Oh, what a wonderful story. There
are lots of wonderful stories in the Bible. The story of Barabbas
is a wonderful, wonderful picture of substitution. So turn with
me in your Bibles to the end of John chapter 18. And I want us to see this in light
of Pilate's questioning of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says,
what is truth? What is truth? And he said, in
verse 38, Pilate said to him, what is truth? And when he had
said this, he went out again unto the Jews and said unto them,
I find in him no fault at all, but ye have a custom that I should
release unto you one at the Passover. Will ye therefore that I release
unto you the king of the Jews, Then cried they all again, saying,
not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. So I want us to, and I pray you'll
have time to, in your reading, go back and read the other accounts,
but I want to read a couple of the other accounts in the other
Gospels, because this is one of those remarkable stories,
as we get closer to the cross, we find that all the Gospel writers
speak of the rabbis. And so I want us to look at this
story, but I want us to look at it as a glorious picture of
substitution, which is at the heart of the Gospel. the heart of the gospel. God
made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be
made by God and sustained by God as the very righteousness
of God in him. And so there was a substitution
in eternity in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
There's a substitution pictured in all of the Old Testament scriptures.
The first blood shed on this earth was a picture of substitution. Adam and Eve's shame was covered
by the death. of a lamb in the garden. And
in all of the Old Testament Scriptures, in the Incarnation there is substitution
all through them, all through His life. His life is like a
100% in union with all of His bride and all of His body. He's
100% righteous under the law. We now spot and blemish the Lord
Jesus Christ and Pilate testifies to it. And in this scene before
us today, Christ stood with the cup in his hand, Christ stood
about to go to the cross of Calvary as a substitute. One of the things
that's really wonderful about John's Gospel is that you'll
have a section of John's Gospel where there is teaching and then
there is an illustration. For example, John Chapter 8 says
on the life of the world and on one side of that particular
declaration that he shows what it is to him to be the light
of the world and how he saves a sinner, a notorious sinner,
that woman who was brought to him in adultery. In the very
next chapter he shows what it is to be the light of the world
by healing a blind man and giving him sight and life and that life
was the life that declares the wonders of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So we continually have sections of what people would call doctrinal
teaching, and then we have these amazing illustrations. If you
go back to John's Gospel, you'll see them again and again and
again on the Bread of Life, and I've just read 5,000 people.
Miraculously, but all of our Now this is just a glorious picture
of substitution. It's a glorious picture of those
whom God saves. Barabbas is a picture of those
whom God saves. There were three men singled
out to be crucified that day. One of them, Barabbas, is going
to portray and illustrate the substitutionary sacrifice that
the Lord Jesus Christ would achieve on the cross. Barabbas is going
to be a picture for us, I pray today, of the Lord's work on
behalf of His people. or grace of God in saving that
man in the last hours of his life. So one pictures his work
on behalf of his people and the other one pictures his work in
the heart of his people. And one thing that characterises
both of these people is that they were sinners. They were
sinners. No arguing about it, no questioning
about it, they were just through and through sinners. But I want us to go back and
sort of use the other Gospels to paint something of the picture
of all of this. The reason Pilate mentions Barabbas'
name is, if you turn with me to Matthew chapter 27, Barabbas
is a notable prisoner. He made himself famous. infamous
by his crimes, and we'll look a bit at them later on. But it's
interesting, isn't it? Pilate is wanting to release
the Lord Jesus Christ, and it shows the bloodthirstiness of
the Jews and the evil of sin. It was Pilate in Matthew 27,
verse 16 and 17, they had a notable prisoner called Barabbas. Therefore,
when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Will ye
that I release unto you Barabbas or Jesus which is called the
Christ? So the reason these people are
calling out for Barabbas is that Pilate had hoped that Barabbas
was so notorious a criminal, so wicked a criminal, that he
might be, by some means, able to release the Lord Jesus Christ. Pilate's a judge dear, the judge
brings his name to the people. Now listen to what Pilate knew
about them. Pilate was enough of a politician
to know, for he knew, verse 18, for he knew that for envy they
had delivered him. And the next couple of verses
you see that his wife came and what trials and what troubles
Barabbas would have. But listen to what verse 20 says
in Matthew 27. But the chief priests and elders
persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas and
destroy Jesus. What a shocking thing to eliminate
him from all existence. Mark chapter 15 describes the
state of Barabbas. In verse 7 it says, there was
one named Barabbas which lay bound with them that had made
the insurrection and who had committed murder in the insurrection. In verse 11 it says the chief
priests moved the people. Isn't it extraordinary that people
can be moved to murder one who is absolutely perfect and innocent.
