Sermon Tone Analysis

Matthew 27:1-26

Amen! Thank you Sjoerd, thank you Bonnie, so very much for that wonderful hymn and thank you church family, it is always a blessing to sing hymns with you each week.

Today, we come as a family to remember, rejoice, and reflect on the greatest act of love the world has, and will ever know: the crucifixion and resurrection of the King of Kings, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Turn with me once more to the Gospel of Matthew, as we start a new chapter together, Matthew 27.

We have a lot of rich material to cover today, as Lord willing, we will cover 26 verses, as we reflect together on the subject of Innocent Blood Condemned today.

May we open our hearts to His eternal truth, as we journey back in time to that moment where we will indeed behold as a family Innocent Blood Condemned, for your sins and mine, dear friends, church family.

It is yes, okay to shed tears as we read this, but let them not just be tears of pain, but tears of joy.

We serve a Risen Savior this morning, even though He was condemned, He lives, even now, for you and I.

The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 27, verses 1 through 26, the precious word of God tells us:

When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death:

2 And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.

3 Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,

4 Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.

And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.

5 And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.

6 And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.

7 And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.

8 Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.

9 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value;

10 And gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord appointed me.

11 And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews?

And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest.

12 And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing.

13 Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee?

14 And he answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly.

15 Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would.

16 And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas.

17 Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you?

Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ?

18 For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.

19 When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.

20 But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus.

21 The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you?

They said, Barabbas.

22 Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?

They all say unto him, Let him be crucified.

23 And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done?

But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified.

24 When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.

25 Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.

26 Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

Amen and Amen!

As we start chapter 27 of our journey through the Gospel of Matthew today, may we together afresh reflect on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for your sins and mine there that day at Calvary’s cross, as we consider Innocent Blood Condemned this morning.

Would you pray with me?

We have some very bittersweet but beautiful content to look into this morning so I will hold off on the recap that often happens here, but suffice it to say our King Jesus Christ has just in chapter 26 condemned to death by the Sanhedrin, and the plan for our eternal redemption continues to accelerate rapidly.

Together, let us therefore start Matthew chapter 27 with humility and joy, as we see Innocent Blood Condemned for you, for me, for all of us, dear friends, church family.

Therefore, as we embark on this new section of our journey in the Gospel of Matthew, we will consider together four compelling truths about these poignant scenes in our text this morning.

Notice, dear friends, the first truth, and that is…

The Remorse Of Judas in verses 1 through 5

To set the stage for the events that we are going to unveil and consider this morning, I begin with a quote from the wonderful book The Suffering Savior by German preacher F.W. Krummacher that will give us a picture in our mind of what we are going to start to look at in God’s word today.

“THE DAY HAS JUST DAWNED - the most momentous, decisive, and eventful in the world.

It greets our Lord with dreadful insignia.

It approaches in a blood-stained robe, a crown of thorns to encircle His brow, in the one hand, and in the other, the scourge, the fatal cup, and the accursed tree; while it rises upon us with the olive-branch of peace, the divine acquittal, and the crown of life.

O sacred Friday, day of divine compassion, birthday of our eternal redemption, we bless thee, we greet thee on our knees!”

Our text thus begins this morning in verses 1 and 2 by telling us, “When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death: 2 And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.”

Remember dear friends from our study in chapter 26 last week that the trial of Jesus had been a farce from the outset, and now, the farce is compounded even further., as we see a further sham trial being conducted as the morning dawns.

It is early morning, probably

To give the appearance of legality, the chief priests and elders of the people of Israel who sit on the Sanhedrin convene once more and condemn our King to death once again, but they don’t carry out His execution.

Keep in mind that in that time period, with Roman rule oftentimes violently enforced, the Jewish leadership did not have the power to carry out capital punishment.

Thus, as the morning breaks, the Jewish authorities have Jesus bound like a criminal once again, and escorted to the Roman governor of Judea at the time, Pontius Pilate.

Secular historians record Pilate having served as governor for a decade long tenure, from 26 to 36 AD, and was recorded as being brutal, violent, and cruel.

It is to this man that the King of Kings is now escorted to, bound as a criminal, He, who was innocent of any real crime, but who the Jewish authorities were desperate to eliminate, once and for all.

However, even in that moment, a dramatic moment occurs, as even as innocent blood is condemned by the Sanhedrin, one of the last individuals you would expect is seized with remorse and guilt.

