The King Who Came For Us

Transcript

Well, and if you don’t have a Bible, feel free to take that home as our gift to you, as long as you promise to read it. It’s yours. I’m gonna read our text, and then we’ll pray, and then we’ll begin our sermon. John 18 vs 28 through 40.

Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor’s headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover. So pilot went outside to them and said,

what accusation do you bring against this man? They answered him, if this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you. Pilate said to them, take him yourselves and judge him by your own law. The Jews said to him, it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.

This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die. So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered, do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?

Pilate answered, am I a Jew? Your own nation and chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done? Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world.

If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but my kingdom is not from the world. Then Pilate said to him, so you are a king. Jesus answered, you say that I am a king.

For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. Pilate said to him, what is truth? After he had said this he went back outside to the Jews and told them,

I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? They cried out again, not this man, but Barabas. Now Barabas was a robber.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks for being with us. Our Father and our God, we pray for your help. We confess this morning without your help. This would just be a story.

These would just be words and they wouldn’t change us. And so we pray God that you would supernaturally intervene to give us eyes to see the truth. You would give us hearts that reorient around your truth and that bend to your truth. And as a result we might be changed into the image of Jesus. We pray that we would see ourselves in the text this morning.

Justice Turned Inside Out

And that we would be warned and conformed. We pray all of these things in the mighty name of Jesus, the personification of truth. Amen. Well there is a difference between being arrested and being convicted. Both are dramatic.

Both carry a kind of weight to it, but they are not the same thing. An arrest is a moment. Handcuffs, flashing lights. Someone being escorted out in front of a watching world. If you don’t know what that’s like just ask Christian.

And in that moment, an arrest feels decisive. When we see it, it looks like justice is already happening. But an arrest doesn’t actually prove anything. It’s only the beginning of a long and legal process until there’s a trial. The story of what happened with the arrest isn’t settled.

Evidence has to be weighed. Witnesses have to be examined. motives exposed. And eventually a verdict must be rendered. A trial is where truth is supposed to come to the surface.

The truth is that the We long for those answers especially when the person on trial is powerful or Maybe a celebrity Someone who lived like they were above the law Someone who assumed accountability would never come to them those kinds of people when they are finally held to account something inside of us says yes

This is right Because deep down inside we believe justice really matters And here’s the thing We were made to believe that We were made in the image of a just god who loves justice and truth

Which means we instinctively know that the wrongs of our world should be confronted and held accountable So the truth should come to light and that the innocent should be vindicated But in our text this morning John takes that instinct and turns it inside out Because in John 18 we’re not watching justice work the way that we Expect it should we’re watching justice collapse and

This is very disorienting for us Because when we read this text we see all the facts We see the truth of the situation But we witness the greatest miscarriage of just of justice The arrest has already happened

Jesus has been bound dragged into the night handed from one authority to another and now comes this makeshift trial in front of this massive audience all screaming For unjust justice and What’s crazy is that the system designed to protect the innocent Is literally about to condemn the innocent The machinery built for justice is about to execute the only truly innocent man who was ever lived

Jesus the righteous one the one who gave us the very instinct to love and long for justice is now standing trials for crimes he never committed What’s happening here is actually mind-blowing if you think about it the creator of the universe who spoke creation into existence is being examined by the very creatures he created The righteous judge of all the earth is being judged by unrighteous men Family this is not just a failed trial

This is injustice at its worst and John wants us to feel this trial and the full weight of it before we analyze it Because until you see how profoundly wrong this moment of injustices You won’t grasp how glorious the cross is until you feel the weight of the injustice You won’t see the beauty of what God is doing through this injustice This is the paradox at the center of the gospel

The very men who judge and condemn Jesus are being used by Jesus to accomplish the salvation of the world The court that sentences him becomes the very means by which he bears the sentence for us Here’s where we see this human injustice with Jesus become the stage where divine justice and mercy actually meet And so family with these glorious and Complicated realities in view

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The Hypocrites Who Missed the Lamb

Let’s walk carefully through this makeshift trial so that our eyes for Jesus and our affections for Jesus Might grow in greater degrees this morning So to help us see this trial clearly I’ve broken this up into three scenes The hypocrites who miss the lamb the king who redefined power and the crowd who chose the wrong son This will all make sense as we move through the text so let’s begin in scene one the hypocrites who missed the lamb

