The Way to the Father | Ayren Nelson

In a world obsessed with justice and getting what we deserve, Jesus flips the script. This Palm Sunday, Ayren unpacks the story of Barabbas and reminds us that we are the ones who were set free while Jesus took our place—because He made a way to the Father when we couldn’t make it ourselves.

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Welcome to the Hope Community Church! Hope is a multi-site church community with locations around the Triangle in Raleigh, Apex, Northwest Cary, Garner, and Fuquay-Varina. We are here to love you where you are and encourage you to grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ! We strive to speak the truth of the Bible in a way that is easy to understand, helpful in your current life circumstances, and encouraging. No matter who you are or where you come from, you are welcome here!

Hey, how are y'all doing?

I wanna start off by asking a question.

Do you remember how old you were when you realized

that life isn't fair?

Uh, my wife and I, we are going on five years of marriage

and for the last five years my wife has been learning

that lesson, uh, by watching our lives side by side.

Um, lemme just explain to you a little bit, paint a picture

of of who we are.

Okay. Uh, my wife and I are totally different.

Meaning, uh, my wife is a planner.

Uh, I never started using a calendar until I met her.

Uh, she is meticulous about things. She loves spreadsheets.

I didn't know that was like a

spiritual gift that some people had.

I don't have that bone anywhere in my body,

but she loves planning and logistics

and details and all this sort of stuff.

And she's the type of person who's super ambitious.

Uh, she focuses on what she wants and she chases after it.

For example, when my wife was seven years old, uh,

she was in the car with her parents

and she saw a sign on the side of the road, like a stop sign

or a speed limit sign.

And she goes, mom, how did that sign get there?

And so her parents explained

to her all these things about civil engineering

and, uh, the Department of Transportation

and construction crews and all that sort of stuff.

And my mom's, uh, my mom, my wife said to her mom,

to her dad, she said, that's what I wanna do one day.

And that's exactly what she did.

She went to school, she got good grades,

she got accepted into the civil

engineering program at NC State.

She graduated on time.

Uh, she started doing some internship programs

and now, uh, full-time, her job is designing roads

for the state of North Carolina.

Me on the other hand, uh, when I was 14 years old,

I felt God say, Hey, I want you

to go into full-time ministry.

And then about a minute

and a half ago I walked out on this stage.

And that's just kind of how everything played out.

I can't tell you the path that I took to get here.

I wasn't a big planner. I didn't follow 1, 2, 3 steps.

It just seemed like things just kind of worked out.

And that frustrates my wife.

My wife is the type of person who, uh, when we go

to a restaurant, she will spend the entire drive there

looking at the menu, trying to figure out exactly what it is

that she wants because she wants

to make sure she doesn't make the wrong decision.

She wants the perfect menu item.

And she goes to hand it over to me.

She's like, Hey, do you wanna look at it? I

said, no, I think I'll just figure it out.

When I get there. And we sit down at the restaurant,

I take like 20 minutes to look over the menu.

She already knows what she wants.

So the server row will come over

and they'll be like, Hey,

have you decided what you want yet?

No, we need some more time, but do you

guys have any specials?

And they will describe like,

exactly the thing I've been craving

for the last three weeks, and they're gonna bring it out

and it's gonna be the best version of that thing.

Meanwhile, my wife is like, Hey, can I get this thing

that I made my decision on like an hour ago?

And they'll go, we're sorry.

We're all out of that thing tonight.

It happens like clockwork every single time.

And she thinks, man, life isn't fair.

When she was in college, she got a boot on her car

because she parked in the wrong spot.

So now she obsesses over parking.

Lemme tell you what happened to me.

This is before we met, but I was in college

and, uh, I was at UNO, uh, the University of New Orleans,

or as it's known among locals,

the university of no opportunity.

And, uh, I didn't do college well, like I didn't drop out.

I just stopped showing up. Like I'm, I'm not a planner.

I didn't take the formal pathways or any of that stuff,

but when I was in college, uh, I didn't have a car.

And my friend David, his parents agreed

to buy him a new car, but the rule was he had

to find somebody else to give it to.

