The innocent, condemned. Luke 22:54-23:25

Thank you, Rachel. We'll keep that uh

passage open in front of you.

Let's ask for the Lord's help as we look

at it.

Father God, we thank you for this

history that we have just read.

And Lord, we recognize the momentousness

of it is um almost too much for us to

bear, too much for us to understand.

They are familiar words and yet

um the meaning is so great and so deep.

Lord, we pray for your help this morning

as we look into this, Lord, that uh we

would understand more of Jesus

and we'd understand more of what he did

and that you give us eyes to see, hearts

to believe, Lord, that we would come to

uh know and and and and treasure Jesus

more and more. Lord, if if there's

people here that don't know you yet yet,

Lord, may they come to that point where

they throw themselves on your mercy and

find forgiveness. So Lord, we ask for

your help in Jesus name. Amen.

>> Well, repetition is valuable for all

kinds of different things, isn't it? Um,

so if you're going to learn a language,

it's good to repeat and repeat and

repeat and eventually you you learn some

of those words. Um, if you're going to

fully master a skill, well, you don't

just do it once or twice. You keep doing

it until you're well practiced. You've

mastered that skill. If you're a parent

or you're married, um, you don't just

tell your children or spouse, I love you

once and then that's job done. You never

have to say that again. You know, what's

the matter, love? I told you in 1992, I

loved you. Nothing's changed. What's

What's the problem? No, we we tell them

again and again, I love you. I love you.

I love you. These things need to be

repeated. It's important. It teaches

reassures. It comforts. It reminds It

reinforces.

And in our passage, there is a repeated

theme that emerges.

Um it's a bit like a beat of a drum.

It's innocent. Innocent. Innocent.

Jesus is completely and totally

innocent. Peter asserted this in 1 Peter

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2 20 uh chapter 2:22. He says he

committed no sin,

neither was deceit found in his mouth.

Jesus even challenges his critics in

John 8:46. Which one of you convicts me

John 8:46

of sin?

and no one could. Jesus was innocent.

And that's where we're heading today.

But first, we're going to consider Peter

who was not innocent.

He valiantly declared back in verse 33.

We didn't read it this week, but he

valiantly declared, "Lord, I am ready to

go with you both to prison and to

death." So, let's see how well that

confidence worked out for him in our

first point. Peter denies,

even if you're not an avid news junkie,

uh you've probably heard the name

Jeffrey Epstein, uh who was accused of

running a sex trafficking ring involving

involving underage girls.

Now, before the allegations, the first

allegations in 2005, Epstein was highly

regarded. He was part of the highest

social elite um there was. It included

people like Donald Trump, Bill Clinton,

Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and of course,

Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. Uh these are

like the top-notch people, aren't they?

Before Epstein's fall, to be in his

circle, his social circle, you would

know if you were there, you had made it.

You were someone who was important.

But now

to be connected with him, it can be

career ending, title stripping,

reputationally damaging. Now people want

to put as much distance between him and

themselves. Him? No. Don't know him.

And that's often the way, isn't it? When

things are going well, everyone wants to

be your friend. And when things go bad,

people fall away quickly.

And for Jesus, everything seems to be

going bad. He's been betrayed. He's been

arrested.

And there is danger in the air. At

Jesus's arrest in Matthew 26:56,

Matthew 26:56

uh it tells us, "Then all the disciples

left and fled. They've all done a

runner." Now, it seems that Peter and

another disciple, possibly John, didn't

run all the way. They fled. They got out

of harm's danger, but they seem to be

watching from a distance.

And then verse 54 in our passage tells

us that Peter followed at a distance.

And you know, I think that sums up the

approach that Peter has to Jesus at that

point. Perhaps with his own brave words

echoing in his ear, how he's never going

to, you know, fall away or go to prison

and die with him. perhaps out of loyalty

and love. It means he doesn't want to

abandon Jesus,

but he just can't seem to find the

courage to stand with Jesus at this

moment. And so he follows

at a distance

and it seems to be the same approach

when he gets to the house high priest's

house. The high priest lived in a it was

quite a grand house. It had a big

courtyard in the middle.

