Latest / Reformed Thinking / Bound and Delivered: The Sovereign Submission of Christ (Matthew 27:1–2)

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Bound and Delivered: The Sovereign Submission of Christ (Matthew 27:1–2) · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Welcome to reformed thinking. I want you to picture the most
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  educated, the most morally refined leaders in a society.
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  Yeah, the elites. Right.
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  Yeah. Now picture those same leaders
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  using all of their privilege, their massive theological
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  vocabulary, and their legal procedures to just, you know,
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  orchestrate a murder in the middle of the night.
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  It is a chilling picture, honestly.
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  It really is, and that is the reality we are looking at today.
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  Our mission for this deep dive is to do an intensive verse by
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  verse analysis of Matthew chapter 27, verses 1 and 2.
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  Just two verses, but there is a massive amount of weight in.
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  Them. Oh, absolutely.
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  Yeah. We are setting the scene at the
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  very dawn of Friday in ancient Jerusalem.
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  And in just these two brief verses, the text details the
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  staggering transition of Jesus Christ from the religious court
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  of Israel over to the secular civil authority of Rome.
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  Which is a huge shift, yeah. When you pause to visualize the
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  historical weight of this moment, it just it stops you in
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  your tracks. We are not looking at an
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  uneducated mob acting in a fit of sudden rage.
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  Here, no, not at all. These are the highly trained
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  elites. Right.
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  So the question I want to pose to you, the listener, is this
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  How do the most religiously educated people in the entire
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  nation end up conspiring against the very Messiah their own
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  scriptures promised? That is the big question, and it
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  brings us to the overarching theological paradox of this
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  entire text. Which is what, precisely?
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  Well. On one hand, we are looking at
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  the absolute darkest human conspiracy in all of recorded
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  history. These religious leaders, they
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  act with premeditated malice. They are fully responsible for
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  their wickedness. I mean, they are making real
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  uncoerced choices, right? Yeah, precisely.
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  No one is forcing them. Yet at the exact same time, we
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  are witnessing the absolute, unshakable sovereignty of God
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  executing His redemptive plan. That is such a heavy concept to
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  grasp. It really is.
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  The Father is governing these wicked actions to accomplish a
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  salvation of His people. The human authorities are they
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  are choosing to condemn Jesus, but their unholy consensus is
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  the precise mechanism God uses to secure the redemption of his
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  Church. So we are seeing human guilt and
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  divine Providence just intersecting perfectly.
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  Yeah, without either compromising the other.
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  OK, let's unpack this because to grasp the massive weight of this
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  morning meeting mentioned in verse one, you have to
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  understand what happened the night before.
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  And you have to know the incredibly strict rules
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  governing that era, right? So I was reading up on the
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  Jewish Mishnah, specifically a tractate called Sanhedrin, and
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  it outlines these rigid judicial laws, especially concerning the
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  death penalty. Yeah, those procedures were
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  designed to make execution exceedingly rare.
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  Right. Capital trials could only happen
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  during daylight hours. They had to take place in a
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  specific location called the Chamber of Hume Stones.
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  Which was situated right on the Temple Mount, Yeah.
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  Furthermore, a guilty verdict could not be rendered on the
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  same day as a trial. The judges were required to go
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  home in pairs, eat sparingly, drink 0 wine and literally sleep
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  on the decision for a full night before casting a final vote of
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  condemnation. And what's fascinating here is
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  the underlying logic behind those rules.
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  Yeah, yeah. The Jewish legal framework
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  historically placed a massive premium on protecting human
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  life. The system was designed to
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  prevent rapid, emotionally driven executions.
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  So the mandatory overnight delay was meant to like allow tempers
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  to cool down. Yeah, exactly that.
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  And to give any witness for the defense one last chance to come
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  forward. But the night trial at the
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  Palace of Caiaphas broke every single one of those procedural
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  safeguards. Every single one.
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  All of them. It happened in the dead of
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  night. It took place in a private
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  residence rather than the Chamber of hewn stones.
