Probably the most suspenseful book that I have read this past year was Shakespeare s Othello. Othello is a tragedy of Shakespeare s, like most of his works. And in this particular tragedy, Othello was the Moor of Venice. He was a general who conquered the Turks and he had much love and respect from his Venetian people. Now Othello got himself in a bit of a bind because he promoted Michael Cassio instead of Iago. Iago was his ensign but Michael Cassio got the promotion and Iago was infuriated with Othello for promoting Cassio instead of himself. As a result Iago would set out to betray Othello in the worst kind of way. He would do it as his friend inside the inner circle. And what Iago set out to do was to convince Othello that his beloved wife, Desdemona, had had an affair with Michael Cassio, the one Othello had promoted. Through page turning events, this suspense dramatic thriller captures you in this read. And as you come toward the end of the book Othello bites the bait, believing Iago s lie that Desdemona has truly been unfaithful to him with Michael Cassio. So in an attempt to get rid of Desdemona, Othello smothers her with a pillow killing her, only to immediately find out after her death that Desdemona was loyal, Desdemona was faithful, Desdemona was his woman to the end. And he then found out that it was Iago, the one in the inner circle, who had betrayed him. And the tragedy ends as Othello lays himself over his dead wife and kills himself. We think about a tragic story like that of betrayal and we remember if we have ever been cut by the edge of the sword of betrayal, and we remember how deeply it cuts. If you have ever experienced it in your life, you know that betrayal is one of those things that is hard to recover from. We are coming to a passage today in John Chapter 13 where Jesus has an Iago in his inner circle who is going to betray him in a way that you cannot possibly imagine. But the difference between Jesus and Othello is Othello did not recognize his betrayer and Jesus did. Now when you think about your own life, where have you been betrayed? Maybe it has been by a mother, or a father, or a friend, or someone you worked with. Maybe you have been lied to. Maybe you disclosed a secret to someone and they went about and shared that with someone and you felt exposed, you felt betrayed, you felt hurt. Betrayal is a sword that cuts oh so deeply. We have seen that with the Tyler Clementi case at Rutgers University with the freshman who was filmed by his roommate in an indecent act with another man. Now I certainly would not endorse the act that Tyler Clementi committed, but can you imagine the betrayal he felt when it was posted all over the place. And what did Tyler Clementi do? He went and jumped off of a bridge to his own demise. There is something about betrayal that makes you feel exposed. There is something about betrayal that makes it hard to trust someone again if you have been Page 1 of 13 pages 10/10/2010
betrayed. There is something about betrayal that makes you struggle feeling safe in life. Maybe you have been betrayed in a church before, and you are coming through the doors thinking, This is hard coming to a church. I don t trust church people. And maybe that is the way you feel. And if you have ever been betrayed, from the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry. It is a painful thing. I have known betrayal deeply both outside of the ministry and inside of the ministry in my own life. And betrayal is a sharp sword. We love the opposite of betrayal which is loyalty. I think of Josh Wood, our Worship Director. We went out one day and he wanted to pick up a Bible for his lovely bride to be, Leah. And as we were going to pick up the Bible, he began to tell me what he was going to do. He was going to have Leah Wood, which would be her new last name, engraved on the Bible. And he picked out verses to her and underlined them. Then he signed it and gave it to her the night before they were married. She could go through it and see these verses that he had marked. And then he signed it from, Your Defender. And when I heard that I thought, Yes. I heard that Leah was just moved in a very deep way. And I thought that is what a man of God is a defender, not a betrayer. And every woman in this room wants to know that she has a man that is her defender, that he fights for her, that he is for her, that he stands by her side and will not betray her. We come today to this passage in John Chapter 13 and I want to say that this is a wheels off passage. This is Suspense 101. I mean there is a suspense drama right here. I am going to tell you that you want to follow the story line because the insights that I am going to pull out are going to come at the end, and if you have checked out in the story, you are going to miss the application. So those of you who are going, Oh man, I want something relevant to my life, you need to buckle up because you will get it. But go with me on a drama. Go with me as we learn about an Iago with the name of Judas Iscariot in this passage in John Chapter 13. Before we delve in let s remember that in John Chapter 13 we just came off of the passage where Jesus is still in the upper