We are Barabbas

But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said unto them, whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them, this is key, what shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, let him be crucified. Now notice, it was not Pilate’s idea to crucify Jesus.

Was not, he’s asking them what to do with Jesus. So up until verse number 22, Pilate had apparently not yet decided what would be the fate of of the lord Jesus Christ. Whether he would just be imprisoned, whether he would be executed in some other way at some later time, or what would be his fate. That had not yet been decided. That was a decision that was made by the Jewish mob that brought the Lord Jesus Christ to Pilate, because he gave them an option.

Verse 23, and the governor said, why? What evil hath he done? But they cried out the more saying, let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person, see ye to it. Then answered all the people and said, his blood be on us and on our children.

Then released Hebarabbas unto them. And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Would you take a moment and pray with me this morning? Our Lord, come to you now and Lord, we wanna come at this passage of scripture once again in a way that is sober minded. Lord, we we read this, Lord, at least we try to with quietness in our heart knowing that Lord, our whole salvation, our eternal life, our eternity with you, our forgiveness of sin hinges upon this chapter.

And, Lord, we are so thankful for what you did for us. And as we look at this chapter, let it not be stale to us or old. I pray that you would make these truths fresh to our hearts, and I pray that You would give us a heart that would be inclined to examine our own selves and to see ourselves in light of this Scripture. And, Lord, work in the hearts of each and every person. You alone know the hearts of men and what the condition of each and every person is and what they need. You know, Lord.

And Your Word has the power to do in each and every person’s heart what each and every person needs. And so right now, we ask you to do that. Help me, Father, to say all the things you’d have me to say and avoid those things you’d have me to avoid and Lord, that your name might be glorified. I pray, Lord, that your name would be hallowed among us today.

In Jesus name, amen. So of course, we’re introduced to Barabbas in verse number 17 or verse number 16 rather, a notable prisoner. Verse number verse number 16 says that. So, that’s the first introduction. He’s just called a notable prisoner which just simply means that he was somebody that was well known. You notice Pilate doesn’t really introduce Barabbas. In fact, when you compare the the other gospel accounts, what you’ll find is that the Jews knew about Barabbas.

They they knew about Barabbas. In fact, his name is not a Roman name. His name is an Aramaic name. It’s a it’s a Hebrew name if you will, which is which we’ll get to his name in a minute but but that indicates that he was a he was likely a Jewish man and as we go a little bit further, you’ll see why this is significant especially in the context of everything we’ve studied in this the history of the gospel here and so and so we if we look at Mark chapter 15, we see that Barabbas was in prison.

In fact, let’s just let’s just turn there just to see it ourselves. We’ll look at Mark and then we’ll look at John as well. Mark 15 and then we’ll come back to Matthew. Mark 15 Mark 15 verse number seven. The Bible says this, and there was one named Barabbas, lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him who had committed murder in the insurrection. So in Matthew it says he was a notable prisoner, that is he was infamous, he was well known, right? And then we get to Mark and we find out what his crime is. His crime was insurrection.

Luke refers to it as sedition, which is of course the same thing, a matter of rebellion. And then during this insurrection, he committed murder. And then we go to John, look there if you would, John 18. John chapter 18.

Verse number 40. Then cried they all again saying, not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. So let me try to construct to you what I think what the the the background of the man Barabbas based upon all of these passages. What’s interesting is I actually tried to look up if there were any like extra biblical mentions of Barabbas, you know, anything about him and there’s nothing that’s from the first century that mentions anything about Barabbas or about this prisoner exchange swap agreement that Pilate and the Jews had. It’s just it’s just not there But we do know a good bit about Barabbas from the scripture and we know that Barabbas was likely a Jewish man and that’s further indicated by his crimes. He was a he was well known. He was notable or infamous and he was also imprisoned for insurrection, for a rebellion.

Now, in this scripture, in this rather this period of time, what you have to understand is there were a lot of wars both prior to this and after this. Because remember the Jews are being ruled by an outside power, the Romans. And so at this point in time, Judea is a Roman province, but the Jews are not happy about it. They are not happy about it. And there’s always, if you read closely in the New New Testament, you’ll see there’s always this fear among the Romans that there’s gonna be an uprising. And there were uprisings.

And after this point in scripture, later, we’re in the like late twenties, early thirties in in AD here, but as you get closer to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD seventy, there’s gonna be actual wars where the Jews are going to rise up against the Romans and try to overthrow them and those of you that have studied that know that that’s that was a common thing here and so, it’s no wonder that a Jewish man was imprisoned for an insurrection.

