Easter Week // Matthew 27:11-26

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I figured I would tell you guys tonight about one
of the dumbest things I ever did.
So when I was in high school Iactually this was, yes, this was
high school, I was 15.
I got my learner's permit asearly as I possibly could
because we didn't have a lot ofmoney growing up, so both of my
parents had to work full timeand it was really hard getting
me places like I was having toride the bus, do all this sort

(00:21):
of stuff and so I got my permitearly and I started driving
early and I enjoyed driving.
I was comfortable with it, likemy parents let me drive on a
few long drives, all that sortof stuff.
And it kind of got to the endof one summer I was really
really close to getting myactual license and I was having
to show up to all the summerpractices they make you do Like

(00:41):
it wasn't anywhere near as badas y'all have to deal with now,
but back then we still hadsummer practices and so my mom
had no other way to get me thereand she told me okay, I would
normally never do this, but wehave no other option.
I know you don't have yourlicense yet, but you can go
ahead.
It's a short drive to the highschool, just like three minutes,
like literally be safe drive tothe high school.

(01:01):
You're good, right, notendorsing that decision, but
that's what we did.
And so I get in the truck andI'm driving and there's this
road that goes past the front ofthe high school.
And so I'm driving on this roadand I'm, you know, just kind of
scanning the road or whatnot,and I see I turn my head to the
right and one of my friends issitting in a car about to exit
Whataburger and I'm movingpretty good speed on this road.

(01:24):
So I turn and I wave, and thenI look forward and to my dismay
there's a white Mercedes Benzand, unlike me, they were not
moving, they were stopped rightin front of me, about 35 feet
ahead of me, and my first truckwas a 2006 Ram 1500 that had a
large engine in it and was madeof actual metal, and so that

(01:44):
thing did not stop quick.
So ultimately, I slam on thebrakes and, of course, hit this
person, and in that moment I wasconvinced that the state of
Texas was going to execute meLike I thought I was done, like
I was going to prison forever.
I broke a law, like it's gameover, my life is over.
I was freaking out Like I don'teven know how I responded or

(02:04):
the person who I accidentallyhit, how they responded.
It was all a blur.
So we talk, we exchangeinformation and everything, and
I go home fully expecting theSWAT team to kick down my door
and put me in cuffs and drag meoff because I broke a law.
I was driving without a licenseand thankfully we found out that
the person whose car I hitactually lived a street over and

(02:25):
we were talking and everything.
And they're like hey, you madea mistake, you shouldn't have
done this, but we're not goingto get anybody involved.
You just pay us for the repairsand you'll be good.
Problem is I hit a Mercedes, sothose repairs were really
expensive.
So 15-year-old me is sittinghere trying to gauge like okay,
how in the world am I going topay for this man?

(02:48):
There was no defaulting Likethere's no blaming or pointing
the finger like oh yeah, myfriend shouldn't have waved at
me.
I'm like hi.
And then smacked a car Like itwas my fault and in that moment
I had no hope.
I was guilty, I deserved theconsequences and I had no way to
deal with those consequences.
I thought they were going tocrush me, but ultimately those
other people forgave me and myparents were extremely kind and
generous.
They paid my bill, they paid mydebt and so, even though I

(03:11):
deserve the consequences, it wasby pure grace that someone
choose to forgave me andsomebody else took my place.
Why am I telling you that storytonight?
Because it actually has a lotto do with our text.
It is Easter week for those ofyou who might have forgotten,
easter is this Sunday and so Ifigured let's take a little bit
of a detour from our Sermon onthe Mount series and skip way

(03:34):
ahead in Matthew to the accountof the crucifixion, because that
is what Easter is about thecrucifixion and resurrection of
Jesus Christ for the salvationof our sins.
And so I would love to justtake some time tonight to walk
through that.
It's going to be a little bitdifferent, probably a little bit
shorter, not really feel asmuch like a sermon as it is.
We're just kind of walkingthrough this text together.

(03:55):
So if you have your Bible, goahead and flip open to Matthew,
chapter 27, starting in verse 11.
Let me make sure those versesare right 27 verse 11.
And if you don't have yourBible, I actually do not think
that this is going to be on thescreen.
So find a friend who does andshare that Work.

