Luke's Gospel

Gonna turn now to the book of Luke, where we'll continue our series tonight. And we're at chapter 23. And we're gonna start at verse 11. Luke chapter 23 verse 11. Then herod, and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him.

Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to pilot. That day, herod and Pilot became friends. Before this, they had been enemies. Pilot called together the chief priests the rulers, and all the people, and said to them, you brought me this man as 1 who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him.

Neither has herod, for he sent him back to us. As you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death. Therefore, I will punish him and then release him. But the whole crowd shouted away with this man. Release Barabbas to us.

Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city and for murder. Wanting to release Jesus, Pilot appealed to them again. But they kept shouting. Crucify him, crucify him. For the third time, he spoke to them.

Why? What crime is this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore, I will have him punished and then release him. But with loud shouts, they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed.

So Pilot decided to grant their demand. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the 1 they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will. Pete. Well, good evening. My name's Pete Woodcock, I'm the pastor of the church.

We're doing this series through Luke's gospel. I don't know quite how long we've been going, but it's been quite a long time. And and it's great to have you with us tonight. Let me just pray. Father help us now, please please help us to have our minds on what you say, we thank you that you are a God that does speak and you speak very clearly.

So help us to listen to what you say in Jesus' name. Ma'am. Now tonight, I I wanna just present you with a with a choice, really. I'm gonna ask you to vote, actually. At the end of the evening, I'm gonna ask you to vote.

And it's a very simple choice really. It's between 2 men. Gotta choose between 2 men. But it is a gruesome choice because I'm gonna ask you to vote for 1 of these men to go free and 1 of them to be executed. Now, You may not want to execute anyone, but I want to say, okay, you may want to just cancel this person.

You don't want them part of your life. But that's that's what I'm going to ask you to do. I wanna ask you to be very, very careful before you quickly vote. So I'm gonna give you the evidence of a historian Luke who's gonna show us the details about these 2 men. We've just read it.

But don't be too quick to make your decision. Don't be too quick to to take your vote. Just hang in there and listen to all of the evidence. So there's 2 names on the ballot paper. And what happens to them Or or rather how you vote for them, well according to Luke, according to the bible will actually determine your life, your future life, and even your eternity So it's a big choice that you've got tonight.

2 men on the election paper The 1 that you put your cross against will go to the horrific Roman execution called crucifixion. So let me lay down Luke's evidence and we're going back to this event and we're gonna see this original vote. 2 men then, 1 chairman who is chairing these proceedings, and he's the Roman governor and his name is pilot. So here's the first name on the ballot. Jesus, I've called the innocent.

You'll see that why in a minute. So I guess a lot of you would think you know quite a lot about Jesus. If you've read through Luke's Gospel, Luke has given us deliberately loads and loads of facts about Jesus. In fact, this is why he wrote the document. So right at the beginning of of this document, he says many have undertaken to draw an account of the things that have been fulfilled amongst us, talking about the life of Jesus.

Just as they were handed down to us by those who were first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning. I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent theophilus, so that you may know this with certainty, you may know the certainty of the things that have been taught you. Now we we did a whole sermon on that way back and you can go listen to that. To show just how an amazing historian this bloke is, Luke.

So he's looking at the eyewitness accounts He shows us in Luke's gospel, the prophecies, the things that were said before Jesus was born and that Jesus fulfilled, and there are many hundreds of them. We know from Luke's gospel about Jesus' family background, his genealogy, he calls it. And he fulfills all the credentials of the promised Messiah, the King of Jesus in the Old Testament part of the Bible. We know the claims around the birth of Jesus, that he is the Messiah, he is the Christ, he is the Lord, he is the greatest son of David. He shows us the amazing teachings of Jesus and how Jesus Jesus talked about God in a way that felt like it was firsthand knowledge and that's exactly what he claimed it was.

We know that he was a friend, Jesus, of the outcast, of the sinner, of the people that no 1 wanted around, the irreligious even. Luke makes a massive thing of that and we'll come back to that in a minute. We know that he has power over nature and disease, and even death, he raised the dead to life. Before you get halfway through the book of Luke, Jesus asks a question to 1 of his disciples. Peter, he says, who do you say I am?

