The Sacrifice of the King Pt 5

chapter 27, Matthew 27, we come today to part five of our series in the sacrifice of the King. And we'll really continue what we started last week with the trials. Jesus has been arrested. His disciples have fled and now the trials have taken place. And we said that there were four trials we'd see all together. We would see the, the trial of Jesus, which really Jesus wasn't on trial, but he still stood before the Sanhedrin.

Of course, found innocent of any legitimate charges, because as we know, he was completely innocent as far as humanity was concerned, because he was sinless. He was spotless and he proved himself to be the spotless lamb, but they did Trump up a charge against him. The charge that they were able to bring against him is that he claimed to be God blasphemy. And so after we saw the trial of Jesus, we saw the trial of Jesus. We saw the trial of Jesus. We saw the trial of Jesus.

We saw the trial of Peter and Peter, while Jesus was standing trial before the Sanhedrin stood in the courtyard, warming himself by the fire. And Peter had made that very bold statement that everybody else may flee from you, but I will die with you. And of course, as Peter was there sincere in his desire to die with his savior, he began to be nervous. And of course we saw him deny that he even knew who Jesus was three different times. And Peter went out and he

wept bitterly. Well, there's two more trials that we're going to talk about. And I'm going to talk about the four trials that we'll see today. We will see the trial of Judas, and then we will see the trial of Pilate and Barabbas. I would separate them out, but they very much take place together. So I lumped them together as one. And so we'll start off with the trial of Judas, starting

in chapter 27, verse one, it says this. Now, when morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Jesus to put him to death. And they bound him, they led him away. And they delivered him to Jerusalem. And they brought him to Jerusalem. And they brought him to Pilate, the governor. Then when Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that he had been condemned, he

felt remorse and returned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. But they said, what is that to us? See to that yourself. And they threw, and he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed. And he went away and he hanged himself. The chief priest took the pieces of silver and said, it's not lawful to put

them into the temple treasury since it's the price of blood. They conferred together with, with the money. They bought the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. For this reason, that field has been called the field of blood to this day. Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah, the prophet was fulfilled. And they took the 30 pieces of silver, the price of the one whose price had

been set by the sons of Israel. And they gave them for the potter's field as the Lord directed me. This trial of Judas actually starts off with a little bit of an addendum that ended the last section that they, Jesus had stood trial before the Sanhedrin and they had condemned him to death. He said, what, what further need for witnesses do we have? What do you all say? And

they say, he deserves death. And so the next morning in an effort to be somewhat legal in the way that they were doing things, because remember we said last week, everything that they did was illegal about the trial. In an effort to have some form of legality to the trial, officially sentenced him at daybreak. They officially sentenced him first thing in the morning to try to maintain some moniker of legality in the things that they were doing.

And so they gather together, they gather the Sanhedrin and they pronounce the sentence on him. And then they send him off to Pilate, who is the governor of the region at that point in time. I'll tell you in just a moment why that's important, but it's important that they sent him to Pilate. They had to. And so they sent him away to Pilate. And then sort of a meanwhile,

meanwhile, while all that's going on, we are reintroduced to the character of Judas because Judas, you remember had betrayed Jesus and he betrayed him for those 30 pieces of silver. But as Judas saw everything play out, and I kind of wonder where Judas was in all of this. He really isn't mentioned, although you do have to wonder if he's there the whole time. You do have to wonder if he's around the whole time because he was there obviously when Jesus was arrested. So did he follow them to the trial?

Did he watch the trial? Was he simply aware the next morning of what took place? We're really not told that by any of the gospel accounts, but we are told that he learned that Jesus had been condemned. And it says in verse three, that when Judas and Matthew always includes this little statement, who had betrayed him, saw that he had been condemned, he felt remorse and he returned the 30 pieces of silver.

To the chief priests and the elders. It's an interesting picture that we have of Judas at this point in time, because it says that Judas had learned that he had been condemned. How he learned that we're not totally sure whether he was involved with the trial. We're not sure. We just know that he learned that he had been condemned. And then we learned that Judas felt remorseful.

There was a form of repentance in his heart. He felt bad about the way things had gone down. Now, I have a question, and perhaps you have the same question. What caused him to begin to feel remorseful? There's two or three different explanations, a couple that I'll go over with you here this morning. The first explanation is this, and it's a decently popular one,

although I don't know that I agree with it. Many think that the reason why Judas betrayed Jesus was because he was trying to trick Jesus into revealing himself as the Messiah. He was upset that Jesus was talking about the kingdom being a long ways away. And like many of the other Jews at that point in time were looking for the Messiah to be a political savior. And so