(04:16):
Okay, cool, matthew, chapter 27, starting in verse 11.
So as you flip there, we'regoing to be picking up in the
middle of a story, and the storyis that early in the week,
jesus shows up to Jerusalem andhe has this triumphant entry.
Everybody celebrates the kingis coming, they're waving palm
leaves, hosanna, hosanna.
Like it's this big entrance andeverybody thought that meant

(04:39):
all right, the promised Messiahis here, rome's about to get
kicked out Like everything'sgoing to change.
But the week plays out a lotdifferently than most people
thought it was going to.
Jesus spends a lot of the weekarguing with the Pharisees and
the religious authorities andhaving these debates, and they
keep trying to trap him and itobviously doesn't work because
he's God and he knows everything, and so you kind of see this
roundabout throughout the week,and so he has just enjoyed on

(05:03):
Thursday night what would beknown as the last supper.
They shared the Passover mealwith his disciples, and so this
is where you see him washing hisdisciples' feet in this long
lots of teaching and things, andJohn talking about how the Holy
Spirit's gonna come.
And then, at the end of thatdinner, he goes to the Mount of
Olives where he's faced with thedread of what he knows is
coming the next day his death ona cross.

(05:24):
And with the dread of what heknows is coming the next day his
death on a cross.
And it says that he was sodismayed that he was actually
sweating blood that he prayed toGod Lord, if there be any other
way that you would take thiscup from me, but if not, your
will be done.
And so he prays to the Lord, heultimately submits and he gets
up, determined, he doesn't waveror anything from that point on,
and he has his face set towardsthe cross.
And so, at that moment, judaswho saying from that point on,

(05:45):
and he has his face set towardsthe cross.
And so at that moment, judas,who's been one of his disciples,
shows up with a crowd.
He's already betrayed Jesus.
And so now he's telling theauthorities hey, this is him,
y'all come get him.
He gets arrested and then hesits through this sham of a
trial.
It's in the middle of the night.
They do lots of shady stuff,false accusations.
They still can't pin him down.
But ultimately they declare himguilty for blasphemy, basically

(06:06):
for him calling himself God.
And so now the Jewishauthorities take him to the
Roman authorities, because theJewish authorities didn't have
the power to kill anybody, andthat's what they ultimately
wanted to do with Jesus.
But they couldn't do that ontheir own.
They had to have the realgovernment do that for them,
because Rome was the one inpower.
And so that's what we pick up onin Matthew 27, verse 11.

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Verse 11 says this the elders.
He gave no answer, but thenPilate asked him don't you hear
the testimony they're bringingagainst you?
But Jesus made no reply, noteven to a single charge, to the
great amazement of the governor.
And so here Jesus is, he'sstanding before Pontius Pilate,
who's basically like the Romangovernor of the area, and his

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job was to maintain law andorder.
So he was the guy in charge.
He didn't really ask for any ofthis, it came to his plate.
And so now he's having to dealwith it.
And so he asks him about theseaccusations.
He says so, are you the king ofthe Jews?
Because what the Jews told theRomans?
Well, he's trying to like setup against Rome.
He's trying to overthrowy'all's power.
He's trying to be a king.
And Jesus replies to him youhave said so, so he's not really

(07:21):
committal in any way, shape orform.
He's really just kind of layingdown, he's not fighting the
accusations.
And you start to see that Pilatedoesn't buy this whole guilty
thing.
He doesn't think that Jesus isthis guy that all the Jewish
authorities are making him outto be, and so he actually kind
of tries to throw him a bone.
He asks hey, haven't you heardof all these accusations?
Almost like he's asking Jesus,like don't you hear what these

(07:44):
people are saying about you?
Like, don't you realize howthis ends for you, dude?
Like they're trying to get youkilled.
And I'm not just talking aboutlike killed, I'm talking like
killed, killed on a cross, likearen't you going to do anything
about it?
And Jesus doesn't say anything,no response, he doesn't defend
himself and it blows Pilate awayto the point where Pilate's
convinced that this man's donenothing, definitely done nothing

