Bethlehem Baptist Church
Sunday Morning 09/13/26

      • Titus 3:4-6ESV

      • Titus 3:7ESV

  • Run And Run (Christ Is All My Righteousness)

      • Isaiah 53:10–11ESV

  • “Man of Sorrows,” What a Name

      • Romans 8:31–38ESV

  • You've Already Won
  • Victory In Jesus (Christ Won The Victory)
  • Come Jesus Come
  • Introduction:
    You've probably heard the expression, “trial by fire.”
    We use that expression when someone is put through a difficult test to see what they're really made of. The idea is that fire reveals what is genuine and what is worthless. Gold is put into the fire, and the impurities are burned away. What comes out of the fire reveals what was really there all along.
    But Matthew 27 gives us something even more remarkable.
    Jesus is put on trial—not because He has done anything wrong, but because sinful men have determined that He must die.
    And Jesus goes into the trial already pure. He doesn't need the fire to make Him righteous. He enters the trial righteous, and He comes out righteous.
    But there's something even more amazing about His trial.
    He went through the trial for us.
    The innocent One stood where the guilty should have stood. The righteous One was condemned so that the condemned could be declared righteous.
    Barabbas is the clearest picture of it. A guilty man walks free while an innocent Man is led away to be crucified.
    And that's not merely Barabbas's story.
    That's the gospel.
    Jesus takes the place of sinners.
    And as we look at this trial this morning, we're going to see three different responses to Jesus: hardness, self-excuse, and ignorance. But ultimately, we have to ask the most important question of all:
    What will we do with Jesus?
    Matthew 27:11–26 ESV
    11 Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You have said so.” 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. 15 Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. 16 And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. 17 So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” 18 For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. 19 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.” 20 Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. 21 The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” 22 Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” 23 And he said, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!” 24 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.” 25 And all the people 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.
    Pray
    Most of us who have heard the story of Jesus, know about the trial before Pilate.
    We even have phrases from this account that have leaked into our vernacular like, “I wash my hands of this.”
    Ultimately what we see in this account is a failure to take responsibility by Pilate, and ignorance of the crowd of their ability to take responsibility for their actions, and a blatant hardness of heart by the religious leaders.

    1. The Hard-hearted Leaders

    The passage doesn’t say much about them other than the fact that they are so hard-hearted that they want to get rid of Jesus at any cost
    They are the silent accusers that Matthew hints at that are there as Pilate is directing Jesus to answer the accusations
    Illustration
    Have you ever tried to share the gospel with someone who is so hard-hearted that they won’t listen to anything that you say?
    They have already made up their minds about who Jesus is and won’t listen to any of your reasons for why they should believe on Jesus?
    This is the case with the religious leaders. They have even seen miracles and have failed to listen to the evidence.
    Illustration: The Locked Door
    Imagine someone standing outside a locked room.
    You explain how to open the door. You show them the key. You demonstrate that the key fits the lock.
    They say, “I don't believe the door opens.”
    You say, “Here—watch.”
    They refuse to put the key in.
    Eventually you realize the problem isn't that they don't understand how the door works.
    They don't want to go inside.
    That's the religious leaders.
    Application
    The warning for all of us is that we often don’t have an evidence problem with Jesus, but we have a problem of wanting to believe.
    This can be frustrating, but all of us are really as hard hearted as the religious. We all have a heart of stone.
    God has to come in and break up the ground of our heart and really give us a new heart that is able and willing to respond to Him before we can respond to the gospel.
    This is why we pray before we share the gospel.
    We pray about our delivery
    We pray for the response of the person
    We pray for God to give them a resiliency to remain faithful and we can know God will answer that prayer because the Bible says this:
    Ephesians 2:10 ESV
    10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
    Philippians 1:6 ESV
    6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
    Philippians 2:13 ESV
    13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
    1 Thessalonians 5:23–24 ESV
    23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
    2 Timothy 1:12 ESV
    12 which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.
    I could go on an on and recite to you verse after verse after verse that teach us that God begins the work of faith in you, brings it to fruition, and brings it to completion.
    You are responsible and you must respond to the gospel, but God is the one working under the hood of the car of your life to cause this to happen in you.
    What that means for you is that you can pray for God to help you to overcome sin and unbelief in your life. This is what it means when, like the father of the demon-possessed boy, we pray, “I believe, help my unbelief.”
    You can also pray for the most hard-hearted person to repent and respond to the gospel and God can do it.
    Think about it for a moment. If you were to say that God has nothing to do with a person coming to faith and it is only the free will of man that causes salvation, then you could not pray for anything. I mean that - anything.
    Not only could God not intervene in salvation because He might violate someone’s free will - tell that to Paul who was on his way to kill Christians, when God intervened, but...
    God also could not intervene in the affairs of this world at all ,because He would be a slave to man’s free will. If He were to intervene, then He might be guilty of violating the free will of someone.
    Remember that all things are intertwined. Things that might not seem like they have anything to do with salvation are all connected.
    I say all of this to remind us that no one is beyond hope and no situation is to bleak that God cannot step in and save.
    Several of these religious leaders would later turn to Christ and be saved.

