THE CROWN OF THORNS (Mt. 27:29)

We have looked at the crowns belonging to the saints. We do not deserve a single one of them but they are ours through sovereign and saving grace. They are ours because we are children of the Heavenly King.

We looked, too, at the One seated upon the white horse, Rev. 19:12, on his head [the head of the Lord Jesus Christ] were many crowns. … He reigns today as the King of kings.

What an altogether different picture though as we, - approaching the Easter season, - consider the crown of thorns. We are entering the company of the soldiers in Pilate’s hall. … The crown of thorns that began as …

THE SINNER’S CROWN ∗ … What I mean is that it was a plaything created by sinful men, intent on causing Jesus to pass through the most unimaginable and horrific of experiences. ∗ The Lord Jesus was found guilty of a crime He never committed. ∗ He was found guilty of a crime only men whose minds were saturated with hatred would ever have been able to conceive. ∗ When Pilate remonstrated with them, v.23 what evil hath he done? … they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. ∗ He released a man to them who, - beyond any shadow of a doubt, - deserved the death penalty. Barabbas was a murderer, a rebel, and a cruel man. He was not bound by decency and love for his people. He would have removed every man, woman or child who got in his way! ∗ And yet … v.26 Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. ∗ Ordinarily, even today, no matter how heinous the crime, the criminal sentenced to death is given the dignity to prepare for their final moments. ∗ … The criminal is given the time alone to ‘gather himself’ and to prepare for the moment his end would come … ∗ But no such clemency was offered to Jesus. … It became Roman law, - during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, - that the execution of criminals should be deferred for at least ten days after sentence … ∗ But no such leniency was given to Jesus. They scourged Him. The Jewish law forbid more than forty stripes, but the Roman soldiers were under no obligation and they could inflict as much pain as they desired. 2 ∗ They flailed Jesus. In anticipation of how they would punish the Saviour, the psalmist declared, 129:3 The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows. ∗ It was indescribable … the pain … even before Jesus hung on the cross. ∗ They should have put Him in a cell, and when the morning came they should have taken Him out, and brought Him along the road to the cross … but Jesus was not allowed a single moment of respite from the cruelty of sinners. ∗ While some of the soldiers were beating Him, - … the tears flowing down His face, and the agony of the torment of His mind, - some other of the soldiers were in Pilate’s garden picking up thorns to plat a crown for the Saviour. ∗ Christ was stripped, He was put to shame, and He was beaten. They found an old discarded red cloak, - one that would have belonged to a Roman soldier, - and they threw it over Him … They mocked Him, and they called Him the king, - it was all such great fun for them … ∗ The crown they made … if it was just for fun, they could have made it out of straw and it would not have caused Jesus pain … but they made it out of thorns in order to extract from Him the greatest amount of suffering possible! ∗ Have you ever tried doing something with thorns? No matter how hard you try, it is almost impossible not to cut yourself … but the soldiers did not care if they cut themselves or not … Such is the heart of fallen man that he would do anything to bring the greatest of disgrace and distress upon the Saviour. ∗ When Adam sinned in the Garden, the Lord told him, Gen. 3:17 cursed is the ground for thy sake … Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee. … The sinner’s crown, - the crown the Roman soldiers made, - was part of the curse that was the product of sin. … On Christ’s precious head was placed the condemnation of our sin. ∗ Remember the ram on Mount Moriah … when Abraham was ready to sacrifice his son … remember the ram was caught in the thickets/thorns (Gen. 22:13) … the ram was the sacrifice who died in the place of Isaac. ∗ … On the cross of Calvary, the Lamb was once more caught in the thorns which made the crown they placed upon His head. ∗ Yes, it was the sinner’s crown the Lord Jesus wore on Calvary. ∗ It was the crown sinful men fashioned and designed. 3 ∗ It would have been set upon His precious head with such ferocity the blood flowed down His precious face, his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men (Is. 52:14). ∗ Barbarity, brutality, cruelty, viciousness, coldness, savagery, depravity … no matter how many words you try to find, none could ever begin to describe what they did to Jesus. ∗ It was the sinner’s crown of thorns He was made to wear, - the crown fashioned and formed by sinners for the perfect Son of God. ∗ … Yet, in the will and plan of God, the sinner’s crown was made to become …

