Barabbas Or Jesus

Pastor Bez Cummings

Sermon • Submitted 6 years ago

Matthew 27:15–23

Barabbas

Crowd calling for Barabbas’ Release

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Barabbas Or Jesus

What happens when the wrong man goes free

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

And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas.

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?

For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.

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.

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

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

Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified.

And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified.

Pilate Delivers Jesus to Be Crucified

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.

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

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

Bear in mind that Jerusalem and the nation of Israel was under Roman domination and rule at this time. Pilate was governor over that region of the Roman Empire. The relationship with the Romans, including Pilate, and the Jews was one of mistrust, resentment, and hostility. Rome tried to placate the conquered nations as much as they could During the Feast of the Passover, the Romans would release a prisoner to the Jews in an effort to appease the masses that gathered in Jerusalem in hopes of preventing a riot.

So everyone gathered for this Great Turkey pardoning tradition

And I am not sure many of the people here knew they would face the greatest most significant choice they ever faced in their life that day.

They just went for the festivity and for the tradition it was like fiesta

We never wake up and say today is the day that I will face the greatest choice in my life

And if You are lost here today you will have to face that choice even if you walk out now that is facing the choice and rejecting it.

And If you are saved here today you will be forced to make a choice the greatest choice in your life of who goes free and who runs your life.

But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;

The Consent in the Choice 27:15

The people have to choose between Barabbas and Jesus

In this story there are two men that the people must choose who dies who comes over for dinner.

They must choose who is rejected and who is received

Who goes to the cross and who goes to college

Who gets married and who gets martyred

There are many things trying to influence their choice

On one side is pilate and on the other side are the priests

On the one side is their conscience on the other side is the crowd

We hear the voice of reason and we hear the voice of rebellion

We hear the voice of caution and the voice of craziness

But at the end of the day they make the decision and they bear the responsibility

Today you and I have a choice barabbas or Jesus

We all have a choice this morning we can choose who will run free and who will go to the cross

The people is you your soul you free will your ability to choose

Pilate is the governor he makes the transaction

But the people make the choice.

And just like this crowd choose that day

Every one of us must choose once and for all who will go to the cross and who will go free

Who will die and who will live

And as christians we have to choose daily to send barabas the flesh to the cross and allow Jesus to control our lives.

Who has their life and who loses their life.

Mat_16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Does the old man barabas die or does Jesus die?

I have kids and as much as I wish I could choose for you I cant you have a free will you must decide.

I wish I could decide for them. I like the Idea of arranged marriages but not my decision it is theirs.

I pray all time for my kids but it does not matter how much I love the Lord and how much I pray I can't override their free will.

Abraham Ishmael Isaac , Jacob Esau , Jacobs kids how they treated Joseph , Jessies kids David , Davids Kids, all those men loved God.

Today you must decide

As much as I you to serve The Lord as your pastor

I want you to choose Jesus

I want you to love Jesu and take him home with you

I want you to choose him

And live happily after with him.

As much as I wish I could decide for you

And for the teenagers in the teen class

And for my kids and your kids

He allows us the choice the free will

You still have to make the choice Jesus or Barabbas

Joh_18:40 Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.

The Contrast in the Choice 27:16,17,23

The name Barabbas apparently means “Son of (his) father

And Jesus was the son of God

And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas.

Notability Fame folk hero

Everyone loved Barabas he was fighting for their cause

He was them what bernie sanders and Alexandria ocasio Cortez are to the socialists

He was to them what Trump is to the conservatives.

He was a zealot one that wanted to overthrow the Roman government

He could probably give speeches like Hitler We will break the Iron Yoke of Rome.

He was notable

After all this was probably his crowd that gathered to get him released.

In the one Corner we have Barabas in the other Corner we Have Jesus

Isaiah 53:2–3 KJV 1900

For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, And as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: And we hid as it were our faces from him; He was despised, and we esteemed him not.

For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Undesirable to them , Despised to them , Not esteemed

That is your choice between what you want and what you should want

For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.

The flesh and the spirit

What makes you feel good and what makes you feel convicted and the need to change

Mark 15:7 KJV 1900

And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection.

a violent uprising against an authority or government

He was a rebel

He wanted to take over by force

He wanted to get vengeance and exact justice

You have to be crazy to let that guy loose

He will stop at nothing to get what he wants

He thinks he is living for justice

But he is living for rebelion.

Rebelion will attach to any cause it will even attach to a good cause but like a cancer it will ruin that which was good and defile it.

He will use the name of God and the prophecies of the old testament and say we were promised this land it is not God's will that we be servants to rome.

Oh but did you forget about Is Jer and Ez that this is part of what you deserve and brought on yourself?

