"His Blood Be On Us"

Introduction and Review of Mark 15:6-15

0:05 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, November 26, 1989, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us turn together for the reading of the Word of God to the 15th chapter of Mark's Gospel, the Gospel of Mark in chapter 15.

0:31 And I shall read again in your hearing words which were expounded several weeks ago Mark chapter 15, verses 6 through 15.

0:49 Recording the activity of Pilate when our Lord appears before him for the second time, Mark writes,

1:13 And the multitude went up and began to ask him to do as he was wont to do unto them. And Pilate answered them, saying,

1:33 For he perceived that for envy the chief priests had delivered him up. But the chief priests stirred up the multitude, that he would not be able to do as he was wont to do unto them. And Pilate answered them, That he should rather release Barabbas unto them. And Pilate again answered and said unto them, What then shall I do unto him whom ye call the king of the Jews?

1:57 And they cried out again, Crucify him! And Pilate said unto them, Why? What evil hath he done? But they cried out exceedingly, Crucify him!

2:12 And Pilate, wishing, To content the multitude, released unto them Barabbas, and delivered Jesus, whom he had scourged, when he had scourged him, to be crucified. And now turning to the parallel passage in the 27th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew 27.

2:39 Follow, please, as I read, beginning with verse 21 and concluding the reading with verse 26. But the governor answered and said unto them, Which of the two will ye that I release unto you? And they said, Barabbas. Pilate said unto them, What then shall I do unto Jesus, who is called Christ?

3:07 They all say, Let him be crucified. And he said, Why? What evil hath he done? They cried out exceedingly, Saying, Let him be crucified.

3:23 So when Pilate saw that he prevailed nothing, but rather that a tumult was arising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man, see ye to it. And all the people answered and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.

3:54 Then released he unto them Barabbas. But Jesus he scourged and delivered to be crucified.

The Setting of the Frightening Words: Pilate's Handwashing

4:05 Now let us ask God by the Holy Spirit to come and to sober our minds and hearts before some of the most sobering words recorded in all of Holy Scripture that God will enable us to understand them. To feel their weight and to respond in faith and obedience to them. Let us pray. Our Father, we have been reminded in our consecutive reading this morning that all Scripture is breathed out of your very heart and mind and mouth.

4:51 And therefore we bow before the authority of Scripture because it is. The out-breathing of your own revealed will. And as we come to portions this morning that are frightening, that are sobering, that are staggering in their implications, we pray that you by the Spirit would drive all of the native giddiness and lightness from our minds and cause us to be those described by the prophets, the prophet Isaiah, to whom you would look with favor even such as tremble at your word. Send the Spirit upon preacher and people alike to this end, we pray, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

5:48 Now in our studies of the Gospel of Mark, we have discovered that the second appearance before Pilate, the Roman governor, marked the third and final aspect of our Lord's civil trial. And it was during this second appearance before Pilate, following the brief appearance before Herod's court, as recorded in Luke 23, 8 to 12, that the focus is placed on the established custom of releasing a prisoner at the Passover season. And so in opening up the Passover season, the passage in Mark, verses 6 through 15, I did so with the thought of that custom dominating the approach to the passage. We considered the custom described in verse 6 of Mark 15, the custom implemented in verses 7 to 14, and then the custom culminated in verse 15. We then began to note some of the great and valuable principles contained in this portion of the Passion narrative. And we noted, first of all and supremely, that in this custom of releasing a convicted prisoner at the Passover season,

7:17 God has set before us a marvelous picture of the very heart of the Gospel of the grace of God. Barabbas, the convicted insurrectionist, the convicted murderer, Barabbas, the one laden with proven guilt, is set free, while the innocent Christ, innocent before the bar of Almighty God, declared innocent before Pilate and even Herod, the innocent one is condemned to die, while the guilty and the condemned one is set free. And in those, in those realities, I say, is a marvelous picture of the Gospel of the grace of God in which Christ dies the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. We then went on to note that in this passage and in the interaction of the various actors within it, we find the most wretched and foul basis on which to build any human friendship. In the parallel passage in Luke 23, 12, we are told that Pilate and Herod up till this time were at enmity with one another. They stood in an adversarial relationship,

