharisees never saw a religious rule theydidn’t like.

12. To the scribes and Pharisees, RITUAL was more importantthan RIGHTEOUSNESS. The EXTERNAL was moreimportant than the INTERNAL. Religious RULES weremore important than religious FREEDOM. And outwardSHOW was more important than inward SINCERITY.***********************************************************************C O N C L U S I O NThe story is told of a woman who owned a beautiful white poodle.Every week she took her little white poodle to the local pet groomerfor a bath and haircut.And every day when she would take her white poodle for a walk inthe park she took great pride in how much whiter and cleaner herpoodle was compared to all the other dogs.But then one day a beautiful snow fell upon the town where shelived. And when she took her poodle for a walk in the snow shecould plainly see her dog’s whiteness looked dingy compared tothe pure whiteness of the snow.I think a lot of Christians see themselves the way thatwoman saw her poodle. In our self-righteousness we takegreat pride in looking “whiter” and “cleaner” than otherpeople because we go to Church every Sunday anddon‘t do a lot of things others do.. But compared to the purewhite righteousness of Jesus Christ, our righteousness looksso “dull” and “dingy” by comparison.Brothers and sisters, let’s “tear up” our “religious checklist”and pursue a genuine, life-giving, life-changing relationshipwith our Living Savior, Jesus Christ.That’s what it means to LIVE THE SALT LIFE!