He is Good | The Visible Gospel | Mark 15:1-15 | Coleton Segars

The teaching text for today comes from Mark 15.

It's verses 1 through 15.

That's what Mark writes.

It says, Very early in the morning, the chief priests with the elders and the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin made their plans.

And so they bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.

Are you the king of the Jews?

asked Pilate.

You have said so, Jesus replied.

And the chief priest accused him of many things.

And so again Pilate asked him, Aren't you going to answer?

See how many things they're accusing you of.

But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.

Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested.

And a man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising.

The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.

Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?

asked Pilate, knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priest attained Jesus over to them.

But the chief priest stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.

What shall I do then with the one you call the King of the Jews?

Pilate asked them, Crucify him, they shouted.

Why?

What crime has he committed?

asked Pilate.

But they shouted all the louder, crucify him.

And wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them.

He had Jesus flogged and handed him over to be crucified.

This is the word of the Lord.

Several years ago, we had this dinner with people we'd never met before, people that they just they were church people, but from a very different theological background and stance than where we would line up.

And uh they were new to the city and they were trying to find some pastor friends and things like that.

And the lady that got us together didn't know how theologically different we these two couples, my wife and I, and and they were.

Um and I didn't care.

I was grateful to get together.

We were going to Memphis Pizza Cafe, and I love that.

So I was like, great, free meal.

Um we sit down and you know, shake hands, pleasantries right at the front.

And um immediately the question from the wife was like, all right, so what do you guys even believe?

And I think my response was like, could you buy me a drink first?

Um I did say that.

Um, but uh I was like, well, what do we believe?

And I went, I actually talked about this passage.

They knew the Bible, and so I talked about this passage, and I said, uh, at the end of the day, here's what I believe.

Uh I said, you remember Barabbas, guilty, charged, in prison, and then all of a sudden you have Jesus standing there completely innocent and has done nothing wrong, and then all of a sudden there's this trade that's made where Barabbas is set free and Jesus is condemned.

And I was like, my whole faith could be summed up in saying the innocent was condemned so that guilty sinners like me could be set free.

Like at the bare minimum, at the basic level, like that's what I believe.

I believe that I live inside a reality where I was guilty of sin and Jesus just took my place.

And so he was completely condemned for charges that he never committed.

And the charges that I committed, I was set free from those things.

The guilty was set free while the innocent was condemned.

And so what I want to do today is look at this story and this scene, because I think what it reveals is a visible picture of the gospel.

Like if you're like, what is it about Christianity?

What is it?

Like I it really does just in picture form, an actual scene taking place.

You see what the gospel at its basic level here's what it is.

And so you see that in there.

And so what I want to do is I want to take that picture and just apply it to different groups of people in our church.

Um, hopefully, so that it leads us to a greater understanding of what Jesus has accomplished for us, what he wants to do for us, and hopefully that it gives us hope and stirs us with affection for him, and that we see this text that we probably have heard a billion times and we fall in love with Jesus again.

Um but I want us to see the first thing is um that this trade that takes place between Jesus and Barabbas.

And so you see the charges of Jesus.

Go to the next slide here.

There's these charges against Jesus.

Jesus is charged with being an insurrectionist.

He's charged to be a threat of Rome, causing trouble and riots.

That was in the previous passage.

He's charged with all of those things.

No, he's done none of that.

He hasn't actually done any of those things.

But he's standing beside someone, Barabbas, who's actually done all those things.

He was he was the insurrectionist.

He is a person.

He was the insurrectionist.

He was the person that actually he committed murder.

He he has actually caused riots and done those things.

He is in prison correctly.

And so Jesus takes on his charges and is condemned for them, and Barabbas is set free from his charges.

No longer is he gonna be held to be an insurrectionist.

No longer is the charge of murder gonna be over his life.

Jesus takes those things on on his behalf.

And then Jesus trades places with Barabbas.

Barabbas is in prison, guilty as charged.

Jesus just takes his place, even though he'd never committed a crime.

And then the most substantial way that you see this trading, this Jesus, the righteous being condemned, the innocent being condemned while the guilty can go free, is just honestly in the name.

Uh Barabbas.

Um go to the next slide.

Next slide.

There it is.

Barabbas, uh the word means son of the father.

That's what his name stands for.

It's bar, it's the son of the father.

