Don't' Look At Me Lord—Judas is Over There!

Text: Mark 14:17-31

Theme: Christians need to deal with the "seeds of betrayal" we may harbor in our hearts.

Since this morning was the Lord’s Supper service, I found myself re-reading the biblical account of that event. All four gospels record it, and all agree in the essentials; Jesus compares his the bread to his body which will soon “be broken for them ... and us”. He compares the cup of wine to his blood “poured out for the forgiveness of sin”, and representing a “new covenant”. Luke has the most extended version of the actual supper which includes a squabble among the disciples as to which of them will be the most important to Jesus when he established his Kingdom. John’s gospel is unique in that he does not describe the events of the Passover Supper though he tells us that the event he records did, in fact, take place during the supper. John alone records a lengthy post-dinner conversation between Jesus and the disciples as the leave the upper room and head for the Garden of Gethsemane, (John 13:15-17:26).

The event that caught my eye was the announcement of betrayal. It’s Thursday evening as we reckon time—early Friday as the Jews tell time. Jesus has arrived at the place where he would eat this last Passover meal with his disciples. These 13 men sit down and once more commemorate the most significant historical event in the life of their nation. That event was the ministry of the death angel as he went throughout the land of Egypt slaying every first born of man or beast. Only if he saw the blood on the door posts of the home would the angel "pass over" that home and not afflict it. The very next morning the people of Israel were released from their bondage and left Egypt. The meal that solemnized this event was to be passed down from generation to generation. 1,475 years and the Jews are still commemorating that event. Jesus is about to give it a whole new meaning.

As the meal wear on, Jesus drops suddenly drops a bombshell upon his disciples. “And as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.”” (Mark 14:18, ESV)

Can you imagine it! These twelve men have left all to follow Jesus. They've been with him through thick and thin and now he tells them that there is a traitor in their midst! How does he know? Who is it?

Here is a story every Christian knows. From our earliest days in Sunday School we have learned how Judas had, earlier in the day, agreed to betray Jesus for just thirty pieces of silver. When the time was right he would lead the Jewish authorities and a contingent of soldiers to arrest Jesus. But the text reveals an interesting look at the other disciples.

I. THE SHARED SHAME OF THE DISCIPLES

1. can you imagine the scene?

a. right in the middle of desert, Jesus says, "Oh, by the way. One of you will betray me before the night is over."

1) jaws drop open

2) eyes widen

3) throats choke on morsels of roast lamb

4) wine spits out of mouths flabbergasted by the news

5) and everyone looks over at Judas, right?

A. JUDAS IS ONLY A SMALL PART IN THE STORY OF THE BETRAYAL

1. when Jesus say ". . . one of you will betray me," the story is not that Judas knows he is the betrayer

2. the real story is that each of the other eleven, supposedly faithful and totally committed apostles think that he might be the one

a. vs. 19 gives the sad accounting of a shared shame

“And they began to be sorrowful, and to say unto him one by one, Is it I? and another said, Is it I?” (Mark 14:19, KJV)

3. what did each one of them see within himself that caused him to think he might be the one?

a. what did Andrew, the very first disciple, see within his own self that caused him to ask the question, "Lord, will it be me?"

b. what did Peter, who had so recently proclaimed, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," see in his inner being that caused him to ask the question, "Lord, it isn't me, is it?"

c. what did John, the beloved disciple who was the only one of the twelve to be with Jesus at his crucifixion, know about his life that made him ask, "Lord, am I the one?"

B. FAITHLESSNESS IS A TEMPTATION THAT LIES AT THE DOORSTEP OF EVERY BELIEVER'S HEART

1. Judas' betrayal of Christ was a cold and calculating scheme

2. it is hard to feel sorrow for Judas

a. his character reveals that wealth was more alluring to him than Christ's teachings of love and peace

b. many scholars feel that Judas was a Zealot-—one who advocated the violent overthrow of the Roman occupancy of their country

1) some think Judas may have even been an assassin before Jesus called him as an apostle

c. now let me be explicit here ... for what I’m about to say we have no biblical evidence, but many scholars agree it’s very possible ... I think that when Judas saw that Jesus was not the kind of Messiah he expected he turned the Lord in to the authorities in an attempt to force Jesus into rousing the masses and leading them to arms against the Romans, or hoping that the masses would raise up and install him as king

d. if this is true, then Judas was not a follower of the Christ, but a user of the Christ

1) he saw Jesus as a means to an end ... a tool in accomplishing a political agenda

3. Judas' betrayal was one of outright treachery by one who never really wanted to follow Christ in the first place

a. his was the worst kink of betrayal

4. there is milder kind of betrayal—the one that Christian are often guilty of

a. it is often not deliberate

b. it is a betrayal that proceeds out of our carelessness and lack of commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ

5. unless we are careful in sustaining the vitality of our Christian walk there is always the tragic possibility that, we too, may be found faithless to the one who has called us into his marvelous grace

ILLUS. If you don't think that this can happen, think Ananias and Sapphira in the Book of Acts ... think Demas who loved the world, and forsook the mission ... check out our Church’s membership roll. There you will find a lot of names that are not represented by their faces in church on Sunday!

