And we are looking at the events of April 1st. There isn't, but there wasn't April Fool. I think Jesus had the first April Fool joke, right? Like, hey, just kidding.
It was getting worse again, you know? But if April 1st is going to be Easter Sunday this year, we're going to celebrate Jesus resurrecting. It's going to be a great time. Listen, there are two times a year that people often will accept an invitation to come here.
One of it's Easter, and the other is Christmas Eve, all right? So please just invite people. I mean, one people come in here. Just let you know the message for that Sunday is going to be talking about Jesus, but it's also going to be addressing a lot of common, a common claim against Christianity.
So a lot of people will say, like, well, how do we know there was an empty tomb? What are some of the other plausible reasonings for Jesus who stole our bodies? So Matthew chapter 27, we're looking at the life. What we started off talking about was Jesus serving the disciples, but then we talked about how Jesus was betrayed in the Garden of Yosemite.
We all preached last week about Peter's denial and how failure doesn't stop us, but God works through our failures to really keep us. And now we're going to be looking at a criminal named Barabbas. And this is how I've entitled this message. I've entitled it, which Jesus do you want?
And it will become abundantly clear why I have chosen that particular piece, which Jesus do you want? But before I do that, I want to share with you the overall thought and the overall message for the key theme or idea from this text. And it is this, the message of Jesus centers around freedom. I've talked to a lot of different people here and there.
And what oftentimes happens is they tell me that religion and it's all about control. And I think on one hand, that one in religion, in particular, can be misused. It can lead to control, right? So we can look through history and see certain groups that people have used religion to move people into one direction, to make people think in one or two controls, or people think that or making people follow one set of rules.
It's always been about freedom, that the reason why Jesus came was to free us. And that is because when we are free, now we can actually truth. And I hope to kind of show you how this plays out in the story of Barabbas. But the universal thing, the universal, that doesn't matter what you believe is this, that what you believe will inevitably work out in how you act and what you do.
So Jesus tells his people that if you believe that it comes, look, you have your Bibles. Matthew, chapter 27, we're looking at a story of a physical freedom of a criminal named Barabbas, that is actually just a picture at the start of verse 15. Now at the feast, the governor was accustomed to release a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. So when they had gathered, Pilate sent to them, who do you want me to release for you?
Barabbas or Jesus, who was called for, or he knew that it was out of envy, that they had delivered him up. Byes, while he was sitting on the Judge and see his wife sent where to him, held us for a suite of the crowds who asked for Barabbas and 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 shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? And they all said, let him be crucified.
He said, why, what evil has he done? But they shouted, all the more, let him be crucified. Now at the feast, the governor was accustomed, the question I read that verse 24. Now when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the prayer.
His blood beyond us and our children, then he released for them having scorched Jesus, the liver came out, and that was a lot of text, let me explain what's happening here. Trading the garden to get them in, already gone before the council of the Jewish leaders, and we want Jesus dead. But they can't just murder a guy, right? They can't just do it, they are still under the Roman control.
So now that they have found Jesus to be guilty, even though he's innocent, even though they want him dead, they go to Pilate who's the Roman governor, and they say, Pilate, send this man to death. I don't know if I can do that, right? He's innocent, we saw beforehand, we didn't read it, but beforehand he thinks Jesus, and then his wife tells him, his wife is like, listen, Jesus is innocent. And then Pilate even says multiple times, right?
I think he's innocent, what evil has he done? There's Pharisees, he's keep on shouting, more and more religious leaders keep on shouting and causing a riot. And so what we're gonna do at this point, is we're gonna look at all three guilty parties, there's three guilty parties representing here. There's the Pharisees, there's Pilate himself who's guilty of Jesus, and then there's Barabbas, he's also a guilty party here in the stack.
We saw in verse 18 that he knows, Pilate knows that the Pharisees were envious. Well, why, what has Jesus done to this point that would make them envious? Well, Jesus thus far has done 37 miracles, proving that he is divine. He turned water into wine all the way to raising the dead.
He taught a message of love, he taught a message of personal responsibility and accountability in a culture that looked poorly on slaves, women, and children. He not only raises their status, but he also tells them that there are key, in the Sermon on the Mount, he tells his followers to be selfless, tells his followers to be humble, tells his followers to serve one another, tells his followers to love one another, to forgive relentlessly, he tells people to strive. This is a guy who wasn't not preaching bad stuff. His Pharisees said, well, no, no, no, we can't have that going on.
The Pharisees had developed about 600 rules that you have to follow in order for you to have a relationship. Now, it's not just the Phariseeses that do, I can think of multiple religions today, even some Christian denominations that tell you, you have to do this, this, this, this, this, this, in order to have a relationship. So these Pharisees are getting worked up because every turn, every argument that they have of Jesus, they're losing. This was an honor-shamed society.
So every theological embarrassment that they suffered from Jesus took honor away from them, took their religious clout, their prestige away from them, took it away, and gave it to Jesus, and they said, no, no, we gotta kill this guy, because he will not be able to control people any longer. You may have an envious in your life. Here's what envy does in our life. It fosters discontentment and distress.
It binds our own freedom and actually captivates them. It leads to resentment and bitterness. It causes us to do things we normally would not do, and it can cause, when you look at the world and you see somebody else's stuff, their possession, their job, maybe even their wife or their husband, or a relationship that you want that you don't have, what it does is it builds in bitterness and depression and resentment. And sometimes it will cause, there's no secret that our household is a homework, all right, we love homework movies, okay?
