One of the most remarkable things about the Word of God is its depth. Seemingly insignificant texts that often possess layers of meaning and significance. and even historical events, remarkable even at their face value, often take on a mysterious brilliance as they reveal a vast trove of hidden treasure buried within. We see poetry and allegory, symbolism and metaphor, prophecy and types and shadows, all of these elements and more are skillfully woven together by the divine author of scripture to produce an inspired and inerrant revelation. And what has been said, what is concealed in the Old Testament is revealed in the New Testament. And with the arrival of Jesus Christ, many of these seemingly one-dimensional stories and events in the Old Testament are opened up in the New and given even fuller significance. And one such element from the Old Testament is the Passover. The Passover is enshrined in Jewish worship practices for the first 15 centuries of the nation's existence. It serves as a reminder of how God has delivered His covenant people out of the bonds of slavery and blessed them with the gift of the promised land. And every Jew in Israel would have grown up hearing the story of the Passover, hearing the story of the Exodus, and they would have memorized all the scriptures, they would have sung all the songs, they would have celebrated the dinner. This became the focal point of their identity as a people. In their hearts, they would have rehearsed and believed that we are God's chosen people, the people of promise, who he delivered out of bondage and through the Red Sea by the ministry of Moses. And so year after year, the rituals were repeated, the lambs were slaughtered, the meals prepared, the songs were sung, the people remembered. But then there is one Passover that came to pass, however, that was different. This Passover was unique. It was special. Well, why was it special? Because at this one specific Passover, there was a meal where the Lamb of God Himself would dine with His people, and then only a few hours later, He would accomplish a true and lasting atonement for their sins. So with that, turn with me to Matthew 26 this morning, Matthew chapter 26, as we work our way through Matthew's Gospel. And I'm, even as we're getting ready for this holiday season, sort of preparing the exposition, we're going to take a little bit of a diversion for the next couple of weeks, but you'll realize why. But we'll be back in Matthew in January, and you'll understand why we're landing where we are, when we are, when we get there. But for now, In the context here, we're somewhere around the year 30 AD, and I say somewhere around because scholars have different opinions about what year this actually took place. The year itself really is not as important to us, but we know that this event takes place in the city of Jerusalem during the week of Passover. The Lord Jesus has come not only to celebrate the Passover, but also to become the Passover, as we read about last week in 1 Corinthians 5, 7. He's been in this city all week long, he's been teaching, he's been warning the people, he's been confronting the religious leaders of Israel, and he has foretold many times before that the Son of Man will be handed over for crucifixion. Despite the ambivalence and the negligence of the Jewish Sanhedrin to do so, Jesus has declared that it will happen, not after Passover, as the leaders have proposed, but it's going to happen on the very Passover itself, Friday of that very week He will be handed over. And so starting here in Matthew 26, 17, all the way to chapter 27, verse 66, we're going to behold the events of the Last Supper, the arrest of Jesus, the trial, the crucifixion, the death, the burial. All of this takes place within the span of 24 hours. And so even though it's gonna take us several weeks to get through it, keep in your mind here, this is only a 24-hour span of things that are happening. But it all begins here with this one dinner, Matthew 26, starting in verse 17. Now on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover? And he said, go into the city to a certain man and say to him, the teacher says, my time is near. I am to keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and they prepared the Passover. We're gonna pause right there for just a minute. This introduces both the concept of the Passover, but also the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and this event is recorded in all four Gospels. As for the Jewish calendar, it was punctuated by frequent feasts and celebrations. However, there are three major celebrations and three major events that all of Jerusalem would have come out for, and people would have traveled from all over Israel and even beyond. And these three major events are the Passover, also the Feast of Weeks, which is celebrated at Pentecost, and then the Feast of Booths. So these three main feasts, and these were usually These are pilgrimage feasts. People would come and travel to Jerusalem for these celebrations. But of the three, the Passover would have been the biggest. Now, the origin of the Passover really begins in Exodus 12. And I just, you know, just as a way of pause, I like