Christ or Barabbas? (Russ Jensen, 03/16/24)

It was a week before the great crucifixion weekend.

Friday, Jesus made his way to the suburban town of Bethany on the outskirts of Jerusalem

for the very last time.

Lazarus, Mary, Martha, doubtlessly waiting at the door anticipating his arrival.

That was Friday.

The next day was a big day.

In fact, Martha had been busy all day already on Friday getting ready for Sabbath because

Sabbath was going to be dinner at Simon's house.

And of course, Mary had been preparing also.

It was on that Sabbath evening for dinner that Mary broke open that alabaster bottle

and the fragrance told everybody what she was doing.

Sunday morning came.

Jesus relaxed a little bit.

Later in the day, mid afternoon, late afternoon, even, he decided to make his way towards Jerusalem.

The day was getting late, but it was also a day with planning and preparation because

he had told his disciples, go to this certain house and you will find a young colt there.

Tell the owner that I have need of it.

He rode into Jerusalem.

He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.

We call that the triumphal entry.

That was late in the day on Sunday.

After spending the night again with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, no doubt in Bethany,

he made his way back to the temple.

Monday morning, what he saw in the temple was not pleasing to him.

In fact, the money changers there reacted in such a fashion that they were terrorized

and fled in fear.

And later the scriptures say that the children came and sat at Jesus' feet.

Wow, what an experience.

Interesting that day, that Monday, at the temple in Jerusalem.

Please turn in your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 21.

Matthew 21 · chapter mention

We want to look at Matthew chapter 21 and look at verse 13.

Matthew 21 · chapter mention

Matthew 21, verse 13, the Bible says, and he said unto them, it is written, my house

Matthew 21:13

shall be called what?

A house of prayer, but you have made it into a den of thieves.

My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it into a den of thieves.

Jesus was displeased.

And at the end of that day, Monday of the Passion Week, he left the temple and made

his way back to where he spent the nights, typically in Bethany.

But the next day found him back at the temple.

In fact, that next day when he was back at the temple, we go through Matthew 21, we go

through Matthew 22, we go through Matthew 23.

Jesus is doing a lot of teaching there in the temple.

So previously, the day before, he had left the temple saying, this was my house, but

something changed in the 24 hours that ensued.

Because now when we look at our next passage in Matthew 23, verse 38, we find that something

Matthew 23:38

has radically changed.

Jesus said, see, your house is left to you desolate.

What did he just say?

Jesus had gone from my house to your house.

And then he left saying, I'm leaving it to you desolate.

This is a significant transition.

That is the end of chapter 23.

Notice what it says, the first verse of chapter 24.

Chapter 24, the first verse, then Jesus went out and departed from the temple and his disciples

came up to show him the buildings of the temple.

What did Jesus do?

He went out and departed, the Bible says.

Did you catch the word?

He went out and departed from where?

From the temple.

We had gone from my house to your house to departing.

In fact, what's interesting here is that Jesus will never go into the temple again.

That was his last time.

He has now left, as we say, for good.

That's Tuesday night.

Well, we know Thursday is the Lord's Supper.

We know Friday is the crucifixion and the weekend proceeds.

But we want to camp ourselves.

We want to park.

We want to stay for a while on Tuesday because when Jesus departed from the temple, he went

out from the temple.

That phrase is only used here in all of the New Testament.

It's significant.

He went out.

He departed down the Kidron Valley.

The temple is on Mount Zion.

It's a bit of a rise.

It's a bit of a hill.

Not the most significant hill around, but it is.

Down into the Kidron Valley, maybe 100 feet descending down into the valley.

When he gets down to the bottom of the valley, there's a garden there that he and his disciples

would frequently go to.

In fact, if they weren't down in Bethany spending the night, they were at this garden spending

the night.

And that was the garden of Gethsemane.

But he didn't stop in Gethsemane.

This was Tuesday.

He would be back.

He would be back in two more days for a Gethsemane experience.

But not tonight.

Tonight, as the evening is wearing on and the sun is getting low in the sky, Jesus is

going up the other side of the valley.

He's down from Mount Zion.

He's into the Kidron Valley going through the garden and he's starting to go up the

other side, which is a higher, taller, greater ascent than his descent coming down in.

