John 19:19-24 - "Father, Forgive Them" (2/2/25)

that our hope can always be in You. You are always our foundation. It doesn't matter what kind of tragedies happen in our country or in our lives.

You always remain the same; You always have Your plan. You are always working out Your plan. You are always redeeming, saving, preserving, and You're coming back for us.

Lord, keep that hope alive in us through Your Holy Spirit. Because of who You are, we thank You for Your Word, that it is always timeless and true. No matter what time, society, or culture we're living in, it will always remain the truth.

We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. There are certain inscriptions uncovered by archaeologists which give helpful information, helpful history about the world, its rulers, and those rulers’ accomplishments.

Here are some interesting ones. These are pretty cool and directly related to our biblical understanding of Israel. In 1896, a British archaeologist discovered what has been labeled as the Merenptah Stele.

I know you can't see that too well, but it's a stone tablet that dates back to 1207 BC, and in it, it contains the earliest known reference to the nation of Israel. Now, why is that important? Well, it helps to corroborate what conservative Bible scholars have purported for a very long time, and that’s the dating of the Exodus, when the Israelites left slavery in Egypt.

For decades, especially secular historians who didn’t care at all about what the Bible described as world history dated the Exodus at around 1250 BC, which was much too late compared to what the Bible describes and the Israelite conquest of Canaan that followed. What this stele does is back up that the Exodus actually happened around 1450 BC, and that by 1207 BC, the Israelites were not newly arrived in Canaan but an already established nation in Canaan. So the Merenptah Stele helped back that up, even though its original intention was to boast about a certain Pharaoh's military victories in that time period.

Another famous inscription is known as the Mesha Stele, a slab found in 1868 from the location of ancient Moab dating back to 840 BC. In it, King Mesha of Moab wrote about how the Moabite god Kosh was angry with the Moabites and allowed them to be forced into subjugation under the Kingdom of Israel. In time, Kosh returned and gave Mesha military victories to throw off Israel's rule over them and restore them in their land.

This, of course, is the Moabite side of the story, retelling the account found in 2 Kings chapter 3, where it’s recorded that Mesha of Moab rebelled against King Joram of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Nonetheless, the Mesha Stele helps reference what we already know to be the truthful account of the Bible. Lastly, pretty recently, in 2007, Israeli archaeologists discovered a palm-sized tablet in Jerusalem, and after 10 years of research, finally deciphered what it said.

Again, just as recently as 2017, the inscription on the small tablet, dating back to the 8th century BC, makes several references to King Hezekiah of Judah, listing off Hezekiah's accomplishments and paralleling what we already have in 2 Kings chapter 20. All of these inscriptions bear the accomplishments and achievements of notable rulers in human history and are uniquely interesting to us because they give references to Israel and extra-biblical evidence for what we already have as the truth from God's Word. Today, we're going to be starting off talking about another famous inscription, this one though directly connected to the greatest and farthest reaching accomplishment of any person who has ever existed.

Last week, we spent the entire message describing the hideously horrifying nightmare of crucifixion that Jesus suffered through to pay for our grotesquely disgusting sin and reconcile us to a most holy God. It’s pretty graphic, but if you missed that last week, I strongly encourage you to go watch or listen to that on our website or Facebook page to know all that Jesus went through for you and to pay for your entrance into heaven. During the actual act of crucifying Jesus, what happened in tandem was the placing of the most famous inscription in human history, again, this one written in mockery and jeering.

This inscription will be the beginning of the mockery, jeering, and taunting we will be looking at today as the Savior of the world endured indescribable pain for their sin while they were lifting up the cross. Pilate ordered that this inscription be placed over the head of Jesus. So, if you brought your Bible with you today, please turn to John chapter 19.

If you didn't, that’s okay; there should be one located in the pew in front of you. Please also turn to John chapter 19. It’s in the New Testament, or look this up on your favorite Bible app on your smartphone—John 19:19 through 22.

We're going to start and read this: "Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written: Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews. " Therefore, many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.

So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, "Do not write, 'The King of the Jews,' but that He said, 'I am the King of the Jews. '" Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written. " Now, as has been pointed out, what has been going on between Pontius Pilate and the ones he ruled over that he actually hated was this: if to remind you, this back-and-forth with Pilate showing his disdain for.

. . The Jewish officials, who he needed to ensure peace in his domain, had been the ones instigating this whole situation with this Nazarene, putting him in between a rock and a hard place.

