The Night He Was Betrayed

I believe in the prayers of God's people.

I don't know that I was that succinct 30 years ago,

!

I was a very poor decision to even ask me.

But I remember as I deliberated on that question,

one of the things that was a clincher for me

as I debated the question was this,

who will pray for me?

I couldn't imagine leaving people that I knew prayed for me.

So here I am.

Doing what I have done from month to month and week to week,

asking you to pray and having confidence in the power of the Word of God

to make a difference in your lives.

Turn your Bibles to Matthew 26, verse 14.

Matthew 26:14

Let me read to you.

Matthew 26, verse 14.

Matthew 26:14

Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot,

went to the chief priests and said,

What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?

And they paid him 30 pieces of silver,

and from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.

Now on the first day of unleavened bread,

the disciples came to Jesus, saying,

Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?

He said, Go into the city to a certain man and say to him,

The teacher says, My time is at hand,

and I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.

And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them,

and they prepared the Passover.

When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve,

and as they were eating, he said,

Truly I say to you, one of you will betray me.

And they were very sorrowful,

and began to say to him, one after another,

Is it I, Lord?

Let's pray.

Father, for us, prayer is a recurring declaration of your sufficiency

and your goodness in our dependency.

And we ask that your spirit would quicken our hearts

to behold wondrous truths in your word,

and that through the enabling of the Spirit of God,

that we, beholding as in a mirror the face and truth

of our Lord Jesus Christ, would be affected by that,

and we would grow to be more like him.

And that those who are here today,

that do not know the Lord Jesus Christ,

would be drawn to the cross

and recognize the darkness of their soul

and their complete inability to save themselves,

and that they would cry out upon the Lord Jesus,

in whom alone is salvation.

And we ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

If you were to ask me to explain in a single sentence

what really the purpose of preaching is,

and I'd confess that on various days I may say it

with a slight different perspective,

I would say fundamentally that at the heart of preaching is this goal,

preaching aims to make much of Jesus.

Underneath the little glass top here,

there's a little note that I have to myself

that has often reminded me when I stand here

with the responsibility of being a messenger of the Lord of hosts,

it says,

how does this sermon testify to Christ?

It is a summary of John chapter 5, verse 39,

John 5:39

where Jesus, when he was identifying the issue of his person

and his work, he said,

listen, at the heart,

the Scriptures bear witness to me.

And so when a man stands before you,

whether it is Pastor Shearer or Tim Knoyer,

the truth of the matter is,

as we read the same book, we love the same Lord,

and our task is fundamentally the same.

It is to make much of Jesus.

And so here we are,

just in front of Resurrection Sunday,

and we're having the Lord's table,

and as we gather together,

and as I've been praying and thinking about this,

actually, if you would say,

how many of you remember

what Last Communion Service's text was?

Does anybody remember here?

It was Matthew chapter 26,

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

and when he had broken the bread,

he gave it to the disciples and said,

take this, eat, this is my body,

and he took the cup,

and when he'd given,

do you remember now?

When he'd given thanks.

We're backing up a little bit,

and I want you to ponder with me,

just for a moment,

the unbelievable picture

of what we find here,

and its testimony to the love of Christ for us.

We're going to look at a passage

that really displays and brings to forefront

an unbelievable and a striking picture

of the hearts of mankind,

and including mine and yours,

and the love of Christ,

which, as it says in Ephesians,

transcends and surpasses what we can imagine.

So as we step into this verse,

let's begin, first of all,

by recognizing that what we're going to read here

in this passage is an indication

of the most vile betrayal of all time.

As you look at the passage,

we take up the text there in verse 14,

and we find that Judas Iscariot

is offering to the chief priests

and the leadership of the Jews

an opportunity to betray

and ultimately bring about the death of the Savior.

The other Gospels help us understand

that the hatred that the Jews had for Jesus

had reached this fever pitch

that they wanted to do everything they could

to destroy Him,

and yet there was this tension

and this uncertainty.

They were afraid that they couldn't pull it off

because the crowds thought very much of Jesus,

and He had done so much for so many people

that there was a real hesitancy on their part

to do it publicly.

And so they, seeking a way,

and Judas evidently aware of this,

I mean, it must have been a buzz going around,

hey, listen, does anybody know how to catch them privately

and cause problems?

And here's Judas.

