I hope your Christmas was a time of rest and joy.
I hope it was a time of Thanksgiving and fun, and I hope
it was a time that helped you to reflect on the miracle and
marvel of God becoming man to save us.
There is only one Christmas miracle, despite what many
movies or TV shows or plays might say.
The one Christmas miracle is that the eternal Son of God came
to earth as a human infant to rescue us from sin and to
reunite us to God. This is a miracle.
It's a marvel, It's peculiar, it's not what you would expect
or predict. You can't make sense of it in
worldly categories. In the biblical accounts of
Jesus birth. Everywhere we look there are
strange and striking details, there are paradoxes.
There are things that make us stop and wonder.
The King of the universe comes to us in person and he comes as
a helpless infant. Jesus is the long-awaited king
and Messiah, the descendant of David who rescue his people.
But he's born in a Manger, a place for farm animals.
The one who deserves all honor comes in striking humility.
Angels light up the night sky to announce the good news, and the
people they tell are lowly, no account.
Shepherds, wise men from a distant land, travel from far
away to worship the baby Jesus and to bring him costly gifts.
But the local ruler over his own people views him as such a
threat that he seeks his life and force his parents to flee
for safety. Why all these paradoxes?
Why all these strange and striking details?
Because Jesus truly is the King. He's the King of the universe.
He's the King of kings and Lord of Lords.
He is the one we all need to submit to.
He's the only king who can rescue us from sin.
And these are all previews, hints, precursors of the way
He's going to do that. The only way He can bring in His
Kingdom and rescue us from sin is by going to the cross.
The only way He can not only enter into His Kingdom, but
bring us ruined sinners into it with Him is by dying on the
cross to pay for our sins. This King's Kingdom will only
come through the cross. The 5th century pastor Agustin
of Hippo put this point beautifully in a Christmas
sermon. Man's maker was made man.
That he, ruler of the stars, might nurse at his mother's
breast. That the bread might hunger, the
fountain thirst the light, sleep the way, be tired on its
journey. That truth might be accused of
false witness, the teacher be beaten with whips, the
foundation be suspended on wood. That strength might grow weak.
That the healer might be wounded.
That life might die. This morning we continue our
series in Mark's gospel, a gospel that's full of paradoxes
and surprises. We come to the very last passage
before Jesus crucifixion. So last week in the second-half
of chapter 14, we saw how Jesus was arrested.
He was abandoned by his disciples.
He was tried before a ruling council of the Jewish people and
he was denied by Peter. This week we come to Mark 15
verses 1 to 14. If you don't have a Bible,
please raise your hand and someone will bring you one.
In our passage, Jesus stands trial before the Roman governor
Pilots on the human level. His life is in Pilots hands.
If Pilot says Jesus gets to live, Jesus will live.
If Pilot says Jesus has to die, Jesus is going to die.
Now, there's one keyword that runs through our passage that if
you grasp it rightly and you understand its full meaning, it
tells us the truth of who Jesus is and of what's going on in
this trial. See if you can spot it as I read
the passage. Mark 15-1 to 15.
And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a
consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council,
and they bound Jesus, and led him away, and delivered him over
to Pilate. And Pilate asked him, Are you
the King of the Jews? And he answered him, You have
said so. And the chief priests accused
him of many things, and Pilot again asked him, Have you no
answer to make? See how many charges they bring
against you. But Jesus made no further
answer, so that Pilot was amazed.
Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner
for whom they asked. And among the rebels in prison
who had committed murder in the insurrection there was a man
called Barabbas. And the crowd came up and began
to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them.
And he answered them, saying, Do you want me to release for you
the king of the Jews? For he perceived that it was out
of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up.
But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him released
for them. Barabbas instead.
And Pilate again said to them, Then what shall I do with the
man you call the King of the Jews?
And they cried out again, Crucify him.
And Pilate said to them, Why, what evil has he done?
