Betrayal

Have your Bibles with you. Turn with me if you would to Luke chapter 22 and we'll be looking at verses 47 through 53 this morning. While he was still speaking, there came a crowd and the man called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He drew near to Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said to him, Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss? When those who were around him saw what would follow, they said, Lord, shall we strike with the sword? And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said, no more of this.

And he touched his ear and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priests and the officers of the temple and elders who had come out against him, have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me, but this is your hour in the power of darkness. Bow with me as we go to our Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, next week is Easter, Resurrection Sunday, the greatest day of the year for the true believers. Next week we will focus on the victory, the glory, the power of our risen Lord. We will shout, sing for joy that we worship a living Savior. The grave could not hold the sinless Christ, and He is alive.

Hallelujah! But this week we focus on the pain and the betrayal that sent Him to the cross. Father, you have not left us wondering if this pain, this betrayal, this suffering that Jesus experienced was somehow not your plan. You've made it evident in your word that before creation the cross was your plan. You called your son the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Jesus Himself said, No one takes my life from me, but I lay down my life for the sheep.

We're going to focus on Gethsemane today. This is where Jesus drank of the bitter cup. This is where Jesus was betrayed by a friend. This betrayal did not catch Jesus by surprise. It was even prophesied in the Old Testament, but yet it stung the heart of our Savior. Father, help us to understand the heart of Judas so that we may fight to be not like Him. Guide us through this passage of Scripture. Exalt Christ through it. Edify this congregation, for it is the precious and holy name of Jesus that we pray. Amen. You may be seated. In the magazine Psychology Today, a kiss is described this way.

A kiss is an implicit expression of openness and trust to touch with the lips as an expression of either affection, greeting, respect, or love. Pretty good description. Wes James used to be the pastor of Harbor PCA Church in Mooresville, North Carolina. I'll never forget an illustration that he used and a sermon that he was preaching to our presbytery. His wife was getting ready to have her baby. She was getting ready to deliver two twin girls. And he was in the labor room with his wife and everybody, and the first baby was delivered. And the nurse took the baby and cleaned that daughter up, and then took her and put her in the bassinet, and the doctor called her over very quickly to help with the second baby. Well, as soon as she put the baby down, the baby started wailing.

I mean just bellowing, just howling. And I had her mouth wide open, her face was red. The nurse turned around to Wes and said, Daddy, do something with your daughter. And so Wes walked over to the bassinet and he held it and he looked down and got real close to her and said, Hello, Caroline.

I'm your daddy, and I love you. And he kissed her right on the forehead. Immediately, she stopped crying, and she completely hushed. She recognized that voice.

And then Wes burst out into tears, and he started crying. He said he would never forget that kiss. How many husbands do we have here this morning that remember the first kiss you got from your wife? If you didn't, if you don't remember, don't say anything, because I don't have time for marital counseling this week.

But I remember the first time that I kissed Cindy. We were in Valley Cruises, North Carolina. We took a day trip up to the mountains, went to the Mass General Store.

And there's a river, the Watauga River, that runs right behind it. We walked down to the river, to the shore, we took our shoes off, and we walked out into the water. And we got out into that water about knee deep. And as we were out in that water, I decided, Here's my chance. And so I told her that I loved her. I reached over, I hugged her, realizing that she couldn't run because of the water, and realizing that if she tried to run, she'd fall down.

The water was way too cold. And so I got my kiss. And as soon as I did, I reached down in the water right up under our feet, and I found a little flat stone. And I pulled it off, I washed it off real quickly and put it in my pocket.

That stone was to be a reminder to me never to forget that day and that place and that kiss. B.B. Warfield was a theology professor at Princeton Seminary. This was during the time, back in the late 1800s, where Princeton Seminary really stood for truth. He was a seminary professor there, only 20 years old. But when he was 20 years old, he got married. And when he got married, he went on their honeymoon, they went to Switzerland to celebrate their marriage. They got there to Switzerland on their honeymoon, and she was struck by lightning. And she was paralyzed from the neck down. He took her back home.

