I invite you to open your Bible and turn with me to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 15, verses 1 to 15. And this passage is dripping with a profound sense of dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is when you, as the audience, have information the characters in the story do not have. Oh Romeo, we know that Juliet is not dead; she's just sleeping. That would be an example of dramatic irony. Well, as we go to trial before the Roman governor Pilate, he's going to come up with a name for Jesus, the King of the Jews, and Jesus is going to be mocked by just about everybody. But what we know is Jesus really is the King. And so, we're going to get to see who Jesus really is as everybody else misses the whole plot of the story. So, let's give this our full and undivided attention. I invite you to stand up for the public reading of Scripture, and I ask you to follow along with me. If you don't have a Bible, in the handout there in your bulletin are printed the first 15 verses of Mark 15. Please follow along as I read.

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.

That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead and have your seat, and I would love for you to take notes as we really think through what just happened in these fifteen verses. Hopefully, even just hearing them read, it bothers you that Jesus is being treated in such a way, and so this idea that he's the King of the Jews… Let's circle that there in verse 2, where Pilate asked him the question, "Are you the king of the Jews?” And just like he did in the trial before with the Jerusalem leaders' council before the high priest, Jesus kind of agreed with what they said about him, and so he agrees here with Pilate. “You have said so.” But you can see that Pilate then asks in verse 9. If you want to circle the “King of the Jews,” there. “Do you want me to release the King of the Jews?” Hey, we've got this prisoner release program at the Feast of the Passover. Maybe we'll release him, but no, the chief priests are already there working among the crowd. And that's one of the things we want to highlight here is you've probably heard a preacher say that the crowd who was welcoming him earlier in the week when he rode in on the donkey and shouting, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” is now shouting, “Crucify him”! Well, Mark's very clear, and you can see in verse 11 that the chief priests they're provoking this crowd. This could be kind of a home crowd for the chief priests who know to be there at this very early in the morning trial with Pilate, and there they seem to have an effect to stir up this crowd to want Barabbas, instead of the King of the Jews.

So, circle “King of the Jews” again in verse 12. Well, but now the question is: If I'm not going to release the King of the Jews, what shall I do with the King of the Jews? And that's when they begin to shout, "Crucify him”! Now, if you're looking at the Scripture and not just your handout, this “King of the Jews” theme continues. It's repeated so much by Mark in chapter 15 that it clearly is meant to get our attention. And if you look at verse 18 in Mark 15, you can see, and we'll get to this next week if you're able to come back, that they began to salute him. So, starting in verse 15, we really start getting into a lot of the physical suffering that Jesus went through, and we'll talk about the pain and the agony that they put Jesus through even before he ever got nailed to the cross.

Well, you can see here they already have a crown of thorns that they're putting on him, and they're already clothing him in this purple cloak, the color of royalty and mockery here. And in verse 18, you can imagine all these Roman soldiers saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!” And, of course, the Romans are ruling over the Jews at this time, so even this idea that the Jews have a king is humorous and funny to the Romans. And so here is the actual king being mocked by the Roman soldiers. “Hail, king of the Jews,” they're saying, and you can see if you go down to verse 26, it says they are crucifying him now. He's on the cross, and the inscription of the charge against him read, "The King of the Jews.” And they put this in multiple different languages. A lot of the people at this time would have been multilingual, speaking and understanding different languages, and they put it in many languages so everyone could see why is Jesus being killed? Because he's the King of the Jews. In fact, in verse 32, the chief priests and the scribes are there mocking him while he is being killed, “He saved others; he cannot save himself.”

So, notice now they're even using the word for Messiah, the Anointed One, the Coming One. “Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” So, you can see they're even using these words in an ironic way, like, well, if you were really the Christ, if you were really the King of Israel, you wouldn't be up there. You would save yourself like you saved other people. Come down. They’re acting like that's a sign that would cause them to believe. And so here they are mocking him, like he's not really the Christ. He's not really the King of Israel because if he was, he would get down off the cross. You can even write down if you're taking notes, in John 19:14, John gives us a little bit more of the interaction between Pilate and Jesus, and Pilate even introduces Jesus at some point with the crown of thorns as “Behold your king.”

So, let's get that down for point number one if you are writing down notes. We want you to “Behold your KING.” We want you to see that Jesus really is the king of the Jews, and in fact, he's not just the king of the Jews, he's the king of you. He's the king of kings. He is the long prophesied king whom God is sending, and his kingdom is coming. And so, what Pilate, the Roman governor, and what the chief priests of the Jews may mock is actually, in an ironic twist, the truth about Jesus, and we want to make sure that we all see Jesus as King. Now, I would imagine many of you, you're here regularly on Saturday night. If I were to say to you, Jesus is king, that would be no new information. But I wonder how far you have really processed that thought into your thinking, into your daily life. Because, as Americans, we have an election coming up. Right? And we don't really believe in a king, I'm pretty sure we kind of had some kind of revolution against the king of England, and we don't have a king in the United States of America. So, I know, as someone who has grown up red, white, and blue, I don't really think in a way of a king. So really thinking about Jesus as someone who sits on a throne and has complete and utter authority over my life, that's taken me some time to learn the way of Jesus being King. In fact, when I talk to my brothers and sisters here at the church, I hear many comments about these ruling authorities and about what we think about them and the city councils and who's going to be our next governor because we've all got something to say about our last governor. And who's going to be in control of Congress. We kind of have this impression that, hey, we the people get to decide who rules over us. Hey, Jesus is the King ruling over us whether we decide it or not. Can I get an amen from anybody on that?

