Matthew Pt. 106 - The Blood of the King

Turn in your Bible to Matthew 27.

We've almost finished all of the mock trials that Jesus has been

walking through. Last week, Alan walked us

through Jesus before Pilate, the beginning of that.

Today we're going to finish that.

Pilate is sitting last week, ironically, on what was called

the judgment seat. There's a different judgment

seat, far above Pilate's judgment seat, and it actually

makes righteous judgments, unlike Pilate.

Pilate's wife sends word to him about Jesus.

This righteous man, she's saying, have nothing to do with

this man's death. Pilate wants out.

He knows that Jesus is innocent. Even this godless Pagan ruler

can see the injustice of what's going on here, but he fears the

pressure that he's experiencing from the Jews.

He says, what has he done? I find no guilt in this man.

He's essentially declaring him not guilty.

And they what should I do with him?

Let him be crucified. Why?

What evil has he done? But they shouted all the more,

let him be crucified. Then we're going to read from

verse 24. So when Pilate saw that he was

gaining nothing, but rather than a riot was beginning, he took

water and washed his hands before the crowd saying, I am

innocent of this man's blood. See to it yourselves.

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

children. Then he released for them

Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be

crucified. Then the soldiers of the

Governor took Jesus into the Governor's headquarters, and

they gathered the whole battalion before him.

And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and

twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head

and put a Reed in his right hand.

And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, Hail King of

the Jews. And they spit on him and took

the Reed and struck him on the head.

And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe

and put his own clothes on him, and led him away to crucify him.

Heavenly Father, help us to see the depth of our sin and the

greatness of your mercy. I pray that we would see both

and that we would be filled with love, that we would be filled

with fear, that we would be filled with more adoration for

the Lord Jesus, the perfect man, the God man, the one full of

love and grace and self-control and all power and all authority

who suffered for us, who bore the curse and all of our shame.

Jesus, we honor you, we love you, we need you.

Holy Spirit, open the eyes of our hearts to receive all that

you have intended for us to have today.

Make all of us humble, teachable, trainable, and

pliable only in your hands. In Jesus name, Lord, we trust

you and we thank you for it. Amen.

So Pilate here trying to get out of this difficult situation that

the Jews have put him in. He remembers that Rome has this

custom of releasing A prisoner to gain goodwill with the Jews.

So maybe somebody was arrested who maybe really shouldn't have

been. And the Jewish people are really

mad about it. So once a year at Passover

pilot, we go, hey, like, y'all are in the middle of a big

festival. They're like, this is a way to

gain goodwill with the people. Like, he hates them, They hate

him, but he's gone. I can do this thing.

So at once a year he comes, hey, which prisoner do you want?

They're like, we want Bob or we want whoever.

And he's like, all right, Bob's really.

Yeah, we got Bob back. And it just adds to the

celebration as to the festivities.

And of course, depending on what Bob has done, like Rome is still

keeping a close eye on this guy now that he's been released.

But he's thinking, wait a second, I have another card.

I have another trick that I can pull.

And of course, this thing falls apart.

He picks the probably the worst guy he has in custody because he

wants to make sure he's like, I'm going to make it impossible

for them to deny that I would release Jesus.

So let me get Barabbas. This guy's a murderer.

There's no way that they're going to pick him over Christ.

Surely they won't want him. He even frames it up.

He says, can I give you Barabbas or Jesus, who is called Christ?

He even puts Jesus's title in there to sway the crowd, but it

doesn't get him off the hook. Let him be crucified all the

more, they scream. Let him be crucified.

This is how a mob functions. Mobs have a demonic nature to

them. It gets carried away and there

is demonic influence. There's demonic influence all

over the world. There's, there, there, there are

demons all over the place. Roughly speaking, we're not

intimidated by them. We're not afraid of them, but we

should be aware of them. And in as Westerners, you know,

we're way too smart for that. We're way, we're way, we're way

too high highly educated to think that there's angels and

demons flying all around us all the time.

And in fact, we're very stupid to not recognize what the

Scripture tells us to be true. So demonic influence is a very

real thing. Satan, he hates you and he has

his his Kingdom. Satan is not omnipresent though.

Satan cannot be in in two places at one time.

So Satan as a demon spirit is in one place right now.

I don't know where he is, I have no idea.

I doubt personally, honestly, that Satan himself has ever

bothered with me personally. It's probably been hit.

Other demons. It's not really a relevant

point, Just wanted you to think clearly and understand how this

works. He does not have all power.

He's not the great rival to God. It's not a close fight.

It's not a fair fight. This is a created being who was

thrown out of heaven with a third of the angels who rebelled

against God and that we now refer to them as demons.

So this is what's going on in when a mob is functioning,

people give into the flesh. And as they continue to give

into the flesh, they're motivated by others.

And of course, demon spirits are a part of influencing this.

They will shoot arrows. They will, they will bring

thoughts into people's minds. And then as they gain more

jurisdiction, as more unrighteousness increases, well,

it becomes a compounding effect. And then you go, how did that

happen? How did a mob it was, if you

took those people out on their own, they might have been more

sensible. But in this mob setting, how did

everything spiral the way it did?

Well, it's a, it's a satanic thing that can take place.

And we've seen this in the news before.

