And Lord, as we now come to your word. Lord, we can only come as guilty criminals who are hungry, who need Your grace, who have received Your grace and are now hungry to be fed by Christ. So we pray that You would use Your Word to accomplish Your work in us. Feed us and nourish us, strengthen us, convict us and encourage us with Your Word in order that we may grow in Christ's likeness. It's for His glory and in His name we pray. Amen. If you have your Bibles with you, please turn to the book of John. We are going to finish up chapter 18 today. We'll be looking at verses 39 and 40 in John chapter 18. One of the things that we'll be looking at today, as you can see, the name of this sermon is Barabbas' Pardon. And Barabbas is a story that we find in all four of the gospel narratives. And John doesn't give us a whole lot, so there's going to be a lot of cross references today to the other gospels. If you want to follow along, that's fine. If not, totally understandable. But Barabbas. is one of the most amazing characters. His story is one of the most amazing stories, I believe, in all of the New Testament, maybe in all of Scripture. And my prayer for you is that you will agree with that before we're done, and that this study will be a blessing to you. One of the surest marks of Christian maturity is seen when a man or when a woman develops a fuller, a more robust understanding of the doctrine of God's sovereignty. and not only head knowledge, not only an intellectual understanding of the fact that God is sovereign, but also, and perhaps even more importantly, a deep and confident trust in God's sovereignty. The scriptures clearly attest to the fact that God is completely sovereign over all of creation. Now, when we say that God is sovereign, we mean that He is supreme. and unparalleled. We mean that He rules and that He reigns over all of creation. In fact, what we mean is that He not only rules over all of creation, but that He rules over every detail in all of creation. In Stephen Lawson's words, God's sovereignty means that God does as He pleases, when He pleases, where He pleases, how He pleases, and with whom He pleases, in saving undeserving sinners. All other doctrines of the Christian faith must be brought into alignment with this keystone truth." And so, with that in mind, if we can be confident that God is sovereign over all things, and we can be because He is, how much more confident can we be, or should we be, that He's sovereign over every last detail that we find in His Word. And if we can be completely confident that He's sovereign over every detail in His Word, and we can be, how much more confident, even more confident, can we be that He is sovereign over every single last detail surrounding the central event not only of Scripture, but of all of human history in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. There were no accidents involved in the events surrounding the Lord's crucifixion and arrest and resurrection. There were no coincidences. There was absolutely nothing that just happened by chance. Now if you read through all the events and all the details surrounding the arrest and the trial and the death and resurrection of Christ, if you read all those things from a completely secular, a completely pagan perspective, it could very easily appear as if there were some very interesting, very maybe strange coincidences, but that is the way that God's sovereignty always looks from a completely pagan, secular perspective. Without eyes to see, all there is, is darkness. to prove that he reigns over every last detail, every minute detail surrounding these events in Jesus's life. He gave us prophecies throughout the Old Testament that foretold various details that might have just seemed kind of insignificant, but they're made significant by the fact that we actually find them foretold in the Old Testament. For example, in Isaiah 53, verse three, we're told that the Messiah would be despised and rejected by men. And if you read that, you say, well, OK, you could probably say that about a lot of people. What's so special about that? What's so special about that is that that's not even the tip of the iceberg. Zechariah chapter 9 verse 9 prophesies of Jesus's entry into Jerusalem on a donkey. Zechariah chapter 11 verses 12 and 13 prophesy of how Jesus would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. Psalm 35.11 tells us that false witnesses would be brought to testify against Him. Psalm 69.21 tells of how Jesus would be given gall and vinegar to drink. And the list goes on and on and on. It is very lengthy. The point is, all of these prophecies are there to not only inform us, but to remind us that God was sovereign over every last minute detail surrounding Christ's arrest, death, and resurrection, just as He is sovereign over everything else. Now one of the details that every one of the gospel accounts includes, as they tell us of these events, is the story of this man named Barabbas. The fact that so few details are found in all four gospel testimonies or accounts indicates for us that the details that are shared are indeed very significant. We don't have a huge backstory on Barabbas. He has not been a main character. He really isn't a main character. He kind of peeks out of the shadows for a quick second and then goes right back in. But the story of Barabbas is significant and that's revealed in the fact that he's talked about in all four gospel narratives, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Now between the four accounts, there are actually