Politicians Then and Now

Andrew Rappaport's Rapp Report

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Schedule your next delivery today at PalmerCast .com. That's PalmerCast .com. On this episode of The Wrap Report, we're going to be looking at a sermon that I delivered to my church,

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Grace and Truth Bible Church in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, looking into Mark 15, verses 1 -15, dealing with the whole thing of Christ and His trial before Pilate.

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A lot of this is very fitting to the way politicians act and behave today.

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And you're going to see that, well, 2 ,000 years, politicians are still politicians. They haven't changed.

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Coming to you now on The Wrap Report. Welcome to The Wrap Report with your host,

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Andrew Rappaport, where we provide biblical interpretation and application. This is a ministry of Striving for Eternity and the

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Christian Podcast Community. For more content or to request a speaker for your church, go to strivingforeternity .org.

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Mark, chapter 15. We have here, as we've been going through our time, we've been looking at the trial of Christ, and we are coming to this point, the end of this week.

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We've been in Mark for several chapters now, looking at this just one week of the life of Christ.

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And again, it's just interesting as you think about the fact of how much of the

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Gospels, when we think about the Gospels, we focus so much of it on just one week time.

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Because it's an important week. If you look at the Gospel of John, almost half of the

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Gospel is on this one week. You think of three years of ministry, and all that could be said during those three years, and so much is devoted to this one week, and even more specifically, the time that we're in right now.

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So if you could turn to Mark, chapter 15, I'm going to read in verses 1 to 15.

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If you wouldn't mind rising out of reverence for the Word of God as we read. This is what

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Mark, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has written. Early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders and the scribes, and the whole council, immediately held a consultation, and binding

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Jesus, they led him away and delivered him to Pilate. Pilate questioned him, are you the king of the

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Jews? And he answered, it is as you say.

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The chief priests began to accuse him harshly. Then Pilate questioned him again, saying, do you not answer?

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See how many charges they bring against you. But Jesus made no further answer.

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So Pilate was amazed. Now at the feast, he used to release for them any one prisoner whom they requested.

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The man Barabbas had been imprisoned with the insurrectionists, who had committed murder in the insurrection.

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And the crowd went up and began asking him, do as he has been accustomed to do for them.

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Pilate answered, saying, do you want me to release for you the king of the

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Jews? For he was aware of the chief priests had handed him over because of envy.

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But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask him to release Barabbas for them instead.

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Answering again, Pilate said to them, then what shall I do with him who you call king of the

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Jews? They shouted back, crucify him. And Pilate said to them, why?

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What evil has he done? But they shouted all the more, crucify him.

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Wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas for them. And after having

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Jesus scourged, he handed him over to be crucified.

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You may be seated. A difficult text, as we're going to be getting into more difficult texts, not as far as the text itself, but just the thought of what had transpired.

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A sobering account. As we look in verse 1, it says,

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Early in the morning the chief priests with the elders and scribes and the whole council immediately held a consultation.

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Now we've already seen as we've discussed this trial that was put on by the

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Jewish leaders. And the illegality of it. Every single thing they did in this trial was illegal.

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It was held at night when courts had to be held during the day. It was held in secret when court was supposed to be in public.

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They used his own words against him, which was against the

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Jewish law. They couldn't get two or three witnesses to agree, and yet still charged him.

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Everything about the case being illegal. One of the other things that many will assume was illegal with it, was that Nicodemus being one of their own, was he part of it?

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Because one of the things with the trials like this was that everyone had to be present. And many think that Nicodemus wouldn't have been there at that point.

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Neither Joseph of Arimathea. So the idea would be is that even that may have been illegal.

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Here you now have, probably at, this is now after Peter has denied Christ. This is probably about 4 or 5 in the morning.

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So you think about this trial that here was the Passover Seder, the

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Passover Festival. The next day is to start the day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

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And so here you have a high and holy time within of Israel, a festival time, where everyone is to come back to Israel.

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For the chief priests and the scribes and Pharisees, these are going to be an important time of worship.

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A lot of activity they have to do. And they are staying up all night for a trial.

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This is now 4 or 5 in the morning. Peter has fled the scene.

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You now have the returning to the incident with the chief priests. And the first thing they want to do to legitimize this whole thing is it's now dawn.

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Okay, now we can quickly assemble another fake trial. They've already made their case. So now what are they going to do?

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They go to do this and they are now going to bring Jesus over to the Romans. Now this just again, as we see, you can go through Scripture, you can go through history, and you will see that the

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Jewish leaders at other times had no problem at all stoning someone to death, charging someone against Roman law.

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Quite interesting because here all of a sudden, at this time, the whole council, they want to do the right thing by Rome.

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All of a sudden they are concerned about Rome. They weren't concerned, if you look in Acts, with Stephen.

