Transcript

Let's pray and we'll begin.

Lord, we praise You for every way in which You bless us and take care of us. You do this so that our lives would be all the more fruitful for Your glory, that we would serve Your great and holy name. Thank You for saving us from our sins at the high price of the very precious and innocent life of Your Son. Thank you that in Him we have life and that we have Your Holy Spirit, who ever illuminates our minds to know Your word. May our lives fulfill Your great purpose on earth, and may they bring glory and honor to You. Thank You for the rich blessing of salvation in Christ. Guide us during this time now. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The next passage to be read is Matthew 27:1-26. And the main idea here is the Roman trial, that is, Jesus' trial before the Roman tribunal. He, of course, has already had one before the Jewish tribunal. The central truth I want to highlight from this text is this: Jesus was innocent. This is the resounding idea throughout this section as Jesus is being tried before Pontius Pilate. In addition to His trial, Matthew also injects a short section on what happened to Judas after the betrayal. We also find even Judas’ testimony regarding Jesus' innocence. Altogether, there are four testimonies regarding Jesus' innocence: landmark, the trial, a dream, and hand washing.

First, the landmark. Before Matthew goes into the details of the Roman trial, he takes a moment to recount the story of Judas after his betrayal. The first two verses almost make it seem that Matthew was about to just cover the Roman trial, but he interrupts himself and tells the story of Judas. I believe he does this because he wants to further bolster the fact that Jesus died as an innocent and righteous man. So, here's the story of Judas that begins in verse 3: “when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.” As you would recall, he had sold Jesus to the Jews for thirty pieces of silver. And this is what he said to them as he returned the money: he said, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” Judas himself testified that Jesus was innocent. He had betrayed innocent blood. And this is what caused so much remorse in his heart. Now at this juncture, if you didn't know the rest of the story, you might think that maybe Judas here was a changed man because he felt bad about what he did. Maybe he was repentant. But of course, repentance is way more than just feeling bad about your sins. That is a part of it, but it’s more than grief over sin. 2 Corinthians 7:10 tells us that, there is “sorrow that is according to the will of God, which brings about repentance without regret, leading to salvation. But there is the sorrow of the world that produces death.” This is to say, not every remorseful feeling for our sins means true repentance, because true repentance is to not only confess that we've done wrong, but to so agree with God about His righteous standard that we turn from the wicked deed and embrace His righteous standard for our lives. Repentance also means that we are clinging on to God's provision of forgiveness of sins which comes through Christ. Well, in the case of Judas, he only experienced what Paul calls worldly sorrow. And this remorse of the world produces death, and this literally became true of Judas. What we see after this is that he committed suicide to put an end to the guilty feeling and misery he had in his heart. So, you can see not every remorse actually leads to repentance and salvation. There is remorse that leads to death. So after returning the silver pieces by throwing them into the temple sanctuary, Judas departed, went away, and hanged himself. Trying to put an end to the pain of guilt through suicide is utterly unproductive, because upon death, the person will face the eternal judgment of God for his sins, not the least of which is his self-murder. The story of Judas is really tragic, but if you study his life, you find that he maintained a certain unwillingness to repent the entire time that he was with Jesus. Jesus had preached repeatedly on the love of money and greed and the dangers of these sinful inclinations, and yet this man refused to repent. He heard the words and took no action. He continued on his path of unrighteousness. He never repented. How sad a picture is this. A good warning for us, isn't it? That we would always have a heart of repentance and that we would never let the words of Jesus enter through one ear and out the other. Now, with the money that Judas threw into the temple, the chief priests had a problem on their hands. The chief priests took the silver pieces and said in verse six, “It is not lawful to put them into the temple treasury, since it is the price of blood.” There's two things that they say here. First, they admit that the money they gave to Judas was the price of blood. This was money given to murder Jesus. That's what they mean by blood money. They themselves admit that Jesus did not commit a capital crime but that they got to Him by paying off Judas with this blood money. The second thing that they show here is the unlawfulness of putting that money back into the temple treasury. That might sound like maybe all of a sudden, the chief priests had moral scruples about God’s law, but I don't believe that's what was happening here. I think given the public nature of the temple and its treasury, whatever money came in, they had to make a recording of it and they did not want to publicize self-incriminating evidence that they paid off Judas to get Jesus killed. So what did they do with the money? Verse 7, they decided together that with that money, they would buy the Potter’s field (a cheap piece of land), “as a burial place for strangers.” And so instead of absorbing that money into their temple treasury which would have given an embarrassing expose of their murderous plot, they purchased this piece of land and put it under Judas' name. We get that understanding of the owner of the field in Acts 1:18-19. There, Luke tells us that the field was acquired by Judas. This doesn’t mean Judas himself purchased it. He didn’t. He returned the money to the temple, but he had become the owner of that field. It was put under his name. So then that field became associated with Judas Iscariot, the Betrayer. And Jewish people living in Jerusalem gave that place a nickname: field of blood. Verse 8 tells us, “For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day.” When Matthew says “to this day,” he means that at the time of his writing, this epithet for that land was well known. This means everyone eventually found out where that money came from. The religious leaders’ wish to cover up their evil by buying the field on behalf of Judas backfired. That site became a landmark that testified of the murder of Jesus by blood money. Jesus was not guilty of a capital crime. He was innocent. There was no way for the religious leaders to escape their wicked deed. They killed an innocent man with blood money. What that landmark in Jerusalem showed was that Jesus was innocent. Jesus was wrongfully arrested. He was falsely accused and unjustifiably condemned and unjustly executed. Moreover, Matthew tells us the Old Testament actually prophesied this would happen. And so Matthew goes on to appeal to the OT prophecy that specified the price of thirty pieces of silver and that it was given to purchase the Potter's field. This was the fulfillment of prophecy. None of this was a surprise of God. This was all a part of the plan of God which had been revealed in His word previously.

