Open your Bibles, if you will, to the 15th chapter of the Gospel of Mark. Today we study verses 1 to 15. Mark 15, beginning at verse 1, listen now to God's holy, inerrant, and life-giving Word. And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and the scribes and the whole council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. And Pilate asked him, are you the king of the Jews? And he answered him, you have said so. And the chief priests accused him of many things. And Pilate again asked him, have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you. But Jesus made no further answer so that Pilate was amazed. Now at the feast, he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. And among the rebels in prison who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. And he answered them saying, do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews? For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priest had delivered him up. But the chief priest stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. And Pilate again said to them, then what shall I do with a man you call the king of the Jews? And they cried out again, crucify him. And Pilate said to them, why? What evil has he done? But they shouted all the more, crucify him. So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas. And having scourged Jesus, he delivered him up to be crucified. The grass withers, the flowers fall, and the word of our God abides forever. Amen. Father in heaven, we thank you for the gospel message of your son. And as we come now in our studies in Mark's gospel to the cross, we pray for your grace that we might reverently attend and that we would see truth And in the midst of many disturbing things, we would realize the good news that Jesus has died for us. We pray in his name, amen. The progress of Jesus' trials prior to his crucifixion followed the pattern set down for the gospel in Romans 1, verse 16, namely, first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. And Mark relates that when the rooster had stopped crowing, Peter having denied his Lord three times, the sun then came up on that most fateful of days, we call it Good Friday. And following the procedures laid down for them, verse one says, the chief priests held consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. There needed to be a formal affirmation of the guilty verdict they had so maliciously inflicted on Jesus during the nighttime trial. Now immediately then, they set out for the palace to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, with Jesus bound and brought with them. Now at this point, the name Pontius Pilate enters the Christian consciousness. The Apostles' Creed, which summarizes the Christian confession of 2,000 years, begins by saying that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. And we know why that's important. The incarnation of Jesus is so essential to the gospel story. And the next line says that he suffered under Pontius Pilate. R.C. Sproul wonders why the creed does not say that Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot or that Jesus was denied by the disciple Peter or that he was delivered over by the high priest Caiaphas. Why suffered under Pontius Pilate? Let me quote Sproul. He writes, why was a third-rate Roman politician enshrined in one of the most important creeds of the church? Well, the answer is obvious. Pilate, who was the Roman governor of Judea, is the one who gave the final verdict on Jesus. He issued the order that sent the Son of God to the cross. Well, Mark records the Roman trial of Jesus actually very briefly, as far less detail here than for instance, in John's gospel. And that's because he's eager to tell us what happened, how Jesus was wrongly convicted, how he was betrayed by the people, how he was scourged and then mocked and crucified. In fact, he was eager to tell the story because Jesus was zealous that these things would be done. In these verses, we confront the question that has gripped history. Who then killed God's son, Jesus Christ? Was it the Jewish people? Was it the Jews? Was it the Roman government? Or is there a wider implication that emerges from Jesus' trial? Well, let's look at the trial of Jesus before Pilate. Since Pilate is this man who would order the crucifixion, it is good to know some things about him. From A.D. 26 to A.D. 36, he was the governor of the backwater Roman province of Judea. Those years, by the way, then produced an absolute limit for dating Jesus' crucifixion, 26 to 36. Now, almost all estimates are going to be somewhere around the year 30, but it could not possibly have been before 26 or after 36. A pilot arose from the equestrian rank of Roman nobility, one level below senatorial rank, and he was appointed by Tiberius Caesar, and then ultimately was removed and banished and actually exiled, although it was a very comfortable exile, by the later emperor Caligula. And his governorship was characterized by a callous