Judas either was upset that Jesus hadn't been that political savior yet, or was trying to force the hand of Jesus to become that political savior. And when he realized that Jesus would not be that savior, well, he felt remorse because it hadn't worked out the way that he thought. A second explanation, which is the one that I tend to lean towards, is that Judas realized the of everything that he had done. I tend to lean towards that as what took place, that all of a sudden the gravity of everything that had taken place hit him squarely in the jaw. If you've ever

been in a place where you've been caught up in any form of temptation, you don't think about what the consequences look like until the consequences fall. And you're like, well, that wasn't what I intended. Those were unintended consequences. That's not what I thought was going to take place. I don't feel the way that I was going to feel. I don't feel the way that I was going to

feel. I didn't enjoy that like I thought that I was going to enjoy that. That didn't have the effect that I thought that it was going to have. And all of a sudden you go, oh man, what have I done? I tend to think that that's what Judas did. I think the reality of everything that just took place hit him like a ton of bricks. And he felt remorseful about what he did. Now, we're going

to learn in just a moment that he wasn't truly repentant of what he did, but he did feel bad about what he did because it didn't have, perhaps, the desired effect. And he felt remorseful. And isn't it just like the enemy that he will lead us into temptation? And once we give in to the temptation, what always comes next? The condemnation. As he leads us into the temptation and we give in to

the temptation, the next thing that he begins to say is, who do you think you are? I can't believe you did that. And I kind of think that that's part of what took place with Judas here. Judas, this begins to feel very remorseful about what takes place. And he thinks, the only way I know to solve this is to try to take back everything that I've done. And I'll start by taking back the

silver. I'll start by taking back these 30 pieces of silver. So what's it say that he does? When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that he had been condemned, he felt remorseful and he returned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. And then he makes a confession to them saying, verse four, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. And they said, you're right. We were in the wrong too.

We should all repent of what we've done. No, what do they say? That's your problem. I got 99 problems, but that ain't one, right? That's not my issue to deal with. So you see to that yourself. And Judas is sitting there going, what am I supposed to do now? So he takes the silver and he says, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. He takes the 30 pieces of silver and it says he throws them into the temple sanctuary. Now,

remember we said, we've talked about the temple in the past, that the temple is divided into several different sections. There's the court of the Gentiles, the court of the women, and then the court of the men, and then the actual sanctuary. Only the priests were allowed to go into the sanctuary. Now this isn't the holy of holies, but it is that next level that only the priest, not the common man could go into. So if you will, he opens up the door and throws the

silver in there because he knows that the only people that can go get it are the priests. So he throws them in there. Now, if I was writing this with the perfect ending, this is how I would write it. And then Judas went and found all of the disciples and he apologized for everything that he had done wrong. And Judas waited and he wept until he could see Jesus at which point in time

he'd repent of his sins. And Judas went and found all of the disciples and he apologized for Jesus would restore him and everything would be awesome, just like Peter. But that's not what happens. It says the Judas went out, he hanged himself. Can we just be reminded for a moment that the wages of sin is death? That sin always brings about death in our lives. It always starts

with spiritual death in some way, shape, or form, but then eventually it's going to lead to physical death. People, it's physical death because they face that eternal separation from the Father. But sometimes it's actually a physical death because that's exactly what Satan is trying to do with all of us is he wants to just absolutely destroy life. The wages of sin is death. The Judas goes

out and he hangs himself. Why? Why does he do this? Why doesn't he do what Peter did? Why doesn't he go and just weep? Repent of his sin. I wholeheartedly believe, and I don't feel like I'm outside the realm of biblical truth here. I wholeheartedly believe that had he repented and come to Jesus, Jesus would have restored him. I really believe that. But he didn't. You know why? Because sin will

produce one of two types of sorrow in our lives. Matter of fact, go over to 2 Corinthians for just a minute. 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Paul is dealing with the Corinthian church on almost a very similar subject, sin. Sin and repentance. And in chapter 7 of 2 Corinthians verse 10 says this,

for sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret leading to salvation. But the sorrow of the world produces death. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin. Sin

damaged my relationship with my creator. There's a difference between those two types of sorrow because godly sorrow produces, as Paul says here, repentance without regret that leads to salvation. I love that progression of words that he uses there. Is that not kind of an interesting progression of words? Repentance without regret that leads to salvation. Repentance is the only way to do away with the regret in our lives. Many of us in our lives have

done things that we absolutely, absolutely regret. Maybe that took place two days ago for you. Maybe it was on your way to church this morning. All of us do things that eventually produce some form of regret in our lives. And the only way to overcome that regret is through repentance. Because repentance without regret leads to salvation. And I believe that goes for anyone,

anywhere, at any time, no matter what they've done. Because once we repent, then the blood of Jesus Christ covers our sin. But that worldly sorrow produces death. It's given to us in a way that we don't know how to do it. And that's why we're here today. In a very clear way in the life of Judas right here. And so Judas stood trial. And as Judas stood trial, he was found guilty. And rather than repent, he simply ended it all. Back to Matthew

