I believe in the prayers of God's people.
I don't know that I was that succinct 30 years ago,
!
I was a very poor decision to even ask me.
But I remember as I deliberated on that question,
one of the things that was a clincher for me
as I debated the question was this,
who will pray for me?
I couldn't imagine leaving people that I knew prayed for me.
So here I am.
Doing what I have done from month to month and week to week,
asking you to pray and having confidence in the power of the Word of God
to make a difference in your lives.
Turn your Bibles to Matthew 26, verse 14.
Let me read to you.
Matthew 26, verse 14.
Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot,
went to the chief priests and said,
What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?
And they paid him 30 pieces of silver,
and from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.
Now on the first day of unleavened bread,
the disciples came to Jesus, saying,
Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?
He said, Go into the city to a certain man and say to him,
The teacher says, My time is at hand,
and I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.
And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them,
and they prepared the Passover.
When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve,
and as they were eating, he said,
Truly I say to you, one of you will betray me.
And they were very sorrowful,
and began to say to him, one after another,
Is it I, Lord?
Let's pray.
Father, for us, prayer is a recurring declaration of your sufficiency
and your goodness in our dependency.
And we ask that your spirit would quicken our hearts
to behold wondrous truths in your word,
and that through the enabling of the Spirit of God,
that we, beholding as in a mirror the face and truth
of our Lord Jesus Christ, would be affected by that,
and we would grow to be more like him.
And that those who are here today,
that do not know the Lord Jesus Christ,
would be drawn to the cross
and recognize the darkness of their soul
and their complete inability to save themselves,
and that they would cry out upon the Lord Jesus,
in whom alone is salvation.
And we ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
If you were to ask me to explain in a single sentence
what really the purpose of preaching is,
and I'd confess that on various days I may say it
with a slight different perspective,
I would say fundamentally that at the heart of preaching is this goal,
preaching aims to make much of Jesus.
Underneath the little glass top here,
there's a little note that I have to myself
that has often reminded me when I stand here
with the responsibility of being a messenger of the Lord of hosts,
it says,
how does this sermon testify to Christ?
It is a summary of John chapter 5, verse 39,
where Jesus, when he was identifying the issue of his person
and his work, he said,
listen, at the heart,
the Scriptures bear witness to me.
And so when a man stands before you,
whether it is Pastor Shearer or Tim Knoyer,
the truth of the matter is,
as we read the same book, we love the same Lord,
and our task is fundamentally the same.
It is to make much of Jesus.
And so here we are,
just in front of Resurrection Sunday,
and we're having the Lord's table,
and as we gather together,
and as I've been praying and thinking about this,
actually, if you would say,
how many of you remember
what Last Communion Service's text was?
Does anybody remember here?
It was Matthew chapter 26,
and when he had broken the bread,
he gave it to the disciples and said,
take this, eat, this is my body,
and he took the cup,
and when he'd given,
do you remember now?
When he'd given thanks.
We're backing up a little bit,
and I want you to ponder with me,
just for a moment,
the unbelievable picture
of what we find here,
and its testimony to the love of Christ for us.
We're going to look at a passage
that really displays and brings to forefront
an unbelievable and a striking picture
of the hearts of mankind,
and including mine and yours,
and the love of Christ,
which, as it says in Ephesians,
transcends and surpasses what we can imagine.
So as we step into this verse,
let's begin, first of all,
by recognizing that what we're going to read here
in this passage is an indication
of the most vile betrayal of all time.
As you look at the passage,
we take up the text there in verse 14,
and we find that Judas Iscariot
is offering to the chief priests
and the leadership of the Jews
an opportunity to betray
and ultimately bring about the death of the Savior.
The other Gospels help us understand
that the hatred that the Jews had for Jesus
had reached this fever pitch
that they wanted to do everything they could
to destroy Him,
and yet there was this tension
and this uncertainty.
They were afraid that they couldn't pull it off
because the crowds thought very much of Jesus,
and He had done so much for so many people
that there was a real hesitancy on their part
to do it publicly.
And so they, seeking a way,
and Judas evidently aware of this,
I mean, it must have been a buzz going around,
hey, listen, does anybody know how to catch them privately
and cause problems?
And here's Judas.
He knew their hatred.