disdain for the Jewish people and also by a cruelty in putting down the revolts that, frankly, he instigated. On one occasion, he introduced a bus of the Emperor Tiberius onto the military standards in Jerusalem, so offending the Jews that they launched, very interestingly, a nonviolent protest. A large gathering of Jewish people sat outside the palace and just waited for him. And he became so annoyed that he did what you'd expect him to do. He brought out his soldiers and he's going to have them all slain. And they actually bared their necks. inviting the Roman sword, and he had to back down. The images of Tiberius were removed. On another occasion, he seized the money in the temple for some civic construction works and aqueducted, and that incited a riot in which many people died. His last episode was an uprising he prompted in Samaria that he so ruthlessly to do that even the Emperor Caligula thought this was just not profitable. and he was removed as an ineffective governor of the province. Now Pilate ruled the province from his headquarters in Caesarea by the sea, but during the high holy weeks, he would come down to Jerusalem because there was a danger with so many people in the city. And cases that were brought then to Pilate probably occurred outside Herod's palace. You'll often hear that it would have been outside the Praetorium and the fortress of Antonia. That's not very likely. It's almost certain that he would have stayed in the royal palace of the Herods. And that the trials then would have taken place in the open space outside that location. Now, Roman elites like to have their afternoons free. They didn't want to work too hard, but they were early risers. So if you wanted a case before them, you had to be there at the crack of dawn. And that's what happens as the Jews bring Jesus before him. Verse one, they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. Now what a significant statement that was and has been over the years for many persecuted Christians. The very time when Mark's writing his gospel in the city of Rome, many Christians are very, the same language is applied to them. They're being delivered, they're being led away and bounds and they're being delivered over for suffering because of their Christian confession. What a thing it is for them to realize that what they're going through is not only in Jesus' name, but it's in fellowship with Jesus. Now, one way that the Romans imposed their dominance was to deny local authorities the right to perform capital punishment. And that's why the Jewish leaders, having condemned Jesus to die, they still have to come and get the approval and make the case before the Roman governor. And there outside the palace, they stand before Pontius Pilate, they give their charges against Jesus, and they request that he confirm their sentence of death. Now, all of this means that at this point, the crucifixion of Jesus is very far from a foregone conclusion. The Jewish leaders need the approval of a Roman governor who is anything but their friend and ally. They are bitter rivals contending against one another. So they're going to need to argue persuasively and frankly, maneuver Pilate carefully. Now, he didn't care anything about the actual charge they brought before him. What was the charge against Jesus? He'd committed blasphemy, and Pontius Pilate doesn't care about some Jewish technicality of blasphemy. So it's very clear that what the Sanhedrin did was they cast their charges in a form that would make sense under Roman justice and to Pilate. Now, this explains verse two, where he turns to Jesus and says, are you the king of the Jews? Now you're going, well, where did that come from? Well, it's very clear what happened. The Jewish leaders came to Pilate. They said, this man claims to be the Messiah. He's blaspheming. Pilate would have said something like, can you remind me what this mess out Messiah thing is? And their answer is they put a religious charge into a political form. that he has raised himself up as a royal rival to Caesar, and he is leading and prompting a revolt, an insurrection against Roman rule. That's the charge that they made before Pontius Pilate. Now, you may already be thinking, that's fairly ironic. Not to mention very hypocritical. Why is it hypocritical? Because the very thing that they wanted was the very thing they charged Jesus with. They wanted an insurrection against Pontius Pilate and the Romans. Remember, the reason the crowd was dissatisfied with Jesus was because he refused to embrace this kind of messianic hope. A military political rival to Caesar coming on a war horse, brandishing a sharp sword. And over the years that would come, there would be other claimants, it's amazing how many there were, who would claim to be the Messiah, and they would raise an uprising, and in every case, the same Sanhedrin supported them. Now, it was a ruin to them, because it all led to AD 70, when Rome finally got tired of all this, and they