(08:06):
to deserve death.
And so in verse 15, he hatchesa plan, picking back up Matthew
27, verse 15.
Now it was the governor's customat the festival to release a
prisoner chosen by the crowd,and at that time they had a
well-known prisoner whose namewas Barabbas, and so when the
crowd had gathered, pilate askedthem which one do you want me
to release to you Barabbas orJesus, who is called the Messiah

(08:29):
?
For he knew it was out ofself-interest that they had
handed Jesus over to him.
And when Pilate was sitting onthe judge's seat, his wife sent
him this message don't haveanything to do with that
innocent man, for I havesuffered a great deal today in a
dream because of him.
And so Pilate thought thatJesus was innocent.
In fact, his wife tells him hey, this dude, you don't want any

(08:50):
part of this, don't accuse him,don't kill him, he's innocent.
I had a dream.
It's bad news, stay away.
But he also had a really angrycrowd on his hands because these
religious leaders had stirredup a bunch of people.
They kind of cherry-picked abunch of people who they knew
shared their views.
This is not the same crowd,necessarily at the beginning of
the week who was cheering onJesus.
These are people that theauthorities picked, that they

(09:12):
knew.
Hey, we're going to try and getthis dude killed.
And so they're angry.
And it puts Pilate on apredicament.
He's really in a lose-loseEither he kills this innocent
guy or this crowd riots, and nowall of a sudden word gets back
to his bosses in Rome and he'sin some trouble.
And usually when you get introuble for that type of thing
as a Roman authority, it's gameover for you, and so that's what

(09:34):
puts him in this predicament.
But then he's like okay, youknow, I'm going to try to work
this to my advantage, becausethere's this custom and a
prisoner gets released and hetries to free Jesus because of
this, and he grabs a prisonernamed Jesus Barabbas, and it
doesn't say Jesus Barabbas inthe translation that I read, but
many of the early manuscripts,in fact the most and the most

(09:56):
reliable, say that his firstname was actually Jesus, and
Barabbas means son of a father.
And so you have this dichotomyof Pilate saying which Jesus do
you want me to set free JesusBarabbas, or Jesus, the one
who's called a Messiah, jesusthe son of a father, or what we
know to be true, jesus the sonof God, the father.

(10:17):
And so that's this comparison,this dichotomy that's there in
this call.
And then you get that piecewhere I talked about earlier,
where Pilate's wife is like, hey, you got to let this dude go,
which is super ironic, becauseall the religious authorities
who should have known who Jesuswas, who should have responded
in praise, were trying to killhim, while the wife of a pagan

(10:39):
Gentile evil ruler was trying tosave him.
But the plan doesn't work.
Verse 20,.
But the chief priests and theelders persuaded the crowd to
ask for Barabbas and to haveJesus executed.
Which of the two do you want meto release to you?
Asked the governor, barabbas.
They answered what shall I dothen with Jesus who is called
the Messiah, Pilate asked?

(11:00):
They all answered crucify him.
Why?
What crime has he committed?
Asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the loudercrucify him.
And when Pilate saw he wasgetting nowhere but that instead
an uproar was starting, he tookwater and washed his hands in
front of the crowd.
I am innocent of this man'sblood.
He said it is yourresponsibility.
And all the people answered hisblood is on us and on our

(11:21):
children.
And then he released Barabbasto them.
But he had Jesus flogged andhanded him over to be crucified.
And so these religious leadershad set the stage, they planted
this crowd to have Jesus done inwith, not because he had done
anything wrong, but because hehad challenged their authority.
And so this Barabbas guy, whoby all accounts was a terrorist

(11:42):
it says that he was a rebel, hehad murdered somebody in this
uprising Like he's a bad dude.
But they say, hey, we want himto go free, let him free.
And Pilate tries one more timeto get out of it.
But eventually he realized, hey, this is going nowhere.
Like they have their minds madeup, have their minds made up?
They want this Jesus guy dead.
And so he tries to make thisbig scene of like washing his
hands and saying I'm not guilty.
But the only person that'sconvincing is himself.

