Speaker 1: I figured I would tell you guys tonight about one of the dumbest things I ever did.
Speaker 1: So when I was in high school I actually this was, yes, this was high school, I was 15.
Speaker 1: I got my learner's permit as early as I possibly could because we didn't have a lot of money growing up, so both of my parents had to work full time and it was really hard getting me places like I was having to ride the bus, do all this sort of stuff and so I got my permit early and I started driving early and I enjoyed driving.
Speaker 1: I was comfortable with it, like my parents let me drive on a few long drives, all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: And it kind of got to the end of one summer I was really really close to getting my actual license and I was having to show up to all the summer practices they make you do Like it wasn't anywhere near as bad as y'all have to deal with now, but back then we still had summer practices and so my mom had no other way to get me there and she told me okay, I would normally never do this, but we have no other option.
Speaker 1: I know you don't have your license yet, but you can go ahead.
Speaker 1: It's a short drive to the high school, just like three minutes, like literally be safe drive to the high school.
Speaker 1: You're good, right, not endorsing that decision, but that's what we did.
Speaker 1: And so I get in the truck and I'm driving and there's this road that goes past the front of the high school.
Speaker 1: And so I'm driving on this road and I'm, you know, just kind of scanning the road or whatnot, and I see I turn my head to the right and one of my friends is sitting in a car about to exit Whataburger and I'm moving pretty good speed on this road.
Speaker 1: So I turn and I wave, and then I look forward and to my dismay there's a white Mercedes Benz and, unlike me, they were not moving, they were stopped right in front of me, about 35 feet ahead of me, and my first truck was a 2006 Ram 1500 that had a large engine in it and was made of actual metal, and so that thing did not stop quick.
Speaker 1: So ultimately, I slam on the brakes and, of course, hit this person, and in that moment I was convinced that the state of Texas was going to execute me Like I thought I was done, like I was going to prison forever.
Speaker 1: I broke a law, like it's game over, my life is over.
Speaker 1: I was freaking out Like I don't even know how I responded or the person who I accidentally hit, how they responded.
Speaker 1: It was all a blur.
Speaker 1: So we talk, we exchange information and everything, and I go home fully expecting the SWAT team to kick down my door and put me in cuffs and drag me off because I broke a law.
Speaker 1: I was driving without a license and thankfully we found out that the person whose car I hit actually lived a street over and we were talking and everything.
Speaker 1: And they're like hey, you made a mistake, you shouldn't have done this, but we're not going to get anybody involved.
Speaker 1: You just pay us for the repairs and you'll be good.
Speaker 1: Problem is I hit a Mercedes, so those repairs were really expensive.
Speaker 1: So 15-year-old me is sitting here trying to gauge like okay, how in the world am I going to pay for this man?
Speaker 1: There was no defaulting Like there's no blaming or pointing the finger like oh yeah, my friend shouldn't have waved at me.
Speaker 1: I'm like hi.
Speaker 1: And then smacked a car Like it was my fault and in that moment I had no hope.
Speaker 1: I was guilty, I deserved the consequences and I had no way to deal with those consequences.
Speaker 1: I thought they were going to crush me, but ultimately those other people forgave me and my parents were extremely kind and generous.
Speaker 1: They paid my bill, they paid my debt and so, even though I deserve the consequences, it was by pure grace that someone choose to forgave me and somebody else took my place.
Speaker 1: Why am I telling you that story tonight?
Speaker 1: Because it actually has a lot to do with our text.
Speaker 1: It is Easter week for those of you who might have forgotten, easter is this Sunday and so I figured let's take a little bit of a detour from our Sermon on the Mount series and skip way ahead in Matthew to the account of the crucifixion, because that is what Easter is about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation of our sins.
Speaker 1: And so I would love to just take some time tonight to walk through that.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a little bit different, probably a little bit shorter, not really feel as much like a sermon as it is.
Speaker 1: We're just kind of walking through this text together.
Speaker 1: So if you have your Bible, go ahead and flip open to Matthew, chapter 27, starting in verse 11.
Speaker 1: Let me make sure those verses are right 27 verse 11.
Speaker 1: And if you don't have your Bible, I actually do not think that this is going to be on the screen.
Speaker 1: So find a friend who does and share that Work.
Speaker 1: Okay, cool, matthew, chapter 27, starting in verse 11.