There were all the time people that were trying to, you know, to go against the Romans and and and lead a rebellion to overthrow the Roman power. And in the midst of this rebellion, Barabbas and his crew apparently had committed murder. Maybe it was a situation like old John Brown, where they were trying to raid something, trying to take something from someone or get weapons or something like that because John says he was a robber. And in the midst of that, he killed some people and that was all part of this plot, this insurrection.

And so this is Barabbas, this is Barabbas. Would you say that Barabbas is a good man or a bad man? Definitely, Barabbas is not a good dude at all.

Now as we’ve seen in Matthew 27 and we will see again and again and again, the one aspect, there’s two aspects that come repeatedly up in these chapter 26, chapter 27 of Matthew. Anybody remember what they are? The first one is the deity of Christ, which we’ll see again. And the other one is what? The the sinlessness of Christ. That’s what you see repeatedly. We’ve already seen it a number of times. Remember Pilate’s wife, we just read it. Pilate’s wife said, have thou nothing to do with this just man and Pilate says, three times. He says, I find no fault with this man. Herod also confirmed Jesus was not guilty of the crimes that he was being accused of and remember, don’t don’t forget Judas. Judas said, I betrayed the innocent blood. Right? All of these things are are affirmations of this the sinlessness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And again, that’s important. I just reiterated because that’s important to understanding.

He is if he is not sinless, he is not fit to do the thing that he’s doing in chapter 27. He’s not fit to go to the cross as a substitute for you or for me. And so this is repeated over and over. And furthermore, it’s repeated by those who are not friendly to him. Judas Escariot was not friendly to him. Pilate was not his friend. So, have no reason to say that Jesus was sinless or Jesus was innocent. They have no reason at all. They said it because it’s true.

Especially Judas, given the fact that Judas knew Jesus for so long, which is what we talked about last week. But then you have this figure, Barabbas. In a black and white contrast, Barabbas is brought up as a man who is unlike Jesus, who remember Jesus perfectly innocent. Jesus our Lord is not guilty of any any capital crime, nor is he guilty of any crime whatsoever. Be it crime against the state or crime against God, crime of the words, of the deeds, or of the heart or thoughts. He is not guilty of any crime whatsoever.

But in contrast you see Barabbas who is. You see Barabbas is a man who is black with sin. Barabbas, unlike the Lord Jesus, has committed very specific crimes, capital crimes that have made him worthy of death against the state, against the Empire of Rome. But not only that, mean obviously if he’s committed those crimes, he’s committed crimes in the sight of God. Think about the number of sins that are probably on Barabbas’ record. There’s no doubt far more than what we read here. We’re just we’re given a sample of Barabbas’ life in the just simply in the crimes that he committed against the state. But Barabbas, unlike the Lord Jesus, was guilty of death.

Barabbas, unlike the Lord Jesus, was a man who was full of sin, not just his crimes. And let let’s just get this out of out of the way real quick.

You know, there are absolutely Americans that think that somehow if they don’t get arrested, they’re somehow righteous. There there there are Americans who think if they can if they can just manage to stay in a jail, then god is okay with them. And that’s just not true. Now, I mean, I thank God that we have civil laws that keep people who commit crimes off the streets and away from my family, aren’t you? You’re glad of that as well. But avoiding those things which are just really in the big scheme, a handful of things. That doesn’t make a man or a woman righteous before God.

The law doesn’t judge or it’s not supposed to judge a man’s motivations or the thoughts of his heart or really even his words and yet God examines all of that. So a man can you you can look on the you can look on the the court records website and you can find your you can find your name and it might return no records at all. It will return records online. If you wanna look look it up, go ahead. Go ahead. I encourage you, look it up, Greenville County and you’ll see a speeding ticket in 1999.

I got a speeding ticket. And you probably have a record too, at least of that, in that nature, parking ticket or something. Here’s the point. Before man, just because a person has a clean record does not mean that that person’s record before God is clean. Now look at Barabbas. Here’s a man who carries a criminal record, but he also has a record with God. He is exactly the opposite from the Lord Jesus Christ.

We might put it like this, Jesus was truly innocent, Barabbas was truly guilty. This is the contrast between Barabbas and Christ. And think about this just a little bit further.

Unlike the Lord Jesus, who was being condemned for crimes that he did not do, Barabbas was being condemned for crimes that he did do. So you have the exact kind of black and white comparison of these two figures. Our Lord, sinless Barabbas, guilty. Our Lord, dying. Barabbas, freed.

Now think about Barabbas’ crimes, because let put it forth to you like this. And this, as we read this, we can start to see how there a number of parallels between Barabbas. You could say Barabbas is a representative of mankind, of a man we might say. Think about Barabbas’ crimes. Think about his crimes. There are three crimes mentioned that Barabbas took part in that we read a minute ago.