And this is Apollo's weakness, isn't it, in verse 15. In Luke
chapter 23, Barabbas is here described again. Paul's intention in verse 16
of Luke 23 is, Therefore I will chastise him and release him. I will punish him, and I'll punish
him severely, so that you can see that we take your allegation
seriously, but then you can release him. But listen to what he goes
on to say, what the Lord goes on to say, For of necessity he
must release one unto them at the feast. Necessity of what?
Necessity of Roman law? No necessity at all in Roman
law of ever releasing someone like Barabbas. Necessity in the
Jewish law? No necessity in the Jewish law.
Where does the necessity come from? Like all necessities, isn't
it? It's the will of God, isn't it? Why? God's will be done. We must remember that the Lord
Jesus Christ is here. He's not here as a victim and
He's not here looking for our sympathy. He is here, Lord of
glory. He set himself like a fleet.
This world is created by Him for this particular event. This
is the signal most important event in all of human history. It is the most important event
in our lives and it always will be. All of heaven, all of eternity
is going to be marked by the Lord Jesus Christ. All of our
hope is in the Substitute. All of our grace is in the Substitute. Our love is in the Substitute.
Our security is in the work of the Substitute. Our peace and
rest is in the Substitute. See if the Lord would grant us
to see this as a picture of truth, a picture of the absolute sovereignty
of God, a picture of what sin is and what sin does, a glorious
picture of substitution, and a glorious picture of salvation.
And in John chapter 18, the question before us is, what is truth?
Truth, this is the truth, that God saves sinners by the sacrifice
of his own darling Son. substitutionary sacrifice. The
question is, Barabbas is cast into prison, there he is in the
dungeon of that court, and that day he was due to be crucified
with those other two men. That was his fate, and he did
it all by himself. It was just sedition. But here
we have the character on the cross. As we go through
these things, I want us to keep asking ourselves the question,
can I take my place with Barabbas in his jail cell? Can I see myself
identified as what I am before God in the life of Barabbas? If I can take my place in the
cell with Barabbas, really take my place to claim
the benefit of the substitution and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ. So let's look at this man briefly. Barabbas, you might
recall, the bar in Hebrew means son of, and he's son of the Father.
That's just a name he has. And what a wonderful name that
the Lord gave him. It's the only name we know him
by. He's named after his father. He's the son of the Father. He's
the son of Adam, isn't he? He's the son of Adam. Everything about us and everything
in our character testifies to the fact that we are Adam's children. We were there in the garden according
to Romans 5 verse 12. Romans 5 is just a remarkable
description of salvation which must entirely be by grace. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners. By one man's disobedience, Romans
5.19, you were made a sinner. In Adam's fall, we became sinners. Simon spoke about it earlier.