And then you have Jesus, who is son of God the Father.

And so it's almost like God is laying it on very thick, like just to let you know, like what is taking place, what I'm doing with my son, what is happening, is the son of the father, who is a sinner, criminal, the son really of Adam, is being replaced by the Son of God the Father.

And the one that's gonna be set free is not the ones that deserve it, but it's the one that actually doesn't deserve it at all.

And the one who's gonna be condemned is not the one that deserves it, but the one who has done nothing at all.

And so you see this switch that it's the son of the father is replaced by the son of God the Father.

And so again, at the basic level, like this is this is what Jesus offers to us.

You are guilty of sin, and I do not want you to be condemned over your sin.

I want you to be set free.

Therefore, I, though I am innocent, I will take that stuff on to turn you from a son of a sinful father into a son of God the Father.

From a son uh or to from a child of a sinful father to a child of God the Father.

And so Jesus takes our place so that we can actually be set free.

So again, I want to take those things and just apply the truth of that to different parts and different people.

So to the people in our church and to the people listening or whatever, who just they know that they are guilty of sin, like you just know at a level, like you just I know that I struggle with sin.

I'm in an ongoing battle with sin.

I can't seem to get over it, I can't seem to get past certain sins in my life.

To the people who know that they are guilty of sin, can't seem to start stop struggling with it.

To you, like this type of person would be the person that Romans 7, unfortunately, is their life verse, which is I do the things I don't want to do, and the things I do want to do, I don't do those things.

And you just you thank God that's in the Bible because Paul's also saying it.

And like, if that's if that's you, so to the people who just know that they're guilty of sin and they just struggle with it.

What we need to see is what happens to Barabbas in this, is that is the is the same thing that happens to a sinner who's guilty of sin.

Barabbas, because of Jesus, is not treated as his sin deserves.

Because Jesus steps in, because Jesus is there, he is not treated as his sin deserves.

He deserves to be punished, he deserves to be condemned, he deserves to pay for his wrongdoing, but because of Jesus, he doesn't experience any of those things.

Because of Jesus, the guilty sinner is not treated the way that sin deserves to be treated.

And for us, we need to know this because there can be these spaces in our lives and these times in our lives where it made sense that like Jesus for Jesus, I entered into Christianity, Jesus forgives my sin.

But I think we can also wind up in this space where like the longer we go about this life and the longer we continue to follow Jesus, and then we're still struggling with sin.

Something begins to creep into our minds.

It's like, I know that he forgave those sins.

Is he gonna continue to forgive my sin as long as I continue to do it?

And what begins to creep in is this thought or this fear of like maybe he forgave those things, but I keep struggling with the same one.

I I keep, I find myself in the same place again and again and again.

Like, does this road of grace eventually just run out?

And he's like, look, honestly, I forgave that a hundred times, but dude, seriously, figure it out.

I'm not forgiving this anymore.

I think there's this fear that wells up, and I know it wells up in me that eventually one day he's gonna look at me and go, that's enough.

You've just sinned too much.

And if it was a different sin, maybe, but like honestly, it's the same thing.

You keep asking for the same thing.

It's like that meme that says, like, do you are you supposed to pray for your leftovers?

Like, God, here I am again with this spaghetti.

Should I pray for this?

It's like it's the same sin.

Like, can I really ask forgiveness again, knowing that tomorrow I'm probably gonna be right back here asking forgiveness for the exact same sin.

And this story, what it's meant to do is to show us that, like, he does not treat sin and he does not treat sinners in the way that their sin deserves to be treated.

He does not want to do that.

His grace isn't gonna run out for you.

And so if you constantly find yourself having to ask for forgiveness for the exact same things, this is supposed to be a story that you can look back to and be like, will he actually?

Yes, he will.

He will not treat our sin the way that it deserves to be treated.

And he doesn't do that here, and he doesn't want to do that for us.

And the reason is because here in this space, Jesus is treated the way that our sin deserves to be treated.

Barabbas had sin, and it deserves to be treated with prison and death.

And Jesus just takes that on, and he's like, I will take on the prison, I will take on the beatings, I will take on the punishment, and I will ultimately take on the death.

Your sin has been treated as it deserves.

It just wasn't treated on you.

It didn't happen to you.

Jesus was treated the way your sin deserves so that you wouldn't have to be treated the way your sin deserves.