And no matter what may happen in upcoming elections, Jesus is at the right hand of the Father of the throne of Majesty in heaven. He already is the King, and he doesn't need yours, mine, or anybody else's permission to rule over his universe. And so, the mockery that is in these 15 verses, let's step back and let's be like, wow, do I really behold Jesus as the King? Is that really how I'm thinking of him? Do I even know some of the prophecies about him that he is fulfilling? For example, the first time he's really referred to as the king is 1 Samuel 2:10. This is a verse I would encourage you to write down. You could write down the whole verse. This is the prayer of Hannah that kicks off the story of Samuel, which is really the story of King David, God's anointed one. Saul was rejected. David was a man after God's own heart. They were anointed as king. And what Hannah prays is that the Lord will judge the ends of the earth. The Lord has authority to judge people all over the earth. He will give strength to his king. He will exalt the horn of his anointed. That's Samuel's mom Hannah, praying this epic prayer of faith that God, he actually has a king who's going to reign, and he's going to decide what's right when he rules all over the earth. Yes, starting there, they would think of King David as kind of the high point in Israel. That's what the Book of Chronicles is about. Starting in chapter 10 is the reign of King David in the glory days of Israel. But they didn't just want David or whoever was going to be the Messiah, the Anointed One, the King to reign in Israel. They wanted Israel to reign over all. That's the idea.

How about Zechariah 9:9? Here's another prophecy about the king. “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Does anybody remember on Good Friday when we had a donkey come in that door? Was anybody here for that? Because we were in Mark 11, and Jesus is coming into Jerusalem, and he's coming in on a donkey. And what were people thinking of him? That he was going to be the king. And now his enemies, the envious chief priests and the wanting to please the crowd. They mock him like they have authority over him. They do what many governing officials have done throughout human history, which is act like they have the authority and they're not actually under God's authority. And that's a big mistake that these chief priests make. It's a big mistake that Pilate makes. And Jerusalem will be destroyed in 70 A.D. as judgment from all that happens in this scene, because he really is the king, but he didn't come to establish his kingdom right then. At that moment, he came to do something different, and they just couldn't see it. The people here, the other characters here in the story, they're using the right words, but they can't really see who he is.

And so, let's go through the dramatic irony here. Let's start with verses 1 to 5, and let's be amazed along with Pilate, because here in verses 1 through 5 they bring all these accusations. Now, if you were here a couple weeks ago, if you go back to chapter 14, let's just review that there was a whole false witness fest that happened in Mark 14, and they couldn't even get their liars to line up their stories right to prove who Jesus was. They had to ask Jesus directly, and they couldn't get the false witnesses to agree. So, Jesus had to bear witness about himself because Jesus is faithful, he cannot deny Himself. He will say who he is, and so he says, " I am the Son of the Blessed. I am the Son of God, and you're going to see me at the right hand of power. You're going to see me coming on the clouds of heaven.” And so, they accused him of blasphemy. And now, they bring him to this second round of trial with the Roman governor, who has the authority to put Jesus to death, and they bring their accusations. You can see that in verse 3. Pilate likes this idea that Jesus is the King of the Jews, and Jesus says, yes, it is as you have said. But the chief priests in verse 3 come and accuse him of many things. We can imagine many of the lies they were already saying at their own council in the middle of the night, and so Pilate is expecting what you would get in most cases that come to trial as he's the governor, as he's deciding disputes. He's deciding what he is going to rule in cases, but in this case, it's all accusations and no defense. And now, Pilate, I would imagine as the governor of the Roman territory there in Jerusalem, I would imagine he's seen a lot of things in his day. But notice what it says in verse 5, “But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.” This is the same word for amazed as when Jesus did some of his miracles, and people were amazed that Jesus was able to do these things. Pilate now is amazed at Jesus not defending himself but staying silent. And we saw where the high priest was like, are you not going to answer all these false witnesses against you? And now Pilate is saying the same thing: "Aren't you going to answer all these accusations?”

We need to all take a moment and listen to the silence of Jesus. Jesus is teaching by saying nothing. Let's get this down for point number two: “Take a moment for his silence.” You might have heard about the silence of Jesus before, “the silence of the Lamb.” Well, let's not just pass over it like we already know. Let's take a moment here at the feast of Passover, and let's think about what's really happening. This idea of the silence of the Lamb goes back to Isaiah 53:7, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” Now this is especially relevant at this time because it is the feast of the Passover. Look at verse 6. It says that at the feast of the Passover, is when they began this tradition of releasing one prisoner. Do you know what happens at the feast of the Passover? How they remember what God did back in the Exodus from Egypt, going all the way back to Exodus 12. Well, every family takes in a lamb, a spotless lamb, a healthy lamb, and they have the lamb live with them? You’ve got a lamb living with you for a few days, and then at twilight on a certain day at the certain time, they all go and sacrifice the Passover lamb, and when they sacrifice the Passover lamb all the way up to the moment that the knife comes to take the life of the lamb, the lamb says nothing, and this is happening at the feast of the Passover.