8:43 but on the occasion of their agreement with reference to rejecting the claims of Christ, they became friends from that very day. And any friendship formed on the basis of that friendship, of mutual determination, to stand against Christ and His claims, is a friendship founded on the most wretched and foul basis imaginable. And then we noted thirdly in this incident the pathetic picture of a man violating his own conscience, respecting Christ, in order to please men and to save himself, and his own personal political career. Everything in Pilate tells him Jesus is innocent. Everything within him wants to release him as an innocent man. But violating his conscience, violating the agreed judgment that comes back from Herod, running roughshod over the warning of his own wife, who that very night, had been terrified with torturous dreams about this one that she calls an innocent man, he nonetheless caves in to the pressure of the crowd, and to quiet the crowd,

10:11 violates conscience and hands Christ over to them. And he becomes then the prototype of every man, woman, boy or girl, who violates his conscience about the person, and claims of Christ, under peer pressure, under the pressure of sparing one's own hide, under the pressure of advancing one's own career and one's own plans and purposes. And there is set before us pathetic Pilate, for I know not how else to describe him. And then we saw finally the horrible nature and fruit of the sin of envy.

10:56 Even this godless, unprincipled Roman pagan saw through the charade of the so-called accusations of the chief priests and the leaders of Israel. And we are told in Mark 15 that he knew that for envy they had delivered him up. He was stealing their...

11:20 And their envy burned until it cut a conduit in their own hearts, which ran this murderous spirit that became thirsty for the blood of the Lord Jesus. Now today we take up our final strand of exposition and application from our Lord's second appearance before Pilate, and our attention will be riveted upon the additional light shed upon the incident recorded in Mark 6, 15, 6 through 15, light that is shed from Matthew chapter 27. And our attention will be focused particularly upon the words of verse 25. And all the people answered and said, His blood be on us and on our children. One writer has said there is no more fearful prayer recorded in the history of mankind if these words are regarded as words of imprecation and therefore a prayer. Then perhaps this writer is not far from the mark

12:44 when he says that there is no more fearful prayer recorded in the history of mankind than the prayer, His blood be on us. on our children. All who have meditated upon these words feel the chill of rashness by their stark defiance of God by their coarse and hearty even to unborn generations. His blood be on us and our children. And as we focus our attention upon these words this morning, please note with me first of all the setting of these frightening words. And then having considered that, we will look at the substance of these frightening words and then thirdly the response of God to these frightening words. First of all then the setting of these frightening words.

14:05 You will notice the text begins with these words and all the people answered and said. These words were a response to something that had gone before. And if we are to understand them we must be sensitive to the setting to which they were a response or what Matthew says is an answer. As the Jews cry for Barabbas to be released and for Jesus to be crucified, Pilate is desperately seeking to release Jesus as an innocent man.

14:49 However as we have noted in our review against his conscience he finally decides to cave in to the mob pressure. But precisely at that point in the presence of those whole assembled crowd he calls most likely for a basin of water and very deliberately and sanctimoniously he washes his hands in the presence of that entire multitude. Notice verse 24. He took water and washed his hands before the multitude.

15:33 This was something done for public show and declaration. He washes his hands before the multitude and he accompanies that symbolic act with these words I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man see ye to it. Now being governor of that area Pilate was familiar with the practices of the Jews. He had to be if he was to rule and to administer his domain with any degree of efficiency.

16:15 And he would have known for there is no indication that this was a custom practice in Roman courts that this was of peculiar significance to the Jews in the context where innocent blood had been shed. And the practice has its tap roots way back in Deuteronomy chapter 21 and verse 6 in this strange requirement which God made to cover circumstances where a murdered individual was found but no witnesses to the murder could be brought forward to establish who the murderer was. And God mandated that certain things be done in order that the town nearest the place where the murdered man fell be cleared from the charge of being guilty of the blood of that particular murdered individual. Notice how the chapter begins if one be found slain in the land which the Lord thy God gives thee and it be not known who has smitten him. And this ritual was ordained of God in which an innocent victim

17:43 a heifer was brought down to that place its neck broken and in conjunction with ridding itself of the guilt of innocent blood notice verse 6 and all the elders of that city who are nearest unto the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley and they shall answer and say our hands have not shed this blood neither have our eyes seen it. And so this ritual was a symbolic declaration of innocence from any culpability in the incurring of guilt in the face of murder. And this is something of what is recorded in the Psalms in Psalm 26 6 in Psalm 73 in which the Psalmist speaks of encompassing the altar of God as one who had washed his hands one who could declare that he was innocent of any just accusation of being a murderer. And so Pilate understanding the Jewish mindset Pilate desiring to release Jesus crying out as we've read today