chapter 27. It says, verse six, the chief priest took the pieces of silver and said, it's not lawful to put them into the temple treasury since it's the price of blood. Oh, all of a sudden now they get real spiritual, right? All of a sudden now they care about what the law says. We just arrested the creator of the heavens and the earth. We just condemned to death our savior. Everything that the scriptures

declared was coming. And we did it by breaking every one of our own laws and lying about it. But we can't put that into the temple treasury because that's blood money. According to the book of Deuteronomy, any ill gotten gain was not to come into the temple treasury. And I believe if I remember correctly, chapter 16 of the book of Deuteronomy, it says that no ill gotten gain,

uh, the price of a whore, uh, the, uh, uh, the price of gambling, all those kinds of things were not to come into the, uh, uh, into the temple treasury. And so they're like, we can't break that law. What are we going to do with it? You know, really through this whole thing, the religious leaders prove themselves to be exactly who Jesus said that they were going to be exactly who he said they were. He said, you guys strain at a net and you swallow a camel. That's the perfect picture

of straining at a net. And swallowing a camel, they swallowed the camel by doing everything wrong, but there was one little law and they weren't willing to violate it. He said, you guys are like whitewashed tombs on the outside. You look pristine and beautiful, but on the inside, you are full of dead men's bones. Now, before we, as a church, before we, as believers in Jesus Christ,

begin to ridicule and condemn the Pharisees, which they absolutely deserve to be, we should first ask ourselves exactly what Jesus told us to ask ourselves. If you see a speck in someone else's eye, you need to make sure that you don't have a log sticking out of your own. And so before we look at the religious leaders and say, how dare they act that way? How dare they strain it in that and swallow a camel? How dare they on

the inside be full of dead men's bones while on the inside, they don't have a log sticking out of their own? How dare they on the outside, they're pristine and beautiful. How dare we condemn them unless we first ask ourselves the question, in what ways do I strain it in that and swallow a camel? In what ways am I looking really good on the outside, but on the inside, there's still some death that dwells there? Because we all have that ability. We all have that ability as

Christians to end up being hypocrites. And so they asked, so what should we do with this money? And so they conferred together and with the money, they bought the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. For this reason, that field has been called the field of blood to this day. Then that which was spoken through the, through Jeremiah, the prophet was fulfilled. And they

took the 30 pieces of silver, the price of the one whose price had been set by the sons of Israel. And they gave them for the potter's field as the Lord directed me. Now there's something kind of interesting about this. There's something kind of interesting about this. There's something kind of interesting about that. So they buy this field and this field becomes a burial place for strangers,

as it says. And it says it was prophesied that this would take place by the prophet Jeremiah. Now, any commentary that you read, and a matter of fact, if you have cross references in your Bible, you'll notice that the cross reference is not actually Jeremiah. It may be, it may say Jeremiah 32, but there's actually a cross reference for Zachariah. If I remember correctly, it's chapter

10 or 11. I can't remember which one, because the direct quotations, actually out of the book of Zachariah, even though Jeremiah talks about buying the potter's field. So the question arises, why, why is that? Well, it's because Jeremiah prophesies about a potter's field. And so does Zachariah. Jeremiah is known as the head of the prophets for those ones. And so

he is given the credit, even though Zachariah gives a prophecy. I'm less concerned about that. And I'm more concerned about what the prophecy says. In Zachariah, it speaks about the heart of the nation that's turned against the father. That's what that prophecy speaks of. But in the book of Jeremiah, it's kind of fascinating when he talks about purchasing the potter's field. In Jeremiah,

he tells them, I want you to go and I want you to buy a potter's field. He's actually going to redeem it from, I believe it was his brothers. And he redeemed it through the kinsmen redeeming. He said, I want you to purchase the potter's field because what's about to happen to the nation of Israel is they are about to face all of the judgment that's going to come.

All of the judgment that I'm going to pour out on the nation they're about to face. Meanwhile, you're going to own this potter's field because it's going to be the perfect example of the fact that though I'm going to bring judgment on the nation, I will still restore them back to the land. I will still bring them back to the land. And to me, that's kind of a fascinating thing that he talks about this potter's field. Yes, the nation had rejected Jesus and they're

going to face everything that goes along with that. But Jesus has not rejected the nation. Because he will bring them back and he will be their God again. And so they go and they buy this potter's field. And now we leave Judas in the dust. As a matter of fact, other than one reference, which is a pretty gruesome reference in Acts chapter one, we don't read anything else about