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  And they pronounced him guilty of blasphemy immediately.
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  Yeah, they threw their own revered legal tradition right
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  out the window the moment it became inconvenient.
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  So in verse one says when morning came, this is not just a
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  casual time marker. No, no, not at all.
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  This indicates A frantic scramble by the chief priests
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  and elders. I mean they are rushing to hold
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  a formal daylight session to put a legal veneer over their
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  illegal nocturnal actions. That is a great way to put it.
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  It is like a corrupt corporate board of directors holding a 6.0
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  AM rubber stamp meeting. They are rushing to finalize a
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  hostile takeover before the regulators wake up and catch
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  them breaking the bylaws. That is spot on.
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  But they have another massive obstacle.
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  Rome. Yeah, they have to deal with the
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  Roman jurisdiction. Rome did not just let conquered
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  territories govern themselves completely.
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  Pontius Pilate held something called the Imperium and the
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  Aesius Gladii. OK.
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  Let's breakdown those Latin terms for the listener.
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  Sure. So Imperium refers to the
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  absolute executive command over a Roman province, and Aesius
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  Gladii translates literally to the right of the sword.
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  So that meant Pilate possessed the sole exclusive right of
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  capital execution. Precisely.
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  The local religious authorities could handle minor infractions,
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  temple disputes, things like that, but they could not legally
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  put a man to death. I read that the Jerusalem Talmud
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  and the historian Josephus both note that Israel lost the right
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  to carry out the death penalty about 40 years prior to the
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  destruction of the Temple. Which aligns perfectly with the
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  time frame of the crucifixion. They could pronounce Jesus
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  guilty of a religious crime, but they needed Rome to actually
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  kill him. OK, wait.
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  I need to push back on that for a second.
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  If Israel lost the right to execute people, how were they
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  able to stone Stephen later on in the book of Acts?
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  Did I miss something there? That is a really fantastic
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  question. Or, you know, if they wanted
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  Jesus dead so badly right now, why not just assassinate him in
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  the dark? Or stone him quietly in an
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  alleyway and claim it was an accident.
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  Right. Why go through the massive
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  hassle of waking up the Roman governor?
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  Yeah, exactly. Why involve Pilot at all?
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  Well, the stoning of Stephen provides a perfect contrast.
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  That stoning was technically an illegal mob lynching.
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  The Roman authorities either turned a blind eye to it or
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  simply could not stop it in time.
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  Oh, OK, that makes sense. But the situation with Jesus was
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  entirely different due to the geographical and political
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  pressure of the Passover festival.
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  Because of the crowds. Yes, during this specific week,
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  Jerusalem swelled from a normal population of perhaps 50,000 to
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  several 100,000 pilgrims. That is a massive influx of
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  people. It is.
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  The city was a tinderbox of religious fervor and
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  nationalistic expectation. The Roman governor Pilate would
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  move from his coastal headquarters in Caesarea to
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  Jerusalem specifically to keep the peace.
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  And he brought truths with him, right?
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  Oh, a massive Garrison of soldiers.
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  They would be stationed in the Antonia Fortress, looking
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  directly down into the temple courts.
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  So the whole city is heavily policed and the crowds are
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  already on edge. Precisely.
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  The religious leaders were pragmatic cowards.
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  They feared a massive riot from the crowds who had just recently
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  waved palm branches and shouted hosanna for Jesus.
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  So a quiet assassination was too risky.
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  Way too risky. If they attempted an illegal
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  stoning, they risked turning Jesus into a martyr and sparking
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  an uncontrollable uprising among the Galilean pilgrims who loved
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  him. So bringing him to Rome was a
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  strategic move. Yes, by bringing Jesus to the
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  Romans they could secure a public, state sanctioned
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  execution. And crucifixion itself played a
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  role in that strategy. Right.
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  Oh, absolutely. Crucifixion was designed by Rome
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  to publicly shame and utterly discredit the victim.
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  A crucified man was seen as cursed by God.
