Vivi Diaz: This is the Sandals Church Podcast, a place for real people with real struggles learning to follow Jesus. Wherever you are right now, driving, working, or trying to make it through the day, we are really glad you're here. Let's get into today's message.
Pastor Matt Brown: Hi. Welcome to Sandals Church. And this is a big weekend for us as a church, and I wanna celebrate something that's been going on for a year. We have this thing called the Sandals Church app. How many of you guys have heard of this thing?
It celebrates a year today. Let's give it up for that. And, I was talking to my my daughter before, I was getting ready to preach, she was just saying she loves that so many of the women in her bible study who are new to Jesus are learning to read the bible and connect with God on a daily basis through our app. Can I get an amen for that? So and let me say this, for those of you that are like me who have ADD and you struggle with discipline, one of the things that really revolutionized my faith, I was about 30 years old when I realized I need to read God's word and pray every day.
No guilt. This is not to guilt you. This is to set you free and enable your faith. And it was life changing for me. And I wish we had an app like this that I could read every day.
And not only can you read something, you can go through a book, but you can pray and have people pray for you with if there's something that you're going through. So let's give it up for the app, man. Love them. Appreciate them. Super, super grateful for all of you who give that enable us to do things like that for free for people to connect with God.
But today is a moving day. We celebrate this weekend, Memorial Day weekend. And, you know, it's not a weekend to go have hot dogs, go to the lake, go to the beach, which we do. But it's it's a weekend to remember those who went and fought for us who didn't come home. And I just wanna say thank you to every family member, of our church who lost someone who went and fought for this country.
And America is not perfect but it is better because of your sacrifice and your loss and we just wanna say thank you as a church for your sacrifice for us. Can we just give it up for all of our soldiers who did that? And it was interesting to me that, you know, as I was preparing this service and we're talking about Memorial Day, those who didn't come home from battlefield so we could live here in America, we're gonna actually talk about Jesus who died so that we could eventually be home with God. And it's just amazing to me that we're gonna be in Matthew, 27 today. If you're new to faith, if maybe you've never studied your bible before, I want you to know that some of the things I'm gonna talk about are really, really ugly.
The cross is not, an easy thing to preach. It's not an easy thing to look at. We live in a society that has a has a hard time with even the concept of the death penalty. Like, we we wrestle as a country with the morality and we're split about fifty fifty whether we should even do it or not. The Romans did not wrestle with the concept of the death penalty.
They wanted to be clear and they wanted to be cruel that when you committed a crime, they wanted it to be a warning to everyone. And the cross was so gruesome, a Roman citizen was not allowed to be crucified. Only the emperor himself could give a judgment rendering crucifixion to a Roman citizen. So think about that. The Romans didn't think anything was cruel.
They thought the cross was cruel. And so what they did to Roman citizens because they loved each other was they beheaded them. Doesn't that sound soft and sweet? Know, we love you. Whack.
You know, your head comes off. Because crucifixion was this long drawn out process. We're basically you suffocated to death as your body gave out and you grieve pushing yourself for air for sometimes days and weeks. And if it went too long, the Romans out of compassion would break your legs so that you would quickly lose air and die. So we're gonna end today's service with the Lord's Supper and I wanna make sure that you have that today.
And so if you're watching from home, try to get some elements and you may not have a cracker or juice, but try to do something because we're gonna end by remembering what Jesus did. We're gonna memorialize his death because he died so he could bring us home to God. So let's open our Bibles to Matthew 27. We're gonna look at verses 11 through 14. So just three verses.
So we're gonna begin with Pilate. Who was Pilate? He was the governor of the area known as Judah. So he was kind of over this area of Rome and Rome didn't like this area. It was not a prestigious area and you kinda went here when you were in trouble.
And so Pilate's not a super popular guy. It's a difficult guy and he has the challenge of managing a nation that does not wanna be enslaved to Rome known as Israel. In verse 11, now Jesus was standing before Pilate. He's the Roman governor. The Roman governor he says, you the king of the Jews?
