Now of
course Paul understood it because he mentions it several times in the New
Testament. He talks about it in 1 Cor. 1-2, he talks about it in 2 Cor. 13, he
talks about it throughout the book of Galatians, he talks about it in
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and several other times in the New Testament
but I don’t think even he understood it like the man that I’m going to talk
about this today.
Now I think
I understand the crucifixion… I mean I know that Jesus was crucified on the
cross at Calvary and he took and bore the sins of all mankind on himself. I
know about the substitutionary atonement and I know about all the Messianic
prophesies that were fulfilled that day. I know about the doctrines of
reconciliation and redemption that were fulfilled that day as well. I know all
that - but I believe that even knowing all that that I don't even come close to
understanding what took place there that day like the man I'm going to talk
about today did and that man's name is Barabbas.
John 18:40
"But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover:
will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews? Then cried they
all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber."
Luke 23:19
" And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release
unto us Barabbas: (Who for
a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison.)"
What
happened here was Christ ended up taking the place of Barabbas on the cross.
Now the
Bible says there Barabbas was a robber… And that’s not too bad and all compared
to what we put people to death for today but that’s not all he was. Luke 23
says he was also a seditionist and a murderer. Now that fella there is not just
a robber; that’s a real scoundrel right there. Real evil, brother! Cold blooded
evil!
Now what we
have here is a time of the year when Pilate was to release to the people a
prisoner during the time of the feast. And we see here that Pilate tried to do
all he could to release Jesus. He did all he could to try and get around the
thing... I mean he tried to get Christ off the hook. I think he knew what was
going on here and he didn't want that blood on his hands. He thought that if he
gave the people a choice between a Seditionist, a Murderer, and a thief or a
Preacher, he thought that they would surely release the Preacher. Of course
they didn’t…
Now we have
this Seditionist (a revolutionary if you will), this Murderer, this thief here
and I submit to you today that that scoundrel right there was probably the only
man who ever TRULY, and I mean TRULY understood what was taking place at the Crucifixion.
I think he
got it better than any Pope or Bishop (even if they were saved); I think he got
it better than any preacher or evangelist that ever lived. I don’t think that
any theologian alive understood it like this man did.
I mean you
take all the saved people before the Crucifixion and all the saved people since
the Crucifixion and evaluate them all, I don’t believe any of them got it like
this man. And this man was a thief, a crook, and a murder. That man was Barabbas.
I mean that fella there, he got it and we’ll see just how he got it this today.
Now lets
look at five things this morning, five things that Barabbas understood that I
believe he understood better than anybody before him or that has lived since
him.
1. He Knew That He Was An Unjust Man
Justly Condemned
The first
thing he understood was that he was an unjust man justly condemned – He
understood that he was a liar, a crook and a thief. I mean he knew that. He
knew he was a sinner - an unjust man justly condemned. Now I don’t know how
many of you believe that or not but I know he definitely did.
Most people in the world won’t
ever believe that. They don’t believe that they’ve done anything that would
condemn them to a place called Hell for all of eternity. In fact if you took a poll today
I’ll bet you not 1/5 of the people in the world even believe that there is a
real place called Hell and if they did believe in it they don’t believe that
God would send anybody there for all of eternity, least of all them! But Barabbas
knew that and he’d have told you that. He’d have told you he was a wicked
sinner. He knew that he was an unjust man justly condemned. I mean his buddy on
the cross next to Jesus knew it too. You know what he said???... He said we
have received the due reward for our deeds! He knew.. he knew that he got what
he deserved.
There’s one thing every saved
person has in common is that they know that if no one on the face of this
earth. Even if you die and no one finds out what a wicked rotten sinner you
are. You know if you got what was coming to you, you know you’d deserve to go
to Hell for your sins. I mean if your parents never found out what a real
sinner you are… if your children never found out what a real sinner you are … I
mean even your spouse never found out… The truth is you know! That’s what
matters. Barabbas knew that. He got that thing. He got it better that any of us
did. You see he had his day in court and he was found guilty. Some of you have
never been tried by a court. Some of you have never been found guilty in a
courtroom of anything so this thing is kind of abstract to you and you don't
fully get it. I mean you feel guilty and you understand it and all but you take
that fella there who'd went to the courtroom and faced a murder trial and had
been found guilty... I mean he had been sentenced to death! He got this thing
of understanding he was an unjust man justly condemned! He got it!
