Mark's Gospel Part 27 - Christ, Our Sovereign Substitute

Andrew Grey continues this series from Mark's Gospel.

This sermon is from Sunday 3rd August 2025.

The bible reference is Mark 15v1-15

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Two chapters, chapters 14 and 15, where we are walking through the final hours of the Lord Jesus' life, as Jesus continues downwards, his descent into solitude and suffering that will climax on the cross. We saw last week how all of Jesus' friends and disciples deserted him, all of them, even Peter, especially Peter, remember him. Later, after the resurrection, the church would realise that the suffering of the Christ, it was not only wickedness and weakness, it was also the power and the wisdom of God. Now we're going to have two readings this morning. We're going to have a reading from Mark chapter 15, and then after that, some words from Acts chapter 4, which help us understand the sufferings of the Christ. So if you could open up your Bible to Mark chapter 15, I'll read from verse 1. Let's listen to the words of Almighty God. And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. And Pilate asked him, Are you the king of the Jews? And he answered him, You have said so. And the chief priests accused him of many things. And Pilate again asked him, Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you. But Jesus made no further answer. So that Pilate was amazed. Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. And among the rebels in prison who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. And he answered them, saying, Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews? For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. And Pilate again said to them, Then what shall I do with the man you call the king of the Jews? And they cried out again, Crucify him. And Pilate said to them, Why? What evil has he done? But they shouted all the more, Crucify him! So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas. And having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Well, if you'd keep a finger in Mark chapter 15, we will be coming back there in a moment. And if you could turn on in your Bibles to Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4. And if you have a black church Bible, that's page 912. Acts chapter 4. I'm going to read from verse 23 to verse 28. After the resurrection of Jesus, the church is beginning to be built. Two of Jesus' followers have just been released from prison. So verse 23, when they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, Why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed. For truly in this city they were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. Thanks be to God for his word to us today. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would show us the Lord Jesus, be it for the first time or the umpteenth time, not only in his weakness and sufferings, but in his glory and his exaltation. So open up our eyes, help us to listen with the ears of our hearts for Jesus' name's sake.

unknown: 5:21

Amen.