This is a political question. So if he claims to be the king of the Jews, Pilate's going to kill him because this is an act of revolution, an act of sedition against the Roman Empire which was not tolerated. Are you the king of the Jews? The governor asked him. Now let's look at the next verse.
Jesus replied, you have said it. So Jesus answers, but what? Doesn't answers. He's telling him, yeah, you're correct. And then look at verse 12, but when the leading priests and the elders made their accusations against him, Jesus remained silent.
Now if I was facing the death penalty, anybody in here think I could be quiet? You know what I I'll be singing, man. It wasn't me. It wasn't me. It was the one armed man.
You know what I'm saying? I mean, I I I would be talking relentlessly about how I don't wanna die. I want you to notice here, Jesus isn't arguing because the purpose of his life is to die for you. Look at what Pilate says in verse 13. Don't you hear all these charges they are bringing against you?
Pilate demanded. Look at verse 14, but Jesus made no response to any of the charges. We like to talk in our country about injustice. The greatest injustice in the history of the world is the crucifixion of Jesus. Much to the governor surprise.
I mean, thing you'll find if you ever do prison ministry is they're almost all innocent. You know what I'm saying? It wasn't me. And so it's just interesting, Pilate for the first time has the authority to sentence someone who will not proclaim his innocence, will not argue for his freedom, but just remain silent. So here's what I want you to know about the crucifixion.
Jesus was sentenced to the cross so I could be free. He's taking on the penalty that you should face. He's taking on the suffering that you should receive for the sins you've committed in your life. You're like why I'm not that bad of a person. I'm not saying you're the worst.
I'm just saying you have no idea the depth and the level of sin that's in your life. We live in a culture that likes to play pretend. And so we point out the people that we think are the worst so we don't have to deal with the issues in our own lives. This is why Christianity is so unpopular amongst so many. People wanna believe the problem is out there.
Jesus says the problem is in here. Matthew twenty seven fifteen through 18. Now it was the governor's custom each year during the Passover celebration to release one prisoner to the crowd. And this is like the weirdest thing. Can you imagine on the July 4 we're just gonna let out, you know, some some terrorists?
You know? It's just like, hey, let's you know? It's just a weird it's a weird celebration. But they did this because Jerusalem would swell with over a 100,000 religious Jews from around the Middle East and you know they get a little excited. They get a little rowdy.
Things get a little crazy. And to try to appease the crowd what they would do is they would let someone they felt should be set free free. And this is Pilate's perverted way of trying to keep the peace. But look at this, anyone they wanted. This year, there was a notorious prisoner named Barabbas.
So I want you to look at this and I know most of you can't read or write Hebrew, but it's two words in Hebrew. Bar, which some of you've heard this if you have a Jewish friend, when a boy turns 12 years old he has a what? Bar mitzvah. So the word bar simply means son. That's what the word bar means.
Bar is son. So the first part of this guy's name is son. The second part of his name is Abbas and the Hebrew word for father is Abba. I want you to notice, I don't think that this is just circumstance. They want the son of the father set free.
And here's what I want you to see, the true son of God is going to be crucified so that you and I could become sons of God. Can I get an amen? And some of us miss this. Look at verse 17. As the crowds gathered before Pilate's house that morning, he asked him, which one do you want me to release to you?
This terrible guy, this murderous guy, this insane guy, or Jesus. What he's trying to do is set them up. They can't possibly want me to kill Jesus and let this lunatic free. He's doing this intentionally. Look at verse 18.
He knew very well that the religious leaders had arrested Jesus out of envy. There used to be a time in our country where we knew envy was a sin. And now I think it's the most powerful emotion when we go to the voting box. It used to be a sin to want what someone else has, to hate someone else for their blessings, to be jealous of someone's beauty, talent, money, or or education or prosperity. It was envy that put Jesus on the cross.
The religious leaders want all the attention. They want it to be all about them and Jesus got in the way of that. And Pilate could see that. He's not a religious man but he could read people. Matthew twenty seven twenty through 22.
