The Sacrifice of the King Pt 5

hear the word of God through the shoe boxes. Also this year, I forgot to tell the, first service, we did 164 shoe boxes this year. So thank you for everybody who participated in making that happen. And so we did have a lot of fun at the, at the event. So we'd like you to be thinking about next year, if you want to go. And when you see the last scene of this video,

it will show all of you how happy we were at the end. Go ahead.

Thanks. I'm just glad they got Jake doing that. Not me. Okay. For our responsive reading this morning, we're going to be in Psalm 138. Psalm 138, looking at the new American standards. So we sound the same. If you need a copy, there should be one in your row. And then you go back to using the Bible that you brought after that. And as you're turning to Psalm 138, if you would stand in the honor of the reading of God's

word, I will read the odd verses. If you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Psalm 138, a Psalm of David. I will give you thanks with all my heart. I will sing praises to you before the gods. I will bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your loving kindness and your truth. For you have magnified your word according to all your name.

And on the day I called, you answered me. He made, you made me bold with strength in my soul. All the Kings of the earth will give thanks to you. Oh Lord. When you heard, the words of your mouth and they will sing of the ways of the Lord for great is the glory of the Lord. For though the Lord is exalted, yet he regards so lowly, but the haughty he knows from

afar. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me. You will stretch forth your hand against the wrath of my enemies and your right hand will save me. The Lord will accomplish what concerns me. Your loving kindness, oh Lord, is everlasting. Do not forsake the works of the Lord. Do not forsake the works of the Lord. Do not forsake the works of the Lord. Do not forsake the works

of your hands. And father, we do thank you for who you are. And God, we just ask that as we spend time in your word this morning, that you would do the work that only you can do through your word. Lord, may your Holy spirit rest upon this place and move through here as you see fit in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. Hey, just a real quick one. I wanted to, this is a special day. My mom

and dad, 68 years married. And so I'm going to do a little bit of a, I'm going to do a little bit of a I just wanted to honor them. Thank you. That's a really long time for Marge to put up with Dan. So good job. There you go. You got it. Got to take it easy. Okay. Open up in your Bibles to the book of Matthew chapter 27, Matthew chapter 27. We come today to part five of our series and

the sacrifice of the King. As we are nearing the cross, uh, the particular subheading that we're looking at is the sacrifice of the King. And we're going to talk about the sacrifice of the King. Both last week and this week is the trials. We started looking at the trials, uh, that Jesus would go through as far standing trial. We said there were four of them all together. The first

one that we looked at was actually the trial of Jesus. He had just been arrested and was taken to the home of Caiaphas, the high priest. And there he stood trial before the Sanhedrin. And as he stood trial, they came up with every false accusation that they could, but they couldn't get two people to agree on anything until finally somebody brought forth evidence that said, Hey, he said he would tear the temple.

Down and rebuild it in three days. And of course they pressed him to answer and said, tell us, are you the son of God? And he said, it's as you say. And after this, you will see the son of man coming in glory and sitting at the right hand of power. And they said, it's blasphemy. He deserves to die. And so they condemned him to death. But the second trial that we saw was the trial of Peter.

Peter, who had said, no matter what anybody else does, no matter how much anybody else runs away from you, I will not. And of course, Jesus told him what he would do. And Peter actually did what Jesus said that he was going to do. He said, before the rooster crows, you'll deny that you even know me. And as Peter stood trial, not before a delegation of religious leaders, but before a couple of young servant

girls and bystanders outside of the home of Caiaphas, he gave into his fear and denied vehemently while cursing that he even knew who Jesus was. And of course, the rooster crowed, Peter went out and wept bitterly because he knew that he'd been found guilty. Well, the two trials that we're going to look at today is the trial of Judas and the trial of Pilate and Barabbas. I joined those two together because their stories intermingle, and it was just easier to do it that way. But the first thing that we'll look at is the trial of Judas. And so we'll start in chapter 27,

verse one, and this is what it says. 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 said, I'm going to do it. And they bound him and they led him away and delivered 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 he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed. And he went away. And 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. And they conferred together and with the

money 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 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. Now, as we move

into what I call the trial of Peter, it actually starts with a quick little addition to the trial that we just saw the day before. We just saw the week before with the trial of Jesus. They had condemned Jesus, but they did so in an illegal court because as we shared last week, so many things about the trial that they had of Jesus was illegal as far as Jewish law was concerned. And so they wanted to say, save a little bit of face and have some sort of a moniker of legality in the things that they were doing. So they met the next morning, right after daybreak is what most think. They met the next

morning to officially pronounce the guilty verdict on Jesus. And as they met that morning to officially pronounce the guilty verdict on Jesus, they then took him to Pilate. I'll explain in just a little bit why it's important that they took him to Pilate, but they took him to Pilate, the governor at that point in time. But while all of that is taking place, we have Judas. Notice what it says in verse three. Then when Judas, and I always love that

