Before we get into Mark 15, I want to talk to you about applying God’s Word to your life. God wants you to apply His Word to your life in three areas. There are three types of application God will speak to you about.

Mental Application

Number one, mental application. This deals with your thoughts, your understanding, knowledge, and information. There are some things God wants you to know. For example, Philippians 1:9 says, “I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding” (NLT). This is where you learn something new about God and it changes the way you think about Him. This should happen regarding your relationships, finances, how you think about you, eternity, heaven, hell, salvation and a host of other important subjects.

Emotional Application

Number two, emotional application. There are times God wants you to feel something. He gave you emotions for a reason. God wants you to feel compassion for others, a hunger for God’s Word and His presence, a righteous anger, conviction of your sin, zeal and enthusiasm for doing good, grief for when you lose something or someone, and the emotions that come with rejoicing in Him and His blessings. One example of emotional application is seen in Ephesians 6:7 which says, “Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people” (NLT).

Behavioral Application

Number three, behavioral application. This deals with what you say and do and what you don’t say and don’t do. This deals with your actions. When God says speak with truth and love, you speak with truth and love. When God says love your spouse, you do it in tangible ways. When God says give, you give. When God says pray, you pray. James 1:22 says, “Don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says” (NLT).

When you are reading God’s Word, listening to a sermon, or in a Bible study with others… God will talk to you about applying His truth to your life in these three ways. So, today pay attention to how God wants you to apply His Word today.

So, let’s take a look at what God has for us today. Let’s start with Mark 15:1.

Very early in the morning the leading priests, the elders, and the teachers of religious law—the entire high council—met to discuss their next step. They bound Jesus, led him away, and took him to Pilate, the Roman governor. 2 Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus replied, “You have said it.” 3 Then the leading priests kept accusing him of many crimes, 4 and Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer them? What about all these charges they are bringing against you?” 5 But Jesus said nothing, much to Pilate’s surprise. 6 Now it was the governor’s custom each year during the Passover celebration to release one prisoner—anyone the people requested. 7 One of the prisoners at that time was Barabbas, a revolutionary who had committed murder in an uprising. 8 The crowd went to Pilate and asked him to release a prisoner as usual. 9 “Would you like me to release to you this ‘King of the Jews’?” Pilate asked. 10 (For he realized by now that the leading priests had arrested Jesus out of envy.) 11 But at this point the leading priests stirred up the crowd to demand the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus. 12 Pilate asked them, “Then what should I do with this man you call the king of the Jews?” 13 They shouted back, “Crucify him!” 14 “Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?” But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!” 15 So to pacify the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified. 16 The soldiers took Jesus into the courtyard of the governor’s headquarters (called the Praetorium) and called out the entire regiment. 17 They dressed him in a purple robe, and they wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head. 18 Then they saluted him and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” 19 And they struck him on the head with a reed stick, spit on him, and dropped to their knees in mock worship. 20 When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified. (NLT)

I want us to focus on Barabbas today. Barabbas represents you and me.

Jesus was standing before Pilate, the Roman governor who had already declared Jesus innocent of anything worthy of death (Luke 23:15). Pilate knew that Jesus was being railroaded and it was “out of envy” (Mark 15:10) that the high priest had turned Jesus over to him, so Pilate looked for a way to release Jesus and still keep the peace. Pilate offered the crowd a choice: the release of Jesus or the release of Barabbas, a well-known criminal who had been imprisoned for being a revolutionary and for murder (Mark 15:7). The Greek term rendered “revolutionary” (v.7) describes someone we would call a terrorist.

The release of a prisoner was customary before the feast of Passover (Mark 15:16). The Roman governor granted clemency to one criminal as an act of goodwill toward the people whom he governed. The choice Pilate set before them could not have been more clear-cut: a high-profile killer and trouble-maker who was unquestionably guilty, or a teacher and miracle-worker who was obviously innocent. The crowd chose Barabbas to be released.

His name was Barabbas, which is an odd name. It means “son of a father.” It is similar to the name “John Doe” today. It is a way for him to remain anonymous and to protect his family. More than likely, that was not his real name. He wanted to keep his real identity hidden.

How are we like Barabbas? We are like him in two bad ways and one good way. Let’s talk about the bad ways first and then we will conclude with the good way.

