Latest / The Daily Word / August 16 – Forgiven for What We Failed to Do
Transcript
- Cory: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good we hours of the night. Whenever you're joining us, welcome to the Daily Word Podcast from Lakeshore Christian Fellowship. My name is Corey Barnes, and it is my privilege to pastor Arcitabacampus. I'm excited to be sitting down with you for another devotion out of our reading plan that we are joined in together on as a church. Today is August the 16th. That means that we are doing a devotion from John chapter 18. Now, this is the chapter where we see the arrest of Jesus all the way up. This is John's telling of his arrest all the way up to his trial before Pontius Pilate. And one of the things that really stood out to me in this reading, most of us that have a relationship with Jesus for any amount of time have probably read this account before. We've probably read the accounts of this from the other gospels. And what stood out to me is that In verse 38, Pilate says here, I find no fault in him at all. Pontius Pilate had already interviewed Jesus. He had already asked him all the questions about the Jews' claim against him. And Jesus' answer satisfied Pilate. Pilate knew that this was not a guilty man worthy of death that stood. Before him, I find no fault in him. But you have a custom, verse thirty-nine, that I should release someone to you at the Passover. Do you therefore want me to release to you the king of the Jews? Then they all cried out again, saying, Not this man but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. So here we have this this Event that most of us are familiar with, where Pilate has interviewed Jesus, found him not worthy of execution, and is ready to release Jesus. Now, apparently, there was a custom to appease the Jews that at the Passover this Roman governor would release a a Jewish prisoner. So they ask so he asks, Do you want me to release Jesus to you? And they say, No. We want you to release Barabbas. Now here in the Gospel of John, we see that Barabbas is a robber. But Luke twenty-three nineteen also tells us that Barabbas had been part of a rebellion that he had made in the city, as well as for murder. So here we see this picture of this guy Barabbas, who's a murderer, a robber and had Been part of a rebellion. Now, what really I find interesting, what I'm getting to is the fact that Pilate sees no fault in Jesus, is ready to let him go. He knows the right thing to do, right? Like he knows that Jesus should be released. This man is not worthy of death. But because of the pressures, because of wanting to keep amicable. relationships with the Jews, instead of doing the right thing, Pilate does the worst thing that's ever been committed in human history, sentencing Jesus to death, even at the cost of releasing Barabbas, who had been part of a rebellion and who had committed murder. Now I don't know how much you know about Roman history, but they were known for the Pax Romana, the peace Of Rome, and that peace that Rome enforced was with the sword. Basically, if you are part of the Roman Empire, you will live at peace. There will be no rebellion against Rome. If there is any inkling of a rebellion, automatic capital punishment, you are put to death. So Barat so Pilate took a man who had violated the Pax Roman. Who was worthy of being put to death, who the Roman government, Pilate's officials above his head, would have said automatically, Pilate, this man deserves death. And instead of putting that man to death, he released him so that Jesus would take his place. Tell me that isn't a picture of you and I. Tell me that isn't a picture of what Jesus did to. For us. And tell me that this isn't a picture with Pilate of a man who knew the right thing to do and did not do it. And yet Jesus went to the cross and paid the price in his blood, not only to forgive the Jews who intentionally set out to do the wrong thing, but also to forgive Pilate, who intentionally chose not to do the right thing. And here's where all this becomes really applicable. Are there instances in our lives where we've been on one side or the other of that equation? Now it's easy to recognize where we have done the wrong thing and seek forgiveness for that. We we set out and we did the wrong thing. What's often harder to find forgiveness for ourselves for is when we knew the right thing to do, but we didn't rise to the occasion. We chickened out. We we weren't able to do it because of weakness, because we were not motivated. We whatever the reason is, it's easier to forgive ourselves for doing the wrong thing sometimes than it is to forgive ourselves for not doing the right thing. Are there instances in your life where you have been holding something against yourself because you failed to come through when you needed to? Come through for a loved one, come through for yourself, make the right decision. If you find a circumstance like that in your life, I want to encourage you that Jesus gave his life for you. Both of those kinds of sin is what sent Jesus to the cross. Both kinds of sin, sins of commission, what was done, sins of omission when something that should have been done was not done. Both of those played their hand in the decision that nailed Jesus to the cross. And he paid the price equally to forgive you of both. For both occasions, you have been washed white as snow. Sin that was crimson has been washed clean. So our application is if we have something like that sitting before us, weighing on us, let's take that to Jesus. Let's ask him for his forgiveness, and let's ask him for the grace to forgive. Ourself, we often forget the fact that Jesus tells us that we owe forgiveness to everyone because He has forgiven us. Ultimately, we have sinned against Him and He has forgiven us of our sin deserving of death. How can we hold something against ourselves? How can we hold back forgiveness from ourselves when we recognize that commandment? Let's pray. Father, I just thank you. I thank you that you're with us. I thank you that you love us. I thank you, Jesus, for the sacrifice you made, that you went to the cross and you put all kinds of pictures into scripture, things that we can see that show us your goodness and show us that our sins are just the same as the sins of countless generations that have gone before us, countless generations that you have forgiven. Just like you are forgiving us as we come to you. Lord, if I recognize anything in my life that I am holding against myself, times sins of commissions, sins of omissions, times I did the wrong thing, times I didn't do the right thing, Lord, whatever it is that I we recognized during today's devotion, Lord, we just bring that before you and we lay it at your feet. We ask for your forgiveness. We ask for you to wash that away, and then for you get to give us grace. To forgive ourselves for our mistakes. Lord Jesus, we love you and we thank you for your ultimate goodness. We thank you for who you are and your great love. We love you, Jesus. We really do. Amen.