How did John the Baptist introduce Jesus to his disciples? “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Can you behold him? Can you see that he's like a lamb led to the slaughter? He is willingly allowing himself to be falsely accused because he came to die. He is not trying to defend himself. We have seen that you could try to stump Jesus with any question, and he could answer your question. We have seen that Jesus can slip away through a crowd. They can try to arrest him. He can know what you're thinking from afar. He can know you're coming for him. He's told us the future so many times. We know Jesus can see what's coming as well as he can see what's already happened. I mean, we have learned that if there's anyone who could get out of this situation if he wanted to, it's Jesus. Not to mention the host of angels that he could command to come and do whatever he bid them to do.
Can you hear the profundity of his silence. There's a reason Jesus isn't answering because if he started answering, he would probably end up saving himself rather than saving you. Go with me to 1 Peter. Peter really wrote about this in 1 Peter, chapter 2, and he really applied this to me and you. I hope you’ve got your Bible and hope you're ready to turn around to some of these great verses about Jesus, because we want to get Jesus on our heart and minds here tonight. We want to think more about Jesus over these next now five weeks we've got in the Gospel of Mark than we have before. We're already two weeks into our seven-part series, and I'm trying to stoke the fire in your heart to love Jesus and to give you thoughts to think about Jesus every single day this week. And one of the things you need to hear Jesus saying to you is how he said nothing at all. You need to hear his silence because he was going in to be killed, and then Peter says this in 1 Peter 2:21. He says, "For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example.” See, you need to learn from the suffering of Christ, learn from his example, so that you might follow in his steps. Verse 22, “He committed no sin.” He was above reproach. There was not really anything you could accuse him of. “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.” Wow! I said that a couple of weeks ago. We talked about how Jesus took people talking bad about him, and he didn't say anything back. The number of people that have come up to me at the church over the last two weeks and said, "Yeah, I heard you when you said that. That's really hard for me.” It's hard for us to hear people say things about us, accusations about us. They could be lies that aren't true, and that could make us angry. Sometimes somebody could be telling the truth about you, and you still get defensive about yourself because you don't want to hear it because you have this pride. And you want to just start attacking people back because they're saying something about you. “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.” I have found that in tense situations, one of the most disarming weapons you can have in your arsenal is silence. It is the gentle answer that turns away wrath. Sometimes, the most effective thing I've said is saying nothing at all and just letting the words hang there in the air, and see that's what's happening in these trials.

We're trying to get him riled up. We're trying to find a weakness. We're trying to break through, and he does not revile in return. In fact, look at what it goes on to say: “when he suffered, he did not threaten.” Was there anybody who could have accused him back? Was there anybody? Well, you guys are coming after me. Let me start saying things about you. He'd already said what he had to say about these priests. He'd already said that they were going to be judged, and so he did not threaten. He continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He knew that God's on the throne, not the high priest, not Pilate. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed.” And then showing us that he's clearly thinking about the language of Isaiah 53 when he writes this, he says that by that quote, “By his wounds you have been healed.” That's from Isaiah 53. How about the next thought? “For you were straying like sheep.” What does it say in Isaiah 53:6? “All we like sheep have gone astray.” Well, now he's picking up on that.

Yes, you were going astray like sheep, but we have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. So, he's clearly thinking of Isaiah 53, and he's applying it to us now. Like, let's learn from the example of the spotless Lamb, of the Passover Lamb, of the Lamb who was silent all the way to his own slaughter. He's saying you should learn from that. You should follow in his steps because they're going to say things about you. They're going to accuse you. Why revile in return? Why threaten back? Why not know who the real authority is? And it's not the person who's speaking to you. It's God on his throne. And if you know, if you can trust him who judges justly, then you know he already paid for your sin in his body on the tree, and you can know that you have a good shepherd who watches over your soul even at this present hour. Why are you worried about what all these other people are saying about you? What does he say about you? Let that be enough.

See, the silence of Jesus is one of the loudest things you can hear if you take time to actually listen to it. If you think about what were all these things that they would say to him, the chaos that must have been, these mockery trials, and there he is, immovable, just on a mission, knowing why he's there. So take that silence of Jesus. Take it to heart. Let it be exemplary to you. I guarantee you, this week you're going to have a moment when you feel like somebody's saying something about you they shouldn't be saying. Could you respond to them in silence? Can you learn from the silence of Jesus? Can you know that as long as he knows what my heart is, I don't need to defend myself. I don't need to threaten.