He knew their hesitancy,
and so he comes to them privately,
and he says, listen, I'll do it.
I'll do it.
And I want you to stop and recognize
that here was a disciple,
one of the 12,
that Jesus had chosen to walk with him,
and observe every bit of his ministry and his heart.
It was one of those 12 that was going to willingly betray Jesus
and lead ultimately to his death.
You know, when we do something in ignorance
and we do something without a full knowledge
of what is taking place,
in some sense what we do is less offensive
than what we do intentionally
and against the grain of the reality
of what we've experienced.
Remember when Jesus said,
woe to you, Jehorazin,
woe to you, Bethsaida,
because if the miracles that have been done in your presence
had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they'd still exist.
The point he was making is that
unto whom much is given,
what?
Much is required.
There is an amplification
of the consequence of sin
proportionate to the blessing that we have received.
And here was Judas
against the backdrop
of all that he had experienced and seen,
willingly setting the plate
for the betrayal of Christ.
He was doing it against the background
of a close relationship.
He'd been one of the 12.
He had enjoyed three full years
of the presence and the love of Christ.
One of the things that we read in the book of John
as we were working our way through it
is that Jesus loved them to the end.
He never changed his mind
about his unconditional love
for those 12.
And here was Judas,
knowing our Savior,
knowing what he had done,
knowing every one of his good,
kind deeds and his sensitivity,
here was Judas ready to betray him
and doing it intentionally against his friend.
I want you to understand also
that it was done with premeditation.
He had thought it out.
He pondered about the time
in which he could pull this off.
And so quietly and on his own,
he snuck away
and he presents this opportunity
to enemies of Christ
and he says,
listen, I'm ready to do it,
but how much are you going to pay me for this?
Can you imagine negotiating with someone
to betray your best friend or your wife?
Here's Jesus.
The one who had in every case,
there was never a question
of his love and his concern
and his sympathy for Judas
and yet here was Judas
so darkened in his heart
that he was dickering with these leaders
about how much money
he was going to get for this.
You know, a sin of passion is offensive
and more than once
we have acted in a fashion
that really has shown a very poor heart
but I would have to say,
you know, it wasn't well thought out.
It wasn't something that I pondered
and did over a period of time.
Let me give you an illustration.
You're on a long road trip.
We used to travel,
Judith and I,
her parents were in Florida.
It was about a 20-hour drive
from where we were
in Northeastern Ohio
to Florida
and we were in a Datsun 510 station wagon.
It's much smaller
than you can imagine.
We had four kids
and two adults in that car
and it was a,
that was before vans
had been invented.
How many of you are
of the generation
where you remember
the station wagons?
Well, we didn't have
one of those Land Cruiser
boat station wagons.
We had this little dinky,
dinky Japanese knockoff
and we put the four kids
in the back
with all of our luggage
and the first thing
that would happen
is that they'd start asking,
are we there yet?
That was not a problem to me.
No, we're not.
But when I was blessed,
I have been blessed
with two boys and two girls
and guess what?
You know,
you'd have the seating going on.
It's one thing
to hit your brother
in the back of the car
on a 20-hour road trip.
It's another thing
to hit your dad.
Now listen to me carefully.
I don't want you to miss this.
There's not a Bible verse
that really talks about
hitting your brother
in the back of the car
that I can think of.
Maybe I text me later
and let me know.
But there is,
paying attention,
you listen to me,
there is a Bible verse
that says,
woe to the person
who raises his hand
against his father.
I was full of vinegar
when I was younger.
Still have some.
But, you know,
I remember my dad
and I having a rather
animated conversation.
I was 20.
And I thought
that I could win the argument.
I remember reaching a point
of raising my voice
and he said,
you say another word
and I'll slap you.
That was the last word
I said that day.
It never crossed my mind
to raise my hand
against my father.
Do you follow that?
And here was Judas
willing to raise his hand
against his savior.
An unbelievable act
by a profoundly wicked heart.
And as we look at the horror
of what Judas
was ready to do,
there should be,
in all of our hearts
this morning,
there should be a sobering,
I can't believe
Judas would do that.
Do you follow that?
That's a dark heart.
I want you to look
at the second piece
that I really want you
to dig in on.
Verse 21.