Let’s look first at verse 28 They let Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning They themselves did not enter the governor’s headquarters so that they would not be defile But could eat the Passover Now before we get into the details John gives us the setting for the scene because he wants us to feel the irony of this trial

These religious leaders under no circumstances will step foot into an unclean environment There’s so concerned with religious piety with keeping themselves spiritually separated from the Unreligious world that the idea of stepping into a Gentiles residence is literally Unthinkable and

Especially right now Because they’re deeply concerned about being clean or not defiled for the Passover ceremony Which is perhaps the greatest of the Jewish religious ceremonies But despite they’re over the top pursuit of purity Keeping themselves spiritually above reproach to not look like a sinful world

Notice they have no problem orchestrating the death of an innocent man The son of man They’re so preoccupied with religious rituals or external concerns about looking morally clean That they are completely careless about real righteousness From the arrest to the midnight hearing to this early morning delivery to pilot every step is being engineered

By men who parade themselves as righteous representatives for God But they are actually doing the most ungodly thing humanly possible And John slows the camera down to zoom in on this detail John’s observation here is a fascinating one because it puts on display religion at its most tragic It’s really is the worst kind of irony

They’re obsessed with eating the Passover with clean hands while their hands are stained with the blood of the one The Passover is pointing to They’re guarding their religious piety while committing the greatest moral atrocity in human history and Family this isn’t just an issue with these religious men John observes and writes this for our benefit as well

So that we might see this as a kind of warning for our own hearts Because family it is possible to be meticulous about religious observances You can go to church faithfully every single Sunday You can serve on the worship team you can affirm sound doctrine You can care deeply about theology or liturgy and completely be out of step with Jesus

It is possible to care about the appearance of holiness in front of other people while harboring envy Pride resentment and control privately in your own heart As exactly what’s happening here with these religious men Jesus had exposed their hypocrisy over and over again for doing religious things externally while internally being far from God And that public exposure made Jesus a threat to them

So instead of receiving from Jesus the wisdom and the warning for their hypocrisy instead of confessing and Repenting they decide it would be better to simply eliminate Jesus from the equation and That instinct still lives in many of us when Jesus confronts our sins Our comforts our preferences our control issues We have a choice in how we respond we can bow to his wisdom and his warning or we can harden our hearts and simply eliminate him from our conscience

A healthy metric to use to identify if this is a problem for you is to ask yourself do you love righteousness or do you simply love being right? Do you love Jesus or do you love being in control? You have to ask Lord to search your heart with this because the heart is deceitful You can’t really know what’s going on inside the crevices of your heart So you must ask the Lord to help you see it clearly because if we’re not careful and if this goes unchecked we can convince ourselves that because we do religious things

We’re okay when we’re really not Listen our religious language can sometimes be our greatest deception We can wrap envy in encouragement Have you seen that before? Oh, I’m so happy for everything that’s going on in your life

Right you obviously are just really blessed. That’s you know, I’m so encouraged by that We can defend our ego in the name of orthodoxy You’ve seen that. I’m sure you can hide pride behind religious piety We can convince ourselves that we are defending the truth when really we’re just defending ourselves That’s what’s happening with these religious leaders

They speak much of purity They speak a lot about the law They even speak about the Passover but underneath it all it’s nothing more than fear and control and Notice Pilate Consensate he can feel it pilot an irreligious politically motivated man with no framework for morality

Conceity can see the inconsistency with these religious men and that in itself should make us pause Because pilot’s perception is still true today People who don’t know much about Christianity or theology who may not understand grace have no grasp for understanding the gospel can still very much see hypocrisy They see when religion is weaponized They see when piety masks pride they see when we speak a lot about Jesus, but don’t look anything like him

And there is great danger when we consistently live that way family When the church clings to religious rhetoric or religious appearance while lacking unity humility Gentleness and repentance it only confirms Their suspicions that all Christians are crazy hypocrites

Not because conviction is wrong not because clarity is wrong, but because conviction without Christlike character feels empty and shallow They can feel it Truth spoken without love feels sharp like a dagger Not beautiful and liberating Orthodoxy without humility feels rigid and John wants us to feel this