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  Wow, so they really wanted to ruin his reputation, not just
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  kill him? Yeah, but to get the Roman
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  governor to agree to this, the Sanhedrin had to translate a
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  religious charge into a political.
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  One, because Pilate would not care in the slightest about a
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  Jewish debate over blasphemy. Right.
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  Therefore, the leaders had to frame Jesus as a revolutionary
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  insurgent claiming to be a king. They had to accuse him of
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  treason against Caesar to force Pilot's hand.
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  Here's where it gets really interesting to me.
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  The original Greek text reveals the terrifying cold blooded
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  administration behind this act. The grammar itself is incredibly
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  revealing, yeah. We shift from the historical
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  pressure to the specific words Matthew uses to indict these
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  leaders. The phrase translated took
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  counsel is a known Latinism coming from the phrase concilium
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  kepir. Which means it is not a casual
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  chat over breakfast. No, not at all.
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  This denotes a formal, official administrative decision.
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  Matthew uses this specific phrase five times in his Gospel,
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  and it always denotes A calculated bureaucratic plot to
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  suppress truth. It is the language of systemic
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  corruption. Yeah, and we also have to look
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  at who exactly is sitting at this table.
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  Matthew specifies that all the chief priests and elders
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  gathered. The Greek word pantis.
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  It leaves no room for exception. Right.
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  There are no dissenting voices speaking up for justice.
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  It is a corporate unanimous rejection by both the Satishian
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  priests and the Phariseic elders.
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  And those two groups usually despised each other.
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  Yeah, the Sadducees were the aristocratic elites who
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  controlled the temple treasury. They only accepted the first
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  five books of Moses. While the Pharisees were the
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  popular, rigorous teachers of the law who believed in the
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  resurrection and the entire Old Testament.
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  They argued constantly, but here they unite in their sheer hatred
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  of the Messiah. It is amazing how hatred for
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  truth creates strange alliances. The Greek grammar also utilizes
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  something called italic purpose clause here, stating their goal
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  was to put him to death. OK, let's unpack telec purpose
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  clause for the listener so it doesn't sound like a grammar
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  textbook. Good idea in normal English.
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  What does that indicate about their mindset?
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  Well, italic purpose clause simply means the text is
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  explicitly defining the ultimate intended goal of an action.
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  It answers the why behind the what.
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  So it shows their true motive. Yeah, their gathering was not an
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  investigative hearing to discover facts.
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  Their goal was not banishment. Their goal was not physical
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  discipline or silencing him through intimidation.
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  It was execution. Right, the grammar itself proves
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  premeditated first degree murder.
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  Their explicit, unified aim was to end his life.
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  You know, that unanimous murderous intent perfectly
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  illustrates a core reality about human nature.
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  It really does. I feel like this text completely
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  dismantles the modern assumption that education, institutional
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  refinement, and cultural sophistication naturally elevate
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  human morality. Oh, completely.
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  We tend to think that if people just have enough religious
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  training and structural order, they will naturally choose what
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  is right. Yeah, we assume that cruelty is
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  just a symptom of ignorance, but here we see the most
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  conservative, orthodox religious system in the ancient world
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  manufacturing its own righteousness and violently
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  attacking the true king. Which points back to the total
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  depravity of the human heart. Exactly.
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  Without God actively intervening to renew the mind, the human
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  heart will always construct a system of self sovereignty.
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  These men possessed the Scriptures, the covenant
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  promises, and the history of the prophets, yet they use that
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  magnificent heritage to orchestrate a murder.
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  Which proves that no human institution is immune to
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  complete spiritual blindness. None.
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  The Sanhedrin was the Supreme Court of the nation.
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  These were men who had memorized massive portions of Scripture.
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  They could debate the finest nuances of the law.
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  Yet when the living words stood right in front of them, they
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  perceived Him as a threat to be eliminated rather than a Lord to
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  be worshipped. Yeah, they used their
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  theological vocabulary to mask their own desire for control.
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  They wanted the benefits of the covenant without submitting to
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  the Lord of the covenant. I want you to reflect on that
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  reality for a moment. Proximity to religion does not
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  equal submission to God. That is a staggering truth.
