Sermon Tone Analysis

* FOLLOW JESUS-With Undisguised Faithfulness*

*Text: Matthew 26:47-54*

*Follow Jesus Lenten Series*

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      Throughout the ages, each and every visible Christian church on earth has always had its share of enemies who attack it from the outside.

That’s to be expected because the church’s claims of truth are always affronts to those who oppose God’s Word.

In fact, if the church did not provoke antagonism, it would not be faithful to its calling.

Jesus once warned, /“Woe to you when all men speak well of you”/ (Luke 6:26).

That would be a sign of a serious spiritual problem.

That church also can have enemies on the inside.

Both kinds were present in Gethsemane the night Jesus was betrayed.

The soldiers who came to seize Jesus were his undisguised enemies.

But Judas came to Jesus that night as a friend in disguise.

Someone has said that the visible church suffers more from termites on the inside than it does from woodpeckers on the outside.

The story of Judas provides an example of the truth of that observation.

He was a disciple who proved unfaithful to his Lord.

He represents all those who seek to conceal a false heart behind a good front.

Tonight we want to take a look at the contrast between the unfaithfulness of Judas and the faithfulness of Jesus-even toward his false friend.

Our Lord’s faithfulness is the driving force behind our desire to be faithful to him and to continue with a strong determination to *FOLLOW JESUS-With Undisguised Faithfulness.*

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*1.

The Unfaithfulness of Judas*

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      Judas started out with such good intentions and high hopes.

Jesus had chosen him to be one of his twelve disciples.

For three years they were closely associated with one another.

Judas enjoyed all the advantages and privileges of being a pupil of the master teacher.

Judas was the only disciple on record with an office.

He served the group as its treasurer.

Jesus loved him no less than the others.

Yet early on there was a flaw evident in his character.

Instead of Judas mastering it, ultimately it mastered him.

Like many others who were attracted to Jesus, Judas mistakenly saw a connection between Christ’s mission and his own materialistic hopes.

Those hopes were dashed when Jesus clearly defined the nature of his kingdom as spiritual, not political.

The day after Jesus had fed the five thousand, many of them, including Judas, were so fascinated that they wanted to make Jesus their bread king.

He refused, insisting that we do not live by bread alone.

We’re told that /“from this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”/

When Peter assured Jesus that the Twelve would continue to be faithful and follow him, Jesus made a startling announcement.

/“Have I not chosen you, the Twelve?”/

Jesus asked.

/“Yet one of you is a devil.”/

John adds parenthetically, /“He meant Judas . . .

who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him”/ (6:66,70,71).

The flaw in Judas’ character, that became his master, was a materialistic view of life.

Greed was at the bottom of it.

He wouldn’t control his covetous heart.

It all came to a climax the day Mary anointed the feet of Jesus with a pint of pure nard.

Judas objected.

/“Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor?”/ he asked.

/“It was worth a year’s wages.”/

But /“he did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it”/ (John 12:5,6).

Immediately after the incident at Mary’s house, Judas went to the chief priests and bargained to betray Jesus to them for 30 paltry pieces of silver.

You know the rest of the story.

But even though Judas was done with Jesus, Jesus wasn’t done with Judas.

In the upper room, while they were all reclining at the table, Jesus gave his disciple in disguise one last chance to reconsider what he was doing.

Later, in the Garden of Gethsemane, even after Judas planted his infamous kiss of betrayal on Jesus’ cheek, Jesus still called him “Friend.”

But the grip of greed on his heart was so powerful that Jesus’ efforts were to no avail.

Because of the traitor’s obsession and addiction, that word “friend” went in one ear and out the other.

Shortly after, he hanged himself.

In Dante’s /Inferno/, the poet segregates traitors from the rest of the damned by placing them in a cell at the very bottom of hell.

There Dante saw a repulsive figure whose treacherous soul was so cold that even in hell he was encrusted with ice.

The guide identifies him: “The spirit who has the worst punishment is Judas.”

“We must depart from evil so extreme,” he adds.

We should, but we don’t.

The only real difference between Judas and us is a difference in degree.

Every act of unfaithfulness on our part is a betrayal of our Savior.

With Judas it was greed and covetousness, a materialistic view of life, that ultimately led him to betray his Lord.

Can any of us say that there is no evidence in our lives of an undue, if not an obsessive, regard for money and material things?

Can any of us say that we always put Christian principles above material things, or that we put love for God and his will above the pursuit of success and the physical comforts of life?

Whenever you or I give in to pressure to turn a deaf ear to Jesus in an effort to seek some advantage for ourselves from the world in our workplace, our social life, or our school activities, we are betraying Jesus for a price.

Whenever we try to make friends with the world at the expense of the faith we profess, we are posing as disciples in disguise.

It is easy to point the finger of shame at Judas and others like him.

It is harder to admit that we have to cope with the same sinful urges and drives that drove him over the edge.

Resist the urge to say, “I’m glad I’m not as bad as Judas.”

Instead, hear in this tragic account a call to repent for your own unfaithfulness.

But at the same time, hear in it an invitation to focus on the faithfulness of Jesus who is always there for you even as he was for Judas.

*2.

The faithfulness of Jesus*

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      One aspect of the Passion of our Lord that jumps out at us from the pages of the four gospels is the faithfulness of Jesus in spite of the unfaithfulness of others around him.

One disciple betrayed him; another denied him; they all forsook him and fled in the face of crisis.

Former followers joined the ranks of those who shouted, “Crucify him!”

A governor who should have stood for justice allowed the mob to intimidate him and gave in to them.

In the midst of all this faithlessness, Jesus alone stood faithful-faithful to his Father, faithful to his friends, even faithful to his enemies.

As Isaiah prophesied, he was /“like one from whom men hide their faces”/ (Isaiah 53:3).

He was left to /“[tread] the winepress alone”/ (Isaiah 63:3).

Now what do we mean by “faithful”?

After the betrayal, Peter drew his sword to come to the defense of his Lord.

Jesus rebuked him.

/“How then,”/ Jesus said, /“would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?”/ (verse 54).

As we heard last week, Jesus knew his Father’s plan for him.

His arrest, his suffering, his condemnation, and his death were all part of his Father’s plan.

It was the Savior’s mission to carry out faithfully every part of that plan to redeem and reclaim us all.

Earlier that same evening in the garden, Jesus expressed his determination to proceed.

/“Not my will, but yours be done,”/ he prayed (Luke 22:42).

He made no attempt to flee when he heard his enemies coming-in fact, he went to meet them.

He resisted the idea of calling twelve legions of angels down to defend himself.

When the soldiers said they were seeking Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus identified himself to them-making Judas’ kiss all the more reprehensible.

Jesus wasn’t focused on what was going to happen to him.

He was focused on what would happen to us if he was unfaithful to his calling.

A way had to be found to reunite unfaithful sinners with a faithful God.

Jesus was the way.

His perfect love was focused on the destiny that had to be won for us by his sacrifice.

Even death on a cross could not make him change that focus.

According to the plan, his faithfulness was to be the substitute for our unfaithfulness.

No way was he going to let us down.