So David gave me a car call that just a case

of things working out, if you will, right?

David gives me a car

and he says, Hey, listen, um, I know you need this, like

to get back and forth to school right away, so just go ahead

and leave my license plates on it, um, until you can get all

of your sort of stuff figured out, right?

So, dude, thank you so much. That's so generous.

I appreciate that. So I go to to to school, school one day

and I go to park, but there's like an opportunity for a pull

through, you know, when like the spot in front

of you is open, so you just go all the way through.

So I do that, but what I didn't realize was, is

that the first spot I was in was a student spot.

The spot in front of that was for teachers only.

So I go to class, when I come back out,

there's a nice fat juicy ticket sitting on my windshield.

Now I have to pay this ticket within 30 days,

but I'm not a planner.

So on day 28, I log into the online portal to go ahead and,

and pay off this ticket, and I go to do it

and something goes wrong, it doesn't work.

So the next day I go to school

and I head over to the like campus police station

and I walk in there

and I know I joked about like me just

stumbling onto this stage.

Uh, the guy who worked there,

I genuinely think he like walked into the office looking

for the bathroom and they're like, Hey,

can you put this uniform on and just sit here for a minute?

Like, he did not want to be there.

He was not interested in anything that was going on.

So I walk up to him and I say, Hey man, I'm,

you know, I'm here to pay a ticket.

And so he just doesn't look up from his computer,

sticks his hand out, he takes the,

the ticket from me and he starts looking at it.

He works on his computer and uh, he goes, Hey,

I, I, I can't find anything.

He goes, what's your license plate number?

So I give him the license plate number

and still nothing is coming up.

And he's like, Hey, I don't know what's going on, man,

but your, your stuff isn't in the system.

It's, it's not showing up.

And I go, oh, well it could be

because like, that's my new license plate number.

I used to have my friend's plates on there.

But, um, we swapped those out.

And he goes, so what happened to the old plates?

I go, oh, well, you know, we turned 'em into the DMV.

We're, we're done with it. We finished the

car swap and all that other stuff.

And he, he gets really weird on me.

He's sitting at the desk and he leans forward

and he just goes, the walls have ears.

And then he rolls away from the table

and walks through a door that's behind him.

And I'm standing there

like, What just happened?

A few seconds later, this guy pops up behind me.

He walks through this door, he walks around a hallway

and he comes and gets me

through the door that I came in through.

And so he, he's standing back there

and he kind of motions me to him.

So I walk over there, he has a ticket in his hand,

he crumples it up, he grabs me by the wrist,

he puts the crumpled up ticket in my hand,

and he goes line the bird cage with it

and then walks away.

And I have never seen this man another day in my life.

He just disappeared into the shadows.

And it wasn't until the next day

that I realized what that phrase meant.

He was like, it's garbage. Now.

You might as well if you have a bird, go ahead

and stick it in the bottom of the bird cage.

Let the bird poop on it. This is it.

You don't have to worry about paying this ticket anymore.

And I told that story to my wife

and she said, that's not fair.

Let me ask you, do you have things in your life

that you think are not fair?

I think we all do because if we're honest,

we are all our own purveyors of what is right

and what is wrong in the world.

We all have this, uh, sense of what is fair or not.

And usually it's based on what we think we deserve.

So for example, when you're a kid

and someone else gets a prize that you think you earned,

you think that's not fair, or you get a little bit older

and you get a job and you see someone else who doesn't work

as hard as you do, get the promotion,

you think that's not fair.

You're a part of a group project at school,

and the kid who didn't do any work somehow gets the same a

that you got, even though you put in all the effort.

That's not fair. When you feel like you're doing all the

heavy lifting in a relationship that doesn't feel fair

because our idea of fairness is based on

what we think we deserve.

But here's the truth, y'all.

We all have a broken scale of fairness.

You know how I know that? Because as quick as we are

to shout, that's not fair.

Uh, we never do that. When things work out for us, do we?