(12:05):
So you have to ask the questionwhy is this story about Barabbas
in here, like this whole partof the gospel?
We never hear about Barabbasbefore this or after this Like
this is about Jesus and hiscrucifixion, and there's lots of
details about the crucifixionthat are left out.
Why does Matthew include thisone?
Well, think about the story.

(12:26):
You have Jesus Barabbas, arebel and a murderer, who
committed that murder in anattempted uprising.
He's what we would call aterrorist today.
He was condemned to death bycrucifixion, which was one of
the worst possible ways to die.
That's when you were beingkilled, to make an example out
of you, so that other peoplewould see and say, hey, don't do
what this guy did.

(12:46):
He had no hope and he wascondemned to death in the worst
way possible.
And here he's standing next toJesus Christ, a man who's
completely innocent, never didanything wrong, but also did
everything right.
All he did for his three yearsof ministry was go around and
heal people, bring sight to theblind, help the lame, walk,
preach the good news of thegospel.

(13:07):
He fed the hungry, he raisedthe dead.
Yet here he is about to becrucified, about to be nailed to
a cross that was originallyintended for Barabbas, because
Barabbas deserved it.
He committed the crime.
He was caught red-handed.
No excuse, no hope.
That was his cross, it was madefor him, but he walked free.

(13:29):
Why?
Because Jesus took his place.
Do you see where we're goinghere?
See, barabbas is not just thisrandom character, just a random
blip on the Bible's radar.
That makes no sense.
He's a picture of you, he's apicture of me, he's a picture of
all of us.

(13:49):
If you don't believe me, 700years before any of this
happened, the prophet Isaiahwrote this in Isaiah 53, and
ultimately he was writing aboutJesus.
Isaiah wrote this in Isaiah 53,and ultimately he was writing
about Jesus.
Isaiah 53, verse 4,.
Surely he took up our pain andbore our suffering.
Yet we considered him punishedby God, stricken by him,

(14:10):
afflicted.
But he was pierced for ourtransgressions.
He was crushed for ouriniquities.
The punishment that brought uspeace was on him and by his
wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have goneastray and each of us have
turned to our own way, and theLord has laid on him the
iniquity or another word foriniquity is sin of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted.

(14:32):
He did not open his mouth.
He was led like a lamb to theslaughter and as a sheep before
its shearers is silent.
He did not open his mouth.
Exactly what happened withPilate.
Remember this was written 700years before.
Even your most devout atheistcan't-stand-the-Bible scholar
would not date this sooner than500 years before any of this
happened.
But by oppression and judgment,he was taken away Verse 8.

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Yet who of this generationprotested?
For he was cut off from theland of the living?
For the transgression of mypeople, he was punished Verse
10,.
Yet it was the Lord's will tocrush him and cause him to
suffer.
And though the Lord makes hislife an offering for sin, he
will see his offspring andprolong his days, and the will
of the Lord will prosper in hishands.

(15:14):
Finally, skip down to verse 12.
For he bore the sin of many andmade intercession for the
transgressors.
See, jesus didn't just stumbleinto Jerusalem, have a really
good week and then kind of makea mistake at the end and get
killed.
This wasn't an accident.
This was all a part of God'splan, even 700 years before.

(15:37):
This is the fulfillment of thevery end of God's pronouncement
of the curse in Genesis 3, wherehe's talking to the serpent and
he says there will be a seed ofthe woman and you will strike
his heel, but he will crush yourhead.
This was the plan from thebeginning, that this is how it
had to be, because the realityis God made the universe and

(15:58):
everything in it.
He made it good, he made itperfect, without flaw, without
sin, and he gave us as hisspecial creation, humanity, free
will, the ability to makechoices and decisions, that we
wouldn't be like robots, but weused our free will to try and
make ourselves God.
When you hear about the tree ofthe fruit of knowledge, of good

(16:19):
and evil, and how Adam and Eveate the fruit, and it can be
really weird and wonky.
Really, the point behindunderneath all of that, what the
Bible is trying to say there isnot about some random fruit,
but it's.
God told them this is what'swrong.
Don't do this.
Worship me by obeying.
And they said I'm going todecide what's right and wrong,
and that's something that eachand every single one of us has
said.
It right and wrong, and that'ssomething that each and every