And they built a house right there on the property right beside the campus. And then he set up his schedule so that he'd never have to be away from her more than two hours at a time. He had invitations from all over the world for him to come and preach at those places, and he turned them all down. Because he knew he didn't want to be away from her, he couldn't be away from her. Every day he got up and took care of her. He washed her, he bathed her, he clothed her each day, and then he fed her every meal that she ate.

If she needed to go someplace, he picked her up in his arms and he carried her. From the day that she was paralyzed until the day that she died, they had no marital intimacy whatsoever. She lived for 60 more years. She died when she was 80.

One of the fellow seminary professors with B.B. Warfield said that he would never forget the day of her death. He was with them and said she breathed her last breath, and when she breathed her last breath, B.B. Warfield reached over, he picked her up in his arms, and he kissed her the last kiss, and he burst into tears, and he thanked and praised God for the gift of that wife. When I think of the kiss, that's what I think of.

Those type of things right there. For the Lord gave us a heart for loving, but he gave us lips for kissing. And did you realize that one of the Greek words for love, phileo, literally means to kiss? Now I said all that because I want us to consider today the irony of what we are seeing in this passage and the kiss that we're going to be looking at. It was not a romantic kiss. It was not an affectionate kiss. It was a wicked, ungodly kiss.

There are four points I want to share with you this morning. Point one is betrayed by a kiss. Look at verse 47 through 48. While he was still speaking, there came a crowd, and the man called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He drew near to Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said to him, Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss? Now to understand what a bitter betrayal this was, we need to remember how much Jesus had done for Judas. Jesus called Judas to be one of the twelve disciples. Now Jesus related to lots and lots of people, but he related differently to these twelve. Jesus would heal the multitudes.

Jesus would preach to the multitudes. Jesus would feed the multitudes, but he discipled only twelve. He took these twelve men, put them up under his wing, and poured his heart and his soul into these men. Jesus taught Judas. He was with him for three years, and Judas heard almost all of that teaching. Judas was there. You know, Jesus would preach and teach to the multitudes, but at night they'd come back, and he'd sit down and eat supper with them, and he would elaborate on the teaching. Jesus would teach the parables to the multitudes, but he would explain the parables to the disciples.

Jesus said to Judas and the disciples this, to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. After Jesus was resurrected from the dead, on that Sunday afternoon, he came back and was walking on the road to Emmaus. There he met two men. We call them the two men, the two disciples from Emmaus. And when he met these men, they might not have been men. One of them may have been Cleopas' wife.

It could have been. But Jesus spoke to them and began to talk to them. They didn't recognize him, for he was in his new resurrected body. And Jesus began to preach to them, and this is what the scripture says. And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them and all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And the word interpreted in the Greek language is the word hermenuo, that we get our word hermeneutics from.

It is a discipline where you take scripture, and you break down the words, and you break down the tenses, so that you will not just know about the word of God, so that you will know the word of God. Now what happened? They went back home. They went back to the house where these two disciples lived, and they had a meal together. And the scripture says that as they were eating the bread, that they recognized Jesus in the eating of the bread, and as soon as they did, Jesus disappeared from them. Now listen to what was said after that in verse 32. They said to each other, Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened us the scriptures?

Wow! They said when Jesus was sharing the scripture with us, something very unusual happened. Our heart burned within us as he opened the word of God to us. And folks, that's what was going on with the disciples for three years.

When Jesus would teach the word of God to them, the word of God would just burn in their heart, and would live and grow. And not only was the other eleven disciples there, but Judas was there as well. Folks, Judas knew the word of God. Judas was taught the word of God by the author of the word of God.

What a privilege that was. But not only did Jesus teach Judas, but Judas was also a front row spectator to the miracles of Jesus. Judas was on the boat when Jesus calmed the storm and stopped the wind. Judas saw the healing that Jesus did, where the blind received their sight, the deaf received their hearing, and the lame received mobility in their limbs. Judas got to see the five thousand people fed with five loaves and two fish.

