Lesson 21 B John 18 & 19

 

I.          During His life Christ fulfilled 332 distinct prophecies of the Old Testament. (Max Lucado=s book,  He Chose the Nails.)

 

II.          John was there and witnessed these events and in his gospel he shares the memories that were forever etched in his mind.

 

III.             Interesting Information

 

A.        Garden of Gethsemane B the setting for the first eleven verses of chapter 18.  The name Gethsemane means Aoil press.@  It was not a decorative garden but was an olive grove.

 

B.        In order to get to the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus had to cross the Kidron Valley and through the middle of the Kidron Valley ran the Brook Kidron.  The Brook of Kidron is significant.  The name means Adusky, gloomy,@ referring to the dark waters that were often stained by the blood from the temple sacrifices.

 

C.        With the arrest and throughout the trials of Jesus especially at the end we see how far the fear and hatred of Jesus had taken the religious authorities.   To the point that they declared AWe have no king but Caesar.@

 

                        The closing scene is filled with Pilate=s sarcasm.  AHere is your king@ (19:14b) echoes AHere is the man (19:5), and Pilate now offers to crucify this royal Jewish monarch.  The audience of chief priests (the great Ashepherds@ of Israel) supplies an acid tone to the conclusion and lays the groundwork for their own blasphemy.  AWe have no king but Caesar@ is a direct contradiction of the injunction of the Bible that God alone is Israel=s king (1 Sam. 8:7, 10:19) and the kings that did reign (e.g. David) did so by divine appointment.  By rejecting Jesus they have rejected God himself, as Jesus predicted, AHe who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him@ (John 5:23)

Gary Burge B The NIV Application Commentary B John)

 

D.        The Jews did not have the right to carry out the death penalty as that right belonged to the Romans.  If the Jews had been able to carry out the death penalty, it would have been by stoning and not crucifixion.  

 

1. .             John 18:31b -32: ABut we have no right to execute anyone,@ the Jews objected.  This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death he was going to die would be fulfilled.

 

 

 

2.              William Barclay: He [Jesus] had said that when he was Alifted up@, that is when he was Acrucified,@ he would draw all people to him (John 12:32).  If that prophecy of Jesus was to be fulfilled, he must be crucified, not stoned, and therefore, even apart from the fact that Roman law would not allow the Jews to carry out the death penalty, Jesus had to die a Roman death, because he had to be Alifted up.@

 

E.        The Burial of Jesus

 

1.             After most crucifixions, the bodies of these Acriminals@  would have been taken down and Acarried off to some obscure and accursed ditch@ (James Stalker B The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ).  But this did not happen to the body of Jesus.

 

2.              John19: 38 - 42 

 

  Quote from Roger Fredrikson about Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus B A Last Gift B Sometimes what is not given in life is given in death.  Here two disciples who have been >secret believers,= >closet disciples,= emerge and publicly ask Pilate for the body of Jesus.  Judged and inspired by the >glory= of the Cross, they openly confess they are followers of Jesus.  By a courageous act, they may have done in death for Jesus what they had not done in life.

 

Quote from Gary Burge about the amount of spices Nicodemus brought: Nicodemus brings a considerable number of burial spices.  Myrrh was an embalming powder commonly used in Egypt; aloe was a fragrant powdered sandalwood used generally as a perfume.  The weight of these two spices is about seventy-five pounds.  This is a remarkable amount and is reminiscent of the excessive wine in Cana (2:1-10) that marked Jesus= first public appearance.  At Herod the Great=s death, hundreds of servants carried spices and when Gamaliel the Elder died in the first century, eighty pounds of spices were burned.  Such spices are a signal of Jesus= honor.

 

                                                3.         Jesus was supposed to buried with the criminals.   Instead Jesus= body was anointed with an abundance of spices and He was buried as a King in a new tomb, in a garden Anearby.@ (Prophecy fulfilled B Isaiah 53:9) 

 

IV.        Who is in charge?

 

A,.       The Jewish Leaders B They have plotted, schemed and tried to trap Jesus.  At last these leaders were seeing their plans come to fruition.  Jesus is finally arrested, interrogated, placed on trial and condemned to die on a cross.  I feel quite certain that these leaders felt that they were in control of this whole situation and they were going to be rid of Jesus forever.