Matthew includes this little addendum here, 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. Now, I have a question at this point in time. Where has Judas been this whole time, right? So he was with them when Jesus was arrested. He wouldn't have fled with the other disciples because he had no reason

to. He was on the side of the cross. He was on the side of the cross. He was on the side of the cross. He was on the side of those arresting Jesus. So where has Judas been this whole time? Has he watched this entire thing take place? Was he in the home of Caiaphas when the Sanhedrin was meeting and they were pronouncing the guilty verdict? Was he there when Jesus was being struck in the face

by all of the religious leaders and being told, prophesy, who was it who hit you? Where has he been this whole time? Has he been a part of the proceedings? None of the gospel writers have seen fit to tell us where he was this whole time. But we do know that he was a part of the proceedings. We do know that he was aware that Jesus had been condemned. And as he was aware that Jesus had been

condemned, Matthew simply tells us that he felt remorse. Here's the second question that I have. What was he remorseful about? There's several different explanations that people give. One of the main ones that people give is that some believe that Judas actually had ulterior motives in turning Jesus in, either because Jesus had not stood up to be the Messiah that he thought he

was going to be, or perhaps was trying to force Jesus's hand to be a political Messiah, to be the one who had set the nation of Israel free from Rome. Perhaps he could force his hand to do something miraculous to set the nation free. Perhaps that's why Judas betrayed him. And now nothing was working out the way that he thought it was going to. I don't particularly go in with those ideas because we're not told that that's what takes

place in scripture. This is simply conjecture on the parts of some people. Here's what I think happened. What I think happened is that Judas believed a lie. He believed that he could be fulfilled in some way by turning Jesus in. And all of a sudden, the reality of what he just did sunk in. The reality of the fact that the man that he'd spent three years following in a successful way, might I add, all of a sudden now

has been condemned to death. Because it's one thing when it's in theory. It's one thing when it's something that you formulate in your mind. But when the reality of the temptation sinks in, when the reality of what you did sinks in, all of a sudden you realize the depth of the depravity that you just fell to in giving into that temptation. And that's exactly what

Judas does here, at least in my own personal opinion. I think the reality of the fact that he just condemned a man that he knew so well to death absolutely rocked his world. And isn't it amazing what happens to us is that Satan tells us the lie when it comes to temptation. He tells us the lie that this is going to be the greatest thing you've ever done. It's going to feel good.

It's going to taste good. It's what you name the thing. It's going to be everything you hoped that it would be. And then you give in to the temptation. Then the reality sets in of what you just did. And all you know, is that what you just did was wrong. Now, if I was writing the rest of this story the way that I would want it to be written, this is how it would take place. Judas would come to the religious

leaders and do exactly what he did because he felt remorseful. And then after Judas did that and throws the pieces of silver, which is what we'll see here in just a moment, Judas too, just like Peter, will go out and weep bitterly and he will wait for Jesus. He will wait for whatever's going to take place with Jesus in hopes that maybe there's some way in which he can find himself upon the mercy of Jesus and somehow find salvation in Christ. And do you know what?

I believe that if that's what Judas had done, salvation is the exact thing that he would have found. I believe that had he decided to go out and weep bitterly over the depth of the depravity of his sin and found himself coming back to Jesus, found himself coming back to the open arms of a savior, that's exactly what he would find is the open arms of a savior. You know how I know that? Because I'm here this morning. I know that that's what Jesus would do. I know that he would offer the

arms of forgiveness. I know that he would offer the arms of forgiveness. I know that he would offer the forgiveness because I'm standing up here in front of you teaching the Bible because I, just like Judas, have betrayed Jesus with the things that I've done. And the only difference between me and Judas is the same difference between Peter and Judas. That's that I went back to Jesus.

That's what Peter did. That's what Judas won't do. But he does feel the remorse. He feels the sting of the sin that he had committed. And as he feels that sting of the sin, all he knows to do is to take the money back to the chief priest in hopes that that will absolve him of any responsibility. And so he goes to the chief priest and he takes the 30 pieces of silver back

and notice what he says in verse four, saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. But they said, what's that to us? See to it yourself. He comes back to him with this silver and he goes, I did something wrong. I did the wrong thing. I shouldn't have done this. And just like Satan does with us when we come and we say, I shouldn't have done that. He says,

that's not my problem. Because the religious leaders look at him, the chief priests, the ones who are supposed to be the representatives of the grace of God, look at him and say, we got 99 problems. That's not one. That's not my problem. You deal with that yourself. And that's exactly what he does. And so he takes those 30 pieces of silver. We're told that he throws them into the temple sanctuary.