room and He has just finished washing the disciples feet. And now the tables are going to turn, and we are going to come to the most horrific act of betrayal that you can possibly imagine. And we go from the first half of John Chapter13, which is all about love with Jesus washing His disciples feet, to the second half of John Chapter 13, which is all about hate when Judas is getting ready to betray Jesus. We go from the first half of John Chapter 13 which is all about selflessness, as Jesus denies Himself and serves the disciples, to the second half of John Chapter 13, which is all about selfishness as Judas thinks about his own self. We are reminded that in John Chapter 13 and verse 2 as we studied last week, it says this: During supper when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Page 2 of 13 pages 10/10/2010
Iscariot, Simon s son, to betray Him. And we saw last week that Satan had already put it into the heart of Judas to betray Jesus. And we know when we look at the synoptic gospels, Matthew Mark and Luke that Judas has already been to the Chief Priest looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus. He has already worked out the compensation package. He has already figured out what the benefits are going to be for doing this. Everything is now set to go and Judas is looking for that opportunity to betray Jesus. Satan has placed it in heart. And as I shared with you, Satan can place stuff in your hearts, and in my heart, in the form of temptation. And we have a responsibility to deal with those temptations. We have a responsibility to not buckle under those temptations when our thoughts are being invaded to think about things we ought not to think about; when we are tempted to act in a certain way that we ought not to act. We have the responsibility as Martin Luther said, We can t keep the birds from flying over our heads, but we can prevent them from building a nest in our hair. We can t keep temptation from coming our way, but we can prevent it from materializing in our lives. So now let s remember the setting. Jesus is in the upper room and He has had this Passover feast with His disciples. The way that the tables would have been set up is in the shape of a U. If you have ever seen Leonardo da Vinci s Last Supper painting, are they sitting down at the supper or are they sort of reclining? They are sitting down. They are sitting straight up. Are they sitting in a U shape or are the sitting straight? They are sitting straight. So Leonardo Da Vinci has already botched the real scene, and he shows that he does not have quite the understanding of the Greco-Roman world through his painting. Because what would have taken place is they would have sat in a U shape and there would have been three tables, one as the head of the table with two sides. And Jesus would have sat at the head of the table in the middle. And then He would have had someone on His left and someone on His right with the rest of the disciples being down the other tables. And they wouldn t have been sitting; they would have been lying on their sides with their feet outward. The tables would have been very low so they would be able to eat their food and drink their wine as they were reclined. Yes, they would sit at their meals sometimes in that culture. But for special meals like the Feast of Unleavened Bread or the Feast of Passover, they reclined, they conversed, they got in deep community, they socialized and they enjoyed the meal. This was the dining room experience in that culture. And this is the setting. So now let s look at the Scriptures beginning in John Chapter 13 and verse 18. Jesus said, I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen, but the Scripture will be fulfilled. What is Jesus meaning when He says, I know whom I have Page 3 of 13 pages 10/10/2010
chosen? He is talking about the fact that He chose His disciples. Some would say, Yes, but hasn t He chosen Judas? He has, but Judas proved to be a pseudo disciple. He chose Judas as a disciple, but Judas wasn t ultimately a convert. And there is a difference. Jesus had, even in His own inner circle, a betrayer. This should be an alarm to us. If Jesus with His twelve disciples had someone who was willing to betray Him, how much more is it plausible that we in our inner circles, or in the church, that there would be people that will betray Jesus, that there are people that will forsake Jesus. And Jesus said, The Scripture will be fulfilled. The Scriptures talk about the fact that Jesus would be betrayed, and it even tells how much He would be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver. This is amazing. Let s read on. He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me. Now there is something that we need to be aware of because it says right here, I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen, but the Scripture will be fulfilled, He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me. And what Jesus is referring to here is Psalm Chapter 41 and verse 9. If you were to look at this verse you would see that statement, He who has lifted his heel against me. What does it mean to lift your heel against someone, to betray someone? If you were to