This is your daily reminder. God has not run
out of mercy, not for you, not today. Welcome
to the New Mercies Podcast. Welcome, today is
Tuesday, March the 17th. If you are new, thank
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the episode. description. Now, without further
ado, let's jump into today's text in Luke 23
verses 1 through 25. So far in our study together,
we've looked at Jesus. He's been arrested now
in a garden after being with his disciples, explaining
some really incredible truths that he is leading
us to. Then he was arrested and then he was beaten.
Then he was brought before a trial and he was
severely accused in the wrong directions. And
now here we find in Luke 23, he's been taken
to Pilate, he takes the whole crowd. It says
the whole crowd. In Luke 22, verse 70, one of
the things I didn't share yesterday was that
the Bible said that all of them said, the whole
crowd was against Jesus. It gives us an inclination
that there's a lot of momentum moving in the
enemy's camp. A lot of the disciples have been
isolated. They're out of the picture now. They're
all disappeared. Now those that are against Jesus
are all in unison. They're all saying the same
thing. Just because people say the same thing
doesn't mean they're right. Jesus is now taken
to Pilate, and Pilate, they bring him before
him, and here's where the accusations start.
In Luke 23, beginning at verse number 2, I just
want to read a couple of verses throughout this
text today. hopefully to give us a little bit
of an insight up to what's happening. Listen
to Luke 23, verse number 2. And they began to
accuse him, saying, We found this man misleading
our nation and forbidding us to give tribute
to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ,
a king. This is already a lie. It's a bold -faced
lie. You can go back a couple pages in your Bible,
and you can see Jesus say, Render to Caesar what's
Caesar's, and render to God what's God's. Jesus
didn't say don't give anything to Caesar. That's
not what he said. This is a lie that has come
up against him. Satan is really good at lying.
He's really good at building a false testimony
and convincing and deceiving people. That's what
Satan is known for. It's no surprise that that's
Satan's move and attack here. He's in front of
a guy named Pilate. Now, there's a lot to happen
and to be seen in the Roman government. I don't
want to jump into all that today because I think
that our purposes today are maybe just to bring
a little bit of encouragement about how this
can encourage us to live more like Christ today.
But there's a lot that happens. There's a guy
named Caiaphas. There's a guy named Herod. There's
all these pieces and all these players. They
all have a different role in the story. And if
you go into much deep diving on these guys, you
can find out why they make the decisions they
make. It's not much different from today. There's
people that are swayed and influenced whenever
they have a position of power that they could
lose if the wrong people get mad or the wrong
people influence the wrong ways. A lot of that
misunderstanding and a lot of that stuff that
we don't see on the outside but is going on behind
the scenes. Pilate is one of those guys as well,
afraid he's going to lose some traction, especially
if the Jewish leaders come up and rise up against
him. This group or this pact had a large amount
of influence, even though they were under Roman
rule. These guys brought Jesus to Pilate and
lied. Jesus has said this, and the kicker is
he says to Pilate that he's a king. He claims
he's a king. That's what throws the red flag
up in Pilate's mind. He says, whoa, whoa, whoa,
can't be a king. He says, are you a king? And
Jesus says, yes. But he says, I'm king of the
Jews. Well, as he says that, Pilate looks at
him and he says, I can't find any fault in this
guy. I don't think he said what you said. The
testimonies aren't lining up. So what happens
next after they say, after Pilate says, I can't
find anything wrong with the guy. Here's what
happens in verse number five. Listen to verse
number five. But they were urgent saying he stirs
up all the people teaching throughout all Judea
from Galilee, even to this place. They say, listen,
you don't understand. It says with urgency. Why?
Because the enemy feels like he may be losing.
Oh no, I think I may have lost a battle. Pilate's
not sentencing him to death. What am I going
to do? I got to keep him. We're not letting Jesus
go free at all costs. We're going to make sure
he doesn't go free. So they urgently said, so
they've turned up the intensity, right? The enemy
has now turned it up a little bit more. It started
out trying to beat Jesus up. In Luke 22, we see
Jesus get beat up. He's mocked. He's blasphemed.
