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Jesus Barabbas (Part 3)
Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ. Based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, "...but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.".
In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.
Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.
Welcome to No Compromise Radio, ministry. I am your host today, Michael Abendroth. That's right, Mike Abendroth is here. I haven't called myself Michael, I guess since I used my passport, so there you have it.
Well, today in real time, it's late January, and it's about two degrees outside. Brother, it is cold, wow! But this show is airing, I think, right around the beginning of spring. Aren't the birds pretty at this time of year?
Well, today on No Compromise Radio, I'd like to talk about Barabbas for the third and final time, part three of three, one of my favorite characters in the Bible, Barabbas. He is in the Bible quite often.
I think Phil Johnson logs it as 38 verses talk about Barabbas. That's more than Judas. He's in all four Gospels. And of course, he is the man that Jesus physically died for, and the passage I'm in today is Matthew chapter 27, the story of Barabbas.
Now last night, my wife came home from the library. We have a great library in Lancaster, Mass, Lancaster, and it's called Thayer. And anyway, you can get all kinds of movies there, and they have Barabbas, excuse me, the 1961 Anthony Quinn version of Barabbas.
And I've seen it before, but I can't remember it. I believe Barabbas gets saved and wants to follow Christ and be a disciple afterwards. So, who knows? It might happen. The Bible doesn't say anything about it.
But when I look at narratives that talk about Jesus, Barabbas, and Jesus, the Messiah, remember some manuscripts in Matthew 7, say Jesus, Barabbas, which Jesus do you want me to get rid of? Do you want me to release the good Jesus or the bad Jesus?
The bad Jesus or the good Jesus? Which one gets executed? Which one gets released? Remember, it was a passion, custom, Passover custom, rather. Let me read you the passage, and then I'd like to give you, in the time we have in the show today, some practical lessons.
What can we learn from the text, and what can we preach from the text about Barabbas, Bar-Abba, Son of the Father? The text says in Matthew 27, 15, as we've seen the last two times, now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted.
So amnesty for one of the prisoners. Pilate didn't choose. They chose, and it was a goodwill gesture, politically smart and savvy. And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. He was notable.
He was well-known. Maybe a Robin Hood-like figure, a zealot, who knows exactly. But we do know he was an insurrectionist. John says he was a robber, and Peter in Acts 3 talks about his murderer. He's a murderer.
So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, whom do you want me to release for you? Jesus Barabbas, some of the accounts say, or Jesus who is called Christ? RDSV just says Barabbas or Jesus who is called Christ.
For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.
So maybe his Bema seat judgments were happening earlier in the day, and she now wakes up from a nap. Now the chief priest and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor again said to them, which of you, which of the two do you want me to release for you?
And they said, Barabbas. Pilate said to them, then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? They all said, let him be crucified. And he said, why? What evil has he done? But they shouted all the more, let him be crucified.
Matthew chapter 27 verses 15 through 23. So in the time we've got left, which is pretty much the whole show, let's talk about some of these implications and practical applications out of this passage.
Now before I do that, don't forget there's a new feature to No Compromise Radio Ministry, and that is NOCO 90. So you can go to YouTube, pull up No Compromise 90 channel, and you will see some videos, and I'm just on the video for 90 seconds talking about issues in a no compromise fashion.
So I think I'm doing one a week, I've only recorded three as of this real time, but by then it'll be, what, 13? And so we've already got, we've already hit our millionth download. And I don't think we'll get enough downloads to ever have Google pay us some advertising money.
So that's just my prediction, right? That's my prediction. If I have to use words, those are the words I'm going to use. I could quote Depeche Mode, enjoy the silence, words are very unnecessary, they can only do harm.
I don't know why that fascinates me. I think it's probably a Michael Horton deal that he likes to quote that as well. Words can only do harm. So Barabbas, which Barabbas? Practical implication number one, don't forget that the world always chooses wrongly.
The world always chooses wrongly. We know that. The crowd preferred which Barabbas or which Jesus? The crowd preferred, the reason why I messed that up is my phone was ringing and I had to look down to see who that was and see if it was my wife or one of my kids.
And if it was, I'd probably have to pause the show, although I don't like to pause. Coffee pausing and it wasn't my wife. So let's go back. Don't forget that the world always chooses wrongly. They pick Barabbas and not Jesus.
People pick lawlessness, don't they? That's what the world picks instead of righteousness. And here, David Garland writes, Our heroes become the Barabbases of the world who take matters into their own hands and dispatch the enemy with brute force are clever trickery.
If the vote came today, then Barabbas would likely win again, hands down. I looked this up on the internet. George Tinworth's Terracotta from the 1870s, British artist, and it's got this scene where Jesus is being taken away and he'll be crucified and they're letting Barabbas go.
And underneath Jesus are the words, the good shepherd. And underneath Barabbas are the words, the world's choice. And so here we see popular opinion was popular, but here it was not correct. Passion rules over these people and their right thinking goes out the window.
