Planned Betrayal - Luke 22 Vs 1-6

Well, good morning everyone Welcome to Faith Bible Church. We've got a few people out and about today on the road and out of town and sickness as well, so Our prayers are for all of them

God would give them protection and guide them on their journeys and and help to heal them as well

Well, it's another beautiful day outside and we're thankful you're here and we can worship together

As believers again, it's just a getting getting ready for the day that he comes again, or we meet him in glory and Then it'll be every day will be the

Lord's Day. So For announcements just a couple here This Wednesday at 530 pastors

Bible study out a book of the book of Titus So 530 this Wednesday and our missionary of the month is

Donna Wolfert Donna She's with the BMW Ministries, she's been involved in a ministry in Mexico for many many years.

She's now stateside and And still continuing to serve the Lord She's retired says she's retired, but I have a feeling she's still got her hand in it

So, let's remember Donna Wolfert in our prayers That's a a life of truly a lifelong a mission and commitment of serving the

Lord in full Next week. We have a special guest John Knox a missionary to Japan.

He's going to be visiting on the 8th Come early if you normally come in the 11 o 'clock service if you could come at 10 o 'clock

He's going to they are going to talk about their ministry At 10, so there will not be any 930

Bible study that we normally have so no 930 study next week 10 o 'clock here at church to meet up with John Knox, so let's go to the

Lord in prayer Our gracious Heavenly Father. We thank you Lord that you have brought us here today that we can calm our hearts father that we can

Pause and reflect on your goodness in your grace Lord because you do sustain us every day every moment

Every breath is a gift from you and God today We we lift up those that are not present with us that those that are sick father we pray that you would heal their bodies that you would

Give them an added measure of patience and endurance Lord as they as you care for their bodies as others care for them

Lord we ask that You would just watch over them father as only you can and we pray for those senior

Saints Lord that aren't able to come out To church anymore Lord. We just commit them to you father as well as they

I'm sure Continue to walk with you in their prayer life and in their daily lives father

So thank you for the Saints that have endured Lord and continue to serve you even in their prayers father

So God we lift them up to you father We pray that you would bless us this morning as we sing songs and hymns and and pastor brings the word to us father

I pray that we would our hearts would be quickened that we would be ready to hear and to be sensitive to the

Holy Spirit Father so that we might know how we should live our lives for you and for your glory

So God we commit our time to your care and we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen So our first song it's entitled praise

The Lord ye heavens adore him and it's it's an offering to the

Lord the Lord of all creation from the beginning of time and So it's an offering of praise.

So we're gonna sing. Let's stand together One person asked what is the meaning of the song

God? Be the glory and they said God is the supreme being and creator of all

To glorify him means that we are to acknowledge the greatness and splendor of his majesty

Through honor worship and praise of which he alone is worthy Because he is

God of all so let's sing to God be the glory To God be the glory

Turn to Hebrews 2

And we'll be reading verses 14 through 18 and As much as the children have partaken of flesh and blood

He himself likewise shared in the same That through death he might destroy him

Who had the power of death? that is the devil and Release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage

For indeed, he does not give aid to angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham Therefore in all things he had to be made like his brethren

That he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God To make propitiation for the sins of the people

For in that he himself has suffered being tempted. He is able to aid those

Who are tempted? May the

Lord's word As it doesn't it never returns void.

So Let's pray dear father Thank you so much for this opportunity to be here this morning and worship you

Pray you'd bless the message and the messenger that we might

Glorify you in this time We give it all to you father in Jesus name.

Amen Come now fount of every blessing I think many of you know this song you please stand together as we lift our voices

I Mentioned that the song was written by Robert Robinson and he had many of the challenges of life that many of us have had and will have in our lives and But he wrote this

Having gotten through come through a very difficult time. So Next song is

Oh sacred head now wounded and this may be new to some but it's a beautiful song of reflection of we're we were having communion today after the after the message and This is just a real contemplative song to think about what

Jesus did on the cross So meditate on the words as we sing through this 178

Please be seated as pastor comes I think opening the hymnal is a tradition.