to give you just little tidbits of ways to help you as you're studying the Bible. If you wanna remember where these events fall in Exodus, think about it this way. Exodus 12, death passed over the 12 tribes. So Exodus 12, 12 tribes, Passover, you get it. That's where you're gonna get Exodus 12 as the Passover. Exodus 14, is the Red Sea Crossing. Well, how do we know? Because the Red Sea Crossing was one for the books, one for Exodus 14. What about the Ten Commandments? Where do they come in? Well, that's Exodus 20. Well, why 20 and not 10? Because the Lord wants you to read the Ten Commandments twice. So Exodus 20 is 10 commandments. So again, little tiny devices to lock it in your mind of where to go. Again, these are huge events in biblical history. And so here, the Passover, Exodus 12, it's extremely important. It sets the stage for many things that are going to happen. in Israel's history. And so Exodus 12, the Lord prepares Israel for what's coming as the 10th plague. Remember, the Pharaoh is not letting them out, out of bondage, out of Egypt, and so the Lord is sending all these 10 plagues. The 10th plague is the plague that's going to kill the firstborn son of the land. That is, unless they apply the blood of an unblemished lamb above the doorpost and the lentils to their house. Now, if the lamb's blood is over the doorpost, and that would have been a configuration like this, like this, and like this. See it? The doorposts would have been dotted with the blood of the lamb, sort of an imaginary cross shape. But if the blood is applied over the doorposts and over the lentils, death will pass over that house. In the morning, when the shock of the deaths of Egypt's firstborn settles in, Pharaoh, at that point, releases Israel from bondage and they make their way out in Exodus. And so on the eve of that exodus, the Lord commands them to prepare themselves, get ready because you're going to leave in the morning. And part of that preparation would have been to partake in this Passover meal, the Passover meal. And so every year thereafter, the Israelites, they would have celebrated the Passover in remembrance of the Lord's redemption from Egypt. And so in obedience to Exodus 12, 6, the Passover was to be observed on the 14th day of the month Nisan. And in Jesus' day, in Matthew 26, that would have fallen on that Thursday evening into Friday. Of course, the Lord also commanded Israel to observe the week-long festival known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread, whereby they would remove all of the bread, all the leavened bread out of their house. They would have been sweeping the crumbs out of their house, removing the bread, purging their homes in the land from all leaven, which is essentially just yeast. Now, this is a symbol of purging of sin and sinful practices. So he's basically saying, look, prepare your hearts, get all the sin out, because the Lord is going to come, he's going to pass over, the death is going to pass over your home, and you're gonna be delivered. There's so much symbolism and metaphor here, which we're gonna unravel as time goes on here. But that's the purpose of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, to symbolize the purging of the leaven, a purging of the sins out of your home, out of your life. And so that celebration was to be observed. Over time, both of these feasts and festivals melded together to the point where Israel would celebrate the Passover on the 14th, immediately following that was the week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So they would basically just weave them together and that would be a week-long celebration. Now, four days before that, they would have gone and purchased the unblemished or the spotless lamb, and they would have brought that to the temple to be sacrificed. The lamb would have been sacrificed and then taken home and cooked and then eaten for the Passover dinner. At first, as travelers to Jerusalem, the disciples would have had to come and figure out where they're going to eat that Passover meal. Again, they're not living in Jerusalem at that time. They don't have a house to go to, so where are they going to go? So the disciples, they asked Jesus in verse 17, where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover? Well, thankfully, he's already got a plan in the works, and that's verse 18. Jesus says, go into the city to a certain man and say to him, the teacher says, my time is near. I am to keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. Now, the man's name isn't given. We don't know who this person was, this certain man, nor do we know how and the situation around why Jesus organized it the way he did. However, Mark records that Jesus designates him as a man that they're gonna see in the city who's carrying a pitcher of water, a water pot. Now, normally, historically, it would have been women that would have been carrying these water jugs, and sometimes they would carry them even on their heads. And so, again, this is something that the women did, and so if they were to go into the city and seeing a man doing this, it would have been noticeably different. So Jesus says, when you see a man doing this, follow