Meanwhile, the leading priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask Barabbas to be released and for Jesus to be put to death. Ain't that crazy? Let's let the psycho go and let's murder Jesus. Verse 21. So the governor asked again, which of these two do you want me to release to you?
And the crowd shouted back Barabbas. Barabbas. It's the most horrific act of democracy in the history of the world. We gotta be careful that we're not led by the crowds, amen? We gotta be led by Christ.
And it's easy for us to be on Instagram and get worked up. When's the last time you read this and God worked you? It's easy. Verse 22, Pilate responded, then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah? And they shouted back, crucify him.
The most horrific form of torture in the ancient world. Think about that. In our constitution as Americans, it says that you cannot give someone cruel and torture. It cannot be cruel and unusual punishment. The Romans had this specifically designed to be cruel and unusual.
Here's what I want you to know. Jesus was tortured because I'm his treasure. He's not doing this because he wants to do this. I mean last week we learned he prayed drops of blood. He asked his best friends to pray with him.
He was struggling through this. He asked God not to do this. He said if there's any other way. And here's what I want you to know, even if you're not a Christian, if you're a Muslim, if you're a Jew, if you're an atheist, this was the only way that God would allow you in his home. God is not just good, he's just and he must judge sin.
Heaven is perfect and none of you and I are. And so someone had to die to perfect us to get us into God's presence. And Jesus on the cross said, I'll go, I'll go. I want you to think about that. Look at Matthew twenty seven twenty six.
This part as I as I study this this this doesn't make any sense because Pilate says, don't wanna do this. He washes his hands, but look at verse 26. So Pilate released Barabbas to them and he ordered Jesus flogged with a lead tipped whip. It just seems so bizarre to me. Maybe Pilate was frustrated.
His own wife came to him and said, hey, don't crucify this guy. I had a bad dream about him last night. Husbands, listen to your wives. Can I get an amen ladies? And like a husband, what did he do?
What he wanted? So think about that. Then they turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified. Man, think about that. Pilate said he's innocent, his wife said don't do it.
And not only did he crucify him, but he whipped him with a lead tipped whip. Designed to sink into your flesh and extract it when it was pulled out. Isn't that crazy? Verse 27, some of the governor's soldiers took Jesus into their headquarters and they called out the entire regiment. I want you to underline your Bibles, they're assuming there's gonna be a riot.
Why would why might there be a riot if they crucified Jesus? It's very popular. It's very popular. He's very loved. And so they assume they're headed for trouble.
I want you to notice it's interesting that all of the followers who love Jesus in this moment abandoned Jesus. It was just a few women that followed from a distance. One of them his mom. Remember Peter, I'm not gonna leave you. I'll never forsake you.
I'm willing to die for you and remember all the other 10 said the same. And they all they already abandoned him. Judas has already hung himself. Judas already realizes he made a grave mistake. Now he should have chosen repentance instead of suicide.
Suicide is never the way out. Verse 28, they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. They wove thorn branches into a crown and they put it on his head. If you grew up Catholic and you ever wonder why the statues of the of Jesus on the cross looks so terrible, it's because it was terrible. Probably not the probably the only thing not accurate about those images of Jesus on the cross is that he would have been naked.
You were crucified naked to intentionally humiliate you. They wanted you to bear all as you died publicly. Look at this. And then they placed a reed stick in his right hand as a scepter and they knelt before him in mockery and taunted hail King of the Jews. And it gets worse.
They spit on him. They grabbed the stick out of his hand and struck him on the head with it. Look at verse 31. When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him again. And then they led him away to be crucified.
Here's what I want you to know. Jesus did all this for you. All this is for you. I don't want you in this moment to be overwhelmed with his suffering. I want you in this moment to be overwhelmed with his love.
Hebrews is a book in your Bible written to Jewish people. Now many of us who have Jewish friends, most of them are not Christian, but in the early years of Christianity, most of the Christians were Jews. And so there's a book in our Bible called Hebrews because it's written specifically to Jewish believers to help them understand why Christ died, who he was, what this means as a Jewish person who follows Christ. And in Hebrews 12 verses two through three, this is what the author says. And this is what I want us to do today.
