Is it I, Rabbi? | Bro. Alex Mason

Let's just keep entertaining that presence as we continue.

He can interrupt whenever He, like you would please turn.

Matthew 2620. Appreciate your prayers, Mr.

McGee stated. I've been sick and fever, but he

is able. I feel prescribed tonight, feel

like I had a natural prescription of energy that's

probably almost spent by now, and I feel like I have a

spiritual prescription of energy to use.

We're just going to see where this goes.

Matthew 2620 Familiar passage states Now when the even was

come, he sat down with the 12. And as they did eat, he said,

Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.

And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and began every one

of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I?

And he being Jesus answered and said, He that dippeth his hand

with me in the dish, and the same shall betray me.

The Son of Man goeth, as it is written of him, but woe unto

that man whom by by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.

It had been good for that man if he had not been born.

Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it

I? And he said unto him, Jesus

speaking, said, Thou has said, I'm going to take my title from

the ESV interpretation. I'll read it for you, it says

Judas, who would betray him, answered.

Is it I, Rabbi? He said to him, You have said

so, So I want to preach to you tonight.

Is it I, Rabbi? Is it I, Rabbi?

Wonder if we could entertain him one more time tonight?

Lord, I ask you just to move. Lord, anoint your servant.

Lord, your will would be done. Lord, this is not my word, this

is your word. Lord, I give myself unto you.

You touch your people. Lord, prepare hearts and minds

for a planting ground of your word.

Lord, they would fall upon fertile soil.

Minister in this place today. Have your way in this place.

Lord, in Jesus mighty name. Lord, we give you the glory,

honor and praise for it. Oh and everybody say in Jesus

name, hey man, you may be seated tonight.

We have heard this passage of scripture multiple times.

I'm sure you can remember it commonly on or around Easter

because this is leading up to the arrest of Jesus this Last

Supper. But the many times I have read

it and I've heard it, I feel like sometimes there are just

those passages you've heard so many different times.

And you go on and then until you go back to it, you forget a few

things about a passage of Scripture.

And then you come back to it and you're like, oh, I forgot that.

And I guess I just forgot something about it.

But what? But when Jesus is dropping this

bomb, the Last Supper, that that one of his own disciples, the

ones that he chose to follow him.

These young men had stopped work.

They had left all that they had to go and follow Jesus.

One of these faithful few that had the honor to Sup with him,

to listen to him, to watch his miracles, his signs, his wonders

would betray Jesus. And we all know who of course,

because we don't live inside the story.

But if you can imagine, if you will, this close knit group of

of young men that have been ministering and been a part of

the ministry of Jesus to hear one of you shall betray me.

You know, for me, especially if I was in that those shoes.

I am a very principal person and and buy buy the the book and and

I I stand up for truth. And so if I were to hear that

and that was that was my Lord. And he said that some I'd be

like, is it you? I'd be I'd be going around and

I'd start asking, I'd be interrogating, right.

But what were they doing? They were frantically, I'm sure

because they were living in it. They were frantically 1 by 1,

maybe even in a crescendo together.

They were with sorrow in their voice saying, Lord, is it I now

I know, I know you may be pretty.

You think I'm pretty dense for forgetting that.

That's not what I forgot, but but what I forgot was the

verbage used by 1. When Judas spoke to Jesus, he

did not say Lord, is it I? He said something that revealed

his heart. He said, Is it I, Rabbi?

You could interchange it with Master Teacher.

Whatever way. Either way, he called him Rabbi.

Please do not misunderstand. Rabbi was respectful.

There's nothing wrong with that. There is nothing wrong.

Easton's Bible dictionary defines Rabbi as my master, a

title of dignity. It's given by the Jews to their

doctors of the law and their distinguished teachers, and it

is sometimes applied to Christ. So Judas wasn't necessarily

being disrespectful by calling him rabbi, it held respect, but

when he was the only one that stated it, when everyone else

stated him as Lord, that starts to give an indication of Judas's

heart. I don't know if he said it in

the openness or if if there was a break in the in the talking or

a break and he's he's leaning over to Jesus and he says it.