SPEAKER_00: 5:23

Amen. Food only does you good when you eat it. Food only does you good when you eat it. As a family, we have had some memorable meals lately. You could ask any one of us about our recent visit to America's largest all-you-can-eat buffet. It's a very classy joint. But if the food just stays on the table, it does you no good. You need to take it, eat it, taste it, swallow it, and hopefully experience both nourishment and delight. Now today we see more of how Jesus became the Saviour that we need. These verses in Mark 15, we're going to see the sovereign suffering of our Saviour. But we will also be encouraged and challenged. Have we taken this Jesus as our Saviour? The sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, they are like a rich banquet spread before us by our gracious God, but which require us to take, to take, to receive, to eat. From our passage, we're going to have two big Bible words to help us think about the suffering of Jesus. Words which, when we understand them, will compel us, impel us towards Jesus to take him. And most of us here will be taking Christ as Christian people, drawing near freshly to him with joy and gladness. For some of us, though, drawing near, taking Christ even for the first time. And today would be a wonderful day for the very first time, perhaps, to come near to Christ. So two big Bible words to help us see why it is we can and we must come near and take Jesus. So firstly, Jesus is sovereign. As in when we read here of the sufferings of Christ, actually, it is the power of God that is at work. The word sovereign has to do with power and authority. Now, on the face of it, when the Lord Jesus came before Pontius Pilate, so we're in Jerusalem, this is the era when the Romans dominated the world, they were in control of the city of Jerusalem. The Jewish council that had uh falsely accused and convicted, they had no power to condemn, they brought him now before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. Now, he did not come before Pontius Pilate, apparently in the full kingly power of God. Just imagine what we would have seen if we had been there as the events in chapter 15 unfolded. He had been abused by the Jewish guards, he'd been tied up, he then was delivered to Pilate. At the end of the scene, he left Pilate on his way to Calvary, on his way to the cross, having been scourged, having been flogged, having been left with a bleeding and appealing back. So here was a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering, and it was a picture of utter weakness, of victimhood, things being done to him, not by him. They did not know it, and at the time Jesus' disciples did not understand it. But Pilate and the other Gentile rulers, together with the Jewish people and their leaders, they were wondrously actioning the sovereign plan of God. And that's the point that's made in those verses in Acts chapter 4, after the cross and the resurrection. Peter and the others, their eyes were opened. Peter, who had denied Jesus, would not be with Jesus, he came to know that the death of Jesus was not a terrible mistake, but it was a thing of power and beauty. But you need the eyes of faith to see the cross as it really is. So the weakness and the brokenness of Jesus, but also the power and majesty and love and the glory of our God and Saviour. And we can see that when we come to Mark 15 with the eyes of faith. And it strengthens our faith as we see the sovereign power of God at work, even in the weakness of Christ. It actually really encourages us to come to Him, to receive Him, to keep on drawing near. Now, all through these chapters, and we've seen this over the last few weeks as we preach through from the start of chapter 14, all through we see the sovereign plan of God coming to pass. So that the death of Jesus on the cross, it was purposed by God, by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the mind of God in eternity. And now it is brought to pass. So just in your Bibles, would you look back really briefly to the start of chapter 14? So chapter 14 and verse 1, it is nearly Passover time. So the lambs of the Passover are being prepared. The old covenant meal that spoke of wrath and substitution and rescue. And the Passover, it's like a drumbeat all the way through these events. Then chapter 14 and verse 8, Jesus is anointed. He's prepared for burial. So this woman comes to him with this lavish gift, which is an act of love and worship, and Jesus says, You're preparing me for burial. It's his plan, his death is imminent. Then go on to chapter 14 and verse 22. He's at the table with his disciples, and he explains the old Passover is done. There's going to be a new Passover, and a new Passover lamb, and a new Passover meal. So the bread, well take and eat my body, the cup, take and drink my blood. It's amazing words. Perhaps Borover Aryas very uneasily spoken that night before his great redeeming work would be done. And then having prayed, having given himself to the will of his father, he utters those amazing words, chapter 14, verse 41. It is enough. The hour has come. And verse 42, let us be going. It's amazing, isn't it? The hour has come, his hour. His plan. And it's now the time. Then we come to our passage. Chapter 15. We see the sovereign plan of God continue to unfold. In his silence, just like he was silent before his Jewish accusers. He's consciously fulfilling those scriptures. Isaiah 53, as the sheep is silent before its cheerers, so he opens not his mouth. The Lord Jesus, it is his plan, the suffering servant. He's now fulfilling his plan. Pilate, this wicked and responsible man, yet he is achieving the will of God. So the sovereign work of the Savior. And when Pilate called him the King of the Jews, it's fascinating to know what went through Pilate's mind as he uttered those words. He probably did not mean it, he certainly did not understand it, but he spoke better than he knew, didn't he? Truly, he was the king of the Jews, the powerful and the sovereign king. So there is our sovereign saviour, but what is the powerful plan that he is working? And it is this that the Lord Jesus should suffer as our substitutes. And that's our second big Bible word. Jesus is substitute. And