He knew their hatred.

He knew their hesitancy,

and so he comes to them privately,

and he says, listen, I'll do it.

I'll do it.

And I want you to stop and recognize

that here was a disciple,

one of the 12,

that Jesus had chosen to walk with him,

and observe every bit of his ministry and his heart.

It was one of those 12 that was going to willingly betray Jesus

and lead ultimately to his death.

You know, when we do something in ignorance

and we do something without a full knowledge

of what is taking place,

in some sense what we do is less offensive

than what we do intentionally

and against the grain of the reality

of what we've experienced.

Remember when Jesus said,

woe to you, Jehorazin,

woe to you, Bethsaida,

because if the miracles that have been done in your presence

had been done in Tyre and Sidon,

they'd still exist.

The point he was making is that

unto whom much is given,

what?

Much is required.

There is an amplification

of the consequence of sin

proportionate to the blessing that we have received.

And here was Judas

against the backdrop

of all that he had experienced and seen,

willingly setting the plate

for the betrayal of Christ.

He was doing it against the background

of a close relationship.

He'd been one of the 12.

He had enjoyed three full years

of the presence and the love of Christ.

One of the things that we read in the book of John

as we were working our way through it

is that Jesus loved them to the end.

He never changed his mind

about his unconditional love

for those 12.

And here was Judas,

knowing our Savior,

knowing what he had done,

knowing every one of his good,

kind deeds and his sensitivity,

here was Judas ready to betray him

and doing it intentionally against his friend.

I want you to understand also

that it was done with premeditation.

He had thought it out.

He pondered about the time

in which he could pull this off.

And so quietly and on his own,

he snuck away

and he presents this opportunity

to enemies of Christ

and he says,

listen, I'm ready to do it,

but how much are you going to pay me for this?

Can you imagine negotiating with someone

to betray your best friend or your wife?

Here's Jesus.

The one who had in every case,

there was never a question

of his love and his concern

and his sympathy for Judas

and yet here was Judas

so darkened in his heart

that he was dickering with these leaders

about how much money

he was going to get for this.

You know, a sin of passion is offensive

and more than once

we have acted in a fashion

that really has shown a very poor heart

but I would have to say,

you know, it wasn't well thought out.

It wasn't something that I pondered

and did over a period of time.

Let me give you an illustration.

You're on a long road trip.

We used to travel,

Judith and I,

her parents were in Florida.

It was about a 20-hour drive

from where we were

in Northeastern Ohio

to Florida

and we were in a Datsun 510 station wagon.

It's much smaller

than you can imagine.

We had four kids

and two adults in that car

and it was a,

that was before vans

had been invented.

How many of you are

of the generation

where you remember

the station wagons?

Well, we didn't have

one of those Land Cruiser

boat station wagons.

We had this little dinky,

dinky Japanese knockoff

and we put the four kids

in the back

with all of our luggage

and the first thing

that would happen

is that they'd start asking,

are we there yet?

That was not a problem to me.

No, we're not.

But when I was blessed,

I have been blessed

with two boys and two girls

and guess what?

You know,

you'd have the seating going on.

It's one thing

to hit your brother

in the back of the car

on a 20-hour road trip.

It's another thing

to hit your dad.

Now listen to me carefully.

I don't want you to miss this.

There's not a Bible verse

that really talks about

hitting your brother

in the back of the car

that I can think of.

Maybe I text me later

and let me know.

But there is,

paying attention,

you listen to me,

there is a Bible verse

that says,

woe to the person

who raises his hand

against his father.

I was full of vinegar

when I was younger.

Still have some.

But, you know,

I remember my dad

and I having a rather

animated conversation.

I was 20.

And I thought

that I could win the argument.

I remember reaching a point

of raising my voice

and he said,

you say another word

and I'll slap you.

That was the last word

I said that day.

It never crossed my mind

to raise my hand

against my father.

Do you follow that?

And here was Judas

willing to raise his hand

against his savior.

An unbelievable act

by a profoundly wicked heart.

And as we look at the horror

of what Judas

was ready to do,

there should be,

in all of our hearts

this morning,

there should be a sobering,

I can't believe

Judas would do that.

Do you follow that?

That's a dark heart.

I want you to look

at the second piece

that I really want you

to dig in on.

Verse 21.