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They weren't concerned about bringing Stephen to Rome to be crucified. No, they stoned him right there.

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Some of the same people that are in this council. So why are they doing this?

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They bind Jesus and want to bring him away to Pilate. Well, for a very simple reason that we've already seen, if you remember.

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They were afraid of the people. They want Jesus put to death, but they didn't want Jesus put to death during Passover.

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I mean, they're afraid of what the people may say. But now the opportunity from Judas has offered itself.

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They couldn't wait till after. And so they go through this whole mockery of a trial so that they can get the result they want.

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And what do they end up doing? Well, they want to bring him to Pilate. Because that way, who will get blamed for killing

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Jesus? Well, not them. They just followed the law and brought him to Rome, but Rome found him guilty.

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See, they see an opportunity to have their way of escape with the people and still achieve their end goal.

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You know, anyone following the news, this is not uncommon for us, is it? We see this.

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If you don't believe it, just look at any of the evidence from January 6th of a year ago.

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And you can see very clearly the same pattern, right? A goal that's desired that they have to manufacture a way of making it be.

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But they want to blame those that didn't do wrong instead of looking to those who actually did the wrong.

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Well, that's exactly the case with these Jewish leaders. Politicians are no different. It doesn't matter the generation.

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They want to kill Jesus but not get blamed for it. They want to blame

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Rome. And we'll see that they'll even say, as we're going to see today, they'll say,

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Oh, let it be on us. Let it be on us. It's quite interesting. Growing up Jewish, one of the biggest issues of debate that Jewish people have with Gentiles is who killed

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Jesus. Because even to this day, it's an issue. Because it was something that the reason for the

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Spanish inquisitions was the argument that the Jewish people killed Jesus. And so that was the argument used for war, but it wasn't the real argument for war.

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That's often the case with politicians, right? They put something that's believable by the culture, but it's not the real reason the politicians are doing it.

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They usually are doing it to establish their own power. Exactly what you have with the Pharisees here, because they knew what

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Jesus was teaching was against what they were teaching. And they were afraid of their power base. So as any politician, that's what they're doing.

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The same thing. They're giving something that sounds plausible to the crowd, but it's not the real thing.

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And so Jewish people argue over who killed Jesus because we, as a Jewish person, we always want to say the

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Romans did it. It's something that I remember evangelizing a co -worker who's

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Jewish, and that was a big thing for him. And he was very surprised because most of the answers that Christians will give is, well, the

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Jewish people killed Jesus. Because why? Well, as we're going to see, they offered him up to Pilate. And the Jewish people today would say, well, no, the

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Romans killed Jesus because that's whose hand it was by. What my friend was unexpectedly heard was that I said,

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Jesus killed Jesus. Because that's what Scripture says. Jesus took his own life.

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He allowed it. He gave up his spirit. So is it true that the

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Jews killed Jesus? Well, yes. They had the trial that led him up, and we're going to see that. Was it true that the

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Romans killed Jesus? Well, yes. As we enter into now the Roman trials, we're going to see that, yes, the

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Romans killed Jesus. But Jesus is God. Who really killed

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Jesus? Well, Jesus. And we're going to see that in a week or two.

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And so as we look at this, we see this account. And Mark gives us a condensed version of this.

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It says that they bound Jesus, and they led him away to Pilate.

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Now, entering into Pilate's house, as we're going to see, it's amazing how they're so concerned about law, because they don't want to actually go into Pilate's house, because entering a

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Gentile home would make them unclean for the day that they're about to have of worship and festival for God.

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Offering up an innocent man to death is less on their list of sins than entering a

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Gentile home. Interesting. But let's take a look. If you wouldn't mind turning to John, chapter 18.

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John gives us a more detailed account of events. As I said earlier,

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John is going to go into much more detail. Almost half of the book of John is going to deal with this last week.

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And I want to read to you, starting in verse 28, these accounts that we have similar to, and some more that's added from Matthew 15, 1 -5.

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John 18, 28. He says, Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the

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Petorium, and it was early. And they themselves did not enter the

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Petorium, so they would not be defiled, but might eat the

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Passover. Therefore Pilate went out to them and said,

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What accusation do you bring against this man? They said to him, If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him to you.

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So Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law.

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The Jews answered him, We are not permitted to put anyone to death.

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To fulfill the word of Jesus which he spoke, signifying of what kind of death he was about to die.

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Therefore Pilate entered again into the Petorium and summoned Jesus and said,

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Are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus answered, Are you saying this on your own initiative, or do others tell you about me?

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Pilate answered, I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered you to me.

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What have you done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world.

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If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the

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Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm.

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Therefore Pilate said, So are you a king? Jesus answered, You have said correctly that I am a king.

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For this I have been born. And for this I have come into the world to testify of the truth.