THE SAVIOUR’S CROWN ∗ If the world had the opportunity all over again, they would do exactly the same. Yes, they would crucify Him … for today they boldly continue to reject Him. They will accept all kinds of ‘Barabbas’s’, and all kinds of rebels against God … but the Son of God, they continue to reject. ∗ And yet, the crown of thorns He wore, - the crown the sinners made, - has a new meaning for every child of God, redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. ∗ For even one single sinner to be saved, Christ’s blood had to be shed, for without shedding of blood is no remission (Heb. 9:22). ∗ “Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned He stood; Sealed my pardon with His blood. Hallelujah! What a Saviour!” ∗ Imagine standing in some great place somewhere on this planet, with every brother and sister from all over the world … They would be singing those words in all the different languages, - “Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned He stood; Sealed my pardon with His blood”, but when it would come to the next word, - the next word is the same in every language … and it would reverberate throughout God’s creation, … what is the word? … It is ‘Hallelujah’! ∗ The Lord Jesus could have called the armies of Heaven. He could have, - Himself, - taken the crown from off His head. In a moment He could have made Himself clean. He could have taken the robe off His shoulders and He could have thrown it at their feet. With one single breath He could have blown those soldiers away … but if Jesus had not suffered the enmity, if He had not accepted the punishment God was meting out to Him, then that punishment would have been yours and mine for all eternity. 4 ∗ He wore the sinner’s crown and He accepted the sinner’s cross to be my Saviour. Is. 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth ... 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment… he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken … the Lord said. ∗ For my sin and for your sin was He slain. The devil thought he could get rid of Jesus, but little did the devil know, - for the devil does not think as God thinks! – … little did the opposer of God and men know, by working to put Jesus on the cross he was sealing his own judgement and own eternal damnation. Jesus said, Jn. 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. ∗ The sinner’s crown became the Saviour’s crown … but for the story to be completed, we need to see …

THE SOVEREIGN’S CROWN ∗ Even on the cross, our Lord Jesus remained the King of kings and Lord of lords. He had not lost His Heavenly identity, Phil. 2:9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name. ∗ He never stopped being God. He did not become something else for those few hours leading up to the cross, or on the cross. ∗ Neither the Roman soldiers or the Jewish Sanhedrin made Him of no reputation … Phil. 2:7 He made himself of no reputation, … 8 he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. ∗ Man’s plans and schemes have no effect over God. They are powerless. Had God not delivered Christ, - in the eternal counsel of Heaven, - to be mocked and crucified, not even the worst and most cruel could have harmed the Lord Jesus in any way, Is. 53:10 it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief. ∗ Yes, it was because of man’s sin … because of the fact man had fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23) that Christ suffered and died … but no sinner made Christ die for it was the perfect and eternal will of God that the Son should bear the punishment of His Father’s wrath for all His Redeemed, I Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. ∗ No Moses, or Samuel, or David, or any of the prophets, or Paul, or any of the disciples could have died to take away our sin … only Christ! ∗ Why? Because “There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin.” 5 CONCLUSION ∗ None other could have worn the sinner’s crown, because the Lord Jesus alone is the sinner’s Substitute. ∗ None other could have worn the Saviour’s crown, because the Lord Jesus alone is the sinner’s Saviour and He alone was fit to wear it. ∗ It was the crown of thorns, one of the most cruellest acts ever perpetrated by man … ∗ And yet, when we look for the crown of thorns today, we will not find them. The crown of thorns has long since disappeared … ∗ Our Saviour is no longer wearing the crown platted by the hands of mocking men … On His head today is the Sovereign’s crown. ∗ We shall never see Him wearing a crown of thorns. They took it from His head when they carried Him to the tomb, - He will never again wear a crown of thorns. The crown of thorns, - in the will of God, - have been discarded. ∗ We are not looking for a Saviour clad in a crown of thorns … but look at what we are anticipating, … John wrote, Rev. 14:14 And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown. ∗ As we have been studying through the crowns, I trust you will have been reminded again of how precious you are to the Lord … of how highly-valued that He would even consider paying the price of sending His Son to die for you in order to save you. ∗ It is a wonderful Gospel we have for it is a wonderful God and Lord we have! ∗ As truly born-again children we are not our own (I Cor. 6:20; 7:23), - we are His. We are His purchased possession (Eph. 1:14), - we cost Him! ∗ The believers’ crowns, - the incorruptible crown, the crowns of rejoicing, righteousness, life, glory, and the everlasting crown, - are all because of the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:7). ∗ “Look, ye saints!” the Irish hymn writer Thomas Kelly wrote, “the sight is glorious: See the Man of Sorrows now; … Sinners in derision scorned Him, Mocking thus the Saviour’s claim; Saints and angels crowd around Him, Own His title, praise His name; … Crown Him, crown Him, Crown Him, crown Him, King of kings and Lord of lords! ∗ The crown of thorns … The sinner’s crown became the Saviour’s crown … and to the glory of God … became the Sovereign’s crown.