look at Psalm 41 it is a Psalm about David. It is David writing that Psalm. And so Jesus sees Himself as a type of David. And in that David was betrayed, Jesus was betrayed. Just as David was a king, Jesus was a king. Just as David suffered, Jesus suffered. Now all of Psalm 41 does not apply to Jesus. Why? Because in Psalm 41 and verse 4, David is confessing his sin and Jesus has no sin to confess. But it helps you to understand it. David had the experience of betrayal with Ahithophel who would betray him and then go out and hang himself, just as Jesus is about to be betrayed by Judas who will then go out and hang himself. Jesus sees Himself experiencing in a fulfilled kind of way what David experienced in an Old Testament way. I hope that makes sense to you as I tried to give you a little bit of context there. There are pseudo believers all around us. Judas was a pseudo believer. Did you know that you could be a pseudo believer? Many people can show up in church week after week after week and still be lost. Judas hung out with Jesus for three years but he was not legit. He was illegitimate. He was not the real deal. He was not a bonafide on fire, passionate lover of Jesus Christ. He was pseudo. He was false. He had a fabricated Christianity. He was a professional believer but he was not an authenticated one. And in the church today, we have many people who are walking lost when they think they are found. Let s continue on in verse 19. Jesus said, I am telling you this now before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am He. I love it. Jesus Page 4 of 13 pages 10/10/2010
says, Hey, I am going to let you know that I am going to get betrayed, so that when I am betrayed, it will serve to show you that I am more than a man, that I am the prophet who knew what was going to transpire. And over and over again, Jesus does this. He tells them, Hey guess what? The Holy Spirit is going to come, in John Chapter 14 and verse 26. He is going to be your comforter. He tells them that He is going to die. He tells them He is going to rise from the dead. And it was as if when He died and rose from the dead, all of these things that Jesus had said, they would finally realize it. And John wanted us to know that Jesus was more than a man. Jesus was God walking in the flesh amongst us. Verse 20, Truly, truly I say to you, Whoever receives the one I send, receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. Obviously it will be seen that Judas did not receive Him. Verse 21 says, After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in His spirit. Now this is what I love about Jesus, because in the gospel of John, Jesus is certainly portrayed as more than a man. That is the theme of the book, that Jesus is God in the flesh. That, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And what is amazing when we look at this passage of Scripture right here is it says Jesus was troubled. It shows His humanity, because not only was Jesus fully God but He was man. We have a high priest in Jesus Christ that can relate to us. He was tempted in all of our ways, yet without sin, as we learn from the book of Hebrews. We learn that He grew weary, that He got tired. We learn that He was hungry, that He got thirsty. He said on the cross, I thirst. So we see His humanity. He is troubled. And if you have ever been betrayed you know it is troubling. If you have ever been cheated on in a relationship, you know the trouble of that feeling. If you have ever been lied to, and found out later that it was a lie, you know how troubling it is. If you have ever had a secret that you shared with someone, and they disclosed it to others, you know how troubling it is. And so Jesus is troubled in His spirit at this moment. Verse 21, Truly, truly I say to you, one of you will betray me. Talk about throwing a big softball of tension right into the middle of this meal. They have just gone through the most humbling experience you can possibly imagine, having their feet washed by Jesus. And as I shared last week, Jesus took on the role of a non-jewish slave in washing the disciples feet. He showed Himself as a servant slave to them, willing to wash the filth of their feet away. And this was a greater picture to show that only He could wash the filth of their sins away. And so they had just experienced this humble ceremony with the Messiah Christ, and now Jesus throws out, One of you will betray me. I wonder if Judas choked on his Page 5 of 13 pages 10/10/2010
