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Amen. Well, good morning. Good morning, beloved. Open your Bibles with me to the Gospel of Mark. Our special love and thanks to Brady and Cam and Diana for leading us in worship and praise unto the Lord. We want to thank Brent Small as well for ministering the word to us last week as we look to Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians that encouraged us in the refining truths of suffering in the life of the believer. Such timely words of exhortation and enrichment. So we thank you for that, brother. Beloved, what a deep joy it is to be gathered once again. I pray that you awoke this morning with great expectation that through the Word of God you might encounter the God of the Word, that we might behold Him fresh and anew, that any discouragement is banished by the truths we proclaim, that any staleness or dryness in your worship or in your prayer time or your reading time that may have creeped in this week would be refreshed under the living waters that flow so freely from the throne of grace. Beloved, we gather to celebrate the gospel, the simple message that has transformed us from what we were to what we are and what we are becoming. Every day we preach to ourselves. We remind ourselves that we are able to stand before God as if we were Christ. because Christ stood before God as if he were us. that He took our place, that He made satisfaction for our sins. Every day He gives us, every breath we take is a mercy given by the One who is love. And we can know that saving, and that preserving, and that electing, and that efficaciousness, and that powerful love, because God's wrath has been removed from our lives through Christ. How can we not smile? How can we not have joy in the midst of hardship or trial? Our greatest debts have been paid. If you are in Christ, your eternity is secure. And from that knowledge flows what scripture calls joy unspeakable. Every force in the world will assault and assail that joy throughout the week. And not only is he there to see you through that battle of the day in your fight for joy, but he gives you his people to come and to gather with, to come with the burdens and the failures of the week, to come into the house of the Lord, to sit under his word, to be reminded of what is true. As your joy stores are refilled and renewed, if you look to the book in your hands, if you look at the people sitting around you this morning, that is God's master plan to get you to the finish line. to run the race well. What a joy to celebrate our life in Christ together, to be with others who build you up in the faith. If you've ever wondered what God's master plan is for you, you're in it. You're looking at it. It's not a mystery. God has put all of his eggs into the basket of his church, into those that he has purchased and pardoned. What a marvelous mystery to be a part of. What joy unspeakable it gives when we ponder it anew. Ancient truths ever new to us this morning, amen? Amen, beloved. Well, once again, we are excited to be diving back into Thursday of Passion Week, having left off with a message titled, A Lamb Prepared. We began our entrance into an incredible recording in scripture. As we look not only at the taking of the Passover meal by Jesus and his disciples on the night he was betrayed, but we will behold the institution and the declaration of a new covenant in establishing the second of the two ordinances of the New Testament Church. The first being baptism, which by the way, we're celebrating a baptism next Sunday. We're very excited for that. And the second, that of taking the Lord's Supper. By way of reminder, our scene in the upper room, our events leading up to it, are carried in whole or in part in all four of the Gospels. Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, and of course the beginning of John 13 as well. Again, I heartily recommend, as I did in our last reading, John 13 through 18, read that on your own time to get a full picture of what was said and done by Jesus in this quiet time of intimacy. John's gospel account contained not only immense teaching by the Lord, like the last things that someone would say to a loved one if you had the chance, along with Jesus' high priestly prayer. It is not possible to grasp and appreciate the scene in the upper room without John's account. However, we are in Mark's gospel, and we want to keep it within those bounds as he intended it, though we will briefly look at some other expanded accounts as well. And we examine in detail how even the very timing and the preparation of this room, of this home, for the celebration of Passover was divine in its orchestration. Asking the question, how could Christ fulfill all righteousness, as was His charge, to partake of the Passover as commanded by Scripture, when He Himself was the Passover Lamb to be slain? We explained the incredible sovereign planning of God in those matters as well. And we explored the intricacy of the preparation of the meal that they would take, all the various elements, the bitter herbs and the caroset, the