that man and go to his house, and that's where we're gonna have the Passover. Again, we don't know how or why this all happened the way that it did. Was this something that Jesus arranged beforehand? Did he set this up with this man beforehand? Or was this a miracle of divine providence? We don't know. but we don't need to know. It should not be lost on us that Jesus tells them to tell this man that he says the time is near. That's not just a random throwaway phrase. That is loaded with meaning and significance. My time is near. He's approaching full submission to the divine timetable. This isn't just a regular old Passover. The time for his departure, the time for crucifixion, the time for deliverance of God's people from the bondage to their sin, that's near. It's within 24 hours away that it's going to happen. Everything is leading up to the cross, again, all according to God's predetermined plan. We have to see, even though we're gonna spend several weeks in these verses and kind of marching along, you have to see that there is sort of a fever pitch in the biblical text. We've been in this text for five years. This is the focal point. Everything is building to this section of Scripture, leading to the cross, the burial, and then finally the resurrection. Verse 19, the disciples did as Jesus directed them and they prepared the Passover. This was an involved meal. I mean, we think that Thanksgiving is a big deal in terms of preparation. The Passover was a very involved, a very significant meal. Every little piece of the Passover dinner had a specific meaning to it. And they would have partaken in dozens of these meals over the course of their lifetime. I mean, anybody who grew up in Israel, they did this every single year. They grew up with this tradition. And so the disciples, they would have made their way to the upper room. And we know historically, or at least in terms of tradition, they think they have the location. It's a big, huge stone room. It's a pretty large room, actually. And they would have gotten together to, not just to eat, but also to have fellowship and to pray and to sing. This is also where Jesus would have been teaching them. And he also served them by washing their feet. But it's also the place where he was going to go to unmask the traitor. Verse 20. Now when evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the 12 disciples. Now we all know the very famous painting of the Last Supper, but even though we have the famous painting, it's really not how it would have gone on at all. Jesus and the disciples would not have been seated upright at a table like that. They would have actually been laying down or reclining at sort of a U-shaped table. Their feet would have been out facing away from the food, which is probably a good thing, right? They would have been leaning on their most likely left elbow and feeding themselves with their right hand. And they would have reclined at table all together for several hours. This would have been something that went into the evening. It would have had to been finished by midnight, but you've got several hours of reclining and eating and celebrating and talking together. This would have been a wonderful celebration. But how would this Passover have been celebrated? Well, keeping in mind the centerpiece of this meal is the lamb. The lamb is the focal point. Now, they would have prepared this lamb, and they would have also prepared unleavened bread. They've already been in the process of cleaning out the leaven from their homes, but now they would have baked matzah, or unleavened bread, and also they would have been cooking and preparing in this whole meal all of these things in bitter herbs. They would have began by singing two hymns from what's known as the Egyptian Hallel, the Hallel, which is basically the Psalms from Psalm 113 all the way through Psalm 118. That's what's known as the Hallel in the Psalter. But they would have began by singing Psalm 113 and Psalm 114. We're going to go through Psalm 113 next week and Psalm 114 in the week after that. Toward the end of the meal, they would have finished singing from the Hallel. They would have sung Psalms 115 through 118. They also would have recited scriptures and uttered prayers before the Lord. At the start of the meal, there was a tradition where one of the sons of the house would ask the head of the house, why is this night different from all others? It was a tradition. Who gets to ask the question this year? And so one of the sons would say, father or head of the house, why is this night special? To which the head of the house would then respond and would recall the Exodus story and then finish up by praising the Lord for his salvation. During the course of the meal, there would have been four cups of wine that were offered, two at the beginning and two toward the end. As for the significance of the four cups of wine, they represent God's promises to Israel before their deliverance. We read about this, and I'll just read this to you, Exodus 6, verses 6 and 7, four specific promises the Lord declares, I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians. I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with