Speaker 1: So as you flip there, we're going to be picking up in the middle of a story, and the story is that early in the week, jesus shows up to Jerusalem and he has this triumphant entry.
Speaker 1: Everybody celebrates the king is coming, they're waving palm leaves, hosanna, hosanna.
Speaker 1: Like it's this big entrance and everybody thought that meant all right, the promised Messiah is here, rome's about to get kicked out Like everything's going to change.
Speaker 1: But the week plays out a lot differently than most people thought it was going to.
Speaker 1: Jesus spends a lot of the week arguing with the Pharisees and the religious authorities and having these debates, and they keep trying to trap him and it obviously doesn't work because he's God and he knows everything, and so you kind of see this roundabout throughout the week, and so he has just enjoyed on Thursday night what would be known as the last supper.
Speaker 1: They shared the Passover meal with his disciples, and so this is where you see him washing his disciples' feet in this long lots of teaching and things, and John talking about how the Holy Spirit's gonna come.
Speaker 1: And then, at the end of that dinner, he goes to the Mount of Olives where he's faced with the dread of what he knows is coming the next day his death on a cross.
Speaker 1: And with the dread of what he knows is coming the next day his death on a cross.
Speaker 1: And it says that he was so dismayed that he was actually sweating blood that he prayed to God Lord, if there be any other way that you would take this cup from me, but if not, your will be done.
Speaker 1: And so he prays to the Lord, he ultimately submits and he gets up, determined, he doesn't waver or anything from that point on, and he has his face set towards the cross.
Speaker 1: And so, at that moment, judas who saying from that point on, and he has his face set towards the cross.
Speaker 1: And so at that moment, judas, who's been one of his disciples, shows up with a crowd.
Speaker 1: He's already betrayed Jesus.
Speaker 1: And so now he's telling the authorities hey, this is him, y'all come get him.
Speaker 1: He gets arrested and then he sits through this sham of a trial.
Speaker 1: It's in the middle of the night.
Speaker 1: They do lots of shady stuff, false accusations.
Speaker 1: They still can't pin him down.
Speaker 1: But ultimately they declare him guilty for blasphemy, basically for him calling himself God.
Speaker 1: And so now the Jewish authorities take him to the Roman authorities, because the Jewish authorities didn't have the power to kill anybody, and that's what they ultimately wanted to do with Jesus.
Speaker 1: But they couldn't do that on their own.
Speaker 1: They had to have the real government do that for them, because Rome was the one in power.
Speaker 1: And so that's what we pick up on in Matthew 27, verse 11.
Speaker 1: Verse 11 says this the elders.
Speaker 1: He gave no answer, but then Pilate asked him don't you hear the testimony they're bringing against you?
Speaker 1: But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge, to the great amazement of the governor.
Speaker 1: And so here Jesus is, he's standing before Pontius Pilate, who's basically like the Roman governor of the area, and his job was to maintain law and order.
Speaker 1: So he was the guy in charge.
Speaker 1: He didn't really ask for any of this, it came to his plate.
Speaker 1: And so now he's having to deal with it.
Speaker 1: And so he asks him about these accusations.
Speaker 1: He says so, are you the king of the Jews?
Speaker 1: Because what the Jews told the Romans?
Speaker 1: Well, he's trying to like set up against Rome.
Speaker 1: He's trying to overthrow y'all's power.
Speaker 1: He's trying to be a king.
Speaker 1: And Jesus replies to him you have said so, so he's not really committal in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 1: He's really just kind of laying down, he's not fighting the accusations.
Speaker 1: And you start to see that Pilate doesn't buy this whole guilty thing.
Speaker 1: He doesn't think that Jesus is this guy that all the Jewish authorities are making him out to be, and so he actually kind of tries to throw him a bone.
Speaker 1: He asks hey, haven't you heard of all these accusations?
Speaker 1: Almost like he's asking Jesus, like don't you hear what these people are saying about you?
Speaker 1: Like, don't you realize how this ends for you, dude?
Speaker 1: Like they're trying to get you killed.
Speaker 1: And I'm not just talking about like killed, I'm talking like killed, killed on a cross, like aren't you going to do anything about it?
Speaker 1: And Jesus doesn't say anything, no response, he doesn't defend himself and it blows Pilate away to the point where Pilate's convinced that this man's done nothing, definitely done nothing to deserve death.