(16:41):
single one of us has said.
It might be about how you treatsomebody else.
It might be about how you tellthe truth, even when it's going
to harm you.
It might be about the words yousay, the decisions you make
with your boyfriend or yourgirlfriend, the things you post.
I don't know what it is, but atsome point in every single one
of our lives we say God, I don'tcare what you say, I'm going to
do things my way.
And that's called sin, it's evil, and because God is holy and

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he's perfect and he just hepunishes evil, which is
something that we all want himto do.
We want the bad guy to faceconsequences.
If you watch a movie where thebad guy keeps getting away with
stuff, you start to getfrustrated, right, if you ever
watch Infinity War, by the endof that movie, if you didn't
know what was going on, you werekind of frustrated because you
to lose.

(17:21):
But the problem is, whathappens when we're a bad guy?
What happens when the evil thatneeds to be punished is ours?
But scripture says that Goddidn't want us to be separated
from him.
So he sent his son, jesus, wholived a perfect life, and at the
end of his life he died on across for our sin.
He became our sin, like that heliterally, in a way spiritually

(17:45):
, when God was punishing him onthe cross, our sin was being
punished.
And this is no light deal,right?
The crucifixion was not justthis minor thing.
You hear Matthew give one lineto it in his gospel, like it's
not this big, lengthy thing, butthat's because it was so
horrible and terrible that allof his readers would have known
about what crucifixion entailed.
And if you don't, I'm going togo into a little bit of detail

(18:07):
not to gross you out, because Ithink it's very important that
we understand what Jesus wentthrough when you're sentenced to
crucifixion.
The first thing and Jesus hadalready been beaten pretty badly
up to this point they tie youto a post and they flog you.
And flogging is not just like afew lashes with a whip, it's a
handle with straps of leatherthat come off, and in the end of

(18:27):
those straps of leather arebone and metal and glass and
that would be whipped across hisback up to 39 times.
And they said that this alonewas enough to kill a lot of
people, because it would exposeall sorts of things and it would
completely tear all sorts ofstuff, up to the point where
sometimes, by the end of theflogging, that person didn't
even look like a person anymore.

(18:49):
But for Jesus, that was just thebeginning, because they would
ultimately untie him.
He would be beaten again, havethorns jammed into his scalp,
beaten over the head with awooden staff, and after all of
this he would have to carry thecross beam of his own cross up a
hill to a place called theskull Golgotha, and he's already
dehydrated, lost a ton of blood.

(19:10):
At this point His muscles arefailing.
That's why you see somebodyhaving to help him carry that
cross beam up to that place, andat that place they would lay
that cross beam on the groundand they would lay him down on
it and they would drive nailsinto his wrists, right where the
nerves are.
So it wasn't just that you hungthere, it's that it felt you
were being burned the entiretime as your nerves get severed,

(19:30):
and he would put nails throughhis ankles and they would
ultimately jam that into a holethat they had dug in the rock,
and so when that cross comesdown, you would feel the jolt on
your wrists and on your ankles.
And again, that was just thebeginning, because you don't die
quickly when you're crucified.
From what we've learned aboutthis process is how you're

(19:52):
positioned.
You're actually kept alive fora good amount of time, but the
thing is, with your arms hung alot of times, what would happen
is those shoulders woulddislocate and you would have to
push yourself up with your legsto be able to get breath because
of how you were sitting and theRomans were terrible, they had
perfected this they would nailyou to that cross in a certain
way that you couldn't breatheuntil you picked yourself up
which would have beenexcruciating with the nails on

(20:13):
those nerves just to breathe andthen slump back down, and you
would repeat that process everysingle time you needed to take a
breath for hours and hours andhours until you eventually ran
out of strength and yousuffocated and died.
And not only this, but theshame of the cross is you would
usually be without clothes onthe side of the road where
people would see, where peoplewould be passing by jeering