the outstretched arm and with great judgments. And then I will take you for my people and I will be your God." Four great promises. And again, every cup had its own purpose. Every cup had its own name. And again, every element of the meal was significant. And every aspect of Passover was kept by Jesus and the disciples. According to the Gospel of John, which is not recorded here, at that point, toward that somewhere in the meal, Jesus would have gotten up to then wash the feet of the disciples. And there's that entire scenario that's laid out in John chapter 13. He also would have seized the opportunity to teach them. What we have is the upper room discourse in John 14 through 17 or going into 17. So this would have been a very long night with acts of service and teaching and all kinds of things that are happening in this one remarkable night. However, at a certain point during the evening, the tone changes. Verse 21, as they were eating, He said, truly I say to you that one of you will betray me. Being deeply grieved, they each one began to say to him, surely not I, Lord. But he answered, he who dipped his hand with me in the bowl is one who will betray me. The son of man is to go, but just as it is 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. And so they're having this elongated feast, a feast of celebration and remembrance and praise and song. And right in the middle of the dinner, Jesus drops this bomb on them that shook them to the core. He'd already told them that he would be handed over. He'd already told them he would be delivered, but he didn't tell them how. He'd been talking about this for the better part of a year. I'm gonna go away, I'm gonna be crucified, I'm gonna be handed over to the priest, I'm gonna go and die on the cross, I'm gonna be buried in the ground, I'm gonna resurrect the third day, over and over and over and over and over again, but now he's getting to something very specific, an important detail of this being handed over. He tells them it's gonna come through betrayal. Betrayal, but not just anyone. Wasn't one of the scribes, wasn't one of the Pharisees, wasn't somebody else, wasn't the rich young ruler, wasn't anybody like that, no. One of you is going to betray me. Now, this would have shocked them. The Bible says they were deeply grieved, deeply grieved. This wounded them to the core. They become terribly distressed. The thought of turning on Jesus at this point makes them all sick to their stomach. What are you talking about? One of us is gonna do this to you? And they would have been looking around the room going, what's going on? How could any one of us do this? And they're going to him privately one at a time saying, surely not I, Lord. Is it gonna be me, Lord? terrified at the possibility, terrified and unsure. Each man couldn't fathom that any one of them would commit such an egregious sin. It gets to the point in the course of the meal where John 13, 22 records that they all begin looking around the room at each other at a loss of which one he was speaking about. And now we, in the context of knowing biblical history, we're thinking, well, it's obviously Judas, but they didn't know. That was how deep and how strong his betrayal even of his own brothers in Christ were. I say brothers in a loose manner, of course. But nobody knew who it was going to be. At one point, Peter actually tries to enlist the help of John. John is sitting or reclining right in front of Jesus. John could have leaned back and listened to Jesus' heartbeat right here, he's that close. So Peter goes across the room and says, John, find out who it was. And he asks John, can you find out, tell him of who he's speaking. At that point, John leans over and he says, Lord, who is it? desperately trying to find out who is the one that's gonna betray you. We've seen you do so much, oh Lord, we know. We've come to believe that you are the Messiah. You are the Lamb of God who's gonna take away the sin of the world. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Who could possibly betray you, oh Lord? He answers in verse 23, he who dipped his hand with me in the bowl is the one who is going to betray me. Now, again, at this point, the challenging part to that verse, it's very easy to go, well, that's clearly only Judas, except that here's the thing, all of them had taken a turn and dipped their hand in the same bowl. In fact, the bowl that he's talking about is a bowl that would have been set out in the middle of the table containing a paste known as kheroset, which is made of ground apples, dates, pomegranates, and nuts. And they would have ground this into a paste, and this paste represented the mud which was given to the Israelites in which they made bricks for the Egyptians. Again, everything had a symbol in the Passover meal. And so they would have taken their bread, their unleavened bread, and they would have been dipping into this kheroset, and they would have been eating this paste. So they all shared in this, they all dip their bread with Jesus. And so at this point, at least initially, he's not identifying an individual at this point in the meal. Rather, he's merely stating that this is someone who's been intimate