He may come 100 feet down, but he's going to go about 300 feet up.

Maybe 400 feet up.

By the time he gets up to the Mount of what?

Olives.

Then he can look back on the Temple Mount and he's a tad bit higher than the Temple

Mount.

And it's a wonderful vista.

It's a panoramic view of the glory of Israel.

There we are.

Matthew chapter 24.

Matthew 24 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 24.

Matthew 24 · chapter mention

The Bible said in verse one that he went out, departed from the temple, and as they got

up the Mount of Olives, his disciples came and showed him.

What does that mean?

That means they were pointing their fingers and saying, look back over there.

Imagine the sun becoming low in the sky.

Imagine the light of the sun beginning to reflect on the beautiful temple structure.

Wow.

Jesus, Jesus, look over there.

The glory of Israel.

Nothing as we go to verse two.

As we go to verse two, the focus is the same.

Notice in your Bibles, Matthew 24 verse two, and Jesus said to them, do you see all of

these things?

Well, exactly what are these things he's talking about?

He's talking about the temple and Mount Zion.

They said, we want to show you that.

He says, do you see it?

It's one thing to be shown something.

It's another thing to actually see it.

Because seeing is going to involve more detail and more insight and more understanding.

Disciples are focused on the temple.

Jesus is focused on the temple.

It's very clear.

But remember, even though they're focused on the temple, remember what we just read

moments ago in Matthew 23, 38, the Bible said that he not only departed from the temple,

but he left it desolate.

Don't miss the wording.

He left it desolate.

And so now we're coming back here from a desolate temple back to Matthew 24 verse two, and we

find something additional that is added to the picture.

Jesus said to them, do you see these things?

Assuredly, I say to you, reading the New King James Version today, assuredly, I say to you,

not one what?

Not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be what?

Thrown down.

Oh, interesting, interesting, interesting.

I want you to notice now there is a progression.

Don't miss it.

We've gone from my temple to your temple to a departed temple to a desolate temple to

a thrown down temple.

Do you see what's happening?

And all of this happening within 24 hours.

He walked in saying, you're making my house a den of thieves?

And the next day, it's not my house anymore.

It's your house.

And he at this time has departed.

It has become desolate.

The presence of God will no longer abide at that place.

In fact, it will be destroyed.

It'll be thrown down.

Verse three, Matthew 24 verse three, keep looking in your Bibles.

We're progressing through the word of God today.

Now as he sat on the mount of all of his disciples came to him how?

Privately the Bible says came to him privately saying, tell us when will these things be?

Well we have the phrase these things just previously and the these things in verse two

referred to the temple.

But Jesus had made an interesting progression now that was fascinating.

In fact, disturbing the minds and the hearts of his disciples when they come to him privately.

It's like we want the inside information now.

We want the inside scoop.

We want to be able to understand what you might not be teaching to everybody, but but

we're the inside circle.

Tell us now.

When are these things going to be?

They've gone from mine to yours to desk to departed to desolate and now they're hearing

thrown down.

Cause for concern.

They are concerned.

When are these things going to be?

And then they go on and say in verse three, and what will be the sign of your and the

end of the.

Of course, the sign of your coming at the end of the age are kind of one issue.

We can look back and retrospect on this experience and we can separate all these things out.

But in the minds of the disciples, when the temple was destroyed, that was it.

It's over with.

Jesus might as well be coming back then the world might as well just shrivel up and and

blow away because it's all done.

In their minds, the destruction of the temple would be the terminus point.

That would be the finality.

Of any God Earth relationship.

Wow.

And that takes us right to verse four, doesn't it?

Our scripture reading today.

And Jesus answered and said into them, take heed that no one deceive you.

What does take heed mean?

Take heed, pay attention, be diligent.

The disciples are saying, tell us these things.

Tell us these things about the destruction of the temple, about the coming, about the

end of the age.

Chapter 24 verse four, he says, take heed because take heed is an alert point.

Don't miss it.

And it's interesting how Jesus starts here.

Take heed, don't miss it.

Before he gives any details, before he gives any teachings, before he gives the signs of

the event, because there's always signs before the event, God does nothing but he reveals

to his servants, the prophets, there's always an advance warning something's going to happen.

They anticipate this before the details.

What does this tell us?