Those Jewish officials, in turn, showed their disrespect towards the one who was obviously anti-Semitic and brutally treating the Jewish people. Even when Pilate officially condemned Jesus, he couldn't help but take a pot shot at the Jewish people by bringing out Jesus, torn apart from head to toe, wearing the mocking crown of thorns and the robe symbolizing royalty, and jeering at the Passover crowd before him. "Shall I crucify your king?

Shall I crucify the one whom I just watched enter Jerusalem five days ago while you people shouted, 'Hosanna! Save us now from Rome and from me, Pilate'? " Now we see that same jeering disdain as Pilate takes one last pot shot at the leaders of the people he just could not stand.

Just to cover all his bases, he had the same statement written in the three major languages of that day in that area: Hebrew (or Jewish), Aramaic, Latin (the official governing language of Rome), and common Greek (the language most used for everyday purposes, like buying food from the market). What did he have written? The name of the one nailed to the cross, along with the reference: "The King of the Jews.

" After all, as has been noted, this was the official charge for which Jesus was condemned: insurrection against Rome. But Pilate took it one step further. He knew there was insufficient evidence for insurrection, but to save his own skin—that's what the judgment was.

It was customary practice that the Romans would post the charges of the criminal condemned for crucifixion above their head on their cross. Why would he do that? What was the whole purpose of this horrifying form of public execution?

To dissuade others from committing the same crimes or rising up against Roman authority. In Jesus's case, at Jerusalem, the main crucifixion location was at Golgatha. This is the praetorium.

This is the GTH gate that he went out of, and here is Golgotha. What do we have here? We have major crossroads leading into Jerusalem.

It was a small hill at the crossroads of major routes into Jerusalem. Remember what time it was? At Passover, when hundreds of thousands of Jewish pilgrims would pass by.

As has been pointed out, just like when Pilate brought Jesus out after his scourging, looking nowhere near like the person who would look like a royal ruler, he declared, "Behold your king! " This inscription was meant by man to promote ridicule of the Messiah, but ironically, to frustrate man, God in His sovereignty also meant it to be a declaration to the world and His own people of who they had rejected: the prophesied Messiah, the King of the Jews, the suffering servant, the Son of God, God Himself, and ultimately the Judge of their souls. In the very end, that's really who they were killing.

Pilate also couldn't help but smile, I'm sure, as he ordered that inscription written and placed over Jesus's head. However, as he took his one last jab at the Jewish leaders, he knew exactly what their reaction would be. He was toying with them; he knew exactly how they would respond.

They responded exactly as expected. This bickering probably happened back at the praetorium since I don't see Pilate degrading himself by actually being present at this disgusting display of Roman condemnation. The Jewish leaders said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second, bub!

Strike that! Change what you wrote to: 'He claimed he was the King of the Jews,' not that he actually is! " Why do the Jewish officials care so much?

They got what they wanted. They were successful at getting Pilate to do their dirty work, so they didn't have to deal with an uprising of their fellow Jewish people towards them, who thought that the Nazarene really was the Messiah. They could point their finger at Pilate and say, "Hey, don't look at me!

He's the one who actually did it! Take it up with him! " So why did they care about what could be considered something so minute in the grander scheme of things?

Because of that same fear—they didn't want to give any legitimacy to any of Jesus's claims, including his claim to be the Messiah. Why? As has been noted, the religious leaders only cared about retaining what power they still had.

What if any of their fellow Jewish people actually believed what that sign said? What would that mean for them as the religious leaders, who everyone knew were the actual driving force behind this crucifixion? No, they didn't want any iota of fact attributed to his claims and needed to continue to discredit his claims, which the sign that mockingly stared back at them certainly did not help.

Not only was it a swipe at the Jewish leaders, who were really the ones behind his condemnation, but Jesus, the one who was writhing in agony below the inscription, knew it was also Pilate's taunt directed at him. He was standing right there next to Pilate, his body in shock from excruciating pain and blood loss, having been shredded apart, with the tunic meant to mockingly symbolize royalty clinging to the deep gashes and lacerations across his entire body as Pilate used him for show and tell to ridicule the crowd's bloodthirst for an innocent man. The sign simply furthered that jeering from the pagan Roman authority, who had been brutally oppressing his people and callously condemned him to not only Roman scourging but Roman crucifixion.

