Matthew 27

Chapter 27 begins this way.

Now, remember, Pilate is the governor who has placed there by the Roman emperor. At this time in history, Israel had been conquered by the Romans and what that means as it applies to the narrative of what we're looking at, is that the Jews didn't have the right to put someone to death. The Romans had taken away their right of capital punishment. And so if they're going to condemn this man, and if they're going to be able to kill this man, they got to do it through the Romans. And that means that they've got to appeal to Rome as it relates to His crimes. Okay. Keep in mind, if the religious leaders of Jerusalem had come to Pilate and said this man's guilty of blasphemy, they would say, he would say, I don't care. I couldn't even begin to care less. You have to bring to me, Pilate would say, a crime against Rome in order for the issue to stick. Now, I think the Jews probably were fairly happy that they were bringing Jesus to Pilate because he was a man who was known to be willing to bend the rules, and even to put people to death who didn't necessarily deserve to be killed. But once again, they had to make sure that it was a charge that would stick against Rome. And we're going to see how they do that in just a bit. But first we're going to deal with Judas, the betrayer. Look at verse 3 with me. It says,

Let's pause there for just a moment. Judas realizes after Jesus had been arrested, that he had betrayed an innocent man. And we see here that he was filled with remorse. Now, it's interesting that the Bible never really tells us what Judas intentions were in betraying Jesus. Every time I've watched a dramatization of the Gospel, they always want to try to in interject what they think was his intentions or what was his motive? We don't know what his motives were. He could have just been angry at Jesus for all we know, had a bad, we don't know. Had a bad day. I remember on a couple of series that I've watched they've made Judas even sound like it was politically motivated. That he wanted to bring Jesus in front of the authorities so that Jesus would have an opportunity to explain Himself as if that was going to make a difference. The Bible never says, we don't know. We don't know. What we do know is that he was gripped with remorse at what he had done, and he ultimately committed suicide. Which tells you the kind of sorrow that he was dealing with. Because the Bible tells us elsewhere that godly sorrow produces repentance, which leads to life. But worldly sorrow is the kind of thing that leads to death. (2 Corinthians 7:10) And that's what we see here, which is very sad. Very, very sad. I've had people ask me before, do you think if he would've truly repented that Judas could have been forgiven? And I don't see why not. I mean, we're all responsible for putting Jesus on the cross when you stop and think about it. It was our sin that nailed Him to the cross. And we've been forgiven so, yeah I think he probably could have been forgiven if he had turned to the Lord that way, but unfortunately he did not. Verse 11, let's keep reading.

Now, of course, that's the question that Pilate would've been most concerned about because that's the only thing that would really matter in terms of any sort of a crime this man could have done deserving of death, something like treason. And so he wants to know are you claiming to be a king, a royal king?

And notice the response here. At least how it's given in the ESV. It says, “Jesus said, “You have said so.”” Now, if you have a New American Standard Bible (NASB) or a New King James Bible that you're reading from this morning, your Bible says, “it is as you say.” That's the way that's rendered, which I like a little bit better. I think it's a little closer to what really is the intention or what Jesus meant to say there. But, it goes on to say in verse 12, “But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer. 13 Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?” 14 But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.” There, and I understand his amazement because there is a natural thing in our lives, as human beings that when we're being accused of something falsely, we, it's very upsetting, sort of a thing to happen. But we're usually very quick to defend ourselves. They say, well, that's not true, what that guy's saying. Or those accusations, those are absolutely false. Isn't it interesting? Jesus didn't want to even dignify those accusations with a reply. He didn't say anything and Pilate was amazed. He was like, seriously, you're not going to say anything? You're not going to respond in Your own defense? In one of the other Gospel accounts, we read that Pilate was so amazed by Jesus's silence that at one point he said to Him, aren't you going to answer? Don't you realize that I have the power to release You or to have You crucified? (John 19:10) And that was something Jesus just couldn't stand by and not respond to. And He looked straight at Pilate and He said, you would have no power over Me if it had not been given you from above. (John 19:11) And I've thought long and hard about that statement, even though it doesn't appear here in Matthew's account. I love it and I remember it every time I read about this appearance of Jesus before Pilate, because that statement is one that is a birthright of every believer. I believe it's something that you can say when something is threatening you with your very life. And whether it's an illness, or it's another person, or some kind of a circumstance that claims to have power over you, in fact, power even to destroy you. And, maybe you've been through a situation like that in your life. I have. Wasn't that terribly long ago, a number of years ago that I was diagnosed with cancer.

