Christ, Our Substitute

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July 23, 2023| Shayne Poirier on Mark 15:1-20

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This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.
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Today we're looking now at the opening verses in Mark chapter 15, verses 1 through 20.
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And I've done it a few times here recently. I want to begin our time again today by looking at a quote.
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In this instance, at least an unfriendly quote, perhaps towards what we would normally view as being orthodox and true and right.
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And it's a quote from an author named Brian Zond. He's the founder and lead pastor of a church called the
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Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri. He's perhaps best known in his circles for writing a book called
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Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God. Now right from the title you might begin to grasp that he might not be fond of some of the same doctrines that we are fond of.
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Perhaps a doctrine like penal substitutionary atonement. But he's quoted as saying this.
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He says, particularly abhorrent is the penal substitutionary theory of atonement.
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It turns the father of Jesus into a pagan deity who can only be placated by the barbarism of child sacrifice.
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Now tell us how you really feel, Mr. Zond. But what Peter goes on to do here, or Brian Zond, excuse me, is to lay out a case against penal substitutionary atonement.
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He is no friend of the idea that Christ went to the cross as a substitute to pay the penalty for man's sin.
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He would go so far as to say, and this is a bit of a paraphrase of what he has said, that the God of penal substitutionary atonement, who is mollified, that's his word, not mine, think of Moloch, who is mollified by his son being nailed to a tree, is like a
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God who is mollified by a virgin being thrown into a volcano. And he likens such an
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Abba father to a cosmic child abuser, a maniacal bloodthirsty beast who deserves no worship from God's people.
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Now we might listen to this and nod our heads and agree that this sounds rather radical, at least from the perspective that many of us would take.
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But I believe that more and more, this doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement is coming under increased attacks, both from theologically liberal camps where we might expect it to appear, but also in so -called conservative churches in the broader
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Christian community. Just a few weeks ago, you might remember, I alluded to a story of a brother, a dear brother of mine, who for many years
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I enjoyed sweet Christian fellowship with, and we would go to White Avenue together.
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And he devoted much of his life, at least for the last decade or so, to preaching the gospel of Christ dying on the cross for sinners.
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Here on the street corners in Edmonton. And then he traveled down through the United States, and then eventually into Mexico, preaching that Christ died for sinners.
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And then just a few years ago, we had a conversation, and he said to me that he no longer believed that, but that he held to a different view, that certainly
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Christ did die, but not to take man's penalty for sin, not to absorb the wrath of God on man's behalf.
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A man who seemed to love the gospel more than most people that I had ever met had abandoned the core message of the gospel after just a few months of research on the internet.
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Now, this brother, I hope and pray to God that he is a believer still, despite his gross error.
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But this is happening more and more and more amongst professing
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Christians in the world. And in the place of penal substitutionary atonement, we've seen a number of new theories that have popped up.
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Now, normally in an introduction, you don't introduce a whole bunch of new information, but as I introduce our topic today, we'll look at them just for a moment, so we can begin to grasp the layout of the land.
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Perhaps most popular in the so -called Christian world is the theory of Christus Victor, a theory that has been favored by many
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Eastern Orthodox churches. And it relies heavily on passages like Colossians 2 and verse 15.
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If you're taking notes, I'm going to list off a bunch of these. Where it says that Christ disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.
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And what Christus Victor teaches, instead of penal substitutionary atonement, is that Christ triumphed over everything that stands in man's way from being one with God.
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So it's an alternate view of the atonement. Another popular view that I visited a couple weeks ago was the ransom theory of atonement.
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And this is closely related to Christus Victor. Many Christus Victor believers would also believe in the ransom theory.
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And what they believe is that Jesus Christ died as a ransom sacrifice to pay off Satan.
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To pay Satan and to buy Christians back from the devil. Now some of you might be wide -eyed at that notion, but this is a very popular belief, supported by and encouraged and promoted by mainstream thinkers.
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C .S. Lewis, for instance. I love the Chronicles of Narnia, but C .S. Lewis was a subscriber to the ransom theory.
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And that's why if you've ever seen The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the noble lion
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Aslan dies not to placate himself, but to pay off the white witch in place of the devil.
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To pay a ransom for one who had sinned. So we have
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Christus Victor. We have the ransom theory. Also in the world today, increasing in strength, is the moral influence theory.
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And that probably is exactly as it sounds. That Christ came to this world not to die for sinners.
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Not even necessarily to go to the cross, but to be an example for us to follow.
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A moral example. And the call of the Christian is not to believe on Christ, but to simply live in the same way that Christ lived on their quest for eternal life.