You know, you've, you've seen the, you know, in the, the

protests that happened throughout our nation and things

that happened all throughout the earth, we see the same kind of

thing take place here multiple times in this passage.

We see it first with the mob screaming, crucify him, and then

we're going to see it with the soldiers, hundreds of soldiers

who have Jesus alone as they abuse him and mock him and

torment him. There's bloodlust in a mob,

there's fury, there's foaming, and there's the satanic

manifestation where people genuinely lose their minds as

they submit their minds to another spirit.

This is how satanic oppression works.

Satan comes to suggest, first of all, comes with a suggestion,

but he is looking for your toleration.

He doesn't need you to say I am a Satanist.

He knows that the majority of human beings on the earth will

never make any such vow, and yet he doesn't need any such vow.

The scripture says that we were all children of the devil and we

and that the devil is our father when we're outside of Christ.

I'm not some devil worshipper. The Bible didn't say that you

acknowledge that you were. The Bible just said that we

function that way. So outside of Christ, we follow

the Prince and the power of the air and he makes his suggestions

and then he just needs us to tolerate those suggestions.

He doesn't even need you to act on him the first time he makes

suggestions to you. He just needs you to be

tolerant. Who's against tolerance anyway?

What's wrong with tolerance? I should be tolerant of you.

You should be tolerant of me. And in the true, actual

definition of the word tolerance, Christians can give

two thumbs way up to tolerance. How I tolerate a lot of things

doesn't mean I prefer those things.

It doesn't mean I approve of those things.

But there are certain things that must be tolerated.

Something that must not be tolerated in your life, though,

are thoughts and suggestions that come from Satan, thoughts

and suggestions that come from the devil, thoughts and

suggestions that anything that would raise itself up against

the knowledge of God, anything that would be in opposition.

So you're like, did it come from a demon?

Did it not? It doesn't really matter whether

or not you know the exact origin.

The point is, does it agree with what God has to say?

And if so, that's the kind of thing that you have to

immediately evict. This is what the Bible talks

about when it says taking our thoughts captive.

You are in charge of your thought life.

I am in charge of my thought life.

You actually have things in your head and they are your

responsibility to meditate on or to get rid of.

By the way, we're all professionals at biblical

meditation. What I mean by that is the

meditation that Scripture describes is a chewing on a

handling, a considering over and over and over.

Everybody is excellent at meditation.

Everyone is, you know where I'm going with this.

You're already doing it all the time.

There are things that you meditate on all the time.

Yeah, but they're bad stuff. Yeah, I know it might be bad.

It might be good, but the point is, everybody knows how to.

I just don't know how to do it. Yeah, you do.

It's your brain. Yesterday, I had a Yesterday

morning, I heard Elijah Fayne sing a song lyric.

And then for, like the next 15 minutes, that song was stuck in

my head, stuck in my head, stuck in my head.

And I was walking past him. I was like, I got that song

stuck in my head and then I caught myself and I was like,

it's my head and I'm going to get it out now.

You know, I was saying it jokingly, but also seriously,

like I'll get this thing stuck in my head.

Well, whose head is it? Do you want it stuck in your

head? No, Then get it out.

Well, how did you get it out? I just stopped thinking about

it. Did it take effort?

Yes, it did, but I wanted to stop.

I wanted it out of my head. I just was like, I'm, I'm on a

loop here. Like this is annoying.

I don't want I don't want to keep doing.

It's your head. You're in charge of it.

Well, I just, I guess if God wanted me to have different

thoughts, I would have different thoughts.

No, that's your brain. And what you're thinking about

is what you're choosing to think about.

I don't want to think about it, though.

I get that. I can relate.

And yet my point is you've got to take your thoughts captive.

You've got to take them prisoner.

You got to grab them by the throat and say you will obey

Jesus or you'll get out. That's it.

Those are the kind of thoughts that we want.

Those are the kind of thoughts that we need.

And this is this is what Christian discipleship looks

like. This is a part of Christian

discipleship. A lot of times as believers, I'm

looking for the Holy Ghost ZAP of lightning.

Don't you love the Holy Ghost ZAP of lightning?

Don't you love the miraculous mercy of God?

When you're like, I got nothing to all I I got no effort, I got

no obedience. And the Lord in his sovereign

mercy gives you some kind of supernatural ZAP.

Well, what a blessing. What a kindness, what a

goodness. And yet that's not his normative

means of discipleship for you. His normative means of

discipleship for you are all the commands that he gives you,

where again he says you control your thoughts and you're

responsible for where you take those things.

All this was free holy. The Holy Spirit wanted, wanted

us to have this this morning. Wasn't it my intentions

originally? My original point was Satan just

needs you to tolerate a thought. He just needs you to be tolerant

of it. And this is how a stronghold is

built. I've given you this story

before. You've got this castle, it's

yours. And you've got all this

property. It's yours.

The fields and fields and fields.

And you can see, you can see for miles in every direction.

And one enemy, like literally one guy with a pitch work, he's

got the wrong colors on your kingdom's blue, this kingdom's

red. And he comes walking and he's

got the red outfit on. He's got his pitch work and he's

just walking around in the field and you're like, what is this

guy doing? This doesn't feel like a threat.

