Tabor Baptist Church

Introduction

• Series: People whom Jesus Met
• Last week saw an encounter with Mary at Simon the Leper's House
• Today Judas
• A very different encounter
• From devotion and worship to betrayal
• There is no record that Jesus ever slept in a home in Jerusalem
• He often went to a garden - the Garden of Gethsemane
• The disciples likely spent many a happy time there
• The night before the crucifixion
• Jesus prayed for His disciples (John 17)
• Jesus has gone to the garden to pray and yield Himself entirely to the Father's will
• In one sense He was acting like a priest in the Old Testament
• Mankind was plunged into sin in a garden
• The second Adam in a garden in an agony of soul yields to God's will to undo the curse of the fall
• A clash of two kingdoms
• The hour and power of darkness
• The King of Kings will do battle (victoriously)
• Overview:
• Two Wills
• Two Powers
• Two Purposes

Two Wills

Judas

• Was determined to betray the Lord Jesus
• He has aligned himself with the forces of evil (v5)
• Acts 1:16
• Judas is a word associated with very negative connotations
• Judas:
• Was a disciple
• Was a missionary
• Had probably worked miracles
• He was a great and privileged man
• He had seen all of Jesus' miracles at close hand - Examples
• He had the parables explained to him
• He witnessed Jesus impeccable character and love for people
• Judas:
• Perhaps he had thought Jesus was going to bring in a new (physical Kingdom)
• Perhaps he was afraid for his own safety
• He was a secret lover of money and had been stealing from the disciples money bag
• He had terrible unbelief in his heart
• He become an apostate
• He became the son of perdition
• He was utterly responsible for his own sin
• Lessons:
• This speaks some terrible truths to us
• A person may seem in close quarters to God/the Church but yet has never really truly believed in the Lord Jesus
• They may seem to go backwards and backwards
• They come to a point where they give up on the Lord
• Where is your will?
• Is it to serve God?
• Are you living first for Jesus?
• Are you cherishing sin like Judas?

Jesus

• Jesus delighted to do the will of the Father
• He knew what this meant
• He was not concerned with self
• He came to serve others and His heavenly Father - Examples
• Jesus stepped forward (v5)
  • Example of Hymn by Vernon Higham
• Jesus came to bless us
• He was prepared to go through all this because He loved us

Two Powers

The Prince of this World

• Satan is using all of his devices - religious and civil
• They come at night
• They come in a threatening manner
• The disciples were asleep
• Is this sometimes a picture of the Church of Christ?
• The disciples weren't ready but Christ was

The Prince of Princes

• The soldiers "drew back and fell to the ground" (v6)
• Jesus is showing His miraculous power
• "I am"
• They could not stand in His presence
• Jesus yields Himself meekly and humbly
• Jesus lets His disciples go
• Jesus was given a people by His Father
• None would be lost - all would go to heaven
• Here Jesus speaks of it in a physical way (v9)
• He knows that they would not be able to cope
• Jesus knows when we will be tried beyond what we are able
• Jesus had to teach Peter that taking up arms was not the way (v11)
• We are never called to take up the sword in the name of Jesus
• Jesus knew the way of victory was humility and denial
• 18:36
• Christ's Kingdom is a different Kingdom

Two Purposes

Satan

• Satan's purpose is always to destroy
• He comes as a robber/thief to steal and destroy
• He seeks to kill Jesus
• Satan was at work right from the start of the gospels
• In the heart of Herod to kill Jesus as a baby in that terrible massacre

Christ

• Christ's work was to heal and save
• Even in the Garden of Gethsemane
• Isaiah 53:4-7, 10-11
• Do you see what Christ has come to do?
• What is your response this morning?
• Have you repented of your sin?
• Have you seen the magnitude of your sin?
• Above all have you believed in Jesus?
• Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - are you saved?
• Judas was lost
• May it be that you are not like Judas
• May it be that you are like one of the disciples who loved the Lord Jesus