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And then lastly, and perhaps most subtly, there are theories like the governmental theory.
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And this theory, which has been historically held by Methodists, a now largely liberal denomination, appears to be very close to penal substitutionary atonement, but is altogether different.
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Like looking at two cities on a map. They're only inches apart, but in reality they're a thousand miles away from each other.
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And the idea of the governmental theory is that when Christ went to the cross, he died to demonstrate
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God's wrath for sin, but not necessarily to pay for God's wrath for sin.
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You can hear that. It sounds close, but it's very different. To put it another way, Christ suffered a punishment for sin, but not your punishment for sin.
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That is the governmental theory. And perhaps at this point, already some of you, your heads are spinning.
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You might even be asking, what is penal substitutionary atonement? What are we comparing all these ideas to?
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And I think that demonstrates an important point, that with all of these theories floating around, and with greater and greater attacks on the doctrine of the penal substitutionary death of Christ, even being embraced by big names and featured in books and Hollywood movies, many of us might be left asking, which theory are we to believe?
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Are all theories created equal? Is penal substitutionary atonement, what we teach in this church, what
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I am going to lay forward for us today, is it in fact true? Is it true beyond the shadow of a doubt?
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Can we bet our eternity on it? Or is it just another theory in a buffet of theories?
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And we can pick and choose the ones that we like and sound good, and if you like penal substitutionary atonement, you can pick that one too.
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Today our passage is going to answer that question, fully and finally.
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What was Christ doing, brothers and sisters, when he went to that cross?
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In my hope and my prayer, I think it's the hope and prayer of every preacher, when they get behind the pulpit and open their
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Bible, is that you brothers and sisters would be enriched and encouraged by the truth of the
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Gospel, that you would see Christ. And so as we work our way through, ask yourself, is this the
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Gospel? And do I believe it? And we'll get to the end, what that means for you.
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So join with me, let's turn to Mark chapter 15, and we're going to read verses 1 through 5.
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And we read this, this is God's holy word. And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and they bound
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Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. And Pilate asked him, are you the king of the
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Jews? And he answered him, you have said so. And the chief priests accused him of many things, and Pilate again asked him, have you no answer to make?
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See how many charges they bring against you. But Jesus made no further answer.
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So the Pilate was amazed. Today I've broken up this particular sermon and study into three different sections.
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Sometimes I will give you points of application as the titles, but we're actually going to look at the features of each of these sections.
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And so the first section that we're going to look at, and I've maybe like a good
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Baptist preacher, I've alliterated today. We're going to look at the praetorium, the pardon, and the penal substitute.
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We're first going to look at the praetorium. But to frame our text.
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Last week, you'll remember that we heard the torment that Jesus Christ endured at the hands of the
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Sanhedrin, at the residence of the high priest, whose name is Caiaphas. And this week, as we begin chapter 15, we're returning to that scene.
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The night now has passed. The rooster has crowed, and it's now Friday morning. If you're reading in the NIV, you'll read that it says very early in the morning.
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I think that's an accurate translation. It was probably five or six in the morning, right at dawn, on the very first Good Friday.
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And this, for some of us, ought to come with a sense of realization that we have been, for the entire duration of the
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Gospel of Mark, working our way towards this cataclysmic
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Friday in the life of Jesus Christ. The day has finally arrived for the most solemn of Fridays to appear.
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And verse one tells us that the Sanhedrin held one final consultation before they delivered
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Christ over to the Romans. As we look at this, the scene now seems far more subdued.
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Far more subdued than earlier, when the guards and the surrounding crowds were doing everything they could to restrain themselves from tearing
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Christ limb from limb. But now, from an objective standpoint, this is the last opportunity.
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Imagine if you were a member of the Sanhedrin for a second. This is the Sanhedrin's last opportunity to act in a circumspect and a righteous way.
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A crossroads has been set before them. The most important decision of their life awaits them right here, right now.
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They can release Christ, or they can go ahead with their diabolical plan to deliver the only eternal
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Son of God over to a Roman cross. And verse one tells us exactly what they did.
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Their minds were made up. They will stay the course. And in verse two, we're told that this wretched council of so -called righteous men bound
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Jesus and delivered him over to Pilate. Now, the mention of Pilate gives us the opportunity to better appreciate the historical and the geopolitical dynamics that were at play.
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And to understand the identity of those who were sent, or who sent, excuse me,
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Jesus Christ to the cross on that Good Friday. And you know me. I'm a lover of good history.
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And I think that it helps us to understand the players of this story and understand what it is that this passage is trying to tell us.
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Now, many of us, when we picture Christ being taken to the praetorium, picture
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Christ being taken to Pilate's mansion or palace somewhere in Jerusalem.