This is the first act of mockery and insult we're looking at today. The next comes from other pagan Gentiles. 19.

Uh, chapter 19: 23-24, perhaps the beginning part of verse 25, depending on how your Bible, uh, divides it up. Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and made four parts, a part to every soldier, and also the tunic. Now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece.

So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to decide whose it will be. ” This was to fulfill the Scripture: “They divided my outer garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. ” Therefore, the soldiers did these things.

The three synoptics simply tell us that the soldiers divided up Jesus's clothes by casting lots. As one biblical scholar notes, what was customary among the Roman soldiers administering these executions at this time was that they were allowed to procure the clothes of those they were executing. Now, we might think that’s weird, but in this time period, clothes were extremely expensive and extremely valuable.

They were handmade, and they were made to last by textile artisans. So clothing, no matter whose it was and no matter what kind of state it was in, was highly valuable for these executioner soldiers. If you can believe it, it was a valuable reward for a job well done.

Also, no one really knows what the lots were; they could have been sticks, small flat stones, or primitive dice, but they were basically what flipping a coin or rolling dice, leaving it up to chance, would be today to determine who gets what. As has been noted, there were apparently four soldiers who oversaw the execution of Jesus and the two robbers on either side of Him, and these were the four soldiers who divided up his clothing. The typical first-century Jewish man would wear six articles of clothing: a head covering, an outer robe that would keep him warm at night, an inner tunic (you can kind of see the sleeves of that here, and below the outer robe here), a belt to tie it all together (you can just see a glimpse of it there), sandals, and an undergarment, which you don’t see, like underwear today.

What John tells us the soldiers did was divide up everything but the underwear, since that was demeaning; and the inner tunic among the four of them, one received Jesus's head covering, another his outer robe, another his belt, and another his sandals. But John tells us these four soldiers did something differently with His inner tunic. If it was someone else, they probably would have divided up the tunic also by tearing it into four pieces, as it was the largest piece of clothing, and cloth was still quite valuable.

You could resell it to a clothing maker and make a profit, but as John references, Jesus's was much more valuable than the average person's. And so, instead of destroying it, the soldiers decided to cast lots to see who would get the tunic as a whole article of clothing. Why was Jesus's tunic different from the average person's?

We're not told exactly, just that it was much more valuable than usual. Perhaps it was gifted to Jesus by the more well-to-do women who Luke describes helped support Jesus's ministry. As has been noted, it could also be that John’s description of this tunic as seamless was meant to describe the same seamless tunic that Josephus references the high priests would wear.

It could be connected to Jesus's identification as the high priest of the New Covenant. If that's the case, then the pagan Gentiles, who couldn’t have cared less about its spiritual connection, cast lots, and one of these administering the execution of that ultimate high priest then used it for his own debaucheries; this is even more mocking of it. Regardless, John clearly meant it as a fulfillment of Messianic prophecy, as he references in verse 24.

This is a quote from Psalm 22, a highly Messianic Psalm that makes clear references to the Messiah's death on a cross (crucifixion), which we referenced a few times in last week's message on the crucifixion itself. Verse 18 of that chapter reads this: “They divide my garments among them, and they cast lots for my clothing. ” And here, John as an eyewitness outright, point blank references this hundreds of years old fulfillment of this hundreds of years old prophecy.

Not only do the pagan Gentile executioners cast lots for Jesus's clothing, content to benefit off of his tortuous death as he hung there entirely naked above them, gasping for each breath, by dragging his shredded back up and down the ragged and jagged cross, but they also hurl insults at him the whole time. Luke tells us the soldiers also ridiculed him, coming up to him, offering him sour wine and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself. ” We’ll get to the sour wine bit in the near future, but no doubt these soldiers heard through the grapevine who this guy was that they were stealing the clothes from.

Essentially, what they’re declaring is, “Look at you; you’re pathetic. Nothing you’ve claimed about yourself is true. You are a clown.

” But, once again, as has been noted, Luke is communicating that these pagan Gentiles, who know nothing about Judaism nor the Messianic prophecies, nor care one bit about any of it, are even as Gentiles unwittingly declaring the truth of who Jesus really is: He is the Messiah; He is the King of the Jews, no matter how many people were using it to deride and humiliate him. Furthermore, these Gentiles were confirming this: Jesus was not on the cross just so He could save Himself; He was not just on the cross to save his people; they would not witness him saving himself, flying in. .

