The Betrayal
CCCAG December 9th, 2018
Scripture- John 18
Intro:
A little bit of history quiz for us this morning. Can anyone tell me what happened on May 15th in the year 44 BC?
I know none of you are around then.
A little hint, May 15th is the ides of March. Does it ring a Bell yet?
May 15th 44 BC was when Julius Caesar was assassinated. Many of us had to read dramatic portrayal of that in high school by William Shakespeare.
A little background to why Caesar was assassinated
Rome had a similar government to the one that we enjoy here in America and that they were a Republic. A Republic is a form of government in which elected officials make the laws and govern by the will of the electorate. At the time of Caesar’s assassination, Rome was still a functional Republic with an emperor who was elected by the Senate.
Julius Caesar was a very famous general in the Roman Empire who eventually rose to be the emperor. Because of his incredible popularity with the people and citizens of Rome he was named emperor for life. Several in the Senate grew very concerned that he would become a dictator and dissolve the Senate. This paranoia grew to a point that several of the senators formed a conspiracy to assassinate Julius Caesar on the 15th of May. A few of the conspirators were actually very close friends with Caesar including a man named Brutus.
During the assassination attempt, Caesar was unarmed and actually holding his own against several men with daggers. Remember he came up with in the Roman legions and was a general, so he knew how to fight & defend himself. However when he saw that his close friend Brutus was among those trying to kill him it is said that he drew up his cloak over his face in despair and said the famous words at Et Tu Bruta? which is Latin for and “you too Brutus?”
Seeing the depth of the betrayal he was facing, all the fight left Caesar and he was stabbed 23 times and died.
Has anyone hear ever been betrayed by someone? Someone you thought was a close friend suddenly turns their back on you, or you learn that they are the source of gossip or anonymous attacks that have been coming against you?
There's something about betrayal that just knocks us flat on our backs.
The reason is, in order to betray someone, you would've had to first gain their trust. Trust and love come hand in hand, so it is a very difficult and emotional event with that love and trust is broken.
Jesus knows how you feel.
John chapter 18 describes the betrayal of Jesus. When we think about everything that went into his betrayal, we automatically think it starts and ends with Judas.
But as I was studying to prepare to bring this teaching to this morning, I realized that Judas was not the only betrayer of Jesus in John chapter 18. There are actually 4 different betrayals of Jesus in this chapter that I want to look at this morning.
These four examples we see are still relevant to us today because they are still the ways that people betray Jesus, His Mission, and His Kingdom.
Before we break this down, let’s ask God to bless our time together in His word.
Prayer
In John Chapter 18, we see there are Four ways or Four reasons that people still betray Jesus and His mission, and/or his Kingdom today-
The first reason that people betray Jesus is because of
I. Unmeant Expectations (Peter)
In the original outline of this message I had actually put cowardly in the place of unmet expectations in regard to Peter's actions during the events immediately leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus.
As I meditated on that I realized it was a little harsh and too simplistic a way to describe Simon Peter’s responses during these few hours. It's really easy to pick on Peter for his actions but I don't think he was a coward at all.
After all he stood alone between Jesus and the entire temple guard armed only with a sword. He had no armor, he had no backup, and really had no training and how to use that sword but yet he swung at knowing that he would probably be killed in order to defend his friend. That's not the actions of a coward.
So if it wasn't cowardice that led Peter to deny Jesus, what was the motivation?
I submit to you this morning that it was unmet expectations.
It's been said over and over during the Gospel of John series that his disciples have an Old Testament way of looking at Jesus as Messiah.
Because of that-
Peter thinks that he is on the ground floor of a future Kingdom.
Peter thinks that he will be Jesus’ viceroy when Jesus becomes King.
The viceroy is like a Vice President, but the viceroy actually does the day to day ruling of the nation while the actual president resides in leisure. So as Peter watches Jesus be arrested, then beaten, then scourged, then mocked, then tried and convicted by the religious leaders, and then beaten again-
He is watching his entire world crumble around him.
Peter has lost everything. Let me illustrate where Peter is at a little further.
All of us over the last few weeks have been watching the stories coming out of California of people who lost everything in the wildfires there. They lost their homes, their possessions, their vehicles, even some lost family members. Do you remember watching the evening news and just seen the look in some of these people’s eyes?
That is Peter right now. Before you be too hard on him put yourself where he is. He has exactly that same sense of hopelessness and lose that those people in California have.
All that was caused by Jesus failing to meet Peter's expectations.
How does that apply to us today?
When we use a false pretense to “sell the gospel” to people it creates what will ultimately be an unmet expectation. Let me give you some examples.
Come to Jesus and he will solve all of your problems.
TV/Radio- Give this ministry more money and he will return it to you 100-fold.
God is bound by his word to heal your every disease. Just give generously and I'll send you a handkerchief that will heal you at your point of need.
One of the most dangerous- Just accept Jesus and you have eternal life.