bread in that moment. Was he sweating great beads? What was the tension like? Could you take the butter knife and cut the tension because it was so thick in that room? Was it just totally silent? Were the disciples just scrambling in that room? What did they feel? They felt something because look at the next verse, verse 22. The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom He spoke. So you can kind of see the scene. Here they are in this upper room, kind of reclining, and they are just looking at each other thinking, Is it you? Is it him? Who is it? You can just see them looking at each other and wondering in this moment. And the silence is awful. And what I like is when you look at the synoptic gospels, it gives us the greater panoply of all of Scripture and it lets us see what has taken place. When you check out Mark Chapter 14 and verse 19, it tells us that they are asking Jesus, Lord, is it I? So first there is silence, then they are looking at each other and wondering, and then they ask Jesus, Is it I? But then when you look at another gospel account in Luke Chapter 22 and verse 23, it says, They began to question one another, which of them it could be who was going to do this. So this is all going on in this suspense drama as it is unfolding. There is quiet tension as they look around wondering who it is. Then some of the disciples begin to ask, Lord, is it I? Others are saying, I wonder who it is? And Jesus, just like His fashion, lets the tension and suspense build. Jesus does things that can just kind of make people feel awkward. (Long moments of silence). It is kind of awkward, isn't it, when you just get quiet and let the tension build. It is kind of awkward and that is what Jesus does. He tells them one of them is going to betray Him, and then He just lets it kind of hang out there. And then in verse 23 it says, One of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. And this phrase, the disciple whom Jesus loved, recurs in John s gospel more and more as we move toward this trajectory and come to the conclusion of this book. And who is the disciple whom Jesus loved is a debated question. Most conservative evangelical scholars would lean more toward it being John, the author of this book. That is probably who I would take it to be as well. At the end of the day, does that mess our world up if it was someone else? No, I don t think it does. But I think that we can figure out how to arrive there. Some have speculated, like Dan Brown in his book, The Da Vinci Code, as he said it was Mary Magdalene. And he backs it up with Leonardo De Vinci s Last Supper painting where he says the person next to Jesus was Mary Magdalene. And that is sort of the thriller, if you have ever read the book, that is a big piece of that. And that is probably not the case. Others have speculated that it was Lazarus. But what would make us think that it was probably not Page 6 of 13 pages 10/10/2010
Mary Magdalene or Lazarus is that this is the Last Supper and everything points to the fact that Jesus is just with His disciples. Now it doesn t say that He was only with the twelve, so it is plausible that there are some others around, but more than likely, this is Jesus with just His disciples. This is an intimate experience, so by means of reduction this would alleviate basically Lazarus and Mary Magdalene from being the one whom Jesus loved. Now why would we believe it is John? You can begin to do other types of reduction where you decide it is not Peter because you can tell by the place where Peter is seated that he is not right next to Jesus. And so the one whom Jesus loved is sitting right next to Him. So there are ways they go about that, but instead of taking on a rabbit trail of speculation right now, I would suggest you study that later on your own. But my own thought is that it is John being humble and just describing himself as the one whom Jesus loved. With that being said, let s continue on in verse 23. One of His disciples whom Jesus loved was reclining at a table close to Jesus. So we know that the one whom Jesus loved was reclining close at a table to Jesus. Verse 24, So Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom He was speaking. So can you picture Simon Peter here? He begins to motion, and then he probably whispers, Find out who it is. I am not surprised that of course Peter would be the first one we hear anything from. That is just like Peter. He is always the one to initiate anything. But I had to ask myself this week in my studies, Why didn t Peter speak? Why is he just motioning? And I will just give you what I think, but don t put a whole lot into it. I wonder if the reason Peter didn t speak up is because he was gun shy after verse 8, because in verse 8 he had said to Jesus, You will never wash my feet. And then Jesus said, Unless I wash you, you can t be clean. So I just wonder if Peter is thinking he better just keep his mouth shut because he just got in trouble a few minutes before. So perhaps that is what is taking place here, or at least that is what I am speculating. Peter still has to initiate because he is a leader and that is what leaders do, but this time he is going to look at someone else and see if they knows who Jesus is talking about. And that is my thinking of what is going on in this scenario. Verse 25 says, So that disciple leaning back against Jesus. So the disciple whom Jesus loved was leaning back against Him. And he wouldn t have been able to lean back against Him if he was sitting in the U shape out on one of the wings. He was sitting right there in the headquarters. He was right there next to Jesus in a good high seated position where he could just lean back and ask Jesus to fill him in because the tension was probably killing him. And he would want to know who Jesus is referring to also. Page 7 of 13 pages 10/10/2010
