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Join us every Sunday morning at 9 or 10:30 AM in the Maywood Center. Sermons & Bible Studies available online on any podcast platform or visit our YouTube channel "@flipsidechristianchurch"! Download our app at https://flipsidechristian.churchcenter.com/setup for more info about our church and ministries.
Flipside Christian Church
Madera Ranchos, CA
This morning.
We're going to open Matthew 27,
and we just sung about
the name of Jesus, the person of Jesus.
What Jesus accomplished for us.
We just shared communion and
and talked about his body and his blood.
With that comes the promise of his
of of his return.
All of that.
All that proclamation.
All that confession would be worthless
without.
Matthew 26, 27 and 28 occurring.
And so what we're looking at this
this morning, Matthew 27 had to happen
so that all that we've just said
are proclaimed
could be reality
without Matthew 26, 27 and 28.
None of it happens.
It all falls apart.
Chapter 27 is not a fun chapter,
but it's a necessary chapter
in order to help us understand.
I made these available last week.
If you didn't get one, you need
another one there in the Welcome Center.
These detailed the six trials that Jesus
went to leading up to the crucifixion.
In Matthew 26,
there were three religious trials
under the Jewish religious establishment
before the high priest,
before a small group of the Sanhedrin,
then before the full Sanhedrin,
which
led to the three civil or Roman trials
before Pilate and Herod,
and then back to Pilate.
And so I want you to understand
that the trials that Jesus endured,
that he gave himself to,
that he submitted to
it, was the religious trials that decided
that they would hand his over
to the Roman authorities
and go through their trials
that would decide
the fate of crucifixion.
The the religious people
didn't have the right to crucify anybody.
That was a Roman.
That was a Roman capital punishment.
And to get him to be crucified,
they had to go through the
religious trials to get them to decide
to hand them over to the Roman authority.
And so that that this is this right here
is chapter 27, the first part of chapter
27, verses one through 31.
That's what we're looking at today.
So if you if you didn't get one of these,
please get one.
I'll help you understand the totality
of the trials that Jesus went through.
Here's what I want you to understand
about those trials.
There's out of the four Gospels,
there's not
one of them that gives us
the full scope of the trials.
All of them give us a scope.
Trials one
and three are in Matthew, Mark and John.
Luke is the
only one who records anything
about trial number two.
And so we're I'm going to draw
some of this together to give you a full,
fuller understanding of the three trials
you went through.
But I want you to be aware
of the totality of it all
for this morning.
Here's the big idea.
For the first 30 verses or so of chapter
27, Jesus took the punishment
that I deserve so I can be offered
the freedom I've never earned.
And we're going to see that in the text
this morning
as Jesus moves through these trials.
There are three basic movements of these
first 30 verses or so in Matthew 27.
The first movement, verses,
15 through 26 really
is my sin leaves me guilty before God.
I've committed sin.
I have broken God's law,
and the result of that
is guilt that I bear.
The second movement,
again, that same basic passage,
God's grace,
provides the substitute for the guilty.
My guilt demands
that that be paid and satisfied.
And so, by God's grace
he says, Carl, you can't afford to pay
that price yourself
even though you're guilty of it.
So I'm going to make a substitute.
Here's
what I want you to understand about Grace.
Grace is the fact that I get
what Jesus deserves
because Jesus got what I deserved.
That's grace.
Grace is when God looks at me,
he sees Jesus.
And when God looks at Jesus, he sees me.
That's grace and that's the substitute.
And then the third movement is
that Jesus in verses
27 through 31,
Jesus willingly suffered what I deserve.
So it's not just that God
chose a substitute,
made a substitute for my guilt.
That substitute is Jesus.
Now here's the good news of the gospel.
The good news of the gospel
is not that I am innocent.
The good news of the gospel
is not that you are innocent.
The good news of the gospel.
And that's what gospel means.
The good news is that
Jesus took the judgment of the guilty.
