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If you have your bibles, I'm going to invite you to open them at this time.

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Matthew chapter 27 verse 15.

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I want to congratulate our young people.

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Last Sunday we had a great service here.

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Sponsored and put on by our youth department here.

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Real youth.

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So God bless our young people, amen.

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Wonderful service we had last Sunday and we're just going to continue in that same spirit.

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Matthew chapter 27 verse 15.

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I'm going to read a few verses here and then we will skip over to some others.

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It reads this way.

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Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to releasing the multitude, one prisoner whom

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they wished.

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And at that time they had a notorious prisoner named Barabbas.

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Therefore when they had gathered together, their pilot said to them, who do you want

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me to release to you?

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Barabbas or Jesus who is called Christ?

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Verse 21, the governor answered and said to them, which of the two do you want me to release

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to you?

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They said Barabbas.

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Pilot said to them, what then shall I do with Jesus whom is called Christ?

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They all said to him, let him be crucified.

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Today with God's help I want to speak on the subject trading places, trading places, amen.

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And I'm going to invite you church and friend to pray with me and we're going to ask the

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Lord to speak to us in a very special way.

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We're going to relinquish the remainder of the service into the hands of the Holy Spirit.

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So amen.

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I'm going to invite you right there.

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Would you go before God with me and prayer?

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Let's ask God to continue to speak and move.

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Father we love you today.

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We thank you God for your riches and mercy.

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We thank you for divine visitation, for the manifestation of your glory, your power.

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The evidence is all around us.

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You are in this place Lord.

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We thank you Lord that over 2000 years ago you took our place God.

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You took the place that belonged to us and you went to the cross for us.

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I ask today God that you would help me God under the direction, under the inspiration

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of the Holy Spirit to deliver this word that will hopefully bring us back to that place,

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God of surrender.

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God anoint our hearing, anoint our understanding and anoint my lips of clay.

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In the name of Jesus we pray right now in Jesus' name.

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And everyone say amen.

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Amen.

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You may be seated in the presence of God.

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Allow me church to transport you to a moment in time that profoundly altered the course

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of history.

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Imagine standing in the dusty streets of Jerusalem amidst the clamor and the chaos of a crowd

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stirred by fear and uncertainty.

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It is here in the shadow of the cross that we encounter a man whose life intersects with

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the very heart of salvation, the infamous Barabbas.

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Barabbas finds himself on the brink of death shackled by the chains of his own wrongdoings

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and misgivings.

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To them to die for his crimes, Barabbas awaits his fate in the darkness of a prison cell

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lonely counting down the days.

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But little does he know that the story, his story is about to take an unexpected turn,

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one that will echo throughout all eternity.

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As the sun rises over Jerusalem, Pontius Pilate, who was the Roman governor, emerges to preside

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over this trial.

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You may call it a kangaroo court, meaning that the outcome was already determined.

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Nevertheless, he presides over Jesus who was accused of blasphemy and sedition.

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It was the custom, every Passover, that the Roman Empire would part in one criminal and

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that the Jews had the privilege of selecting the person who would be released.

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So according to that custom, Pilate stands before the people in a bid to satisfy their

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bloodthirst within them and offers them a choice to release either Jesus or Barabbas.

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Can you imagine with me for a moment what the atmosphere must have been like, the tension

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thickening in the air as the fate of these two men hung in the balance.

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And if you can, with your mind's eye, picture the ruckus and the drama unfolding in real

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time as the Jews see two options placed before them, one a notorious criminal and the other

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the sinless Son of God, Jesus Christ.

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And you would think that the selection, the choice would be clear and apparent.

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But the longer the people began to clamor among themselves, the longer they began to

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chat and news began to spread among the people and folks turning to one side and sharing,

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well, what are you going to vote for and what do you think?

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It seemed apparent that the decision was not immediately clear, but as it turns out in

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this moment as these two men's futures hang in the balance, Barabbas probably thought

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that his fate was sealed, that he resigned himself to his destiny, awaiting his sentence

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unaware of what was going on.

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To him, all of this seemed to be a bit of a circus.

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He doesn't even understand why he is in this position at all.

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In his own mind, he thought the choice is clear.

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I am a convicted criminal.

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He is an innocent man.

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Why are we even going through all of this anyways?

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But as the tension continued to rise and angers and emotions started to boil over, it started

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to feel uneasy and uncertain and amidst all of that, there was something taking place in

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the backdrop of eternity, something that had been divinely orchestrated by God from the

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very foundations of the world.

