The Three Robes of Christ

The Gospel According to Matthew and the Old Testament Background

If you would, open your Bibles to the Gospel according to Matthew chapter 27. Gospel according to Matthew chapter 27. This is first in the New Testament record in our Bibles. We're in Matthew chapter 27.

Actually, I want to start today in verse 15 and read through verse 31. So as you get there, we've been doing an expositional working through the Gospel according to Matthew verse by verse. And we chose this particular Gospel because this particular Gospel is so filled with references from the Old Testament revelation.

In particular, Isaiah, that is so much in the back of Matthew's mind. Obviously, it's his narrative of what took place in the life of Christ, his ministry, his life, his death, his resurrection and ascension.

But there is behind this Gospel, this Gospel record, the eyewitness account we have here, there is behind it the Old Testament revelation, rich in Old Testament revelation. In particular, of course, Isaiah.

So we are in Matthew 27. We'll start in verse 15. Hear now the word of the living and the true God. 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 Messiah? 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. Now the chief priest and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus.

The governor again said to them, which of the two do you want me to release for you? And they said, Barabbas. Pilate said to them, then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Messiah? They all said, let him be crucified.

And he said, why? What evil has he done? But they shouted all the more, let him be crucified. 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. And all the people answered, his blood be on us and on our children. Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified. And the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him, and they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him.

And twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head.

And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him. Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired Word. Let's pray as God's people.

Lord, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for the gift of Your Word. Thank You, Lord, for Your revelation to us. Thank You, God, for what You've done in history to save Your people from their sins. Lord Jesus, we are so humbled and grateful, Lord, as we read this record to us from You, we're humbled to think about what You endured for us.

And Lord, we can't help but reflect on the incomprehensible nature that You did it for the joy set before You. It was out of Your great love for us, Lord, You know our names. And You endured all of this horror and trauma for us, for me.

And so, Lord, we give You glory. We praise You. Please bless the proclamation of Your Word today by Your Spirit. May everyone forget me and remember You and what they've learned from Your Word. In Jesus' name, amen.

The Eyewitness Record of the Passion and the Sovereign Plan of God

This is a powerful moment. So this is sort of a part two of what we did before, but I want to expand more because I truly believe that what's in the text before us, if you look at the gospel witnesses, when you're looking at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you have eyewitness accounts of the life and the ministry, the death, the resurrection, the ascension of Jesus.

All of this, again, was no novelty in history. It was what was expected. God had promised all this was going to take place, not just with direct prophecy, but with layers and symbol. God pointed towards this time in history where He'd save His people from their sins.

And you have these multiple witnesses in the historic apostolic record of the life and the ministry of Jesus, multiple witnesses oftentimes talking about the same thing, but maybe one gives more details.

Maybe one leaves a particular portion out because it's not really what they're aiming at. But when you pull them together,.

You get this glorious story.

And this is the revelation of God. When we think about what is before us, these are not the words of mere men. Yes, men wrote this, but they spoke and they wrote these things as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit of God.

What you have in your hands is revelation from the one and only true and living God. This is God's story in history. And what I find entirely remarkable about this particular moment, just this one piece of the passion of Christ and His trial and the beating and the crucifixion, just this one piece, if you look across the multiple accounts of the eyewitness record of the scene here in history, you have different elements that are portrayed.

And we talked about this in Matthew, in this one moment, you have Jesus as He's being beaten by this battalion of soldiers, 600 men, 600 men. I mentioned that none of the cinematic portrayals of this moment are even close to correct, right?

Think about if you've even seen the movie, The Passion of the Christ, in the moment of the beating of Jesus, if you watch that scene, I'm not trying to promote the movie, but just in terms of like what happens, if you watch that scene, you can see just they don't have the ability, I mean, with the actors and cinematography, even in that moment, to really display the horror of this moment.

600 Roman soldiers who kill and maim for a living are giving Jesus this beating. But Matthew's account, Matthew emphasizes the fact that Jesus is wearing what color robe? He's wearing a scarlet robe. But if you look at the other gospels, people have tried to say, and I stressed this last time, they tried to say there's an inconsistency in the eyewitness accounts.

Well, the first thing I would say is that in eyewitness accounts about an event, you would expect if they're being honest and not merely copying off each other, differences in terms of that moment of observation, the angle of observation, those sorts of things.

But people have tried to allege that there is a discrepancy between the gospel witness because in Matthew's gospel, Matthew has Jesus at a part of the beating by the battalion wearing the scarlet robe.

But in Luke's gospel, Luke has Jesus delivered from Herod back to Pilate and he's wearing a white robe, obviously to mock Jesus. They put a white robe on him. But then in John and in Mark, you have Jesus in a purple robe.

