Friday, July 26, 2024

PT-1 "The Animosity of the Crowd" (Matt. 27:15-23)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/26/2024 7:45 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  PT-1 “The Animosity of the Crowd”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 27:15-23

 

            Message of the verses:  15 Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the people any one prisoner whom they wanted. 16 At that time they were holding a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. 17 So when the people gathered together, 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 because of envy they had handed Him over. 19 While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message, saying, "Have nothing to do with that righteous Man; for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of Him." 20 But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to put Jesus to death. 21 But the governor 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, "Crucify Him!" 23 And he said, "Why, what evil has He done?" But they kept shouting all the more, saying, "Crucify Him!"

 

            As I begin to study this passage there are a few things on my mind, and the first one is that all of this was planned by God in order for His Son to die on the cross for the sins of the world.  The second thing I think about is that how a crowd can influence a verdict for someone on trial.  I have mentioned that our former President has been on trial for a number of false accusations that were brought against him and it reminds me of some of these sham trials that our Lord had to go through.  Crowd influence is not always right.  I read a story in my preparation to teaching our Sunday school class on Colossians this fall, and in the story Warren Wiersbe talked about a man in England who had killed his wife and was found guilty of t he crime and was sentenced to death.  William Booth, the man who began the Salvation Army was asked to take care of this man’s funeral.  The crowd at the funeral was very hostile as Booth began his words at the funeral.  Wiersbe writes “Booth faced as ugly and mean a crowd as he had ever seen in his life, but his first words stopped them and held them:  “John H. Starkey never had a praying mother.”  These words settled the crowd down and Booth then had control to finish his words at this funeral.

 

            The crowd at Jesus’s trail was also hostile as the Jewish leaders got them all in a frenzy as they smelled blood, the blood of the Creator of the Universe who had stepped down onto the world He had created and was willing to die for those who live on this earth, was willing to take the almighty wrath of His Father for three hours of darkness as He became sin for us, so that we can accept what He did for us as He hung on the cross enduring a kind of pain and suffering that would pay for every sin every person would commit who ever lived on planet earth.  We don’t know what those three hours were truly about with the exception that once they were over and Christ was about to give up His life that He had paid for my sins and for yours and what is needed now is for a person to realize that they were born a sinner because of Adam’s sin and that we sin because of being born a sinner, and there is nothing on our own that we can do with the exception of admitting your sin to the Lord and then ask Him into your life in order to save you, and I will tell you from my experience some fifty plus years ago that He will and you will then be a born-again believer, have a new heart, have the Holy Spirit living in you and will one day come face to face with Jesus Christ your Savior and your Lord.

 

            I guess that tomorrow we will begin looking at these verses from Matthew 27.

 

7/26/2024 8:09 AM

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