If you have a Bible, let me invite you to turn with me to the book of Luke. The Gospel according to Luke 23, Luke 23, tonight, we're verses 13 to 25. Again, my name is Ted Wanger, I'm the pastor of the year, and if you're visiting, we warmly welcome you. We're glad that you're here.
Here at Redeemer, we believe that the Bible is the Word of God, God breathed and authoritative and given for our good and His glory. So each week we study a portion of God's Word. Now we're picking back up a study in the last days of Jesus upon the earth that we started late this summer and interrupted briefly while my wife and I welcomed a new child and Jay Bruce preached for me in the last few weeks. So it's been about five Sundays, or William was born five Sunday nights ago after worship.
And so let me remind you where we are. We've seen that Jesus is a polarizing figure. You are either drawn to Him or you wish He would go away. Now that can ebb and flow, strengthen over time.
The more you get to know Jesus, the more you either love Him or the more you grow eventually to despise Him. And tonight we're going to consider that hatred and love. What we've seen in our study the last few that we're now picking back up is that Luke has shown us how people treated Jesus. We've seen Judas betray Him.
We've seen religious authorities arrest Him. His disciples abandoned Him, Peter denies Him, the temple guards torture Him, the council of elders condemn Him. And most recently five weeks ago we saw the Roman governors acquit Him of wrongdoing deserving the death penalty. Yet even in doing so they play games with Him.
They toyed with Him. We saw in Luke 23, 1 to 12 just prior to our passage that the Jews wanted Jesus dead but they hadn't the power of execution in their government under Rome. Rome had the authority. And so they took Jesus to pilot the Roman governor accusing Jesus of being an insurrectionist, of being a threat to Caesar, a threat to Rome, a rival king.
And they were looking for Pilate to condemn Jesus to death. But Pilate we saw having investigated things. Said it verse four about Jesus, I find no guilt in this man. And yet instead of letting Him go, He passed Jesus on to Herod.
Caesar governor in a different jurisdiction. And Herod mocked Him and treated Him with him contempt. And verse 11 sent Him back to Pilate, wearing the robe of a king. Playing dress up if you will.
And so Pilate and Herod shared in a joke together about King Jesus, King of the Jews. And on that very day these two rivals, verse 12 tells us they became friends at the expense of Jesus. I love Jesus, Lord, you grow to hate Jesus. Tonight we come to Luke 23, 13 to 25 and we hear the completion of the trial before Pilate, what they did with Him.
We'll learn a little bit about the weak will of Pilate and the strong passion of the crowd and the deep love of Jesus. Let me invite you to pay attention. Then to God's word, Luke 23, beginning at verse 13, here now the word of God. Pilate then called together the chief priests and rulers and the people.
And said to them, you brought this man as one who was misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him. Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him.
I will therefore punish him and release him. But they all cried out together away with this man and released to us Barabbas, a man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder. Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus. But they kept shouting crucify him.
Crucify him. The third time he said to them, why? What evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death.
I will therefore punish and release him. But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified and their voices prevailed. So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked.
But he delivered Jesus over to bear will. This is God's Word, made you write it on our hearts. Let's look to him in prayer. Our Lord and our God, we bow before you tonight.
The judge of all the earth, will you not do right? When we pray that you have mercy upon us, we pray that you would lift high Christ before us. We pray that we would see him in Behold His Glory and His Grace. Be our teacher this evening and show us ourselves and him for our good in Jesus' name I pray.
Amen. I want you to consider three things tonight. The first, the exoneration of Jesus by Pilate, second, the enmity against Jesus by the crowd, and thirdly, the exchange of Jesus for the wicked, his exoneration, the enmity against him and the exchange of him for the wicked. Those three things in the first place.
Again and again, this passage emphasizes just as we saw weeks ago that Pilate acknowledges and publicly declares Jesus free from all guilt deserving any death. He has done nothing worthy of capital punishment. The most powerful and best is we know criminal justice system in the world in that day publicly exonerated the Lord Jesus. Yeah, this was clearly no perfect system of justice because of the weakness of the men who led it.