with me. One of you, one of you who's been sharing a meal with me, dipping into my cup here, one of you is gonna betray me. Jesus no doubt had in His mind Psalm 41, verse 9, in which the psalmist says, in despair, even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. This is the depth of the betrayal. Someone who comes into your home and sits at your kitchen table and eats with you, and then turns around and betrays you to death. This is a severe betrayal, the betrayal of a friend. But it wasn't unknown, it was foreordained. Verse 24, Jesus says, the Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of him. So he says, this is gonna happen, it's always gonna happen. I've known about this, I've been telling you about this, so it's not a big surprise that I'm gonna be delivered over. But then he says, but woe to the man by whom the son of man is betrayed. It would have been good for that man if he had not been born. While Jesus doesn't specify a text, he's certainly talking about something widely attested in scripture that it had been written that he was to go. The Son of Man would be delivered up to death. We even think about Isaiah 53.7. He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, it did not open his mouth. He was cut off from the land of the living." That's just one text. And so it was already written, it was already prophesied, this is going to happen. And yet, despite the plan of God, he says, woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed. Just because God ordains that Christ would die, his judgment still remains on the one who betrayed him. The sovereignty of God does not absolve the sinfulness of human decision. Christ adds to that, it would have been good for that man if he had not been born. In other words, his life is cursed. Again, God's sovereignty does not absolve human responsibility. Sin is still sin, evil is still evil. At which point now we're told the name of the betrayer. Verse 25. And Judas, who was betraying him, said, Surely it is not I, rabbi? Jesus said to him, You have said it yourself. This is the third time we've seen Judas' name in the Gospel of Matthew. We don't know much, even though Judas is a key figure in the story, the gospel story, we don't know much about him. We know very little about his origins and his calling. We know that Judas is a form of Judah, which literally means Jehovah leads, which is a sadly ironic name for him. As for what we kind of would call his last name, it's not really a last name, but Iscariot is what is known as his second name. It refers really to the town of his origin, whatever the town or the region of Kerioth. So literally it's Judas of Kerioth is really his full name. But none of the gospel writers recount how he ended up with Jesus. We don't know how he came to follow. We don't know his story, but we do know that he is called one of the 12. He's mentioned in several lists of the 12. In many cases, he's designated in those lists as the one who betrayed Jesus. We don't ultimately know why. Judas betrayed Jesus. We do have several clues from his character, though, things that we can see from the text. He no doubt started off promising. After all, he was chosen and he responded to the call. At one point, at some point, Jesus would have looked at him and said, you follow me. And Judas said, sounds good. And he began to follow Jesus. Again, none of the other disciples, even into the book of Acts, it wasn't until then they realized that he had been the betrayer. So all along for as many years as he'd been following, up to three years, none of the other disciples had any idea that Judas was secretly a wolf. They had no clue. He blended right into the mix. He did ministry with them. He ate with them. He did all kinds of stuff with them. No one else in the group is even given a single reason to suspect that Judas was disingenuous. However, in hindsight, the apostle John tells us from his gospel that Judas was actually a thief. In fact, John 12, 6 says that Judas was in charge of the money box. He was in charge of the money box and he used to pilfer what was inside of it. So here's Judas Iscariot. They think that he can be trusted. If they even thought for a second he wasn't trustworthy, nobody would have agreed to Judas carrying the money box. Yet he did. And as soon as the money went in, old Judas took the money right back out again and put it in his own pocket. He saw ministry as an opportunity to become wealthy. Well, how do we know that? Well, because of how he reacts. We saw this last week when it was Judas that became enraged when Mary took her expensive perfume and poured it all over Jesus to anoint him, the expensive spikenard that cost over up to a year's wages. In his objection, it was Judas that said that perfume could have been sold for 300 denarii and the money given to the poor. Why waste all of that on Jesus? Of course, we know that he wasn't concerned about the poor, John says. He didn't care about poor people at all, but rather he wanted it for himself. He saw all that money just washing over Jesus's body and going into the ground, and he just thought to himself, oh, what a waste. I could have gotten that for himself. And when he