And so in this space, when you're when you're when you're sitting there and you're you've been following Jesus and you're wondering, like, will he forgive me again?

Will he forgive me again?

Is he ever gonna turn and say, now I will make you pay for what you did?

He'll never do that because he's like, I have paid for what you did.

I have taken that on, I have done that for you.

But Rabbus is not treated in the way that his sin deserves, and Jesus will not treat you as your sin deserves.

Dane Ortland says this He says, He, God, will always side with you against your sin, not against you because of your sin.

And there's never gonna be this time when he looks at you and then looks at your sin as like, honestly, there's just too much over there.

It's too much debt, just too much sin.

Like he's never gonna look at you.

He will always take your side.

And when your sin accuses you and says, he deserves to be punished, she deserves to be punished, he will always stand on your side and be like, no, he doesn't, no, she doesn't.

That sin has already been paid for, that sin has already been brought, that sin has already been received what it deserved.

He will never side with our sin against us.

He will actually always, forever, take our side against our sin.

And so when you're standing there and you're coming before him again with all of these different things and stuff that, like, I just cannot get past it.

I'm addicted into this stuff, or I can't get past these things that I wish that I, these shackles that he says that I'm set free from, but I'm still dealing with these things.

I think we have this beautiful victory that Jesus accomplished for us to know that like he is not looking to condemn you.

He is not ever looking to condemn you.

Your sin has already received what it deserved so that you didn't actually have to do it.

He will pardon you every single time.

And so I want us to live inside that freedom.

If you continue in this struggle with sin and this battle, continue in the struggle.

What most people do is they just give up.

And they either go, like, I'm just not, I'm God must not love me because I honestly don't love myself.

I cannot believe I keep doing this.

We actually grow more weary of our own sin than God grows weary of us.

And so, but most people want to just give up or just say, like, I just want to make this not a sin so I don't feel bad about it anymore.

And so they capitulate into just like, this isn't even a sin, it's just something I do.

And it's like both of those are wrong because either not believing that God will forgive you or just deciding that sin is not sin is gonna lead you in a path that's not health and it's not wise, and it's not in a way that you're gonna experience life.

And so the way is to know that, like, even in the midst of the guilt and the things that and the just the disappointment that we feel over our own sin, the way is to remember he will always side with you against your sin.

And so we can bring it to him openly and without fear, and just go, like, look, I hey, it's me here again.

I'm really sorry.

I don't actually want to be here, and I know that you don't want me here.

And it's hard for me to believe that you're actually gonna forgive me again, but I believe that you say it in your word that you will, that where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.

So my sin has abounded and it's lasted years.

Will your grace continue to abound all the more?

And he's like, Yeah, I don't want to treat people the way their sins deserve.

And so to us, we're supposed to feel that freedom.

Second.

To the people who are living in the wreckage of their own sin.

Some of the decisions in your life just they're the reasons.

You just, if you were honest, and people can be honest about this, like, and humble about it, like some of the decisions in your life have just made a mess of your life, and you humbly and honestly can admit some of it was your decisions that messed up some of what your family has gone through.

Not everything, but you just know that it was some of your decisions that got there.

It's some of your decisions that messed up your career, some of your decisions that messed up your kids, some of your decisions that messed up your relationship with your kids and estranged relationship with them, some of your decisions that broke relationship with your parents, your decisions that messed up your finances, your decisions that messed up your marriage, your decisions that messed up your brain, your heart, your hopes, your dreams, your future, and what you thought your future was going to be.

For those of you who are like, I'm I'm just honest enough to not blame everybody else for my problems, but like when I look at some of the wreckage that's happened in my life and some of the destruction and some of the disaster that's taken place in my life, I am able to pinpoint, yeah, I had a part in that.

The reason I'm living in that is because I actually contributed to it.

And so, to you who who know, yes, I have contributed to that, who are honestly able to say, I'm a part of the one of the reason why my life is messed up in this way.

What I want us to see is that Barabbas was exactly that way too.

He is living in the wreckage of his own decisions.

He is living in the wreckage of his own sin.

He is currently wrapped in a prison, awaiting to be punished and then to be crucified.

Jesus is actually, it says there's a bunch of insurrectionists here.

The likelihood is one of the insurrectionists was released, Barabbas, the other two insurrectionists are crucified next to Jesus in a couple of days.

