The Promise of the Holy Spirit
1:1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
4 And while staying1 with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with2 the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
The Ascension
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Matthias Chosen to Replace Judas
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. 13 And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. 14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.3
15 In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, 16 “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. 17 For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” 18 (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong4 he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. 19 And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) 20 “For it is written in the Book of Psalms,
“‘May his camp become desolate,
and let there be no one to dwell in it’;and
“‘Let another take his office.’21 So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” 23 And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. 24 And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen 25 to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” 26 And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
Footnotes
[1] 1:4
Or eating
[2] 1:5Or in
[3] 1:14Or brothers and sisters. In New Testament usage, depending on the context, the plural Greek word adelphoi (translated “brothers”) may refer either to brothers or to brothers and sisters; also verse 15
[4] 1:18Or swelling up (ESV)
Category: Scripture
Jesus Appears to Seven Disciples
21:1 After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. 3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
4 Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” 6 He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. 7 That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. 8 The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards1 off.
9 When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. 14 This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
Jesus and Peter
15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”
Jesus and the Beloved Apostle
20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” 22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” 23 So the saying spread abroad among the brothers2 that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”
24 This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
Footnotes
[1] 21:8
Greek two hundred cubits; a cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters
[2] 21:23Or brothers and sisters (ESV)
Categories
Saturday Study
Saturday Study
John 16-20 (1-26-19)
Grab your Bibles and turn with me to the Gospel of John chapter 16.
Looking at John 16:16-19, Jesus says once again to the disciples that He is leaving, and they will not see Him but that He will come back. This continues to be a struggle for the disciples to digest.
Do you remember raising toddlers in the phase where if they heard Mom and Dad say, “We’re leaving. We are going bye bye,” and the young child would just lose their mind if they were not going along also? “What do you mean you are leaving?” It’s not that the disciples were young but more that their lives were so centered around shadowing and serving Christ that they couldn’t imagine what it would be like or how they would function without Him.
So, Jesus has been emboldening them with clarity that He is going to prepare a place for them, and the Holy Spirit will do a mighty and new work in them; although they will be hated, He has put His love on them, and they will be His forever.
Quickly, do we feel this kind of dependence for Jesus? Our dying to self to live to Christ means we are all the more dependent on Him every day. Our very identity, like the disciples who walked with Christ in person, is to walk with Him in the power of the Spirit, as we live for and serve Him all of our days.
Second, see the disciples struggling with the timing of what was happening and the not knowing how it was going to go down. See their flesh want to know more and understand more–to be more in control. I think we relate to this, but we must see that this is counter to our depending on and trusting Jesus–trusting that He knows what is best and when it is best to happen.
How are you doing lately at trusting in God’s plan and timing as things unfold, even when they make no sense or work against our plans?
We must never forget God’s timing is always better. His ways are always better.
Endless are the examples in Scripture of the sin of man who did the opposite of what God told them to do. We must be faithful, trust Him, wait on Him, and embrace His discipline and shaping of us.
These are the emphasis points of Proverbs 3:1-12. Take a moment to read it. Consider how we struggle with these things!
The disciples are struggling with the idea of Jesus leaving and worrying about His return. I get it; our flesh doesn’t like waiting or not knowing. But we need to trust in Him and wait on Him.
Jesus said in Acts 1:7, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.”
This is one of the most central ways in which we acknowledge Him as God and that we are not God. He is the One in charge of all things–not you and me. He is the One working “all things together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
It’s not up to you and me. It’s not ours to know how and when. We must simply trust that He will! He will see it through. His promises are rock solid. His ways are higher than our ways.
Now, let’s look at Jesus’ reply to them in verse 20:
John 16:20 “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful”
First, see Jesus doesn’t coddle them but prepares them for what is coming. He is not going to lie and say, “Everything will be ok.” No, it’s going to get really bad. Before it gets better, it will get worse.
Now, this is first and foremost speaking of the disciples’ grief they will surely experience to watch their master be tortured and killed. They will watch the secular world celebrate Christ’s death, which will make their sorrow all the more.
“The world will persecute you and hate you and even attempt to kill you.” These are the words Jesus has just finished saying to them. Now He says, “You will weep and lament.” See the opposition of the world for our Savior and His people.
We, too, will suffer like our Savior did. And when we do, the world will look to be winning. They will look to be celebrating. They will look to be, at times, even the more desirable way. Our flesh will desire to just join them instead of continuing to be persecuted. Our flesh loves the path of least resistance.
So, Jesus is undergirding them with truth, and He is telling them, “Following me will mean sorrow and suffering.”
Don’t be unaware. Don’t be naive or guilty of ignoring the reality of the Christian life in this world. The world will not work right for us. Oh, how we want it to. We want our kids to be safe, and we want a fair chance to succeed. But our kids are not safe. We will not be given a fair chance.