And as they were eating,

he said,

truly,

now how many of you know

that the little words

truly or truly,

truly are like,

it's like a highlighter

or a yellow marker

on something.

It's like,

it's bold, right?

Hey,

wake up everybody.

I know you've got food

in your mouth,

but listen,

right now I want you

to pay attention.

One of you here

is going to betray me.

There are several things

that I want you to ponder

and one of the things

that I would encourage you

to do,

listen to me,

one of the things

that goes with being

faithful in our Bible reading

is asking ourselves

the question

over and over again,

why is this here?

Right?

Make sense?

Why did the Holy Spirit

put that in there?

Why is it there?

I think there are some things

that we need to recognize

as we look at this passage

and Jesus is making

a profound statement

when he says,

hey,

one of you is going

to betray me.

Why is it there?

For one,

Jesus' announcement

shows his deity

yet again.

How many of you know

what's going to happen

tomorrow?

I was looking at my calendar

and, you know,

and, okay,

this is going to happen

and that's going to happen

and I reminded myself

there's a little phrase

from James

that sticks in my mind

that says,

if the Lord wills.

Okay?

I don't know

what's going to happen

tomorrow for sure.

I have some ideas.

My schedule

kind of mapped out

and I, okay,

this, this, this,

but I thought,

you know,

if the Lord wills.

Here's Jesus saying,

this is what's going

to happen.

One of you is going

to betray me

and only God

can know the future

and speak to it

accurately and intelligently.

But there's another thing

that I want you

to recognize.

The announcement

is also a deep lesson

on our sinful hearts.

Jesus knew exactly

who his betrayer

was going to be

and yet his opening

statements were

rather general.

He could have said,

hey, everybody listen up.

Just a little while,

Judas is going to walk

out of here

and he's going

to betray me.

It is significant

that he said,

one of you

is going to betray me.

The thing that I find

very interesting

is the response

of the disciples.

Look at it.

Look at it.

These are 12 men

that had spent

three years

in the presence

and under the teaching

of Christ.

Stop just for a moment.

How many of you

have ever listened

to a conversation

in which someone said,

well, so-and-so

committed such-and-such

a crime.

He left his wife.

He ran off with blah, blah, blah.

Or he robbed a bank

or he got involved

in drugs

and he's in rehab now.

Any of you,

don't raise your hands,

any of you ever thought

to yourself,

never happened to me.

Not me.

Won't happen to me.

Here is Jesus

speaking to the 12

and he says,

you know what?

One of you

is going to betray me.

What happens next?

Look at it.

Look at it.

And they were

very sorrowful.

Who was sorrowful?

Peter,

John,

James,

Andrew,

Nathaniel.

Do you follow me?

They were sorrowful.

They were very sorrowful.

They were...

And they began to say to him

one after another,

underline these words

in your Bible.

I want you to have them

stick in your mind.

Is it I?

Do you know what that reflects?

I think we make very little

of just how dark

our hearts

actually are.

Here is Jesus

speaking of

the supreme

betrayal

and every one of the disciples

have the spiritual

discernment.

Pay attention.

To ask a logical,

practical question.

Am I the one

who's going

to do it?

Do you know what that tells me?

For a brief moment,

these disciples

were thinking

with clear

theological

understanding

of the darkness

of the human heart.

You know,

we sing

the words,

good song,

it says,

prone to wonder,

Lord,

I feel it,

prone to leave,

the God I love.

And at the very time

we are singing

some of these words,

our minds

are engaged

in unforgiveness,

our minds

are engaged

in bitterness,

our minds

are engaged

in lust,

our minds

are engaged

in self-idolatry

and we are not

as fearful

of the darkness

of our own heart

as we ought to be.

Take just a moment

and turn over

to a passage

that should help us

in relationship

to this.

Psalm 19,

Psalms 19:12

verse 12 and 13,

here's what the psalmist

says in this

unbelief,

my wife is not in here,

she's working

in a nursery,

but if I were to ask her

today,

so how did it go?

She would say

you used the same words

over and over again,

so unbelievable

is off the table.

It will not be said again,

thank you,

today.

Psalm 19,

a psalm about the word,

that always gets me excited.

But look at 12 and 13,

who can discern

his errors?

Hey, everybody look up.

Your heart

is an absolute

pit.