And this text is like a couple of hours, but you get what I'm saying.

And so the idea is that Barabbas was living in the wreckage of his own sin.

He is experiencing problems, he is experiencing heartache, he is experiencing something lesser, and it's like, well, who's to blame?

Well, Rome's to blame.

No, he's like, Rome's not, I mean, at the end of the day, he could say that, but Rome isn't to blame.

He made the mistakes, he committed the sins.

He has wrecked his own life, and he is his wreckage, the decisions that he made, led him into those spaces.

And what we need to see is that because of Jesus, Barabbas experiences life where there was only death ahead.

He's living inside the wreckage of his own decisions, but because Jesus is there, and because of what Jesus does for him, he eventually experiences life in spaces where really there should only be punishment.

There should only be death, there should only be a long prison sentence.

But because of Jesus, he experiences something very, very different.

He had no hope, and all of a sudden he experiences hope.

He had no vision of a future life, and now he has a vision of a future life.

He had none of those things and now he has them.

And so, because of Jesus in Barabbas' life, even though he's living in the wreckage of his own sin, Jesus brings life into the midst of that wreckage.

He changes it and he shapes it and he does something better in the midst of it.

I called a friend of mine last night who lives in New York and uh met him when I was there, and he used to be a pastor.

And uh I was struggling with this point because it I initially said that Jesus can redeem us out of the consequences.

This is the original point, redeem us out of the consequences of our own sin.

And I was like, man, probably not for divorced people who are aren't gonna remarry their divorced spouse.

Like he's not gonna just repair them back together, not to say that he couldn't, but like that's not the experience of my parents.

That's not the experience of like so to say that God will just redeem us out of the consequences of our own sin.

I started thinking about my friend in New York because he used to be a pastor and now he's not.

And he would very honestly and humbly say he is living inside the wreckage of his own sins, his own decisions.

He is not a pastor anymore based on decisions that he made.

He and his uh family are uh not experiencing life in fullness, and um he listens to the podcast, so brother, I love you.

Uh but he is not experiencing the riches of what family could be.

He's not experiencing the riches of what his his marriage could be.

And even last night he's like, I know I did this, I chose this.

I'm not the only one that contributed to this, but I absolutely am living in the wreckage of my own sin.

And so as we were talking, I just read the point that I initially had to him, and I was like, I just don't feel like I can say that based on your life.

Like, I don't I don't know that Jesus has redeemed all of the consequences.

Like you're living in those consequences.

And he's and this is what he he said something I thought was really helpful and it changed my point.

But he said this: he said, um, we need to remember that Barabbas will still be known, maybe for the rest of his life, as an insurrectionist and a murderer to the people around him.

People know what he did, and they might never forgive him.

People aren't going to welcome him with open arms, but it's still true.

He is walking in a new life and a new identity because of what Jesus did.

And so he says that and begins unpacking that, and he's like, People know what I did.

I'm still living with people that haven't forgiven me for the things that I've done.

I'm still living in the wreckage of my own sin.

He's like, but it's it is still true that Jesus is doing something in my life, and my identity isn't based in the sins that like have wrecked me.

That's not how what Jesus calls me.

He doesn't call me by those things.

People may, for the rest of my life, they may call me by those things and they may never forgive me, but he has, and he has worked in my life in the midst of the wreckage, to bring life where there should only be death.

He should, Jesus should, just leave me in the he told me not to make these decisions, and I did them anyways, and they blew up my career and my family.

He told me, anybody who would be, anybody else would look at that person and be like, bro, I told you.

Just make your, you made your bed, you lie in it.

And he's like, Jesus has not done that for me.

And he did not do that for Barabbas, and he will not do that for you.

He doesn't look at us in the midst of the wreckage of our own sin and go, sorry, I told you not to, you idiot.

He doesn't do that.

He sees you in the wreckage of your own sin.

He sees what your decisions have caused in your life, and he wants to move into that and bring life and bring hope and bring joy and bring fullness that, like, how could anything living come from something so dead?

And he's like, Man, resurrection is my thing.

I do that thing.

And so my friend in New York is experiencing those things while walking in the midst of the wreckage of his own sin.

And so for us, we need to be encouraged by this story.

You will make decisions if you haven't already.

You will make decisions that will blow up your life.

I've made plenty.

