Well, this morning we are going to be considering a question that's been asked repeatedly throughout the course of history. And it's a question, I think, that we've all probably asked at some point, and maybe some of us have asked it and answered it and then not considered it again. But it's, I think, a question that we need to be considering because I think that when we consider the gospel, the content of the gospel, the power of the gospel, It has pervasive power in our life, not just to save us at the beginning of our walk, but to keep us sustained as we continue to walk. And this is the question I want to pose for us. Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? In his conversation with Pontius Pilate, Jesus affirmed the absolute necessity of being delivered over to death, to which he remarked, for this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world. The Apostle Paul puts a finer point on it in 1 Timothy 1.15 saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He's on a rescue mission. He's here to save people. Why are people in need of saving? In short, because they are condemned by God as a result of their sin. Galatians 3.10, the apostle Paul writes, God has commanded and demanded righteousness, but all who do not accomplish a perfect righteousness because of their sin are cursed and condemned. But because of his holiness, God is perfectly pure, utterly righteous, and thereby cannot be in fellowship with sin. God detests iniquity. He abhors impurity. He hates immorality. And He is prepared to punish every sin and transgression to the fullest extent by His awesome power and terrifying vengeance. And this is what creates the problem for us. In the face of God's furious anger against sin, who can withstand the judgment? The answer, no one. No one. The Bible says none are righteous, not even one. All are condemned. Every single soul is cursed. And this is why humanity desperately needs Jesus. This is why. We forget this as believers all the time. We get to a certain point in our Christian walk and we think, well, I'm doing okay. I'm not so bad. It's by mercy and grace that you're standing. We desperately need Jesus. Paul continues in Galatians 3.13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. How? In the Bible it says, by becoming a curse for us. Jesus became our curse. Where and when did He do this? On the cross at Calvary. That's where and when He did it. Deuteronomy 21.23 says, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. On the cross, on the tree at Calvary, Jesus became our curse. Christ took on our sin and our condemnation that was assigned to us. He took away our punishment. He took God's wrath that was meant for us. He was condemned so that you and I would not have to be. Romans 8, 1 declares, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That is the best news in the world. The Son of God had to be condemned in order to save us from the wrath of God. God's justice will be satisfied. His wrath will be satisfied. His glory will be upheld. And it was for this, the Bible says, that Jesus was born. And it was for this that he gave his life. And so this morning, we're gonna consider Matthew's gospel as we're being drawn in continuously further along into the drama being played out before us in the passion narrative here in Matthew's gospel. We're considering here how Jesus Christ was condemned to death at the hands of sinful men. And so if you're not already there, turn to Matthew chapter 27 this morning. Every single week as we march through all the way to Easter, we're faced with increasing, not just the intensity of the drama of the story, but we're faced with the increasing depth of truth, the reality, the impending event of Christ going to the cross to satisfy the wrath of God. to pay our penalty, to die in our place. This is increasing week by week. I know you can feel it with me, and we're going to continue until we get to that point, which ultimately results in the empty tomb. But here we're moving quite along. We've reached this point here in the early morning hours of Friday of Passover week. Jesus has already predicted way back in Matthew 20 verse 18 when his disciples and he would go to Jerusalem and it says here, the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes and they will condemn him to death. Jesus has already predicted this. He's already talked about his impending condemnation in the hands of sinful men. And he continues, and they will deliver him up to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify him. And on the third day, he will be raised up. So far, this has already taken place. It's already happened exactly as predicted. The Jewish Sanhedrin, through the betrayal of Judas Iscariot, has arrested Jesus that very night. They've accused him in the homes of Annas and Caiaphas, the high priest, and now he's moved into the council chamber. And their verdict is that Jesus is guilty of blasphemy, claiming to be God, claiming to be the Christ. And they deem that he is worthy of death. But there's just one problem. Because of the laws of the Roman occupation, they are unable to put him to death legally themselves. They must convince the Romans to do it. which means they must take their case before the local governor, a man named Pontius Pilate. And so that's where we pick up our story this morning in Matthew 27, starting in verse 11. Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor questioned him, saying, Are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus said to him, It is as you say. And while he was being accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer. Then Pilate said to him, Do you not hear how many things they testify against you? And he did not answer him with regard to even a single charge. So the governor was quite amazed. Now, at the feast, the governor was accustomed to release for the people any one prisoner whom they wanted. At that time, they were holding a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. And when the people gathered together, Pilate said to them, whom do you want me to release to you, Barabbas or Jesus, who is called Christ? For he knew that because of envy they had handed him over. While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message saying, Have nothing to do with that righteous man. For last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas, and to put Jesus to death. But the governor said to them, which of the two do you want me to release for you? And they said, Barabbas. Pilate said to them, then what do you want, or what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? And they said, crucify him. And he said, why, what evil has he done? But they kept shouting all the more, saying, crucify him. Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing. But rather than a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, I am innocent of this man's blood. See to that yourselves. And all the people said, his blood shall be on us and on our children. And he released Barabbas for them. And after having Jesus scourged, he handed him over to be crucified. One of the challenges of mapping out these narrative events here in all the Gospels is piecing together the timeline that exists in all four Gospels. All four Gospels work together with much of the same information, but each Gospel writer adds another bit of information, a different perspective, if you will, and fills in the gaps. John fills in quite a few gaps from the Synoptic Gospels. And so I'm going to try to do that as we're moving. I'm not going to hit every single point because otherwise I'll just spend hours and hours just fine-tuning everything. And I think it's helpful when you read the other gospel narratives to focus where the gospel writer focuses. But I want to try to fill in the gaps and give us a full picture of what we're looking at here from Matthew 27. John 18.28 tells us that after being in the presence of Caiaphas, the high priest, Jesus was led to what's called the Praetorium, which is the headquarters of the local Roman government. Now, the Romans were early risers. They liked to get up and do all their business early, and they liked to wrap up everything by lunchtime. They didn't want to have to do any work in the later part of the day, so they'd get up very early and do all their business. So by the time, the late hours of the evening, when the Jews are delivering him over, Pilate's already up and at it very, very early to do his business. And so there they are. It's early morning. And as they bring him in before the praetorium, a crowd begins to form. It's not the same crowd that was shouting Hosanna at the beginning of the week, it's a very different crowd. But now this crowd is amassing in front of the praetorium here. At this point, the local Roman governor, a man named Pontius Pilate, he's summoned and he receives the crowd and the the Jewish Sanhedrin in front of him. Of course, the members of the Sanhedrin, they don't actually set foot inside the Praetorium, they stand just outside of it, because they don't want to be defiled because they want to make sure they can eat the Passover. So they're condemning Jesus to death, but they don't want to be defiled by that, so, you know, they're going to do a certain way, they're very legalistic in how they deal with these matters, but yet they've brought Jesus in front of Pilate, and they're bringing him to be executed by the Roman governor. Now Pontius Pilate did not have a good rapport with the Jewish leaders of Israel. There was constant tension ever since he got there. He had been appointed as certainly a sort of a governor of all Judea in A.D. 26 by Emperor Tiberius, and the Jews had never missed an opportunity to make his life absolutely miserable. And it was a very delicate balance all the time. Anytime there was an event going on, there was this tension between the Jewish Sanhedrin, the Jewish leaders, all the different factions of Judaism, and the Roman government. If he didn't rule with an iron fist, the Jews would always have a tendency to want to rebel against Rome and to overthrow, and so he couldn't just let them do whatever they wanted. But if he was too savage, they would inevitably rebel, and it would create terrible tensions, and they'd have to go send their soldiers into quelch an even bigger rebellion. And here's the other problem with that, if he's too severe and he can't keep peace, if he can't be trusted by Rome to keep the Pax Romana, the Roman peace, he would eventually then be withdrawn and demoted by Rome. And that's