Preached June 7, 2009
Matthew 27:1-10
Theme: The cross becomes very relevant to us when we remember three things: Jesus’ innocence, our sinfulness, and the Father’s sovereign provision.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
We come this morning to the twenty-seventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Its theme is the highest we could possibly consider; because it tells us of the death of the Son of God on the cross on our behalf.
We set foot, then, on what is truly sacred ground when we read these words at the beginning of chapter twenty-seven:
When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put Him to death. And when they had bound Him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor.
Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” And they said, “What is that to us? You see to it!” Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself. But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood.” And they consulted together and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in. Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who was priced, whom they of the children of Israel priced, and gave them for the potter’s field, as the LORD directed me” (Matthew 27:1-10).
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As we draw closer to Matthew’s testimony of the crucifixion of our Savior, these words help set our thinking in the right direction.
If viewed superficially, the cross of Jesus Christ would appear to be irrelevant to us. In fact, there are people today who dare to say that it couldn’t possibly have any relevance to people centuries later. Many men died horrible deaths in the past—some even upon a cross—and their deaths have little significance to us whatsoever. And Jesus’ death wouldn’t seem to be any more significant to us than theirs—unless we kept three vital things in mind.
First, we need to keep in mind the fact of Jesus’ absolute innocence. As the Bible presents Him, He stands out as unique from all other members of the human family in that He was sinless. He bore no sins of His own—and thus was qualified to bear the sins of mankind on Himself. The Bible says, “For He [that is, God the Father] made Him [that is, Jesus His Son] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). The relevance of Jesus’ death on the cross would easily slip past us if we fail to keep that in mind.
Second, we need to keep in mind that just as Jesus was absolutely innocent, we are absolutely guilty in the sight of God. The cross of Jesus is significant because the death that Jesus—the sinless Son of God—suffered upon it was the penalty for our sin! As the Bible again says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). We will fail to see the relevance of the cross unless we are careful to see it in the light of our own, disparately guilty condition before a holy God.
And finally, we need to keep in mind that our need to have a sinless Substitute pay the death penalty on our behalf was met through the sovereign plan of a holy God. The cross of Jesus was not some ‘accident’ of circumstance. It was the accomplishment of the purpose of a sovereign God—decreed in love before we were ever brought into existence—to rescue us from our our fallenness, and to restore us to Himself in holiness. As the Bible tells us, we were redeemed
. . . with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through faith in Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God (1 Peter 1:19-21).
These three things—Jesus’ sinlessness, our sinfulness, and God’s gracious purpose—all must be kept in mind if we are to appreciate the relevance of the cross as we should. And all three of these things are testified in this morning’s passage.
Let’s look at this passage in greater detail. And as we do, may the Holy Spirit help us to see—in a fresh way—the profound relevance of the cross of Jesus Christ. And more; may He help each one of us to make absolutely sure that our faith and hope truly are in God’s provision for us through our wonderful Savior.
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Now; first, we must always keep before us the fact of Jesus’ absolute innocence. And we see this in our passage this morning through . . .
1. THE DECLARATION OF THE MAN WHO BETRAYED HIM.
We’re told, “When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put Him to death (v. 1).
Their question was not whether or not they should put Him to death. They had already determined to do so. Rather, their question was how to go about it; since it was no longer lawful for them to do so themselves. The Jewish nation was under Roman occupation at the time; and the Roman empire had taken away from them the legal right to execute their own criminals (see John 18:31). They had to make their case to the Roman governor, in the hopes that he would execute Jesus for them. And so, we read that, “when they had bound Him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor” (v. 2).
And somewhere in the background stood Judas the betrayer—watching it all unfold. We might speculate what was going on in his mind. Judas was willing to betray Jesus to the chief priest and elders for whatever he could get; and they had already given him thirty pieces of silver for his wicked deed. But it may be that he also felt confident that Jesus would deliver Himself from their hands. After all, Judas saw Him heal the sick and the blind, cleanse lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons, and even quiet the winds and the waves of the sea! He had even watched as Jesus debated with the religious leaders and ‘turn the tables’ against them in every trap they tried to set for Him.
But as they led Jesus away—beaten and mocked—we read, “Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders . . .” (v. 3).
