So good morning and welcome to
our continuing Bible study in Luke. And we're in the 23rd chapter,
and we're in this section where Jesus
has been brought before the high priests, and then they've delivered
Him unto Pilate, and then Pilate delivered Him unto Herod, and
Herod delivered Him back to Pilate, and those things. So we're going to start reading
this morning verse 6 and then we're going
to read down through verse 25. So when Pilate heard of Galilee,
because the Jews had said he's stirring everybody up from Galilee
all the way over here to Jerusalem, and so when Pilate heard of Galilee,
he asked whether the man were a Galilean. And as soon as he
knew that he belonged under Herod's jurisdiction, he sent unto him
Herod, who himself also was at Jerusalem at that time, and remember
that was for the He was there for the Passover, and him and
Pilate were not normally residents of Jerusalem, but they were there
because there were millions of Jews in Jerusalem at the time,
and they kind of kept an eye on things. When Herod saw Jesus,
he was exceedingly glad, for he was desirous to see Him of
a long season, because he had heard so many things of Him,
and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by Him. Then he
questioned with him in many words, but he, that would be Jesus,
answered him nothing. And the chief priests and the
scribes stood and vehemently accused him, and Herod with his
men of war set him at naught." They just reviled him and mocked
him. They had no use for him. They
set him at knot and mocked him and arrayed him in a gorgeous
robe, sent him back again to Pilate. And the same day, Pilate
and Herod were made friends together, for before they were at enmity
between themselves. And Pilate, when he had called
together the chief priests and the rulers of the people, and
he said unto them, You have brought this man unto me as one that
perverted the people, and behold, I have examined him before you
and found no fault in this man touching those things whereof
you accuse him. And no, nor yet Herod, for I
sent you to him, and lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto
him. I will therefore chastise him and release him, for of necessity
he must release one unto them at the feast. And they cried
out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto
us Barabbas, who for a certain sedition made in the city, and
for murder was cast into prison. Pilate, therefore, willing to
release Jesus, spake again to them. But they cried, saying,
Crucify him, crucify him. And he said unto them the third
time, Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of
death in him. 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 the chief priest prevailed, and Pilate gave sentence
that it should be as they required. And he released unto them him
that for sedition and murder was cast into prison whom they
had desired, but he delivered Jesus to their will." And so, The lesson today, the title of
it is Release Barabbas. Release Barabbas. Barabbas. It's funny how we kind of anglicize
words and we pronounce them to suit us. And sometimes we don't
even do it the same way. In Matthew 16, verse 17, when Jesus is talking
to Peter, And he says, who do you say that I am? And Peter
says, thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus
says, blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and
blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father, which is
in heaven. So if we pronounce that the same
way as we do Barabbas, we'd say, blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. But we don't do that, so it's
kind of interesting. And as we've been going through
these chapters in Luke, and we've just tried to point out again
and again that everything is according to the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God and according to His purpose.
There is not one accidental thing. There's not one random thing
in here. And oftentimes when we find someone named in the
Bible, we find that there's some purpose behind it, that the Lord
is revealing some thing to us that maybe we ought to pay attention
to. And sometimes it just says a certain person, a certain man
or certain woman was there that calls our attention, not necessarily
to their name, but to the circumstances surrounding them. But we have
this name Barabbas. And we're going to kind of look
at that a little bit. And you know that the actions
of Pilate in the view of God are clear. He was a no good guy. And even though he was kind of
attempted to release Jesus, He could have just said, I'm not
doing it. Get out of here. But he was just trying to walk
both sides of the street like people often do in religion and
social circumstances. They try not to offend anyone or they try to
please everyone and it never really works out well. But, you
know, in the Proverbs chapter 17, there's a verse there that
we're going to read that even though Pilate is doing according
to the determinate counsel and purpose and foreknowledge of
God. His condition before God is unchanged. He's a vessel of
wrath fitted to destruction, as it says in Romans 9.22. Proverbs 17, 15 says, He that
justifieth the wicked and condemneth the just, even they are both
an abomination to the Lord. And he's going to turn loose
this murderer guy. But you know, maybe that's not
the end of the story there. We don't have a lot of information
about him later on, but I think there's some revealing things
here about it. By the same token of eternal
purpose, it's no accident that Barabbas is released, and Jesus
is condemned in His place. The Passover is the situation
that they're all in Jerusalem for, celebrating the Feast of
the Passover. And it was a celebration of deliverance. Remember, they were in Egypt
and the Lord said, kill the lamb and put the blood on the door
lentils and the post. And when I come through, I'm
going to kill everybody, but if I see the blood, I'll pass
over you." And that was kind of the gist of that. And it was part of their deliverance
out of Egypt as being slaves in Egypt. So it was kind of their part
of their being delivered, released from bondage. Pilate reminds them of this custom
that they had, and it's not a law of Moses. It's not really recorded
anywhere except here. Pilate tries to set Jesus free,
and he reminds them of one of their own customs. He says, I