So that disciple leaning back against Jesus said to Him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it. Now Greco-Roman culture, by studying that background, helps us to understand the context that Scripture was written in. It helps us to see the backdrop that the Bible is written in. And that is why sometimes, as a pastor to you at Life Fellowship, I will take the time to help you to understand what it is going on behind the scenes so that you can understand the gravity of what is taking place here. There is such a beautiful insight in this passage right here. Understand this, Jesus says, It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it. Jesus is seated at the head of the table. And for Him to be able to hand someone a morsel of bread it means that this person had to be within reaching distance. And scholars believe that Judas was seated to the left of Jesus, and more than likely, the one whom Jesus loved, was seated to the right of Jesus. Those were known as seats of honor. And so Judas was sitting to the left which was the greatest seat of honor. Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray Him yet He washes his feet. And then He not only does that but He gives Judas the greatest seat of honor knowing he is the one who is going to show the greatest act of dishonour ever. Isn t that just like Jesus? Not only that, it was gesturing in the most kind way to be able as the host of a meal to take bread and dip it and hand it to the person next to you. That was a great form of love, to pick out a tasty portion and hand it off. And what Jesus does is He grabs a tasty portion and He hands it to Judas as a last act of love. Commentator Charles Talbert describes it like this: In the social custom of that day, it was a mark of special favor for the host to dip bread in sauce and personally serve a guest. This act represented love s last appeal to one on the verge of perdition. Do you see the beauty of Jesus? He knows that Judas is going to betray Him, He washes his feet, He seats him at a place of honor, and He gives him a tasty morsel feeding him when all along the heart of Judas grows more and more callused. And that is just like it is today. Jesus pursues us. He loves us. He cares for us. He pulls us out of the ditch over and over and over again. And our hearts grow more and more callused to Him. And we betray Him by leaving Him. His love is unquestionable. His love is unbelievable. Would you do that if you knew that someone was about to cheat with your spouse? Would you give them a place of special honor? Would you wash their feet? Would you give them a nice meal as a sign that you still love them even though you know they are going to do this to you? There is no way we would do that. Do you see how Jesus is more than a man? Do you see how amazing and gracious His Omni-benevolence is? What a Savior. What a God. What a Messiah. What a Christ. This passage is amazing, folks. Page 8 of 13 pages 10/10/2010
Verse 26, So when He had dipped the morsel, He gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. And Jesus said to him, What you are going to do, do quickly. Now it says, Satan entered into him. It also says in Luke s account that when Judas went out to the high priest to work out a business deal to betray Jesus, that Satan entered into him. That means to be possessed. And then it seems that things may have channelled out a little bit and now Satan enters into him again and he is all out possessed. And a believer cannot be possessed by Satan. You can be oppressed from the outside, but not possessed from the inside. The Holy Spirit possesses you from the inside. Judas is possessed, and that is how he could do such a wicked act that is completely preposterous when we think about it. Satan entered into him. Chapter 13 and verse 2 says, During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon s son, to betray him, the temptation came and he bought it hook, line and sinker. And now he is a demon possessed man. Now don t feel sorry for Judas because Judas is getting what he wants. Judas is seated in a place of royalty, a place of honor. Judas had been in a place where Jesus washed his feet. He has been fed a wonderful meal. And his heart is only growing harder. And we step back and wonder, Why? Remember that right after Judas saw Jesus have His feet anointed by Mary with that expensive ointment or perfume Judas said, Hey what are you doing with that? We could have sold that. It is believed that he only said that because he watched over the money bag. Perhaps Judas was so frustrated about that that he was ready to go sell Jesus out right after that moment. Because when you look in Luke s account that is what is taking place. And so Jesus gets His feet washed with an anointing by Mary, with costly perfume, and basically Judas can t stand it. Perhaps also Judas thinks Jesus is not a king that he wants to serve. He rides into Jerusalem on a donkey s colt that has never been ridden before. He is washing His disciples feet like a slave. And Judas s heart is getting more hardened and callused. And now we continue reading in verse 27, and Jesus says, What you are going to do, do quickly. Why doesn t Judas repent? Because he knows he is sealed in his fate in this moment. Verse 28, No one at the table knew why He had said this to him. Some thought because Judas had the money bag Jesus was telling him, Buy what we need for the feast. Not the feast of Passover, that is what they are doing here, but the feast of Unleavened Bread which was initiated after Passover. Or maybe the disciples thought Judas was going to give something to the poor. Verse 30, So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night. Those last two phrases I want you to grab onto. He says Judas went Page 9 of 13 pages 10/10/2010