Judas. He just falls into the pages of history. And so now we come to the trial of Pilate and Barabbas. It says in verse 11, now Jesus stood before the governor and the governor questioned him saying, are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus said to him, it is as you say. And while he was being accused by the chief priests and the elders, he did not answer. Then Pilate said to him,

do you not hear how many things they testify against you? And he did not answer him with regard to even a single charge. So the governor was quiet. Amazed. Now the first question that we should ask ourselves at this point in time is why'd they send Jesus to Pilate? The Sanhedrin had already condemned him. Why do they need to send him to Pilate? Well, here's the reason why. When they condemned him,

they condemned him to death. Now I don't remember the number of years, but a handful of years prior to this, the nation of Israel had had their right to capital punishment taken away from them. They were not allowed to pronounce a verdict of capital punishment on a political prisoner like this that had been stripped from them. And so they had to have someone like Pilate pronounce the verdict of death. But even more than that, there's a very prophetic reason why Jesus had to

go to Pilate. If you read anything in the old Testament about the death of the Messiah, you will always be led back to the understanding that the Messiah would be, crucified. Whether it's in Psalm 22, whether it's in Isaiah 53, wherever it is, you can always see that crucifixion is exactly what's supposed to take place. Even when Abraham was called to sacrifice his son, Isaac, what did he carry up to the top of the mountain? He carried the wood on his back to the top of the mountain, right? Everything spoke

of crucifixion. And yet what was the typical way that the Jewish people performed the act of crucifixion? It was the act of crucifixion. It was the act of crucifixion. It was the act of capital punishment. They did it through stoning. Therefore, in order for prophecy to be fulfilled, Jesus had to be condemned by the Roman government. But there's really even another reason beyond that.

Jesus would not just be the savior for the Jewish people. While he was condemned to death by the Jewish people, he would also be condemned to death by the Gentiles, by the Romans, so that Jesus would be the savior of all because he took the sins for all, both Jews and Gentiles. And while the condemnation came from the Jew first and then the Gentile, the gospel would go to the Jew first and then to the Gentile. It's very important that Jesus stands trial before Pilate right now. And so as they bring him before Pilate, they can't come to Pilate and say,

he broke our... He broke our law because he will say, I don't care what he did to your law because I don't respect your law. So one of the things we don't read about in Matthew's account that we do read about in, if I remember correctly, it's Luke's account, is the political charges that they brought against Jesus. There were actually three political charges that they brought against Jesus. Number one,

they said that Jesus was a revolutionary, that he was an insurrectionist, if you will. Number two, they said, that he incited people to not pay taxes. Number three, they said that he claimed to be a king in opposition to Caesar. Those were the charges that they brought to Pilate against Jesus. They were political charges because he knew he wouldn't care anything about their stupid blasphemy. He would

say, I don't care, get out of my court. And so they bring him up on these charges to Pilate. Now, Pilate's sort of an interesting guy because Pilate was a very strong leader. Actually, the way that Pilate acts this entire time is absolutely the opposite of his character because he keeps saying, well, what do you guys want me to do with Jesus? We're going to find that in just a

moment. That's not like Pilate at all. But you see, it's the Passover season. And during the Passover season, the people were the most likely to want to revolt against Rome because it was a season that reminded them of their deliverance from Egypt. Pilate had already been in charge during three different insurrections, insurrections that because of his actions were caused, and he was not about to

have it happen a third time. And so Pilate's very careful in the way that he handles this. As a matter of fact, at first, according to other gospel accounts, Pilate didn't want anything to do with Jesus. He sent him over to Herod. He goes, oh, well, he's of Herod's region. I'm sending him to Herod. And of course, Jesus stood before Herod and said, and that was it. Now, he didn't talk to him

at all. And so Herod sent him back to Pilate and said, hey, I can't get anything done to you. I'm getting out of this guy. You're going to have to deal with him, right? It's like hot potato. And so he sends him back to Pilate and Pilate begins to question him. It says, Jesus stood before the governor, verse 11, and the governor questioned him saying, are you the king of the

Jews? And Jesus said to him, it's as you say. Pilate sort of centered, he focused in, if you will, on one particular charge, the charge that would cause the most issue. Are you a king? Are you trying to be a king that's going to overthrow the Roman government? Are you the king of the Jews? Again, if you have a red letter Bible, you'll notice that that next phrase is the only phrase in red. The whole rest of this section, if not even maybe

the whole chapter up until we get to the crucifixion. It's the only little phrase, because that's the only thing that Jesus is going to say. It's as you say. Pilate's so fascinating, because Pilate is one of those guys that knows the truth, but he won't act on the truth. He knows that Jesus isn't guilty. He knows the whole situation because he's a pretty sharp guy.