Now let's understand where he threw this, where he threw these 30 pieces of silver. Remember how he said that the temple was set up, that there was an outer courtyard, the courtyard of the Gentiles where anyone could go. Then there was an inner courtyard, the courtyard of the women, and then the courtyard of the men. And then there was the temple sanctuary itself where only the priests could go. So paint this picture in your mind. He meets them and then he tells them, I can't keep

this silver. And so he goes and knocks open the door of the temple sanctuary and throws it in there. You know why? Because the only people that can retreat. At that point in time are the ones that are just as guilty as him. And he throws that silver in there and he runs off. And what does he do? He hangs himself. I don't think we can bypass the absolute symbolism that's given to us here

that Paul will later give to us in a verse when he says, the wages of sin is death. There's no way to overstate that. The wages of sin is death. It's where it always ends. It's where it always leads. Spiritual death and our separation from God, but oftentimes in very physical ways, death is what results from sin. And I think all too often as believers in Jesus

Christ, we can sometimes find ourselves dabbling in areas of sin thinking it's not that big of a deal. I mean, it's just a little bit of sin, right? It's just the struggle that I have. I get that. We still can't dabble with it because the wages of sin is death. And Judas went out and he hung himself. We can find ourselves thinking, but Peter was remorseful. So why

does he hang himself? Well, because Peter or Judas experienced what we call the sorrow of the world because the sorrow of the world is much different than the sorrow that is godly in nature. Go with me. I want you to do a place in scripture. Go over to second Corinthians, second Corinthians chapter seven. And I want you to look at verse 10. Can I just tell you, there's nothing that makes me

happier than the sound of Bible pages turning. It's, it's, it's a different sound than any other pages turning. It really is because Bible pages are different and it's the most glorious sound in the world for a pastor to hear those pages turning. Second Corinthians chapter seven, verse 10. Oh, what the heck? Let's start in verse nine. It says, I now rejoice that you were made sorrowful.

This is Paul speaking. To the Corinthian people are now rejoice. Not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us and really pay attention to verse 10 here for the 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. I love the progression of words he uses there. When he talks about godly sorrow,

he says, godly sorrow leads to repentance. It produces repentance. That's without regret that leads to salvation. You notice the progression that takes place there. It produces repentance. When God brings conviction into my heart and it's real conviction, conviction that comes from God, not just because I'm scared that I got caught, not just because I'm upset.

That somebody found out my sin, but because I am well aware of the fact that that sin damaged my relationship with my savior, that it brought shame to the name of God and that my purpose has been questioned because of my sin. When that godly sorrow is produced inside of me, it produces repentance. And that repentance is without regret. Can I tell you right now that there's a lot of people that live with regret? There's a lot of people that live with regret.

There's a lot of people that live with regret. There's a lot of people that live with regret. Maybe a bunch of you live with regret. Regret of things that are done wrong. And I'm going to give you a little secret here, okay? And this will, usually I say this and 4.95 will get you coffee at Starbucks. No, no. This is something you really need to pay attention to. If you want

to deal with regret, repent of your sin. If you want to deal with your regret, repent of the sin that you have in your life. And every time that regret rears its ugly head again, you say, that's true, but I've repented. Because it's without regret. And what does it lead to? Salvation. It leads me to a place of freedom. Listen, the most free people in the world are the people that

live in repentance. Because they are not shackled with the guilt of sin. They are not bound by the actions of sin. Because they're actually set free from it. But you see, that wasn't the kind of sorrow that Jesus was in. He was in a place of freedom. He was in a place of freedom. He was in a place of freedom. He had worldly sorrow. Because worldly sorrow produces death. You see, if sorrow

that I have in my heart doesn't lead me to repentance, then what sorrow in my heart will eventually do is either lead me to depression, or it will push me away from Jesus. And it will push me completely out of all of the things of God. And that's exactly what takes place with Judas. Back over to Matthew chapter 27.

And he hanged himself. Verse 6. It says, Did you notice that? All of a sudden, now they're like, listen, that's not lawful. If I remember correctly, it's Deuteronomy chapter 16 that says that no ill-gotten gain, the price of a whore, the price of a bribe, none of those things can be brought into the treasury. Now, all of a sudden, they've decided that keeping the law is a really important thing to do.

After for the last 24 hours, heck, for the last three years, they've broken the law in just about every way possible. But now they're concerned about it. Everything that Jesus said about them was true. He says, you strain it in that, but you swallow a camel. In other words, you major in the minors. But even worse than that, they were like whitewashed tombs that looked pristine on the

outside, but on the inside were full of dead men's bones. Now, listen, I want us to pay attention to something. As much as the religious leaders of Jesus's time deserve to be condemned for the actions that they take place in or that they take part in, we need to understand something and we need to do a little searching in our heart. Because do you remember what Jesus said? He said, how dare

you see the speck in your brother's eye and not notice that there's a beam, a two by four sticking out of your eye? I think that it's a really good time for us to have a little bit of a heart check as we read what the religious leaders did, what the chief priests did in being worried about the law in the smallest way and yet breaking the law in the biggest way and ask ourselves, am I a whitewashed tomb? Am I really good at looking right on the outside, but on the inside, I still am full of dead men's bones? Do I have a tendency to strain out a gnat all of the minor little ways and yet swallow a camel? Meanwhile, I'm absolutely disobedient in the largest ways possible. Because brothers and