That's the good news.
The good news is not that
you and I are innocent.
Because we're not.
None of us are.
For all have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God.
And the wages of sin is death.
But the free gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So the good news is not
that we're not guilty.
The good news is not that we're innocent.
The good news is that Jesus
took our penalty.
In Matthew 27.
And this is what we've got to
we we've we've got to let this sink in.
And this is not going to be pleasant,
but we have to let this sink in.
Stop minimizing your sin.
The cross shows
both the seriousness of sin
and how great is God's mercy.
That's not happy news
on the front end,
but we've got to let the weight of it
sink in.
Stop minimizing your sin.
The cross and the cross alone
shows how serious sin is,
but it also is
a profound, eternal statement
about how great is the mercy of God.
There are some people who are so fragile
and so sensitive and so self-absorbed
that they refuse to acknowledge
the depth and degradation of their sin.
They minimize it
because to think
that you are that guilty,
that demands a life.
And when when we're
that insecure, we do one of two things.
Well, we do two things.
One, we start looking about at how bad
everybody else is.
To prove we're not that bad,
and it's because we're so insecure.
We minimize our sin.
And what a lot of us is about
is that person.
And when that happens,
we never come to the full realization
of how great God's mercy is.
Because honestly, if I'm not that bad.
God's mercy doesn't have to be that great.
And so, because of my insecurity
or my pride or my hubris or my arrogance,
I don't want to recognize the depth
and degradation of my sin.
I want to minimize it.
And the moment I do that, I never
experience the magnitude of God's mercy.
And the cross shows how bad,
how serious sin is.
But it also shows
how great is the mercy of our God.
And so Matthew 26, we talked last week
about the three religious trials
that set in motion
the three that we'll see this week
Roman trials
leading to crucifixion.
And so let me just read a couple verses
and we'll talk about it.
The first part of Matthew 27
is the wrap up of the third
religious trial and the beginning
of the first Roman trial.
And the Bible says in verse
one of chapter 27, when morning came,
all the chief priests
and the elders of the people took counsel
against Jesus to put him to death.
So this is right at the end of the third
religious trial,
the first two happened
and the early morning hours all illegal.
Before sunrise,
they had to make it somehow appear legal.
So right at sunrise,
they called together the full Sanhedrin.
The first religious trial
was with Annas and Caiaphas.
The second was with the high priest
and a few of the Sanhedrin,
maybe 23 members or so of the 70.
And then finally, at this point,
the full Sanhedrin, the full 70,
with the one high priest get together,
they decide, let's put him to death.
Let's send them to Rome
so that they will crucify him.
So this was right
at the end of the third religious trial,
the beginning of the first Roman trial.
Verse two.
And they bound him and led him away to be
delivered over to Pilate the governor.
This is the beginning
of the first Roman trial.
I want you to know something.
We go through this every statement
except from the religious leaders
who want to crucify him.
Every statement of every person
that comes in contact
with the Jesus during
these trials will pronounce his innocence.
Every one of them.
Everybody knows
he is completely innocent.
No charge against him.
I want that to stick out.
All four gospels
tell the trials one and three only.
Luke tells of of trial number two.
I will reference that,
but I'm not going to get real deep into
into trial number two in the book of Luke.
But, but but we will look at it now.
At this point in Matthew 27,
Matthew pauses the trials,
the narrative of the trials,
and now he tells us
what's going on behind the scenes
while these trials are taking place.
He gives us a glimpse into Judas the betrayer and tells us what happens with him.
Verse three.
Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that
Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind
and brought back the 30 pieces of silver
to the chief priests and the elders.
Sin I have sinned by betraying what
innocent blood?
Judas proclaims
the event is, I guarantee you,
if there were any thing in Judas
in Jesus's life
that Judas could have said, well,
I was kind of justified
if there were any thing there.
If there was anything
that Judas could have said.
You know what, though?