Speaker 1: And so in verse 15, he hatches a plan, picking back up Matthew 27, verse 15.
Speaker 1: Now it was the governor's custom at the festival to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd, and at that time they had a well-known prisoner whose name was Barabbas, and so when the crowd had gathered, pilate asked them which one do you want me to release to you Barabbas or Jesus, who is called the Messiah?
Speaker 1: For he knew it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over to him.
Speaker 1: And when Pilate was sitting on the judge's seat, his wife sent him this message don't have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.
Speaker 1: And so Pilate thought that Jesus was innocent.
Speaker 1: In fact, his wife tells him hey, this dude, you don't want any part of this, don't accuse him, don't kill him, he's innocent.
Speaker 1: I had a dream.
Speaker 1: It's bad news, stay away.
Speaker 1: But he also had a really angry crowd on his hands because these religious leaders had stirred up a bunch of people.
Speaker 1: They kind of cherry-picked a bunch of people who they knew shared their views.
Speaker 1: This is not the same crowd, necessarily at the beginning of the week who was cheering on Jesus.
Speaker 1: These are people that the authorities picked, that they knew.
Speaker 1: Hey, we're going to try and get this dude killed.
Speaker 1: And so they're angry.
Speaker 1: And it puts Pilate on a predicament.
Speaker 1: He's really in a lose-lose Either he kills this innocent guy or this crowd riots, and now all of a sudden word gets back to his bosses in Rome and he's in some trouble.
Speaker 1: And usually when you get in trouble for that type of thing as a Roman authority, it's game over for you, and so that's what puts him in this predicament.
Speaker 1: But then he's like okay, you know, I'm going to try to work this to my advantage, because there's this custom and a prisoner gets released and he tries to free Jesus because of this, and he grabs a prisoner named Jesus Barabbas, and it doesn't say Jesus Barabbas in the translation that I read, but many of the early manuscripts, in fact the most and the most reliable, say that his first name was actually Jesus, and Barabbas means son of a father.
Speaker 1: And so you have this dichotomy of Pilate saying which Jesus do you want me to set free Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus, the one who's called a Messiah, jesus the son of a father, or what we know to be true, jesus the son of God, the father.
Speaker 1: And so that's this comparison, this dichotomy that's there in this call.
Speaker 1: And then you get that piece where I talked about earlier, where Pilate's wife is like, hey, you got to let this dude go, which is super ironic, because all the religious authorities who should have known who Jesus was, who should have responded in praise, were trying to kill him, while the wife of a pagan Gentile evil ruler was trying to save him.
Speaker 1: But the plan doesn't work.
Speaker 1: Verse 20,.
Speaker 1: But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.
Speaker 1: Which of the two do you want me to release to you?
Speaker 1: Asked the governor, barabbas.
Speaker 1: They answered what shall I do then with Jesus who is called the Messiah, Pilate asked?
Speaker 1: They all answered crucify him.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: What crime has he committed?
Speaker 1: Asked Pilate.
Speaker 1: But they shouted all the louder crucify him.
Speaker 1: And when Pilate saw he was getting nowhere but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd.
Speaker 1: I am innocent of this man's blood.
Speaker 1: He said it is your responsibility.
Speaker 1: And all the people answered his blood is on us and on our children.
Speaker 1: And then he released Barabbas to them.
Speaker 1: But he had Jesus flogged and handed him over to be crucified.
Speaker 1: And so these religious leaders had set the stage, they planted this crowd to have Jesus done in with, not because he had done anything wrong, but because he had challenged their authority.
Speaker 1: And so this Barabbas guy, who by all accounts was a terrorist it says that he was a rebel, he had murdered somebody in this uprising Like he's a bad dude.
Speaker 1: But they say, hey, we want him to go free, let him free.
Speaker 1: And Pilate tries one more time to get out of it.
Speaker 1: But eventually he realized, hey, this is going nowhere.
Speaker 1: Like they have their minds made up, have their minds made up?
Speaker 1: They want this Jesus guy dead.
Speaker 1: And so he tries to make this big scene of like washing his hands and saying I'm not guilty.
Speaker 1: But the only person that's convincing is himself.
Speaker 1: So you have to ask the question why is this story about Barabbas in here, like this whole part of the gospel?