sisters, hypocrisy is something that we all struggle with. So it says, they said, hey, we can't put this in the treasury. It's the price of blood. That would be illegal. And so they conferred together and with the money bought the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. For this reason, the 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 one whose price had been set by the sons of Israel. They gave them for the potter's field as the Lord directed me. Now, this little passage here creates a little bit of an issue for us because Matthew attributes it to Jeremiah. But if you have a Bible with cross references, you're going to notice something. It may reference Jeremiah

chapter 32, which speaks of Jeremiah purchasing the potter's field. But the other reference that will be given to you, if I remember correctly, is either Zechariah chapter 10 or 11. I don't remember the exact one. That's the other one that's given to you because the direct quotation actually comes out of the book of Zechariah. Well, there's a really simple solution to this. And the simple solution is that both of them speak

of the potter's field, but Zechariah was under the headship of Jeremiah because Jeremiah was known as the head of the prophets. And so it's attributed to Jeremiah, even though part of the quotation is directly given to Zechariah. I'm less concerned with that. And I'm more concerned with what he's talking about with the potter's field, because in the book of Zechariah, the portion about the potter's field all has to do with how far the heart of the potter's field is.

The nation is from the heart of God. But in Jeremiah, something very different takes place. In Jeremiah chapter 32, Jeremiah is told to go and redeem the potter's field. It was his brother's and he had the right of kinsman redemption. He said, I want you to go and redeem the potter's field. I want you to purchase it and I want you to own that field. Hold on to the deed to it. Because the nation of Israel is about to go into captivity because

of their great sin. The nation of Israel is about to go away because of their great sin. But in the same way that though the nation will collapse, but you will still own the potter's field, though the nation's being sent away into captivity, I will restore them back to the land. Now, I think it's kind of interesting that this is the prophecy that's given because what is the nation of Israel doing through its religious leaders right now?

They're being sent into captivity because the nation is rejecting Jesus. But this is a really cool reminder that though the nation has rejected Jesus, Jesus has not rejected the nation. And so they purchased this field and that's really the last that we hear about Judas. There's one other reference to Judas in Acts chapter one. It's a pretty gruesome reference. I'll let you read it yourself, but it has to do with his suicide.

That's really the last that we read of Judas because he sort of falls into the pages of history only known as the one who betrayed Jesus. And so now we see the trial of Pilate, Pilate in Barabbas. It says, And he did not answer. With regard to even a single charge, the governor was quite amazed. Now, as we talk about Pilate, we need to first of all answer the question, why?

Why did they have to betray him? Why did they have to betray him? Why did they have to betray him? Why did they have to betray him? Why did they have to betray him? Why did they have to betray him? to take him to Pilate because they had already condemned him to death, right? Well, there's two really important reasons why. Number one is because the children of Israel, the Jewish people, had had

their right to capital punishment taken away from them. As a nation, they could not pronounce capital punishment and then fulfill that on any one person because of all of their times of rebellion against the nation of Rome, and they said, we're stripping you of some of your laws, and this is one of them. And so, if they were to put Jesus to death, they had to bring him before the one who had the authority to put him to death, which was Pilate, the governor. But there's a second reason that's maybe even more important than that, and it has to do with prophecy. You see, anywhere you go in

the Old Testament that talks about the death of the Messiah, it will always talk about the crucifixion. Really, even if you go all the way back to Genesis, with the perfect picture, that's given to us of the cross, when Abraham is told by God to sacrifice your son Isaac, and Isaac and Abraham walk up on top of the mountain. Do you remember what Isaac carried on his shoulders? He carried the wood for the sacrifice on his shoulders, just like someone who was being crucified would carry their cross up to the top of the mountain to be crucified.

Then you come into like Psalm 22 and Isaiah chapter 53. They all speak of crucifixion. What was the method of capital punishment of the Jewish people? It was to stone them to death. So, in order to do that, you have to do it in a way that's not just a method of capital punishment. In order to fulfill the prophecy of Jesus being crucified, it would have to be done

by the Roman government, whose form of capital punishment was crucifixion. But do you know, there's even really a deeper meaning than that behind this. You see, if the Jews had put Jesus to death, then who would be guilty of the death of Jesus? The Jewish people would. Therefore, he would be the Jewish people's savior. But at this point in time, the Jewish people have condemned

him. But Pilate, a Gentile, is going to put him to death. Therefore, those guilty of the crucifixion of Jesus are both the Jews and the Gentiles. Therefore, he is the savior of the Jews and the Gentiles. He can be the savior for the whole world at this point in time. And isn't it interesting that the first to condemn him were the Jews and then the Gentiles? And who is the gospel to go to?