just destroyed the whole city, and tore down the temple, and all the buildings, but what hypocrisy it was of them to bring charges against Jesus. It's very ironic that Jesus, having refused to take up the mantle of an insurrectionist messiah, is charged with that accusation before the pagan ruler the people wanted to overthrow. Well, Pilate is no fool, and he seems to have been unimpressed with the accusation. It didn't add up. And we see this in his answer, which in the Greek text makes very clear that there's an emphasis on the word you. I think we should take verse two as him saying, are we supposed to believe that you, you? Are the king of the Jews? And we had the same emphasis during the Jewish trial. You mean to tell me you're the Messiah? Now it's the pilot. You mean to tell me that you're the king of the Jews? And his contempt was because Jesus' appearance didn't come across like one with outward signs of royalty, not to mention he had insignificant origins, at least so it seemed. Now here there's also a great irony. For Jesus possessed a bloodline infinitely higher than Pontius Pilate could ever imagine. Not only was he the royal descendant of David's house, but as Mark stated in the very first verse of this gospel, he is Jesus, the Son of God. Mark 1 verse 1. Now this title, the King of the Jews, had never crossed Jesus' lips. The fact is that he spoke and acted as if it was true, because it was true. He acted as one with a royal prerogative, a divinely royal prerogative. William Lane notes the irony that having branded Jesus a blasphemer, because he failed to correspond to the nationalistic messianic ideal, they now condemn him by the pagan tribunal on the accusation that is distinctly political in character. Now, Mark, look at verse 3. He says the chief priest countered what was obviously pilot skepticism by accusing him of many things. You say, I wonder what they said. Well, Luke gives us the drift of it. In Luke 23, verse 2, they said, we found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar and saying that he himself is Christ, a king. Now, that's just a lie. Particularly the part about he's against taxation, because we remember just a couple of days earlier in Mark 12, they had tried to trip Jesus up knowing it was a touchy subject. Should we pay taxes to Caesar? And he gave that memorable and skillful answer, render to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar, render to God the things that belong to God. That's not a denial of Caesar's right to taxation. So now they're just lying about him and their malice against him. Now what's really noteworthy here, I think the main point is we get the picture that Jesus is able, there's an opportunity for Jesus to win the trial, to confound his hypocritical contemptible accusers, and to get Pilate on his side. Look at verse 10. Pilate was skeptical because he knew, he perceived, it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. And yet, when Pilate asked, Jesus, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered, you have said so. Now, I just wanna say, if you're a defense attorney, this is not the answer you're gonna advise. Well, that's what you say. And then Pilate comes back and says, verse four, have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you. Verse five, Jesus made no further answer. Pilate was amazed. This doesn't add up. Now, the question about Jesus' royalty was, of course, complicated. Yes, he was the king of the Jew, but not in the way that they'd accused him of that. And that accounts, I think, for Jesus' noncommittal response, neither a denial nor an acceptance, really. He said, you have said so. But again, what is notable is that given this opportunity to disprove the allegations against him, I mean, frankly, almost any one of us could win this case. Just from the materials in the Gospel of Mark, we're thinking, hey, Jesus say this? These are bogus charges. These can be easily refuted. He can avoid the condemnation. What's significant here is he deliberately chose not to do so. This is what Pilate's amazed about. What does he not know? What he does not know about Jesus is what the prophet Isaiah foretold. Clearly, Mark has in mind the great prophecy of Isaiah 53. Frankly, as we've been studying Mark's gospel for over a year now, how often he's had, in general, the prophecies of Isaiah in his mind, in all kinds of way. We see Isaiah's prophecy of Jesus in the background of Mark's gospel, but primarily, Isaiah 53, here, verse seven, He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. And that prophecy is here fulfilled. Now what Isaiah foretold is that Jesus would not speak in his own defense because he had not come to be acquitted, but rather to be condemned. And so when a simple explanation would have given Pilate everything he needed to confound the accusers, Jesus declined to provide it. And that's why Isaiah foretold him as a lamb that is led to the slaughter. It's what John the Baptist picked up