a total of 38 verses that tell his story. That's actually quite a few verses if you think about it. But there's a lot of overlap between these four accounts among the four Gospels. But you wouldn't get the impression that he was so important if you just looked at John's account. John tells us about Barabbas very quickly in just two verses. But the backstory of Barabbas involves Jesus' trial before Pilate, which is what we've been looking at the past couple lessons. Jesus was brought before Pilate after being found guilty in the illegal trial before the Jewish leaders, who found him guilty of blasphemy. being unauthorized to carry out a sentence of capital punishment on their own. We saw that they then brought Jesus to stand before Pilate. Their hopes were that Pilate would just say, you know, I don't have time for this, I'll just sign what you want me to sign, and they would lead him off to Jesus's death. But instead, what we saw is that Pilate actually gave Jesus a very fair hearing. which led to Pilate returning to the Jewish leaders to tell them in verse 38 here in chapter 18, I find no guilt in him. Now it's clear that if Pilate were really interested in being fair, if Pilate was truly interested in being just, that he would have just immediately released Jesus, regardless of how the Jews felt about it. He knew that they wanted him dead. He had to know that at this point. But he doesn't release Jesus, even though he finds no guilt in Him. What kind of a judge would do that? That's what we've got to think to ourselves. Pilate had the authority to do that, to just release Jesus. But Jesus' accusers were still demanding His execution. So Pilate, who was very clearly trying not only to deliver a fair verdict but who was also very interested in gaining the approval of man, which ironically will very often interfere with true justice being rendered, So he tries to find another way to set Jesus free. And what a completely horrible move, what a completely foolish move it would be to find another way to set Jesus free. As A.W. Pink notes, he says, quote, instead of yielding to the voice of conscience, he proceeded to confer with those who thirsted for the Savior's blood. End quote. And so after basically delivering what's our equivalent of a not guilty verdict, Luke tells us this in Luke 23, verses 5-7. He writes, But they kept on insisting, saying, He stirs up the people, teaching all over Judea, starting from Galilee, even as far as this place. When Pilate heard it, he asked whether the man, that is Jesus, was a Galilean. And when he learned that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him, Pilate sent Jesus, to Herod, who himself was also in Jerusalem at that time. But then we get to Luke 23, verse 11, and we read this, we read, and Herod, with his soldiers, after treating him, after treating Jesus, with contempt and mocking him, dressed him in a gorgeous robe and sent him back to Pilate. just mocking him. Pilate was therefore not absolved from his responsibility of finding a way to set Jesus free, since he's not just going to declare it. So he tries to find another way. He recalled that the Jews had this custom with him which gave him the opportunity to, in his mind, set Jesus free for sure. And this is what we read about in the passage that we come to today. The point of our passage today is that Jesus came to die in the place of unworthy, undeserving sinners. We must accept this offer of pardon, and we do so by believing on Jesus, yielding ourselves to Him by grace through faith. as Savior and Lord. So our passage picks up with Pilate having just declared the verdict, telling the Jews I find no guilt in him. We continue in verses 39 and 40. He says, But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you wish then that I release for you the king of the Jews? So they cried out again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. The way that the Jewish leaders had tried Jesus was completely illegal. It was a gross miscarriage of justice. It was undeniably the single worst and most unjust trial in all of history, because there's never been another trial where somebody who had never once sinned was standing trial, even if they were innocent of the charges. The way that the false witnesses lied about Jesus. That was also a gross miscarriage of justice. It wasn't right at all. But Pilate also makes this list of gross miscarriages of justice for not immediately releasing Jesus as he should have. That is a terrible miscarriage of justice that would result in Jesus' blood not only being on the hands of the Jews, but now also on the hands of the Gentiles as well, if it weren't already since they helped and participated in Jesus' arrest. But instead of releasing Jesus, Pilate starts playing. act that they can do that'll make the most people happy. And so he recalls that there is this custom, and we don't know when this custom began, we don't know where it came from, but he recalls that there is this custom that the Romans have with the Jews for the Passover feast. It wasn't a custom in any of the other feasts. Is that a coincidence? No, of course not, because there are no coincidences in any of these details. There are no coincidences in God's universe. There's no coincidence in a universe where God is sovereign. And He is sovereign in this universe. So no, it was not a coincidence that this particular feast had this particular custom. God ordained even this very detail. And the Jews insisted on continuing with this custom. Mark tells us this in Mark 15, verses 6-9. He