And in John's gospel, John specifically mentions that when Jesus is presented to the crowd by Pilate, these are Jews now who are calling for his crucifixion, even though he is innocent, Pilate's washing his hands as a Gentile governor in the day, washing his hands saying, I find no fault in him.

I'm washing my hands. This is on you. And the Jews there say, his blood be upon us and our children. But John mentions that when Jesus is presented before the people of God, the covenant people of God, Jesus is wearing a purple robe.

And so in this entire horrible moment, glorious, horrible moment, you have the eyewitnesses giving the account of somehow what was taking place in history, the white robe, the scarlet robe, and the purple robe, all that's in the record.

And what we know about the world, about life, about God, is that God is the sovereign, amen? He's truly sovereign over every detail. As a matter of fact, it was the prayer of the early church in the book of Acts, that we've said it so many times before, that you have Herod gathered against Jesus.

You have Pilate gathered against Jesus. You have the Gentiles gathered against Jesus. You have the people of Israel gathered against Jesus to do what? To do whatever your hand, God, had predestined to occur.

Now, they're culpable. They murdered Jesus. They wanted to kill Jesus long before this. Multiple times in the record itself, you see that they tried to kill Jesus, but it wasn't his time. Jesus said, no one takes my life from me.

I lay it down of my own accord. No one has authority over him or his life. It wasn't until God determined, now, at this time,.

This is where it'll take place.

Now I will allow you to do what is in your heart to do. And we have, of course, this incredible symbolism in the eyewitness record of a white robe, a red robe, and a purple robe. I want to argue that those three different robes, the three robes of the Messiah in this moment in history, really tell the bulk of the story of the identity of Jesus,.

Of His work,.

Of what He ought to mean to all of us,.

Because God predestined this moment of trauma, wrath, brokenness, evil, and murder. And while they were doing what was in their hearts to do, mock Jesus, God was telling His own story the whole time.

A white robe, a scarlet robe, a purple robe.

That tells so much of the story of Jesus, and in particular, it's something that the Jews should have understood. They have the Old Testament Scriptures. They have the Torah. They have the promises of God, His revelation about Mashiach in history.

What was He going to accomplish? And here before them, they are walking through this moment with so much evil and darkness in their hearts, and yet the entire time, it is screaming the symbols of the Messiah right to them the entire time.

All the way down to the moment, the powerful moment, and James talked about this this week on the dividing line, that powerful moment where Jesus is on the cross. It says over His head that He's the King.

He's wearing the very sign and symbol of the curse and the fall itself, thorns on His head. And at that moment when He says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? These Jews know their Bibles. If they would have just started singing with Jesus, that Psalm, Psalm 22, they would have been singing about the very events that were transpiring in front of them at that very moment.

There is so much depth and richness here. It is incomprehensible. It truly is. And it's hard to even unpack all of this because there's so much here, but I want to emphasize as much as I can the glory of Jesus and His righteousness and His being the sin bearer and Him being the King of kings, the expected King.

The Danger of Misusing Symbolism and the Need for Biblical Exegesis

Now, here's what's important. You look at this, the danger. So often people have been afraid of symbolism in the Bible. And why is that? Well, when you think about liberalism of the last century and the liberal school of theology that's been so destructive to the Christian faith, you have people who handle the Bible in ways where it is just infinitely malleable.

They just do whatever they please with it. They'll say, well, I take this. I disregard that. I don't think I need to believe this or that. Or they take symbolism and they just make what they want of it.

But the challenge is this, is the symbolism in Scripture cannot be avoided. God is huge on symbol. You can't get away from it. It's just the way that God is and it's what He's given to us throughout the Old Testament.

All of what God gives to them in these rehearsals and practices for the Messiah was all rich in symbolism. It's real historic narrative. They really did these things. It was actual blood. It was actual atonement.

It was an actual solid temple. It was an actual priest. It was an actual holiest place. All of that in the day of Passover or on Passover, when that's taking place, there is a real lamb, no spot, no blemish.

Don't break its bones. There is real blood put over doorposts. There is real escape from slavery going into the promised land. There's a real wandering in the wilderness. But all of it is rich, rich, rich in symbol.

God gave them something fixed and hard to touch and to feel and to taste,.

But it was supposed to teach them.

A larger story.

It had more depth to it and they were supposed to understand it. Jesus chastises the disciples on the road to Emmaus for being foolish and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken. They should have understood that the Messiah was to be cut off, that he was going to die for the sins of God's people, and then he would prolong his days.

He would rise again from the dead. They were supposed to understand that. And John the Baptist, when he is in his introduction of the Messiah himself,.

