Backfire: The Death of the Devil - Dining with Darkness

Today we begin a brand new sermon series entitled Backfire, the Death of the Devil.

And this is a three week sermon series that I think is going to be enlightening to not

only tell you what happened at the end of Jesus' life, but also what might be happening

in your life as well.

What might be happening in your life and what happened in Jesus' life.

Using this, Jesus was at the most crucial moment of his life where everything was culminating

to his own crucifixion, which is why he came.

His death, his burial, his resurrection that would save his friends, save his nation, and

save humanity.

All of it was coming to the culmination together.

And while God was doing something huge at the exact same time the devil was planning

a big attack.

Have you noticed that's what's going on in your life?

While God is doing something huge, the devil is planning his own attack.

I see this take place on the national level.

I see this take place at the global level.

I see this take place in family units.

I see this take place in church communities.

I see this take place in small groups.

I see this take place between two people in a relationship.

God has a huge thing that he's doing.

And at the same time the devil has a plan to take it down.

You say does it make you nervous, Josh, that we have this great enemy named Satan who attempts

to destroy what God is doing?

And the answer to that question is found in this sermon series.

The sermon series is entitled Backfire.

The death of the devil.

Backfire.

The death of the devil.

Satan certainly is a worthy adversary.

Yet one night he made a series of fatal mistakes that span just 12 hours.

His ultimate plan became his eventual demise.

And as he possessed Judas Iscariot, betrayed Jesus Christ and had him arrested.

This is the story of the devil's death and the dark plan that famously backfired.

Today's sermon is entitled Dying with Darkness.

Let us pray.

Father in heaven, my prayer in these next few moments as we study your Scripture is that

you would help us to simultaneously see what happened to you and what is happening to us.

What happened to Judas and how that could take place in our own hearts.

God in heaven, I pray that this would not just be an exercise of studying historical

facts and figures and individuals, but this would be a spiritual renewal and awakening

in the minds and the hearts of the men and women in this room.

Oh God, I ask that you would do inside of them what you've already done inside of me

as you have taught me this passage.

Help me to convey it with clarity and with compassion.

This I pray in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

The sermon was entitled Dying with Darkness because we are going to see that Jesus institutes

the Lord's Supper, the Last Supper with Judas in the room.

Dining with Darkness.

The sermon is entitled Dining with Darkness.

I'm going to say what's the sermon?

You say Dining with Darkness.

What's the sermon?

Dining with Darkness.

We'll come back to that.

The weather's nice, isn't it?

You love it?

Mid-October in Vegas?

I have friends who live up in Michigan and they just experienced about four months of

like beautiful life while we were here next door to hell.

And now they are coming out of the beauty and going into the darkness of the Midwest

winters and we are coming into glory.

Can I get an amen right there?

The next few months are amazing in Las Vegas.

It's just great.

If you just moved to Vegas and you were thinking about leaving in August, don't worry.

All of us think about leaving in August.

We're not missing a one of us.

It's like part of the mindset of a Las Vegas.

But now we're through and we're like, let's just stay because we live in paradise.

And it was so nice the other day.

I'm like, okay, it was early in the morning.

I have a seven o'clock small group, seven o'clock small group at Starbucks and that's

about 2.2 miles from my house.

And I thought, you know what?

I'm up early.

Why don't I just get dressed and I'll jog to my small group and then jog back.

That was the plan.

And so I did.

I got up and I put on my gear.

And for me, I'm a 43 year old man with a bad knee.

So for me, my gear includes a big knee brace.

And when I run, if you ever see me jogging through mountains edge, don't be surprised.

I am not the coolest jogger you've ever seen.

He's shocker, right?

I've got a big knee brace and because I have a bad knee, my gait is a little odd, right?

Because I run and I like to carry a water bottle in my hand and I like to carry my phone

in my other hand.

And so this is how I jog down the street.

I don't need to be a cool looking jogger because I look cool on Sundays.

Amen.

That's what I'm going for right there.

There you go.

Right there.

Well, thank you.

But it's too much really.

All right.

Thank you.

But I'll take it.

And so I'm jogging down the street and I'm on my way to and all of a sudden I had some

Christian music on.