But they shouted all the more Crucify him.
So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them
Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be
crucified. In our passage, Jesus is
referred to as king three times, and in the rest of chapter 15
he'll be called king three more times.
Now that's a word that in all of Mark's gospel has not yet been
applied to Jesus. And here in this chapter it
shows up six times. Now that we come to his trial
and his crucifixion, the word king is everywhere.
Here's the main point of our passage in one sentence.
Jesus is a king like none in this world, and his Kingdom is
not of this world. Jesus is a king like none in
this world, and his Kingdom is not of this world.
As we walk through the passage, we'll see what kind of king
Jesus is and what that means for you and me.
I'll have five points. What kind of king is Jesus?
Point #1 verses 1 to 5. The accused king.
The accused king, look again with me at verse one.
And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a
consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council,
and they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to
Pilate. Last week we're studying chapter
14. We saw in verses 53 to 65 that
the ruling council of the Jews, called the Sanhedrin, held a
hearing to establish a charge that they could try to use to
get Jesus put to death. I think verse one in our passage
is simply telling us what they did next immediately after they
had found their charge. When the high priest asked Jesus
if he's the Messiah, Jesus not only said yes, but he asserted a
that he had a type of authority that they took to be
blasphemous. They took it to be encroaching
on what belongs rightly only to God.
So they have their grounds that are sufficient for them to want
him to be put to death. But at that time, under Roman
rule, they didn't have the authority to carry out the death
penalty. That was something only the
Roman government could do. So in verse one, they consult us
to what to do next. OK, we have our charge.
What are we going to do? All right, we'll bring them to
pilot to have a trial before pilot.
It's it's very early in the morning.
It's probably right around Daybreak of what we now call
Good Friday, it was common for Roman officials to conduct
judicial business early in the morning and then spend the rest
of the day at leisure, kind of logging a few hours of their
main work and then spending the rest of the day, you know, doing
2 rounds of golf or whatever, that they had a life of leisure
after their basic responsibilities.
So it makes sense that they would bring it, bring it to him
first thing in the morning. Pilate, also known as Pontius
Pilate, was the 5th Roman governor of Palestine.
He lived at Caesarea on the coast, so that's northwest of
Jerusalem. But during festivals like
Passover, Jerusalem swelled with pilgrims and political tempers
ran high. So he would have spent the whole
duration of the feast a week or more in Jerusalem, kind of
overseeing things, making sure nothing got out of hand, giving
a more careful eye to what was happening.
Now, Pilate was a man caught between the rock of Rome's
imperial agenda and the hard place of his subjects,
resentment of Roman rule. Rome wanted order.
Rome wanted taxes. Rome wanted to be able to carry
out trade. They did not want intense
religious uprisings taking place kind of out of the periphery of
their empire. So pilot's a man caught in
between. He has to advance the Roman
agenda, but he has to do it in a way that is not going to cause
the resentment. And it's always simmering under
the surface in Judea to kind of bubble over and burn something.
Now this man Pilate, caught between a rock and a hard place,
holds Jesus's fate in his hands. Verse 2.
And Pilate asked him, Are you the king of the Jews?
And he answered him. You have said so.
Now where did Pilate get this question?
How did he know to ask this question of Jesus?
Are you the king of the Jews? Mark's gospel doesn't tell us
explicitly, but I think we can easily figure out the answer
from the context. Again, before the Sanhedrin at
this hearing that's just happened.
Jesus has just confessed that he's the Messiah.
What is the Messiah? The Messiah is the promised son
of David. What was David?
He was the king over Israel, and the Messiah was promised to
reign on David's throne. So to be the Messiah is to be a
king. Not only that, but Jesus's
answer claimed A shockingly high authority.
He quoted to scripture passages Daniel 713 and Psalm 110 verse
one that equate his authority with God's authority.
God is the king of everything and Jesus is claiming to possess
that same authority. Now, a Roman governor is not
really going to care about a claim to be Messiah.