on when he said, behold, the lamb of God, he takes away the sin of the world. How does a lamb function? As a sacrifice, a righteous, an innocent, a spotless sacrifice. And here he is. And while yes, there's human injustice in this condemnation, Jesus had come to provide righteousness from God for sinners who repent and believe. Jesus came as a lamb that our sins before God would be forgiven through his willing sacrificial death. In the words of Johann Hermann, lo, the good shepherd for the sheep is offered. The slave hath sinned and the son has suffered. Well, Pilate remains motivated to gain Jesus' acquittal. Not only because he's skeptical of the charges, but because these were his rivals who were accusing Jesus. And that raises the question that I asked earlier. According to this passage, who was it then who killed Jesus? This is developed because Pilate now turns to the crowd. He got no help from Jesus. He still wants to exonerate Jesus, so he turns to the crowd. And as all four of the Gospel writers observed, there was a practice that had been developed during the Feast, at least particularly this Passover Feast in Jerusalem. Verse 6, Now at the Feast he used to release from them one prisoner for whom they asked. Now, scholars who oppose biblical authority pick on this feature and they go, there's actually no historical precedent for this. This is kind of made up by the gospel writers. But one thing they forget is that the four gospels are historical records. But they will argue that, well, there's no record of Pontius Pilate doing that. And that's been used as a way of discrediting Christianity. In fact, it is shown from experience, from history, that a Roman governor in a faraway province had extremely wide latitude. in how he performed justice, and that there were, in fact, examples of this from this general period in Judea. Josephus, the historian and general of just the next generation, points out at least twice during the governorship of Albinus this very practice was followed. So there is no reason to dispute the historical veracity given in the four Gospels. So Pilate's hope then is following this procedure, that as part of the Passover, he will release a prisoner. They request that this is how he will confound his Sanhedrin opponents and release Jesus. But the problem is there's another candidate for clemency. Verse seven, among the rebels in prison who'd committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. Now the word for insurrectionist here is sometimes translated as robber. You'll get that, the same Greek word in John 1840, the ESV translates as robber. And yet it's perfectly clear, this is not just a common criminal who'd been mugging people, that kind of thing. This is an insurrectionist leader. This is a Robin Hood type figure among the people who no doubt had a lot of support. and had recently led an insurrection during which he had committed murder. Matthew tells us he was a notorious prisoner. Luke 23, 19 says he'd been thrown in prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder. Now that makes Barabbas virtually the last person who Pontius Pilate wants to set free. And so with Jesus set before them and Pontius and Pilate offering to give an amnesty, Now, the question is, for whom will the people cry out, asking for this mercy? Well, Pilate made his intended offer very plain. In verses eight and nine, the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them, and he answered them, saying, do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews? Now, this is where Mark states that he knew that the priests were motivated, at least in part, out of envy. But then the crowd, perhaps in astonishment, calls out not the name Jesus of Nazareth. They call out the name Barabbas. They demand that the zealot murderer be set free under Pilate's clemency. Pilate is stunned by this. He asks them, verse 12, then what shall I do with the man you call the king of the Jews? And the crowd replied loudly, crucify him. Pilate, having now granted to the crowd the role of the judge, he now pleads with them. Why? What evil has he done? Mark says, however, they shouted all the more, crucify him. Well, what a somber scene this is, as this crowd of Jewish people in David's royal city of Jerusalem cry out for Jesus, David's royal heir, to be crucified. And Jesus is no stranger to them. Just a week earlier, he'd been received, I don't know if it was the same crowd, but by the same city, in what we call the triumphal entry. They'd line the streets, they'd put the palm branches before his feet, they'd cried out, Hosea. In particular, they used language that he is the one who is going to bring the kingdom of our father, David, the very things that Pilate is talking about. And so we might think that a mere seven days after that event, as the Roman governor offers to set this same Jesus free, calling him the King of the Jews, that the people would have cried out with joy for Jesus' release. So here's the