I will not protest It's a great tradition these songs are

Wonderful and they're scripturally well founded and I think there is something to reading the words and the notes together

Please turn with me to Luke chapter 22 verses 1 through 6 Luke chapter 22 verses 1 through 6

Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near which is called Passover and the chief priests and the scribes thought how

They might kill him for they feared the people Then Satan entered

Judas surnamed Iscariot who was numbered among the twelve So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains how he might betray

Him to them and they were glad and agreed to give him money

So he promised and sought opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of the multitude

This is the word of the Lord Let us pray Father we're grateful to hear your word

We're grateful to sing your word. We're grateful that we can experience your presence this morning

Help us to delight and enjoy in your presence That has been provided for us through Jesus atoning death on the cross

Help us to worship in the spirit and we pray for all those who are

Sick all those who are traveling. We pray that you would keep them safe May they experience your nearness as well wherever they may be in Jesus name

This passage Directly follows Jesus eschatological pronouncements what would happen on the last days and Because Jesus had just defeated the religious establishment in their own game

They are all the more eager to kill Jesus Jesus is their threat and Today's passage shows us how the drama will unfold

The first two verses Show the problem that the religious leaders do face which is the crowd they have to confer privately because They don't want to get in trouble with the crowd

To by publicly getting rid of Jesus and the next four verses show us the solution

And it's gonna be a betrayal from the inside and at one level it is

Judas who betrays Jesus but at another level it is Satan who influences

Judas to betray Jesus and This is important for us because we often forget that Jesus arrest and death were not merely of human accord as Much as it was political it was spiritual behind the religious establishment

In Judas was the power of Satan and as we live under the influence of secularism of the 20th century although that's going away and Although an increasing number of people would rather identify as spiritual rather than pure atheists

Our city and even the Christian culture often are Oblivious or veiled to the spiritual warfare that are often occurs behind the scenes

The lack of awareness of the demonic influence is actually a huge handicap for the church

Whenever you're evangelizing whenever you're sharing the gospel, and there's an inconvenient interruption

There's a chance that's not a coincidence but a well -planned spiritual attack at a city level the violence and abuses in Sacramento cannot just be explained by humans sinfulness

Domestic abuse gang violence and senseless murders cannot be attributed to just sheer ignorance of the law or poor education if Those were the problems

The trillions of dollars we've spent in education would have solved that there's there is a spiritual agency in some of the most heinous crimes committed and It is just beyond human wickedness

Or even at the global level. It's it's not a coincidence that many governments all over the world

Just a couple years ago had no problem shutting down churches and forbidding churches that are gathering from singing

Yet they allowed marijuana Dispensaries and strip clubs to continue operating it would be naive to say that it is just sure sheer incompetence of the government and For Christians, we need to remember that we are in a spiritual warfare

The Christian walk is not a stroll in the park but a battlefield

And that's why Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6 we have to put on the whole armor of God Because if it's only partial armor of God, we are jeopardizing our souls we're not ready without being equipped by God's armor and we know this because Satan as Much as he opposes

Christian ministry He opposed Christ's earthly ministry

There's no reason to think That we are off the hook now today's main point is how did the religious leaders manage to trap

Jesus? How did the religious leaders manage to trap Jesus? first as The celebration of God's redemption approached the religious establishment

Ironically planned to kill Jesus as the celebration of God's redemptive redemption approached the religious establishment

Ironically planned to kill Jesus This section moves from the

Moves forward it moves towards the crucifixion in a rather dramatic way

First Luke introduces the ironic setting of Jesus death now the

Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near which is called Passover a Little note on the

Feast of Unleavened and Passover is necessary for All of us who haven't been reading

Exodus in a while this information is the synopsis of Exodus 12 and 13

The Passover is a Jewish holiday that celebrates Israel's deliverance from Egypt it commemorates

God delivering Israel from Egypt's enslavement and this happened in a very shocking way

Even after Egypt suffered God's nine plagues Pharaoh Stubbornly did not let

God's people go So God announced his final judgment

Which is that anyone who does not daub his doorway with the blood of the unblemished lamb?

will lose his firstborn child and It did not matter of one's ethnic background if you did not

Put on your doorway the blood of the lamb that's been unblemished a

Pure white lamb if you didn't put the blood on the doorway you would lose the firstborn child

God's final judgment against Egypt was coming and no matter your ethnic background whether Jew or Egyptian or Whatever you would lose his firstborn child if you did not listen to God and The only way you could save your firstborn baby was to listen to God by covering your doorway

With the blood of the pure innocent lamb that night

Egypt woke up with loud cries of devastation as Many who did not trust

God lost their firstborn kids yet God's judgment passed over Those whose household was covered by the blood of the lamb

This was the last plague on Egypt and Israel was freed right after this now

Because the whole nation of Israel which was close to a million at this point had to flee in haste

God ordered them to prepare unleavened bread and if any of you make your own bread like sourdough

It takes multiple hours if not the whole day to wait

For the dough to rise before you bake it in the oven The Israelites did not have such a luxury after all this

Pharaoh Just as much as stubborn he is he is also a flip -flop

Right, he could easily change his mind and he did So God commanded them to only have unleavened bread during their journey

So after their deliverance the Israelites celebrated the feast of unleavened bread by only consuming

Unleavened food items. In fact, if you have any Jewish friends now around the spring time

If you are their a Gentile friend, they will give you all the leavened food items

They have from pancake mixes to loaves of bread Because they cannot have those and even in their house

To commemorate what God has done to save their ancestors

So by only consuming unleavened bread it was a way for them to remember

God's faithful deliverance it's sort of similar to the way in which we

Celebrate the Lord's Supper by having bread and the cup. It's to remember the

Lord's deliverance through his death But for them it is the Lord's deliverance through the

Passover and the baking of the unleavened bread So each year around springtime

They would recall what God has done and they would treat both of these events the

Passover and the feast Together because they're chronologically and thematically together, right?