So that this kind of religious hypocrisy Doesn’t become prevalent in our own lives So that we could see how dangerous this is especially for a watching an irreligious world This is exactly what’s going on with Pilate he is hip to the hypocrisy of this whole scene Which is why he steps out and asks this most basic courtroom question in verse 29

What accusation do you bring against this man? You can kind of sense the moral superiority in his statement in other words what’s the charge? What does what does this man do? Notice how these so-called righteous and religious leaders respond they don’t present evidence

They don’t list the crimes They don’t call witnesses Their answer is only contempt verse 30 if this man were due or we’re not doing evil we would not have delivered him over to you In other words pilot you don’t understand religious things you’re out of your league We have a way of dealing with this kind of stuff that’s totally different from your mechanics

You’re an irreligious man you wouldn’t know anything about this you got to trust us Don’t ask questions Don’t investigate don’t wait the evidence just sign off on what we’ve already decided We’ve reached our verdict You just need to formalize the deal and you see how crazy this is

These men are the ones entrusted with God’s law These men should have been the ones Who would have been bastions for truth and righteousness and justice? In this moment they have no concern no real concern any way for justice They only want their desired outcome

But the thing is Romedon function that way Which is why pilot pushes back in verse 31 Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law Which at first kind of sounds like legal or

Predential or even in acquiescing to his religious ignorance, but that’s not what this is pilot isn’t offering legal advice He’s asserting dominance He sees what they’re trying to do in his whole situation He knows that they’re attempting to use him to

accomplish their means He knows they have no authority and he sees them trying to use him as a pawn so he pushes back If this is a religious issue then just handle it yourself Judging by your own law in other words Don’t drag Rome into your internal disputes and

Unless you’re prepared to admit that you need the Ereligious Rome to serve your religious ends and That’s the point Pilot is reminding them who actually holds the power He’s exposing the reality that they don’t want to face

That they present themselves as the moral authority Guardians of the law leaders of the people but they cannot carry out their desired verdict Without secular Roman approval They need Rome and these religious leaders hate that Because it reveals that they are powerless

Pilot with one sentence pushes them back into their place and Being put in their place causes them to respond in a way that demonstrates that they acknowledge they have no authority Look at the second half of our 30 It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death

I just pause here for a second What does this response tell you? Well first it tells you they’re absolutely right They don’t have any authority to do what they’re trying to do But this also reveals their motives

They want it Jesus dead not corrected Not rebuked not debated not warned dead. That’s the goal Which means they’re earlier discussion about piety? Was just superficial They won’t step into a Gentile residence because they don’t want to have dirty hands

But they’re actively trying to use pilot to do their dirty work To execute an innocent man so that they can somehow keep their hands clean And you see the irony They want blood They just don’t want to be the ones holding the knife

And here’s the thing they know what they’re doing They know what they’re doing They know that this is wicked Earlier Caiaphas the ring leader of the crew said in a circle of religious men Is it not better that one man should die for the people you remember that?

That wasn’t theology that was strategy That was damage control That was calculating how to preserve their position their theological influence and control Which means they’re concern Was not really about being religiously clean

They were simply wearing a religious mask They’re not here at this trial because they love righteousness They’re not here because they’re defending justice They are here because they feel threatened threaten because Jesus has exposed them for who they are

Because Jesus was disrupting their control and influence and when control starts slipping When influence starts fading Religion can turn ruthless You see this is not about holiness. It’s all about power And they would rather eliminate the light than step into it which is a tragedy

And John once again pulls back the curtain and adds this commentary for our benefit in verse 32 This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show what kind of death he was gonna die Really what this means is that the religious leaders think they’re in control of this whole narrative They’re pushing the death of Jesus They think that they’re manipulating pilot using the political system for wicked ends

And they think by doing that they will eliminate the threat but over and above the scheming is something far greater The sovereignty of God Jesus had already told his disciples how this whole situation would unfold not by a stoning not by quiet removal But by being lifted up John 12 verses 32 through 33 Jesus said and I when I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself

He said this to show what kind of death he was gonna die Being lifted up in this context only happens one way on a Roman cross Suitable for criminals Which means Rome had to be involved Which means they’re maneuvering however wicked is not ultimate they’re scheming Israel the guilt is real

The hypocrisy is real but over it all God is wielding control and weaving redemption through this whole scene Even their injustice is bent toward salvation And that’s the whole tension of this scene men are doing what evil men do But God is accomplishing exactly what he purposes through it