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Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Pilate said to him,

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What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again to the

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Jews and said to them, I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I should release someone for you at Passover.

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Do you wish then that I release for you the king of the Jews? So they cried out saying,

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Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. As we see here in John's account, we have more detail.

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They don't want to enter in because they don't want to defile themselves. It shows you the heart of a prideful politician.

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Because that's really what it is. They're all worried about their power. And they're willing to kill an innocent man and sacrifice his life for the sake of their power.

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They're willing to let someone die. But they want to be seen by the public of standing before them on Passover and being able to be clean and say that they're able to partake of the

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Feast of Unleavened Bread. And we could see this hypocrisy. We see the same hypocrisy today.

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We see it going on right before us. Nothing ever changes. Our culture is not unique.

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Their culture was not unique. This is what prideful men do. People that are concerned only with their own power will act this way over and over again.

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We should not be surprised. This is nothing new in history. And so we see their behavior.

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We see that Pilate is aware. We're going to see this later in the text. He is aware of all the politics of this.

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He knows they're offering Jesus up out of envy. And this is the reason that he's asking.

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He's trying to say, like, what has he done? Now look at the response of the chief priests and Pharisees and the council.

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He's asked, what accusation do you bring against this man? And they answer, if this man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him to you.

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I mean, we said he's bad. Isn't that enough? Like, he doesn't need a trial.

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We said it. Just accept that. Some of you that may ring true to things going on today,

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I know. But the reality is, is this, what's their argument? Their argument is, well, we had this case.

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And though we couldn't find any, we couldn't even get two people to agree with an accusation against them.

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We got to get rid of them. That's not what they're saying. They know they have no answer.

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They know there's nothing they can say to pilot against Jesus. If there was ever anybody that there was nothing you could say, it's

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Jesus. The man who never sinned. What accusation could there ever be?

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None. But interesting, what we see in this text.

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Why are the chief priests bringing Jesus to pilot? Oh, and the chief priests mind, they're doing this because they want to not be blamed by the people.

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But what does the text say? They did this to fulfill what

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Jesus said, by what manner of death he would die. If the

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Jewish people killed him, by what manner would they kill him? By stoning.

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What did Jesus say? That he'd be hung on a tree. What did Isaiah say 750 years before Jesus?

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That he'd hang on a tree. What does Psalm 22 say? A thousand years before Jesus.

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That he'd be lifted up and pierced. Hmm. By the way, those two prophecies were also hundreds of years before anyone even conceived of the idea of crucifixion.

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Think God knew what he was doing. But he's in charge. The Jewish people think that they're taking

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Jesus and they're going to lead him to his death. And the whole time, Jesus is actually the one in charge.

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He's the one orchestrating everything. And they think they're doing it. No. This all occurred because it was to fulfill the manner in which

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Jesus said he would die. As we go back to Mark 15, we see that here

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Pilate asks the question, Are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus says, It is as you say.

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He doesn't deny it. And we saw in John, he says, My kingdom is not of this world. This is not where my kingdom is.

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He said if it was, my servants would be fighting. Well, at that point, Pilate's realizing,

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Okay, you're not claiming you're a king the way the Jewish people are saying you're a king. You're a king of some other kingdom, a spiritual kingdom.

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And he's probably thinking, Yeah, that has nothing to do with Rome. So what does he do?

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As we saw in John, he wants to hand him back to the Jewish people. You do it. This is of your law.

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You take care of it. No, we're not. We're not supposed to do that.

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That's for you. We submit to Rome. All of a sudden, they submit to Rome. Isn't that amazing? Kind of like some politicians today that suddenly, you know, they've been fighting against our

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Constitution at every step. But suddenly, they're all for democracy. It's amazing how they say that publicly as everything they do is to destroy it.

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It is no different than what we have here. We have people who here are sitting there and pretending like,

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Oh, Rome, we can't do that. That's for you. We're just so thankful.

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That's your job, and we submit to what you do. But what ends up happening, we see here in verse 3.

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When Pilate wants to get out of this and hand it over to them, the chief priest began to accuse him harshly.

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And so Pilate is questioning him. Don't you answer? Do you have nothing to say? See how many charges they make against you.

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But Jesus made no further answer. This is interesting in verse 5. So Pilate was amazed.

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You ever think about what is it that amazed Pilate? Well, let's think about it. How do people typically respond when accusations, especially false accusations, are made?

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Didn't do it. Not me. It was that woman you gave me.

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No, it was the snake you gave me. Isn't that exactly what we do? It was from the beginning. Blame shifting is one of the first things that we do.

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But there's three type of reactions that people have when falsely accused.

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And even sometimes we could say when properly accused. You go to a prison. If you do any prison ministry, you'll know that everybody in prison is innocent.

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No one ever did it. It was always someone else or it was the policeman that wanted to blame someone.