paste that's made from the apples and pomegranates and dates and nuts and grapes and figs, all mashed together. Of course, the lamb. Roasted on a pomegranate spit, the weeks of preparation in the home to ensure that all the leaven, every crumb in every corner was out of the home and was cleansed for Passover. This was a home that was expecting Jesus. And yet we witness something of a cloak and dagger scene, as you'll recall, as Jesus gives his instructions very cryptically to the two that he was sending to make arrangements, Peter and John. Telling them, go into the city and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, the teacher says, where is my guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples? Of course, the reason for this secrecy is the heart of Judas, who had already purposed in his heart what he would do. His desire to betray was set. If Jesus announced where they were going, Judas was sure to give that location away. And instead of having the precious intimacy of the teaching in the upper room and the washing of the disciples' feet and the high priestly prayer and the discourse on the vine and the branches, the teaching on the holy coming of the Holy Spirit, none of that. Instead we would have had a parade of soldiers breaking down the door and seizing the Lord. But it was not yet time. That would have been too early. Jesus will be slain at exactly the appointed time. And he will give up his spirit upon the cross at exactly the appointed time. All is set from eternity. And thus, Jesus is very cryptic in his instructions to Peter and John. And of course, they go. And it is just as Jesus had said. They found everything ready and they prepared the Passover. And today our scene continues, being reminded as we draw ever nearer to the cross that the air is positively thick with both treachery and intimacy. It's charged with such beauty. and betrayal. And it is well that such betrayal and such beauty live in such close proximity to one another in these final hours in the upper room, as the divine plan to deal a death blow to sin is brought to a head. Now at this point, Satan himself, every demonic force is on high alert to try and stop the execution of God's Son by any means. Satisfaction must not be made. Man must not have a substitute for their sin. Stop the cross is the drumbeat of Satan here. Of course, the hope being to betray Jesus to the chief priest through Judas, believing that the crowds will step in and stop the plan of the ages. And the high priest feared this very thing. Scripture records this. The crowds were the number one fear. That's why all of Jesus arrests all of his show trial were all under the cover of darkness and secrecy. They feared the crowd. And today we are going to peer into a dark place, a tragic place, beholding such beauty and such betrayal. Second to Adam and Eve betraying God himself in the garden, this is the greatest betrayal of all time. Not because of the act itself. Millions have committed such acts of betrayal in their lives. But because of the one against whom the act was committed. We've often said that is why there's no little sin, because there's no little God to sin against. More on that as we wade into the scene of beauty and betrayal, of teaching and treachery. With that, let us look to our text, Marks 14, 17 through 21. Mark 14, 17 through 21. And when it was evening, he came with the 12. And as they were reclining at the table and eating, Jesus said, Truly I say to you, that one of you will betray me, the one who is eating with me. They began to be grieved and to say to him one by one, Surely not I. And he said to them, it is one of the twelve, the one who dips with me in the bowl for the son of man is to go 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. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are thankful and humbled by this text this morning. Lord, to behold such beauty and such betrayal side by side is a roller coaster for our hearts. Heavenly Father, I ask, Lord, as we dive into this treachery and this beauty, Lord, that you would cause us to see, Lord, that you have a mirror for us in this text that we are to look into as hard as it might be, that you would help us in that. Lord, guide our hearts and guide your word this morning. In Jesus' mighty name, amen. Well, in the year 1495, famed artist Leonardo da Vinci, he began working upon a mural, a painting that would capture the heart of the world as da Vinci sought to display a scene in the upper room of the Lord's Supper. Today, when one pictures or imagines Jesus celebrating the final Passover, indeed the first communion with his disciples, when they gather an image in their mind's eye of the upper room, the institution of the Lord's Supper, for many it's that very picture that comes to mind. It's been the defining piece of art depicting this intimate time of Jesus with his disciples, and there are many fascinating little secrets buried in this painting. Of course, one of the most interesting is the depiction of the villain. I was recently at a congregants home for lunch who has