Good morning. Today's passage continues the story of Good Friday, leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus.
It comes from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 27, verses 1 to 26.
Starting in verse 1, we read.
When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death.
And they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor.
Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.
They said, what is that to us? See to it yourself.
And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed and he went and hanged himself.
But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, it is not lawful to put them into the treasury since it is blood money.
So they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers.
Therefore, that field has been called the field of blood to this day.
Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, and they took the 30 pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel.
And they gave them for the potter's field as the Lord directed me.
Now Jesus stood before the governor and the governor asked him, are you the king of the Jews?
Jesus said, you have said so.
But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer.
Then Pilate said to him, do you not hear how many things they testify against you?
But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.
Now at the feast, the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted.
And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.
So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, whom do you want me to release for you, Barabbas or Jesus, who is called the Christ?
For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up.
Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.
Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus.
The governor again said to them, which of the two do you want me to release for you?
And they said, Barabbas.
Pilate said to them, then what shall I do with Jesus, who is called the Christ?
They all said, let him be crucified.
And he said, why?
What evil has he done?
But they shouted all the more, let him be crucified.
So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, I am innocent of this man's blood.
See to it yourselves.
And all the people answered, his blood be on us and on our children.
Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.
This is the word of God.
Let's see.
Okay, great.
Thank you, Karen and Pui, for reading.
Let's pray together as we come and look at this passage.
Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, we come to your word this morning.
As we build up towards Easter, we want to find out again.
We want to be freshly reminded of the wonder of the story of the cross.
God, as we think about Easter this coming week, we want to know and see you, Jesus, on Calvary again.
So, Lord, we pray as we look at this.
Won't you open the eyes of our hearts, God?
Won't you speak to us, Holy Spirit?
Won't you be in our midst and come and help us to see Jesus and to see what you've done for us?
We pray this in your great and gracious name.
Amen.
In 1908, 115 years ago, the London Times wrote to a number of prominent authors and moral philosophers of their day,
and they asked them to each contribute an article, to a series of articles, answering the question,
what's wrong with the world?
What's wrong with the world?
It's an amazing question to think and ponder.
What's wrong with our world?
I'm sure that if we took some time to talk about that today, we could come with a whole plethora of answers to that question.
Certainly, we could come up with answers such as corporate greed, morally bankrupt governments, myopic education systems.
Maybe these days, we think one of the main problems is the prevalence of fake news and misinformation that's spread on the internet,
and AI might help that or might not help that.
Celebrity culture, the breakdown of the family unit, morals in society, all sorts of things that are wrong with our world.
And in some ways, trying to answer that question, what's wrong with our world, is like peering into a deep abyss.
It's just this endless answers that you could come up with to that question.
Sometimes it feels like, where's the floor?
Where's the foundation?
Could you ever find the root cause?
Well, Jesus Christ and Christianity actually come up with a fundamental answer to that question.
A question that's kind of an answer that's below all the other answers that we might be tempted to give.
Jesus comes up with an answer that he says spans across cultures and generations, ethnicities, language barriers.
An answer to the question of what's wrong with the world, no matter whether you're in 21st century Hong Kong, 20th century London, or 2,000 years ago, 1st century Jerusalem.
Christianity tells us that what's wrong with the world is not simply the government or the education system or big business or social media.
It's actually the innate self-centeredness of the human heart.
It's the fact that as human beings we are bent, fixated on living for our own world and our own agenda.
It's this self-orientation of our hearts that causes so much of our behavior, so much of our decisions, and causes so much pain and heartache in the world in which we live.
And one of the obvious ways that this self-centeredness plays itself out is in the way that people jostle and climb over one another to get ahead of others in the world.
I'm sure we've all seen this in our workplaces, in our colleagues, neighbors, taking the credit for work that they haven't done, throwing other people under the bus, trying to climb on top of one another to promote their careers in advance and get ahead of others.
We all see this, I'm sure, in multiple ways.