And as they were eating,
he said,
truly,
now how many of you know
that the little words
truly or truly,
truly are like,
it's like a highlighter
or a yellow marker
on something.
It's like,
it's bold, right?
Hey,
wake up everybody.
I know you've got food
in your mouth,
but listen,
right now I want you
to pay attention.
One of you here
is going to betray me.
There are several things
that I want you to ponder
and one of the things
that I would encourage you
to do,
listen to me,
one of the things
that goes with being
faithful in our Bible reading
is asking ourselves
the question
over and over again,
why is this here?
Right?
Make sense?
Why did the Holy Spirit
put that in there?
Why is it there?
I think there are some things
that we need to recognize
as we look at this passage
and Jesus is making
a profound statement
when he says,
hey,
one of you is going
to betray me.
Why is it there?
For one,
Jesus' announcement
shows his deity
yet again.
How many of you know
what's going to happen
tomorrow?
I was looking at my calendar
and, you know,
and, okay,
this is going to happen
and that's going to happen
and I reminded myself
there's a little phrase
from James
that sticks in my mind
that says,
if the Lord wills.
Okay?
I don't know
what's going to happen
tomorrow for sure.
I have some ideas.
My schedule
kind of mapped out
and I, okay,
this, this, this,
but I thought,
you know,
if the Lord wills.
Here's Jesus saying,
this is what's going
to happen.
One of you is going
to betray me
and only God
can know the future
and speak to it
accurately and intelligently.
But there's another thing
that I want you
to recognize.
The announcement
is also a deep lesson
on our sinful hearts.
Jesus knew exactly
who his betrayer
was going to be
and yet his opening
statements were
rather general.
He could have said,
hey, everybody listen up.
Just a little while,
Judas is going to walk
out of here
and he's going
to betray me.
It is significant
that he said,
one of you
is going to betray me.
The thing that I find
very interesting
is the response
of the disciples.
Look at it.
These are 12 men
that had spent
three years
in the presence
and under the teaching
of Christ.
Stop just for a moment.
How many of you
have ever listened
to a conversation
in which someone said,
well, so-and-so
committed such-and-such
a crime.
He left his wife.
He ran off with blah, blah, blah.
Or he robbed a bank
or he got involved
in drugs
and he's in rehab now.
Any of you,
don't raise your hands,
any of you ever thought
to yourself,
never happened to me.
Not me.
Won't happen to me.
Here is Jesus
speaking to the 12
and he says,
you know what?
One of you
is going to betray me.
What happens next?
Look at it.
And they were
very sorrowful.
Who was sorrowful?
Peter,
John,
James,
Andrew,
Nathaniel.
Do you follow me?
They were sorrowful.
They were very sorrowful.
They were...
And they began to say to him
one after another,
underline these words
in your Bible.
I want you to have them
stick in your mind.
Is it I?
Do you know what that reflects?
I think we make very little
of just how dark
our hearts
actually are.
Here is Jesus
speaking of
the supreme
betrayal
and every one of the disciples
have the spiritual
discernment.
Pay attention.
To ask a logical,
practical question.
Am I the one
who's going
to do it?
Do you know what that tells me?
For a brief moment,
these disciples
were thinking
with clear
theological
understanding
of the darkness
of the human heart.
You know,
we sing
the words,
good song,
it says,
prone to wonder,
Lord,
I feel it,
prone to leave,
the God I love.
And at the very time
we are singing
some of these words,
our minds
are engaged
in unforgiveness,
our minds
are engaged
in bitterness,
our minds
are engaged
in lust,
our minds
are engaged
in self-idolatry
and we are not
as fearful
of the darkness
of our own heart
as we ought to be.
Take just a moment
and turn over
to a passage
that should help us
in relationship
to this.
Psalm 19,
verse 12 and 13,
here's what the psalmist
says in this
unbelief,
my wife is not in here,
she's working
in a nursery,
but if I were to ask her
today,
so how did it go?
She would say
you used the same words
over and over again,
so unbelievable
is off the table.
It will not be said again,
thank you,
today.
Psalm 19,
a psalm about the word,
that always gets me excited.
But look at 12 and 13,
who can discern
his errors?
Hey, everybody look up.
Your heart
is an absolute
pit.