19:11 in both Mark and in Matthew what evil has he done you've brought no substantial charges and Ty and Herod both declare him to be innocent of anything worthy of death and therefore I will now symbolically declare that if there is any blood guiltiness it does not rest upon me. So the Jews understood not only by Pilate's words asking them what evil has he done but now by clearing himself in this symbolic way and then attending it with these words I am innocent I am scot free of this blood or the variant reading the blood of this innocent man the Jews were very conscious of the struggles going on in Pilate's conscience. They sense that he is ambivalent on the one hand no evidence is compelling him to give the death sentence but on the other hand they are determined to have the blood of Jesus of Nazareth and as Pilate is torn between pleasing his constituency and maintaining his own place

20:38 and rank in the echelon of Roman rule and being true to his own conscience freshly agitated by the visit of his tormented wife and her recent dreams they are concerned that if Pilate cannot reconcile this matter and rid himself of any culpability in this act they might not win the day and so in doing what he did and in saying what he did Pilate was throwing the whole issue as it were into the court of the Jews hands see ye to it the irony is that's the very language they used a few hours before when a self condemned Judas came and met them in the temple area and said I am guilty of betraying innocent blood and threw down what they said to him see thou to it the exact same construction in the original see thou to it that's your concern Judas not ours now they have those very words thrown into their ears by Pilate who says as Judas declared him innocent though Pilate was not aware of it so I now declare him innocent that's why I'm washing my hands

22:07 innocent blood is about to be shed and I will not be charged with the guilt of that blood he was indirectly but unmistakably telling the Jews that they will have their wish how can he be charged with blood if none is to be shed so he is indirectly but unmistakably telling the Jews alright I've came in under the pressure you'll have your way he will be crucified but I wash my hands of the whole thing I'm innocent of his blood and then he was also openly announcing that he was coerced and that he does not really desire the death of Jesus and that is not just an inference from that passage it is clearly declared by the Holy Spirit in Acts 3 and verse 13 when Peter is preaching he says the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the God of our fathers has glorified his servant Jesus whom you delivered up and denied before the face of Pilate when he had determined to release him Pilate had determined when he was true to his conscience to release him but he did not release him and he was openly announcing

23:35 that he was coerced and he does not really desire the death of Jesus now as Pilate attempts to pronounce a verdict of innocence upon himself he is attempting something that is absolutely futile no man can declare himself his own judge if that were so then every criminal would declare himself innocent and free himself from prison or other forms of incarceration it will take more than Pilate's little ritual and Pilate's words to clear him in the court of heaven no Pilate must die and go to judgment and Pilate shall answer to the judge of the universe for his unjust act for his pathetic cowardice but his effort to suspend the burden of guilt for the murder of Jesus does indeed set the stage for these frightening words now see if their significance comes through a bit more clearly sensing the ambivalence of Pilate sensing his declaration that he's caving in and yet he wants Jesus to be declared innocent they then respond

The Substance of the Frightening Words: Self-Imprecation

25:02 with these frightening words of Matthew 27-25 his blood be upon us and upon our children now having considered the setting of the words now secondly the substance of these frightening words who spoke them secondly what do they mean who spoke them verse 25 and all people answered and said now this does not mean that each and every person in the mob each and every member of the Sanhedrin for we know from Luke 23 50 and 51 that there was one such as Joseph of Arimathea who did not consent to his death Luke tells us there may have been several other members of the Sanhedrin the chief priests and the scribes and the elders who did not cry out crucify him his blood be upon us and our children there may have been a few exceptions in the official body of the Sanhedrin there may have been mingled in that mob some true believers

26:30 there may have been mingled in that mob some who were beginning themselves to be compelled by the majesty of the silence of the suffering one who are beginning with Pilate to be amazed that with all these accusations hurled upon him he stands in the majesty of a man with a conscience void of offense to God and to man so when the text says that all the people answered it does not mean that every last single individual in the Sanhedrin and every single individual in the mob but what it means is this that the vast multitude in its corporate voice spoke these words we might say representative Israel officially and publicly spoke these words and all the people answered and said but now notice what do the words themselves mean if the vast multitude of the Sanhedrin in the crowd gathered spoke them if these are the words of representative Israel officially and publicly declaring his blood be on us and on our children