this takes us to the heart of the gospel. Can you remember Mark chapter 10, verse 45? Hopefully lots of us will know that verse by heart. Great summary verse for the whole gospel. Mark 10, 45, Jesus told his disciples that he had come not to be served, but to be a servant, and to give his life as a ransom, and here's the key bit, as a ransom for men. So Jesus says he came. His life is a gift, and it's given for people, given on behalf of people. And all the way through the Bible, the Old Testament, it has prepared us for this moment: salvation through substitution. Substitution, it's a swap, isn't it? One person for another. So take that Passover lamb. You cannot understand Jesus without the Passover lamb. So we have to go right back to the second book of the Bible, Exodus. God's judgment was coming on every household in the land of Egypt. Salvation was only to be found through the sprinkled blood of the sacrificial lamb. So a lamb was to die instead of the people. Its blood was to be spread on the doorpost of a house. And its inhabitants would find shelter literally under the lamb's blood. And then that family, each family, was to eat and to share in, consume the Passover land. So you see the way of safety. God gave a substitute which died to provide salvation. But you must come under the blood, and you must consume in order to benefit. And now we come to the table with his disciples in chapter 14, and Jesus says, Yes, there's a new Passover, I am the Lamb. My blood will be shed. A new shedding of saving blood. And you must consume me. You must take me, eat me, drink me, and eat Passover meal. So too are the suffering servants. Isaiah 53, he shall bear their iniquities. So he takes guilt. He does not deserve it, but he takes on himself the punishment that sins deserve. And when we come to our passage, chapter 15, with all of that in our mind, the whole Bible's witness, and with the shape and the flow of Mark's gospel in mind, we have a beautiful, terrible picture of salvation by substitution. Comes to us from the hand of Pontius Pilate, this weak, wicked, careless man, and from the baying crowd which cries for Jesus' blood. So, chapter 15, Pilate says to the crowd, Who shall I release to you? And we're told that this was a custom which he had developed at Passover time. He's the unpopular ruler of an oppressed city. Well, once a year at Passover time, let me release someone to you. Shall I release to you Jesus, the King of the Jews? Now plainly the Lord Jesus was innocent. Even Pilate knew that's what he said to the crowd, wasn't it? Verse 14, what evil has he done? Answer none. Yet the crowd's response. They cry for this man, Barabbas, to live and Jesus to die. And Pilate gets in, doesn't he? To the cross, Jesus will go. And Pilate didn't know it. And the crowd didn't know it at the time. But in that swap, Jesus and Barabbas, they were portraying God's gift of grace and redemption. They were kind of living it out, acting it out. So here is this man, Barabbas. Barabbas. He was a rebel and a murderer. Verse 7 tells us. And that is a fitting charge. That's actually what we are like, each one of us, until the Lord Jesus forgives us and changes us. Each one of us by nature, we are rebels. He was in an insurrection. That's the nature of our hearts, a rising up against our King, our true King, the God who made us. And murderers. We likely have not killed with our hands, but that is of the nature of sin and sinners. We kill. We kill with words and attitudes. The sinful nature prefers death rather than life. Barabbas in the court, he deserved to die. It would not have been an unjust thing for him to undergo the sentence of death. So too with each of us. Our nature, our sin, our rejection of God's rule, rejecting the infinitely kind and wise and strong God who created us, we are deserving of death and hell. And maybe there was already a cross, a cross on the hill with Barabbas' name written upon it. And yet the guilty went free, he was released, he was freed. And the innocent, but he wasn't just innocent, was he? The Lord Jesus, to call him innocent, that is not sufficient. He is a spotless Lamb. He is righteous, uniquely, he is holy. He had a life of law-keeping duty. He always loved God, he always loved his neighbour. He took Barabbas' place. He took Barabbas' cross. It's terrible and it is wonderful at the same time. Al Barabbas can teach us the purpose of Jesus' suffering. Well, what do we do with this? We look at Jesus here. So in his weakness, he is not just weak, he is sovereign and he is a substitute. What do we do with him? These last few chapters of Mark's gospel, chapter 14 to the end, they do not contain what you might call many explicit applications. They hold Jesus before us, they describe the events that leave him on the cross and in the tomb. They show us his holiness, his suffering, his majesty, they show us our sinfulness, our need of him. On the face of it, they don't contain many explicit commands, things to believe or things to do. Probably there are two explicit commands. The first was given in the garden to the disciples, watch and pray. You do not enter into temptation, we are very weak. We are so weak in the face of sin and temptation. Watch and pray. The second, at the last supper, where Jesus says to his disciples, take. So in your Bibles, could you look back please to that? It's chapter 14 and verse 22. Chapter 14 and verse 22. And this is a really helpful way to help us think about what we do with Jesus. Or we must do something with him. As he says to his disciples, take this is my body. The amazing thing is this, that Jesus offers himself to us, he is available to be taken. Just stop and think on that for a moment. Christ is there to be received, he holds himself out. Here's John Calvin. He says, we must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and no value for us. So Christ is apart from us, but he is not far from us. He comes near to us in the incarnation, the manger at Bethlehem, God becomes man, most of all in his sufferings, the pains of the innocent Son of God, which we've read of today, and especially his sufferings on the cross. He comes near to purchase redemption and he holds himself out to us and he commands