This doesn't seem to be like a big problem.

This doesn't seem to be a big deal.

So you tolerate him and you don't kill him.

Well, he's just one guy. Like it almost seems unfair

like, but he's but he's not in where he's supposed to be.

He's in your turf and he's in your jurisdiction.

And ultimately, in this Kingdom I described of yours, it's

actually not yours. It actually belongs to Jesus.

And Jesus is very possessive and very protective of his Kingdom.

If this guy wants to repent and join the Kingdom, that'd be one

thing. But this guy in this case

represents a thought. This guy represents a suggestion

from the enemy that you tolerate.

And ultimately he brings friends and you go.

They just got a few little tents out there.

We have a castle, but you continue to tolerate and you

continue to tolerate and Satan continues to normalize this idea

in your thought life until eventually something is built

out in your field, until eventually there's another

castle on your property. You gave permission with your

passivity and with your silence. And now there is what we call a

stronghold in your life. And you go, where did this come

from? How did this get here?

And if we would rewind the tape, you would find one little guy

with a pitchfork saying, hey, can I hang out?

And you said, I guess it's not going to hurt anything.

This is how strongholds are built in our lives.

Thankfully, these strongholds are destroyed through

repentance, confession, and renouncing these things in our

lives. Welcome to moments of surrender

as we describe them. That's what moments of surrender

are. Where the Lord said, hey, I'm

going to highlight something that you didn't even know was

there. Whoa.

The Holy Spirit put a light on this thing.

That part of the Kingdom was dark, and he shined the light.

And he said, how did that castle get there?

And he said, you let it get built, and you assisted in the

building of it. And now I'm asking you to tear

it down with a Wrecking Ball. And that's when we feel that

tendency in our flesh to be hesitant.

Oh, Lord. Yeah.

You almost like it now. You almost have preference for

it. You've gotten used to it.

You've become accustomed to it. This is how strongholds are

built in your life. This is this is Christian

discipleship. This is what it looks like to

actually take up your cross and to follow Jesus.

It's not the one time, OK, I turn from my sin, I'll

acknowledge that I'm a Sinner and now I want to try and walk

with Jesus. It is the I've been walking with

Jesus for 40 years and all the sudden he showed me something

new today and it hurt and it stung and it feels like death.

How does he keep finding ways for me to die?

I thought I already did this. I thought I died already Jesus.

And he goes, well, yes. And you are in a new creation.

And also there's an area of your mind, there's an area of your

soul where I still don't have full dominion.

And I want full dominion because it's mine and because I love you

and because also this is best for you.

It's not a win for Jesus and a loss for us.

It's a win win. What's good for the groom is

good for the bride. So this is what it looks like to

take control of our thoughts and to begin to renounce things.

We do that with our mouths. I want you to not just think

about out thinking your thoughts.

I want you to get in the habit of speaking to your thoughts.

Just like Grace is going to say when temptation comes, she's not

going to go. She's not just going to have

this internal warfare. She's going to go.

I'm not a smoker. I'm not a smoker.

The Lord called me to be free, and now I'm free.

That'll be a good confession for her.

She's actually answering the accusation instead of remaining

silent as the enemy harasses her.

The same thing should happen for you and I when we're tempted

with any sin. It's a good confession.

It's a biblical confession. I died to sin.

How could I live in it any longer?

Say what the word of God says. I have a Good Shepherd I shall

not want. He makes me lie down in green

pastures. This is a good confession.

This is good Christian discipleship.

This is what your life should look like.

If your mouth is not moving, if you're not declaring the

promises of God, and if you're not actually fighting, you're

just trying to out think your thoughts, that's way too

difficult. You want to actually bring your

mouth into the place where everyone can hear you.

Heaven and earth can hear you. Satan can't read your mind, but

he can read your actions and he can read your inactions, so he

might know. Oh, I know that arrow just

landed. See what happens?

Nothing interesting. I know that I can shoot these

arrows and there's no retaliation.

I know I can shoot another arrow at him.

I can shoot another arrow at her.

She's just taking it. Whatever I throw at her, she

just takes it. Not so Christian woman.

Not so Christian, man. You don't just sit down and take

it when you feel those thoughts, when you feel those temptations,

when you feel this, you need to get active and you need to show

the enemy. Oh no, you don't devil.

And he's like, he's answering me.

You should talk to the devil. Your pastor is telling you that

you should talk to the devil. You should talk to the demonic

with the authority of Christ and run them off like stray dogs.

And you should not be surprised though, when they try to return

because that's what stray dogs do.

They continue to try and come back.

This is where other believers lose the fight.

They fight the the good fight for a moment and the stray dogs

run off and they go, victory is mine.

And then a day later, stray dogs are back and they go, Oh no, my

brother in Christ, my sister in Christ, continue to kick the

stray dogs in the ribs over and over and over.

This is how we walk out the our authority.

This is what it looks like to fight the good fight of faith.

Jesus has already conquered your enemies, and yet you are

responsible for continuing to establish what he has already

done in your life. All right, let's get into this

sermon, shall we? Pilot saw that he was gaining

nothing, but rather than a riot was beginning, he took water and

washed his hands before the crowd, saying I'm innocent of

this man's blood. See to it yourselves.

