Praise the Lord! Tonight (4/10/10) God used this message to help lead a young man who had not accepted Christ to repentance, confession, and trust in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior!
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Excerpt from Sermon by William Wright Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Full Sermon (PDF): http://media.sermonaudio.com/mediapdf/214041387.pdf
Full Sermon (audio) http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=214041387
Our Lord Jesus Christ was innocent and he was treated as if he was guilty. Why? Because God was at work in it all. Why was there a trial? Because God was at work in it all. Why did our Lord Jesus Christ not speak up and defend himself? Why did he not say that he was innocent? Because you can come to no other conclusion than he chose to be found guilty.
But, my dear people, there was someone else in the narrative. Christ the innocent one is dealt with as if he was guilty. There was another man whose name was Barabbas. And you will discover that Barabbas is declared on the page of Scripture as being a man who was guilty. He has already been tried and found guilty of sedition and of murder. There was no doubt about Barabbas’ guilt. There is no question raised about the crimes of Barabbas. There is no question raised, there is no objection either from Barabbas or from
anybody else concerning the sentence that Barabbas had received. He was a rebel. He was a murderer. He was guilty beyond any shadow of a doubt. If it had not been for the fact that our Lord had been arrested and brought to trial at that particular time, then Barabbas would have been put to death and that would have been the end of it. We would never have heard about Barabbas again.
But he is mentioned in the narrative because of the circumstances that took place in his life. He is a rebel, a murderer, tried, found guilty. Suddenly he finds that he is treated as if he is innocent. And Barabbas is released and Barabbas is set free. And these are the two people that we have presented before us in the narrative concerning the trial of Christ.
On the one hand the Son of man, the prince of life, the eternal Son of God, holy, harmless and undefiled. On the other hand, a violent murderer, a rebel and a criminal. And yet, you see, there is a very real sense in which Barabbas doesn’t stand before us as an isolated individual. There is a real sense in which Barabbas stands before us as a representative figure. He represents every one of us. That is our picture as we are before God. Everyone of us as we have been born into this world, we are guilty. We are guilty of sedition. We are guilty of rebellion. We will not have God to rule over us. That is our standing and our position. We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We are under the curse of the law of God. And that is a basic and ultimate human problem from which every other problem stems. It has to do with our standing before God and that, deep down, is every man’s tremendous question. Whether you realize it or not this evening, the greatest question in your life is your standing before God. If you are a sinner it is to be under condemnation just as Barabbas was under condemnation.
“He that believeth is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already,”31 says our Lord. He is condemned already. Notice the word "already". Notice the world “already.” That means that there are an awful lot of condemned people walking around in this world. They don’t have to wait until they die until they are condemned. They are condemned already. And they are condemned because they have not believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ. By virtue of the fact that they do not believe, they are condemned. Unbelief is not some unfortunate defect that we are born with. Unbelief is to be without God and without Christ and without hope either for this world or for the next because we have rebelled against God.
But then you will notice what happened as far as Barabbas was concerned. Against all his hopes, without any prompting on his part, on the sole initiative of almighty God a word of hope is brought to bear. Maybe from the confines of his prison cell he could hear the voice of Pilate saying, “Whom will ye that I release unto you, Barabbas or Jesus which is called the Christ?”32
And here is Barabbas listening to his name and it is all now a matter of Jesus or Barabbas. The lot must fall one or the other. One will be released and the other will be crucified. If Jesus is freed, Barabbas is lost. If Jesus is crucified, Barabbas will be saved. Now remember that we are thinking Barabbas as a representative figure. And as Barabbas stand in relation to Jesus, so you stand. With respect to you it can be said which shall die, the sinner or the sinless one?
And I am here to tell you this evening that your sins are either on your own head or they are on the head of Christ. And the curse which we have inflicted, that we have accrued must be inflicted. The justice of God demands that the sentence is to be carried out. And that is a mighty issue for every one of us fallen guilty sinners. On one side the sinless Son of God and only Christ can appease the wrath of God and only Christ can make atonement for sin. And I read in my Bible that Pilate delivered Jesus to be crucified. And behind the activity of Pilate I see the overruling sovereignty of almighty God because salvation is His initiative.