I wanted to get my mind and my head space in the right frame of mind for the small group.

As I'm running down the street, I'm doing my thing and I'm just thanking God.

God thank you for this morning and thank you for the sunrise and thank you for the beautiful

trees.

And as I'm running through mountains edge, I notice on the side of the road a group of

teenagers getting ready to get on a school bus.

Early morning and my mind was in a thankful spirit and so I said, Lord, thank you for

these teenagers.

Everybody complains about the next generation, but here they are.

Before the sun gets up and they're up early in the morning lined up ready to get on a

bus and go to school and learn all day.

I'm smiling.

I'm just so grateful for God and these teenagers.

And as I'm running, I start turning the corner where they were coming closer.

And I noticed one of the teenagers was the funny one.

I knew that because when I was a teenager, I was the funny one.

And I knew he was the funny one because he was making a joke.

And I'm like, look at him.

He's funny.

He's being funny.

He was acting like a monkey like this.

Like he was acting like a monkey.

And I thought, look at that guy.

It's a funny one.

He's the funny one.

I was the funny one.

And I slowed down as I'm jogging now.

And as I got closer, I noticed that not only was he acting like a monkey, all the kids

around him were laughing.

And then the closer I got, I realized he was mocking me.

He was going like this.

And all of them were looking right at me as I walked by.

And I noticed the kids can be cruel.

They're really terribly mean and unrepentant and sad.

I just started running as fast as I could.

It's been years since I've been made insecure by teenagers.

But nonetheless, I'm running and I'm wiping tears away.

And this is what I really thought.

I thought to myself, how ironic, because I was the one doing that 35 years ago.

I was the funny one making fun.

Irony is a fascinating thing.

And the doom of the devil, the demise of this grand demon is an ironic series of poor choices.

Some made by Satan, some made by Judas.

And all of these ironic, poor choices culminated in the end of the story of Jesus that we're

going to see today.

What can we learn from the death of the devil?

Part one of three Sundays, part one of three sermons.

What can we learn from the death of the devil?

Number one, we learn the people Satan uses.

The people Satan uses.

Look at what he says in verses one through six.

Now the feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is called Passover.

If you remember in the midst of the story, for those who are part of Southern Hills,

we're going verse by verse, chapter by chapter through the book of Luke.

And Jesus had just finished having dialogue with the religious leaders in the temple.

And he left the temple with his disciples and sat on the Mount of Olives and told them

about the coming end of the world.

Now the Bible says it was time for them to celebrate a cultural holy day, a holiday.

For them it was called Passover.

And the Passover they were celebrating was a reminder of how God had saved the Jewish

people thousands of years before out of Egypt that God had come and rescued them out of

slavery.

And to this day the Jewish community still celebrates Passover.

And Jesus being a Jewish rabbi celebrated Passover.

And all the way back to the time of Moses, the people of God celebrated Passover.

And now Jesus was ready to celebrate Passover with his disciples.

Look at verse two.

And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill Jesus, for they feared

the people.

Jesus was ready to celebrate Passover while his enemies were ready to kill Jesus, the

Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world.

And then verse three tells us how Satan planned to do it.

Satan's plan was to get Judas to betray Jesus.

Satan entered Judas, surname dyscariat.

You'll notice in the story that Satan actually enters Judas not once, but multiple times.

Meaning this is what we call demon possession.

For Satan himself, devil possession.

And we see that Satan himself possessed Judas.

And then we'll see, left Judas, and then possessed him once again.

Satan entered Judas, surname dyscariat, who was numbered among the twelve, shocking that

Satan would enter one of the only twelve disciples.

Now stop before we move on and realize this.

They say, boy, I would hate to be used by Satan.

Friend, hear me.

Whether through possession or oppression, manipulation, or demonic plans playing out

in your own mind, the devil wants to use all of you against God's plan, including me.

How did God, how did Satan use one of Jesus' own disciples?

Verse four.

So, Judas went his way and conferred with the chief priests and the captains how he might

betray Jesus to them.

And they were glad and they agreed with him for money.

Judas suddenly, it feels like all of a sudden, twists and changes and says, I don't want

to be with Jesus.

I'm going to betray Jesus.