The King Who Redefined Power

And this brings us to scene two the king who redefined power Look at verse 33 So pilot entered his headquarters again and call Jesus and said to him Are you the king of the Jews So in the in the first scene John wanted us to feel the irony

But now John wants us to feel the tension Here that the scene shifts it’s no longer a public exchange The noise of the crowd fades the religious leaders remain outside They’re doing all that political theater in the courtyard But now the doors close and inside is just pilot in Jesus the governor and the prisoner

And the atmosphere drastically changes and this whole discussion is really a fascinating Discussion outside there posturing for power Inside with these two men Jesus and pilot there is this confrontation of power

Pilot thinks he’s the one in control of the conversation Which is why he speaks first? He assumes he is directing the moment and so he asks Jesus are you the king of the Jews Now I want to be clear about what this question means This is not a theological question being loved by pilot is not asking are you the long anticipated Messiah

He’s not curious about prophecy Pilot is asking a political question Are you a rival to Caesar? Are you a threat to Rome? Are you building something that could in any way attempt to destabilize my region and cause beef between me and Caesar?

You see pilot doesn’t care about blasphemy he didn’t even know what that means He cares about an insurrection He cares about political stability taxes peace

His reputation with Caesar To him religion is nothing but background noise power is everything But Jesus refuses to answer within pilots category of power which is why in verse 34 jesus says Do you say this of your own accord or did others say it about me? To be clear this is not deflection from Jesus this is Jesus masterfully exposing pilot Is this your question or are you simply repeating other people’s accusations? Are you as the governor personally concerned with truth or are you simply managing a political problem? You see pilot thought he was the interrogator But suddenly the spotlight shift and now pilot is being examined

Which begs the question Who’s really on trial in the room? Pilot feeling the shift of power Move from Jesus Move from pilot to Jesus response in third in verse 35

Am I a Jew? Your own nation and chief priests have delivered you over to me what have you done? Essentially pilot is saying don’t turn this around on me. I didn’t start this It’s your people’s mess you see pilot Notice is that he’s trapped and so what he wants to do is he wants to distance himself from this situation

He wants to remain morally neutral Okay, but Jesus will not allow neutrality and so he answers in a way that defines or redefines their entire conversation Verse 36 he says This is massive my kingdom is not of this world

and this is The hinge point of the text Notice he does not say my kingdom is not in this world He says it’s not from this world Meaning it’s not sourced here

It was not born here. It wasn’t built the way Rome built its power Look at how Jesus reframes his kingdom. He says if my kingdom were of this world my servants would have been fighting But they’re not fighting In fact, this is why when Peter got all crazy in the garden and attempted to fight with his sword Jesus told Peter put away your sword

When Jesus says this to pilot he’s essentially saying This is not a revolt pilot This is not a political uprising This is not an insurrection My kingdom does not advance by violence

It does not spread through coercion and it does not protect itself with the sword And you know this would have been shocking for pilot Because pilot as an irreligious man only has a framework for kingdoms that are seized by force That are maintained through fear and power secured by intimidation But Jesus is describing something entirely different

A kingdom that is from above Which means pilots categories for the kingdom of God is way too small And family this is also true for many Christians today Our categories for God’s kingdom is way too small Especially right now

There are so many Christians who still attempt to build Christ’s kingdom Using the tools of this world as if the kingdom of God is of this world What we do is we assume that you know influence will somehow garner faithfulness or that control will Contribute to righteousness or that cultural dominance will end up providing spiritual victory And slowly

often without realizing it we begin looking for a kingdom built by policy Protected by force Advanced by political and social leverage But family we must look at Jesus in this scene bound

Standing in chains Yet still completely raining You see his authority is not threatened no matter the political climate His kingship is not fragile no matter the cultural climate His rule is not dependent on romes permission and it’s not dependent on Portland’s policies

His kingdom has never been built the way earthly kingdoms are built It does not advance through intimidation. It does not grow through legislation It does not spread through coercion listen family the kingdom of God advances through Truth You hear that

It advances through truth Through the witness of the church Through suffering Through spirit and power transformation And we must be careful not to fall for the lie that promises the advancement of Christ’s kingdom in any other way

Then how Jesus builds his kingdom Because every age faces the temptation to confuse the kingdom of God with a kind of national identity Or to assume that our political tribe wins And if they win then Christ wins or to believe that if we secure a cultural power then we can somehow kickstart revival But Jesus