Just for a moment, let's take our attention off our suffering, our worries, our struggles, our issues, our kids, our marriage and just for a moment let's listen to the author of Hebrews who by the way is writing this letter to them because they're suffering. Verse two, let us fix our eyes on Jesus. Let me say this, whatever has your attention has you. What has your attention today? Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.
When my eyes are fixed on me, I am overwhelmed with life because I am underwhelmed with him. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus. The author and listen to this, the perfecter of our faith. Every other religion is spelled d o. You gotta do this.
You gotta do this. You gotta do this. Christianity is spelled done. He did it. He is the author and perfecter of our faith.
Look at this though. I first had my attention drawn to this one time when one of our pastors Dan Crowley preached a sermon in the Garden Of Gethsemane in Israel and he drew my attention to this for the first time. Jesus didn't suffer on the cross just to suffer. He suffered because of the joy that was ahead. Look at this.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith who for the joy set before him. Why does a mom go through birth pains? Not because she loves pain, not because she wants to to be hurt, not because she wants to have her body wounded or injured, but because of the joy of a new birth. Amen? Jesus didn't go to the cross to suffer.
He went to the cross for you and you are his joy. Amen? You are his joy. I remember sitting there as pastor Dan Crowley preached this. Jesus' eyes weren't on the cross, they were on us.
We were his vision. We were his ambition. We were what it was all about. And I was sitting next to a Jewish guide who does not believe in Jesus. He knows more about Jesus than most of you.
And I remember he looked at me, his name is Moshe. In English we say Moses. And he said, never thought about the joy of the cross. The author and perfecter of our faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross scorning its shame. Do you know the Bible says that anyone who is hung on a tree is cursed?
It's one of the reasons Jewish people reject Jesus. They can't ever imagine that the Messiah would be cursed. But who was he cursed for? You and me. He didn't care about the shame.
He didn't care about the story. He didn't care about the rumors. He didn't care what people were gonna say on Instagram. He didn't care what people were gonna say on x. He didn't care about all the gospel.
He didn't care about any of that. He cared about you. And he pushed that aside because you were the joy. And look at this. And he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You wanna minimize your suffering? Look at his. Look at his, look at his. But here's what I want you to know, Jesus was abandoned so I could be embraced.
I want you to know that the worst moment of the crucifixion is not the trial, it's not the crown of thorns, it's not being hit with the scepter that was placed in his hands, it's not being stripped of his clothes, it's not having a crown of thorns placed upon his head, it's not having the nails in his hands or the nails in his feet. That's not the most painful moment. And I want you to hear this. I want you to see what made Jesus break. Matthew 27 verse 45.
At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until 03:00. Listen to me, hell thought it won. The devil was licking his chops. These idiots just killed the son of God, we won. All the demons were celebrating, there was a party in hell like there's never been.
They thought they won. They thought God lost. Look at verse 46. At about 03:00, Jesus called out with a loud voice. What does Jesus need to stay alive?
His air. So I want you to just think about this. He's hanging on the cross and he cries out Eli, Eli, sorry, it's a tongue twister. Which means, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me? You may have felt like God turned his back on you but he never has, he never will.
In the moments where you could not sense him, feel him or experience him, he was closer to you than you know. The only person God has ever turned his back on was Jesus. So Jesus could turn us back to him. Can I get an amen? Amen.
And here's what I want you to see. Jesus is experiencing in this moment what people in hell were experienced forever. When God turns his back on them and says depart from me I never knew you. This is the moment. Verse 50 of Matthew 27, then Jesus shouted out again and he released his spirit.
This is really really important. No one took his life. He laid it down. He was in control to the very end. Do you know what that means?
Those nails did not hold him on the cross. His love for you did. Do you just think about that for a second? And he released his spirit. And then I want you to look in your Bibles at this subtle thing.
At that moment, the curtain in the sanctuary of the temple was torn in two and this is what I want you to underline from in your Bibles from top to bottom. Some of you guys, you don't know what the temple was. The temple was the place where Jews for thousands of years went to worship God. It was the place where they believed, listen to this, God dwelt. Originally, what was placed in the holies of holies was the Ark of the Covenant.