And it's also true that what's available with Jesus is that he just kindly moves in the midst of it and is able to find spaces and do things that you're like, nothing, there's no way you can repair this.

There's no way that you can bring restoration to this.

There's no way.

And he's like, all I know is life.

Death can't hold me.

So all I know is how to bring life.

I don't know how to bring death.

And so if you invite me into the wreckage, if you invite me into the disaster, if you invite me into the death, all I can do is breathe more life.

That's all I have.

And you see this all throughout the scriptures.

You see this in Peter's life, the wreckage of his own sin, denied Jesus, the wreckage of that.

Just lost his calling, back being a fisherman, just lost everything.

And Jesus breathes life back into a thing.

See this with the woman at the well.

The wreckage of her own sin made her an outcast.

There's no one like, and then Jesus seeks the outcast and he brings her back into community.

They may call her forever the woman with five who slept with five husbands or whatever.

They may call her that, her people may call her that.

But it's still true that her people are also like, but she was the evangelist that led us to Jesus.

He brings life into something.

The woman caught in adultery, living in the wreckage of her own sin.

And then all of a sudden, Jesus is there in the midst of it and doesn't condemn her and leads her out of a space of sin into something.

This is dead, and she should die.

And all Jesus does is bring life where there should have been death.

That's what he does.

The prodigal son story that Jesus gives us is the is supposed to be so compelling for us when we're walking in the wreckage of our own sin, because you see the son that's just living in the wreckage of his own sin.

Like you, you you told your father you basically wanted them to be dead, took the money, ran, slept with every prostitute you could find in that city, spent all your money, and now you're eating with the pigs.

You deserve what you got.

This is what you deserve.

This is the wreckage of bad choices.

But as soon as he starts to go home, as soon as he heads towards the Father, the Father doesn't look at him and go, like, been a minute.

And he doesn't kick him out, he doesn't make him a slave or a hired servant.

He like runs to him, arms around a ring, shoes, the best robe, which is his robe.

Like this son of mine was dead and now he is alive.

The father breathes life back into the son.

And so, in the midst of the wreckage of our own sin, the things that we're walking in that you could point to and be like, I am, I made a decision.

Life broke in the midst of it.

I don't see how anything good can come from this.

I don't see how he can work in the midst of this.

That's what he does.

But it does require us to actually go to him for those things and to not run away from him in fear or shame that he's going to condemn us over those things.

He does not want us to live inside the wreckage of our own sin.

He will not look at you and be like, sorry, told you not to.

Good luck.

He will not do that.

He invites things, he invites that, he wants to be invited into that space to be like, please let me in there.

Let me in there.

I can do far more.

You think that nothing can good can come out of this thing.

You think that everything is just that you've butchered it, that you've ruined it, that it's never gonna come back to life.

I bring things back to life, let me in.

I have experiences when I went to New York, I was telling uh, and just terrible decisions and different things that I'm just selfish, uh egotistical stuff that is still in here somewhere.

God, get that out of here.

Um and it just ruined so many things.

And I don't have it long enough to tell that story, but anyways, Jesus did that work.

My relationship with Rainey is the same way.

We we butchered our relationship and just living in the wreckage of our own decisions.

And then all of a sudden, inviting him back into that thing, and all of a sudden what he began to do is just breathe life where there was death and repair something that was just broken and dead.

That is what he does.

And the story of Barabbas is supposed to be this thing for us that we look at and be like, I made a decision, and I feel like I'm just destined to live a life that is just completely empty and complete, I just I blew it up, it's a disaster, and it it deserves to be a disaster because I deserve it to be a disaster.

And Jesus is like, I do not want you to stay in the wreckage of your own sin.

I will work in the midst of that to gather you out of that, to bring things into those spaces where you think that only death can live.

I will bring life.

And that's available for us.

And so if you're in those situations with your family, with your finances, with your own mind, your own heart, your own dreams, your own future, whatever, you're living in the wreckage of your own sin.

You need to know that what he wants to do is bring life.

I don't know that he will absolutely repair every single thing inside of that and take away every consequence of your sin.

I believe that he can, but I don't know that he will.

He didn't do that for the Apostle Paul.

The apostle Paul forever said, I'm the worst of sinners because I persecuted the church of God and I called them to recant.

I made them say that Jesus wasn't king.