And I tell you that's scary. That's scary when the doctor says, yeah, it's malignant, and you're going to need surgery, and this is serious. And it's just like Pilate looking you in the face and saying, don't you realize I have the power to destroy your life? And even though that may never be verbalized by someone in your life, there's always going to be something that'll happen in your life that, that someone, or something just takes that authority to say, I've got you. I've got you and there's no getting away from me. And what a blessing it is to be able to say with Jesus, you would have no power over me at all if it had not been given to you by my Father in heaven. So if this is going to take my life, so be it. It's going to be because my Father allowed it to happen. And that puts it into a completely different perspective. It takes all of the Pilates and all of the other threats that can come against us in this life, and it puts them in their place. And their place is under the sovereignty of the living God in your life. And that's the thing that we need to remember. You see what Jesus said to Pilate is something we can all say for whatever is going on in our lives or that threatens to take us down. We go on here, verse 15 and following, and it says,

answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” 26 Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.” This is such a powerful picture of life in this area of the world at that time. You need to remember something about the Roman Governors. It was incumbent upon them to always keep the peace. This was a huge thing in Rome. If a governor allowed his region to get out of control for whatever reason, and to have riots and things like that, he would usually be recalled by the emperor. And he could not only lose his position, he could lose his life. The emperor could have him killed, executed just because he was unable to keep the peace. This was a huge matter and that's the reason why the Pilate was in Jerusalem at this time. He normally didn't stay in Jerusalem. He came during feast times when the Jews would gather in the city because he knew that would become an emotional tinderbox and he needed to keep the peace there. So you can see here that as he is raising up these two men and saying, okay, we have two men who've been arrested; Barabbas and Jesus, which one do you want me to release to you? And that people start crying out to crucify Jesus and he's asking them, why? Why? What has He done? What has he done that would deserve death? And it says they just shouted all the louder. Well, they knew exactly what they were doing. You'll notice there that it says in verse 24 that when he realized he wasn't getting anywhere with the crowd, but in fact that a riot was beginning. Boy, that was the trigger right there. For any procurator, if he begins to see a riot starting, he's going to do whatever he feels needs to be done to shut that down because his job and even possibly his life depends on it. And so he simply, in front of the crowd, takes a bowl of water, and he washes his hands in a symbolic way of releasing himself from any responsibility. And he says, fine, your blood be on your own heads. I've washed my hands of this. Of course, you can't just wash your hands with water and be taken care of as it relates to this. But he hands Jesus over to be crucified while releasing a murderer into their midst, just because he was manipulated by the crowd. Certainly not the first politician to be manipulated. It's not the last, but we do learn a lot about the man Pilate by just reading these verses. And you'll notice that it says at the end of verse 26, they released Barabbas to the people and then they scoured Jesus. Don't move too quickly over that statement, that means they whipped Him. And there was a form of Roman justice that required 39 lashes. They called it the 40 lashes minus 1. And some men didn't survive being whipped that way because of the loss of blood, and just the pressure on a person's heart. And so this would've weakened Him very, very much. And as I said, some people didn't even survive. And that's not the end of it. Verse 27 goes on to say, “Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. 28 And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, (which was a way of mocking royalty) 29 and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. (which is the mocking of a scepter) And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30 And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. 31 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.” You'll notice that Matthew doesn't tell us how long this mocking and beating went on, but it was an entire battalion of soldiers. I'm sure they all wanted a turn, so this probably went on for a protracted period of time. And you have to know that after being up all night long, the suffering that He endured in the Garden of Gethsemane. Do you remember? This is what we talked about last Wednesday, but if you missed it, this is where Jesus came to His disciples and said, I am sorrowful unto death. (Matthew 26:38) He literally believed that the sorrow that was upon Him there in the garden could kill Him. And I don't think He was just being dramatic. He literally thought He could die from sorrow. We know people have. And so put all those things together and then getting whipped, 39 lashes, and the blood loss that comes from that, what kind of shape He's in at this point. In fact, we learn what kind of shape He was in. In the very next verse where it tells us in verse 33 that. I'm sorry, verse 32, I beg your pardon. “As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. (that would’ve been Shimon, and) They compelled this man to carry his cross.” Well see, this is something that the Jew or the Romans did traditionally, when a man was condemned to die by crucifixion. He would be made to walk through the streets of Jerusalem carrying the cross beam to the place of execution. We refer to it as the, Via Dolorosa; the way of suffering. And this was done as a deterrent to all the people who would be looking on as this person was paraded through the streets of Jerusalem. It was a way of the Romans saying, this is what we do with criminals. But you see, Jesus was too weak even to carry that cross beam to the place of execution. And so He obviously had stumbled several times, I would assume, trying to carry it. And they eventually just enlisted this man who just happened to be standing there and they forced him. This Simon of Cyrene to carry Jesus's cross beam to the place of execution. Verse 33 says, “And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), (it’s also referred to as Calvary) 34 they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall,…” And this gall that was mixed in the wine was a deadening agent and it was given to men who were being crucified so that it might deaden the pain. And it also might deadened the mind. It literally had the ability to make the guy kind of loopy so that he couldn't fully even stay with everything that was happening. He would be literally like out of his mind. But you'll notice here it says at the end of verse 34 that, “…when… (Jesus) tasted it, he would not drink it.” He refused to have the pain deadened in any way. He wanted to experience the full cup of the Lord's wrath. And it goes on to say in verse 35, “And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots.” And that's really just like rolling dice to see who was going to get His clothes. What's interesting about this is that 1,000 years before Jesus was even born upon the earth, this was prophesied. Let me show you this on the screen. From Psalm chapter 22. It says,

