Our passage for today is going to come from the book of Matthew, chapter 27, verses 15 to 23, if you would please stand for the reading of God's Word. 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 was called 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 to 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 Christ? And 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. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. There are some really strange customs in our world today. I don't have time to go through a long list of them. But I will mention one I saw watching the food network with my wife on a Sunday afternoon. There is a hill called Cooper's Hill. There is a block of cheese. I think that it's 70 pounds in weight. And there are hundreds of people that will stand at the top of that hill. And they will try and race the block of cheese down the hill, 300 meters. You can imagine the chaos that results, an injury, and laughter. If you're a bystander, I would never take part, but I would take pictures of such an ordeal. The custom we have here in our passage today, though not quite as hilarious or hysterical, is just as unique and strange. And here's why. It's a custom that, I believe this passage says specifically, was that the Roman governor would release to the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. If we were to try and do this in the city of Dallas, Texas, media would flock from all over the nation, and there would be an outrage. My question for this crowd would be this, how do you decide which prisoner you're going to release back into the mainstream of society? You ever thought about that? How would you choose if you were in the crowd? Would you maybe want to try and find the one that's innocent but has been declared guilty? It would be a tough thing to do amongst so many people. Maybe you would look for your family member that was incarcerated, but nobody would obviously want to admit that was the case. So what I think the most logical decision would be is to find the prisoner who's of the littlest risk. Find the common jewelry thief. Find the guy who may be fudged on his taxes. Find someone who's guilty of fraud. Find the misdemeanor miscreants that are stuck in the prison cells and let's vote for one of them. But if you look at this passage, something different happens. Not only do the people not necessarily choose their prisoner, but the right and candidate that's placed next to Jesus Christ is a man named Barabbas. And if you look at the passage in verse 16, it says he's a notorious criminal. And Matthew is pretty silent as to what his crimes might have been. The other gospel writers are not so quiet. He's called a rebel. He's called a murderer. He's called a thief. And he's called an insurrectionist, a revolutionary. And here's what that means. This man hadn't just broken Roman laws. He's broken Jewish laws. He's the violist of sinners to the Jew. And he is a threat, a revolutionary, an insurrectionist to the Romans. Bottom line is this. You put Jesus next to Barabbas and you should have an easy choice. No one in the right mind. No one in the right mind is going to choose to put this man back into their society to live amongst them again. So why did Pilate do that? Why make such an obvious choice? Well, maybe he does this because in verses 11 to 14 he's interrogated Jesus and found no major issue with him. It doesn't seem much of a threat to Pilate. It could be that because his wife's had a rather strange dream about this man that he decides he's going to pair him up with the most vile of darkness type of person that he could find. But by placing such darkness against such light, the choice should be easy. It's a no-brainer. And what we find in this passage is an atrocious choice is made. And what we find in this passage is there is a terrible exchange. The Gospel of John says that men love the darkness rather than the light. And perhaps no other place in the life of Jesus do we see this more clearly than during this trial and at this moment? Because that is exactly what they choose. They trade the sinless Savior for the embodiment of full sinfulness. And Pilate contributes to it. The crowds demand it. And this man, Barabbas, he benefits from it. He benefits from it. And so the question that rang loudest in my ears is I read this passage was the question in verse 22, which if you're there, you can see. It's posed by Pilate to the crowds and it's the climactic moment at which they're going to determine what Jesus' sentence will be. It's the type of question that is said so long ago, but it's relevant and rings through the ages even to us today. And it's the question I want to ask you during this holy week. And it's this, what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? What will you do with Jesus who is called Christ? There is no more important question this side of heaven. There's no more important question for you this week. Because back then there were only two options and those same two options occur for us today and it's either you crown him or you crucify him. What will you do? Would you crown him or will you crucify him? What have you been doing in your heart with him lately? Is he crowned or is he crucified? Your response might just match the main characters that are in our little pericopy today and so we're going to examine those briefly. What we find is that through Pilate we see indifference, through the crowds we see indignation, through bravest we see injustice. Hopefully let's go through those and try and find yourself, partner yourself somewhere in there. What will you do with Jesus who is called Christ? First Pilate, Jesus is brought as a prisoner to Pilate by the religious leaders, by the chief priests, because he claimed to be king. And they knew that the Roman government would not do well with anyone claiming to be king but Caesar. And Pilate at this point has seen many people who are guilty of insurrection. There's one in prison that's standing next to Jesus. He's seen so called Messiah's come through before. So to hear of another one isn't a surprise or a shock for a man like Pilate who's the governor of this province. And yet with Jesus he doesn't care or condemn. He's not too zealous about his imprisonment but he's also not too passionate to release him. In other words he doesn't really care to hold on to Jesus but he also doesn't really care to let him go. Bottom line, he's indifferent. And anytime there's indifference there's indecision. And anytime there's indecision it slowly follows you'll have rejection. And in the case of Christ indecision with him and rejection of him always leads to death. We see this in the passage. Pilate not once but twice poses the question to the crowds. Who do you want me to release for you? Make a decision. You're the governor. Not once but twice. And as if that wasn't enough he then goes on to defer making the sentence for this man. Well now that you've chosen to have Barabbas and I have Jesus what should I then do with him? Make a decision. He defers to the crowds and they scream crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. And to conclude all this he dips his hands in a water basin and he washes his hands of Jesus's blood. As though he was guiltless, as though to say this isn't falling on me. My hands are clean. But we know differently. When presented with Christ he didn't care and them. His actions were permeated with indifference and indecision and those two almost always go hand in hand. It's dangerous