Pilot realizes he's accomplishing nothing and the

Jews are escalating, so he wants to cave.

He wants to step aside, not because Pilot is some

compassionate man, but because he recognizes the injustice of

what's going on. He sees that he's gaining

nothing. Now the riot is starting to stir

up. The mob is agitated.

He can see they're going to create a huge disturbance if

they don't get their way. This is how manipulators

function. I I told you what I wanted, and

you didn't do what I wanted. Now I'm going to escalate my

emotional intensity. You have done this.

Let me let me stop talking about vague manipulators out in the

world. You know people.

You know your brother-in-law. No, no, no.

You've done this. I want to hit every set of

eyeballs. You've done this, Duh.

It's called flesh. And whenever our flesh is

riling, riling up and and you don't go with what I want and do

with what I want, I've got the temptation now.

Well, let me just escalate with some emotional heat and let me

show you that I'm willing to become more emotionally

outrageous than you and therefore I can like walk in

victory over you. I haven't fought for the truth.

I fought for what I wanted. And this is a dangerous thing.

This is another thing that cannot be present as a Christian

grows in Christ. This is another thing that has

to continue to be squashed more and more and more in the

believers life because what the believer should be after,

whenever there's conflict or disagreement with anyone,

someone that you love, it should be everyone, a friend, a foe, an

enemy. Whatever is happening in

Christian conflict or in conflict with a Christian, the

Christian should always be seeking the truth.

The Christian should always be saying I want the truth to go

into the middle of the room and then I will align myself

properly to the truth. But what immature people do, and

even immature Christians do, is they won't just argue from their

preference and from their desire and from their selfishness and

from their flesh. They don't want the truth to be

put in the middle. But hang on, hang on, hang on.

They don't want to take turns with speaking.

They don't want to let somebody walk back what they you said

this. Well, what I meant was it

doesn't matter what you meant. It matters what you said.

And I'm going to hold you to it forever and ever.

Hang on, hang on. Let's be gracious.

Let's be patient with one another in communication.

What are you describing? Pastors?

Michael, are these high level tactics?

Yeah, I invented them. They're called Lovejoy.

Peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness, self-control. All we're talking about is the

fruit of the spirit. In marriage discipleship, we

need fruit of the spirit and parenting discipleship, we need

fruit of the spirit. In any relational exchange.

We just need the fruit of the spirit.

That's all we're talking about here.

To be patient, to be kind, to be fair, to be gracious.

So manipulators, though, I'll just stir up and I'll just, and

I'll just pressure you with emotional heat.

I'll show you how angry I am. You're like, I better do what

Joe Michael wants because I don't know how far he's willing

to escalate. You know what?

Let me challenge him one more time.

No, Joe Michael, man, Joe Michael went from category one

hurricane to category 2 hurricane to category.

He's willing to escalate infinitely.

I better do what he wants because he's going to win.

Like he's just, he's showing me with his anger, with his rage,

with his whatever, whatever it looks like, with his cold

shouldering, with his passive aggression.

Joe Michael is going to, like control this situation.

I have no choice except to submit to it, but that is always

a lie as well. You always have a choice when

you're being manipulated and when you are the manipulator.

Pilot here is being manipulated and Pilot chooses the way the

coward. My hands are tied.

No, they're not. You're the governor.

You have all authority, so he thinks anyway, in this situation

you can do what you believe is right.

You do not have the conviction to do what is right because you

believe you will suffer. That is what your greatest

conviction is. Your greatest conviction, Pilot,

is to avoid suffering. Instead of so you align yourself

to the truth. Pilot should align himself to

the truth and say this is the truth.

This is what I'll align myself to.

But instead he's thinking about, he's thinking about Caesar.

He's thinking about reports of a, of an uprising come up.

You had an uprising happen during Passover.

These people are supposed to be having a good time.

They're supposed to be happy now.

And you couldn't deal with one little ride and 1 little rabbi.

The pilot's thinking about himself.

He's protecting himself. The mob, of course.

They want what the mob wants. So they escalate.

Category one. Hurricane pilot, we want you to

kill this guy. No, I don't really think so.

Category 2, They're recruiting more and more people.

Hey, call for Barabbas, Not for Jesus.

Call for Barabbas. Not for Barabbas is a real hero.

He actually killed some Romans. He'll lead us in a real

revolution. Not like Jesus, a real

revolutionary, a real leader like Barabbas.

Somebody could actually get something done around here, call

for Barabbas freedom. They're willing to escalate.

What's the solution to all this? How do I get out of this trap of

being the manipulator or being the manipulated?

You fear God, That's the solution, actually fearing God.

Because if you fear God, you will not be a manipulator

because you'll be afraid of God and you'll go, this is some

wicked dirty flesh that I am turning loose on this person or

on these people right now. And it should put the fear of

God in you. And if it doesn't, God help you.

And what about I'm being manipulated?

This person, this people group, this pressure, this social

situation is pressing me to make this decision.

I'm going to suffer if I don't do what they want.

But you fear God and that also sets you free to walk in the

truth. The fear of the Lord is the

beginning of wisdom. It's the starting point.

How do I, how do I? But what about them?

But what about God? When you fear God more than you

fear people, your, your, your decisions become simple.