says, Now at the feast he used to release for them any one prisoner whom they requested. The man named Barabbas had been imprisoned with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the insurrection. The crowd went up and began asking him to do as he had been accustomed to do for them. Pilate answered them, saying, Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews? Now notice that Pilate wasn't giving this option to the religious leaders. No, Pilate knew what they wanted. He knew what they would say. He wronged the common Jewish, therefore, that if he appealed to the common citizens, the common Jewish citizens, that surely they would set Jesus free. But while there was nothing in the Old Testament Scriptures which even mentioned this practice at a Passover feast, it's not something, therefore, that God has instructed. It's just something that was picked up somewhere along the way. Where did it come from? We don't know entirely, we don't know the exact time that it started, but we know that it was practiced. We can speculate that it was probably initiated as just kind of a political gesture of fairness, a political gesture of goodwill toward the Jews, most of whom held a deep-seated distrust toward the Roman judicial system and toward the Roman Empire in general. Now if Rome did indeed treat the Jews unfairly, and I think it's fair for us to say they probably at least kind of did, we can confidently assume that they did at least from time to time treat them unfairly, just because there's no perfect earthly court. But if that's the case, then hey, this is a great PR move, right? It's good for public relations. So this custom was practiced, and not only practiced, but embraced, because it gave the Jews a sense of hope. in their oppression and occupation by the Roman Empire. One man being set free from prison would understandably almost be symbolic of the whole nation being set free. Very similar to how deeply people today are affected when a prisoner, particularly a political prisoner, is set free for the sense of creating a sense of just political goodwill toward the people. I mean, think about the reaction that people had when Nelson Mandela was set free, for example. But the idea of this kind of grace being extended where a prisoner would be set free, the idea of such grace being extended to someone, it is this custom wasn't specifically instructed by God. For example, their own scriptures required that the year of Jubilee would come every 50 years, and that on that year, the year of Jubilee, every slave and every prisoner would be set free. I mean, surely the Jews loved that, right? Surely they enjoyed that kind of grace, even though the Scriptures never specifically tell us about them practicing that instruction, the year of Jubilee. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. It seems at least a bit on the unlikely side that they ever practiced it since we're not told about them practicing it. What's far more likely is that just like so many people, they loved receiving grace far more than they enjoyed extending it themselves. Don't let that be said of you. But if nothing else, as a people, they were set free from slavery in Egypt. And this custom, where Pilate would release a prisoner, would fit in well as kind of an illustration and a reminder of the Jewish history as a nation, since that's what they were remembering. at Passover. They were remembering being set free. So Pilate is reminded of this custom, and Pilate immediately sees his opportunity, political expediency all the way. He races through his mental files. He's searching for the most vile, the most degenerate criminal, immoral, someone so wicked and despicable, that there would be no way that somebody in their right mind would choose that criminal to be set free over Jesus. And this is where Barabbas comes into the story. Between the four gospel accounts we learn that Barabbas was a robber. Robbery shouldn't be confused with being a thief. A thief simply steals things. A robber is one who steals and plunders by force, by violence, or by threat of violence. Mark tells us that Barabbas was an insurrectionist and a murderer. Matthew tells us that he was just a notorious prisoner. In other words, he was widely known in a very bad way for what he had done. So he was not a respectable man by any means, in anyone's eyes except maybe fellow insurrectionists and rebels, maybe fellow criminals, but in the common person's eyes. There was nothing lovable, nothing worthy, nothing within him that would be worthy of being set free in their eyes. Matthew tells us, therefore, that Pilate puts the choice forward for the people to decide. Matthew records Pilate as saying to the crowds, Whom do you want me to release for you, Barabbas or Jesus who is called Christ or Messiah? Should have been an easy decision, right? It should have been an easy decision. Surely they would never ever want to release a man who had forcefully or perhaps violently stolen from at least one fellow man, probably many. I mean, we love to see justice carried out against people like Barabbas, don't we? In our day and age, it'll be all over social media. If the news isn't covering it, you'll see it trending on Twitter. It's all over the place. We love to see despicable criminals have justice carried out against them. And so did they. But while Pilate was thinking that he was just so wise in doing this, the fact is that he was only deceiving himself. It was a completely foolish decision because he was putting the power to make this decision in somebody