actually already almost happened once, at least once. And so Pilate was in a precarious position, always needing to keep the Jews pacified and yet without letting them rule the roost here. And here's the problem, he hated them for putting him in that position. He wanted them to just be easy. We've already conquered you, just live. We'll take care of everything and you pay us taxes and we'll just all have our own little thing. But the Jews, they fought against that Roman rule. And again, it made his life miserable. So John, the gospel writer, notes that when Jesus was brought to him, he asked the Jews, Pilate asked the Jews, what accusation do you bring against this man? He begins proceedings that way. Now, at first, they don't want to tell Pilate that he's been charged with blasphemy. Well, why? Because that's not a crime that Rome would put him to death for. He's blaspheming the name of the Lord. So what? They would have said. Rome would have not cared about that. And so they sort of demur, they sort of kick the can and they say this, well, if this man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him to you. It's an answer, but it's not an answer, you know? And so they don't want to say what he's on trial for, they just say, well, he's really bad. If he wasn't bad, we wouldn't be here at four o'clock in the morning trying to get you to kill him. Now at this point, they're hoping that he simply accepts the logic and grants the request and just does it, but he pushes back. And he says to them, according to John, take him yourselves, you judge him according to your own law. If he's so bad, you deal with him. Whatever you're gonna do, you just do it. He's your problem. But here's the thing, they want him dead. And they want Rome to do it. I was even thinking this week that not only are they not allowed to kill Jesus, even though they go against that when they stone people in the courtyard here, they do it a few times, but here's the other thing about it too. If they can get the Romans to kill Jesus, then they can wash their hands of the matter as well. So that's what they want. They want Pilate to do it. And so they bring up these charges against Jesus to persuade Pilate. Luke 23, 2 records that they begin accusing Jesus saying, we found this man to be misleading our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar and saying that he himself is Christ, a king. So they manufacture these charges that they didn't bring up before in their previous hearing, but they say these things to Pilate. Now, what they're doing is they're manipulating the things that Jesus has said, and they're making him seem like an insurrectionist and a threat to Rome. And so at this point, we go back to Matthew 27 verse 11. And Pilate is standing there looking at Jesus, hearing all of this, and he looks at Jesus and he says, are you, and the emphasis is on the you here, are you the king of the Jews? Is this you? Jesus hardly looked the part. He didn't look like a king. So how does Jesus respond? He says, it is as you say. He doesn't admit to it, but he just agrees. He says, it is as you say. Now at some point here, Pilate sort of pulls Jesus off for a sidebar, and he begins asking him more questions, and John picks up that part of the discussion. Let me just read these verses out of John 18, 34. After he says, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered and says, are you saying this on your own initiative? or did others tell you about me? Pilate answered, I'm not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and your chief priest delivered you to me. What have you done? Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm. Therefore Pilate said to him, so you are a king. Jesus answered, you say correctly that I am a king, for this I have been born, for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. And then Pilate famously retorts and says, well, what is truth? What is truth? And so Jesus, he's going against the narrative here. Yes, Pilate is correct in saying that Jesus is a king. Jesus doesn't deny that, he affirms that, but he's not a king in the way that Pilate is thinking. He is the king of an eternal kingdom, a spiritual kingdom, a kingdom of salvation, a kingdom of righteousness, a kingdom of truth, but Pilate can't get off that and says, well, what is truth? They're not on the same page at all. Of course, there still is the matter of the accusations of the Sanhedrin. That's still sitting off in the corner there. And they're accusing him that Jesus is a blasphemer, that Jesus has committed treason and sedition against Rome, that he's an insurrectionist and he's going to seek to oppose Rome and set himself up as his own king over Caesar. And so Matthew records while he was being accused by the chief priests and the elders, he did not answer. Doesn't mean he's not talking a pilot, but he's not answering the charges. There's a few levels to this. Why is Jesus remaining silent when he's being accused? Well, the first has to do with Isaiah 53 7. It was prophesied hundreds of years earlier that he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter. He did not open his mouth. So Jesus is fulfilling prophecy. And not just for the sake of fulfilling prophecy, he's in submission to the will of God. He remains