Matthew 27:11-26 - The Righteous One Rejected

Good morning, family.

As soon as Walter said I'm the main chef today, my thoughts immediately went to the kitchen.

I didn't know if I promised anything to any of you and uh forgot on that promise.

Maybe you know I'm uh I promised you that I would make pizza, but uh then it hit me what a privilege it is to be able to serve, not only in the kitchen but here, serving from the word of God.

It is a great honor to have an opportunity to stand before you all, to open up the word of God with utmost confidence in its truthfulness and its inerrancy.

And we've been hearing from the book of Matthew, we are coming to the end of the prolonged study of the book of Matthew and Matthew's testimony of Christ and him being the Son of God.

And for the past two weeks, Pastor Micah presented to us the silent lamb.

And in his sermon, he said the silent lamb, as he was going through this mocked trial before Annas and Caiaphas.

The silent lamb is the silent priest, and silent lamb is the silent prophet, and silent lamb is the silent king.

And his silence conveyed so much more than anything that could be uttered.

And if we consider these trials, I think we will be not, I think we we will be continuing this trial of Jesus Christ.

See, he was tried in front of the Jewish Supreme Court, and now he is in front of the Gentiles, in front of Pilate, Herod.

And last week we heard our dear brother Kevin preach from chapter 26 and the first version of 27.

How these two responses, one of Peter and one of Judas, and how these two responses, the contrast between them, and how Christ must hold us fast.

What a wonderful encouragement.

And from the beginning of this study, we've been concentrating on the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies in Him.

And now we are making our way to the climactic events of the book of Matthew, where Jesus is put on another trial and will be condemned to death on a cross.

And if we come into this courtroom of Pilate, into this praetorium, and we will see many characters here.

And to understand, the understanding of these characters that appear in this portion of scripture is extremely important.

This event is narrated in all of the four gospels.

It is so important that all four gospels narrate this to a different degree of detail.

And if we put all of them together, it will give us a complete picture of this trial and will shed light on the important things of this trial.

Before we read the portion of the scripture, let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we bow before you this morning.

Father, as we approach your word, Father, we pray that you would give us the presence of mine and also Father's supreme confidence in it.

And Father, even in my weakness, Father, we pray that you would speak to your people powerfully.

And Father, as we consider the Christ and his sufferings as he approaches the monumental event in human history, Father, we pray that you would deliver us from all cavalier attitudes.

And Father, help our hearts to consider Christ in a new way once again.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Now Jesus stood before the governor.

While he was being accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer.

Then Pilate said to him, Do you don't you hear how much they are testifying against you?

But he didn't answer him, even one on one charge.

So that the governor was quite amazed.

At the festival of the governor's custom uh at the festival, the governor's custom was to release to the crowd a prisoner they wanted.

At that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.

So when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, Who is it you want me to release for you?

Barabbas or the Jesus who is called Christ?

For he knew it was because of the envy that they had handed him over.

While he was sitting on the judge's bench, his wife sent to him, sent word to him, Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for today I have suffered terribly in a dream because of him.

The chief priests and the elders, however, persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to execute Jesus.

The governor asked them, Which of the two do you want me to release for you?

Barabbas, they answered.

Pilate asked them, What should I do with Jesus, who is called Christ?

They all answered, Crucify him.

Then he said, Why?

What has he done wrong?

But he kept, but they kept shouting all the more, Crucify him.

When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that but that a royal was starting instead, he took some water and washed his hands in front of the crowd and said, I am innocent of this man's blood.

See to it yourselves.

All the people answered, His blood be on us and on our children.

Then he released Barabbas to them, and after having Jesus flogged, handed him over to be crucified.

This incident that took place towards the end of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ's earthly ministry.

In fact, this is his last day.

And he would be crucified in merely in hours.

And this will show us about the real tragedy with humanity, and that the real tragedy with humanity is as a result of sin.