But a far less obvious way that we see this kind of self-centeredness in the human heart is not just in the way that people claim praise for things gone well, but actually in the way that people dodge responsibility when things go wrong.
How many of us have seen that in the marketplace, that when things go well, when a project progresses, everybody's clamoring for praise and to get the recognition?
But when things go wrong, there are a myriad of excuses.
Blame shifting.
People trying to find reasons why they're not responsible for what's gone wrong.
Avoiding responsibility.
We live in a world in which it's endemic to make excuses for mistakes, blame others for our actions, or see ourselves as victims of a system when things don't go right.
Anybody?
Does that sound familiar to anybody?
Okay, one or two nodded heads.
In the passage that we're going to look at today, we see this exact thing play out.
The passage that Karen and Priya read to us, there's a ton of activity, hustle and bustle and all sorts of things going on.
And yet behind all the activity is negotiating, bargaining, ducking and diving, avoiding of responsibility.
A whole bunch of people trying to work out a way to exonerate themselves, shift the blame, and find a reason why they're not responsible for the things that have gone wrong.
We're in Matthew 27, and we're witnessing the final hours of Jesus' life before he's crucified on Calvary.
And I hope you join us this Friday and this Sunday as we consider the Easter weekend.
But the scene just before this, Neil shared it last week, Jesus is arrested at night in the Garden of Gethsemane.
He's held to this kind of sham trial, this mock trial throughout the night.
And he's found guilty by the religious leaders, the chief priests, the Pharisees, the scribes.
And they want to sentence him to death because Jesus is a sword in their side, a thorn in their flesh.
But the problem is, the Roman law said that the Jews couldn't put anyone to death.
Only Romans could put somebody to death.
And so the Jews have found him guilty, but now they need the Roman governor to sentence him to death.
And so they make their way over to Pilate.
And we pick it up in verse 1. Read with me verse 1.
It says,
Now, before we find out what happened with Jesus before Pilate, Matthew interrupts his report to give us another scene.
Judas Iscariot has been hanging around the scenes, around the fringes of what's happening here.
He's been watching the trial, and he sees what happens.
And Judas, his decision to betray Jesus, his guilt weighs heavy on his heart.
Verse 3.
Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind.
And he brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying,
I have sinned. I've betrayed innocent blood.
So Judas realizes his mistake, and he wants to put things right.
He says, oh, there was a bad mistake. Let me undo what I did.
Kind of like, do you know Gmail is one of their greatest inventions, right?
Do you know that unsend button?
How many of us have used that?
You send an email and think, oh, no, no, no.
Unsend, right? Undo, undo.
Judas wants to undo what he's done.
But the problem is, the cat is out the bag, right?
He wants to go back to the people that he's cut a deal with and reversed the deal,
and they want nothing to do with it.
And so they reject him.
Verse 4.
They say to him, what is that to us?
See to it yourself.
Too late, Judas.
Don't involve us in your problems.
Don't make your problems our problems.
See to it yourself.
Deal with it yourself.
Friends, have you ever experienced remorse or regret?
Maybe you said something to somebody, and you wish you could take those words back,
but it's out your mouth.
Or you made a decision, and you realize it's the wrong decision.
Maybe you acted selfishly.
You thought about yourself, or you went behind somebody's back,
and for everything you have, you wish you could go back.
Friends, how do you deal with your guilt?
Well, look at what Judas does here.
Verse 5.
Throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple.
Judas wouldn't have been allowed into the temple.
He wasn't a priest.
So he stands at the door, and he throws the money bag in,
and he departs, and he goes, and he hangs himself.
Such a sad story, right?
Judas makes a terrible mistake.
A mistake that, if we're honest, probably all of us could have made.
I mean, none of us really are beyond Judas here.
And the problem is, he sees no way to put it right.
He sees no mechanism to clear his guilt.
No way to redeem himself and to go back on his foolish decisions, his mistake.
