Denial and Betrayal

ANNOUNCE THE NEED FOR CHILDRENS WORKERS FOR Both Wed and Sunday

Recap

John 10:17-18 Judas’ betrayal in the garden

John 10:17–18 ESV

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Jesus willingness to lay his life down

Jesus in complete command the whole time

Jesus goes before the scribes and the elders

Jesus, in His foreknowledge, had predicted both Peter’s denial and Judas betrayal. He knew both things would happen, declared them, and today we will take a quick look at what happened to each man individually. The role that their own flesh played in the process and the role that Satan played as well. We will also look at ultimate heart response to what they did to Jesus.

Three Times Denied

Matthew 26:69–75 ESV

69 Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” 70 But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you mean.” 71 And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” 72 And again he denied it with an oath: “I do not know the man.” 73 After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” 74 Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed. 75 And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

Peter hear is far enough removed from what’s going on that he can see what’s happening with Jesus but not necessarily hear everything. He’s outside in the courtyard warming himself around a fire.

It wasn’t like Peter was sitting in front of an angry mob or being grilled with questions before the Sanhedrin. He was sitting at a bonfire, warming himself when two servant girls and some bystanders make statements linking him to Jesus. They never even said they were going to do anything to Peter.

Peter was dealing with fear at that point and not the fear of the Lord. Peter was fearing man and what Man could do to him.

Galatians 1:10 ESV

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Matthew 10:28 ESV

28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Did Peter stop believing in Jesus as the Messiah? No. Peter still had faith in his savior, he was just being sifted by Satan.

Luke 22:31–32 ESV

31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

Satan was demanding to have Peter, have access to him in order to sift Peter like wheat. You can’t sift wheat unless you first grind the wheat down into a powder. It is assumed that Satan’s desire was to sift Peter till there was nothing left. This is where we have to realize and remember a few things about Satan and his desire and agenda.

He is very powerful. He has access to God’s ear and is constantly accusing us before the Father. He has the power to bring hardships against us, but he doesn’t have the authority to do so unless it’s been given to him. Here we see that Satan demanded to desired to have full access to Peter but Jesus through His prayers limited what Satan could do and even prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail.

1 John 2:1 ESV

1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

What a friend we have in Jesus. An advocate who fights the accusations that Satan throughs out against us.

Satan’s desire wasn’t just to test Peter but to destroy him. He’s never fully satisfied unless he can completely take us out. Here Jesus limited Satan to only testing Peter.

1st Peter simply denies that he knows Jesus.

2nd Peter not only denies Jesus but he does it with an oath. He promised them that he wasn’t associated with Jesus. “I do not know the man!”

3rd the by-standards start to heckle Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” In other words, Peter’s hick Galilean accent was so thick that he stood out in the crowd and had to be linked to Jesus somehow. (“The Galileans spoke with a burr; so ugly was their accent that no Galilean was allowed to pronounce the benediction at a synagogue service.” (Barclay)). Here Peter even started to call down a curse on himself and to cuss like the sailor he use to be.

Invoke a curse: To invoke, as an evil on any one; to pray that a curse or calamity may fall on one's self or on another person.

Something like, “may God smite me if I’m not telling the truth”.

The High Priest invoked the name of the living God to try and get a truthful answer out of Jesus. Here Peter invokes a curse on his own head to try and convince the crowd that he didn’t know Jesus out of pure fear of what they would do to him. Thankfully, right at that moment, the rooster crowed, and Jesus’ own words rang in his ears! “before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times”. Luke 22:61

Luke 22:61 ESV

61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.”

And he wept bitterly!

The gift of remembering brought Peter to repentance; Peter remembered the words of Jesus. “Our memories serve us much in the business of repentance.” (Poole)

Consequences of Betrayal

Matthew 27:1–10 ESV

1 When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. 2 And they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor. 3 Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, 4 saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” 5 And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself. 6 But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.” 7 So they took counsel and bought with them the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers. 8 Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 9 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, 10 and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.”

Judas was filled with remorse, not repentance. Even though he knew exactly what he did (I have sinned by betraying innocent blood), Judas was more sorry for the result of his sin than for the sin itself. There is a huge difference in being sorry about sin, and being sorry for sin.

Instead of crying out to the living God in repentance, Judas went back to those he plotted with and wanted to wash his hands of the blood money they’d paid him. He went to man instead of God! Men who could do nothing about a relationship with God.

John 6:64 ESV

64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)

He, Jesus, was never deceived by a false faith, nor by the one who would betray Him.

As best as we can understand, Judas fell into both groups. Judas gave the perception that he had faith in Jesus but eventually denied internally who He was and decided to betray Jesus.

We know from Luke 22:3 that Satan influenced Judas.

Luke 22:3 ESV

3 Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve.

Satan prompted and perhaps even guided Judas in his crime. This does not diminish Judas’ personal responsibility because none of this was done against the will of Judas, but with it. This shows that the real enemy of Jesus was Satan, even more than Judas was an enemy.

Satan this time achieves his ultimate goal, that Judas would destroy himself. After throwing the money into the temple he went and hanged himself. Judas took his worldly sorrow to it’s ultimate end.

2 Corinthians 7:10 ESV

10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

Ultimately the chief priests took the blood money, which was unlawful to put into the treasury, and bought a field with it and called it “the field of blood”.

There has been much question about the quotation attributed to Jeremiah, because it is found in Zechariah 11:12-13. Matthew says the word was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, though we find it recorded in Zechariah.

Matthew A. The King’s Betrayer Gets His Due (27:1–10)

The fuller Old Testament picture paralleling Judas’s and Jesus’ blood money was only seen when Matthew pulled together the themes of Jeremiah 19:1–13 and the wording of Zechariah 11:12–13. In God’s providence, their blindness extended to more than the identity of Jesus. These rebels served as tools of the Lord to carry out his will, foreordained centuries before.

What we are faced with in these verses covered today are two examples of men that followed Jesus who were both under spiritual attack. One truly had faith in Jesus and yet was still tormented by Satan. The other had false confidence in the Messiah that faded to disillusion and a loss of hope, probably based on wrong motives. As soon as Jesus didn’t do what Judas thought he should be doing, Judas was willing to betray Jesus for the price of a common slave. Satan’s hope was that they would both be destroyed yet one turned back to Jesus, while the other suffered from worldly sorrow turning to man instead of God, and gave into the voice of Satan and took his own life. Neither man was condemned by Jesus. Jesus’ desire is that both of them, and all of mankind, would find faith and believe. Jesus’ desire is that Judas would have cried out to Him instead of man.

Today we have the whole of scripture to depend on and to guide us. Seeing the influence of Satan and his demons in this world is becoming more and more apparent every day.

A key scripture that I’ve held onto for years as it pertains to spiritual warfare is

2 Corinthians 10:3–5 ESV

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

We’ve got to be on high alert, see the attacks of Satan for what they are and know how to deal with them appropriately. We’ve been given everything we need to live a life of godliness and part of that is dealing with spiritual warfare.

Jesus was and is the only one who can do anything to save us! Turn to Him today.

Brian’s testimony!