Jesus and the Pretender | Sunday Message

A New Beginning presents a new book from Pastor Greg Laurie. We are offering a brand new resource called The House of David Devotional and it's based on the great Psalms of David as well as the life of David. So I'm going to put this brand new devotional in your hand so you can learn from this man of God. Or your gift of any size at harvest.org. It's the official companion resource for the new Amazon TV series also called The House of David. Hey there, thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie encouraging you if you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org. Okay, so grab your Bibles now and turn to Matthew 26. Excuse me.

Matthew 26, the title of my message is Jesus and the Pretender. So I read the story of an elderly man who went on a cruise ship, which is no surprise, because as they say, cruises are for the newly married and the nearly buried, right? A lot of older people go on cruises.

I've been on a few cruises and I can attest to this fact. So elderly man's on the cruise ship, a really big storm came and as it turns out, a woman was standing near the railing and she fell over the side. Immediately someone bolted across the deck, splashed in the ocean, grabbed hold of her and they were both rescued. And everyone was shocked to find that the person who rescued her was that elderly man. They decided to throw a party that night in his honor. Everyone was gathered and he was there and they said, why don't you come up and say a few words and the old dude got up there and looked out over the crowd and he says, I have one question. There was sort of an embarrassed silence. And then he said, who pushed me? And I was that man.

No, not really. Okay, so Judas Iscariot, I want to talk to him a little bit, about him a little bit. Some would say he was pushed into doing what he did, but as we look at him in scripture, we find he was complicit. In fact, he even in effect initiated the betrayal of Jesus Christ. And it's so amazing because he was hand-picked by Christ himself. He spent over three years walking and talking with Jesus, having breakfast, lunch and dinner with Jesus, seeing with his own eyes the miracles of our Lord, the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus walking on the water, Christ raising Lazarus from the dead.

He heard with his own ears the teachings of Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount, the Olivet Discourse, which we looked at last time briefly. He saw so much and yet his heart grew irreparably hard and the Bible actually says Satan entered his heart. His very name is synonymous with evil and treachery, but some would suggest that he's actually misunderstood. He wasn't a zero, he was more of a hero who really was trying to help Christ accomplish his objective.

Well, nothing could be further from the truth. Fact of the matter is, Judas was probably the most wicked man who ever lived. Now, he actually ended up helping to fulfill the purpose of God, but that does not vindicate him, nor does it justify what he did.

But in a curious, unusual moment in history, two forces were working together at the same time. Evil and good, God and Satan. Satan wanted Jesus dead. Satan wanted to stop the ministry of Christ. Satan entered the heart of Judas Iscariot.

Satan was involved in the authorities bringing about the death of Jesus, but God was involved as well because all of those Old Testament passages from Genesis on were pointing to the Messiah. They were pointing to a suffering Savior, describing in graphic detail how he would suffer. Psalm 22 says they would pierce his hands and his feet. Isaiah 53 said he'd be so beaten and disfigured you wouldn't even be able to tell he was a man. It was all pointing to Christ, so the Bible says it pleased the Father to bruise him.

That does not mean that the Father in heaven took pleasure in the death of his Son, but what it does mean is the Father took pleasure in what the death of the Son accomplished. That is your salvation and mine as well. But all of these things that Judas saw, but yet he turned against the Lord. It's a fascinating passage, Matthew 26, verse 14. And by the way, before I dive into a few passages, I'm gonna quote a bunch of scripture today, and I'm gonna read a bunch of scripture today, and I hope you read along with me. I really want to encourage you all to bring your Bible to church. How many of you brought your Bibles to church? Hold them up. Okay, braggarts, really? So Pharisa, go look at me.

No, I'm kidding. Now, I know a lot of you read on your tablets or you read on your phone. That's fine, but I want you to read along. I don't want to be reading and look down. You're just staring, looking around, you know. Read with us.

Why? Because you'll retain more when you read. The authority in all of our messages at Harvest are the scripture. We always come back to the Bible. What does the Bible say? So if you don't have a Bible, get a Bible. Buy a Bible, one of the best investments you'll ever make, and mark your Bible up. It's been said, a Bible that's falling apart is usually an indication of a life that isn't.