out immediately. Jesus says to do it quickly and boom off he goes. He doesn t repent immediately. He goes out immediately to betray Jesus, to do exactly that. You would think after that moment Judas would be like, Oh my goodness, I am so sorry, Jesus. What am I doing? Let me gather myself together. But that is not what happens. And the second phrase is, It was night. Now in any other gospel, It was night, would just be a time indicator of what point of the day it was. But in John s gospel, John is very intentional with night and day language. And Jesus in John Chapter 8 revealed Himself as The light of the world. And what Judas does is he walks into the night. He rejects the light, Jesus Christ. He rejects the gospel of Jesus. In fact look in John Chapter 12 for more to shed the light on this. In verses 35 and 36 Jesus says this: The light (speaking of Himself) is among you a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light that you may become sons of the light. Now what does it say in Chapter 13 and verse 30? And it was night. And I think that this is a way for the author, John, to let us know that Judas has rejected the light and he goes off into the night. The Bible Knowledge Commentary, put out by the Dallas Theological Seminary states it like this: Judas was leaving the light. And what happens when you leave the light? You sin. You get into darkness and you sin. And Judas would go out and betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Thirty pieces of silver was chump change. You could hire a slave in that culture for 90 days for thirty pieces of silver. And Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, the cost of a slave for 90 days. That is what he gave up the Son of God for, when the Son of God had given him a seat of honor at the Last Supper. And then he betrays Jesus with a kiss. That makes me think of Emperor Nero of Rome who betrayed his mother. Emperor Nero was having an affair with a woman while he was married, and the woman wanted him to get rid of his wife. But the mother stood in the way. As well as I can remember Nero had a ship built that was supposed to sink when it went to sea. Then he threw a banquet for his mother, hugged her and kissed her, and sent her on her way to sea in this ship. But the ship did not sink, she ended up living and made it safely back to land. Nero then sent some of his leaders to beat her to death. It was an unbelievable story of how Nero betrayed his own mother. So let s get practical here. How do you avoid betrayal? How do you avoid betraying Jesus in your own life? Do you want to know how to do that? Here is one way. Guard your heart against idols by keeping Jesus as your ultimate. If you want a guarantee that you are never going to betray Jesus, then that is going to mean that we are going to have to guard our hearts against idols by keeping Jesus as our ultimate. What Page 10 of 13 pages 10/10/2010
was Judas ultimate? Money. Judas ultimate was money. He betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, because Jesus wasn t his ultimate. And if Jesus is not your ultimate, you could betray Him too. Peter would betray Jesus, yet repent, unlike Judas. He would betray Jesus because Jesus was not Peter s ultimate at that time; safety was. Safety was Peter s ultimate. He did not want to get injured. He did not want to get hurt. So he said, I don t know Him. I don t know Him. I don t know Him. He said it three times, because he didn t want to get messed up. Is Jesus your ultimate? Is He the ultimate soaring passion of your heart? If He isn t, Satan is fixing to wrap a cord around you and hang you up. If you have any idols in your life, he will use that to cause you to betray Jesus. Is your work your ultimate? Then you might give up on serving Jesus the way He wants you to for a promotion at your job. Is there someone at your work that you have been eyeballing, and you are a married man or woman? Is that person becoming your ultimate? It will mess you up if you go that route. Is money your ultimate like Judas? Where what you sit around and dream about is money? Are you one of those people that look in your portfolio three and four times a day to see how it is doing? I mean, come on. Is that what life is all about? How is that portfolio doing? Who cares in the grand scheme of things? Let me give you three tips to remember. The first one is this: Remember it is not how you start the race that counts; it is how you finish it. Judas is not remembered for how he started the race. He is remembered for how he finished it. And how you and I finish the race is what matters. You may think you have blown it so much, but guess what? You are still in