Jesus watched Jesus raise three different people. And then Judas was taught how to pray. Jesus taught him by example. Jesus taught him by just words and teaching him how to pray. He taught Judas how to serve.

The disciples went out two by two, and they were taught how to spread the gospel, how to cast out demons, how to heal the sick. I think Jesus had Judas in mind when he said what he did in Matthew chapter 7, verse 21 through 23, when Jesus said, Not everyone that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. But in that last day there will be many that will come to me, saying, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not cast out demons in your name?

Did we not do many wonderful works in your name? And Jesus would say to them, Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. And then last of all, Judas, on the night that he was going to betray Jesus Christ, was there with Jesus in the upper room, and the Lord of glory got down on his hands and his knees before Judas took a basin of water and a towel and cleansed the grit and the grime from between the toes of Judas. If you've not read Dan Brown's book, called The Da Vinci Code, I'm not encouraging you to read it.

It's a radical book. But if you have read that book, and if you've read the ancient book, The Gospel According to Judas, then you will be led to feel sorry for Judas. Those books will lead you to believe that he was just a poor pawn in the hand of God.

I encourage you not to pity this wicked traitor. Only a handful of people had the opportunities and the privilege that Judas had. And what did Judas do?

For a handful of coins, and from a nudge from Satan, he betrayed the Son of God. Philip Ryken said the following, Even the last words Jesus ever spoke to his betrayers were spoken in love. Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss? Jesus called Judas by his personal name. Matthew tells us that he even called Judas his friend that night.

And it was as a friend that Jesus called him one last time to repentance. When he asked Judas this question, he was not expressing his own surprise, but trying to startle Judas into the recognition of what he was really doing. Oh, Judas, Judas, are you sure you want to go through with this? Don't you see that I am the one and only divine Son of God?

Can't you see what you're doing? You're becoming a traitor to the cause of Christ. Thus to the end, Christ seeks to keep him from ruin. Now listen, no one on the face of the earth ever loved Judas like Jesus did. And Judas did what? The garden gets him and he comes, he kisses Jesus on the cheek.

That gives the okay to the Sanhedrin, to the soldiers, to all that are there, to come and arrest Jesus. And what he was actually saying with that kiss was this, kill him. Kill him. I don't care how much he loved me. I don't care what he did for me, but take him and beat him and scourge him and curse him and spit on him and nail him to a cross. How deeply did that betrayal wound hurt the heart of Christ?

I don't think we can even begin to imagine. John MacArthur was preaching in a pastor's conference years ago and he was sharing with pastors about some of the wounds that we will receive in the ministry, that those things will come. And John was sharing about his greatest ministerial heartbreak. He had shared the gospel with a young teenage boy and the boy trusted Christ.

He made a profession of faith and John took him up under his wing to personally disciple him. And as he did, he found out that the boy was homeless, had no family, had no place to live. And so John says, I want you to come and live with us. You will be like one of my children. You'll eat meals at our house.

We'll take care of you. And he went all the way through high school. After high school, he said he wanted to go to college.

John paid his tuition to go to the college there on campus. And then, not only did he pay his tuition for that, but he wanted to go on to seminary and he paid for his tuition for seminary. And then the ministry there at Grace Community Church took him on as part of their staff, paid staff. It wasn't long before this young man began to say some very ugly things about John to people. He was worked with the youth and he was saying things about John to the youth that were horrible things and all these rumors got started. People started leaving the church. Finally, the elders got together and they said to this young man, what are you doing?

Why are you saying these things? And they began to ask him questions and they caught him in all kind of lies. They had to fire him off the staff and they had to excommunicate him from the church.

John says he's never felt that kind of tension and that kind of stress in his whole life. He lost weight. He couldn't eat.

