Part One
Part Two
Part Three
SILVER COINS NOT DO?
Matthew 27:1-10 and Zechariah 9 and 11
Charles e Whisnant, Pastor/Teacher Rivers of Joy Baptist Church, Minford, OH
March 29, 2015
IA. WHAT COULD THIRTY SILVER COINS DO?
1B. They could sell Christ into the hands of murderers. The prophecy in Zechariah sets forth: Zechariah 11:5-13
1C That God appointed one High and Lofty Shepherd to feed the Jewish people,2C That the ordinary guides had no regard for their charge: "Their own shepherds pity them not" (Zechariah 11:5).
3C That between these unworthy shepherds and the shepherds of God's appointing there was strong enmity:
4C That he gives up his charge in judicial visitation.
5C That the covenant between him and his people was broken,
6C That some of the people, however, should admit Messiah's claims.
7C That in contrast to these
2B. They could purchase "the potter's field, to bury strangers in."
1C A memorial to the truth of Scripture.
2C A memorial to the innocence of Jesus.
3C A memorial of the dishonor of the traitor and of the rulers.
4C It was "to bury strangers in."
2A WHAT COULD THE SILVER COINS NOT DO?
1B They could not redeem Christ from death.
IC Isaiah 53:7, 8), to "deliver him to the Gentiles," according to his prediction (Matthew 20:19; John 18:32).
2C The bonds in which Jesus was now led differed John 18:12-27, Mark 15:1
3C The true bonds which bound Jesus were those of his wondrous love to man. Proverbs 5:22; Lamentations 1:12-14).
2B. They could not purchase the repentance of the rulers
1C "What is that to us?"
2C "See thou to that."
3C The cold evildoing
4C "And the chief priests took the silver pieces"
3A. They could not redeem Judas from perdition.
1B Some think Judas was partly induced to betray his Master by the expectation
2B How differently did the silver appear to the traitor before and after his transgression! Job 20:12-15
3B As Judas was motivated by greed, deadly in his sin, so was he possessed with despair in his repentance
4B There is little reason to believe that the repentance of Judas was more than the remorse of an upbraiding conscience (cf. Matthew 26:24; John 17:12; Acts 1:25). It was a repentance which needs to be repented of (2 Corinthians 7:10). Matthew 5:23-26
"until you have paid the last penny"
Thus does Divine justice exact everything, not a single farthing more or less than you owe.
The first statement is probable; but as for the slightest hint of the second, it is wholly wanting. Christ affirms that non-reconciliation with a brother, if carried beyond that limit of time within which the quarrel can be made up, involves consequences in which the element of mercy will be entirely absent.
The element of mercy can enter up to a certain point of time, but after that only justice. It will be observed that, in the above interpretation, ἀντίδικος has been consistently explained as a human adversary, for this seems to be the primary meaning here.