One of the things you do when you
get saved is you try to tell other people what a sinner you were and how Christ
saved you from a life of sin and a lot of times people don’t believe it. You
know why?? Because they’re trying to make themselves feel better about their
sins. They say "Well you know you weren’t that bad…" Because they
know they're doing the same things you did and if what your saying is true than
that means that they’d deserve Hell too! “Oh I didn’t think you were that bad…”
– I’ll tell you someone who wouldn’t have tried to talk you out of it, that’s
Barabbas. He’d of agree with you! He knew he was a sinner – he knew he was an
unjust man, justly condemned.
You take a thing like capital
punishment – I don’t know a just man on the face of this earth that worries
about capital punishment. I mean if you’ve never killed anybody what do you
have to worry about? Barabbas knew! He was worried about capital punishment
because he’d committed murder. It was personal to him, he got that thing! As
Christ was walking down that street carrying that cross on His back, with drops
of blood dripping down His face, with His garments shredded and torn, limping,
struggling to walk from the beating He had received… I can imagine that when
Barabbas saw that his conscious was telling him “That should be you, That
should be you, That should be you, That should be you!”
2.
He Knew That The Penalty For His Actions Was Death
Another thing Barabbas knew was
what the penalty for his actions were - he knew he was a Seditionist (a
revolutionary desiring to overthrow the government), a murderer and a thief. He
knew he deserved death, death on the cross! Capital Punishment was the crime
for his sins and he knew it! He knew he was an unjust man was being justly condemned
and that the condemnation for his crimes meant death.
Can I tell you this today that
there is a penalty for our sins just like there was a penalty for Barabbas's? Do
you know what that penalty is?? It's death. Romans 6:23 says "For the
wages of sin is death..." According to the Bible the price for our sins is
death. In Revelation chapter 20 the Bible talks about a Lake of Fire, a place
where those lost in sin must spend eternity. That's the penalty for our sin
according to the Bible. Barabbas knew he was an unjust man being justly condemned
for his actions and that his actions warranted death! Do you know that today?
Barabbas did.
3.
He Knew That A Just Man Was Being Unjustly Condemned
The next thing Barabbas
understood better than you or I was that he knew that a just man, Christ, was
being unjustly condemned for his sins! He knew they got the wrong man and that
Christ was innocent! You say how do you know that? I’ll tell you how I know...
because he was a crook! – and all crooks know an honest man when they see one!
One of thee advantages of living
a life of sin prior to getting saved and getting right with God is that you
know an honest man when you see one. You know clean people when you see them.
You know what purity looks like when you see it; when you’ve lived your life in
dirt and filth and impurity, you know purity when you see it!
Let me tell you parenthetically,
when I see a King James Bible I see purity! Most of the people getting fooled
with those new bibles are people who’ve grown up in church and are trying to
box themselves out of this thing. You can chalk it up to inexperience with
impurity and make excuses for it if you want to but when I got my heart right
with God and started reading that KING JAMES BIBLE I saw purity! And I knew it!
That's why I like working with
kids. They’re pure. I mean compared to adults they’re clean. I coach a middle
school lacrosse team at one of the local public schools here in Lexington and
it truly is one of the joys of my life getting to work with those kids. You see
by the time they get into High School in most public schools the kids have
already had their lives tainted with deep sin (alcohol, drugs, & immorality) but when they're in middle school their still relatively clean from all that.
That's why I like working with them, they still have a chance - they've not
been defiled with the things of this world yet!
Ok now back to Barabbas, He knew
that Christ was a just man unjustly condemned. You know someone else who knew
that? Someone in the OT? The firstborn son of the Passover. He knew that. You
see in order for that boy to live he his father knew that he'd have sacrifice a
lamb, unspotted of the first year in order for his son's life to be spared. I
can imagine that firstborn son walking with his father up there to slaughter
that lamb, putting that bucket underneath the lambs neck to catch the blood
that was to be smeared on the door post. Then that boy seeing his father take
that big knife preparing to slit that innocent lambs throat; I imagine he
probably asked "Daddy why do we have to kill this lamb? What's he done
wrong?" His dad replies "You see son if we don't take this lamb's
life then the Lord is going to take yours. He has demanded that the firstborn
son of all the houses in Egypt be slain and unless we slaughter this lamb, the
Lord is going to take your life." I can then imagine that first born son
seeing that blood drip into that bucket after it's throat had been slit,
hearing that blood hit the bottom of that bucket "drip, drip, drip,
drip". I'm sure he thought to himself "That should be me, that should
be me, that should be me, that should be me..." – without the shedding of
blood there is no remission of sin. That boy knew that an innocent substitute
had taken his place, he knew that for sure!