realized at that point that there was no more money to be had, he makes one final move. to cash in, and he hatches a plot to betray Jesus for money. Flip back just a couple of verses to verse 14. We looked at this a few weeks ago, but I want to bring this back into our mind here. Matthew 26, 14, then one of the 12, That's not an accident that Matthew puts that back in. This is one of his closest confidants here. One of the 12 named Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests and said, what are you willing to give me to betray him to you? And they weighed out 30 pieces of silver to him. From then on, he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Jesus. And while Matthew tells the story out of chronological order, because the beginning of, or the section where Mary does the pouring of the perfume is before Palm Sunday, and then we have Judas's betrayal, and then we have the dinner here, but it's all out of order. Matthew, as the gospel writer, is writing this almost thematically so we can put the connections together. It's very clear to see what's going on here. It's for maximum impact. And we juxtapose these two accounts, which are probably several days away from each other, we see the beauty of Mary's blessed devotion in verses six through 13, followed immediately by the treachery of Judas's betrayal in verses 14 through 16. The contrast is so stark, isn't it? In the same way, he chose to follow Jesus for money, he then chose to go to the chief priest to get money. And he's the one who goes to them, and he says, what are you willing to give me to betray him to you? What's it worth to you for me to betray him? And I'll tell you, that would have shocked them. I mean, they were probably looking, they were looking for a way to get to Jesus, but one of his disciples walks in the front door and says, I'm here to betray my master. How much are you gonna give me for him? That would have been shocking. This is the opportunity they've been looking for. Remember they said just a few verses back, we're not gonna do this right now because we just can't. There's no way to get to Jesus in a way the crowd won't know. And then the opportunity walks right in the door. What's it to you? How much are you gonna pay me? What do they pay him? They pay him the least amount they found that they could pay him. The price of a slave, 30 pieces of silver. That's not a very good bargain. Certainly not a year's salary. Certainly not worth sacrificing your eternity for. But that's what they offer. And that's what he takes. He accepts it. 30 pieces of silver. But what's remarkable about this is unbeknownst to Judas, this crooked deal with the religious leaders is actually fulfilling biblical prophecy. In Zechariah 11, we see this picture painted of the rejection of the shepherd of Israel. The shepherd who was the Lord is rejected by his people. And after he's been rejected, the shepherd then goes to the people sort of in a little bit of sarcasm. He says, well then fine, pay me my wages for my betrayal. If you're not gonna follow me as the shepherd, at least pay me my hourly wage. Again, it's sarcasm. It's an attack on the people for their hard-heartedness. Well, how much is it that they actually lay out to pay him for his wages of being betrayed? Zechariah 11, 12 prophesies it to be 30 shekels of silver. And when the shepherd receives it, you know what he says? He says, throw it to the potter. He takes the 30 shekels and he says, throw it to the potter, providentially. When Judas tries to return the 30 pieces of silver the next day after the betrayal, the chief priests don't accept it. We're not gonna take your blood money, Judas, which is ironic even in that. Instead, they use that money to go and buy a piece of land, the very piece of land that Judas is buried in when he dies. You know what that's called? The potter's field. All of this is lining up according to biblical prophecy. It's remarkable. But there, sitting at dinner, Judas is playing the fool. He announces, when Jesus announces that he's gonna be betrayed, and all the disciples object, surely not I, Lord. And they're going to him, surely not me. Not me, Lord, right? Not me. Lord, please, not me. Lord, Lord, Lord. But then Judas, who doesn't wanna be the only one not to say anything, he also objects, but he doesn't call Jesus Lord. What does he say? Well, surely it's not me, Rabbi. He doesn't call him Lord because what does the Bible say? First Corinthians 12, three, no one can say Jesus is Lord apart from the Holy Spirit, so he doesn't say Lord. He says, surely not me, teacher. Not me, rabbi, right? But Jesus already knows. Can't fool the Lord. He already knows about Judas' greed. He already knows about his crooked deal with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes. He already knows that it's by that scheme, his scheme, that he's gonna be arrested later that evening. The Lord already knows. But he doesn't need to say anything. He doesn't choose in that moment to cause such a stir. And I want you to think this through with me. Say Jesus does say, you know what, Judas, it's you. And he starts to talk about it with the disciples and they get up in arms and you know what that's