Don't worry about obedience sanctification or evangelism. Just believe in your heart and you'll be saved. The problem with that last one is there's 85% truth in it, but it leaves out some important points.
Where it fails is that the bible says the human heart is deceitful above all else and desperately sick.
This is why we can have an evangelistic event and see hundreds of People come forward to accept Jesus but only see a net Increase of 3 people attending the local churches.
They never came face to face with their rebellion against a holy God. They never realized that they were without hope and deserving of hellfire. Then, they were never led to a bloody cross to meet the Savior who took the penalty of their sin and washed it away.
They were just told, accept Jesus into your heart and He will make you life better. They tried it and as soon as persecution came, they fall away.
They were just like Peter- unmet expecations
There is a second way that people can betray Jesus or the gospel and that is through
II. Religion (Pharisees)
Let me define terms. The word “religion” means humanity coming to God on its own terms. Religion usually deals with rules, ceremony, pageantry, or ritual to attempt to fill what I would call the God void in every one of us.
The Bible said that God has put eternity in the hearts of men and what that verse means is that he is created every single human being with an intrinsic knowledge that there is something beyond themselves. We come from our mothers’ wombs programmed with the need to search for that higher thing.
Religion tries to fill that need but ultimately fails.
One of the ways I look at religion is this. Pretend for a moment that you are an automobile with flat tires. Religion inflates your tires with water. You look at the car and everything looks fine, that is until you try to drive with it. All the sudden you are shaking all over the place, you are weighed down, and it’s difficult to get to where you need to go and even dangerous to the other people on the road.
That’s religion- looks great on the outside but in practice runs you off the road every single time.
The Gospel is God fulfilling his terms for Humanity's sake. That’s why the word Gospel means “Good News”- God did all the heavy work, and we just have to believe and accept it and live it through faith.
So why do most people choose the hard way of getting to God when He has made it incredibly easy for us? Why do people chose to betray God’s ways through religion.
A little history of why-
In the beginning God gave to Adam and Eve complete Dominion over his creation. As part of the condition of them ruling over his creation he gave them one rule don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As most of us know they broke that rule and because of that they and everything they had dominion over fell into sin which produced death.
One of the consequences of sin producing death within us is we have a natural rebellion against doing things Gods way. One of the principle results of this is religion- us wanting to come to God on our terms and not HIS.
Let me illustrate this-
You ever see a small child with a toy hammer and a little table with those pounding shapes on it? Sometimes a child will grab the hammer by the business end and try to pound with the handle. If you go over and turn it around and show them the right way what happens?
They snatch it back out of your hand and use it the way they want to use it.
We do the same thing with God’s way of salvation- we snatch back the gift and try to use it the way we want to, and it always ends with death.
This is why the Pharisees resisted Jesus to the point of conspiring to murder him on false charges. Their religion worked itself out to form death within them and it came out of them through their actions.
They were so blinded as to the evil of their actions because they had put God in a box that was comfortable for them. This box was surrounded by rules, regulations, ceremony, and sacrifices. The result of their religion- they couldn't see God standing right in front of them.
The Pharisees actions shows us this undeniable truth- Religion always brings death.
You can't come to God on your terms you can only come to God on his terms. When you’d rather follow a Religion to come to God, you betray the God you are searching for and you also betray Jesus and spit on everything HE went through for you to bring you from death to life.
So I would ask you are you living according to the gospel or according to some religion?
The next way Jesus is betrayed is seen in Pilate, who represents the World System and its temptations
III. The World (Pilate)
When you read throughout the gospel accounts about Pontius Pilate it's easy to make him a villain. Historically, Pontius Pilate was born into Roman aristocracy and into a life of privilege. Because of his position in life he was assigned several prominent positions within the Roman government, but he never did well at any of them. His appointment as prefect of Palestine was considered to be his last chance to show any talent or leadership in government work.
Pilate did not start well. He never bothered to understand the different factions within the Jewish religion.
He never understood that Palestine was in a constant if muted state of civil war, or even how the different levels of civil government worked. This led him to be very heavy handed and offend everyone so that he had no one to back him up within this country. Pilate’s actions eventually lead the other prefects and governors in the surrounding areas to write letters to the emperor himself asking for him to remove Pilate.
A few weeks before Jesus stood before Pilate, the emperor had recently given Pontius Pilate an ultimatum that less he straightened up he would be removed from any government position permanently.
By the way, in Rome when a politician needed to be fired from a government position- that was considered an insult to the emperor and it was expected of that person to take their own life or be executed.
This is where Pontius Pilate is at as Jesus stands before him. Pontius Pilate is acutely aware of Jesus’s popularity with the people but at the same time he is aware the Pharisee’s have the ear of the other governors (especially Herod the Great who was a friend of the emperor). Moreover, we see the Pharisee’s ability to turn the opinion of the crowd and it that power to cause civil unrest, which is the last thing Pilate needs right now.