There was one time he lost his temper
and he started kicking puppies.
I saw it like.
But there's nothing.
He knows he's innocent, and now he's.
He feels guilty.
He said I've sinned again
by betraying innocent blood.
They said,
what is that to us? See to it yourself.
And throwing down the pieces of silver
into the temple, he departed and went,
and he went and hanged himself.
But the chief priest,
taking the pieces of silver, said, it's
not lawful to put that money
into the treasury, since it's blood money.
What did they just affirm?
They they affirmed his innocence.
It's blood money.
We set him up.
So they took counsel
bought with them the potter's field
as a burial place for strangers.
Therefore, that field has been called
the field of blood to this day.
Then was fulfilled what has been spoken of
by the prophet Jeremiah, saying.
And they took the 30 pieces of silver,
the price of him
on whom a price had been set
by some of the sons of Israel.
And they gave them for the potter's field,
as the Lord directed me.
I want to point a couple of things out.
Judas is convicted of his guilt.
He throws the 30 pieces of silver
that he had contracted with these priests
to turn Jesus over, at a time
when the crowds were not around.
That's why he led them to the Garden
of Gethsemane, when Jesus was their prey,
because he knew there
wouldn't be any crowds around.
Thus not creating a riot. Handed him over.
And then he realizes, seeing
Jesus condemned to death, he was he.
He knew he was guilty of a grave sin.
I believe that originally Judas
really wanted to see
Jesus reign,
but Judas wanted Jesus political reign.
He thought Judas.
He thought the reign of Jesus would be
a political kingdom, not a spiritual one.
And I really think that he sold Jesus over
to to force Jesus's hand.
Like he's not going fast enough.
I want him to do this now.
If I sell him over to the authorities,
I'll force him to overthrow Rome.
And he realized he had got
the kingdom of God wrong from day one.
And he throws the 30
pieces of silver back at the priest.
And what are the priests say?
What did he say?
He said, it's not lawful
to put this back in the church budget. The
the profound duplicity.
You know, where this money came
from originally from the church budget.
They took it out of the church
treasury, gave it to Judas.
Judas guilty of betraying his son,
but give it back to them.
And now they act as if they're men of
integrity and say, this is blood money.
We can't put it back in the church budget.
The hypocrisy of these people.
The Bible says
Jesus went out and hanged himself.
Now, let me just address
some people who may want to find fault
with Scripture
or may claim some discrepancies.
Matthew 27 says Jesus hanged himself.
In acts chapter one, verse 18,
it says that his body fell and burst
open on the ground.
And some will say, see,
there's a contradiction.
That's why I don't believe the Bible.
Well, let me just help you understand.
Judas certainly hung himself.
This was right at Passover.
It was illegal
for Jews to touch dead bodies,
to be around dead bodies over Passover.
That's why they asked for Jesus body
to come down from the cross,
so they could wrap it
and put it in a grave before sundown.
Nobody's paying attention to Judas.
He's hanging on a tree for days
during the Passover season.
It hung himself, and he's hanging there
because nobody one, nobody knows, really.
And two, nobody wants to touch a dead body
because they would defile themselves.
And so, in the heat of the Middle
Eastern weather and this tree is hanging
on, either
the neck gives way or the tree,
and he falls down dead and burst open.
Do you see what I'm saying?
And so there is no contradiction
when you understand
the context and the history.
But there's something else
in this passage.
Notice what it says.
Therefore, the field of blood is called
the field of blood of the city.
Verse nine
then was fulfilled what had been spoken of
by the prophet Jeremiah,
saying that they took 30 pieces of silver,
the price of the one that had been set
by sons in Israel.
Matthew says that was spoken
of by the prophet Jeremiah.
If you do your research, you understand
it wasn't spoken by
Jeremiah, was spoken by Zechariah.
And others will say, Gotcha.
Bible is wrong.
Well, again,
he help give you some understanding.