God's deliverance from Egypt at the last moment and they would praise

God for his salvation They would sing to God. In fact, it was a national holiday similar to our

Independence Day Right in the first century many people even flocked to Jerusalem to celebrate each year what this means is that the city was jam -packed and this context is important to understand the next verse and The chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill

Jesus for they feared the people the religious leaders who lost their public debates with Jesus are still fixated on Eliminating their shared threat

Jesus The reason for their private meeting is that they fear the people they knew if they publicly arrest

Jesus the crowd would revolt against them and Killing Jesus publicly would lead to their own demise

Especially during this time The crowd would have been even larger than ever before Today, so they had more to fear ironically as The Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover approach the religious leaders

Who are supposed to lead God's people to remember God's deliverance of many lives?

One to kill the very person who gave them life Instead of leading

God's people to Christ as they were supposed to they want to take the Christ away from his people through murder

Although the irony is palpable God gives us a double irony

It is precisely through their murderous plot that God delivers his people once again

Not just a million but billions At one level the religious leaders do succeed in killing

Jesus without angering the crowd Right. In fact, they will turn the heart of the crowd against Jesus so that they're the ones

Desiring Jesus to be crucified But God precisely planned this all out so that despite the religious leaders rebellion through Jesus death on the cross

God would deliver many from the bondage of sin and even greater enslavement than Egypt What the religious leaders meant for evil

God man for good to bring it about that many would be saved to paraphrase

Joseph from Genesis 50 It is precisely through the arrest and death of the innocent man on the cross

God saved a thousandfold more than he saved on the first Passover It is precisely

Jesus suffering the wrath of God on our behalf that we are finally freed from the bondage of sin

It is precisely the perfect unblemished lamb of God that God himself had provided who's hanging on the cross and through his blood

That the judgment of God passes over those who

Trust him While the religious leaders had no regard for the timing of the feast of unleavened bread and Passover God's timing was impeccable to send the ultimate

Passover lamb whose blood fully Covered for our sins now, how did the religious leaders?

managed to kill Jesus Ultimately Satan is behind any opposition to Christ Ultimately Satan is behind any opposition to Christ Just as the religious leaders are discussing how they may covertly trap

Jesus without Angering the crowd we get to see another layer of this drama

Then Satan entered Judas surnamed Iscariot who was numbered among the twelve

It is not just a power -hungry priests and Sadducees who want to see

Jesus dead but the very Prince of Darkness himself in Hebrew Satan means accuser or adversary

He is a fallen angel who has always tried to oppose God He is the serpent who deceived

Eve and we find that out in Revelation He is also the accuser in Job who challenges

God that Job's allegiance to him is only because of the material blessing rather than his genuine faith and Last time we saw

Satan in this book was Luke 4 when he tried to tempt Jesus to disobey

God Satan tried to get

Jesus to follow His way in order to become the king

Just don't follow the cross follow me and I'll give you all the kingdoms

Bow down to me and all these kingdoms are yours Avoid the cross, you know you want to It's gonna be painful.

I can give it to you. Just bow the knee That was a temptation in Luke 4

Satan is not merely a concept of evil, but a personal evil In fact, you cannot make sense of the sheer wickedness that go around in this world and Even in Sacramento without the existence of the personal evil beings mainly

Satan and the demons Who seek to destroy and defile

God's people that's important Now it is not clear how

Satan influenced Judas, but we know that Judas was not working alone

Yes, Judas is responsible for betraying Jesus it is not like Judas was mere a mere puppet

Yet it was under Satan's influence Satan tempted and influenced

Judas to hand Christ over and Luke uniquely reminds us that Judas was numbered among the twelve

Judas was one of the twelve closest friends that Jesus had Judas was handpicked by Jesus Judas ministered with Jesus Judas performed miracles in Jesus name

But inside there was no heart for Jesus Publicly he was an intimate friend, but privately he had no regard for Jesus on the other hand

Jesus was fully man Although a fully God Who experienced?

the pain of betrayal By someone very close to him if you've been betrayed in your life

You have God Who understands what it's like?

Because he himself had Experienced it now.