. The face of their insults? No, he would willingly not save himself so that he could save others from eternal torment.

He would not fulfill that. Jesus suffered mocking humiliation at the hands of the pagan Gentile world, their worldly authority, and he suffered mocking humiliation at the hands of the other pagan Gentile soldiers who were the ones actively executing him. We can wrap our minds around this since, after all, they were only filthy Gentiles who couldn't have cared less about the things of the one true God.

Not only was Jesus jeeringly insulted by pagan Gentiles, but he was also jeeringly insulted by his own Jewish people, the ones who were supposed to recognize who he really was. Luke tells us, "And the people stood by watching, and even the rulers were sneering at him, saying, 'He saved others; let him save himself if this is the Christ of God, his chosen one. '" Who were the people that are referenced here?

It was a crowd made up of those pouring out of the Gath Gate from the Pratorum complex, who were then joined by others who were staying in the countryside for Jerusalem, and they all convened here at Golgotha. It was made up of the hundreds of thousands who had made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover. This wasn't a handful or dozens of people; Jesus was the talk of the town, and words spread like wildfire that he of all people was being crucified.

We're talking at least hundreds of people gathered at the bottom of Golgotha, watching this and hurling insults at Jesus. As has been noted, by and large, the crowd was at best apathetic towards the guy who claimed to be the Messiah but was now hanging on a Roman cross, and at worst, stirred up by the religious leaders into being a good-for-nothing crowd actively taunting Jesus as he writhed in pain. We already know they were stirred up enough to maniacally scream, "Crucify him!

Crucify him! " back at the Pratorum, so why should their sentiment be any different at this point? Put yourself in Jesus's place, in Jesus's perspective: entirely naked, nailed to a cross, your own blood pouring out of your body, gasping for breath while soldiers gambled for your clothes, looking down at the crowd of hundreds of people jeering at you.

These were his people; these were the ones God entrusted his oracles, his law, his prophecies to. These were the ones who were supposed to accept him as the Messiah. But not only had they rejected their Messiah, they were actively taunting him to his face in his most vulnerable state.

What were they in general saying in their insults? They were saying, "Get a load of this guy! He was able to save others from blindness, disabilities, disorders no one else could figure out: seizures, atrophied limbs, terminal illness, leprosy, tongues that were useless for speaking, and even raising people from the dead.

" He told us on numerous occasions that God Almighty was his father and that he would judge our souls. And look at him now! He's such a loser, and so pathetic and so incompetent; he couldn't even keep himself from getting caught and nailed to a shameful Roman cross.

What a joke! We'll get into this more next week, but even one of the actual criminals on one side of Jesus, dying himself of crucifixion, can't keep himself from insulting Jesus either. All of humanity's response, in general, to watching this being hardly recognizable as a fellow human hang on a cross, instead of having any sympathy towards him, was hurling insult after insult at him.

This is powerfully juxtaposed with Jesus's response to all of it. While the nails are being hammered in, while the cross is bone-jarringly dropped into its post hole, dislocating all of his shoulder and elbow joints, while the Gentiles are putting him to death and his own people are hurling insult after insult at him, what was Jesus focused on? But Jesus was saying, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

" Father, forgive them! Man, there are no words. It is the highest definition of true love.

As has been pointed out, this is not a blank check covering all the sin of the world with one sweeping statement and negating our personal decision about what to do with Jesus. That goes against everything else scripture teaches. What this is, is Jesus's indescribably powerful grace towards everyone and what they were doing to him.

None of them deserved it; the Gentile soldiers didn't really know what they were doing; they were used to this. They were simply doing their job. They had no reason to think that Jesus was any different than any other deplorable piece of garbage they had crucified for years.

Even the crowd didn't really know what they were doing; they were deceived by their own religious leaders who were supposed to be the ones to lead them according to the truth of God's law. But again, none of them deserved it. It's entirely based on Jesus's grace.

As has been noted, Jesus is embodying why he's even on the cross in the first place. He was willingly there to grant forgiveness to those who would repent of their sins and come to him for it. And so, in the midst of and in the cruel face of such humiliating insults, in this first of Jesus's famous seven statements on the cross, Jesus was interceding with the Father to provide forgiveness towards those executing him and hurling insults at him, based entirely on his undeserved grace.