Speaker 1: We never hear about Barabbas before this or after this Like this is about Jesus and his crucifixion, and there's lots of details about the crucifixion that are left out.
Speaker 1: Why does Matthew include this one?
Speaker 1: Well, think about the story.
Speaker 1: You have Jesus Barabbas, a rebel and a murderer, who committed that murder in an attempted uprising.
Speaker 1: He's what we would call a terrorist today.
Speaker 1: He was condemned to death by crucifixion, which was one of the worst possible ways to die.
Speaker 1: That's when you were being killed, to make an example out of you, so that other people would see and say, hey, don't do what this guy did.
Speaker 1: He had no hope and he was condemned to death in the worst way possible.
Speaker 1: And here he's standing next to Jesus Christ, a man who's completely innocent, never did anything wrong, but also did everything right.
Speaker 1: All he did for his three years of ministry was go around and heal people, bring sight to the blind, help the lame, walk, preach the good news of the gospel.
Speaker 1: He fed the hungry, he raised the dead.
Speaker 1: Yet here he is about to be crucified, about to be nailed to a cross that was originally intended for Barabbas, because Barabbas deserved it.
Speaker 1: He committed the crime.
Speaker 1: He was caught red-handed.
Speaker 1: No excuse, no hope.
Speaker 1: That was his cross, it was made for him, but he walked free.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because Jesus took his place.
Speaker 1: Do you see where we're going here?
Speaker 1: See, barabbas is not just this random character, just a random blip on the Bible's radar.
Speaker 1: That makes no sense.
Speaker 1: He's a picture of you, he's a picture of me, he's a picture of all of us.
Speaker 1: If you don't believe me, 700 years before any of this happened, the prophet Isaiah wrote this in Isaiah 53, and ultimately he was writing about Jesus.
Speaker 1: Isaiah wrote this in Isaiah 53, and ultimately he was writing about Jesus.
Speaker 1: Isaiah 53, verse 4,.
Speaker 1: Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering.
Speaker 1: Yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, afflicted.
Speaker 1: But he was pierced for our transgressions.
Speaker 1: He was crushed for our iniquities.
Speaker 1: The punishment that brought us peace was on him and by his wounds we are healed.
Speaker 1: We all, like sheep, have gone astray and each of us have turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity or another word for iniquity is sin of us all.
Speaker 1: He was oppressed and afflicted.
Speaker 1: He did not open his mouth.
Speaker 1: He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent.
Speaker 1: He did not open his mouth.
Speaker 1: Exactly what happened with Pilate.
Speaker 1: Remember this was written 700 years before.
Speaker 1: Even your most devout atheist can't-stand-the-Bible scholar would not date this sooner than 500 years before any of this happened.
Speaker 1: But by oppression and judgment, he was taken away Verse 8.
Speaker 1: Yet who of this generation protested?
Speaker 1: For he was cut off from the land of the living?
Speaker 1: For the transgression of my people, he was punished Verse 10,.
Speaker 1: Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer.
Speaker 1: And though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hands.
Speaker 1: Finally, skip down to verse 12.
Speaker 1: For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.
Speaker 1: See, jesus didn't just stumble into Jerusalem, have a really good week and then kind of make a mistake at the end and get killed.
Speaker 1: This wasn't an accident.
Speaker 1: This was all a part of God's plan, even 700 years before.
Speaker 1: This is the fulfillment of the very end of God's pronouncement of the curse in Genesis 3, where he's talking to the serpent and he says there will be a seed of the woman and you will strike his heel, but he will crush your head.
Speaker 1: This was the plan from the beginning, that this is how it had to be, because the reality is God made the universe and everything in it.
Speaker 1: He made it good, he made it perfect, without flaw, without sin, and he gave us as his special creation, humanity, free will, the ability to make choices and decisions, that we wouldn't be like robots, but we used our free will to try and make ourselves God.
Speaker 1: When you hear about the tree of the fruit of knowledge, of good and evil, and how Adam and Eve ate the fruit, and it can be really weird and wonky.
Speaker 1: Really, the point behind underneath all of that, what the Bible is trying to say there is not about some random fruit, but it's.
Speaker 1: God told them this is what's wrong.
Speaker 1: Don't do this.
Speaker 1: Worship me by obeying.