That's just going to sound like some obscure figure from a
religion he doesn't belong to, that he just has to have a kind
of professional working knowledge of to keep the peace.
He's not going to care about a claim to Messiah unless someone
tells him that that claim has serious political implications
that he should be interested in. So I think we're meant to
understand that Pilot gets his question from the Sanhedrin.
They inform on Jesus. Hey, Pilate, this guy's claimed
to be a king. You should ask him about that.
They translate Messiah into terms that'll make sense to
Pilate, king of the Jews. It's the question they hand him
to ask. Now, that is something that
Pilate might be interested in. Oh, King of the Jews.
Someone claiming to be king of the Jews could be a threat to
Roman rule. They could be a threat to Roman
order. They could be a threat to Pilot
personally. If someone says they're king of
the Jews, well, that sure sounds like they're going to want to
get rid of Roman rule. They might even rebel.
They might even lead some kind of armed uprising against the
Romans. That, at least, is how the
Sanhedrin would have tried to make Jesus seem to Pilate.
Hey, Pilate, this guy's a threat.
He claims to be a king. You don't want a guy like that
running free in Jerusalem, do you?
So. Pilate asks, and Jesus answers.
You have said so. Now, this is not a denial.
It's not even really an evasion. Instead it's an affirmation.
But it's a guarded 1, it's a cagey 1, and it pushes the
burden back onto Pilot. What does Pilot think?
You have said so do you think that?
Do you believe that? What does pilot think?
Jesus is not letting Pilot play any kind of detached role as a
mere judicial umpire, just calling balls and strikes.
Instead, he's forcing pilots to consider the true answer to his
own question. Here's one of the most important
things we all need to realize about Jesus's kingship.
It's not a question of whether you will submit to Jesus as
King, but only of when and how. You can submit to Him by faith.
Now you can confess him as Lord, You can entrust yourself to Him
and live your whole life for Him.
If you do, then one day you'll be united with Him forever in
His glorious Kingdom. That is how you should submit to
Him. But if you don't submit to him
now, you will be forced to submit to him later on the last
day. If you don't receive him as King
now, you will be required to bow before him on the last day when
he returns as judge. But then you will receive not
glory and blessing, but an everlasting curse and judgement.
At the present moment, there are 43 modern nation states that are
governed by a monarch. That means a King, Queen,
Emperor, Sultan, Amir, Grand Duke, the Pope, or another
monarch that serves as the country's head of state.
Some of these are constitutional monarchies or the monarchs role
is largely ceremonial. Some of these are absolute
monarchies where the monarch has near total power, and among
these are the 15 Commonwealth realms where Charles the Third,
the King of England, is head of state.
Modern monarchies include Eswatini, Lesotho, Morocco,
Bahrain, Bhutan, Brunei, Andorra, Belgium and Denmark.
Here's the thing, unless you live in one of those countries,
them having a monarch just does not matter to you.
And even if you live in one of those countries, perhaps one
that has a a constitutional monarch, a Commonwealth monarch,
having a monarch doesn't make much of a difference in your
life. And those ceremonial monarchies
are just kind of a fancy, expensive hood ornament of the
state, a relic leftover from an era when a whole lot of people
believe that kings ruled by divine right monarchies are kind
of a vanishing species from the modern world.
It's constant talk of shrinking them, getting rid of them,
dismantling them. But Jesus is different.
He really is the king of all all people, all places, all nations,
all times, every single human soul.
He's the king of every nation, every people, every person, and
he has absolute authority. When we think about a human
being wielding absolute authority, normally we are
rightly scared. We are rightly skeptical.
Why? Because human beings are fallen.
Self interested, self-serving. The more power you give to one
individual, the more harm they can do to others.
But Jesus is just the opposite. He's morally perfect.
He's morally pure. He came not to be served, but to
serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
He is the only monarch who deserves absolute authority.
