Darkness Descends on the Light Part V Matthew 26:30-27:26

This morning is the fifth and final Sunday of this five -Sunday sermon as we journey through the difficulty that Jesus experienced even before the cross.

This sermon started in 26, verse 30, and we will complete this as we reach 27, verse 26 today.

What we have seen thus far in this passage is that Jesus endured abandonment from his closest friends, including

Peter. We have seen Jesus betrayed in the most egregious way by one of his disciples,

Judas. Judas betrayed Jesus into the hands of his greatest earthly enemies, and he did this for 30 pieces of silver.

We have also seen these earthly enemies put Jesus on trial. And even though they had no evidence against him, they sentenced him to be crucified because they despised

Jesus and wanted him out of the picture. We also have seen the personal torment that Jesus went through in the two days leading to his crucifixion.

As Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane with his disciples, we saw Jesus ponder the hour that was coming when he, for the first time ever, would experience the displeasure of his father.

Jesus knew that he would experience the wrath of his father as he hung on the cross. In these verses, we have seen the humanity of Jesus on full display as the time of his suffering approached.

To be abandoned by his disciples, to be betrayed in the most egregious way by another, to be put on trial by evil men, and then sentenced to be tortured, and then to face the reality that he would experience his father's wrath.

This experience that Jesus went through right before his final suffering was significant with the greatest suffering still to come.

He endured the suffering because he knew it was the only way to bring sinners into a right relationship with God.

The cross was the only way, and so he willingly submitted himself to his father's will.

Now this leads us to part 5 of the sermon. The big idea, once again, is to know that Jesus experienced enormous suffering even before the cross.

The title of the sermon that has spanned five Sundays is Darkness Descends on the

Light. And this is part 5. Once again, know that Jesus experienced enormous suffering even before the cross.

And here is the sixth and final way how. Our sixth point.

By putting himself under Gentile authority. What we have seen thus far is that Jesus was put under trial by the

Jewish leaders. And what we saw in verses 57 -68 is that Jesus was sentenced to death by these

Jewish leaders. But the Jewish leaders could not just go out and kill Jesus.

The crucifixion could not happen without the help of another group of people. Let's read this in verses 1 and 2 of chapter 27.

When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death.

And they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor. We already saw verse 1 take place as we looked at the kangaroo court described in verses 57 -68 in chapter 26.

What we read in verse 2 is the group of people that Jesus was sent to. As Matthew writes in verse 2, they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor.

Now what we see here is the group of people emerged that Jesus will be subjected to and that is the

Romans. As Matthew writes, that Jesus is taken over by Pilate the governor.

Now during this time, the most powerful man in the Roman Empire was the emperor. And at this time, the emperor was a man by the name of Tiberius.

Tiberius reigned in Rome from 14 AD to 37. Under Tiberius were governors who were assigned to different regions.

Pilate was assigned to the region of Judea. The place where he ruled was from Caesarea.

This was the center location. And Caesarea was located right next to the

Mediterranean. But here we find Pilate in Jerusalem. This is so because Pilate would have traveled to Jerusalem while the major Jewish feasts were taking place.

The most significant Jewish feast was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread that followed. So Pilate is on the scene in Jerusalem.

Now we have seen the authority that the Jewish leaders held, but they were not the supreme rulers in the land.

The Jewish leaders were under the authority of Rome. And this was so for a long time.

At one time, of course, Israel had a king and they didn't have any authority over them.

But what happened is that the Northern Kingdom in 722 BC was overtaken by the Assyrians.

And then in 605 BC, the Babylonians overtook the Southern Kingdom. And from this point forward, the people of Israel would be under the authority of another.

They were first under the authority of Babylon. And then it was Medo -Persia. And then it was Greco -Macedonia.

And now we see the Roman Empire. In cases where one was to be put to death for committing a crime, the

Romans were the only ones who could pronounce capital punishment.

They were the highest authority. The Jews understood this, so after deciding that Jesus deserves death, they deliver him over to the

Romans for them to put him to death. Now to see Jesus before Pilate, let's go down to verse 11 where Pilate asks

Jesus a question in the first half of verse 11. Now Jesus stood before the governor and the governor asked him, are you the king of the

Jews? So Pilate asked this important question to Jesus. What I've already explained is that the

Jewish leaders decided to deliver Jesus up to be crucified based on the fact that he claimed to be the

Messiah and he claimed to be God. When Pilate asked Jesus if he is the king of the

Jews, he asked Jesus this because the Jews told him that he made this claim.