this painting above their dining room table. And I asked, do we know who Judas is here? The answer is yes, we do, for a few reasons. Judas is very definable in this famous painting. First, Judas is depicting as sitting close to Jesus, which we will find out is quite accurate. And second, he is given dark hair to depict the blackness of his betrayal. And next we see Judas is painted in something of a shadow on the mural. He's not painted clear and bright and bold as the other ones are. And you'll notice that Judas is sitting lower than any of the other disciples at the table. Now there are a few more fascinating aspects of da Vinci's masterpiece that we'll note a bit later on. But while it's a masterpiece, historically, this famous portrait would be quite inaccurate to the scene. In fact, we see the first artistic license taken in our very first verse. So look with me to verse 17. Verse 17. And when it was evening, he came with the 12. Now notably on the painting, da Vinci depicts the daylight in the back windows. You remember that? Everyone's going to go home and Google this painting. I know they will. Is it daylight back there? Yes, it is. Of course, we know that it was evening. In fact, it would be dark. Passover was to be celebrated between sunset and midnight, Exodus 12. Don't forget, Jesus was well known. Perhaps the dusk of the setting sun, the encroachment of darkness, aided them in moving undetected through the gates and past the temple and into this house that we know was actually very close to the temple itself. And we know that, why? Because the home had an upper room. If you had two floors, you were wealthy. And we know where the wealthy side of Jerusalem was. I'll give you a hint, it was on the opposite side where the sewage ran down. So it is well to assume that Jesus and the other ten probably left Bethany just as the sun was throwing its last bit of pink and purple. And they walked the two miles to Jerusalem in that time where darkness is rapidly descending. They needed the dark. You'll recall the last time that Jesus came in through the gates from Bethany in the daytime, we had a little something called the triumphal entry. We don't want that again, right? We don't want that at this point. Secrecy and stealth are the name of the game right now. And they would have been greeted by the owner of the house and brought upstairs to the room. Look with me now to verse 18, verse 18. And as they were reclining at the table and eating. Now pause there for a moment. Now we can picture Da Vinci's mural once again. What are they doing? They're all sitting upright at the table, right? With Jesus in the middle. It would not have been like this at all. They would have been at a low table. And around the table were triclinias, and these were Roman-style couches that held three people each. So you had four of these. And then there would have been a center couch, and this was the place of honor for the host. This is where Jesus would have reclined. So they're now in a U-shape. You have four groups of three on these couches. and they would recline with their head toward the table and their feet pointing away. They would lie on their left elbow and they would take the food with their right hand. Sorry, da Vinci lovers. Now, there are many reasons to love the painting, but historical accuracy, not so much. But even the reclining, beloved, even the reclining in verse 18 had purpose. Understand, only a free people recline. Slaves do not recline. They have no such luxury. Even the act of reclining for Passover was to remind Israel that they are free, that they are no longer in bondage to Israel. Instead of having to flee as they did out of Egypt, now, because of the covenant faithfulness of God, they could take their leisure, lingering with one another, spending the whole evening in fellowship and eating in celebration. Isn't it beautiful that the fulfillment, the true anti-type of the freedom that they celebrated even in their reclining was himself reclining at this moment. The one who brings freedom to the captives demonstrates that very freedom as he reclines. What beauty. Might we have this in our minds as we gather for fellowship lunches once a month? When we can linger and eat and celebrate with one another because we are free. And he whom the Son has set free is free indeed. And as they reclined, they would have opened with a prayer, a prayer of thanksgiving and honor, a prayer thanking the Lord for freeing them, for delivering them from slavery, for his abiding faithfulness. And next, they would drink the first of four cups of wine. to be taken during the evening. We'll talk much through those much more next week. However, it does need mentioning that we're not talking about four glasses of wine as we would have it today. Today's wine is around 12 to 14 percent alcohol content. This wine was much weaker than that, with an alcohol range in the low single digits. Meaning this was not a time of drunkenness, that's the point. For most people today, four glasses of wine would be just that. But again, wine was served much weaker back