He's just not willing to act on it. And so Jesus looks at him and says, it's as you say. In verse 12, it says, and while he was being accused by the chief priests, he did not answer. And Pilate said, don't you hear how many things they testify against you? And he did not answer him with regard to even single charge. So the governor was amazed. This isn't Pilate's first rodeo. This isn't the first

time he's seen prisoners stand trial. This isn't the first time he's tried prisoners. And usually what happens is his accusations are being hurled. The accused is hurling back just as much, shouting for his innocence, shouting that these are false accusations. But Jesus didn't do any of that. We pointed this out last week. He just stood there silent, as it says in Isaiah 53.

Because a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. Because Jesus wasn't there to defend himself. Because Jesus wasn't there as the victim. Jesus was there as the sovereign. Jesus was there as the sacrifice. And so he just stands there the whole time and just listening to all of it. And Pilate's just fascinated by the whole thing. He doesn't

know what to do with this entire situation. But he does feel like he's found a loophole. Matter of fact, I've labeled this next little section, Pilate's loophole. Verse 15. Now at the feast, the governor was accustomed to release for the people any one prisoner whom they wanted. At that time, they were holding a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. So when the people gathered together, Pilate said to them, whom do you want

me to release for you? Barabbas. Barabbas. Or Jesus, who is called Christ. For he knew that because of envy, they had handed him over. And while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message saying, have nothing to do with that righteous man. For last night, I suffered greatly in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to put Jesus to

death. The governor said to them, which of the two do you want me to release for you? And they said, Barabbas. Pilate said to them, then what shall I do with Jesus, who is called the Christ? And they all said, crucify him. He said, why? What evil has he done? But they kept shouting all the more saying, crucify him. Pilate thought he'd found a loophole because we know that he couldn't find anything

against him. He couldn't find anything wrong with him. Matter of fact, everything about Jesus screamed meekness. Everything about Jesus screamed humility. He'd seen guys that wanted to start a revolution before. They don't just stand there silent. He'd seen guys that wanted to set themselves up as a king before, and they don't just sit there and take false accusations.

Jesus didn't act like any of these kinds of guys that he'd seen before. And he knew that these guys were envious of Jesus. And that's the only reason that he brought him up there. And so he remembered, hey, every year at Passover, we do the Jews a favor. Sort of to keep them all happy because we know the way that they can work themselves up this time of year. We know that freedom is important to them this time of year. I'll release a prisoner.

I usually do that anyway. And then I can release Jesus. They'll say Jesus, because obviously he's a great guy that doesn't do any of these things. It's just that the chief priests don't like him. They'll ask for Jesus and I'll be off the hook. I won't have to make a decision about Jesus. I think you see where I'm going. I won't have to make a decision about Jesus. And so we're given this commentary that there was

another guy that was being held at that point in time. His name is Barabbas. Barabbas, it says, was a notorious prisoner. Now, from other gospel accounts, we know that he was what he was notorious for. Barabbas was an insurrectionist. Barabbas was a criminal. Barabbas had killed people. I want you to think about something. Everything that they said Jesus was,

is what Barabbas actually was. First of all, let's look at his name for just a moment. You probably know this, but I'm going to share it with you anyway. His name means son of the father. Bar is son of, Abbas is the father, son of the father. And isn't it kind of interesting because why did they get upset with Jesus? Because he referred to himself as the son of the father. And Barabbas actually did try to lead a revolution, actually did hate the fact

that people had to pay taxes, actually did try to stand up against the king and murdered people in the process, which is exactly what they accused Jesus of being. Both the religious and the political charges that they tried to hang on Jesus were true of Barabbas. Kind of an interesting thing here, isn't it? So Pilate, thinking he totally understands because, listen, he knew that the chief priests had brought Jesus in because of envy.

Quick sidebar here, quick little statement by way of personal application. If we start feeling that envy well up in our hearts, it's not just an innocent little sin. Envy is one of the most dangerous sins that we deal with because envy leads us to do really, really evil things. As that monster wells up within us and says, must be nice that they have what they have.

Must be nice that he's as awesome as he is. Must be nice that she's as beautiful as she is and has everything in the world. Right? As that envy begins to rear its ugly head inside of us, causes us to hate the people that we envy the most. And who knows what it can lead us to. So if we see that sin begin to well up on the inside of us, the best thing that we can do is

confess it and run as far away as we can. Because envy is ultimately what put Jesus, on the cross. He says he knew that they had brought him up on these charges because of envy. And so he begins asking them, what do you want me to do? But before he starts asking them this question, we're given this little sidebar, right? The little parenthetical statement right here. And

then verse 19, it says, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message saying, have nothing to do with that righteous man for last night, I suffered greatly in a dream because of him. What? This is just like out of, it's on the left field, right? Like Pilate's wife sends him, you can just imagine how it went, right? She wakes up in the morning a little freaked out because of