This is a very dramatic incident, and let us for a moment be transported to this courtroom, where this Roman praetorium, where Pilate, the Roman administrator over Judea, is presiding over this trial.

And at the time Herod Antipas was the ruler over Galilee, these places will become important as the trial unfolds.

This is the great trial, or should we say, mistrial of all of history.

Many artists, if we look at ancient paintings, many artists try to portray this moment through different expressions of art and drama to capture the expressions of various characters in this particular scene.

We may have heard of this so many times.

The danger is that our hearts can be desensitized to the full gravity of what is unfolding here.

The atoning death of Jesus Christ and the events that led to this monumental moment in human redemptive history needs our full, undivided attention and proper grasp of what went on here, and that will inform us about why Jesus, the righteous one, was rejected.

And then, more importantly, not only then, and more importantly, why he is rejected throughout the centuries and even in our current culture and current society, current world.

Let us consider the background of the man before whom Jesus was brought.

Pilate was appointed by the Roman government to be the administrator, a governor over the conquered land of Palestine.

Whenever the Roman government conquered territories, they would appoint a ruler over these lands.

Pilate was fifth such governor over Palestine, and his tenure lasted from 26 AD to 37 AD, about 11 years.

His was the longest tenure of any of the governors, and this might make him look like a very successful governor.

But his long tenure without any promotion indicates mediocre success or even a failure.

He not only received receive any promotion, but he was fired by the emperor Caligula and was banished.

And according to historians, Pilate was very stubborn and he was very cruel.

And he was involved in several run-ins with the Jewish nation.

And they do not like him, nor does he like them.

And now if they perceive, see, Jewish leadership has this demand of him at this point, at this trial, and we will see that in a few in a few moments.

And if they perceive that he will not respond the way they would like him to, they can lodge a complaint against him with Caesar, like they did several times before.

And here we need to see something.

Nothing corrupts human hearts like the love of power.

Because how this authority brings about prideful notions in oneself and how much one absolutely tries to preserve this influence at any cost.

That is clearly seen in all the actors that are part of this trial.

Jesus Christ himself said on many occasions that the prophecies were about him in no uncertain terms.

And in Luke 4 we read, and he was in Nazareth in the synagogue, and he reads from the book of Isaiah.

And he says, The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

So to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the ear of Lord's favor.

And he then rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.

And then he said, This today, as you listen, this scripture has been fulfilled.

And that is the refrain that we have heard from the beginning of Matthew since we started started this Matthew study, and this has been the refrain.

And all the prophecies and all the prophets, what they said is about Jesus Christ.

All these actors who are standing in judgment of this righteous man would have realized just as John did if they paid close attention, and if they paid close attention to what he was saying and how he is purporting himself.

John 1 14 it says, The word became flesh and dwelt among us.

We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

But the unfortunate reality here is but in their power-hungry pursuits, all these players missed it all.

And we will see three this message in three points.

One is the divine irony, and the divine indictment, and the divine intent.

While he was being accused, there's 12th and 12 through 14 verses.

While he was being accused by the chief priests and elders, he didn't answer.

Then Pilate said to him, Don't you hear how much they are testifying against you?

But he didn't answer him on even one charge.

So the governor was quite amazed.

Probably Pilate has seen many criminals come through his courtroom.

And to all the accusations, probably he heard so many things.

They're screaming and crying that they were innocent of this, these charges, and to have mercy on them and to release them.

But Jesus did not answer.

And the governor was quite amazed.

Here, Pilate was sitting in the judgment seat of Christ, and he thinks that he has the authority over Jesus' life.

But as Jesus said in John, it says, He has no more authority than what was given to him by his father.

Pilate proclaims that he does not find any fault in him.

Yet he hands Jesus over to over to them to be crucified.

Pilate thinks that he has the authority to set any prisoner free and did try to set Jesus free.

But the divine Son of God, by going to the cross, he set all the prisoners free from bondage to sin.

As Paul says in Romans, what then?

Should we sin because we are not under the law but under grace?

Absolutely not.