It would have had the the rooms sort of

leading onto the courtyard surrounding

the courtyard and to access the house it

would have been a big heavy door and you

would go through an archway possibly

even with a room for the the doorkeeper

to stay in. You go into into the the

heart of the house, the courtyard

and there was a fire kindled in the

middle of there. There was a mixed group

of people, some soldiers, servants and

other people. And Peter sits there

amongst them hoping to blend in, not to

be noticed. And for some of us, that

might be our approach

to following Jesus.

We follow it at a safe distance,

hoping no one's really going to notice

us.

But the truth is if we are a disciple of

Jesus, if we are following Jesus,

we will stand out

and we should stand out. Not because

we're rude or holier than thou or

obnoxious in our attitude, but because

there is something of Jesus about us.

There should be something that's loving

about us.

There's a joy that we have because we

know Jesus has taken away our sins.

We've got a future. We got a hope. It's

wonderful. There's a peace about us

because we know whatever happens, I am

in God's hands. Even if I die, I am

delivered into his presence. There's a

peace that comes from knowing the Lord.

There is a patience about us. I don't

have to fight for everything and all my

rights. I know I can trust the Lord. I

can be patient with people. I can be

kind to people. We are good. We are

faithful. We are gentle. That should be

the kind of aura or aroma that we sort

of bring into the room. And we kind of

we're the kind of people that practice

self-control, not just abandoning

everything and just doing whatever we

want. No, we say, "No, actually, there's

a right way and a wrong way to live. And

I'm going to live for the Lord. I'm not

just going to let myself go." We don't

join in with what's wrong. We don't lie.

We don't mislead. We don't condone sin.

We don't just wink at unhealthy um

corporate practices.

Even our language will be different. The

way we speak about our fellow workers,

the way we speak about our bosses, it

will be gracious, not just joining in

with everyone, oh, so and so is wful and

instead of stirring up gossip, we'll be

the kind of people who are peacemakers.

And sometimes sometimes following Jesus

it means we will have to stand on the

truth and say I I can't agree with that

actually that difficult situation I know

is unpopular but this is what I believe

to be right.

So to follow Jesus means for good or bad

we will stand out if we try to follow

Jesus from a distance. The question has

to be asked, are we actually following

Jesus at all

or are we just observing

sort of watching how things turn out?

A disciple will walk as closely to the

savior as possible. And I guess most of

us who are Christians here will agree

with that. Yes, I agree with that. And

and it's okay, you know, because we're

in a safe place right now, aren't we?

And it's easy to be brave when we're in

a safe place amongst Christians. So, we

can say that. But what about when we're

not in church?

Just as Peter earlier that night, he was

in a safe place at the last supper and

he said, "I'm ready to die for you,

Lord, but what about when we're in the

wild?"

As we know, it doesn't go so well for

Peter. Peter was recognized by this

servant girl. And much to Peter's

horror, just she just comes right out

and says it. This man was also with him.

And you can imagine Peter going which

which man me?

I don't know him. I wasn't there.

And then sometimes later in verse 58,

someone else says, "You you also were

with him. You were one of them." And

again, Peter denies being Jesus's

disciple.

And then about an hour later, some

something about Peter, probably his

accent, betrays that he's from Galilee.

And and again, he denies it. And the

other gospels share how this time he

invokes curses down on himself. Probably

something like, "May God deal with me,

be it ever so severely, if I ever knew

him, if I ever followed this this

Jesus." He just he's using everything

he's got to distance himself from being

counted as one of Jesus's. And just at

that moment, the rooster crows

just as Jesus said it would. And that

crow of the bird seems to be the the key

for two things to happen. So firstly,

Jesus turns

and looks at Peter.

And Peter also seems at this point to

remember what Jesus says. and he seems

to turn and and look at Jesus and their

gaze meets.

Where was Jesus at this point?

It could have been in a a gallery

overlooking the courtyard. He could have

been in one of those rooms that faced on

to the courtyard. It could be that he

was being taken through the courtyard at

just the right moment. But it doesn't

really matter. The point is their eyes

lock and Jesus's words come flooding

back and Peter realizes he has just done

his utmost to distance himself to deny

his savior.