Implication, practical application number two. I am so tired right now, I can barely stay awake. Where is that coffee? I think you need food to stay awake, don't you? Don't you need some kind of food?
This no sugar, no meat deal is not so good. I guess you could have hot. What could you have for food? Hot black beans or something, refried beans. You could have hot rice, arroz. What else could you have that's hot?
I don't know. Soup, some kind of minestrone soup or something. I don't know. Give me some soup. Number two, like Barabbas, if you're not a Christian, you are also on death row. You're also on death row, just like Barabbas was if you're not a Christian.
J .C. Ryle said, let us freely confess that like Barabbas, we deserve death, judgment and hell. And every person born listening to this, that's what they were born deserving. The good news is there's a Savior who saves sinners, but the bad news is you need to know your plight so you realize that you can't do anything about it, that you can't save yourself, that you can't get yourself out of death row or out of jail or out of any of these things.
It has to be done to you by the work of another. You are like Barabbas. You are Barabbas in the sense that you are an insurrectionist against God, a blasphemer against God, a murderer of God's likeness and image as you hate or have hated other people, criminals, lawbreakers, rioters, and you, although maybe you're not legally incarcerated in the jail, but you are on death row, it's just a matter of time before judgment is declared.
And so I want you to recognize, if you're not a Christian, that you are a rebel, that you do stand condemned, that execution is looming. Ephesians 2 says you're dead in your trespasses and sins, totally unable to worship God, to believe in God, to follow God.
You're as blind as a cyclops with one eye poked out, incapable of pleasing God. And so the Bible says in Genesis 6, the wickedest of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
And so as Johnson likes to say that when men are on death row and they're studied, they do strange things. If a man is scheduled to be hung by the neck until dead, he's often found on death row playing with his neck, rubbing his neck almost unconsciously, feeling his neck because he knows what's going to happen.
Other people who have been on death row and they're about to be executed by gas, put in the gas chamber, they practice what? What do you think they practice? They practice holding their breath in the cell on death row while they're waiting, somehow thinking that they can hold their breath long enough that the gas won't get them.
I wonder what Barabbas was thinking. I wonder if Barabbas was feeling his feet, looking at his feet, looking at his hands, thinking about crucified people. Maybe he could see out of his cell and see other crucified Jews.
Who knows? But you are on death row and you need a Savior. Number three, you don't need to be ignorant of who can really cleanse you like Pilate was. Pilate was ignorant to the relief of his sinfulness, the redemption from his sins, reconciling himself to a thrice holy God.
Pilate didn't know the song, there's a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stain. And so you don't have to be ignorant because for whatever reason you're listening to No Compromise Radio and you've heard about Jesus.
If you have been from another country or from another planet and just tuned in right this second, you know plenty about Jesus Christ, the God-man who dies on the cross for sinners like you. The wages of sin is death, you have earned death, but someone can be your substitute.
Someone who has so much power that they raise themselves from the dead. Bernard of Clairvaux said some funky things, but in his hymn, O Sacred Head Now Wounded, I do like verse two, What thou, my Lord, hast suffered was all for sinners' gain.
Mine, mine was the transgression, but thine the deadly pain. Lo, here I fall, my Savior, tis I deserve thy place. Look on me with thy favor and grant to me thy grace. How great is that? Because of Christ Jesus, you don't have to bear your own sin.
You don't have to be executed by the righteous judgment of a holy God. You don't have to be condemned to hell forever. That is a great bit of news. That's the best news, that Jesus Christ came to die for sinners just like you.
Ephesians 1 says, In him, Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. You want to be forgiven, don't you? I know that you want to be forgiven, and so you need to look to the Lord Jesus Christ, his life, his death, his resurrection with the eyes of faith.
Now, there's a man named Oxenham, and he was thinking about just, it's not even tradition, it's just fiction, but he was thinking about Barabbas and what must have been going through Barabbas' mind. He said, I think you could have found Barabbas right around that little hill and thinking about the wonderful turn of circumstances which had led to his freedom.
And as he reflected upon it, he looked and he saw the criminals and he thought of the bonds, he thought of the curse, he thought of the disgrace of dying in this way, and of course, not having spiritual discernment, no doubt, he didn't understand what you and I might understand.
In fact, Barabbas is the only man of whom it can be said that Jesus died for him physically. Oh, if he'd only known the real truth of this. Number four, practical implication, be hopeful because the gospel shines brightest in the midst of the worst depravity.
Now, before I gave you just half of the J .C. Raw quote, let me give you the full quote. Let us freely confess that like Barabbas, we deserve death, judgment, and hell, but let us cling firmly to the glorious truth that a sinless Savior has suffered in our stead and that believing in him, the guilty might go free.
Now, that's good news. The gospel shines brightly in sinful places. The Bible says that Savior Christ Jesus in 2 Timothy 1, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
First John 4 .14, we have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Barabbas, Jesus, the guilty, gets free because the innocent takes his place. That is a picture of substitutionary atonement.