a. we too must say, "Lord, is it I?" and never be entirely sure that it is not

II. THE SCALE OF OUR FAITHLESSNESS

1. I believe there are three areas where the shame of faithlessness always lies at the doorstep of our hearts

A. WE ARE FAITHLESS WHEN OUR RELIGION BECOMES MORE IMPORTANT TO US THAN OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS

1. let share an observation with you

a. it is easy to be religious ... it is easy to be spiritual ... it’s hard to be a Christ-follower

1) the temptation is for us to simply go through the motions, play the game or give lip-service to our faith

2. I have no doubts that Judas was a religious man

a. but in the very act of betrayal we discover that his religion was more important to him than his relationship with the Lord

3. I am a Southern Baptist because I choose to be a Southern Baptist

a. that means I will hold certain doctrinal and theological positions

b. my worship practices will be different than the other denominations

c. my Baptist forefathers have left me a rich heritage in which I take great pride

4. Southern Baptist—that's my religion and I am committed to it

a. as important as my religion is to me, it cannot, it must not, and by the grace of God, it will not take precedent over my relationship with Jesus Christ

b. I am a Baptist by choice

c. I am a Christian by grace

5. what is the implication of this?

a. if you’re a Christian, we is family and family ought to love each other

1) loving each other does not mean trying to fit each other into our idea of what it means to be a Christian

2) it bothers me when some believers would take a cookie cutter and try to make us all look the same

3) we ought to be about the business of winning the lost to Christ rather than trying to pin our name tag on other believers

6. it is our relationship to Jesus Christ, and not our denominational label (our religion) that makes this kind of fellowship possible

B. WE ARE FAITHLESS WHEN WE WOULD RATHER 'PLAY CHURCH' THAN SERVE CHRIST

1. this condition is the natural outcome when our religion is more important to us than our relationship with Jesus

2. if you are merely concerned about your religion, chances are you're just playing church

ILLUS. One day during vacation Bible School I was in the back office running the Copy Machine when I heard some of the kids come into the auditorium. They were children who regularly came to our church and their mothers were teaching in our Vacation Bible School. One little girl, a rather forceful five-year-old at the time, had gotten some of her friends together and announced, "We're gonna play church now. "I'll preach, and the rest of you can sit in the pews and go to sleep!" Her name was Amber and she’s in her mid-thirties now!

a. one has to wonder how, after following Christ for some three years, Judas could do what he did

1) Judas, was there ... there for the miracles ... there for the teaching ... there for the prayer times ... there for the confrontations with the politicians and leaders ... there for the ministry as he and the others were sent out teach and heal

2) but somewhere along the way something died, indeed if he was ever alive in Christ

b. the answer is that he was just play acting

3. we must be careful

a. in Matthew, chapt. 25 we learn that there is little outward appearance between spiritual goats and spiritual sheep ... in fact, the goats are convinced that they are truly sheep

4. the difference is a true conversion experience (if you’d asked me the day before I was born again, I would have confessed that, yes indeed, I’m a sheep)

a. in our society we tend to equate our business at church with the degree of our spirituality

1) the busier we are the more spiritual we must be

b. Jesus says, "no, no, no"

c. Jesus did not say, "If any many would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and join a church."

1) he did say, "If any many would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me."

5. if we are going to win this world to Jesus there is going to have to be a conversion not of the lost, but of the church

a. we're going to have to repent of our business . . .

1) of running to and fro to pot-luck dinners at church three nights a week

2) of spending more on our creaturely comforts than on missions and evangelism

3) of simply putting in an appearance for the Sunday morning body count

C. WE ARE FAITHLESS WHEN OUR SECULAR AGENDAS BECOME MORE IMPORTANT THAN OUR SPIRITUAL AGENDAS

1. Judas' real agenda was wealth and power and influence

ILLUS. John 12 gives us a clue to his real character when the Bible tells us that, ". . . he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it." (John 12:6)

2. what secular agendas have superseded your loyalty to the risen Lord?

a. is it your job?

b. or your hobby?

c. or your recreational pursuits?

d. a club or a civic group?

e. maybe even a fellowship group or organization within your church?

3. Jesus gave us our primary agenda when he said that the greatest commandment it to

". . . love the Lord your God with all you heart, all of your soul, all of your mind and all of your strength."

a. the second is like it, ". . . love your neighbor as yourself."

4. we reveal our faithlessness when the things of this world have more appeal to us than the one who has redeemed us by his blood

Betrayal is a hard word, an ugly word. In the last ten years 30 Americans have been tried on espionage charges.

There is another word that many of us are familiar with. It is the word faithless. We are familiar with it because we have experienced it first hand. We've let our secular agendas become more important than our spiritual agendas. We've been more concerned about playing church than really serving Christ. We've been more concerned with our religious label than our relationship with Jesus.

The good news is that Jesus died even for the sin of faithlessness. When Jesus cried out "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do," he was pleading for the lives of all men: the soldiers who crucified him, the Pharisees who ridiculed him, the nation which rejected him, and even those of us who have not been quit the faithful believers we should be.