Seats Taken

How many of you have saw the movie Forrest gump?

Forrest on his first trip on the school bus finds it hard to find his seat on the bus. he keeps hearing seats taken until he finds his seat on the bus.

We all go through life trying to find our seat in life.

The place we fit in life.

For some of us we find the seat we are looking for.

Others of us keep looking for our seat in life.

Sometimes the seat we want is taken

sometimes we sit in the seat we didn’t want to sit in

next to people we didn’t want to sit with.

Like Forrest we keep walking through life and all we hear is seats taken

Today I want to preach about the seat taken by the Savior!

give context

Jesus has been taken captive by the religous leaders.

They have bound him and are taking him away to be tried by Pilate

Jesus is questioned by Pilate and gives no answer and pilate is amazed

He’s amazed because he has judged a many of guilty men and when accused they always have something to say

have you ever been accused of something that you didn’t do? it stirs up a response from you dosen’t it.

But Jesus dosent say a word.

Isaiah 53:7 “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”

As i thought about this passage of scripture and all the seats ive sit in in my life

I thought about how Jesus came and took the seat that was ment for me

how he took the seat that was ment for you.

Seat #1 Barabbas

Mark 15:6-15 6.“Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked.

7. And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas

Barabbas was a Thug who had murdered , robbed, and caused uproars.

his crime: sedition, insurrection, treason.. against the Romans

He’s destined to die for his sins

He woke that Friday expecting to die a slow and painful death.

I see alot of myself in Barabbas

Now; why would I propose to you that I identify with such a man as this man Barabbas?

—this notorious condemned criminal? How could it be that anyone would want to be identified with such a man as him?

Well; it’s true that he was a sinner who deserved to executed.

In fact, he deserved to die the horrible and shameful death of crucifixion

. But by the end of that morning, he walked away a free man—and that was because Someone else took his place on the cross.

You and I are no Diffrent we are sinners

We may not have sinned in the same way as Barabbas but we have all sinned

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

1 John 1:8 “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

I’ve murdered my brothers in my heart,

I’ve hated people

i’ve robbed and stolen

I’ve created uproars trying to get my way

I’ve robbed God of his glory

There are times that I’ve not obeyed what Gods word says.

Their are times that my life looked like barabbas

But thank God for the Cross and that the Lord Jesus took my seat

Thank God for his love and mercy to send his son to set us free

The Crowd the priests and Pliate

8. And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them.

9. And he answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?”

10. For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up.

11. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead.

all of this is a power struggle

They had a chose

The crowd chooses the one who takes the lives of others to achieve his own selfish ends and condems the one who gives his life in obedience to God.

They want a king who will be comfortiable with murder and mayham not one who resists evil

we are left with this question do we want Jesus or Barabbas?

Do I want Jesus or do I want my own way?

12. And Pilate again said to them, “Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?”

13. And they cried out again, “Crucify him.”

14. And Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.”

Pilate thought that he had the seat of authorithy over Jesus life

The cheif preist thought he had the Authority of God over Jesus life

the crowd thought that they had a voice of authority over Jesus life

But Jesus was given all authority even over death.

John 10:18 “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.””

15. So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.”

They took the chains off Barabbas and set him free and Jesus stepped in and took the seat meant for Barabbas

They took Jesus and stretched him out and they beat him almost to the point of death

Then they would nail him to a wooden cross where he would bear the sin of the world so that you and i could be free

Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Its Gods love and mercy that set Barabbas free

Its God’s love that can set you free today.

John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

USS Pueblo On January 23, 1968, the USS Pueblo,

a U.S. Navy intelligence ship, was hijacked by North Korean patrol boats in international waters off the coast of North Korea. The incident provoked a tense diplomatic and military standoff for eleven months. The eighty-two surviving crew members were taken into captivity. In one particular instance, thirteen of the men were required to sit in a rigid manner around a table for hours. After several hours, the door was flung open, and a North Korean guard brutally beat the man in the first chair with the butt of his rifle. The next day, as each man sat at his assigned place, again the door was thrown open, and the man in the first chair was brutally beaten. On the third day, it happened again to the same man. Knowing the man could not survive, the next day, another young sailor took his place. When the door was flung open, the guard automatically beat the new victim senseless. For weeks, a new man stepped forward each day to sit in that horrible chair, knowing full well what would happen. At last the guards gave up in exasperation. They were unable to overcome that kind of sacrificial love. Each of us is the person sitting in the first chair, but instead of getting beaten, we are to die. Knowing this, Jesus traded places with us and took the death blows that were intended for us. No one suffered more than Jesus. Why? Because he loved us. Mark 15 shows us just how much he loved.

Rodney L. Cooper, Mark, vol. 2, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 253.