John 18:38-19:16: The Good News of the Cross; Good Friday 2025

1 Peter 2:22–25 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Intro

What makes the Cross Good News?

We talk about it all the time… We sing about it… we celebrate it… We boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and Him Crucified…

And yet… it was the darkest day of all human history (Galatians 6:14, 1 Corinthians 2:2)…

It was the day… and the only day!… where the only truly innocent man who had ever lived was murdered in a brutal death… bloody… beaten… hanging on a tree.

A day so dark that literally the Bible says darkness covered the whole land for the 3 hours Christ hung on the cross (Luke 23:44).

And we look at that cross… and we say Good News.

The word Gospel itself literally means Good News.

And the Good News we preach is Christ and Him crucified and… every year… we remember Christ’s death as we do this week calling it… Good Friday.

The Cross is Good News.

But how can such a horrific and bloody murder be Good News for anyone?

The answer is because of who Christ is and what He accomplished for us on the Cross.

In John 18:38-19:16… we draw nearer and nearer to the cross.

And all along the way John wants us to see the glory of Christ’s Person and Work.

As Jesus stands on trial before Pilate and the Jews… John highlights with small almost insignificant details…

Not just the historical facts of Jesus’ death, but the theological significance of who Christ is and what He was going to accomplish on the cross.

The Good News of the Cross is that Jesus died in our place for our sins to forgive our sins and give us Eternal Life.

We call it Good News because it is the Good News of Christ our Savior.

We are going to have three points today leading up to Good Friday all focusing on the glory of Christ and His Work.

The Good News of the Cross and Salvation for all who trust in Him.

So let’s start with point number 1 where the Good News of the Cross is that…

I. Jesus is Our Perfect Substitute Who Gave His Life for Our Sins

John 18:38–40 After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” They cried out again, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber.”

Pilate has been trying to get to the bottom of this whole Jesus issue.

The Jews had shown up and accused Jesus of insurrection… of basically making Himself a King to try and overthrow Caesar.

So Pilate interviewed Christ, and said, “Tell me… Are you the King of the Jews?” (John 18:33).

To Which Jesus said, “My Kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36).

Basically. “I am a King but my Kingdom is a Heavenly, Spiritual, Redemptive Kingdom.”

Its not a Kingdom of earth and dirt and military conquest… If my kingdom were of this world, my servant would have been fighting (John 18:36).

My Kingdom is a Kingdom of Truth and Salvation.

I came to bear witness to the Truth and everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice (John 18:37).

By this point, Pilate’s heard what he needed to hear.… Jesus was no threat to the Roman State.

This was all a farce.

So Pilate dismisses Jesus with a curt, “What is truth?” and goes back outside.

And he says to the Jews, “I find no guilt in this man… this man is innocent.”

But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?

Pilate was looking for a way to release Jesus while still navigating the politics of the situation.

If he released Jesus as a prisoner for Passover then technically He’d still be convicting Jesus in an effort to satisfy the High Priest and the Jews while still letting Jesus go.

Essentially it was like Pilate was saying, “You want your guilty verdict?… You want to completely discredit Him before the people? Get Him out of the way?”

“Fine…. Here’s your guilty verdict and now we can all get on with our day.”

But the Jews were set on killing Jesus.

Barabbas

In the stubbornness and wickedness of their hearts They cried out again, “Not this man but Barabbas!” to which John says Now Barabbas was a robber.

Now Barabbas is an interesting figure because he shows up in all four Gospels, and that’s not a coincidence.

Barabbas is showing us something theologically about the significance of Christ’s work.

Remember… you need to look at the Theology behind the History.

These are not the Gospel Writers writing bare historical facts.

They are using those facts to highlight and tell us something about Jesus.

And with Barabbas we get this amazing picture of how Jesus died as our Substitute.

There’s this Great Exchange where guilty goes free and the innocent one… Jesus… takes our place just like He took the place of Barabbas.

But its so much richer and deeper than that.