I like to see beat up Bibles. Anyway, coming back to the scripture, I was going to quote. Matthew 26, verse 14 says, Judas Iscariot, one of the 12 disciples, went to the leading priests and said, how much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you? They gave him 30 pieces of silver. From that time on, Judas began looking for the right time and place to betray Jesus. So he's not a hapless victim. It's his idea. Hey, I think I'll betray Jesus.

How much can I make off of it? And he spent the rest of his time looking for the right time and place to betray Christ. But here's the weird thing about Judas.

You would have never suspected him. In fact, later we'll see that Christ says, one of you is going to betray me. If Judas was as obvious as people think he was, everyone would have stood up and in unison pointed and said, it's him, isn't it?

You know, you see paintings of the disciples and you can always pick Judas out. He's a creepy looking guy. He's a sinister looking one. It was the very opposite. He was the one that actually appeared more virtuous than the others by design. That was what he wanted. He wanted you to think he was the most godly guy when in reality he was the most ungodly man who ever walked this planet of ours. One occasion Jesus was with some friends at a dinner. Lazarus had been resurrected.

What a dinner that must have been. Hang out with a risen guy and Jesus. And there's Mary is there. Mary, the sister of Lazarus. And somehow God gave to her insight that nobody else had.

It was lost on all of the apostles but Mary got it. Jesus was gonna suffer and die on the cross for our sins. And so she thought, I gotta do something for him. I could give him a cake but I'd probably drop it.

So what could I do to show Jesus how appreciative I am of what he is about to do? So she takes this very expensive perfume worth a lot of money. It was probably a family heirloom. And she pours it on Jesus and the beautiful fragrance fills the room and Judas Iscariot stands up and says this is a waste of money.

This could have been sold and the money given to the poor. Jesus corrects Judas and commends Mary and says wherever the gospel is preached they'll be telling this story. And here we are 2,000 years later telling the story. But the point is Judas says this was wrong. Maybe a few agreed with him.

Yeah he's got a point. This is bad. But Judas only did that to appear virtuous when he in fact was very un-virtuous.

But here's the question we ask. Was Judas Iscariot actually French? My computer thinks so because whenever I write a message and mention Judas Iscariot and I do spell check it always comes to the word Iscariot and translates it to escargot. Somehow word cannot accept the fact that this name is Iscariot not escargot.

That has nothing to do with anything. Okay so here's Judas. He's getting ready to betray the Lord. And Judas was really what I would call the textbook case of a hypocrite. Now we throw the word hypocrite around a lot.

I think we misunderstand it frankly. You know if you mess up a little bit someone says you're a hypocrite. Well realistically all of us have moments of hypocrisy right. But I think people use that as an excuse. Well I don't want to go to church. The church is full of hypocrites.

Really? Would you say I'm never going to a restaurant again because I had a bad meal in a restaurant one time. Or would you say I'm never going to a doctor again because I had one bad doctor.

Or I'm never going to drive my car again because I saw one reckless driver. But yet we'll say I'll never go to church again because there's too many hypocrites in the church. And to that I say well come and join us because there's always room for one more. Oh well I'm looking for a hypocrite free church and when I find it I'll join it.

Please don't because you'll ruin it. The church is made up of flawed people like you and flawed people like me. But let me define hypocrite. A hypocrite is not someone who professes to believe something and then occasionally contradicts it.

That's called humanity and we all do it. A hypocrite is a person who's actually playing a part. The technical definition of the word hypocrite is actually not negative. It just means actor. A stage actor. So that's who Judas was. He was playing the part of an apostle.

He was playing the part of a believer. But in reality he was the very opposite of that. In fact Jesus said if Judas it would have been better if he had never been born. And Jesus was the perfect example. Jesus never lost his temper. Jesus never was inconsistent. Jesus never told a lie.

Jesus never had a single thought out of harmony with his father and yet Judas turns against him. So now we find the disciples gathered in the upper room for what we call the last supper. But they didn't know it was the last supper. They just thought it was another dinner with Jesus but he was acting differently than he normally did. He was very serious and he was about to say some very important things to all of them including the fact that one of them was going to betray him. Before he did that he got down at his knees and he washed their feet.

Isn't that amazing? That's what a servant would normally do. He even washed the feet of Judas Iscariot. I would not have washed Judas's feet. I would have broken Judas's feet.