There was sedition, there was murder, and there was robbery. Now, if I had to guess I would probably say, although I don’t know all of your Some of you have had background checks because you work with kids and things, but most of you have not had background checks. So I don’t know your criminal history if you have it, but I dare say there’s probably few if any of you in this room that have ever been convicted or probably even ever accused of one of those three crimes.

Treason, murder, and robbery. If you have been, well I hope you’ve gotten it dealt with and I hope you’ve gotten forgiveness from God for it, but you might tend to look at these things and and here’s the problem. We look at Barabbas and it is listen, this is a fact. Barabbas stands as a representative of you and of me in this narrative. He represents us. And and the problem with that is that we look at his crimes and sedition and murder and robbery and what do we think? We think, well, I’ve never done that.

I’ve never done those things. I’ve never done those things. Well, just think through this with me. Now, are there people that commit robbery that aren’t ever imprisoned or jailed for that? Yes. Are there people that commit murder that are never jailed for it? Yes. Are there people that commit other crimes like against the state who never go to jail, never are convicted or caught and put in jail for that, yes or no?

Yes. Okay, so you have three tiers. You have crimes against the state that are caught and prosecuted, that’s tier one. Then you have crimes against the state that are never caught, but they’re still crimes against the state. And then you have all the other crimes that aren’t forbidden by the laws of the state or nation, but are crimes in the sight of God, which of course include the others as well.

So you have these kind of three tiers. Now the danger is, is we have a hard time seeing ourselves in a man like Barabbas because Barabbas was caught doing the thing against the state. He’s being punished and we look at ourselves and there’s probably some of us in here, I’m one of them, that have committed crimes against the laws of our state that were never caught. I remember when I was a kid I stole something out of a grocery store, you know what that is? That is a crime.

But even, I know we can make light of it with something going back where a kid takes a pack of gum or something insignificant, but it might be that there are crimes that have been done that aren’t insignificant, that are actually serious.

So sometimes we have a hard time looking at Barabbas and seeing ourselves because we’ve never been caught doing something like that. And somehow if we’re not caught that means we’re it’s somehow better. That’s wrong. That’s wrong. Being caught doing the thing is on a moral level is no different than not being caught because the thing that makes you guilty is the same.

Okay? But forget about the laws of the state for a minute. Another reason we look at Barabbas and we have a hard time looking at that mirror and seeing ourselves is because most of the issues and sins that we’ve dealt with have not been crimes against the state except maybe minor things like traffic violations or whatever. And so we look at our sin as somehow because it somehow doesn’t break the law or somehow doesn’t hurt other people, it’s somehow different.

It’s somehow not as bad. It’s somehow not as guilty. That’s not true. The Bible says this, There is none righteous, no, not one. That’s what the Bible says. The Bible further says, there is none that doeth good.

And that, listen, that’s inclusive of those who have been convicted of crimes in the legal system as well as those who never have. So we have a hard time seeing ourselves with, when we look at Barabbas, he’s a different category. Maybe I’m a little bit better, but you’re not. And I’m not.

Every one of us is defiled by sin and therefore guilty. If not guilty before the state, guilty before a living God. Listen, I promise you, you would much rather stand before a judge of flesh and blood than to stand before the God of the universe.

It is to be preferred and it’s not even close. Every one of us should be able to look at Barabbas and say, I can see myself. But look at his crimes, sedition, murder, robbery. Now, if you’ve been with us as we’ve studied the book of Matthew, if you’ve been with us as we’ve gone through the Sermon on the Mount, you’ll remember that the outward crime of murder, and the outward crime of adultery, and the outward crime of sedition, and really every crime, every sin that manifests itself outwardly begins as a root in the heart of a man. Jesus said that whosoever looks on a woman with lust is guilty before God of adultery.

Even though he has not done the deed. Jesus said that if a man hates his brother, hates his brother, he is guilty before God of the sin of murder, though he has not lifted a weapon against that man. And you think about the the sin of rebellion, sedition. You might not have ever committed treason against your country, but you and I certainly have practiced willful defiance against authority in our life.

Every one of us is guilty. Listen, every single one of us is guilty at the core, at the root of the same crime as Barabbas, and it is no different before God. Now it might not have manifested and spilled over into the life such that the law is involved, but remember, god is far above and transcends the law. Amen. God is righteous and upright and he searches the hearts and reigns And he sees not only the outward action, but he sees the root. That is the whole thing Jesus was saying.

So none of us should look at Barabbas and think, well, he’s a he’s of a different category. Listen, we might be in extent a little bit different than Barabbas, but in quality we are the same.

