blind side, what a tragically ironic title. From the heights of professional success to the lows of personal scandal in just ten days. Two weeks ago today, Sandra Bullock was accepting the highest honor a woman can get in her profession. An Oscar for Best Actress. She'd already received several other awards for that same role. And repeatedly, in her acceptance speeches, she credited her husband Jesse James. I mean, his support had made all this possible. She was a better actress because of him. But then, on Friday, the news hit. He'd been unfaithful. And not just once, but for eleven months, even while they were shooting the film. Suddenly, those tears in his eyes at the Oscar speech looked a lot different. I mean, all of her work, all of which she credited to him, when all the while he'd been betraying her. So now, she's got the trophy that every actress covers. But what do you think it means to him? Is he going to sit proudly on her mantle? What's she going to think about every time she sees it? And what about Jesse? I mean, what if she actually lets him back in the house? What if they make the marriage work? What's he going to think about every time he sees it? Is it really all that surprising then that sometimes Christians just don't know what to think when they look at the cross. Let's hear what God thinks. John 18 is where we're going. That's page 1682 in your Pew Bible. We've been approaching the cross for weeks. We're finally here. So beginning in the middle of verse 38, let's hear what God thinks about the cross. With this, he went out again to the Jews and said, I find no basis for a charge against him. But is it your custom? But it is your custom for me to release to you, one prisoner at the time of Passover. Do you want me to release the King of the Jews? They shouted back, no, not him. Give us verabis. Now verabis had taken part in a rebellion. And Pilate told Jesus that took Jesus and had him flagged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again saying, Hail King of the Jews! And they struck him in the face. Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, Look, I'm bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him. When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, Here's the man, as soon as the chief priest and their officials saw him, they shouted, Crucify, crucify. The Pilate answered, You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him. The Jews insisted we have a law. And according to that law, he must die because he claimed to be the son of God. When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid. And he went back inside the palace. Where do you come from, Jesus? But Jesus gave him no answer. Do you refuse to speak to me, Pilate said, Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you? Jesus answered, You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore, the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin. From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar, anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar. When Pilate heard this, He brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge's seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement, which in Air America is Gabatha. It was the day of preparation of Passover week, about the sixth hour. Here is your king, Pilate said to the Jews, but they shouted, Take him away. Take him away, crucify him. Shall I crucify your king, Pilate asked? We have no king but Caesar, the chief priest answered. Finally, Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. This is God's Word. Let's pray. Our Father, your kingdom, come and we pray. One idea keeps coming up in this passage. Like a drum beat that just keeps getting louder and louder, coming up, everyone's lips. Did you hear it? King, crown, robe, king, crown, robe, king, king, king, John wants us to know exactly why Jesus is being crucified. So let's get to it. For those of you who like the hat rack in advance reminded me that I didn't give it to you last week. Here it is. Why we need a king? Why we kill our kings? And how to build the kingdom? Why we need a king? Why we kill our kings? How to build the kingdom? First, why we need a king? On May 20th, 1998, Kip Kinkle was expelled from school. He had been caught on campus with a gun. So his daddy came and picked him up, took him home. That night, he shot both of his parents. He said, I just didn't want him to suffer the embarrassment of my expulsion. The next morning, he got up and went to school armed for battle. He would kill two students and injure 24 more before an injured student managed to tackle him while he was reloading. Now, sister went on television, pleading for mercy. He's just a kid. He didn't know any better. He didn't realize what he was doing. But the families, they didn't want to hear anything about mercy. One said, oh no, that's just not going to do. There's got to be justice until you suffer until you're tortured the way that we're tortured. That's not justice. When he was finally sentenced, the judge gave him 111 years without possibility of parole. He said, there's a price to be paid for every bullet. Justice. There's got to be justice, a price for every bullet until you're as tortured as we are. But how does that bring justice? I mean, doesn't that just spread the poison around? But if you're one of the victims' families, let him off as unthinkable. I mean, he took two lives and he's only got one to give. How are we ever going to call this even? The Bible says, I for an eye. So where do we go from here? The pastor I know back in Chattanooga took his youth group on a field trip to a slaughterhouse. Now, he got parents to sign permission slips before he took them. He let them know what was coming. But he got the students there so they could see. And in the middle of that graphic scene, he opens up the Genesis 15 and starts telling them about how Abraham had to cut the animals in two. And then he explained how throughout the Old Testament animals were sacrificed as a graphic image of the wrath that should have fallen on us, that God is saying this, all this right here you're looking at, this is what your sin looks like. This is what you're doing to yourself, to each other. Now, that'll get your attention. I mean, standing in the middle of animal parts, it probably hit them a lot more like it hit Abraham originally. And God's saying, Abraham, this is worse than you think. Do you see what your sin does? Violence. Violence, I'd probably like to pretend it doesn't do. It's worse than I want to admit I'm that bad off. As Hebrews 9 says, there's no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood.