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But what we can tell is from our archeological excavations and from further studies that that's probably not the case.
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But in fact, that Pilate would be visiting Jerusalem from his home in Caesarea Maritima and would be staying in Herod's palace.
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And if we remember back a number of weeks now, ago, you'll remember that we talked about the prowess, the engineering prowess of Herod the
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Great, Herod Antipas' father. And so just before Christ was born, Herod Antipas had made this massive palace on the west wall of Jerusalem.
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It had a massive footprint. The footprint itself was over 1 ,000 feet long.
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It was like a small city with its own theaters, its own canal system, even its own praetorium.
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And the praetorium on this palace ground or in this palace compound was often where the
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Roman governor would stay. And so it was here that the Sanhedrin escorted
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Christ. And as I pointed out over and over again, maybe you're getting sick of hearing it, but I'm trying to make an important point here.
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Brothers and sisters, we can go to Israel today and we can see that palace with our own eyes. And we can walk through some of the excavated halls of that palace.
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This is a historical fact that Christ went to this place. The historical
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Jesus went to this palace to be sentenced to death. And it was here that Christ was escorted to the
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Roman governor Pontius Pilate. Now again, many atheists and many skeptics, how many people have you come into contact with who say, well, everything in the
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Bible is made up. The Bible is a lie. It's full of falsehoods. It's full of errors. Well, there were many people for decades who said that there is no way that Jesus Christ went to the cross because the so -called man that he went to,
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Pontius Pilate, never actually existed. And they denied any claim or any,
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I guess, supposition, any suggestion is a better word, that Pontius Pilate ever existed.
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And they demanded how could Christ have been crucified if he didn't exist. And they were rather smug in their demands.
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That wasn't until 1961. In 1961, as there were excavations happening in Caesarea Maritima, they discovered a
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Latin inscription that spoke of the Praefectus Pontius Pilate.
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And as I mentioned just a moment ago, it turns out that's where Pontius Pilate's home was, in Caesarea Maritima.
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And in the years that followed, we came to learn a great deal more about this man, Pontius Pilate. It turns out in fact that Pontius Pilate was the fifth
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Roman governor over Palestine and in fact had the longest tenure of any of those
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Roman governors. He served from AD 26 to AD 37 as the
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Roman governor in charge of Judea. And I could certainly say a great deal about Pontius Pilate.
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He's a fascinating character, but I want to limit my comments to just a few observations.
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Pilate's reign, if you're writing notes, another alliteration. I guess I was just full of alliterations this week.
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Pilate's reign could best be described by two words, both starting with the letter C. Cruel and compromised.
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Cruel and compromised. The Hellenistic Jewish philosopher Philo, a Greek -speaking
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Jew, he said that Pilate was an inflexible, stubborn, and cruel man.
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But he also had a long history of buckling under the pressure and compromising when it best served his own interests.
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So for instance, if we were to go just a few years before this encounter in Mark chapter 15, it was seven years actually before Christ stood before Pontius Pilate.
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Pilate got himself into hot water when he decided that he wanted to violate some of the norms of the
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Jewish people in Jerusalem. The Jews, as you might know, had a strict ban against any kind of image or statue in their presence.
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But Pontius Pilate, wanting to ingratiate himself with Rome, took the liberty of taking a bunch of the statues of the emperor and placing them throughout
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Jerusalem, thinking surely this would win him points with his boss. But instead what happened was the
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Jews were so distraught, so upset about him violating their laws about images, that they marched 120 kilometers from Jerusalem to Caesarea Maritima to stage a nonviolent protest.
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And if you remember from the images on the news from a year and a half ago, when the trucker convoy went into Ottawa and set up camp in front of the parliament building, it was much like that.
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Only all the Jews, a mass of Jews, went to Caesarea Philippi and set up camps in front of Pontius Pilate's home.
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And there, in a nonviolent way, made a ruckus for five days. And after five days,
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Pontius Pilate was so fed up with the whole scene that he ordered his soldiers to go and to just slay all of the
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Jews. But the Jews, because they cared more about their law than about death, exposed their throats, they lifted their chins, and they welcomed
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Pontius Pilate and his soldiers and said, you can kill us before we will put away with this idea of you having statues in Jerusalem.
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And Pontius Pilate buckled under the pressure. He compromised. He had no moral standards.
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He had no objective moral standard to hold himself to, and so when the going got tough, he folded under the pressure.
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Just a few years after that, Pontius Pilate robbed the temple treasury.
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You'll remember the treasury that was in the temple where the widow put her mite.
