“Give Us Barabbas”
Intro: As we study God’s Word we find particular people who are mentioned briefly and we soon pass over their record without fully gleaning the full significance of their rolls nor their application for us today. We should be very careful to remember that God has chosen to record the deeds and actions of these people and they appear for our reproof and for our benefit. God’s Word is carefully structured and nothing appears by chance!
Text: Mark 15:6-15
What a horrible picture we have that the gospel has painted of innocence being punished and the guilty being released. What a controversial happening that we see occurring here. This is what happens when sin is the main object of man’s life and all that we focus upon is the thing which pleases us.
Mat 12:35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings out good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings out evil things.
Pilate here seems to many to be innocent but really he is a typical worldliness who was usually willing to do what he thought was right if it did not cost him anything. I know in reading that Pilate knew that Jesus was not guilty, but he was persuaded by the crowd of people to respond as he did.
Mar 15:15 And deciding to do the easiest to the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them, and having scourged Him, delivered up Jesus to be crucified.
When the Jews begin to demand for the release of Barabbas what was the really asking for? They were demanding a murderer to be released instead of the innocent man named Jesus. Here we find the man Barabbas, a thief, and a murderer. When we consider this man the application is clear, he is a type of sinful man.
I. THE KILLER WALKS THE STREETS
A. What ever could make men think in the way of corruption, the way men do today. But as it was here in the Bible days the corruption of men’s thinking was perverse and unthinkable. Here was a murderer, a rebel rouser and evil corrupt man, but they wanted him released instead of Jesus, innocence & no guilt.
I Corinthians 15:33 “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.”
B. What they were saying, is let the killer walk the streets but we are going to kill the innocent man. How could they let this happen? We do the same today. The killer is walking the streets, that killer is not a man using a gun but a man using a knife, putting to death over 1 million babies a year by abortion.
I John 1:11 “Beloved, follow not that which is evil but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.”
C. We have taken prayer and Word of God off the streets, now drugs, alcohol and guns in the schools. The killer is walking our streets. Tobacco kills over ¼ of million people a year, Alcohol kills over 200,000 a year. Sexual diseases killing many. Killer walks streets.
II. SIN BRINGS A DEADLY REPROACH
A. When sin is replaced for innocence and no guilt, you will find that sin will destroy a people. As long as our nation put honor to God, God blessed our nation. But when we forsook God, sin has now become a reproach to our nation. In other words, we are suffering from own feat.
Proverbs 14:34 “Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is reproach to any people
B. It is easy to point a finger at the Jewish people that stood that day and cried for a murderer instead of the Savior. By nature we are wicked and sinful, unable to make judgments that are exempt of our fallen nature.
Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
C. Barabbas was facing the penalty of death because of his insurrection against the Roman government and the murders he had committed. The unbeliever faces eternal damnation and death because of his own sin.
III. BARABBAS SET FREE AND JESUS DIED IN HIS PLACE
A. The name "Barabbas" means "son of a father", that is to say The "a natural man". We are offspring of our father Adam by the flesh and therefore partakers of Adam’s sinful nature. Because of this there has to be price paid for the sin.
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
B. Jesus became the substitute for Barabbas and for all man-kind. He took our place upon the cross and died in our place so that our sins could be redeemed from corruption.
- - - - - - I Corinthians 15:3,4, 55-58 - - - - -
NAME BARABBAS MEANS
“Now Barabbas was a robber.” And in Mark 15:7 and Luke 23:18-19 we read that he took part in a rebellion and that he committed murder. When I looked up Barabbas’ name in the book entitled Who’s Who in the Bible, I read that Barabbas was a political terrorist and a murderer. He might have even been a Zealot, or a freedom fighter dedicated to getting rid of the despised Roman occupation forces in Judea. So, Barabbas was a rebel rouser. He was viewed the same way as many people saw Jesus. Therefore, when Pilate, holding to the custom of releasing one of the prisoners, presented both Jesus and Barabbas to the people he was basically saying, “Do you want Jesus the rebel rouser or Barabbas the rebel rouser?” You see, the people did not realize that Jesus was not on the same level as Barabbas.
Michael Cortright states, “According to the United Bible Societies’ text, Matthew 27:17 reads: ‘Whom do you want me to release to you? Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?’” Did you catch that about Jesus Barabbas? Cortright says that several manuscripts support the fact that Barabbas’ name was Jesus Barabbas, but upon translation the name Jesus was deliberately left out for reverential considerations. They did not want the name Jesus associated with anyone who was a sinner. During the time that Jesus was alive, “Jesus” was actually a common name, and it was derived from the same word form as the name “Joshua.” Today you will find many Latin people with the name Jesus. So, we see here that Pilate was really asking the people, “Do you want Jesus Christ the rebel rouser or Jesus Barabbas the rebel rouser?”
The people could not identify any difference between Jesus and Barabbas, but there was something different or they would not have been able to make a choice. I want to talk to you about what was different. We already know that Jesus was God’s one and only Son who came to take away the sins of the world, but what does that really mean? We find some understanding in the meaning of these two names – in the name Jesus Christ and in the name Jesus Barabbas. Let’s first look at the name “Jesus Christ.” In Easton’s Bible Dictionary we read that the name “Christ” is “the Greek translation of the Hebrew word rendered ‘Messiah,’ the official title of our Lord [and that] it denotes that he was anointed or consecrated to his great redemptive work as Prophet, Priest, and King of his people.” Jesus Christ was the Son of a heavenly Father. Now let’s take a look at the name “Jesus Barabbas.” You have probably heard the term “abba” used before in the Bible, and you know that it means “father.” Barabbas, literally means, “Son of a father.” Gerrit Vos says, “Everyone in the . . . world is in this Barabbas. The man born of a human father . . . I think God was thinking of Adam, the first father. He is Adam’s son.” Jesus Barabbas was therefore the son of sin. Jesus was the Son of God and Barabbas was the son of sin.
This is where we find the significance of this story. Let’s focus for a moment on Barabbas. Barabbas represents all of mankind. He is the son of Adam, just as we all are. Adam, the first man, committed the first sin in human history and we have all been trapped in sin ever since.