And the sooner
you come to grips
with the darkness
of your own heart,
the more you will cling
to the remedy
of the work
of the Spirit of God
and the word of God
in helping you
stay anchored.
Who can discern
his errors?
Declare me innocent
from hidden faults.
Keep back your servant
from presumptuous sins.
You know what
a presumptuous sin is?
It's a sin
of my arrogant,
proud heart.
I gotta tell you.
I remember a conversation
not too long ago
with an individual
who's explaining
the sinfulness
of their behavior
and arguing with me
about the justification
of it.
But I gotta tell you,
I've done the same thing.
Judas is in the nursery
so I can tell you this.
Every now and then
I wake up with a surly spirit.
Do you know what I mean
by a surly spirit?
I mean just kind of
self-focused,
a little irritated
and I remember
we were having coffee together
and I let a little
of my sarcasm go.
It's like,
there it was
and she said,
I didn't deserve that.
You're right.
It's just my black heart.
You know,
it's like,
God help me.
And here is the psalmist
saying,
you know,
your word is what's
gonna help me
to not be so self-focused
and presumptuous.
And he says,
then I shall be blameless
and innocent
of the great transgression.
But coming back
to the passage,
here we are,
Jesus explaining
that one of them
is going to betray him
and I am struck
by the fact
that every one
of the disciples,
I am stuck.
Everyone says,
is it I?
And I gotta tell you something,
listen to me carefully,
until you have
that level of respect
and regard
for the sinfulness
of your natural inclinations,
you are dancing
close to the edge.
It's interesting as well
that what Jesus said
brought a very interesting
response from the disciples.
They all ask a question,
is it I?
What they were doing
was they were seeking
the counsel of the word
of God,
namely the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ,
to help them identify,
is it me?
Is my heart the one
that's going to do this?
Instead of being flippant
and say,
I'd never do that.
And by the way,
lest we give the disciples
too much credit,
you do want to remember
that just a little while later,
remember Jesus said,
you're all going to abandon me
and what do they say?
Hey, there's Peter.
Not me.
They all step up.
No, not me.
But just for a moment,
we find some good theological thinking
in these 12.
They're concerned about sin.
Hey, are you concerned about sin?
Are you really concerned about sin?
I was speaking with someone
not too long ago
about the advantage of being 68.
There aren't as many as I wish,
but one of the advantages of this
is that, you know,
it's like I was complaining
with someone else.
I wasn't complaining.
I was listening to them
talk about what it was
to get old,
and I thought, yeah.
But anyway,
one of the advantages
of being 68
is that God has dealt firmly
with Tim Kenoyer
repeatedly over sin.
And I'm at the point
where all he has to do
is kind of tap me
on the shoulder
and say,
do you remember
where your parents would say,
my dad would say this,
you're cruising for a bruising.
Something about the poetry of that
just kind of impressed me immediately.
It's like,
my dad gave me the luxury
of choosing which belt
was going to be
the instrument of destruction.
It's like,
he had about eight or nine
and I never found the right one.
It's just,
but I did experiment regularly.
The advantage of being 68
is that Tim Kenoyer
has a pathological fear
for the darkness
of his own heart.
Is it I?
Oh, Lord.
Keep me from sin.
And here are the disciples
crying out to Jesus,
you know,
am I the one
that's going to do this?
I wonder how often
you actually do that.
Where you,
because you have
a abiding fear,
an abiding fear,
try that proper grammar here,
you have an abiding fear
for sin,
you engage other people
in helping you
with the darkness
of your own heart.
Hmm?
I want you to recognize
one other thing here
in this passage.
The announcement
that Jesus made
to the disciples
was in a final appeal
to the betrayer
to stop in his tracks
and repent.
I'm struck by that.
Did Jesus look forward
in one sense
to the cross
and what's the answer?
No.
I mean,
what does it say?
In the garden,
how was he praying?
If it be,
what was he praying?
All right,
Lord,
bring it on.
I'm ready for this one.
Now,
one of the problems
we have
is we are,
we're not able,
we're not able
to focus on true truths
at the same time.
It kind of frustrates
us a little bit
because we like everything
to be logical,
but here's Jesus.
If it be possible,
let this cup pass from me.
And on the other hand,
in Hebrews chapter 12,
it says,
who for the joy
that was set before him,
you know,
despising the shame
and during the cross,
we can't do
the two things together.