Because he has absolute purity and perfection, we can trust him
to wield absolute authority. Because he is absolutely loving
only in Jesus, our absolute power and absolute compassion,
perfectly unified. And so Pilate asks.
And so Jesus answers. He is the King of the Jews and
Pilate better think about what that means, not so much for his
precarious political position, but for the good of his eternal
soul. Verses 3 and four And the chief
priests accused him of many things.
And Pilate again asked him, Have you no answer to make?
See how many charges they bring against you.
Mark doesn't list the specific charges that were brought
against Jesus, but Luke 23 verse 2 tells us some of them it says
and they began to accuse him, saying we found this man
misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to
Caesar and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.
This is just like in the testimony of the false witnesses
before the Sanhedrin. These charges are distorted.
They remember Jesus said something about paying taxes to
Caesar, but they got it exactly wrong.
Jesus said render to Caesar what is Caesar's.
He didn't forbid paying taxes to Caesar.
He in fact commanded it. So even though they're right
that he claims to be the Messiah, there's all sorts of
false testimony creeping back in to their charges against him
before Pilot. They want to stack the case
against him. They want to make sure it
sticks. They want to make sure that
Pilot feels it is in his own political self-interest to get
rid of Jesus. But Jesus doesn't respond.
He's silent. Again, we have to ask why.
And I think there are two reasons.
One is to continue to fulfill the Scriptures like Isaiah 53,
verse seven that testify to how the suffering Servant will be
silent before his accusers. But I think another reason is to
demonstrate faith in his Father. Jesus has already borne witness
to the truth that he's the Messiah.
He's already borne witness to the truth of his divine
identity. He's borne witness even before
Pilot to the truth of his kingship.
What more does he need to say? Nothing.
He doesn't need to dignify false charges by giving them an
answer. He doesn't need to dignify false
accusers by stooping to their level instead.
And here's another key point about Jesus kingship.
Even when he's on trial, he remains the judge.
Even when he's bound with ropes around his wrists, he remains
sovereign and free. He is not being condemned
against his will. Instead, he is giving up his
life willingly. He's not being led to defeat.
Instead, he's marching steadily toward victory, both at the
cross and beyond the cross. We see this even in how Jesus
responds to Pilate. Mark doesn't record Jesus using
any language that shows any deference toward Pilot's
authority. There's no respectful my Lord.
There's no verbal recognition that Pilot is the one who holds
power here. Jesus is not setting himself up
under Pilot's authority. Instead, he speaks to Pilot as
one who knows he is. In fact, Pilot's superior.
Doesn't look like it. You wouldn't see it by your
senses. But Jesus infinitely outranks
Pilot, and he addresses him from that position of sovereignty
even while he's being judged by Pilot.
Jesus knows that he is Pilot's judge, and he acts as Pilot's
judge. He doesn't need to get the last
word now, because he will himself get the last word on the
last day. So even after Pilate asks Jesus
why he's not responding in verse 5, we read.
But Jesus made no further answer so that Pilate was amazed.
Jesus kept his silence and Pilate was stunned.
What kind of prisoner is this? What kind of accused person is
this who can be so calm and collected in the face of such
weighty accusations when their life is hanging in the balance?
Jesus is the accused King and He knows He is not only innocent,
but He is the King of all those who are accusing him.
He has no need to answer to them, because one day they all
will answer to Him. Jesus has no need to answer to
you because one day you will answer to Him.
Point #2 the captive king. The captive king.
We see this in verses 6 to 9. As we've just seen in the 1st 5
verses of our passage, Pilate has heard the charges against
Jesus. He has heard Jesus make no
defense of himself, and he's amazed.
But what he's not is convinced that Jesus has done anything
worthy of death. The the trial is over.
The hearing is over. There's no guilty verdict.
There's no evidence for his guilt.