then. So while Mark dives right into their reclining and their eating, we would be remiss if we didn't give a bit more color from the other gospels, very briefly. It helps our timeline to flow better. Now whether on their walk from Bethany to Jerusalem or on their conversation, as they began to sit, Luke tells us in his somewhat non-chronological telling that a dispute had arisen between the disciples. of who was the greatest. Now remember, they were still jockeying for position in the new kingdom that was coming, that Jesus was going to inaugurate in. And in light of that, this dispute had just occurred. And we know that after one had taken that first cup of wine, that was the wine of Thanksgiving, next would come a ceremonial washing of the hands. Now it's likely right at this point that Jesus went further. You want to know who is the greatest? He got up and he poured that same water into a basin and he proceeded to wash the feet of his disciples. Now again, I won't stray too far into that. This glorious demonstration is a message all on its own. But understand, in the midst of this upper room, in response to the disciples jockeying for greatness, Jesus performs an act that not even a Jewish-born slave could be commanded to do, to wash another's feet. It was beneath even a slave. Again, what beauty. amidst such betrayal. Now back to our text, Jesus goes on to make a truly astonishing declaration. Jesus says, truly I say to you that one of you will betray me, the one who is eating with me. Now you should have heard the sound of a record scratching off. What Jesus has just declared is unthinkable. It's unimaginable. John records this moment, John 13, 18. I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen, but it is that the scripture may be fulfilled. He who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me. That's capitalized. What scripture does Jesus speak of? Well, by our dear Brady's excellent planning and diligent care, we read it corporately this morning. Jesus quotes Psalm 41. Let us be reminded of it. The occasion for David's writing this psalm is 2 Samuel 15-17. We must understand this to understand the betrayal of Judas. This psalm, which Jesus quotes, it speaks of one of David's closest advisors, Ahithophel. when David's son Absalom was conspiring against David, and the hearts of the people of Israel were actually with Absalom. David's wicked son Absalom, he called for Ahithophel, for this prized advisor, and he betrayed David as well, giving wicked counsel on how to bring David down. He told Absalom to go into all of his father's concubines and defile every one of them. So that's what he did. It was a hideous betrayal. And Jesus is telling us, if you want to understand Judas, we need to understand Ahithophel. We have to. 2 Samuel 15 through 17. Put that on your reading list for Sunday afternoon. And watch this, just briefly. What happened to Ahithophel after his betrayal to King David? Well, essentially, after Ahithophel saw that his scheming and his betrayal collapsed, that it had not worked, Scripture says that he saddled his donkey and arose and went to his home, to his city, and set his house in order and strangled himself. Thus he died and was buried in the grave of his father. Does that sound familiar? Thus Judas threw the 30 pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed, and he went away and hanged himself. Truly I say to you that one of you will betray me, the one who is eating with me. Jesus knew, right? Jesus always knew. John 6, 64, but there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were, who did not believe, and who it was that would betray him. But once again, there is beauty and there is glory in the midst of this betrayal. John says, for Jesus knew from the beginning. Oh, the English fails us. It fails us. What beginning? Check the Greek. The beginning. The beginning, as in before the foundation of the earth beginning. How about that? We not only behold the pre-existence of Christ, but we see on display the sovereign planning of God woven into the betrayal of Judas. What beauty in the midst of betrayal. Glory to God. You can trust His word. You can trust that he sees you and he knows you. Nothing is lost or wasted, even suffering and betrayal, all in God's perfect plan from the beginning. And what happens when Jesus says this? Everyone looks over at Judas, right? Mm-hmm. You know it's him. I never trusted that shifty-eyed guy. It figures. Jesus said to watch out for him. Not at all. Not in the least. What is the response of the disciples? Verse 19, verse 19. They began to be grieved and to say to him one by one, surely not I. This would have been an awful moment for them. They have just been rebuked for their pride. They had just been laid low for seeking to be the greatest, and that was me that did that. I wanted to be the greatest too. I wanted to sit at his right hand. I wanted to be great in his coming kingdom. And now all of a sudden, Jesus says this, and my introspection goes into overdrive. In a flood, 11 of these men are struck with waves of reflection. Every