For him to be the Messiah would mean that he was the ruler of the Jews. In a parallel passage in John 18 -19,

Pilate is perplexed as to why the Jewish leadership would bring

Jesus to him. In John 18 -31, Pilate said, take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.

But the Jews' answer as to why he was brought to the Romans comes in the second half of verse 31 where they say it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.

In John 19 -7, the Jewish leaders told Pilate, we have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the

Son of God. The law the Jews were referencing was Leviticus 24 -16, which said that a man or woman must be put to death if one committed blasphemy.

During the trial, this was the pronouncement that the Jewish leaders made as Jesus proclaimed that he is

Messiah and God. And as I mentioned, since the Romans were the ultimate rulers in the land, all capital punishments were to be carried out by them.

So this is why they have brought Jesus before the Romans. They are saying, essentially,

Jesus violated the Old Testament law in a serious way and we have brought him to you to put him to death for us.

So as Pilate asks Jesus about his proclaimed identity as the King of the Jews, he is only doing this because this is the charge made against him from the

Jewish leadership that supposedly is deserving of death. As Pilate asks

Jesus this, Jesus responds at the end of v. 11. He says, you have said so.

What Jesus is saying to Pilate is you are correct. I am the King of the Jews. But as Jesus says this, the

Jewish leadership are present as well and they ask him the same question as v.

12 says. But when he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer.

So Jesus answers Pilate, but he does not answer the Jewish leaders. Why is this?

Jesus did not need to answer. He already told the Jewish leaders his identity as the

Messiah during the kangaroo court and he already answered Pilate before their eyes.

Therefore, he did not need to answer. Jesus said briefly what he needed to say and then did not offer any defense even though he was, of course, entirely innocent.

As Jesus stands before Pilate, Jesus shows him something that he had never seen before.

Let's read this in v. 13 -14. Then Pilate said to him, do you not hear how many things they testify against you?

But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.

What Jesus does here before Pilate, the Old Testament predicted. As Isaiah 53 -7 says, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

What we have seen over the last several weeks is that Jesus is giving himself up. He is giving himself up to evil men in order to fulfill the will of God.

As Isaiah 53 -10 predicted, it was the will of the Lord to crush him.

He has put him to grief. Jesus knew all along this incredibly difficult road was his

Father's will for him. As Jesus was in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane at the thought of going to the cross, at the thought of himself enduring the holy wrath of his

Father, he said three times, as Matthew recorded in chapter 26, your will be done.

He dreads what is coming, but he faithfully submits himself to it because he knows this is the only way that redemption would come to the world.

In John 18 -36, Jesus tells Pilate when he asks him the question, are you the king of the

Jews? He tells him, 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. So as Jesus submits to the evil

Jewish leaders and evil -conscious Pilate, he does not fight back. As we think about Pilate, we must understand how evil this man was.

We learn from another Gospel, the Gospel of Luke, the rotten character of this

Roman governor. There is an episode in Luke 13, verses 1 -5, where people came to Jesus to tell him that Pilate mixed the blood of Galileans with the sacrifices they were offering at the temple.

In other words, he killed them and was offering these Galileans up as a sacrifice as well.

Pilate, like many leaders down through history, would give a severe punishment if the people under their authority offended them in some small way.

Pilate was a ruthless ruler. We've also seen this with Herod the Great. As I have explained, it has been said that it was better to be one of Herod's pigs than his son, because if his son made him angry, he would kill his son.

This is what rulers were like back in those days. What Jesus tells

Pilate in John 18 is that he is not fighting back because this is not God's plan.

God does not win battles through human armies. He Himself is the one who wins the battles.

In the Old Testament, yes, the Israelites had military victories, but they were only victorious when

God was fighting with them. Whenever they went to battle on their own without God, even if they had more numbers, they lost.

Jesus is submitting Himself to the Jewish leaders and the Roman authorities because this must be done.

It is the only way. But a time is coming when they will bow down to Him when the true

King comes and reigns on His throne. And of course, Jesus is that true

King. We saw this two weeks ago as Jesus was under trial from the Jewish authorities. As He kneeled before them,

He quotes Daniel 7, verses 13 and 14 where He says, "...from

now on you will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."

Philippians 2, verses 10 and 11 say, "...at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord to the glory of God the Father." That time will come when

He is victorious and His enemies are humiliated, but that is not His focus here as He stands before Pilate.