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Unbeknownst to Barabbas, God was already unfolding his divine plan to rescue humanity from its

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sin.

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Barabbas is just an unsuspecting character.

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Barabbas has no idea what is going on, but his whole life is about to change.

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This is when an unexpected twist happens.

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The crowd begins to rise up with their voices and begin to shout from the front to the back,

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from the side to the side, both men and women, young and old, child and elderly, as one concert

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and one chorus, they all seem to be in consensus with each other that what they wanted was not

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Barabbas, but indeed they wanted Jesus to be crucified.

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So they begin to shout, give us Barabbas, give us Barabbas.

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We want Barabbas.

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I can just imagine that as Pontius Pilate is overseeing this whole affair and supervising

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this court that's in session, could not believe his ears as he was hearing the chants, give

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us Barabbas, we want Barabbas, we'll take him.

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And this must have come as a shock not only to Pontius Pilate, his wife who had been dreaming

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about all of these things that were happening.

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In fact, she was tormented by a dream about what was going on and she even told Pilate,

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her husband, you need to let this Jesus go because I was terrorized by a dream about

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him and I don't want anything to do with him.

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And that's in the back of his mind and the chants of the people are coming before him

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and they are crying, give us Barabbas.

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And he must have been scratching his head, but no one was more grieved with doubt.

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No one was more in a state of shock and disbelief than Barabbas.

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The shock must have washed over him as he heard his name started to echo through the

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dusty streets and among all the people from every class of society, the religious class,

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the interreligious and the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes and everybody is

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all in one chorus and he can't believe himself what is happening in this moment.

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He is just a spellbound, he's just dazed and confused of what is happening and at the same

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time Barabbas is feeling the weight of guilt and the weight of the pressure upon him.

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He's feeling just unqualified and undeserving of what is taking place here and all this

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pressure is starting to mount on him and pile up on him as his soul is starting to realize

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that his life was being spared at the expense of an innocent man and they continue to shout,

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give us Barabbas, we want Barabbas and Pila looks over and says, well, I put the decisions

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and the hands of the people have already washed my hands of this situation and so he concedes

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and he puts Barabbas in front of them and he steps forward and instead of being met

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with judgment and instead of being met with condemnation, Barabbas is met with grace,

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a grace that he could ever, never earn on his own and from there Jesus willingly trade

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places with a man who not only did deserve the freedom that he was being given but a

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man who had already figured that he was going to die very slow and painful death, the death

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on the cross and he can't imagine what was going on Barabbas now as they start to unloose

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the shackles from his hands and giving him his papers, you can go free, he sees the innocent

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man, he sees the one they call the Messiah, the one they call the anointed one, the Christ,

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the Son of God is now being led away to Galgotha, to Calvary where he's going to die and I don't

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know the Bible doesn't tell us but I've got to imagine that those that were standing witness

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to Calvary and seeing the Lord Jesus die upon that cross that somewhere in the background

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of that scene probably Barabbas was looking from behind the scenes and seeing how this

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innocent man was dying upon the cross and as he was shedding his blood and as they were

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nailing his hands and feet to the cross and how every drop of his blood was being free

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and that Barabbas was being set free from his own life and I just imagine Barabbas standing

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in the background maybe he's not too close to the cross because he's hoping that people

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don't change their minds, I mean he doesn't want to die that death but he had to be watching

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from afar and saying I cannot believe that this man who found no guilt and no fault in

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him is taking my place on that cross, it should be me on that cross, it should be me dying

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that criminals dead, it should be me suffering with 39 lashes on my back and maybe a crown

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of thorns on my head but as he stood afar and he saw redemption lifted up on that cross

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on Calvary's hill it must have done something to him that would forever alter his life and

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my friend today I have come to preach to you dear friend, dear saint, dear somebody who

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is watching today that the story of Barabbas is our story, somebody give God some praise

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today hallelujah.

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We are Barabbas, we are Barabbas, I am Barabbas whether you want to admit it or not whether

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you care to identify with this man or not I have come to inform you today that we like

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him stood condemned before a holy God guilty of our rebellion and our sin but in his infinite

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love and his everlasting mercy he took our place, hallelujah and in doing so he did the

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most extreme extravagant exchange in human history it is what theologians have called

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the divine exchange or the great exchange where God took our sins and our sorrows and

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he took our place on the cross and I want to talk to you today about that exchange I

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want to tell you first of all that he traded guilt for grace.

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He traded guilt someone say guilt someone say for grace.