Rebelion ruins what is Good and turns it into a justified way to let demons into your soul and you start spewing brimstone.

And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection.

Murderer

Now he has taken and innocent man's life

Murder is not justified by any one other than barabas

I dare say he also sent two other men to the cross the ones he involved

And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified.

Look at the contrast

One the one side we have life and on the other side we have death

Joh_18:40 Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.

Joh_10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

One the one side we have rebelion and on the other side resignation

One one side we have sedition and on the other side we have submission

In the one corner we have the Flesh and in the other corner we have the spirit

Deu 11:26 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;

Deu 11:27 A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day:

Deu 11:28 And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.

Deu_30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

It is about who will rule

Who will be in change

It has been well said in every believers heart there is a thorne and there is a cross if Christ is on the throne you are on the cross and if Christ is on the cross than you are on the throne

Luk_19:14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.

And barabas is the flesh the old man and Jesus is the new man the spirit

It is a choice between spirit and flesh

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak

The Condition in the Choice 27:20-23

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

Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified.

And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified.

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

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

The condition is that it is one or the other it is not both

You cannot have the one without rejection the other

You cannot serve God and mammon and barabbas was a robber

Either barabas gets Israel or Jesus Gets Israel

Jesus is put on the cross and the healing stops and the killing starts

Jesus does not get to do what he wants the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

If you are saved and you choose the Flesh

Than automatically you disobey this verse

1Th_5:19 Quench not the Spirit.

Than automatically you disobey this verse

Eph_4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

The hands that heal are bound and the hands that kill are released

Jesus wants to be in control of your life

He wants you to present your body as a living sacrifice

He wants to live his life through me

My hands are supposed to do his work

Feet are to go were he wants

Tongue is to speak his words

Eyes are supposed to see what he sees

If we are the body than why are his hands not working feet not going ?

But if we are the body

Why aren't His arms reaching?

Why aren't His hands healing?

Why aren't His words teaching?

And if we are the body

Why aren't His feet going?

Why is His love not showing them there is a way?

The condition is who will control your life it is one to the exclusion of the other

To not choose Jesus is to let barabas free.

There is no neutral ground

They faced a decision that would determine everything but they could not be neutral and could not have both.

The Consequences of the Choice 27:25

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

He was of the zealots

(Zealot) a member of an ancient Jewish sect aiming at a world Jewish theocracy and resisting the Romans until AD 70.They sought to overthrow foreign control over Palestine, particularly Roman control.

These Zealots often resorted to extreme measures to accomplish their task

Sicarii and literally means “dagger men.” Josephus described them as hiding small daggers in their clothing, which they used in crowded situations to kill their victims.

Sicarii was used by the Romans to refer to those Jews who engaged in the organized killing of political figures.

The Sicarii were often called robbers, and it is likely that the thieves crucified with Jesus were suspected of belonging to this group.

In Paul was mistaken as a leader of 4,000 Sicarii. KJV calls them murderers

The consequences of this choice emboldened this group

And they grew in number violence and power

The final result of that action was that Jerusalem was surrounded by the outside with armies and torn apart by party strife on the inside the bloody brutal terror of the zealotes who earned titles like murderers and dagger men. Assassins

In 66, Jewish zealots led an uprising against Roman rule and successfully drove the Roman army out of Jerusalem.

But the peace did not last. The emperor Nero (37–68) sent Vespasian (9–79) to quell the revolt. Accompanied by his son Titus (41–81), Vespasian conquered Galilee in 67. The next year, as Vespasian marched toward Jerusalem, he learned of Nero’s death and withdrew to Caesarea. In 69, Vespasian allowed himself to be proclaimed emperor and turned the war over to Titus.

Titus conquered almost all of Judea and laid siege against Jerusalem for 143 days

Titus prayed to God and blamed the Jews for their own death in spite of his own efforts to not destroy the city. Titus, blamed the destruction of the city on the Jews, not themselves.

“However, when Titus, in going his rounds along those valleys, saw them full of dead bodies, and the thick putrefaction running about them, he gave a groan; and spreading out his hands to heaven, called God to witness that this was not his doing” (Josephus Wars 5.516)

He went in and begged them to surrender but the zealotes said never we would rather die

before finally breaking through the walls and decimating the city and the Temple. The conquest was completed on September 2, 70, thus fulfilling the prophecy Jesus made to his disciples before his crucifixion that the Temple in Jerusalem would be so completely destroyed that not one stone would be left on another ().