He is not trying to win an earthly military victory. What He is communicating to Pilate is that He is a different kind of King.

He is a heavenly King who will win in human history and reign forever and ever.

He needs no human army to accomplish this. He will do it through His own infinite power at the return of Christ when the

Antichrist is at the pinnacle of His reign. What Scripture says in 2

Thessalonians 2 is that Jesus is going to come from heaven and He is going to defeat the

Antichrist with the breath of His mouth. It's that easy.

He doesn't need a human army to win. He is communicating that to Pilate. As He stands before Pilate, He is submitting

Himself to the will of His Father because before He takes the throne at His second coming, He must suffer.

He must accomplish redemption for sinners as was predicted in Isaiah 53.

The path to Calvary is the only way. He needs to suffer under these evil men and Pilate is amazed as Jesus remains silent before Him.

Pilate has never seen anything like this. What is so interesting about Pilate is that even though he was ruthless, he would have no problem unjustly killing someone as he did before with the

Galileans. There's something about Jesus that causes him to slow way down.

To think carefully before he makes these decisions concerning this man's life.

When it comes to dealing with the holy, sometimes evil people pause.

For example, there are some criminals that won't rob a church, but they have no problem robbing a store down the street.

Everyone knows that there is a God. Scripture makes that very clear. Romans 1 .20 says, "...humans

are without excuse." The evidence of Him is everywhere.

An atheist is only an atheist because he has suppressed the truth of God that is all around him.

Everyone deep down knows there is a God. With this knowledge, most people will not burn a

Bible. Most people will not rob a church. But they have no problem doing that same wicked activity in other places.

People have this inherent thought that if I do something wrong to that which belongs to God in a special way,

I may be struck by lightning. This is where Pilate is.

This man Jesus who stands before him is talking about being from another world. And that shakes him.

Let's keep this in mind as we look at the next section. Let's begin by looking at verses 15 -17. Now, at the feast, the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted.

And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, whom do you want me to release for you?

Barabbas or Jesus who is called Christ? So every year at the

Passover feast, the Roman governor, Pilate, would release one Jew as a nice gesture to the

Jewish population. At this time, as verse 16 says, there was a well -known prisoner by the name of Barabbas.

What Pilate asked the Jews in the second half of verse 17 is whom should I release for Barabbas or Jesus?

What is clear in Matthew and the other three Gospels is that Pilate does not want to put

Jesus to death as the Jewish leaders are calling him to do. I've already explained that Pilate knows that Jesus is different from anyone who has ever stood before him.

Jesus already told him that his kingdom is not of this world.

Pilate does not want to crucify him. That is so clear in Matthew and the other three

Gospels. He does not want to crucify Jesus. Yet, the

Jewish leaders are putting this severe pressure on him. Let's read what

Matthew writes in verses 18 and 19 about Pilate's predicament more so here. For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up.

Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.

So Pilate knows two things concerning Jesus who stands before him. He knows that Jesus is innocent of the charges made against him.

Verse 13 says that they made many charges against him, including the charge of blasphemy, but Pilate knows corruption when he sees it.

By God's common grace, sometimes unbelievers can spot religious people who are frauds.

Recently, there was a conservative political commentator who is not a Christian, who called out worldly Christian leaders whom he saw as compromisers because they are saying nothing about the

Christians who are being persecuted in America and Canada. This conservative commentator can spot frauds when he sees them.

So can Pilate right here. As verse 18 says, he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up.

But as I have already alluded to, this is not the only reason Pilate does not want to crucify

Jesus. In verse 19, we learn something very interesting. Pilate's wife had a dream.

And in this dream, she learned of the righteousness of Jesus. And she probably learned, as Pilate did, that this man is not of this world.

Throughout the Bible, the Lord works through dreams. He gave dreams to believers and unbelievers.

When these dramatic dreams happen, it shakes a person. You maybe can think of a time in your life where you had a dramatic dream.

You wake up troubled. And it's all you can think about throughout the day. The Lord gave this dream to Pilate's wife.

And you can be sure that it was not just the innocence of Jesus, but also His otherworldly nature that troubled

Pilate. There's something different about this man. So she tells

Pilate, who already knows there's something different about Jesus, to not lay a finger on Him. So Pilate is looking for every opportunity to free

Jesus. So he comes up with this idea that he is going to give the Jews an option.