No means for restoration.
No hope for redemption.
And so he puts himself at the mercy of those that he's cut this deal with,
but he finds that they are devoid of any mercy.
And so he, what is he to do?
They say to him, what is your problem to us?
Go, sort out your own problems.
Fix it yourself.
And the tragic irony is that the whole point of the priesthood
is that they are there to mediate on behalf of broken, sinful people for God.
They are to stand before God and the people
and to offer sacrifices for sinners
to help them atone for their guilt and their shame.
I wonder if Judas that night thought,
I've made a tragic mistake.
I've done something wrong.
But thank God Almighty,
at least the people that I've been dealing with are the priests.
They know something about guilt.
They will offer a sacrifice to me.
They will help me atone for my guilt.
And yet the priests are too busy thinking about their own agenda
to care about Judas and his guilt.
What is that to us?
Go deal with your own problems.
Don't make your problems our problems.
Friends, what about you?
How do you deal with your guilt and your shame?
Where do you go to to find solace,
to find comfort,
to find mercy?
Well, the religious leaders,
they have a problem on their hands
because they know it's morally problematic
to receive this money
that they instituted to sell somebody down the river
to kill innocent blood
to now receive that money back into the treasury
and to use it for worship, right?
And that just doesn't work.
And so they've got a problem on their hands.
And so they come up with a plan.
And the plan that they come up with
is to buy a field on the outskirts of Jerusalem
that they can use as a burial ground
for foreigners and Jews that don't live in Jerusalem.
And it sounds like a great idea
because foreigners and Jews from other lands
like Samaritans, maybe half Jews,
they weren't allowed to be buried
with the other faithful Jews in Jerusalem.
And so they kind of like are marginalized,
they're outskirts.
And so they come up with this plan
that seems like a very good social justice plan.
We will take care of those poor foreigners
that cannot take care of themselves.
And so they come up with this plan.
And you can imagine the PR campaign.
Special love offering, right?
Join us in this love offering
as we take care of those
who cannot take care of themselves.
Some poor foreigners have died in our midst.
They've got no one to look after them.
We will take care of them.
And a special donor,
a very generous donor,
has already donated the first 30 coins
to this offering.
Won't you join us as we buy this piece of land?
Except what's really going on here?
They're covering up their guilt, aren't they?
In one of the first records of money laundering,
these Jewish leaders are coming up with a plan
to whitewash this blood money that they have used.
And so they are laundering their complicity to murder
and washing their names white as snow.
Friends, maybe we haven't engaged
in any money laundering activities.
I hope not.
But how many of us are proficient
at laundering our reputations,
laundering our names,
in order to save face,
to save our reputations,
to save our names?
And as Matthew reminds us here,
that as he quotes Zechariah,
this is not beyond the Lord's hand.
The Lord knows about it.
He quotes Zechariah to say,
the Lord knew about this from antiquity.
Now you may wonder,
if God spoke about this through the prophets,
does that mean that, you know,
Judas is just a pawn in the hands of the sovereign God?
There's nothing he could do about it.
We can't hold Judas guilty?
Well, actually, no.
The Bible says that while God is sovereign over all things,
clearly it's Judas' own duplicity.
It's Judas' own wicked heart
that leads him to do this.
God foreknows the wicked decisions
that Judas is going to make.
And what about Jesus before Pilate?
Well, for a second time,
in a matter of a few hours,
Jesus stands on trial,
and he remains silent.
Look at verse 11 with me.
It says,
Jesus stood before the governor,
and the governor asks him,
are you the king of the Jews?
Jesus answers him,
you have said so,
which is a way of saying,
as you said so,
as is.
But when he is accused
by the chief priests and the elders,
he gave no answer.
Pilate said to him,
do you not hear how many things
they testify against you?
But he gave no answer,
not even to a single charge.
So what's Pilate to do here?
Pilate knows that the charges against Jesus
are trumped up charges.