And Peter, who had been intimate with Jesus had seen Jesus day and night. For for nearly 3 years said, you are God's Messiah, God's King, God's promised 1. And we know from Luke that the religious leaders and the authorities started to hate Jesus so much they wanted him dead. So we've got all that background about this man before we before we move on. But In this immediate passage after all that background, we know that Jesus is innocent of the accusations that the religious leaders are accusing him of.

We know that. Look at these verses. We see it at least 3 times in that little passage that we read. Look what it says here. Neither herod, Neither has herod.

So he he he he talks about I I didn't found him guilty, and then neither has herod for he sent him back to us, as you can see, he has done nothing that deserves death. He's declaring Luke is showing us the evidence that this that he's innocent of these crimes. Look at verse 20. Wanting to release Jesus, Tyler appealed to them again. He appealed that that he had done nothing to to deserve death.

Look at 22. For the third time he spoke to them, why? What crime has this man committed? I have found him in him, no grounds for the death penalty. 3 times in this tiny passage that we read, Pilate points out Jesus is an innocent man.

If you go back to the beginning of this chapter, Pilot already says, I find no basis for a charge against this man. If you go to the later verses in the chapter, you find that Jesus is crucified between 2 criminals and 1 criminal says to the other, we are punished justly for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man, that's Jesus, has done nothing wrong. Then if you go on again, the Roman centurion who was in charge of the execution says about Jesus surely this was a righteous or innocent man. Do do you see what Luke's doing?

He's telling us about Jesus. He's a historian He's gone to the eyewitness accounts, and he's told us again and again, pilot, herod, the thief on the cross, the Roman centurion, he's done nothing nothing wrong. So that's the first man. So I'm going to ask you to vote. Remember?

You sort of teetering towards him? Well, let's have a look at the second man then. He's on the ballot paper. I've called him Barnabas, the guilty barabbas, the guilty. We cooked strange calling barnabas, called him barabbas, the guilty.

Now, unlike all of the background that we have of Jesus, this is the first time in Luke's gospel that you hear about Barabbas. If the word innocent sums up Jesus, then the word guilty sums up Barrabbas. Look at that verse in verse 19. It says, Barabbas had been thrown into prison for insurrection, a sort of rebellion. In the city and for murder.

Right? So he's guilty. If you read the other gospel accounts, who were eyewitnesses, Matthew calls Barabbas a notorious prisoner Mark calls him an insurrectionist and a murderer, and John says he took part in this rebellion. The word notorious that Matthew uses means that Everybody knew about Barabbas. He was notorious.

He was a notable prisoner. Everybody knew about his crimes. Everybody knew about him. They was a well known rebel and murderer. So here's Barabbas, He's on death row and is guilty of the very crime that the religious leaders are saying that Jesus had done.

You see you see what's going on here? The crimes that they were so outraged when it came to Jesus even though he was innocent of them, they were saying Jesus is worthy of death for these crimes. But Barabbas who was guilty of these Well, you'll see what they do with him in a minute. So you got it? 2 men on the ballot paper.

I'm asking you to vote. Which 1 you want to put your cross against to go to the cross? 2 men, Jesus the innocent, Barabbas the guilty, 1 deserving judgment, the other deserving free. So where are you sort of where where are you thinking of voting? We don't don't don't say.

But where are you thinking? Well, let's let me do my third point. My third point is this, release. If the first 2 words are innocent for Jesus, guilty for barabbas, the third word release is very, very important for us to get before we make up our mind. In Matthew's account of this event, Matthew tells us this strange thing that was happening He says, now it was the governor's custom at the festival to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd.

Mark tells us that, John tells us that. Some manuscripts of Luke have that in, some don't, that's why you have verse 17 in your footnotes. But nevertheless, Luke tells us what happens here. So there's this strange vote that goes on. You can get a prisoner free.

Now this is where the original vote happens. Who to release? Yeah? Babus or Jesus. And 5 times, this historian Luke is trying to get us to see the word release.

