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Bible StudyApril 11, 2012

The Rev. Dr. Floyd H. Flake

“The Coming Resurrection”

Matthew 27:20-26 (NLT)

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(20) Meanwhile, the leading priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas to be released and for Jesus to be put to death.

(21) So the governor asked again, “Which of these two do you want me to release to you?”

The crowd shouted back, “Barabbas!”

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(22) Pilate responded, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?”

They shouted back, “Crucify him!”

(23) “Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?”

But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!”

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(24) Pilate saw that he wasn’t getting anywhere and that a riot was developing. So he sent for a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. The responsibility is yours!”

(25) And all the people yelled back, “We will take responsibility for his death—we and our children!”

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(26) So 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.

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When we consider the text, Jesus is in a place where He is being judged by Pilot. In the background He is being judged by the voices of the people who are saying crucify Him! Pilot was in a tight spot because of his uncertainty about why Jesus should be crucified. Nevertheless, for the sake of political expectancy, he decided to listen to the voice of the crowd rather than standing boldly on what he believed.

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It is of interest that the crowd wanted Barabbas to be released in spite of all that Jesus had done. Lives had been saved, and people raised from the dead. Jesus fed people and had gone out of His way to bless people like the Samaritan Woman. His humility is expressed, like the woman with the issue of blood touched Him. So from the prospective of some, there was no reason for Him to be persecuted.

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Our Biblical lesson in relations to Jesus’ live and works always pointed to a coming resurrection. Of course Jesus could not be resurrected unless he died.

It was known before His death that on the third day He would be raised again. So, Jesus spent His time with His disciples, getting ready for the day of His death, teaching them what their responsible would be after he was buried and resurrected.

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However, the disciples would not allow themselves to contemplate the Lord’s violent death. They could not conceived what life would be like after Jesus’ death, nor could they totally comprehend the notion of His resurrection.

Four points of focus as it relates to Jesus' resurrection:

I. The resurrection intimates the close of a hard life.

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- Jesus’ human life on earth was a hard life – that is the best word for it because human life is hard when it involves constant HUMILIATION and SELF- RESTRAINT. He could not avoid the kind of exaggerated statements that were made about Him. The Bible says, He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. Life is hard for anybody who is cabined, confined, and constricted.

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- Jesus had to force His will on the people while also subjecting Himself to the superior will of God.

II. Resurrection lifts the thoughts over the last struggle which will be His death on the cross.

- The best thing we can do as we try to imitate Christ and to effect His will on the people we are called to minister to, is to understand that this is a calling

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that goes well beyond who we are in the Body.

- Jesus was taken from judgment hall to judgment hall because decisions were made about whether He should live or die.

III. The resurrection what a sign of His acceptance of His work.

- His release from the grave was the intimation of divine approval and the occasion for giving Him His trust of the work of saving humanity.

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- To think that the acceptance assured Christ that the Father’s smile was on Him even while He was working and struggling.

IV. The resurrection was the time when He could become the spiritual power that God wanted Him to be.

- His spiritual power was greater than the power of the human beings who thought that they had seen the last of Him.

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While He was in the body, the body seemed both the help and the hinder. It was necessary to help for a time, but Jesus longed the risen and ascended life in which He could be the unhindered spiritual power to be redeemed and to save humanity. However, those who were against Him – the rulers and the synagogue leaders caused the crowds to come against Him. So, the same people who celebrated Him and bowed before Him, now cried out…Crucify Him!

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So, they hung Him on the cross and buried him in the tomb, with the assumption that He would never rise again. Thus, hampering the wonderful expectation of those who had come to believe, not only in His resurrection from the dead, but their resurrection as well.

Jesus arose on Easter Sunday morning, not just for Himself, but that we all might be resurrected as well.

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I Peter 1:3 says, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by His great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation.”

Since we all have had some measure of crucifixion to occur in our lives, we must do as Jesus did. If you feel that you have been buried under the heavy weight of trials and tribulations, there is still the possibility of overcoming it.

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The three ways that you can overcome your crucifixion and burial is:

1. Wake up – deal realistically with the issues that have traumatized your life and the people that have caused you to be in this predicament.

2. Get up – too often we give up so easily when we have had to face difficulties. So, we begin to think that death is better than life.

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But, the resurrection of Jesus helps us to understand that we must get up, and take off our burial cloths, and let God guide us to the fulfillment of the promises that He has made to us.

3. Rise up – You can’t stay in the same predicament and expect to overcome. You must rise up above the circumstances of the past pains, sufferings, and difficulties that you have experienced.

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Rise as high as you can knowing that the hope of your resurrection is predicated upon you continuing to go as high as God has destined you to go.