Speaker 1: And they said I'm going to decide what's right and wrong, and that's something that each and every single one of us has said.
Speaker 1: It right and wrong, and that's something that each and every single one of us has said.
Speaker 1: It might be about how you treat somebody else.
Speaker 1: It might be about how you tell the truth, even when it's going to harm you.
Speaker 1: It might be about the words you say, the decisions you make with your boyfriend or your girlfriend, the things you post.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is, but at some point in every single one of our lives we say God, I don't care what you say, I'm going to do things my way.
Speaker 1: And that's called sin, it's evil, and because God is holy and he's perfect and he just he punishes evil, which is something that we all want him to do.
Speaker 1: We want the bad guy to face consequences.
Speaker 1: If you watch a movie where the bad guy keeps getting away with stuff, you start to get frustrated, right, if you ever watch Infinity War, by the end of that movie, if you didn't know what was going on, you were kind of frustrated because you to lose.
Speaker 1: But the problem is, what happens when we're a bad guy?
Speaker 1: What happens when the evil that needs to be punished is ours?
Speaker 1: But scripture says that God didn't want us to be separated from him.
Speaker 1: So he sent his son, jesus, who lived a perfect life, and at the end of his life he died on a cross for our sin.
Speaker 1: He became our sin, like that he literally, in a way spiritually, when God was punishing him on the cross, our sin was being punished.
Speaker 1: And this is no light deal, right?
Speaker 1: The crucifixion was not just this minor thing.
Speaker 1: You hear Matthew give one line to it in his gospel, like it's not this big, lengthy thing, but that's because it was so horrible and terrible that all of his readers would have known about what crucifixion entailed.
Speaker 1: And if you don't, I'm going to go into a little bit of detail not to gross you out, because I think it's very important that we understand what Jesus went through when you're sentenced to crucifixion.
Speaker 1: The first thing and Jesus had already been beaten pretty badly up to this point they tie you to a post and they flog you.
Speaker 1: And flogging is not just like a few lashes with a whip, it's a handle with straps of leather that come off, and in the end of those straps of leather are bone and metal and glass and that would be whipped across his back up to 39 times.
Speaker 1: And they said that this alone was enough to kill a lot of people, because it would expose all sorts of things and it would completely tear all sorts of stuff, up to the point where sometimes, by the end of the flogging, that person didn't even look like a person anymore.
Speaker 1: But for Jesus, that was just the beginning, because they would ultimately untie him.
Speaker 1: He would be beaten again, have thorns jammed into his scalp, beaten over the head with a wooden staff, and after all of this he would have to carry the cross beam of his own cross up a hill to a place called the skull Golgotha, and he's already dehydrated, lost a ton of blood.
Speaker 1: At this point His muscles are failing.
Speaker 1: That's why you see somebody having to help him carry that cross beam up to that place, and at that place they would lay that cross beam on the ground and they would lay him down on it and they would drive nails into his wrists, right where the nerves are.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't just that you hung there, it's that it felt you were being burned the entire time as your nerves get severed, and he would put nails through his ankles and they would ultimately jam that into a hole that they had dug in the rock, and so when that cross comes down, you would feel the jolt on your wrists and on your ankles.
Speaker 1: And again, that was just the beginning, because you don't die quickly when you're crucified.
Speaker 1: From what we've learned about this process is how you're positioned.
Speaker 1: You're actually kept alive for a good amount of time, but the thing is, with your arms hung a lot of times, what would happen is those shoulders would dislocate and you would have to push yourself up with your legs to be able to get breath because of how you were sitting and the Romans were terrible, they had perfected this they would nail you to that cross in a certain way that you couldn't breathe until you picked yourself up which would have been excruciating with the nails on those nerves just to breathe and then slump back down, and you would repeat that process every single time you needed to take a breath for hours and hours and hours until you eventually ran out of strength and you suffocated and died.
Speaker 1: And not only this, but the shame of the cross is you would usually be without clothes on the side of the road where people would see, where people would be passing by jeering completely exposed birds, dogs, all sorts of horrible, horrible things and ultimately Jesus would breathe his last breath, he would declare it is finished and he would die.
Speaker 1: Why do I go into all those details?
Speaker 1: It's not because I'm trying to shock you.