The option is this. He is going to put before them the worst prisoner who was well known by the

Jews whose name is Barabbas. They have the opportunity to either release

Barabbas, this notorious prisoner, or Jesus, the one they just delivered over to Him.

Pilate is hoping they will see Barabbas as far worse than Jesus and free

Jesus, but we know how committed they are to killing Him. Pilate gives this option between Barabbas and Jesus to the crowd.

But we learn what happened in verse 20. Now, the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and destroy

Jesus. So the Jewish leaders who have influence over the common Jews present at this trial call on the people to have

Barabbas released, not Jesus. But Pilate did not like that they wanted to release

Barabbas, so he tries again in the first half of verse 21. The governor again said to them, which of the two do you want me to release to you?

But they reply the same way again as the second half of verse 21 tells us. And they said,

Barabbas. Because the crowd is saying Barabbas, he then addresses them concerning Jesus in the first half of verse 22.

Pilate said to them, then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? Pilate is hoping one last time that they will release

Jesus, but this is once again how they respond at the end of verse 22. They all said, let him be crucified.

As Pilate hears this, he defends Jesus one more time. And he said, why?

What evil has he done? But once again, they put the pressure on him to do what the Jewish leaders want to be done.

They shouted all the more, let him be crucified. You notice how they're not saying why he should be crucified.

They're just saying, crucify him! Crucify him! They're putting this pressure on Pilate. And this all places

Pilate in an impossible situation. What we need to understand is that Pilate had superiors.

I already mentioned that the emperor in Rome was his ultimate superior. As governor of Judea, Pilate needed to keep the

Jewish population under control. If word got out in Rome that he was not keeping the

Jewish population under control, the emperor might come after his head. As the

Jews are pressuring Pilate to crucify Jesus, what they say in a parallel account in John 19 .12

is if you release this man, you're not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes

Caesar. Pilate does not want to crucify Jesus, but he also does not want a revolt among the

Jews if he doesn't grant the request. And what they are telling Pilate is that you don't want word to get out that a king has arisen out of Judea that rivals the emperor in Rome.

Pilate doesn't want a revolt. He doesn't want word to get out about this king.

And they're putting this pressure on him by saying this is what's going to happen if you don't crucify Jesus. Verse 24 describes this nightmare for Pilate as the crowd gets riled up even more.

So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd saying,

I am innocent of this man's blood. See to it yourselves. Pilate eventually caves to the pressure of the crowd in order to avoid a riot.

As you think about Pilate, this makes me think that we are surrounded by Pilates in our country.

And frankly, we are surrounded by Pilates within the American church. Think of how common it is for so -called

Christian leaders to cave to the pressure of the surrounding world.

Think of how many Christian institutions over the last several years have caved to the woke movement in America.

Too often leaders do not function as John the Baptist did, who boldly told Herod it was wrong for him to commit incest.

John the Baptist was executed for speaking God's law to a wicked human ruler who was violating it.

Every Christian should aim to be like John the Baptist. Not Pontius Pilate. And yet, frankly, there are far too many

Christians who resemble Pilate who cave to pressure when the right thing to do was right before him.

The right thing to do was clear. The Jewish leaders wanted Jesus dead.

The crowd from the stirring of the Jewish leaders wanted Jesus dead. And Pilate knew the right thing to do.

But he didn't do it. Rather, he washed his hands before the crowd and said,

I am innocent of this man's blood. See to it yourselves. So Pilate caves and what the people boldly and foolishly say in verse 25 is this, and all the people answered,

His blood be on us and on our children. What the

Jews are doing here is begging Pilate to finish the deal, to officially pronounce that Jesus will be crucified.

The way they close the deal is by saying that we are responsible for His death, not you. To communicate this, they use the

Jewish idiom, His blood be on us and on our children. The crowd that called for Barabbas' release and for Jesus to be crucified was confident in the assessment of the

Jewish leaders that Jesus deserved to die. You can see how evil the

Jewish leaders were. They had such control over the Jewish people, the common

Jewish people, that they were able to persuade the crowd in Jerusalem to shout for Jesus' crucifixion.

We have seen clearly that Pilate didn't want to crucify Jesus. And he made every attempt to deliver a man whom he knew was innocent.

But he ultimately caved, and verse 26 tells us what he did after he caved. Then he released for them

Barabbas. And having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified. So Barabbas is released and what

Pilate would do before he put someone to death was scourge a person. To scourge someone means that Jesus was whipped on his back.