question, why did the Good Friday crowd cry out for Barabbas' release? while demanding Jesus' conviction. And not only that, if they're not going to ask for Jesus' freedom, why crucifixion? Why not exile? Why not a prison sentence? Why this hated punishment of a slow and torturous death on a cross? Well, Mark's answer to this, well, there's a number of answers. Of course, we see Satan, of course, maliciously motivating them. But the answer that Mark gives focuses on the chief priests and the religious leaders and the influence they were exerting upon the crowd. And they deliberately sought not only Jesus' removal, but they desired his humiliation and torture. We're reminded of the fall of Thomas Cromwell, who for a decade served as the chief minister of King Henry VIII in England during the English Reformation. And his big cause, he was very successful promoting the English Reformation, promoting the gospel, promoting particularly the printing of English Bibles as the chief minister of England, but in time, it was bound to happen, he would slip up and his Roman Catholic enemies, the aristocrats, they were able to make false charges of treason stick against Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII ordered his execution. What's interesting was the way that they wanted him to be put to death was not the beheading that was in vogue at the time. They wanted the medieval practice of drawing and quartering that barbaric death. They wanted it to be reserved for the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even Henry VIII refused to do that. Well, where does that spirit come from? It comes from this scene. Because this is clearly the bloodthirsty intent of the religious leaders in Jerusalem. Mark tells us that the crowd cried out as they did, both demanding Barabbas' release, but especially demanding crucifixion for Jesus. Look at verse 11, because they were stirred up by the religious leaders who were present. And you go, wow, why such hatred? Well, one answer is that he's a threat. All through Mark's gospel, Jesus is a threat. He exposes their hypocrisy. He's a threat to their power base. But we must look deeper for this malicious motive. I think the answer is found in John chapter three, verses 19 and 20, that people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. The ferocity of hatred towards Jesus is because of his innocence, because of his perfect righteousness, because he exposes the petty fraud of their earthly claims to righteousness. And many scholars seek to exonerate the Jewish people, the crowd that cried out for Jesus' death on the grounds that they were just doing what their appointed spiritual leaders told them to do. After all, you have on the one hand the legitimate Sanhedrin The scribes and the priests and all the religious hierarchy observing the outward forms of Judaism, and they want Jesus crucified. Then you have Pontius Pilate, the pagan Roman leader. He wants Jesus exonerated, and the argument goes, well, who do you expect the crowds to choose? They're going with the Sanhedrin, not with Pontius Pilate. William Lane argues that this particular crowd may have been recruited for the express purpose of securing Barabbas's release, that Jesus' crucifixion is mere collateral damage. I'm afraid that explanation will not do. That is, the main event here is not the release of Barabbas. The main event is the crucifixion of Jesus. And the truth is the Jewish crowd with their leaders cannot be exonerated as they cry out of Jesus of Nazareth. and say, Crucify Him, Crucify Him. Here's Pontius Pilate arguing strenuously in Jesus' favor. Verse 14, Why? What evil has he done? And the Jewish crowd cries, Crucify Him, Crucify Him. And in this way the Jewish people, leaders and crowd together, fulfill the very charge made by Jesus just days earlier in the parable of the tenants, which is linked. It's the explanation for what subsequently happens. You remember that parable, Jesus compared Israel to a beautiful vineyard, a lush vineyard planted by God. He allowed the people to enjoy its bounty. But then when the Lord came, Mark 12, 2, looking for the fruit of the vineyard, now that's talking about faith and godliness, the people beat his servants, those servants are the prophets, and sent them away empty-handed, Mark 12, verses 3 and 4. So the master sent more servants, some were beaten, some were dishonored, some were slain. Now, by the way, Jesus gives this as his summary of the entire Old Testament. By the way, you want to see the doctrine of total depravity. See, it's not just the Jews. These are the most privileged of the offspring of fallen Adam. But it's all of humanity that is condemned that if these, the chosen people do this, how do the rest of us act towards Jesus? This is a summary of the whole Old Testament, and it's true. Rebellion against God, a love of evil, a slaughtering of the prophets. How often Jesus mentioned that. And then finally, the master says, I'll send my son, my beloved