Then he's brought before a trial, and the trial
doesn't go the way that we think as believers.
It's like it's not fair to Jesus at all. He's
been misunderstood. The words he say, they think
they're lies. They're freaking out. Now they
take him here. The intensity gets turned up.
They're going to take him to the next level.
So they take to Pilate, and they say, we're just
going to lie about him. Well, the lie doesn't
work. So what do they do? They turn up the intensity.
The urgency goes up. And they say, no, you don't
understand. He's torn up our whole community.
He's torn up all the whole region from Galilee
to here. Pilate hears, oh, he's from Galilee?
So he asks the question next, if you're reading
the text. Oh, is this man, is he Galilean? It's
like, well, yes, he is. He's like, oh, that's
Herod's jurisdiction. I don't have to make this
call. I'm going to send it over to Herod. Why?
Because he doesn't want on his hands, because
his influence is up for debate here. If he's
the one that accuses Jesus, if Pilate's the one
that sentences him, he knows there's going to
be a group of people that don't like him anymore.
He's going to lose his authority and power within
the world. Sounds familiar, right? If I do the
wrong thing, I'm going to make the wrong group
of people mad, and I'm going to lose my position
of power. So Pilate says, oh, if that's the case,
Herod can handle him. So what do they do? They
take him over to Herod. It's weird. Herod's like,
hey, I can't wait to meet this guy. I've heard
about him. I want him to perform signs for me.
That's what I want him to do. So he begins to
ask Jesus to perform signs. And Jesus just stands
there. I'm not here to take orders from you.
I'm not listening to you. So what happens? Listen
to the scripture. Verse number nine. So he questioned
him at some length, but he made no answer. Verse
10, the chief priest and the scribes stood by
vehemently accusing him. Herod, with his soldiers,
treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then
arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him
back to Pilate. Here's the scene. Herod wants
him to perform signs, and Jesus just stands there.
I'm not answering to you. What happens? Chief
priests and the rulers, they turn up the intensity.
They say, no, we're going to make sure this is
urgent. This is a need. We've got to take him
out. So Herod says, I'm going to send him back
to Pilate because that's where he was arrested.
So now he goes back to Pilate. When he gets back
to Pilate, the whole scene happens again. Pilate
says, listen, I can't find anything wrong with
him. Herod can't find anything wrong with him.
You keep taking him back and forth. Here's what
we're going to do. Verse 16, he says, I'm going
to release him. And we'll beat him up real good.
We'll rough him up. Maybe it'll make him stop
teaching, stop talking, stop running his mouth.
We'll beat him up, and then we'll release him.
Now, some manuscripts, some texts, some Bibles,
I'm going to go ahead and address this because
it's going to be here. Verse 16, there is a verse
17 in a lot of translations. There's also not
a verse 17 in some translations. The translation
I'm reading from does not have a verse 17. Now,
if you go to the bottom of the page, you'll see
verse 17, and it says some early manuscripts
do not include this verse. So the earliest manuscripts,
Bible translation, this is a side note, by the
way, some Bible translations will say if this
verse was not in the earliest of manuscripts
that have been discovered, which was found at
the caves of Qumran, those were the Dead Sea
Scrolls. Those were the earliest dated manuscripts.
So verse 17 was not written in those early dated
manuscripts. So they didn't put it in this translation.
But because some later transcripts that they
had, some later scrolls, did have verse 17 in
there. Why is that the case? I have some thoughts,
but the truth is it really doesn't matter. What
matters is the storyline and what we understand.
Now, we can discuss that and we can talk about
what verse 17 means and why it could possibly
be put in there from scribes later on to maybe
help explain something. Because listen to verse
16. It stands out. It's a little bit strange.
I will therefore punish and release him. That's
what it says. Why? Why will he release him? I
don't understand. Well, to help understand a
little bit of Jewish context and culture, there's
verse number 17, which is found again at the
footnote of my Bible. I'm going to read it. Now,
he was obliged to release one man to them at
the festival. That's what the verse 17 in the
later manuscripts say, because in Jewish festivals,
there was a custom that a leader could release
a prisoner at a festival for some reason that
had to do with some of the traditions. Now, does
that matter? It matters and it doesn't matter.