Here is Jesus
with this tender heart
in the midst
of knowing full well
that just within hours
he is going to be
crucified.
one more time,
he reaches out to Judas
and gives him
an opportunity to repent.
I've got to stop
just for a second.
If more of God's people
understood how gracious
and patient
and forgiving
Jesus is
and God is,
they would be more
inclined to forgive
and forbear
with one another.
here is Jesus
facing his crucifixion
and he asks
his disciples
to think very carefully
about the sin
in their own hearts.
I've got to say this,
in the face of this
scriptural evidence,
we ought to be
profoundly humble
in admitting
our spiritual frailty
and our need for grace.
So here's a little
practical little test
as to how you're
doing at that.
Everybody listen
because this is important.
This is the takeaway.
Are you ready for this?
When was the last time
you willingly received
admonition from a brother
or a sister,
a wife or a husband,
a father or someone else
when they admonished you
scripturally and said,
that's wrong
and you said,
thank you.
Let the righteous
strike me,
I will count it
a healing oil
is what the psalmist says.
Bring it on,
I need it
because I have
a dark heart
that desperately needs
the grace of God,
the word of God
and the family of God.
Let's come to some
closing implications
before we come
to the table.
I have to tell you,
you look here
in verse 23
and says,
He answered,
He who has dipped
his hand in the dish
with me will betray me.
The Son of Man
goes as it is written
of him,
but woe to that man,
many,
that man
by whom the Son of Man
is betrayed,
it would have been
better for that man
if he had not been born.
And Judas,
who would betray him,
answered,
Is it I, Rabbi?
And he said to him,
You've said so.
I want you to write down
a word
and hold on to this.
The word is antinomy,
A-N-T-I-N-O-M-Y,
antinomy.
Here's what I mean.
I'll explain it this way.
An antinomy
is two opposing,
seemingly opposing laws
that you have trouble
putting together.
Right?
How could Jesus be
all man
and all God?
How many's got,
who's got that figured out?
Raise your hands
and wave at me
because I want to consult
with you afterwards.
How many of you
understand that
our God
is Trinitarian?
We have here
a picture
that brings together
Scripture often
puts divine sovereignty
and human responsibility
side by side.
And one of the reasons
it does that
is so we don't miss
the challenge.
And when you don't keep
those two truths
in humble balance,
you end up on one side
or the other
to your harm
and sometimes
to others.
And so,
I want to kind of
remind you
of a passage
in Deuteronomy
chapter 29
verse 29
where it says this.
It says,
the secret things
belong to the Lord
our God.
What's that saying?
There's some things
that I don't get.
Do you get it?
There's some things
that I don't get,
but the things
that are revealed
belong to us
and to our children
forever
that we may do
all the words
of this law.
So let me close out
with this.
In this passage,
we see the heart
of our Savior
as being profoundly
merciful,
profoundly instructive.
He says to the disciples,
Men,
I want you to understand
that your heart
has the profound
darkness
that can readily
betray me
and live with humility
and dependence
upon the Word
and dependence
upon the family
of God
to protect you
from the natural
inclination
to drift
into darkness.
Second,
here is Jesus
reaching out
to one
who is going
to betray him
in just moments,
gives him
one last opportunity.
Can I pose a question?
There's not an answer
to it,
but just imagine
Judas said,
Man,
it's me
and I'm going
to stop this.
Would Jesus
have granted
forgiveness to him?
What's the answer?
Absolutely.
By the way,
if he was willing
to forgive Nineveh
and he was willing
to forgive Ahab,
right?
Now,
don't get wound up
around the axle
on this,
but I got to tell you,
here's what we know
about our God.
He is forgiving
and patient
and he appeals
to sinners
to repent.
And so,
this morning
as we come
to the Lord's table
and I would ask
the deacons
to come now,
we take the elements
that remind us
why
Jesus can offer us
complete forgiveness
for all of our sins.
It's because he died
for us
and died in our place
and has granted
to us
the blessing
of an offer
of salvation
because of his
finished sacrifice
for us.
Let us pray.
Our Father God,
this morning
as we take this bread
and we take the cup,
we're very thankful
that the scriptures
tell us
that this is a reminder
of what you
did for us.