If you'll take up your scriptures, and turn to the Gospel of John, chapter 19, we are at Golgotha. We have traveled with Christ the Via de la Rosa. We have watched in our own agony as the stripes of our healing were placed upon his back. We have suffered with him the indignation of insults that have been hurled at him at false accusations, and now we travel with our Lord as he finds his final destination in this life on the hilltop of Golgotha. On 19, 19 through 22, as we painfully read of the continuing indignation and insult that is given to our Lord even in the hour of his greatest suffering. Listen for it as God who speaks to us. 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 Arabic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priest 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. May the Lord bless the reading of his word, the hearing of his people. From the reading of the four gospels, their accounts of the testimony of the life and the ministry of Jesus, we can conclude with some certainty that John of whom we have just read, that he alone actually witnessed the crucifixion. We don't know the whereabouts of the other apostles, but we can say with some certainty that John was there and that John did in fact see the crucifixion scene with his own eyes. John doesn't describe the actual cross, he doesn't describe many of the details of the crucifixion. It most certainly would have been a cross on which there was a horizontal crossbeam placed in another vertical crossbeam that extended above the horizontal. It is possible that it could have been in the shape of a T, which you sometimes see represented, but it was most likely, and we see because of the placard which was placed on the cross, that it is most likely that the cross was just as it has been handed down to us as represented by a vertical beam and then a horizontal beam placed below the top of the vertical beam. John gives us other details that are unique to himself, which calls us to pay particular attention to how John expresses the scene at the cross. John recounts Simon being pressed into service to carry the cross. He tells us of a tender moment when he entrust his very own mother, Mary, to John's care. He alone tells us of the two sayings from the cross of I thirst and it is finished and of how a soldier thrust the spear into the side of Jesus and brought forth a mix of water and blood. While all of the accounts include the pointing, or rather the posting of the charge against Jesus, only John tells us all the languages that it was written in, Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The detail is significant because it is a declaration of the nature of Christ kingdom. It is a global kingdom, it is not just a local kingdom. Whenever you say kingdom now, there is a lot of energy that will be gathered around that word. It is a great deal of theological preoccupation in our day with the whole idea of kingdom. Not too many days past between my being asked what my view of the kingdom is. Am I pre-mill, or post-mill, or all-mill, or any mill at all? Sometimes I wonder if it would be nice just to have a mill. It is not just a matter of curiosity. It is a passionate area of discourse and speculation. I mean, very quickly relate to you just a very recent opportunity I have had for such speculation. I stood watching a television news account of some of the earthquakes that we have been experiencing, and there was another minister of another denomination, which denomination. It is not important to mention except that it was in our own. He was watching the screen and he said almost out of hand, well, I guess we better get ready. I looked at him and I said, well, we are always supposed to be ready, aren't we? He says, oh yes, but I think it is fairly clear that the end is coming quickly. Engaging in casual conversation, not seeking any confrontation, I ask him, what do you mean? Do you think that is going to be almost ingest expecting him to say, well, no one knows for sure. He did say that no one knows for sure except that he reads his Bible. The Bible clearly says that when this begins to happen, that it is going to be pretty quick. I, of course, then, countered and said, well, hasn't every generation thought that it was going to be their generation. Certainly, there have been worse times in human history than the times that we now experience. There have been times when nations have sought to build an entire global kingdom of their own, and looting to, of course, the kingdoms that we see represented in the book of Revelation, a place where we don't necessarily find ourselves now, but he was adamant, and he was sure, and he asserted again as he looked at me with a bit of an accusing tone and said, I read the Bible, and I know what it says about this. Now, those of you who know me that I know that I take such accusations of not reading the Bible or knowing anything about it quite well, and so with the hairs on my neck beginning to stand up a point in my life that I do try to resist, but I find myself often taken passionately into such discourses that are never wise to undertake. I then told him, I said, well, I bet you believe in the rapture, too, don't you? God only knows why I had