And the sooner

you come to grips

with the darkness

of your own heart,

the more you will cling

to the remedy

of the work

of the Spirit of God

and the word of God

in helping you

stay anchored.

Who can discern

his errors?

Declare me innocent

from hidden faults.

Keep back your servant

from presumptuous sins.

You know what

a presumptuous sin is?

It's a sin

of my arrogant,

proud heart.

I gotta tell you.

I remember a conversation

not too long ago

with an individual

who's explaining

the sinfulness

of their behavior

and arguing with me

about the justification

of it.

But I gotta tell you,

I've done the same thing.

Judas is in the nursery

so I can tell you this.

Every now and then

I wake up with a surly spirit.

Do you know what I mean

by a surly spirit?

I mean just kind of

self-focused,

a little irritated

and I remember

we were having coffee together

and I let a little

of my sarcasm go.

It's like,

there it was

and she said,

I didn't deserve that.

You're right.

It's just my black heart.

You know,

it's like,

God help me.

And here is the psalmist

saying,

you know,

your word is what's

gonna help me

to not be so self-focused

and presumptuous.

And he says,

then I shall be blameless

and innocent

of the great transgression.

But coming back

to the passage,

here we are,

Jesus explaining

that one of them

is going to betray him

and I am struck

by the fact

that every one

of the disciples,

I am stuck.

Everyone says,

is it I?

And I gotta tell you something,

listen to me carefully,

until you have

that level of respect

and regard

for the sinfulness

of your natural inclinations,

you are dancing

close to the edge.

It's interesting as well

that what Jesus said

brought a very interesting

response from the disciples.

They all ask a question,

is it I?

What they were doing

was they were seeking

the counsel of the word

of God,

namely the person

of the Lord Jesus Christ,

to help them identify,

is it me?

Is my heart the one

that's going to do this?

Instead of being flippant

and say,

I'd never do that.

And by the way,

lest we give the disciples

too much credit,

you do want to remember

that just a little while later,

remember Jesus said,

you're all going to abandon me

and what do they say?

Hey, there's Peter.

Not me.

They all step up.

No, not me.

But just for a moment,

we find some good theological thinking

in these 12.

They're concerned about sin.

Hey, are you concerned about sin?

Are you really concerned about sin?

I was speaking with someone

not too long ago

about the advantage of being 68.

There aren't as many as I wish,

but one of the advantages of this

is that, you know,

it's like I was complaining

with someone else.

I wasn't complaining.

I was listening to them

talk about what it was

to get old,

and I thought, yeah.

But anyway,

one of the advantages

of being 68

is that God has dealt firmly

with Tim Kenoyer

repeatedly over sin.

And I'm at the point

where all he has to do

is kind of tap me

on the shoulder

and say,

do you remember

where your parents would say,

my dad would say this,

you're cruising for a bruising.

Something about the poetry of that

just kind of impressed me immediately.

It's like,

my dad gave me the luxury

of choosing which belt

was going to be

the instrument of destruction.

It's like,

he had about eight or nine

and I never found the right one.

It's just,

but I did experiment regularly.

The advantage of being 68

is that Tim Kenoyer

has a pathological fear

for the darkness

of his own heart.

Is it I?

Oh, Lord.

Keep me from sin.

Keep me from sin.

And here are the disciples

crying out to Jesus,

you know,

am I the one

that's going to do this?

I wonder how often

you actually do that.

Where you,

because you have

a abiding fear,

an abiding fear,

try that proper grammar here,

you have an abiding fear

for sin,

you engage other people

in helping you

with the darkness

of your own heart.

Hmm?

I want you to recognize

one other thing here

in this passage.

The announcement

that Jesus made

to the disciples

was in a final appeal

to the betrayer

to stop in his tracks

and repent.

I'm struck by that.

Did Jesus look forward

in one sense

to the cross

and what's the answer?

No.

I mean,

what does it say?

In the garden,

how was he praying?

If it be,

what was he praying?

All right,

Lord,

bring it on.

I'm ready for this one.

Now,

one of the problems

we have

is we are,

we're not able,

we're not able

to focus on true truths

at the same time.

It kind of frustrates

us a little bit

because we like everything

to be logical,

but here's Jesus.

If it be possible,

let this cup pass from me.