gonna do? It's gonna stop everything, isn't it? But Jesus knows even in that moment, even though it's Judas who's betraying him, it has to happen. Because if he doesn't get betrayed, he doesn't get arrested. If he doesn't get arrested, he doesn't go to the cross. If he doesn't go to the cross, we're all dead. And so as soon as Judas says, well surely not I, Rabbi, he responds and says, you've said it yourself. You know what you're gonna do. Of course, there's more to the story. John records that Jesus tells John who it's gonna be. And John apparently doesn't say anything to anybody else. I'm sure at some point, Jesus told him and said, don't say anything. So John waits until he writes his gospel many years later to include all these details. But he says he's gonna identify him by handing him a piece of bread. So in the moment, he says, all of you dipped your bread in my cup, But he tells John, I'm gonna hand this man a piece of bread, and when I do, it's gonna be him. And so John records that Jesus dipped the morsel of bread and gave it to Judas, signifying that it's gonna be him, and John knew. And the Bible says at that moment, Satan entered into Judas. Now it's interesting to note here, it's important to note, Judas doesn't betray Jesus because he's possessed. He betrays them because he's a sinful man who is unrepentant. And as an unrepentant man who is consigned to perdition, that's when Satan enters into him. We don't sin because Satan attacks us. We sin because we're sinners. And if you don't repent of sin, and you don't deal with sin, then the armies of darkness, they have free reign over you. And they lead you into all kinds of debauchery. So you can't claim, Satan made me do it. Satan did not make you do it. It's not his fault that you're sinning against the Lord. But if you don't repent, he will have his way with you. And it's sadly that happens to so many people. They give themselves over to the enemy, and then the enemy takes over and ruins their life. And so at that point, Judas had already planned to betray him, he'd already been greedy, he'd already been unrepentant, he was already walking away. Jesus identifies him, Satan enters into him. At that point, Jesus looks him in the eyes and says, what you do, do quickly. Get it over with. Just go and do it. At that point, immediately, he gets up from the table and he leaves the room in the dead of the night. And all the commotion, the disciples, they don't catch what's going on. They don't know what's happening. They think he's going for some other reason. But the next time they see Judas, he's got an army of soldiers there to arrest Jesus Christ. The inherent contrast of this passage alone are so stark, aren't they? You see this high celebration, high teaching moment. Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and prayers and remembrance and deliverance and here's the Lord serving us. In the background you have this snake who is delivering and handing over the Lord Jesus Christ to his murderers. You have the sinless, spotless Lamb of God coming to take away sin, and then you have the man of sin who's called the Son of Destruction going out to betray Him into the hands of sinful men. You have the predetermined, providential plan of God at work to redeem His people by the death of His Son, but then you also have the wicked scheme of Judas to betray the Lord of glory. How do we reconcile these two worlds? What do we do with this? R.C. Sproul calls this the doctrine of concurrence. That's not unique to him, but he talks about this in one of his books. The doctrine of concurrence, where the sovereign will of God is in line with the sinful choices of human beings, and somehow they work together. Sproul explains this way. Judas did what he wanted to do. He did what his evil intentions directed him to do. But the whole time he was doing it, God trumped him. That is why the Apostle Paul writes, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose, Romans 8.28. If God were not sovereign, we would have no hope of the ultimate victory of righteousness. But because he is sovereign, he can even use the evil acts of men to accomplish his will. Thus it truly would have been better for Judas had he not been born. His betrayal of Jesus was unspeakable evil. So God is sovereign. God is so powerful that he can even use what is detestable in the world Though not stained by that wickedness, he can use that to accomplish his purposes and triumph over it. The greatest sin ever committed was the murder of Jesus Christ, and yet that greatest sin, which is detestable in God's sight, accomplished the salvation of his people. It's remarkable, it's remarkable. But this encourages us, I believe. It encourages us because no matter what kind of evil may exist in the world, no matter what kind of terrible thing is happening to you, even in this moment, some of you are embattled, some of you are struggling right now. Some of it is health, some of it is relational, some of it is sin, some of it is persecution. But no matter what is happening in your life, God is in control. He's completely sovereign. I've heard it said, if God is not sovereign, then God is not God. He is absolutely in control of every