Jesus, Barrabas, & Me
Luke 23:13-25
1. The sermon highlights Jesus’ repeated silence contrasted with the crowd’s three loud demands to “Crucify him!” and Pilate’s three declarations of Jesus’ innocence. How does Jesus’ choice of silence (as described in Isaiah 53:7) challenge or encourage you when facing injustice, false accusations, or chaotic situations in your own life? When is silence a powerful witness, and when might we need to speak up?
2. Pilate knew Jesus was innocent yet ultimately gave in to the pressure of the crowd, showing conformity and cowardice. The sermon references the conformity experiments and Exodus 23:2 (“Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong”). Share a time when you felt pressured by others—whether peers, culture, or social media—to go against what you knew was right. Where do you specifically need courage today? How can we cultivate courage through the Holy Spirit to resist such pressure today?
3. The passage presents a dramatic choice between the innocent Jesus (the true “son of the Father”) and the guilty Barabbas (a murderer and insurrectionist, symbolically another “son of the father”). The sermon explains this as an upside-down fulfillment of the Day of Atonement’s two goats—one dying, one sent away bearing sin. In what ways do you see yourself in Barabbas (guilty, yet set free because Jesus took your place)? How does this “great exchange” deepen your gratitude for Christ’s substitutionary death?
4. The sermon closes by noting that while we may have chosen Jesus, we can still drift toward Barabbas’ ways—seeking false hope through power, revenge, rebellion, or conformity. What practical steps can our group take (or encourage one another in) to keep choosing Jesus daily—through obedience, love, and resistance to crowd pressure—especially in the areas where we tend to wander? How can we support each other in living out the freedom Christ purchased for us?
Luke 23:13-25
1. The sermon highlights Jesus’ repeated silence contrasted with the crowd’s three loud demands to “Crucify him!” and Pilate’s three declarations of Jesus’ innocence. How does Jesus’ choice of silence (as described in Isaiah 53:7) challenge or encourage you when facing injustice, false accusations, or chaotic situations in your own life? When is silence a powerful witness, and when might we need to speak up?
2. Pilate knew Jesus was innocent yet ultimately gave in to the pressure of the crowd, showing conformity and cowardice. The sermon references the conformity experiments and Exodus 23:2 (“Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong”). Share a time when you felt pressured by others—whether peers, culture, or social media—to go against what you knew was right. Where do you specifically need courage today? How can we cultivate courage through the Holy Spirit to resist such pressure today?
3. The passage presents a dramatic choice between the innocent Jesus (the true “son of the Father”) and the guilty Barabbas (a murderer and insurrectionist, symbolically another “son of the father”). The sermon explains this as an upside-down fulfillment of the Day of Atonement’s two goats—one dying, one sent away bearing sin. In what ways do you see yourself in Barabbas (guilty, yet set free because Jesus took your place)? How does this “great exchange” deepen your gratitude for Christ’s substitutionary death?
4. The sermon closes by noting that while we may have chosen Jesus, we can still drift toward Barabbas’ ways—seeking false hope through power, revenge, rebellion, or conformity. What practical steps can our group take (or encourage one another in) to keep choosing Jesus daily—through obedience, love, and resistance to crowd pressure—especially in the areas where we tend to wander? How can we support each other in living out the freedom Christ purchased for us?