He couldn't sleep. And begged this young man to find out why he had betrayed him like he did. And he got right in his face and he asked him, why did you betray me like this? He said, the young man smiled and said, I just don't like you.

I just don't like you. Multiply John's hurt by about 10,000 and you have a little bit of feeling of the hurt that Jesus Christ felt over the betrayal of Judas. Alright, point two is permission requested, verse 49. And when those who were around him saw that what would follow, they said, Lord, shall we strike with a sword? What is the natural thing to do when you're betrayed?

I think the natural thing is to seek vengeance or to want payback. And the word banned is a word that's used to describe the group that was there that night in the garden. It's not used here in Luke, but it's used in the other Gospels. And that word banned always describes a group of over 200 people. So there was a huge group that was there. There were religious leaders that were there in their decorative clothing. There were soldiers that were there with a sword in one hand and a club in the other.

There were servants that were there that were hired to come on and to work and help with this arrest. And Judas Iscariot walks in and leads them in and he walks over to Jesus and he kisses him on the cheek. And then the soldiers and all began to approach Jesus and when they did, Jesus looked at the soldiers and they said, he said to him, whom do you seek? And they said, we seek Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus said to them, I am the Greek word ego ami or the Hebrew or Aramaic word Yahweh. What was Jesus doing? He was proclaiming his deity. He was saying, I am Yahweh. I am Jehovah God.

He said, you came in here seeking for Jesus the man but who you have found is Jesus the Son of God. And as soon as he said, I am, they were knocked off their feet lying prostrate before him and they could not even move. Folks, let me tell you something, they did not do that entirely. They were knocked off their feet by the power of God's name. Let me ask you something, who's in control there?

There's no question about it. Jesus is in control. Jesus could have just walked away.

He could have done anything he wanted to do but he didn't. He released his power and let them up. So that put a little backbone in the eleven other disciples. One of them steps up and says, you want us to whip up on them Lord? Is that what you want?

You want us to do that? I know that might not have been the right move but I tell you what, I like it. I like the idea of a man being a man and protecting those who he loves. I tell you, the disciples got scared. They ran off later when Jesus was being taken to the cross but at this point in time they are ready to die for Jesus and there's something in my heart that appreciates that kind of man. Alright, point three, a sermon for the high priest. Look at verse fifty through fifty-one. And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said, no more of this.

And he touched his ear and healed him. If you've ever wondered why we needed four gospels instead of just one I think this event is a great answer for that. Matthew and Mark tell us that one of the disciples cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest. But we go to the Gospel of John. We are told who that disciple was, that it was Peter. And we are told the name of the high servant of the high priest and that was Malchus. We get into the Gospel of Luke and we find out that he cut off his right ear and we find out that Jesus healed him.

Now let's get this picture in our mind once again. Judas walks, leads the group into the Garden of Gethsemane. He walks over to Jesus.

He kisses him on the cheek. Jesus sees the men coming toward him and he stops them and he says, whom do you seek? They said, we're seeking Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus said to them, I am Yahweh. And as soon as he says that, soon as he proclaims his deity, they are knocked off their feet in a prostrate position right before him and they cannot move. I think Jesus probably just let them lay there for just a minute. Absolutely motionless because they can't get up.

They can't do anything. And then Jesus releases his power and he lets them get up so they can arrest him. I think this show of divine power against these soldiers and the anger that these disciples had in their heart toward Judas at this point in time emboldened the disciples and they said, Lord, shall we strike them with the sword? And before Jesus can say anything, impetuous Peter jumps up.

He pulls his sword out of his sheath and he starts swinging. Now the guy that's right next to him is not a soldier but it happens to be the servant of the high priest. What was Peter trying to do? I don't think Peter was trying to pop his ear off. I think Peter was trying to pop his head off. And he swings at him and Malchus ducks and when Malchus ducks, instead of hitting his neck, he hits the side of his head, he hits his ear and just severs his ear from his body.

Now I can just imagine Malchus at this point in time. He's jumping up and down, hopping around like a chicken with his head cut off. The blood is just... that ear.