Let's go back now to Mark, chapter 15. Pilate is amazed that Jesus made no further answer, especially because we all know how capable Jesus is of making answers. These guys have come after Jesus for chapters in Mark. They came after him in the temple one after another. The Sadducee, the Pharisee, the lawyer, the scribe, they all came after, and he could put them all away with the wisdom, with the truth of Scripture. So, wait a minute. We're expecting a big showdown because nobody knows how to speak like Jesus. People have gone to arrest Jesus and came back empty-handed. Why? Because no one speaks like this man. For the greatest teacher, for the greatest speaker to ever walk this planet, to say nothing at his own trial! Can you hear the amazing silence of Jesus? But see, it goes on because Pilate, who clearly has a torn heart about what to do with Jesus, because he's feeling the pressure from the chief priests, and the pressure spreads to the entire crowd, but then over here, Pilate also knows that Jesus is an innocent man, and so what is he supposed to do? And so, you can see he's looking for a way out of being the one who has to make the decision, and he says, ha ha! “The feast of the Passover, we release a prisoner.” How about I release for you the King of the Jews? We've had our fun. We've made fun of him. We've mocked him. We've thrown some things around. We've beaten him up a little bit. How about we just let him go and call it a day? And let's move on to the feast, everybody. That's what Pilate's thinking is his way out here, and so he proposes that in verse 9, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?”

Now we get some insight from Mark through the Holy Spirit through Mark, but he takes us actually into the heart of Pilate. So, this is really fascinating that you we get to know things from Pilate's perspective. Mark actually puts you into the mindset of Pilate in the first five verses. He shows you that Pilate is amazed by the silence of Jesus. Well, now look at this keen insight right here in verse 10. That Pilate “perceived it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up.” He sees as a political actor here, as someone who's risen to the power of being a Roman governor over this whole area of Judea. He has a little bit of insight into the ways that people act, and he knows what's going on with these chief priests. Hey, this isn't really a problem with Jesus. I don't even think the average person, maybe in Jerusalem, has a problem with Jesus. It's these chief priests who are envious, he says, and so he thinks maybe if he makes this appeal, the crowd will let Jesus go. But then you can see the chief priests have influence over this particular crowd that is there before Pilate, and they're able to bring up this guy Barabbas.

Barabbas! We don't know much about him besides he's an insurrectionist and a murderer, clearly someone who was in prison who belonged there. Clearly the man who should have been on the third cross. Barabbas is mentioned in all four of the Gospels. And what's known about him is he actually is not innocent at all. He's guilty. He actually killed people in an insurrection against the actual Roman authority. And so, let's bring up Barabbas. And the chief priests are like, he's the guy we're going to release. That's the whole trick here. There's a whole political game that's going on. Pilate's like, I know a way out. Let's release Jesus as our Feast of Passover. Passover prisoner goes free. Let's do that. Hey, every feast of Passover, you guys know the game we play. How about the King of the Jews goes? But see, the chief priests, they have a counter move here. Yeah, let's ask for Barabbas, and if he's against the Romans, a lot of the Jewish crowd they might have really liked the idea of Barabbas going free, because Barabbas, he's like a real revolutionary. He's like a real Zealot. He's about our freedom. Yeah, we kind of like that guy Barabbas. And so, do you see what happens here? This is something that if you hear the gospel of Jesus, you're supposed to know the name Barabbas, and you're supposed to see a guilty man gets released to go free, while the innocent man comes in as his substitute on the cross. We're all supposed to see this happen. We're supposed to think that isn't right. A known murderer who should be getting the death penalty is now going to just be released to go eat the Passover feast, and the innocent King of the Jews, Son of the Blessed, he's going to be treated like a murderer.

Point number three: “Consider how he is your SUBSTITUTE.” Consider how he is your substitute. That's what we see is when he comes in for Barabbas, oh, he's like the substitute for the one who should be executed, for the real criminal who should be on death row. Well, now Jesus is coming in as the substitute for the murderer. See, sometimes you'll share with people the good news of the gospel, and sometimes people get offended when you share the gospel because they'll bring up a murderer, they'll bring up someone that has been known to kill people, they'll bring up someone, a name like Barabbas that everybody knows what they've done, and everybody can agree that what they did was evil. What they did was wrong. See, a lot of evil these days gets covered over because I'm not really hurting anybody, they say. But this person clearly was hurting people. In fact, he killed people. And sometimes, when you share the good news of Jesus, that Jesus died to pay for all of our sin, and that when we believe in him, all of our sins are forgiven, and we receive by grace as a gift. It's like all of your sin paid for, all the righteousness of Jesus transferred to your account, and God declares you righteous because Jesus was the substitute who died in your place to pay for your sin? And you tell that to people, and they're like, “So you mean a murderer could believe in Jesus and be forgiven and go to heaven?” They'll drop a name like Hitler. They'll be like, "You're saying somebody like that could just believe in Jesus and be forgiven for all their sin, and then they would get to go to heaven, even though they killed other people? Yet, not only are we saying that, that's the actual story of what literally happened.