What does he say?

He says something that was supposed to immediately connect. He says to the people of God, he says, behold the what? Lamb of God who does what? Who takes away the sin of the world. So when John the Baptist introduces Jesus, he's not simply saying, look, Messiah.

He actually goes for the rich depth of meaning in that symbol, and he says behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That symbolism is important to God. And of course, as I said, as Christians we've been fearful often of people who will go too far with symbolism.

They'll not allow the symbol to be anchored in what God actually defines. Now I want to say this. We should always interpret the Bible in a way that is glorifying to God. You've learned from your pastors that we should focus on exegesis.

That means drawing out of the text.

What does the text say?

Who was the author? Who was the original audience? What is the context of this passage? What is the meaning of these words? You unpack those things and you compare it to all of Scripture. You let Scripture do the talking.

That's how you protect yourself from the abuse of symbols in Scripture. But I'm going to argue that this moment that we have of Christ, the Lamb of God, who's taking away the sin of the world, who is coming now to do exactly what he was predestined to do, this moment is filled with rich and deep symbolism about who Jesus is.

Yes, this is an historic event. Yes, this took place in history. There is no doubt of that fact. But God was telling a large story in every heartbeat of this moment. And the amazing thing to me is that they're so lost in their sin.

They're so full, as Pilate sees here, they're so full of envy and hatred of the Messiah that they can't even see what's right in front of their faces. Here is Jesus, the righteous One. The governor himself is saying, I find no fault in Him.

He's blameless.

He's guiltless.

You see to it.

They can't even see in the crown of thorns smashed into His head. They can't even see in the sign over His head that He's the King. They can't even see in the color of robes that He's being presented in that He is their long-anticipated Messiah.

Why? It's not that the Scriptures weren't clear. It's that they are so filled with malice and envy and hatred for their own Messiah that they missed every part of this. So I want to talk about these three different robes because especially as we go into this new year, especially as we go into the new year, it's very important for us to continue to communicate the truth about Jesus.

Who is He?

Why does this matter? I was having a conversation with somebody recently. They were asking the question like,.

What's the point?

You know, you'll travel even around our own city. You'll see churches with the name of Christ on it. And you'll have big rainbow flags. And you'll have people who deny the very words of Scripture. And they do it every Lord's Day.

They make a mockery of God's Word. They make a mockery of Christ. And the question is, what's the point? What's even the point if you don't believe that this is the authoritative Word of God? Why are you pretending, right?

What is your message to the world about Christ? Because he had a clear message about himself, a message that was devastating to his hearers, so much so that at times where his crowd grows and it looks like this movement is finally getting somewhere, he makes the crowd disperse by cutting them with words and letting them know that they have to be willing to come to him and to die.

They have to be willing to let everything go as they follow him as Lord and Savior. He has a very specific message. A message that's exclusive that is so rejected today. A message that is so clear it is incontrovertible.

Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me. Christ is the only way to salvation. The only way to salvation. If you do not confess Christ as Lord and Savior, the Bible says that you remain in your sin and the wrath of God abides on you.

You will die in your sin apart from Jesus Christ. That was his message. And we live in a day where there's this constant push to muddy the message of the gospel, to compromise on the message of the gospel, to compromise on the message of God's law, and we're reaping the consequences of all of that.

Dismissiveness about Christ and who He actually is. The Bible's very clear about who Jesus is. And you see it in this glorious moment. This painful moment. This awful moment. Where you have, as I mentioned last time, it seems the whole creation itself is revolting against their Creator.

Here He is in the flesh. And everybody is revolting against Him. And you have this moment where this battalion is beating Jesus, spitting on Jesus, putting a robe on Jesus that they think is mockery. And what they didn't understand is that white robe, that scarlet robe, that royal robe, that purple robe, that crown of thorns, and that reed in His hand was His glory.

It was His glory. They attempted to mock Him. What they meant for evil, God meant for good. In this moment of the brutalization of the Messiah, they are telling the story of the Messiah, unwittingly, of course, filled with malice and envy and hatred and darkness, and they are telling His story before the watching world that He is the blameless One.

He is the One who is worthy of that white robe. He is the One who is the sin-bearer. He carries the sins of God's people. God counts Him as the guilty One, and He counts God's people as the righteous because of His righteousness.

And He is the long-anticipated King of kings, the ruler of the kings of the earth. That's who Jesus is. And as we go into this new year that God has given to us, none of us are promised tomorrow, but we have a new year, so praise God.

Amen? Yes? We have a new year. What will you tell the world about Jesus? Who is Jesus? Well, a better question to ask is, who are you in Christ? Are you His enemy? Are you one who mocks Him? Are you one who does not trust in Him?