One thousand years before the birth of Christ, the psalmist wrote down these words as a prophetic statement of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It goes on in verse 36 to say. “Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. 37 And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” 38 Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. 39 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” 41 So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, 42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44 And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.” Once again, from Psalm chapter 22. Let me put verses 7 and 8 up on the screen where it says,

All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: “He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.” Verse 45. “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.” In the Jewish reckoning of time, this would be from noon to 3:00 pm. Now, Jesus was actually on the cross for several hours longer than this, but what Matthew is telling us is that from the hours of noon to 3:00 pm, the sun simply stopped shining, darkness covered the land. And we know that this was not an eclipse because we know what time of year this was. This was during Passover and there are no lunar eclipses during the Passover season. There are no eclipses of any kind. This is just simply a supernatural work of God to shield His son as He hung on the cross and bore our sin.

“And about (verse 46) the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (and) that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”” This is a direct quote from the same Psalm that we've been looking at here this morning. In fact, it's the very first verse. Let me show you on the screen.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? You'll notice that this is put in question form, and that's the way Jesus laid it out from the cross. But this isn't as if Jesus didn't know the answer to the question when He said, “why have you forsaken me?” He knew full well why He was being forsaken on the cross. And Jesus was forsaken on the cross so that you would never have to be. He literally took upon Himself your forsaken condition, so that you and I can never say this. We can never say to the Lord, why have You forsaken me? He will never forsake you because Jesus was forsaken in your place. I remember when I was about 15 years old, we used to— this was back in the day. I grew up in the 60s and 70s, and this was in the 70s. I was obviously high school at the time, but they used to let Christian groups come into our schools. Some of you guys who have gray hair like me, you remember lyceums at school. And they would let groups come in and talk to the student body. And there was a Christian group that came in and they played some music for us, some Christian music, and then they invited us all to an evening meeting at a nearby town. This was in Minnesota, southern Minnesota, where Sue and I were both raised. And I was intrigued by the things they said because you see, I'd been raised in church all my life, but I never, ever was told that I needed to have my sins forgiven. I was never told in church that I needed to be born again, that I needed to be saved. I went to church as a kid throughout my entire years. I mean, every Sunday. My mom was the organist. My dad sang in the choir. My brother and I were the acolytes and no, it wasn't Roman Catholic. But we, my brother and I,

--- every Sunday we walked up with the little candle lighter thing, to my mother playing the organ music. And I went to Sunday school and I went to all the other things, vacation bible. I never heard the Gospel, never heard it once. So here I am 15 years old and these Christians come to our school, and they're talking about Jesus, and they said, hey, you're all invited to come to this thing we've got going on at this nearby town. We'd love to see you there. It's free of charge da-da-da. And I was intrigued. So I went and they did their music again. And then one of the guys in the band just started talking and he used this very passage from Matthew. And he began to talk about when Jesus cried out on the cross and said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And he explained in a way that I heard for the very first time, that Jesus, while on the cross bore my sin. And it was so horrific, that the Father had to turn away. And for the first time in eternity, the Father, God the Father, and God the Son, their fellowship was broken. And it was so traumatic to Jesus, He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And I understood for the very first time that Jesus bore my sin and how it affected Him. There's a statement that the apostle Paul makes in his second letter to the Corinthians. It goes like this. Let me show you on the screen. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)

For our sake he (and that's talking about God the Father there, he) made him (and that’s Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. This verse is one of those interesting verses in the Bible that I don't even pretend to understand. The Bible says that Jesus was made to be sin. Now that goes beyond just simply taking our punishment. He did. He did that, but He literally was made to be sin. I have no idea what that means, and I dare say you don't either. But it is something so real, and so horrific, that God the father, could no longer abide the sight of His own beloved Son, and He turned away for the first time in eternity. And Jesus reacted the way He did.