So you know what the Bible,
how this whole thing goes together.
The Hebrew Scriptures
were comprised of three large sections
the Torah, the law,
what they call the prophets,
and what they call the writings.
Three large sections of Hebrew Scriptures.
The prophets were all the scrolls
of all the prophets
Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel,
Zechariah, Hosea, all these prophets.
The R Bible lists
Isaiah first for many different reasons.
The Hebrew Scroll of the prophets lists
Jeremiah first.
It's big long scrolls.
They didn't have titles
and chapters and verses.
So all the prophets were listed
after the prophet Jeremiah.
So rather than this individual
prophet said this at this point,
because they couldn't
just go refer to that.
All of the prophets saints were referred
to as the scroll of Jeremiah the prophet.
So when they referenced Jeremiah,
the prophets prophecy,
they could be talking about Hosea,
Zechariah, Isaiah.
It's just that was the title
of their scroll of prophets.
Do you follow?
This is true and accurate.
And it tells us of the true,
inaccurate account of my guilt,
the substitution of God
in the person of Christ.
Now this is where Matthew
picks up the first trial, now in verse 11.
So he introduced it in verses
one and two, tells us about Judas.
And now he picks up the first trial,
verse 11.
Now Jesus stood before the governor,
and the governor asked him,
are you the King of the Jews?
Jesus said, you have said so.
But when he was accused by the chief
priests and elders, he gave no answer.
Then Pilate said to him, do you not hear
how many things they testify against you?
But he gave him no answer,
not even to a single charge,
so that the governor was greatly amazed.
This is the this,
this this trial here, now.
Look.
Look at what the question was a pilot.
What does Pilate,
the governor, asked of Jesus?
Are you the King of Jews?
He didn't say it like that.
The the Greek rendering of that.
Is this you,
the king of the Jews?
It was incredulous
that the man standing before
Pilate would be a king,
because what Pilate saw was this humble,
poor, homeless,
itinerant preacher
who had been brutalized by the Jews.
And so his question is this you really
you're what the hubbub is about.
You think you're going to threaten Rome?
Who do you think you are?
Which is exactly in line with Scripture.
Isaiah 532 says, he had no form, that
we would be attracted to him.
Nothing about him
would draw people to him, to Jesus.
Jesus was not some six to kind of fit,
kind of flowing hair type of guy
that just say, hey, look at that.
Not at all.
There was nothing about him that would
make anybody say, that guy's a leader.
And so when he's
before Pilate, I was like you.
You're a joke.
That's the.
That's the statement
you the king of the Jews.
Jesus said you've said so.
And Jesus kept his mouth, gave no answer.
So do you hear
what they're saying about you?
He gave no answer, not to a single charge.
And the Bible says
the governor was greatly amazed.
Here's what he was.
He was amazed that this man standing
before him could be so calm
and so serene and so at peace,
and have so much strength and security
in who he was, whose he was,
and the events
that were going on around him.
No worry, no threat.
By the had had guilty
people before, before.
And they begged for mercy
and they tried to explain themselves.
But you don't
understand the circumstances,
but you don't understand why I'm not in.
Jesus said nothing.
And Pilate was amazed.
How can you be so calm, so serene,
so certain?
Greatly amazed.
Pilate didn't know what to do with him.
He could find no guilt in him.
The interesting thing
that it's at this point that the
that the, the,
the charges against Jesus start to change
because up to this point
that Jesus had charged him
with violating their own commands
and claiming to be God.
What is wrong we care about?
If someone claims to be God,
they don't believe in God anyway.
The only way that would get Rome to enact
the death
penalty
is if it was a threat to Roman authority.
So this is where the chief priests
are changing their charges
against Jesus to tax evasion
and to claiming to be Lord.
For the Romans, only Caesar was Lord.
That's what they said.
Caesar is kairos.
Lord,
there is no Lord. Over, over, Caesar.