else's hands. In fact, he was putting it in the hands of a riled up mob. It was a terrible decision. If he thought that they would have been upset, if he would really, really rile up this mob, if he does not give them what they demand now that he has given them the choice. One commentator notes that, quote, Pilate now stands forever as a warning example of the consequence of endeavoring to satisfy both God, who speaks within us, and the world. End quote. It is a dangerous, dangerous thing to ignore your conscience, friends. It's even more dangerous to get in the habit of ignoring your conscience. The easiest way to develop a seared conscience is to just ignore it. In fact, to do the opposite of what your conscience is instructing you. See, the purpose of the conscience is to stop us from crossing certain moral or ethical boundaries, right? But when Paul, for example, when he says to the Romans in Romans chapter 2 that the law of God was written on the human heart, That's what he's talking about. He's talking about the conscience. And he's talking about the fact that all will be guilty before God, even if they have not read the law, because everybody has a conscience. And everybody has acted against their conscience. The conscience tells us naturally, not to steal, not to cheat, not to murder, not to lie. It tells us to treat others in the way that we ourselves want to be treated. And Pilate's conscience is at work here. It's working. He knew what the right thing to do was. He knew that the right thing to do was to release Jesus immediately. But here's his mistake. he wants to appease both his conscience and the unregenerate masses. Sometimes you can do that I suppose, but often it will not work, particularly when the masses have formed a rabid mob like they have here in our text. In our day and age, this is where social media has just become so incredibly, incredibly toxic. Because social media very quickly creates a mob mentality. And we start to believe the lie that it's going to be easier to appease the mob than it will be to just follow our conscience. And so what do most people do? They just follow along with whatever the mob demands. The solution to that, which we all need, which everyone needs, the solution to that is to fear God more than you fear man. To fear God more than you fear the mob. And Pilate didn't. The past couple of years have seen us witness this cultural mob mentality that most of us have never seen in our lifetimes, unless you're from certain countries where this type of thing is fairly common. I'm not saying that you should or shouldn't have received the vaccine, for example, but what I am saying is that there was incredible mob-like pressure put on those who did not want to take it. and bosses and employers across our country folded like lawn chairs from the dollar store. threatening to fire anyone who didn't get it, even if it was a requested exemption for religious convictions. What we learned is that the mob can be extremely, extremely persuasive. It caused the same people in our country who have been saying for years that discrimination is wrong to start discriminating. In other words, either it created a severe case of cognitive dissonance, which is where people hold two contradicting positions at the same time, or it forced them to violate their own consciences. And neither of those options is good. The solution, again, is to fear God more than you fear man. To fear God more than you fear the mob. Pilate feared the mob to the point that he allowed them to control him and to nullify the whisperings of his own conscience. As we know, the Jewish mob did not want their king. John tells us they cried out, not this man, not Jesus. but Barabbas. Now you might be asking, why would anyone, why would this mob want Barabbas to be free? Why Barabbas, who was basically a terrorist instead of Jesus, who never hurt anyone? I kind of take that back. Well, aside from hurting people's feelings sometimes, which happens when you tell the truth. Why would they have chosen Barabbas over Jesus? Why would they choose a murderer over someone who has never hurt anyone and has only shown love and grace and compassion? What could possibly compel them to even remotely desire to set an insurrectionist rebel murderer free? James Montgomery Boyce gives us the answer in a very succinct manner. He says this, they can handle Barabbas But how do you handle Jesus? Think of it this way. What do you think the world finds more threatening? Somebody, on one hand, who can shake society to the core with tanks and knives and violence and guns. Or, on the other hand, somebody who can do the same thing, but without violence, without guns, without violence. What kind of a man could shake the whole Roman Empire by the power of his word alone? You can control an insurrectionist. Maybe you recruit equal or greater force to come up against him, or you recruit more numbers of people to stand up to him, but you cannot control God. So you can control Barabbas, but how do you control God incarnate? Barabbas isn't going to change your life. In fact, he's not even trying to change your life. Don't get me wrong, he will exploit you over and over again for his own personal gain, but he isn't demanding that you yield your life to him as Lord. He isn't telling you that you need to obey Him. Jesus, on the other hand, is demanding that He be recognized as Lord and that those who follow Him obey Him. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I say? He once asked. This shows us, what this shows us is that the world would rather live under the threat of imminent terrorism, imminent terrorist activity, and threat of violence, than yield their lives to Christ. And thus, they demanded the release, not of Jesus, but of Barabbas upon themselves. So, why is Barabbas such an important character? Why would God include his story? Why do we need to know about Barabbas? And the answer is, because when you look at the story of Barabbas, it should be like looking in the mirror. It's a picture. He is a picture of you and of me. He represents you and me and everyone else in at least three ways. First of all, he deserved to be put to death. He deserved to be put to death. He should have been the one on the cross between the two thieves on that day. Those nails had His name on them. Now, you might think, well, I'm not a criminal. I'm not like this bravest guy. I'm not a robber. Really? You don't think so? You've never robbed God of the glory and the honor that He's due in your life? Not even once? In fact, we all have. And if robbing a fellow man, robbing a fellow sinner is a heinous crime, how much more heinous is it that we should rob God? You think you're not a murderer? In his work on the Ten Commandments, Puritan author Thomas Watson laid out twelve ways in which the Bible tells us that we murder according to Scripture. With the hand, with the mind, with the tongue, with the pen, the list goes on and on. If you have ever slandered someone, if you have ever spoken falsely about someone, if you have ever thought wrongly about someone, if you've ever been wrongly angry with someone, Jesus said, everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty of murder. Because it's in the heart. And so every one of us is guilty. You think you're not an insurrectionist rebel? All of us live in God's universe and yet all of us have failed to live in obedience to God. This is His world. This is His universe. It's not yours. It's not mine. It's not the president's. It's not the World Economic Forum's. This is God's world. Barabbas defied and rebelled against the earthly governing authorities, you and I have defied and rebelled against the authority over the whole universe. This is God's world, and all of us are guilty of falling short of God's glorious standards of moral uprightness in more ways in the last 24 hours than we can possibly imagine. We have all sinned. And what is the consequence of sin? To use the Bible's language, what is the wage of sin? What do we do because of our sin? The wage of sin is death. As surely as Barabbas deserved to be on that cross between two thieves, friends, You deserve to be there too. And so did I. And so did everyone else. Secondly, Barabbas did nothing to deserve or to warrant this pardon that he's given. He wasn't released because of good behavior. Sometimes our judicial system will do that, release somebody a little bit early, put them on parole maybe due to good behavior. That's not why he was given this pardon. He wasn't a good criminal while he was in prison. He wasn't a moral man. by any means. He hadn't made a commitment to seeking help as soon as he's released to deal with his anger problem or whatever he had. There was no indication that he ever regretted the actions that landed him on the Roman Empire's version of death row. In fact, what he probably did upon being released is go right back to his way of life. He'd end up there again most likely. All this to say, that he did absolutely nothing to deserve this pardon that he's been offered. And thus he had no room to boast of his pardon. He couldn't go to his criminal friends and say, hey, they let me out because of something I did. There's nothing that he could boast of. In the same way, friends, there has never, ever, not even once in all of human history, been a Christian who deserved God's grace. Not one. Not one of us deserved it. Not one of us warranted it. We were dead in our sins. As Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1-2, we were dead in our sins in which we formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. And yet, and yet, Despite the fact that we didn't deserve a pardon, despite the fact that we didn't warrant a pardon, God lavished His grace upon us freely, pardoning us. We were following the world, we were following the devil, we were following the flesh, but God in His goodness, in His grace, freely pardoned us. So in that sense, Barabbas is a picture of you and me. Third, Jesus took the punishment that Barabbas deserved. Jesus wasn't guilty of anything. That's what Pilate has already said. He's not guilty of anything. I find no guilt in him, he said. He didn't rob anybody. He didn't kill anybody. He wasn't an insurrectionist. He wasn't even trying to lead people to overthrow the Roman Empire. He was perfectly sinless in every way. He never once strayed from the Father's will. And thus, he was literally the best person in the whole human race throughout all of human history who should have died as a criminal. The name Barabbas, and here we go, with God being sovereign over even the smallest, most minute details here, the name Barabbas means son of the father. How fitting that Jesus, the son of the father, capital S and capital F, should die in the place of the son of the father, small case, lowercase s and f. Barabbas should have been on the cross that day and he knew it and yet Jesus stood in his place physically speaking. Likewise, you and I were born as children of wrath. We were not born as children of God. We were born as children of wrath. Adam, in his fallen state, was