But his reign transcends every nation it critiques every empire Outlasts every administration every culture every social strategy His kingdom is real But it is not sustained by the machinery of the state We must remember that and whenever the church confuses Christ’s kingdom with cultural dominance

We lose sight of the king standing right in front of pilot May we never do that We need to see the subversive power of Jesus in the scene What feels like defeat is in fact victory And this posture of Jesus is confusing for pilot

Because this is not typically how things work It’s completely upside down from how kingdoms work and so in his confusion what pilot does is he Reaches for the only category that he understands so you’re saying you are a king In Jesus answers plainly you say that I’m a king For this purpose I was born and for this person I have come into the world and what is that purpose?

To bear witness to the truth And there it is family His throne is truth His weapon is truth His authority is truth the very reason Jesus came was to testify to the truth

And then Jesus follows up by saying everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice and this is not kingly language This is shepherd language. This is John 10 language my sheep hear my voice In other words the citizens of this kingdom are not defined by ethnicity Not defined by nationality not defined by party or affiliation They are defined by hearing the truth by recognizing the voice of their shepherd and king and by responding

personally to him and you see what this means family is that it is possible to defend Christian values publicly and still not belong to Christ privately It is possible to love a version of Christianity that preserves order and morality and society and still not hear the voice of the shepherd And our cultural moment especially there is this growing temptation to confuse

Conservativism with Christianity and I say this carefully You can hold conservative values and that’s a good thing You can advocate for policies that reflect moral convictions and that’s a good thing You can care deeply about cultural direction and that’s a great thing You can do all of those things and still not no Christ

You can defend tradition you can fight the culture war you can even wrap it all up in religious language But defending the value system is not the same thing as belonging to the king Conservativism is a political philosophy Christianity is an allegiance to a crucified and risen savior These are not identical and when we blur that line we risk mistaking cultural engagement for spiritual renewal

But true citizens of Christ kingdom are not defined by party platform or policy there defined by this they hear his voice And they follow him They follow his example I Was a couple weeks ago

I’m hesitant to say because some of you know where I was I was in the Midwest I’ll just say that I was invited to a Super Bowl party I’m sitting in this Super Bowl party and this is massive house. That’s the kind of house as they have in the Midwest And I’m sitting in between these two rooms both rooms had a TV watching the Super Bowl and the half time

Super Bowl Show came on And I heard one Family say We need to switch over the half time

Super Bowl show to the Christian show The Christian Super Bowl show How’s like what They got a Christian Super Bowl show And

sitting there and I’m watching Kid rock Of all people Perform at the Christian Super Bowl show Family that was not a Christian Super Bowl show

That was a conservative Super Bowl show and that’s okay to do that But don’t conflate that with Christianity because they’re not the same No Notice how pilot responds

He asks a question that is one of the most tragic lines in the entire gospel he says what is truth And to be clear this is not a question rooted in genuine curiosity. It’s a question rooted in cynicism It is the and bivalent shrug of a man who believes that truth is flexible or negotiable And here is the most tragic part

the truth was standing right in front of him bound calm Unintimitated and pilot fails to see it You see pilot asks the right question what is truth

And in one sense It is the right question. It’s the question underneath every debate underneath every cultural argument What is real what is true what is ultimate But here’s the tragedy pilot asks the right question to the right person

The one who can give the right answer And pilot walks away He just walks away He doesn’t wait for an answer He doesn’t linger

He doesn’t wrestle Truth is standing right in front of him embodied personal Visible and he fails to recognize it and because he fails to recognize truth He rejects Jesus What’s crazy is that this happened 2,000 years ago and the same thing still happens today

Even in a post truth world we’re still asking the same question what is truth with the same kind of cynicism Especially here in the Pacific Northwest truth is treated as fluid personal Constructed something that you curate

Not something that you submit to We’re told it’s your truth This is my truth or that’s their truth and you see once truth becomes personalized It stops being authoritative it becomes optional useful when convenient and

completely discarded when costly The same response from pilot is the same response today pilot was an angry He wasn’t outraged He wasn’t hostile He was simply cynical and detached

The question what is truth is the sigh of a man who has decided that truth is unknowable Or at least not worth staking your life on And that posture is exactly what we see today We see it in coffee shops See it in our universities