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  These leaders knew the altar, they knew the sacrifices, and
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  they knew the law inside and out.
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  Yet they used that knowledge as a weapon to protect their own
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  status. They wore the pristine robes of
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  righteousness while plotting in the dark.
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  It is hypocrisy at its absolute worst.
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  Right. So, having finalized their
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  illegal paperwork in the dawn light, the leaders take a
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  physical action that carries massive theological weight.
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  We'll be on to verse 2. Yeah, we look at the beginning
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  of verse 2, which States and they bound him.
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  The Greek participle used here, the Santes, shows Jesus being
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  physically tied with ropes or chains.
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  Think about the brutal irony here.
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  Throughout his public ministry, Jesus had bound the strongman
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  Satan by casting out demons. He healed the sick.
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  He raised the dead. He commanded the wind of the
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  waves. Now the inherently free creator
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  of the universe is being physically bound by fallen,
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  fragile men. We have to look at the Old
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  Testament types to grasp the gravity of the specific physical
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  action. What do you mean by types?
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  Well, binding a captive in the ancient Near East was a visual
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  declaration of absolute subjugation.
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  It was the ultimate stripping of sovereignty.
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  So when you bound a king, you were displaying to the world
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  that his reign was over. Exactly.
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  But for a Jewish reader, this moment echoes a very specific
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  event. The Akita.
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  Yes, the Akita, or the Binding of Isaac in Genesis chapter 22.
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  In that narrative, Abraham binds his beloved son and places him
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  on the wood of the altar. And the Sun offers 0 resistance.
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  Right. It also brings to mind Psalm
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  118, verse 27, which says bind the sacrifice with cords even to
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  the horns of the altar. So the physical restraint of
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  Jesus is not an accident of the arrest process, it is a massive
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  theological fulfillment. Thoroughly, it highlights 2
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  vital aspects of his redemptive work, his active and passive
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  obedience. Let's define those concepts
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  simply for the listener. His act of obedience refers to
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  how He perfectly fulfilled the law throughout his entire life.
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  He never once sinned or deviated from the Father's will.
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  So he lived the perfect life we failed to live.
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  Yes, and his passive obedience refers to how he willingly
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  submits his physical body to the penalties of our sin.
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  He allows himself to suffer the wrath we deserved.
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  Precisely, He allows himself to be bound so that those who are
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  captives to sin can be loosed. The ropes on his wrist are the
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  physical manifestation of him taking on the bondage of his
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  people. I love that to make this visual
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  picture a reigning monarch sitting on a throne, willingly
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  putting on a pair of plastic handcuffs offered by a
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  rebellious toddler. That is a brilliant analogy.
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  That is the level of condescension happening here.
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  The creator of the wood and the hemp is allowing his creatures
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  to tie him up. It is unfathomable.
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  Love, but put yourself in the shoes of a 1st century Jewish
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  Christian audience reading Matthew's gospel.
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  They were facing severe persecution.
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  Yeah, they're being kicked out of their synagogues.
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  Shunned by their families, marginalized by their
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  communities. To them, wouldn't a bound
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  Messiah look like a defeated Messiah?
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  How does Matthew counter that fear in his writing?
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  Matthew's audience was indeed reeling from that expulsion, and
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  they desperately needed to know that the synagogue leaders had
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  lost their true authority. So how does this scene help
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  them? Well, by showing Jesus willingly
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  submitting to these bonds, Matthew proves this is not a
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  tragic accident or a failure of strength.
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  Jesus had already stated during his arrest in the garden that he
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  could call down 12 legions of angels to deliver him.
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  Right. He could have vaporized the
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  entire Sanhedrin with a single word.
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  His restraint is not a lack of strength, it is a demonstration
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  of his saving mercy. So Matthew is showing these
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  persecuted believers that the very leaders who excommunicated
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  them had also conspired against the Lord of glory.
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  Precisely the national leadership had forfeited their
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  spiritual authority through this deliberate apostasy.