Like you've never had your boss call you into the office

and say, Hey, we're gonna give you a big fat juicy raises

and you don't go, hell no.

I, I, you know, that is not fair. You never do that.

You've never had a cop pull you over

and then lean down to your window

and say, Hey, we're, I'm gonna let you off with a warning.

You never stick your head out the window

and say, sir, get back here.

That is not fair. I was speeding. I deserve this ticket.

You give it to me right now. No.

Instead we think, yeah, that's right. I deserve this.

I deserve this because we all think we're somehow better

than we actually are.

But you see, the thing is

that the gospel flips this merit-based moralistic society on

its head by teaching us, Hey, guess what?

You do deserve something.

And it's not good because Romans 6 23 tells

us that none of us is good.

And like we talked about last week, Romans,

oh, I'm sorry I had these flip.

But, uh, Romans 6 23 tells us that we all deserve death

as a punishment for our sins.

And this is what makes the good news, good news

for sinners like all of us, that the gospel isn't fair.

And you hear that maybe it makes you a little uncomfortable

because in our mind we're thinking it means, well, if I know

what fair means, then I know what right is.

I know what should be done.

But I want us to explore this a little bit more together.

If you have your Bibles, go ahead

and meet me in Luke chapter 23 in this series,

we are following Jesus on his way to the cross.

Last week, we looked at Jesus as he leaves the last supper,

he goes into the garden of Gethsemane.

He's, uh, crying

and he has brought to a place

of overwhelming sorrow over the weight of our sin

that is about to be placed on him.

And as he lifts his head up off of the ground, he's met

by some Roman officers who are sent on behalf of the Roman

Emperor to arrest Jesus along with some Jewish leaders

of the day who wanted this man dead.

And so they pick him up

and they bring him over to a man named Pontius Pilate,

who was the governor of the region of Judea in Jerusalem.

And that's what we're gonna pick up our story here.

Now we're gonna read a chunk together, okay?

We're gonna read about 25 verses together.

But um, man, you know what,

before we even get into this, lemme just go ahead and, and,

and pray right now that the Holy Spirit would help us

to lean in to this Father,

your word is good and your word is true.

And Lord, what we're about to read, it is a reminder to us

of your goodness and of your grace.

And I just pray that that goodness leaps off of the page.

Um, God, I pray that as we walk through this,

that you would hold our hand

and that you would illuminate things to us

that maybe we've never even noticed before.

God, speak to us through your word today.

It's in your son's name, we pray. We all say amen.

Luke chapter 23, starting in verse one.

It says, then the entire council took Jesus

to Pilate, the Roman governor.

They began to state their case.

This man has been leading our people astray

by telling them not

to pay their taxes to the Roman government.

Which by the way was not true.

Jesus, just a few chapters earlier,

told people, Hey, pay your taxes.

And by claiming that he is the Messiah, a king.

So Pilate asked him, are you the king of the Jews?

And Jesus replied, you have said it.

Pilate turned to the leading priest and into the crowd

and said, I, I find nothing wrong with this man.

Then they became insistent.

But he's causing riots by his teaching wherever he goes,

all over Judea, from Galilee to Jerusalem.

And Pilate goes, wait a minute, did you say Galilee?

He's a Galilean. When they said that he was, Pilate sent him

to Herod Anus because Galilee was under Herod's jurisdiction

and Herod happened to be in Jerusalem at the time.

So Pilate goes, this is great.

Not my circus, not my monkeys.

I don't have to deal with this.

Pass him off to the next guy.

Now Herod was delighted at the opportunity to see Jesus

because he had heard about him

and had been hoping for a long time

to see him perform a miracle.

He's like, oh man, Jesus is here.

He gets to do one of those.

Can you do the water to wine one?

That's my favorite, right? Like,

that's the approach he comes to Jesus with.

He asked Jesus question after question,

but Jesus refused to answer.

Meanwhile, the leading priest

and the teachers of religious law stood there

shouting their accusations.

Then Herod and his soldiers began mocking

and ridiculing Jesus.

Finally, they put a royal robe on him

and sent him back to Pilate.