silent before his accusers. He's perfectly righteous. Frankly, he doesn't need to answer false charges against himself. What's the purpose? He submits himself to the divine will. But even beyond that, on a practical level, He didn't have to answer because it wouldn't have done anything anyway. Scripture warns us, don't answer a fool according to their folly. Jesus is not gonna lock horns with the religious leaders of Israel who've had his number for three years and sort of fight and conjole and do all these different things for what purpose? It's not gonna accomplish anything because why? Jesus has come to die. He says, it's for this I've been born, it's for this I'm gonna come and die. I'm here to live my life righteously, die on a Roman cross, and be resurrected the third day and reign for eternity. Even though humanly, touching his humanness, he doesn't want to die. No human wants to die. That was the whole issue in the Garden of Gethsemane, right? Father, if it's your will, then let the cup pass from me. I don't wanna die. And yet Jesus, touching his divinity, touching everything that is righteous in him, says, yet, even though I don't desire that personally, I don't wanna feel the pain of not just torture and death, I don't wanna be separated and estranged from you, oh Father. Yet he submits himself completely, perfectly to the divine will. Not my will, but your will be done. I will go and die. And so as he's standing there, he's not gonna argue. He's not gonna fight them, even though they're lying about him. Verse 13, then Pilate said to him, do you not hear how many things they testify against you? Are you listening to this, Jesus? Do you hear what they're saying? Verse 14, and he did not answer him with regard to even a single charge, nothing. So the governor was quite amazed. Pilate wasn't used to seeing this. This was new for him. Normally, he's used to criminals coming and groveling at his feet, begging and pleading for their lives. But not Jesus. He's not there doing it because he knows his life is not his own. He's not there to get anything from Pilate. He doesn't need anything from Pilate. It's the governor of Judea against the king of the universe. What does Pilate have to offer him? Nothing. And yet Jesus stands there. Now, at this point, Pilate returns to the small crowd that's forming outside and John fills in the gaps here. John tells us that he went out to the Jews and said, I find no fault in him. I can't see any charge, nothing here. Of course, this sends the Sanhedrin into a tizzy. That's not what they're here for at all. And Luke records that they fire back saying, he stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place. He's been a problem since Galilee. Now at this point, that's all Pilate has to hear. And Pilate finally sees, he thinks, a way out of the problem. He's a Galilean, isn't he? Ah, that is not my jurisdiction. He gets on a technicality. Jesus is a Galilean, so what does he do? At this point, he sends Jesus to Herod. Herod Antipas is the one who has jurisdiction over Galilee. I'll let Herod deal with the problem. And so that's what Luke records. Luke 23, seven says that Pilate sends Jesus over to Herod, who was kind of hanging out there during the Passover. He had a house in town. And so Herod takes him in, begins to question him, but he doesn't get anywhere either. And so what does Herod do? He sends Jesus back to Pilate. But then they become friends, which is interesting. So what's he gonna do now? Again, Pilate's stuck, what is he gonna do? How is he gonna deal with this? The tension's building now, you see this. Verse 15. Now at the feast, the governor was accustomed to release for the people any one person or whom they wanted. Now we don't know much about this so-called custom, but it seems like an invention of the Romans to try to ingratiate themselves with the Jews. Because again, there's often times they're arresting Jews who are starting problems in in the region, and they're arresting and imprisoning insurrectionists. Now, to the Romans, they're insurrectionists. To the Jews, they're heroes. You see that? And so, but once a year, in order to try to stop the further rebellion, they'd say, all right, well, we'll release one of them to you. And they would kind of handpick a couple, and they would say, all right, which one do you want to go? And they would release one of the quote-unquote heroes back to the people, and that would stop them from getting upset for at least a little bit. And so that's his play. He's gonna bring out a truly terrible criminal. One of the bad ones. One they don't want back on the streets. He's gonna bring one of those and then give them a choice between the two. And he's gambling that the people then, the people are gonna elect to have Jesus released and Barabbas put back in prison. And then Pilate can go back to his morning coffee. That's the plan. Now he doesn't have to deal with it. The people will make the decision. This is great. Verse 16 tells us that one of the prisoners being held is a notorious criminal. Notorious, his name was Barabbas. Matthew doesn't tell us anything else except that his name is Barabbas and he's there, he's notorious. But Mark actually adds that he had been imprisoned along with the insurrectionist who had committed