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Barabbas was a convicted felon with a long rap sheet that included robbery, murder and

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insurrection.

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Matthew described him as a notorious prisoner suggesting that he had a widespread and infamous

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reputation in the city especially for his role in a failed attempt to overthrow the

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Roman government.

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By all accounts Barabbas was a terrorist and he was found culpable and he was found liable

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and he was guilty as charged and if there was anybody that deserved capital punishment

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it was him.

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He committed the most heinous of things robbery, murder among them but the fact that he tried

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to lead or at least participate in a revolt a coordinated coup to overthrow the Roman

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government in itself was worthy of execution.

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This man was guilty it was a closed shut case there was no denying that he in fact was culpable

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and there is no attempt at least in the scriptures that show us that he even appealed or challenged

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the charges against him.

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He probably figured I am guilty.

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It doesn't appear that Barabbas was even remorseful for what he did.

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In fact he may have been defiant and proud of his actions.

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He probably even saw himself as a symbol of a political revolution.

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You got to understand despite whatever movies or plays that you have seen of this man everybody

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portrays Barabbas as a madman foaming at the mouth like an animal.

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I want you to understand that more than likely that was not the case.

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Barabbas was not a madman in that sense.

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He saw himself as a political liberator.

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He saw himself as serving a greater cause which was to overthrow the Roman government

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which was what a lot of the Jews ironically enough wanted Jesus to do.

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They hoped that Jesus would be the one to bring them political liberation from the hands

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of the Roman Empire and Barabbas through his own means and through his own nefarious ways

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he tried to do exactly that overthrow the Roman government.

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And you can see that the charges were stacked high against this man.

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And yet I can state with a fair amount of certainty that Barabbas did not want despite

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everything that he did despite knowing that he probably would pay the ultimate cost if

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he got caught doing what he did.

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Barabbas did not want to suffer the immeasurable pain of a crucifixion.

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This would not be a lethal injection.

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This would not be a humane way of dying.

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This would not be even an electric chair that although inhumane would be relatively quick

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in its judgment this would be a slow and painful death.

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I can assure you today that Barabbas did not want to die on a cross but little did he know

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that Jesus was about to take his place and exchange guilt for grace.

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Your rap seat today my friend may not be as long or egregious as Barabbas.

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You may not sit there in your life and in your past and say I am not guilty of the things

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that Barabbas ever did.

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My resume, my rap sheet is cleaner than his.

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You may hang your hat at being a dignified sinner.

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Somebody who would never do as if there was such a thing who would never be caught doing

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some of the things that Barabbas have done.

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And maybe that is the case but we've got to remember something today church.

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We embody the words of the Psalmist and King David who wrote these words famously in Psalm

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51 and verse 5.

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Behold I was shaping in iniquity and in sin my mother did conceive me.

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From this we understand my friend that sin is not just an action or a thought or a lifestyle

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but sin is a sinful nature that we are born with before we take our first breath and before

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anybody ever taught us how to sin we are born in sin.

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It is encoded in our spiritual DNA inherited from Adam the original sinner.

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So I hate to tell you today but we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

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Amen.

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And there are many today that are that that was shy away or there are many today that

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would you know balk at the idea that they would be anybody like Barabbas guilty as charged

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but you got to understand that just by virtue of being born into this world we are born

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in a depraved state.

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We read in Romans chapter 5 and verse 12 it says Paul writes just as through one man sin

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entered the world and death through sin and thus death spread to all men because oh someone

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say oh oh sinned.

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Anybody believe the word of God today but several verses later Paul continues to write

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and tell us that although we are born in a sinful state and yes sin had his reign not

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only in the world but in our own personal lives we have an answer we have redemption.

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He reveals the great exchange in verse 20 but we're sin abounded and it did grace abounded

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much more.

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Can we give God a hand praise right now for his grace.

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Come on let's give a hand praise for his grace today.

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How many of you are thankful for the grace of God today.

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Hey I said how many of you are thankful for the grace of God today.

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I'm here to tell you that the bad news is that we were all born in sin and sin did abound

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and sin was extravagant and sin was rooted in the very heart of man but thank God that

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where sin was extravagant grace was much more extravagant where sin abounded grace did much

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more abound.

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I am standing here today behind this pulpit not because I've been good all my life not

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because I am perfect not because I am sinless and not because I am righteous in my own merit

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but I am standing here today and you are sitting there today simply because of the grace of

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Almighty God.

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Oh thank you Jesus for your grace.

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What about Yashondalamakaya Jesus took Barabbas' place and ours on the cross for the word says

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for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness

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of God.