When you take all four Gospels and put them together we get a fuller picture of Barabbas.

Matthew calls him a notorious prisoner while Mark and Luke each say that he was a murderer who committed murder when he started an insurrection.

So he was a thief, murderer, and insurrectionist.

Basically a terrorist who wanted to overthrow the Roman State… the very crime the Jews were accusing Jesus Himself of doing.

So with Barabbas I want you to see basically two things.

Number 1…

We are All Barabbas

And our crimes and our sins are greater than Barabbas because we sinned against God.

Robber

Barabbas was a Robber…

Well with our sin we all robbed God of His glory.

With our sin we said and continue to say… God you are not all glorious… You are not all worthy… You are not Holy, Righteous, and Good

You are not worthy of all of our life and all of our love.

Every sin says God is not worthy of all of our worship, and so with every sin we rob God.

Murder

Barabbas was a Murderer…

And by our own sin we murder God in our own hearts.

Murdering God

The Bible says we are God haters and anyone who hates his brother is guilty of murder in their own heart (Romans 1:30; Matthew 5:21-22).

How much more in our hatred of God.

We want Him dead.

And we proved it by murdering His own Son that God sent to save us.

Murdering Jesus

And more than that… it was our sin that put Jesus on the cross.

1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree…

We can look at the Jews and we can look at Pilate and say they are guilty of murder… they killed the Son of God… but it was our sin that put Him there.

As guilty as they were we all had a part to play in Jesus’ death and were it not for the grace of God we would all be a part of that crowd crying out all the more, “Not this man, but Barabbas.”…

Wanting sin and death… a literal murderer… more than Christ.

Insurrection

And Barabbas was an Insurrectionist.

Someone who wanted to overthrow Rome’s rule and authority.

But that’s exactly what we all did in the Garden.

You will be like God, knowing good and evil (Genesis 4:5).

You can make yourselves God.

Throw Him off the throne… determine for yourselves what is good and evil… right and wrong.

You don’t need to worship God or look to Him.

You don’t need to love and serve Him as Creatures.

You don’t have to live for Him, you can live for yourselves.

In our sin we all rebelled against God… participated in the insurrection of the Sovereign King of the Universe.

Dead to Rights

We are all Barabbas.

Condemned… guilty… dead to rights in our sin.

He was a notorious prisoner and by our sin we have all made ourselves notorious sinners.

There is no question… and there are no if, ands, or buts about it.

We are all guilty and condemned in our sin.

The soul that sins shall die (Ezekiel 18:20).

And Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point… has become guilty of all of it (James 2:10).

No hope… no light… were it not for the death of a Substitute.

And that’s the second thing I want to see in the Great Exchange of Barabbas.

The…

Sinless Innocence of Jesus

Barabbas was actually guilty of the crimes they themselves were using to accuse Jesus.

Pilate even says “I find no guilt in Him” and the reason why is because there was no guilt in Him.

Jesus Christ was the sinless Son of God.

He had no sin of His own for which to die for so when He went to the cross He died for His people’s sins.

He died as our Perfect and Sinless substitute.

The True Lamb of God without spot or blemish… innocent and pure… who takes away the sin of all who trust in Him and removes those sins as far as east is from the west (1 Peter 1:19; Psalm 103:12).

The irony that Barabbas was guilty of the very crimes they were accusing Jesus of highlights the biblical truth that Jesus was innocent but numbered with the transgressors.

He died a sinners death to save sinners from their sins.

As Isaiah says He poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors (Isaiah 53:12).

With Barabbas we see the Good News of the Cross.

We see our sin and our Sinless Substitute.

Jesus is our Perfect Substitute Who Gave His Life for Our Sins.

Number 2…

II. Jesus is the True and Perfect Adam Who Bore Our Curse

John 19:1–5 Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”

Again, you have Pilate unwittingly highlighting the fact that Jesus is the Sinless Son of God.

See, I am bringing Him out to you that you man know that I find no guilt in Him.

But Before Pilate does that, he has Jesus flogged.

