The Betrayal By Judas

Hello, this is Will Hardy with ManTalk Radio. We are all about breaking down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few minutes.

Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. We're wrapping up the passage. Robbie, will you read the Scripture to us, and then we're going to just finish some questions about Judas Iscariot and the most awful betrayal. By the way, this betrayal has been portrayed in art, in literature, in all kinds of movies and poetry, and in lyrics of songs for hundreds of years, and it's awesome to be able to study it and to glean what God wants us to glean from it. So read the passage, and we're going to jump right into this dark moment in redemptive history.

Wow. So last time we got into this, the intimate nature and the affection of a kiss, and especially in the Middle Eastern culture, of all the things that this evil man, the son of perdition Judas Iscariot, would betray Jesus with to indicate that this is the one that we're taking into custody, the ultimate we're going to kill, of all the ways he would do that is with a kiss, and a kiss to the face too, which would have been a great sign of affection, but in this case was a sign of evil. And then Peter grabs a sword, he cuts the guy's ear off, you have this bloody, mangled ear, Jesus picks it up, puts it right back on his on his head, what a brilliant picture of Christ, yet the mob still, they still persist in unbelief and to attack Christ. Robbie, through these questions, I think we're getting a ladder into these questions, let's pick it up this week.

Go ahead and fire them. Yeah, how come they didn't seize him when he was daily teaching in the temple? Yeah, so he is openly, you know, in Holy Week he's openly teaching in the temple. In thy time he's up in the Mount of Olives with his disciples, teaching them more intimately, praying with them, ministering to them, singing hymns, but during the day he's out there in the open, and why don't they come and take him? So it's really interesting, there's this clamoring to the crowd, there's this fear of the people, you have that over and over again in Christ's ministry, in John the Baptist's ministry, there was a fear of the people, that's why they didn't mess with him. The apostles, early in the book of Acts, it says they feared the people, the Sanhedrin didn't want to take them and kill them, or seize them sometimes because they feared the people.

Why? Because these guys were doing miracles. They were solving things. You start solving things, Robbie, you start living a fruitful life, people start being set free because of the Spirit of God working powerfully through you, and guess what? People don't want you around. The enemy does not want that to thrive, so he will attack you, but he'll do it at night, he'll do it in the most diabolical, devilish way, and fiendish way, and this is exactly what happened. And you know, Jesus, in his own words, when he says, you know, put the swords up, he says, God's got a plan here, we're gonna, remember, he's just prayed, not my will, but your will be done in the garden, and he's not just praying that, he's living that out here. In these verses he says, no more of this. And then Jesus said to the chief priest officer of the temple, who had come out against me, you know, he asked him this question, have you come out against a robber with swords and clubs?

I mean, here you come out like this in the middle of the night, when I've been in the open teaching, and so what a great point. So then, Jesus said to the chief priest, said to the chief priest, and he says this, he says, but this is your hour and the power of darkness. So they came at night, they feared the crowds, Judas had hatched this whole plan, you know, to betray him for 30 pieces of silver. Judas, if anyone, knew the master's movements, so he was the perfect insider to do this betrayal. He was so close to Jesus.

How many of us had someone so close to us that have betrayed us? And here Jesus Christ experienced betrayal like no one's ever seen. So then, but this is all according to God's plan, Christ is in control the whole time. This is all pushing toward the cross, his redemptive person. When Christ, by the way, comes back in triumph, it won't be in the middle of the night, shrouded, hidden from everyone's sight.

It will be in the open, and all things will be brought at that day to the light, which is a powerful statement. But in this moment of darkness, this is how this went down, and it's a tragedy, but it's all part of God's redemptive. You know, Christ experienced betrayal. There's nothing that any human being, from Job, the first book of the Bible, to present, there's nothing you've experienced. No shame, no betrayal, no evil, no pain that Jesus Christ didn't experience, didn't go through, and didn't suffer, all the way even on the cross, as he was the redemption, the one who carried our shame, the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. So, Robbie, read this as we wrap up these questions. So, why did Jesus go willingly and not call in the angels?

Yeah, wow. And that's exactly what, you know, one of my favorite songs is, he could have called 10,000 angels. And that's exactly what he could have done here, and he didn't, and that song is based on that. And it's in a lot of different variations, and different great gospel singers have sung it.