And he goes to the enemies of Jesus and says, I'm ready to give you this man.

So he promised and sought opportunity to betray Jesus to them in the absence of the multitude.

How did Judas get there?

One of the greatest dangers in a study of Judas for a Christian is for you to improperly

view this passage.

And the way in which we improperly view this person is we often think to ourselves, Judas,

yes, let's talk about Judas.

Who has been a Judas to me?

Not the way to view the passage.

The first thing to think is let's not think about my story.

Let's think about Jesus' story.

The first thing to do is empathize with Jesus that one of his closest disciples turned his

back on Jesus.

If you want to move to practical application, it should not be who has been a Judas to

me.

It should be.

In what moments have I allowed Satan to use me to discourage God's plan?

Pastor, question, have you ever had a Judas in your life?

Wrong question.

The question is not have I had a Judas in my life?

The question should be from a Christian heart, when have I played the role of Judas to somebody

else?

When have I allowed my heart to be so hardened to not care about the hurt of another?

As I recall my life to my embarrassment, I have played the role of Judas far more than

the role of Jesus.

I have unwittingly and unknowingly been used to discourage people.

Like a pawn in Satan's plan, he has moved me and he has made me unwittingly do this.

And you say, how is that possible, Pastor Josh?

Not you, not you.

Yes, as a disciple of Jesus, there have been moments in my life I have unwittingly and

unknowingly been used and followed into Satan's trap to discourage others.

You know how he did it?

He did it in my life the same way he did it in Judas' life, and the same way he'll do

it to you if you're not careful.

He uses the disillusioned and he uses the offended.

Notice this is true in the story of Judas.

How was it that Judas was open to be used by Satan?

Number one, he was disillusioned.

You say, what do you mean, Judas was disillusioned?

Do you know what happened right before this story?

What happened right before this story, if you remember, Jesus had just spent the previous

day explaining to his disciples the end of the world.

Do you remember the story?

Jesus had just taken them up inside of the Mount of Olives and he had looked over the

plains of Jerusalem and he looked over at the Temple Mount and Jesus looked at his disciples,

all of them, just right before this story and said, the end of the world is coming,

I'm going to die and you all are going to die too.

Not an encouraging message from Jesus.

You say, what do you mean Judas was disillusioned?

Listen, Judas didn't hate Jesus, he loved his country.

He wanted Jesus to be crowned king.

And from Judas' perspective, and you must throughout this three week sermon series,

you must understand Judas' point of view.

Judas' point of perspective was that Jesus had deceived them.

You say, what do you mean, Jesus had deceived them?

Don't you remember what Jesus told them just three to four months before this?

You say, what did Jesus tell Judas?

Do you remember the story?

It's in Matthew chapter 19, I'm going to put it on the screen.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

In Matthew chapter 19, just a few months before this, the Bible says that Jesus was saying

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

you have to forsake everything to follow me.

And Peter looks at Jesus and says, we've given up everything to follow you, what will

we get for giving up everything?

And do you know what Jesus said?

Jesus looked at him and said, I assure you that when the world is made new and the Son

of Man, the Son of Adam, sits upon his glorious throne, you follow me, I'll tell you what

you get.

This is what he promised Judas.

He promised you who have been my followers will also sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12

tribes of Israel.

Just a few months before, Jesus looked at Judas and said, you follow me and I will give

you a throne and you will sit right beside me in my kingdom.

And now Jesus is saying, I'm going to die and you're going to die and it's all going

to go away.

You say, but Judas didn't understand the full plan of Jesus.

It doesn't matter if Judas understood the full plan.

The question was not whether or not Judas understood the full plan.

The question was, did Judas trust Jesus or not?

And the answer was no, he became disillusioned with Jesus.

Be careful, Christian, when you get to a place that you get angry with Jesus because things

are not turning out exactly the way you thought he promised you.

Because then you get disillusioned with him and you're like, I don't think your promises

are coming true.

And here's the thing Judas didn't realize.

If he had just been patient with Jesus, everything would have planned, gone exactly according

to Jesus' plan, which included death, which included martyrdom, which included resurrection,

which included the glorious kingdom to come.

But Judas was not privy to the full plan of Jesus.