I know what you're going to do. Jesus washed his feet showing the love that Christ was extending to Judas to the very end. So we picked the story up in Matthew 26 verse 21. Now as they were eating he said assuredly I say to you one of you will betray me and they were exceedingly sorrowful and each one of them began to say to him Lord is that I and he answered he who dipped his hand with me in the dish will betray me. The son of man indeed goes just as it's written of him but woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed. It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.

We'll stop there. So Judas was actually sitting at the place of honor. He was sitting at the left hand of Jesus.

John was at his right. And Jesus gives to Judas a piece of the bread. That's a very generous act. It's an act of friendship. And by the way guys don't really like to share their food. Do you know this ladies?

I want to tell you. Now I can't speak on behalf of all men but I will. And in general we don't like to share our food.

You go no Greg you're wrong. My husband lets me take food from his plate all the time. I didn't say we won't allow you to take our food. I said we don't like it.

We're we're tolerating it okay. So you know we'll go into a restaurant and girls will share. Let's share. You want to split that?

Let's split that and then split that and split it again. We're just gonna share and forks are gonna be going everywhere. Guys we're more like a dog with a food in the dish. This is our food. Don't eat my food. You can eat your food. I'll get food for you.

I'll get anything you want for you. Just don't eat my food. So we're eating our food. My wife will say can I have a bite?

Oh sure. And in comes this invading fork into my space and and she'll take a little thing and cut it and dip it in the sauce and dip it again. I'm waiting waiting can't go. I want to finish. And then when I'm almost done stay with a burger she'll say can I have a bite?

Sure. And she takes the last bite. But you see enough about myself sacrifice.