Secondly, we come to the Roman trial. After having told the story of Judas, then Matthew just goes right back to the account of Jesus' trial before Pontius Pilate. Now, Jesus is standing before the Roman governor of Judea. As the trial progresses, it becomes very clear to Pilate that Jesus was innocent. He questions the false accusations later in verse 23, “what evil has He done?” In the gospel of John, we hear Pilate’s affirmation of innocence repeated three times, “I find no guilt in this man” (John 18:38; 19:4, 6). In Matthew, we read in verse 14 that Jesus did not answer Pilate with regard to even a single charge. This amazed the governor. Pilate had witnessed countless men grovel and beg for their lives. But not Jesus. Jesus did not beg. He said nothing to escape the execution. Jesus doesn't even try to defend Himself. He doesn't try to save Himself. This wasn't typical of a guilty criminal who just wanted to avoid death. Pilate was convinced Jesus was innocent. So, Pilate comes up with a plan. He decides that he can leverage the Passover tradition he had with the Jews to release Jesus. The tradition was to release one prisoner of their choice during the feast. And so he offers to either release a notorious criminal named Barabbas who was a murderer, insurrectionist, and a robber (triple threat), or Jesus, the healer and the respected teacher. Pilate thought, “This has to be a no brainer. If I offer a choice between this violent criminal and Jesus, surely the Jews would have enough sense to choose Jesus’ release.” So, this was his plan. He says in verse 17, “Whom do you want me to release for you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” In verse 18 Matthew explains that Pilate knew the motive of the Jewish leaders. They were envious of Jesus. This is why they wanted Jesus dead. Pilate knew Jesus did nothing wrong and that he was actually being framed for something that was neither criminal or even factual. All because the Jewish leaders were upset with His popularity. Their trumped up charges were a cover for their hatred of Him. He thought, “Surely these people must have enough common sense to not let loose a criminal into the streets of Jerusalem.” But they ask for the criminal to be released. This is so astonishing. But we'll get to it here in a minute. I’m getting a little ahead of myself.

Before their request to release Barabbas, he receives a message from his wife. This brings us to the third testimony of the dream. He receives a message from his wife. She said in verse 19, “Have nothing to do with that righteous Man (referring to Jesus); for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of Him.” The Pilate gets this strange message that Jesus was a righteous man and that he should have nothing to do with condemning Him to death. Mrs. Pilate also testified of Jesus’ innocence.