The authorities of that day are going to get away with lying about Jesus. They are going to successfully have the most innocent person to ever live be condemned to death.
Tell me how that is a sign of the world working for us or with us.
No, instead we see that God rules over all of it, even the injustice of Jesus’ death for the sake of justice for His elect–for those He would graciously redeem. WOW.
See the disciples early on lose their lives, take regular beatings, and be falsely imprisoned for standing for and preaching the name of Jesus. We will suffer and experience sorrow.
STOP IT. Stop it right now if you think your Christianity and your church attendance mean you will have a better life, an easier life. It will not. But we don’t do it for that. We do it for God’s name–for His glory–and we do it for the joy that is before us.
This is what Jesus did:
Hebrews 12:1b-2 let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
He knew joy was coming–endless, unrelenting joy! We need to know that our sorrow will turn into joy as well. Look at the rest of verse 20:
John 16:20b “but your sorrow will turn into joy.”
Jesus is saying, “You must remain steadfast and walk in the living hope you have in me because your sorrow will turn into joy.”
This is the promise of God for us. This is what we must hang our hat on, church. This is the truth that picks us up when we are in the pit of despair and our life is crumbling, when our health is failing, when our loved ones are abandoning, when our boss is firing, when our kids are running.
Later, Peter will say it so well in 1 Peter 1:6: “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.”
In this you rejoice. Who is the “you”? We are! The church is! The elect exiles. IN THIS, WE REJOICE!
Peter is saying, “God’s elect exiles are to have joy!” We are to rejoice upon the great truths He just got done proclaiming, which are:
According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Peter 1:3b-5).
It is important that our joy is based on these great truths and not on our circumstances! Because the “rejoicing” Peter is telling us to have is in the middle of various trials and suffering.
1 Peter 4:12-13 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
So, what does this tell us today. How does this help us today?
Will there be pain and sorrow and hardship that affects us? YES! So, do not be surprised at the fiery trial as though something strange were happening to you.
But it also tells us that as we experience these things, it is always on the FOUNDATION of joy in Christ. It is on the foundation of thanksgiving and praise! This is how Paul is able to say that he is “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” in 2 Corinthians 6:10.
I plead with you do NOT dismiss this truth today. Some of you are missing who Christ is through and through. You claim Christianity. You claim Jesus, but you live your lives like you truly do not know the fullness of who He is to you.
I know many of you are in the middle of hard things, painful stuff. This life in the here and now is really hard.
-Death of loved ones
-Financial stress
-Wrestling with addictive habits
-Flesh-driven motivations of a loved one is ripping your marriage or family apart
-Broken relationships, whereby the other party is content to do nothing to reconcile
-Your health is really failing you
The fact remains you will suffer and struggle and experience various trials!
Notice Peter says, “though now for a little while.” In other words, it’s temporary.
Believers can rejoice in suffering in their exile, because they have a living hope that it will not last forever. Now, this doesn’t mean the suffering will be brief; it will be brief in comparison to eternity.
Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Also, 1 Peter 1:6 says, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.”
The “if necessary” here means “if God decides it is necessary.” Peter later makes this clear in 1 Peter 4:19 (NIV): “So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.”
This is also good news because our suffering or various trials are not outside of God’s sovereign hand. This is good news for our hearts, because it means we are not forgotten to our struggles and exile.
It means what we face is only what God deems is necessary. And since we are His, and He is God, and He has us eternally in His victorious grip in Christ, we can be assured that what He deems necessary is necessary.
Now, Jesus says, “… you will weep and lament … You will be sorrowful …” (John 16:20).
So the trials the disciples and the church would face will grieve us.
Do you ever feel like being a Christian means you can’t say “ouch”? Like you have to be strong all time and show no wear and tear? This is just not the case! Christians hurt; they say “ouch.” Exiles mourn and slow down. Jesus Himself said, “It will affect you.”
But the difference between Christian exiles and the world’s citizens is we have joy in Christ despite our trials and sorrow. Our struggle is not our end. It doesn’t undo us. There is a hope, a living hope. There is a joy in the midst of the trials that is based on that living hope. That rises to the top. That carries us through our tears.
Psalm 34:19 says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”
Hear this today: Neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament promises that believers will escape affliction in this life, for God in His sovereignty uses suffering to do eternal things in the lives of His people, and He ultimately carries out His purposes for His glory! This is good news!
Now, look at the example Jesus gives for how our sorrow turns to joy.
John 16:20b -22a “but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice”
What was the very first element of a woman’s suffering because of sin that God said you would have to endure? The pains of childbirth. You who know this pain are not slow to remind us who don’t know just how painful it is. And trust me, I believe it. So, Jesus is saying, “When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.”