It's the most extraordinarily difficult concept to get across
to the people. It should be the most clearly
evident of the fact that they are sinners. It's entirely and
necessarily a work of God alone to make someone see that they
are a sinner. Jeremiah describes what it is,
isn't it? Can the Ethiopian change his
skin or the leopard his spot? Then may ye also do good that
are accustomed to do evil. And people in this world are
continually told, well, you follow your heart. Well, listen to what
God says about our hearts. In Jeremiah 17, you know the
verse well. It says, the heart is deceitful. and desperately weak. That desperately
means it has an incurable disease. And who can know it? I met a
cousin of Lurz's a few weeks ago and he said he's going to
retire from his job and he wants to find out what's in the heart
of a man. I cried at Jeremiah. I said, have you ever discussed but we've got a way to spend
it for a time. Mightn't be successful. Mightn't be very successful. We are sinners by nature, by
practice. We are sinners by desire. Paul said a wretched man that
I used to be, because I've gotten so sordid now, a wretched man
that I am. Who shall rescue me from the
body of this death? He's a sinner, and his crimes
mark out his rebellion against God. As I read in Matthew 27,
he's a notable prisoner. He was someone to look at and
take notice of. He made a name for himself by
his wicked deeds, and his wicked deeds are listed there in the
Gospel account. John says he's a robber, he's a murderer, he's
someone that made insurrection and he committed murder in the
insurrection, and he's someone who's involved in a certain sedition. sedition is rebelling against
God. So let's look at these characteristics of what it is for Barabbas to
be in that state and for Barabbas to be the glorious picture of
substitution. Right. Thieves are sneaky people. Often
you will find, mainly if you've been a thief around you'll find
what you're looking for has gone missing. brazen in their robbery and they're
open in their robbery. To be a robber is to plunder
by violence. And all of us, in all of our
acts of unbelief, all of our acts of rebellion against God,
we're robbing God of the glory of who He is, the glory of His
justice, the glory of His mercy, the glory of His grace. We're
robbing God of the glory of His salvation, where He does all
of the saving, all of the time, all by Himself, exactly as His
work was to set Barabbas free that day. Malachi at the end
of the Old Testament says, will a man rob God? Absolutely, a
man will rob God. You have robbed me, says the
Lord. You've robbed me in tithes and offerings. You're bringing
lame and diseased sheep to the temple thinking that I will accept
something that is less than what I had demanded. But ultimately,
the robbery in Malachi is unbelief and rebellion against God. It's
just unbelief. It's not trusting the promises
of God, which is what he goes on to say. You're under a curse. According to the Old Testament
covenant, you bring the ties into the storehouse that the
And prove me now herewith, say the Lord of hosts, and if not,
I can open the windows of heaven and pour down on you a blessing
that there won't be enough room to contain you all. I am a God
who is extraordinarily faithful to the promises I make. You're
robbing me of my glory and you're robbing me of the encouragement
of others to just walk in simple faith and trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It was a rebellion, a robbery
that went further, isn't it? There's a robbery of God's glory
in so much of modern religion. I listened to someone singing
a song the other day and they said, now I have decided to follow
Jesus. No turning back, no turning back. It's a lovely tune and everyone
sings along with it. I have, who decided? Who decided? Real sinners are sinners like
the rest. When God makes sinners to be
sinners and circumcises their heart, the real believer, the
true sinner, knows by the repeated experience of his life that salvation
is entirely of the Lord. And we have to be continually
kept, not by the power that's in man, but by the power of God
through faith. The bands of the wicked, says
God, have robbed me, robbed me of the glory of his attributes
and the glory of his officers. This world speaks I hear that word, God wants to,
I just cringe, I hope you do as well. God has no wants that
are unfulfilled, he has no desires, he does as he will in the armies
of heaven and in the heavens of the earth, and none can say
he's here, he's God Almighty. They rob him of his glory and
his covenant promises, which are sure and certain. He was
a robber. He was a robber. Can we take
our place with Barabbas? And it was for a certain sedition.
What's sedition? It's just rebellion, isn't it?
It's just open rebellion against God. It's open rebellion against
all of God's authority. He's made an insurrection. When
people are sinners, they'll always want others to join them. Mark
15 says, there were many of them with him that had made insurrection
with him who had committed murder in the insurrection. We will not have that man. We will not. The carnal mind
is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. The natural mind is enmity against
God. Just not certain acts, but the
whole bent of our nature. Sedition always is rebellion,
but sedition is never on its own. These people, Barabbas took
others with him, so notorious was he. The other charge against
Barabbas is that he was a murderer. He was a murderer. Where does
murder come from? Where does murder come from?