the dream that she had. Whoa, that was crazy. It's like the freakiest dream I've ever had. I got to tell Pilate, where is he? Where'd he go? Hey, does anybody know where my husband is? Oh, he got, he got called out by the Jewish people real early this morning, like right at daybreak. So, so he's in the middle of some crazy trial. It's getting crazy over there. There is like a mob gathered. You don't want to go over there. Okay,

well send him this message for me, would you please? If there's some righteous man that he's trying, tell him to leave it alone. Tell him to leave that guy alone because man, I had a terrible dream about that guy last night. You know what I want to know? What was the dream? I want to know what that dream was, right? Like don't leave it that ambiguous, Matthew. Come on, man. Tell us a

little bit about the dream. Did she, did she have like the, the dream of, you know, the dream of, of Pilate pronouncing guilt upon Jesus. And as soon as Pilate pronounced the guilt upon Jesus and they led him away, Pilate himself was struck dead. Was it, was it that she saw Jesus being crucified on the cross and she knew how wrong it was. And she was like, oh, this is so terrible. What a

disgusting thing to see. I don't know what the dream was, but whatever it was, it freaked her out. So she sent a message to Pilate and said, don't have anything to do with him. Fellas, I think sometimes our wives are just a little bit more spiritually sensitive than we are to things. Sometimes when our wives say, Hey, I think we need to be careful about this. Probably a really good

time to say, then let's explore why you're feeling that way. Because sometimes it's emotions. Sometimes it's the Holy spirit because our wives tend to be just a little bit more sensitive to the Holy spirit than we are in some of those places. And so he obviously ignores her. But I do appreciate what it says at the beginning of verse 19, that he was sitting on the

judgment seat, thinking, listen, thinking that he's sitting in judgment over Christ when really Pilate's the one being judged. It says in verse 20. So he's asked, who should I release to you? Barabbas or Jesus, the son of the father or the son of the God. So in verse 20, it says, but the chief priests and the elders, persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas, but to put Jesus to death. You can imagine

them slowly, but surely working their way through the crowds, convincing the people that Barabbas is who they should choose and that they should, that they should command Jesus to be put to death. You can imagine how the popular opinion began to grow because all of a sudden, more and more people started saying, you know, Barabbas does seem to be on our side and Jesus doesn't seem to want to make a stand against. And it'd really be nice to have somebody that could make a stand against Rome. And all of a sudden the popular opinion begins growing. And as the popular opinion begins to grow,

more and more people begin to go along with the popular opinion, which brings me to another, what I think is important little sidebar note to be made here. Beware of popular opinion because a lot of things become really, really popular. And when things become popular, we still have to ask ourself the same question, but is it true? I am fascinated. I love people. I love watching people. I love trying to figure

people out right now. I'm stumped a lot, right? Like people got me a little stumped here lately because sometimes the things that I see people say, I'm like, is anyone really going to believe that? And then, you know, what starts happening? People start repeating it, right? Like, I'm sorry. I'm going to get myself in trouble here, but I don't care anymore. Like when the press secretary

gets up and says things right now, and you're like, I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. Like that, that's, that's actually unequivocally not true. And then what happens? People repeat it and you're going, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard anybody repeat. That's so far from true that it can't spell true, right? Like that's how far that is from the truth. And it's one thing

when we do it in the political realm, because that's ridiculous. It's a whole other thing when we do it in the church realm, because you know what I hear happen sometimes in the church realm? I hear pastors, they absolutely misrepresent God. They misrepresent the Bible. They misrepresent the truth. And then, you know, what begins to happen? People begin to repeat it because they buy into

the idea of popular opinion, because listen, nobody doesn't want to be liked. Everybody wants to be liked. That's why here lately, all of a sudden you have men and women in very high positions in churches, in very high positions in Christendom, today that are saying things like, we don't need to worry that much about abortion. You know, the Bible really doesn't speak that much about abortion. We need to not worry about

gay marriage because the Bible whispers about homosexuality and screams about everything else. Therefore we should whisper about what the Bible whispers about and scream what the Bible screams about. That's a direct quote from J.D. Greer. But once the lie is out there and it begins to be repeated, it becomes popular opinion. And brothers and sisters, all of us have to beware

of popular opinion. And so they begin spreading amongst the crowd that they should ask for Barabbas. But the governor said, so they start shouting out Barabbas, give us Barabbas. And the governor says, which of the two do you want me to release and say, they say Barabbas. And he said, then what shall I do with Jesus? That's a loaded question, isn't it? What should I do with Jesus? And listen, nobody else can answer that question for him.