Speaker 1: I think it's important to understand what Jesus went through on the cross, not just so that you feel bad and you live for him that's not the point of this but because you need to understand.
Speaker 1: Your grace ain't cheap.
Speaker 1: So many times I tell the gospel to somebody and I hear the words yes, I know, like, like, I know that's for some other people, but you don't know what I've done.
Speaker 1: Or I've been that person sitting there who hears the message of a gospel from a D-NOW speaker or a camp speaker.
Speaker 1: I'm like that sounds great for people who've done less terrible things than I have, but you don't know the lies I've told the people.
Speaker 1: I've hurt the life I've lived.
Speaker 1: You're right, I don't, but Jesus does.
Speaker 1: And when we talk about Jesus forgiving your sins, it's not like he just looks at you and says well, he tried to go to church a lot, so I'm going to sweep those under the rug.
Speaker 1: No, he looked at your sin and all of its ugliness, all of its filthiness, just as terrible as it can possibly be, more than you know, and he says you know what?
Speaker 1: I forgive you, I'm going to pay for it, I'm going to wash it away, I'm not going to overlook it, I'm not going to try to find some silver lining so that I accept you.
Speaker 1: I'm going to look it in its face and I'm going to forgive it, completely paid for.
Speaker 1: And you need to know that because you can hold on to that in moments when you feel unloved, when you feel unwanted, when you feel like you've gone too far.
Speaker 1: There is no amount of sin that cannot be covered by the blood of Jesus.
Speaker 1: And you need to know that.
Speaker 1: It's the difference.
Speaker 1: If you go back to that original illustration that I gave.
Speaker 1: It's the difference in that person just telling me hey, I'm going to pay for that car, it'll be fixed, you don't worry about it.
Speaker 1: But I never actually see any tangible like payment.
Speaker 1: That car's fixed.
Speaker 1: I'm living in fear my whole time of like, well, what if they didn't actually pay for it?
Speaker 1: What if he comes back one day and says hey, I know I told you that you were gonna pay for it, but then I saw you driving a little bit fast the other day and so now I'm gonna make you pay for it.
Speaker 1: Paid for.
Speaker 1: It's like me having the bill to that car repair and I can see no, it was done, it's finished.
Speaker 1: I have no debt anymore because Jesus paid for sin.
Speaker 1: He didn't just sweep it under the rug, he didn't just look the other way.
Speaker 1: But the question still remains why in the world do it?
Speaker 1: Why would Jesus die for people who would nail him to a cross?
Speaker 1: Why would Jesus die for people who didn't seem to care anything about who he was or what he had done for them?
Speaker 1: Why would he take the place of this awful criminal?
Speaker 1: Barabbas the terrorist gets to run free while Jesus dies.
Speaker 1: Well, tim Keller points out that the writer of Hebrews actually tells us why in Hebrews, chapter 12, starting in verse 1.
Speaker 1: He says let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.
Speaker 1: So he's telling people how we can persevere through this race called life, how we can do hard things, how we can endure suffering.
Speaker 1: We set our eyes on Jesus and then it explains how Jesus did it For the joy set before him.
Speaker 1: Talking about Jesus, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Speaker 1: Consider him, who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Speaker 1: It says how did Jesus make it through the cross?
Speaker 1: How is he our example for enduring suffering?
Speaker 1: It says for the joy that was set before him.
Speaker 1: Well, what in the world was the joy that was set before him right?
Speaker 1: What was something that he didn't have yet, that he had his eyes set on?
Speaker 1: Back in Isaiah 53, it says the results of his suffering.
Speaker 1: He will see and he will be satisfied.
Speaker 1: Well, what were the results of the cross?
Speaker 1: What did Jesus not have in heaven from eternity past?
Speaker 1: What did he not have before he came to earth that he received after the crucifixion?
Speaker 1: It was us, it was you, it was me, we were the joy set before him, our healing, our reconciliation being brought back to him.
Speaker 1: Jesus went to the cross because of love for us, so that we could be free of our sin, free from condemnation.
Speaker 1: Because he didn't stay dead.
Speaker 1: They put him in a borrowed grave and three days later he walked back up to show that he had victory over all death, all sin, all condemnation, so that you don't have to be a slave to the opinion of others anymore, because you can know that you have the approval of the God who made everything.
Speaker 1: He got up so that you don't have to feel like your life is meaningless anymore, because you can be a reflection of God's love and goodness to the world around you.