wayward thought, every sin of the hand and of the heart, every time they doubted Christ quietly in the innermost, every time they missed the mark and fell short. Is it me? Is it me? Am I capable of that? But wait a minute, maybe it's one of the outside disciples, not of the inner 12. There were others, maybe one of them. They also had eaten with the master at some point, yet they were grieved. Not only that it might be me, but it makes no sense. My master can do anything. I've watched him control the wind and the waves. I've watched him raise Lazarus from the dead. How would a betrayal bring down the master? There's nothing he can't do. None of this makes sense. But is it me? John lays his head on Jesus' chest. Lord, who is it? What is the true answer? Well, we have the answer in the upper room in the immediate, Jesus gives it. But we must understand, we must drink this hard truth. What is the unspoken answer to the question? Is it I? Lord, is it me? By the end of the evening, every disciple would betray him. They would all run. They would all flee. They would deny him thrice. Lord, who is it? The complete answer that Jesus conceals in mercy, all of you. Is it I? Do I betray my Lord with every sin? Do I seek to absolve myself? Is it I? The answer is yes. Jesus could have looked at each one in that room and said, yes, it is you. The hardest betrayals that were coming, Jesus did not even utter. You know why? Because love covers a multitude of sins. What betrayal hurt Jesus more? Judas betraying him or Peter denying him? Pain is always amplified from those we love with a familial and an intimate love. What a mercy there in the upper room. Is it I? Yes, yes, yes. It is all of you. Jesus knows what each one will do. He knows that Peter will deny him. He knows that in a matter of hour, John will go from lying on his chest to running stripped naked in the garden. Now, we focus on Judas's betrayal as evil as it was, as consequential as it was. Yes, it was enormous in scope, but it was not the greatest in pain. It was not the greatest in pain. Betrayal by those we love is far harder. Every moment spent with Peter, James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration. Quiet nights around the fire expounding all truth and beauty. And Peter will tell, will yell, I tell you, I don't know this Jesus of Nazareth. And you ask, is it I, Lord? Truly? Yes. Yes. But love covers a multitude of sins. Peter, Satan seeks to sift you. I will pray that your faith will not fail. That's what Christian love does in the face of betrayal. You ask, is it I? You won't even be able to stay awake with me for my darkest hour. But Jesus covers all that sin and all that betrayal, for they are his own, purchased by him. Read Jesus' high priestly prayer for his disciples. It is that love that will cover their betrayal. But Judas, there is no covering for Judas. All the disciples will betray Jesus. Only one will pay for that sin himself. It is no different for every ear that is listening this morning. Either our betrayal will be covered by Christ and cast into the sea of forgetfulness. Glory to God. Or we will pay for it ourselves in eternity. All will be paid. All will be paid. Here in the upper room, the plan of God must be fulfilled and Jesus answers back to our text, verse 20, verse 20. And he said to them, it is one of the twelve, the one who dips with me in the bowl. tells us a great deal about what is happening in the room. It tells us first approximately where Judas is sitting. Remember, we have Jesus at the center as the host, and we have the four triclinias, each sitting three. And John would have been on the closest one to Jesus, right? He was leaning on his chest, with Judas likely right next to John on that same triclinia. So Da Vinci got that one right. Now we have two sort of scenes that we need to untangle a bit. The first is our scene in Mark. Jesus announcing for really all to hear that the betrayer is not out amongst the other disciples, but that he had infiltrated the inner 12. He was in the room. Verse 20 means he's eating with us. That's what it means. Now again, even if the disciples were thinking literally, and in that moment, to process, okay, two triclinia, that's six disciples who could reach the common bowl with Jesus, okay, I'm doing the math, who is it, who is it? It's still a cryptic message. It doesn't clearly point to who the betrayer is. And John records a second scene for us that gives us even more light. No need to turn there. John 13, beginning at verse 26, Jesus then answered, That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him. So when he had dipped the morsel, he took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. And after the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus said to him, what you do, do quickly. Now one of those, now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose he had said this to them. There's mounds to unpack here, but just a few observations that are gonna help us with Mark's account. Now, one, we know that Jesus was not talking loudly about this. He almost