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He robbed the temple treasury to pay for an almost 40 kilometer aqueduct through Israel into the city of Jerusalem.
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And the Jews were livid about the whole thought that he would use God's money to fund a public project.
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But this time, Pontius Pilate had learned his lesson. He knew how stubborn the Jews were.
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And so in an extreme act of cowardice, he had his soldiers dress as Jews and mingle about the people.
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And as the people discovered what he had done and started to raise alarm about the issue, these disguised mercenaries took out clubs and beat the
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Jews to death. Now many of those who didn't die from clubbing were died from being trampled over as men and women, unarmed men and women, ran for their lives.
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Pontius Pilate was a cruel, cowardly man. And eventually, due to his antics, he was stripped of his post as governor and exiled to Vienna, France.
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So this was the man that Christ was handed over to. And as Christ stood before Pilate, he was asked, are you the king of the
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Jews? This was the charge against Christ.
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Sedition, treason. In verse two, Christ offers a cryptic response.
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I'm sure some of us wish that Christ would have just said, yes, I am. I am
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Jesus Christ, God incarnate. We would have a perfect text to run to when the Jehovah's Witnesses came to our house the next day.
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If he had just answered, yes, I am. I am this, I am this, I am this, and I am this.
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But instead, Christ gives us this cryptic response. It's not an affirmation.
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It's not a denial. But instead, it's an invitation. Christ's life and ministry speaks for itself.
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And each individual must answer that question for himself. If you're prepared to see it, you know the right answer.
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And so with that, Christ remains silent. And other books tell us all the charges that were brought against Christ, charges of blasphemy and of treason and all kinds of trumped up charges were read.
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And to Pilate's great amazement, Christ accepted his fate and remained perfectly silent.
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Now it begs the question, Christian, brother or sister, what are we to do with this scene?
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Why did the Holy Spirit see fit to include these verses in Christ's passion narrative?
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Why not take us just directly from the upper room in Caiaphas's home to the cross?
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I think it is because in this scene, we are afforded the opportunity to see and to rejoice in and to worship
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Christ, Jesus Christ, for his unflinching faithfulness, for his unparalleled righteousness.
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I think it's here that we get to see the righteous Christ standing for what is good, standing for what is true in the face of difficulty.
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And I think we see that. And that's one of the themes that we're to come out with because here we see a picture of two royals as one final reminder of Christ's impeccable innocence.
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We have the governor, Pilate in his praetorium, a picture of cruelty and compromise as one commentator puts it, like Herod Antipas when his hand was forced to behead
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John, Pilate stands as an impotent potentate, a slave to sin and a slave to the praise or the acceptance of fallen man.
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And in front of that royal figure, in front of that governor, we have
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Christ the King, Christ the true King of the Jews in his humiliation, a picture of strong and silent resolve, of absolute obedience, the suffering servant of God who came not to give in to the dictates of fallen man, but to save fallen man.
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And so in perfect lockstep with Isaiah 53, Christ remains silent. We read that passage last week.
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I'm not gonna revisit it again. But in the context of Isaiah 53, 7, where Christ like a lamb who is led to the slaughter does not open his mouth, we find a complete picture of penal substitutionary atonement.
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Now what is penal substitutionary atonement? That Christ went to the cross to pay our penalty on our behalf as our substitute, as a vicarious sacrifice.
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And we see that in the context of this Christ remaining silent in Isaiah 53. In Isaiah 53, 11,
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I could quote the whole chapter. I think many of us have read Isaiah 53 and just been blown away by the accuracy of every prophecy as it works its way through.
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But Isaiah 53, 11 says, out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied.
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By his knowledge, shall the righteous one, my servant, hear this. This is double imputation.
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My servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
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Christ went to the cross to bear the sins of men, and in so doing, make sinful men righteous.
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You can almost hear the words of Peter echoing that passage in 1
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Peter 3, 18, where he says, For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.
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And what a righteousness it is, brothers and sisters, if only we could appreciate the active obedience of Christ.
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None of us have ever known righteousness like that. I'm sure there are many of us who we've had an encounter with a man or a woman, and we were just so impressed with their godliness that it left a lasting impression.
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I can think of a number of brothers that I have met. I think of brothers because I'm a man, so no offense, ladies.
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But I can think of a number of brothers who I have met, and I see the way that they read their Bibles, and I see the way that they love their wives, or are pure and faithful in their singleness, who seek the
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Lord in prayer, who are a man of character. It just pours out, even in their speech and in their manner of speech, that these are godly men.
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And I think when I've encountered a man like that, I think, I want to be a more godly man still.
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There is a higher level than what I have experienced, than to what I have attained.