If he's saying, watch out, we can only conclude that what we think is going to happen is not

going to happen.

What else is there to say?

Nobody tells somebody to watch out if everything's going to be fine.

And you're not going to be somehow caught off guard or surprised or even deceived, to

use the word of Jesus.

May I even say that even those of us that study Bible prophecy would do well to bow

our heads in a moment of thoughtful consideration lest we be deceived.

Verse five, for how many?

Many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many.

So many are going to come and many are going to deceive.

That's plural.

Well remember, we're talking about destruction of Jerusalem, second coming, end of age.

We're talking about multiple events.

Disciples maybe didn't perceive it that way, but we know retrospectively looking back,

it is that way.

Lots of time has gone by.

Keep in mind that there's always one truth, but there's not just one error.

There's always one truth, but there's not just one error.

Satan capitalizes on a method of bringing multiple options for you, which are multiple

errors.

And you'll grab this group of people with this and this group of people with this and

that group of people with the other thing when there's only one truth.

All roads don't lead to Rome.

There's only one way to be saved, and that's through Jesus Christ.

So the very first sign that Jesus presents here in scripture, the very first sign is

false Christs.

But wait a minute.

Usually when we're doing our presentations on last day events, we're jumping down there

to verse six and verse seven and verse eight.

We have wars and rumors of wars.

We have famines and pestilence and earthquakes, and they're going to be increasing like labor

pains.

That means getting more and more with greater and greater intensity.

How come we just pass over this false Christ thing when that's the very first thing he

mentioned?

Hmm.

We don't want to negate and put down and sideline or marginalize the wars and rumors of wars

and the famines and the pestilence and all this kind of stuff.

It's true.

We are living in a world where there are wars that are politically generated, which are

causing great refugee issues.

We can just start naming the countries of the world.

All we have to do is travel a little bit south in our own country.

We see issues of refugees and migrants because life is not good where people are.

And they think if I can just go somewhere else, the grass is certainly greener over

on the other side.

And in some cases, it's true.

I've been blessed with traveling much of the world.

The grass is pretty green around here in many ways.

Famines.

Famines.

Environmental issues.

We can't deny that the Bible teaches if there's famines.

Where do famines come from?

There's something in the climate.

Did I just use the word climate?

There's something in the word climate that's not working right anymore.

Is that true?

Is that true?

Now let's be careful that if we deny climate change, we may be following a popular 2024

narrative, but we're not following the Matthew 24 narrative.

The Matthew 24 narrative says there is climate change.

It's in the Bible.

Earthquakes.

Famines.

Where do they come from?

Something's not working right anymore.

Pestilence.

Yeah.

Three years ago, we had pestilence go all over the place.

What is pestilence?

This is a pandemic illness.

And we say the word pandemic because that means it's in grand proportions, both in severity

and in scope of where it's at.

These are biblical.

If we're denying these things, we're not in tune with what the scripture is saying is

happening at the end of time.

It's there.

So we have wars and rumors of wars.

We have pestilence.

We have famines.

We have earthquakes.

We have all this.

But interestingly enough, Jesus first mentions false Christ.

The issue is not a geographic issue or a climate issue or a health issue.

False Christ is clearly a religious implication issue.

Are we following today?

The disciples' very first question, when is the temple going to be destroyed?

Jesus' very first answer is that false Christ will come.

He's not saying that the...

Okay, almost a slip.

That the Romans are going to be invaded.

He's not saying, now watch out when General Titus comes to surround Jerusalem.

That's not what he says.

He says watch out for the false Christ.

Does he know that Roman armies are going to come?

Yeah, he does.

But that's not the first thing to watch for.

Does he know that people are going to be starving to death in Jerusalem?

Yeah, but that's not the first thing to watch for.

We have clues then and we have clues now.

Dear friends, where we're going today is that what happened with Jerusalem in ancient times

could be a type of where we are today in 2024.

Could be a type.

It's only as we look back on prophecy that we get total clarity and we can't look very

far back on what's happening right now yet.

But we are in 2024 and it's a hinge year.

Trust me, 2024 is a hinge year.

Much is turning on this year.

There's a lot of stuff happening around the world.

A lot of stuff happening.

This first thing, watch out for false Christ.

So let's take a slice of history.