So pilots heard him. He's amazed that Jesus is calm
his his poise, his silence. But we're not moving forward
here with a guilty verdict. We'll see that explicitly in
verse 14. For now, it's important to note
that Pilate still has a dilemma on his hands.
The leaders of the Jewish people want Jesus put to death, but
Pilate does not see any good reason to do that.
So he's looking for a way out. Look at verses 6 to 9.
Now, at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner
for whom they asked. And among the rebels in prison
who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man
called Barabbas. And the crowd came up and began
to ask Pilot to do as he usually did for them.
And he answered them, saying, Do you want me to release for you,
the king of the Jews? As a way to gain favor with the
people During the Passover, Pilot was in the habit of
releasing 1 prisoner of their choosing each year.
It's a little bit like a presidential pardon.
And here Mark mentions one particular prisoner, Barabbas,
whom the crowd will later ask Pilot to release.
Barabbas is an Aramaic name. It means son of the Father.
Barabbas is a kind of photo negative of Jesus.
It we learned that he committed murder in the insurrection.
Insurrection is an armed uprising against Roman rule.
So Barabbas killed somebody during some recent attempt to
overthrow Roman rule. We don't we don't know from
history exactly what or when this is.
There's kind of several things it could have been, but Barabbas
was a known political opponent of Rome and a convicted
criminal. He was a captive because of
crimes he himself had committed. One key historical detail for us
to keep in mind is that crucifixion was a punishment
that the Romans reserved for those who had committed
insurrection. In other words, in ancient Rome,
the only way to get yourself crucified was to violently
resist Roman rule, which is exactly what Barabbas had done
according to Roman judicial norms.
Barabbas deserved to be crucified.
He actually had done what the chief priests are falsely
accusing Jesus of doing. He had violently opposed Roman
rule. So now the crowd comes up to
Pilot and asks him to release a prisoner for them.
Here's where Pilot spots his potential way out.
At this moment, Jesus is a captive.
He's in the same position as Barabbas and other prisoners and
pilots looking for a way not to kill him.
So he asked if they want him to release Jesus.
Pause here. Consider the God of the universe
is in a position of a condemned captive criminal.
Humanly speaking, his fate is entirely out of his hands.
He's powerless to intervene. He has no hope of securing his
own release. If that's what he was trying to
do. What is this captive king doing?
He is standing in the place of condemned sinners.
Each of us deserves eternal death for our sins.
Each of us deserves to have God's absolutely perfect justice
executed against us forever. And each of us is powerless to
escape our own condemnation. None of us can work our way out
of it. None of us can plead our way out
of it, argue our way out of it. None of us can present a case
that would go any distance toward getting the guilty
verdict against us overturned. Spiritually speaking, apart from
faith in Christ, each of us is a condemned criminal.
There's nothing you can do to escape God's sentence against
you. That's why Jesus had to.
That's why Jesus was willing to bear that sentence for you and
His death on the cross point #3 the envied king.
The envied king. Verse 10.
For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests
had delivered him up. In other words, pilots saw
through the pretexts the chief priests and the other Jewish
authorities offered. He saw that Jesus was a popular
teacher. He discerned that they resented
Jesus's popularity. He saw that their opposition to
Jesus wasn't principled so much as personal.
So Pilate wasn't persuaded by the case that the chief priests
made. He didn't think Jesus really was
a threat to Roman rule, whatever the Messiah is.
Pilate didn't think that Jesus was that kind of threat that had
to be dealt with by execution. He didn't think that Jesus was
very much like Barabbas. What kind of insurrectionist
doesn't even answer the charges against him?
So even though Pilot is far from being a spiritual model for us
here, he shows some shrewdness. He shows some insight into human
nature. He saw that the chief priest
envy Jesus popularity. What is envy?
It's grief or anger caused by another's success.
The chief priests wanted the hearts of the people for
themselves. Their vain glory blinded them to
the truth of Jesus kingship. They wanted for themselves what
rightly belonged to Him. Their envy made them glory
thieves. The fallen human heart is a
factory of envy. Who are you tempted to envy?