    2. The Self-excusing Pilate

    Pilate asks a series of questions to try to get Jesus to defend Himself
    Jesus only briefly responds to Pilate so as not to be rude or callous, but He doesn’t attempt to give a defense or cast His pearls before swine
    Jesus essentially says to Pilate when he asks Jesus about whether or not He is the king of the Jews, “those are your words, not mine”
    What is Jesus saying? He is claiming to have a different type of kingdom than what Pilate expects.
    Pilate tries a series of attempts to excuse Jesus without having to overcommit himself to any side
    He questions Jesus and finds it is out of envy that the Jews have handed Jesus over
    He tries to have Jesus delivered to Herod to make it His problem
    Pilate flogs Jesus in hopes that will be enough
    Pilate is warned by his wife who has had a dream, either given by God or naturally occuring, but serving as a warning
    Pilate tries to release Jesus in the prisoner release that he had implemented and offered a known criminal in hopes of releasing Jesus instead of Barabbas
    Pilate realizes that he cannot escape the decision, but still tries to by symbolically washing his hands, perhaps as a mocking gesture referencing back to Deut 21:6
    Pilate can try as he may, but he is still responsible for justice as God’s instrument in the form of government
    Application
    This connects beautifully to evangelism:
    There is no such thing as neutrality when it comes to Jesus.
    Someone might say:
    “I'm not against Christianity.”
    “I just haven't decided.”
    “I'm keeping an open mind.”
    “I don't want to judge.”
    “That's just not my thing.”
    “I respect Jesus, but…”
    What they are doing is trying to remain neutral like Pilate. They don’t want to decide, but in not deciding, they are making a choice.
    Illustration:
    It’s like you are on a boat at sea and your ship has gone down, but when someone throws you a life preserver, you won’t take it and say, “I just don’t want to make a decision.”
    You are still responsible!

    3. The Ignorant Crowd

    The crowd has been worked up by the religious leaders. They are really ignorant of what is going on.
    Illustration:
    Sports game where the crowd yells at the referee.
    Georgia game vs. Western Kentucky (2026)
    Georgia is up already by over 20 points.
    The crowd booed a call that they could not possibly have seen without replay.
    The announcer said their are a lot of happy opticians out there who will have some customers.
    The crowds are as ignorant.
    The crowd errantly cries down a curse upon themselves and their children that will ultimately be fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem
    The seige and destruction was a terrible time for Israel and led to a literal fulfilment of this curse
    It could be said that symbolically this is fulfilled in the partial hardening of the hearts of the Jews
    They cannot bear the curse any more than we can bear the curse of our own sin
    Application
    Don't let the crowd make your spiritual decisions for you.
    Your parents' faith can't save you.
    Your church attendance can't save you.
    Your spouse's faith can't save you.
    Your pastor's faith can't save you.
    Your children's faith can't save you.
    And the unbelief of the culture can't excuse you either.
    At the judgment, you won't be able to say:
    “Everybody else believed it.”
    Or
    “Everybody else rejected it.”
    You'll stand before God yourself.
    Conclusion
    Jesus stands before two different trials and is presented as the spotless sacrificial Lamb that takes away the sins of the world.
    When the Jewish leaders tried Jesus, He was found to be innocent of all charges. They could only charge Him with blasphemy, but they could not prove their charges, since He is the Son of God.
    Jesus would eventually show them His true identity when He raised from the dead.
    Jesus is also sent to Herod, though, the phony Jewish king, though Matthew doesn’t record this. This occurs in between Pilate’s questioning as another attempt by Pilate to shirk his responsibility in having to deal with Jesus.
    Jesus is also presented before Pilate, the Gentile ruler and shown to be innocent.
    Just as at the beginning of Matthew at the birth of Jesus, the Gentiles were more aware of who Jesus was than the Jewish leaders, even now the same is true.
    However, what is the takeaway for us as we try to make sense of this account.
    Your heart is as hardened as the religious leaders and you need God to change this.
    You cannot bear the curse upon yourself that the crowd tried to take responsibility for.
    You cannot escape your responsibility to respond to the true identity of Jesus.
    Every time the gospel is presented, Jesus is put on trial again. Jesus is tried and tested and proven to be the Son of God.
    You are not the one that is going to determine whether this is true or not. Truth doesn’t need you to verify it for it to be truth.
    However, you need to see the truth and accept the truth that you cannot save yourself.
    The reason Jesus didn’t answer the charges against Him was because He was willing to submit Himself to the abuse and punishment of the wicked so that He could ultimately bear the punishment and wrath of God for our sins.
    Jesus has been tested and tried and proven worthy so that you could be given His righteousness and with Him, be tested and tried and found faithful as well.

      • Matthew 27:11–26ESV

      • Ephesians 2:10ESV

      • Philippians 1:6ESV

      • Philippians 2:13ESV

      • 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24ESV

      • 2 Timothy 1:12ESV

  • Just As I Am (Broken)
  • It Is Finished
Bethlehem Baptist Church
info@bbced.org
478-272-7827
https://www.bbced.org
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