Let's take that slice of history when Jesus was alive.

Let's look at the particular closing scenes right around his passion week.

The week we're talking about in scripture.

There is a true Christ and there is a false Christ.

There will be both at the very same time, Jesus is saying.

Because if they weren't happening simultaneously, if they weren't synchronized, then there will

be no deception.

They're going to be happening together.

That's what the deception is all about.

So God never does anything without Satan giving a counterfeit or multiple counterfeits.

So in the context of Matthew 24, we have the destruction of the temple that Jesus and his

disciples have been talking about.

And the destruction or the saving of the temple, depending on which Messiah the Jewish leaders

would accept.

It's that clear.

The temple is going down and the temple is not going down, depending on which Christ

you choose.

It's that simple.

So here we are, Matthew 27.

The true Messiah, that's not hard for us as believers here in this sanctuary today to

come down on, probably on the right side.

I don't think there's any problem with us agreeing on that.

Matthew 27 verse 11, the Bible tells us very plainly and very clearly, now Jesus stood

Matthew 27:11

before the governor, that would be Pilate, and Pilate asked him saying, are you the king

of the Jews?

Basically, are you the Messiah?

Are you the long anticipated one?

Keep in mind, this is Friday.

What had just happened on Sunday as Jesus was riding on the donkey and the palm branches

were waving and the goats were being laid down, Hosanna to the who?

Oh, oh, oh, and David was just a shepherd?

Uh-uh.

David was the king.

Oh, so Pilate is saying, are you the king?

What we're looking for here is political intent.

You understand?

Pilate doesn't care about David being a shepherd when he cares about someone in the lineage

of David.

Does Jesus qualify for Dimash?

He's concerned about something coming in the lineage of David, who then is going to upset

the political equilibrium that's happening in Jerusalem at the time.

That's what the concern is.

And Jesus replied, have we finished the verse?

We haven't.

What were we at?

Verse 11, and Jesus said to him, it is as you said.

There you go.

You said it, man.

You said it.

It's me.

Jesus didn't always identify who he was, but in this context with Pilate, he does it.

So now we see Jesus claiming to be the king of the Jews.

So we have the true Christ.

So how about a false one?

Chapter 27, we're there in 27.

Let's look to verse 15.

Chapter 27, verse 15 to 17.

Now at the feast, the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one prisoner

whom they wished.

And at that time, they had a notorious prisoner called who?

Barabbas.

Therefore, when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, whom do you want me to

release to you, Barabbas or Jesus who is called Christ?

There's the question.

There's the question.

Barabbas or Jesus who is called Christ?

So we have identified Jesus is the true Christ.

Now we want to unpack the information to see whether Barabbas would qualify as a what?

As a false Christ.

Let's look a little more of the context.

Verse 20, chapter 27, verse 20.

And the chief priests and the elders persuaded the multitudes.

Let's just stop right there.

What's going on?

We have somebody getting in someone else's mind.

We have somebody speaking a narrative that a lot of people are beginning to believe.

Hmm, sound a little bit familiar.

Speaking narratives that lots of people begin to believe.

The leaders are persuading the multitudes.

Don't miss this.

They are not being stirred on their own because these very same people on Sunday, previous

to Friday, were waving palm branches saying, Hosanna to the son of David.

And now they're saying quite the opposite because somebody has redirected their focus

because deception is not that hard to pull off.

Ask God about one third of his folk up there and how they decided to do something different.

Deception, ask our forefathers, Adam and Eve.

Satan got 100% of them.

Deception is powerful, dear friends.

It is absolutely powerful.

So here we have which to release, Barabbas.

This is not just a choice of which guy is going to die today, which guy is going to

go up there on the cross.

It's not just like is Jesus dying, Jesus of Nazareth, or is Barabbas dying.

That's not the issue.

This is a turning point in Jewish history.

Which one they choose.

This is the true Christ versus the false Christ.

Wow.

So let's continue on.

Verse 16, let's notice here in verse 16, the Bible says in verse 16, we read that already,

Matthew 27, 16, and at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.

I have an interesting little number two right in the front of the word Barabbas in my Bible.

I didn't put it there.

The publishers put it there.

That refers me to the center column reference.

I don't know.

I don't know if you can find it in some of your Bibles.