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completely exposed birds, dogs,all sorts of horrible, horrible
things and ultimately Jesuswould breathe his last breath,
he would declare it is finishedand he would die.
Why do I go into all thosedetails?
It's not because I'm trying toshock you.
I think it's important tounderstand what Jesus went
through on the cross, not justso that you feel bad and you

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live for him that's not thepoint of this but because you
need to understand.
Your grace ain't cheap.
So many times I tell the gospelto somebody and I hear the
words yes, I know, like, like, Iknow that's for some other
people, but you don't know whatI've done.
Or I've been that personsitting there who hears the
message of a gospel from a D-NOWspeaker or a camp speaker.
I'm like that sounds great forpeople who've done less terrible

(21:21):
things than I have, but youdon't know the lies I've told
the people.
I've hurt the life I've lived.
You're right, I don't, butJesus does.
And when we talk about Jesusforgiving your sins, it's not
like he just looks at you andsays well, he tried to go to
church a lot, so I'm going tosweep those under the rug.
No, he looked at your sin andall of its ugliness, all of its
filthiness, just as terrible asit can possibly be, more than

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you know, and he says you knowwhat?
I forgive you, I'm going to payfor it, I'm going to wash it
away, I'm not going to overlookit, I'm not going to try to find
some silver lining so that Iaccept you.
I'm going to look it in itsface and I'm going to forgive it
, completely paid for.
And you need to know thatbecause you can hold on to that

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in moments when you feel unloved, when you feel unwanted, when
you feel like you've gone toofar.
There is no amount of sin thatcannot be covered by the blood
of Jesus.
And you need to know that.
It's the difference.
If you go back to that originalillustration that I gave.
It's the difference in thatperson just telling me hey, I'm
going to pay for that car, it'llbe fixed, you don't worry about

(22:23):
it.
But I never actually see anytangible like payment.
That car's fixed.
I'm living in fear my wholetime of like, well, what if they
didn't actually pay for it?
What if he comes back one dayand says hey, I know I told you
that you were gonna pay for it,but then I saw you driving a
little bit fast the other dayand so now I'm gonna make you
pay for it.
Paid for.

(22:45):
It's like me having the bill tothat car repair and I can see
no, it was done, it's finished.
I have no debt anymore becauseJesus paid for sin.
He didn't just sweep it underthe rug, he didn't just look the
other way.
But the question still remainswhy in the world do it?
Why would Jesus die for peoplewho would nail him to a cross?
Why would Jesus die for peoplewho didn't seem to care anything
about who he was or what he haddone for them?

(23:07):
Why would he take the place ofthis awful criminal?
Barabbas the terrorist gets torun free while Jesus dies.
Well, tim Keller points out thatthe writer of Hebrews actually
tells us why in Hebrews, chapter12, starting in verse 1.
He says let us run withperseverance the race marked out
for us, fixing our eyes onJesus, the pioneer and perfecter

(23:28):
of our faith.
So he's telling people how wecan persevere through this race
called life, how we can do hardthings, how we can endure
suffering.
We set our eyes on Jesus andthen it explains how Jesus did
it For the joy set before him.
Talking about Jesus, he enduredthe cross, scorning its shame,
and sat down at the right handof the throne of God.

(23:48):
Consider him, who endured suchopposition from sinners, so that
you will not grow weary andlose heart.
It says how did Jesus make itthrough the cross?
How is he our example forenduring suffering?
It says for the joy that wasset before him.
Well, what in the world was thejoy that was set before him
right?
What was something that hedidn't have yet, that he had his

(24:09):
eyes set on?
Back in Isaiah 53, it says theresults of his suffering.
He will see and he will besatisfied.
Well, what were the results ofthe cross?
What did Jesus not have inheaven from eternity past?
What did he not have before hecame to earth that he received
after the crucifixion?
It was us, it was you, it wasme, we were the joy set before

(24:35):
him, our healing, ourreconciliation being brought
back to him.
Jesus went to the cross becauseof love for us, so that we could
be free of our sin, free fromcondemnation.
Because he didn't stay dead.
They put him in a borrowedgrave and three days later he
walked back up to show that hehad victory over all death, all