That just gives an explanation as to why verse
16 was in there. We don't have to always have
an explanation for every single verse that's
in there, but we do in this case. So here's what's
gone on now, just to move on past that, back
to the real stuff, back to the good stuff. Verse
16, he says, I'll beat him up and release him.
The people freak out. The chief priest, the ruler,
no, no, no, no, no, no. You can release to us
the murderer. Release to us Barabbas. We'll take
him. If you're going to institute that rule and
allow us to release somebody, then release to
us Barabbas, not Jesus. Now, there's a lot to
be said about Barabbas. If you do much research
on Barabbas, you can find very interesting things.
The name Barabbas has a meaning, right? Every
name has some type of meaning attached to it.
Barabbas means son of a father. That's what Barabbas
means. Now, we can do a lot of extra deep...
talk through that because you've got the son
of a father and you've got Jesus, who is the
son of the father, right? So you've got Jesus
Christ and you've got Barabbas. Now, there are
even some texts out there. We're not going to
dive too far into this because I've done it several
times and it gets, it just, major on the majors,
right? We'll minor on the minors. There's some
manuscripts out there just dated right past the
scriptural dating of the manuscripts that Barabbas'
name was Jesus Barabbas. That was his full name,
Jesus Barabbas, meaning that was his Yahweh saves
Barabbas, the son of a father. What we know is
this. Here's what I know. They said, we want
Barabbas to be set free, and we want to take
Jesus and murder him. That's what we want to
do. We want to have one set free that has already
been accused, who's already been sentenced to
death, who's already been put on trial, found
guilty, and now we're going to murder him. We
want that guy who has all of the evidence about
him, the one that started the insurrections,
the one that murdered, that guy, the guilty one,
we want him set free so that we can kill, take
the life of this one Jesus. Now, even the way
the scripture is laid out, we want Jesus handed
over, and we want Barabbas set free. The son
of the father. Now, if you take that term, Barabbas,
son of the father, and you break it down to the
absolute, raw, real truth, here's what they're
saying. The son of a father is the son of a man.
Not the son of man, Jesus, but the son of a man.
The son of Adam. The fallen race. The fallen
human race is Barabbas. That's us. We are Barabbas,
Jesus, the son of the Holy Father, the great
son of man, the one who has no sin, the one who
became sin for us. This is a perfect substitution.
We are Barabbas. Jesus took our place. We were
the ones that were accused. We were the ones
that were found guilty. We were the ones sentenced
to death. And Jesus willingly was handed over
and took our place. That's what happens in this
scenario, in this scene. How in the world? The
chief priests and the rulers did not see, but
they didn't see because they were blinded by
deception. They were blinded by what the enemy
wanted to do. Over and over again in this scene,
we see the enemy continue to increase the pressure.
Listen to what it says down in verse number 23.
But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries
that he should be crucified, and their voices
prevailed. I think it is very valuable for us
to understand. that these voices were the voices
of the rulers and the religious authorities.
They yelled crucify, crucify, crucify, crucify.
Why would they yell crucify? Why would they demand
that he be crucified? Because whoever hung on
a tree would be cursed. They wanted to stop this,
not just stop his words. They wanted to stop
the testimony of who he was. So they said no
Messiah would be cursed even in his death. So
they said, what we're going to do is we can outsmart
this. His message is that he's the Messiah. We'll
stop all that talk by even having him cursed
in his death. Little did they know what they
were doing was taking the doorpost and the lentil
and painting the blood over it. Little did they
know they were crucifying the one who would be
the perfect sacrificial substitutionary lamb.
Today, here's my encouragement to you. Read scripture
with fresh ears. Read it with fresh eyes. Listen
to what God has to say to you today. Do not listen
to the loud, obnoxious voice of the world and
the enemy. It's loud and it can be persuasive.
Don't let that voice prevail in your heart and
in your life today. Listen to the voice of Jesus
and know that he took our place. We deserved.
death. We deserved to be broken out of fellowship
with God. We deserved to die, and he took our
place.