Don't you know that if you offer yourself to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey.

Either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness.

But thank God that although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over.

And having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

The irony of irony is that Jesus Christ was accused that he was an insurrectionist and would be a threat to the Roman government.

And he was accused of being the king of the Jews.

And he had the political ambitions and wouldn't would constitute a threat to the current power structure.

Whenever you know these authorities they hear this king or where a person with ambitions to be king, they take notice.

And his accusers are more worried about their power and their religion.

See, Jewish nation or Jewish leaders are bringing these false charges against Jesus so that so so as so that they can force Pilate into compliance.

And Pilate testifies to that fact and says that they have delivered Jesus to him because of envy.

Everything that they did from the beginning is because of envy, because he had more following than they had.

And he had he was more popular with the people than they ever were.

And he did things that they could never even contemplate.

They were confounded and confused and filled with rage.

They were accusing Jesus thus because they wanted to get Pilate on board with their agenda.

Because though they think Jesus must be executed, they did not have the power of capital punishment.

Though Rome gave local power structures a level of autonomy, they did not give them the power of capital punishment.

And Pilate did not buy their argument at all.

But little did he know that these accusations will come true in time, albeit in a different way than one could have imagined or anticipated, because the Roman Empire was indeed conquered by the gospel of Jesus Christ not too long from that trial.

Apostle Paul had Macedonian vision and he brought the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Roman Empire.

And one of and one of the disciples of Christ, Thomas, in the first century came to India bringing the message of hope to the Indian subcontinent.

When Pilate came to know that Jesus was from Galilee, you know, he saw that this is an opportunity for him to wiggle out of this burden the Jewish leaders were putting him putting on him.

Then he then sends Jesus to Herod.

And he is a judge, Pilate.

And without any just cause, he was not comfortable giving into the wishes of the Jewish leaders and the crowd.

But he was afraid that they might complain to the emperor, and this is not the first time they did.

And previous times when they complained, it did not go very well with Pilate.

Herod examines Jesus and mockingly puts King's robe on him and returns Jesus to Pilate.

Now things are becoming a little more difficult for Pilate because there is one more option for Pilate, the amnesty.

Matthew tells us that there is a custom which is the in which the governor would release a prisoner of crowds' choice.

There was a notorious prisoner named Barabbas, whose full name, according to early biblical scholars, Jesus.

Jesus Barabbas.

Pilate now is in a very precarious place here because he knows that he he has failed so many times in the dealing with the Jews, he is afraid if they report him to Caesar again, this could be the final straw.

In John's Gospel, 19th chapter, he record John records it like this.

The Jews, they have reminded him of this fact.

If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend.

Anyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.

And here he is claiming to be the king.

That is the accusation.

Trying to hang on to justice, he makes an appeal and he said to them, You brought this man to me as one who incites the people to rebellion.

And behold, having examined him before you, I found no guilt in this man regarding the charges which you make against him.

Nor has Herod.

He sent him back to us.

And behold, nothing deserving death has been done by him.

Therefore, I will punish and release him.

Punish him for what?

He proclaimed his innocence, Jesus' innocence, several times already.

Punish him for what?

I will punish him unjustly, illegally, and covertly, and then release him?

Wouldn't you be satisfied with that?

If I just lash him?

You know, no, their designs are much greater and they are much more vicious than to be satisfied with a little corporal punishment.

The custom of the governor, as we are told, at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner of their choice.

And this is the phase three of this trial before a Gentile court.

The first pilot, then he was sent to Herod, and he's back in the pilot's courtroom again.

And this amnesty is probably a way to appease the occupied people.

Amnesty for one prisoner of the people's choice, by the way, by the ancient sources you know, Roman governors had this.

They have done many times these things to show or to maintain a sense of kindness.

And he probably was thinking, these people have seen Jesus and his miracles.

They have benefited immensely from his ministry, and not too long ago, the throngs of people were following him.

They witnessed Jesus as a miracle worker.

