Lesson 92: John 19:1-6 – The Heart of All Healing

by Pastor Ricky Kurth

You're listening to Lesson 92 from the sermon series "The Gospel of John" by Pastor Ricky Kurth. When you're done, explore more sermons from this series.

 

Summary:

There isn’t anything that God can’t heal, so when men have a God-given gift of healing, there isn’t anything they can’t heal either (Acts 5:15,16). Since modern healers can’t claim this, we have to conclude they don’t have a God-given gift of healing. But John 19:1 is at the heart of all healing: the Lord’s scourging.

To scourge a man is to beat him with a whip. Jewish whips appear to have had one lash, as plows in those days had only one blade (Ps.129:3), but Romans whips were said to have many lashes, with bits of bone, or stone, or sharp pieces of metal in the tip to rip into a man’s flesh. We can’t trust history when it comes to this, but we know the Lord had more than one man whipping Him (Isa.50:6).

Our Pentecostal friends say there is healing in the atonement, based on Isaiah 53:4,5. Grace pastors object that this is talking about the healing of our souls, but we know it isn’t, for this passage is quoted in Matthew 8:16,17. This only makes sense, if you think about it. Christ died for our sins, so we don’t have to die, but sickness is what leads up to our deaths, so it makes sense that sickness would be healed by the things that led to His death. That is, the Lord’s stripes were the beginning of His death, so if His death saves us from death, then His stripes save us from sickness.

So there is healing in the atonement, just not in the dispensation of grace. Make sure you object to healers on the right ground, dispensational ground! You can do more harm than good if you deny what plain verses say.

Though Pilate knew the Lord was innocent, he scourged Him thinking that this would satisfy the Jews (Lu.23:13-16). Then to add insult to injury, he mocked Him with a crown of thorns (John 19:2). Thorns are associated with cursing (Gen.3:17,18), and a crown of thorns was associated with the Lord’s cursing (Gal.3:13). Crowns are associated with kings, of course, and so is the color purple (John 19:2 cf. Ju.8:26; Song 3:9,10). Scepters are also associated with kings (Esther 5:2), and to mock the Lord they gave Him a scepter made of a “reed” (Mt.27:29). Reeds are associated with weakness (Isa.36:6; Mt.11:7; 12:20). They were saying, “If this man is a king, He’s the king of a broken, bruised kingdom that shakes in the wind.”

You’d never mock the Lord like that. Or would you? They bowed before Him but didn’t really think He was their king. Do you bow before Him on Sunday, then live the rest of the week as if He really isn’t your king? You may think you are mocking God because He doesn’t judge sin in this dispensation, but “God is not mocked,” you will still reap what you sow (Gal.6:7). Like Israel, you will not only reap what you sow, but more than you sow (Hos.8:7). Israel wanted idols, so God let them be taken captive and surrounded by idols in Assyria. If you want to live in sin, God will give you up to as much sin as you want (cf.Rom.1:24-32).

Pilate said he found no fault in the Lord (Jo.19:4). Can you say the same? The world thinks anytime anything goes wrong it’s God’s fault. Lose your job, your home, it’s God’s fault. Lose your spouse, your child, that’s God’s fault too. Even some Christians think this, but God is not judging unbelievers or chastening believers today.

Any man who is a man wouldn’t go along with this mockery, but the Lord did (John 19:5) because He “despised the shame” (Heb.12:2).

How’d the people of God come to call for the death of the Son of God? The answer ought to chill you to the bone. They didn’t know their Bibles, even though they read them every Sunday (Acts 13:27).

Notice it was the chief priests that cried for the Lord’s death. That’s the way it has always been. It is not the thieves, hookers, whoremongers or murderers that do the most damage to Christianity, it is religious leaders. And the ones who have done the most to promote Christianity are nobodies like us. Thank you for standing with me “in the defense and confirmation of the gospel” (Phil.1:7).

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