Now why do that if he thinks Jesus is innocent?

Ever the Politician, Pilate was probably trying to satisfy the Jews hunger and thirst for punishment because he immediately leads Jesus out saying Behold the Man hoping it might be enough.

Maybe seeing Jesus in such a pathetic beaten state would persuade the crowds that enough was enough especially with such harsh Roman treatment against one of their own.

Now when you put all four Gospels together this flogging was probably not the scourging that would come later after Jesus was sentenced to death.

In Rome there were three different types of public beatings that could take place.

The first was a severe beating for minor offenses with the second being a greater beating for more serious offenses.

The third, scourging, was the most brutal and was reserved for the most severe crimes and capital punishments.

Matthew and Mark both say that after Jesus was sentenced to death Jesus was scourged whereas Luke says that before Pilate sentenced Jesus to death he had found no guilt in Him and so was going to punish Him and let Him go again probably in an effort to appease the Jews (Matthew 27:26, Mark 15:15; Luke 23:13-16).

So the Gospels are in perfect harmony.

Before Jesus is sentenced to death Pilate has Him flogged with a severe beating and after Jesus is scourged explaining why Jesus was so weak He could not even carry His cross.

Scourging

Because scourging was a brutal punishment.

Basically a person would be stripped naked and tied to a post and several Roman Soldiers would beat the man with short whips with several tails that all had rocks and bone woven in.

And they would beat the man until they got tired or their superior officer called them off.

Many people would not even survive their scourging.

It would take a man’s back and turn it to pulp.

First hand accounts say that it was so brutal that bones and organs would be exposed which was why many people would die.

And Jesus went through it. He was scourged…

As Isaiah says But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds… that is lacerations or slashes, sometimes translated stripes…

With His wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).

Foretaste

Now I highlight that for you because if Jesus suffered a beating before that… He had already been beaten all night by the Jews… I can imagine how all of us would say, I can’t take any worse.

After being beaten with a severe beating, I can’t imagine saying Ok… now I’ll be scourged.

But Christ kept going.

He didn’t shrink back.

He had the foretaste and He knew there was more to come and He didn’t use that to try and get out of it.

This is too hard… its not worth it.

He stood firm knowing if He did not die… we would all perish in our sins.

You see the Courage of Christ and the Love of Christ for us to face this beating knowing there is more still to come and say, “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me and drain it down to the dregs? (John 18:11, Psalm 75:8).

Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with His wounds we are healed.

Thorns

And then “the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands.”

Again we need to see the Theology behind the History.

The Crown of Thorns, under the providence of God, was not just a wicked mockery of Jesus as King with a crown that would be painful for Him cutting into His head and flesh.

Its a Crown that goes all the way back to the Curse.

When Adam sinned, God said Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you (Genesis 3:17-18).

Thorns were part of the curse.

The Garden was Lush with Life and because of sin the world would be filled with thorns and death.

And so, Jesus wearing the Crown of Thorns, was bearing the curse for us.

Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.

But it goes so much deeper than that.

Because when Pilate brings Jesus out He says Behold the Man!

Now for Pilate, he probably didn’t mean much from it.

He was probably saying, “Look at this miserable fellow! The One you say makes Himself a King.”

“Does this look like a King to you? Does this look like someone deserving of death?”

But providentially, Pilate was saying so much more.

Under the Sovereign Hand of God, and what John wants us to see, Pilate was saying Behold the True Man!

The True and Perfect Adam.

The One and Only Sinless Man that you may know I find no guilt in Him.

Jesus is the True and Perfect Adam Who Bore our Curse.

There are two different humanities… those in Adam and those in Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

Covenants

To understand this kind of language you need to understand God’s Covenants.

Our relationship to God is on the basis of Covenants.

God is not obligated in any way to enter into Covenant with us but does so out of His own benevolent goodness not for Himself but to share His goodness with us.

In other words, God is kind to enter into covenant with us for no other reason than to reveal His glory and to bless us in the eternal enjoyment of Himself.