Therefore Judas became disillusioned and Satan thought, I can use him.

Who is it that Satan uses?

Well, for Judas and for me, it's been the moments that I've been disillusioned with

Jesus.

Number two, Judas was not only disillusioned, he was offended.

Say offended.

Say it.

The other story that takes place right before this, because you've got to understand where

Judas is coming from, otherwise we don't understand the story.

Judas was not only disillusioned with Jesus' plan, he was offended by Jesus.

Right before this, according to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus and the disciples were in the

home of Mary and Martha.

And in the middle of that story, a woman named Mary brings out a bottle of ointment and she

bows down in front of Jesus because Mary knew Jesus was going to die upon the cross.

She was paying attention to his words and she broke the alabaster bottle, poured ointment

all over Jesus' feet, brushed Jesus' feet with her own hair.

It's a beautiful story.

Maybe you remember that story.

And the Bible tells us that the disciples murmured and complained and it points out

Judas specifically.

And Judas says, this woman is wasting money.

She could have taken that ointment and sold it and given it to the poor.

And do you know how awkward that moment must have been for everybody?

And so Jesus addresses it.

Jesus says in Mark chapter 14 verse 6, Jesus replied, leave her alone.

Mark 14:6

Why criticize her for doing such a good thing to me?

Whenever the good news is preached throughout the whole world, this woman's deeds will be

remembered and discussed.

This publicly rebukes Judas.

And this is on top of the fact that Judas is disillusioned with Jesus' plan and now

he's publicly rebuking him.

And what does it say in the very next verse?

What does it say?

It says in verse number 10, then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, went to the leaders

of the priests to arrange to betray Jesus to them.

Immediately after Judas was discouraged, disillusioned, and offended that Jesus would address his

sin, Judas is like, I'm out.

Hey, be careful.

Be careful that when Jesus addresses your sin, you don't get so offended with Jesus

that you turn into the person who turns away from Jesus.

Do not make the mistake that I've often made with this passage.

Who is the Judas in my life?

Stop.

That's not the point.

The point is, when have there been moments in your life that you have been unwittingly

used by Satan?

Why?

Because Satan looks for the right person in the right headspace with a hard enough heart

and he moves them.

Okay.

That's the warning you might say, oh Pastor Josh, what do I do to keep that from happening

to me?

I'm going to teach you very quickly what God has taught me.

This is real practical advice and I'm going to give it to you.

How do you keep yourself from falling into that trap Pastor Josh?

Here's what it is.

Ah-ha.

Say it with me.

Ah-ha.

A-H-A.

Ah-ha.

Say it with me.

Ah-ha.

This is what God has taught me over the years.

You keep myself from being unwittingly used by the devil to hurt others.

Ah-ha.

A-acceptance.

Whatever God's plan is, is the plan that I'm okay with.

Acceptance.

I'm going to say A, you say acceptance.

A-acceptance.

How many of you have come to the place where you realize God kind of knows what He's doing?

Can I get an amen?

I know we can say that out loud, but whenever suddenly the plan seems to drift from what

we thought God said, we have a choice to either trust God and accept what He's doing or reject

God and cause ourselves to stumble.

Acceptance.

A-H-A.

Say, ah-ha.

Ah-ha.

Letter H. Humility.

Realizing that God knows what He's doing even when I do not.

I'll say H. You say humility.

H.

Humility.

I'll say what He's doing even when I don't.

Acceptance of God's plan, trusting that He knows what He's doing.

And the third letter, what was the third letter?

A.

A.

What is that third?

Accountability.

Say it with me.

Accountability.

When I don't know if I can trust God's plan and I'm struggling with what am I going to

do to trust God, I have found that when I put myself in the accountability of other men

and women.

And I can go to them and say, here's what I'm thinking.

Is my thinking wrong?

Here's what I'm struggling with.

Is my struggle wrong?

Can you give me advice?

Can you give me help?

This is why you must have a community of Christians around you that you can be honest and forthright

with about whatever's going on in your life.

Especially when you feel disillusioned by following God or especially when you become

offended by what the Scripture says about sin.

Oh friend, number one we see in this story, the people Satan uses.

And friend, he has used me in the life of people.

