A SERMON ON MATTHEW 27:11-26

(Note: In this sermon, due to the limitation of it's length, the sermon would best serve you if you read the verses mentioned above ahead of time.  Also, have your Bible ready as you follow along.  By doing so, you might find that reading this sermon this way can be more fruitful.  May God richly bless you as you read on.)

Introduction

Well, as I'm writing this sermon, it so happen that Resurrection Sunday is actually coming soon.  In fact, tomorrow is going to be Good Friday.  Good Friday is the day in which we set aside and recall that sorrowful yet necessary day in which Jesus Christ died for all our sins.  It's all by His mercy alone, my friends.  Amen?

Let's go into God's Word.  Turn to Matthew 27:11-26.  Read it for a moment silently to yourself and think about what it is that is happening as you are reading.  Here's a simple outline of what you are reading.

• Introduction of passages for context (Matthew 27:11-14)

• Quick background information (Matthew 27:15-16)

• Main story text (Matthew 27:17-26)

Think about it for a moment.  Have you ever really looked at your sins and thought to yourself, "My gosh, I'm a big time sinner!  How is God ever going to forgive me?"  Or did you ever commit some "bigger" sin and you started to wonder of whether or not if God would forgive you for it?  If you have, this message is especially for you!  Praise God!

Background Information

In setting about and trying to find the answers to the question of whether God would forgive your sins or not, let's back up a little.  It's always nice to back up a bit and have a quick look around us when we deal with deep issues about the faith, life and God.  Here are some simple yet important questions that pop up when we deal with the extent of how far God is willing to forgive you for your sins.

1. First of all, would you believe that God saves those who are sinners?

2. Would God save a test cheater, chronic liar and profane curser?

3. If God even saves murderers, wouldn't his forgiveness be wide enough to forgive your sins too?

One thing we must realize when we talk about sin is that we're all sinners.  None of us are perfect.  That's a fact of mankind, my friends.  Which means all of us have done evil.  And the problem simply this, that God is a righteous God and because of that, he's going to eventually punish you for it.  But His love for you, and me, is so strong, you see, that He didn't want to see you in a cluster of wrath...That's where Jesus comes into the picture.

Main Story

Jesus Christ had to take our penalty of sins so that we can be saved from his wrath.  We were the ones that were supposed to die on the cross, but he took our place.  All one needs to do is to receive this free gift of true life and forgiveness.

Reading the Bible, one would notice how sometimes there are little treasures of analogies or symbolism, hidden in the text, just waiting for you and me to dig it up as we read on.  It's just so amazing how God does that sometimes!

From the verses you read, which is where we're concentrating at, we see a scene just only a couple of hours before Jesus' death.  Jesus is before the Roman governor Pilate having been accused by some of the hypocritical religious leaders of all these false allegations, which Pilate knew was totally untrue.  And you see that Pilate even understands that the religious leaders were jealous of Jesus, which was why Jesus was arrested in the first place.  Jesus surely had done nothing wrong, and Pilate knew this very well.

Yet, due to the extreme hatred of the Jewish religious leader during Jesus' time, the religious leaders stirred up a crowd that was gathering to watch Pilate with Jesus besides him nearby.  As a custom, the Roman governor would release one prisoner of the Jew during the festival by what the crowds wanted to be freed.

So, Pilate, in trying to save Jesus from any punishment which he didn't deserve, asked the crowd in front of him whom they wanted to be released and freed.  But convinced by their religious leaders to send Jesus to his death, the crowd chose to free Barabbas, a notorious prisoner, instead of Jesus Christ, who was innocent and not deserving death.

With this Pilate was probably shocked.  For never in history, had any hatred against one man been so unchecked, without any leash to hold back the anger and hatred that arose from that moment.  And who of all people is that man?  None other than Jesus, the Christ.  The one whom God the father sent and allowed to die for us so that we don't have to go to the cross.

And that's one of the beautiful illustration of the Bible.  Even as Jesus was going to die, even in the moment in history when such a somewhat bitter painful moment was going on, God worked out this scene that showed two people caught in the middle of it all: Jesus Christ and the prisoner name Barabbas.

Barabbas.  It's interesting to note that his name meant "son of father".  Normally, that name was given to the sons of priests.  That's what some scholars believe Barabbas was.  But somewhere along Barabbas life, he strayed.  He became a murderer.  Elsewhere in the Bible, Barabbas was mentioned as an insurrectionist.  In other words, Barabbas was a terrorist!  There were many of those in Jesus times.  These terrorists were known as zealots.

But yet, here Barabbas was, deserving to die on the cross on that dear and fateful day when Pilate and Jesus was standing before the Jewish crowd.

What a wonder it is to think that instead of Barabbas on the cross, it was Jesus that took his place.  It's really something to think about, when Jesus, the divine son of Father, who's also deity in the flesh, died for human's son of Father.

Don't you think that Jesus could take your sins on the cross too?

 --Jimmy Li