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It's never their fault they were innocent. It's amazing. But what you end up seeing is that most people will give a defensive self.

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It's actually what you'll see with a prideful person. That's actually one of the number one ways to identify pride.

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When I look at pride and humility, I often say, how do we best identify? You think about it.

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Humility is a hard thing to be able to identify, isn't it? How do you know when someone's humble? I mean, are they going to be proud of their humility?

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Well, that just defeated it, right? I mean, a humble person doesn't go around praising their humility.

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How do we identify humility? How do we know in our own life that we can look at our life and say, well, I know

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I'm humble? Because if we're thinking we're humble, and I think it was C .S. Lewis that identified 12 or 13 characteristics he really wanted to work on in his life.

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And he started with humility. And he moved on from there. And he got done really feeling like he worked on all of them.

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And at the end of it, he got done. He said, I'm really proud of what I did. And then thought about it that first one and said,

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I guess I failed at the beginning. Humility is very hard. And one of the ways, an objective way

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I tell people of how we see how humble we are is what do we do when someone makes accusation against us?

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How quick are we to defend ourselves? Are we quick to say how right we are and how wrong the world is?

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That's something pride actually does. And so there is a sign where what you'll often find is people, especially picture this case.

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You have an innocent man, and Pilate knows he's innocent. Pilate knows why he's being put there.

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He knows it's just out of envy. He knows that the chief priests are sacrificing him for their own sake, their own power and gain.

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He knows that. And Jesus is silent. Of any time to be arguing for your defense when you're innocent, that would be a time.

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Your life is on the line. And Jesus doesn't answer. Another thing that you see is people who will, when accused, will try to, and I know several of you, we had a conversation yesterday.

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And this is some of these things where I will let you guys know the leaders in your church, not me,

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I'll talk about them. You should be praying for them and very thankful for them. But we have very open, honest discussions in the leadership.

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And so one of the things we talked about is my pretensity to, when an accusation comes against me,

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I tend to try to explain things. And they're helping me to realize that that's not always a good thing.

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That it is something that, you know, in my way of thinking, I just, like for me, I don't think debate's a bad thing because I grew up debating.

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And I think that's good to explain things and iron things out, iron sharpening iron. But it's not always good.

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And so, you know, it's a thing where another way that people will do is to try to explain what the case is.

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And Jesus doesn't do that either. Could Jesus here say, well, Pilate, you have to understand, the chief priests are about to lose their power if I keep preaching.

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And they're worried about that. Could he do that? Yes, very easily.

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Would anything he say be untrue? No, it wouldn't. But instead, what Jesus does is the third way that people can respond to someone, whether it be through prideful defense, through explanation, he chooses the third.

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Says nothing. Think about yourself. Every one of us, I'm sure, someone has made accusation against us at some point in our life.

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Either that or you grew up raised by wolves and didn't have parents who corrected you at any time. But at some point, there was accusation.

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And as kids, we got pretty creative with our explanations, aren't we? As kids,

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I just, it's amazing. I remember with my kids, I was amazed that my kids actually thought I would believe the stories that were told.

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I still remember my son, for those of you who know my son, he grew up with food allergies. So a lot of things he couldn't eat.

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But those were the very things he so wanted to eat. And so he would,

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I still remember that, you know, maybe you as parents have had this where maybe you just worked with kids and they're giving you something you know you should be upset with them over.

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But it's so hard because you also want to laugh. My son, he'd go to church and he'd give candy.

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And one day, I walk in his room and he's putting the draw back in its spot. Suddenly, I realized there's something hidden behind the draw.

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I pull it out and nice and neatly stacked. He has all the candy and sweets and things he's gotten from church.

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And he's storing it all back there. And he's got it hidden. And I'm upset and I'm like, what is this?

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And his answer was, well, I'm doing it for my sister Shannon. For Shannon.

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Yeah, I'm afraid that, you know, what if she gets in trouble one day and you punish her and you tell her to go to bed without any dinner?

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It's there for that so I can give her food. Have I ever sent your sister to bed without dinner?

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No, but you might. Have I ever sent you to bed without dinner? No, but you might. Everything within me wanted to laugh and everything within me said

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I shouldn't. But boy, was it hard. I'm sitting there afterwards. I sat with him.

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I'm like, I got to give him kudos for creativity. You know, I mean, that was a creative one. But isn't this what we do?

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I mean, even when guilty, but Jesus said nothing.

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How hard is that for us to do when wronged? How hard is that for us to sit and do nothing?

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I can tell you being in ministry, there have been several times in my life where I had to sit and do nothing.

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I could tell you it is not an easy thing. It's not easy to have someone out there publicly slandering you.

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You know it's not true. And do nothing. It's not easy.

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And that is why Pilate was so amazed. Because he knows his life is on his line.

