Whence Art Thou?
by Richard St.James
Whence Art Thou?
Bible 1611.Com / Old Paths Bible Ministries © 2008John 19:9 “And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto
Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.
10 Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest
thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to
release thee?
11 Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me,
except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me
unto thee hath the greater sin.
12 And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews
cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's
friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.
13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth,
and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the
Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.
14 And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth
hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!
15 But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him.
Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests
answered, We have no king but Caesar.
16 Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And
they took Jesus, and led him away.”
1. The Outer Space Visitor
2. The Earthly Power
3. The Heavenly Power
4. The Sixth Hour
1. The Outer Space Visitor
Verse nine: “And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.”“Whence art thou?” Pilate is asking Jesus Christ: Where are you from? Now, Pilate knew that Jesus was from Nazareth, but down deep in his soul he sensed that Jesus wasn’t from any geographical location on the Earth. Thus the question: “Whence art thou?” Where do you really come from? If Jesus Christ is not from here on the Earth, then HE must be from somewhere out of this world. This means the SON of GOD is a visitor from outer space. In the book of Psalms chapter forty-eight, verse two, we see this outer space location is “in the sides of the north.” “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.” [Psalm 48:2]
The “sides of the north” incidentally, was the location, or the place, of Satan’s rebellion. The DEVIL wanted “the sides of the north” all to himself. “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:” [Isaiah 14:13].
Now, the “sides of the north” is far above the height of all the stars that we can see in the night. look with me in [Job 22:12] “Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!” Then, Job thirty-eight, verse one: “the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,” [Job 38:1]. Now skip down to to verse thirty-eight: “Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?” [Job 38:31] Yes, Jesus Christ [we can conclude] has an out of this world home. This is no surprise here, because Jesus Christ is GOD HIMSELF. Amen!
2. The Earthly Power
Verse ten: “Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?”All hail the Gentile power! Now, this is the way it has been from time in memorial. Ever since the institution of human government, the princes of the Gentiles have exercised authority over their subjects. We see this truth verified by Jesus Christ in Matthew twenty, verse twenty-five: “But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them.” [Matthew 20:25] Who can blame Pilate? Pilate is only doing his thing. [Romans 13:1] “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”
3. The Heavenly Power
Verse eleven: “Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.”Pilate now, quickly sobers up. There is something inside of him telling him that this is no ordinary human standing before him. It is God "come in the flesh" that is “lining out” Pilate concerning where Rome’s governmental authority came from in the first place!
[For now, and only this one time, the Son of God would willingly submit to Pilate’s authority.] The Apostle Paul by the Holy Ghost laid it out this way in the book of Acts: “Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.” [Acts 17:3] The orders “from above” required that Jesus Christ would willingly submit to the judgment of Caesar ... the earthly power that was “ordained of God.”
4. The Sixth Hour
Verse fourteen: “And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!”Everything is time driven. Do you know that? The events of the creation, the very length of the solar day and night [12+12 = 24 hours], the prediction of the coming of a world-wide flood in Noah’s day [120 years, Genesis 6:3], and the seventy weeks of years “determined upon thy people” [Israel] till the Kingdom of Heaven comes. [Dan 9:24-27]
Friend, even the very length of the days of a man’s life on this earth is determined in time. [Psalm 90:10] “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”
Now, TIME is fleeting, and this is why, the believers in Jesus Christ are commanded to REDEEM THE TIME! [Colossians 4:5] “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.”
Now, back to our text here in John nineteen. Remember EVERYTHING is time driven. It was now time for “the preparation of the Passover.” The Passover Lamb HIMSELF was being prepared in fulfillment of the prophecy of John the Baptist! “And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!” [John 1:36]
It was now, the sixth hour. It was, as we call it, HIGH noon. It was now time to kill the PASSOVER. Friend, the event of the PASSOVER, [in the book of Exodus] that had occurred in Egypt, which is a type of the world was to point to a then future event that would occur in the fullness of time [at the right time]. Now, here we are, and it is the right time! “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,” [Galatians 4:4]
Let us now read in Exodus twelve, verse twenty-one and twenty-two: “Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover. And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.” [Exodus 12:21-22]
Now, turn with me to Genesis chapter twenty-two, and we will read there in verse eight. Are you ready? “And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.” [Genesis 22:8]
In the year of 1871 B.C., God revealed to man [Abraham] that HE would provide “himself a lamb” at just the right time, at HIGH NOON in human history, so to speak. Then, one thousand, and nine hundred, and four years later, the LAMB came to REDEEM MAN from the curse of the law which is death.
Oh, yes, it is GREAT GRACE that is given to us! “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:” [Galatians3:13]. Do you see it? Jesus Christ, the Son of God, took our place. He died for us … you and I. Behold the Lamb of God!
The Place Of The Skull
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The Gospel According To John
John 19:1 Then Pilate therefore
took Jesus, and scourged him.
John 19:2 And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on
his head, and they put on him a purple robe,
John 19:3 And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with
their hands.
John 19:4 Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them,
Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no
fault in him.
John 19:5 Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and
the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!
John 19:6 When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him,
they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto
them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him.
John 19:7 The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he
ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
John 19:8 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more
afraid;
John 19:9 And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto
Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.
John 19:10 Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me?
knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power
to release thee?
John 19:11 Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all
against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that
delivered me unto thee
hath the greater sin.
John 19:12 And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but
the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not
Caesar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against
Caesar.
John 19:13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus
forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called
the Pavement, but
in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.
John 19:14 And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the
sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!
John 19:15 But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify
him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief
priests answered,
We have no king but Caesar.
John 19:16 Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be
crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.
John 19:17 And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called
the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:
John 19:18 Where they crucified him, and two others with him, on
either side one, and Jesus in the midst.
John 19:19 And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And
the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.
John 19:20 This title then read many of the Jews: for the place
where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written
in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.
John 19:21 Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write
not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews.
John 19:22 Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.
John 19:23 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took
his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also
his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top
throughout.
John 19:24 They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it,
but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be
fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for
my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers
did.
John 19:25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his
mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
John 19:26 When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple
standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold
thy son!
John 19:27 Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And
from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.
John 19:28 After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now
accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I
thirst.
John 19:29 Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they
filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to
his mouth.
John 19:30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said,
It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
John 19:31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that
the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for
that sabbath
day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be
broken, and that they might be taken away.
John 19:32 Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first,
and of the other which was crucified with him.
John 19:33 But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead
already, they brake not his legs:
John 19:34 But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side,
and forthwith came there out blood and water.
John 19:35 And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true:
and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.
John 19:36 For these things were done, that the scripture should be
fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.
John 19:37 And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him
whom they pierced.
John 19:38 And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of
Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he
might take away the
body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and
took the body of Jesus.
John 19:39 And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to
Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an
hundred pound weight.
John 19:40 Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen
clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
John 19:41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a
garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet
laid.
John 19:42 There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews'
preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.