And everybody's supposed to know the Barabbas part. There are basically two things you're supposed to know about the guy. One, he's a murderer, and he got released, and everybody knew it. And Jesus died in his place. See, that's what's amazing about grace is, no matter what sin you have done, it can be forgiven at the cross of Jesus Christ. In fact, go with me to 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 21, and let's just remember the work of reconciliation that Jesus has done. 2 Corinthians 5:21, This is one of the great verses that describe the glorious exchange of the gospel. This is one of those verses that might offend people who have a strong sense of morality and would think it's not right if a murderer gets to go free. Yeah, it's not. Yeah, that's what it's saying in 2 Corinthians 5:21, which is one of the verses that makes this glorious exchange of the gospel. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” See this idea of what happens to Barabbas, well, it gets applied to us. Look at this verse. “For our sake,” yes, it happened literally with a man known as Barabbas. But now, as the writers of Scripture develop the flow of the thought of the gospel, they say, for your sake, it happened also for you, that the innocent, spotless Lamb of God, of the one man you could actually say was completely innocent, not guilty, who knew no sin. It says, “he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Do you see Jesus as your substitute? Do you see all the heavy weight of the judgment of your sin on Jesus and all his righteousness, his perfect track record of obedience to God's commands, his fulfilling of every law, all of that gets credited to you. Your account is at 100% righteousness, and Jesus is paying for all of your sin.

It's not right what happened, but you're right because of it. That's what we're supposed to think when we hear Barabbas. It's offensive that a murderer could get away with it. Yeah, it's so offensive. That's actually what happened. That's actually a big part of the story, the feeding of the five thousand and Barabbas. Those are in all four Gospels. Like everybody at our church is supposed to know the name Barabbas. And do you know what the name means? It's an Aramaic name, and it means… maybe you can even put it together. If you break it down, Bar, Abba. So, what does Abba mean, everybody? Father. And then Bar. What does that mean? Do you know? Son of the Father. You're telling me that they just released a man who's the son of the father for the Son of the Father? Like when the name Barabbas is supposed to be screaming to everyone. It’s basically saying Barabbas is his name. It's like saying, well, he's the son of the father. He's the son of somebody, right? It's not a very descriptive name. You might remember when Jesus would say like Simon Bar-Jonah, like Peter is the son of Jonah or something like that. But Barabbas just means you're the “son of the father.” That's what he was known as, Barabbas.

Well, so, the son of the father goes free, so that the actual Son of the Father gets pronounced guilty, dies as a substitute, pays for all our sin, so that we could be made righteous. The son of the father replaced the man known as the Son of the Father, so that you could be a son or daughter of the Father. Go with me to Galatians chapter 4. This idea of Abba, we know that word because there are a couple of passages that talk about how when we receive the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Christ compels us to call on God as Father. And so, Jesus taught us to even pray this way: "Our Father in heaven.” And in Galatians, chapter 4, where Paul is really trying to explain that there is no work of righteousness or work of the law that anyone can do, it is all by the righteousness of Christ. We don't have any boast in anything we've done. The only thing to boast in is what Jesus has done. And so, look what he says in Galatians 4:4-7, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father! So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

See, one of the things that I find a lot of people at church believe is if I say something like, "Do you believe that the Father in heaven perfectly loved his Son Jesus?” What does everybody at church say to that? Yes. And do you believe that Jesus, the Son, perfectly pleased his Father in heaven? What do you say? Okay. Do you see what happened? They took this Barabbas guy out, and they brought in the actual Son of the Father, and he got treated and judged for all of your sin, and then you got given all of his righteousness. Does that mean the Father now loves you like he loves his Son Jesus? Does that now mean that the Father is pleased with you, just like he's pleased with his Son Jesus? Have you now entered into eternal life? Eternal life is what this relationship between the Father and the Son and the Spirit that transcends space and time, and you have now entered into that relationship, so that you are no longer seen as a slave, no longer seen as guilty, no longer seen as a murderer. Whatever your sin may be, you're no longer seen as that. You are seen as a son or a daughter. You have been adopted, and you are an heir. You will receive the inheritance of all things that the Father will give to his son.

See, I got a new computer this week. I mean, I had worked that old computer to death, literally, and then I had to get a new one. And I don't know how you feel about new technology because some of you are like, yes, new tech, new updates, new widgets. Yes, the glory days, and then some of us are like, curse this technology, curse it all. I remember the good old days. Why can't this work like my old computer worked? Why can't my phone have a connection to the wall when my buddy used to call me? Hey, you want to go shoot hoops? Let's go. That was the end of communication, you know, the good old days. I don't know where you're at on the technology spectrum, but I got a new computer this week, and it was all that. It was like new widgets, and I can't even do basic functions. I can't even send emails, which was kind of nice for a moment, you know what I mean? And then one of these widgets on my new computer decides that it's going to just show me a picture from all my photos I've ever taken in my life. Has this ever happened to you? This is a brutal thing, you know. It's like I'm just trying to go on my computer. Why am I crying right now? You know, I remember when my kids were that age. Oh man, those were the good times. Like, why are we showing precious moments from my life? I'm just trying to get some work. Whoa! Wow, I remember when my kids looked like that. I remember when they would hang out with me. As your kids grow older, they think more for themselves. They move more independently, and it's beautiful. A lot of people act like I wish my kids wouldn't grow up. I disagree with that completely. It's awesome to see the kids grow up and to see them have a heart for the Lord. But there was something about when they're little kids. Can I get an amen from the congregation? Chubby cheeks, holding hands. Dad, can you play with me right now? Like we don't have anything else we'd ever want to do. Because see, what do they trust? What do children trust? My father loves me. My father's pleased with me.