Herod and Pilate, who had been enemies

before, became friends that day.

Then Pilate called together the leading priest

and other religious leaders along with the people,

and he announced his verdict.

So he goes out to the people

and he says, you brought this man to me, accusing him

of leading a revolt.

But I've examined him thoroughly on this point in

your presence and find him innocent.

Herod came to the same conclusion

and he sent him back to us.

Nothing. This man has done calls for the death penalty.

So I'll have him flogged, I'll have him beaten,

and then I'll release him.

Then a mighty roar rose from the crowd

and with one voice they shouted, kill him

and release barabis to us.

Now, Baris was in prison

for taking part in an insurrection in

Jerusalem against the government.

And for murder.

Pilate argued with them because he wanted to release Jesus,

but they kept shouting, crucify him, crucify him

for the third time he demanded, why?

What crime has he committed?

I have found no reason to sentence him to death,

so I will have him beaten, then I will release him to you.

But the mob shouted louder

and louder, demanding that Jesus be crucified

and their voices prevailed.

So Pilate sentenced Jesus to die

as they demanded, as they requested,

he released Baras, a man in prison for insurrection

and murder, but he turned Jesus over to them to do

as they wished.

So here's Jesus and he's on trial,

but the problem is, is that he's not guilty of any

of the things that he has been accused of.

But in this long story, like in these 25 verses

that we just read through, there's one small detail.

There's a man, and he almost seems

insignificant in Luke's account.

In this translation, he's parenthetical like he's not.

He only gets a mention in parentheses.

He appears to be nothing more than a footnote.

We don't get a quote from this man And his name is Barbi.

He's seemingly irrelevant Under

any other circumstances.

This man is nothing more than an obscure answer

to a trivia question.

Who was Jesus on trial against?

Very little is made of barbi throughout the Bible.

As a matter of fact. Uh, all four gospel accounts, uh,

mention that he was there on trial with Jesus.

But even collectively, when we compile all the information,

we don't get a ton of, uh, of detail about, um, Barabbas,

what we do learn is Matthew describes him

as a notorious prisoner.

So he is a well-known criminal.

Like you go down to the post office,

his wanted poster is there.

Mark and Luke tell us that he was a part of some sort

of insurrection that happened against the Roman government,

and he was a murderer.

John describes him as a robber.

And that Greek word for robber, the Greek word

that's used there could be translated either

as like a bandit

or as some sort of domestic terrorist, essentially.

Either way, all of these gospel accounts combined.

The only thing that we know about Baris is his rap sheet.

The only thing that we know about Baris is

how terrible of a person he is.

And for all of us here in the room as the beholders

of justice that we are, man, this seems like an open

and shot case, right?

Barabis is a nasty dude. He's a threat to society.

But then in the blue corner, there's Jesus,

and we're gonna see what happens when we're given

the gavel, right?

When we're given the opportunity to choose

between righteousness and rebellion.

What do the people choose? You see,

Jesus was falsely accused of plotting to insight

and insurrection, but Barabbas was seen

actively participating in one.

Barabbas was a thief. And Jesus came to give, not take.

Barabbas was a murderer. And Jesus came to give life.

He is on paper the exact antithesis of this Barabbas guy.

This case is open and shut, but there's a loophole.

See, the other three gospel accounts, Matthew, mark,

and John, they all mention this, uh, ritual

that would take place every year.

Uh, there would be an act of good faith

between the Roman government

and the Jewish people

who lived in the cities that they governed.

What they would do is every year they would elect one

prisoner to go free

and the other one would face the punishment.

Now, what's fascinating about this is that this happens

during the most significant week of the Jewish ca calendar.

This happens during the Passover.

And the Passover was important

because it was a reminder to the Jewish people of

how God rescued them out of their slavery

and their captivity to Egypt.

And how on one terrifying night judgment would come

to every house unless there was the blood

of a spotless lamb on the door.

And the rule was, is that as the presence of the Lord passed

through this town, the firstborn son

of every household would die

unless that blood was on the doorposts, then the people

inside would be spared.