son, don't respect him. And here we are. Instead of humbling themselves before God, Jesus predicted they will say, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours. Jesus' own assessment of what's happening in His crucifixion is that the people hated God because they did not want to humble themselves before Him. They wanted the blessings of God. They wanted them for their own blessing, their own glory, their own name. And Jesus taught in this way they deserve condemnation. Remember, if we were studying the week, the Passion Week, that the first thing that happened is Jesus sees a fig tree, a symbol of Israel, and it's barren, and he cursed the tree. They come back, the tree is dead. This is a biblical way of saying the Jewish people who condemned Jesus Christ were guilty and deserve God's judgment. Another way to assess the Jewish people's cry for Jesus' crucifixion is to note what is the full name of the, and it can't be coincidental, the full name of the zealot whose freedom they seek, we're given the name Barabbas, which means son of the father, but we learn his personal name in Matthew's gospel, it is Jesus. Jesus was a reasonably common name, by the way. And so Barabbas's name is Jesus. In the Greek text, it's Jesunton Barabbon, Jesus, the son of the father. It seems very clear then that Barabbas is biblically set forth as a humanistic substitute. For God's true Son, the true Messiah, Jesus Christ, Barabbas, Jesus Barabbas, Jesus, Son of the Father, represents the kind of Messiah the world wanted them and the world wants now. Nothing's changed. The one who's motivated by hatred, one who's animated by violence, an earthly savior to give us the earthly salvation our rebellious hearts desire. And meanwhile, there is Jesus Christ, the true Son of God. He represents the grace and forgiveness which their proud hearts resent. It was an indignation towards God's grace and justice that the Jewish people put their own Messiah to death. And so Mark's record, together with the other three Gospels, makes it perfectly clear that it was God's people, it was the Jews, who crucified Jesus. They had self-consciously rejected Him. And yet we should not focus the blame on ethnic Jews, as Christians have so shamelessly done over the centuries, as if their behavior does not convict all of us equally. Harry Ironside illustrates this by a church that had two sermons preached on the same Sunday in the morning was a most eloquent oration in praise of the beauty of virtue. And the preacher concluded, oh, my friends, if virtue incarnate could only appear on earth, why men would be so ravished with her beauty. They would fall down and worship true virtue. That was the morning sermon. They thought it was very eloquent. So they came back to the evening service. But it was a gospel preacher in the evening. And he preached his sermon about the sermon that was preached in the morning. And he said this. My friends, virtue incarnate has appeared on earth and men were not ravished. No, they cried out, crucify him. And so it has been throughout history that mankind has embraced and entered into and echoed the cry of the Jews rejecting Jesus. Today, it's heaping scorn on his name, abuse on his memory. Mark Johnson puts it this way. Barbarous mankind as a whole ridicules divine humility. That is absolutely true. Rebel mankind mocks Christ's reign as king of kings. And so the same spirit that rejected Jesus then, it continues to be directed against his gospel and its faithful messengers today. So if the Jews are convicted, oh, and they are, of betraying and crucifying Jesus, they are as representatives of all of humanity. But let's get to the Romans. Let's get to the first of the Jew, then to the Gentiles. Let's get to Pontius Pilate. By his own words, he declares Jesus' innocence, and yet he then sends him to the cross. There's the indictment of earthly government, earthly justice, earthly standards of truth and integrity. Verse 15, Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released from them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered himself, him to be crucified. Now, we'll see in the next study, we'll pick up with the scourging there, we'll see the horrors of the scourging. But what's clear is that Pilate performs a travesty of justice. By the way, Rome prided itself for its justice. Well, there it is. He first declares Jesus innocent, and because he wants to, he has expedient reasons to do otherwise. He sends him to the cross. And so Pilate represents all the Gentiles. And he stands in the place of all earthly power and authority that finds the person and work of Jesus Christ inconvenient to its idolatrous aims. If the people and priests were guilty of demanding Jesus' crucifixion, Pilate and the soldiers were guilty of carrying it out. Well, as we consider the trial, and then we'll move to the subsequent crucifixion of Jesus, and as we view the guilt of the Jews and of the Romans, both of whom represent the world and its