Holy Wednesday
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Matthew 26:1-15.
We are in what’s called Holy Week, which starts on Palm Sunday, which is when Jesus entered into Jerusalem as the King, and which ends with Easter. All throughout there are different days that provide different focuses for us.
So, last Sunday was Palm Sunday, Thursday is called Maundy Thursday, Friday is Good Friday, Saturday is called Holy Saturday, and today is called Spy Wednesday, because it is the day in which Judas, one of Jesus’ disciples, decided that He wanted to betray his Lord for thirty pieces of silver.
Here’s something that I know about all of what we talk about: Prayer, Bible reading, right living, trying to be close to Jesus; all of these things don’t matter at all if we don’t know who Jesus is and what He’s done. So, what we’re going to do tonight is talk about those things.
Who is Jesus?
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
He is God in the flesh. He is the human image of God, so that through Him, God became man
He is the better David, the better Moses, the better Adam, He is the perfect One
He is the divine King of the universe. Everything bows to Him.
He’s the Savior and the Messiah
What did He do?
Jesus lived a life that was absolutely sinless. He had all of the difficulties and temptations that you and I deal with, but He remained perfect and pure in all of them.
He taught His followers (and, by extension, us) how to live and how to relate to God.
Jesus gave Himself up for us and died in our place.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Jesus took our sins on Himself, became sin, and died for us.
He was buried in a tomb that wasn’t even His.
He fully died. He wasn’t knocked out, He wasn’t stressed out and needed a nap, my God and my Lord died.
He raised to new life.
Jesus beat death by overcoming it! His death was overcome by the power of God and in so doing He changed the nature of death forever so that you and I are no longer bound in our sin or for the punishment of sin
The Judas Problem
The Judas Problem
Jesus is all of these things, but most people didn’t know it when He was physically on earth.
There would be little glimpses, moments in time where you’d think that someone would get it, but they inevitably fell back into thinking of Jesus as a military leader or a madman or a way to get what you want (which is exactly what we do)
And, as we just read, even some of His disciples had problems with how He did ministry.
After a woman anointed Jesus’ feet with perfume for His burial, some of the disciples (my guess is, specifically Judas) get upset because Jesus didn’t sell the perfume.
Probably, the reason why Judas was so upset about this is because some old writings suggest Judas would steal money from the donations given to Jesus’ ministry.
So, Judas lost out on an opportunity to steal from Jesus, and so he gets so angry that
Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver.
After that, Jesus led the disciples in the Last Supper, and Jesus tells His disciples that someone is going to betray Him. After that, Judas leaves.
Jesus and the disciples then go into the Garden of Gethsemane and He prayed that the judgement for sin might pass by Him, but the Father tells Him no.
After that, Matthew 26:47-50
While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.” And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him.
Jesus was then beaten multiple times, He was shuffled through the courts of the Jewish high priest and the Roman regent of the area, Pontius Pilate.
Finally, after all of the beatings and mockings and shuffling that was done to Jesus, He was sentenced to death by crucifixion.
He was nailed to a cross by His hands and His feet, where He would hang for a few hours, and then finally He cries out in agony, “My God My God, why have You forsaken Me?” and He gave up His spirit and died.
Jesus was put in a tomb that wasn’t His because He wasn’t considered important enough to have His own tomb, and He laid there for three days.
And of course, we know that on that Sunday He rose from the grave and came into new life and invites us into new life. We’ll be talking about that more next week, but right now I want to focus on one aspect of the crucifixion: Judas.
That guy sucked right?
He is the annoying enemy of Jesus in Jesus’ last days, and I just get frustrated at the guy because of how much he really sucks this whole time!
If only Judas hadn’t been such a jerk, right?
This is where we get the Judas problem.
You see, I despise Judas, because I honestly love Jesus, and, while I know the cross was necessary, it’s not like I enjoy the pain that Christ experienced on the cross.
And yet, I am just as liable as Judas.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The wages for my sin is death, and Jesus paid those wages for me! It wasn’t because of Judas that Christ died, because Jesus is God! If it was just up to some idiot to kill Jesus, it would have never happened.
Christ gave Himself up for you and me. We are the responsible one’s in this situation.
My sin is what put Christ up on the cross, Judas is a bit character in this.
But that’s the beautiful thing about the cross
Jesus didn’t go up to the cross because He had to. He wasn’t coerced by the authorities, Judas didn’t force Him to do it, it’s not like if something different happened that my God wouldn’t have died for me.
There is no condemnation in Christ.
If you believe that Jesus is the Lord your God, if you know that He died for you and took your sin from you, He doesn’t hold that against you, He doesn’t want to punish you, and He isn’t angry that He went to the cross.
Jesus went to the cross willingly and lovingly because of how much He cares for you.
So believe Him!
You and I are exactly the same as Judas, we rebel against our God and run towards our own feelings.
The difference is how are you going to be different from Judas now.
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, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself.
Judas ended his life a man full of sin and anger and regret, so much so that he ended up taking his own life.
Peter, who denied Jesus three times and cursed Jesus right before the crucifixion, could have done the same, but Peter instead gave himself completely to Jesus.
You and I are sinful and flawed, just like Judas, but we are loved and accepted in Christ because of the grace of Christ through the cross of Christ.
Does your family do anything fun for Easter?
Who is Jesus?
What did Jesus do?
How does this change your life?