But that should have been revealing.

You see this was not a one time thing that which we can glean

from Scripture. In fact, we what we have

recorded in Scripture, Jesus never called, Judas never called

Jesus Lord. From what we have in Scripture,

we can only see him saying something like Rabbi or master,

something similar. You see, to Judas, Jesus was

probably a really great teacher, but he was not his Lord.

Why? Because Judas probably had the

same mentality that many of the Jews of the time had, which was

the Messiah was supposed to come big and bad and strong, supposed

to be a king, and Messiah was supposed to overthrow Rome and

take charge. They couldn't imagine.

They could not imagine that the Old Testament prophets foretold

could have been for later down the road when there was

conquering, couldn't imagine that.

They couldn't imagine the holy Jesus that didn't come, that he

would be served, but that he would serve.

So Judas followed him, maybe in hopes that this Jesus was going

to be that big Messiah, but that was not the Messiah he

envisioned. He was a good teacher in Judas's

eyes, but he could not be the Messiah.

He could not be the Lord. You see, He came, he walked, he

ate, he dipped in the same bowl. He was in the presence of the

Messiah and still did not know him as Lord.

With Jesus just being a rabbi in his life and not Lord came

doubt. When we go to the account of

John 12, John 12. I'll start from verse one.

It says then six days before the Passover came to Bethany, there

where Lazarus which had been dead, whom he raised from the

dead. There they made him a supper,

and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the

table with him, and then took Mary a pound of ointment of

spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and

wiped his feet with her hair in the house was filled with the

odor of the ointment. And then once saith one of his

disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which would,

should, and would betray him, why was not this ointment sold

for 300 pence and given to the poor?

This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was

a thief, and had the bag and bear what was put therein.

Then Jesus said, Let her alone against the day of my burying

hath she kept this for the poor. Always ye have with you, but me

ye not all have not always. Here Mary is breaking her oil

and she is anointing the feet of Jesus.

And I'm sure, I'm sure they all were pretty confused.

But Judas is the one that decided to put words to his

confusion. He was very uncomfortable with

worship that cost something. Mary breaks her oil and he

decides to critique it. What it looked like was logic to

Judas, what it looked like. But what it really was was

doubt. Doubt that Jesus was worth it.

Doubt that this kind of extravagant worship was

necessary. That cost way too much.

Hold your horses. We could have sold this.

That is too much of A cost. That's a waste.

But you will question what you have not surrendered to.

The Bible exposes his real heart and even calls him a thief.

Judas had doubt wrapped up in logic.

Doubt doesn't always look like walking away.

Sometimes it looks like staying close but then questioning every

little thing you see. Worship is wasted to someone who

only sees Jesus as rabbi. When Jesus is just a good

teacher to you, then you'll manage your relationship with

him on your schedule when it's convenient to you, instead of

surrendering everything to Him, giving him lordship in your

life. That costs too much.

That's not on my schedule. No, you don't understand.

That's that's too much of my time.

That's not on my schedule. Worship costs too much when he's

just a good teacher. But oh, when, when he is Lord,

he deserves it all. Every oz I can give, he is

worthy. I can't even give him all that

he deserves, but I'll do my very, very best Judah.

Judas sold Jesus, but Mary anointed Jesus.

Judas valued Jesus at 30 pieces of silver, which roughly would

have been about 120 days wages during that time, whereas Mary

valued him at about a year's wages in perfume.

And I'm certain that's not the cap of which she wanted to do,

but it's all probably that she had to give.

Your worship will reveal how much He is worth to you.

Please don't be confused. I'm not talking about worship

that we just do in song. I'm talking about your worship

of your life. How does your life worship your

Lord? With your time, with your plans,

your possessions, your dreams, your words, your bodies, your

finances? How your life worships will

reveal His cost to you. It's not if you love him.