And you can't help but wonder when they

looked at each other,

what was the look? What what did the

look say?

Did Jesus look full of mercy?

Is he disappointed?

Was it a look of understanding,

a look of concern,

a look of sorrow?

Whatever the look,

it broke Peter's heart.

And in verse 62, he goes outside, he

breaks down, and he weeps bitterly.

I wonder what we'd have done

if we had been with Peter at that

moment.

Would we have rushed out after him, put

our arms around him, reassured him?

Peter, it's it's understandable, Peter.

You know what? We know how you were

feeling. And I'm sure the Lord knows

your heart, Peter. We all make mistakes,

don't we, Peter? It's not that bad,

Peter.

But the truth of the matter was

it was that bad.

He'd broken a promise.

He'd lied.

He'd denied

the one he'd said, "I will follow." He'd

feared people more than God. He'd

publicly disowned Jesus at the most

critical of times. Peter had sinned and

he should

be deeply upset about it.

I do wonder if sometimes in our concern

to be kind and loving, we might be

tempted to downplay the seriousness of

sin and somehow shortcut the process of

conviction of sin. If you have sinned,

what you need is not a sticky plaster.

It is surgery.

You don't need nice platitudes.

You need repentance.

You don't need to be told your sin is

not that bad. Really, it is. Your sin is

worse than you ever realized. It is so

bad that it warrants eternal hell. It is

so bad that Jesus suffered on the cross

to pay for it. If we understood just how

bad our sin was. If we got a a sniff of

how awful it was, I think we would weep

over our sin much more than we do.

But, you know,

I think it's only really when you

realize just how bad your sin is

that you realize just how good

the gospel is.

It's when you feel the bitterness of

your sin and you you realize what that

means and what that brings and and how

you are guilty and under condemnation.

Then you realize the sweetness and the

joy of restoration and forgiveness. When

you realize just what Jesus has done,

then you can really savor

the gospel.

Peter had blown it

and he felt bad and he should.

But as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 7:10

chapter 7 verse 10, for godly grief

produces a repentance that leads to

salvation without regret

whereas worldly grief produces death.

Christians shouldn't stay in the place

of of mourning and wallowing in our sin.

rather our shame and our sorrow at what

we've done. It leads us to Christ. It

leads us to the place where we can find

complete forgiveness where we are washed

clean. When there is a new start, there

is new life. There is new hope.

It leads us to the place of repentance.

That is acknowledging our sin. Not

pretending it didn't happen. Not saying

it's not that bad. not making excuses

when we say, "No, Lord, I'm sorry. I've

sinned. I confess it." And you turn from

it and you seek his forgiveness and

help. Peter knew this. He he wrote about

this later on in Acts chapter 3. He says

Acts 3 · chapter mention

this,

"Repent, therefore, and turn back that

your sins may be blotted out." Isn't

that wonderful? So, repent, turn back.

Your sins are blotted out and raised,

gone, just obliterated. And then he says

this that times of refreshing may come

from the presence of the Lord. Isn't

that the the wonderful thing? So there's

a time when we weep and we mourn over

our sin and we come to the Lord. We

confess it. We turn from it and then

there is a a a refreshment that comes

from the Lord.

Taking our sin seriously and taking it

to the cross, it leads to refreshment,

restoration, renewal, even the

reinstatement back into serving the

Lord. This wasn't the end for Peter.

He's still got a use. He's still got a

hope. And that's what happened for

Peter,

but we'll look at that another week. For

now, we leave Peter. He's out there.

He's brokenhearted. He's weeping

bitterly because of how he's failed the

Lord. And when we sin, it should sadden

us. It should lead us once again to the

cross where there is forgiveness and

there is restoration.

Perhaps you haven't failed in such an

epic way as as Peter. But consider this

though. How are you trying to follow the

Lord?

Is it from a distance?

Are you just trying to play it safe?

This is a um quite special year for the

church. We've got lots of mission

opportunities.

So the question is are we are you ready

to stand up and be counted? Are you

ready to put your head above above the

parapet and say yeah I belong to Jesus.