But there's still a problem for Kip and for Abraham. I mean, let's not operate under the delusion that animals are equal to people. If you injure my child, I'm not going to say, ah, a few dead birds and we'll call it even. No. An eye for an eye doesn't mean a cow's eye for a human eye. There's a price to be paid for every bullet. And no amount of slaughtered cattle are going to bring those kids back to life. There's got to be justice. But my life's not valuable enough to bring them back. My blood's not worth enough. So what more is there? What could be worth more than my life? Do you notice what pilot keeps saying about Jesus? Back in verse 38, chapter 18, he says, I find no basis for a charge against him. And then in 194, I find no basis for a charge against him. And in verse 6, I find no basis for a charge against him. What's he saying about this king of the Jews? No animals here, just your king, your innocent king.
What's worth more than my life? What's worth more than my blood? Innocent, royal blood. See, the king is bringing the most valuable thing there is to sacrifice himself, a price for every bullet, paid for. And then some, but that's aggravated. I mean, if you're really thinking about that, that's still injustice. I mean, that's injustice the other way around. How could the king die for kip-kinkle? Well, he's a king. He does what he wants. And suddenly we start to realize, maybe my problem isn't so much upholding justice as it is that the king does justice differently than I do. And that brings us to our second point. Why don't we kill our kings? Look at this. Pilots doing some serious waffling here. He feels caught. In the more interaction with Jesus, the more obviously innocent, he finds him. But he wants to appease the angry mob. Why? He represents Rome, Roman power. Why don't you just do what he wants? Because Caesar, Rome, isn't going to be happy if Pilate has a riot under his command. So angry mob appeased. But then again, we know from Matthew, Pilate's wife told him, don't have anything to do with this Jesus guy. I had a dream about it. And like a lot of Romans, Pilate's a very superstitious guy. Did you catch that in verse 8? When he gets a whiff of the possibility that Jesus might have a divine connection, well he didn't want the gods angry at him, bad karma and all that. So what's he going to do? He thinks he's figured something out here. They have this tradition of letting a prisoner go each year at Passover. So he's going to stack the deck. It's going to be Jesus. He'll give him a choice. Jesus, or the worst guy we've got in this place, enter Barabbos. Verse 40. Now Barabbos had taken part in a rebellion. What does that mean? The ancient historian, Josephus, tells us that the Jews had been using guerrilla warfare tactics as early as the Maccabean war. That's 200 years before Christ. And it's the same term that's used here. Barabbos is a violent offender. He's an insurrectionist. But unlike Jesus, the kingdom he's fighting for is in this world. So Barabbos certainly would have taken up a sword and put it to some Roman necks. So here comes Pilate trying to stack the deck. In a simple philosopher or murderer, he figures, I'll let my guys rough Jesus up some. And that way, when he comes out beaten to a pulp, the crowd will have sympathy. And it backfires on him. Why? Really, it's a pretty bone-headed move by Pilate. You've got two guys, both accused of mounting an insurrection. And what's the difference between them? You're asking people who wish you weren't there in the first place, Pilate, to choose between a guy who killed some Romans or a guy who some Romans have almost killed. Who chooses the loser? I mean, the Jews are expecting the king. The kings have power. The kings don't show up in public beating to a pulp. At least not any king with power. He conquers. So who chooses the loser? Pilate says, which one's your king? Which one do you want to own? The king who kills or the king who gets killed. Well, they're not idiots. They understand the implication. Who crowns a loser king? We know what you're saying. Who wants to be associated with a loser? Who wants to identify with a loser? And that kind of stuff can rub off on you. Pilate's saying, here's your loser king, loser. You want him? And they say, don't you dare call that guy my king? Why would I follow a king that my enemies could so easily kill? Good question. Ernest Gordon was a British aviator who was shot down in Burma in World War II. He was kept in a Japanese concentration camp. There's