Verse 18,
he knew that it was out of envy
that they had delivered him.
Pilate knows that these are fake charges.
He knows Jesus is innocent.
Look at what he says later on.
He says,
what evil has he done?
Why should I condemn him?
Pilate's got a problem here
because he knows that Jesus is an innocent man.
His wife even comes and warns him.
She's had a dream that night
in Matthew's gospel.
Dreams are always the way
that God speaks to people.
She's had a dream
and she warns him.
Pilate knows exactly what's going on here.
But there's a problem
because Pilate's own career is at stake.
In fact, we know that
Pilate had made many bad decisions
in the previous 10 years of his reign
and he was on very thin ice with Rome.
Whenever he made a mistake,
the Jews would complain to Rome
and he's already been chastised
by Caesar a couple of times.
And so Pilate's career
is on pretty thin ice at the moment
and he knows if he upsets the Jews
who want Jesus crucified,
they're going to complain to Caesar again
and now he definitely will be
a terminated cutoff.
And so Pilate's got a problem.
What should he do?
Should he do what's right
or should he advance his own career?
Pilate knows that either his career
or Jesus must be sacrificed,
but they can't both survive this incident.
You remember in John's gospel,
the crowds shout out,
if you let this man go,
you are no friend of Caesar.
And Pilate suddenly gets very worried, right?
Now we read in verse 15,
there's a custom that the governor
around the time of the Passover
would release one prisoner.
Roman law allowed him to do this.
And so Pilate offers the crowd this choice.
Jesus or Barabbas.
Now Barabbas was a terrorist,
an insurrectionist, a murderer.
He was part of a group of people
that were trying to overthrow
the Roman government,
which is pretty ironic, right?
Because if he releases Barabbas,
he certainly is no friend of Caesar,
but yet that's not going to please the crowds.
And so he's got this choice.
And so he says to the crowds,
who do you want me to release?
Barabbas, the murderer,
the terrorist,
or Jesus, the innocent one?
And of course the crowds,
they want Barabbas.
Not only do the Pharisees want Jesus dead,
the crowds like Barabbas
because he's one of them.
He's trying to overthrow the Romans.
And so Pilate gives in to their request.
And yet what's so intriguing about this event
is not just Pilate's decision
to annihilate Jesus
in order to please the crowds.
I mean, we know that the crucifixion
is one of the most excruciating means
of human torture
in the history of the world.
And Pilate gladly allows Jesus
to go through that
for the sake of his own career.
But what's so intriguing about this
is not just the decision,
but how Pilate justifies himself.
Look at verse 24 with me.
Verse 24.
When Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing,
but rather that a riot was beginning,
he takes a bowl of water,
washes his hands before the crowds,
and says,
I am innocent of this man's blood.
See to it yourselves.
Friends, where have we seen that line before?
Verse 4, right?
Remember?
Verse 4.
Judas brought back the 30 piece of silver,
the chief priests and elders,
saying,
I've sinned by betraying an innocent man.
And they say,
what is that to us?
See to it yourselves.
Here's Pilate.
Pilate is as guilty as anything.
And yet, what does he say?
I'm innocent of this man's blood.
See to it yourselves.
How very convenient, Pilate.
Blaming the crowds to ease your guilty conscience
and to excuse yourself of any wrongdoing,
and yet that doesn't absolve you
of your selfishness and the evil in your heart.
Friends, you see what's going on here in this passage?
Here in this passage,
all around Jesus,
we have a myriad of people who are at fault.
We have Judas who betrayed Jesus for some money,
handed him over,
denied him,
handed him over,
sold him to the religious leaders
in order to have him killed.
We have the religious leaders
who are meant to absolve guilt
and offer sacrifices.
They want nothing to do with it.
Their plan is in motion.
They want Jesus killed,
and they're going to do nothing about it.
And they whitewash their decision.
They launder not only the money,
but their own reputations.