murder in the insurrection. So Barabbas here is a bona fide terrorist. He's a murderer. He's killed people. His name, Barabbas, literally means son of the father. Son of the father. And some ancient sources actually give him a first name. According to tradition, or at least some sources, his first name may have been Jesus, which was a common name at that time. And so now you have Jesus Barabbas and Jesus of Nazareth here standing before the people, verse 17. So when the people gathered together, Pilate said to him, whom do you want me to release for you? Barabbas or Jesus who is called Christ? Now Pilate's giving them a choice, but he's stacking the deck. He's stacking the deck. Their choices are this, a genuine murderer or a Galilean teacher with nothing to say, who's done nothing wrong. This is supposed to be an easy one, right? He thinks he's going to get out of this scot-free. Yet Pilate had discovered the Sanhedrin's true motives. Look at verse 18. While he's doing all of this, he knew that because of envy, they had handed him over. He discerns why the Jewish leaders have done this. He figures it out. And now he's going to stick it to them. He's going to get them back for all the trouble they've been causing him for years. He knows that Jesus is likely innocent of all crimes according to his perception. And the Jewish leaders, because of their jealousy, they want him dead, but now by giving the crowd a choice, they're going to choose to free Jesus, keep Barabbas in prison, and then all the problems will be solved. Justice will be served, Jesus will be freed, the Sanhedrin antagonized, and Pilate's off the hook. This has got to work. But while this is playing out, there's another wild card in play. Something else is going on, look at verse 19. While he was sitting on the judgment seat, that's important by the way, his wife sent to him a message saying, have nothing to do with that righteous man for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of him. So now we have Pilate's wife jumping in the mix here. Her name, according to tradition, is Claudia Procla, so Claudia is her name. She sends him this message, warning him about a dream she had, and scholars have sort of gone rounds about this dream. Was this really a message from God to this woman Claudia? Was it superstition? Some have even offered that maybe Claudia was secretly a Christian, that's a popular notion, but the truth is we just don't know. We don't know the conditions around this, but we do know that she rightly discerns that Jesus is a righteous man. She gets that right. But this no doubt gives Pilate pause now. Because here's the thing, this isn't a game. You can't treat this lightly. This isn't about just pulling a fast one on these pesky leaders, these Jewish leaders that have been dogging his steps. There's more going on here. Remember where Pilate is. He's sitting on the Roman judgment seat. He's about to condemn a person to their death. He has opportunity and responsibility to judge righteously. After all, James 4.17 declares, to one who knows the right thing to do and yet does not do it, to him it is sin. We play these games sometimes. We say, well, you know, I don't know about that. And we just sort of kick the can and push things off and, you know, we don't want to get our hands dirty because we just don't want to deal with problems. But if you know that there's something you can do that's right and you don't do it, the Bible says for you, for your conscience, that's actually sinful. If you really don't know what's right, then you don't know. And your conscience might be either underdeveloped or not defiled at all. But as soon as you know that there's a right step to go, the right thing to do, and you don't do it, God punishes that, God judges that. And that's where Pilate is right now. And here's the thing, he can't be ignorant of the whole thing. Even if in his own personal conscience he can't see it clearly, his wife has already come to him saying she's had a dream, No doubt, probably she believes from God. She's been tormented by it. Don't do anything to this righteous man. He's righteous. Pilate knows this. And yet, if Pilate is gonna act justly, the only course of action for him to undertake is to exonerate Jesus. To do anything else is sinful. Verse 20, but the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to put Jesus to death. Now this is beginning to unravel. It's getting worse for Pilate. So now his conscience is no doubt being defiled. He's in a bind, doesn't know what to do. The Sanhedrin, they begin their campaign of spin to get this now assembled Jewish crowd to vote in their favor. And so Pilate here in verse 21, he calls for the decision. The governor says to them, which of the two do you want me to release for you? What do they say? Barabbas. Barabbas. The insurrectionist, the murderer. This man has killed people. And they vote for him. I want you to notice what he's doing here. This is sin upon sin. This is not true justice. This is mob justice. This is decision by popular vote. What do you think is the right thing to do? Forget that, you're the governor. Decide rightly. Judge righteously here. He doesn't do it. He leaves it to the crowd. This is a gross mishandling of justice. What's righteous, what is just, is