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Pilate knows he's innocent. And nothing. Jesus admitted to the crime that would force

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Pilate now. Again, who's really in charge? Jesus.

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Think about this. When we looked at the Jewish trials and they had all these accusations, what did Jesus say? Nothing.

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When they were out of accusations and they asked him, Are you God? What does he say?

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I am. He could have said nothing. And they'd have no accusation.

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But he said the very accusation that under Jewish law would require them to sentence him to death.

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But that's not the charge when it comes to the Romans. Because the Romans aren't going to care if he claims to be God. In fact, we saw in John, he basically was saying he was

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God. He's the king of a different kingdom. They're not worried about that. All of a sudden it's, well he claims to be a king.

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Now remember, at the time, as we saw in the text we're going to get to, there was this insurrection at this time.

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There was this uprising. And so, this at this time, someone claiming to be king with Rome after they had to put down an insurrection, would be a major issue.

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So they say, he claims to be king of the Jews. So Pilate asks, what does he say?

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Yeah, it's as he said. That's the only thing he agreed to. Pilate, to have to put him on trial.

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Who is controlling the show here? It is not the Jewish people, the

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Jewish leaders. It is not the Romans. It is Christ. And Pilate is amazed at his silence.

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Take a look at Luke chapter 23. Some of the parallel passages we have here.

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Luke 23, verse 6 to 12. Some background that we have.

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Now this is not in the text of Mark. So this is kind of between the lines. Some other events in history that Mark chose not to include, but Luke did.

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It says in Luke 23, verse 6, when Pilate heard, so read verse 5, but they kept insisting, he stirs up the people all over Judea, starting from Galilee, even as far as this place.

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So here's Galilee. Oh, Galilee. I'm not in charge of Galilee. I'm in charge of Judah. Someone else is in charge of Galilee.

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That's Herod. So he says to them, now Herod was very glad when he saw

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Jesus. Sorry, I skipped verse 6. So when Pilate heard it, he asked whether he was a

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Galilean, and when he learned that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod.

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And Herod himself also was in Jerusalem at this time. Now Herod would be there for the

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Passover. Herod actually would have been Jewish. But what do you see? You see Pilate trying to hand it off.

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Let me hand this to Herod. This is Herod's problem. Right? That's Herod's area.

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Now Herod was very glad when he saw Jesus, for he had wanted to see him for a long time because he had been hearing about him and was hoping to see some sign performed by him and questioned him at some length, but he answered him nothing.

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And the chief priests and the scribes were standing there accusing him vehemently. And Herod, with all the soldiers, after treated him with contempt and mocking him, dressed him in a gorgeous robe and sent him back to Pilate.

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Now Herod and Pilate became friends with one another that very day, for before they had been enemies with one another.

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Interesting. Enemy of my enemy is my friend. Right? Pilate and Herod didn't get along before this, but suddenly they found a common theme they can agree to.

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So what does Herod do? I'm going to pass him back. They agree that they know what's going on.

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But Herod doesn't want to deal with it either. So he passes it back to Pilate.

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So now Pilate has to deal with it. So what does Pilate do? Pilate comes up with the idea that we see,

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Mark chapter 15 verse 6. Now at the feast he used to release for them, and in the

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American standard, for some reason they added the word any, one person. I'll explain why

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I don't think that should be there. But now at the feast he used to release for them any one person whom they requested.

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The man named Barabbas had been imprisoned with the insurrectionists that had committed murder in the insurrection.

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Right? So what do you have here? The word any, if you see in the American standard, is there in italics.

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It wasn't there in the Greek. The reason I don't like it is because it gives the idea that the

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Jewish people got the choice of who to release. Like all the criminals were lined up and they would get to choose.

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No, this is Pilate that's choosing. So who is Pilate choosing? Pilate is choosing who is the worst criminal that he has sentenced to death.

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Why? He wants the comparison. He knows what's going on. He knows the envy. He knows the people.

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And what he wants is he wants the people to declare Jesus to be set free.

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Because that way he's off the hook too. He wants, he doesn't want to deal with it. It's the, each of them are trying to work a plan out.

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He's trying to get Jesus in it to be released. He doesn't want to be, to be charged with killing an innocent person.

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He knows Jesus is innocent. He wants a way out. We'll get the most notorious.

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And that's the way that Matthew 27, 16 refers to Barabbas, the most notorious prisoner that he has.

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Get this guy who was involved in an insurrection. Now this is not the insurrection that kind of happened on January 6th.

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We're talking about the insurrection that happened for a year and a half before where buildings were actually being burned and guns actually were present and people actually were asking for an overthrow of the government, even taking over cities and saying they're no longer

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U .S. property or the police have no basis. That's the real kind of insurrection.

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Insurrectionism has been redefined these days, but this is an insurrection where murder was committed.