“The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”33 Romans 8:32, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered Him...”34 The very same words. “Delivered Him up for us all.” Pilate delivered Him, but behind the acts of Pilate God was delivering Him. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.
And you see what happened. Our Lord and Barabbas, they changed places. And the bonds and the curse and the disgrace and the sufferings and the punishment that was due to the murderer and to the rebel, they come upon the head of the innocent Christ. And Barabbas is given a standing and a freedom and a safety and a well being that he never deserved.
That, my dear people, is what it means to be redeemed and to be ransomed. He made him to be sin who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. And if we were left to ourselves we would be eternally lost.
“For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.”35
Can I ask you to imagine as I apply this in closing, can you imagine Barabbas in his prison cell? A messenger comes to him with the glorious news. “Barabbas, Barabbas, you are free. Your life has been spared. The death sentence has been removed. It has been removed forever. You no longer have to stand before the courts of justice. No further accusation will be given against you. You are restored to all your rights of freedom and of citizenship. You will never be treated as if you have committed a crime again, because, Barabbas, a sinless substitute has taken your place.”
How does Barabbas react? Does he react as many people react and maybe you have been reacting to the news of the gospel? Did Barabbas say, “Oh, I am sorry. You have got it wrong. You can’t mean me. Not the kind of man I am. I am a murderer. I am guilty of sedition. I have been condemned and rightly. But you have got it wrong”?
Suppose they went to take his chains off him and he resisted the moves to release him.
You would say that that man was absolutely senseless. But that is exactly how people react to the news of the gospel. They feel that they are too far gone. Too bad, Jesus, you don’t know the kind of life that I have lived. And they resist and they refuse the free offer of Christ in the gospel. It is the height of folly.
Is that you this evening? Or suppose Barabbas had said to the messenger, “Well, it sounds good, but it sounds too good to be true. It can’t be true. You are telling me something that couldn’t possibly have taken place. It hasn’t happened. I can’t believe that what you are saying is right.”
Now if Barabbas had said that, Barabbas would have done two things. He would have, first of all insulted the messenger and he would also have insulted the authorities that sent him. And those people who refuse the gospel on the basis that they say, “Well, it is just too good to be true that what you are saying sound good. It sounds very nice. But I just can’t accept it.”
What you are doing is that you are insulting almighty God. Our Lord has said, “Whosoever believes on him shall not perish. They shall have everlasting life,” whoever believes on him.
And you are saying, “Oh, no, it is just too good to be true.”
Or suppose Barabbas—and maybe I coming a little bit nearer the bone to some of you—suppose Barabbas had said, “Well, I will just stay here in prison until a more suitable time, until a time that is more suitable to me.”
Absurd. You may have been challenged by the gospel from this pulpit again and again and you go out of those doors another day, another time. It is the most ridiculous thing to do. Now is the acceptable time. Today is the day of salvation.
Or maybe Barabbas could have said, “Well, what you say is wonderful. It is good news, but really in order to receive this, I have really got to prove myself to show that I really do deserve my freedom. So let me do a few more years in prison. I will clean up the prison cell and I will show my gratitude that way and then after a couple of years I will receive the pardon that you are giving to me.”
If Barabbas had said that, those messengers would have said to him, “Do you think that you are being released on the basis of what you have done or can do or will do? You are not being released on anything that you are. You are not being released on anything that you can do. You are being released because of what someone else has done.”
Could your tears forever flow,
Could your zeal no respite know,
All for sin could not atone.
Christ must save and Christ alone.
Probably what did happen was this, that Barabbas got out of those chains as quickly as he could and got out of his prison clothes as quickly as he could and went back to his wife and to his family.
And is it fanciful for me to imagine that Barabbas made his way to a place called Calvary? Is it fanciful for me to imagine that Barabbas was in the crowd when he heard him cry, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do”? Is it fanciful for me to imagine that Barabbas is saying, “In my place condemned he stood. He sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah, what a Savior”?
And many of us have been in that place. And we have seen Christ as our Savior standing in our place. He loved me. He gave himself for me, even the Son of man who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. You know him. You belong to him. Come to him. This may be the last opportunity that you will have. This may be the last sermon I will preach. I urge you to come to Christ.
31 John 3:18
32 Matthew 27:17
33 Isaiah 53:6.
34 Romans 8:32
35 Mark 10:45
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