Matthew records for us in verse 3, “Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,”

Judas Iscariot enters the scene as Good Friday morning dawns, perhaps shortly after 5 or just before 6 o’clock in the morning.

Matthew reminds us that Judas is the one that had betrayed our Savior, and now he sees Him condemned to death, and it fills him with remorse and guilt over his actions.

This was not an act of full repentance dear friends, keep that in mind, there is a massive difference between sincere repentance of sin and guilt over one’s sinful actions.

Judas in that moment felt tremendous regret and guilt, and seeing Jesus condemned to death somehow makes him realize his betrayal had indeed been the wrong course of action.

Jesus had predicted at the Last Supper in Matthew 26:24, “The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed!

it had been good for that man if he had not been born.”

Under this fateful declaration of woe, Judas Iscariot, stricken with guilt, brings the money that he had been paid for his dark deed back to the priests and elders who had just condemned our King to die.

We read in verse 4 therefore of what happened further with Judas, as it has him, “Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.

And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.”

Even as Jesus is being led away bound to the presence of Pilate, Judas tries to return the money paid to him for his dark deed of betrayal.

But not only that dear friends, Judas also confesses his guilt and sinful actions as having been sinful and wicked before God and man.

However, the religious leadership of Israel, who have seen the King revealed, and now recently rejected, rebuff Judas’s confession of his betrayal of the innocent blood of Jesus, casting the responsibility back on him.

These religious leaders could have accepted Judas’s confession and reversed course that awful morning, but they didn’t, thus further accelerating the plan for our eternal redemption to take place.

Instead, they coldly tell him in a modern day sense of the words, “That is not our problem, deal with it on your own,” brushing the conscience of Judas aside, their plot to commit regicide-royal murder, had been enacted, and would soon be carried out, to them, who cares if the the one they used to start this plot was filled with guilt and remorse now?

Broken by his conscience and remorse, Matthew records the next actions of Judas Iscariot that Friday morning in verse 5, as we read: “And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.”

Judas Iscariot meets a terrible fate indeed following his casting down of the money that he betrayed our King with the night before.

He then departs the temple precincts and chooses to commit suicide, hanging himself, either from a ledge or a tree with rope or the girdle he would have worn as part of his outfit in that culture.

While holding your hand in Matthew, turn over with me to Acts for a moment, Acts 1:18, as we read further about Judas: “Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.”

It seems that at some point, the traitor’s rope broke, and his body shattered on the rocks below, so much that his insides gushed out onto the ground.

The one who had perhaps unwittingly condemned innocent blood to the death reserved by the Romans for the worst of criminals now meets a traitor’s death-a primitive form of hanging, drawing and quartering, you might say.

What a brutal, and chilling warning that is to us this morning, dear friends, to have sincere repentance, and not just mere remorse and guilt when we sin against our Holy God.

As we consider the remorse and fate of Judas Iscariot, consider with me this morning our first question for application and growth:

Have you sincerely repented of your sins and trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior today?

We transition to truth 2 then this morning, as we consider together...

The Potter’s Field Purchased in verses 6 through 10

Even as Judas Iscariot casts the thirty pieces of silver down in the temple precincts and departs for suicide, a further dramatic scene takes place early that Good Friday morning.

In this moment, we see a further example of why Jesus rightly called these priests and elders, these religious elitists and politicians-hypocrites.

We read together in verse 6, “And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.

“

In a cruel and hypocritical irony, the very ones who had paid this money out to Judas so that Jesus could be captured and His innocent blood then be shed, now call the money given blood money unfit for the temple treasury.

Their legalistic tendencies once more take over, and they decide to follow the law in this case when laws about how Jesus’s trial were conducted have already been broken.

Not only that, but they scorn the one who has committed treason against the King of Kings, when they had reaped from their perspective a greater reward than what they had initially paid His betrayer.

Thus, Matthew records in verses 7 and 8, “And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.

8 Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.”

In a further act of cruel irony, the money that would bring about the murder of the King of Kings is used to purchase a cemetery for strangers, or as some translations would render it, foreigners, dear friends.

We don’t know for sure why this field was called the potter’s field, dear friends, but the late Reverend R.T. France of the Church of England wrote in his commentary on Matthew a possible explanation:

“The traditional site of Akeldama is in the valley of Hinnom, which was a source of potter’s clay (hence the previous name, ‘potter’s field’?).