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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/david-yoder/barabbas/
Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. A well-known verse. Verse number 23. Romans 6 and 23. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Gospel of Luke and chapter 23.
Luke chapter 23. Verse number 13. Luke 23 and 13. And Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests and the elders and the people, said unto them, we have brought this man unto you as one that perverted the people.
And behold, I having examined him before you have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him. No, nor yet, Herod, for I sent you to him, and lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him.
I will therefore chasten him and release him, or I will scourge him and release him. For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast. And they cried out all at once, saying, away with this man and release unto us Barabbas, who for sedition or an insurrection made in the city and for murder was cast into prison.
Pilate, therefore, willing to release Jesus, spake again to them, but they cried, saying, crucify him, crucify him. And he said unto them the third time, why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of death in him.
I will therefore chasten him and let him go. And they were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence, that it may be as they required.
And he released unto them him for sedition and murder, was cast into prison, whom they had desired. But he delivered Jesus to their will. That's all I'm going to read this evening. I have wondered before what it would be like to preach in a prison in front of men who were on death row.
And one day when I was reading a verse that I would almost guarantee everyone here knows by heart, it hit me that I've done it before. Romans 6 and 23, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
There are people here in this audience today that are on death row. And I'm not just talking about the fact that all will die. It is appointed unto man once to die. But then it says after this, the judgment.
There are two lives. You can either be born once, your natural birth, and then you can be born again. There's two births you can have, or there are two deaths. The Bible tells us in Revelation that the books will be opened and another book will be opened, which is the book of life.
And those that are not found written in the Lamb's book of life were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. There are some here in this audience that I'm speaking to tonight and if you don't get this matter of salvation settled, you will have a second death.
You are on death row. And it took my mind to a story of a man that so many times we we kind of brush over, we kind of know this story, but it's kind of a passing part when we read the crucifixion, the story of Barabbas.
So I want to take just for a moment and maybe with your imagination, just go with me just a little bit, what Barabbas must have faced, what he must have been thinking. Here was a man who had been an insurrectionist.
He had turned against the government. He had led a riot. And on top of that, he was a murderer. And back then, we didn't have, they didn't have phrases like he was in a suspected, he was suspected of murder, even though caught red handed.
We see that in our newspapers today. He was suspected even though they catch him in the act. Back then, if you were caught, you were a murderer. And it was pretty much a foregone conclusion, what your judgment was going to be, you would face death.
Barabbas is captured, he is sitting in a prison cell. And I don't know how long he was sitting in that cell. But let's say he was sitting in that cell for a week or two weeks. And every day he would hear soldiers walking down the corridors of that prison, getting closer and closer to the cell that he sat in, and hearing men being drug out to face their fate.
And day after day, he waited until one day he realized tomorrow is going to be my day. But as he's sitting in his cell that day, all of a sudden another man comes in need heard other men be drug into this prison.
But this time, this man was coming willingly. He was brought into a cell. He wasn't screaming and cursing. In fact, he thought he maybe heard the name Jesus. And he thought, I wonder, this can't be the man that's been doing all these miracles in the cell next to me.
And as trials go on that day, the two men are taken out in the cells before him to stand their trial and they are condemned to go to a cross and to die and to be crucified. And as the soldiers come walking down the corridors of that prison that day, he thought, I'm next.
But this time they passed him by. And they went to the cell next to him and took this man called Jesus of Nazareth. And he walked willingly again, not resisting his fate, but willingly being led as a lamb to the slaughter.
And as a sheep before his shears was dumb. So he opened out his mouth. And I wonder if Barabbas that day sitting in his cell as Jesus is led out, I wonder if he walked up to the bars of that cell door and maybe asked the soldier, what's going on?
I thought I was facing trial today. Soldiers said, not yet. It's your lucky day. And this is the one that we read about here in Luke chapter 23, that standing before Pilate and standing before Herod, men of the world.
They looked at him and said, I find no fault in this just man. And so trying to wash his hands of the matter, he says, I will scourge him. I will chasten him and I will set him free. Because Pilate was getting fortunate here.
It was that time of the year where they would set a prisoner free. He said this is this was probably the one time he didn't mind setting a prisoner free because I find no fault in him. See, back in that day, if you go back and look at history, when a man was scourged, that was his punishment.