You see, this week when this thing is happening,

when Jesus is about to go to the cross,

when he stands on trial with Barba, this week is a reminder

of the fact that God has the power

and every right to punish selfish, defiant,

rebellious, sinful people.

But he gave them something to take their place

to assume their punishment.

And in the middle of the Passover Festival,

Barabbas looks over into the eyes of the man

that he's on trial with, and he sees innocent Jesus.

Barabbas is sitting before this crowd

and they're about to make a determination on who's gonna be

the one that's able to be set free.

And I can only imagine Barabbas is thinking to himself, man,

I don't know what Jesus did, but I know what I did.

I know that I've killed people.

There's there's people in the crowd

who maybe he killed their relatives.

There are people in the crowd

who maybe he stole things from them.

He's started riots among these people.

He's murdered and attacked government officials.

He's, uh, a boastfully, sinned

and probably invited other people

to join in on the sending with him.

And everybody in the crowd knows it.

And then three times over as he's standing there,

he hears Pilates say over and over

and over again, Hey, the competition, Jesus,

he hasn't done anything wrong.

So here's Baras thinking that he's dead to rights.

And he hears the people cry. We want baras.

He hears them yell, crucify him,

and realizes, oh wait, they're not talking about me.

They're talking about the innocent guy named Jesus.

So Pilate gives the people what they want.

They take the shackles off, they let Barabbas go.

And I wonder if as Barabbas sitting there rubbing his wrist

at the, the spot where those shackles just

were just a few seconds earlier.

I wonder if when he looked over at Jesus, if he realized

that he was looking into the eyes of the true

and better Passover lamb, The one

who is truly innocent, who would be, who would allow himself

to be murdered so that Barabbas could go free.

Maybe not, maybe he didn't realize that,

but there has to at least be a part of Barabbas his heart

that thinks, man, this isn't fair to this Jesus guy.

And he would be right. Nothing about this is fair.

And as I've been reading about this story this week, I,

I can't shake this truth

that we are all barabbas, every single one of us.

We are all guilty ones standing in the place of shame

where Jesus steps in

and chooses to take on the punishment that we deserve.

And we leave Jesus to walk

to the cross while we get to walk free.

But you know what's even more gut wrenching?

As I was reading this story this week, I started to notice,

man, barabis isn't the only one that I see myself in.

I see myself in Pilate.

When I'm given the opportunity to stand for Jesus,

to speak truth, to live boldly, I hesitate

and allow the opinions of others to overcome

what I know to be true and what I know to be right.

I see myself from the religious leaders that try

to frame Jesus when I think about all the ways I allow

myself to make up lies about his character,

to convince myself that God isn't as good as I think he is,

to believe that Jesus is somehow, uh, uh, uh, trying

to affect or attack my kingdom.

I see myself in the crowd who just a few days

before this on Palm Sunday, what we celebrate this weekend,

they call him into town and they, they worship him.

And now they're saying, crucify him. Crucify him.

And I know that there are Sundays when I stand in rooms just

like this with my hands lifted high

and I sing all hail king Jesus.

And then by Sunday afternoon, maybe I make it to Tuesday,

my choices and my sin, man,

they shout out something that's far from worship.

See, just like everyone in this story, when given the chance

to choose righteousness

or rebellion, I make the wrong decision almost every time.

So while it's easy for us to read a story like this

and look at the crowd and think, man, how could they,

maybe the better question is, is how often do I,

How often do I stand in that same place?

Here's the harsh reality church,

but the thing that makes the good news such good news,

when I read this story, I relate

to everyone accept Jesus.

And yet I don't receive the punishment that any

of these people, myself included, deserves.

The good news of the gospel is that the gospel

isn't fair, it's grace.

God doesn't give us what we deserve

because if that were the case, we would all experience the

same separation that our sin has earned for us.

But instead, we get to look into the eyes

of Jesus at the actions of Jesus

and recognize what he's done

and not just what he's done, but who he is.

Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God.

He came to this earth to show us what the heart

of the Father was like for us.

