The Betrayer
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Mark 14:43-52
Mark 14:43-52
43 And immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. 44 Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man. Seize him and lead him away under guard.” 45 And when he came, he went up to him at once and said, “Rabbi!” And he kissed him. 46 And they laid hands on him and seized him. 47 But one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. 48 And Jesus said to them, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? 49 Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But let the Scriptures be fulfilled.” 50 And they all left him and fled.
51 And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, 52 but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.
Here in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is discovered with his followers by Judas, who has come with a band of armed men to take him by force to the Sanhedrin.
If ever there was a damning statement on the strength of human nature, this is it.
The climax of the arrest is found in verse 50 - ‘And they all left him and fled.’ Jesus is left to face his accusers alone.
Those in the Garden of Gethsemane with Jesus that night represent 3 types of people;
Those who hate Christ (The crowd)
Those who pretend to love Him (Judas)
Those who do love Him (The Disciples)
And in a sense, all humanity could be grouped into those three categories.
Your attitude towards Jesus Christ is ultimately the most important thing about you.
1. There are those who hate Christ
Hate is a strong word. Can we really say that all those who deny Christ hate Him? Aren’t there also people who are just ambivalent about Christ? Who just see him as insignificant or irrelevant to their life? Aren’t there those who aren’t ambivalent, they know about Christ and even respect him as an important religious figure but maybe they don’t believe what He said about Himself - that he was the son of God?
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. CS LEWIS
26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
So to count Jesus as less than He claimed to be is to hate Him. To count Him as not worthy of your time, of your worship, of your life is to hate Him according to scripture.
There are those like this crowd that oppose Christ and His church with physical violence and threat. More Christians are martyred for their faith in this day than at any other point in history! I know that sounds hard to believe but it’s true.
Attacks against churches have risen an astonishing 500 per cent – 9,488 compared to 1,847 the previous year. - Open Doors
The country where Christians are most likely to be killed for their faith is actually Nigeria!
The disciples on that night took up arms to defend Jesus against the attackers - one of the disciples (who John identifies as Peter) cuts off the ear of one of those men.
This is a very real challenge for Christians under threat of physical violence - what do we do to defend ourselves? Can we fight back? Ought we to use physical violence to counteract those who attack us?
52 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.
We shall do well to remember this in all our endeavours to extend the kingdom of true religion. It is not to be propagated by violence, or by an arm of flesh. “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal.” “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” (2 Cor. 10:4. Zech. 4:6.) - jc ryle
These men thought that they could extinguish the Kingdom of God with earthly weapons, but as Jesus said to Pilate - My kINGDOM is not of this world. The Kingdom of Heaven cannot be destroyed by earthly means.
Then there are the Sanhedrin - the men who sent the crowd to arrest Jesus in Gethsemane. They to are men who hate Christ - but their hatred issues from the intellect and manifests itself in mockery, schemeing and the leveraging of political power against Christ and His church.
There are those who would never take up arms against the Church, but their hatred for Christ is no less fiery than those who do! They are like the Sanhedrin, who despised the teaching of Christ, they laughed at His claims, they mocked His followers as foolish and illiterate. Rather than physically attacking those who follow Christ they prefer to stir up the mob against them by calling them bigotted, small minded and prejudiced for believing the teachings of some ancient book. They prefer to do their persecuting in the law courts and in the media.
2. Then we have those represented by Judas - Those who profess to love Christ but truly do not.
Judas chose to betray Christ with a kiss; a more cynical and wicked way to betray a friend is hard to imagine. In the greek it’s not just a peck on the cheek but a passionate kiss, a kiss with feeling.
And he calls Him ‘Rabbi’; Lord, teacher, leader. This is false honour, false worship, false passion. There are those in the world who like Judas make a public display of their love and honour for Christ but inwardly they are betrayers; false sheep, false teachers, false disciples.
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
The question is often asked ‘do you know Jesus?’ but arguably the more important question is ‘does Jesus know you?’
Someone might boast of a large ministry, of signs and wonders, of mighty works. You might visit their church and see them passionately worshipping and calling out on the name of Jesus.
But Jesus says that the evidence of their salvation isn’t found in their passion, or in signs and wonders but in whether they are obedient to the word of God. If their life is lawless, if they do not do the will of the Father but rather follow their own heart then we can know that this is not someone who is known of God - they are following the way of Judas and we need to contend for them in prayer that they might repent.
Jesus said to the Samaritan Woman in John 4:23
23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
3. Finally we have those who truly do love Jesus - The Disciples
The disciples don’t particularly cover themselves in glory either! Already they have fallen asleep when they should have been watching and praying. Then when the crowd comes to arrest Jesus they take up arms and attempt to defend Jesus with violence.
They do their best but they falter. And ultimately, despite their protestations that they would not, they all desert him.
This is the best that human nature has got to offer apart from the grace of God - failure. We ought never to boast in our own ability to acheive great things for God. Apart from Him we can do nothing!
I would say of all men and women that we are all weak, very weak, the difference being that the sinners do not appreciate the fact that they are weak, whereas the Christians do.
4. Jesus the second Adam
There was only one man who remained faithful on that night in the Garden. Only one man who did the will of the Father and prevailed against the devil. Only one man who held fast to the path of righteousness despite temptation - that man was Jesus Christ.
this passage makes clear once and for all: people will let you down. But Jesus never will. if you put your faith in Christ you will never be disappointed, you will never be let down, you will never be abandoned.
People will often say things like ‘if God is real then why do bad things happen to good people?’ R c sproul famously responded - that only happened once and He volunteered!
He submitted Himself to the will of God. ‘Let the scriptures be fulfilled.’ This is the hallmark of a true follower of Christ - that in their life there is an ever growing submission to the will of God in all things.
This episode in Gethsemane shows us the bankruptcy of human nature. None apart from Christ stood firm.
10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
Jesus is the only hope for mankind. Adam failed in the Garden of Eden, Christ succeeded In the Garden of Gethsemane.
Every man born of Adam will follow Adam’s way, but every man born of God will follow Christ’s way! You must be born again.
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
6 Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.
Nearly every single one of those men who deserted Jesus in Gethsemane went on to be martyred for His name’s sake! What changed? Two things changed:
Resurrection
Pentecost
The difference between the disciples in Gethsemane and the Apostles in the book of Acts is radical. But the two great things that changed them were Jesus’s resurrection and then the day of pentecost.
These are the two things that must happen if you are to follow Christ faithfully. You must follow Christ to the tomb - your old self must die with Him. You must be born again - God will give you a new heart, a heart that believes Him at His word. You must be filled with His Spirit - The Christian life cannot be lived out of your natural abilities, only by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is your power to live a holy life - a life of integrity un to God, a whole life.
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