Does that mean I won't suffer? Pastor?

Nobody said anything about you not suffering.

Nobody said anything about you not suffering.

Jesus invited you to suffering. You said yes.

For those of you who are following Christ.

I said yes. So suffering should not be a

foreign concept for the believer.

Suffering for righteousness, Righteousness sake in particular

should be the suffering that we should expect as believers.

These men are supposedly the leaders of Israel.

They think they have holiness and they think they have high

standards. Yet look at what they're capable

of. Blind rage, wickedness, and

murder because of jealousy. So Pilate does what cowards do

when they will not stand on principle.

He pretends that he's been forced.

My hands are tied. But no one forced him into sin.

There are consequences, emotional terrorists and

political terrorists. They may bring consequences to

you. But Pilot chooses himself over

righteousness. That's the issue.

Pilot then washes him, his hands to comfort himself because he

knows he should not do this. He tells himself, what choice do

I have? What he really means is, though,

if I do the right thing, I'll suffer.

As we always tell ourselves when we're cowardly, we say, what

choice did I have? You always had a choice.

You could have done this. Well then.

Then you would have suffered. Your true conviction has been

revealed. It was the suffering you were

avoiding. You weren't.

You don't love righteousness. You love yourself and your

comfort. I get it.

I've been there. But let's be honest about what's

happening here. How terrible for a Christian to

think this way. Of course you may suffer if you

do what is right. Satan is the God of this world

and this world system is broken and upside down.

Anyone who desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will

be persecuted. This is where you get to be like

Jesus though. This is where you get to join

him in his suffering. The apostles, the first time

they take a beating, they threatened them.

They said stop preaching in Jesus name.

They're like, Nah, we're not going on.

They're like, seriously stop. Like no, we're not going on.

They're like you must. And they said judge for

yourselves, whether it's right for us to obey you or God.

They didn't say we have to stop or they'll beat us.

They said we're going to align ourselves to the truth and come

what may. And then after they were beaten,

it said they let they, it said they beat them and really like

they're the most frustrating people they've ever beaten

because they're beating them. And they were thankful.

It says as they left, they went away rejoicing because they were

counted worthy to suffer for the name.

Thank God that's what they were saying.

Why? Because they actually believe

Jesus when he said, blessed are you when all men hate you

because of me. So they thought everybody hates

us and it's clearly because of Jesus.

And they went away rejoicing with their bloody bodies and

their and their wounds and the traumatic injuries that they

experienced. They said, wow, we got to suffer

like Jesus a little bit. We were counted worthy to suffer

for the name. It's almost like these people

understood eternity instead of the the moment, the 80, the

hundred, a hundred. And what if you live crazy long?

What if you lived 150? It's still a small window.

And they had the big picture of what was really happening and

what was really going on. Therefore, since we are

surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, Hebrews 12/1, let

us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely,

and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

Looking to Jesus, the Founder and Perfector of our faith, who

for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising

the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against

Himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted and

your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted the point

of shedding your blood. So we do resist sin, we do

suffer, but most of us and the the believers that are being

written to here, they hadn't yet suffered to the point of

shedding blood. First Peter 3 verse 13, Peter

1 Peter 3:13

says now who is there to harm you if you're a zealous for what

is good? He's implying if you do what's

right, nothing's going to happen to you.

But he continues, but even if you should suffer for

righteousness sake, you will be blessed.

Have No Fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts

honor Christ. The Lord is holy, always being

prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a

reason, for the hope that is in you.

Yet do it with gentleness and respect.

You're guaranteed to suffer if you do evil.

If we do evil, we're guaranteed to suffer, because what we sow

we will reap. You may suffer for doing right,

but if you do, praise God that you were counted worthy to

suffer for the name of Jesus. This is what Pilot lacks, the

fear of the Lord. And this is what the fear of the

Lord looks like. Pilate says I might suffer if I

do the right thing. So instead I'll do an evil

thing. But I'll wash my hands while I

condemn an innocent man to death.

Do not pity Pilate here. Instead, inspect yourself.

It's too late for Pilate. It's not too late for you.

Pilate made the choice that we all make when we're cowardly.

Instead of worshipping Christ, he condemned him.

We do the same thing when we fear and when we compromise.

This could look like a lot of things.

If I pay all my taxes, I won't have enough money.

If I apologize for for the wrong that I had in that conversation,

they might not apologize for theirs.

They might think I'm always wrong.

If I do right, I might get met with wrong.

There are a million ways we can justify not walking in holiness

because our eyes are not on God. Pilate says I'm innocent, but

that was a lie, wasn't it? He's not innocent.

He's the one that everybody's looking to saying can we, can

we, can we? And he's like, he didn't, he

made sure to not say crucify Jesus and said he said, yeah,

y'all see to it and handle it, but I'm washing my hands of

this. Who does he want?

Who does who? Who is he trying to clear his

conscience before they don't care?

His men don't care. I think Pilate actually had some

sense of what was going on and he's gone.

In case this Jesus is who he seems to be.

Let me, let me wash my hands before God.

This is a weird justification that people do around sin.

We get really clever and we get into some gymnastics with our

sin instead of inviting the Lord deeper into our fear in our

prayer time. We excuse the fear is what I was

referencing earlier in your prayer.