See it we overheard in conversations at the restaurants we attend It’s the quiet assumption that truth is subjective and certainly If there’s any certainty to the truth then you’re arrogant But John is showing us something radical here He’s showing us that truth is not an abstraction

At truth is not simply a concept But that truth is a person standing there bound calm and unintimidated

Jesus does not argue philosophy He embodies reality. I am the truth Not I teach the truth Or I am a guide to the truth or I even represent the truth I am

the truth and Pilot fails to recognize him Because he does not recognize he walks away and that is the danger of a post-truth world when people are asking the wrong questions When they walk away before they hear the answer Truth is made plain truth is made visible truth is incarnate

And they still reject it And what this means is that it is possible for people to ask good questions about Jesus to analyze him to study him to critique him to debate him and still walk away

Pilot was uninformed And he was unconvinced Not because the truth wasn’t clear but because receiving that truth would cost him everything And family this is where truth presses us Truth demands surrender

Truth demands allegiance It demands that we lay down the illusion of control That’s why pilot walks away Because to receive this king would mean to surrender in every way It would mean admitting that authority does not ultimately belong to Rome

But to Jesus And that’s why so many still walk away today Not because the evidence is weak far from it Not because the question is unclear but because receiving the truth means bending to it

Pilot cannot receive a kingdom that is not built on power as he understands it He cannot comprehend a reign that advances through truth Rather than through force and that’s the dividing line This king reigns he truly reigns but he reigns through truth Through witness

The Crowd Who Chose the Wrong Son

Through a voice that calls and the only ones that belong to him are those who hear his voice and Recognize it as truth this is what we just talked about kids and our kids categorism Scene three the crowd who chose the wrong son So pilot after this private exchange He steps back outside

Back into the noise back into the tension Back into a crowd that has already made up its mind and here’s where the moment crystallizes pilot Announces his verdict Legoti says

I find no guilt in him Just let that settle for a moment After all the interrogation After the examination After hearing the charge the Roman governor declares

Not guilty And I think John wants you to notice something here Pilot will say this three times In various ways He says it here not guilty

He’ll say it in chapter 19 verse four he’ll say it in chapter 19 verse six three declarations not guilty no fault no crime Okay, no guilt no fault no crime and that repetition is not by accident On one level yes this is part of the Roman procedure

Pilot is just doing his job Intrigate assess and then render a verdict But John is doing theology Because this isn’t just a legal finding This family is the examination of the Passover lamb

Just follow me for a second and next at his 12 When Israel was still enslaved by Egypt God commanded them to take a lamb But not just any lamb a male lamb a year old and most importantly a lamb without blemish That lamb had to be inspected Examined and looked over carefully if it had a defect if there was a weakness or a blemish

It could not serve as a substitute Only a spotless lamb could stand in the place of the first born only a spotless lamb Could shield a household from God’s judgment which means before it was sacrificed It was scrutinized Its perfection had to be declared

And now centuries later in a Roman courtyard something remarkable is happening pilot a pagan governor Unknowingly becomes the examiner of the lamb He asks questions of Jesus He investigates he probes and three times he announces his verdict no fault no guilt no crime And John wants you to connect this

The lamb is being inspected any passes Without blemish without stain without defect The religious leaders can’t produce a charge the Roman governor can’t find a crime Which means Jesus the lamb is clean spotless

And he is perfectly fit for sacrifice And that means because Jesus is without blemish He can stand in your place If they were guilt in him he could not bear your guilt

But there wasn’t Which means the lamb is ready the verdict of Rome becomes the validation of heaven not guilty Because he is not guilty he becomes the substitute for the guilty that’s not just irony That’s redemption unfolding in real time In pilot desperate to escape the political trapeze in

Plays what he thinks is his only exustrategy Pilot says to the crowd You have a custom that I should release one prisoner at the Passover Do you want me to release the king of the Jews? And you see pilot assumes the answer is obvious

I mean it was only five days ago when the people were waving palm branches shouting Hosanna Certainly they will choose Jesus over a convicted criminal But the chief priest have done their job by working the crowd and so the crowd fires back not this man but parabas And John adds this interesting clarification Now barabas was a robber

In the original language that word is Way more loaded than just thief though it does mean a thief In this context It’s a word that’s also used as a