First to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. Isn't it great how God orchestrates all of that in the story of the crucifixion? So he brings him to Pilate. Now, if they would have brought him to Pilate and said, he blasphemed our law. He blasphemed the word of God. You know what Pilate would have said? I don't care. Get out. I don't like you people anyway. So they had to

come up with some charges. Well, there were three political charges that Pilate would have to care according to Luke, they brought against Jesus. Number one, they claim that Jesus was a revolutionary, an insurrectionist, if you will. Number two, they claim that he told people not to pay their taxes. And number three, they claim that he established himself as a king in opposition

to Caesar. Those were the political charges that they brought against Jesus. And so they bring him to Pilate. Now, Pilate had had what we would call a little bit of a rough go of it as the of this particular region. There had already been three uprisings of the Jewish people, two of which were his fault because of things that he did wrong as far as the Jewish law religiously was

concerned. So he's really nervous about another uprising. Pilate was actually a genius of a guy who was a very firm leader, but we're going to see him not be a very firm leader in this section today because he knows another insurrection and he's done. Another uprising of the Jewish people and so they bring him to Jesus with these questions. And it says, Jesus stood before the

governor and the governor questioned him saying, are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus just simply said, it is as you say. If you have one of those sweet red letter Bibles, you'll notice that this is the only portion in about the first 30 verses of this chapter that are in red. You know why? Because Jesus didn't say much. He said, are you the king of the Jews?

Are you the king of the Jews? Are you the king of the Jews? Are you the king of the Jews? Are you the king of the Jews? Are you the king of the Jews? Are you the king of the Jews? Are you the king of the Jews? Are you the king of the Jews? Are you the king? Are you somebody I need to be concerned about right now? Jesus said, you said it. It's as you say. And that was it. The chief priests or religious leaders,

they keep hurling accusations. Pilate's watching this whole thing with all these accusations that are being hurled. And I want you to notice what happens. It says, and while he was being accused by the chief priests and the elders, again, I'd underline this if it were me, he did not answer. And Pilate said to him, don't you hear how many things they testify against?

you? And he did not answer to even a single charge. So the governor was quite amazed. Now, this isn't Pilate's first rodeo. He's been at this for a while now. He's probably had a lot of men come before him accused of being revolutionaries. And he's always noticed the same thing. And it's the same thing any of us would notice and would consider to be true of

anyone who was standing trial. And that's that when they were being accused, one of two things is going to happen. Either one, they're going to claim their innocence, or two, they're going to claim their kinghood, right? Yes, I'm the king, and I want to take this government down. I've always hated Rome. I'll always hate Rome, and I will do this or die trying. But Jesus didn't do

any of that. He just stood there. And I believe that in Pilate's heart at this point in time, he knows he's not any of the things they said he is. He can't be. I've seen this before, and that's not how they act. But you see, Pilate's scared. He's scared of the opinion of the people. And Pilate, listen, does not know what to do with Jesus. It's a precarious position he finds himself in. Although he's smart, and he knows the law,

and he knows history. And so Pilate had come up with a loophole. As a matter of fact, that's what I titled this next section is Pilate's loophole. It says,

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 or Jesus, who is called the 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 of the church, they were all very angry. And so Pilate 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 Christ? And they all said, crucify him.

He said, why? What evil has he done? They kept shouting all the more saying, crucify him. Pilate had come up with the perfect plan. He's like, I've got to do this. I've got to do this. I've got to do this. I've got to do this. I've got to do this. I released a prisoner every year at this time. You see, Passover was a little bit of a dangerous time in the nation of Israel, especially for the revolutionaries because Passover celebrated their

freedom from bondage to Egypt. And so a lot of times that was when a lot of nationalistic feelings arose amongst the people because they were thinking about perhaps freedom from the bondage of Rome. And so to sort of appease the people, to keep the people happy in this time when they were thinking a lot about freedom, he'd release a prisoner to them. And he thought, this is perfect.

I've got Barabbas down here already. Now this Barabbas is kind of an interesting guy, right? It's like all we read about him in scripture is this one little section, but everything that they accused Jesus of being is who Barabbas actually was. First of all, there's his name, Barabbas. So in the Hebrew, it would be Bar Abbas, right? Which literally means Bar means son of, Abbas, Abba means the

father. So literally his name is the son of the father, which is kind of interesting because what were they accusing Jesus of as far as the Jews were concerned? Claiming to be the son of the father, right? And Barabbas, we learned from other gospel accounts, was a notorious criminal because he was a revolutionary. He had led uprisings and people were murdered in the process.

All of the things that they accused Jesus of being, Barabbas was actually guilty of. We'll get to why that's important in just a few minutes. But can you imagine being Barabbas down there? in prison. He only is going to hear two things. I didn't point this out in first service. He's only going to hear two things from the shouting crowds. He's going to hear Barabbas, and he's going to

hear crucify him, right? That dude is freaked out down in the cell right now. Anyway, so he says, I'll let the prisoner go. Who do you want me to release to you? Barabbas or Jesus, who is called the Christ. And then a little commentary is given to us in verse 18. It says, for he knew that because of envy, they had handed him over. He thought, I may not be able to convince the

religious leaders, but I bet I can convince the people because Jesus is only here because the religious leaders are envious of him. Listen, I can't run by this and not make a quick little personal application point, a quick little warning for all of us that live in a world whose economy is built on envy. We should be aware of the sin of envy. It's one of those sins that you can't always see written all over someone's face.