Jesus was a threat to Jewish leadership, and Pilate knows that very well.

He attacked their motives.

Jesus did.

And their economy and their seat of power and their religion.

And Pilate knows that they are doing this because of envy.

He is everything that they cannot be.

And moreover, he is popular, and Pilate probably thought that, you know, Pilate wanted to bypass the Jewish leadership and go directly to the crowd.

And he was convinced that probably people will choose Jesus because of his popularity if he gave them the choice.

So instead of Sanhedrin, who were difficult, he went to the people.

And he saw what happened on Monday when Jesus entered Jerusalem triumphantly, his triumphal entry.

And so many crowds were chanting, hailing him as their king.

So he is going to move away from the vicious, unjust leaders, and he is going to address the people who have been given the privilege on occasions like this at the Passover to choose a prisoner to be released.

The man named Barabbas was his choice to present to them as an option.

He had been imprisoned with the insurrectionists and who had committed murder in the insurrection.

And the irony is that the Hebrew meaning of Barabbas means the son of the father.

Bar is the son of Abbas, the father.

This is the father, son of the father, offered in place of the divine son of the divine father.

This man is a robber.

He is a murderer.

He is a revolutionary.

He is called by Matthew a notorious prisoner, a well-known, surely headed for crucifixion.

Very soon, Romans did not wait in executing prisoners.

And now, in the verse 19, there is a little incident that occurs at this time.

As Pilate is sitting on the bench contemplating, his wife sent a word to him, have nothing to do with that righteous man, for today I've suffered terribly in a dream because of him.

And now, as he is contemplating his wife's request, the Jewish leadership was in the crowd.

Sanhedrin is busy instigating the crowd, and they are stirring up the crowd, and they effectively persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and put Jesus to death.

And the governor asked them, which of the two you want me to release for you?

Barabbas, they answered, have nothing to do with that righteous man, his wife's request.

While Pilate is conversing or contemplating his wife's request, Sanhedrin is trying to move the mob.

And in verse 20, the chief priests and the elders, however, persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to execute Jesus.

What an amazing turn of events.

What did Barabbas do ever for anyone?

What good was Barabbas in Luke?

In the book of Luke, he describes it, the scene like this.

Away with this man and release Barabbas.

Let the guilty live and kill the righteous one.

Treat the guilty as innocent.

And treat the innocent as guilty.

So now they render their verdict on Jesus.

And in reality of it, Jesus renders his verdict on them.

And Luke says, Pilate wanting to release Jesus, still addresses the crowd again.

Pilate said to them, Then what shall I do with him whom you call the king of the Jews?

What do I do with him?

And even here he asks that question in Matthew.

The answer is crucify him.

That is the crowd.

From Monday to Friday, they join the rest of the corrupt blasphemers.

They take their place with Judas and Annas and Caiphus and Herod and Pilate and the Sen Hed.

The question, this is the question, isn't it?

What do I do with Jesus?

What do we do with Jesus?

We will come to this question a bit later.

And Pilate, still incredulous, in verse 23, said to them, Why?

What has he done wrong?

Again, another proclamation of innocence.

This is an amazing Passover day.

They were there that day to honor God with a Passover meal.

This was the high point of worship for them.

They were there to bring sacrifices before God, to show their obedience to God.

They were there to eat the commemorative meal that remembered the deliverance of God, the goodness of God, the mercy of God that has brought them out of slavery in Egypt.

They were remembering God and his goodness while at the same time screaming for the death of the Son of God.

They were demanding the death of the one who has the power to make all their pursuits into reality.

Give them the righteousness that is not their own, but his own.

And deliver them from the true bondage and slavery that the slavery of Egypt would not even compare.

That is the irony.

And this whole passage is dripping with irony, as Pastor Doug said last night.

Now we come to the divine indictment.

Matthew tells us that when Jesus was before Pilate, Pilate asked the Jewish leaders who had brought Jesus there, the question, what shall I do with Jesus, who is called Christ.