our father, our representative before God. And yet, Christ took our place on the cross. bearing the horrific wrath of God that every single one of us who have trusted in Him deserved. Dying the death that you and I rightfully deserved to die. That day, that glorious Passover day should have been Barabbas' last day on earth and he knew it. When he woke up that day, it's entirely likely that he was expecting to only see half the day. That he would spend the first half of the day marching toward his own execution. And as he spent time in his prison cell, he must have spent hours on end trying to imagine how excruciatingly painful it must be to be crucified. He knew, as everyone in their culture knew, that it was the most gruesome, the most grisly, the most awful death, the most disgusting means of execution known to man. Maybe he had even seen other criminals crucified before with his own eyes. How many hours of sleep do you think Barabbas lost as he thought about all these things until this day? But on this day, he wakes up and he hears the chanting and the shouting of the mob outside. He knows that His time has rightfully come. He hears the people shouting His name. He knows how much they hate Him. He knows how much they despise Him. He knows that they long to see justice executed against Him. And in His own conscience, if He can even hear it anymore, in His own conscience He knows that the masses out there are right to desire that he be punished with death. And as he sits silently in his cell, he's probably sweating profusely as his heart races and adrenaline fills his veins, and he hears the sound of footsteps coming toward his cell, and the clanging of the keys against the bars of his cell. The guard takes him, and leads him outside where the sun is so bright he hasn't seen it in weeks or months. It's just beating down on him and he hears the angry chants of the crowd. It's so loud he can't even think straight. And then, to his surprise, the guard unchains him and shouts at him above the crowd, You're pardoned. You're free to go. And so he takes a step toward the crowd and realizes they're not even focused on him. They don't even seem to notice him. It's not his death that they're chanting for. The mob screams out in unison, crucify him, crucify him, but they're not talking about the man who deserved it. They're talking about somebody who didn't deserve it. They're talking about this rabbi who stands before the crowd. He sees a face that maybe looks familiar that he knew before and he goes to that man and he asks, what is happening? What exactly is going on? Who is this man? And the man responds, it's Jesus of Nazareth, a blaspheming rabbi. And with that, Barabbas is just free to do whatever. He disappears into the crowd. He disappears into the dustbin of history. Does he stop to consider exactly what just took place? Does he stop to consider who is dying in his stead? Does he think to himself, this man is taking the punishment that I rightfully deserve? Donald Gray Barnhouse notes that, quote, Barabbas was the only man in the world who could say that Jesus Christ took his physical place, end quote. But you and I, friends, we can say that Jesus took our place spiritually. For as surely as Barabbas was a rebel insurrectionist murder who was physically spared, so too is anyone, anyone, who has trusted in Christ for salvation spared spiritually. Truly, as Isaiah prophesied, he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crucified, he was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. Jesus died. so that in Him we may live. He bore the punishment that we deserve so that we could stand before Him free of any sin debt, forgiven, cleansed of every stain of sin. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow by the shedding of His own blood. Proverbs chapter 17 verse 15 says this, it says, he who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord. And in one act, both Pilate and the masses have found themselves on both sides of this equation in one act. And so did Barabbas. He could have rejected this opportunity to receive this pardon. He could have pled with Pilate and the crowd to let Jesus go free. He could have gone up to Pilate and spit in his face and said, I don't need your grace. I don't need your pardon. I don't even want your help. And we have to think that some other prisoner would have been chosen. Now we might be tempted to laugh at the idea of a prisoner who's just been set free doing that. Such a response to pardon is indeed laughable. It's humorous because it's so Ridiculous. It's so outlandish. Who? What guilty criminal would do that when they are offered pardon? And yet that's exactly the very response of so many to hearing the offer of grace and pardon that's offered when the gospel is preached and the offer of pardon and forgiveness is made. The most common response is to spit in the face of the God who so kindly offers pardon for all who will repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. There was a criminal named George Wilson. who had a trial in which he was found guilty of six charges, including robbery of the mail and, quote, putting the life of the driver in jeopardy. He was sentenced to die by public hanging, which was to be carried out on July 2nd of 1830. Some of Wilson's friends pled with President Andrew Jackson that President Jackson would pardon him, which he did, which the president did do. And he would still have to serve 20 years in prison for his various other crimes, but he was offered a pardon for the crimes that