According to the Apostle Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 11 -24, one who was treated as a criminal would be lashed 39 times.

To describe what the scourge was like, one author writes that scourging was a Roman judicial penalty consisting of a severe beating with a multi -lashed whip containing embedded pieces of bone and metal.

So what we see Jesus doing here is He is not only submitting

Himself to the Jewish leadership, but also to Gentile authority.

And to submit Himself to Gentile authority shows us how much He needed to humble

Himself and how humiliating this was. We need to understand what the

Old Testament said concerning the Gentiles. The Gentiles are the nations. They are not

God's chosen people. Israel were God's ancient covenant people.

Well, the nations were not. Now, there were some Gentiles who were saved in the Old Testament.

For example, you see Rahab, Ruth, and the city of Nineveh follow the Lord. But most

Gentiles were godless. They worshiped multiple gods. They lived incredibly sinful lifestyles.

They had no moral compass whatsoever. This describes, well, Pilate and the

Romans. I've already explained to you Pilate's character as a ruthless ruler, but the average

Roman was wicked as well. The Romans believed in multiple gods. The Roman empires were almost all wicked and they were even worshipped as gods themselves.

The Romans, largely speaking, did not follow God's law. And yet the one who perfectly obeyed

God's law subjected himself to the dogs. The title dogs was given to the

Gentiles by the Jews because the Jews considered them vile.

Jesus uses this description, dogs, to describe the Gentiles in Matthew 15 .26.

Another negative title applied to the Gentiles is stones. In Matthew 3 .9, John the

Baptist called Gentiles stones. They used this title because, as one author wrote, the

Jews generally considered Gentiles to be occupants of hell, spiritually lifeless and hopeless, dead stones as far as a right relationship with God is concerned.

To say that the Jews thought of the Gentiles negatively is an understatement.

Now, believing Jews had a more positive view toward Gentiles because they knew that it was God's plan all along to save the

Gentiles, as the Old Testament predicted long ago. But even believing Jews knew how bad the

Gentiles generally were. But remarkably, what we see here is that Jesus submits

Himself to the nations, to those considered vile. And He did this because He knew it was the only way to accomplish

His mission of redemption for mankind. His eyes were always on the cross.

Jesus knew what the Old Testament prophecy said concerning Himself. He needed to die. And as I've mentioned before, the method of death would be crucifixion, and it was the

Romans who executed people in this way. Psalm 22 predicted

His crucifixion. Isaiah 53 did. Daniel 9 and Daniel's 70 weeks.

And Zechariah 12. All these predicted that Jesus would die at the hands of the

Gentiles. He was willing to take this humiliating road. As we think about this, it should amaze us.

And what should fill our hearts is praise to Jesus. He subjected

Himself to the godless, and He did it for your sake. He endured this humiliation to bring salvation to the world.

As we wrap up this five -Sunday sermon, we are to be reminded to know that Jesus experienced enormous suffering even before the cross.

In Matthew 26, v. 30 through 27, v. 26, we have seen six ways how.

By enduring abandonment from His closest friends. By facing the reality that His Father's wrath would soon come upon Him.

By giving Himself over into the hands of evil men. By subjecting Himself to a kangaroo court.

By undergoing betrayal from His closest disciple. And lastly, as we have just seen, putting

Himself under Gentile authority. But Jesus endured all of this suffering and the worst suffering that was to come because of His great love for you.

This should move everybody in this room. And if it doesn't, that's a problem. This moves believers.

The reality that Jesus did this for you. He put

Himself through this so that He could save you and bring you into an eternal relationship with God.

What a great Savior. And if you're listening, I invite you to believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ this day. He went to the cross to pay the full penalty for your sins.

And on the third day, He rose again. And we are going to see that in the coming weeks as we march toward Holy Week.

He did this for you. Believe in Him this day. Now next

Sunday, we finally get to the event where Jesus goes to the cross where He would bear the sins of the world.

Next week will be somber, but it will not stay somber. Let's pray.

Father in Heaven, what a wonderful God You are. I give You praise, Lord. I thank You for Your Word.

I thank You for what it is able to do in the human heart, the hard human heart.

And my prayer, Lord, is that everyone who can hear me would be a believer in Jesus Christ, would be heaven -bound, and not face the judgment that will come to anybody who does not know

Christ. My prayer is that You would apply this text to everyone right where they are at through Your Holy Spirit.