So for Jesus to be, to claim to be
Lord was a threat to Roman
throne and Roman authority.
Do you understand that?
That's why Pilate was so incredulous. You.
You're supposed to be the threat.
You're no threat.
That's why when Paul will later.
Right?
If you believe in your heart
that Jesus is Lord and confess
with your mouth, Lord, believe that God
raised him from the dead, you'll be saved.
That confession that Jesus is Lord
is not a simple confession of the Lord.
I believe Jesus, I believe that you died
on the cross and rose from.
And that's not what it is.
It's a statement
against the authority of Rome.
For Paul to say
the way to faith is to claim Jesus is Lord
was literally could be a death sentence
for those who would proclaim that
because they're saying
Jesus is Lord, not Caesar.
That's
what it means to be a disciple of Christ,
not to make some confession
with your faith, with your mouth.
Just say the words.
But to make the proclamation
that this Jesus has full authority
over every aspect of your life, even,
God forbid,
to the point of death.
It's more than just words.
So Pilate is so incredulous, you a threat?
It's amazing to me that that
that these religious leaders would charge
Jesus with tax evasion.
And Jesus said, pay your taxes.
When questioned about it, he got it.
He got some money out of the fish's mouth.
That would be a great deal if he could
work that out with the IRS somehow.
He said, be a good citizen.
Keep your mouth shut. Obey
the authorities.
God put him there.
Quit storming the Capitol. Relax.
But this was the only way
they could get Rome to move.
Now, verse 15.
This is where Matthew switches
to the third trial.
He doesn't tell us about the second trial.
The second trial is Luke 23.
And so Pilate is sitting there going,
I know he's innocent.
I find no charge him.
He's no threat to Rome.
And so Pilate, having a lot of political
difficulties in his political
life,
doesn't want another issue
because he knows he gets another issue.
Rome's going to depose him from a thought.
They'll probably kill him.
And so he's like,
how do I how do I get out of this?
I know he's innocent.
So Pilate sends him to Herod
because Jesus is from the area of Galilee,
and Herod is over the, the, the,
the one overseeing the whole area
of Galilee says like, look, I'm
going to push this off on Herod.
The Herod Jesus goes to in the second
trial is the same hair that had John
the Baptist beheaded.
And Herod was enthralled by Jesus.
Herod really wanted to meet Jesus
because he heard about all the miracles.
Like, maybe if I get Jesus here, he'll do
some miracle and kind of entertain me.
Herod was a nutjob.
And so
Pilate sends Jesus to Herod
for the second trial.
Luke 23 And Herod questions him.
Herod can't find anything wrong with him.
He's like, look, I'm going to make fun of.
I'm gonna send him back.
But there's nothing wrong with this guy.
So that's the second trial.
So sends him back to Pilate.
Now in Matthew 27,
starting in verse 15, okay,
so this third trial,
now, if the feast the governor
was accustomed to release
for the crowd
any one prisoner whom they wanted,
and they had it,
then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.
So when they gathered,
Pilate said to them,
whom do you want me to release to you?
But rabbis,
or Jesus, who was called Christ?
And so Pilate knows he's innocent.
He really wants to set Jesus free.
He does not want to go through with this
because he knows he doesn't deserve death.
And so he says, listen, during
the Passover season, it's our custom as
benevolent Romans to release to you Jews
one of your own prisoners on death row.
So I got this guy, Barabbas.
He's an insurrectionist.
He's a writer.
He's probably with Antifa
and his creative murder.
Okay, so I could let him go.
Or I can let Jesus go.
Who is the Christ?
And he uses the name the Christ. Why?
Because he wants the Jews to understand.
This is the one who claims to be
your Messiah.
I can release your Messiah is a good
guy or this insurrectionist.
He really wants to set him free.
Because he knew, verse 18,
he knew that it was out of envy
that the religious leaders were delivering
Jesus up.
He knew they were jealous.
Such insecure children
in places of religious authority.