27:58 what do they mean well if we go back to Pilate's words if Pilate's words I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man or innocent of this blood if those words mean I have no boot upon me for the death of Jesus then the meaning of the words of the crowd is fixed and unmistakably clear in its context the cry his blood and our children was nothing less than the open defying shameless act of self imprecation that is they were saying you are vacillating about this matter of who will if against you give the decree that Jesus be crucified according to our corporate cry repeatedly expressed wish you have shown your ambivalence in your trouble by bringing in the basin of water by washing your hands by declaring your innocence Pilate let us set your mind at rest if you are holding

29:26 and to the cohort take him out put him to death by means of crucifixion if the lie doing the decree of death by crucifixion is any scruple concerning where the guilt we set your mind at rest we upon us culpability is death a crucifixion we are willing to have it all be upon us is a synonym for the guilt of his murder upon us and then they impute that guilt to their living and even unborn progeny when they say the guilt of his death not only be upon us but also on our children living and yet unborn so it is in their blind rage in their unquenchable thirst they cry out

30:50 the brash and irresponsible recklessness hear our children as if to assure Pilate that all his reservations are groundless they say the guilt will not upon ours broaden them with the shoulders of our children and unborn generation and that is the meaning of these frightening words Lenski the Lutheran commentator summarizes them with these words something demoniacal possesses these Jews as far as the blood which Pilate dreads to stain his hands is concerned these Jews make light of it they offer to take it completely off the governor's hands and to load it upon themselves that implies that they assume all the guilt that they make themselves liable for any punishment that may follow that they will face God's justice and suffer his wrath and to this sacrilegious declaration they even add their children

God's Response: Guilt Charged and Punishment Inflicted

32:19 all future generations of Jews why did these Jews have to challenge God's justice in so horrible a way why did they not keep still Pilate indulge in his little performance with his little water basin was the devil ridding them so completely that they cared not what damnation they called down upon themselves I say these are frightening words and having examined the setting of these frightening words the substance of the frightening words now thirdly the response of God to these frightening words the question is this did God take their words seriously were the words so brashly and irresponsibly spoken that God did not recommend take them serious make them the basis of his dealing with these Jews now listen to me very carefully pushing to one side all potential charges of anti-Semitism and Gentile obligatory the word of God is clear in its answer to this question did God take their words seriously and the answer

33:48 of scripture comes in two categories in the guilt of this sin being really charged punishment for this sin being repeatedly inflicted upon them the question then is this when they said hear from your fears we take all upon ourselves children the question is did God in heaven and take them seriously and hold them to the answer of scripture is an absolutely unequivocal yes God took them seriously and we see it in two categories of evidence the guilt of this sin is repeatedly charged to them and the punishment for this sin is repeatedly inflicted upon them and that is the teaching of scripture open your Bibles please to consider the evidence for as you've heard again and again in this place he who asserts must prove and to prove this assertion is a relatively easy thing for the witnesses are not one or two or three but there are no fewer than seven or eight distinct witnesses

35:16 in one book of the Bible alone in the book of the Acts of the Apostles and I'd ask you to turn now as I read with very little comment a number of sermons or portions of a number of sermons preached in many different settings in which the Jews are repeatedly charged with murdering with killing with crucifying with being guilty of the blood of the Son of God in Acts chapter 2 Peter stands to preach on the day of Pentecost and after giving an initial explanation concerning the unusual things that were going on in assuring the people they had not been bending their elbows from sun up until nine in the morning and therefore drunk but this was indeed a fulfillment of the ancient prophecy of Joel the prophet you men of Israel here these words Jesus of Nazareth the man approved of God unto you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you even as you yourselves know him being delivered up by the determine

36:44 if counsel and foreknowledge of God ye by the hand of enslaved. Omit the phrase by the hapless men and the sentence is this, you did with impale the very Jesus who was approved of God in their midst. Then in verse 36, he comes back with the charge again in the same sermon. Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God hath made him both Lord and now he's going to identify him in an unmistakable manner. This Jesus who you as many of you know the subject is bound up in the verb in the Greek language and for extra emphasis