(24:56):
sin, all condemnation, so thatyou don't have to be a slave to
the opinion of others anymore,because you can know that you
have the approval of the God whomade everything.
He got up so that you don'thave to feel like your life is
meaningless anymore, because youcan be a reflection of God's
love and goodness to the worldaround you.
You don't have to try to findyour happiness in the arms of
another person anymore, just tobe let down time and time again,

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because you have joy and peacein the Savior and you don't have
to live in the brokenness.
You feel, that addiction.
You've tried to leave behind athousand times the self-hate,
the broken home, because Jesuswas broken to make you whole.
Yet each and every single one ofus has a choice to make.
You know what Jesus has donefor you, but what are you going

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to do with it?
But because Barabbas had achoice that day, he got down
from that stage and he walkedoff.
And he had three options.
He could move on with his life,forget about it, never think
about it again, go back to doingterrorist things.
Or he could have gotten downand acknowledged hey, jesus,

(26:00):
that was great, I reallyappreciate that man Like, good
luck with the crucifixion thing,you're cool.
And then just gone and done hisown.
Or the third option he couldbow the knee.
He could say I see something inyou that I don't see anywhere
else in this world.
I see a beauty in Jesus thatnothing had to offer, that when
I was guilty and I stoodcondemned, he looked at me with

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love and he let me free.
And he could have sent his lifeall, he could have centered it
on Jesus.
And we have the same choiceright For each and every single
one of us.
You might have grown up in aChristian home.
You might have heard an Eastersermon a million times.
You might have come here sinceyou were in sixth grade.
You might have been coming heresince you were in pre-K with

(26:42):
the kids ministry and you mighthave been living this life where
you've kind of been coastingoff your parents' choice your
grandparents' choice your aunt,your uncle, whoever drags you to
church.
Maybe they don't drag you tochurch, maybe they bring you,
maybe you're happy to be here,but if you're being honest,
you're just playing games withGod.
You're just here for friends,you're here for the hangs,

(27:04):
you're here for the events,whatever.
Or maybe you're just here forfriends, you're here for the
hangs, you're here for theevents, whatever.
Or maybe you're like, hey,god's pretty cool.
Like I acknowledge him, I'llsing some worship songs, I'll
sign up for Camp D now.
I might even help stack chairs,but I'm gonna kind of keep
doing my own thing.
Or will you bow the knee?
Will you make him king?
Because true saving faith isnot just praying a prayer or

(27:27):
walking an aisle, but it'smaking Jesus king, it's
accepting the gift of salvation,believing he is who he says he
is and he did what he said hedid.
And when you believe that youcan't help but build your entire
life on that truth, nothingelse will satisfy, nothing else
will do.
Will you make him king in thecenter of your life, because he

(27:50):
gave his for you?
Will you pray with me, lord?
God, we thank you so muchtonight for the opportunity to
worship you and to just walkthrough the beauty of the gospel
and Lord, I pray that as weleave here tonight, if there's
anybody under the sound of myvoice who realizes that they
haven't, they say man, I haven'tmade that decision.

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I've been playing games with God.
I've been just doing my ownthing.
Would you touch them in thismoment, would you bring them to
yourself?
Would you help them to stop thehiding, stop the running, stop
playing games and bow the knee?
Would you help them to stop thehiding, stop the running, stop
playing games and bow the knee,that they would be transformed,

(28:35):
that we'd see the miracle ofsalvation from death to life?
And, lord, that they would havethe courage to talk to a small
group leader or me or someoneafter the message and to walk
through that decision?
Or, lord, maybe there might bepeople in this room who have
known you or been walking withyou for a while.
But if we're honest, we can justso easily forget of our love
for or of your love for us andwhat you've done, and if we're

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honest, we kind of let you justbe another thing on our list of
things.
Lord, would you help us tocenter our life anew on you
tonight, that you wouldn't justbe the first thing on the
priority list.
You'd be the paper that it'swritten on.
You wouldn't just be animportant thing in our life, you
would be our entire life.
That you would inform and colorand shape everything we do,
every decision we make.

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That we would live that kind offaith for your glory, father.
We love you, we praise you andwe pray all these things in your
son Jesus.