And so Herod, but chiefly here Pilate, though he exonerates Jesus, he doesn't act on it and he does it because of the crowd. He's confronted by a religious mob and his job is to govern, his job is to rule, his job is to enforce justice and justice says release Jesus and Pilate's unconscious tells him he ought to be released. His gut says it and his mouth speaks it time and again back at verse four, having heard the religious leaders charge Jesus with being a threat to Caesar and Rome, Pilate having investigated and said, I find no guilt in this man now. And verses 13 and 15, he tells the chief priests and the rulers and the people, I did not find this man guilty of your charges against him.
I didn't hear it. He's done nothing deserving now. But they cried out at verse 18. But lay with this man and give us veratice.
Matthew, the gospel writer, Matthew tells you that it was customary, evidently it was customary to release a prisoner to the Jews on a feast day and they say, well, if you want to release somebody, we want it to be the insurrectionist and murderer. We want it to be the guy who is a true rival to Rome and to kill people, that's the guy we want. And verses 20 and 21 tells us that Pilate wanted to release Jesus. He wants, however, also to please the crowd.
So they begin to shout, crucify him, crucify him. And verse 22 tells you a third time he said to them, why, what evil has he done? I found no guilt deserving death. Evidently, he says, well, he says, therefore I will punish and release him.
Evidently it was also customary should a defendant be found not guilty at the discretion of the judge to even strike that defendant with the rod, not because he's guilty, but perhaps here. And this is not to be understood as discouraging Jesus will undergo before crucifixion. That will be needed out to him before he's crucifixion. But he's suggesting, why don't I just have the man beaten and then we'll let him go.
And that was viewed in that day as a kind of deterrent to the accused and others not to commit the crime they were charged with, even though they had no other crimes, that might not be getting them back in the court. Perhaps it was a little of the mentality of do evil that good may come, not a just attitude, you understand. But this is Pilate's idea. And this is how I'll get out of this.
They really want to blast this guy. I'll give him a good meeting and I'll let him go. But verse 23 says, they were urgent and demanding with cries for him to be crucified. Verse 24, their voices prevailed.
So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted and verse 25 he delivered Jesus over to their will. Let's make a few comments about this. First of all, never be surprised by politicians who forsake the right thing because people ask for the wrong thing. It takes a very strong spine to say no when everyone else says yes.
Parents know that. It takes backbone to be a parent, backbone to be a teacher, backbone to be a civic leader, backbone to be a minister, elder, deacon in the church and to say no when everybody else says yes or to say yes when everybody else screams no. So here what you have is an example of a weak willed politician and judge where he wasn't he both giving the people exactly what they want and he knows that what they want is unjust and he knows that what they want is the execution of an innocent. But time again though he exonerates Jesus he does not release Jesus.
He officially acquits Jesus and then he gives them what they want. He is not the first nor the last politician or judge to bow to the will of a crowd of course. Now most commentators when you look at the story here give Pilate a pretty hard time. History doesn't look very kindly upon Pilate for his actions here and we think it's understandable why I have to say that the more I have delved into Pilate here this past week the more sympathetic I have become to him and I may have just outed myself to you as a child of the age who has come to expect politicians to say they believe one thing but then act contrary.
Perhaps we're cynical perhaps I'm cynical perhaps politicians are cynical but it seems so commonplace and it's not true of all. Praise the Lord. But it seems so commonplace that I just kind of in my gut shrug it off. Of course this is what Pilate did.
And all the more I become a bit sympathetic to him for this reason I found it interesting in verse 22 did you notice this? I think Luke actually highlights it. He says did you notice that for a third time Pilate declares Jesus innocent yet then still let him be crucified. Now where have you heard that expression before in the Gospel of Luke?
Well it's been a while since we studied it weeks and weeks but it's really only been a few hours in the events of the life of Jesus. In fact it's just back in this book Peter you recall not once not twice three times confronted with the truth three times denied the Lord Jesus. How much alike I find Peter and Pilate to be and I wonder if Luke has told us these details so that we'll see it. Think of it both men are weak willed in the face of temptation both publicly act against the truth.
Peter insisted he would not deny Jesus then he persisted in declaring he did not know Jesus when faced with a crowd. Pilate insisted that Jesus was innocent and then Pilate persisted in not freeing Jesus when faced with the will of the crowd. Peter turned his back on Jesus publicly and personally and Pilate turned his back upon Jesus publicly and politically. I've begun to wonder if sometime after Peter's repentance and his restoration by the Lord Jesus if he didn't as a Gospel minister try to contact Pilate for here was a man who understood Pilate's weakness up there.