When I heard that at the age 15, I was absolute, it was like a bomb went off in my heart for the first time. I understood what Jesus did. And I went home after that meeting and I sat down on the floor in my bedroom. And I remember as clear as it was yesterday, just simply saying to the Lord, I believe, I accept. Thank You for dying for me on the cross, for becoming sin for me. And that began a change that goes on to this day. Verse 47, “And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” 48 And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. 49 But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” 50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.” Now, Matthew doesn't tell us here what Jesus said when He cried out. But we know from other Gospel accounts, such as John's account, that what Jesus said here was, “tetelestai.” (John 19:30) And that means, it is finished, and that means paid in full. It was literally something they would write on receipts when someone had purchased something in the marketplace. Paid in full. And this was a cry of victory that Jesus made on the cross. It is finished. And then notice what happens after that. It says, and Jesus “yielded up his spirit.” What does that mean? It means He dismissed His Spirit. You see, how do I put this? Earlier, Jesus had said, no one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to raise it up again. (John 10:18) Okay? So Jesus was saying to us, nobody's going to kill Me, right? Jesus gave up His Spirit. He dismissed His Spirit. And when the spirit leaves the physical body, that's when death takes place. But Jesus was in control to the very end. He chose the moment when He dismissed His Spirit. And you'll remember that they were surprised that He was actually dead already. Men could remain nailed to a cross for up to 3 days in agony and suffering. But Jesus died pretty quickly. The other two guys, they had to come and break their legs to hasten death. Because by breaking their legs, they could no longer push up and fill their lungs with air, and they would suffocate. And they did that because it was Passover and they didn't want these men hanging on the cross during Passover. But Jesus yielded up His Spirit. ---

--- Verse 51 says, “And behold, (and then we begin to talk about the Calvary Miracles) the curtain of the temple (and this is the curtain that's between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, it says it) was torn in two, from top to bottom. (which was of course a picture of the way to God being opened up) And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep (which is a euphemism for death) were raised,” And that means raised to life. So people who had died previously came back to life right after the resurrection of Jesus. It says, “53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.” And again, these are referred to as the Calvary Miracles. Several things that took place. And “54 When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” 55 There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, 56 among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.” And that would've been James and John. “57 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. 58 He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. 59 And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud 60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.” Did you notice, it says in verse 57 that Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man? Did you notice that? And so he owned a tomb that he wanted Jesus to be buried in. Here's what's interesting, 700 years before the birth of Christ, God, prophetically spoke through Isaiah. Up on the screen, said this,

And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Verse 62 “The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 63 and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ 64 Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.” 65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. (in other words, he granted their request and he said) Go, make it as secure as you can.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard. So they did two things. They set a guard of soldiers and a guard of Roman soldiers was considered to be 4 men. And they also set a seal on the tomb, which in this case would've been a rope that had been dipped in wax. And then they would drape it across the rock, the stone that was put at the mouth of the tomb. And it would then dry and adhere to the stone so if anyone tried to move the stone or whatever, it would break the seal. And they would know that the stone had been tampered with. So it was just a way of making sure that, nothing got messed with. And that's where the chapter ends. And we're going to deal with the last chapter next time. So there you go. Let's stand together and we'll close in prayer. If you need prayer this morning, we invite you to come up after we're finished here and we'll have some folks up here to pray with you. So let's pray. Father, we thank You so much for Your Word. We thank You Lord for the insights. We thank You Lord for the eyewitness testimony of what took place on that Passover so many years ago. We thank You Lord for helping us to understand what Jesus endured for our sake and how He suffered. And how we don't even fully understand the depth of his suffering, and yet we are the recipients of the blessing through His death. And we just thank You so much. I pray Lord God, for anybody here this morning who has not yet, just, very simply in the quiet of their own heart said, Jesus, I believe and I trust You to be my Savior. And I pray my Father God, that You would move upon the hearts of those who have been touched today, and that in their heart right now, they would simply say to You, yes, I accept Jesus as my Savior. Thank you, Father. Fill us with Your Spirit. Teach us Your ways. Guide us we pray in Jesus' precious name. And all God's people said, amen. Have a good rest of your Sunday. ---