not just going along with the crowd. The crowd is never right. Culture is rarely right. If a culture is formed and trained and discipled into godliness by the Word of God, yes, you'll have true justice, but as soon as you fall away from God's standard, you go into all kinds of chaos. enter United States of America 2025. It's not by popularity. It's by true righteousness and the only standard of righteousness is God. God is righteous. Everything he says is righteous. And yet here, Pilate has gambled and he's lost. He's lost. The crowd rejects his setup and they choose to release the murderer, Barabbas. Verse 22, Pilate says to them, Well, then what shall I do with Jesus, who is called Christ? All right, you're taking Barabbas. All right, well, I still have this problem here. I have this righteous man, Jesus. I can't find anything wrong with him. What do you think I should do with him? What do they say? They say, the crowd says, crucify him. Now, don't step past that. It's very easy to read the gospel narratives and just gloss over the crowd of what's going on, the drama that's happening. I want you to consider something here. The crowd has just chosen to release Jesus Barabbas, Jesus the Son of the Father, and yet when they've been asked about what to do with Jesus the Divine Son and the Heavenly Father, what is their sentence here? They don't just say, put him to death, because that's what they're going for. Look at what kind of death the crowd suggests. What are they calling for? They're calling for crucifixion, the most egregious and painful death known to man at that time. Because here's the thing, according to their law, what was the punishment for blasphemy? Death by stoning. Stoning. And so even if they had mishandled justice and yet still followed the punishment according to their law, they would have taken Jesus out, they would have stoned him, he would have been dead in a few minutes. But they don't want that. They can't even sin and do according to their tradition. Instead, this wicked, stiff-necked crowd, they demand that Jesus undergo the most torturous death a human can experience and it will last for many hours and sometimes even days. There have been cases of people who've been crucified who hang on a cross or a tree or a stake for days until they eventually die of thirst or asphyxiation or whatever else. This was not a quick death, this was not a a civil, if you want to call it, or merciful death at all. This is a savage way to kill people. This is abhorrent. This isn't even, this is not just. This is torturous. And yet, he doesn't say, should I crucify him for you? They say, crucify him. They want him to suffer. This is wicked. Righteous, righteous God in human flesh who did nothing but come to his people with love and compassion and truthfulness and righteousness. He says in Matthew 23, how I long, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, to gather you as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you are not willing. And yet, all of Jerusalem now has turned against him to crucify him. And here's the thing, this is so severe. Pilate is shocked by this. We see it in verse 23. When they say crucify him, he says, why? What evil has he done? He can't believe it. Why would you crucify? I can't find anything wrong with him. I still don't know what he's done to you. Why would you crucify him? What evil has he done? But they don't give him an answer. They still haven't satisfied it for him. Why crucifixion? They're just caught up in it now. Now they're just addicted to their blood lust and the Bible says they kept on shouting all the more, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. And so now it's just sin upon sin upon sin. For Pilate, negligence upon sin upon negligence upon sin. This is just a torrent of wickedness taking place on Passover week in Jerusalem in the early morning hours of Friday morning. Absolutely awful. Now, at this point, the thing becomes so toxic, Pilate begins to worry about the possibility of a riot. There's a riot forming now. He knows if he doesn't satisfy the multitude, he's going to have a problem on his hands. He doesn't just have 100,000 Jews in Jerusalem now, he's got a million Jews from all over Israel. He's got a lot of people in a small confined area and they're all getting angry. And if he doesn't squelch the thing, he's going to either lose his job or his life. So verse 24, when Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, I am innocent of this man's blood, see to that yourselves." He doesn't want to have anything else to do with it. He's done. So he symbolically washes his hands in front of the crowd, and yet here's the thing. He's still planning to put Jesus to death. despite the fact that Jesus was innocent, despite the fact that his wife's premonition or dream or whatever it would be was warning him that Jesus was a righteous man, despite the fact that even in his own judgment he deemed Jesus to be righteous and innocent, he declares himself now to be innocent. That's irony upon irony. You're gonna condemn an innocent man to death and then you yourself are gonna claim to be innocent? That's the epitome of a sinful heart, isn't it? When you look for the faults of other people and you deem yourself to be in the clear. We have PhDs