a movie about it called To End All Wars. Maybe some of you have seen it. But he describes the conditions as awful. I mean, their captors treated them very poorly. But the worst treatment was actually captive on captive. Because there wasn't enough food to go around. It was killed or be killed until one event, one day worked a tale returned to the camp. And when the Japanese had to encounter tools, a shovel was missing. While the soldiers demanded somebody own up or they were going to kill the entire group. Nobody was confessing, so they got ready to kill everybody. Then one prisoner stepped up and claimed the shovel was his. They beat him to death in front of everybody. And then, later that afternoon, Japanese found the missing shovel. They realized he had just volunteered to save the others. As the word spread through the camp, his sacrifice changed the whole tenor. They started caring for each other. They made a makeshift hospital. They started sharing food with each other. In short, they started serving one another. It transformed them. So let's ask again, why would I follow a king that my enemies could so easily kill? Earlier this week, Ms. Keith reminded me that probably all Barabbas could hear from where he was being held. The crowd shouting, Barabbas, Barabbas, and then crucify him, crucify him. So when they brought Barabbas out, as far as he was concerned, that cross was his. Those nails were for him, but then Jesus died in his place. Jesus died for the worst they had to offer, the worst, not the good, not the worthy, only the worst. If that's not you, then Jesus didn't die for you. He had to die to pay my debt. If we get that, it changes everything. The king dies for the worst. He pays for every bullet, every shovel. See, if the essence of sin is man taking God's place, wanting to be the king, then the essence of salvation is God taking man's place. The king taking the violence I deserve, being treated like animal parts. That's why the king has to die. So how does he build his kingdom? Third, look at verse 10. Pilate says, don't you realize I've got the power either to free you or crucify you? Jesus says, you don't have any power. It's only because it's been given to you. It's all part of the plan. All this. Now notice, he still says it's sin on Pilate's part. Pilate's still responsible for his actions, but Jesus wants it to be clear. Pilate is not the one taking his life. Only Jesus gives his life away. He said that in John 10, 18. Nobody takes my life for me. I lay it down of my own accord. What's he saying? In other words, Jesus is not some powerless victim. He's saying I'm completely in control. I am choosing this. I didn't get back into a corner here. He's using his kingly power to lay down his life. What does that say about his kingship? Remember what he said to Peter? Put away your sword. He told Pilate, if my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest, but they don't. That's not the plan. What's the plan? What's Jesus saying about his kingship? He identifies one thing as the mark of his kingship. My people don't defend me. I defend them. Now, think about that. That's a radical statement. My people don't defend me. I defend them. Every other kingdom. Every other kingdom. Be it republics, democracies, dictatorships, monarchies, oligarchies, you choose. Every other kingdom functions like this. It's citizens defend its leaders. But Jesus says, not in mine. I get arrested. I get arrested for what you've done wrong. You don't defend me. I defend you. I defend even my enemies. And I make them my sons and daughters. There's no king like this. Let me think about it today. What happens when there's a threat to the US? I mean, what happened on 9-11? George Bush was whisked away in Air Force One and surrounded by fighter jets. We don't even know where Dick Cheney was. We defend our leaders. A mediate threat? Response? Defend the leaders. But Jesus says, not with me. I lay down my life to defend my people. Why does that matter? Why is a defending king so important for a defense less people? In 1994, in Rwanda, there was a first-class hotel with 200 beds. But when Civil War broke out, the manager of that hotel, Paul Russo Sabingina, I think I said that right, he used his hotel to defend 1,268 refugees for 100 days. Outside the hotel, Hutus and Tutsis were an abject decimation of one another. He did nothing less than save their lives. You might have seen the movie. It's about a true story. Hotel Rwanda. And at the end of the movie, there's footage where