Pilate, being the governor in Israel, was powerful.

You know, this power, and true, he was superior to many of even to Herod and all the Sanhedrin and all the leadership.

Being in power can bring altered perceptions of authority and what authority they possess.

Pilate being the governor in Israel was powerful and he didn't mind demonstrating his power.

When he asked the question, what shall I do with Jesus?

He is under the illusion that he is actually, no, he has something to do or some authority over Jesus' life.

The truth is, neither him nor does anyone could do anything with Jesus on their own.

No one has the power, no one has the position, and no one has the authority to determine what will be done with Jesus except God.

In fact, in our law in our Lord's trial before Pilate, Pilate expresses this illusion of his power with these words.

He says to Jesus, according to John 19, he says, When the chief priests and the temple servants saw him, they shouted, and uh crucify, crucify, pilot responded, take him and crucify yourselves.

And this is another way he tried to get out of this.

He said, You know what?

Take him and crucify according to your law.

And since I find no grounds for charging him, and they say, We have a law, and Jews replied to him, and according to that law, he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God.

Now they're saying they come to the come to the reality here.

When Pilate heard this statement, he was more afraid than ever, and he went back into the headquarters and asked Jesus, Where are you from?

But Jesus did not give him an answer.

So Pilate said to him, Do you refuse to speak to me?

Don't you know that I have the authority to release you and the authority to crucify you?

And Jesus answers, You would have no authority over me at all if it had not been given to you from above.

And we've been looking at this irony that exists in the midst of the betrayal of the trials of Jesus.

There is a list of these corrupt characters who feel that they play a very important role and self-motivated, self-governed, self-directed role in the destiny of Jesus.

There is Judas who purposely puts Jesus into the hands of those who desire to kill him for money.

And he thinks he is acting on his own.

There is Annas, the very corrupt and conniving former high priest, who is the real power behind the whole, this temple system.

And with all its corruption, both religiously and economically.

Annas thinks that he sits in the seat of power and can determine Jesus' destiny.

And now there is Caiaphas, his son-in-law, who is the current high priest, who for certain he thinks that he is the determiner of Jesus' destiny.

And along with Sanhedrim, which is the Supreme Court of Israel.

And Pilate also thinks that he has the authority over Jesus' life.

They all think Jesus is in their hands and his end is for them to decide.

Then the truth of the matter, however, is no matter what those people thought about their authority and their power, and they did not determine Jesus' destiny.

God did.

By his silence, Jesus is saying here, you're not going to judge me, but I'm going to judge you.

If you believe in me, you escape the judgment.

If you do not believe in me, you have been judged already because you have not believed.

While Jesus, on the account of his trials, may look like, made to look like he is a criminal.

In fact, he is the judge.

All those who put themselves in the position to judge Jesus are the real criminals, and Jesus' destiny is not determined by them.

And in John chapter 5, 24, truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.

John 5 · chapter mention

All this exercise, dear ones, is about matters of life and death, matters of eternal life and matters of eternal death.

And this is the divine indictment against sinners, and all those who do not believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, are under God's wrath, and those who are in him are accepted in him because they are in his beloved, and are accepted in his beloved Son.

And as Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 1, blessed is the God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.

For he chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in love before him.

He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ Himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the pace of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the beloved one.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, that he richly poured out on us in all with all us with all wisdom and understanding.

In reality, though these corrupt individuals think that they have power over Jesus, it is God, the Father, who has pronounced his judgment on Jesus, his beloved Son, sinless savior.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, 20 and 21.

Therefore, we are ambassadors of Christ.

Since God is making his appeal through us, we plead on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.

He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God.

That brings us to the divine intent, which is for us to be reconciled to God, and in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

What a glorious destiny of the people who have believed in this condemned prisoner, condemned to death on a cross, not by anyone, not by a mere human agency, but by God Himself.

And we are able to sing.

I heard an old, old story, how a savior came from glory.