I wanna ask you a question. Do you see yourself in Barabbas? You know Barabbas’ name is weird, it’s a weird name. His name means son of the father. Son of the father. It’s kind of a funny name. But think about that. That’s why I say Barabbas is representative. He’s a real man, but he’s representative in the story of just a guy. Who in here is a son of a father? Raise your hand, right?

All of us have the same father, right, of the flesh. That’s Adam. We all have one father, you know, the the first man Adam. So all of us to some degree or another, we have the name of Barabbas. We’re just some guy who was born of a father. That’s why he’s kind of representative of humanity. But not only that, in the crimes, he also represents us as well.

It’s a universal truth. Man is guilty before God. Some of these crimes, some of those crimes, some of the outward, some of only the inward, but there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Here’s the point I want you to see. I want you to see yourself as Barabbas. You are Barabbas.

Now you see the Jews how they respond to this. Go back to Matthew 27. Matthew 27. In verse 17, the Bible says, therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, whom will ye that I release unto you, Barabbas or Jesus which is called Christ?

Verse 21, the governor answered and said unto them, whither of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them, what shall I do do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, let him be crucified.

Verse 26. Then released he Barabbas unto them. So where did Barabbas go when Barabbas was released? Remember, Pilate committed two crimes when he did this. It wasn’t just the crime against Jesus, he also committed a crime against justice in his place because he released a man who was a murderer, a robber, and a treasonous What do you call those? Seditioner? I don’t know if that’s a word. Seditionist Seditionist treasonist.

Yeah. So he should have have condemned Barabbas by right, that was what was right. So he committed two crimes in one when he when he let Barabbas go and condemned Jesus. But notice in verse 26, he released Barabbas unto them. Who is the them here? It’s the crowd. Think about this.

This crowd is saying, give us Barabbas. Do you realize what you’re asking for? You’re asking for a murderous thief and robber who is deceptive and seditious and you want him to come among you. You think he was he was put put into like a halfway? No. He was released to the crowd. So the man who had committed those things is now among them. Does that not bother anybody? I mean, I don’t want people who are harming children to be out on the street harming children.

Certainly not near my children. Can I get an amen? Amen. Those people should not be Man, wanna go on a tangent here. Hey, look it up. Look it up. Mike Walls, governor of Minnesota, releasing a pardoning a man who is convicted of a crime against a child over a couple of over a couple year period. Look look it up yourself and then look up his excuse when he’s when he’s confronted with it. I’m telling you it is vile.

That has nothing to do with politics, that is straight up wicked. Anyway, I don’t want that wickedness out to harm my children and yet that is exactly what they’re asking for Barabbas. Now here’s what I want you to see. The Jews so filled with hatred, so full of sin, prefer wickedness over righteousness. And that’s no surprise because the Bible says, well, we can just look at it ourselves.

Look if you would at the book of John chapter three. John chapter three verse 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. Now read verse 19 very very carefully in your Bible.

And this is the condemnation. Why is the world condemned? This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Number one, why are men condemned? Men are condemned because they love darkness rather than light. That’s what the verse says. Why then do they love darkness rather than light? Because of their own darkness.

This truth is no better illustrated than this mob of Jews crying out for the crucifixion of Christ. There’s no better illustration of this truth. What a contrast. In other words, because Pilate asked asked them in this direct way, do you want Jesus or Barabbas? I mean, is no like gray. It’s black and white. It’s wicked. It’s perfectly righteous. Right? It’s not like a little bit of a decision or maybe, you know, depending on how you count it or how you view it. No, no, no. Was no opportunity. It’s a binary.

And given that choice, they chose the wickedness, they chose the black. And this reveals and this illustrates this truth, and this is an ugly part of the nature of human beings, which is this. There’s a dark and sinister part of man’s nature which we see here. People like to be around others that are as wicked as they are.

Men do not, matter, listen, no matter what they say, no matter how they might toot horns, men do not love to be around righteousness. They like to give lip service to it, but there’s a deep seated satisfaction when the preacher is found to be in sin. There’s a deep seated satisfaction when the Christian is found to have been doing things he shouldn’t have been doing. There’s a deep seated satisfaction when when the the the face of religion is is on the news having committed some crime. There’s this kind of sort of satisfaction in the heart of man because that that kind of comforts them in their darkness and and affirms their darkness that it’s really they’re no different than I am. They really are just the same as me and there is no real light, my darkness is okay.

This at its core is why they did not want Jesus. They feel better with the wicked. They feel more comfortable with the wicked. And this also shows why man is not basically good.