The pain is absolutely horrendous and he's losing his hearing very quickly. It all happened so quickly that the soldiers have not even responded to it yet. Jesus sees what's going on and he screams at Peter and he screams at the other disciples. He said, guys, stop. Stop right now.

No more of this. Put your swords up. And then as soon as Jesus said that, he reached down in the ground and he pulled up that ear in his hand. Dirty, sand-covered, bloody ear. And he reaches over, he places it on the head of Malchus and as soon as he does, the bleeding stops, the pain stops and his hearing comes right back. The soldiers and all the religious leaders are looking at this, their eyes are wide open. What in the world has just happened? And they said, my goodness, they go over to Malchus, they start pulling on his ear, checking him out and they are absolutely shocked at what is taking place here.

Now let me ask you something. Why do we have all this information about this incident? Why do all four Gospels tell us about this event? I want you to think about all the things that are not in scripture that we'd like to know about. I would like to know more about the creation. I would like to know more about Jesus' relationship with his earthly father Joseph. I'd like to know more about the second coming of Christ. I'd like to know more about what God did before the earth was created and eternity passed.

But we don't have that, do we? Those things are not recorded for us in scripture. So we're not going to find out those things until we go to be with him in glory. But here we have a story about an event that took place in the Garden of Gethsemane and all four Gospels tell us about that story.

What do we find out? We know that the servant of the high priest was attacked by Peter. We know that he had his ear chopped off. We know that it was his right ear. We know that his name was Malchus and we know that Jesus healed him.

Why all this information? I want you to think about it. Where did Malchus go when he went back home? He went right back to his master. Who was his master? His master was Caiaphas the high priest.

Can you imagine what happened? This crowd that's arrested Jesus, they're marching back to the home of Caiaphas. And as they're marching back, Caiaphas hears the crowd coming. He runs out to meet them.

He sees them there and kind of looks over everything. He says, Well? And the sergeant says, Well, we got him. We arrested him.

He's here with us. And Caiaphas says, Was there any trouble? And the sergeant turns around to Malchus and looks at him. And then Caiaphas looks over at Malchus and says, Malchus? You?

What kind of trouble did you get in? And Malchus is all excited. He said, You won't believe what happened. One of the servants of Jesus took his sword and he was trying to cut my head off. And I ducked and he hit my ear. And my ear was cut off from my body. And Jesus reached down. And he took my ear and he put it back on my head.

And he made me wail. Caiaphas says, Come here, boy. Come here.

Come here. And he comes over here. And I can see him reaching up and grabbing that ear. He starts pulling on that ear and tugging on it. And he says, Boy, ain't nothing wrong with your ear. Your ear is just fine. And Malchus said, Yes, sir, it is now.

But it wasn't a little while ago. He said, The servant of Jesus cut my ear off and it was laying on the ground. And it was pain and there was all this bleeding. And I was losing my hearing.

And then Jesus fixed it. He reached down and he put it back on my head. And all of a sudden I was totally wail. The bleeding stopped. The pain stopped.

And I can hear just perfectly. And while all that was going on, I felt something going on in my heart like I've never felt before. He says, Caiaphas, are you sure we got the right guy? Are you sure we got the right man? And then the sergeant looks over at Caiaphas and says, Yeah, Caiaphas, are you sure we got the right man? Caiaphas reaches back over and he pulls that ear once again. And then he looks up and he's got this wicked smile on his face. He says, Yeah, we got the right man.

This is the one. I want to see his bloody, broken, beaten body hanging dead from a cross. I reject him and I want to see him die. I believe this was the last sermon that Caiaphas was ever forced to respond to. Just like Judas, Caiaphas took unquestioned truth and he spit on it.

My fourth point is the dark hour. Look at verse 52 through 53. Then Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders, who has come out against him, Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour and the power of darkness.