Judas loved him. How much is he worth?

Though? You'll always undervalue that

again what you haven't fully surrendered to Matthew 27 And

one says when morning was come, and all the chief priests and

elders, the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to

death, when they had bound him and they had led him away and

delivered him upon his pilot, The governor.

Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was

condemned, repented himself and brought again the 30 pieces of

silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned in

that, I have betrayed the innocent blood.

And they said, what is that to us?

Sieve out to that and he cast down the pieces of silver in the

temple, departed, went and hanged himself the next morning.

This is the next morning after Jesus had been praying in the

garden. Judas came with the soldiers,

pointed Jesus out to them after there was a secret meeting after

the after the secret meeting of the priest against him to decide

to put him to death. Jesus Judas was sorry and he

attempts to return the money, but he said I've betrayed

innocent blood. He didn't say I betrayed the

Lord. He was repentant because it was

his rabbi. He was repentant because and I

love him. He's just such a good teacher.

He started second guessing, but he never second guessed that.

We see. It doesn't seem like he second

guessed the fact that he was Lord.

I believe this is just my opinion that Judas doubted

Jesus's mercy because we have nothing.

And Pastor could correct me if I'm wrong.

We have nothing in scripture that states that he was destined

for hell. Nothing it said that he it was

better that he wouldn't have been born because of the choices

that he was making. But could it be that if he was

repentant in the sense of this is this is the Lord, Could it

be, ladies and gentlemen, if he recognized that he could have

challenged, if you will, the mercy of Jesus to the extent of

after death, burial and resurrection that Judas could

have been saved. Could it be that Judas doubted

the mercy of God so much be and he felt like he had done this

wrong, but it was to a man, he wasn't repentant in the fact

that he was Lord. He was repentant in the fact

that he's a good man. Yeah, come on.

That's good. But he doubted the mercy of

Jesus to the extent that if he hadn't have killed himself,

could it be it? Would it have been difficult to

go to the disciples? It almost would have been.

It almost would have been like Paul going to the disciples

after persecuting and now he's preaching.

It would have been difficult, sure, but he could have been

saved. His guilt drove him to despair,

but not to deliverance. He had regrets, and he never

reached for redemption. There is no mercy without

lordship. Because you see, when he was

sorry that he did it, Jesus was just that good guy, you know?

But it wasn't the revelation that Jesus was Lord, that he was

the Messiah. Judas didn't live long enough to

see that because Jesus had no lordship in his mind.

But Judas is in a special category of Sinner.

We look at him and we think, how could you?

And I know you're thinking that That's not me.

But this isn't just Judas A Judas problem.

It's a human problem. Having a rabbi mentality, if you

will, in your life instead of him being Lord in your life is a

surrender and trust problem. We look at surrender and trust

in the Bible. Just a couple examples.

I think of the first family, Genesis 4:00 and 9:00.

We're talking about Cain and Abel here and the Lord said in

the Cain, where is Abel thy brother?

And he said, I know not am I my brother's keeper, sarcastic jerk

with this first family we have Cain and Abel and God is asking

Cain where Abel is and and and Cain responds with that sarcasm

and evasion. Just pure deflection.

Isn't that like humanity though, is it's not it's not the

response of someone who sees God as Lord over their life.

It's that's someone who sees him as an option.

Kane saw. Kane saw him as an option.

You know, am I my brother's keeper?

Who cares? Who am I To answer to you?

We jump forward to King Saul. We have a popular section of

Scripture that happens right after this is right around the

time he's sparing A gag. He's keeping the best of the

Amalekites in the flock and everything like that.

And and and we're right after that and first Samuel 1513, it

says, and Samuel came to Saul and Saul said unto him, blessed

be thou of the Lord. I have performed the commandment

of the Lord. He said, yes, I've done it.

Look at me. Look at what I've done.