Mark chapter 7. From within, verse 20. That which
comes out of a man, that defile of a man. For from within, Matthew
7.21, out of the heart of men proceed. Listen to it. The first thing is evil thoughts. Evil thoughts. Thoughts that
rob of all of his glory. Thoughts that are in rebellion
against him. Thoughts that leave us or put
us on the throne of this university and our own lives. Evil thoughts,
adulteries, fornications, Murders, where do murders come from? They
start in the heart. I want us to see that Barabbas'
state in this prison is a glorious picture of the state of all men
in the fall of Adam, isn't it? They are robbers, they are seditionists,
they are murderers. If you're angry with your brother, One of the glorious things about
the Sermon on the Mount is that God raises the bark of God's
holiness to where it ought to be. Much, much higher than us. Now listen to all of these sins. I want us to go back into Luke's
Gospel and have a quick look at what all of these sins the
epitome of all of these sins, the climax of all of these sins,
and this murderous crowd outside there. In Luke chapter 23, Barabbas'
physical sins were great and they were very, very real indeed,
and they shouldn't be countenanced by any, in any way at all, or
encouraged in any way at all. There was a sin in reality that
was going on in the hearts of these people up there in this
place of judgment. Listen to what it says. In verse 18 of Luke 23, And they
cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release
unto us brothers, who for a certain sedition made in the city for
murder was cast into prison. And they cried, Crucify him,
crucify him. And when he said unto them the
third time, Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause
of death in him. Therefore I will therefore chastise
him and let him go. And they were instant with loud
voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices
of them and of the chief priests prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence
that it should be as they required. And he released unto them The
will of man is not only weak, the will of man is evil. You
will not come to me that you might have life. Man's heart, man's will, is so
evil that the only possible cure for it is the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and a new heart. He lay bound, he lay bound, and
he was a prisoner, and he was cast Can we take her place with me?
What a remarkable day that that must have been for Barathus. People say that men are awaiting
the judgment. No, the crime has already been
established. It's only the sentence that's
now to be executed, isn't it? This is the condemnation, says
John 3.19, that light has come into the world and men loved
darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. The evidence is all in. The guilty
murderer awaits only the execution. And you take a place with Barabbas
in the darkness, justly bound a prisoner and cast there. The Lord demands his death. Holiness
demands his death. Justice demands his death. The gospel is the gospel for
sinners. If we can take our place with
Perez, guilty as charged and proven, in his crimes against
God, in his state, naturally. I want us to look at the process
of him being set free. I've got some good news. This
is a good news story. This is a remarkable picture,
isn't it? Imagine Brabus that day. He was there expecting the execution. He was there in the dungeon of
that place of judgment, in that court. And what could he hear
the crowds ringing? And then in that dungeon, there
came footsteps and the key that unlocked the door. What was Barabbas
thinking at that moment? What was Barabbas thinking at that moment? People had died,
if the thought had died, under excruciating circumstances. what a beautiful picture we have
here of substitution. On what basis was Barabbas set
free? We know, of course, from what
we looked at earlier, that this is the will of God. There was
a decree made by a judge that another instead. Not only did
Barabbas have nothing to do with it, Nor did he know that the
decree was enacted. He was still in darkness when
the good news was to come. Was Barabbas seeking God? Was
Barabbas seeking forgiveness? Was he talking to other prisoners
about their crime? He was there waiting to die. If the gospel has come to you
as a sinner, you will find yourself in Barabbas' where we were advertising a program
and I was telling them a story. It was hardly a mention of sin.
It was hardly. They, by the activities of their
intelligence and their free will, had come to a place where they
had made a decision for God, because on the weight of evidence,
it looked so much better than a new alternative by an understanding The decree was made. Salvation
in the substitute is a decree that was made from before the
foundation of the world, before we had any knowledge of it at
all. But the glorious wonder of the
Gospel, the good news of the Gospel, comes to us when we're
in absolute darkness. God had decreed from all eternity
that Christ should come and die in the place of that murderer
and that rebel and that seditionist. He was the most unlikely person
in all of Jerusalem to be saved that day and set free, wasn't
he, and to be forgiven. Just like Saul of Tarsus was
the most unlikely person in all of Israel to be set free by God. And Saul of Tarsus went through
a Barabbas experience on the Damascus Road, don't you doubt
it for one second. He thought for a few moments
there that his life was over. Barabbas must die. for those who are sinners like
Barabbas. The absolute sovereignty of God
and the absolute covenant promises of God and God's electing love
and grace and redemption, they all have a new meaning for those
who are made to be real sinners. He was saved by an act and a
decree unknown, unsought for, unappreciated, unloved. It's
all about grace. Grace comes to the Barabbas'
of this world. Grace makes the Barabbas' of
this world, big objects of the salvation of our God. And I love
how Barabbas heard the news at the time of love, It didn't say for Abbas if you