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  The Sanhedrin judgment against Jesus was actually a judgment
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  against themselves. Therefore, the persecuted church
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  could look at the bound Christ and realize that walking the
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  path of shame, rejection and suffering is actually the path
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  of true obedience. They were not losing their
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  religion by being kicked out of the synagogue.
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  They were following their king. Which is such a comforting
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  truth. Yeah, it really is.
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  Now that binding prepares Jesus for the formal transfer of
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  custody. And that brings us to the final
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  clause of verse 2. The text says and delivered him
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  over to Pilate, the governor. Marks the physical movement from
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  the religious jurisdiction of the Covenant Nation over to the
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  secular Pagan Empire. And the use of the specific
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  title hajeman for Pilate is historically precise.
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  I know we have extra biblical proof for that, right?
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  We do. We know from the historian
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  Tacitus, as well as the archaeological discovery of the
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  Caesarea Maritima pilot stone that Pilate was indeed the
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  Prefect of Judea during this exact time frame.
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  And he was known for being brutal, dismissive of Jewish
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  customs and highly prone to violence.
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  The Jewish leaders knew this perfectly well.
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  They knew they were handing Jesus over to a man who had 0
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  qualms about executing peasants. And that reality makes the
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  theology of this phrase so crucial.
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  Yes, the verb translated delivered over is parajukan.
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  Let's talk about that word. This verb is the theological
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  linchpin of the entire passion narrative.
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  It is not just a description of a prisoner transfer.
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  It has Old Testament roots. It does.
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  It mirrors the Hebrew word massar, found in Isaiah 53,
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  describing the suffering Servant who is delivered up for
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  transgressions. Wow.
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  The breathtaking paradox here is found in the dual nature of the
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  cross. Explain what you mean by that
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  dual nature. On a strictly human level, we
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  see a chain of wicked betrayals. Judas handed Jesus over to the
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  Sanhedrin out of greed. Sanhedrin handed him over to
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  Pilate out of envy. And Pilate will eventually hand
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  him over to the soldiers to be crucified out of political
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  cowardice every. Human actor in this sequence is
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  driven by sinful motives. But on a divine level, God the
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  Father is the one delivering up his own Son for the sins of his
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  people. So the human actors are
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  committing cosmic treason, but the Father is orchestrating A
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  cosmic payment for sin. That is the truth proclaimed
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  later in the New Testament. God did not spare his own Son,
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  but delivered him up for us all. You also have a covenantal
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  divorce happening right here in this verse.
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  What do you mean by that? Well, Israel's leaders are
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  officially handing their true king over to Pagan tyranny.
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  Later in the narrative, they will explicitly shout that they
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  have no king but Caesar. Oh yeah, that is a chilling
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  moment. And this drastically widens the
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  scope of guilt. Both Jew and Gentile, religious
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  and secular, are entirely implicated in the execution of
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  Christ. Nobody gets to claim the moral
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  high ground here. No one.
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  The religious elites conspired and the secular state executed.
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  We have to pull back from the micro details of the text to
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  view the massive theological skyline Matthew is building.
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  It is a massive skyline. If humans are freely acting with
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  such calculated malice, who is actually in control of history?
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  This connects directly to Psalm 2, which states that the kings
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  of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together
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  against the Lord and against His anointed.
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  So the religious leaders act freely.
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  Without any external coercion, completely fulfilling their own
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  wicked desires, they are doing precisely what their fallen
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  hearts want to do. Nobody is forcing them to hate
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  Jesus. Right.
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  Yet simultaneously, they are executing the precise
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  predetermined redemptive plan of God.
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  The cross stands as the highest demonstration of God's
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  meticulous Providence over evil. God governs the absolute worst
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  conspiracy in the history of the world to achieve the greatest
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  salvation conceivable. This reality shatters the
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  concept that humans possess A neutral free will that will
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  naturally choose God. Oh, absolutely.
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  When you look at this text, you see proof that when humans are
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  left to their own devices, even the most religious, educated and
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  refined among us will choose to execute God.
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  We do not naturally seek him, we naturally rebel against him.
