Classic Friday: S. Lewis Johnson (Barabbas) (Part 1)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth and today I�m trying to promote the Lord Jesus Christ through the servant, through the deceased servant, Lewis Johnson, Samuel Lewis Johnson Jr., S. Lewis Johnson.

People call him S. Lewis to his face. As a friend, you�d call him Lewis. He died about 10 years ago. I�m editing a commentary on Romans coming out soon, next year, Zondervan. And so, I�m just listening to him all the time, appreciate his ministry, so I want you to like him as well.

Today�s sermon is Matthew 27, 15 through 26, Barabbas or Christ Dies for Me. You�re going to love this message. Today�s part one, and next week we�ll listen to part two. And we are listening to Dr. Samuel Lewis Johnson Jr.

He�s only had one book put out by Zondervan in 1980, more of a technical book, so I put together his information on Romans and it should be out soon. You�re going to be blessed as Christ Jesus is magnified.

Info at NoCompromiseRadio .com.

The reading for this morning is Matthew chapter 27, verses 15 through 26. Matthew chapter 27, verses 15 through 26. The subject for today concerns a man who appeared in our last study, but only briefly, Barabbas.

Verse 15, and again we are in the civil trial of Jesus. 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

Now if I may stop at this point, and if you have a pencil and you do not mind putting a note in your Bible, I�m going to suggest to you that verse 16 should read this way. And they had then a notable prisoner called Jesus Barabbas.

In the Greek manuscripts at this point, many of the ancient manuscripts have the word Jesus. In other words, it is most likely that this man�s name was Jesus Barabbas. Now, the reason for this is not only the fact that the ancient manuscripts have it, but it would have been a natural thing for a scribe to omit as he copied manuscripts.

He wouldn�t like to think of this man having the same name as Jesus Christ. And then also the question that Pilate asks in verse 22, �What shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ makes much plainer sense.

In other words, there was a Jesus called Barabbas, and there was a Jesus called Christ. And so verse 16 should read, �Jesus Barabbas and then verse 17, �Therefore, when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, �Whom will ye that I release unto you, Jesus Barabbas again, the word Jesus is found here in the text, �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 said 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, �Whither 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, �What evil hath he done

But they cried out the more, saying, �Let him 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.

So if you do not mind marking in your versions, put in the word Jesus before Barabbas in both verse 16 and verse 17. May God bless this reading of his.

Word.

The subject for today is Barabbas or Christ died for me. Have you often wished to know more of persons who are fleetingly mentioned in God�s word? If you are as I am, I would love to have had the opportunity at some time to have a few words with Melchizedek.

I would like to have a few words with a man like Joseph of Arimathea. He really interests me. Or Simon the leper. I would like to know if the things that happened in his house had anything to do with his ultimate spiritual destiny.

Or Barabbas. Others have been interested in Barabbas too. As a matter of fact, novels have been written about this man. They are usually cheap and tawdry novels, but at least they bear witness to the fact that men are interested in this man who the force of circumstance has put in such a prominent position as over against Jesus who was called the Christ.

A few years ago, one of the worst remakes of any film that was ever made, was made. It was the remake of the film King of Kings starring Jeff Hunter. And in the trade I think that he came to be referred to as, I was a teenage Jesus.

He was so obviously ill suited for the part. But in that movie, which mercifully I didn't have to see, I understand that Barabbas was really the outstanding character of it. At least some of my friends who saw it told me that.

Barabbas is not only an interesting character and a man with whom I think we all would like to have had a word. But Barabbas apparently is an interest, is an important character as far as the New Testament is concerned.

Because approximately 38 verses of the New Testament have to do directly with this man Barabbas. Now when you think about the fact that for Judas there are less verses devoted to him than to Barabbas, I think you can appreciate the fact that this man has an important place in God's Word.

As a matter of fact, few men tell the story of the cross more plainly than the experience of Barabbas. Peter does not tell the story of the cross so plainly, nor James, nor John, nor even Mary of Bethany.

In the experience that Lazarus had, we have a living testimony to the fact that Jesus Christ died for him. Let's look this morning in the time that we have at first the story of the New Testament so far as Barabbas personally is concerned.

Now in the Mithian account which we have read this morning to kind of set the stage for the things that I want to say to you about Barabbas, we have the account of the civil trial of the Lord Jesus. He had been sent to Herod and now Herod has sent Jesus back to Pilate.

And Pilate is going to have to deal with this man whom he really desperately wished to avoid dealing with. The custom of releasing someone at the time of the feast is a custom for which we have no historical record.

I'm just going to suggest, a suggestion made by others, that perhaps this custom of releasing at the time of the Passover some criminal in order to assuage the feelings of the nation Israel and calm them down at this time of nationalistic fervor, perhaps this custom arose out of the experience of the Passover itself.

In other words the freeing of the man was intended symbolically to be an acknowledgment of the fact that the nation itself had been freed from the land of Egypt at Passover time. At any rate the custom existed and at this time Pilate in an attempt expediently to deal with Jesus suggests that perhaps the people would like to have one of the criminals released to them, thinking surely that they would request that Jesus be released rather than that Jesus Barabbas should be released.