for us church. It's dangerous for us those who might not even believe. And it's dangerous for this reason indifference looks noble compared to what the crowds do. But it's just as deadly. Instead of being a blatant cancer that's seen it's a chocolate covered cancer that tastes normal or even good. But in the end it leads to death. And so many can become so inoculated to this week and what we celebrate to the very cross that's behind me and what it represents. That indifference starts to permeate our lives. And it's no different to us whether we're holding on to him or whether we're letting go. Find it. Crown him. Crown him. Crown him. There's only two options. And if you think about indifference it's a temporary rejection of your options. Here's what I mean. For pilot to say I choose not to crucify him isn't to crown him. And for pilot to say I choose not to crown him is to crucify him. And so as subtle as it may be. And as much as pilot may seem the good guy and the crowd the bad guy in this story. Indifference led to indecision which led to rejection which led to death. Can we gaze at the brutality of the cross this week and the hope of the empty grave and remain indifferent towards it? Make your choice. And as you gaze at the one who's crucified crown him in your hearts. He died for you and for me. We have the crowds. They make a terrible choice. You wouldn't entrust your stock portfolios to these people because they would have the best and worst choice and somehow managed to choose the worst one. You also wouldn't choose them to pick an arranged marriage because amidst choices they're going to choose the worst one. They make a terrible choice. It's atrocious. It's nonsensical and it's illogical to release this man back into society. So what makes them capable of doing something like this? It's a good question isn't it? They knew what he claimed. The Romans may have been ignorant of that. To some extent. But not this crowd, not these religious leaders, not these chief priests who had heard, observed and seen so much. And even argued so much. You see, he claimed to be king. And no pilot could hear that and be indifferent towards it. It created an obscurity, an anger, an indignation. To the point where at the end of Matthew 27 and verse 24, it says that a riot started to break out. There's an insurrectionist here and there seems to be an insurrection happening right before their face. Why? He claimed to be king. And when Jesus claims to be king, sins first response is not just rejection, it's hatred. Do you want Jesus to be your king? Or let me ask it this way, is he? Of your choices, of your will, of your affections, of your heart, of your mind, is he king? Is he crowned? Or let me ask it a different way. Do you wish that you had no king at all? Although that's a fancy philosophy that you might try to adhere to. I want to tell you that that's actually impossible. There's no such thing as spiritual anarchy. Every person has a ruler. And if you don't crown him, you're going to crown someone or something else. And most often, the person that we crown to be king is me. It's you. Let me ask you an obvious question. Would you make a better king? Jesus claims and is omnipotent, all powerful, omniscient, all knowing, omnipotent, all good. If you were going to write out a list for kingship qualities, I'm thinking that all good, all powerful, and all knowing would make the top three. Would you claim that for yourself? You can't. You can't see into the next minute of your life, much less the next mile that's down the road, to even be able to scratch the surface of what he is. And so when we crown ourselves as king, we're being just as nonsensical and just as illogical as those crowds. Because indignation towards him leads to ignorance. And an ignorant, so profound, that we would see Barabbas and Jesus and say, give us Barabbas. Will you crown him, or will you crucify him? Every day there's a battle for kingship in your life. Every single day. Who will reign? There's only one who's qualified to choose him to be king. Lastly, we see Barabbas. He's quite possibly the most mysterious person in the story, because we don't hear a word from his mouth, and we don't really know what happens to him afterwards. Have you ever thought about that? Barabbas, sentenced on death row is a felon, standing next to a man who seems nothing like him, and is nothing like him, all of a sudden free. And the question of Pilate is posed to him as well. What will you do with Jesus, who is called Christ? What do you think? Speculation, did he leave and return back to his evil sinful ways? I think there's quite a few today who are presented with Christ and do the same thing. Or do you think maybe he left, and out of gratitude, and even curiosity, that this person could really be taking his place, that he wanted to know this person. He desired to find out about this person. We don't know. We don't know. But what we do know is Barabbas set condemned on death row in an hour's time, was not only declared not condemned, he was also declared free. In other words, he didn't just not receive the punishment that was due to him, he also received a freedom that was not his own substitute was made. It was a terrible exchange, and Barabbas benefited from this grave injustice. I just want you to picture in your mind these two men. It's crazy to think about it. You've got the spotless, sinless Lamb of God, and you've got one of the violist offenders of his day, arrested metal for pure gold, a grouping of weeds for an entire arboretum, utter poverty being traded for infinite wealth, the property of hell exchanged for the jewel of heaven, the crop should have been screaming unfair, unfair Jesus bore Barabbas' cross. Do you realize that? If they had asked for Jesus, Barabbas three hours later would have had his on his back. It should have been his, and it's no different for you, and it's no different for me. Jesus bore your cross, a substitute was made, and it was utter sinfulness for complete sinlessness, and he didn't just remove the punishment that was due to you, he also gave you complete freedom. It was his, it was a double exchange, and it was terrible, and it was beautiful and good all at the same time. The Bible puts it this way. 1 Peter 3.18 says, for Christ suffered once, for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, for our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God and him. 1 Peter 2.24 says this, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree so that you might die to sin and live for righteousness. For you were like strange sheep, but now have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. He bore your cross, he made the way for you to be free. If you'll crown him, you'll know it. If you'll crown him, you'll know it. So stop the insurrection, stop the rebellion, stop the thievery, stop the hatred, stop the indignation, stop the indifference. Crown him or crucify him. What will you do with Jesus who is called Christ? I want to close with words from a hymn that I love. It's hallelujah with a Savior and it's two verses, just as a form of a prayer and closing. Baring shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood, sealed my pardon with his blood, hallelujah with a Savior. Guilty, vile and helpless we, spotless Lamb of God was he. Full atonement, can it be hallelujah with a Savior? Embrace him this week and as you gaze at the cross, remember who to crown. He freely gave his life for you so now freely give your life for him. Amen.