I made them do those things, and he's like, he lived with this thing that he's like, I just hate that I did that, and he's living with some of that.

But he also, out of the wreckage of his own sin, became an apostle to the nations and was the most, you know, was the church planner that written the most of the scriptures and all those different things, and like Jesus breathes life where there is death, and you need to know that too.

All right, and to the third, the third and last.

To the person who is just questioning or wondering about Christianity.

You're like, I don't know where I stand.

One, thanks for coming to church.

That's pretty cool.

If I was wondering about the shellfish at Taco Bell, I probably wouldn't go there to check it out.

So if you're that was that not a good okay.

Sorry.

That wasn't in my notes.

I thought that would really land, it didn't.

Um to the person who is questioning Christianity and wondering about Jesus.

This scene, Barabbas and Jesus, is a picture of what the gospel will do in your life.

It is the perfect scene to look at and go, what will the gospel do?

What will Jesus do?

What is the good news of Jesus?

Why is he good?

This is the perfect picture of what the gospel will do in your life.

Jesus not only changes Barabbas' status from guilty to innocent, you need to see that.

Changes his status from guilty to innocent, but he also changes his entire trajectory of his life.

His whole life is different now.

Everything is different for him.

His whole life is changed.

I'm gonna die to I guess I live.

His whole life is completely changed.

That is what Jesus wants to do for us.

What you should see in that picture is not only does he want to forgive you of your sin and remove a guilty verdict over your life and give you a clean, innocent verdict over your life, but he actually wants to work in your life to change the course and direction of your life.

He can do things in your life to change, change your whole life.

Um I came across this in this book, and I wanted to share it with us today.

But uh in the 19th century, there was this um prominent atheist debater.

Uh his name was uh Charles Bradliffe.

And he would go around, he was an atheist, he would go around challenging Christians and evangelists to debates and try and debate them in public.

And so if you think that's new with the internet and social media, it's not, it's been happening since the 1800s, or maybe even beyond that.

But he would go around doing those things, and one man he challenged was a man named Hugh Price Hughes, who was an evangelist that worked among the poor in the slums of London.

And Hughes told Bradliffe that Bradliffe wanted to debate debate him, and Hughes was like, I will debate you with one condition.

And this is what Hughes said.

He said, I propose to you that we each bring some concrete evidence of the validity of our beliefs in the form of men and women who have been redeemed from the lives of sin and shame and by the influence of our teaching.

I will bring a hundred such men and women, and I challenge you to do the same.

Bradliff didn't think he could bring a hundred, so Hughes told him that he could bring fifty, and if he couldn't bring fifty, then he could bring twenty.

Hughes finally whittled the number down to one.

All Bradliffe, the atheist, had to do was to find one person whose life was improved by atheism, and Hughes, who would bring a hundred whose lives have been improved by Christ, then he would agree to debate him.

Bradliff ended up withdrawing from the debate.

And the the writer of this book, Dr.

James Kennedy, says, People are not improved by atheism, but people are improved by the gospel of Christ.

And I I I love that idea, I love that story, I think it's I think it's very interesting.

It's a it's an it very interesting book.

If you're questioning Christianity or you just want to grow more and understanding your faith, what if Jesus had never been born is an incredible book for you to read.

But what I love about it is like Hughes had, he's like, I work among the the slums of London, I share the gospel with people, I've seen their lives changed, countless lives changed.

I've seen Jesus just do this.

I'm not actually worried or it's gonna be super easy.

I could find 100, I could find 200.

I could find people who have been changed by this man Jesus because that is what he does.

Not only does he give them a clear verdict and say you're innocent, but he also just changes and radically shapes people's lives in a very, very different way.

He will change your life, that's what he does.

And one of the best stories I've heard in a while about um people's lives who've been changed by Jesus was uh from this Italian actor, Pietro Sarubi.

Uh he actually played Barabbas in the Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.

That's the actor that played Barabbas.

And uh Serubi was a self-proclaimed atheist before and during the filming of this thing, but he had this moment in the film, where some of you may have seen this, but he had this moment in the film where uh this text is being played out and he's being released while Jesus is being condemned.

And um the scene that he's walking into, what Gibson tells him to do, is like the scene tells him, as you're being set free, just turn and look at Jesus and then keep going.

And so that's what he does.

He turns and looks at Jesus.