to throw that on the table. Of course, he believed in the rapture, I knew that, or I wouldn't have said it. And not only the rapture, but he's firmly pre-mill. At that point, I ask him, so would you describe yourself as pre-mill, post-mill, or all-mill? He looked at me with an inquisitive look, and it was clear he had never even heard the terms. That's where we find ourselves now. We find ourselves in an age where religious fiction has dictated theology without any consideration of the scriptures themselves. This particular minister was absolutely uncompromisingly fixed upon a theology that he's never studied from the word. Or else, he would at least be aware of some of the tensions in interpretation. He had no awareness of them at all. There seemed to be only one cut and dry answer. I will say that at the conclusion of our conversation, it was collegial, while you were discussing this with good tone and good fellowship together, and he did acknowledge that there were some issues surrounding this, perhaps he wasn't quite clear about, but nevertheless, I better get ready. Which I assured him I would. It seems that there is too much talk of calendars now when it comes to the kingdom, and not enough talk of Christ. Too much talk of dates and times and earthquakes and nations, and not enough talk of Christ, whatever your view of kingdom, you're going to need a king to have a kingdom. We need more discussion about Christ, and less discussion about calendars. Perhaps we should begin with thoughts about the kingdom by lifting our eyes to read the inscription that is on the very cross of Christ, which reads, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Written in languages that all the world could understand, Pilate ordered that sign partly out of custom, because there had to be the accusation that was posted at the scene of the crucifixion. But let's not be misled or mistaken. It also was largely due to his desire to slap back at the Jewish leadership. You recall in our previous studies together, there had been a back and a forth as the Jews were pressing Pilate, and he felt himself more and more cornered until he was finally, as we put it, check and mate, and he had no choice, except to give way to where the trial led by the Jews was taking him. He had already repaid them his humiliation when he brought Jesus before them and told them publicly, behold your king, calling Jesus their king in front of them, and then asking them, what will I do with the king of the Jews, publicly saying to the people, you've got a king, and this king apparently is powerless to do anything for you as a nation. No quicker did the Sanhedrin read the sign that he put above the crucifixion scene, then they went asking that it be removed, and instead they offered that Jesus simply be described as one who presumed to be king of the Jews. Some argue for contradictions in the gospel writers at this point, because the writers word the sign a little differently in Matthew and Mark and Luke and John. Matthew says this is Jesus, the king of Jews. Mark says simply the king of Jews as does Luke, this is the king of the Jews. One says Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews, which was it and why the contradiction. This is a riddle that is easily solved, and if you are in a place that this becomes an accusation against the Scriptures to you, your answer can simply be it was in three languages, and those three languages were interpreted by the writers of Scripture. The writers of Scripture in taking those words which were above the placard all tell the same story, whether they use the word this is Jesus, or whether they simply say Jesus king of the Jews, it was related that pilot place to sign and that sign read this is Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews, whether it said all of those words, or whether we have a paraphrase, does it do any harm to the inspiration of the Scriptures? Pilot was an instrument of God in that very moment when they came and they asked him to change that pilot being used as an instrument of God, refused them and he said what I have written stays written in three languages. If that sign pilot was legitimizing a charge against Jesus that even he himself didn't believe to be just, in that sense the sign is a symbol of his sin, for pilot to reveal the truth about Jesus as to reveal his own shame, Jesus told him, I'm king. I am a king and my kingdom is not of this world. Pilot knew what Jesus had said and to place that there was tantamount to a confession of his own sin. Pilot imagines he can do away with Jesus by making him king of some other man, by making him king of some other nation, by he himself not being under any authority which Christ may have. When we hear the words today, it's true for you but not for me, or that's just your interpretation, are we hearing something of the same thing? We are hearing not a discounting of Jesus entirely, but we are hearing that man has no authority over me. He's king of your life but he's not king of my life. That sign over Jesus was put there as a symbol of resentment and it was read with resentment. What pilot meant when he wrote it was Jesus, king of the Jewish fanatics, crucified in the midst of Jews