will therefore chastise him and release him, for of necessity
he must release one unto them at the feast. And they cried
out at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us
Barabbas. Well, we have a little more information of that in John
chapter 18, verse 39, where Pilate says, But you have a custom. that I release unto you, one,
at the Passover. Will you, therefore, that I release
unto you the King of the Jews?" So they had this custom, and
I read a couple things that said, you know, it was kind of a custom
of the Jews to commemorate their deliverance out of Egypt and
their release from bondage. And so they would turn loose
somebody out of jail at that season of that feast as a commemoration. So they had this custom and it
had to be brought to their memory by pilot, by a gentile. But so focused was their evil
intent that they said, no, we don't want Jesus released. We
want him crucified. Release this murderer guy to
us. And he's an insurrectionist, a murderer, and a robber, it
says in the scripture. And so anyway, they had this
tradition. And now we're going to look at
Barabbas, this one that they want released. This name Barabbas is two words,
just like Simon son of Jonah. This guy's name is Barabbas,
doesn't tell us the first part of his name like Simon, but tells
us Barabbas, the son of Abba. the son of Abba. It's kind of
ironic, isn't it? But it's intensely revealing.
The son of the father, that's what that Abba is kind of a,
we're going to look at this in a little more detail here in
a minute, but the son of the father to be released
and the son of the father condemned in his stead. One legally declared completely
guilty, and one declared to be completely innocent. And you
know, we could substitute our own names for old Barabbas there.
In our natural condition of sin, we're all guilty of sedition
against God. We're at enmity with Him. We were talking about hymns this
morning, and there was a hymn by Philip Bliss. in 1870s, he wrote this hymn
called, Hallelujah, What a Savior. And one of the lines in that
hymn is, in my place, condemned he stood, sealed my pardon with
his blood, hallelujah, what a savior. He wrote that and he was killed
in a train wreck in Ohio in 1876, so he only got to live to his
30s. Him and his wife were on a train in Ohio and it wrecked
and killed them both. He wrote, It Is Well With My
Soul, too, another hymn that we just sang here recently. It just reminded me, in my place
condemned he stood. You know Abba, I was researching
this term Abba, and in English it would be termed vocative in
the grammar. It would be called a vocative,
a word or a phrase that refers directly to the object or person
addressed. And it can be a term of endearment.
It can be a special name or a title. But in the scripture here, it's
always used in a kind of an endearing way because it's all, the only
three places that we find it in the scripture in the New Testaments,
it's linked to God, in God the Father. But a vocative would
be, I would say, my darling wife, Ivana. Well, my darling would
be the vocative. It's a term of endearment for
me that connects directly with her. Dr. Judy, we call Dr. Judy, Dr. Judy. Well, doctor
would be the vocative, or I have a neighbor that's a retired judge,
and we call him the Honorable Judge Peachy, and honorable judge
would be his vocative. corresponds directly, has directly
to do with him and nobody else. And in our text, and as used
in the Bible, this vocative expresses an especially close relationship. According to Vine's Expository
Dictionary, Abba approximates a personal name in contrast to
Father, with which it's always joined in the New Testament.
And this is probably due to the fact that Abba has practically
become a proper name, and it's the word Abba is the word framed
by the lips of infants and betokens unreasoning trust, whereas father
expresses an intelligent apprehension of the relationship. And so the two together express
both the love and the intelligent confidence of a child. And that's
the way that it's described in Vines. Hawker describes it in
his dictionary as he's got like two pages on it, which for Hawker
is like, normally he just says, this is so obvious, I don't even
need to talk about it. But he goes on for like two pages
in his dictionary about this term Abba, because it's so special. And I've just condensed it down
to like one sentence here. So, but he says it's of Syriac
origin, and it is a word of peculiar tenderness. and it implies the
nearest of all connections and is thus wholly restricted to
relations and of the nearest and tenderest kind." Isn't that
interesting? Abba is used singularly three
times in the New Testaments, once by Jesus as He addresses
His Father there in Mark Chapter 14. Twice, it's used in connection
with the Spirit of God and the elect, and those are found in
Romans and Galatians. So we'll look at where Christ
uses the term in Mark 14.36, where Christ uses this term in
the garden before His arrest. And He said in Mark 14.36, He
said, all things are possible unto
thee. Take away this cup from me, nothing
less, not what I will, but what thou will." So he calls him Abba
Father, and it's this It's just a special term, the
special term of love and endearment of affection that he expresses
to his father that just describes this unity, this closeness, this
eternal love that they have. And, you know, Paul makes note
of that in this and other activities on our behalf by the Spirit of
God in regards to Abba. recording them in, as we mentioned,
in Romans and Galatians. And it's a term applied by the
spiritually adopted sons of God. So turn with me to Romans chapter
8, and we're going to read a little bit of Romans 8. And I want you to pay especially
close attention to the to the way that it's applied and the
connection of it and what it means really spiritually. In
Romans 8, 14, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God,
they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit
of adoption whereby, or as a result, we can cry, Abba, Father. Because we're adopted, He has
adopted us. Not the other way around, but
He has adopted us. Whereby we cry, Abba Father,
the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are children
of God. And if children, then heirs,
heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we
suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together."