Who are you going to release? Let me read the whole passage again. Look out for the word release. Pilots called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people. And said to them, you brought me this man as 1 who was inciting the people to rebellion.

I have examined him in your presence, and have found no basis for your charges against him. Neither has herod for he sent him back to us, As you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death. Therefore, I will punish him and then release him. But the whole crowd shouted, away with this man, release barabbas to us. Barrabbas had been thrown into prison for insurrection in the city and for murder.

Wanting to release Jesus, Pilot appealed to them again, but they kept shouting crucify him, crucify him. For the first time he spoke to them. Why? What crime is this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty.

Therefore, I will have him punished and then release him. But with loud shouts, they insistently demanded that he be crucified and their shouts prevailed. So Pilot decided to grant them their demand. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the 1 they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will. You see?

See the word release there? So the people were saying, we want the exchange. We want Jesus the innocent to be surrendered to the cross. We're putting our cross against him and for Barabbas the guilty to be free. Barabbas was guilty, Jesus was innocent, Bharabbas was released.

Jesus went to the cross. That is what they voted. In fact, they weren't happy with anything but the death penalty. Did you notice that? It wasn't like, okay, Jesus is guilty of this.

Crime or or you say he isn't and but whip him anyway. Now a Roman whipping was nearly deaf. It was pretty horrible. But they weren't happy with just a whipping they wanted death. They voted for an innocent man to be executed and a guilty man to go free.

They put their cross they voted against Jesus. They preferred lies to truth, they preferred a murderer to the Messiah They preferred a killer to a healer, they preferred a criminal to 1 who preached the love and grace of Christ. Isn't that remarkable? The 1 who forgave sins was condemned like a sinner. The 1 who healed broken lives was to be broken on a cross.

The 1 who raised dead people to life himself was to die, the 1 who had wronged no 1 was so wronged against that you could call this event really. The greatest crime in history It's awful, isn't it when you see injustice like this, isn't it? You know, it's it's why we like watching those films or we don't like watching those films. There was a film on last night that some of you may have seen. It's 12 years a slave.

And if you watch a film like that, you're outraged that in just on't you? Aren't you? You're outraged at injustice. They they they make you shout and they make you and this in a sense is a summary of all the injustices that goes on in the world. Jesus, was to have his the cross against him.

Okay. So you're gonna vote. Yeah? This is my oh, I didn't move that. This is my fourth point over to you.

But before you vote today about what you're gonna do with Jesus, what would you have voted back in that day? Now listen. Hold it. Before you vote. Yeah.

Just hold on a minute. Make sure you're being honest here. You know, don't do the preset to pretend thing that we often do with even films like 12 years a slave, you know, we come out saying I wouldn't have done that injustice. But, you know, and then we don't bother about anything. Gotta be honest here.

If you don't get rid of Jesus on your ballot paper, if you don't get rid of him, He'll want to rule your life because he's God's king, God's Messiah. Whereas Barabbas, he doesn't care what you do with your life. So be honest here. You see, in many ways, barabbas could be a slogan, he could be a meme, he could be the cry for freedom. Barrabbas is really about self rule.

And in particular here, obviously, against the Romans probably, but he is about self rule. And if anyone gets in the way of his self rule, well, then he will kill them or counsel them, you know, or whatever. And think about it. Barabbas's rebellion and desire for freedom. Yeah?

Is more tangible, more real, it's alive today than Jesus is freedom from sin? What's that all about? So you're ready to vote? But hold it. Before you vote, just think of the different lifestyles that Jesus promotes and Barabbas promotes.

Remember, Barabbas is a murderer. He's a murderer. But listen to what Jesus says, about murder in his very famous sermon on the mount. Just listen to what he says about murder. He says, you've heard that it was said to the people long ago, you shall not murder and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother or sister or Akha is answerable to the court, and anyone who says you fool will be in danger of hellfire. Now he's not talking about, you know, when we say to each other, you're a fool and stuff. He's not saying that. What he's saying is is it despising of people or it's treating people as if they're not anything.

They're up so unimportant. You can't you don't even think about them. And what Jesus does is, under the sort of sin of murder, the category of murder, he says being angry at people is under that. And lying about people and gossiping about people and saying, oh, they're of no importance. That's what rackham means to me.