But but here's the thing we don't generally like it. Jesus in an act of generosity in an act of friendship gives the bread to Judas and Judas takes the bread and then Jesus drops the bombshell. One of you is going to betray me. He identifies Judas Iscariot. Now the Lord makes us wait to Gethsemane. Matthew 26 verse 39. He went a little further and fell in his face and prayed saying oh my father if it's possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as you will. Then he came to his disciples and found them asleep and he said to Peter what could you not watch for me watch with me for one hour watch and pray lest you enter into temptation for the spirit indeed is willing with the flesh this week. Again the second time he went away and prayed saying oh my father if this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it your will be done and he came and found them asleep again for their eyes were heavy so he left them went away again prayed the third time saying the same words and he came to his disciples and said to them are you still sleeping and resting behold the hour is at hand and the son of man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners rise let us be going see my betrayer is at hand and while he was yet speaking behold Judas one of the 12 of the great multitude with swords and clubs came from the chief priests and elders now his betrayer had given them a sign saying whomever I kiss he is the one sees him immediately he went up to Jesus and said greetings rabbi and kissed him but Jesus said to him friend why have you come wow so here's Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane we can't even begin to fathom what he was going through at this point he's a stone's throw from Peter, James, and John they watch him fall on the ground crying out with anguish with tears and literally with blood because Dr. Luke a physician who also is the author of a gospel said he sweat as it were great drops of blood and I told you before this may have been a reference to what we now call hematrydrosis when a person is under intense pressure they have sweat combined with blood Jesus was sweating why because Jesus knew the future I'm glad I don't know the future but Jesus did he knew what was coming he knew he was going to be beaten beyond human recognition he knew they would rip his beard from his face he knew they would take a crown of thorns and press it on his forehead causing lacerations he knew that they would take a Roman whip most likely the cat of nine tails and rip into his back 39 times he knew they would pound spikes in his hands and feet but I think the thing he recoiled from even more than all of that was the knowledge that he who was sinless and holy and perfect was about to take upon himself everything that was sinful and unholy and imperfect he was about to bear the sin of the world listen your sins bad enough then you had mine then you had ours then you had our generation then you had all generations you had all the stinking rotten sin of humanity it's going to be poured on the holy son of God and yes from that he recoiled he didn't want to do it but he knew there was no other way thus sweating blood he prays father if there's any other way nevertheless not my will but yours be done sometimes God's will is not easy sometimes we may not agree with God's will with God's will other times we may not agree with it but later in life we'll discover it was the right decision of course it always is but it takes us a while to come around I remember when I was younger I would fall in love with girls all the time they didn't even know it I don't even think they knew I existed as handsome as I was in my own estimation so I met this one girl this is after I became a Christian and I thought she may be the one this may be the one I'm supposed to marry I didn't say that to her but but I was very interested in her and she was not interested in me at all and I told God Lord I think this is the one you have to speak to her heart well nothing happened and she didn't even want to see me at all so that was the end of that then I met Kathy who I married and now we've been happily married for well over 50 years despite the fact that she steals food from my plates but no but God had his plan and I look back and then I say Lord thank you for not answering that prayer have you ever prayed for something and the Lord said no and now you look back and you say Lord thank you for saying no but that will of God isn't always easy and it wasn't for Jesus but he had to go through with this and so he's ready to face it it's interesting in this time in Gethsemane his first words were actually Abba Father according to Mark that's only in Mark's gospel Abba Father and this is really tender because Abba is like saying daddy when you go to Israel today and you see little children with their mom and dad they'll say Abba Ima which is their way of saying mommy daddy or daddy mommy and so he's actually here he is daddy father papa Abba tenderness if there's any other way let this cup pass nevertheless and so he's drinking this cup Isaiah called it the cup of his fury you drank the dregs of the cup of trembling and drained it out have you ever drank anything that turned your stomach you took a swig of something yeah this milk looks good and you found out it wasn't or something else that Christ was going to drink this blood this uh milk or not milk he was gonna drink this cup okay so now here comes an army to arrest Christ there may have been as many as a thousand you have the temple guard which could number up to 600 now you have the Romans reinforcing it so you have all of these armed guards with swords and spears and shields and torches coming to arrest a man who never broke a single law and they come to get him and this is only in John's gospel but it really gives us an insight into what was really happening as they close in Judas says the one I kissed he's the one which is interesting because didn't everybody know what Jesus looked like I mean you know whenever you see a religious painting you can always pick Jesus out he's wearing a white robe and he has a blue sash right remember the blue sash maybe he has a lamb around his neck for good measure maybe he's holding the staff or he's doing this I don't know where this came from yeah get the guy in the blue sash with a weird peace sign that's the one but did you know that Christ was actually extraordinarily ordinary in physical appearance actually the scripture said he had no beauty that we should desire him he was an ordinary looking man he did not glow in the dark he was not 10 feet tall he looked like any other man thus Judas had to identify him he kisses him they come in now to arrest Christ but in John's gospel we read these words Jesus said who are you looking for they said Jesus of Nazareth and he said I am I am now where have we heard that before in the book of Exodus Moses at the burning bush Moses says who shall I say has sent me God says I am that I am didn't papa used to say something like that too I am that I am you know he was always molly that has nothing to do with that I'm talking about but he says I am okay so here's what's fascinating the bible says they all fell backwards imagine for a moment shields swords spears torches and they all fall back like a bunch of dominoes it's almost comical boom boom boom they're falling on top of each other I am and he could have said and you were by end of story with a mere statement from the lips of Jesus he