We’ve got everything we need right here, man. If we could get people at this church to pray to God like that, if we could get people at church to think, man, you could not be more loved than you are. The Father had his own son trade places with a murderer for you to bring you into the family, to adopt you, and not only did he have his Son die in your place, but when your eyes are open to see Jesus by his grace, and when you repent of your sin and you put your faith in Jesus, he gives you a new heart and he puts his spirit within you, and the spirit has you call on him, Abba, Father. Like I can come to you, I can talk to you. I can know I'm right with you. I can know you love me. I can know you're pleased with me, not because of me, but you are pleased with me because I know what you did with your Son, and I can now speak to you, like a child speaks to their father, with confidence that I will be heard, loved, accepted, and that you will act, that you will provide and care and be there and protect from evil.

Barabbas' name means “son of the father,” and they traded the guy known as the son of the father for the only one who actually was the Son of the Father, and if God's willing to make that trade, the reason he made that trade is so you could be one of his sons, that you could be one of his daughters. Look at what it says in verse 7, “You are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” You have full access to his throne. You have a place in his house. You have a share in his inheritance, and there is nothing that can happen this week in your life that can change anything about what the Son of the Father did in your place. You have that for sure. You have that as a guarantee. And so, when it feels like I don't know what's going on in my life, you can go to your Father, and you can say, "Wow, just like you loved your son Jesus, just like you're pleased with your Son Jesus, now I get to come to you in the name of Jesus, and I can call you Father.” There is a power in praying to our Father that we should be experiencing on a daily basis. It is the power we have witnessed that could take Jesus even from feeling like he's crushed under the pressure of drinking the cup of wrath for our sins, and now look at Jesus silently, not even making an answer. Why? Because he spent three hours in prayer in the garden with the Father.

There is great power in having a relationship with the Father. The Son of the Father died. He took Barabbas's place so that you could have that access as a son or daughter yourself. How are you doing at really approaching your Father? Do you find times in your life where life is very hard for you, but after time with your father, you feel loved. You feel built up, encouraged. Do you know your father so that it makes a difference in your life?

Now go back to Mark 15, because there's a third section here. Pilate's kind of plan. Now this is just about the envy of the chief priests. The crowd will let the King of the Jews go. Well, that backfired with the Barabbas backup plan that the chief priests were cooking up with the crowd. Apparently, the chief priests had some influence with this crowd, and they were able to get this crowd to shout Barabbas instead. And now you can see in verse 12, Pilate now is like, well, what are we going to do with the King of the Jews? And that's when they begin to shout, “Crucify him.” And even Pilate says, and everybody who studies any of the Gospels, you can see the conflict in Pilate, where Pilate says here in Mark 15:14, “Why? What evil has he done?” Pilate knows he hasn't done anything deserving of death, and the story is written so that we would all see it from Pilate's perspective, that the man who deserved to die just went free, and the one who doesn't deserve to die, they are now shouting, crucify.

And so, you can see now a glimpse into Pilate's own motivation when it says so. “Pilate wishing to satisfy the crowd,” and it's really in the Greek. It's just like Pilate wanting the crowd. Why do you let a murderer insurrectionist go free and kill someone you know is innocent under your authority? Why would you make a horrible call of injustice like that? Because you want all these people to like you. You want to please people. See this is what Jesus has told us was going to happen. Jesus said that the Son of Man will be delivered over into the hands of men, and the King of the Jews is a theme throughout our text. Look back at verse 1, and if you're taking notes, let's circle the word "delivered" there at the end of verse 1 because the chief priest delivered him over to Pilate. This is the idea of betrayed. This is the idea of handed him over. First of all, it was Judas who handed him over to the chief priest. Now it's the chief priest handing him over to Pilate. But what we see through the eyes and heart of Pilate is we see why everybody is doing this. Well, you can see in verse 10, circle delivered there in verse 10 because that's where Pilate observed that the chief priests had delivered him up, and what was the reason that they delivered him up, everybody? Can you underline envy or write down envy in your notes? See, the chief priests they were envious of Jesus. That's what Pilate perceived. That's what the Scripture includes. That's a way for us to think about it. Okay, so this whole idea of delivered over three times. You can circle the next one where it says that Pilate delivered him over to be crucified. Why? Because he wants the crowd, that's why. He wants people to like him. So, he hands him over to be crucified. So, Judas did it for money. The chief priest did it out of envy. Pilate did it to please the people. Everybody has an evil motive. And it's this idea of being given over, delivered. And you can see that word is used in verse 9, verse 10, and verse 15.

Now, if you’re taking notes, with those three “delivered,” write down Mark 10:33, because Jesus said this exactly was going to happen. He told his disciples when he was teaching them over and over in Mark 8, 9, and 10, before they got to Jerusalem, before he ever came in on the donkey. In Mark 10:33 “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles.” Jesus said chapters ago that he would be delivered over to the chief priests. I'll be delivered to them, and then they'll deliver me over to the Gentiles, the Romans, to Pilate. And here we've just watched it happen. And the chief priests did it, it tells us, out of envy, and then Pilate did it out of pleasing people.