Besides, while he was sitting
on the judgment seat, his wife sent
word to him, this is this is Pilates.
Wife have nothing to do with that. What?
What's your Bible say?
Have nothing to do with that. What?
That righteous man.
Everybody's associate with Jesus claims
his innocence and his righteousness
have nothing to do.
Pilate with that righteous man.
For I have suffered much because of him.
Today in a dream.
Now the chief priests
and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask
for Barabbas,
for Barabbas, and destroy Jesus.
And the governor said again said to them,
which of these two
do you want me to release for you?
And they said, Barabbas.
Palestinian.
What do I do with the one
that's called Christ?
It's almost as if Pilate is on the verge
of setting Jesus free.
He knows he's innocent.
Everybody around him
has claimed his innocence,
and he wants to set Jesus free.
And right in the middle of that moment,
Pilates wife says, hey honey,
let me talk to you.
Pulls Pilate aside, says, I've had a dream
and I am tormented by it.
Have nothing to do with.
You know
you should not put him to you know it.
Well, that's going on.
The Bible says the religious leaders
are gathering the crowd
and persuading them
to convince Pilate to crucify Jesus.
I want you to pay attention.
Pilot was on the verge of setting
Jesus free because he knew his innocence.
He was interrupted in that process
by a dream his wife had.
And then the religious leaders persuaded
the crowd.
Here's in my mind
what's going on from the very beginning.
The devil has tried incredibly hard
to get Jesus to bypass the cross
from the from from the Garden
of Eden, the very beginning.
Just think about it.
The devil does not want
Jesus to go to the cross,
because he knows in the cross
and the resurrection is our salvation.
And so back when Jesus was born,
this Herod's daddy
killed all the little babies
two years old and under.
Why, it was the devil's plan to kill Jesus
so the cross would never happen.
Then Jesus goes to the wilderness
to be tempted by the devil.
In an effort to add three different ways
to get Jesus
to bypass the cross.
In the Garden of Gethsemane.
Again, an onslaught of hell against Jesus.
To not drink the cup of suffering
to bypass the cross.
Even to this point here in the last day,
the devil trying to get Jesus
to bypass the cross
by causing Pilate to recognize, get this.
The devil caused him to recognize
his innocence, to set him free,
because if he sets him free,
he doesn't go to the cross.
And I can't prove this to you,
but in my mind,
God allows this dream and Pilates wife
that she is so worked up about this,
she pulls him aside
to give time for the evil
religious leaders
to convince the crowd
to push for his crucifixion.
Had that dream not happened, had she not
been that distressed and pulled aside,
he probably would have ruled him innocent
and he would have bypassed the cross.
And God goes through all of these steps
so that his son,
the innocent, will be crucified
for the guilty.
In not sparing his life.
I can't fathom
the love.
That the father has for me.
To make sure that his son didn't go free.
And he asked this question,
what do I do with Christ?
They all said, let him be crucified.
And he said, why? What evil has he done?
But they shatter all the more.
Let him be crucified.
I want you to understand this is all
happening at the Antonio Fortress.
The Antonio fortress was built
by Caesar for his general Mark Antony.
And it was where it was, where the Roman
garrison and 600 soldiers would reside.
And it was on the temple grounds
so that Rome could oversee
everything that was going on with the Jews
and keep them under, under control.
It was at the Antonio fortress,
where the prisoners were held,
and where Pilate would hold the,
the the judicial court.
It it was it was at the Antonio fortress
that the high priest
breastplate and vestments would be stored
under lock and key
under Roman authority
to keep the Jews subdued.
It's at the Antonio Fortress, as all
this is taking place.
And just imagine for a moment the scene.
The prisoners of their Barabbas is there.
You can't hear people talking outside the
the fortress, but you can hear the shouts
and Barabbas,
knowing he's a murderer, knowing he's
guilty, is sitting in his jail cell.