K? And if you don't know what that is, go watch Indiana Jones. You know what I'm saying? This thing's a scary scary thing. Right?
It's a it's a wooden box with angels on top and you open that and you unleash the power of God. And when Israel marched with that at the front, they never lost. One time it was stolen, it was taken by other armies and everybody in their camp died and they said you gotta come take this thing back. We don't we don't want this in our camp. Can you imagine?
You win the battle and you're like, no. No. You gotta take the treasure back. We want this treasure out of here. The Ark of the Covenant was powerful, but some of you don't know this.
It disappeared for over six hundred years. And in the holiest of holies, the place that was most central to the faith of the Jews, the place where God's presence was supposed to be, the Ark was lost. Listen to me, and the temple was empty. I don't care how old your religious tradition is. If it's empty in the middle, it's empty.
And some of you, well, I'm Catholic. Well, what's in the middle? Is God in the middle? Is there anything in there or has he left long ago? Is he in the temple?
And here's what the Bible says, you and I are the temple of the living God. Is there anything in there? And here's what God exposed on the cross. There was nothing in the temple and he ripped the curtain from top to bottom for all to see. Now here's something some of you may have missed.
In the gospel of John, when Mary Magdalene goes into the tomb, Jesus's clothes are missing, they're neatly folded on top of on top of the crypt in which he laid. Some of you've never noticed this and there are two angels. One at the head and one at the feet. On the Ark of the Covenant, there's two things on top of it, an angel on the left and an angel on the right. And every single year on Yom Kippur, the high priest would go into the holies of holies and he would sprinkle the blood of a lamb on the mercy seat so the people would be right with God for one year.
There's a new mercy seat and it's the tomb where Jesus laid and it was his blood that was shed and the angels are the cherubim over the holiest of holies because it isn't the ark that represents the presence of God. Jesus is the ark that is the person of God. So we don't need to find the ark. Sorry, Indiana Jones. I need you to find Jesus.
Can I get an amen? You need Jesus. Because he's not a box. He broke out of the box for you. He broke out of the box for me.
We need to look to Jesus. We need to look to God himself because listen to me, he is the place where we find mercy. Not year by year, but listen to me forever in his name. Look at Hebrews four fifteen. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.
Some of you grew up Catholic and it's always funny people call me father and I just kinda go along with it. Okay. You know? But I'm not a priest. Jesus is our high priest.
Can I get an amen? He's our perfect high priest. Amen? He's perfect. We don't have a high priest who doesn't understand us, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are yet without sin.
How many of you guys had some bad days? Anybody been tempted by sin? Let me ask you this. Were you hungry? Had you fasted for forty days and did the devil himself quote scripture to get you to sin?
No. But Jesus did. He understands us, but he was not overcome by sin. Look at what he says to the to the the people reading Hebrews. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find the grace to help us in our time of need.
When the priest would go into the holies of holies once a year, they tie a rope around his waist. Because if God was not pleased and he was sinful, do you know what God did? He killed him and the people would have to drag him out. Only the high priest of Israel once a year could go into the holiest of holies and place the blood of the lamb on the mercy seat. Jesus went in one time for all, Listen to me.
And we don't have to go into the throne room with a rope tied around our waist or bells on our hips so that if we fall down, they hear it. We can go in with confidence because here's what the cross did. It welcomed us all into the holiest of holies, into the very presence of God, not because of who we are or what we've done, but because of what Jesus did. Amen? Amen.
So let me let me say this, no matter who I am or what I've done, I can approach God because of what Jesus did. So on my tombstone when I die, want you to remind Tammy of this because she's gonna be a little emotional. She's gonna miss You know how they used to put RIP? I want VIP on mine. Because here's what I want you to know.
I got I got in the VIP line when I die because it's the road of Jesus. I go straight to the top, straight to the holies of holies, straight into the presence of God. I don't have to wait in any lines. I got my Jesus card and I'm going straight through not because of who I am, but because of who he is. Amen.