38:03 a pronoun is used and it's as though Peter eyes Jesus the Christ in this way. This Jesus whom you Roman soldiers were the instruments in one sermon. Acts chapter 3. Peter is preaching again in another setting. A man has been healed. Great disturbance has come upon the occasion of his healing. It upset matters in the temple when a man was doing a holy jig, leaping and jumping and blessing and praising God and this caused a stir and Peter is asked to respond or Peter does respond as he sees the multitude gathering full of people. Verse 11 of Acts 3 now verse 12 and when Peter saw it he answered and said unto the people you men of Israel why do you marvel at this man or fasten ye your eyes upon us as though by our own power or godliness we made him to walk. The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob the

39:28 God of our fathers has glorified his servant Jesus. Now notice the verbs with which he charges these Jews in conjunction with the death of Jesus. Notice them now. He has glorified his servant Jesus whom ye deliver denied before the face of Pilate when he had determined to release him but you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted unto you Barabbas and killed. Surely they deny the prince of life. Yes he says in verse 7. I know that in ignorance you did it.

40:40 The prince of life. Now chapter 5. The apostles were imprisoned. God says I don't like this arrangement. I want them out preaching. So we read in verses 17 to 20 of chapter 5 that the high priest rose up and all that were with him they were filled with jealousy laid hold on the apostles put them in public ward an angel set them loose and said go and speak to the apostles. Speak to the people the words of this life. Now they begin to preach again. In verse 26 we read then went the captain with the officers and brought them but without violence for they feared the people lest they should be stoned and when they had brought them and set them before the council and the high priest asked him. Now notice this is the Sanhedrin. The very group that stood and cried

41:34 and said and Peter in his earlier sermons crucified him. You impaled him. You murdered him. You killed the prince of life. Now the message is getting through to them and they don't like it. And they said we strictly charge you not to teach in his name and behold you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring man's blood upon all the story. It's Peter that are trying to. But Peter incident said we must obey God rather

42:34 than men. The God of fathers raised up Jesus. Whom ye slew on a tree. Do something that's not already done. You slew him. You put him in the place of the accursed one. This had peculiar significance to the Jews. Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree. And so Peter is at word pride as one in Jerusalem. So outside the city wall you

43:38 had him impaled. It's a common criminal dying under the Anathema of God. He charges them with guilt in the death of Jesus. Now in Acts chapter 10.

43:54 Peter is preaching to a group of Gentiles. Nowhere near Jerusalem now. He's up there in Caesarea. In the household of Cornelius and what does he say. Verse 39 as he preaches to Cornelius in his household. We are witnesses of all things which he did. That's what he says. Now we have some witnesses that are saying the same of this man. This is Peter. Not only is he preaching to the world but Which he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom of them are you? You see, Peter is not at all someone might accuse him of being the first promoter of anti-Semitism among Gentiles. In his Gentiles, he came on a tree. It was a Jew, Peter, of such native Jewish, that the only reason he was preaching in this

44:53 Gentile household was because God gave him a vision, repeated it several times, and sent other men to him by means of a vision. And yet he is dealing with facts. And the facts are that when they said, His blood be upon us and upon our children, God took their word seriously, and the deeds that accompanied that word. Then Acts 13, for our last witness from the book of Acts, Paul, the great apostle, the zealot in terms of Pharisaic religion.

45:31 Before his conversion, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, sharing in the spirit that cried out on that day before Pilate, away with him, crucify him. And though the Lord had gone back to heaven, he did the next best thing. He found his people and tracked them down and killed them and committed them to prisons. And he never forgot it.

45:53 That's why he said later, who before was a murderer and a blasphemer. He never forgot the word. Saul, Saul, why prick you? This is all me.

46:08 He couldn't get his head. So he said, the next best thing, I'll get his people and put them out of the way.

46:19 Well, now this man, having been converted, is preaching to his fellow Jews. He begins in Acts 13, 16. And Paul stood up and beckoning with a hand, said, men of Israel and ye that fear God, hearken. And then, as so often in the preaching recorded in the synagogue situation, he gives us an synopsis of various parts of Old Testament history.

46:44 But now notice what he says in verses 27 to 29. For they that dwell in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor the voices of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. And though they found no cause of death in him, yet asked they of Pilate, that he should be slain.

47:17 Now, brethren, there are one, two, three, four, five, six, seven witnesses from the book of Acts in which the apostolic preachers had no reservation whatsoever upon that generation of the Jews that cried, his blood be upon us and upon our children. And if we had time, and time is getting away quickly, and I cannot turn. I cannot turn to the pivotal passage in the epistles, is 1 Thessalonians 2, 14-16, in which Paul is comforting the believers concerning their sufferings, and speaks of the Jews and describes them as those who killed the Lord Jesus. And again, it's an unusual construction in the original. Who the Lord is Jesus.