He could at least sympathize and said I denied him to his face three times and I lived with him and he loved me. And perhaps he might have offered Pilate hope. Now that's wild speculation perhaps in heaven. We'll know if that's true but he certainly was in a position to sympathize with a man like Pilate.
And I wonder if you can't sympathize too. Have you heard the Gospel story and the truth about Jesus and in your own mind become convinced of it but you've yet to announce publicly yet to declare publicly you agree with that truth you embrace that truth and he is your Lord and Savior or are you still ducking and hiding from owning up to and acting on the truth that you know and say you believe or have you been a Christian who failed to speak the truth about Jesus in some key moment with some ripe opportunity and you kept quiet when you could have spoken up for Jesus. Have you ever hung your head and thought I am a weak will person. I have failed to stand for Jesus to stand with Jesus and this is my shame and if that's you then I have good news for you.
And the good news at least in part is found in Romans chapter 5 verse 6 where the Apostle Paul tells us of Jesus that while we were still weak at the right time Christ died for the young Godly when we were some translations powerless when we were helpless when we couldn't will to be righteous and do the righteous thing Christ knew it Christ died for the week of will to take away our shame like Peter who found pardon in Jesus and we find in Jesus that the sinless one is not a shame to be called our elder brother he's not ashamed to own us as his family though we are weak of will that's the first thing I want you to think about publicly exonerated by a weak willed man secondly in this passage we see the enmity of the crowd the hatred of the people we see that hatred overwhelms the judicial system and it's please for injustice and it's called for the crucifixion of one who has been acquitted verse 18 they cried out verse 21 they shouted verse 23 they were urgent and demanding with loud cries or screams blood thirsty mob saying crucified him crucified him we'd rather have baratous than him anybody but Jesus why such hostility why do we see this why such enmity well in part actually Matthew helps you know why Matthew chapter 27 tells you that the chief priests and the elders actually stirred up the crowd the leaders organized the community to do this they stirred up the outrage of the masses leaving them ignorant we suppose of the truth and without time for reflection in flaming the people's passions and got them to shout down the truth and let me pause and apply that let us take a warning from that ourselves we live in a hair trigger culture people post things to media snippets of things half the story of things they label it as an injustice when it may or may not be so and they expect us to jump on the bandwagon and quickly condemn or else be condemned if we do not condemn we should rather learn to be wiser than that as Christian people and we should heed the caution of the wisdom of proverbs chapter 18 at verse 13 it says if one gives an answer before he hears it is his folly and shame and verse 17 the one who states his case first seems right until the other comes and examines him let us then be as the Bible says people who are slow to speak and quick to listen people listen to both sides of a story before we make our judgments and declare them on Facebook to the Lord let's be people who don't jump off a bridge because everybody else is doing it but that is what this crowd did this crowd before pilot was driven by blind hatred they were stirred up to it never be surprised when a crowd demands injustice or when it shrugs its shoulder when justice is denied but again we ask why it seems so inexplicable what did Jesus ever do to deserve this kind of hatred and score he helped people he gave hope to people he healed people he made incredible promises he loved people he he did speak the truth in love to people and he certainly made a lot of his religious leading peers angry with the things he said to them no doubt about that make no mistake though that this hatred for Jesus did not come out of nowhere it didn't just suddenly stir up in the time and life of Jesus the hatred of the Jewish Messiah was not new in the day of the Jewish Messiah why after all did Herod destroy the little Jewish baby boys at the time of the birth of Jesus because he hated and feared the Messiah King promised why did Goliath and the Philistines seek to destroy David and the people of God to cross the line of the kings of Israel why did Pharaoh and the Egyptians try to wipe out Moses and the little Hebrew boys at the birth of Moses why why did King kill his brother Abel why because the human heart is full of rage absolutely because unless restrained by the fear of government by the opinion of people we love by the sovereign work of the spirit convicting our conscience that we mustn't do such a thing by the publication of the law of God that commands against murder by by many outward and even internal things God restrains by his spirit and his gracious activity to every one of us he restrains us from breaking out in the kind of rage and violence we might otherwise express because it's endemic to the human heart because by nature we don't want God and we don't want his Messiah King to rule over us and we will do whatever we can to push him away to get rid of him forever from us if we can and to live by our own rules we Paul says in Romans 1 18 suppress the truth in unrighteousness we shove it down and we shove it away and we would break out in indignation against others at any moment if left under a strained by God unless our heart is held back and how might we love instead of hate well there takes a heart that is changed