This is the background to why Pontius Pilate makes the decision he makes. It’s why he went through the drama of washing his hands of the proceedings. He did want any part of it because he was so worried that doing the right thing in acquitting Jesus of the obviously false charges being leveled against HIM would cost him politically and he would lose his position in this world, and possibly his life.
He took the easy route and put it back on the people.
Pilate is an example to us today of loving a lifestyle, position, riches, a relationship, or possessions more than seeking God’s will for your life.
This is one of the main reasons why most people don't come to Jesus Christ in repentance and receive the forgiveness for their sins.
Most people are so worried about what they have to give up that they won't give in.
In essence, they stand there just like Pilate washing their hands of Jesus and choosing to protect their position in the world.
Does anyone here know a person like that? Have you ever seen that person in the mirror looking back at you?
I have.
How many times has our love for the things of this world caused us to make a decision that causes Jesus pain?
How many times have we washed our hands of Jesus in public because we are too ashamed to admit that we are one of his followers?
This is how Pontius Pilate betrayed Jesus.
This is also how many of those to claim to be His followers betray him today.
The last example of betrayal is seen in
IV. The Fakers (Judas)
The Apostle John in writing about Judas does not paint a very flattering picture. He calls Judas a thief and Jesus doesn't mince words either.
Saying that, there are a few things we need to remember about Judas
Number one- he was chosen by Jesus to be a disciple. That thought in itself could be a sermon, but I’m just throwing it out there for you this morning that Jesus can call people He knows will fail Him along the way. Yet HE still calls them.
Number 2 is the logical consequence of the first point and that is Judas was used by the Holy Spirit to preach, to heal, and to perform miracles.
God is no respecter of person’s. If you are gifted by God and take pride it in remember this- No matter how gifted and talented you are- that gift or talent doesn’t make you anything special.
God used a donkey to preach to a prophet
Jesus said that God can make the rocks cry out in praise to him
Therefore don't take pride in your gifts but instead offer them to the God who gave them to you so that you can use them to enrich his Kingdom.
Number 3- Jesus chose him to carry the money purse. Think about that for a moment. Peter, Andrew, James, and John were pretty successful businessmen in running a fishing company in upper Galilee. Matthew is a tax collector which would be similar today to being an accountant. So you have almost half of the disciples who are more qualified than Judas to be the treasurer and keeper of the money. Judas’ background was that of a revolutionary. He was a zealot and zealots were the first century version of terrorists. Not the guy you want to hand the money bag to.
Yet Jesus still chose Judas.
Now Jesus did not give up His deity when he became A human being. He knew when he chose Judas that this man would eventually betray him and yet he gave him some of the highest honors amongst the other disciples. There is no evidence that Judas was ever seen in a bad light among the other disciples. It wasn't like when Jesus said that one of you will betray me that they all turned and looked at Judas. He received the same teaching, the same attention, the same love, and the same kind of relationship that every other disciple have been given during Jesus’ ministry.
What Judas represents to us today is a class of people within the church I call the fakers. They are the ones who look very religious, they look very spiritual, and they look very committed to the cause of Christ.
Yet they are in it for themselves and not for the Kingdom.
Unfortunately, I have met many people like this in my 25 years of being a Christian. Many of these people have worked behind the scenes to sow discord, rumors, and open rebellion against the church and against its leadership. Sometimes these people are the wealthiest people in the church- the big donors and they use that position to blackmail the leadership into doing their will.
Sometimes they may even be in the spiritual leadership, yet you don't see any of the character of Christ in how they live or how they lead.
They are the fakers.
I do have some good news about these kinds of people- they are dying breed within the church.
As church leaders we frequently speak about how the church seems to be shrinking in America and throughout the western world.
We've prayed about it
We've questioned why, and we worry that somehow the Kingdom of God is not advancing.
I admit that I used to be concerned about this, but I've come to understand it in a different way.
The reason why it seems like the church is shrinking is because the fakers are leaving the church. They have no benefit to stay so they are leaving.
And that is actually a good thing.
Don’t get me wrong- I want everyone to come to a saving faith in Jesus, but I don’t have a lot of time for people who use the church and its people to further their own agendas or prop up their selfish needs.
I do have some good news this morning as we prepare to enter into our time of communion. The shrinking church is a good thing and was predicted as a sign of the end times.
The apostle Paul tells the church in Thessalonica
Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. 3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed
Some versions of the bible say, unless the apostacy comes first- that word means to be in open rebellion to God and His ways. A shrinking church is a church being purified of those who are betraying Jesus and His message.
The bible also speaks about the last days church in the book of Revelation-
6 Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:
“Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad
and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.
These last days are our purification treatments (see Ester) that come prior to being presented to Jesus as a radiant bride and should be looked to with eager anticipation and joy for the glory that we will bring Him on that day.
Communion