You need to go a layer deeper than you think you need to go.

God, please help me to not do the bad thing.

Good start. Keep going.

Actually talk to the Lord about the thing going on inside of

you. Actually bring the clarity all

the way up. This is where the Lord can

actually minister. This is where the Lord actually

sees that you're actually surrendered.

This is where you bring yourself into surrender in prayer.

I typically don't start there in prayer.

I don't know, maybe y'all are super spiritual and your prayers

are like fire from the moment you begin.

But most of the time I start shallow and I have to continue

to wade deeper into the pool. But if I just get my feet in and

go, I didn't experience the cleansing that I needed.

I didn't experience the the fellowship and the closeness of

the Lord that I needed. I didn't hear his voice.

I didn't have any sensations or direction.

I'm just going, God, please help.

I think we've all probably prayed.

God, please help. And it was and it was a powerful

prayer at times. I think you understand I'm

talking about something different here.

I'm talking about the excavation of things that are in our souls

that we quietly let live there. We're like, I'm not going to go

there and Louis going, I want to go there.

I want to go there. Can I please have that?

Will you please give me that? Will you please surrender that?

Pray real pray earnestly. That is where the Lord can do

surgery. In the book of Acts, it says

that James was beheaded. Pastor James of Jerusalem gets

his head cut off and then Peter is arrested because Herod saw

that it pleased the Jews. So he's saying, all right, well,

I'll do the same thing with Peter.

And Peter is in there for a for a while and then he's getting

ready to be killed, it says. But the church prayed earnestly.

So apparently there's a difference between earnest

prayer and non earnest prayer, right?

Again, how do you know? Is it real?

That's how. Don't, don't.

It's not about setting your stopwatch.

It's about are you being real or are you being fake?

Do you have on a mask? Are you hiding?

Are you protecting? Are you guarding things or are

you actually letting the Lord go in and do some excavation?

But the Lord, the church prayed earnestly.

How nice for Peter James is in heaven.

Like thanks guys. Like be like me getting my head

cut off and you're like, let's pray earnestly for Alan though,

so nothing happens. Like appreciate it.

Everybody good looking out. They prayed earnestly.

They saw the stakes. They understood what was

happening and the Lord supernaturally delivered Peter.

He sent angels and delivered him from the prison.

Verse 25 after he said, I'm innocent of this man's blood.

See to it yourselves. And all the people answered his

blood be on us and on our children.

They want to let Pilot off the hook.

Pilots essentially saying, guys, I want to be innocent of this.

And they're saying no problem, dude, we got you.

Hey, it's all on us. It's all on us, Pilot.

That's what's happening here. Pilot.

It's not you, it's us, which again is a lie.

They're trying to be helpful because they want what they

want, but it's all a lie. Pilate is appealing, I think, to

God to see the record. Look, I tried, but he did not

judge rightly. He's a wicked ruler who made a

wicked judgement. The people, in their jealousy

and rage, they call curses onto themselves and onto their

children. His blood be on us and on our

children. We want to be guilty of the

blood of Christ. They say it with eagerness and

with joy. They're happily guilty of His

blood being spilled. We are guilty of His blood being

spilled as well, but disciples of Christ mourn that our sin

made His blood necessary. They weren't mourning that His

blood spilled was was, was needed that day.

They were excited about it. Here's the irony.

We actually want the blood of Jesus on us and on our children,

but not in the way that they meant it.

We want His blood applied to the doorposts of our hearts so that

the death Angel passes over us because we've got the Passover

lamb on us. What they invoked in anger.

His blood be on us and on our children.

God sovereignly fulfills that day in grace, just like Caiaphas

when he prophesied earlier in the year that Jesus will die for

the nation. One man needs to die for the

whole nation. Caiaphas thought it would.

It would apply in one way he thought prophecy.

It was so clear Jesus died for the nation.

Will will sacrifice this one guy so the room doesn't hurt us and

Jesus will sack. It's better for one man to die

for the nation. Caiaphas, you're absolutely

right and you have no idea what you're talking about.

At the same time, Jesus will die, but not just for the

nation, for the whole world. And this is the same thing.

His blood be on us and on our children.

And it is, but not in the way that you want, but it can be,

because whoever comes to Christ in repentance is covered by the

blood of Jesus. This is literally the Passover

day and the Passover lamb is being prepared and they're

saying His blood be on us and on our children.

That's how they were protected. The head of every household, the

the father of every household, the husband of each household

would would take the lamb and he would cover the doorposts and

his first born son would be spared because of it.

The blood covered his family and the blood protected them all.

We want the same thing verse 26. Then he released for them

Barabbas and having scourged Jesus delivered him to be

crucified. Barabbas was released.

The people wanted what they thought was a real revolutionary

because Barabbas was a murderer we know willing to kill to

accomplish the mission. Most likely an enemy of Rome,

most likely a a local hero to some degree to the Jewish

people, though not sanctioned by them.

Meanwhile, the Son of God is willing to suffer and die to

accomplish his mission. Jesus didn't come to murder

anyone like Barabbas did. Jesus came to die for everyone.

Barabbas shows us ourselves a guilty prisoner who did things

his own way, broke God's laws, and was awaiting death.