48:13 It was the Lord they killed. The Lord himself, a true. It is that one whom they killed. What was God's response to the words of guilt being charged to themselves?

48:34 Unless with arrogance we would insult God in his word, the answer is clear. The guilt of murdering the Son of God, Jesus the Lord, the Prince of Life, is repeatedly charged to the Jews by Jews, not Gentiles. Not a one of those charges I've read comes from the lips. Of a Gentile.

49:00 But you see, because facts are facts, it doesn't matter.

49:05 It's of Jews.

49:14 They asked for his blood. They were determined to have his blood. And they said, the guilt of it be upon us and our children. And not only then is God's response to the frightening words seen in the guilt of the sin repeatedly charged to them, but the punishment for that sin repeatedly inflicted upon them.

49:35 And here again, I must hasten over the biblical materials. Luke 29-16, Matthew 21-33 and following. And in our own Gospel of Mark, chapter 12, verses 1-12, our Lord gives the parable of the owner of the vineyard, who comes seeking fruit and finally sends his own dear son. But those who were the keepers of the vineyard killed him.

50:01 And it was in the killing of the son that the vineyard was taken away from them and given to others. And in that parable, I'll read it to you. Our Lord is telling us what is opened up in Romans 9-11, that in the history of redemption it is in conjunction with Israel's crowning sin of rejecting Messiah, that God takes the kingdom from Israel as a nation and gives it to the Gentiles. And though there is an election, a remnant according to the election of grace among true Israel or ethnic national Israel, religious Israel.

50:39 Yet no longer are they the peculiar conduit and the particular vehicle of God's redemptive purposes. And in the process of doing what he did in taking the kingdom from them and giving it to others, the whole complex of events culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem are part and parcel of God's activity in fulfilling that purpose. And so commentators have very perceptively picked up on this. Edersheim, himself a converted Jew, wrote, But here in answer to Pilate's words came back that deep, that hoarse cry, His blood be on us, and God help us on our children. Some thirty years later, and on that very spot was judgment. Pronounced against some of the best in Jerusalem, and among the 3,600 victims of the governor's fury, of whom not a few were scourged and crucified right over against the praetorium where Christ was condemned to death, were many of the noblest citizens of Jerusalem.

52:03 A few years more, the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., and hundreds of Christians, and hundreds of Christians, and hundreds of Christians, and hundreds of Christians, and hundreds of Christians, and hundreds of Christians, and hundreds of Christians, and hundreds of Christians, and hundreds of Christians, and hundreds of Christians, had come across as poor Jewish mangled bodies within sight of Jerusalem, and still have these wanderers seem to bear from century to century, and from land to land that burden of blood, and still does it seem to weigh on us, and on our children.

52:34 Albert Barnes, commenting on the same passage, says that in Josephus's account, the Jewish historian of what happened during that destruction of Jerusalem and in some of the other events leading up to it, that the blood flowed so freely from Jewish bodies impaled on crosses that it actually quenched some of the surface fires that were burning in the city. And while God in the day of judgment will deal with every cruel, heartless, unprincipled Jew hater, with every Hitler and every boy and girl in the schoolyard, that because a little boy had as his last name, a distinctively Jewish name, called him Tyke and Christkiller, God will deal with all that wickedness. We must nonetheless face the facts that God, took their word serious.

Refuting Anti-Semitism: The Grace of God

53:41 It is proven by the multiple charges brought against them and by the history of God's judgments upon them. Now then comes the great question. Is not such teaching, Pastor Martin, the root and soil, the sun and the rain which creates and sustains the gnarled, ugly, thorn-filled tree of antisemitism? Gas chambers, French burials, the angry taunts in the schoolyard, the answer of the Bible and of the history of God's true people is a resounding NO!

54:43 This teaching fogged condemned attitudes and actions of men in respect to Jews.

55:01 None of that is fed by this teaching. First, the guilt laid upon us. The ones who spoke of it were Jews, not Gentiles. I've already made that point, so you cannot say that antisemitism is the fruit of a Gentile attempt to somehow show prejudice to Jews.

55:25 It was Peter the Jew who said, you crucified him and to bring his blood upon us. He parries it very easily by saying, no you've already done it. You slew him, hanging him on a tree. You'll notice they didn't answer and debate him.