Google it and listen to it, but he pressed forward. This is not, by the way, that reference to Kevin called 10,000 angels is not in the book of Luke, it's not in Luke's gospel, it's in the other gospels. But that shows that Christ willingly laid aside those prerogatives so that he could willingly lay his life down. John 10, I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays his life down for the sheep. You don't take his life, you're not going to take my life from me. He willingly gave up the ghost, he willingly breathed his last on that cross.

Keep going, let's wrap this up. So, what happened to the disciples' bold resolve of following Jesus, even to the death? Yeah, so here, remember, in the upper room and before, Peter, hey, I'm going with you all the way.

Well, things didn't quite work that way. Those guys were wheels up, out the door, you know, scared to death. Of course, they hung around, and we're going to get into the denial of Peter, and that's a very sad story that we're all very familiar with, and the trials of Jesus, and all of that. But it's interesting how the going got tough, and they took off, right?

So some final questions as we wrap up. The thing on that question, when Jesus said the power of darkness, everybody's deceived in this picture. The disciples are deceived. I mean, everybody in this scene, with the exception of one, is deceived at this particular moment. However, in spite of all the deception, it's going exactly as it had to in order for us to be where we are, so that we left with this question about our own kissing, right? How have I betrayed Jesus with a kiss?

How is his betrayal connected to my redemption? And what's keeping me from following Jesus, even when everyone around me has turned against him? So you might be the only one in your family. You might be the only one on your team at some point that really truly loves the Lord. It breaks my heart, by the way, when I talk to young people. I say, hey, who at your school is on fire for God? And they'll sometimes say, no one.

That absolutely breaks my heart. But then I look right back at them and say, wait a second, I'm talking to you. How about you? How about you standing up for what's right? How about you standing up for what the Bible says about these moral issues that no one wants to touch, no one wants to talk about?

What the Bible says about marriage between a man and a woman, about homosexuality, what the Bible says about abortion, what the Bible says about life, what the Bible says about loving people, supporting the poor, what the Bible says about racism. The Bible speaks to all these things. Hey, what about you, and how often have we given Christ a fake facade, Robbie, of affection, where, as it were, we've kissed up to him, but we've betrayed him? Our hearts and our lives tell a whole different story, and that's the beauty of the gospel. The gospel brings into alignment my affection, my life, my lips, all apart of me, because when Christ saves a man, he saves a whole man. Does that mean I don't struggle? No way.

Of course I struggle. But there's a transformation that takes place. But he would go to that cross betrayed, despised, arrested, falsely accused, tried, beaten, executed wrongfully, and he would come out of that grave, Robbie, to transform our lives, to give us a whole new life that would give us the Holy Spirit of God to turn us into his way. He's gone. He's in heaven.

He's with us always, of course. The Holy Spirit of God is in us. But he has sent the Spirit of God. He is with us, and now we're here as his ambassadors to this lost world. Jesus said, as the Father sent me, so I'm sending you. Go and make disciples. So the question is, how am I going into a world full of betrayal and evil and darkness and fakers in and out of the church, and how am I shining his light and calling people into a relationship with the Father? It's kind of a beautiful thing when I think about that actually Jesus was allowing these other things to happen because he wanted me, who would in fact do all this same betraying, but he also allowed that in my own life so that I would understand the value of his grace, that I understand the value of his sacrifice, to understand the beauty of what God really is in spite of what I've got. So there's a beauty here that's more than we can really fathom when we take a hard enough look at our own lives now.

Amen. And that's the beauty of Jesus Christ, that he came in on a rescue mission to save us. And later on, we'll look at the contrast between Judas and Peter. One repented, one didn't. One ended up in death, suicide. The other ended up being a huge leader in the early church, leading thousands to Christ as we meet him in the book of Acts.

But it gets worse for him, but we'll hold on to that. We get next week with the denial of Christ by Peter, and that we'll probe into that contrast of Peter and of Judas next time on Experience Truth. I want to encourage you to study God's Word, read God's Word, be in a church that teaches not just about the Word, or from the Word, but actually teaches the Word. Paul said in Timothy 2-3, or 4 verse 3, preach the Word.

So be in a church that preaches God's Word, and memorize the Word, and study the Word. And thank you for being a part of our time with The Word today on Experience Truth. I'm Stu Everson, the host of Truth Talk. So glad you've been with us, and we'll talk to you next time. Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, love to connect with you there. And hey, before your head hits the pillow tonight, share the good news of Jesus Christ, who was betrayed, tried, and murdered, and rose from the dead to give you life, to give you hope, to save your soul. Do you know him, and are you making him known? This is the Truth Network.