That was punishment enough. And he was to be set free. They were not normally scourged and then nailed to a cross. The scourging was normally a punishment enough for a crime committed. He was willing to scourge someone who he found no fault in.
Just to wash his hands of it and so he could set him free. And the cries of the people that day, and I almost wonder if if where Barabbas was locked up, he could hear in the back. He probably thought there's no way.
I know they when they crucify men, they normally crucify them in groups of three. There's no way this Jesus of Nazareth that I've heard about, if that's really the Jesus that was next to me, that he's going to get crucified today.
I've never heard him of him do a single thing wrong. Surely they'll come back for me and he's going to go free. And I wonder if all of a sudden he heard echoing down the corridors of of that prison that day.
Crucify him. Crucify him. Release unto us Barabbas. Barabbas wasn't worthy to go free. He was a murderer. My friend, tonight you are not deserving of sins forgiven. I was not deserving of sins forgiven.
It's not because you have Christian parents that tonight you somehow hold an edge to salvation. It's not because you can quote John 3 and 16. It's not even that you know enough of the Bible to know that other religions are wrong.
That will not take you to heaven. That is not enough. You're not, that doesn't make you deserve salvation. And Barabbas hears the commotion going on. And then he hears maybe Pilate speak again. He's still willing to release Jesus.
He spake to him again and said, you know what? I will. I will scourge him and let him free. And again, the cry comes, crucify him. Crucify him. So Pilate gave sentence. That it should be as they required.
And he released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison. And Barabbas walked free. Tonight's salvation is offered to you. Sins forgiven and a home in heaven. But you got to take it.
I guarantee you when the soldiers came walking back down the corridors of that jail, of that prison. And they stomped in front of his door. And the key rattled in the lock. And the door swung open. They probably braced for a fight.
My time's come. And the soldier said, you're free to go. I don't think he had to be told twice. I don't think Barabbas said, you know, I'd rather enjoy it here. I think I'll stay another day or two. You're free to go.
Maybe ask the question why? They said, well, another took your place. Who? Jesus of Nazareth. He took your place. The Bible doesn't tell us, but I can't help but imagine that Barabbas when he was set free of that prison and that possession started to the hill of Golgotha, the hill of a skull.
Where the crucifixion of our savior was to be carried out, I cannot imagine that he didn't follow. I would even wonder if he didn't stand underneath the shadow of that cross to look into the face of the one who is dying in his place.
Have you ever looked into the face of the one who has died in your place? I don't think you can walk underneath the shadow of the cross and not come away a changed man or a changed woman, a changed boy or a changed girl.
Remember the illustration that we have? Mr. Bunyan's book, Pilgrim's Progress, when Christian, that weary traveler comes to Calvary, he finally gets to the cross and he stands there and the burden that was on his back rolled down the hill and into the open sepulcher.
It died with Christ and it was gone. The wages of sin is death. And that's what Barabbas deserved. And that's what you deserve tonight. I don't care how good a person you are. All of our righteousness are filthy rags.
You deserve death and you're on death row standing there that day. I wonder what Barabbas thought. But you have to take it for yourself tonight is not simply enough to know about him or to know who he is.
You will not someday just wake up in heaven because God loved you so much he died for you. And someday that means that all of you will be saved. Because there were two men that were crucified with him that day on either side of him.
The same opportunity was presented to them. The exact same opportunity. One did nothing to do with him and reviled him and the other said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. One called him Lord and acknowledged him Lord of my life.
You know, I wonder what that would have been like, because salvation is not of works. You don't earn it throughout the course of your life. It's not that your good will outweigh your bad. And someday at the end of life, that is what God will look at.
Because that thief upon the cross that day, his bad was so bad that he was being crucified for it. He had no more time left to do good to outweigh his bad. And from that time that he was upon the cross in the few hours that went on until his death, there was not enough time to do good to outweigh the bad.
And yet when he opened his eyes, where was he? In paradise. You ever wonder what that would have been like? You know, sometimes the illustration is given of Peter meeting someone at the gates of heaven and asking why you should enter.
So let's go with that illustration for just a moment. Here is this thief upon the cross and he's in heaven and they say, well, why are you here? He could give no reason other than what anyone here who knows their sins forgiven could give.