would have and should have resulted in his execution. And you know what Wilson did with that? He declined. He contested it in court. And this was just such a weird case because something like this, you would never imagine that something like this would ever happen. It certainly hadn't happened in the United States judicial system before. But the charges were pardoned and the guilty insisted that they not be pardoned, that he bear his rightful punishment. And so it actually was a case that ended up going to the Supreme Court, where his rejection of the pardon was upheld. Chief Justice Marshall wrote this, he said, quote, A pardon is an act of grace proceeding from the power entrusted with the execution of the laws, but delivery is not completed without acceptance. It may then be rejected by the person to whom it is tendered, and we have no power in a court to force it on him. The value of the pardon is determined by the acceptance of it by the person to be pardoned. If it is refused, it is no pardon. Wilson must be hanged." End quote. And so he was. A pardon is offered for sinners, friends. Jesus Christ came to die in the place of sinners who have done nothing to deserve grace, have done nothing to deserve mercy, but who will accept this free offer of pardon and forgiveness of sins before God. as surely as Barabbas' only hope of being released and set free physically was in the pardon provided through the death of Jesus Christ. The only hope that you and I have of being released and set free spiritually is in Christ's movement of tutionary atonement. There is a large movement of progressive Christians, as if there is such a thing today, which deny that the gospel has anything to do with substitutionary atonement. They'll say that's gruesome that God would need a substitute to stand in our place and shed His blood. Friends, there is no other way. Don't pretend that you are wiser than God as if you can come up with a different way for sinners to be forgiven and for God to be not only just, but the justifier of those who trust in Christ Jesus. Substitutionary atonement is the gospel. Would you be so prideful? Would you be so completely foolish to refuse such an amazing gift? Let it never be said of you that you would refuse this gift. Jesus came to die in the place of unworthy, undeserving sinners. Is that you? Are you an unworthy, undeserving sinner? Is Christ your only hope of pardon before God? To answer no is to accept the wage of your sin, the consequence of your sin, and that is death. But to accept it, how do you accept this pardon? You have to change directions. You have to turn away from your sin and you must turn toward the Lord Jesus Christ in faith. You must repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and as the Lord of the universe. Jesus came to die in the place of unworthy, undeserving sinners. So if that is you, you're eligible. We must accept this offer of pardon, and we do so by believing on Jesus, yielding ourselves to Him by grace alone, through faith alone, as Savior and Lord of our lives. Don't be like Pilate. Don't do what Pilate did here. Don't refuse to take a stand. Don't refuse to make a personal commitment. Trying to appease the world. Just going along with whatever the crowd, whatever the masses, whatever your friends, whatever anybody else tells you to do. To refuse to stand for Jesus means that you will stand with the mob. Chanting with them. Crucify Him. Crucify Him. Demanding Jesus' death. Jesus was on trial before Pilate, but at the same time, Pilate was also on trial before Jesus. So were the Jews. And guess what? So are you. And so am I. But what will you do with this Jesus? What will you do with His offer of pardon? What will you do with His gospel? The Scriptures tell us that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. You'll be pardoned. So what is your response to this offer of pardon? Is it to join with the mob and chant, crucify Him, crucify Him? Or is it to proclaim of Him, my Lord and my God? May God open your hearts to Him. And may He give you the conviction to repent and the grace to believe on Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and to thereby accept and receive and take hold of this wonderful offer of pardon by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Let's pray. Our Father, we can only confess to You that we identify with Barabbas. That we are only worthy of death because we've sinned against You in so many ways. More ways than we can possibly count. We have refused to love You with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We have refused to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We're guilty of it and the rest. Your justice, we know that it would be warranted. What isn't warranted is your grace. And so we thank you for your grace being poured out on us, lavished upon us in Christ Jesus. We thank you for this story of Barabbas that's so amazingly shows us the glory and the beauty of the gospel. We pray, Lord, that we would receive this pardon eagerly. We pray that you would open our hearts to believe and that you would fill our hearts with faith. We thank you, O Lord, for Jesus's perfect life. Thank you that he stood in our place. All we can do is thank you and offer our lives to you, not as if you need our lives, but we desire to glorify you in our lives. Pray that you would fill our hearts with thanksgiving and that our lives would be turned from insurrectionist rebel murderers into being conformed into the likeness of Christ. For His glory. In His name we pray. Amen.