And on the other hand,

in Hebrews chapter 12,

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

it says,

who for the joy

that was set before him,

you know,

despising the shame

and during the cross,

we can't do

the two things together.

Here is Jesus

with this tender heart

in the midst

of knowing full well

that just within hours

he is going to be

crucified.

one more time,

one more time,

one more time,

he reaches out to Judas

and gives him

an opportunity to repent.

I've got to stop

just for a second.

If more of God's people

understood how gracious

and patient

and forgiving

Jesus is

and God is,

they would be more

inclined to forgive

and forbear

with one another.

here is Jesus

facing his crucifixion

and he asks

his disciples

to think very carefully

about the sin

in their own hearts.

I've got to say this,

in the face of this

scriptural evidence,

we ought to be

profoundly humble

in admitting

our spiritual frailty

and our need for grace.

So here's a little

practical little test

as to how you're

doing at that.

Everybody listen

because this is important.

This is the takeaway.

Are you ready for this?

When was the last time

you willingly received

admonition from a brother

or a sister,

a wife or a husband,

a father or someone else

when they admonished you

scripturally and said,

that's wrong

and you said,

thank you.

Let the righteous

strike me,

I will count it

a healing oil

is what the psalmist says.

Bring it on,

I need it

because I have

a dark heart

that desperately needs

the grace of God,

the word of God

and the family of God.

Let's come to some

closing implications

before we come

to the table.

I have to tell you,

you look here

in verse 23

and says,

He answered,

He who has dipped

his hand in the dish

with me will betray me.

The Son of Man

goes as it is written

of him,

but woe to that man,

many,

that man

by whom the Son of Man

is betrayed,

it would have been

better for that man

if he had not been born.

And Judas,

who would betray him,

answered,

Is it I, Rabbi?

And he said to him,

You've said so.

I want you to write down

a word

and hold on to this.

The word is antinomy,

A-N-T-I-N-O-M-Y,

antinomy.

Here's what I mean.

I'll explain it this way.

An antinomy

is two opposing,

seemingly opposing laws

that you have trouble

putting together.

Right?

How could Jesus be

all man

and all God?

How many's got,

who's got that figured out?

Raise your hands

and wave at me

because I want to consult

with you afterwards.

How many of you

understand that

our God

is Trinitarian?

We have here

a picture

that brings together

Scripture often

puts divine sovereignty

and human responsibility

side by side.

And one of the reasons

it does that

is so we don't miss

the challenge.

And when you don't keep

those two truths

in humble balance,

you end up on one side

or the other

to your harm

and sometimes

to others.

And so,

I want to kind of

remind you

of a passage

in Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 29:29

chapter 29

verse 29

where it says this.

It says,

the secret things

belong to the Lord

our God.

What's that saying?

There's some things

that I don't get.

Do you get it?

There's some things

that I don't get,

but the things

that are revealed

belong to us

and to our children

forever

that we may do

all the words

of this law.

So let me close out

with this.

In this passage,

we see the heart

of our Savior

as being profoundly

merciful,

profoundly instructive.

He says to the disciples,

Men,

I want you to understand

that your heart

has the profound

darkness

that can readily

betray me

and live with humility

and dependence

upon the Word

and dependence

upon the family

of God

to protect you

from the natural

inclination

to drift

into darkness.

Second,

here is Jesus

reaching out

to one

who is going

to betray him

in just moments,

gives him

one last opportunity.

Can I pose a question?

There's not an answer

to it,

but just imagine

Judas said,

Man,

it's me

and I'm going

to stop this.

Would Jesus

have granted

forgiveness to him?

What's the answer?

Absolutely.

By the way,

if he was willing

to forgive Nineveh

and he was willing

to forgive Ahab,

right?

Now,

don't get wound up

around the axle

on this,

but I got to tell you,

here's what we know

about our God.

He is forgiving

and patient

and he appeals

to sinners

to repent.

And so,

this morning

as we come

to the Lord's table

and I would ask

the deacons

to come now,

we take the elements

that remind us

why

Jesus can offer us

complete forgiveness

for all of our sins.

It's because he died

for us

and died in our place

and has granted

to us

the blessing

of an offer

of salvation

because of his

finished sacrifice

for us.

Let us pray.

Our Father God,

this morning

as we take this bread

and we take the cup,

we're very thankful

that the scriptures

tell us

that this is a reminder

of what you

did for us.