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So it's kind of more like the black lives matter insurrection that was going on for two years. So what do you see?

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You end up seeing here that they, he gets the, what, as all the prisoners, he wants the worst one.

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Why? Very simple. Because he's thinking that people will say, crucify

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Barbara, sorry, Barabbas and let Jesus go. Because Jesus, what did he do wrong?

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Nothing. The people like Jesus just six days prior, what were they doing?

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They were putting palms trees down on the, on the palm leaves on the, on the floor, on the ground, letting him walk in on donkey and singing

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Hosanna. I mean, surely the people are going to cry out for Jesus's release and I will be off the hook.

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I'm sure that's pilots thinking. Now I know so many people take the passage in John when pilot says, what is truth?

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I know so many people that use that to argue for, you know, in apologetics and to argue for, you know, you know, this postmodern thinking and things like that.

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But the reality is what pilot pilots saying there is he knows here.

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They're making claims of truth that he knows are false. And the, and the claim now he's kind of stuck.

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He's, he's tried to hand it off to Herod, hand it, Herod, hands it back to him. He's, he's now going to hand it to the people because he is, he is struggling with this and they're arguing, well, we're saying this guy is so evil.

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That's what's true. By the way, typically when people have to tell you this is the truth, it usually means they're lying, right?

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So, so he's saying, what is truth? You're claiming it's true, but what really is truth?

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Truth is that which purports to reality. And the reality is that they're doing this out of envy. He knows that.

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Now, as he's, as he's doing this, as he prepares to release, we end up seeing it.

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If you want to, if you don't mind, well, I'm going to turn to Matthew 27 just real quickly to read two verses because, again, there's an interlude that explains.

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Now, again, I think that Pilate has come up with a brilliant idea.

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He's, he's kind of stuck. He can't figure his way out of it. How does he deal with this? He figures, okay, we have this custom on Passover to release one person.

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Now, by the way, where does this custom come from? I don't have the time. Unfortunately, I, I wish, but to go into the

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Old Testament, explain the scapegoat. But that's where this custom comes from. At the, at the

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Passover, what you'd have in it or at the day of atonement, what you'd have is you would have the high priest that would have a sheep that would be slaughtered on behalf of all of Israel.

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And one that would be let go. By the way, we still practice that today.

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Many of you probably don't think about it, but every Thanksgiving at the White House, there's one turkey that's let go every year, right?

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That is the idea of the scapegoat. Now, that's not for the atonement of all the people. They do that, I guess, for atonement of all the turkeys.

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I don't know. But what you end up seeing is that this idea of a scapegoat, that there would be one that would, that would escape the punishment and another that would be the sacrifice for all the nation.

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Well, it's interesting that they would institute that on a Passover. And so they institute this.

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And what do we have? We have Jesus who is, you can clearly see as we're going to look at the scapegoat that between Barabbas and Jesus.

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And Pilate probably figures, I got this figured out. This is going to work out great. The people will call for his release, but something happens.

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Matthew 27, verse 19. And let me just read verse 18.

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So it says, speaking of Pilate, for he knew that because of envy they had handed him over.

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And while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message saying, have nothing to do with that righteous man.

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For last night, I suffered greatly in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to put

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Jesus to death. Interesting. Again, who's in control of all this? It's not the

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Jewish leaders. It's not even Pilate. I mean, here his wife distracts him with a message.

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His wife could not sleep all night. Did his wife know somehow of a secret trial that was going on?

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What was going on? She was disturbed in her sleep about Jesus and the mistreatment of Jesus that would happen.

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That was one of the few times that you have a dream that is provided by God. Okay.

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I know that in charismatic circles, everyone has a dream and it's all from God. No, I'm sorry. We see in Scripture, it's not as common as people claim.

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But what do you end up seeing? This one was. What you have is that Pilate's wife is disturbed in her sleep about Jesus.

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And because of that, she sends a message. And what does that do? In God's providence, that distraction allows for the chief priest to run around to all the mob and say, release

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Barabbas. Now, what do you think they probably argued? Well, what is it that most of the people wanted?

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They wanted the freedom from being under Rome's tyranny. And so they're arguing for that.

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They're arguing for, look, Barabbas has already proven himself. He will fight for insurrection.

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He will fight for our freedom from Rome. Can you picture the people getting behind that message?

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This is something about mob mentality. When you have enough people saying the same message, people start to believe it.

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And even go for that and cheer for that. And that's what mob mentality is. And so what do they do?

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They get the mob on their side. Cheering for Barabbas because he's a proven insurrectionist.

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He's proven he will take over and help to get rid of Rome. And yet, that was

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God's providence of a distraction. Because that was what

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God wanted. Because Jesus would act as that scapegoat. If you turn to John chapter 19 again, just for a moment.