I want you to consider the irony of this event. Just minutes before, Jesus was speaking to this big group, these soldiers and the religious leaders and the servants, and he spoke to them and he said his name, and when he did, they were all knocked down on their face, prostrate before him. Jesus let them up. He didn't have to, but he did.

And then he says to them, You come out here with me in the garden with all these weapons, and you've come to arrest me. So I was in the temple day after day after day preaching the word of God and said, You never came after me then. Let me tell you, Jesus could have destroyed them all right then, but he didn't. And the question is, why didn't he?

Why didn't he just do it right then? Because it was the will of God the Father that he be betrayed, arrested, and nailed to the cross. I want to close with a statement that Philip Ryken made because I think it's important to realize that Satan was never calling the shots here.

We need to remember what Martin Luther said. Martin Luther said to believers, We need to understand that even the devil is God's devil. First Corinthians chapter 2 verse 9 says, If the princes of this world had known what they were doing, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. The princes of this world he's talking about is the demonic realm. He said if they just knew what they were doing, he said they never would have done it.

But they were used by God in a very powerful way. Ryken said it this way, When Jesus said, This is your hour, he was not referring to 60 minutes on the clock, but to the short definite period of time when evil men would have their way. This was the hour when Judas would give his treacherous kiss and the leaders of Israel would make their unlawful arrest. This was the hour when angry men would call for blood and cruel soldiers would carry out their terrible torture. This was the hour when the Son of Man would suffer unto death. In other words, this was the hour when Satan would triumph. There is deeper encouragement for us in this, however, that even the dark hour that seemed to be under Satan's power was really God's hour. The very fact that Jesus told the forces of darkness which hour was theirs showed that he was Lord of that hour and every hour. Even the dark hour of betrayal was under the greater power of God and of his Christ. All of the things that seemed at that time like victories for Satan, including Judas and his nefarious kiss, actually fulfill the prophecies of God. Jesus allowed Satan to have this hour of power only because he knew it would help to accomplish our salvation.

By suffering this betrayal and everything else that happened to him on the way to his death, Jesus was paying the price for our sin and purchasing our salvation. Therefore, the hour of Satan's power was at the same time the day of our redemption. What comfort and courage this gives to us in every dark hour. It is true that our present trials will not last forever. Soon we will enter the eternal light of our salvation. But even this present darkness, whatever it is for us, is under the power of God.

If God was at work even during the dark hour of our Lord's betrayal, then whether we can see it or not, we may believe with hope that he's also at work right now in our dark trials. Folks, I've talked to so many Christians lately who are horribly discouraged. Christians and churches that once stood for truth have now become woke churches. Churches where the pastors of those churches are walking away from the Word of God if they might bow to the culture. Churches where pastors are saying, the Word of God is not really what is important anymore. What's important is social justice.

Folks, that hurts and it's discouraging. But make no mistake about this, Jesus Christ is still on the throne. God's sovereignty has not been diminished. His providences are still certain.

Don't fear, don't quit, and don't compromise. Our faithfulness will glorify him. Amen?

Let's pray. Heavenly fathers, 2,750 years ago you told the prophet Isaiah that he was to preach to Israel, but they would not listen. You said they wouldn't listen because you would make them dull of hearing, that you would make them spiritually deaf and spiritually blind, that you would take away their ability to perceive the truth. You were saying to Isaiah that these people had sent away their day of grace.

They had stepped over your line in the sand and you were finished with them. But you told Isaiah to keep on preaching because you had an elect remnant who would hear the truth and respond in faith and obedience. Lord, is that where America is? Has our country so mocked your holiness and belittled your truth that you've said it's too late? Father, churches all over our nation are abandoning your truth to appease the culture.

And churches and preachers who refuse to compromise are being persecuted and canceled out. God give Grace Church the heart to weather the storm, to be a light in a dark world. Help us to be tough and tender, bold but humble. Help us to be so Christ-like different that the world would see the difference that Jesus makes. Put steel in our backbone and steadfastness in our hearts for it's in the precious and holy name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.