It's not a sin that will cause you to be passed out in your back seat. It's not a sin that'll land you pregnant. It's not a sin that'll cause you to be in a rehab clinic. It's not a sin that's going to land you in jail, but it is a sin that leads to death because it was for envy's sake that they put Jesus on the cross. We live in a world right now where envy runs rampant.

It's ugly head runs rampant through all of us as we continually look around at people and say, must be. Must be nice to be him. Must be nice to be her. Must be nice to have what they have. Must be nice to have no problems. We envy other people and that envy oftentimes leads us to really be very hateful, to really be very mean, and to really become pretty bad people. It's something that we

need to be aware of in our own lives. And so, so he says, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, verse 19, 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. You talk about a verse that comes out of nowhere, right? Like this verse just came flying out of left field and hit our car window like nothing, right? Like what the heck? Where did

this even come from? You know what I want to know? What was her dream? Come on, Matthew, give us a little detail here. What was the dream? All we know is that she sent him a message. You can imagine, right? She has this terrible dream. And the dream was, let's conjecture for just a minute, shall we? Okay. None of this is gospel truth. It's just my own personal conjecture. Perhaps she was dreaming about the fact that

Pilate was condemning an innocent man. And maybe right after the man, the innocent man was condemned, Pilate drops dead of a heart attack. Perhaps she sees the picture in her mind of Jesus being crucified. And maybe the hammer with the bloody nails in Pilate's hand, and she's like, oh, that's terrible. Whatever it was, she had some sort of a terrible dream and it absolutely

disturbed her sleep. Now they had gotten Pilate very early at daybreak to kind of have this trial of Jesus. And you can imagine that she woke up thinking, man, I got to tell my husband about this because that was crazy. And so she's looking for her husband. She says, has anyone seen Pilate this morning? I can't find him anywhere. And they said, oh, the crazy Jewish religious leaders came

and got him first thing this morning, right? As the sun was coming up and, and he's on, he's, he's got some, some guy on trial, some guy they're calling a revolutionary on trial. And she goes, I can't get to him. Please take him a message for me. Tell him I have nothing to do with that man because he's a righteous man. And I had a terrible dream because of him. Now, listen, fellas,

we should listen to our wives. Test what they have to say against what Jesus has to say. A lot of times our wives are a lot more spiritually sensitive than we are. And they just kind of pick up what Jesus is putting down a little faster. And when they come to us and say, you know, I'm kind of feeling this. We take it to Jesus and make sure it's not just emotions or bad pizza. But, but then we, we take note of what they have to say.

After all tradition teaches us that Pilate's wife had been a convert to Judaism. And then after this, she became a convert to Christianity, whether that's true or not. I'm not sure, but that's what tradition says. And so she says, don't have anything, anything to do with this guy. Of course, he didn't listen like most of us do. And then verse 20, it says, but the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for

Barabbas and to put Jesus to death. And you can imagine how this went. They're working their way through the crowd saying, Hey, that Jesus guy was terrible. We want Barabbas. He's really who we want. And then pretty soon popular opinion begins to grow, right? You can imagine how slowly, but surely the opinion of, of release Barabbas and crucify Jesus becomes a little bit more popular

amongst the people. And pretty soon you're sort of an outcast. And then you're sort of an outcast. And then you're sort of an outcast. And then you're sort of an outcast. And then you're sort of an outcast. And pretty soon you're sort of an outcast. If you don't think that, and so you kind of fall in with popular opinion, because after all, if you want a lie to be believed, you should just

repeat it over and over again and get as many people to believe it as possible. You know how I know that because I watched the news, right? I said this first service, I see this happening all the time in our world right now. I see lies being spoken as truth and then being repeated as truth. And then everybody believes it because every time the press secretary talks right now, I think,

that's unequivocally not true. And then the press picks it up and they continue to talk about it. And I'm like, but it still isn't true. But if you get enough news networks to carry the lie, then enough people believe it. And everybody goes, well, clearly that's true because everybody's saying it. And it's one thing when it's at the political truth of our nation. It's a whole other

thing when it's the spiritual truth of the church. Because in the church right now, there are pastors who are repeating lies. There are pastors who are giving out falsehoods and misrepresenting God. Saying things like, we don't need to worry about the same-sex marriage thing. After all, the Bible whispers about homosexuality. Therefore, we should whisper about homosexuality. We should scream

about the things that the Bible screams about. By the way, that's a quote from a guy named J.D. Greer, who is a pastor. We have to be aware of popular opinion because popular opinion will always lead us to the wrong way. And I think that's a really important thing. And I think that's a way to get us away from the truth. You have to hold up everything against what God's word has to say.