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John 19, verse 7 to 16, where it says,

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John 19, 7, the Jews answered. We have a law. this is what we don't see in Matthew's account.

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Because they're calling crucify him, crucify him. So you see now the Jewish leaders, they got the mob going.

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They got everyone yelling, crucify Jesus. Give us Barabbas. And the

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Jews answered, we have a law. And that law, he ought to die.

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And he made himself out to be God. Now stop right there and think about this.

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What do they revert back to now? Because they have the Jewish mob, they're trying to keep them, the mob on their side.

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They're no longer worried about Pilate right now. He had to die by our law. See where it's the

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Jewish nation being, we're not being permitted to kill someone who's violating our law.

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You have to do this. Again, getting people, Barabbas is our guy. He'll fight for us.

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Verse 8, Therefore when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid.

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Because now he knows the real reason that they want to have him killed. Not because he's a political threat, but because he claims to be

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God. And he was so silent at the inquisition that he had with Pilate.

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Verse 9, And he entered into the Petorium again and said to Jesus, where are you from?

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And he gave him no answer. Now this is not where are you from asking, are you from Galilee? This is where are you from, you've said you're from a different realm.

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They're calling you God. You've done miracles. Herod couldn't wait to see you do something special.

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Is this true? Are you really God? Right? so Pilate said to him, do you not speak to me?

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Do you not know that I have authority to release you and I have authority to crucify you?

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And Jesus answered, you would have no authority over me unless it had been given to you from above.

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For this reason, he who delivered me to you has the greater sin.

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As a result, Pilate made efforts to release him. But the Jews kept shouting, if you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar.

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Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar. Oh, now they got, suddenly when they got to get

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Pilate on their side again, now, oh, he's a king. And they can't even keep the charge straight.

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Is it that he's God or is it that he's king? Make up your mind. Right? When they want the people, it's, he's blasphemous.

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When it's for, you know, for Pilate, oh, he claims to be a king. You're not a friend of Caesar's.

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Now again, who's in charge? Verse 11, you would have no authority.

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Jesus is saying, he's in charge here. He's the one in charge.

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But you know something? Even at this moment, I don't want us to overlook something. It's so easy to overlook.

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Look at verse 11. Jesus answered him, you would have no authority over me unless it was a given from above.

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So he's clearly stating there, that God is the one that's doing this. God is orchestrating this.

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God is letting this happen. Does Pilate want to go through with this? Absolutely not. So what does Jesus say?

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Look at the rest of verse 11. For this reason, he who delivered me to you has the greater sin.

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What's he doing? Even at a moment like this, he is trying to comfort Pilate.

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Is that not amazing? Here he is being charged wrongly.

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He has been put on trial illegally. He is being sentenced to death. Being offered up to the people as a scapegoat.

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Where they are going to have Barabbas. Pilate wants him to be released and for Jesus to be the scapegoat.

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But the people are calling for Barabbas. And he is comforting Pilate. Interesting.

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By the way, history records that Pilate never recovered from this event. He ended up going insane.

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Losing his role just a few years after. And many historians think he never recovered from this very event.

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Jesus would have known that. And what's he saying? It's those people that delivered me to you, they have the greater sin.

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Even at a moment like this, he is concerned with comforting Pilate. Amazing.

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I have to admit, if I was in this situation, comforting Pilate would probably never come anywhere near my mind.

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It would probably never be a thought in my mind for a thousand years. But Jesus is concerned with comforting the one that is going to sentence him to death.

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Why? Because he is in charge. He wants to make sure Pilate goes through with this.

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We end up seeing, as we return to Mark 15, as the crowd goes up, this is verse 8, the crowd went up and began to ask him to do as they've accustomed.

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Pilate asked them, do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews? And why is he worded that way? He knows exactly why.

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He's trying to make the contrast. He knows what's happening, right? Here you got a guy, he's the king of the

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Jews. I mean, that should be good. Better than someone that's just an insurrectionist.

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I mean, this guy claims to be king. I mean, he words it that way. He's trying everything.

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What do the people do? Verse 12, answering Pilate, they said to him, or they call for Barabbas' release.

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They say, so Pilate's answering them. Pilate said to them, then what shall I do with him who is called king of the

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Jews? And they shouted back, crucify him. Amazing.

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The very people that said Hosanna just a week before. Pilate trying to get out of this.

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His plan to release Jesus, his last attempt has failed. So he's pleading with the people.

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Verse 14, Pilate said to them, why? What evil has he done?

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But they shout out all the more, crucify him. I mean, this is mob mentality.

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People are no longer thinking. People give up all logic. You go, come on, that can't really happen.

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Really? Really? Try going and getting healthcare nowadays if you're not vaccinated.

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Really? People are not going to just give up all reason? No. This is what happens in mob mentality.