But when he turns and looks at Jesus, uh he's so moved by what he sees in Jesus, because he's just he's just acting, he's just doing it, he turns and looks at Jesus, and so he's so moved by what he sees that he then breaks script and he stops and looks again for a little bit longer, and you see this thing on his face, like something, it just changed.

And so he breaks script, he looks again, and uh, I want to show you the scene.

I have a video, I don't know that it'll work, but let's see if it'll work.

So that's Baranas.

That's the scripted scene, and this one that wasn't scripted.

And he said from that look, he became a believer in Jesus.

And he wrote a book, and he called the book from Barabbas to Jesus Converted by a Look.

He's like, I was an atheist, and then I looked at this man, and like my whole life changed.

This is what he says.

He says, When our eyes met, I felt a sort of surge.

I had never experienced such a thing in all my years of acting.

I felt as if there was this electric current between us.

When looking at me, his eyes have no hate or resentment, only mercy and love.

It was not only a professional, but above all a human experience.

I am not embarrassed to say that during the filming I had a conversion.

All of the actors who took part changed a little bit after this experience, but I have learned much more from the film than from any conference.

I have done extensive anthropological research as a man and as an actor.

I was instructed in martial arts.

I lived in a Tibetan monastery for six months with a vow of silence.

I practiced meditation in India, I lived in the Amazon.

I have finally found the peace I longed for.

I have reached the final goal of my search in Jesus.

I love that.

And if you go and find it, yeah, actually, you know how Instagram works.

We're talking about it right now.

It's probably gonna pop up on your phone in your next reel.

But what Jesus has done in this man's life, and what he has done for countless lives before him, is he changes their lives.

He does something that no one expects, that no one even thinks, because what it looks like what he looks like he's able to do is not what he's actually able to do.

What could he possibly do?

The man's being bound and sentenced, and then he's gonna be crucified by the Romans.

Like, what will he actually do?

He will change your life.

He has changed my life.

I had a conversation with a lady this week, and I was just trying to express, like, I I don't I couldn't go into all the different things that he's done in me, that he's changed me.

And I don't have many people that remember me as a pagan in high school.

I'm actually gonna go see one this week.

But he remembers.

And he's like, you're just a different person.

I'm like, I d I didn't bootstrap it myself.

I didn't willpower this thing to become somebody brand new.

I didn't do those things.

He is true to his word, he changes people.

He will literally make all things new.

That's what he does.

And so what he wants to do in your life is free you from the guilt of your sin and not condemn you over it.

But then he also wants to bring about this abundance of life.

And he said that he was like, I came to give abundance and life in abundance.

That's what I came to do.

I came to change your life from one where you're not experiencing abundance into something you actually are experiencing those things.

That's what he wants to do.

That's what Barabbas experiences in this text.

That's what so many people have experienced, and that's what he wants to do.

And so if you're questioning Christianity and wondering, what's Jesus going to do, he will free you from the guilt of your sin, and then he will radically change your life and lead you in into an abundance that you cannot get to on your own.

One that you might ten years down the road not even be able to explain, but that is what he does because that's who he is.

All you have to do is receive it.

All you have to do is receive it.

If you think of Barabbas, um all he had to do to receive this wonderful gift was really just let it happen.

He could have said, like, nah, I'm gonna stay in prison, but then you're an idiot.

Don't do that.

All he has to, like, in order for it to happen, in order for him to receive the innocent verdict and to receive a life change, he didn't have to do something good.

He didn't earn it, he didn't deserve it.

It wasn't like Barabbas, we really need to see a lot of work out of you.

You really gotta earn this thing.

Like, he's not doing anything.

Everything he's doing is hurting his cause, not helping it.

He does nothing.

It is pure gift.

All he has to do is just let the transaction take place.

Just let it happen right in front of you.

And the same is true for us.

If we want to experience this life that Jesus has for us, all you have to do is receive it.

You do not have to work for it, you do not have to go to church for it, although you should get involved in the community, but doing good things cannot earn it.

It is a gift that you just receive.

And so John says in one uh John 12, he says, To all who did receive him, Jesus, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

And then in John 5, he goes on and he says, They, the ones who received him, they will not come under judgment.

Indeed, they have crossed over from death to life.

They have experienced a brand new thing, a brand new life.

