Matthew Chapter 27 Verses 15 – 18

• It’s interesting and I want you to know that most often (not always) the leading cause of envy is malice. Ill will, animosity, bitterness, enmity…many times folks are cruel towards you and it has nothing to do with you.  There’s something about you that they either don’t have, aren’t like or can’t overthrow!  Or there’s simply something else out there or someone else out there that has their goose (Whatever that means) and they’re taking it out on you.  Understanding that will help you calm down a bit and not retaliate so much…I like to remember, if they dislike you but still engage you then they’re fans!  HA!
• Pilate has never seen a man like this. Rejected and delivered by His own people to be executed in the most brutal manner known to them…to be nailed to a Roman cross and mocked until dead.  He showed up in an obviously abused state…exhausted, beaten, dirty…He has examined Jesus himself and that examination left him, the seasoned Roman general, stunned – perplexed – in admiration of Jesus to the point that he is actively working to release Him!
• A Jew! A Jewish prisoner for that matter.  One that is causing discord in his  Logic and character witness of Pilate says that Pilate should have, would have done away with Jesus as quickly as possible…but here we see Pilate transformed into Polite (HA), trying to release Jesus, why?  Because Jesus is unlike any other man he has ever encountered in all of his life!  But here’s what we’re about to see…although Pilate is the one calling the shots, he is utterly controlled by others…
• Is that you? Pilate knows what is right.  What he should  What he wants to do…but who is really living his life?  Him or them?  Who is really living your life?  You?  Or are you on puppet strings?  Jesus said that He came to set the captive free.  He said that He came to bring life and life abundant.  He came to release you from fear, from the power of sin over your life…so that you might be alive…Pilate is a slave with a crown.  Jesus is a King who needs no crown because He is life.  Ultimately, it is Pilate being judged by Pilate in this scene…

Matthew Chapter 27 Verses 19 – 21

• Should have listened to your wife, Pilate. You know, some of the best counsel I’ve ever  In a hard situation or a hard decision or a hard circumstance with difficulties in dealing with other people’s lives I once called Sam (Pastor Sam Park) and asked for his direction.  What should I do?  I laid out the facts and said, Sam, what should I do here?  His answer to me was, “What does April think?”  At first I was like, “Bruh!  I’m trying to figure out what you think!”  And if I recall correctly, that’s what I said!  HA!
• But he said to me, and man it rings in my heart still so solid today, “No one in your life loves you like her. No one in your life knows you like her.  No one in your life is going to be nearly as affected and invested in whatever direction you go.  No one in your life prays for you like she does.  No one in your life is worthy of a voice into your decisions comparable to her.  What has April said on the matter?”  And so I told him and his counsel to me was, “Heed the wisdom of your wife.”  Nothing more, none of his own thoughts…nothing. 
• I hung up, and did as he said. Victory, safety and clarity is found in obedience and submission.  I’ve learned that over the years…albeit the hard way…but ever since then, that “rule” has  been my default and I have not betrayed Sam’s direction on several decisions since then – and I won’t…and God has so very much blessed.  Not just the outcomes but also my heart for April…and hopefully she notices…I mean I don’t sound a bell every time I listen and obey her but boy I do it all the time…believe me, I know!  HA!  And so hopefully her heart has increased for me as well…Pilate almost seemingly disregards this advice of his wife which isn’t perfect…I mean he wanted to have something to do with Jesus…but she does identify Jesus as just and history tells  us that she later converts to Christianity…
• But the chief priests and elders control Pilate. Not Pilate.  The multitudes control Pilate, not Pilate.  It’s like he’s not even alive…

Matthew Chapter 27 Verse 22

• Pilate here sits on the judgment seat and yet he fails to give justice! He knew Jesus was no criminal.  He knew none of the charges against Him were true.  He marveled at the submission, dignity and peace of Jesus and he had already declared Him innocent according to Luke 23.  But in all of his power and position and prestige and pomp…he was nothing but a puppet being controlled by the peasants of his praetoriate!  (Now you know that is some of the best alliteration you’ve EVER heard!)

Matthew Chapter 27 Verse 23

• The response from the crowd is such an issue…the issue still today. Barabbas means “Son of the father,” and some manuscripts include his first name, “Jesus!”  Whom do you chose to release into your life?  So many today still cry out all the more!  Jesus the son of the father, the murderer, or Jesus the Son of the Father, the Savior…?

Matthew Chapter 27 Verse 24

• No you’re not Pilate. To intend to do right is meaningless.  To want to do right is meaningless!  The fact that he concluded in his mind that Jesus was innocent is meaningless.  Searching for a clever solution and trying to do the right thing is meaningless.  Washing his hands to make himself feel better…is meaningless.  The responsibility was upon him to do right and he did not.  Nothing else matters at all.

Matthew Chapter 27 Verse 25

• Man, they just had no idea what they were saying. That should have been their wish relevant to the cleansing power of His blood…

Matthew Chapter 27 Verse 26

• Barabbas knows firsthand what it’s like for Jesus to die in his place…Sitting there in his cell that morning as the sun was coming up…knowing that his execution awaits. Knowing that he is guilty…and then Jesus take his place…that cross was probably for Barabbas…Because of Jesus, death is released. 
• You know what though, Barabbas…as messed up his life was, as criminal as his heart was, Jesus still loves him like His own. He’s not put out to have to die for Barabbas, in his place, just like you would be ready to die for your children, God eternally more…even for you…
• Oliver Cromwell. Born in 1599.  Military and political leader.  A historical story is told that one of his men deserted…he was caught and brought to the commanding officers who found him guilty of desertion…Cromwell pronounced sentence.  “When the curfew bell sounded he shall be executed.”  That night, they sounded the bell, they pulled on the rope but it was not heard…Cromwell was aware of something being wrong…he heard no bell…so he sent an officer to investigate and the officer came back with an incredible story.  This deserter’s fiancé heard the news and had made her way quickly to the camp, climbed up to where the bell was suspended and tied herself to the clapper…blackened and bruised…they brought her to Cromwell who was deeply touched, moved by her love…he said, from this day forward, the curfew bell will not sound…