Well you know the story of course and what happened. Well let's now single out some of the things that are said about this man Barabbas. You'll notice in the 16th verse of the account which we have read the statement is made that Barabbas was the name of the man.

Now I want to stop for just a moment and remind you of something that I said last time. Barabbas means son of the father. We're not exactly sure whether this is any relationship to God or not. I'm inclined to think that Barabbas' father had been a rabbi and because the rabbis were called father that Barabbas' name, son of the father, due to the Hebrew custom of naming sons after fathers, Barabbas therefore must have been the son of a rabbi.

In other words he was as we would say the son of a man. He was a man who grew up in the home of a minister or a preacher. He was therefore the member of a religious aristocracy with the traditions that went with the religion of Israel.

He was a man who had been trained from the time of his youth in the traditions of the law. He no doubt had become a lover of the glory of Israel and because of the stories which had so thrilled him as a young boy upon his father's knee, he had become imbued with nationalistic fervor.

And when he grew up and realized that the nation, the theocratic nation, the nation through which God had done so much was under the heel of a Roman conquering nation, there came down into the spirit of this young Jew the spirit of nationalism in such fervor that he not only became a fervent nationalist but must have become a member of the party of the Zealots.

He was a man who was then fervently anxious to deliver Israel from the Roman heel. If his name was also Jesus Barabbas, and I think that the texts substantiate that, we'll see in a moment how this so even more effectively sets him off in contrast to the Lord Jesus.

He is a notable prisoner, apparently then a young man who had so advanced in nationalism that he had become well known by the Jews of Jerusalem and the surrounding area. In the book of Romans in the sixteenth chapter, this same adjective is used of some who were apostles of the churches, messengers of the churches, and the statement is made that they were of note among the Lord's apostles.

Apparently then the word in some contexts had a good force, and I'm not so sure that that is not the force in which we are to take it here. In other words, Barabbas was a notable man in the minds of the people of that time.

He was the kind of man who was regarded as a real strong patriot, a man who had a deep regard for Israel's past and a deep love for the future according to the Old Testament. He was, I think, the kind of man that we thought General de Gaulle was during the war, or that General de Gaulle was in the minds of so many.

A man who was interested in the future and also the past of the true France, a man who attracted to himself a great number of friends throughout that land because he was the kind of man that signified to them the lost glory of that nation.

So Barabbas may well have been a man like that. The statement is made also in Mark chapter 15 and verse 17 or 7 that he had been engaged in insurrection. That means that he had been involved in some disorders in the city, some rioting.

Now Jerusalem was seething with discontent at the time. People were interested in being free from the Roman yoke. I think it must have been something like Hungary was before the revolt a few years back.

And so Jesus Barabbas, perhaps a member of the party of the Zealots, was very much a leader in the attempt to regain the glory of Israel. John states a third thing about him. John states that he was a robber.

Now I don't know exactly how to explain that except on this basis. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. And Rome was ruthless with insurrectionists. And so those who were involved in the party of the Zealots, one of whom, by the way, became the disciple of the Lord Jesus, Simon by name, those who were involved in the party of the Zealots were like hunted criminals.

And of course it is very common for those who are hunted to become heartened. And this man apparently had been involved in robbery, no doubt to maintain himself physically and to escape from the Roman legions who were after him.

Peter, in Acts chapter 3 and verse 14, when he accuses the nation, said that they had preferred a murderer to the prince of life. And so apparently this man Barabbas had also been guilty of murder. And so death was his only future.

He was a hunted criminal in the eyes of Rome and yet no doubt had a great deal of followers in Israel. And the climactic thing about this man is that he was preferred to Jesus. It's not hard to understand why.

Even from the positive standpoint, I think I can understand why Israel preferred Barabbas. After all, he was a daring, dashing, captivating, fierce soul patriot. And no doubt also from that part of the land.

And over against him there was the silent, meek, Galilean carpenter. And when you add to the fact that not only was this the silent, meek, Galilean carpenter, but also one who had stepped on their toes with the truth, then I think it's very easy to see why the Israelites of that day chose Barabbas rather than the Lord Jesus.

Well, you know the story, we've talked about it in our study on Pilate. Even with the Romans' regard for justice and the wife's warning, Pilate still proceeds, even admits that it's murder. Because in the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth verses he engages in a little symbolic rite in token of the fact that he is washing his own hands of the guilt of the death of Jesus.

He comes out and publicly before the crowd takes water, washes his hand before the multitude and says, I am innocent of the blood of this just person, see ye to it. Mr. Krumacher, one of the great preachers of the nineteenth century said about this, to think that Pilate thought that there was any kind of water that could have possibly cleansed his hands from the guilt of the murder of the Lord Jesus.

And then he went on to say, there is indeed a stream that cleanses from guilt, but Pilate was ignorant of it. We sing of that. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stain.

Pilate was ignorant of the one thing that could possibly cleanse him from the guilt of the death of Jesus Christ. May I interrupt the story at this point to ask you a personal question? Are you acquainted with the fountain that cleanses from sin?