He is mine. He's my savior and I I don't

you know you might judge me for that but

I belong to Jesus. Are you be re ready

to be recognized as one who is with

Jesus or are you following at a

distance?

Well, whilst Peter wasn't willing to

confess his faith in Jesus, Jesus was

being interrogated and he makes a good

confession. And we'll look at that in

our second point. Jesus's confession.

So, Peter was there. He's failed this

sort of interrogation. Jesus is where

the heavier interrogation is taking

place. To get a the bigger picture of

this, no one gospel records all of the

the stories. you have to sort of piece

things together from the four gospels

and then you get the the fuller picture.

And there seems to be two main stages to

Jesus's trial. So the first was the

Jewish stage and then there was the

second before pilot. So the first stage

of the Jewish trial that had two or

three uh parts to it itself. So during

the night there was the informal

interviews as they might be called. Um

so one happened before a guy called

Annus who was the former high priest and

then he was taken perhaps through the

courtyard to um Kaiapas who was the uh

current high priest. These took place in

the night so they weren't legal. They

couldn't um use these uh it was illegal

to convict a man to the point of death

in this way in the night. So they

couldn't couldn't use these properly.

So, uh, they needed to seal the deal and

legitimize it by having a third

interrogation at the break of day in

daylight. And so, that's where Luke

picks up the story. And you'll see the

significance of the opening words in

verse 66. He says, "When day came." In

other words, now they can get on with

the legal stuff. They've already decided

the night is guilty, but now they can do

it legally and get on with it. So, verse

66, when day came, the assembly of the

elders and the people gathered together,

both chief priests and scribes. So it's

basically the Sanhedin, the leading

authority in the Jewish religious um

setup. They gather and they ask the

question in verse 67, if you are the

Christ, tell us.

And that seems like quite a fair enough

question, doesn't it?

But Jesus knows their hearts.

They're not looking for the truth.

This isn't a genuine question from those

seeking the truth. So instead of

actually just answering them, Jesus

challenges them. Halfway through verse

67, but he said to them, "If I tell you,

you will not believe. And if I ask you,

you will not answer." So he could have

just simply said yes. But he already

knows they're not going to believe.

They're not going to accept this.

The problem isn't a lack of clarity from

Jesus. It's a lack of willingness from

them to believe. They don't want to

believe. In Romans chapter 1, Paul says

Romans 1 · chapter mention

how people suppress the truth about God.

And it is plain to them, but they

suppress the truth. So the problem is

not a lack of evidence. It is a problem

of the human heart. Unregenerate

humanity doesn't want to believe.

Because if we do, that means I have to

acknowledge God. That means I have to

bow before him. I have to listen to him

and I have to treat him as God. And we

don't want to do this. So I will do

everything within my power to suppress

that truth and reject it because I do

not want to believe.

These religious leaders ask the right

question but with the wrong motives.

They don't want the truth. So Jesus

confronts them with their hard hearts.

But along with that challenge, even if I

told you, you wouldn't believe it. Along

with that challenge, Jesus adds a

warning as well. Verse 69, but from now

on, the son of man shall be seated at

the right hand of the power of God. So

although Jesus is currently in their

power, Jesus is on trial before them.

It's actually they who are on trial at

that moment.

For Jesus will die. He will be raised.

He will be glorified. He will be taken

to to the the place of honor by his

father's side. His work will be done. He

will sit down. And as they reject Jesus,

they are convicting themselves of the

sin for which they will have to stand

trial before the throne of judgment.

That very act of rejecting Jesus right

then, right there will make them

culpable before God.

And they will stand there having

rejected Jesus.

That means they have rejected their

defense. They have rejected their

mediator. They have rejected their

savior. And so they will be found

guilty. But they they miss the warning

that Jesus puts there. They miss it.

But they don't miss the implication. So

they miss the warning, but they catch

the implication of what Jesus is saying

because they're just kind of out to get

him. Jesus will be seated at the right

hand of God. Jesus seated at the right

hand of God. really that's the place of

supreme honor. By calling himself the

son of man, he's linking himself to

deity. It's a reference back to Daniel

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

chapter 7 13 and 14. And and we might

wonder why does Jesus call himself the

son of man? It's because it's a a

wonderful way to join both humanity and

deity. Son of man, he's the son of man.