Or canceling them or saying nasty things on on the internet or social media about them. He's putting all of that under the category of murder He's saying, hey, listen. If you want to follow me, there's a standard that is extremely high. And it'll have to change your mouth. Whereas barabbas, Well, if anyone gets in our way, we can call them a name, we can cancel them, we can kill them.

So be careful before you vote. Who do you want to go to the cross? Or here's another 1 just before you vote. Yeah. Trying to be honest with you.

Before you make your vote, think of the demands Jesus makes on your life. This is what Jesus says. If you wanna be his follower, he says, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves. Life isn't all about you. Well, Barabbas is all about me.

You have to deny yourself themselves. Take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find Life is all about Jesus being your king, your Messiah, your God king. Yeah. It's not about you anymore.

Whereas barabbas freedom for itself. Vote for self. So who do you wanna vote for? Who are you gonna put your cross against to go to the cross? Now hold it.

Just before you vote, there's another thing here. There's a twist. There's a little twist in this about your vote. This whole scene when you understand the bible in its context. This whole scene is actually This whole scene is not that Jesus is so much on trial, but you are.

What you do with Jesus, God is watching, how you vote for Jesus God is looking at. You see that? When you say I don't like Jesus. God is saying, you don't like my son. Vote against Jesus and you're being judged.

Isn't that amazing? It's interesting that the name Barabbas means son of the father. It's a funny name because isn't that everybody, if you're a male, son of the father. Son of the father. In some in some manuscripts, he's called this is weird.

Jesus Barabbas. Jesus barabbas. I mean Jesus was quite a common name. It's like Joshua. So you hold it.

You've got the choice you've got to vote for. This is what I'm asking you, is Jesus the barabbas, Jesus son of the Father. Now, what does that mean? Well, you know, there's a lot of stuff here that you could follow through. Son of whose father.

Well, it would be his father, and then his father's father. And you can go all the way back to the first man, Adam, Really, I think what we're being told here is, here is a man, Barabbas, who stands and represents every person in this world. He he's just a barabbas. He's the son of the father. But who's Jesus?

Jesus is the son of God. Jesus is the 1 that's come into this world. Barabbas is a closed system of this world, the son of the father, but Jesus is the son of God who has been born into this world. He's from another place. So who are we going to put your cross against?

Are are you ready for the vote? Are you ready? Give us some kind of indication. Well, don't be yet. Because I told you about a little twist, but there's the twist Before you vote, there's the twist.

If you read through Luke's gospel, you will see that 1 of the main themes of Luke's gospel, Luke's writing, as I've already said, is that Jesus welcomes the outcast The lost sheep back to God. It's 1 of the big themes that Luke writes. In fact, in 1 sense, this could be the summary verse of Luke's gospel. Jesus is talking to a man. His name is Zakius, actually, and he had let led a rebel life and was about himself.

But he comes to Jesus. And Jesus says, Steve. These amazing words. Jesus said to him, today, salvation has come to this house because this man too is a son of Abraham. For the son of man, which is a picture of the great son of God, actually, came to seek and to save the lost.

So here's a rather wicked man, Zachius, that Jesus has come to seek and to save. That's what Luke's gospel is about. Outsideers, outcasts, sinners, tax collectors, This The backbone chapter of Luke's gospel is chapter 15, I think. Because there you have 3 things that are lost that people go out and find. You have a lost coin, you have a lost sheep, and you have a lost son.

You have 2 lost sons actually. And and Jesus is showing us that God rejoices at bringing the lost back in, at finding the lost. And so if you've read through Luke's gospel, you see that's a theme that God has sent his king his Messiah, to go and find the lost sheep and to bring them back. And what we've got here in Luke 23 is the climax of all of that because here is barabbas who's not just lost. He's wicked.

He's wickedly lost. He's a rebel and a murderer and yet the climax of this message is that Jesus will step in where he deserves the death penalty Jesus will take it even with a murderer. Luke has written this to show us this amazing thing, but he's written this to bring it home a little bit more. Because you and me, we're lost cheap. We're lost.