What is it that someone else gets that should make you happy
for them, but instead makes you sad or mad?
Whatever that object is, that's the cause of your envy.
That is something that you are loving more than you love God.
Envy is like a flashbulb that reveals in an instant how your
loves are out of order. If someone else's success makes
you sad or angry, that success you wish you had but don't is an
idol. How can you overcome envy only
by overcoming idolatry? How can you overcome idolatry
only by growing to love God more?
How can you come to love God more?
Consider the lengths God Himself went to in order to love you.
Consider what God put Himself through in the person of His
Incarnate Son in order to embrace you in His love forever.
How can you grow in loving God by meditating on how He first
loved you? So at this point in our passage,
Pilate is looking for a way out. Maybe this prisoner release
custom will do the trick, but he has to do it with the people's
consent. He can't just unilaterally
decide what good would it be to release to them a prisoner they
don't want, a prisoner they hate that would do Pilate harm.
Not good. So he has to hear the will of
the people .4 the innocent king. The innocent King We see Jesus's
innocence displayed in verses 11 to 14.
Look first at verses 11 and 12. But the chief priests stirred up
the crowd to have him released for them.
Barabbas instead. And Pilot again said to them,
Then what shall I do with the man you call the king of the
Jews? So far Pilots plan is not
working out. The chief priests stir up the
crowd to ask for Barabbas. So Pilot asks what they want to
do with Jesus. And there's that title again.
The man you call King of the Jews again.
I think this also confirms that they're the ones who told pilots
that Jesus is the King of the Jews.
The irony here is thick. The Jewish leaders reject Jesus,
claim to be the Messiah, and yet that's what they tell Pilate.
He is even an act of reporting on Jesus.
To Pilate, they unwittingly bear witness to the truth.
They speak better than they know.
They might have said. He calls himself the King of the
Jews. And even in the title that's
written up when Jesus is crucified, some people try to
correct it. Don't, don't put king of the
Jews, but he called himself king of the Jews.
But to Pilate, who cares? All the same to him you say king
of the Jews, I say king of the Jews.
That's who he is. So what do they want to do with
their own king? How do they want to treat him?
Verses 13 and 14? And they cried out again,
Crucify him. And Pilate said to them, why,
What evil has he done? But they shouted all the more,
crucify him. It's important to note that
several parties share responsibility for Jesus death.
The chief priests stir up opposition among the crowd.
The crowd crowd first crucifixion.
And as we're going to see, Pilot will cave to political pressure
and go along with their request. Leaders and people, Jews and
Romans. Everyone shares in this guilt.
These verses, too, are thick with ironies.
Barabbas is truly guilty. No argument there.
And Pilate declares Jesus innocence.
What evil has he done? None.
No evil deserving death. No evil at all.
No evil ever. In asking this question, Pilate
too spoke better than he knew you could.
Just let the question echo and echo and echo.
What evil has he done? There will not be an answer
because it's none. Another irony.
Barabbas deserves to die. Jesus deserves to live.
Another irony in demanding the release of a guilty person and
the death of an innocent person, the crowd itself becomes guilty.
And demanding the release of a murderer and the death of an
innocent man. They become complicit in that
innocent man's murder. It's as if the people have come
up with an ingenious solution. OK, Pilate, sure, Jesus doesn't
deserve death. You say so, but Barabbas does.
So there is a death sentence to be carried out here.
How about Jesus takes that one and Barabbas goes free?
What's going on here? Mark is teaching us that each
and every one of us is Barabbas. We're all justly condemned by
God for our sins. We all deserve to die eternally
for our armed rebellion against God's authority.
And yet God worked out a marvelous, miraculous prisoner
exchange brothers and sisters, you who trust in Christ for
salvation. Each of us is Barabbas.
Not just in that we've broken God's law.