55:41 Further, They were Jews who loved their fellow Jews and were seeking at great cost to themselves to see them brought to faith and repentance. Peter was willing to be thrown in prison that he might preach to his fellow Jews. Paul said, I have continual heaven rule for my brethren, my kinsmen. I could wish myself a curse from Christ.

56:09 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God that they may be saved. And so they persecuted and hounded him from city to city. Where was the priest? In the next city.

56:22 To the synagogue to preach to the Jews. And it was Paul who said the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first and also to the Gentiles. Further, while at times so-called Christendom, often the ungodly hybrid of church and state, has officially persecuted Jews, God's true people have always. He sought to win them to faith and repentance in spite of their unusual hardness and impenitence.

56:55 Why? Because of two basic reasons. We know that before the bar of infinite holiness and inflexible justice, there is no Jew nor Greek. We stand condemned.

57:10 The whole argument of Paul in the first three chapters of Romans. Now we...

57:17 That whatsoever... Things the law...

57:19 It saith to them that are under the law, whether they have in it remains of its writing upon the heart in creation or by a special revelation whatsoever thing the law says, it says that ever may be stopped and all the world be guilty before God. We stand uneven.

57:50 We stand in our guilt. And if we have come to see in the impaled...

57:58 Tangled body of Jesus, in the frightening specter of his bruised face, in the spittle mingled with blood, in the blackened heavens, in the cry of dereliction, if we've come to see, that's God's Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world, but dying for us, buried with the Jew in our common guilt. We stand with the Jew in our common sin. And there is not a shred of any fuel in the heart of a true Christian, being true to what he is, in the consciousness of his guilt.

The Climactic Evidence: Pentecost and the Promise of Forgiveness

58:45 There's nothing... ...semitism, but the climactic and the most powerful evidence that this truth is not that which creates that gnarled, thorny tree of anti-semitism is found right there in Acts 2.

59:04 And I want you to turn there with me for just a few moments. Peter, in that opening sermon on the day of Pentecost, he charges them twice, as we have seen, verse 23 and verse 36, with crucifying the Lord Jesus. He knows that they have said his blood be on us and on our children. What happens when he charges them the second time, verse 37, when they heard this?

59:38 They were pricked in their heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? ...of messianic identity were upon him, manifested in him.

60:02 He escalated in pressure and push until Pilate caved in, and we were the real perpetrators of his murder. What shall we do? How can a man ever incarnate God? To ask the question, how can an adulterer be cleansed of his adultery, is one thing.

60:27 How can the lecher be cleansed of his lechery? How can the blasphemer be cleansed of his blasphemy? But to ask, what shall we do? ...of the Son of God upon our hands.

60:41 And Peter says, repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, unto the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now look, for to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all. He is the Lord, our God, shall call unto him. What?

61:18 His blood. Be on us, and on our children, and our children of this guilt, where sin abounds. Grace does much more abound. Repent of your sin.

61:37 In faith lay hold of this Jesus as your Messiah and Savior. Confess him. Be identified with him in his own ordinance of initiation. And upon doing this, you'll receive the crowning gift of the new covenant, the gift of the Spirit, and this promise of forgiveness and the gift of the Spirit, upon condition of repentance and faith, is to you.

62:05 Used with murder is to you. It is blood that you charged upon your head. That blood guiltiness can be cleansed by the blood of his cross, and the blood with which you've mortgaged your children, if they too will repent and believe. The promise is to them as well, unconditionally, because they're your children,

62:37 but conditioned on the repentance and faith, to which the promise was addressed to these as well. And moreover, he says, it's going to break over all Jewish nationalism, and it's going to go to a bunch of people sitting one day in a structure,

62:56 in a township in Morris County, guilty of sins innumerable. And when they come, to acknowledge the reality of their sins and cry out, what shall we do? The same answer is for them. Repent.

63:12 Believe. Confess. You shall receive forgiveness. You shall receive the gift of the Spirit.

63:19 The promise is to you, your children, to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him. Know, my friends, this truth that I've sought, to demonstrate from the scripture this morning, does not foster anti-Semitism. It magnifies the grace of God to the vilest of sinners. And it would take an unusual block of evidence from another quarter to believe that on that day, when 3,000 people were added, there were not a number, who had not stood before Pilate saying, His blood be... who came to an experience of the application of the blood of Christ in a way they never conceived of, when they stood before Pilate thirsting for the death of the Son of God.