And Samuel said, What meaneth in this bleeding of the sheep in my

ears, and the lowing of the oxen, which I hear?

And Saul said, they have brought them from the Amalekites.

For the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to

sacrifice unto the Lord thy God, and the rest we have utterly

destroyed. He's so proud of himself, he

tries to spin it. He thinks he's helping God out a

little bit. He said, God, you didn't think

of this. But don't worry, I got it

covered. Samuel's like, what's that noise

I hear? Come on, there wasn't supposed

to be any noise. Utterly destroyed.

I should be here in silence. That's what it's like when

someone keeps just enough religion to look good, but

doesn't surrender enough to obey.

Yeah. Yeah.

Judas was one of the 12. He knew.

He knew everything to do. He was a part.

And the the disciples didn't know till the betrayal that it

was him. Why?

Because he was living off of religion, if you will.

He did everything he did could do to be a part.

He did his job in the church. Some of us do the same thing.

We do it all as partial obedience because we aren't

surrendering our life under this lordship.

We look good enough, just enough to to to to not obey holy just

so we don't have to obey. The difference between him being

a rabbi in your life to him being Lord in your life comes

down to sacrifice. Take the rich young ruler in

Matthew 19. I know I'm hitting some popular

ones tonight. I'm sorry.

I'll I'll take a page out of pastor's book sometime and do do

some minor profits or something. Matthew 1920 and the young man

saithing to him. All these things have I kept

from my youth up What lack I yet he's he's he.

This is right after he's stating, you know, what shall I

do to enter the Kingdom of heaven and he and have you kept

the commandments? Of course, I've done great with

that. I'm amazing.

Then Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and

sell that thou hassen give to the poor, and thou shalt have

treasure in heaven, and come and follow me.

But when the young men man heard that saying, he went away

sorrowful, for he had a great possession.

The sacrifice was too great to Him.

If the sacrifice that God is calling you to in your life is

too great for you, then He is not Lord of your life.

You can keep commandments and still not give Him control.

You can still speak in tongues and walk away not surrendered

unto His Lordship. The question isn't do you know

the rules? The question is, who runs your

life? Have we gotten to a point now

where we go through the motions as as the church and we make it

look like we have it all in line, but really our heart is

saying, Rabbi, really we have we broken our walk with God down to

having good church every once in a while and we can look, we can

look at each other and say, man, that was good church.

And then we go home and we do whatever we want and we'll come

back Sunday, maybe Wednesday and if we need a pick up, but Sunday

morning for sure. And we will repent for all the

vomit. We went back to like a dog

during the week. You don't want to know why you

keep suffering with that same thing over and over and over and

over again. It's because he's not Lord.

He's not Lord at home. He's just rabbi to us.

It's just good teaching. It's just a good feeling that

we'll have when we get back in the four walls of the church.

You want to know why you fight those demons?

It is because he is rabbi at home.

He is rabbi outside the four walls of this church.

We have to wake up and realize that he needs to be Lord over

all. Lord over your family, your

home, your job, your finances, your thoughts, your television,

your phone. Everything has to be under

subjection to His lordship. Parents will have a rabbi

mentality towards God in their home and then wonder why their

kids don't follow God. I don't know why little Johnny

was watching inappropriate stuff on his phone.

Well, is he Lord a rabbi in your house?

Does little Johnny know that he's Lord of this house?

Does that phone know that he is Lord of this house?

I know that may sound weird, ladies and gentlemen, I know

that. But I what I'm trying to tell

you is that did, did, did you make sure to batten down the

hatches on this thing, learn everything you could about this

thing, pray over this thing, set boundaries with your kid on this

thing and declare his lordship over it?

Or did you throw caution to the wind, buy the thing, toss it to

the kid and say, here you go. No, he's just rabbi.

Maybe you're here tonight and you think I, I have messed up.

Maybe, maybe you feel like Judas and you're repentant, but I'm

telling you, you have to be repentant to declare him a Lord.