He felt sorry that he had delivered Jesus into their hands. But we shouldn’t mistake Judas’ “remorse” or “regret” for true repentance. In fact, the word that’s used to describe Judas’ attitude isn’t the word that the Bible normally uses for “repentance”. That word (metanoeō) means “to undergo a change of mind”. It speaks of a radical transformation in the whole inner-being of a person that leads him or her to change direction and do what is right. But the word that is used of Judas (metamelomai) means merely to have regrets about something or to be sorry that it happened.
A good illustration of the difference is found in 2 Corinthians 7:10; where Paul says, “For godly sorrow produces repentance (metanoeō) leading to salvation, not to be regretted (metamelomai). The kind of sorrow for sin that God gives, and that pleases Him, is one that leads to “repentance”; and such repentance, in turn, leads to salvation—which is not regretted. But mere “regret”, all by itself, leads to nothing.
That attitude of regret is often as far as many people go with respect to their sin. Sin always has consequences; and when those consequences come upon us, there’s always “regret”. We wish we’d never done what we did; and we feel sorry that we ever went down that road in the first place. But there’s no “salvation” in merely being “sorry”. There’s no “redemption” in merely having “regrets”. Such regret, if anything, is simply a painful part of the condemnation we feel for sin. But it’s no cure.
The cure only comes when we come to God and say, “Holy God in heaven, I have sinned against You! I hate the consequences of my sin; but most of all, I hate the fact that I have offended You! I have disobeyed Your commands! Wash me of my sin by the blood of Jesus; and help me turn away from it! Transform the set of my mind! Change my inner-man so that I obey You from now on!” But the Bible doesn’t suggest to us that Judas “repented” in that way at all. It seems to tell us is that he only “regretted” what he did, and nothing more. But what dreadful regret it was! It was regret so great, in fact, that it drove him to take his own life.
And here’s where the first of those important ‘three things’ comes in. Look at Judas’ testimony to the chief priests and elders: “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood” (v. 4a). There, we have the testimony of Jesus from the lips of the most notorious sinner in all of history. Jesus was innocent. And do you notice that the chief priests and elders didn’t respond by saying, “Oh; but you’re wrong, Judas! He’s not innocent at all! We have found Him guilty of crimes against God!” In fact, their own behavior testified to the truth of what Judas said; because even they were unable to find any consistent witnesses against Him. What’s more, even Pilate—as we will see later—testified to the truth of what Judas said; because he said, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person” (v. 24).
You and I cannot possibly appreciate the significance of the cross of Jesus unless we keep in our minds the fact that Judas himself bore witness to—that Jesus was absolutely innocent. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
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Now; this brings us to the next thing we must keep before us if we’re going to see the cross correctly; and that is our own, personal need for the cross. We need a sinless Sacrifice to have died in our place because of our own sinfulness before a holy God. We see this illustrated for us in this passage through . . .
2. THE SINFULNESS OF THOSE WHO DELIVERED HIM.
Note how hard-hearted the chief priests and elders were. We’re told that Judas—a man broken with sorrow and regret—comes to bring back the money they gave him. He said, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”
And if they had been good priests, they would have sought to help him obtain peace with God and deliverance from the guilt of his sin. And if they had been good leaders of the people, they would have sought to correct the injustice that they now learned they had been a party to. But that’s not what happened. They weren’t concerned about those things at all. They had only one concern; and that was to see Jesus put to death. And so, they told Judas, “What is that to us? You see to it!” (v. 4b). They were so determined to fulfill their murderous plan that they utterly ignored their God-appointed duties, and completely disregarded the issues of righteousness and justice!
We’re told that Judas—perhaps in a pathetic last-ditched effort to separate himself from his sin—”threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself” (v. 5). And then, look at how narrowly-focused the leaders became. They aren’t concerned about a sinful act of murderous betrayal they just paid for; but they were very concerned about the moral character of the money they used! “But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, ‘It is not lawful to put them in the treasury, because they are the price of blood'” (v. 6).
They were probably thinking of the Old Testament law that forbade accepting ‘sin money’ into the treasury of God. Deuteronomy 23:18 says, “You shall not bring the wages of a harlot or the price of a dog to the house of the LORD your God for any vowed offering, for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God.” These leaders rightly understood that the restrictions in that verse would extend to money paid out for murder. But they were more careful about making sure that murder-money wasn’t put into the temple, than they were about the murder itself! What an example of straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel (Matthew 23:24)!
And do you notice how they spoke of this money? They said that it was “the price of blood”. That was their name for it. But it had been their money in the first place! They themselves were the one’s who paid it out for the very bloodshed they were now agreeing to commit!
