I would, maybe I should have titled it, You Are Barabbas, right? Because I think sometimes like we thinklike we language can actually diminish the impact of something, realizing that it's me actually, right? Like, and, but I think the we is important. It's not just me who's like Barabbas, but we're all Barabbas. So Barabbas is a picture of us because it's a picture of substitution. So sometimes we use the word substitutionary atonement, but I think everybody understands substitution. I think that everybody desires to do substitution in cases where someone they love is in a situation where they cannot help themselves.
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When a loved one is sick, a child is sick or unable to help themselves with something, you just wish that you could somehow switch places with them or that you could, yeah, climb inside their body and do it for them. But yeah, but most of the time we can't. And yet this is the miracle of the gospel that God did for us what we could not do for ourselves. And he substituted him for ourselves, for us. so that we could be saved. I think that that's, that's really incredible and really good news.
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But in order to understand that, you have to understand why you need to be saved. If somebody comes along and like, if I came in your office and I don't know, picked you up and carried you outside and said, you're welcome. You would be like, I'm maybe annoyed or mad at me for touching you. But if I explained to you that there's carbon monoxide poisoning and you're going to die, and you can't, you can't even see it or feel it, but you're going to die from it. And then you would realize what you were saved from. Well, now you're thankful. And that's kind of how it works, right?
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Like if I tell you, Hey, Jesus loves you. I mean, that's cool. It's nice to be loved, but lots of people love me. But if you tell me what the situation is and that Jesus loves me, and what does it mean that he loved me? Well, it means that he did something for me practically because of how he feels about me. Well, now that means something. me. I need a savior if I understand what I need saving from.
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And so, yeah, to understand that we are Barabbas, I mean, this is a biblical theme, that we are guilty. I mean, the cross isn't something that would have normally happened to somebody in Jesus' case, right? Somebody who hasn't actually done anything wrong. But the cross is something that would have happened to a guy like Barabbas, a guy who had murdered people and caused the insurrection and terrorized the city. So, yeah, Jesus taking his place, he's a guy who could really literally say, Jesus died for me. And now I'm free because of what he did.
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So, yeah, I think that this is an angle that I haven't actually heard a lot of people take with this. I have heard some. It's not like I'm the first, but I think it's an angle that most people miss in this passage.
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I think that honestly I really think people are getting sick it's like if I give you sugar at first it tastes good but if I keep giving you sugar eventually not only will it make you not not happy anymore but it's going to actually make you sick and uh and it could even have even long longer bigger problems I think that that's kind of where we're at as a society like I think that people know that this over -affirmation is not always true, right?
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In other words, he knew that he wasn't like this perfect person. And I think that there's a point in our society, and I think we're getting there, where people are kind of like, they've had the affirmation. Now they want to be called to greatness. They want to be called to something better. They want to experience transformation and improvement.
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And actually, I think the gospel is the most like legitimate and...equipped message to do exactly what we need. Because on the one hand, it's absolutely affirming. I mean, the fact that God so loved the world, that he loves you and he wants you to be with him forever. That's incredibly affirming that you are the treasure for which he was willing to give everything to purchase the world so he could have you. That's incredibly affirming. And yet it's not just like affirmation and that's all. It's not just, yeah, just, you know, sugary, sweet, and nothing else.
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What it is, is it says God loves you enough to accept you as you are, but he doesn't want you to remain as you are. And also the way you are, there's some problems with it, right? But he loves you and he wants to help you, right? He wants to, by the power of his spirit, bring about transformation in your life if you yield to him. And so what an affirming and challenging message at the exact same time. And I think that's exactly what we need.
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You know, the problem with a lot of this over -affirmation stuff is that it cuts both ways. So on the one hand, you'll get people affirming everything, but if ever you do something which is deemed unacceptable, there's no route to redemption. There's no route to forgiveness, right? You are canceled. You are in the category of undesirable, and that's where you will remain, you know, unless you atone for your sins by making some big public overture. And so the thing is that Jesus has died for our sins, and we can be transformed, and we expect great—basically, we expect growth and transformation from people who are in Christ, and we welcome it and applaud it. I just think it's exactly what we need, and I think it's actually what people's hearts actually long for.
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And he said that he kind of came to the end of it and realized that a lot of it's talk a lot. There's not a lot of substance to it. There's a lot of talk about like doing things that will change the world and help people, but there's not a lot of.action and he said the real turning point in his life was that he started looking into who are the people who are actually doing things in society to help people and love their neighbors and it turned out it was all christian organizations in new york city and then he started like looking back like he grew up in a rural town and like looking back at at the people he grew up with who were you know believers and just and he said he realized that maybe he had gotten it all wrong and that led him on this journey which eventually led to him becoming a christian wow which i thought it was just so incredible to hear this story but it gets to your point that the over affirmation thing has to but to what end right and he said that what he found about christianity that he liked also along with the truth and all that but that that christianity calls you to not just remain as you are yeah but to be transformed yeah yeah
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And it was from that time. And so what that did is it showed us, and it's kept now in the Israel Museum, which is their, their main museum there in, in Israel. And keep in mind,most people in Israel are not Christians, and yet they have this thing which validates the New Testament in their national museum. So it's a very important historical... And an occupier, Totally. It's a very important thing historically that they found this. It validates, verifies the historicity of the New Testament account. So Pontius Pilate, real guy, we know that from history, and especially this big stone, I've seen a copy of it.
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Oh, we're going to see Jesus' crucifixion. Our message is called Crowned with Thorns. And again, this is kind of like the Barabbas one where there's like this thing in the passage that I feel like most people who read it, even most people who teach it, they don't focus on, which I think they should. And that's what I'm going to talk about. The crown of thorns is symbol of the curse. And it says in Galatians chapter three, Jesus bore the curse of sin for us so we could receive what's called in the book of James, the crown of life.
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