And yet this son of man in Daniel is

linked to deity. So it brings together

the idea of Jesus's humanity and his

diviness. And when combined with the

idea that he's sitting in the place of

supreme honor at God's side,

well, they jump to the right conclusion.

They get it. Verse 70, are you the son

of God then?

And then we get this confusing reply

from Jesus. The end of verse 70, you say

that I am. It's a bit confusing, isn't

it? It's like, what does that mean?

And um what Jesus seems to be doing is

giving a scent without necessarily

indicating total agreement. So giving a

scent without necessarily indicating

total agreement with what they said and

how they've said it.

The strength of Jesus's ascent here is

debated, but all agree that Jesus is in

some way saying, "Yes,

you kind of got it." One commentator

paraphrases it like this. This is your

word, not mine. I would have not put it

like that, but since you have, I cannot

deny it. It's not very piffy, is it?

But, you know, that's kind of trying to

get at the truth there. Another another

sort of theologian just says Jesus is

just saying, "You are right. I am.

This is called Jesus's good confession.

I can't help but feel there's probably

something a little bit lost and nuance

lost in the language and the culture

here. But the outcome is clear because

they understand they get it very

clearly. Verse 771. What further

testimony do we need? We have heard it

ourselves from his own lips.

The affirmative claim to be the son of

God is in their minds. It's clear.

So they understand the claim, but they

don't believe it. It's clearly untrue in

their minds. So since they don't believe

this claim to being the son of God, it

is blasphemous. It demands the death

penalty. They haven't stopped to

consider what if it's true. They haven't

stopped to think, what would it look

like if the son of God was walking

around like one of us? What would that

actually look like? They haven't stopped

to seriously consider that because if

they did, they might think, well, hang

on a minute. This this Jesus,

he did teach like no one else. No one

else could teach like him. And wait a

minute. There's powerful signs, those

powerful miracles. Wouldn't we expect

that if God really was walking amongst

us? But that's what we've seen. And

Jesus's undefeable wisdom. Every time we

tried to catch him out, he just like

boom. We couldn't stand up before him.

And what about his perfect character? We

can't even find something to pin on him.

But they don't stop to consider the

question that Luke has been driving out

all the way through his gospel. Who is

this Jesus? They actually have the

answer in front of them. He is the son

of God.

But they don't believe.

If you don't currently believe,

please do take the time to stop and

investigate,

come and ask me or one of the elders and

we'll we'll meet with you. We'll help

you think it through. We'll study the

scriptures with you. Could Jesus be who

he says he is? Not just the Messiah, but

the son of God who now sits at his

father's right hand and reigns.

Well, that was just the Jewish phase of

Jesus's trial. They don't have the power

to put someone to death uh because Rome

had that. So, for that, they now need to

go to the Romans to convince them that

they are that Jesus is guilty. And so,

they arise as one and they take Jesus to

Pilate.

And we'll look at that in our final

point, Pilot's Verdict.

The Bible always has its critics. People

like to point out how well all sorts of

things about it. And um up until 1961,

it was held or what some historians

thought that Pilate, Pontius Pilate, was

just a biblical myth. He he didn't

really exist. And so that would be put

there. Oh, it's not really true. There's

no evidence for him. uh until in 1961

they found an inscription at Hera's

amphitheater about Pontious Pilate and

then they had to admit, well, yeah, the

Bible got that right.

But what kind of man was this Pilate

really? Well, it's hard to know looking

back through history just, you know,

what was his character like is a little

bit debated there. So, one letter that

was written from one person to another

about him calls him inflexible,

merciless, and obstinate. So that's one

sort of picture of of Pilate. There's

another group that saw him almost like

saintlike. Oh, he's so good. He's just

such a blessing. He's so generous to us.

So you can see how sort of two different

views of of one man. Whatever his

character, Luke shows us that Pilate

doesn't want to put Jesus to death. The

religious le the religious leaders know

that Pilate doesn't really care about

their blasphemy laws. He doesn't care

about that. In fact, he doesn't really

care about them. He wasn't a great fan

of the Jews at all, let alone the

religious leaders.