It was then and continues to be a fulfillment of Isaiah 53:12: "Yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the wrongdoers. " Those wrongdoers were not just relegated to those actively crucifying and those actively insulting him. Guess who?

else that wrongdoers includes. Look around at each other and look around, and pull a mirror in front of your face. That grace and God's forgiveness of sin, based on that grace, is the only foundation we have to stand on.

We don't deserve restoration to God; we don't deserve His forgiveness, and we certainly don't automatically deserve to go to heaven. What we do deserve is eternal condemnation to torment in hell; that's what we do deserve. That's why what God gifts to us is merciful grace, because we don't deserve any of it.

Even here, as Jesus is suffering a brutally torturous death, His heart is focused on God's grace and forgiveness to people who don't deserve it. That's truly the epitome of a selfless heart, part of love. If you've never come to God based on what Jesus's death and resurrection accomplished to save your soul, in repentance of your sin, asking God for forgiveness of it, and surrendering to live the rest of your life to seek to please Him according to His commandments in His Word, do so right now.

When you die, it's too late; you'll stand before the crucified One as judge, who will cast you into the lake of fire, the same exact place as those who rejected and only taunted Jesus in our passage. This morning, we'll end up. The beauty of God's grace, though, is that while you still have breath, you have the opportunity to commit your life to the One who inexpressibly suffered to save your soul and have Him forgive the sins that nailed Him to that cross.

To those of us who have had our sins forgiven, because we come to God in repentance of Him and surrender of our lives to Jesus as Savior and King, there's further instruction in direct connection with this morning's passage. Paul writes in Philippians chapter 2, "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility, consider one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped or exploited, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bondservant and being born in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself—there's that word again—by becoming obedient to the point of death, death on a cross. " We're all well aware of verses 6-8 that start with "who," as He already existed in the form of God.

Towards the end, we're all very well aware of those verses. What's the key word in the preceding verses? Humility.

And with that, have this same attitude in ourselves which was also in Christ Jesus— that same humility, hinging the focus on others instead of ourselves. As Paul wrote here, that is the exact heart state Jesus had while He hung on the cross. That's what we saw; while everyone else was mocking Him, Jesus was praying for them.

Jesus was interceding for them, and Jesus was pleading with the Father to forgive them for what they were doing to Him. As Paul wrote, that's the exact heart state God wants us to have towards others, especially towards each other as Brothers and Sisters in Christ and fellow partakers of His inheritance. Jesus gave a parable in Matthew about a servant who owed a king a bunch of money.

The king forgave him of his debt, and then that servant found a fellow servant who owed him money and threw him into prison because that fellow servant couldn't pay it. Then the king, when he found out, turned around and threw the servant he just forgave into prison. Since we have been forgiven of so much, we must have the same attitude towards each other.

We must be humble; we must forgive one another. We must overlook one another's faults. We must deal gently with each other, especially when pointing out sin that needs correcting.

We've been forgiven of so much; why would we turn around and not forgive somebody else? Forgiving is hard; nobody's sugarcoating it. Forgiving is hard.

If it were easy, it wouldn't be something Jesus needed to epitomize as an example for us to follow at the height of His suffering on the cross. And then, lead Paul to command us to have that same attitude towards each other in our hearts. But what it does is it refocuses our hearts and minds on how God commands us to live— in full humility and in serving one another.

That heart of humility then infiltrates every aspect of our lives and who we are—in our relationships with one another in the church, in our marriage relationships, spouses have towards each other, in our parental relationships with our kids and grandkids, and in our relationships with those in the world who live according to the world. The selfless humility that Jesus put on full display on the cross is the exact same humility we are to live out on an everyday basis: "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. " Ephesians 4:32: "Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

" Colossians 3: "So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so must you do also. " Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for how all this connects.

As people were hurling insult after insult at You, what Your heart was focused on was. . .

Interceding for the Father to forgive them, and then Paul follows that up with the message that we have to have that same attitude in our hearts towards one another: a heart of humility, a heart of forgiveness, a heart of gentleness. Bearing with one another, forgiving one another, looking past complaints about one another. We have been forgiven of so much.

Give us the strength, always remind us, grow in us a heart of humility that we may forgive one another. We thank You for the height of the utmost example that You could possibly have provided for us in showing us what true forgiveness looks like, what true humility looks like. Through Your Holy Spirit, work in us to have that same heart of humility and forgiveness.

For this, we pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.