Romans chapter one verse eight, chapter one down from verse 28 to verse 32, it says that men hate God. And we might look at that and it grates on us and we think, oh, no, I mean really? Does it is it really go that far? The Lord tells us this is the state of man. They prefer Barabbas. They prefer a man like Barabbas among them rather than someone who is pure and spotless and righteous among them.

It eases their own conscience. It eases their own delusion of self righteousness that they have among themselves. And this is also why men are very quick to criticize and find fault and go in search of dirt and to attack things that appear to be good. It’s that guilt.

They want to find something that makes that good thing as bad as themselves so that they might feel better about their own evil. And listen, this part of the vile and wicked nature of man is in every one of us. Beware, even as a believer, beware. Beware.

Now back in Matthew 27, as we get to the end here, they don’t want Jesus. That strikes us. Why would they not want? He’s righteous. That’s the very reason. This is the condemnation. They don’t want him because he is righteous.

And so Matthew 27, look down at verse number 26. Then release he Barabbas unto them and when they had scourged Jesus, he delivered him, when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

Now think about it. From everything we gather on this day, this was likely a scheduled, mostly scheduled execution day. Why? Well remember, there’s two other guys that are gonna be crucified. Remember? We seen them yet in our narrative, but we know they’re coming. So it wasn’t just Jesus, there were a couple other guys who had earned their capital punishment, and they’re scheduled, they’re on the chopping block too.

So this wasn’t, I don’t think a whim at all, this was a scheduled execution. And if we can read between the lines a little bit, we can see that Barabbas, he was already in prison, he was already convicted of the crimes that he had done, and there are already two other guys that were supposed to be crucified. And apparently where they went, what you might not know is historically, when Jesus carried the cross, he wasn’t carrying the whole cross, he was carrying the cross member of the and this is verified historically in in non biblical records. This is the way it was done. You’re talking about a 75 to a 100 pound cross beam on his shoulder.

Carried out to a to a forgot the exact word. I’ll get to you tonight, there’s a particular word for the vertical part of the cross that was permanently put into the ground. So there were three permanent crosses at a minimum, three permanent crosses that were there. In other words, they had done this before.

So this execution was already in process, there were gonna be three guys that were gonna die. I think probably Barabbas, his name was on that middle cross. And indeed, by righteousness, Barabbas should have been carrying that cross. Would you would you agree with me on that? Barabbas was guilty of the crimes that that that should be on that cross. Barabbas did the things. Barabbas should be carrying and dying on that cross.

He had earned his punishment. But that’s not what we see. We see that he who had no sin became sin for us. We see he who was just took the place of the unjust. In living co, like in an actual example, as this is happening and and this touches all of us and all of humanity but in this particular example, you have a just man who is the he’s the only one that can be said is actually just.

Taking the actual place of death for a man who is very much unjust. The just for the unjust. That he might bring us to God. You see when Jesus carried that cross, that cross belonged to Barabbas. It is the cross that Barabbas had earned and had justly earned. It is the cross that Barabbas had deserved. It was his. That cross just like that tomb was not Jesus’ cross. It was it was Brabbas’ cross.

Just like, listen, that cross, that punishment that our Lord suffered on the cross was not his for he was without sin, but it was yours. It was mine. He who had no sin was bearing it for us. It was our guilt. It was our transgressions.

The bible says, for when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man, some would even dare to die. But God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Barabbas was freed. Barabbas was freed, but he wasn’t freed because he was a good man.

He was freed because the savior, the just one, went in his place. Do you see that? That sound familiar? For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Barabbas was not good, Barabbas was guilty, Barabbas was worthy. And the only way that Barabbas, was guilty and wicked and evil, the only way that a condemned man became a free man is because a righteous man became a condemned man in his place. There was no other way for a lawbreaker to be freed.

If Jesus had not taken his place, Barabbas would surely have died on that cross. So, my question to you, will you just give me your attention just for a minute? I wanna ask you a question.

Do you see that you are Barabbas? Do you see that you are Barabbas? Do you believe that like Barabbas you are worthy of the punishment for your sin? Do you believe that Jesus Christ died in your place to take that very punishment that you had earned?

Because the promise is to you, to those who come face to face with the fact that they are Barabbas and that they have earned the penalty Jesus bore for them and put their faith and trust in that Jesus who died as a sinner for sinners, the Lord Jesus promises to free them. To forgive them, to cleanse them.

So have you seen yourself as a Barabbas, not as a just a condemned Barabbas, but as a freed Barabbas? If not, I wanna invite you. I want to invite you to come agree with God and say, Lord, I am just as worthy of everlasting punishment as this man Barabbas. And my only hope, my only trust, is the fact that you took my place. I have no other plea, I have no other hope.

Let’s pray.