Paul goes back to Rwanda. People don't know he's coming, but when they find him, when they encounter him, with tears in their eyes, I mean, they're simply extravagant wanting to give of themselves. Why? It's the same reason we need a defending king. It's something hardwired into the heart of humanity. We give best when we've been given to. We sacrifice the most when we know we are utterly defended. There's no other defending king, y'all. He lays down his life to defend us. Once we get that in the marrow of our bones, we're going to stop defending ourselves. We'll start giving it away. Do you know, life in Christ is giving it away. Is this what we're talking about next week? That's life in Christ. Do we get to participate in God's plan everywhere we go? We give our lives away, because we know we are utterly defended. We get a life that we can't lose his. And that's how he builds the kingdom. Let me tell you when my wife read this sermon yesterday, which I don't really let her do, to make sure I'm not being an idiot. She said, you've got a lot of violent images in this. If we're going to get this, if we're going to get what the cross is, I want you to understand why. How does God see the violence? How does He view it? It means horrible. It's horrible. It's not bad. We're worse off than we want to admit. But He takes the violence. And He makes it the very place that He shows us how much He loves us. It's horrible as we are. It's bad as it is. He's willing to pay even more. See, the cross isn't some consolation prize that God got because we betrayed Him. It doesn't sit on His mantle like some tragically placed reminder of our unfaithfulness. It's not a guilt trip, y'all. God's up to something much more stunning than that. He wants us to know real love, cost. It costs terribly. It costs beautifully. It costs more than I've got to give. See, God's currency isn't gold or dollars. The currency is nails, thorns, a bloody chunk of wood. That's God's currency. You know what He spends it on? That's what gets me. Kip kinkles and bullets. A Japanese show. A Rwandan hotel. Maybe even, maybe even Sandra Bullock's Oscar. He buys them back. He takes awful things and makes them a demonstration of his love, the cross. You know what the cross is? I mean, it's a snapshot of Christianity. If we get this, it's our faith and a snapshot. I mean, literally, it's an execution device. It's an instrument of death. It's like a news or a lethal injection or an electric chair. Jesus takes an electric chair and turns it into a throne. He reigns from the tree. It's like taking a guillotine and making it a necklace or taking a nuclear bomb and making it a flower. He takes the worst things man can dream up. And he turns him into a picture of his love, a symbol of hope, how, by making the very place that he shows us exactly how bad our situation is, exactly how bad off we are, the same place that he demonstrates how much deeper his love is than our mess. You know what the cross is? And one sentence? Yes. You are an awful mess. But my love is deeper than your mess. What does he buy? Bullets, shovels? He purchases back genocide. Awful stuff. So let me ask you, what is he bought of yours? What awful stuff of yours has he paid for? When you see how much he loves you? Yes. I'm an awful mess. But his love is deeper than my mess.
Lord God, there is no other place for hope. Not real hope. This news is terribly wonderful. It is horrible, and it's terrific. You are so honest with us. And at the time that it would crush us and you put it on yourself instead. And lift the self more. Come bring us out of this awful mess that we're in. And lift our feet up out of the Mary clay and set us on a rock. That we would know we don't have to defend ourselves. That we would go out and build your kingdom. Because we would know we're really loved. We'd be able to give it away. The town that I hear called B-town will be a place where people hear about Jesus. And not just fluffy Jesus. But messy people who know they're loved. Rejoice to be alive and give it away. And we pray. Amen. So you got your Hindus? Let me see our him with response. In number 483, lead out of King Egypt. And stand with him again.
Speaking of mess is I want to pass more than the peace at the back door. So I'm not going to shake hands today. But I'll be there glad to greet you and meet you. Let's receive the benediction. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all now in our messes and lift us up to His glory and His name we pray. Amen. Go in peace.