These chief priests and elders of the people were dreadfully covered-over with the guilt of this sin; and yet, they couldn’t even seem to see it! They were focusing on the minutia of the law and the fine points of religion; and were defiling the things of God in the process!
And this is simply reminder to us of another important thing we must remember when we look to the cross of Jesus—and that is our own helplessness in sin. You and I cannot appreciate the significance of the cross unless we admit our own need for it because of our sinfulness. It was our sins that put Him on the cross in the first place. We have to be able to say, in a very personal way, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
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Now; Matthew’s is the only one of the four Gospel that tells us about Judas’ tragic end. But Luke tells us more about it in the book of Acts. He writes that Judas “purchased a field with the wages of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his entrails gushed out. And it became known to all those dwelling in Jerusalem; so that field is called in their own language, Akel Dama, that is, Field of Blood” (Acts 1:18-19).
Matthew, however tells us that—because of their moral problem with the fact that this was blood money—the chief priests and elders “consulted together and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in. Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day” (vv. 7-8). Some have therefore concluded that these two accounts contradict one another. Matthew says that Judas hanged himself; while Luke says that he fell headlong and burst on the ground. Matthew says that the priest and elders bought the field; while Luke says that it was Judas who bought the field. Matthew says that the field got its name because of the fact that it was bought with blood money; while Luke says that it got it’s name because it was the place of Judas’ met his gruesome end.
But there’s no contradiction at all. Luke reports that Judas bought this field because it was bought by the chief priests and elders with the money he threw into the temple. After it was purchased, Judas apparently hung himself somewhere above it; and when the rope or branch broke, he fell upon it. And its name gained a double significance—both because of the blood-money that was used to purchase it, and because of the bloody event that occurred on it.
But as unpleasant as all these details are, they’re important to consider; because they illustrate for us the third important thing that we must always keep before us when we consider the cross—and that is that the cross of Jesus is the sovereign provision by a loving God for our salvation.
This passage shows us not only an illustration of the innocence of Jesus, and also the sinfulness of those who delivered Him up to death, but also of . . .
3. THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE FATHER WHO GAVE HIM.
When all was said and done, Matthew says that the purchase of this field is the fulfillment of God’s prophetic promise in the Old Testament: “Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, ‘And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who was priced, whom they of the children of Israel priced, and gave them for the potter’s field, as the LORD directed me'” (vv. 9-10).
Jeremiah eludes to this prophecy, in fragmentary ways, in Jeremiah 18:2-3; 19:1-13; and 32:8. But it’s fullest expression is in Zechariah 11:12-13. There, Zechariah prophetically plays the role of Israel’s shepherd. But the people were a disobedient and sinful sheep; and so, Zechariah—at God’s command—quits his role as a shepherd and demands his wages. Zechariah writes;
Then I said to them, “If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.” So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD for the potter (Zechariah 11:12-13).
Thirty pieces of silver isn’t much. To call it “that princely price” was to speak of it sarcastically. In Exodus 21:32, it was the price of a slave. And potters were very low on the social order; so to throw the money into the temple for the potter was to basically treat a contemptible sum of money in a contemptible way.
So; in picking up this money from the temple, and using it to buy the potter’s field, the chief priests and elders were fulfilling a remarkable prophecy concerning Jesus—the Shepherd whom the people of Israel despised and rejected. You have to wonder how these religious leaders and experts in the Old Testament law could have done all this without realizing what they were doing. And yet, they nevertheless did—and thus fulfilled a clear promise from God concerning His Son, that given some 550 years beforehand!
And this, again, reminds us of one more thing we need to keep before us when we think of the cross of Jesus. His coming is the fulfillment of the deliberate plan of our sovereign heavenly Father to provide for our need for a Savior. The Father graciously purposed to meet this need through His Son long beforehand, and fulfilled it exactly as He promised. Jesus “indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through faith in Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God (1 Peter 1:20-21).
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So; this important passage—the introductory verses to this great chapter of the crucifixion—illustrates for us (1) the innocence of our Savior, (2) the great guilt of our sin, and (3) the wonderful provision of a heavenly Father. And if you and I do not see the cross in the light of these three things, we will never see it in its fullest relevance.
May we, by God’s grace, see the cross of Jesus through these three great touch-points; and as a result, may the One who died on it for us be our glory forever.