73 Y MASADA FALLS

After the fall of Jerusalem in 70, the remaining Jewish soldiers fled with their wives and children to the rock fortress on the mountain of Masada, which is in the desert near the Dead Sea. Some 960 men, women, and children found refuge there. Although they had few sources of food and water, they repelled the Roman army for three years. However, in 73, as the Roman army scaled a ramp that they had built on the side of the mountain, the Jews knew they could no longer fend off the enemy. As the fortress burned around them and their attackers were on the brink of breaking through the barricades, the Jews committed mass suicide rather than face punishment and enslavement under the Romans.

They only discovered 2 women and five children alive.

For forward and far reaching consequences are not just for you but for your children

Jonathan Edwards’ legacy includes: 1 U.S. Vice-President, 1 Dean of a law school, 1 dean of a medical school, 3 U.S. Senators, 3 governors, 3 mayors, 13 college presidents, 30 judges, 60 doctors, 65 professors, 75 Military officers, 80 public office holders, 100 lawyers, 100 clergymen, and 285 college graduates.

How may this be explained? Edwards was a godly man, but he was also hard working, intelligent and moral. Furthermore, Winship states, “Much of the capacity and talent, intensity and character of the more than 1,400 of Edwards’ family is due to Mrs. Edwards.”

Max Jukes’ legacy came to people’s attention when the family trees of 42 different men in the New York prison system were traced back to him. He lived in New York at about the same period as Edwards. The Jukes family originally was studied by sociologist Richard L. Dugdale in 1877.

Jukes’ descendants included: 7 murderers, 60 thieves, 190 prostitutes, 150 other convicts, 310 paupers, and 440 who were physically wrecked by addiction to alcohol. Of the 1,200 descendants that were studied, 300 died prematurely.

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The implications not for you but also for your children next generation

So quick to curse themselves without knowing without considering just because it feels good in the moment

Here is a dad stop coming to church see all kids running around someone claims they are saved softball tournaments

Saved people choosing the flesh you will pay a price

My family one generation Kids do not know God

Taught them to think of preachers as deceivers and manipulators out for their own gain.

Churches choose bartabas over Jesus do not stand against sodyomy or abortion

The Consideration in the Choice 27:26

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

No matter how bad the choice was for the jews it was good for barabas

And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection.

I imagine him walking by the cross that afternoon maybe to see his friends

And as he looked at Jesus on the cross I believe he said that should've been me but because of him I was pardoned

It was Undeserved

Barabbas had committed murder; he was a thief and a robber,

He had been convicted of the crimes he had committed and was deserving of the punishment that he had received.

Is that not how each of us was?

but an innocent Man died so that we might be forgiven.

In our sin, we had rejected the Lord and the price that was paid for our redemption.

We were at enmity with God.

Clearly we too were undeserving of any pardon. We were the guilty and deserved to receive punishment for our guilt.

It was Undeserved

It was Unexpected

The text doesn’t reveal anything about how Barabbas felt during all of this. We don’t know if there was any remorse for his crimes. We don’t know if any of his accusers were there that day. All we really know is that Pilate argued for the release of Jesus rather than Barabbas.

but we don’t find any concern or desire to release Barabbas

One could rightly assume that Barabbas never expected to be released as Jesus took his place.

That is certainly how it was for me. I had no intention of getting saved.

I was not seeking the Lord, but praise His name He was seeking me.

I didn’t get up that morning expecting to receive the greatest gift ever given. I had no idea that the Lord of glory was about to arrest my soul and bring salvation to one who was undeserving.

The Consideration in the Choice

It was Undeserved

It was Unexpected

It was Unconditional

It was Unexpected

It was Unconditional

And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.

And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them. That may seem rather insignificant in a way, but when we look closely it was a miracle.

The word released means “to set free; to dismiss; to forgive a debt; and to acquit one accused of a crime and set at liberty.” This was a complete and unconditional release. All of the charges brought against Barabbas were dismissed and he was set free. He was no longer considered guilty; he was forgiven.

My what evidence we find of redemption in Christ. This is salvation fleshed out before Jesus ever died upon the cross. The guilty was set free and cleared of all charges.

That surely does something for my soul today.

I too was like Barabbas. I was guilty as charged and deserving of eternal death. I had no hope within myself of being set free. And then Jesus came to me and forgave my debt. All of the sin that I was guilty of was forgotten. My debt was marked “paid in full by the blood of the Lamb!” Jesus completely forgives!

Conclusion if you are not saved here this morning who will you choose Christ went to the cross he died and rose again he will never die again but if you want to be saved you have to send barabas to the cross

IF you are saved will you allow this criminal to continue running your life or will you let the Lord be in the throne and you put your flesh in its rightful place on the cross and allow Jesus to live inside of you?

Will you nail him to the cross and go where you want or will you nail barabas to the cross and let jesus go were he wants when you leave here

Listen to what he wants witness to who he wants

Will you go after what Jesus is interested in or what Barabbas is interested in?