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And brothers and sisters, that doesn't hold a match to the righteousness of Christ. If we were to be, just for a moment, in the presence of Christ, and to experience what it looked like to fulfill all righteousness.
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Even as Christ stood on the steps of that praetorium, we see him in all of his resplendent uprightness and virtue.
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It reminds me of a story in Martin Luther's household. I just realized, actually, I have a couple
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Martin Luther stories today. But in Martin Luther's household, children, think of this.
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Picture family worship in your home. Nope, nope, nope. Actually, that's the other account. Don't picture family worship yet.
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Martin Luther gave, perhaps, the shortest eulogy that has ever been spoken at a funeral.
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We know what funerals are like, as people gather. And sometimes there's the long, drawn -out eulogies, and you wish the people would just stop already.
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And Martin Luther ascended the steps to the platform. As it came time for him to pronounce the eulogy, he said this.
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He said, What we preached. It was about a man named Nicholas Houseman, who died in 1522.
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He said, What we preached, he lived. What we preached,
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Nicholas Houseman lived. Now, I don't know much about Nicholas Houseman. I trust that he was a faithful and God -fearing man.
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And I trust that because he was a faithful and God -fearing man, he would probably agree with me that such words could never be spoken of, or could never be spoken in reference to a man.
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But only Jesus Christ. That what we preach every Sunday, and what you read in your
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Bibles every day of the week, there's only one who has ever fulfilled that perfectly.
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And his name is Jesus. Jesus Christ. Believer, hear this with me.
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Christ came to take our sin upon himself. But more than that, he came in order that that righteousness of Jesus Christ, that we have never fully known, never fully experienced, would be imputed to us through faith in him.
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And if you're a believer in Christ, you stand now, not before Pontius Pilate, but before the living
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God, clothed in, as we were just singing, the radiant robes of Jesus Christ's righteousness.
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Now there's far more to say, but we're going to look at a vivid picture of that reality here in our next passage.
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And so let's read verses 6 through 15. Mark 15, verse 6.
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Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner, for whom they asked.
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And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas.
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And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. And he answered them saying, do you want me to release for you the king of the
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Jews? For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up.
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And the chief priest stirred up the crowd to have him released for them Barabbas instead.
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And Pilate again asked them, then what shall I do with the man you call the king of the
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Jews? And they cried out again, crucify him. And Pilate said to him, why?
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What evil has he done? But they shouted all the more, crucify him.
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So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas. And having scourged
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Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. So we've looked at the praetorium and Pilate and the contrast between Christ and Pilate.
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Now I want us to look next at what we're calling the pardon. Here we see just from this opening scene that the
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Pilate had nearly limitless authority as the governor of Judea. Imagine having that power legally to save one person and to kill another, almost as if it were on a whim.
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And knowing that the Jews had delivered Christ, at least we can give Pilate credit for this. Knowing that the
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Jews had delivered Christ to him out of envy, that is because they were jealous of his success,
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Pilate offers to release Christ as part of this custom that had been established at the
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Passover. And we can see that custom laid out fully right then and there, that each
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Passover, the Roman governor would allow one criminal. This still happens today, as bad as it sounds.
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One criminal to go free, to have amnesty based on popular opinion, based on who the people wanted out first.
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And verse 14 makes clear that Christ had committed no evil worthy of death and Pilate knew that.
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And so here Pilate puts Christ forward as that person. But again, at this opportunity to release
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Christ, verse 11 tells us the chief priests stirred up the crowd. That word to stir up the crowd could also be translated.
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They began to start a riot. So the people cried out for Barabbas to be released.
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And the way that Mark speaks about Barabbas in verse seven conveys something about this man. Who is this man
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Barabbas? We don't know much about him. Some textual variants in Matthew tell us that his first name was
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Jesus. We don't know that for certain, but perhaps it was Jesus Barabbas.
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What we do know is that he was guilty of committing murder. According to God's law, he deserved the death sentence for murder.
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But Mark tells us a little bit more than that, that he was not only guilty of murder, but he was guilty of murder. And see the words that Mark uses in verse seven.
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Guilty of murder in the insurrection. He doesn't even have to tell his readers what insurrection it was.
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Apparently this insurrection was so significant that it could simply be called the insurrection. Kind of like if you're watching
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CNN, I don't know how many people here watch CNN on the weekends, but if you're watching CNN and they referenced
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January 6th, you don't need any more information. You know exactly what they are talking about.
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Well here Mark is talking about the insurrection. And it was Barabbas who was guilty of murder in this insurrection.