Not just in that we deserve death for our sins, but in that
Christ suffered our death sentence and we get to go free.
This is the heart of the good news.
This is the heart of the gospel. This is the very heart of what
Jesus came to do. Each of us deserves eternal
condemnation. We're condemned.
We're captive. There's nothing we can do to
release ourselves. And yet, because Jesus steps
into that place of condemnation, judgment, justice, wrath,
everyone who trusts in Jesus for salvation is released, goes away
free, free and clear. No debt to pay, no punishment to
suffer, no wrath to fear. That's what Jesus came to do.
That's this great exchange he came to accomplish.
And it really does take the form of a prisoner exchange in which
we, each of us were, as it were, on death row, justly.
Jesus took our place and he rose from the dead to prove that
death has no power over him. Death has no dominion over him.
Death doesn't get the last word on him, and it will not get the
last word on all who trust in Christ.
If you've never turned from sin and trusted in Jesus, trust in
him as the substitute. You need the exchange.
You need the one to take your sentence, the only one who can.
An injustice on the human plane led to more than justice on the
divine plane. Jesus is the innocent king, and
he's the innocent king who's condemned to die for those who
are guilty, condemned criminals. Which brings us to the last
point .5 the crucified king. The crucified king, verse 15.
So Pilot, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them
Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be
crucified. Now Pilots motives here were
obvious. He wasn't motivated by justice.
He wasn't motivated by truth. If he had been, he would not
have condemned an innocent man instead.
He was motivated by political self preservation.
He wanted to keep the peace in order to preserve his position.
He let false peace triumph over truth and justice.
He let self-interest triumph over an innocent man's life.
Commenting on this verse, the 19th century Anglican Bishop JC
Ryle reflects powerfully on the temptations that all those who
are in worldly positions of power face.
Ryle writes. A man or woman in high place
without religious principles is one of the most pitiable sights
in the world. They're like a large ship tossed
to and fro on the sea, without compass or rudder.
Their very greatness surrounds them with temptations and
snares. It gives them power for good or
evil, which, if they do not know how to use it properly, is sure
to bring them into difficulties and to make them unhappy.
Let us pray much for great men and women.
They need great grace to keep them from the devil.
High places are slippery places. Pilate slips and Jesus's fate is
sealed. Barabbas is released.
Jesus is scourged. That's a painful beating with
whips that had stones and shards of glass or metal attached to
the tips, and Pilate has Jesus handed over, delivered over.
Barabbas walks free and Jesus walks to the cross without
knowing it, without intending it.
Pilate is playing a role in a far greater exchange.
He is setting in motion a wonderful substitution.
Ultimately, it's not merely Pilate making the exchange, it's
the God of the universe. Ultimately, Pilate isn't merely
handing over Jesus to the people's will.
He's handing over Jesus to God's will.
In this exchange, God delivers Jesus up to God's own will.
It was the will of the Lord to crush him.
He has put him to grief. All we, like sheep, have gone
astray, each of us to his own way, and the Lord has laid on
him the iniquity of us all. Jesus is the crucified King.
His Kingdom comes through the cross because he came to rescue
you and me. He came to redeem you and me.
He came to ransom you and me. What kind of king is Jesus?
He is a king like no king this world has ever seen or heard of.
He's a king who gives his innocent life for the guilty.
He's a king who submits to death so you can have life.
He's a king who allows himself to be judged and condemned in
order to deliver those who deserve that condemnation.
He's a king who gives everything in love.
He's a King who gives everything to those who deserve nothing.
All you have to do to receive everything from Jesus is turn
from sin and receive Him in faith.
If you haven't, I pray you will. Today, let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we praise you for this great exchange, this
marvelous substitution that you ordained and purposed and
accomplished through the willing submission of your eternal and
Incarnate Son. Father, we pray that we would
receive him as our Savior and joyfully submit to Him as our
King. We pray these things in Jesus
name, Amen.