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  This completely confronts modern pragmatic seeker sensitive
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  church models as well. How so?
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  Well, those models assume that if you just make the message
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  appealing enough or if you lower the.
• 20:01
  Demands the world will accept it.
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  But the leaders of Israel did not reject Jesus because he
• 20:06
  lacked cultural relevance. Or because his teaching was too
• 20:09
  confusing, They understood his claims perfectly.
• 20:12
  Right, they rejected him because his absolute lordship threatened
• 20:16
  their autonomy. They wanted to run their own
• 20:18
  lives, and a sovereign king was an intolerable threat to that
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  control. This raises A vital point
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  regarding how we view human institutions today.
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  We often place a massive amount of trust in courts, governments
• 20:31
  and religious bodies to secure justice.
• 20:33
  But Matthew 27 proves that institutional structures, no
• 20:38
  matter how historic or revered, are entirely capable of turning
• 20:42
  violently against the truth. So if the text shows that human
• 20:45
  institutions are entirely capable of such massive failure,
• 20:48
  how does this provide comfort for someone listening today who
• 20:51
  feels overwhelmed by cultural or institutional corruption?
• 20:55
  It does seem like a very dark picture at first glance.
• 20:58
  It does. It feels hopeless if you just
• 21:00
  look at the human level. But the comfort is found in the
• 21:02
  inescapable sovereignty of God. Look at what God is doing in
• 21:06
  this text. He is taking the darkest morning
• 21:08
  in history. Yes, if God can take the
• 21:10
  darkest, most corrupt morning in human history, a morning where
• 21:14
  the Supreme Court of the nation gathered to illegally murder the
• 21:17
  innocent Son of God and use that specific event to break the
• 21:20
  chains of sin and death forever, then no modern crisis can thwart
• 21:24
  his plans. No political failure, no
• 21:27
  institutional apostasy, and no cultural decline can outmaneuver
• 21:31
  the Providence of God. He is never caught off guard.
• 21:34
  Never the believer can look at the chaos of the world, see the
• 21:38
  corruption in high places, and still we will know that the Lord
• 21:40
  is seated securely on his throne.
• 21:43
  Orchestrating all things for the good of His people and the glory
• 21:46
  of His name. The cross is the ultimate proof
• 21:49
  that God turns the malice of men into the salvation of the world.
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  Let us summarize the progression we have traced this morning.
• 21:57
  The Dawn brings formal calculated resolution to an
• 22:00
  illegal night trial. The Unified Council of the
• 22:03
  Elites reveals thorough religious rebellion across all
• 22:06
  party lines. The physical binding of Jesus
• 22:08
  displays his voluntary substitution for sinners
• 22:11
  fulfilling the ancient prophecies.
• 22:13
  And the delivery to Pilate sets the historical stage for the
• 22:16
  final atonement. Implicating both the religious
• 22:18
  and the secular world in the rejection of the King.
• 22:21
  As a listener, you must realize that neutrality toward Jesus is
• 22:25
  a total myth. You cannot just admire him as a
• 22:27
  harmless moral teacher from antiquity.
• 22:29
  He will not allow that option. You either join the Council
• 22:33
  against him to maintain your own autonomy, or you bow to him as
• 22:36
  the Sovereign Lord. There is no middle ground.
• 22:39
  Consider the physical ropes that bound the risks of Jesus that
• 22:43
  morning. Such a powerful image.
• 22:44
  He, the creator of the universe, allowed himself to be tied by
• 22:48
  those rough common ropes. He allowed his hands to be
• 22:52
  restrained so that the spiritual chains holding you could be
• 22:55
  shattered permanently. He absorbed the humiliation of a
• 22:58
  bound captive so that you can experience the freedom of a
• 23:01
  beloved child. The next time you feel trapped
• 23:04
  by your own failures or overwhelmed by the corruption of
• 23:06
  the world around you, picture the innocent king who willingly
• 23:09
  chose to be bound for your freedom.
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  Thank you for joining this deep dive on reformed thinking.