Are you one who compromises on His teachings and His commandments? Or are you the person who bows in need to Christ, confesses Him as Lord and King, and obeys Jesus? I'm going to say that all of, really, earth's history, the story of earth's history, in a way, in a capsule, is summed up in just these three robes testified to in the passion of Christ and what's taking place here.

He is the righteous One. He is the One who carries the sins of God's people. And He is the One, because of what He's purchased, who is actually the King of the world. He's the One with all authority. And by the way, this has massive implications.

Because if you believe these things about Christ, it has to change you. If it hasn't changed you, you should examine yourself to see whether you're in the faith. Because all of creation, all of history is not about you.

It's not about our moments in history. We're going to come and we're going to go. It's a vapor. It's a vapor. All of history is about Jesus Christ. It's summed up in Him. And I promise you this, the way that this story ends, all of eternity is about Jesus Christ.

For all of eternity, we'll be extolling the glories of God in the righteousness of Jesus, the fact that He took away our sins, and the fact that He is the One with all authority, and He's the King. That's what everything's about.

And I'm going to tell you this, if that story bothers you or bores you, repent and believe the gospel. Because God's people see that as the supremacy. They see that as the most glorious story,.

The greatest story ever told.

And it's all testified to in just this simple moments. What we see as a simple step in the text, just a little moment about a crown of thorns,.

A scarlet robe,.

A reed in His hands. It's a powerful moment. So just to talk for a moment about the timeline, because it's important. Atheists have a hard time reading the Bible consistently anyways, and so they're always looking for what they say are biblical contradictions.

But we talked about the timeline last time. We talked about the fact that Matthew 27 -28 says that it was a scarlet robe, that John 19 -2 and Mark 15 -17 say that it was purple, and that Luke 23 -7 mentions Herod putting this glorious or splendid white robe on Jesus before sending him back to Pilate.

We talked about the fact that Isaiah is so much in the background of Matthew's gospel. He's quoting from Isaiah. He's pointing to Isaiah. It's really so underneath Matthew's gospel. We talked about scarlet and how scarlet in history was made from a female insect, and it was actually a color, a dye, that was very, very hard to get out of clothing.

And when you think about what we all know, that famous verse, though your sins are as what? Scarlet, they shall be white as snow. That doesn't mean a lot to us today because we're not doing a lot of dying of clothing very personally.

We don't live in that era, in that time period. This is a difficult color to not only make in many ways,.

But also to get out of clothing.

So all the more meaning for you and for me when God says in His Word to His people, though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. That is a deep, connected dye that is hard to get out.

And so God is saying to His people, you know how hard that is to get out? Once it's in, it's in. I'm telling you that if your sins are even like that, I will make them white as snow. No stains. And just think about even in terms of the color of the robe and the clothing.

White is a very, it's a difficult thing to wear, right? I mean, how many times, guys, have you worn like a white dress shirt, and you know, and as soon as you put it on, you're walking out the door and you recognize, I got a stain on it already.

I dropped something on it already. It's so easy to see the mark. It's so easy to see that it was marred. You're wearing splendid white, and all of a sudden, a small thing in the air, something dropped.

All of a sudden, the stain's the shirt for the rest of the day,.

And it's so obvious.

It's so obvious.

That's why I love wearing black, right? You're not gonna see all the stains because I dribble and I make mistakes all day long. But white is so obvious to see the stain, and that's the point of the color.

White, pure, blameless, no stains. And that's what that color,.

That robe of white,.

Is supposed to actually testify to. That's what it's supposed to say. But scarlet was that color where God says, though your sins are as scarlet, they should be white as snow. In the timeline, we see that the timeline works in Scripture as Luke 23 11.

Herod sends Jesus away to mock him wearing a splendid, glorious white robe. He meant it as mockery. It was to his shame and to Christ's glory. And in Matthew 27, we have this moment where, there was a moment where the battalion puts a red robe on Jesus, and they mock him with the crown of thorns and the reed in his hands.

And in John 19 2, we see that Jesus, and 19 4 through 16, Jesus is actually brought before the covenant people of God, professing Jews, and he's wearing the royal colors, the color of royalty, purple.

It's a powerful, powerful thing to think about. And I want to talk a bit about Matthew and his drawing from Isaiah. We talked last week, last time I spoke, we talked for a moment about the fact that Matthew had already quoted from Isaiah chapter 42.

This is the promise that, by the way, it's one of my favorite sections of Scripture in terms of our hope for the future and our fight for righteousness and justice in the world. It says that the righteous servant of God, he will establish justice in the earth, and he won't grow faint or weary until he has done so.