Of the Creature knowing… loving… walking with the Creator.

Covenant of Works

With Adam, and all of us in Adam, God made a Covenant of Works.

Do this and live.

The blessings of the Covenant… I will be their God and they will be My People… were based on our works of obedience.

Of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die… for the wages of sin is death (Genesis 2:17, Romans 6:23).

Adam of course fell… and as our Federal or Representative head we all fell in him.

Romans 5:12, 15, 18, 19 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…For [the] many died through one man’s trespass… [and] one trespass led to condemnation for all men… For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners.

This is why all in Adam shall die.

We are all condemned in Adam under the Covenant of Works and not just in Adam but as willful participants in Adam’s sin inheriting his sin nature and having sin of our own.

But Jesus is the True and Perfect Adam.

A New Federal or Representative Head of A New Humanity.

He is the perfect and sinless Son of Man who… unlike the first Adam… fulfilled the Covenant of Works on our behalf to give us the Covenant of Grace.

He fulfilled all the righteous requirements the Law we failed to live and paid the penalty of the Law our sin deserved.

He fulfilled the Covenant of Works as a Man.

He obeyed God perfectly and earned the Eternal Life that was forfeited by Adam in the Fall so that now… all who believe in Him can be counted righteous in Him and forgiven of all our sin.

That’s the Covenant of Grace.

We rest in Christ’s Finished Work and by grace through faith in Him we receive grace and the free gift of Eternal Life.

Going back to Romans 5.

Romans 5:17–19 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

You are either in Adam or in Christ.

You either stand before God condemned under the Covenant of Works or Justified in Christ under the Covenant of Grace.

Behold the Man!

Jesus is our Perfect and sinless Substitute who died in our place for our sins.

He is the True and Perfect Adam who fulfilled the Law on our behalf… bore our curse… and reconciled us to God to give us Eternal Life.

And finally, number 3…

The Good News of the Cross is that…

III. Jesus is Our Passover Lamb Who Delivers Us from Sin, Condemnation, and Death

John 19:6-8 When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.”

This is the third time Pilate said He found no guilt in Him highlighting that sinless and blameless perfection of Christ.

And the Jews of course could not do it… they had no power legally under Rome to put anyone to death.

So Pilate was basically saying, “Alright… if you think He’s so guilty then you do it!”

I’m not doing it!

I find no guilt in Him.

There isn’t anything that He has done.

To which the Jews reply, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid.

Now we don’t know what made Pilate so afraid.

His wife had sent word to Him in Matthew 27 saying, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.” (Matthew 27:19).

Probably that coupled with the Jews saying He claimed to be the Son of God plus Pilate’s insistence that He was innocent made Pilate do a double take and think maybe this really is the Son of God.

Verse 9… So…

John 19:9-11 He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?”

Are you from Heaven? Are you not of this world? (John 18:36).

But Jesus gave him no answer.

This is a picture of Jesus as the Suffering Servant.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth (Isaiah 53:7).

He doesn’t fight back.

He doesn’t resist.

He doesn’t try to scare Pilate from accidentally killing a God.

He submits to the Father’s plan.

Giving no answer highlights how Jesus offered His life as a voluntary sacrifice out of His great love for us.

So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”

Jesus’ point is that the civil magistrate is under God.

Presidents, Kings, Governors… all in positions of authority serve as His Deacons Romans 13:4 says.

They are accountable to Him.

And he who delivered me over to you is probably Caiaphas the High Priest as representative of the the Jews as a whole.

Judas didn’t hand Jesus over to Pilate.

And when Jesus says he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin…

All sins lead to death but there are greater and more heinous sins than others.

And we don’t have time to get into all of it today but the point for us against this backdrop of the Good News of the Gospel is that every sin, no matter how small.

That without Christ… the wicked… great and small… you today will suffer all the punishment all their sin deserves… every last one.

Our only hope to be forgiven of our sin is Jesus Christ.