And so Jesus, he stands up there willingly saying, Hey,

I see what you've done.

I know your rap sheet.

I know you're guilty of everything in the book.

No matter how good you think you are, you're not.

But you know what, I see all of your sin. Give it here.

You know what? Lemme crump it up,

line the bird, cage with it.

It's garbage. It can't do anything to hold you back anymore.

I am offering you something brand new,

the plates, I switched 'em out.

The thing that you should have gotten, I get instead.

And this is called Grace and I love Bob Goff.

He's an author. He writes this about it.

He says, grace never feels fair until you need a little.

And man, did we need it.

Grace is the undeserved, unearned, un

repayable kindness of God.

There's nothing we can do to deserve it.

There's nothing we can do to earn it.

And I don't care how hard you try, there is nothing

you can do to repay back the sacrifice that he made for us.

Grace says, you don't get what you deserve

because Jesus took it on for you.

And I, I think we do a decent

job of celebrating that, right?

Like I think we do a decent job of, of telling people

and reminding people and celebrating alongside people that,

uh, uh, uh, Jesus died for your sins.

And that's true. But honestly,

that's more in line with mercy.

The fact that you don't get what you deserve.

See, here's the thing that's so beautiful about grace,

is grace is us getting what we could never earn on our own.

So not only did Jesus say, Hey, Baras,

insert your name here.

You don't have to go to the cross.

But instead, not only did he take on what we deserve,

but we now inherit what he deserved.

Jesus didn't just die to take away your sin, he also died

to give you his righteousness.

This is what makes the gospel unlike any other story.

He didn't just pay our debt. He gave us a gift.

In the following gospels, following the gospels, excuse me,

the New Testament authors, they do an exhaustive job

of trying to paint a picture for us of what it is

that Jesus is sacrificed on the cross earns for us.

And I don't know, this is personally speaking,

like I know there's a lot of really rich stuff in there.

I don't know if there's a single passage of text that has,

um, uh, more beautifully encapsulated the gospel

for me than second Corinthians five 17 through 21.

And uh, this is actually something that man, as we go

through holy week, I wanna encourage you,

like try to memorize this.

There are a lot of people who if we're out,

like if somebody came to you said, Hey, what do you believe?

What is the gospel? I think sometimes we

would stumble over our words.

Second Corinthians five 17 through 21 is the gospel

with a nice little bow on it.

It says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ,

he is a new creation.

The old has passed away. Behold the new has come.

All of this is from God who through Christ reconciled us

to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation

that is in Christ.

God was reconciling the world to himself,

not counting their trespasses against them

and entrusting to us the uh, um, yeah

and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.

God is making his appeal through us.

We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled

to God for our sake.

God made him who knew no sin

to become sin for us so

that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

That's the beauty of what Jesus won

for us on the cross that day.

He took the curse for us and we receive a blessing from him.

We are now new creations.

We are reconciled to God through Christ.

We are beneficiaries of Christ's rescue mission.

But now we have been invited onto that mission with him.

We, we are uh, um, uh, God made him who knew no sin

to become sin for us so

that we might become the righteousness of God.

We are no longer dead.

We can truly live and we can stand before God boldly

because when God looks at us, we have been clothed

and hidden in Christ in his righteousness.

He doesn't just dust us off and pat us on the butt butt

and say, Hey, go try again

because he knows we're just gonna go

and just mess it up all over

again if we were given the chance.

Instead he's like, let me fix it. Let me heal it.

Let me repair it. Let me restore your relationship with God.

Here's the beauty of the gospel Church.

Jesus made his way to the cross so

that we could have a way back to the Father

he took on the way that we deserved.

And that is good news.

As we get ready to close,

just one more thing that I wanna think about.

Whatever happened to Barba, you know, it's fascinating.

The Bible does not tell us, it just says he was set free

and that we don't know what comes next.

And I just wonder if God

and his sovereignty while inspiring Matthew, mark, Luke,

and John to write out these gospels.

I wonder if he had this moment

where he said, Hey, you know what?

It's not that important.

Don't, don't circle back on that.