And I'm sure he's used you as well.

Be careful.

Number one, the people Satan uses.

Number two, the second part of the story that we learn.

Number two is not just the people Satan uses, but number two, the promise Jesus offers.

This is beautiful.

Look what it says in verse seven as the story continues.

Then came the day of unloving bread when the Passover must be killed.

So they're about to celebrate the Passover.

We call it the Lord's Supper.

Or Leonardo da Vinci referred to it as the Last Supper.

And you may remember this painting from your history classes and your art classes.

Maybe if you've actually traveled to this location you can see the actual painting

of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper.

But understand that when you see it it actually probably looked a little bit more like this

than like that.

Now what exactly is this?

This is the final supper that Jesus has with his disciples.

They would have sat at a table that was low to the ground back during that day that when

I've been tables like that.

By the way if you notice ushers that are moving around we're going to be celebrating the Lord's

table and the Lord's Supper right now.

Could I get one of those from you?

Could I get one of those from you guys?

Thank you very much.

What we're going to do in this moment is you're going to have an opportunity of celebrating

and participating in the Lord's Supper right here, right in the middle of the sermon as

we study all about it.

So as the plates go by go ahead and take that, hold on to it and I'm going to walk you through

it.

Now before you do let me walk you through a little bit of what Jesus was doing with his

disciples.

They were up in what the Bible calls an upper room in Jerusalem.

They were celebrating the historic Passover with the disciples.

As I stated before this would have been a low table to the ground.

Not like one that you would sit at today.

But where your feet would have been spread away from the table not under the table.

Where they would have reclined on little couches or more likely just some cushions.

Remember Jesus was not a wealthy man.

He was not followed by many wealthy disciples.

He would have rented a little room and had a beautiful dinner and he would have just

been very intimate like this.

In the midst of this last supper of the Lord Jesus Christ he institutes what we call communion.

Say it with me.

Communion.

Or he institutes what some churches refer to as the Lord's Supper.

Say it with me.

The Lord's Supper.

And while they are there in Jesus' last night of freedom Jesus gives an analogy with the

food.

He uses the food as a metaphor to explain everything about the Christian faith.

And he says, this bread is my body which is broken for you.

This cup, the juice, the wine, it is my blood which is shed for many.

Now let me read the text to you as you continue to receive the cup.

Look at what it says in verse 14.

When the hour had come he sat down with his twelve apostles.

Then he said to them, with fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you

before I suffer.

For I say to you I will no longer eat of it until it is all fulfilled in the kingdom of

God.

Then he took the cup and he gave thanks and he said, take and divide it among yourselves.

For I say to you I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.

And he took the bread and he gave thanks.

He broke it.

And he gave it to them saying, this is my body which is given for you.

This do in remembrance of me.

Likewise, also he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my

blood which is shed for many.

I'm going to walk you through this at this point.

Before I do let me just say, what we're about to participate is an ancient Christian ritual

for those who personally believe in Jesus Christ and have a relationship with God through

Jesus.

They're Christian.

If you're here today and you're not yet a Christian, you've not become a believer in

Jesus.

You are more than welcome to hold on to this and take it home as a souvenir.

But if you're not yet a Christian, you're not a believer in Jesus, it would be considered

culturally inappropriate and insulting to a Christian community to partake of the bread

and the cup without having first given your life to Jesus Christ.

So we'll just ask you to hold on to it.

For those who are followers of Jesus Christ, the book of 1 Corinthians tells us that it

is appropriate to check your heart, to ask God, am I walking in relationship with you,

to confess your sins to God before partaking?

And to do so in remembrance of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Now we do so together.

As you pull back that first tab of plastic, it'll reveal a little wafer of bread.

This little wafer of bread symbolizes the broken body of Jesus Christ.

Now if you grew up in certain religious traditions, you are very nervous holding this wafer.

You believe or have been taught that some sort of a holy man or priest needs to hold

this for you.

But nothing is found in Scripture that would indicate this.

The only priest you need is Jesus Christ and Him alone.

And that He has built a relationship between you and God without the need of these type

of priestly rituals.

That you can hold the wafer just as much as any other man.

Now as you hold this wafer, remind yourself of the broken body of Jesus.