And so, if you are taking notes, write down envy is ill-will or resentment. I want to give you a definition for envy, often mentioned in the Scripture, but just kind of put in there, and so what is a good definition? An ill-will or resentment towards a person who has something I desire. I resent someone. I have ill will towards them because the person has something I desire. What does Jesus have that the chief priests desire? He has the crowd. He has the popularity. He has the ear. He has the word of mouth. And so, the chief priests, they are so envious of Jesus, they have to get rid of him, thinking that they will rise back to popularity, back to influence, back to power. That's what they want. Pilate actually wants the same thing, but kind of just a different way. He's not really against Jesus, but he does want this crowd. He does want to please these people.

Do you see what's happening? Do you see how twisted this is? Because these men care so much about what other people think about them. They're willing to deliver Jesus over. Let me just tell you, these aren't the only people that have made that mistake. I would say that most people that I talk to who end up leaving church, and by leaving church, I mean leaving the faith that is in Jesus Christ. Why do people fall away? Why do people turn back from Jesus? Why do people say, "I don't really care that Jesus died for me. I'm going to go live life the way I want to live it.” Well, I don't know if it's that they really have something against Jesus as much as they want to be accepted by other people. How many people have bailed on Jesus for a boyfriend or a girlfriend? How many people have bailed on Jesus so they could be accepted in the world around them, so they could fit in with their family? That's what's happening here.
Let's get this down for point number four: “See how he was delivered to deliver you.” See, I want to make it clear that even though these men delivered him over, Jesus actually delivered himself. This is what we're going to be taught about what happens here, as the Scripture continues. And I just want to ask you, who did you want to please that Jesus had to die to save you from. Like pleasing other people is one of the main motivations in people's lives, and a lot of times the choice is in Jesus or your sin. That in some people's mind, the choice is actually Jesus or this other person that I want to be with, that I want to accept me, and Jesus, he's delivered over because they want the crowd after them. When Jesus died, who did you get saved out of living for, and now you can live for Jesus instead? Because don't be deceived by what happened here. These men think they had authority over the King of the Jews. The King of the Jews has authority over you and everybody else. Nobody delivered him over unless that's exactly what he was willing to happen.

Let's look at it in 1 Peter 2. Go back to what we already looked at in 1 Peter 2, and let me show you how we already saw this idea of Jesus being delivered over in his example that Peter wrote to us about. We're supposed to hear his silence. We're supposed to not revile in return, to not threaten. Well, in 1 Peter 2. Look at verse 23. Look at it again, because you might not notice this in English. It says, "When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten.” Yeah, we learned that. That was point number two: “Take a moment for his SILENCE.” Well, but look at this. Here's point number four. But he continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly, where it says entrusting himself, you could say delivered himself. You could say gave himself over. It's the same word. See, the chief priests they want the crowd back. Pilate he wants to keep the crowd. Jesus he's not here to please people. He's here before God. He's here to please his Father. See, this is the fundamental choice that we have to make in our lives. Do you want to please people or do you want to please God? Because you can't do both. Can I get an amen from anybody on that? Next time you care about what so and so thinks, or you want somebody to like you, just remember that's what the chief priests and Pilate did at the most unjust trial of all time. And just remember that's why Jesus was willing to die. He didn't want to please people. He trusted the one who judges justly.

So. we should all want to please our Father in heaven. We should all want to walk in the way of his Son. We should all want to live like his sons and daughters. But we can't please the Father and please the crowd, and please everyone else. And see, we're now getting to the real choice that you and I are making if we say we're going to follow Jesus. When it's deny yourself, take up your cross. What is the cross you’ve got to carry? Well, some of it is you're never going to fit in in the world if you follow Jesus. People are always going to have something to say about you, just like they had something to say about him, and they're always going to be accusing those who do what is right because doing what is right doesn't fit in here. And so, this is what we all get to carry is what the shame that Jesus carries here. He doesn't need to say anything. There's nothing to defend. He's done what is right. He's fulfilled the law. But they care about what people think, not what's right, not what God thinks. And so, for some, even maybe sitting here tonight, the choice will not be heaven or hell. The choice will be that person, or pleasing the Father through believing in Jesus. That will be the choice for many, and many boyfriends, girlfriends, and cool crowds have led people astray.