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It is somebody shout hallelujah today.

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The technical term for this or the theological term is substitutionary atonement.

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That's a fancy way of saying he became our substitute.

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He took our place because I don't know about you you can call it whatever you want use

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the fancy term or not but all I know is this it should have been me on the cross.

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Hallelujah.

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It should have been me on the cross.

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It should have been me that died.

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It should have been me that suffered but I thank God today that even when it should have

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been me he traded guilt for grace and through grace we receive forgiveness and righteousness.

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He became our substitute.

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He became the lamb.

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He became the substitutionary lamb to a tone for the sins of the world and the next thing

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he did after trading grace or guilt for grace is he traded death for life.

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Someone say life.

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Prisoners on death row are often called dead men walking and Barabbas was a dead man walking.

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His days were numbered.

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He knew I don't know how many days he spent in that prison cell or if he marked them on

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the wall scratching each day off waiting to get his number called his inmate number and

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his day of execution but he knew he knew that he was a dead man walking that his days were

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numbered that his fate was essentially sealed and that he was just waiting for his time

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bearing the chains that he held firmly in his cell.

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He knew there was no getting out of it.

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There was no complaint.

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He could not file an appeal with the appeals court and go all the way up to the Supreme

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Court.

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No, he was finished.

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He was as good as dead and that's all that he had to look forward to.

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So when Pontius Pilate stood him next to Jesus and presented the Jews with a choice,

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he had to be thinking, okay, here we go.

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He had to be thinking when they called him out of his cell and they led him and when

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he figured out what was going on, I know what's going on here.

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Once a year during the feast of the Passover, they're going to let somebody go free and

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he just probably sat there like, let's just get this thing over with because there's no

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way they're going to let me go.

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There's no way.

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He knows that he's already got a bad name and it's just a matter of time and so he's

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probably thinking to himself, this is it.

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I'm cooked.

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I'm done.

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I'm a dead man.

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It's over for me.

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I'm out of options.

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I'm out of appeals.

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I'm out of time and so it's going to happen.

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I'm just going to die and it's going to be painful.

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It's going to be ugly and these are the thoughts that are kind of racing through his mind as

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they present him in front of the people and he came face to face with his own mortality

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and coming face to face with his own mortality and his own finality.

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Barnabas, not Barnabas, but Barabbas.

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He embodied the reality of what Paul writes in Romans 6.23 that the wages of sin is death.

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Wages of sin is death.

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You all know what a wage is, right?

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It's what you get paid.

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It's what you earn.

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You have a job and you have a wage and every couple of weeks or every month you get a paycheck.

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Those are your wages.

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That's what you earned and what Paul is saying is that death is what we earned.

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God didn't just give it to us.

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We earned it through our own sinfulness.

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You see, death as we know it today, death as we know it today did not exist in the world

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in the very beginning where there was no sin.

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God made us to live in harmony and in fellowship with him without sin.

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This was God's original plan, but God warned man.

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He warned man in Genesis 2.17 about the trees that he can eat from, the tree of life or the

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tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

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He said, you must not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for when you eat

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from it, you will surely or certainly.

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If you eat of this tree, Adam, you're going to die.

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And not only was this true physically, but spiritually there was death.

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And from that point on, man who was made to live forever on this earth now must come face

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to face with his own mortality and die.

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And death reigned supreme.

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And that's exactly what happened because we know the story that Adam took of the fruit

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and he disobeyed God and death came into the world.

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But Jesus, Jesus came to trade places with us.

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He came to trade places with you.

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Amen today.

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To offer you the greatest exchange.

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The rest of Romans 623, we read that the wages of sin is dead, but someone say, but the gift

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of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus outlawed.

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Hallelujah, somebody.

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I said, hallelujah, somebody hallelujah.

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Hey, I got a question today.

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How many of you lack receiving gifts?

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Hey, I said, how many of you lack receiving gifts?

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I like receiving gifts.

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Amen.

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It's nice when you got a gift, but every gift has got to be opened and somebody today may

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have the gift of God just waiting to be opened.

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Whether that gift is salvation, whether that gift is forgiveness, whether that gift is

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restoration, but the gift of God is eternal life.

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And all you've got to do is open up your heart and receive that gift by saying, somebody

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here under the sound of my voice, God's calling you to receive that gift.

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You need to be baptized once and for all for the remission of your sin.

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You've got to go down in the water and be baptized in Jesus name because there is no

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other name.

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Come on now, somebody.

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I said, there is no other name.