We have Pilate who's only interested
in advancing his career.
Even though he knows Jesus is innocent,
he's willing to have him crucified and killed
to protect himself.
We have the crowds who say,
let his blood fall on our heads.
We have a whole myriad of people
who are at fault and guilty,
and yet they are all trying to justify themselves,
exonerate themselves,
shift the blame,
pass it on to somebody else,
excuse themselves.
Judas is probably the best of the lot
because he at least admits his guilt,
and yet how does he do it?
He's trying to undo the past
and reverse things
and put things back how they were.
And he goes to try and sort out the plan
and fix things,
but he can't.
It's too late.
We have the religious leaders.
Their consciences are hard.
They're concerned about what people might think of them
and their own reputations.
They want nothing to do with Judas and his guilt.
We have Pontius Pilate,
the weakest of the lot.
He knows Jesus is innocent,
and yet he declares,
my hands are tied.
There's nothing I can do.
I'm at the mercy of the crowds.
I'm so sorry, Jesus.
The crowds made me do it.
You know, when I was in South Africa,
we, sorry, just brief tangent.
When I was growing up,
there was a famous cricketer,
Hansi Kronier,
the captain of the South African team,
and he took a whole lot of bribery money,
millions of dollars,
to throw cricket matches.
And when eventually they found him,
his famous line,
the devil made me do it.
The devil made me do it.
That's what Pilate's saying, right?
The crowds made me do it.
I'm so sorry.
I wish I could set you free.
But my hands are tied, Jesus.
The crowds made me do it.
Friends, on the 14th of March, 2008,
Martine Vic Magnussen,
a Swedish student,
was studying in London
at a university there,
and she was brutally murdered.
She was found dead,
half-naked,
under a pile of rubble
in the basement
of an apartment block
in central London.
The night before,
she'd been out partying
with a bunch of friends
from university,
and she was last seen
leaving the club
with a university friend of hers
called Farouk Abdullah.
And they went back
to Farouk's apartment.
Farouk was a Yemeni student,
the son of a wealthy billionaire,
who his dad owned
the apartment block.
And that morning,
or a few days later,
sorry,
she was found dead
in the apartment block
of this building.
And as they searched
for Farouk,
he was found
to have fled London
on the first flight
out of London
that he could
to Cairo
on the morning
that she was killed.
So she is killed,
and he suddenly disappears
out of England
to Cairo,
and then catches
the next plane
to Yemen.
And for 15 years,
he's been living in Yemen,
avoiding extradition,
never coming back
to London
to face the charges.
Well, a few years ago,
a BBC journalist
tracked him down
in Yemen
and started
a correspondence
with him.
And amazingly,
he somewhat admitted
his involvement
in her death.
And yet,
what struck me
as I read the article
was the way
that he described
what happened.
Listen to some
of these sentences.
He says to this journalist,
I did something
when I was younger
that was a terrible mistake.
The journalist
asks him to elaborate
on a message
he had sent
speaking about his regret,
and he says,
I deeply regret
the unfortunate accident
that happened
in my apartment.
And the journalist
concludes the article
saying this,
During the thousands
of text messages
and hundreds
of voice notes
that he sent to me
over five months,
not once did he use
Martine's name
or refer to her death,
preferring the terms
incident or accident.
Friends,
in answer
to the London Times
question,
what's wrong
with the world?
We could answer
that a myriad of ways,
but one of the answers
surely is the endemic
propensity human beings
have to avoid
responsibility
and to shift the blame
and to minimize
our faults.
When a young lady
that is raped
and murdered
and abused,
when that incident
is referred to
as a unfortunate accident
and mistake
a terrible incident,
there's something wrong
with human nature.
And we have a problem
and a propensity
to downplay our mistakes
and to shift the blame
onto somebody else.
And this passage
is full of people
that are hustling
to justify themselves,
to excuse themselves,
to save themselves,
to redeem themselves.