Don't give us the details about what happened to Barbi.

And even on a practical level, this is kind

of astounding, isn't it?

Like this guy who it seems like his story would be

significant, it feels like it would put a nice pretty bow on

the gospel message if we learned about what Barbi did.

I mean Luke, he was writing this book

as an investigative journalist who was uh, uh,

compiling the story of what happened.

And a good journalist wants to chase down every lead, right?

But what if that wasn't God's will?

Do you think it could be

that God wanted to leave the story open?

Do you think that God intended for us

to see Barabbas in ourselves

and then start asking some questions?

Let me ask you, what would you do if you were rabba?

How would you respond? Would you go

back to the life of crime?

What about when he heard that Jesus not only went

to the cross but he made it through and resurrected again?

Maybe the reason why the Bible doesn't include the details

of what happened to Vis is

because it invites us to ask a question.

How should someone who received the grace of Jesus respond?

Or maybe it's

because this story is more about the love of Jesus

than it is the behavior of Barabbas.

There's a chance that Barabbas walked away from this

and went right back to his life of crime.

And you know what we would say if we saw that?

Well, that's not fair. And I think

what Jesus would say is, I don't care.

I still would've gone to the cross for him.

I've seen the way you continually run back to your sin over

and over and over as the book of Proverbs says it,

as a dog returns to its vomit.

And guess what? Jesus says, I love you that much.

I would still do it over and over and over again.

Listen, barba is life

after this moment doesn't justify the gospel.

Jesus's obedience does.

And that's the same thing of our lives as well, man,

the way you live after responding to the gospel,

it is so important.

But it is not the thing that gives the gospel its power.

What Jesus did for us is what gives the gospel its power.

Now if you think that sounds unfair, it's

because grace often feels unfair

to those of us who are trying to earn it.

I can work harder, I can figure it out.

Jesus, give me another shot, man,

don't undermine his grace that way.

So how will we respond? That question comes down to us.

Listen, maybe you're here

and for the first time it's hitting you

that you are Barabbas, you are a Pilate.

You are the one who was in the crowd chanting for

and cheering for Jesus to head to the cross.

And maybe you believe the lie that you have

to clean yourself up first.

Listen, Barabbas, didn't

everyone in the crowd that day knew bar's rap sheet

including Jesus And he still said, I'll step in,

I'll still take it on for myself.

And if you've never said yes to that grace,

if you've never responded to the love of Jesus,

I just wanna invite you to do that.

So here's what I ask. If everybody at all

of our campuses can close their eyes and bow their heads,

today can be your moment.

Today can be the moment when you decide,

man, if I was in Barabbas position,

I'm gonna accept that gift of freedom.

And so if that's you, I just want you

to simply pray this in your heart.

Say, Jesus, I believe you took my place,

I receive your grace and I give you my life.

And if that is your prayer, I just want you

to lift your hand boldly, raise your hand like

a prisoner who just got chains taken off of them

and was told you're free to go

because of what that man did for you.

And if that is you, I encourage you, please find somebody.

Come find myself or a pastor that's at your campus

or someone at one of our next steps, volunteers

and just let them know because we wanna walk with you.

We wanna celebrate with you

and we wanna help you take your next step of faith.

And, and I just want to have a moment to talk to the people

who are here who man you, you've heard this story,

it doesn't feel new to you, But man

it feels like there are times when you're still living life.

Like it all depends on you.

You're striving to earn

what Jesus has already died to give you.

Maybe you're wearing the shame of a sentence

that Jesus already served.

I wanna remind you that you are not who you used to be.

Two Corinthians five 17, you are a new creation.

And the greatest challenge isn't effort, it's trust.

A few years ago when I was in, in high school, there was a

a sermon that went viral.

My pastor, his name was Judah Smith

and it was about the story of Barabbas.

And in preparation for this sermon, I went back

and listened to that clip because I remember

how impactful it was for me.

And there was one line that stood out to me the most.

He says, our greatest challenge as followers

of Jesus is not our discipline, our devotion or our focus.