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I'm in my own heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved.

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Come on, clap your hands and give God some praise.

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You know you get baptized once, you need to be filled with the spirit of God.

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You need to get right with God.

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You need to turn back to God.

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You need to repent from your sins and get right with God today.

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And you know what?

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He's not standing here with hands of judgment and condemnation.

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You know, he's got a gift, he's got a gift of salvation, he's got a gift of life.

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Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life.

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He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live.

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Hallelujah, somebody.

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And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.

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I got good news for you.

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If you're in Christ, you're never going to die.

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You're like, oh, I get to live forever.

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Well, not in this body.

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Watch out now, hallelujah.

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But you'll never die.

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And this concept of never death is so prevalent in the writings of the New Testament, because

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even when the apostles talk of death, they don't speak of death in terms of permanence

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or finality.

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They speak of the saints of God when they have passed as sleeping.

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Hallelujah.

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They are simply asleep, waiting to be called home.

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Hallelujah.

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So even when we die, the Bible says to be absent from this body is to be present.

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Come on now, somebody, be present with the Lord.

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We live forever.

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We live forever.

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How many of you are grateful to God for that?

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Can you clap your hands and give them some praise?

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Hallelujah, somebody.

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Come to preach to you in the simplest way I can, this gospel, and show you that we are

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barabbas, we are barabbas in that Jesus took our place.

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Yes, he did.

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He took our place.

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I'm just about done here.

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I want to show you one more divine trade off that occurs with Jesus and us or Barabbas

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representing us.

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The final exchange that we see is how Jesus traded chains for freedom.

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Whoo.

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I get excited about this one, y'all.

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I get excited about this one.

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Listen, the US president and the governor of the state have the sole authority to grant

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clemency to a death row in the name.

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They have that sole authority to do so.

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And there are many that every year are appealing for their cases to be heard so that the governor

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or the president of the US will grant them clemency.

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But in many of those death row cases, in most cases, when they are granted clemency, their

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sentence is simply reduced from a death sentence to either life sentence or just longer time

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in jail.

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But very rarely are those with a death sentence given a free and unconditional pardon.

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Huh.

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Happens very rarely.

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Most times the sentences are simply reduced.

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In those cases, the punishment is lessened and the prisoner is not released back into

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society.

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The prisoner remains a prisoner.

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Now maybe in his mind, he's thinking, well, I'd rather live my life, my days out in prison

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than die.

401
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But he's a prisoner or she's a prisoner nonetheless.

402
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I want to tell somebody today as I get ready to close, I want to tell somebody today that

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the tradeoff that we have in Christ, when he went to Calvary and he took our place on

404
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Galgotha's Hill, the hill of the skull, died and bled for our sins.

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It was not just so that we could avoid death, but so that we can be completely and totally

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set free.

407
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My God, hallelujah.

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00:34:29,720 --> 00:34:43,040
When Jesus traded places with him, Barabbas, he didn't go back to his jail cell.

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He didn't go back to his jail cell.

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They released him back into society and he was free.

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Chains that were hanging from his wrist, shackled to his feet, were unloosed.

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Maybe Barabbas kind of hung around the prison for a little while.

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They were like, is this really happening?

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Or maybe he ran and said, I'm out of here.

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But either way, it began to sink into him that I'm really free.

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I'm really free.

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He was so used to having chains on him, he didn't know what it was like to lift his hands

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with no chains.

419
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He was so used to moving like this.

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He didn't know how to move like this.

421
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They had imagined what Barabbas's mama thought when he came back.

422
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What are you doing?

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He probably thought he broke out of jail or something.

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No, mama.

425
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They let me go for real this time.

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Oh, my God, hallelujah.

427
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I'm home, mama.

428
00:35:59,320 --> 00:36:01,320
They let me out.

429
00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:11,320
I'm free, somebody say I'm free.

430
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He went back to the neighborhood.

431
00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:18,760
Is that Barabbas coming over here?

432
00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:23,840
The boys were like, Barabbas, what happened, man?

433
00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:25,760
We heard you got locked up.

434
00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:27,560
We heard you're doing time.

435
00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:28,560
What are you doing?

436
00:36:28,560 --> 00:36:31,560
He said if you only knew.

437
00:36:31,560 --> 00:36:32,560
Oh, come on.

438
00:36:32,560 --> 00:36:33,560
I need somebody's help today.

439
00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:34,560
I need somebody's help today.

440
00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:59,560
If you only knew what happened, I was destined to die, but then there was a man named Jesus.