And he how he gave his life on Calvary to save a wretch like me.

I heard about his groaning, of his precious blood atoning.

Then I repented of my sins and won the victory.

Oh, victory in Jesus, my savior forever.

He sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood.

He loved me ere I knew him, and all my love is due him.

He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.

That is the divine intent behind all this that we see.

And we go to the if we go to the book of Isaiah, and we see the prophecies about the suffering servant.

And it starts in Isaiah 50, like this, in his it talks about the obedient servant.

And in verse 6 goes on to say, I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who tore out my beard.

I did not hide my face from scorn and spitting.

And this is what is coming.

Go when Jesus is standing before Annas.

In John 18th chapter, it says, Annas asks him a question.

And he says, This, I have spoken openly to the world.

I did not keep anything a secret.

Jesus answered him, I have always taught in the synagogue and in the temple where all the Jews gather, and I haven't spoken anything in secret.

Why do you question me?

Question those who heard what I told them.

Look, they know what I said.

And listen to this, when he said these things, one of the officials standing by slapped Jesus, saying, Is this the way you answer the high priest?

And this king of glory had the power to annihilate him.

But he answers like this If I have spoken wrongly, Jesus answered him.

Give evidence about the wrong, but if rightly, why do you hate me?

You know, there has never been a more righteous man convicted of more heinous sin than this.

And it is by God's decree.

And the servant is obedient, and he obediently submitted himself in all this humiliation, and he says in the seventh verse of Isaiah 50, the Lord God will help me, therefore, I have not been humiliated.

Therefore, I have set my face like flint, and I knew I will not be put to shame because he was about fulfilling his father's purpose.

And by condemning him, they thought they condemned him.

And in Matthew 24 to 27, 24 through 26, we read, when Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, and he washes his hands, says, I am innocent of this man's blood.

See to it yourselves.

And then the people answered, His blood be on us and on our children.

They pronounced condemnation on themselves.

In Isaiah 53, he says, Yet he himself bore our sickness and carried our pains.

And we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted, but he was pierced because of our rebellion.

We all went astray like sheep.

We all have turned to our own way, and God the Lord has punished him for our iniquity, iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted and did not open his mouth like a lamb led to the slaughter, and like a sheep silent before his shearers, he did not open his mouth.

He was taken away because of oppression and judgment.

And who considers his who considered his fate?

For he was cut off from the land of the living.

And in tenth verse it says, Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely.

In this trial, as the righteous one was rejected.

What do we do with Christ?

There is no middle ground, there is no neutrality.

You either are with him or against him, or you are either by his side or in the crowd shouting for his crucifixion.

You need to answer that question because this is the most important question we will anybody will ever answer in their lifetime.

Our eternal destiny depends on how we answer this question.

Do I receive him or do I reject him?

By rejecting him, they have pronounced divine judgment on themselves.

They said, His blood be on us and on our children.

Further, we need to ask this: if we reject him, why do we reject him?

Take a moment to think about how the culture we live in responds to the law of Almighty God.

Are willing to embrace sexual chastity and purity?

Or do we revolt body and soul against the prohibition against this sin?

We live in a world where people cannot express themselves without blaspheming the name of God or Christ.

And the expressions of this reality were seen last week at the opening ceremony of Olympics.

Christ stands as the supreme obstacle to our sin, to your sin, because he has delivered us from its power.

And all this exercise and all the courtroom drama that took place and all that it is yet that all that is yet to come is because of this awesome deliverance in Christ Jesus.

If you receive him, you must own up to our sin and you must fall on your face in repentance.

You must beg for the forgiveness of God for the way you have violated his law.

But if we can reject Jesus and reject the one who sent him, we have no hiding place.

It is appointed for man wants to die and then the judgment.

God has appointed the day by which he will judge the world through the one he has appointed judge, whom he has vindicated by the power of resurrection on that day, Jesus will be either your judge or your advocate.

Because if you reject him now, he rejects you then.

Amen.