Only Pilate can answer that question. After all, Pilate is the one in control. Except that he's not. He says, what should I do with Jesus? Who is called the Christ. And they shout, crucify him. Now again, we live in a very sinful world. We live in a very sinful world. We live in a very sinful world. We live in a very sanitized Western culture that doesn't always understand crucifixion and doesn't know how much

the Jewish people hated crucifixion. Crucifixion, we'll go over this here in the beginning of January when we get to this chapter 20, the end of this chapter with the crucifixion. We'll talk about how ugly it was, but it was so ugly that Roman citizens were not allowed to be crucified. It was illegal. Therefore, who are the ones that can be crucified? Well, slaves and non-Roman citizens

like the Jewish people. It was the most heinous act committed against humanity, maybe ever. And so for the Jewish people to allow the words, crucify him, to come out of their mouths had to have sent shockwaves through Pilate's body. What should I do with Jesus? Crucify him. And I think it shocked him. Because they hated that so much. Because he goes on to say, why? What evil has he done?

He'd already said, I don't find any fault in him, according to other gospel accounts. What evil has he done? And of course, they don't give evidence. What do they say? Crucify him. Because listen, if you can't get your lie across with facts, get it across by saying it louder, right? Just keep saying it louder. We've seen that happen, haven't we? And so they just keep yelling, crucify him. Crucify him. Well, we now come to Pilate's decision.

When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and he washed his hands in front of the crowd saying, I'm innocent of this man's blood. See to that yourselves. And all the people said, his blood shall be on us. Then he released Barabbas for them. But after having Jesus scourged, he handed him over to be crucified. Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing. He's not

getting anywhere with these people. Matter of fact, a riot's about to start and he knows one more riot on his record. He gone. So he makes a symbolic statement because he knows Jesus should be set free. He knows what's taking place is wrong, but he's not willing to make a stand. He's not willing to make a decision. And may I say, brothers and sisters in Christ, not making a decision, it's making a decision.

So he says, bring me water. And so he symbolically washes his hands and says, I am free of this man's blood. Now, wouldn't it be fun if we could just do that? We could just get some water every time we screw up. Be like, nevermind. I'm not guilty of that anymore. No, because water can't wash away our sins. Only the blood of Jesus can. He says, I'm guilty. I'm innocent of this man's blood. And what do they cry out? His blood be on our heads

and on our children's. Oh, they had no idea. They had no idea what they were calling down on themselves. They had no idea the unintended consequences that they would face because of this statement. So what does Pilate do? He releases Barabbas and he condemns Jesus. He sends Jesus over to be crucified. What a fascinating ending to this section. What a fascinating ending to the trials.

We've seen so many of these trials, but today I want to deal with the last three men because I think there's three lessons that are learned from these trials. Three lessons that come to us from these three men that we saw. Number one, the lesson from Judas. True repentance from the heart. From Judas, we learn the lesson, that of utmost importance is true repentance from the heart. Not the worldly sorrow that produces

death, but the godly sorrow that leads to repentance without regret that leads to salvation. Brothers and sisters, God is interested in our hearts and he wants a heart that is truly for him. And a heart that's truly for him is truly repentant of the things that have, that are done wrong. And we know what repentance is. We know what repentance is. We know what repentance is. We know what repentance is.

Repentance means, it means to turn around and go the other direction. And the other direction is Jesus. And wherever you sit this morning, whatever your life has held, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the one thing we all continue to need to do in our lives is repent. Because as a day goes by, as a morning goes by, as an hour goes by, just a minute ago, right?

We all come across that need for repentance. And that repentance needs to be from a heart that is not just sorry that I got caught, but sorry that I hurt the heart of my Savior. Sorry that it has damaged the relationship that Jesus died for me to have. Sorry that it has damaged my purpose in life, which is to know my Lord and Savior. Sorry that it has damaged

God's name amongst the people around us. Sorry that it has, has hurt everybody around me. Because listen, sin sends a shock waves into the world around us.

True sorrow. It leads to true repentance from the heart. You know, that's the biggest difference between Peter and Judas, isn't it? Peter didn't do anything a whole lot different than what Judas did. He didn't hand Jesus over. Boy, he swore up and down. He'd never met that man before and certainly wasn't going to stand there in judgment with him.

But what did Peter do? He went out and wept bitterly and he waited. He waited for Jesus. What did Judas do? He went out and he hung himself. You see, the difference is, did you come back to Jesus? I learned that lesson a really, really, really long time ago. That when things go wrong, the best thing you can do is come back home. The best thing that you can do

is come back to Jesus. Because he is such a God of restoration. The second thing we learn comes from Pilate. And it's a question. What will you do with Jesus? It's a question that everybody has to answer at some point in time in their life. It's a question everybody has to deal with at some point in time in their life. Before you came to salvation, you had to answer the question,

what are you going to do with Jesus? Remember that question Pilate asked? So what should I do with Jesus? What should I do with this one that you call the Christ? What am I supposed to do with him? You know why? Because I think, Pilate was asking a question that was a whole lot deeper than what kind of a sentence should I pass? Because he'd already heard this dream from his wife