the heart of murder that would kill even the son of God must be changed God must take out our heart of stone like a rock and give to us a heart of flesh he must take out our cold and unloving heart and give to us a warm heart of love and unless God in mercy gives us that kind of new heart heart of love instead of hate we will continue to go on in rage after rage simply restrained by our circumstances there's enmity in the human heart this is why enmity against God hatred against him there was enmity in Jesus day there has always been war since our first parents joined in the rebellion against God and there has been enmity in hatred against the Messiah King who was promised to the whole world in the Garden of Eden after the fall in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 when God said that one would come who would crush the head of the servant the great deceiver and one who would come who what is the Apostle tells us in 1 John destroy the works of the evil one and there is war even today between or against Christ and his people too often it is between his people isn't it but there is war against Christ and against Christ people today and we're seeing dramatic expressions of it aren't we across our world today as Christians are persecuted and run out driven out murdered executed in poverty and slave in many places in the world today and few there are who speak up for the church few in positions of authority and power seek to protect the people of God who are called not to fight against flesh and blood not to war with the sword whose war is not against flesh and blood Paul says but against spiritual forces evil in heavenly round people who are called insofar as it is up to us Paul says to live peaceably with all people Romans 12 people who are called by Jesus Matthew chapter 5 to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven for he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good and he sends his reign on the just and on the unjust Jesus counsels us friends in John 15 18 to 20 when he says if the world hates you know that it has hated me before it hated you if you are of the world the world would love you as its own but because you are not of the world but I chose you out of the world therefore the world hates you remember the word that I said to you a servant is not greater than his master if they persecuted me they will also persecute you and see you see not only this enmity but finally you see one last thing in verses 24 and 25 you see the exchange of Jesus for the wicked verse 24 so Pilate decided that their demand should be granted he released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection to murder for whom they asked but he delivered Jesus over to their will again it was that custom at feast time to do such a thing and here's Jesus and here's where at us an insurrectionist a murder of man a true threat to the government offered to them along with Jesus and who did they choose but notice that this is a picture of the gospel the guilty barabbas is set free and the innocent Savior is punished the great sinner escapes and the sinless one is bound and nailed to the cross the Bible tells us that Jesus became what he was not a condemned criminal so that we might become what we are not innocent before God Jesus here we are to understand is not dying for his own crimes but for the crimes of others not for his own sins but for the sins of others not dying for himself but dying for us I'm not saying I know that he died for barabbas or barabbas understood the great exchange that had been made for his soul oh that he would have but this is a great picture of the exchange Jesus makes with our souls for any and all who will look to him in trust Lord have mercy upon me as sinner he is our substitute in earnest Gordon's story the bridge over the river quiet based on a true story you have a picture of this now it's not a perfect picture don't track the wrong lessons here but it's the story if you've seen the movie or read the book or know the story it's the story of prisoners of war in a terrible prison where they're badly mistreated and they're taken out day after day to work for the enemies toiling and building a railroad and as they're leaving work one evening the guards are counting up the shovels and ones missing and the guards shouting hysterically threatens that unless one of the imprisoned soldiers confesses to have to have taken the shovel and hidden it they're all going to die and eventually one steps forward and with the end of their rifle butts the prison guards murder him and then they recount the shovels and they discover that there isn't one missing at all this man stepped forward to die in their place and as their substitute and that in a way is exactly what Jesus did for you though you and I of course are innocent of stealing shovels he received injustice at the hands of wicked men so that guilty could go free and he received justice the Bible says at the hands of a righteous god because he was our substitute receiving the wages of sin on our behalf so that sinners who trust in him are counted righteous in him the only true righteous one that's his love for you that he would do such a thing may his love compel us to walk not in hatred even against our enemies but like him in love let's pray father in heaven we bless you you're a good kind generous open-handed abundantly merciful god to those who do not deserve it but you're gracious I pray that you would capture our hearts by this love that we would know how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ that we would be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God and then that you would help us by your power in our weakness love as we have been loved in Jesus name I pray amen let's stand and sing of the Lord in his kindness