And so popular opinion is that they should release Barabbas and not Jesus. And so it says, verse 20, but the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to put Jesus to death. And the governor said, which of the two do you want me to release for you? And they said, Barabbas. And then Pilate said to them, then what shall I do with Jesus?

You know, I think that's a lot more telling of a statement than it is a question. I think that's really the tell of Pilate's heart. What am I supposed to do with Jesus? Because I think he knew that this Jesus was everything that he said that he was and was absolutely not what the religious leaders were saying that he was. And he was asking a question not only of the people, but of himself.

What am I supposed to do with Jesus? And I'll deal with the fact that that's a question we're all going to have to answer in just a moment. But for now, allow that question to resonate a little bit in your mind. What is the answer to this question? And I think that's a lot more telling of a statement What shall I do with Jesus? And they all said, crucify him. Now again, we live in a very

sanitized Western culture where things like crucifixions don't take place. We've never seen one unless you've watched the Passion of the Christ. And even that was only on a screen, not something that you saw in real life. For the Jewish people, crucifixion was a reality. It's one of the most heinous crimes ever perpetrated upon humanity. It's one of the most heinous crimes ever come up with to put someone to death for a political sin. It was so

heinous that the Roman government was not allowed to put any Roman citizen to death in that way. Only slaves and captives, like the Jewish people, could be put to death in that way. And everybody hated it. And so for the words, crucify him, to come out of the mouths of the Jewish people would have sent shockwaves through the emotions of Pilate. Because he would have

never in a million years, he would have never been able to do that. He would have never been able to in a million years, expected them to say that. They said, crucify him. And he says, why? What crime has he committed? What evil has he done? But they just kept shouting all the more, crucify him. Over and over and over again. Well, now we come to Pilate's decision. It says in verse 24,

when Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water, washed his hands in front of the crowd saying, I am innocent of this man's blood. See to that yourselves. And all the people said, his blood shall be on us and on our children. Then he released Barabbas for them. But after having Jesus scourged, he handed him over to be

crucified. Pilate realized he wasn't accomplishing anything. He wasn't getting anywhere with this crowd. And so he does something very symbolic. Something symbolic that a lot of people try to do, but has just as much effect on people today as it did on him at that point in time. He took water and he washed his hands. I am innocent of this man's blood. Symbolism can never deal with our

sin. Water can't wash away the stain of our sin. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can do that. And so Pilate finally said, his blood be on your heads. And they said, it will be on our heads and the heads of our children. And they had no idea. idea what was coming for them. They had no idea how right they were. And so Pilate said, here's Barabbas, and he handed over Jesus. We won't get into the scourging. We'll get into that

in a few weeks when we get back to Matthew chapter 27. For now, I would like to wrap this up with three points of some lessons that I feel like we learned from the three guys that we've talked about this morning. Each of these guys, I feel like, teaches us a lesson. As they stood trial, there are things that we learn from each of them. The first one comes from Judas.

True repentance from the heart. The lesson that we learn from Judas is that what we really need as believers in Jesus Christ, what the world really needs is true repentance that comes from the heart. Not just words, not just ideas, not just platitudes. We need someone whose heart is broken over sin in their life. Someone whose heart is broken over the sins that are committed,

and then they come to God with that brokenness. They come to God with that guilt, and they say, I repent. As a month goes by, as a day goes by, as an hour goes by, as the last two minutes went by, we all have things in our lives that we need to repent of. And it's entirely too easy for us to give lip service repentance that has no real heart behind it. It's all too easy to have the sorrow of the world that we're sorry that we had any consequences that

went along with it, that we're sorry that we got caught doing it, that we're sorry for all the wrong reasons, instead of truly repenting before the Lord. The word repent literally means to turn around and walk away from. The thing that we're supposed to walk away from is sin, but the thing that we're supposed to walk to is Jesus. Listen, whose arms are open wide, ready to offer up their hands, and whose arms are open wide, ready to offer up their hands, to offer forgiveness and restoration to everyone whose heart is repentant.

The second lesson that we learn comes from Pilate, and it's a question, what will you do with Jesus? I don't care what your political beliefs are. I don't care what your religious beliefs are. I don't care how good of a person you think you are. I don't care how bad of a person you think you are. Everybody's going to eventually have to answer a question. What are you going to do with

Jesus? You'll either answer that question on this side of eternity, or you'll answer that question on the other side of eternity. But everyone will have to eventually answer, what are you going to do with Jesus? It starts with salvation. As conviction comes upon us, we'll have to decide, so am I going to repent from the sin and pursue Jesus, believe that he's

my only hope? Because that's what it starts with. It starts with, what will I do with Jesus as my Savior? But believer in Jesus Christ, Christian who's walked with Jesus for a long time, that doesn't mean you stop answering the question, what are you going to do with Jesus? That's only the beginning of the answer. Well, I believe that he's my Savior. Great. Now make him

your Lord. Because every day he's asking you to do something. Every day he says, I want you to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. Because I want to be your Lord. I don't just want to be your free ticket out of hell, because too many of us treat Jesus like our free ticket out of hell. We don't, he doesn't just want to be our fire insurance. He doesn't just want to

give us a better life. He wants to be the Lord of every aspect of our lives. And so, every day, you're going to have to answer a question. What am I going to do with Jesus? Am I going to pursue him with all of my heart? Is he going to be the Lord of my life, my reason for living, and the one who I devote every bit of myself to? Or is he just going to be my cause? Is he just going to be my religion?