So their job, the religious leaders,

their job is to try and convince Pilate

to convict Jesus on other charges which

they duly bring. So he's leading the

nation astray. In other words, he's

trying to stir up a rebellion or he's

for forbidding tribute to Caesar, which

is clearly not true because we've seen

that throughout the the the scripture

throughout the gospel. He's a rival

power. He claims to be a king. Well,

yes, but not not yes. Not how you

imagine it.

From the other gospels, we see that

Pilate's conversation was much longer

than Luke gives us. Luke just uh gives

us the highlight here, but we can see

there was a much more indepth

conversation that went on between Pilate

and Jesus. Luke just gives us the

highlight. Verse three, are you the king

of the Jews? I'm told that the Greek

there that the U is emphatic. So it's

the idea of saying like you king of the

Jews, you're kidding. Look at you.

That's the idea. It's like really

according to Matthew 27:18, Pilate knows

Matthew 27:18

is out of envy that Jesus has been

brought to him. He's not silly. He knows

what's going on. He sees what's

happening here. Now remember I said Luke

was banging the drum of Jesus's

innocence. So, so we get that the beats

coming in here. Paul's verdict, Pilate's

verdict, uh, in verse four is um, I find

no guilt in this man. Now, we might

think, well, that's great. Job done.

Then, he says, I find no guilt in this

man. Jesus can go home and they can all

carry on as they were before. But the

leaders haven't come to this point just

to give up so easily. So, they push

back. He stirs up the people. He's

teaching everywhere from from Galilee to

this place. And to mention Galilee was

quite a a master stroke because that was

seen as the hotbed of rebellion and and

uh it was a sort of place that was

always revolution and and causing

trouble for Rome. So they pop that in

there. Jesus is from this rebellious

place Galilee, you know, you know they

all what they're like from Galilee.

And this actually gives Pilate his out

because he he he doesn't want to deal

with this. He sees it's like it's not a

good thing to be involved in. He doesn't

want to deal with it. And and since a

crime could be dealt with in the place

that it it occurred or in the place that

someone was born and grew up in, he can

shift this over to Herod because Herod

just happens to be in town celebrating

the Passover.

So he can give this to Herod, which he

does. And Herod's delighted because he

he'd been hearing about Jesus. He wanted

to see the the miracles, the magic

tricks. He wanted to be entertained. He

loved entertainment, Herod. And so he

thinks this is his moment. Uh bear in

mind this is Herod Antipas who stole his

brother's wife and who had John the

Baptist killed. So this this Herod, he

had had his chances.

He had had his chances. He had been

warned. He had been called to God and he

had had refused. And we see that Jesus

doesn't even answer him. He's the only

person Jesus doesn't actually say

anything to. Doesn't even speak to him.

So Herod's frustrated by this. He sends

Jesus back to Pilate who calls the

leaders together in verse 14. And again,

he bangs the drum of of Jesus's

innocence. I've examined him. I found

him not guilty. Herod hasn't found him

to be guilty either. He hasn't done

anything deserving death. So, do you see

the the repeated rhythm of Jesus's

innocence is being hammered home here?

He's not guilty. He doesn't deserve

this. What are you doing?

And Pilate realizing they're not going

to give up easily, he offers to give

them uh give Jesus a little punishment

and release him. I say little punishment

because it's not the full heavy Roman

scourging that's been spoken about here.

To us, it seems seems a bit crazy. He's

just said he's innocent, so I'm going to

punish him. What? What? How does that

work? Apparently in Roman law, a light

beating could be given together with an

official uh warning so that the accused

would take more care in the future. It's

like a warning. Watch out. How you go?

You're in danger. So, just be careful.

And that that was something that they

did.

Pilate is trying to compromise here.

He's trying to pacify them, but this

isn't what they want. They want Jesus

dead. And the more Pilate tries to

perclate them, perclate them, the worse

it gets. And so in the end, they just

come right out and say it. Verse 21,

crucify him. Crucify him. And Pilate

goes out to them a third time.