They're not going to receive the judgment that they're due, but they're actually going to experience life instead.

But it's through the receiving of it, not trying to earn it, not trying to do something good for it, but just receiving it.

And I was talking to the lady this week and I was like, receiving it just looks like, what would you say if I was standing at your door and you invited me inside?

And you'd be like, come on in.

That's what she said she'd say.

And I was like, great, just say that to Jesus.

Come on in.

Let's do this thing.

Like, just like he has done all the work to make it so simple and so easy.

And so if you're questioning, like, this Jesus thing, what is this thing?

What is he asking of me?

What's he gonna do?

What do I have to do?

Like, just receive him.

And just tell him, like, I welcome you.

I welcome you.

I don't know what that is.

But I welcome you into my heart and into my life.

I welcome you into these spaces.

I welcome you.

I welcome your forgiveness of my sin.

I welcome you.

I did that when I was 17 years old.

I gave him six months.

I was like, I'm welcoming you for six months.

I will, and then we'll see.

I really did that.

That was a real I'm I'm a little stubborn.

Um I was like, Jesus, I will give you six months to to change things in my life, and if six months happens, honestly, I'm going back to my sin.

And I am 39 now, and so I don't math well, but I think that's 22 years.

Six months, Jesus turned six months into 22 years, and he has radically changed my life.

That's what he does.

He doesn't know another way, and it's just welcoming him in.

And so I'd love to close by just inviting the worship team, y'all can come on up.

Um, and everybody else, I just invite you just into a moment of reflection.

And so you can bow your head and close your eyes.

You can, however you feel the most comfortable to reflect.

But to those of you who have an ongoing struggle with sin, and you just know, I struggle with this.

I don't know when I'm ever gonna be set free from this struggle, I struggle with it.

I just want to ask, where are you where are you worried that he's mad at you and wonder if he really will actually forgive you?

What sin is it?

I'm not asking you to say it out loud, but just to think of it.

Where are you actually wondering, will he really forgive me again?

What space in your life?

And I just want this story to wash over you and be like, he will not treat you as your sins deserve.

He was treated the way that sin deserves to be treated.

He was punished for those things.

There is no more punishment left to give.

He took it.

When he sees you and he sees that sin that you're thinking about, he sides with you.

He takes your side.

He's standing on your side, shielding you from what that thing wants to do in your life.

And so I would just encourage you to just continue to confess those things to him.

You do not overcome your sin by willpower.

You overcome sin by confessing it to death.

And just taking it to the one that can crush sin, Satan, death, and hell.

God, I'm giving it to you again.

You crushed Satan.

You overcame death and grave.

And so I bring you my sin.

Crush it.

Don't crush me.

And he will never crush you over your sin.

To those of you who are living in the wreckage of your own sin, you look at your life and you have spaces in your life where sin, you just know it's my sin.

I wrecked this.

I'm walking in the consequences that I made.

You need to know he wants to bring life where there is death in that.

He wants you, if you are finding yourself in a space where you do not feel hope, he wants to bring hope into that.

You're finding yourself where you just think there's no way forward, he wants to bring a way forward in the midst of that.

He can.

He's the only one who can, but he can.

And so I would just encourage you in this moment, if there's a space where like, I'm just living in the wreckage of my own sin, just invite him into that space.

Jesus, please bring life where there is death.

Bring hope where I don't have any.

It looks like I'm destined to experience something because I made this decision one time.

Please bring life.

Invite him into that thing.

He does not want you to live in the wreckage of your own sin.

He wants to bring life where there is death.

And to those of you who are wondering and have questions about Jesus and Christianity, what he wants to do, you don't have to wonder anymore.

What he wants to do is he wants to set the guilty free.

And he wants to change the course, direction, and abundance that your life is currently experiencing.

He has promised, I have come to bring life and life in abundance.

And so he is willing to trade places with you to be called guilty though he's innocent, so that you can be called innocent though you're guilty.

He has chosen to take your place so that he can actually lead you out into abundance.

And so my encouragement to you is to welcome him into your life.

That's what he wants to do.

Welcome him in as if he's standing at the door of your house.

Just invite him into your life.

I don't I I want the innocent verdict.

I don't I want the forgiveness of sin.

And I also want the abundance that you offer.

I don't even know what that looks like, but I want it.

I welcome you to do that in my life.

Invite him in.