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Sermons preached at Trinity Reformed Church in Bloomington, Indiana.
This is God's word from Mark 15 verses 1 to 39. Early in the morning, the chief priests with the elders and scribes and the whole council immediately held a consultation. And binding Jesus, they led him away and delivered him to Pilate. Pilate questioned him, are you the king of the Jews? And he answered him, it is as you say.
Speaker 1:The chief priests began to accuse him harshly. And then Pilate questioned him again saying, do you not answer? See how many charges they bring against you. But Jesus made no further answer, so Pilate was amazed. Now at the feast, he used to release for them any one prisoner whom they requested.
Speaker 1:The man named Barabbas had been imprisoned with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the insurrection. The crowd went up and began asking him to do as he had been accustomed to do for them. Pilate answered them saying, do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews? For he was aware that the chief priests had handed him over because of envy. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask him to release Barabbas for them instead.
Speaker 1:Answering again, Pilots said to them, then what shall I do with him whom you call the king of the Jews? They shall I do with him whom you call the king of the Jews? They shouted back, crucify him. But Pilate said to them, why? What evil has he done?
Speaker 1:But they shouted all the more, crucify him. Wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas for them and after having Jesus scourged, he handed him over to be crucified. The soldiers took him away into the palace, that is the Praetorian, and they called together the whole Roman cohort. They dressed him up in purple and after twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to acclaim him, hail, king of the Jews.
Speaker 1:They kept beating his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling and bowing before him. After they had mocked him, they took the purple robe off him and put his own garments on him and they led him out to crucify him. They pressed into service a passerby coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross. Then they brought him to the place Golgotha, which is translated place of a skull. They tried to give him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it.
Speaker 1:And they crucified him and divided up his garments among themselves, casting lots for them to decide what each man should take. It was the 3rd hour when they crucified him. The inscription of the charge against him read, the king of the Jews. They crucified 2 robbers with him, 1 on his right and 1 on his left. And the scripture was fulfilled which says, and he was numbered with transgressors.
Speaker 1:Those passing by were hurling abuse at him, wagging their heads and saying, You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in 3 days, save yourself and come down from the cross. In the same way, the chief priests also, along with the scribes, were mocking him among themselves And so he saves others. He cannot save himself. Let this Christ, the king of Israel, now count come down from the cross so that we may see and believe. Those who were crucified with him were also insulting him.
Speaker 1:When the 6th hour came, darkness fell over the whole land until the 9th hour. At the 9th hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Which is translated, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? When some of the bystanders heard it, they began saying, behold, he's calling for Elijah. Someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed, and gave him a drink saying, Let us see whether Elijah will come take him down. And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.
Speaker 1:And the veil of the temple was torn in 2 from top to bottom. When the centurion, who was standing right in front of him, saw the way he breathed his last, he said, truly, this man was the son of God. This is the word of the Lord. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Of all the things, of all the suffering, the beating, the scourging, the whipping, of all the ways that Jesus was sinned against.
Speaker 1:The envy of the chief priests. The mockery of the soldiers. The mockery of the thieves. The mockery of all the people around him. The false accusations.
Speaker 1:More than that, the betrayal by Judas. Judas, a man whom Jesus had picked and called, had trained, had discipled, had taught, had ate with, had of Judas. More than that, the denial by his dear friend, Peter, his dear friend, Peter. I tell you, I do not know the man. Can you imagine?
Speaker 1:More than all of that, it's this. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? What a gut wrenching heartbreaking question. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why have you deserted me?
Speaker 1:Because remember, Jesus came down to earth from the bosom of the father. That's what he said. He had lived literally forever with God the father and God the spirit, the holy spirit together in perfect perfect communion. One mind. One purpose.
Speaker 1:Perfect love. Perfect fellowship forever. And when he came down, he came down for one purpose. He came came down to this earth to do the will of his father, to please his father. And he did please his father.
Speaker 1:His father said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Every act that Jesus did, every word that he spoke, every thought, every motive behind every thought perfectly in tune with the will of God. Perfectly in tune with the will of his father, his God. But this, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? There is only one possible answer to that question.
Speaker 1:God forsook Jesus so that he could welcome you. God abandoned Jesus so that he could bring you in. That's it. But that's not fair. Darn straight that's not fair.
Speaker 1:This is the heart of the good news. It's not about fair. God made him who knew no sin to be sin on your behalf so that you might become the righteousness of God in him. Well, that doesn't make any sense. Actually, yeah, it really does.
Speaker 1:It's the easiest thing in the world to understand. You stood in your place. That's easy to understand, actually. We just hate it. It's not hard to understand because it's complicated.
Speaker 1:It's hard to understand because it strikes at the heart of our pride. He stood in your place, did the thing you couldn't do, suffered the death you deserved. That's really simple. A child can understand that. You start getting all complicated on that and you lose the gospel.
Speaker 1:Actually, right here is the perfect picture of this. Right here in what we've read and it's Barabbas. Barabbas. One man's going to die. One man's going to go free.
Speaker 1:Right? Barabbas? What kind of man is he? He's an insurrectionist. That means he's a rebel.
Speaker 1:That means he hates authority. And not only that, he's a murderer. He hates mankind. He's willing to kill and hate. He deserves to die.
Speaker 1:Jesus deserves to live. But one of them goes free. It's not Jesus. It's Barabbas. Do you see?
Speaker 1:That's easy. 1 gets to go free, one has to die. You are Barabbas. Aren't you a rebel? A hater of authority?
Speaker 1:Aren't you a murderer? A hatred of men? Aren't you angry with them? Aren't you the chief priests rotted out with envy? Aren't you Peter rotted out with the fear of man?
Speaker 1:Aren't you Judas, rotted out with greed and a lust for power? Aren't you the soldiers filled with pride? Mocking all that's true, all that's good. If you don't see yourself in all of these men, there is no hope for you. No hope.
Speaker 1:Jesus didn't come for you. You're fine. Go on. Which means there's no hope for you. Jesus came and stood in the place of Barabbas.
Speaker 1:He came and he stood in the place of you. Do you want peace with God? Do you want peace with God? This is the only way. It's the only way.
Speaker 1:He stood condemned for you. You get to go free. You get to go free. You get everything that Jesus deserved. Joy, peace, fellowship with God, all of it is yours because Jesus was crushed for you.
Speaker 1:So come to him. Come to him. Trust him. Cast yourself on him. Believe it.
Speaker 1:Let's pray together. Dear Lord, we really can't fathom what it means for the Son of God to be forsaken by you, dear Father. We can't understand it and yet it's true. And so, we praise you and we thank you, and we hope in you, and we cast ourselves on you alone. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.