us, it is a command, and he invites us. Take me, take me, take him. Be one with him, have union with him, be joined to him. It's beyond wonderful. And it is absolutely necessary. I hope you know and believe that. Do you know that? It is utterly necessary. A person who has never taken Christ, who has never received Christ, who's been joined to him, well, if that's you, you are still in Adam. That is your first father, Adam. You're still joined to him, you're still bearing your own sin and guilt, you're still full of the twistedness and cursedness which would mar all of our souls. And there is no way for you on your own to find life or righteousness or holiness or soundness outside of Jesus. And actually, without the gift of Jesus' Holy Spirit, none of us would even want to come to Jesus and take him. Yet in the gospel, Jesus says to any disciple, any would-be disciple, take me. He doesn't just say, have these good gifts that I have. He doesn't just come bearing gifts, things like forgiveness and righteousness and holiness. He actually says, Have me. You know, take me. Here's Calvin again. We cannot possess the good things of our Lord Jesus Christ to take any profit from them unless we first enjoy Him. And that is the very reason why He gives Himself to us. So if we want to be right with God, we must first have Christ. Come to Christ, take Christ, be joined to Christ. And then we receive all blessings in Him. The Lord Jesus, He is not far from us, He is not distant or detached from us. Truly, He comes to us by His Holy Spirit. When His Spirit joins a person to Jesus, you know, in union with Jesus, He makes us one with Him. Like God makes a husband and a wife to be one. So if you're a Christian today, you are one with Christ. And wonderfully, this offer, this invitation, this command, it is held out to people who know they are like Barabbas. If we are Barabbases, if we are traitors and murderers, it is a wonderful invitation and command to take Jesus. And it is an active response. Imagine you're back in the restaurant. There is a banquet of the most amazing food in front of you, but if you sit there and you do nothing, that food will do you no good. You need to receive, you need to take, eat, drink. You need to take Christ. Maybe for one or two of us, we're you know you've never taken Christ. Maybe you've been around Christian people, around church, or around the Bible, or close to the things of Christ. But if that's where you are and stay, Christ will not benefit you. And maybe you know that. You know you're like Barabbas, a traitor to your God and creator. And today that's an invitation you must heed. He invites you to take him and trust him, to receive him. And the way we express that very simply is in prayer. Coming to God through Jesus, confessing our sin, telling him about our sin. I am a rebel, I am a murderer by nature, but also confessing, telling him about my faith in Christ. I trust you, Jesus, as my Saviour. Christian people, I hope we are encouraged. We feel the weight of our sins. You go on in the Christian life, you do that more, not less. You know that on your own, you are very much by nature like a Barabbas. Maybe you feel the weight of sin pulling you down. But you have been joined to Jesus. And he encourages us to receive and to keep receiving, to take and to keep on taking, to keep on drawing near to him. In just a moment, we're going to move straight to the Lord's table to take bread and wine. First, let me encourage us to pause for a moment's silent prayer. There might be things that you would like silently to say to God in thanksgiving or confession or prayer. Well, in the bread and the wine of the Lord's Supper, Christ holds himself out to us by his Holy Spirit, and he invites us to receive him by faith, to receive from him all that he is, all that he has done in his life, his sufferings, especially in his dying and his rising. And as we receive Christ, we also remember who we are. He is obedient, where we are disobedient. He is innocent and righteous, where by nature we are guilty and deserving of judgment. He is life, whereas we by nature are of death. And he invites us to rest on him to find nourishment for our souls. In the Bible we read these words from 1 Corinthians chapter 11. The Lord Jesus gave this to the Apostle Paul. That the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, he took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it, and he said, This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whenever we come to the Lord's table, I always remind us that the Lord's things are holy things, and He is a holy God. Please don't take the bread or the wine if you are not yet a Christian. You're just looking into the things of Christ and you know you have not yet come to Him. Please don't take the bread or the wine. Or if you are a Christian, but your own sin means that today you're in a broken fellowship with another church member here at Emmanuel. Please also don't take the bread or the wine until that relationship is restored. Or if you are a Christian, but you know there is Sin that you love more than you love Christ, just don't eat or drink until with the Lord's help and maybe the help of the church you put that sin to death. But if you are a Christian who is grieved for your sins, and yet you trust that those sins are forgiven and all remaining weakness covered by the death of Christ on the cross. You're a Christian who knows how weak you are, yet you want more and more to strengthen your faith in Jesus, and with his help to grow in godliness. Then with joy and with gratitude, draw near, draw near. Receive the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he gave for us, and his blood which he shed for us. Eat and drink in remembrance that he died for us and feed on him in your hearts by faith with thanksgiving. Let's pray together for the Lord's blessing as we come to his table. Grant us, O Lord and Father, that with true faith we may keep this supper of your dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, as He has ordained it, so that we truly receive and enjoy the true communion of His body and blood, of our Saviour Himself, who is the only saving bread of heaven.

unknown: 31:31

Amen.