And in the midst
of all the hustle
and the bustle
and the activity,
where is Jesus?
He stands alone,
almost silent,
oblivious,
or almost unnoticed
in the scene
and the hustle
and the bustle.
Jesus Christ,
the only innocent man
in this whole story,
the only one
who legitimately
could save himself,
who legitimately
could get himself
off the hook,
stands silent.
Verse 11,
the governor asked him,
are you the king
of the Jews?
He says,
it's as you said.
But when accused
by the chief priests
and the elders,
he gave no answer.
And Pilate said to him,
do you not hear
all the things
they say against you?
But he gave them
no answer,
not even to a single charge.
Friends,
you know why
Jesus stands silent?
Why is it that
Jesus doesn't say anything?
I mean,
remember Matthew 26,
he's arrested
in Gethsemane,
Peter brings out
a sword to save him
and Jesus says,
put away your sword.
Do you not know
that I could ask
my father in heaven
to send 10,000 legions
of angels
to rescue me?
Jesus could have
saved himself.
Jesus could have
given an answer.
Why does he stay silent?
You remember Isaiah 53,
speaking of this incident,
he was oppressed,
he was afflicted,
yet he opened
not his mouth
like a lamb
that is led
to the slaughter,
like sheep
before its shearers
silent,
so he opened
not his mouth.
Friends,
Jesus stays silent
because he's moving
the drama along,
because he knows
that the plan
that he and his father
and the Holy Spirit
had put in place
before the creation
of the world
depended upon him
going to the cross.
That Jesus Christ,
the son of God,
the only innocent one,
would go to the cross
and die for the sins
of the world
so that the guilty,
like Judas,
like Pilate,
like the religious leaders,
like you and I,
can be set free.
And so Jesus stays silent
so that he will go
to the cross.
Friends,
you see what's happening here?
There's this marvelous exchange
that is taking place.
Jesus,
the innocent,
is condemned
and dies
so that we,
the guilty,
get pardoned
and receive resurrection life.
John Stott wrote about this
in his book,
The Cross of Christ.
I want to read this to you.
He says,
the essence of sin
is man substituting himself
for God,
while the essence of salvation
is God substituting himself
for man.
Man asserts himself
against God
and puts himself
where only God deserves to be,
while God sacrifices himself
and puts himself
where only man deserves to be.
Man claims prerogatives
that belong to God alone.
God claims penalties
that belong to man alone.
Christ was condemned
for our sins
in which he had no share
that we might be justified
by his righteousness
in which we have no share.
Friends,
the great exchange,
Jesus died in our place.
And nowhere do we see this
more clearly
than in the episode
with Barabbas.
Do you know what the name
Barabbas means?
Barabbas,
it means son of the father.
Bar Abba,
son of the father.
Well, in the story,
we have two sons of the father,
Barabbas
and Jesus,
the son of God.
And historians tell us,
although it's difficult to prove,
the church father,
Origen of Alexandria,
he writes about this
and there's some ancient manuscripts
that attest to it,
but it's difficult to prove
that Barabbas' first name
was actually Jesus.
Nobody would have had
the name Barabbas.
It was a nickname,
like James and John
are called sons of thunder,
right?
Barabbas,
the son of the father
was his nickname,
but he had a first name.
An ancient manuscript
suggests his name was Jesus.
Jesus was a very common name
in first century,
Yeshua.
There were lots of people
called Jesus
and yet the scribes
didn't want to write
his name was Jesus Barabbas
because that,
you know,
that wouldn't have looked good
out of reverence
for Jesus Christ.
But either way,
whether his name
was Jesus or not,
what we meant to see here,
Jesus takes Barabbas' place.
Barabbas,
the murderer,
the terrorist,
the insurrectionist,
walks out free,
guilty though he is
because Jesus,
the innocent,
is condemned in his place.
Friends,
scholars tell us
that it would have taken
a while to prepare
the cross upon which
criminals are crucified
and yet Jesus is condemned
and dies a few hours later.