Our greatest challenge is believing

and trusting in the gospel.

And man, that's just where some of us are.

We've Heard the gospel,

but man, we've gotta do a trust fall on that thing

and say, God, I believe that if you don't catch me,

I'm hitting the ground and I know that you're good enough

that you will never let me fall.

So here's the invitation to you, man. Come back to grace.

Stop striving and start resting.

Stop earning and start receiving.

So we come up on holy week here, so week

of remembering Jesus on his way to the cross

and ultimately his way out of the tomb.

And as a church, we just want to be a people

who remembers well together.

And so we have a couple of opportunities to do that.

The first one I just wanna remind you man,

try spend this week trying

to memorize second Corinthians five 17 through 21.

It is a beautiful, rich passage of scripture.

And don't just try to get it up here.

Let it deeply internalize into your heart so

that when Satan lies to you that you're not good enough,

you say, nah, man, line the bird cage with it.

I don't want that. That's garbage.

I trust in the truth of the gospel.

And the other thing is that on Good Friday,

we have an opportunity to remember together.

There's gonna be an opportunity online for you

to participate in our Good Friday service.

And a part of that participation is in communion.

This act of remembrance.

So at all of our campuses is you get ready to head out.

We have some communion that you can take home with you.

And I just want you to grab that and to hold onto it

and to bring it home with you so

that you can participate in that.

Man, what a beautiful moment for all of us all

around the triangle to pause and reflect

and remember The goodness

and the grace of our God.

Father, we thank you.

We thank you that you don't give us what we deserve.

God thank you that you have sent Jesus to stand in our place

and to take on the punishment that was rightfully ours, all

because you were desperate to have a relationship

with your kids again.

Father, help us to lean into that grace

and to appreciate it.

Lord, when Easter has come

and gone, I pray that we wake up every day

with a heart of remembrance.

God, when Baras walked away, the one thing we know

for sure is he never forgot that day

with Jesus when he was standing on that podium.

And I pray that the same thing is true for us.

That we would never forget that when we were dead to rights,

Jesus took our place.

Lord, we love you and we're so thankful

for clothing us in your righteousness.

It's in your son's name we pray. Amen.

Sitting

the of suffering

And shame.

And I love that old cross

with the dearest

for a world lost sin.

So the

cross till my trophies

and last I lay down,

I will clean to the

and exchange it.

Oh that olde cross,

so des by the world

has a wondrous attraction for me.

For that de lamb of God,

glory to

the

and lay down,

I cling to the

in that old rugged cross, cross stained

with blood so divine.

I wonder, beauty I see

for was on that whole cross.

Jesus suffered

and died to pardon, sant

me

my trophies and

cl

and exchange it someday for

I will cling to the

and exchange it.

Holy week, may we spend this week remembering the way

that Christ took to the cross.

And next week, next Sunday, we gather together

to celebrate the resurrection of our king and savior Jesus.

If that doesn't excite somebody in this room,

I'm talking to the wrong room.

Come online, put up a a, a thumbs up.

If you're excited about Easter Sunday here at

Hope Community Church.

Invite your neighbors,

your coworkers, your gym buddies, whoever.

There's someone in your life that needs to hear the gospel.

And this is a great easy way to introduce him

to this guy We love name Jesus.

Now we wanna know who's coming it it.

There's no need for like tickets don't cost anything.

This is about us being prepared to serve those you bring

and invite, we wanna serve them well.

So if you go to get hope.net/easter,

you can reserve your seat just so we can be prepared

for everyone who is coming for Easter Sunday.

Last thing I got for you is Good Friday service.

We have a special at home worship experience for you

and your family to gather together

to remember the most sacred time in the history

of Good Friday, the night

that Christ was betrayed and crucified.

And like Aaron said, we want you

to grab communion on the way out so that you

as a family can gather together on that good Friday.

It's gonna be on Get Hope TV at six 30 on Friday.

I'm telling you right now, you're not gonna wanna miss it.

We are a family who loves God follows Jesus shares hope.

Let's go live it out. Hope community to church.

We'll see you next week.