But Jesus trades places with him.

What a tragedy that Barabbas probably trampled on the grace

of Jesus and remained unchanged and probably lost.

We have no record of what happened with Barabbas after

this day. So he probably just goes I

cannot believe my luck and he walks free, but still not free.

You don't have to be lost like Barabbas was.

All your sin was judged in Jesus.

All your sin was condemned in Jesus, in Jesus, and there is

therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ

Jesus. And if you're not in Christ, I

pray that you will come to him today in repentance and

devotion. And having scourged Jesus

delivered him to be crucified. Matthew, summarize, summarize

the horror of a scourging with one word.

And he had Jesus scourged. We don't have words to

appropriately understand what happened here, but we do have a

video and I'm looking around for littles.

I think we're OK. I was going to give mom and dad

a heads up so that y'all could dismiss anyone that you wanted

to. This video is about four minutes

long. This is not exact, but this is a

rendition of what it might have been like, and I think it's far

more effective than me describing a Roman scourging to

you. And having scourged, Jesus

delivered him to be crucified. That's how much Jesus loves us.

And he wasn't finished that day. That actually happened at one of

the earlier meetings. Pilate had him scourged so that

he could actually get the Jews to back off.

He thought, if I scourge him, maybe they will not press me any

farther. Maybe they won't make me crucify

him. So like, look, I'll beat him

savagely. And the Jews had a limitation

they could do. They called it 40 blows -1

because in their mind, 40 was the number of judgement.

So he would not treat your brother like you would treat an

animal. So they would stop at 39 lashes.

The Romans had no limitations. It was whatever they wanted, as

much as they wanted, as hard as they wanted, to the degree of

their delight, to the degree of their exhaustion.

Having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the

governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole

battalion before him. So Pilate delivers them to be

crucified. You can bring the lights back

up, please, and you bring the music down.

He hands them to the Roman soldiers and then he steps

aside. It's still under Pilot's

jurisdiction, but he gives Jesus over to the low ranking wicked

men. And that's how what happens next

is able to happen. Pilot likely separates himself

inside of his headquarters. He washed his hands.

He wants to be done with it. The soldiers now have Jesus

isolated. A battalion is at least 200 men.

Some say it was up to 600, some say.

But at a minimum we got 200 men here, and they got Jesus alone,

most likely in a courtyard where they get to have all the fun

that they wanted to have, where they walk out what they did.

These are fighting men, men who have harmed and killed many

people. And now the Son of God stands

before one of them, already beaten, wounded, bleeding and

humiliated, Verse 28 tells us. And they stripped him and put a

scarlet robe on him. So his own clothing was put on

him after the scourge, and any coagulation of his clothing

sticking to his wounds any protection that would have

provided, now that's ripped off. And now they put a new robe on

him. And they twist together a crown

of thorns, and they put it on his head.

And they put a Reed like a staff in his right hand.

And they kneel down before him. And they mock him, saying Hail

King of the Jews. And they spit on him and took

the Reed and struck him on the head, so driving the crown of

thorns even deeper. When they had mocked him, they

stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes back on him, and

then let him away to crucify him.

This whole thing is obviously a parody of a coronation.

It's a cruel mockery of the pure and the true.

Humanity is rejecting its Savior fully and making entertainment

out of His kingship. All the while it pleased the

Father to crush Him. It pleased the Father to break

him, not because the Father is cruel to the Son.

The Father loves the Son, and everyone for all eternity will

see how much the Father loves the Son and how pleased He is

with the Son. Jesus is enthroned forever,

Jesus is crowned forever and the enemies of Christ will suffer

forever. There's a lot of significance

and what's going on here. The crown of thorns in in

particular is not accidental. Thorns represent the curse

because thorns came with the curse.

God cursed the earth in Genesis chapter 3 and he said now Adam,

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

because of your sin, you're going to have to sweat for your

for your fruit, and there the earth is going to produce thorns

because of your fruit. So here Jesus has the curse

placed on top of his head, the true king crowned with the

curse. And it's such a demonic scene.

Obviously some soldiers are twisting together the crown,

which they thought was a great idea and hilarious.

Some are laughing, some are spitting in his face, some are

striking some neo and mockery. The demonic Barbarians are

having a blast. Jesus can see the next strike

coming. He sees the next man lining up

to spit on him and increase his misery and his humiliation.

He's still perfectly fulfilling Scripture.

Isaiah 50 verse 6 says I gave my back to those who strike and my

Isaiah 50:6

cheeks to those who pull out the beard.

I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

Jesus is the suffering servant. He is the willing servant.

He did not hide his face. Jesus is the ultimate man who

absolutely took it like no man ever could and no man ever has.

He did not pull away. He stepped into it boldly,

lovingly, graciously. Why?

To forgive sinners. And his mockers didn't realize

that although they're kneeling in mockery on this day, they're

actually going to kneel before the Lord Jesus Christ.

Every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess

not just that Jesus is King of the Jews, but that Jesus Christ

is Lord over all to the glory of God the Father.

So then after they've done this, this just this, this was just

for them. This wasn't anything Pilot

directed. This is just for them.

Now they strip off the robe again, stripping him naked once

more, humiliating again, tearing away whatever covering or

coagulation that brought, and they put his own clothes back on

him. Why?

