1. Bible Study
April 11, 2012
The Rev. Dr. Floyd H. Flake
“The Coming Resurrection”
Matthew 27:20-26 (NLT)
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2. (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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3. (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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4. (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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5. (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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6.  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. 6

7.  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. 7

8.  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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9.  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. 9

10. - 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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11. - Jesus had to force His will on the
people while also subjecting Himself to
the superior will of God.
- 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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12. 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.
- 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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13. - To think that the acceptance assured
Christ that the Father’s smile was on
Him even while He was working and
struggling.
III. 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. 13

14. 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! 14

15.  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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16.  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. 16

17.  The three ways that you can overcome
your crucifixion and burial is:
• Wake up – deal realistically with the
issues that have traumatized your life and
the people that have caused you to be in
this predicament.
• 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. 17

18. 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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19. 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.
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