Whose cross
does Jesus go to?
There were three crosses
that were already
prepared that day.
Jesus dies
on Barabbas' cross,
the cross that was
prepared for him
and Barabbas goes free.
Verse 26,
then he released
for them Barabbas
and having scourged Jesus,
delivered him
to be crucified.
Friends,
we sang it earlier,
because the sinless
Savior died,
my sinful soul
is counted free.
For God the just
is satisfied
to look on him
and pardon me.
Friends,
this is the gospel.
This is Christianity.
This is what Easter
and the Bible
are all about.
That Jesus,
the innocent,
is condemned
and dies
so that we,
the guilty,
can be pardoned
and receive life.
But here's the other thing
in this passage.
It's not only
is this exceedingly
good news,
but you see how this
changes the way
that we live our lives.
In particular,
the way that we handle
our faults
and our mistakes,
our failures
and our sins.
Because no longer
do we need to
duck and dive,
find excuses
and exonerate ourselves,
avoiding responsibility,
trying to redeem
or justify ourselves,
declaring ourselves innocent,
because there is one
in heaven
who died
and rose again.
The one who's,
the only opinion
who really counts,
who now looks at us
and says,
if you are in Christ
because I died
in your place,
you are free.
Friends,
if you are in Christ,
he declares you innocent
though you are not.
Jesus died
to take our place
and now we no longer
need to launder our names
or hold up our reputations
or defend ourselves
or justify ourselves
or excuse ourselves,
there is one
who has done it
and we can rest secure
in him.
I have this friend
called Alan Frau.
He was recently
at a friend's church
in Singapore
and I heard him
tell this story.
Alan is a friend
from South Africa
but he now lives
in America
and Alan tells the story.
He said,
when he moved to America,
he decided to learn
an American sport,
right?
Us South Africans
know nothing
about American sport
and so he picks up
softball
which is not really
a sport
but anyway
and so he
picks up softball
and he joins this team
and he says,
every time somebody
makes a mistake,
the person making mistakes
is,
my bad
and the team
shouts back,
you're good
and after a while
he said,
this really confused him
because this guy
makes a mistake
and he goes,
my bad
and the team says,
you're good
and he says,
but you're not good,
right?
You're bad.
Why are they saying
you're good?
And so he goes to the captain
and he says,
what on earth is going on here?
And the captain says to him,
when somebody makes a mistake
and they say,
my bad,
it's a way of saying,
I'm not blaming anybody else.
I'm not making excuses.
It's not the weather
or the ball
or the referee
or the empire.
I'm taking responsibility.
I made a mistake
and when somebody
takes responsibility
and says,
hey guys,
I'm sorry,
it's my bad,
the team says,
don't worry,
it's all good.
We're not going to hold
this against you.
You're clear.
We're not going to hold
it against you
and Alan says,
that is the gospel.
That when I say,
Jesus,
my bad,
it's not my parents' fault
or my wife's fault
or the environment's fault
or the government's fault
or Nielsen's fault.
No,
God,
my bad.
Jesus says,
you're good
because I went to the cross for you
and I took your shame
upon myself.
Friends,
you see in all the flurry
of activity here
and all the hustling
and abusing
of people trying
to justify themselves
and exonerate themselves,
Jesus Christ
is almost forgotten.
He's hidden out of view
and that's exactly
the way that our lives work.
When we're so busy
trying to justify
and defend ourselves
and shift the blame
and launder our own names,
we forget about Jesus completely.
And when Jesus Christ
in the gospel
is no longer
at the forefront
of our minds
and no longer clear to us,
when we've forgotten
who Jesus is,
do you know what
we end up doing?
We end up trying
to justify ourselves,
excuse ourselves,
shift the blame
onto everyone else.
But don't you see
how Jesus doesn't just
model a different way,
he empowers us
to live a different way.