Lastly, the hand-washing. With this warning from his wife, Pilate offers the choice to the Jews, “Who do you want me to release for you?” thinking that they will make the sensible choice. But they don’t. The people answered, “Barabbas.” Why did the people ask for Barabbas? Verse 20 explains why the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and put Jesus to death. The religious leaders had such an influence on the people that they gullibly followed their instruction to choose Barabbas to be released. Pilate then asked the people, “Then what shall I do with Jesus, who is called Christ?” He keeps reminding them that this is their Jewish Messiah, the Savior that they had been waiting would come. And so the second time he refers to Jesus as the one who is called Christ (27;17, 22), they all said, “Crucify Him.” And he said, “What evil has He done?” But they kept shouting, “Crucify Him.” At this juncture, Pilate doesn't know what to do. John has a bit more developed explanation for what kind of pickle Pilate was in. The Jews had pushed him into a corner so that he would have to choose his job over Jesus' life. And sadly, he chose to save his job rather than saving Jesus' life. But this is an insurmountable challenge for his conscience. And so in verse 24, this is what he does. He took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this Man's blood; see to that (i.e., crucifixion) yourselves.” But this didn’t make Pilate innocent. He was complicit in the execution of Jesus. He's the one who gave orders for His crucifixion. Pilate was guilty no matter how much he tried to signify his innocence by washing his hands. In the end, he was the one giving the orders to execute Jesus. There's an old story that says that Pilate had a compulsive hand washing problem from this point until the day of his death. He could not get rid of his guilty conscience for murdering the innocent man of God. Most people think that the story is a legend, but whether it's true or not, the fact remains. Pilate was guilty. He knowingly gave orders to murder an innocent man. The people actually then declare in verse 25 that they will be liable for Jesus's death. They say, “His blood shall be on us and on our children!” Verse 26 then concludes this section, “Then he (Pilate) released Barabbas for them; but after having Jesus scourged (the standard process of pre-torture before crucifixion called the flagrum), he handed Him over to be crucified.” Jesus was sent to crucifixion by Pontius Pilate.

What Matthew shows us through this section is the certainty of Jesus's innocence. The landmark showed that He was condemned by blood money. That blood money was well known in Jerusalem because everyone knew the Potter’s field was actually the field of blood bought with the blood money. Second, Pilate declared Jesus as innocent. During the trial, he tried to defend Jesus. He tried to save Jesus, but in the end the crowd won out. Thirdly, Pilate's wife testified of Jesus innocence from the dream that she had. And lastly hand washing. Pilate’s hand washing symbolically demonstrated that he believed Jesus to be innocent.

Now, here's a question for us: If Jesus was innocent, then why did He die? We can say maybe it's because of the envy of the Jewish leaders, or maybe it's because of the gullibility of the Jews who followed their leaders, or maybe it’s because Pilate didn't have a backbone to uphold justice. But in the end, Jesus Himself provides the explanation. He said in Matthew 20:28, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many.” A ransom is a payment for redemption. He gave His life as a payment to redeem sinners from their sins. Jesus also said in John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep (or His sheep).” He gave up His life for the sake of His people, who would believe in Him. Matthew 26:28, “This is the blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.” Jesus knew full well what was going to happen. He not only would die, but he would die to accomplish forgiveness of sins for His people. Finally, John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” Those whom Jesus deemed His friends, He laid down His life for their salvation. Why did Jesus die if He was innocent? He didn't die for His own sins or crimes? He died to pay for the sins of His people. The Bible tells us that this is indeed the significance of Jesus' death. 1 Peter 2:24 says, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” Furthermore, the Bible uses another word to describe the significance of Jesus' death: propitiation. Jesus died as our substitute to satisfy the wrath of God justly directed toward us, so that all of God's wrath would be spent on Jesus and we might go free and be justified in the sight of God, and be reconciled to Him. This is what enables us to pursue a life of righteousness and obedience to the Lord.

Well, all that said, what might we pray for in light of this? I think it's simple. We ought to thank Jesus for His willing sacrifice for our redemption. Jesus lived an innocent life. Even the entire court system understood that. He died unjustly because He was dying, not for His own sins—He had none—but for the sins of His people. Let's pray and we'll wrap up.

God, thank You for Jesus, who died for sinners so that everyone who repents and calls upon His name would have the assurance that their sins are paid for, and that they can be made right with You and enter into new life through the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus gave up His life so that we would not squander our lives in futility, but that we would live it for Your glory and honor. Thank You so much for Jesus, Your precious Son. Thank You for His sacrifice. Thank You for the atonement that comes through His sacrifice. We bless You this morning. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

All right. I went a little long this morning. There were lots of verses to cover. Lord bless you all and see you on Friday.