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It's just, this must be, crucify him. We thought he would come in as king, but he didn't come in king the way we thought.

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So we'll go with Barabbas. Crucify the one we called

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God just six days ago. Pilate's hands are tied.

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Wishing to satisfy the crowd. Barabbas, Pilate released

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Barabbas. Now look at Matthew's account real quick. I know I'm making you flip back and forth, but there's just so much that we see when we have to look at all the accounts here.

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Because there's just some that the other authors have brought up. We could see, you know, the account,

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Matthew 27. And let's look at, we'll start in verse 23.

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And he said, why, what evil has he done? But they kept crying out saying, crucify him.

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When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water, washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying,

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I am innocent of this man's blood. See to it yourselves. And all the people said, this, his blood shall be on us and on our children.

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And then he released Barabbas to them. But having Jesus scourged, he handed him over to be crucified.

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What do you have? You have, he realized he can't get out of this. There's a riot getting started.

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And Pilate knows that he just had to put down an insurrection and got in trouble. If there's another insurrection, if there's another riot, they're charging him with not being friends of Caesar.

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Well, there's a reason there's that charge. Because in the insurrection, that was the charge against Pilate.

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Pilate was already in trouble with Caesar. He already had a count against him. Another, he would lose his position.

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A riot is beginning to start. What is he going to do? He has no other choice. He sees he's got no choices.

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It says in Matthew, he's, he realizes he's to satisfy the crowd. He washes his hands of it.

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I'm done with this. It's for you. And what do they cry? It's on us and our children. It's, it's on us.

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It's on us. How soon they forget. Because what is it that, when you see, when you look in Acts with Stephen, at Stephen's martyrdom, when

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Stephen is sitting there, in Acts chapter 7, and he's giving a defense, and he's, he's at the end of the defense.

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He's going through all the history. And he ends up, as we look,

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I'll start in verse 51. You men, who are stiff -necked and uncircumcised in the Holy Spirit, resisting the

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Holy Spirit, you are doing just as your fathers. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?

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They killed those, and had previously announced the coming of the righteous one, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.

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You who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.

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What's his accusation? Well, the fathers have always killed the prophets. The prophets who told of the righteous one.

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And what does he say about them? And you are the ones that are doing the same, and killing that righteous one.

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Right? Some of these men, who are there with Stephen, are the very same men that we're reading about, that got the whole crowd together to cheer, crucify him, crucify him, release to us

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Barabbas. And it says now, when they heard this, when they heard that, they were cut to the quick, and began gnashing their teeth at him.

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But being full of the Holy Spirit, he just gazes into heaven. What is it that they're upset with?

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They're upset with the accusation that he would say they actually killed

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Jesus. And they're going to stone him for it, because they want to deny that.

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Jesus will be crucified. He's being handed over. And he will be crucified, and we'll be looking at that in the next couple of weeks.

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But have no doubt who was in charge of this whole thing. It was not the Jewish leaders.

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It was not the Romans. Christ is in charge of all of this. He is orchestrating all of it.

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He is in charge of all of it, because now that it is him and Barabbas, Barabbas, the most notorious and wicked criminal that they had at the time, acts as the scapegoat.

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And the one who is most innocent, more than any other man could ever claim, the only truly innocent man, will act as the sacrifice.

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We'll see the sacrifice he made in the weeks to come. But the point to note is that God was in charge of this.

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God was orchestrating this. This was all for God's sovereign plan. Let's pray.

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Heavenly Father, we come before you, and it is hard, very hard to think about what you went through on that cross.

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It is hard to think about what transpired on that cross, knowing you did that for us.

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We're so unworthy. It is us that the crouched crowd should cheer, crucify, crucify.

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Never you. And yet you orchestrated all this so that you would be the punishment that we deserve.

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Lord, we live in a wicked culture because they do not know you and do not love you and do not want to glorify you.

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But no different than any other culture that has done the same. Lord, we're amazed that you could be falsely charged and be silent.

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And even to be concerned to give comfort to those who will sentence you to death.

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It is an amazing example for us to try to follow, Lord. We get upset with people that do the smallest of things to us and don't want to forgive.

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And yet you call us to be like you. Lord, help us.

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Work within us so that we we would be your children. We would act like you.

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When we're accused, may we act like you. When we see a world that is turning against you, may we act like you.

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For Lord, truly between Barabbas and Jesus, we see what is happening so much in Christian culture today.

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So many in the crowd are calling for Barabbas' release because they want a release from tyranny.

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And they're not focused on you for the eternal life you could give. Many, especially in America, many that profess your name,

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Lord, in America, are calling for Barabbas over Jesus because they want the temporal overthrow of tyranny rather than the eternal overthrow.

01:00:01

Lord, may we look to you. In Christ's name, amen.

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