Christ upon the cross said, I can go. You can have salvation tonight. If you trust his word, the wages of sin is death, but I don't want to leave you there. I don't want to leave you on death row. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord, eternal life.
Him to know is life eternal. If you know him. You can have everlasting life and you can know you must know it is not enough to hope it is not enough to wonder. First John, the whole book leads up to one verse.
First John five and 13. These things have I written unto you that you may know that you have eternal life. Do you understand that there was one who suffered and bled and died on your behalf? That when in that garden of Gethsemane, he prayed, let this cup pass from me.
Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done when he sweat as it were great drops of blood. He feared not what man were to do to him. Because there were men that had endured what he had endured at the hands of sinful men before he knew what he was have to endure at the hands of a righteous and a holy God.
When the unabated wrath of Almighty God was poured out upon his son. And God crushed his son beneath the load of our sin. And so he died. That you might live. We have been hearing today. About what it must be like to be in heaven and looking to the rapture and what lies ahead of us.
And sometimes I get on YouTube and I get going down rabbit holes, I probably shouldn't go down. But I stumbled across the video. I thought I recognized some of the people in it. So I clicked on it. And it was a group of believers singing.
They were singing at Norman Crawford's funeral. Some of you younger ones might not remember Norman Crawford, but majority of us here probably still do. And you know what song they were singing? Face to face with Christ, my savior.
Face to face, what will it be when with wonder I behold him, Jesus Christ, he died for me. Face to face in all his glory, far beyond this veil of tears. And I listened to him singing. And I thought, what must it be like for Mr. Crawford to stand in the presence of his savior?
And then I wondered, what would it be like to have to stand before him? And he's not your savior, but he's your judge. And he is a righteous judge. And he is the judge of all the earth. None shall escape him.
The dead, small and great shall stand before him. The ones that are in the sea shall stand before him. Most of us here in the audience today, when we were listening to the rapture that is to come and what lies ahead of us, we could sing tonight with smiles upon our faces, face to face with Christ, my savior.
Face to face, what will it be? But if you're not saved tonight, the stand before almighty God at that great white throne should terrify you. It should cause you to stop and think tonight. Why won't you flee to a savior for refuge tonight when he has died that you might live?
He died so that you can be free from the penalty and the punishment of your sin. It was Charles Spurgeon who, before he was saved as a young man, one day was on his way to church and the snow was blowing so hard that he wasn't able to make it to the place he normally went.
So he turned down the side street of the city and stumbled into a small church. And he sat down. The normal pastor of that church wasn't there that day. And so everyone sat quietly until, as Charles Spurgeon says it, a young or a slender gentleman who he said was likely a shoemaker or someone of that trade stood up and he turned to Isaiah 45 and he read this verse, look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else.
He said he preached with all the fervor that he had, every ounce of knowledge that he had upon that verse for about 10 minutes. And then he stopped when he'd come to the end of what he knew to say, he stopped.
And he said he looked at me. He said there was a small group of people, so he probably recognized me as a stranger. He looked at me sitting under the balcony and he said, young man, you look of men the most miserable.
He said, I probably did, but I've never been called out like that before. And then that shoemaker that day looked at him. And he says, you can look and you can live. Brabus that day, I think, followed Christ to the cross, and I think he looked at the one who had saved him physically in this life.
I don't know if Brabus is going to be in heaven. I'm not going to go there. But he had physically saved him from death. Tonight, he wants to save you spiritually from death. The shoemaker went on to say this.
He said, you don't have to be a genius to be able to look. You don't have to be worth millions to be able to look. You don't need a college degree to be able to look. Anyone can look, look and live. Can I leave that with you at the close of this gathering tonight, the close of this conference weekend?
Look to the Savior on Calvary Street. See how he suffered for thee and for me. Hark while he lovingly calls to thee, look and thou shalt live. I want you to understand exactly where you stand before God tonight.
If you do not know your sins forgiven, you stand on death row. There is only one way of escape. You must turn to the Savior on Calvary Street. The one who suffered and bled and died. The one who, after those three dark hours of agony, declared, I think the three greatest words in all of Scripture.
It is finished. He bowed his head. And he died that you might live. Trust him tonight and know peace with God, know a home in heaven and know freedom from the bondage of sin. Shall we pray?