do this or you do that. If you do all these things, if
you pray the sinner's prayer, you walk down the front, you
do all these things, what did they come with? They came with
a key to his cell. They didn't come with him with
good advice about an offer that was made to him. They came and
they just sent him through, didn't they? Lose him and let him go,
to be released, they released Barabbas to them, is to be set
free, to be set at liberty, to be fully free, is to release
a debtor. That's what the Lord said in
the garden that same night. He said, you can have me, but
you let these go their way. You can have me, the law and
justice and holiness of God can have me and you let these go
through. Nor can any man release another
breath, unless the court of judgment sends through a messenger about
a decree that was established completely outside what he is
doing. That's what happens when the
Lord sends the gospel to his people. saying that all of the sins of
all of God's people have been born in the body of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and they're gone. They're gone. They're gone. We can't release ourselves. We're
blind and deaf and dead and captive, and the key to the cell door
is not on the inside of the door. It's not in the free will and
the works of men. God's people, God's servants
love to just proclaim the gospel and we trust that God says that
the gospel of the substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ
on behalf of his people is the power of God unto salvation. What a remarkable key to have. These are the keys that Peter
was given. That's what substitution is all about. It's all about
the miracle of God's grace. Have you been in Barabbas's place? Has God put you in Barabbas's
place? If he has put you in Barabbas's
place, then I've got some really, really good news for you. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, of the declaration of God to
the Ethiopian eunuch. What hinders me? Here's water, here's the water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, if thou believest
with all thy heart thou mayest. And he answered and said, That's what Isaiah 53 so gloriously
declares, doesn't it? Before we come to the Lord's
Supper, it's good for us to go back and Look at this amazing chapter
of scripture. Turn with me there and I'll just
read these 12 amazing verses and you'll see. I trust the Lord
might cause us to see the glory of our Saviour. This week has
been a tough week for us but I do love what he says that he
has borne, carried our sorrows and borne our griefs. Let's read
from the beginning. believe what has been declared
about the Lord Jesus Christ? And the answer is a question,
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed that takes the
power of God to reveal the gospel to people? He shall grow up before
him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He
hath no form or prominence, and when we shall see him, there
is no beauty that we should desire him. Just like grass. He is despised
and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and
we esteemed him not. I love how Isaiah puts himself
with these people. He doesn't say they. This is
a picture, isn't it? Our Lord Jesus Christ is under
judgment, but the world is under judgment in his judgment. Surely
he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did
esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But, what
a glorious but this is, he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. There's no if,
it's a full stop at the end of that sentence. We all, like sheep,
have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
This is substitution. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is done, so he opened
not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. And who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the
land of the living. For the transgression of my people
was his treatment and substitution. And he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no
violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul for sin, not an offering to the world,
an offering to God, who is not important. He shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. He shall see, God the Father
shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied by
his knowledge. shall my righteous servant justify
many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I
divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the
spoiled with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto
death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare
the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. The two
wonderful, wonderful words of the Gospel, substitution and
satisfaction. It's a satisfied God and a satisfied
Saviour and the work is all done. And they took Barabbas up out
of that darkness and they put him in the light and said, you
can go free. What a glorious picture. If you're
a sinner, if you've been a Barabbas, and the Gospel continually is
good news. Now, Heavenly Father, we do thank
you for the wonderful, wonderful declarations that the Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world to save sinners. Oh, Heavenly Father,
we pray that we might take our place with Barabbas and take
our place with Paul and declare ourselves to be the chief of
sinners. We just praise you, Heavenly Father, this salvation
is perfect, this salvation is complete, this salvation comes
to us delivered by your messengers who declare to us that we are
free. The glorious liberty of the sons
of God because of the glorious sacrifice of your dear and precious
son. Heavenly Father, we pray that
when we go from here into this world and all the lives before
us in your will and good providence in the lives of all the people,
cause us, Heavenly Father, to again and again rejoice. Rejoice in the salvation of sins
by such a glorious, glorious Savior. May we be led by you,
Heavenly Father, by your spirit's work in our lives, to eat and
drink worthily by simply trusting your dear and precious son alone. We pray in his name for his good.