Speaker 1: You don't have to try to find your happiness in the arms of another person anymore, just to be let down time and time again, because you have joy and peace in the Savior and you don't have to live in the brokenness.
Speaker 1: You feel, that addiction.
Speaker 1: You've tried to leave behind a thousand times the self-hate, the broken home, because Jesus was broken to make you whole.
Speaker 1: Yet each and every single one of us has a choice to make.
Speaker 1: You know what Jesus has done for you, but what are you going to do with it?
Speaker 1: But because Barabbas had a choice that day, he got down from that stage and he walked off.
Speaker 1: And he had three options.
Speaker 1: He could move on with his life, forget about it, never think about it again, go back to doing terrorist things.
Speaker 1: Or he could have gotten down and acknowledged hey, jesus, that was great, I really appreciate that man Like, good luck with the crucifixion thing, you're cool.
Speaker 1: And then just gone and done his own.
Speaker 1: Or the third option he could bow the knee.
Speaker 1: He could say I see something in you that I don't see anywhere else in this world.
Speaker 1: I see a beauty in Jesus that nothing had to offer, that when I was guilty and I stood condemned, he looked at me with love and he let me free.
Speaker 1: And he could have sent his life all, he could have centered it on Jesus.
Speaker 1: And we have the same choice right For each and every single one of us.
Speaker 1: You might have grown up in a Christian home.
Speaker 1: You might have heard an Easter sermon a million times.
Speaker 1: You might have come here since you were in sixth grade.
Speaker 1: You might have been coming here since you were in pre-K with the kids ministry and you might have been living this life where you've kind of been coasting off your parents' choice your grandparents' choice your aunt, your uncle, whoever drags you to church.
Speaker 1: Maybe they don't drag you to church, maybe they bring you, maybe you're happy to be here, but if you're being honest, you're just playing games with God.
Speaker 1: You're just here for friends, you're here for the hangs, you're here for the events, whatever.
Speaker 1: Or maybe you're just here for friends, you're here for the hangs, you're here for the events, whatever.
Speaker 1: Or maybe you're like, hey, god's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Like I acknowledge him, I'll sing some worship songs, I'll sign up for Camp D now.
Speaker 1: I might even help stack chairs, but I'm gonna kind of keep doing my own thing.
Speaker 1: Or will you bow the knee?
Speaker 1: Will you make him king?
Speaker 1: Because true saving faith is not just praying a prayer or walking an aisle, but it's making Jesus king, it's accepting the gift of salvation, believing he is who he says he is and he did what he said he did.
Speaker 1: And when you believe that you can't help but build your entire life on that truth, nothing else will satisfy, nothing else will do.
Speaker 1: Will you make him king in the center of your life, because he gave his for you?
Speaker 1: Will you pray with me, lord?
Speaker 1: God, we thank you so much tonight for the opportunity to worship you and to just walk through the beauty of the gospel and Lord, I pray that as we leave here tonight, if there's anybody under the sound of my voice who realizes that they haven't, they say man, I haven't made that decision.
Speaker 1: I've been playing games with God.
Speaker 1: I've been just doing my own thing.
Speaker 1: Would you touch them in this moment, would you bring them to yourself?
Speaker 1: Would you help them to stop the hiding, stop the running, stop playing games and bow the knee?
Speaker 1: Would you help them to stop the hiding, stop the running, stop playing games and bow the knee, that they would be transformed, that we'd see the miracle of salvation from death to life?
Speaker 1: And, lord, that they would have the courage to talk to a small group leader or me or someone after the message and to walk through that decision?
Speaker 1: Or, lord, maybe there might be people in this room who have known you or been walking with you for a while.
Speaker 1: But if we're honest, we can just so easily forget of our love for or of your love for us and what you've done, and if we're honest, we kind of let you just be another thing on our list of things.
Speaker 1: Lord, would you help us to center our life anew on you tonight, that you wouldn't just be the first thing on the priority list.
Speaker 1: You'd be the paper that it's written on.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't just be an important thing in our life, you would be our entire life.
Speaker 1: That you would inform and color and shape everything we do, every decision we make.
Speaker 1: That we would live that kind of faith for your glory, father.
Speaker 1: We love you, we praise you and we pray all these things in your son Jesus.