Because they want to conceal what they've done.

So they're not going to lead them around with the way that

they had had done in front of the Jewish people.

So they stripped him again at the cross to increase his

humiliation. But now they clothe him and

present him as as though he had been this way the whole time.

They were deceptive, they were misleading, they were

hypocritical. But don't.

Again, don't just look at the Roman soldiers.

Look at yourself. Where do you hide your sin?

Where do you put on the wrong clothes in secret and then the

right clothes in public? This is the hypocrisy that Jesus

hates. It's easy to look at those

bullies and go, oh man, I wish I could.

Wish I could. No, no, it was my sin that did

it. It was your sin that did it, and

it was His love that received it.

This is the kind of hypocrisy that Jesus died to forgive.

So what should we do with this? And we are closing.

We're supposed to mourn the sin that made all of this necessary.

And you're supposed to love and worship the Savior who made all

this possible. Does it pain you what Jesus went

through? It should, but it should also

fill you with a deep gratitude that leads you all the way

through to joy. One torment was enough.

One death was enough. One resurrection was enough.

Do not go on living in sin after receiving a knowledge of the

truth. The Lord still calls you to

repent. He points to His bleeding

stripes into His wounded body to prove that He loves you.

He calls you to the mercy seat. If you are already in Christ,

there is therefore now no condemnation for you.

You are not arrogant to call upon the blood of Jesus.

You are faithful, you're grateful, and you're wise to do

so. And if you're not in Christ,

you're right to throw yourself on his mercy.

Plenty of people have seen Jesus.

The Roman soldiers who scourge Jesus believed in Jesus.

Nobody cares that you think Jesus existed.

To not think Jesus existed is just foolish.

Idiotic. But to believe in Jesus is to

obey Jesus is to take up your cross and follow Jesus.

If you're in Christ, remind yourself and remind your accuser

that the blood of Jesus covers you.

If you are in Christ, stand in the authority of one who has

been made a priest unto God by Jesus redemption.

This is your heritage. It was very expensive.

You should receive it fully. It cost him a lot.

You should embrace it completely.

Revelation 17 says every eye will see Him, even those who

pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth will wail on

account of Him. That's what's going to happen at

the return of the Lord. Every eye will see Him, and even

those who Pierce them, they will wail and weep because the glory

of Jesus is going to be fully revealed.

The tragedy is that no one had to be lost.

Christ came to save sinners. So if your sin feels great or

feels insurmountable, good news for you.

Keep looking to Jesus because He is greater.

He will give you the will to reject sin, and He will give you

the ability to reject sin. If you don't have the will to

reject your sin, and if you don't have the ability to reject

your sin, you probably don't have Christ.

But if you come to Christ, you will have the will to reject

your sin. Well, I still kind of want it.

Well, yes, in one sense we crave sin, but deeper within you'll

go. But I want it killed, I want to

kill it, I want to crucify it. Jesus was not excited about the

cross. He experienced great dread

because of the cross, and yet for the greater joy set before

him, he pursued it anyway. If shame and condemnation

overwhelm you, the voice of the Advocate, which is the Lord

Jesus, still speaks louder than the accuser.

So grieve your sin, but let it be a holy grief that drives you

all the way into the presence of Jesus and ultimately into joy.

The mark of repentant Christian is not a somber person.

A repentant Christian is not going around, I've had to

crucify my flesh. A repentant Christian goes

around and says, I crucified my flesh.

I was crucified with Christ and now I live with him.

I'm not a slave to sin anymore. I was a slave.

Whatever you obey, that is what you're a slave to.

You will be slave to someone. I'm a slave to Jesus.

I want to be a slave to Jesus. When I sin, I am a slave to sin.

I'm not a slave. You are good news.

You can have a great master, not one who crushes you, not one who

burdens you, but one who loves you and gives you rest.

The mark of a Christian is that we know what we have done, but

our fixation is on the grace of God, and where our sin abounds,

God's grace super abounds. Heavenly Father, I thank you so

much for your perfect Son and his perfect sacrifice.

Our King who has been on mission, who came and was born

of a virgin, pure and perfect in every way.

He suffered under Pontius Pilate through his own choosing and

through your sovereign will, he will come to judge the living

and the dead, and whoever calls upon his name can be saved.

God, I pray you would save people right now, that people

would fully and completely step into the grace that you've

provided. Move and minister into those

places that they haven't given you access before.

Friends, please give him access. Please give him access.

Please trust Him more than you trust yourself.

Please worship Him more than you worship yourself.

That's what's happening when you don't give him access.

You love yourself more than you love him.

And if that's the case, you can't have him.

But he will come in and make you new.

He will come in and give you a new name, a new story, and a new

future. God, may your blood be on us.

May it be on our children and our children's children.

The preserving, the healing, the forgiving blood of Jesus.

You saved us. Murderers like Barabbas, haters,

adulterers, wires, thieves, all of us.

But you traded places with us. We respond with gratitude and

joy. Strengthen your church God make

us holy like you are. In Jesus name we love you.

We thank you. Amen.

And now the Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face shine down upon you and be gracious to

you. The Lord lift up his countenance

upon you and give you great peace in Jesus name, Amen.