And what he hears is shouts Barabbas!
Barabbas! He doesn't hear the question.
Who do you want me to free?
All he hears is Barabbas. Barabbas?
He doesn't hear the question.
What do I do with Christ?
Crucify him, crucify him!
So Barabbas is sitting there,
potentially, and all.
He hears Barabbas crucify him! Barabbas!
Crucify him! Can you imagine?
That's the day of the crucifixion.
He hears the words,
and as he's sitting in a cell,
he hears the soldiers marching down.
And he knows they're coming for him.
And he hears the lock unlocked.
And you could imagine this vehement,
angry murder
shit like, okay, let's like.
And they say, Barabbas, you're free to go.
What? What?
I mean, that's great news. But why?
Because Jesus the Christ took your place.
That crossbeam
that Jesus carried up to Golgotha.
The place of the school was Barabbas.
Crosby.
There were three Chris fied that day.
Should have been Barabbas.
Jesus carried his cross and was crucified
on the cross of Barabbas.
It's grace, it's mercy.
So when Pilate saw that he was gaining
nothing but rather,
but rather that a riot was beginning,
he took
water, washed his hands before the crowd,
saying, I'm innocent of this man's blood.
See it to yourselves. Watch this.
And all the people answered,
his blood be on us and our children.
What a stupid statement!
Then you release for them Barabbas.
And having scourged
Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.
His blood be on us and our children.
In acts five chapter 28,
these same religious leaders
are being charged
in the
confrontation
of preaching by the disciples,
and they say, you've crucified the Christ.
And their response is, how dare you place
this blood on our hands?
Well, it's exactly what you said
you wanted.
And Pilate knows
there's going to be a riot.
So he had them scourged and delivered
over to crucify that scourging.
What they would do is
they would strip the man bare.
They would tie
his hands up over his head and hang him.
So his whole torso was,
is exposed.
And then a couple of soldiers
and alternating
whips would take these whips
with strips of leather woven
with metal and bone, with a lead
ball on the end to cause contusions.
And as the man was stripped,
they would wrap it around him
and it would cut into his body,
and then they would rip it out,
causing this
the flesh just to be in shreds.
Ribbons.
The Bible says he was beaten
beyond human recognition.
The LED balls would cause contusions
so that as it was ripped,
the blood would just pour.
And that was the scourging.
It was designed to get the man
to the point of death,
so that crucifixion was quick, quicker
than what it would have been.
The Jews had the law that 40 minus one
lashes, that's all they could do.
39 Romans had no law.
This was a Roman scourging,
not a Jewish scourging.
Who knows how many times
Jesus was scourged, whipped.
And the point was to get you to the point
where you're in so much pain
you're almost dead,
so you confess your crime.
Jesus had no crime to confess.
Let him off to be crucified.
Then the soldiers and the governor took
Jesus into the governor's headquarters,
and they gathered the whole battalion,
about 600 men before him,
and they stripped him.
They put a scarlet robe on him,
twisting together a crown of thorns.
They put on his head
and put a read in his right hand.
Kneeling before him, they mocked
him, saying, hail, King of the Jews!
And they spit on him.
They took the reading
and struck him on the head.
Then they had when they had mocked him,
they stripped him of his robe
and put it on his own clothes on him,
and led him away to crucify him.
600 this
is, in my opinion, as I read this.
This is satanic embodied
demonic possession
taken over these men
to brutalize the innocent Christ.
And it says they stripped him, but
it's called a robe on him,
twisting together a crown of thorns.
Those thorns in Jerusalem
were anywhere from an inch to three inches
long, as hard as nails,
and as a soldier with leather gloves
wove this together.
It wasn't a crown, it was a skull cap.
So they placed this entire thorny
skull crap
on his skull cap on his head.
And where's it say
they struck him with those sticks?
Where does it say they struck him?
On his head.
So they put that crown of thorns on him,
and they take those clubs and.