It's just the way they did, I used homework. And we watched a homework movie that was based on a pumpkin pie content, okay? There's three finalists in this pumpkin, and they are making pie that they're up for. And for the past 10 years, two of the finalists, one every year for the past two years off, and there's this one sweet old lady Betty who never won, because these other two always, so finally she was fed up, she wanted to win, when she wanted the prize.
And so you know what she had the audacity to do in this homework movie? Deal, their recipes and make them. That's as edge of a seat you can get in a homework movie, right? And towards the end of the movie, it all comes to the surface that she stole in their recipes and are passing them off as her own.
And she finally just says, I just wanted to win, she was envious, and this sweet old lady, thinking normally would not do, she stole her recipe, but it's not with the right person, for her willing to settle for some things, because guess what, we just want that relationship, that's what it is, like if you're only surrounding yourself and people who have more than you, guess what? You're always gonna think you're the first person, right? All right, next fine, grateful people. You find somebody who's grateful for one of that, this thing, even now, like whenever I have 100 bucks, I'm like, what do you think, can I get?
And what, being me, envy of another person. On one side, he's got his wife, the person he goes home to every night, telling him not to kill Jesus, that Jesus is innocent, he thinks he's innocent, but on the other side, he has the Pharisees who want Jesus dead. Well, Pilate was a newly established governor in this area, I can't have the first thing that I do for these Jewish people, not get them what they want, right? I've got to scratch their backs, so later on they can scratch my back.
I've got to make sure that we don't, you know, cause a riot here that gets back to the emperor, or my superior so that I don't get in trouble. And so he's caught in this conundrum here of not wanting to kill Jesus, and not wanting to go home to an angry wife we didn't listen to, right? And he doesn't want to displease the Jews as well. The Pharisees, and so he comes up with this, it wasn't an idea, it was rarely used, but it was a tradition that blood will be off my hand, but what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna give them the most notorious prisoner that we have, it's all figured out.
And so what he does is really, really, really amazing. He comes up with this whole, you know, this whole scheme, and so he's caught in the middle, he goes out to the people and he says, who do you want, do you want Jesus, or do you want Jesus, and again, he tries to tell them again, are you sure you want Barabbas instead of Jesus? And then he said, yes, we want to crucify Jesus. And so finally at the end of that section, in verse 26, it says, there's a job where everyone else is coming forth and they're encouraging you to the same, or maybe it's something in your life that you know God has not profitable for you, and yet you want to do it anyways, because it's what you desire.
And the world says that it's okay. This in the world tells us to accept, practice, and endorse a lot of different things, that Jesus is called to bring over life. Barabbas is called the crebele against God, and this is his own bondage, whereas Barabbas brought about by the Savior, or it's going to be Jesus, the murderer. And he tells the people, who do you want?
Who do you want back in your life? What type of person do you want back into society? Who do you want as your neighbor? Who do you want when you're hungry on the street?
Who do you want when you're half dead on the road? Who do you want when you're caught and sinned? Who do you want? Do you want Jesus, the murderer?
Where do you want Jesus, this? We are robbers of his glory. We are murderers of our souls and the souls of our hearts that we merit the sentence, and now it's a tragedy you are bound. This is the picture that, imagine you are bound in shackles.
Your thoughts are captivated, knowing that at any moment the guard is going to come in and to drag you out to your death. You have waited for this day, and you know full well that you are guilty, and are getting exactly what you deserve. And as they come in, they take you out to where you see the noobs, or the gals, or whatever instrument they're doing. And you see it right in front of your eyes, and you have shackles.
You're being tied right in front of your hand, and your feet. And as they walk you up, you notice another man in the corner, a man who's known for loving the kind, or for loving the poor, right, for healing the sick, for being kind, for being caring, right. You see a guy who's done all the only thing he has done in his life is love other people. And they take your shackles off, and they say you're free, and they take your shackles, and they put that exactly what Jesus has done.
We were on our way to the gallows. We were on our way to our own death sentence. What has Jesus done that deserves this? It's not fair, I deserve it.
I'm the guilty one. I should be the one that is punished. I should be the one who pays for my crimes, and my sin, not him, for self one day. But it's not us who gets the bad end of the deal.
Jesus got the bad end of the deal. He had to substitute himself for hours, and we get the good part of the deal. We get the deal where we get to say, all we have to do is believe in Jesus, and we get to have a relationship with God again, and our sins are forgiven. Are you kidding me?
That is not fair. And yeah, that is the essence of the gospel. It is unfair. Unfair nature is that Jesus pardons criminals who sinned and rebelled against God, and yet he not only dies for them, but he also calls them his friend, and he's put a Romans 5, where we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly, for one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps we're a good person, one might die, but God shows his love for us that while we were still sinned, died for us.
Since therefore we have not been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by the wrath of God, for if he were enlisted off the captivity. That's what the story is about. It's about Barabbas. It's about humanity.
It's about Jesus pardoning humanity. But like when he was pardoned, he should also have a, that's why Jesus says, you know what you're free. That's why Jesus says you're free, now love like me. You're free, now serve like me.
You're free, now live like me. You're free, now forgive like me. And he says, because you are free, now worship me. Worship God.
See, this is the message of freedom. And it's interesting that if you look at other religious systems, their prize is, in order to get that, what do you have to do? You have to do this, this, this, this, and this. You have to jump through all sorts of things.
You know what that is? You know what that is? It's the form of slavery. It's telling you that if you want to obtain this, you're gonna have to do all this other stuff for me.
That's control. That is not freedom. What Jesus says is this, you are free, now live for me. You are free, love and worship me.
You don't have to do this, this, and this, and this to earn my affection or to earn eternal life. You don't have to do this, this, and this in order to get what that freedom you're looking for is. All you have to do is recognize that you are.