What will you do with Jesus? But then the third person that we learn something from here is Barabbas. Because for Barabbas, Jesus was the ultimate substitutionary sacrifice. Like we mentioned before, and I didn't come up with this myself, I read it somewhere, I thought it was really good. He said, Barabbas probably heard two things while he was sitting down in his jail cell there below,

below that judgment seat, right? Pilate says, who do you want me to release? He can't hear that. And then all of the crowd starts shouting, Barabbas! And he's like, that's my name, right? And then the next thing he hears, what do you want to do with Jesus? And all he hears is, crucify him! And he's like, that's not good, right? Barabbas, crucify him, bad combo.

Because he was guilty. Matter of fact, we'd go so far as to say he was guilty of sin.

Guilty of all the things that they accused Jesus of. Can you imagine what it would have been like for Barabbas to get led out of prison and have them say, you're free. I'm what? What happened to crucify him? No, no, that's that guy. He's going to be crucified. You see, he is taking your place. Isn't that a powerful thought? Isn't that a powerful picture? Now, I've never led a revolution, although I am revolutionary. I'm just kidding. I've never led

a revolution. I've never incited a riot. I've never told anybody not to pay their taxes. I've never claimed to be a king. But man, have I sinned. Some of the worst ways possible. Some of the worst things that you can do. And all I've known to do is to take those sins to Jesus. And they all got put on him at the cross because he was my substitute. That perfect picture that we're given there of Barabbas

is the exact same thing that he did for us. And brothers and sisters, like I mentioned last week, that is what we celebrate at this time of the year, is we celebrate the fact that, because of the great love with which he loved us, even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You see, his great love for us was so strong. The love that he had for us was so much that he said, I will lay aside all of my glory and I will come down and be born as a man. I will be born as

a man so that I can live a perfect life, so that I can be a perfect substitutionary death, so that I can take all of the sin of humanity. And have it put upon me. And in the same way that Barabbas would be free forever because Jesus was his substitute, so you and I can have absolute security in Christ because he was my substitute. He bore in his own body on the tree all of the sin, not only of the world, but all the sin of me.

It's a powerful truth. It's a powerful time of the year. Would you all stand with me? We have one week left of Christmas carols being played all the time. That's why I love them so much. I don't always like the jingle bell rock. That's kind of dumb. But all the other Christmas carols that talk about Jesus, man, they're so powerful because when you know why he came, it makes a song like Joy to the

World so much more powerful. Because you realize you're not singing Joy to the World because everybody gets a present. You're singing Joy to the World because Jesus is the only one that brings joy to the world. We have one more week of the entire world having to say Christ, whether they intend to or not, and not as a cuss word, because much of the world still says Christmas. Even though there's

some that say happy holidays, I still like to say Merry Christmas just to see the look on their face. Take advantage of this time as the whole world is looking at Jesus to make sure that they really understand Jesus that you know. Amen. Father, we come to you and just thank you for the time that we've had in your word this morning. And Lord, I ask that your truth would continue to penetrate our hearts. Father, that you would make us the men and

women of God that you have created for us to be. And Lord, that we would be wise in our choices, especially about what we're going to do with you. We just pray these things, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

I'll go. And I see you now. I'm laying it down. And I know that I need you. I'll run to the Father. I'll 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. Again and again. You saw my condition. You had a plan from the start. Your son for redemption.

Christ for my heart. That kind of love. I don't understand. I can't comprehend. All I know is he's a surgeon. My soul needs a friend. So I'll run to the Father again and again. And has been in your sights long before my first breath. I'm running into. He's running to life. And I feel this rush deep in my chest. Your mercy is cold just as I am. And I know I need.

My heart needs a surgeon. My soul needs a friend. So I'll run to the Father again and again. Again and again. 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. Oh, Father God, let's pray that we come to the realization of how much we truly need you, Lord. God, we don't need you just once a week or even twice a year, Lord.

Every hour of every day, Lord. So I'll just pray that we come to that realization and run to you. Run to the Father. I'll 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.

Father God. I just thank you for your son, Jesus, Lord. I just thank you for what this time of year means. Lord, I just pray that as we go out and we celebrate your son, Lord, I just pray that you would bless each and every one of us, Lord. God, we love you and we praise you and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Merry Christmas, everybody.