Communion Message
(Envy drove them)
August 18-19, 2000
Pastor Donald Sheley

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered unto 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.

Matthew records for us this scene at His trial, it says: 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, "Who 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. Now that quiet simple sentence in this condensed report of Christ's appearance before Pilate has always arrested my mind. It's a statement by the evangelist of the inner judgment of Pilate. He had discerned the motives which lurked behind the air of justice on the part of the chief priests and the elders. He knew the men with whom he had to deal, but the sight of Christ and the short interviews that he had with Him convinced him, not only of Christ's innocence, but of His spiritual majesty.

But he was a man caught in a trap of his own past. Had his past been unstained maybe his action at that trial might have been different. Pilate discerned deeply the character of Christ. He was awed and touched by His greatness, but he knew that it was because of envy they had delivered Him. Now at first sight it seems insufficient reason to give for the crucifixion of Christ, that He was delivered out of envy. We have been accustomed to dwell on greater and more significant causes for the cross. Every student of history can now see that the cross was inevitable and that Christ's words, and His deeds, and His claims could not fail to bring Him into collision with the Jewish authorities and with the world in which He lived. Everyone knows that Christ longed for the cross and He viewed it as his goal and the consummation of His ministry. In fact, the Bible says He was straitened until His baptism was accomplished.

We all know that the simplest and noblest expressions of the gospel is that Christ came into the world to save sinners by the death of His cross. It was God who ordained the cross of Jesus Christ, for the Scriptures tell us that He was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. But of these great truths Pilate knew nothing. What he discerned was a truth that existed along side of them. He saw that it was envy eating like a cancer into the hearts of these men, breaking out at last into manifest corruption, which was the human motive for the crucifixion of Christ. Ah yes, other sins were leaguered with it, but envy was the foremost and the leading conspirator. It was envy that laid the first hand on Christ. You see the priests and the elders envied Christ--His reputation with the people. They envied Him for His marvelous powers and His authority over the hearts of men. They envied Him because of His gracious words on which the multitudes hung; His mastery of the Scriptures that had so confounded them. They envied His elevated life; His free and His gracious holiness, which awed and touched all men's hearts, cast them into fear. This envy drove them at length to crucify Christ.

Now the question is, what is envy? Envy must be distinguished from jealousy, although the one word and in common speech is often interchanged for the other. You see, jealousy is the child of love; love that believes itself wronged, injured, robbed of its do. But envy is the child of hate. Envy does not long to run the race and claim fellowship with those who excel. Envy does not seek the love and the well-being of the person envied. Envy is a gnawing hate, an inward grief, a wasting impatience of the spirit. It's the souring of the heart. It's the distemper of the soul. It's rottenness in the bones. Its work is to ruin, to undo, to blast the name and the fame of the one who is envied. And if it's compelled to praise, it always diminishes the person that's envied. Its moment of joy is when mischance or misfortune has overtaken the one that is being envied, and the Bible says the envy of their hearts brought Christ to the crucifixion.

It's hard for us to see how anyone could hate Jesus, but they did. Pure hatred, envy, caused the cross. The world has never changed, and this became so clear to me this week. We were in the process of preparing the parking lot for the winter months by having it resurfaced and relined. And thus, it was necessary for us to move the movement of traffic away from the building, and we had people helping out in the streets and so forth. But I was amazed as people drove by cursing our people and swearing in the most vicious of language, and all we were trying to do was to make things easier. But there is a hatred for Christ even in our own community. We have a gentleman who lives up the street and he's doing everything he can to circulate a petition amongst the 500 residents to have this church outlawed from its position and closed. He hates Christ. He hates Christianity, hates the church, hates the reason we're here. He doesn't want us. Men's hearts don't change until Jesus changes them. Right?

Thank God we can leave that world of hatred and that world of envy, and we can come to this beautiful moment and in love and in adoration to our wonderful Christ we can kneel in His presence. We love Christ. The world may reject Him, but we've chosen to love Him with all of our being. And let's worship Him now, shall we? Let's kneel together.

It's hard for us, dear Jesus, to try to figure out why people hate You, when all You did was works of graciousness and love and mercy; when all You did was manifest Thy glorious power in the healing and in helping. And yet, the world hates You as sinners, because Your righteousness exposes their unrighteousness; Your love outshines their hatred, and Your mercy is far more gracious than human judgment. We've chosen to love You, dear Jesus, not that we loved You first, for it was in Your love when we were so unlovable that You came to this world to die for us. In Your love You took our place and paid our penalty because sin's penalty was death. You died for us in our stead, dear Jesus, there at that cross. You shed Your precious blood for our cleansing. We bow before You on this beautiful day of worship. We love You dear Jesus. We honor You. We worship You. We praise You. Let's take the bread together...and then the cup. Wonderful Christ, blessed Redeemer, matchless Lord, our wonderful Savior--we worship You and we love You. And everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?