I’ll tell you someone who knew
that, that's Barabbas! When Christ was walking down that street and dropped the
cross and Simon the Cyrenian came to help him, ole' Barabbas saw that thing and
his conscious started shouting "THAT SHOULD BE YOU, THAT SHOULD BE YOU, THAT
SHOULD BE YOU!" He knew that a substitute had taken his place.
During the time of the Vietnam war
there was a draft. Lots of folks were drafted but even more weren't drafted. Do
you know why?? The answer is simple - because someone went in their place -
some other fella got drafted and went in their place. My dad didn’t go, he
wasn't drafted. My uncles didn't go either, they weren't drafted - someone went
in their place. In World War II/Korea my grandfather’s went. Did yours? They
may have taken their place.
The day of the Crucifixion four men were
there in jail that day but there were only three crosses. “Let em go, Let em go” said the people. Barabbas
probably thought they were gonna release the preacher but they released him and
he probably thought “Oh it must be my lucky day!... Wait I thought there were three crosses?" There were. "But there are only two crooks in jail, that
other fella's a good man, he's a preacher"… Oh but he found out that three
were going to be crucified that day!
Now you know when he was released
and was set free he got drawn into that crowd and watched that parade and saw
Jesus walk by, his face, his eyes, his hair, and his garments covered in blood.
He thought "That should be me!" (Let me tell you that one day Jesus Christ
IS going to come back and WHEN He comes back He’ll have blood on His garments
just like He did that day only IT WON'T BE HIS BLOOD THEN!)
4.
He Knew That The Substitute Satisfied The Demands Of The Law
The last thing that Barabbas knew
was that the substitute had satisfied the demands of the law. The law required
three men to be crucified that day. There were four in jail that day. Once Barabbas
was released and Jesus took his place Barabbas’s debts to the law had been met.
Let me tell you today that in
order to go to heaven God’s law requires that you be completely innocent, free
from sin. Perfect! You see God wants a sinless man. That’s His requirement for
entry to Heaven. 1 sinless man for 1 entry to heaven. Is that you? Are you a
sinless man? Did you know God offers a substitute? He has a substitute of His
own that He offers and His substitute meets the demands of the Law just as it
did that day. Romans 6:23 says "For the wages of sin is death; but the
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Have you accepted
that gift? Have you accepted God's substitute for your sins? His substitute
meets the demands of the Law; are you going to take it?
Without the shedding of blood
there is no remission of sins. That’s what Christ paid for us on the cross that
day. It’s the only thing that can wash away your sins. Barabbas knew that, he
knew that Jesus Christ had taken his place and that Jesus Christ was going to
satisfy the demands of the law for him. Romans 5:8 "But God commendeth his
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." He
knew what the demands of the law were and he knew they’d been met. He knew that
because he was walking free. A free man whose freedom had been bought with the
love of Christ; paid for by His death. Barabbas been given his life back! How
about you? Would you like yours back?
Romans 10:13 says "For
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Everlasting life is a gift purchased by the blood of Jesus and offered freely
to those who call upon Him by faith. It's that simple. Would you like to call
upon Him today?
If you'd like to do that may I
recommend that you call out to Jesus and tell him: "Lord, I know I'm a
sinner. I know that because of my sins I owe a debt I cannot pay. I know that
sin, and the things of this world can never satisfy like you can. I need you.
I'm asking you now, Lord, ask best as I know how to come into my heart and be
my Savior. Please come into my heart and help me to follow you as I ought to.
Please guide me, lead me, and help me to live the victorious Christian life in
Your will."
If you'll pray that or something
similar to it, by the authority of the Word of God, Christ promises He will do
just that.
If there is anything I can do for
you please don't hesitate to contact me at jgpickens@victoryforChrist.com. Even
if it's just to pray for you, I'd be happy to help. God bless!
No comments:
Post a Comment