And so, Jesus, He's delivered over so that he could deliver you from this massive groupthink that's going on, so you wouldn't be conformed to the ways of this world, but you could be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That you could live for God's will, what's good and acceptable and perfect, rather than the way of this world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of your possessions, the pride of your life. That's what's happening. And Jesus, see, he's willing to deliver himself over because he trusts the Father. He wants to please the Father. He knows the Father is the judge, and he's always going to do what is right. But go to Galatians two. Go back to Galatians again and look at Galatians 2:20 with me. This is t such a beloved verse. I'm sure many people here have this verse memorized. I'm sure you've heard this verse time and time again. But let me just make sure you understand that when it says in Galatians 2:20, look at this verse with me. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” You know, you could translate that “and delivered himself over for me.” Same word. Yeah, Judas thinks he's doing it. Yeah, the chief priests think they're doing it. Yeah, Pilate now acts like he's got the authority to do it. But who's the one really handing himself over? The one who told you all of this was going to happen? The one who is silently, willingly pleasing his father? Why did he die? Because he gave himself over, and why did he give himself over? He did it for you. It says, "No one has ever chosen you the way Jesus chose you.” Not your spouse, not your kids. Not your parents. No one has ever said, "I want to be in a relationship with you like Jesus Christ.” He actually delivered himself over to death.

Look at these words. It says here in Galatians 2:20, it says, "I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Why wouldn't he say something? Why would an injustice like Barabbas going free and him dying in his place, why will he allow these clearly evil men to have authority over him? Well, it's because he loves you, and he's giving himself, he's delivering himself, he's turning himself in for you, because he wants you to have his life. He wants to be your life. He is the one certain friend you can count on.

I wish somebody would care. I wish somebody would pay attention. I wish somebody would notice. Read this trial. Here is someone willing to go through all of that, and it literally says he gave himself for you. He loved you. In the life that you now live; it's not your life. It's so intertwined now with him. It's his life in you. That's what Jesus is doing here. Everything is going according to plan. Not Pilate's plan, Jesus's plan, the one who really has authority in this trial, and he delivered himself over, so that you could be crucified with him so that all your sin could be paid for, up to the sin of murder, and then you could get all of his righteousness, that you could be in his place as a son or daughter of the Father. What a glorious exchange!

If you flip your hand out over, you can see. I want to encourage you and challenge you. Can we think about Jesus every day this week? I've given you four things to notice about Jesus in this trial. Can you come up with five things to think about Jesus Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday? I'm not just saying this. I am asking you: Can you think more about Jesus than you have been? Can you not just think about him one time in the day. Can you spend two times with him in the day? How can you get Jesus more on your heart and your mind than you have done before? Yes, I would like you to invite people to come and hear how Jesus died for them or how Jesus rose from the dead. But here's what I actually think: if you just think about Jesus more, if you just share this life of Christ, if you just know that he did this because he loves you and he delivered himself over to deliver you. If you could dwell on that I don't think you'll feel like well I’ve got to tell somebody. I think you'll just be talking about Jesus I think you'll be telling your brother you'll be telling your sister. Can you believe we can call on him as Father together?

And I think there will be such a conversation about Jesus among us that it will spill over to everyone we know. Because if you really know what he did, how could you not want to talk about him? How could you not be thinking about him. Someone went up in front of the authorities and let them mock him and let them put him in the place of a murderer. And he went along with all of it without making an answer. Why? For you?

It's the biggest injustice in history, and it's about you. He gave himself. It says, "It's about his glory. It's about his inheritance. And now you're right there with him. If you could have all glory in heaven and on earth, would you be sharing it with people like us?” That's what Jesus is willing to do, to invite us into his relationship with the Father. We should walk in that relationship every single day. Let's pray right now.

Father, please open our eyes to see Jesus. Let us see the King of the Jews. Let us see the full irony of this trial. Let us see that every time they tried to mock him, they were actually saying something true about him. And let us see all their people pleasing. That is so insignificant compared to knowing that you are pleased with us as our Father. Why would we want the fickle crowd's affections when we can have a Father who loves us and calls us His children? Behold, what manner of love is this that we can be called the sons and daughters of God. So, Father, I pray that you would open our eyes to see what really happened. That all of us could take a moment to sit in the silence. That next time somebody says something we don't like, we will not reply to them. But we will learn from Jesus Christ. God, I pray that we could see a murderer walk free, and think, oh, that's messed up. Yeah, that's him taking my place. That's him being my substitute. That's me being forgiven for all of my sins because he just paid it all. And then when we get angry at Pilate for not, “Oh Pilate, why didn't you do what is right?” Oh, these chief priests, they're such hypocrites. All this crowd, and we get angry at other people. Let us realize none of these people had any authority. They are just actors in a bigger story. The one who had all authority, he's actually delivering himself over. And the way we can see, Father, that your Son Jesus turned himself in as he told us every step, from Judas to the chief priests to the Gentile ruler Pilate, but really it was him doing it the whole time. Father, let us praise the name of the one who gave himself for us. Let us praise the name of the one who loves us, and let our hearts be filled with Jesus. Let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly here tonight, and let us think about Jesus all week long. Let us speak of him to one another. Let us open our mouths and proclaim that no one has ever loved me like Jesus Christ. No one's ever chosen me by being willing to die for me like that. No one has ever traded places with me like the righteous one, the Son of the Father, the King of the Jews. Father, we know that someday when Jesus comes riding into Jerusalem again, and every eye sees him, that he will have on himself a name, King of Kings and Lord of lords, and that everyone will see what we get to see here tonight, that he is the King, and every knee will bow, and every tongue will worship. Let our hearts worship Jesus now. We pray in his name. Amen.