who should all be thus executed. What the Jews read when they looked at it was Jesus, the seditionist, a king of rebels. Pilot said, what I have written, what pilot has written and what God has written for us. Commentator William Hendrickson sums the whole thing up better than I could possibly say. It was God himself who in his wonderful providence had directed the hand of pilot. This does not in any way make God responsible for pilot's motives in writing the superscription. Nor does it mean that God interpreted the title as the governor interpreted it, but the words as such were true. They were true in this sense that the king of the Jews is crucified in order that he may be the king of a spiritual kingdom which recognizes no national or racial distinctions, a kingdom in which the Aramaic speaking Jew, the Roman and the Greek, yes, the elect from every tribe, tongue and people, and nation are the citizens, by the crucifixion and execution for being the king of the Jews. Jesus became an actuality, king of all the people of God. Pilot also limited the Lordship of Jesus by making him only king of the Jews when he is king of the entire world. Yet by God's sovereign hand, the sign was posted in languages the entire world can read. And by that sign his name was preached to all nations. The great commission perhaps began right there on Golgotha as the name of Christ who is king and sovereign, a name by which every knee will bow was proclaimed from that hilltop outside the city gates. All three of those languages were spoken in Palestine, Aramaic was the common language of the country people, Latin was the language of the army, it was the language, the official language of Rome, Greek was the common language of the whole empire. And so in these three languages all people could be made to hear of Christ. In those languages we have the language of Israel which had given the world true religion, the religion which Jesus described when he told the woman at the well in Samaria that faith, that hope, that religion, that truth comes from the Jews. Peter Lang sees the old world and the new world present in these languages. The old world with the Aramaic as they were still captivated and captured by law and then the language in which the scriptures went forward, the Latin and the Greek, we see a new. So the sign can be said to hang between two worlds, the ancient and the modern, it bridges and connects the prophecies of the first testament to their fulfillment in the new. The sign stands over a path leading out of a nation and into the world, Romans 11, 15, Paul there says as much when he says, for if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? If there the Jewish nation's rejection of Christ means the reconciliation of the world then acceptance of Christ means life from the dead. John told us in the beginning of his gospel that he intended to write about Jesus who was rejected by his own but received by the world. Isn't that what John the Baptist said when he testified, look, behold the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world, isn't this what's recorded in John 3 when Jesus talking with Nicodemus said that the Lord will send his only begotten Son that whosoever should believe in him would have eternal life. Jesus reached out to the Samaritans, he received the Greeks that were coming to seek him and he praised the faith of a Roman Gentile soldier in chapter 6 of the gospel of John. He's introduced as the bread of life who is given for the life of the world. And in chapter 10 he speaks of a gathering of sheep that are not in the fold of Judaism but a sheep from a flock that is outside of Judaism. Throughout the gospel of John the universal scope and sequence of the atonement and the consequence of the atonement is clear. But what are the scriptures available to the Jews? Were they purposefully kept in the dark? Was there no way that their own scriptures could have led them to understand and comprehend this would be their king? From the first announcement of a Redeemer in Genesis 315 to the many messianic Psalms and the prophecies in Isaiah in chapter 2 when he speaks of the sprout of the Lord or chapter 7 when he speaks of the virgin birth or in Isaiah 11 and 12 when he speaks of the twig of Jesse or maybe in Daniel when he prophesies regarding the son of man or in Zechariah 6 when he says this, thus says the Lord of hosts behold the man whose name is the branch. For he shall branch out from his place and he shall build the temple of the Lord and shall bear royal honor and shall sit and rule on his throne and the crown shall be in the temple of the Lord Jesus was accused of saying destroy this temple and I'll rebuild it in three days. And the sign over his headbred Jesus king of the Jews from their own lips, the Jewish leadership announced the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning Christ. Their testimony against him was that he would be the fulfillment of the prophecies regarding the temple of God. Their angst at him was that he claimed to be king of the Jews, both prophecies if they had only had eyes to see all the aspirations of a people that long to have God rescue them and dwell with them and to rule over them are gathered in the person of Christ. When we pause to realize the universal scope of the atonement we ought to be taken aback that our God is truly no respecter of persons or nationalities. He's no respecter whether it be a man or a woman rich or poor slave or free Jew or Gentile white or black, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, the way is made open through Christ. In Romans 2 Paul urges a circumcision of the heart over outward religious practices, the one who would pretend to be Christian is no more one who has circumcision of the heart than the Muslim who is estranged and far away from even the very name of Christ. Now there is another image that Paul gives us in collotions too. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of death that stood against us with its legal demands and listened. This he set aside nailing it to the cross. Our crime, our sin, the accusations against us were nailed to the cross. Do you hear the imagery Paul is giving us? A sign is placed on the cross of one condemned to die by crucifixion. My sin is on a placard on his cross. Paul is teaching about imputation, the imputation of my sin to Christ, the placard that would be over my head, on my cross, on my day of judgment was placed over his. James Montgomery voice wrote, in him, our violation of God's just law was punished and God can therefore reach out to justify the one who trust him regardless of that person's nationality, intelligence, race, or any other factor. In him, our violation of God's just law was punished. If the placard on the cross bridges the old world and the new, the man of whom the placard refers bridges the old man and the new, the old Israel and the new, for any that will accept this as the truth and listen carefully, that Jesus Christ will sit by God, his own son, was crucified as a substitution for the sinner to satisfy the perfect justice of God and was raised again as the first fruits of the kingdom of God and reigns now in his kingdom and in his people that he then died for you. That is what you believe. If that is your faith, then that is you whom he has died for, believing what I have just explained is faith. People often ask me, what is faith? They say, except Christ by faith, if you know that Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God, if you know that he lived and he died on a cross and that your sin was placed upon him and that God now in looking to you is able to justify you, that is to declare you righteousness as my sin is imputed to him and his righteousness is imputed to me and I'm declared just not because I am just but because Christ is just in my place. Then you have received Christ by faith, if that's the testimony of your heart. For you don't call out to be saved on any of your own works or any of your own merit. You don't say that after death you simply cease to be, you acknowledge there is a judgment, you acknowledge there is a God and you acknowledge that there was a cross by which God reconciled men to himself. If that's the truth that you know, then you have received Christ by faith. And if you have accepted Christ by faith as your Savior and King, then ask yourself this, if your life reflects his Lordship and reign. If you say Jesus is Lord of your life, then what is he Lord of precisely or exactly? Your time, your talents, your money, your career, your family, your passions, your pursuits, your ethical priorities. If you have claimed that you have received Christ by faith, then you are also claiming he is Lord and King and sovereign of your life. And if that's your claim, then how does your life prove that your words are true? Boyce uses the placard itself to distinguish areas of life that we must submit to the Lordship of Christ. The first language, Aramaic, was a language of the people in Jerusalem. It recognizes his kingship over religion because it was from the Jews that salvation came. He is the revelation of God and as such, he alone can teach us the truth. The second language, Greek, was a language used for science and culture and philosophy. If he is Lord of all of these, then he is Lord of culture, personal as well as corporate culture. The third is Latin, the language of law and government. Jesus has interpreted God's law and will return to judge those not abiding in him by that very same law. His law must govern our ethic and our life all the way to Golgotha, the cross which our Savior drug proved, the character of those that passed. Most that saw him come by, scorned at him and they mocked him. They mocked Jesus as he carried it along, only a few wept and wailed. The placard over his head drew an even greater contemptuous response from the Jews and it was a contemptuous pilot who put it there. When I say to you that your king is Christ and you must return to him a life, not your own, but his, what is your response? What does the cross show about you as it passes by as we read the scriptures? Does it show you to be a sinner, a sinner whose crimes have been nailed to the cross? One way or another, you must deal with the cross and read the placard. And determine whether Jesus Christ is king of you or not. May God grant each of us a proper reflection on our standing with Jesus of Nazareth, who is the king of the Jews.