What an amazing truth Jesus gives here. It is so true. I have been there. I know. To watch my wife rightly screaming in pain as she pushes a little person out of her body. Screaming, tears, sweating, blood, pain … and then all of the sudden, there is the most amazing turn of events.
Despite that the pain is still there, the body is still bleeding, and the sweat is still running down the face, the room is transformed to joy! A new life has emerged. The work of God is on display in one of the most amazing ways. Right?
But consider how much greater it was for the disciples who saw their Savior–their Master–torn apart, brutally tortured and mocked, and people celebrating in His death, once they saw Him alive and well. Can you imagine the turn in their mourning and sorrow to utter JOY? He is God. He is victorious. He is bigger than death, and so are we who are in Him! UTTER JOY!
So, when Jesus says, “but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice,” this is what He is pointing to.
But this is not just for them; it is for us, too. This is the joy we cling to in our suffering: the victory and power and promise of our Savior and bloodied Champion.
Hear Jesus get very personal here with the disciples: “I will see YOU again … YOUR hearts will rejoice.”
We get to look forward with great anticipation and joy to His second coming.
But it gets better. Look at the second part of verse 22:
John 16:22b “and no one will take your joy from you.”
Not only will our sorrow turn into joy, but no one will be able to take it from us, because it is true joy established and held by God. It is not happiness that is fleeting and momentary and dependent on our current circumstances. It is joy–joy in God! It is held by His power.
Let me ask you this: Who is going to break you out of God’s grip? Who is going to steal what He has secured? No one. Not even Satan. The highest power is God! And He is the one who secures our eternity! He is able, because He is God!
Jeremiah 32:17 (NIV) Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.
Matthew 19:26 … Jesus looked at them and said. “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
We need to NOT see our security for eternity as divine walls of protection that surround the heavenly city. It is so much bigger than that. It is the active, always-present power of God by whom no one and nothing can break in. Remember Jesus said this in chapter 10?
John 10:27-29 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”
Finally, look at what Jesus says in verses 23 and 24:
John 16:23-24 “In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
Don’t forget who you are and who you live for. Remember, to ask for something in Jesus’ name is to say, “I want to do your work and fulfill your will.” It is to align ourselves with God and His perfect plan to accomplish His perfect will. We get to do this. We get to participate in the work of His name for His glory and for our JOY!
I send all my emails and letters with, “For His glory, others’ good, and our joy.”
We do what we do no matter what it is FOR His glory, others’ good, and our joy–our joy in God. Jesus says, “that your joy may be full.”
Oh, that your joy be full and overflowing in Christ–not joy built on fleeting circumstances, but in God who is eternal and perfect and satisfying. That as the Psalmist says, you would “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4), and “… in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).
Do we get this? Do you truly have your joy not in the things of this world but in Jesus?
Like what David said in the famous Psalm 23:
Psalm 23:5-6 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Jesus says, “that your joy may be full!” If it is full, it is flowing over. It is brimmed out. This is the joy we have only in Christ. This joy endures and carries us through the valley of the shadow of death. This is the joy that we will have forevermore in God, in His kingdom.
By His grace and for His glory,
Pastor Joshua Kirstine
Disciples Church
The Resurrection
20:1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. 4 Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’1 head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples went back to their homes.
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic,2 “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.
Jesus Appears to the Disciples
19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews,3 Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
Jesus and Thomas
24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin,4 was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”
26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
The Purpose of This Book
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Footnotes
[1] 20:7
Greek his
[2] 20:16Or Hebrew
[3] 20:19Greek Ioudaioi probably refers here to Jewish religious leaders, and others under their influence, in that time
[4] 20:24Greek Didymus (ESV)
Jesus Delivered to Be Crucified
19:1 Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. 2 And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. 3 They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. 4 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.” 5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” 6 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.” 7 The Jews1 answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” 8 When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. 9 He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 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?” 11 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.”
12 From then on 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.” 13 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 Aramaic2 Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour.3 He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” 15 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.” 16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.
The Crucifixion
So they took Jesus, 17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. 19 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20 Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. 21 So the chief priests 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.’” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”
23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic.4 But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, 24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says,
“They divided my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.”So the soldiers did these things, 25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
The Death of Jesus
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Jesus’ Side Is Pierced
31 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. 35 He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. 36 For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” 37 And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”
Jesus Is Buried
38 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. 39 Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus5 by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds6 in weight. 40 So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. 41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. 42 So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.
Footnotes
[1] 19:7
Greek Ioudaioi probably refers here to Jewish religious leaders, and others under their influence, in that time; also verses 12, 14, 31, 38
[2] 19:13Or Hebrew; also verses 17, 20
[3] 19:14That is, about noon
[4] 19:23Greek chiton, a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin
[5] 19:39Greek him
[6] 19:39Greek one hundred litras; a litra (or Roman pound) was equal to about 11 1/2 ounces or 327 grams (ESV)