Political Revolutionary They would call him a robber or a thief because in a sense he was aiming to steal Political power from Rome She understand how that works So he was actually an insurrectionist

A man attempting to be a destroyer of Rome This word robber is the same word used in John chapter 10 speaking of the thief who comes to steal kill and destroy So what you have here is that the people Choose the destroyer over the good shepherd They choose the robber over the one who came to give them life abundantly

And then John quietly places this kind of theological landmine in the text when he mentions the robber’s name Barabas which means Son of the father

And do you sense the irony here? They choose the false son of the father and reject the true son of the father They exchange the counterfeit son For the real son the rebel for the king and this really is The gospel in miniature

The innocent is condemned and the guilty Released the shepherd slain and the robber set free The son of the father executed so that sons and daughters of the father might live Family I hope you see what the religious leaders and the crowd failed to see We are Barabas

Every single one of us guilty Rebels Insurrectionists against the rightful king and Jesus Christ the spotless lamb the true king the true son of the father stands in our place and absorbs the sentence we deserve

Not because we’ve earned it But because as Jesus told pilot for this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world Family our king came for this The trial the humiliation the cross and the exchange He was born to die in our place he entered this world to bear the curse that belong to us

And the truth that he testifies to is this That God so love the world that he gave is only son the son of the father As a blameless and spotless lamb to be our sacrifice so that whoever believes in him The truth would not perish would not be destroyed But have eternal life

Family this is the truth in the midst of this injustice Jesus is not a victim of unfortunate circumstances He is the lamb prepared for the slaughter The king who came for us to rescue us and what this means is that the courtroom

becomes the altar The verdict becomes our freedom the sentence becomes our salvation and that should produce in us more than just gratitude It should produce in us worship and allegiance to this king Because the king who stood in our place silently under unjustice did so willingly Not reluctantly

Not accidentally but intentionally he stayed so that the guilty could go free Have you heard this morning and you don’t know yourself to be a Christian Listen, I think this text demands a response from you It’s either self rule or Christ’s rule a kingdom built on power or a kingdom built on truth and at some point You have to decide will you reject Jesus the truth or will you ignore him like pilot and just walk away

My encouragement to you this morning is to receive him to follow him If you see yourself this morning in Barabas guilty ashamed aware that you have lived for yourself that you have resisted God and ignored Jesus the good news of the gospel It’s not that Jesus wants you to clean yourself up It’s that Jesus is willing to receive you this morning just as you are

He says come to me and I will make you clean He came to stand in the place of Bad people like you and me He came to take the verdict that you deserve He came to bear your guilt your sin and your rebellion and to receive the condemnation that we deserved on the cross

So that you might be declared innocent though you are guilty The invitation of the gospel is not complicated It’s not performed better. It’s not clean yourself up. It’s not earn your way back to God through religious work It’s simply come to the king who came for you

Turn from your sins lay down yourself rule stop trying to justify yourself Trust in the one who stood silently in your place trust him is savior and you can do that this morning You can do that this morning because the same king who stood before pilot now stands Reason and waiting for you to embrace him the same lamb who was condemned now reigns over all the earth exercising Perfect authority

He’s calling you to his kingdom this morning Maybe for the first time You hear his voice You hear the truth Not as an idea not as some religious

Concept but as a summons if you hear him this morning He is drawing you come to him If you have questions about what that means what that looks like come and talk to any one of us Ask anyone in this room if they’re a Christian if they say yes They would love to talk to you about what it means to follow this king Jesus

Family I do pray That this dark scene in this text becomes both a warning for you But it also induces worship for the king who came and gave his life for you amen Let’s pray our Father in our God we do thank you For standing in our place

For living the life we could never live For being a spotless lamb to rescue us from the judgment that we deserve I pray oh God that You would give us hearts That bend to your truth

Out of love and allegiance to you I pray God that you would keep us from religious hypocrisy It doesn’t mean that we won’t fall or fail But it means that we will turn and repent Help us to be people who live like that

Help fix our unity in this church so that as a watching and in religious world looks at us they can say whatever they have I want it We pray oh God that you would make us people who are worshipers of the king And as worshipers of the king we pray that we would seek to Build your kingdom the way you have asked us to Spreading it through truth and love and suffering

Help us to be kingdom minded we pray these things in Christening our men