Notice the repetition of Jesus's

innocence again. Verse 22. Why? What

evil has he done? I have found in him no

guilt deserving death. I will therefore

punish him and release him. This

repeated innocence of Jesus's repeated

insistence of Jesus's innocence leaves

no room for confusion, does it? Jesus

was not convicted because he was guilty.

He was declared innocent.

Now, you may have noticed verse 17 is

missing from your Bible. It might be in

the footnotes. Um, just a brief word of

explanation. You can speak to me more

about this later if you like. Um so what

would often happen is scribes would uh

write in the margins or in the footnotes

or above it um notes to make things

clearer or explan explanatory um notes.

Uh and sometimes when the next person

came to make a copy of that scroll, it

wouldn't be obvious if the words were

part of the original text or just one of

these editor's notes. And so there was

such concern that you didn't want to

miss anything out of the Bible that if

there was confusion they would include

them rather than risk emitting them. And

so over time this verse 17 got

incorporated into the text. Thankfully,

biblical scholarship has moved on and we

have hundreds more manuscripts have now

been found since this first occurred and

it is now apparent that verse 17 didn't

appear in the earliest manuscripts but

has been crept in uh over time. So you

if you're using the King James version

um you might find and it's a fine

translation but you might find actually

it's still in there and that's because

the King James version it was based on a

very limited number of um uh manuscripts

most modern translations like the ESV

and the NIV they are based on nearly

6,000 manuscripts and that gives us a

much bigger picture and they say no

clearly it wasn't there and then at some

point it got introduced and So we can

say no, it shouldn't be there. And that

that's what's happened. So we're not

taking things away from the Bible by not

putting it in. We're just saying

actually that should never have been in

there in the first place. Thankfully, we

have so many manuscripts now available.

We can be sure that what we have in our

in our English Bibles is very very very

very close to the original. It's never

been more accurate than uh today. So I

just felt I had to mention that in case

it was worrying you that verse 17 had

dropped out. It hasn't dropped out. it's

been taken out on purpose. But even

without verse 17 supplying that little

explanation,

um we can go to other gospels to see uh

the context. Matthew 26, Mark 15, and

that's probably where um the one of the

scribes got the idea from. Um so in

Pilate's it was Pilate's custom to set a

prisoner free at the time of the feast.

And that's what the people asked for

here. Don't release to us Jesus. release

Barabus.

And Luke tells us what kind of man

Barabbus was. Have a look verse 19.

A man who had been thrown into prison

for an insurrection started in the city

and for murder. So we have a man who is

guilty of rioting,

rebellion, and murder on one hand, and

then we have Jesus who's repeatedly

found innocent on the other.

And it's Jesus

that gets delivered to death. Do you see

what's happening? You've got the guilty

and then you got the innocent who takes

his place. And that is the gospel, isn't

it? That's the gospel. First Peter

chapter um 22, we read it at the

beginning. Jesus committed no sin.

Neither was the deceit found in his

mouth. When he was reviled, he did not

revile in return. When he suffered, he

did not threaten, but continued

entrusting himself to him who judges

justly. He himself bore our sins in his

body on the tree that we might die to

sin and live to righteousness. By his

wounds, you have been healed. Barabus

like us was guilty

and we are guilty. We will be judged and

found guilty before God. But then in

steps the Messiah, none other than the

son of God himself. He takes my place.

He stands in my guilty shoes. He who was

declared innocent takes my sin, my

punishment, and takes my hell on the

cross.

So that for those who repent, who put

their faith in Jesus like Barabbus, we

are pardoned and we are set free.

Peter failed to confess Christ his Lord.

Jesus confesses he is indeed the son of

God. And Pilate confesses this man has

done no wrong.

Peter's strength fails. pilot strength

fails and Jesus is handed over to the

will of the leaders. But this wasn't

just a failure of strength. This wasn't

a failure of man or failure of of it

wasn't a triumph of Satan. It was the

will of God.

Jesus was given that he might die so

that by his wounds we are healed. That's

the gospel and that's why Jesus came and

that's what we remember at Easter Easter

time. So, let's just be