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So here the crowds have this opportunity before them. And what have we learned about crowds so far in the
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Gospel of Mark? They almost always get it wrong. And so with the influence of the high priests, they call out for Barabbas to be released.
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This violent, treasonous murderer to be released instead of the righteous
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Christ. And there's an important detail here that's essential for us to note if we're going to understand the imagery of this well.
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There is an image, there is an illustration here in Mark chapter 15 that we're meant to see.
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And a lot of it has to do or can even be explained by looking at Barabbas in terms of his name.
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If you're familiar with Hebrew and Aramaic names, I'm not sure how many people are here that are familiar with Hebrew and Aramaic names, but the word bar means what?
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Does anyone know? Bar. Think Simon Bar -Jonah. Son. The word bar means son.
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And think brothers and sisters, when Christ was in the garden and he called out Abba, Father. We see here
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Bar, Abbas. It simply means the son of the father.
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Now, why is that at all significant that a man named the son of the father would be released while Christ himself is condemned to death?
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Standing before the crowd are two sons. Perhaps if Matthew's variant is right, two
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Jesuses standing before the crowd. One is Jesus Christ, the son of God.
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And the other is Barabbas, Jesus Barabbas, the son of his father,
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Adam. One of them must die and one of them must be set free.
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And at the encouragement of the chief priest, the crowds again cries out for the crucifixion of the son of God, to the full and absolute pardon of the son of Adam.
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The innocent son of God is condemned as a penal substitute for the guilt of the son of Adam.
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I don't know if you see where I'm going here yet. The son of Adam who is released to enjoy a new life of freedom at Jesus Christ's expense.
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One commentator says, just to lean on someone else so you know I'm not being novel here. It is not difficult to see in this prisoner exchange a reflection of the substitutionary nature of Christ's atonement.
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Substitutionary nature of Christ's atonement. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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Here we see brothers and sisters, the son of Adam exchanged for the son of God as a penal substitute.
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Brethren, why again did God the Holy Spirit include this account in Scripture for all of us to see?
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I think it is because he wanted to showcase the great exchange that took place when
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Christ went to the cross that Friday morning outside of Jerusalem. From Barabbas's standpoint, think about it if you're
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Barabbas. From Barabbas's standpoint, it probably seemed too good to be true. That you should be found guilty of convicted, a convicted criminal, guilty of insurrection and murder, set free because another man was condemned in your place.
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But it was true. Absolutely true. Even though he was a murderous traitor, a sinner worthy of the swiftest and the most just of executions.
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Christ was condemned in his place and Barabbas was pardoned.
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Now did Barabbas deserve it? Absolutely not. But that did not make it any less true.
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As he felt the shackles, again, put yourself in Barabbas's position, as he felt the shackles fall from his wrists and as he walked out into Jerusalem under the blue sky, breathing the fresh air of the morning as a free man, just because it seemed too good to be true didn't mean that it wasn't true.
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And see this with me, brothers and sisters. This is but a shadow of what
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Christ was about to accomplish as he went to Calvary's tree. Christian brothers and sisters, all of you, praise
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God, even me included, like Barabbas, we have been set free from our sin and death, but not to die again like Barabbas did, but to live forever.
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As John 11, 26 says, everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
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Christ says, do you believe this? And I frame that question to you. Do you believe this?
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Oh, brothers and sisters, do we deserve it? Heck no, absolutely not, under no circumstance and not in 10 billion years could we ever earn forgiveness.
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Like Barabbas, we deserve to die, but for reasons beyond our comprehension, beyond anything that we can think or fathom,
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God sent his son, Jesus, the son of God, to be our substitute on that Friday morning.
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Like Barabbas, we get to go free, not because we deserve it, but because we have believed only in the name of Jesus Christ.
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And so for every Christian, or if we could just understand this part of the way, 90 % would be too much.
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Even if we could just understand it 50%, what Romans 8, 1 says, that there is therefore now no condemnation for those of you who are in Jesus Christ.
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Just as Barabbas went free, so you have gone free. 2
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Corinthians 5, 21, for our sake he made him, Jesus Christ, to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
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Brethren, we need a penal substitute. I'm sorry, we don't need a moral example.
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We don't need a ransom theory Jesus. We don't even need a
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Christus victor Jesus. I'm not denying that Christ was victorious on that cross. But brothers and sisters, we needed a penal substitute, and in Christ we got it.
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It reminds me of a story. There was a preacher named Daniel Stearns about 100 years ago, and he concluded a sermon that he was preaching, and a man came up to him and said to him, you've got to appreciate honesty,
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I suppose. He said, I don't like your preaching. You can tell me that maybe a day after I've preached.