That His body was broken on the cross for your sins.

He did not die upon the cross because He was a revolutionary.

He died upon the cross because somebody needed to pay for the sins of mankind.

And Jesus Christ being the Son of God and the Son of Adam said nobody else needs to

die for their own sins when I can break my body for them.

And so Jesus allowed His body to be broken for you.

And we as Christians, when we see this, we don't just believe it, Jesus says, I want

you to consume it.

When we consume and eat the bread, we are not physically eating the body of Jesus Christ

in a strange cannibalistic manner, as some may have taught.

We are taking the body of Christ symbolically saying, I live you, I eat you, I drink you,

you are in me, you are through me, not my life, but your life be in me.

In remembrance of Him, let us partake.

The scripture says, after they had eaten the bread, they took the cup.

If you'll pull back that second tab, it'll reveal the liquid.

The juice for our modern era that we hold in our cup reminds us of the blood that Jesus

shed.

He called it the New Testament or the New Covenant.

Why?

Well, because there was an old covenant that God made with man.

What was that covenant?

In the Old Testament, if you've ever read it, what was the deal?

He made a deal with mankind.

Here's the deal.

Here's the contract.

You do all of these rules and you can come to heaven.

And mankind did not do very good with that.

So 600 years before Jesus came, God sent a prophet named Jeremiah.

And Jeremiah said, I got some good news for everybody.

There's a new deal coming.

There's a New Testament coming.

There's a New Covenant coming.

There's a New Contract coming.

Here's the new one that's coming.

You don't have to worry about trying to obey the rules.

God will love you with an everlasting love and He will die for your sins and offer you

unconditional salvation if you repent and receive Him as your Savior.

He says now, Jesus, this is the New Covenant, the New Testament, the New Deal with God.

You'll never be perfect.

But God in heaven loves you so much, He shed His blood to pay for all of your past sins,

present sins, and future sins.

So all you need to do is receive Jesus as your Savior.

And when we drink the cup, we are reminded that His saving blood permeates our existence,

that we cannot be saved apart from it.

In remembrance of Jesus Christ.

What can we learn from the death of the devil?

In this passage, we learn the people Satan uses, the promise Jesus offers.

And you might say, what's the promise in this passage?

Did you miss it?

Did you miss the promise in the passage?

The promise he offers is this.

Let me say it.

All are welcome at the table.

Did you notice who still was sitting at the table when Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper?

Who was still there?

Judas.

How awesome is Jesus?

Even while Jesus knows what Judas is thinking about, Jesus is saying, hey brother, you're

welcome at this table.

Can I just stop and say to you?

Some of you think you are far past redemption.

You are far past God.

You've already made too many mistakes.

And Jesus is saying to you even now, hey, you're welcome at the table.

You don't have to do what you think you're destined to do.

You don't have to damn yourself.

You don't have to doom yourself.

Yes, it is true.

It is absolutely true that Jesus will be crucified, but it doesn't have to be you, Judas, who

does this thing is what he's saying.

And even in this moment Jesus is offering him, that is Judas, one last chance.

What do we learn in this passage?

Number one, the people say to news is number two, the promise Jesus offers.

Number three, the choices we make.

The last thought I end with today is the choices we make to find our future and our eternity.

Your choice will not only define your future.

Listen to me.

Your choice will reflect your level of trust in Jesus.

Was Judas upset with Jesus?

Yes or no?

Yes.

Look at verse 21.

But behold, as soon as Jesus is done partaking of the communion, look at what Jesus says,

but behold, the hand of my betrayer is with me on the table.

And truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined.

He said, look, I'm going to die no matter what, but woe to the man by whom he is betrayed.

And then beginning to question among themselves which of them who it would be who would do

this thing.

So Jesus looks at them all and says, look, I'm going to die, but woe to the person who

is the person who is going to lead to this moment.

And all of them began to ask the question, who is it, Lord?

Who is it?

Who is it?

Is it me?

Now, Judas is among them.

And to get a fuller picture of how this story plays out, you have to look at the other Gospels.

So we look at Matthew chapter 26.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

Look what it says in the Scripture.