who according to tradition had already converted to Judaism. And according to tradition after this, converted to Christianity. I don't know about Pilate. I've not read anything about him. But he had the witness of his wife with him. He had the witness of Jesus standing in front of him. And he asked the question, what am I going to do with Jesus? Some people,

take Jesus and they reject him. Some people take Jesus and they wash their hands of him. Some people take Jesus and say, I don't want to do anything with him. Some people take Jesus and they accept him as their Lord and Savior. Before you came to know the Lord, you had to make that decision. What are you going to do with Jesus? But do you know, that question should still run through our minds today

as a believer in Jesus Christ. Because what are you going to do with Jesus? Are you, are you really going to make him the Lord of your life? Are you really going to surrender every aspect of your life to him? Or will he still just be your ticket out of hell? Will he really be the one reason that you live your life? Or will he just be the thing that you do on Sunday mornings?

Will he just be the thing that you really look forward to at Easter and Christmas? What will you do with Jesus? Because I'm here to tell you right now, this is what Jesus wants us to do with him. He wants us to have a relationship. Where we deny ourselves. Where we take up our cross. And where we daily follow him. What will you do with Jesus? But then the third lesson that we learn

is the lesson of Barabbas. You may have noticed I really didn't address that because I wanted to wait for here to address that. Because the lesson of Barabbas is that Jesus is the ultimate substitutionary sacrifice. Remember what we said? Barabbas was actually, was actually guilty of everything that they accused Jesus of. Everything that they said Jesus was guilty of,

Barabbas was actually guilty of it. And yet Jesus took his place. All of the sin of Barabbas was laid on Jesus. Because no doubt that's the direction Barabbas was heading. And Jesus took his place. All Barabbas could do was say, thank you. He didn't do anything to earn it. Certainly didn't do anything to deserve it. Didn't even ask for it. Jesus just did it.

And may I say, all of my sin, I can't try to deny. I can only say, yep, that's true. And trust that Jesus took it all on himself. As I mentioned last week, that's what I'm talking about. That's what this time of year celebrates. It celebrates the fact that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And the reason why he dwelt among us is so that he could be our substitute.

So that he could take my place. So that he could take your place. And in return, he could grant to us his freedom. In return, he could grant to us his righteousness. In return, he could grant to us the restoration of God's original purpose for our lives. That's why when you sing joy to the world, it really does mean there's joy for the whole world because Jesus came.

Not just to show us what a good man was supposed to look like, but to die for those of us who know we're not good men. Yeah, from Barabbas, we learned that Jesus was the ultimate, substitutionary sacrifice. Amen? Let's all stand.

As always, I'll remind you that we have one solid week left of the entire world talking about Jesus all the time. They don't mean to, but all of their songs are gonna talk about it. Everything that they say, and as many of them as try to say, happy holidays instead of Merry Christmas, we can still look at them and say, Merry Christmas to you. Because Jesus truly is the reason, amen?

Father, we come to you and we thank you so much for who you are. Lord, I thank you that you are the God of all creation and that you, the God of all creation, came down, lived among us, and died for us. Father, help us to have the hearts that you desire for us to have. Help us to take the truth of your word to heart and with that become the men and women that you created for us to be.

Father, we thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. Be blessed.

I've carried a burden For too long it wasn't created It's a perilous invitation To let it all go And I see it now I'm laying it down And I know that I Need you, the Father I'm falling to grace I'm done with the hiding No reason to wait My heart needs a surgeon My soul needs a friend So I'll run to the Father Again and again And again and again Oh You saw my condition You had a plan from the start You signed for redemption A price for my heart I would contact For that kind of love I don't know how to say it I don't know how to say it I don't know how to say it I don't understand I can't comprehend All I know is I I run to the Father I fall into grace I'm done with the hiding No reason to wait My heart needs a surgeon My soul needs a friend

So I'll run to the Father Again and again and again And again and again and again Has been in my heart In both sides Long before my first breath Running into your heart And I feel this rush Deep in my chest Your mercy is just as I am And I know I'm a father I'm falling to grace I'm done with the hiding No reason to wait My heart needs a surgeon My soul needs a friend So I'll run to the Father Again and again and again and again I'll fall into grace I'm done with the hiding No reason to wait My heart found a surgeon My soul found a friend So I'll run to the Father Again and again and again and again And again and again and again Father, I just pray that we would come to the realization of how much we truly love you. And how much we truly love you.

And how much we truly need you, Lord. God, not just once a week or twice a year, Lord. But every day. Every hour, Lord, that we need you. God, forgive us if we've tried to make it without you. Forgive us if we think that we can make it through one day without you, Lord. God, we need you so much. And I just pray that your Holy Spirit go with us as we leave here today, Lord.

And just strengthen us in you. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. You guys have a wonderful week and Merry Christmas to you all.