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I'm usually pretty sensitive after I've preached. He said, I do not care. He said,
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I do not care for the cross. I think that instead of preaching the death of Christ on the cross, it would be far better to preach
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Jesus, the teacher, and the example. Well, Dr. Stearns looked at this man in the eyes, and he said, would you be willing to follow him if I were to preach
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Christ as an example? The man said, I would. I would follow him if you would but preach him as an example.
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Well then, Dr. Stearns said, let us take the first step. He did no sin.
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Can you take this step with him and have no sin? And the man looked confused, and he said, but I do sin, and I acknowledge it.
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Well then, Dr. Stearns said, your first need of Christ is not that of an example but that of a savior, and we have
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Christ as that savior. Oh, how doomed we would be if he came only as our example, but he came as the substitute for wretched sinners like you and me when he went to that cross.
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And if you've come to him by repentance, that is turning to him, agreeing with him, and believing on him by faith, then friends, you are indeed saved.
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Saved to the uttermost. Can there be, that's why we call it the good news. Can there be any better news than such a thing?
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And this is what happened next. In verse 16, actually I'm gonna read a little bit of verse 15 first.
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It says, so Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged
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Jesus, he delivered him over to be crucified. And the soldiers led him away inside the palace, that is in the governor's headquarters.
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And they called together the whole battalion, and they clothed him in a purple cloak and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him, and they began to salute him,
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Hail, King of the Jews! And they were striking his head.
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Notice we read this just last week. Are you getting deja vu? And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him.
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And when they had mocked him and stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him, they led him out to crucify him.
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So we've looked at part one, the praetorium, part two, the pardon, and thirdly, we'll look at part three, the penal substitute.
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The penal substitute. We read in verse 15 that Christ was scourged before he was delivered over to be crucified.
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Now Mark spares us a lot of the gory details, but there is so much that that one word, scourged, contains.
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And hopefully, tastefully, I want to explore for a moment what it means that Christ was scourged for you.
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Scourging came as a precursor to crucifixion. We're fortunate enough, blessed enough, to have the
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Jewish historian Josephus describe this process in some length. It was during scourging that the prisoner was stripped naked and bound to a post, a solid post, like a bike on a bike lock.
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Once secured to the post, they were beaten with a leather whip that had woven into it small bits of bone and sharp fragments of steel.
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There was no maximum number of strokes, unlike the Jews, who still had some humanity.
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There was no limit to the number of strokes prescribed. And so what would happen is that this whipping with this bone -embedded whip would go on and on and on until it tore away parts of the flesh, until bones were exposed, even until organs were exposed.
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The scourging had one important purpose, and it was simply to bring the prisoner closer to death so that the crucifixion, the process of dying on the cross, wouldn't last as long.
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Scourging was so ruthless that some prisoners even died in the process of being scourged.
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They didn't even make it to the cross. Now, whether you count that a mercy or not, I'll let you decide.
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But it was so grotesque that women, sisters, you'd be glad for this, that women were forbidden from being scourged.
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They weren't even allowed to witness a scourging. Even the ruthless Emperor Domitian, and I've spoken a little bit about him before, there's a claim that he killed his own brother.
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He hunted Christians for sport, and even Domitian couldn't bear to see a scourging.
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It was so violent and so graphic and so gruesome. And this was the opening act in Christ's suffering to satisfy
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God's just wrath for your sin.
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If you're a Christian, for your sin. For my sin. It's almost too much to bear.
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One can barely turn to face the facts. What our God became.
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I quoted the song last week. I have to quote it again. What our God became to set us free. Oh, the wonder of this awful scene as our
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Savior bleeds. And after this, verse 16 tells us that Christ was led into the palace, deeper into the praetorium, where a whole battalion or literally a cohort of Gentile soldiers were called together.
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This would have been about 600 men. And they spared no expense in their mistreatment of Christ.
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They clothed him in a purple cloak. Why did royalty wear purple cloaks?
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It was because purple dye was the most expensive and elusive dye. And so there they took this purple cloak and put it on Christ.
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And just as a broken clock is correct two times in a 24 -hour period, they were correct even as they mocked
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Christ and said, Hail, King of the Jews. Oh Christ, this is
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Christ your King. Verse 16, 17, tells us they twisted a crown of thorns on his head, likely the thorns of what's called an acanthus plant.
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That's a common thorny plant that can be found in the Mediterranean region. And the crown not only rightly, there's an important aspect to this crown.
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The crown not only rightly depicted Christ's kingship, but brothers and sisters, it depicts the mechanism of the atonement.
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What it was when Christ took that whipping, when he took the cloak, when he took the crown, when he took the cross.