He empowers us
to own our sin
because he's dealt with it.
Friends,
Jesus' sacrificial death
on the cross
means we no longer
need to make excuses.
We can say,
my bad.
And he says,
you're good.
In 1908,
the London Times
asked several notable authors
and leading moral philosophers,
what's wrong with our world?
G.K. Chesterton,
the famous British writer
and moral philosopher,
writes back to them
and he says,
dear sirs,
regarding your article,
what's wrong with the world?
I am.
Yours sincerely,
Gilbert Keith Chesterton.
Friends,
what's wrong with the world?
What's wrong with my world?
I am.
How refreshingly honest,
how wonderfully candid,
how utterly gospel-centered.
Here is a man
who not only knows
what's wrong with the world,
but knows how to admit it.
And the reason,
because he knows
where his redemption lies.
1 John 1 verse 8 says this,
if we say we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves
and the truth is not in us.
But if we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.
Friends,
Jesus died on the cross
not only so that
we can be freed
of our guilt and our shame,
Jesus died so that
we can be honest
about our sin
and our need for redemption
and our need for grace.
And this passage
is so much more
than just about people
doing stupid things.
It's about how we handle
our stupid things.
What do we do
when we expose the sinners?
What do we do
when conflict occurs?
What do we do
when we make mistakes
or we are full of regret?
Where do we go
like Judas
to undo our wrong?
If only Judas
had come to Jesus.
If only Judas
had come to Jesus.
Friends,
maybe you
carry some deep,
dark secret
that nobody knows about
and you've sworn
in your life
that you will never
let anybody know about it
until the day you die.
Friends,
are you like the leaders
in verse 6
still trying to whitewash
your reputation,
your track record,
trying to keep up pretenses?
Friends,
maybe you're in the middle
of some conflict
and you feel the need
to always point out
the other person's fault
because they're never
going to point it out
and always minimize your sin
because everyone else
points out your sin.
But maybe
can you just own your sin?
Own your,
take responsibility
for your role?
Friends,
are you tired
of needing to keep up pretenses?
Are you tired
of justifying yourselves,
finding reasons
why it's always
everybody else's fault?
Friends,
are you tired
of playing the victim?
The cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ
hoisted up
on Mount Calvary
declares there's
a better way
and there's hope
for those of us
that feel hopeless
and there is a way
to redemption
and freedom.
For God made him
who knew no sin
to become sin for us
that in him
we might become
the righteousness of God.
Dear sir,
dear ma'am,
you want to know
what's wrong
with the world?
I am.
But thank God almighty
Jesus died on the cross
to take my guilt,
to take my shame
and to change my life
and to give me
a different way to live.
Jesus the innocent
died in our place
so that we the guilty
can come to him,
be honest with our sin
and find true grace.
Let's pray together.
Lord Jesus,
we are so grateful
for the cross
we're so grateful
for Mount Calvary
and what you did.
Jesus,
we're so grateful
that 2,000 years ago
in the face of
trumped up charges
and false accusations,
Christ,
you remain silent.
You could have,
God,
defended yourself
and you remained silent.
You went to the cross.
You took our sin
and shame
that we,
God,
can be forgiven
but not only that,
that we,
God,
can be honest,
real about our faults,
that we don't need
to pretend
that,
God,
we can come
and admit it
and find grace.
Jesus,
in a world
that is endemic
with people
trying to justify
themselves,
shift the blame,
find a hundred reasons
why they're not responsible,
play the victim.
God,
this morning,
your word to us
gives us a better way.
Your gospel
gives us a better way
and that is to come
before your throne
of grace
to admit our guilt
and to find the mercy
that we need.
And so,
Jesus,
I pray,
won't you by your spirit
come and help us
to do that,
Lord?
Come and help us
to do that,
God.
Would you show us,
God,
how we can do that?
God,
give us the courage
and the boldness,
I pray.
God,
we pray this in your name.
Amen.