Communion Message
(I am Barabbas)
October 23-24, 1999
Pastor Don Sheley

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 

Paul reminds us that each time we share the communion we tell again the story of the cross in very visible form. Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished. And at the time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. Therefore, when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, "Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?" For he knew that they had handed Him over because of envy. While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, "Have nothing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him." But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said to them, "Which of the two do you want me to released to you?" They said, "Barabbas!" 

It's a common experience in life to have some man or woman cross our path, remain there for the briefest space of time, and then disappear and yet rouse in us an insatiable interest in them. We saw them only once maybe never again. They were to us but as ships that passed in the night and speak each other in passing, yet, we have woven romances around their words and set their faces, and many are very unseen, in the theater of our imagination. That mental attitude is common to us in regard to many names in the crowded world of the New Testament. We've all looked after the right young ruler wistful about his fate and maybe you've wondered, did he ever forsake his earthly goods for heavenly treasures? I wonder. We pondered over the sad heart of that master of hospitality, Simon, the leaper. We've had wondering thoughts about the good man of the house and we cannot resist speculation about the young man in the linen garment who fled out of the garden of Gethsemane. Who was he? And I'm sure that all of us have paused over the name of Barabbas and have wanted to know what manner of man he was. But we need not go for our purpose, or for any purpose, beyond the New Testament for the history and the character of Barabbas. 

You see his name is the first significant thing about him. He is Bar-abbas, or the son of the father, or the son of the master. You see his father was a teacher of the Jewish law, an expounder of its precepts, and he belonged to the religious aristocracy of his day. He had been trained in the tradition of Hebrew history and had been taught that to be a member of the commonwealth of Israel was the proudest privilege a man could enjoy. His childhood and his youth had been spent amid the influences of a home whose chief interests were the things of God, whose ambition was the steadfast advancement of the kingdom. And we must think of Barabbas in his youth with his heart dilating at the story of the glorious past of the people of God, but kindling with a passionate indignation of the thought that his nation was now subject to Roman, and his people and he were under their heel. 

The second significant thing we are told about him is that he made insurrection, and as Luke more precisely puts it, was cast into prison for a certain sedition made in the city. You see at the time of the entrance of Barabbas to his manhood Jerusalem was seething with discontent. They wanted to be delivered from the hand of the oppressor, from the tyranny of Rome, and hope deferred had made the heart sick. But the spirit of an unconquerable Hebrew, this Hebrew, Barabbas could not be broken; and in the holy city itself, and especially under the walls of the temple, insurrection was continually being plotted and sedition hatched. There was a fierce and defiant home-rule party in Judea and their name, the Zealots, and Barabbas was a Zealot. 

The third significant thing we're told of him is that he was a robber and had committed murder in the insurrection. Insurrection was a dangerous trade in any part of the Roman Empire, and the man who took part in it carried his life in his own hand. So Barabbas to the very last was no common thief or cutpurse, but he was a man of courage and he had chosen intrigue and plot to take the sword if necessary to kill the Romans and even give his life for his country. You see he was a hero. And the fourth and only other thing that we are told is that both by the priests and the people he was preferred over Jesus. Now this is not difficult to understand that choice. You see here's a man who belonged to the city. Here was a man who had adventured his life for Jewish independence. Here was a man who dared to raise revolt under the shadow of the pretorium, and although his years had been given to robbery and his hands stained with blood, yet to the inhabitants of Jerusalem he was their hero. Compared with Jesus crowned with thorns with the marks of His scourging fresh upon Him and standing bound before them; meek, unresisting, silent there He stood, and the crowd said give us our hero. We want Barabbas. So Barabbas passed out of his dungeon cell that night, most likely bewildered, and elated in the pride of his unexpected success, and Jesus they led to a cross. 

You see I'm Barabbas. I am the guilty one chained. I was chained in sin's prison guilty of sin, and with the wrath and the condemnation of God upon me, and Jesus went the cross to set me free. Can you think of Barabbas wallowing in that squalid pit knowing that soon his life would be taken, and all of a sudden someone comes to the mouth of the pit and says, Barabbas, you're free! Someone else is dying for you! Come out of the dungeon, you're free. You see Jesus went to the cross for Barabbas' freedom, and I've wondered, did Barabbas ever seek to find Jesus to tell Him thanks? I've wondered because when you go through the pages of church history Barabbas is a very common name. Did Barabbas ever go to church with the early Christians and identify with the Jesus who set him free? I don't know. All I know is this, he went free and Jesus went to Calvary. Maybe you're here today and you're chained within the shackles of sin, and you're bound with guilt and despair. You're the Barabbas that Jesus can set free. He can give you peace of heart. He can give you that freedom to love Him and to serve Him and to enjoy abundant life, that's what Jesus went to the cross to do for us. Today when you kneel you can say Jesus thank you for going to that cross. I need freedom and forgiveness for my sins. So I look at the table today as the table of freedom. I can rejoice with you that I've been set free from the shackles, the bondage of sin. Free to serve God and to love Him with all my heart, and for you the same, and thus let's celebrate the table of freedom today, shall we?

Let's kneel in God's presence. Lord Jesus it must have been a wondrous moment for Barabbas when in the pits of that cell he heard the voice that set him free. Many of us who kneel here this morning remember that day that the good news of the gospel came to us. We were in our prisons of sin and shame, and then we heard dear Jesus that You died to set us free, to give us forgiveness, and to make us a new creation in You. I remember that moment, and I thank you Lord Jesus for dying so I could be free of my sins. Thank you, thank you very much. Let's partake of the bread. And then the cup. Thank you dear Jesus, and everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?