When you read this account in Matthew chapter 27, it doesn't teach penal substitution in terms of Jesus dying on the cross for sinners, but it does picture that, doesn't it? I mean, I can't think of anything else besides that.
The guilty goes free. The innocent is condemned. This is substitutionary atonement. It preaches so easily, so wonderfully. Oxaham again writes, Barabbas hears the sounds of men coming toward the cells.
He hears the tramp of feet. He hears the doors open, and they come closer and closer, and then finally he hears a key. He hears a key grate in the lock, and he hears a cell open, and he hears the men say, come on with us, and the steps move off into the distance.
And he goes over to the window, and there is one of the crosses occupied. Then he hears the same thing again. He hears the key, and he looks out again afterward, and he sees the second occupied. And then he hears the steps for the third time, and they come closer and closer, and finally he hears the key in the lock of his own cell.
And the door is flung open, and he hears the words, Barabbas, you are free. Barabbas, you are free. Now that gives my heart cheer to know that Jesus, the pure, the holy, the unspotted, the unstained, the unblemished Savior, dies for people like me, dies for people like you.
Sinclair Ferguson said, Christ's death was substitutionary. Jesus was taking our place. That is why the charges brought against him were blasphemy and treason, for these are the very charges we face before the judgment seat of God.
Substitutionary atonement. No wonder it's attacked today in our circles and outside of our circles. 1 Peter 2 .24, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
1 Peter 3 .18, for Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. What Jesus did we could never do for ourselves. In God's case, H. Spurgeon said, if he had said in the infinite sovereignty of his absolute will, I have no substitute, but each man shall suffer for himself.
He who sinneth shall die. None could have murmured. It was grace, and only grace, which led the divine mind to say, I will accept a substitute. Can you imagine? You are sinful, and you're accounted as righteous.
You deserve God's wrath, and God credits to you Christ's righteousness. You're a sinner, and you go free. The innocent man dies. That's all Isaiah 53. That is great news. We deserve to be beaten. We deserve to be betrayed.
We deserve to be mocked. We deserve to be scourged. We deserve to be crowned with thorns. We deserve to be crucified, but it was Jesus who was in our place. He redeemed us to God by his blood, Revelation chapter 5.
So when people start saying, substantial atonement's not that big a deal, you correct them. Of course, Jesus died and destroyed and put under his feet the cosmic forces. Of course, Jesus' death was a great example.
Of love, but you've got to make sure vicarious punishment to meet the claims on us because of God's holy law. You've got to keep those. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Second Corinthians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 3. All who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things that are written in the book of the law and do them.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree. Galatians chapter 3. Arminian revivalist Sam Jones said in the 19th century, God never did throw a javelin into the heart of his son.
Really? Well, if you want a kinder, nicer, sweeter, sappier, gentler God, I want a nurturer God. I don't want a God who's mad. I want a therapeutic God. I don't want a God who's wrathful. Basically, what you're asking God to be is more of a mother than a father.
A sinful mother, albeit. How about the reimagining God conference? A bunch of feminists and one of them said, We don't need guys hanging on crosses with blood dripping and all that weird stuff. Now, I don't know if it's true or not, but I did read that Roosevelt struggled to understand Hitler and the Nazis, and he didn't really know how to figure that out until he was given a theology book, and he could understand the human condition.
So liberals can't explain Hitler to him, but the Bible could because we know just how sinful people are, and we need a substitute. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.
Upon him was a chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
And share the dying. A dumb spirit will possess the sullen world, and no voice of joy will break the blank silence of despair. And number five. Practical implication in Matthew chapter 27, 15 through 23 with Barabbas and Jesus.
Your lone responsibility, if you're an unbeliever, is to believe. That's your response to the gospel. The response to good news is to believe it. Now, when the jailer went to Barabbas' cell and said, Barabbas, you're free, his response was to believe that, to say, yes, that's true.
I accept that. Amen. Verily, verily. He didn't say, well, how could this be? I don't go for substitutes. I'm condemned by Rome. I have to die. He didn't say, you know, I've got to get a little bit better before I'm to be released, and actually I need to probably be more religious, and I need to be baptized and sanctified and irrigated and consecrated and bifurcated.
I've got to get better so I'm worthy of this release. No, we're never worthy. The response is to believe. No wonder Acts 16 says, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. No wonder John 3 says, He who believes in him is not judged.
He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.
What about you? You've just learned about sin and the Savior, and now your response is to believe. That's your response. Repent and believe. And so what will you do? Just what will you do? You're on death row if you're not a Christian.
What will you do? You've learned about this Jesus. You know more than Pilate does about what Jesus did on the cross for sinners like you and was raised from the dead, and now your response is to trust, to believe, to say amen to what God has done, to take God at his word.
God, you said if you look with faith to the cross of the risen Savior, you will be saved, and I'm looking by faith. God, help me to believe. Increase my faith. My name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio.
You can write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com.
No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.
Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.
The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WV &E, its staff, or management.