How God Turns Trash Into Treasure

“What We All Have Felt” (Betrayed)

Text: Mark 14:10-11, 44-46

I want to talk to you today about something that is NOT funny. If we could have worked it out I would have showed you how NOT funny it really is on the screen by showing you a video clip from the PASSION OF CHRIST. I'll share an experience instead.

I was pastoring a church for the very first time on the west side. After a few months my wife had been speaking to a friend she was teaching with who remarked she and her husband were looking for a church. Her husband was a singer and worship leader at their previous church and we needed one of those. We believed it would be nice to have them join us in ministry. So they attended our church, we wined and dined them and before long he was leading worship at our church. In less than a year, this young man betrayed me. I was told by some men in the church that he was meeting with them and for some reason was speaking bad about me and was trying to turn people against me.

Betrayed. A word we might forget about during the Easter season—but it is how Jesus’ march toward Calvary is sealed. It satisfied the religious leaders; it came into play with the political leaders; and even the spiritual leader of this darkened world, Satan himself, got to inhabit the main player—Judas, and give Jesus a betrayer’s kiss goodbye.

If you didn't know what the word meant, you may try to understand it by tearing it apart. BE-TRAYED = be placed on a tray =To be handed over. Actually it comes from the word be+traitor…to be “treated” as the teenage slang infers today.

The bible tells us that Betrayal happens

1. In the dark. The words we use to celebrate communion begin with the words, “On the NIGHT Jesus was betrayed…” I had a interim professor from Zimbabwe who told my class that betrayal always happens in the dark. YOU DON’T KNOW IT IS GOING ON! You are caught by surprise! “In the dark”

You feel it when you’ve been called into the office at work and you are fired. You may not have even done anything wrong, but someone needs to be blamed, things need to change, and you are the scapegoat.

BUT you had no idea of what was about to take place when you were called in. Betrayal happened to you and you were… in the dark.

The bible also tells us betrayal happens

2. By someone you’ve trusted. Your enemy has no such tool to use against you. It is an inside job --only a friend can betray –a cloaked weapon found in the hands of one you love.

In a sense it would have been better to be betrayed by a stranger or an enemy so that you would be a victim of circumstance --but you are not. You are a victim of a friend.

Perhaps you know the feeling:

• An unsigned letter by your spouse stating he’s left you for someone he’s had an affair with for the past two years.

• Your drug addicted son you've allowed shelter in your home has stolen money from you.

• You move your family to another state for a job promised to you but it does not materialize.

• The “ex” stops by to pick up the kids with her new boyfriend.

• A seven year old girl who becomes infected with HIV virus and says she hates her mother.

• A teenage girl accusing her youth pastor of sexual harassment.

Betrayal is more than REJECTION which opens the wound; Betrayal pours in the salt.

It is more than LONELINESS which leaves you in the cold; Betrayal closes the door.

It is more than MOCKERY which jabs in the knife; Betrayal twists it.

It is more than INSULT which attacks your pride; Betrayal breaks your heart.

Where there is an opportunity for love there is the opportunity for hurt --and betrayal.

What do you do when betrayal comes your way? What do you do when you are seen as a threat to the advancement of someone else's agenda?

What do you do? Get out? Get angry? Get even and take revenge?

Jesus was betrayed seven times:

1. Judas did 2. All the disciples did.

3. Religious leaders did. 4. Peter did.

5. Pilate did. 6. His own, The Jewish people did.

7. Everyone did. The whole world turned against Jesus.

You know, you may have been betrayed in your life, but if you are honest, you have done your own betraying too!

Every time you believe Satan over Jesus you betray the Christ!

Every time you sin, you betray your Lord!

Every time you act in disbelief and go the way you want to go and deny the name that saved us—we betray.