So we have this word used in connection with our adoption
by God and that being witnessed by the Spirit of God. The Spirit
beareth witness with our spirit. He lets us know. And then he
says, we have the right to say, Abba, Father. We have the right
to address Him as more than just an intelligent recognition that
He is a Father. But He is more than that. He
is special. In Galatians chapter 4, We have this term used again,
and it says, But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth
his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons. And because ye are sons, God
has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. Wherefore, thou art no more a
servant but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ."
Well, you know, slaves and servants weren't allowed to use that term.
Even Ishmael wouldn't have been able to say, Abba, Father, to
Abraham. Wherefore thou art no more a
servant but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
And also, pay especially close attention
to verse 6. Because you're sons, God has
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. He does that for us. It's just like other things that
he does for us as we note in further on and that was that
we were in Romans chapter 8 for the first reading there about
whereby we cry Abba Father the Spirit beareth witness with our
spirit that we are the children of God. Well a little bit later
we find out that he does the same thing in prayer. Likewise, in verse 26 of Romans
8, Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for
we know not what we should pray for as we ought. But the Spirit
itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the
mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints
according to the will of God. So in the same way that He intercedes
for us in prayer and converts those into alignment with the
will of God, and He does the same thing with our relationship
in our hearts with God. He goes to God crying, Abba,
Father, for us. Even if we don't fully understand
that relationship in the capacity that it really exists, to the
level that it really exists, He makes that up for us. He kind
of fills in that gap where we just have no concept of the eternal
purposes and love of God. We just know that we love Him
because He first loved us. And we don't often address Him
as Abba Father. We're just, I don't know, I don't
particularly know exactly why we don't do that, but we should. We should cry Abba Father to
Him. And it's like, you know, our nickname almost. In the Old
and New Testament, there's become like a proper name almost of
nickname or loving nickname for the Father that we attach. that
gives us a special, loving connection, term of endearment relationship
with him. Baba. It's not like father, father. It's like daddy, father. Kind of more personal. It's a personal level that Maybe we don't invoke that as
much as we should. And so it's kind of to be understood
like the Spirit directs our communications and our relationship with God.
And it's so special. Because God looks at you, your
sons. Your sons and daughters, God
sent forth His Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. It's kind of a similitude of
redeeming grace. And we go back to Barabbas again. the son of the father being released
and the son of the father being condemned in his place. Kind
of not the same father, but kind of a play on words there, if
you will. But spiritually, boy, it has great significance. So we have this grace, this special
gift, because of the Father who's loved us with an everlasting
love and drawn us to Himself through the gospel of His dear
Son, and that we love Him because He first loved us specifically. Now, in many times in religion,
they say, well, God just loves everybody. He loves the whole
world, except for all the ones that didn't get on the ark. except
for Esau, except for all the ones that he had gotten rid of
because they hated him and didn't want anything to do with him
because they were not his elect, not his sheep, not his church,
but specifically loved All the mine are thine. Thou
gavest them to me is what it says in John 17. And so that's the only thing
we're going to talk about today is Abba. And we should use that. We should be free. We should
have great boldness and freedom and confidence to say, Abba,
Father, that that's our relationship with you because of what you
have done. Adoption is always a top-down process. except for dogs. Sometimes dogs
adopt you. But for people, people have to
specifically go and adopt someone if they want that person. They
must be the external force that does that. And God has done that
for us. And we're sons and daughters.
And so we should be free to cry Abba Father. We should be more
than free. We should be just grateful and and use that. So we're going
to stop there today and have more time to visit. But I just
thought, well, let's just focus on this one thing because I don't
think it was an accident that Barabbas is named because it
doesn't name the other two thieves that were going to be killed
that day. And I just felt that if a name
is given us and it has that kind of a significance, maybe we ought
to look at it. So that's all for today. Be free to cry Abba Father.