in doing that, don't we? We're really good at seeing the speck in someone else's eye, but we have a big huge log hanging out of our own and we think that we're doing okay. That same sin is happening here. Pilate deems himself to be innocent. Is he innocent? No. Not at all. He consented to the murder of an innocent man out of the fear of retribution. He has an army at his disposal, and yet he fears man. And then he tells them this, see to that yourselves. Where have we heard that phrase before? That's exactly what the Sanhedrin said to Judas, isn't it? When Judas came back and was worried he had betrayed innocent blood, And they say, well, see to that yourself. You deal with that. That's on you. And here, in a twist of fate, that's exactly what Pilate says to the Jewish Sanhedrin. You guys deal with it. Not my problem. This is a deferral. It's disassociation. I don't want to deal with it. Not my issue. He's your Christ. He's your king. You deal with it. But even in Pilate's self-justifying act, he can't alleviate his guilt. And even that teaches us, even when you wash your hands symbolically, you can't remove your own guilt of your own sin. I've made peace with myself. I've improved myself. I've forgiven myself. There's nothing you can do to alleviate the guilt of sin apart from Christ. Try as you might. Of course, the people, they don't care about any of this. They don't care about Pilate. They don't care about justice. They don't care about anything. All they want is for Pilate to say, yep, go and do it, and that's all they care about. And so what they do is they offer this sentiment, verse 25. And all the people said, his blood shall be on us and on our children. Don't worry, Pilate. We'll take the responsibility. You can be innocent. They try to deem him to be innocent. No, we'll take it. If anything's going to happen, and it won't, it'll be on us and on our kids. It's a thoughtless thing, but how unknowingly prescient. They don't know what they're saying, but it's completely true. Certainly they had no idea, but in the murder of Jesus, they were not only implicating themselves, but they would implicate all who would consent to Jesus' death. And they're implicating every single person in the course of future history who agrees with the judgment. Even now, there are Jews in Israel who look back the course of time of 2,000 years, and they consent. Jesus was a zealot. He was a rebellious zealot, and the Romans killed him in good riddance to him. His blood is on their heads now too. But it goes beyond that. In a very real way, the guilt over shedding the blood of Jesus falls on them, it falls on their children, but it falls on us too. Because we have the guilt of our sin. See, here's the thing, all of us are represented here. You have in this kangaroo court here, you have Jews and Gentiles representing the entire world. Some of us might be of Jewish descent, but most of us are probably of Gentile, of pagan origins. But all of us are represented here, but not even just ethnically. More than this, even the diversity of sinful attitudes is present here. You've got lots of different kinds of sin in the mix here. There are those who lead other people into sin of unbelief, like the Jewish Sanhedrin, you have that sin. And then you have those who follow along in the debauchery. They're also here, like the crowds. And then you have those, like Pontius Pilate, who claim to be innocent, and yet fail to do what's right by revering and worshiping the Lord. So just because you don't lead someone into sin, doesn't mean you're not guilty. Well, I was just following along. That's sinful. Or maybe you say, well, you know, I'm not gonna worry about it. I'm not gonna deal with it. So many unbelievers say that. What about Jesus? Well, you know, listen, hey, that's your religion. You do whatever you want. I got my own thing. You know, I'm not going to worry about it. You're acting like Pontius Pilate here. I'm innocent. I had nothing to do with Jesus. I don't know. Not my problem. Here's the thing. It was their sin that nailed them to the cross, but it was our sin that kept him there. We are all there. Later on in Acts 3.13, Peter, the Apostle Peter, rebukes the Jews for their part in the death of Christ. He tells them in Acts 3.13, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus, the one you delivered up, and disowned in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him, but you disowned the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. Even all those months and even for years after, that would be the message. You had a chance to trust in him, to believe in him, And what did you do? You delivered him over. The condemnation and murder of Jesus Christ was the greatest sin ever committed. And yet, in the mystery of God, in the providence of God, it had to happen. It had to happen. Otherwise, there would be no payment for sin. And so before the Roman court, Jesus Christ was condemned to death just as he said he would be. Verse 26, then he, Pilate, released Barabbas for them. But after having Jesus scourged, he handed him over to be crucified. Jesus was and is the only truly righteous person who's ever existed. And yet our sins were placed on Him. Our condemnation became His condemnation. Our punishment became His punishment. And