Do you know the fountain of the blood of Jesus Christ, and do you have the salvation that comes when you put your trust in him? Now let's move on from the story of Barabbas, it's kind of simple, to the theological illustration that is found in the life of this man.

Sometimes I've thought, as you know in these studies, sometimes I've thought a great deal about these things and wondered what is the significance of the fact that so many of these events that are found in the New Testament have double meanings.

That is, there is the outward historical meaning which is so obvious, and then there is the meaning from the standpoint of God. And last night as I was thinking about this, I thought the only expression that I could come up with to kind of get over the point of the fact that this experience was not only something that was historically true of Barabbas, but was designed by God to illustrate to us spiritual truth.

The little phrase, the accidents of providence, came to me, and I think that is exactly what we have here, the accidents of providence. For here we have in Barabbas' experience a plain and eloquent testimony to the fact Christ died for our sins.

Now of course in Barabbas' case it was quite different from the way in which Jesus died for our sins. But nevertheless I cannot help but believe that these events are so under the hand of God and so arranged that as we look at the experience that Barabbas had in the physical, we are led inevitably to reflect upon the fact that it illustrates the spiritual.

Let's think of Barabbas' condition first of all. Barabbas was a rebel. Barabbas was guilty. Barabbas was condemned. No better statement could be made of the experience of every one of us before God. The wages of sin is death, and all of us are guilty, all of us are rebels, and all of us are condemned.

And Barabbas, just as Barabbas, Barabbas was not awaiting trial, he was awaiting execution, and so every one of us is not awaiting a trial. We are awaiting a trial that leads inevitably to our death forever.

In other words, the die has been cast as long as we have not believed in our Lord Jesus Christ. Some time ago I read of the thoughts of prisoners before they die. I understand that men who are about to be hanged can hardly ever keep their hands away from their throats, and that those who are to die in the gas chamber practice breathing for long periods of time.

They know that when they sit in that chamber and the dreadful, deadly hissing sound comes, they are going to be breathing death. And as I understand it, some prisoners will sit in their cells and actually hold their breath until their eyes almost pop out of their head in anticipation of the fact that it's not long before they must breathe the deadly gas.

And so you can imagine Barabbas in his cell, you can imagine him thinking about his hands, and you can imagine him thinking about his feet, and you can imagine him thinking about what is going to happen to him when he's on that Roman gibbet.

And I think you can imagine him as he imagines himself on that Roman cross, and then the men taking that cross and plunging it down into the ground, and I think that Barabbas must have had many a nightmare in his cell.

John Oxenham has written a very vivid account of Barabbas' experience. It's purely imaginary, and there are some things about it that are not apparently according to the text of Scripture, but in general it's true.

He pictures Barabbas as in his cell, and one morning looking out and seeing far off in the distance on a little hill three crosses being erected, he watches in a kind of terrible, a kind of terrible interest, and he sees the one and the second and the other, and knowing that he has some friends who were also taken with him, and it's been even suggested that there were three of them who were imprisoned, he reflects upon the fact that these surely are the crosses upon which he and his friends must die.

And then Oxenham pictures one morning, early in the morning, Barabbas hears the sounds of men coming toward the cells. He hears the tramp of the feet. He hears the doors open, and they come closer and closer, and finally he hears a key, and he hears a key great and a lock, and he hears a cell open, and he hears the men say, come on with us, and the steps move off into the distance, and he goes over to the wonder, and he looks out, and there is one of the crosses occupied, and then he hears the same thing again.

He hears the key, and he looks out again afterwards, and he sees the second occupied, and then he hears the steps for the third time, and they come closer and closer, and finally he hears the key in the lock of his own cell, and the door is flung open, and he hears the words, Barabbas, you're free, you're free.

It's easy to see, C. I. Schofield said many years ago, that Barabbas need not have been a theologian to form a good idea of the theory of the atonement. Barabbas was a man who went free because Jesus Christ had died.

He heard the message of an evangelist, which for him was his jailer. But not only is there a likeness in Barabbas' condition and the message of freedom that came to him, but Barabbas is released, and so you know we.

We are rebels, and we are condemned, and we are guilty, and there comes a message to us. It is the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's just as simple as, you are free. You do not have to bear your judgment.

You do not have to bear your condemnation. Though you are a rebel, though you are guilty, Christ has died for you, and the message has come. Go free. The prison doors have been flung open. This very metaphor is used in the New Testament, and every single person who hears that message and believes that message may go free.

Barabbas had a wonderful message of release, which illustrates our redemption also. Now, we don't know Barabbas' later history. It has even been supposed that Barabbas, as he came out, made his way out toward the cross of the Lord Jesus and stood by the side of that cross.

As a matter of fact, Mr. Oxenham has him at the last kneel down before the cross and thank Jesus for dying for his sins. That is not even tradition. That is pure imagination, and we have no way of knowing, of course, that it ever happened.

But it's just possible that Barabbas may have followed the crowd out that day.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

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