That's a process. That's a process. No question about that. It says a bruised reed he will not break. A bruised reed he will not break. So this promised Messiah is the one who's going to establish justice in the world, but he is this humble, quiet Messiah.

A bruised reed he will not break. That's already been quoted by Matthew. And now Matthew has you in this moment of the beating of Jesus with the crown of thorns, with the robe of scarlet, and he has in his hand a reed.

They're mocking him. They're mocking him. Rather than this long staff and gold-plated, heavy, beautiful thing that the king would come out with, this scepter, this thing, Jesus is given a reed in his hand, and they beat him with the reed itself, not even understanding what they were trying to do to shame Christ and to mock him was to his glory.

That's the story that God had told about the Messiah. It's a powerful, powerful witness but I want to talk specifically about these colors as we talk about Christ and we proclaim His Gospel and His excellency and supremacy in the world.

I want to just talk about those symbols and that color in Scripture and what it testifies to about the identity of Jesus. Number one, Jesus is sent away with that white robe. Now, this is something that is rich in meaning in the Bible.

So just a smattering of verses here in terms of not allowing a symbol to be abused, but to say how does God talk about this in Scripture? Because a symbol has meaning. God meant something here. It has meaning, but what does it mean according to the Bible?

Couple verses. Luke 9 .29. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face became different, and his clothing became white and gleaming. Mark 9 .3 And his garments became radiant and exceedingly white, and no launderer on earth can whiten them.

So, this is an intensely bright white. In Daniel 7 .9 it says, I kept looking until thrones were set up and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His vesture was like white snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool.

His throne was ablaze with flames. Its wheels were a burning fire. Now from Revelation, but you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.

In Revelation 3 .18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, so that you may become rich, and white garments, so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed.

Revelation 4 .4 Around the throne were 24 thrones, and upon the thrones I said 24 elders sitting clothed in white garments. Clothed in white garments. This testimony goes on and on throughout Scripture.

Revelation 7 .9. After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count from every nation, and all tribes, and peoples, and tongues standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes.

Clothed in white robes. And palm branches were in their hands. Revelation has a lot of this. Revelation 7 .13. Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, These who are clothed in white robes,.

Who are they,.

And where have they come from? On and on, we have in Scripture the testimony to this symbol, the meaning of the white robe and righteousness. But what's important to note.

Is this specifically.

The Messiah who was being presented to Israel had particular marks of His identity.

That they should have been prepared for,.

And they should have noticed. I mean, we've talked many times before, but the fact that the Bible actually tells you the identity of Messiah before He even comes. Isaiah 9, 6 -7.

It's El Gabor.

It's the mighty God. It's the Eternal One who is coming to save His people from their sins and to establish His throne and His kingdom and justice and righteousness forevermore. They should have expected the fact that God Himself was coming as a son and as a child.

His very identity is prophesied in Isaiah itself. They should have recognized the Messiah Himself.

Was of course going to be the one.

Who drew the nations up to God's mountain. He was going to be the one who would bring all tribes, tongues, peoples, and nations to God. They should have recognized that.

Yes, of course,.

But they should have also recognized that the one who was going to have the obedience of the nations, Genesis 49 -10, the one who was going to actually have the offspring of Abraham like the stars and the sand of the sea, this one was also going to be, listen closely, the suffering servants.

But here's what's important. Not just the suffering servants like Israel suffering under persecution though they are not truly righteous, they are sinful. He was going to be the suffering servant who was the actual righteous one, who was suffering for the sins of God's people.

Here's what's clear. Listen close to this. It's very important. Israel is called the servant of God in the Old Testament. Did you know that? Israel is called the servant of God. If you look in the book of Isaiah, you'll see that, that actually God is referring to Israel, the people of God, as the servant of God.

But then all of a sudden you get to a passage like Isaiah 53 and we're talking about a servant of God who doesn't actually resemble Israel in terms of their sinfulness. And I want you to see something.

When Herod tries to mock Jesus and he sends him away to finish this horrible trial in a white robe, he was giving to the world testimony as to who Jesus actually was. In other words, if the Jews were looking with their Bibles, they should have immediately recognized this is Him.

This is Him. This is who we're expecting.

Why?

And I want you to have this in your toolbox. So go to Isaiah 53. It's a passage we've been to many times before, but as we talk about the colors of these robes and the symbolism that is in place in this moment, I want you to see something very important.

It's in Isaiah 53. As you get there, remember that this is revelation from God that was laid down long before Jesus' earthly ministry. This is revelation from God that's given to us centuries and centuries before Jesus comes.