And you can celebrate because I'm with Jesus. Now tell Tammy not to celebrate. She needs to mourn a little bit. Last point. Some of you don't know Jesus and you need to know Jesus.
That's why Tammy and I started this church twenty nine years ago. We wanted to reach people far from God. God didn't die on the cross for religious people. Jesus died on the cross for sinful people. And Jesus loves you and he cares for you.
Look at this last point. Jesus displayed his power so I could find my faith. Remember those soldiers that mocked him? Remember the regiment that was called to put down the rioters that never showed up? No one showed up except a bunch of crying women.
That was it. And John who held Jesus' mother. There was no riot. There was no rebellion. There was no march to free him.
No one came. And the soldiers all got bored making fun of and mocking Jesus. It just turned into another boring day of work killing another criminal. Matthew twenty seven fifty one to 54. The earth shook, the rocks split apart and the tombs opened.
And the bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. Here's what this means. Even the people that came before Jesus are saved through Jesus. You wanna know you wanna know why Moses is in heaven? Jesus.
Why Elijah's in heaven? Jesus. You wanna know why Abraham's in heaven? Jesus. Jesus didn't just die for you, he died for all people because no one can go into the presence of God unless they know the son of God.
Verse 53, they left the cemetery after Jesus' resurrection. Can you imagine being resurrected but you gotta hang out in the tomb for a couple days? Why is that? Somebody's gotta be first and it's not you and it's not me. Jesus is the first amongst the dead.
Ain't that crazy? Even dead people know how to worship better than us. I've been running out that tomb anybody else. I'm alive. I'm alive.
I'm alive. They were like, no, no, we gotta chill. We gotta chill. And then they went into the holy city and they appeared to many people. Look at verse 54.
The Roman officer and the other soldiers at the crucifixion, remember that regiment that tortured him, that beat him, that mocked him, that stripped him naked and stole his clothes. They were terrified by the earthquake and all that had happened. Look at this line and never forget it. They said this man truly was the son of God. Even in his death, Jesus brought people to life.
Isn't that amazing? The last verse I wanna close with this this first Corinthians one eighteen. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are headed for destruction. We all have family members and friends who think religion is just a crutch. It's just something for weak people.
It makes no sense whatsoever. They mock us, they make fun of us. The Bible says the cross is foolishness to those who are headed for destruction. But listen to what it says, but we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. Can I get an amen?
Amen. Amen. So we're gonna take the Lord's Supper right now. And let me say this, you should not do this if Jesus is not your savior. You should not do this if he's not your Lord, but he can be right now.
The bible says whoever calls upon the name of Lord shall be saved. In Luke's gospel, one of the thieves repented. One of the thieves gave his life to Jesus. That means there's room for you. Amen?
So let's do the Lord's supper right now. Take out the cracker. Jesus says, this was my body that was broken for you. Every whip, every nail, every poke from the crown of thorns, every strike with the reed, all of that was done for you. He said, take this in remembrance of me, please do so.
And then Jesus said, his blood, remember that was on the mercy seat, not once a year with the high priest, but once for all time. This one he says, this blood represents a new covenant between you and God. You are not saved because of what you do. You are saved because of what he did. Can I get an amen for that?
Amen. He said, take this in remembrance of me. Let's do so now. Again, I don't want you to feel bad today. I want you to feel loved.
He didn't die on the cross just to suffer. He died on the cross because he loves you. He loves you and he loves me. Let's bow our heads, let's close our eyes and let's just thank him. Jesus, we thank you so much on this Memorial Day weekend for your giving of your life so that we could have eternal life.
Lord, we love you. We appreciate you. We thank you. Lord and and there aren't enough words. So let us Lord give up our lives this week in service to you.
You sacrificed all for us. We can certainly give something to you. So Lord, move in our lives this week and let us live out of this incredible love that you have displayed for us. Thank you Lord Jesus for dying. Thank you for suffering.
Thank you for taking our place on judgment day and standing in the wrath of God for us so that we could be saved and with you forever. We love you Jesus and all God's people said, amen.