One of you will betray me, for the Son of Man must die as the Scriptures declared long

ago, but how terrible it will be for the one who betrays him.

Jesus looks around and says, look, the Son of Adam has to die, but how terrible for the

person who chooses to betray him, but how terrible it says.

And it would be far better for that man if he had never been born.

And then look at what Judas says.

Judas, the one who would betray him, asked, Rabbi, am I the one?

And Jesus said, you have said it.

I believe this is very clearly Jesus' opportunity to Judas saying, if you say so, Judas, you

don't have to be you, buddy.

Look at what he says in John chapter 13, if you think out of context.

John 13 · chapter mention

John 13 verse 25, we piece together all the Gospels, and look at what it says.

John 13:25

John said, Lord, who is it?

And Jesus responded, it's the one to whom I will give the bread that I will dip in the

bowl.

And when he had dipped it, he gave it to Judas.

Jesus is giving him the opportunity.

And what does it say?

When Judas had eaten the bread, at any moment Judas could have said, I don't understand

what's going on.

Jesus, help.

And when Judas had eaten the bread, look at what it says, Satan entered into him.

Then Jesus told him, hurry up, do what you're going to do.

So Judas left at once going out into the night.

Judas must have felt that he had no other choice.

Listen, some of you believe you have no other choice.

Some of you think I'm just too intellectual for this whole God thing.

You think you have no other choice.

Judas must have felt he had no other choice, but clearly Jesus was giving him every opportunity

to repent and change his mind.

So why didn't he?

Trust issues.

He didn't trust Jesus.

Do you have trust issues?

Have you been hurt by people so often that you really genuinely have a difficult time

trusting even God's plan that's obvious in your life?

I have trust issues.

Does anybody remember the name of the sermon itself?

The sermon series is the death of the devil, backfire, death of the devil.

Does anybody remember the name of the sermon?

I told you I'd come back to it.

Anybody remember the name of the sermon?

If you do, shout it out.

What was it?

Is it on the thing?

Okay, I thought, all right, good, all right.

I thought you were cheating, dining with darkness.

That's really good.

It's the story of when Jesus was dining with darkness.

Did you know there's a place in Las Vegas you can literally dine in the dark?

Have you heard about this?

How many of you have heard about this restaurant?

Anybody here ever been there?

Anybody been there?

Raise your hand if you've been there.

Nobody?

Oh, right over here.

All right, very good.

Did you like it?

It was okay.

It was okay.

I've read that the food is incredible.

I mean, absolutely amazing.

So Pastor Josh, are you going to go?

Nope.

I'm out.

It's pitch black.

I've watched videos on it.

You enter into the restaurant and it's pitch black.

The waiters and the dining people, they all have, what is it called?

Yeah, yeah, that.

Where they can see in the dark.

They've got these, what is it?

What's it called?

Night vision goggles.

So they're going around, but you're in complete pitch black darkness.

Now, I've been to a lot of restaurants in Vegas.

I have trust issues.

One of the members of our church is a, he's a, he's an inspector.

I don't know what they call him where they go in the back of the kitchen and they inspect

things.

He's the one who shuts them down.

And I've told him on multiple occasions, I would love that information, you know?

He's told me, he's like, you do not want to know.

That scares me.

I've been in restaurants and I like to keep my eyes open.

Not just what I'm going to eat, but like what's around me.

If I feel something at my feet, I want to be able to look down and see what I just felt.

So I'm going to go into a restaurant that is pitch black and I'm going to eat whatever

they put in front of me and I'm going to be around anybody that they put around me.

And whatever's around me is what's going to be around me.

That freaks me out.

You know why?

Because here to be frank, I don't trust them.

That's what God's been doing in your life lately.

He has brought you into a dark room.

He has sat you at a table.

And he says, I'm going to feed you and you better just scoop it up.

And in this dark moment, I'm not telling you the details.

You say, but I feel something around me.

I don't know what's going on.

Trust me, it's fine.

I don't think I like the taste of this.

What's going on?

Trust me, it's fine.

And there are moments in the life of every Christian where God intentionally and purposefully

tells you he loves you.

But Judas, you have to trust his plan lest you become the unwitting pawn of the devil.

Yeah?

Let's pray.

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