while Jesus took the cross of a murderer, Barabbas, in a very real way, He took our cross as well. That cross on Calvary is supposed to be my cross. And it's supposed to be your cross too. And let's not forget that, especially as you live your life as a Christian. It is so easy, beloved. If we're going to apply these truths to who we are as believers, it's so easy for us to go, well, that was Jesus's cross and I'm doing OK. No, he was on your cross. Don't ever forget that. And yet he did take that cross for you. Willingly, knowingly, lovingly, The Bible says that He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf. Why? Why would you do that, Lord? So that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. We have no righteousness inherently. I've got nothing good inside of my soul. Nothing. And neither do you. And yet, because of Christ, we have received the benefits, the accreditation of His righteousness, His perfect righteousness on our account. When the Father looks at us through the lens of Jesus Christ, He sees the righteousness of Christ. He doesn't see us in our sin. He doesn't treat us as sinners when He sees Christ in us. He treats us as beloved children. And he condemned his own son to do it. But if he didn't, there would be no hope. These gospel narratives are so important, not just because we want to tell the story. The story is very important. We need to understand what happened. But what's more important is what does this mean? What did this do? Why did Jesus have to die? Why did he have to be condemned? Because we were condemned. And if you're not in Christ, even now, you are condemned. And if you were to die tonight and have not given your life to Christ, this is the last day you will ever see any peace or joy in this life. God condemns all sin, all iniquity, all unrighteousness. And yet, understand this, that Jesus came to give his life for you. as an atoning sacrifice, as payment for sin. It's a very real payment. He gave and shed his blood to cleanse you from sin, to remove the guilt, to remove the shame, to give you an everlasting righteousness. And when he rose the third day into new life, your new life began on Resurrection Sunday with him. And so what must we do? We must turn from our sins, repent of our sins, and put our faith squarely on Jesus Christ and trust in Him for life. And at that point, we can say with Paul, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. So when you're living your life, believers, and you're struggling, and you're at odds with people, maybe you're suffering, maybe you're enduring hardship, you need to understand something. Yes, things are difficult. Yes, there are troubles. Yes, there are consequences, earthly consequences for sin. But you need to remember that if you are in Christ, you're in a no condemnation status. He will not visit judgment on you when you die. That is good news. But how were you able to obtain that status of no condemnation? Because Jesus endured all of this for you and for me, but ultimately for the Father. He died on the cross and redeemed us to glorify the Father. God is glorified by the redemption of sinners being reconciled to himself. Even though Jesus was killed at the hands of sinners, he was murdered, was buried, and resurrected unto the glory of God the Father. It's a remarkable thing. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just look into your word and we see the story played out. We hear the chants of the crowd, we hear, we see the Sanhedrin, we see Pilate. We hear the whispering voice of Claudia, we see all of these things and yet. Like a diamond sparkling in a dark place, we see the glory of Jesus Christ by faith. We see him standing there like a lamb that is being led to the slaughter. Like a sheep that is silent before the shearers. We see him as the captain of our salvation, the king of the universe. We see him standing there bound and bleeding. And we see Him, and our hearts love Him. And we want Him. Lord, I pray that You would minister these truths to us. Lord, there are so many who are bruised and broken and bleeding and hurting. Let them be renewed and revived through the Gospel. Let them see, O Lord, the value that they are to you because of the sacrifice of Christ. Let them see the righteousness of Jesus, the only righteous one. Let them see justice satisfied. Let them see their sin nailed to the cross. Let them see this whole thing played out on their behalf. And yet, Lord, for those maybe who are here who don't know you, let them see their need for the Savior. Let them see that it is their sin that is crying out for the crucifixion of the Messiah. Delivering over to death the only righteous one. And cause them to mourn their own sin and turn to Christ by faith. Lord, let this have its Justifying and sanctifying power in us. Let us not gloss over this and go right to the table. Let us consider the cost of our salvation. And Lord, as we eat the bread which symbolizes your flesh, and as we drink the juice, the red juice that symbolizes your blood, let us consider our union with you. That you, who knew no sin, became as sin for us, so that we might enter the presence of holy God, deemed to be righteous in his sight. Minister to us, O Lord, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.