single thing, and He will bring His sovereign plan into fruition. He will accomplish what He determines to accomplish, and the Bible encourages us, and we know that God causes, not allows, not permits, not works alongside, God causes all things to work together for good. to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose. Let that encourage you, because again, we will go through trouble. The Bible says that man is meant for trouble as sparks fly upward. Are there always going to be sparks in a fire? Yup. That's about how often trouble comes into our life, isn't it? But as often as trouble comes into our life and we cause our own distress and trouble, as often as that happens, we can know that God is sovereign. And if you belong to Christ, if you don't know Jesus Christ, then this will continue to happen and it will destroy you. And you'll be given over to your own sin, you'll be judged for your sin. But for those of us who are in Christ, if you know Jesus Christ as Savior, God doesn't bring about these trials and these difficulties and these situations to destroy you. He does it to sanctify you, to purify you. It is as the Bible talks about as the refiner's fire. God uses trials to draw us closer to him. And so again, how did we end up here from the Passover and from Judas Iscariot? To see that even in the course of this, the drama of all this history and these immaculate, amazing events of biblical history, we see the hand of God through all of it. That God is working both the good and the evil, marching toward his sovereign decree. accomplishing what He intends to accomplish, and that is the salvation of His people. Do you know Jesus as Lord and Savior? Can you call Him Lord? If you've never been born again, even if you even say the word, He's not your Lord. Your heart will reject it. I've talked to some people who claim to be Christians and after talking to them and getting to know them, they're not. And I'll ask a question, is Jesus your Lord? Well, you know, and they'll find every possible way to dance around. But ask yourself the question, has Jesus saved you from the penalty of your sins? And is he the Lord of your life? Let me clarify something. You don't make him Lord of your life. Either he is or he's not the Lord of your life. Is He? Does He have the right to tell you what to do and how to live your life? If you reject Him, He'll condemn you. But if you accept Him by faith, and by faith alone, if you accept the salvation He's offered to you on the cross, if His blood has been shed over the doorpost of your life, then you have forgiveness of sins, you have deliverance from bondage, You have crossed through the red sea of death, and your ultimate goal is the promised land. Do you know Jesus Christ as Savior and as Lord? If your answer is no, don't wait. Turn from your sins. Confess them to the Lord. Lord, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight. Forgive me. and help me, Lord, to walk in righteousness. Help me to submit to you. Stop blaming other people for your sins and your problems. It's not everybody else's fault. It's yours. Your sins are your issue, and you have to deal with God with them. So do it. Confess your sins to the Lord, be forgiven, and walk in righteousness. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we're so grateful to see this story this story of Passover. And even though we understand that this was a specific event in a specific time in history where you delivered the Israelites from bondage, there are layers of meaning and there's application even to be made to us. That that Passover really, it applies and it belongs to even us. Because you are our lamb who's been sacrificed and who shed blood for us. You're the one leading us out of bondage. You're the one who parted the seas of death and brought us through on dry ground. You're the one who, even though we wander in this wilderness, in this life, the wilderness of sin, you're still providing, you're still protecting, you're still giving us our daily bread. And even though we are wandering in this life as strangers, as pilgrims, as aliens, We know that our future is the promised land, the land you've provided for us. And our home is with you. You are our future. You are our home. You are the sovereign Lord. And even the armies of darkness and the plans and the schemes of the enemy cannot thwart that plan. There's a million Judas Iscariots in the world and working against your plans or trying to, but Lord, we recognize and we acknowledge that even all of those plans of wickedness will not stand in the judgment. That you are God. You always have been God. You always will be God. And your will prevails. And we're so thankful that it does because because of your will, we have life in Christ. Lord, so many times we forget that. We forget our salvation. We forget that we have been delivered. We forget that we can find peace in you. Oh Lord, forgive us when we let our minds and our hearts wander from that glorious truth. Grant us repentance over our sins, but grant us, Lord, the peace and the joy and the thankfulness of knowing you and living our lives in obedience to you. Thank you for Christ. We pray this all in his name, amen.