We are guilty, like Barabbas

First of all, we are guilty, like Barabbas. Mark 15:7 says, One of the prisoners at that time was Barabbas, a revolutionary who had committed murder in an uprising. Barabbas had been tried by the Roman government and found guilty of treason and murder and robbery (John 18:40). He was a sinner, and he was guilty. This is where we are like Barabbas. You and I may not have committed the same crimes as Barabbas, but we are still guilty of our own sins.

Without Jesus, you and I are guilty. We are guilty of our own sin and our own crimes against God. Romans 3:23 says, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (NLT).

There are no exceptions. Everyone here today has sinned. Everyone here has been selfish in some way. We are all guilty of sinning against God in some way.

Romans 5:16 tells us, “we are guilty of many sins” (NLT). You and I are not guilty of just one act of sin or one act of selfishness, but many sins. We have repeatedly rebelled against God’s standard over and over again throughout our lives.

Without Jesus, we are still guilty of all our sins. Without Jesus, we are not forgiven. We are like Barabbas because we are guilty of our sins.

We are condemned, like Barabbas

Number two, we are condemned, like Barabbas. Again Mark 15:7 says, One of the prisoners at that time was Barabbas, a revolutionary who had committed murder in an uprising. Without Jesus, we are condemned to die. Barabbas was facing the penalty of death because of his insurrection against the Roman government and the murders he had committed. Barabbas was condemned to die. He was going to be executed. He would receive the death penalty.

Again, here is where we are like Barabbas. Because of our sin and selfishness, we have received our own death penalty. Without Christ, we are condemned because of our sins. Without Jesus we are in our own prison of sin and our sentence is death.

This is why Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death…” (NLT). A wage is something you work for or earn. You and I have earned the penalty of sin. You and I have earned the death penalty.

Isaiah 59:2 says, “It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore” (NLT). Spiritually speaking, our death penalty means we are cut off from God. We don’t have fellowship with God. We don’t have peace with God.

Without Jesus, we are condemned. We deserve the death penalty. We are like Barabbas.

That’s the bad news, now let’s look at the good news.

We are freed, like Barabbas

Number three, we are freed, like Barabbas. What I mean by that is Barabbas was set free because Jesus would die in his place. The punishment Barabbas should have received was given to Jesus and the freedom Jesus should have received was given to Barabbas.

Mark 15:11 says, But at this point the leading priests stirred up the crowd to demand the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus. 12 Pilate asked them, “Then what should I do with this man you call the king of the Jews?” 13 They shouted back, “Crucify him!” 14 “Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?” But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!” 15 So to pacify the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.

A couple of observations.

  • Barabbas could not free himself, someone else would need to do it.
  • Barabbas deserved the death penalty, but he would be set free because of someone else.

We are like Barabbas in this. We could not free ourselves from our sin, someone else would need to do that. We deserved the death penalty, but we would be set free because of someone else. God’s Word has something to say about all this.

Romans 5:6 says, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners” (NLT). Barabbas was utterly helpless to set himself free. You were utterly helpless to set yourself free from your sin, but Jesus came at just the right time and died for you. He became your substitute.

Romans 5:8 says, “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (NLT). Jesus died for you when you did not love Him, like Him, or want Him. Jesus died for you while you were a sinner and selfish. This is a demonstration of God’s “great love.” This is no small thing that God has done for you.

1 Peter 3:18 says, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God…” (ESV). Barabbas was the unrighteous and Jesus is the righteous. You were the unrighteous and Jesus is the righteous. Jesus suffered for your sins so that you might be brought to God and have a fellowship with Him. This is called the great exchange. Jesus took your unrighteousness to the cross and gave you His righteousness so that you could have eternal life and truly know God

Conclusion

The story of Barabbas and his release from condemnation is a remarkable parallel to the story of every believer. We stood guilty before God and deserving of death (Romans 3:23; 6:23). But then, due to no influence of our own, Jesus was chosen to die in our stead. He, the Innocent One, bore the punishment we rightly deserved. We, like Barabbas, were allowed to go free with no condemnation (Romans 8:1). And Jesus “suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

What happened to Barabbas after his release? The Bible gives no clue, and secular history does not help. Did he go back to his life of crime? Was he grateful? Did he eventually become a follower of Jesus? Was he affected at all by the prisoner exchange? No one knows. But the choices available to Barabbas are available to us all: surrender to God in grateful acknowledgment of what Jesus has done for us, or spurn the gift and continue living apart from the Lord.