institutions, before we close, there is one more person whose perspective we should consider, and that person is Barabbas himself. While Jesus stands before the crowd, before the palace of Herod, Barabbas sits imprisoned in this small city. He wouldn't have been too far away. He would have been far enough away that he almost certainly couldn't hear what Pontius Pilate was saying, but he could absolutely hear what the crowd was calling out in unison. So what would Barabbas have heard in his cell? He would have heard his own name. There's the crowd, Barabbas. Then there's a pause. What's the next thing he hears? Crucify him. Then there's another pause. He can't hear what Pilate's saying, but he hears the crowd. Crucify him. Now we can imagine his sinking heart by the way he knew it was a punishment he deserved. It was the Roman punishment for insurrectionists. He was a murdering insurrectionist. And so now he hears the clanking of keys and chains. He hears the footsteps coming his way in the hallway. What is Barabbas thinking? He's in terror. The door swings open and yet instead of being dragged out to his death, to his astonishment, Barabbas is set free. And perhaps, I mean, almost certainly, where do you go if you're Barabbas? You go to where the sound was coming from. You go to where the crowd was that was calling your name. And what does he witness? He witnesses a bloody man carrying a cross. It's a man acquitted of all guilt, but trudging in solitary condemnation. Here's the question. Does Barabbas realize that Jesus is dying in his place? And then as he hears the hammer blows that will affix Jesus to the cross, does he cry out in wonder, those blows were meant for me, but Jesus has taken my cross. Well, when we ask who crucified Jesus Christ, we said, well, the Jews did, they absolutely did, but they did so representing us. Pontius Pilate crucified him, that's why he's in the Creed. He did so representing all the worldly powers and prideful authorities. We see ourselves sitting with him and his corruption and cowardice. But I would argue that most of all, we see ourselves in the role of Barabbas, gazing on the crucifixion of Jesus with this realization. Here's the answer to the question, who killed Jesus? The answer is, Jesus died in my place. That's the perspective of Barabbas, and that's the most important one for us. Donald Gray Barnhouse, who imagined this scene, he said it this way. It was I who deserved to die. It was I who deserved the wrath of God be poured out upon me. Jesus was delivered up for my offenses. He was handed over to judgment because of my sins. This is why we use the expression substitutionary atonement. Jesus was my substitute. He suffered the punishment I deserved. And that's the gospel truth put forth in the New Testament. 1 Peter 3.18, Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God. And so if we will confess our sins, if we will believe in and trust Jesus, We will see in his cross the gospel message proclaimed in Ephesians 1 verse 7. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. Well, like Barabbas in his cell, hearing his name loudly called out, do you realize that every one of us will be summoned by name to stand before a greater tribunal than that of a Roman governor in a faraway city in Jerusalem? We will hear our name and we will stand before the great tribunal of the living God on the final day. And Jesus will be there and he will be wearing the crown of glory. He will be seated on the throne. He will be the enthroned judge of all. And the Bible tells us that all those who refuse him now will be condemned by him justly forever. Will you have despised Jesus like the crowd that cried out, crucify Him? If you hear the gospel and you will not believe, you are crying out, crucify Him. You are putting away the Son of God to His death. But if instead you will call upon Jesus to save you, when your name is called then, like Barabbas, that divine summons will only set you free. And then you will realize who caused Jesus to die. Your answer will be, Jesus died for me. Jesus died for me. He bore my guilt unto the unfailing, the just justice of the holy God. And then we will resolve, I want to live for him. In the words of Isaac Watts, love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. Father in heaven, we sit abashed before the gospel account. How horrible it was. that the Jewish people cried out for Jesus' crucifixion, and yet we're merely staring at the reality of the human depraved condition because of the fall. And so Father, humble us. Don't allow us to be proudly resentful that you tell us we need to be forgiven the way the Jewish leaders resented that. Rather, Lord, let us stand where Barabbas stood. Let us look upon Jesus as one who carries our cross. We don't know whether he was saved or not, but Lord, let us be saved. And we will be saved if we will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood will cleanse us from our sin. We pray in his name, amen.