From then on… John 19:12… Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”

Now you might be wondering why didn’t Pilate just release Him.

The Jews response gives us the answer.

Pilate had already had several run ins with the Jews in the past and Rome’s eye was already on him.

If he let Jesus go and caused a riot or the Jews told Caesar Pilate wasn’t taking care of an insurrection, he would probably lose his place or his position… probably even his life.

And so Pilate shows us the sin of every man.

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Matthew 16:25).

Pilate loved his life more than doing what was right even though he knew Jesus was innocent.

So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha.

NEW SLIDE

John 19:14–16 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.

Now wait a second? Didn’t Jesus and His Disciples have Passover the night before?

Wasn’t the Lord’s Supper a Passover Meal?

Passover

There are basically two options.

One is that the Preparation of Passover refers to the whole Passover week.

The next day was the Sabbath so they were continuing to celebrate Passover and getting everything ready for the next day when they couldn’t work.

The other option is that Jesus and His Disciples, being Northern Jews, counted time differently than Southern Jews in Jersualem and the Priesthood.

They counted days sunrise to sunrise whereas southern Jews counted Sunset to Sunset,

So for Jesus Passover began Thursday morning and they celebrated the meal that night whereas the priesthood saw the Passover starting on Thursday Evening and ending on Friday night so they would celebrate their meal then.

Either way there’s harmony between the Gospels… they don’t contradict each other… and John’s point is that He wants us to see Jesus’ death tied directly to Passover.

Maybe even at the time Jesus was being crucified the Passover Lambs were being slaughtered all over the city.

Why?

Because Christ… in His death is the True Fulfillment of the Passover.

Paul says For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed (1 Corinthians 5:7).

Exodus Background

Now Passover goes back to the Exodus where the people of God were under slavery and oppression in Egypt and God delivered them by His mighty hand.

After all the plagues in Egypt, God said I’m going to bring death to the land and kill the firstborn in every house.

But every house that takes a lamb without blemish and puts its blood over the door… I will passover that house and no plague or judgment will befall you.

And the message of Passover is very simple… God delivers His people by the death of an innocent substitute.

The Good News of the Cross.

In Christ… the True Passover Lamb… God delivers us from our bondage to sin, condemnation, and death.

He sees the blood and no plague or judgment falls on any who trust in Christ.

He brings us out of Egypt and into the Promise Land of Eternal Life.

The Jews rejected God and Christ as their King with the True Fulfillment of everything they were about to celebrate standing right there.

Jesus is the True Passover Lamb who shed His own blood to save us from our sins.

And when God sees us in Christ, God sees us washed in the blood of the Lamb.

Righteous, Justified, Forgiven.

God’s wrath passes over having been satisfied once for all in Passover Lamb sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

The Good News of the Cross is that Jesus died in our place for our sins to forgive our sins and give us Eternal Life.

The Cross is Good News that reveals the glory of Christ’s Person and Work.

He is Our Sinless Substitute who gave His life for our sins.

He is the True and Perfect Adam who bore our curse… fulfilled the Covenant of Works and gave us the Covenant of Grace.

And He is the True Passover Lamb who delivers us from sin, condemnation, and death.

That’s what we celebrate this week and that’s why we boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:14).

Its the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16).

Invitation

Pilate’s dilemma is the same as our dilemma.

What shall I do with Jesus?

Shall I crucify your King?

What will you do with Jesus?

Pilate tried to find a way out, but their’s no middle ground with Jesus.

The call to follow Jesus is a call to die.

To die to yourself… die to the world… die to your sin… and follow Him.

Will you reject Jesus as your Lord… Savior… and King?

The only one who can save you from all your sin?

Or will you believe in Him.

Trust in Him.

Cast all your sins and all your soul on Him?

Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

Come to Christ.

Cry out to Him, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” (Luke 18:13).

I’m a sinner… I deserve death… I deserve worse than the cross.

Will you please forgive me of my sin and wash me clean by your blood.

What makes the Cross Good News?

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

Let’s Pray

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