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Can you think of another place in the Bible where we see the mention of thorns? In Genesis chapter 3, after Adam and Eve had fallen into sin and God pronounced his curse upon the world, what did he curse the man with?
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But he said, you'll be plagued by thorns and thistles and it will be out of the sweat of your brow, by the sweat of your brow, that you will yield your fruit.
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When Christ took that crown of thorns upon his head, it wasn't just a silly picture as the
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Gentile soldiers intended, but it was a physical image of a spiritual reality that Christ, as he went to that cross, was taking the very curse of sin.
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That curse that was uttered in Genesis chapter 3 after the fall of man into sin upon himself.
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And Genesis 3 .13 echoes that. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.
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And so we see, brothers and sisters, that the doctrine of penal, substitutionary atonement is not only biblical, but it was necessary.
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Someone had to go to the cross as God's just law cried out for the condemnation of sinners.
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Verse 19 says, the Gentiles took their turn at mocking and hitting and spitting at Christ, on Christ.
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And then verse 20, those somber words, and they led him out to crucify him. You'll see there's almost a perfect repetition from what the
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Jews did to Christ in the high priest's home and what the Gentiles did to Christ in Herod's home.
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And what it means is that it's not just the Jews, but the Jews and the Gentiles who are guilty of Christ's crucifixion.
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Oftentimes when I'm on White Avenue and I'm preaching, I so appreciated the preaching on Thursday.
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You can ask Lowell how it went. It was a real show. But I oftentimes, when
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I'm preaching on White Avenue, will say that Christ's blood is on our hands, that our ancestors crucified
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Christ. And here we see, this is exactly what the Scriptures are teaching us.
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It was the Jews, yes, who mocked and spat and hit. And it was the Gentiles too who mocked and spat and hit.
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Oh, what Christ endured for us.
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Now, children. I mentioned family worship. There's a story about family worship in the life of Martin Luther.
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One day Martin Luther had his wife and children around the kitchen table and he was going through,
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I believe it was Genesis 22. I think I deleted my illustration in my notes, so I'm going to go directly from memory.
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But as he went, he was discussing Genesis chapter 22 with his family.
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In Genesis chapter 22, that is where Abraham takes his son Isaac and is about to offer him up on the altar.
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And he takes the knife in his hands and he goes to raise the knife and to plunge it into his son.
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And Martin Luther's dear wife Katie, as he's relaying this, said, but God would never do that to his son.
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And then Martin Luther looked at his wife and said, dear Katie, he did. He did.
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He did for you. If you're a Christian. He did it for me. Praise be to God.
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Christ's life and his ministry and his mission comes to its ultimate climax on this
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Friday afternoon. Pouring out his blood is a penal substitute for the justification of lost sinners.
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Taking on himself with that crown of thorns, the curse of sin.
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And what assurance awaits the believer who understands this truly, who sees the lengths to which
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Christ went to be your vicarious sacrifice. The author of Hebrews says, but as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin.
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By what? By the sacrifice of himself.
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I think it was Spurgeon who said, if God the father would subject his son to such punishment as this for the sins of sinful man, how could he ever change his mind?
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This ought to be a tremendous comfort to us what Christ went through on our behalf. Because if God would do that to his son, brothers and sisters, what is left for you who have placed your faith in Christ, but only the free and full acceptance of the father.
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If you're a believer in Christ today, if you remember nothing else from what
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I've said today, remember this, if you have placed your faith in Christ, you are justified.
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Why would God subject his son to such a thing as this? Just to make you work again for your atonement.
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The blood of Christ, again, I think I'm quoting Spurgeon again, the blood of Christ calls out justification for the believer.
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There's nothing that can change that. And so we ought to go out that door today with Christ's praises on our lips.
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This is why we need to preach the gospel to ourselves every single day of our lives.
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Because our hope is never in ourselves. Why would we put our hope in ourselves when we see what Christ has done for us?
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It is to spit in his face once more. But what God calls us to do is just to fall upon Christ and believe in him.
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Archibald Alexander, he was the first professor of the Princeton Theological Seminary when it was established in 1812.
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After a lifetime of teaching the Bible, he was on his deathbed and he said to a friend, all my theology is reduced to this narrow compass.
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Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.
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And brethren, this is the truth that we must cling to as we live. This is the truth that we must rest on as we die.
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That in God's cosmic story of redemption, we are not the Davids, we're not the Pauls, we're not the
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Timothys, we are the Barabbases. And through Christ, we have been set free.
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Guilty vile, helpless we. Spotless lamb of God was he. A full, penal, substitutionary atonement.
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Can it be? You can bet your life on it.