could have eliminated them all or with one word to his father angels would have been dispatched who would have happily delivered him from these people but he did not do any of that who are you seeking Jesus of Nazareth I am or as it's translated I am he so now he's arrested now the way Judas betrayed him with this kiss is so evil there were different ways they would kiss people back in this culture sometimes you would kiss someone on the feet a slave would kiss his master's feet maybe someone would go to a king begging for mercy would kiss the feet of the king the feet of the king that's not what Judas did or you might kiss their cheek or the back of their hand but that would imply relationship but Jesus is kissed by Judas and in the original language it's implied he kissed him repeatedly he kissed him over and over again showing affection showing devotion this is the one and he kisses him and he kisses him again and he kisses him even again what hypocrisy this was it's so frightening that a person's heart could become so hard as to be able to go through these motions and yet betray the Lord but listen to what Jesus said to Judas in verse 50 friend why have you come did Jesus know why Judas had come yes he had already identified him by name but yet he says friend why have you come it would have been better said fiend why have you come why did Jesus say that it was one last chance for Judas to repent but Judas would have none of it in fact the scripture tells us that satan had entered his heart now that is not said of any other person in the bible yes demons can inhabit a person but satan literally entered the heart of Judas Iscariot and he betrays the Lord now even though he was given one last chance to repent so how did things turn out for Judas Escargot Matthew 27 verse 2 when they bound him and led him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor Judas his betrayer seeing that he had been condemned was remorseful and was brought back and brought back to 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders saying I have sinned by betraying innocent blood they said what does that to us you see to it and he threw down the pieces of silver and departed and went and hanged himself tragic end to a tragic life by the way the name Judas means the son of waste never name your sons Judas but it's a bible name yeah not a good one son of waste he could have been forgiven but it says he was remorseful well wasn't he turning from his sin no he was just sorry for the consequences of his sin there's a difference between remorse and repentance remorse is being sorry after sinning and having to face the consequences repentance is being sorry enough to stop let's say you're driving down the road freeway and you're breaking the speed limit and the chp lights you up you're sorry sorry you broke the law no sorry you didn't pay more attention to chp units out there and they pull you over and they write you up there's this funny news story that was circulating around this week about a young lady that was on her way to a party and she was pulled over for speeding and ticketed by the officer and then she got back in her car and sped off and she got arrested this time and I think we have her mug shot here there she look at that's pretty happy looking mug shot isn't it so that became the story look at this because she says well I was on my way to a party had all my makeup on right so she doesn't look too remorseful does she and that's how some people are you know I'm not really that sad for what I did it no when you're really remorseful you'll be repentant Judas only felt sorry for the consequences of what he had to face he was an actor as I said listen to this if you're a Christian you cannot live continuously in sin I did not say that you would not sin because we all sin and the bible says if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us but you can't live in a pattern of sin first john three nine says whoever is born of God which means born again will not continue in sin because God's seed remains in him he cannot go on sinning because he's been born of God this means if you're a real Christian and you sin you'll feel remorse you'll feel guilt oh guilt's a bad thing no guilt is not necessarily a bad thing guilt may be an indication your conscience is working sort of like a smoke alarm so last night my smoke alarm went off at 12 30 in the morning why does smoke alarms never go well was there a fire no there was no fire it was a false alarm and there's a little voice saying there's smoke in your room then it said you're going to die like what what is it no it didn't say that but it was very alarming no pun intended and I jumped up and had to turn it off it was a false alarm why don't they go off at 12 30 in you know the afternoon it's always in the middle of the night is that way for you too when there's a false alarm always in the middle of the night so but at least it kind of worked it was just not working that well but I guess it beats the alternative which is a fire in your home or having no alarm at all so when you sin and you feel guilt and the alarm goes off so to speak that's a good thing not a bad thing the bible says whom the lord loves he chastens you want your conscience to work Judas apparently didn't have a conscience at all and he was a pretender you know some people do a good job of fooling others you say no one really knows who I am I fooled everybody okay you can fool all of the people some of the time you can fool some of the people all of the time but you can't fool Jesus any of the time you're fooling yourself because one day all things will be known to God well they're known to them now but they'll be open and known to everyone and that's why you want to come clean and don't be the great pretender like Judas was he even missed that last opportunity to turn to Christ so we're going to have a prayer and I'm going to extend an invitation for anyone here harvest riverside harvest Maui watching online as well wherever you are an opportunity for you to ask Christ to come into your life if you need to make a genuine commitment of Christ you can do it right now let's all bow our heads and pray father thank you for your word to us lord we're so thankful we have access to you through the blood of Jesus who laid his life down for us and I pray now lord for any person who has joined us who is not yet a believer if they've never asked you to come into their life and they want to help them to take that step and now if you've joined us and you want your sin forgiven you want to know that when you die you will go to heaven you want to become a child of God you want Jesus to come into your life I'm going to lead you in a prayer and I'm going to ask that you would pray this prayer after me in fact I'm going to ask everyone to just pray it out loud as a way of affirming you that are praying it for the first time so let's all just pray this together out loud just pray lord Jesus I know that I'm a sinner but I know that you're the savior who died on the cross for my sin who died in the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead I'm sorry for my sin I repent of my sin I ask Jesus to come into my life thank you for hearing my prayer lord in your name I pray amen hey everybody thanks for listening to this podcast to learn more about harvest ministries follow this show and consider supporting it just go to harvest.org and to find out how to know God personally go to harvest.org and click on know God