Think of this country, so many young people lost. They don't know where they're going. They've moved away from God and thought would bring them freedom and it's brought a lostness. People are lost. But more than that, You are barabbas.

You are barabbas. And so am I? We've been rebels against God. We've even been murderers According to Jesus, member is category of of murder. Have you always spoken truth?

Have you always spoken kindness Have you always built people up? Haven't you ever gossiped lied, said some nasty things on the interweb, and all of the media stuff haven't you canceled people? We're living in a culture. We have anyone slightly disagreed with me. Cancel them.

Cancel them. Can as if they never that's the rocker word. You are barabbas. I am barabbas. We've actually stood against God.

We've declared independence, self rule, but this is the very heart, the very climax of the Christian message Jesus comes for lost sheep, for rebels, for murderers, and he takes their place. The innocent judged, and the guilty goes free. There are many sentences in the bible, but here's 1 that sums it up. God made him that's Jesus. Who had no sin to be sin for us.

He knows he's innocent. God made Jesus the innocent who had no sin to be sin for us to take the guilt. So that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. What an extraordinary sentence? Nothing else in the world is as good news as that.

If you're a barabbas, if you know your barabbas, Okay. You ready for the vote then? We're nearly there, aren't we? What's your vote gonna be? Where are you gonna put your cross?

Be careful. Think hard. The evidence from the historian. Well, before you put your cross, I'll tell you mine. I'll tell you what I'm gonna put mine.

I personally want Jesus on the cross. That's where I'm gonna cross. If I'm barabbas, then you go If I'm the guilty 1, then you take my guilt. If there is wrath or anger of God going to fall on anyone, please Jesus go to the cross. I'm gonna cross Jesus.

I want him to the cross. I want him to take my punishment. I want him to be cut off so that I can be brought back to the father. I want him to take my guilt so that I could be free. My vote goes for Jesus to the cross.

And just before you vote because I'm gonna ask you through in a minute, Let me give you another testimony. Some of you may remember, although It was back in 2009 when we last saw her. The people who remember her, anybody remember her? Who is it? Yeah.

You know you know her, Jade Goody. Now some of you don't know her, but she was a TV personality. She was a celebrity. She was sort of Essex girl. She was a marmite character.

People hated her and wrote some vile things about her. People loved her. She was 1 of these personalities, was loved and hated. She was a contestant on the third series of the big brother, and she became extremely famous. Mean, she was everywhere.

In all the papers, all the time, people were hounding her in in all kinds of ways. She went to do a big brother in in a celebrity brother in called Big Boss in India. And as she was on that program, she was ill. And she was flown back to this country And in 2009, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and she was dying. And so this was big, big news at the time.

Now the reason I'm telling you this story is that not it's not that I haven't got up to date stories, it's just that a friend who was a Christian went to hospital to see her and read Luke's gospel to her. Luke's gospel, the very thing that we're looking at. And it blew her away. And she became a follower of Jesus. She was baptized.

In in hospital. She got married in hospital. There's pictures of her in a wedding dress with all kinds of tubes coming coming out of her. And then she died. It was a huge funeral at the time.

Thousands of people watched Her funeral sermon, I've got it. I've got it here. This is what the preacher said. I know that Jade like reading Luke's gospel in the new testament. It's interesting that Jade like Luke's gospel in particular, as it's the 1 that highlights God's love for unlikely people.

She will have read in Luke's gospel how Jesus welcomed those who were not particularly religious and how Jesus spent time with people like herself down to earth people whose lives like Jade were flawed and difficult. Luke's gospel changed her. In the funeral, the preacher lifted up Jade's Bible, someone had given her quite a simple English bible. And although she loved Luke's Gospel, the verse that was underlined in the bible came from the Old Testament, There's a picture of her when she's near the end. But this is the verse.

Listen to the verse. All of us were like sheep that were lost. Each of us going his own way. But the Lord made the punishment fall on Him. The punishment all of us deserve That's what's happening with Barabbas and Jesus.

So where's your vote? Remember God's looking? Where's your vote? Who do you want to go to the cross?