whispered to those in his immediate vicinity. So when Jesus says, what you do, do quickly, they had no idea what that meant. Go get more wine? I don't know. Who knows? What you do, go do quickly. In fact, understand the disciples on the other seats grasped this, would have thought that Jesus was giving honor to Judas. for the head host to offer food to you in such a way at the Passover meal was to honor that person in front of all of them. Which is itself incredible. Even to the bitter end, Jesus gives a gesture of fellowship, an opportunity to relent. He extends love. Jesus gives a genuine offer of honor, an opportunity. Of course, we know Judas's idea of honor and respect. Judas also will come with a kiss of honor for his teacher. Yet Jesus' gesture of honor here, it is comporting to scripture, is it not? Paul, he's speaking of Proverbs 24, 25 in Romans 12. He says, to the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head. What does that mean? Well, without any historical context, it kind of sounds like you're wishing ill on somebody, doesn't it? That harm will actually come to them by your good, but that's not what it means at all. Your good works are not some sort of vessel of vengeance. In that day, when someone was grieved with repentance, when they knew that they had sinned, yes, they may tear their clothes, yes, they may sit in ash, but they would take burning coals and they would put it in a vessel atop their heads, signifying to all their public repentance. Look at the honor and the love extended toward me when I have sinned so grievously against that person. That revelation is the door through which every Christian must walk. It's the only door. It's the gate. It is the goodness of God that draws men to repentance. And Jesus extends Judas an honor, giving him a morsel in the midst of betrayal. And in doing so, perhaps Judas will rent his clothes. Perhaps he'll throw coals upon his head and cry out for mercy for even contemplating such an evil. And so is the genuine call towards all who would choose hell over the mercy that's on offer. But of course, we know that they cannot come because they will not come, that their disobedience has rendered them disabled. And through Judas's betrayal and greed, Satan has full reign to yet come again into him a second time. His treachery is complete. Particularly that they took a meal. Even today, Arab culture says that you cannot take hostile action towards someone you've broken bread with. Towards someone who has joined you in your tent. A.T. Robertson, he tells us this, quote, this language means that one of those who had eaten bread with him had violated the rights of hospitality by betraying him. That the Arabs even today are meticulous in this point. Eating one's bread ties your hands and compels friendship, close quote. Meaning Judas' betrayal exceeds the bounds that even the lost would bristle at. And he said to them, it is one of the 12, the one who dips with me in the bowl, meaning he's here, he's close, and he's broken all bonds. He would even share a meal with me. It's treachery. Judas knows that Jesus speaks of him, but it's yet another opportunity to come clean. It's like a parent walking in on two kids with a broken vase. Someone in here broke the vase, right? It's an opportunity, yet another opportunity. Beloved, if we do not see the compassion and the forbearance of the Savior toward Judas in his actions in the upper room, we miss his heart. And that's why we marinate in the Gospel of Mark for three years, is it not? To see the heart of Christ. Finally, Jesus goes on. Such hard words to hear, verse 21. Verse 21. For the Son of Man is to go, 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. Great beauty and betrayal again in such close quarters to one another. Of course, our beauty is first. For the son of man is to go just as it is written of him, glory to God. Without that sentence, you and I are without hope. Peter declared this on Pentecost. This man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. Yes, the son of man is to go just as it is written of him. And the psalmist, writing greater than he knew, in Psalm 22, I am poured out like water. And all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax that is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws. And you lay me in the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me. A band of evildoers has encompassed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I count all my bones. They look, they stare at me. They divide my garments among them. And for my clothing they cast lots. The son of man is to go just as it is written of him. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Not according to the blind wrath of a murderous mob. But in obedience to the Father. Jesus was no victim. The anti-Semitism that exists in many corners, because the Jews were the ones who killed Christ, they have failed to read their Bibles. No one can take my life from me, John 10, 18. I sacrifice it voluntarily, for I have the authority to lay it down when I want, and also to take it up again, for this is what my Father has commanded. Just before his ascension, Jesus told his disciples, these are my words, which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. The son of man is to go just as it was written of him. We could stop and rest in that statement alone. Consider all the glorious implications of the truth. The Son of Man is to go just as it is written of Him. We could watch the very fabric of our society tear apart at the seams. We could watch bombs drop over our world. We could watch our supply chains and food supply break down and dry up. And the Son of Man is to go just as it is written of Him. If you serve a God who is up there just wishing and hoping, who's just along for the ride right along with you, that is not the God of Scripture. And if God is sovereign, that means we're not. Yet we are responsible, moral agents. as Jesus goes on to show us in our final part, back to our text, 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. Now here we have on, well, really brilliant display, in perfect proximity, two divine compatible truths, that God is sovereign and man is responsible. In case you missed it a few weeks ago, we introduced this principle and we did really a deep dive into Judas, this message titled A Vessel Prepared. If you missed that message, if the question of how God can simultaneously harden someone's heart, like Pharaoh or Judas, and yet hold them responsible for their treachery and evil, we explain that. Go back and listen. In fact, the bulk of Romans 9 was written to answer that very question. Judas was a free moral agent. Yes, he was also a vessel prepared beforehand for destruction. Both are true, and those truths live in perfect harmony with one another. Since Genesis, God has used the sinful acts of wicked men to advance his perfect will. God used the most treacherous evil act in history, the slaying of the blameless lamb of God at the hands of wicked men to accomplish the greatest good in all of history. As we've often said, God allows that which he hates to accomplish that which he loves. And so it is with Judas. It would have been good for that man if he had not been born. Why? Because we're accountable for the light we've been given. Again, in our message, A Vessel Prepared, we taught on the various levels of punishment that are demonstrated in Scripture. seeing that Judas spent three years at the feet of the master and he did this. What does that say about man? We must reckon with Judas if we are to have a complete theology, beloved. If we think that a friend or a loved one would have been saved if only they had heard a better message or had a better preacher or read the right book. It's not true. It's not true. Unless God sovereignly saves a man, they could sit at Jesus' feet for three years. They could eat with him and walk with him and talk with him and then betray him. And not just betray him, but betray him for 30 pieces of silver. The exact price paid to the master of a slave if his slave was gored by an ox, Exodus 21. in order to compensate the owner for the slave's death and burial. That's what they thought of Jesus. That's the heart of man. They are free. They are free. Free to choose that which is determined by their nature. And his nature is to sin. It is to rebel against God. In other words, Judas was free. Free to sin. And that's what he did. But beloved, there's two sides to that incredible coin. If God does save a person, if God does justify a person, he's gonna sanctify them. And if he sanctifies them, he's gonna glorify them. In other words, if God saves you, he's going to not only teach you and grow you, but he's gonna see you all the way to the finish line. All the way to glory. That is an offer this morning to all who would come in repentance and faith. Because of Judas' betrayal, being sent out into the night to do what he had purposed to do, he had made his choice. But now, with the betrayer gone, back inside that upper room, something beautiful is about to happen. Let's pray. O Heavenly Father, we have had many mirrors of your Word held to our own picture this morning, Lord. We've seen mirrors of betrayal and mirrors of beauty. But Lord, the beauty is all yours. Lord, that you've justified and saved us, that you're sanctifying us, you're changing us, And Lord, that you're bringing us to the finish line by your goodness and by your perfection and your sovereignty. Heavenly Father, as we continue down this Passion Week, we ask that we would be there in the room with you. We ask that we would be in the moment with you that we might see and know your heart, because, Lord, our hearts need to be changed daily. Our minds need to be washed by your word daily. Lord, until we can meet again, we ask that you would keep each of our beloved until we can join together in fellowship in Jesus mighty name. Amen.
Beauty and Betrayal
Series The Gospel of Mark
Sermon ID | 91423209311389 |
Duration | 47:15 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday - AM |
Bible Text | Mark 14:17-21 |
Language | English |
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