I've messed up. I've I've betrayed him.

I've denied him with my life and my choices.

If that's you, then you need to look at Peter instead.

Peter denied Jesus three times. He cursed, he ran, he wept

bitterly. But the difference was this G

Peter still knew Jesus was Lord even in failure and in fear.

He didn't get right in the moment.

He didn't get it right in the moment, but he came back.

Judas betrayed and ran from mercy, but Peter denied and ran

to mercy. Judas called him rabbi and he

died in regret, but Peter called him Lord and he preached

Pentecost. You can still be used even if

you've been living a rabbi life. We just have to change our

mentality because we've been failing to surrender up to this

point. But that doesn't mean that it

has to be final. It doesn't mean that he only has

to be rabbi to you. You can choose for him to have

lordship over your life. Music can come.

If we could stand tonight, I'm asking you church, what title do

you give him in your life? Does your heart declare him as

Lord or does it settle for rabbi?

Does he do you just settle for good Church?

Do you just settle for maybe having a shout down every once

in a while? Do you just settle to, to, to do

the, the the usual and, and make it look all good?

See, we, Lord, help me see, we have, I've been, I've been

talking with my wife and I, I talked with other people.

I, I don't claim for it to be discernment pastor.

I don't claim for it to be discernment per SE, but I, I sit

and I observe sometimes when we go places.

I observe most of the time. But when we go places and you

know, camps, conferences, everything like that.

And I, I, I'm ailed in my body when, when I sit and I look at,

at a generation that is many of them, not all of them.

This is not a this is not a blanket statement.

Many of them have a look at me shout spirit.

That is not just just the kids. That's just I, I deal with the

kids a lot. That's not that's not lordship,

that's not sincerity. I'm all for a shout now.

I told, I told the students a couple weeks ago, I was talking

and the when, whenever that happens, I'm just thinking, what

are we missing? What are, what are what move of

God are we missing because we're too focused on.

Let's shout. Let's, let's, let's, let's have

the story of saying that we were in the sanctuary for however

many hours. Lord, there's no authority in

that. There's no, there's no saving in

that. When those people go home,

they're going to go back to the same demons that they've been

fighting. They'll say, oh, camp was

amazing. It was life changing, but the

the life didn't change because we were too focused on doing it.

Lordship is about sincerity. Authenticity is something that

is greatly lacking. I feel like it's a right now, I

feel like it's a, a hamster. I feel like we're a hamster.

And authenticity is in one of those bottles and it is on its

last leg of drip. And with the reason it is, is

because we haven't gone back to Lordship.

We've been lacking lordship in life for so long because we've

gotten by on a good time. We've gotten by on being able to

make it Sunday to Sunday. I would say Wednesday, but

sometimes that's difficult. You don't have authority in your

household when he's just rabbi. You won't give victory over that

sin that's ailing you if he's just rabbi.

These altars are open tonight. I pray that you've heard my

heart and intention. We need to reclaim His Lordship

in our life. We need to reclaim Him.

The difference between a heart that says Rabbi and a heart that

says Master and Lord is sacrifice.

Rabbi can give you revelation, sure, but only Lord is going to

give you the resurrection. Only if He is Lord over your

everything is there going to be a true relationship.

There Relationship is what we direly need and we are desperate

for in this generation that we do not have as much as we

should. Giving of ourselves, giving of

ourselves unto his Lordship. Everything that we have, our

thoughts are the things that we do, the things that we talk

about, the people that we are around.

That is what is most important. Giving unto his Lordship, having

him have a say and everything that we do, everything that

we're a part of, giving him Lordship is one of the most

important decisions we need to make in these last days so that

we do not look and we say, God, we have done everything in your

name. We have done all these things in

your name. And he says, I depart from me.

I never knew you. That is the difference between

lordship. We need to be able to say, is it

I, Lord not? Is it I, Rabbi?

Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Hallelujah, Hallelujah.