Personal Application: Cursing Our Own Children Through Unbelief

64:29 And my friend, that fountain open for sin and uncleanness that could pardon and forgive the very murderers of Jesus, who coarsely and crassly and boldly, imprecated themselves, and called down upon themselves the guilt of murdering the Son of God. That blood flows in the purpose of God to cleanse the vile sinner, who will but come in repentance and faith. And I close with this final word of personal application from these frightening words. It is possible, it is possible in our lives, our own madness and unbelief, to curse the souls of our children, of our own children, and of unborn generations. If you doubt this, you read 2 Samuel 3, 27 and following. In the case of an unconverted man in Israel, read it in the case of David, 2 Samuel 12, 10 and following. The madness of sin is such that our unbelief and impenitence can curse our children.

65:42 Our unborn children are cursed. The mass of unborn children is cursed in Israel, just as our unborn children are cursed in the future. Here are the two exact examples of this commandment. You should be careful as to what you're saying.

66:07 You should be in the right place. You should be praying to God, you should be in the right state in the world, you should be praying to God in your own churches, you should be praying to God in your own church, Legitimacy and sins of the most shameful kind have come from him saying his blood be on me and on my kids. I can make it without this Christ of my mother and father, this Christ of my older brother, this Christ of my younger brother, this Christ of my seven sisters. No, let his blood be on me and let it be on my kids. And I tell you, I've lived to see that principle worked out in my own bloodline.

67:03 Some of you are working it out by your crass, horrible formalism. You know in your heart of heart that your religion is only skin deep.

67:15 And because you've got everyone convinced you're all right, you're saying in essence, that's enough for me, that's good enough for my kids. And you're cursing your own children with your formalism. Because you know nothing more than a religion of being at the right place at the right time. Doing the right things.

67:31 That's all you've been able to pass on to your children and children and your missions with your cursed formalism.

67:45 Some of you who may be true people of God like David, he mortgaged his own children for a few moments of intense passion in a bed with Bathsheba. And God says, because you did this, the sword shall not depart from thy house. And he had to watch the judgment of God come. Upon his children, one after another after another.

68:12 And he was a man after God's own heart. Some of you are cursing your children because you won't mortify your materialism, your love of things, your compromise with the world, your accommodation to the pressures of the world. You won't. You've all religion.

68:43 You're cursing me.

69:06 You can't give that legacy to your kids. And they think back and they see you bending under pressure.

69:20 Candidating. Under proud influence. What a curse. What a curse.

69:35 That if any of that is in us, we shall see it, repent of it, and know that though we have foolishly said, His blood be on us and our children, the fruit of my own rejection of certain aspects of the claims of Christ, I'll take the consequences. And if I can't fully bear them, impute them to my children. There's forgiveness for that sin, child of God. And there's grace to get the right angles back.

70:08 There's grace to get the edge back on your conscience. There's grace to get reality back in the closet. Reality before your children. So that when you speak, your words stick.

70:22 Not because you pull rank. But because you are what you are by the grace of God. Walking uprightly. In his presence.

Conclusion and Prayer

70:32 Frightening words. Frightening words. I tried to escape having to preach on them. But I knew if I died and had to meet my Lord at the end of today and pushed on to the next paragraph in Mark, I'd have a bloody conscience.

70:49 I pray God's word will be a saving word to some this day. As together we've meditated upon these frightening words. His blood be upon us. And upon our children.

71:03 Let us pray. Our Father, we plead that you will take your word and rip it to our consciences. That in this place today, some who have stood as that mob stood that day. And have made themselves guilty with blatant refusal to bow to the claims of your Son.

71:40 Oh, that they would see. The blessedness of forgiveness run to the Lord Jesus and find him to be a welcoming Savior. We pray for your people who've allowed the spirit of accommodation and compromise. Who are constantly pulling out one file after another to round off the right angles of the biblical ethic.

72:06 The right angles of the demands of radical discipleship. Oh, God have mercy on us. That we may, if we're nothing else, be real in your presence and may walk before you no matter what the cost may be. Seal then your word, cause it to abide with us.

72:28 That as we leave this place, we may not cooperate with the enemy of our souls by thrusting the word from our minds. But oh, God enable us to enfold it in faith and in obedience. Hear us and dismiss us with your blessing, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.