the race, and it is how you finish it that counts. Some of you may know that you have betrayed Jesus, you have betrayed yourself, you have betrayed your friends. But guess what? You have opportunities right now to finish the race strong, and that is the glory of the gospel. That is the good news. You don t have to beat yourself up today over what you have done in the past. What you have done in the past is written in red it is forgiven when you come to the cross. And that is the beauty of it. The question is how are you going to finish? What changes are you going to make right now to make sure you are not going to betray Jesus? When we think of Judas we don t think of how he started the race; we think of how he finished. I am sure Judas started off by looking good. But in the end it was revealed that he was a wolf in sheep s clothing. The second truth I want you to remember is: Remember that betrayal always tastes worse than it looks. I am sure that those thirty pieces of silver sounded really good. Perhaps Judas was tired of walking around with nothing. Maybe he was tired of Jesus Page 11 of 13 pages 10/10/2010
sending him on missions telling him to take nothing with him except his sandals. Maybe he was sick of having to leave everything behind, and thirty pieces of silver sounded like a mansion to him. Satan was probably feeding him ideas of how he would be able to eat some hot meals and sleep in a soft bed and how good that would feel. And Satan will tell you how good it will feel to have that affair with that person. And then you will want to vomit afterwards, if you continue on in that gross cycle of betrayal. How horrible it is going to taste after you steal something that doesn t belong to you, though you thought it would taste really good. Satan will always make you feel like betrayal is going to make you a winner. And when you bite the bullet and you are done, he steps back and all the joy is gone and you are left in your misery. That is what betrayal does. It leaves us in our misery. Judas ended up thinking it would taste good and the money would make it all okay, but it didn t. And he goes out and hangs himself. I wonder how often people who take their lives do so because they have betrayed someone and the guilt just messed their life up. They could not be haunted any longer by the secrets. I am not saying that is the case for everyone, but I do wonder the percentage of suicides that are a result of just betraying God, or of betraying someone they loved. And then, finally, remember this: If you are a victim of betrayal, you need to know this - Jesus will never betray you. And that is the beauty of the gospel. Jesus is sitting in that upper room, and He loves Judas all the way to the end, even though He knows Judas is going to betray Him. And you, my friend, may betray Jesus, but know this He will never betray you. And that is the kind of Savior that we have. He loves us with an unconditional love. He goes to the cross for us. And ultimately do you know why he did that? It is because we have all betrayed Jesus with our sins. We have all sinned against God. And the Bible tells us that Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Would you refuse to betray Jesus and run to Him today? Would you ask Him for forgiveness of your sins and thank Him for dying for you? Let s pray. Lord, we thank you for your Scriptures. We are so grateful, Father, that your words have life and meaning to us today. Forgive us all, Lord, as we all betray you. We all get too busy for you at times. Lord, sometimes people go through a tough time financially, and they may begin to believe their money is theirs instead of yours and they stop tithing and trusting. So we can betray you by taking money that belongs to you and keeping it for our own needs. Lord, we can betray you with our thought life. We think about things that grieve your heart. Lord, we can betray you with our attitude. I think of myself this morning waking up and spending time in prayer, thinking about I Corinthians Chapter 13 and that phrase, love is not irritable. And then going downstairs and Haley wanted her smoothie thicker than it was, and I snapped at her. And I am thinking, Well, my quiet Page 12 of 13 pages 10/10/2010
time really helped here. And we do those things, because we are just sinful. And we need you. Pastors need you. We all need you so desperately and we pray that you will help us to never betray you. Lord, I pray for those in the room here today that do not know you. Do you want to get saved, my friend? Jesus may not have physically washed your feet but he washes our sins away on a cross. And if you will say, Dear Jesus will you forgive me for my sins. Thank you for dying for me and rising from the dead. I believe in you and I want to turn from my sins. I am calling on you to save me today. In Jesus name. Amen. The preceding transcript was completed using raw audio recordings. As much as possible, it includes the actual words of the message with minor grammatical changes and editorial clarifications to provide context. Hebrew and Greek words are spelled using Google Translator and the actual spelling may be different in some cases Page 13 of 13 pages 10/10/2010