And all those thorns
shoved down between the skin and the
and the bone
through his ear canals, through his eyes,
all down on his head.
He hopes his not his mouth.
They put a reading in his hand,
mocking him.
They before him a mock him.
They spit on him.
Sheer evil.
They stripped him.
And let him away to crucify him.
They divine
all these demonically inspired ways
to mock him.
Oh, that we would seek
divinely inspired ways
to worship him.
And you and I are left
with a question that Pilate asked
that has to be answered.
What do I do with Christ?
While we're alive?
We have the opportunity to ask
that question what will I do with Christ?
Once we're dead? You no longer
have that opportunity.
You will.
You will be asked the question,
what did you do with Christ?
I don't care what you say about you.
Believe in God. You believe in
you know you're a good person.
You go to Bible, your religion.
I don't care about any of that stuff.
That's not the question.
The question is,
what do you do with Christ?
What do you do with Jesus?
It's easy
to see plain mockery
like this in Scripture,
and none of us would dream of mocking
Jesus like this.
He's innocent.
But I got to wonder, how do we mock him?
By denying him.
By acting like what he did is
is is a neat story.
And that's about it.
Do we mock him by saying,
yeah, I want to get heaven,
but I don't want to live for you
totally while I'm on earth.
How do we mock him?
By hearing, but not obeying.
How do we mock him
with worships
that's insincere and disengaged.
How do we mock him?
By powerless obedience?
How do we mock him?
The question you and I are left with is,
what will you do with Christ,
the innocent one
who paid the penalty
that I deserve, that you deserve
that opened not his mouth
because he knew I needed him to do it.
Completely innocent, free of guilt.
The Bible says that God proves his love
for us in this, that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans five eight.
God said, I love you so much,
I'm going to prevent my innocent
son by being proclaimed innocent,
and he's going to go through all of this
complete degradation,
complete demonic evil laid against him,
and endure the eternal sin punishment
that Carl you deserve
because I love you that much.
Now, in light of that,
what will you do with Christ?
Answer that question
now before you face God one day.
And he says, what did you do with Christ?
And you have no answer?
I want you pray with me.
Father,
thank you that you loved us so much
that you sent your son
and gave your son for us,
that we who believe in you would not
perish but have everlasting life.
If we proclaim Jesus is Lord above
all else.
Friends,
I want to invite you in this moment to.
Maybe you've said
this prayer lots of times.
I don't know,
but invite you again
this morning to say, God,
I admit it, I'm a sinner
and my sin condemns me to hell.
But I believe Jesus, you died for my sin
and that you have raised a life
and you offer me forgiveness and freedom.
I accept it
and I commit to turn for my sin,
and I dedicate my life
and my allegiance to you.
You are my Lord,
my sovereign, master and ruler.
Help me not minimize sin.
Help me understand the seriousness of it
and how great your mercy is for me.
I dedicate my life to you,
empowering by your spirit
to live a holy life
and a righteous life
and a life that honors you
above all else.
What would you say?
So would that be your heart's cry?
In light of all that he's done for us?
Would that be your heart's cry?
Lord, we repent.
Revive our church.
Father, restore our love for your son.
God. Restore our fear of you.
Restore our hunger for Scripture.
Restore in us the practice of repentance
a life of holiness.
Remove from us
all those things that are just dead.
Religion.
Deliver us from powerless activity,
from worship
that is performative and not intimate
and from agreement without obedience.
God, would you awake in our hearts
and lives in us by your spirit?
You are so good to us.
Let us live a life
worthy of the name that we carry.
Christian.
In your name I pray. Amen.
Friends, as always,
there's people willing to pray,
willing to join you in prayer
before or after the service.
Take advantage of all those opportunities.
Bring your life fully in line with Jesus
and experiences mercy and grace.
It is so profound
and so beautiful. He loves you
and he
proved his love for you on the cross.
Love him back.
Let's sing.