What does Jesus do under Satan's influence? Verse four so he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains how he might betray him to them

Judas Privately discusses how he may Hand over Jesus to the religious establishment

At one level Judas betrays Jesus and yet at another level Satan provides the opportunity that the religious leaders were desperately looking for They themselves could not

Naturally on their own accord come up with a way to capture

Jesus without Risking their lives it had to come from Satan Satan is behind the cruel betrayal that will lead to Jesus death

Just as much as Judas is responsible for his wicked intention and act to betray his friend

Now, how do the leaders respond? Verse 5 tells us that the religious leaders were thrilled and they were glad and agreed to give him money

Quite a troubling response from the leaders of Israel What brings joy to those who serve that at the temple

What excites those who teach God's Word to his people? Not God's presence

Not the lay people growing closer to God not the coming of the Messiah But a secret strategy to murder an innocent man without any earthly repercussion a

Probable plan to kill the Son of Man without the wrath of the crowd consider this if Judas fails in his plan of betrayal.

Then the blame is solely on Judas Iscariot Don't look at us That's your buddy

Yet if Judas succeeds, then they win the prize they get to make

Jesus fall to his demise The one who has beaten them over and over and over again with superior knowledge and wisdom

They get to put him to death While avoiding the main problem that they have been fearing since really the couple of chapters back the crowd

They can bake the cake and eat it too The latter half of verse 5 gives us a glimpse of what motivated

Judas to betray Jesus and that's money It's the love of money

This is worse than a regular betrayal Judas backstabbed Jesus in order to personally gain from his friend's life

Judas had no regard for Jesus and verse 6 shows

Judas plan So he promised and sought opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of the multitude all

Judas Had to do was to isolate Jesus from the crowd in order to betray him that was the opportunity and The event that leads up to Jesus arrest were more than just a regional religious conflict but a cosmic battle

Behind the desperate religious leaders who wanted Jesus dead There was someone else much stronger and more wicked who wanted to kill

Jesus as well Satan Who knows how long has been waiting for this day to see his main adversary?

put to death God himself and this is important for all

Christians to know Because we often forget that our battle is not against flesh and blood as in read atheists and pagans

But rather the demonic realities that stand behind The false ideologies atheism paganism communism

Marxism Satanism Behind those is not a mere human being

There is someone Who's who has been throwing these ideas in?

human history and What do they all have in common?

Worship something else than the God of the universe and notice none of those things

I mentioned Take Jesus seriously They all reject Christ and behind those are

Satan and his demons these supernatural beings who are more powerful than humans will attempt everything in their power to hinder

Christ's redemptive plan and This may be at any level whether violent riots to ignore the justice system that's established by God ultimately or An individual

Christian suffering with an exorbitant amount of guilt despite the confession to God There may be

Demonic influence behind each of them. In fact when when our missionary

John Knox visits us with his wife Next Sunday, by the way 10 o 'clock

Ask about spiritual warfare that they have experienced You may be shocked by the different variation and even different intensity of spiritual darkness that they witness in Japan Remember in Japan, there's less than 1 % of the population is

Christian. It's of It's it's a complete different world there and oftentimes

Satan and his army they oppose those who are actively sharing the gospel the most and as we're approaching

October, I Would like to share one story of our family friends experience

So this is not something I just like Got from a forum, right?

I know this person who experienced this She was flying next to a young man who who seemed quiet and pleasant

Shortly after the takeoff the flight attendant comes and starts asking like what would you like to eat for your evening meal?

she chose the chicken, but the young man declined Nothing for me.

I'm fasting. She was curious and asked the man.

I Heard you say that you're fasting. Are you a Christian? Valid question nothing of the kind was the reply.

I am a satanist and Every October in preparation for Halloween, we fast and pray to our

Lord that he will destroy Christian families We see him answering our prayers a little more each year as more and more supposed

Christians embrace Halloween Ouija boards and the occult We are winning ma 'am.

We're winning What's shocking is that it's shocking to see that Satanists are more spiritually aware than many

Christians in this nation many churches Do celebrate

Halloween? I've celebrated Halloween churches.

I've attended celebrated Halloween They had events on Halloween.

It's not until that living as a

Christian for a while But also having a property manager who is a practicing satanist

Who Cuts from the rent if your house is best decorated on Halloween Hundreds of dollars and I've seen a large painting of Satan Through the window that's in our house

Christians have no luxury to take it lightly of what's coming in October.

It is their Christmas Just as we don't see Satan is coming to church to worship

Christ on Christmas I don't see what Christians have business in celebrating

Satan's Christmas Don't live your

Christian life thinking it is a stroll in the park It is a battle in Which spiritual entities desperately want your souls

Every time you serve Christ There will be spiritual warfare to prevent it

The great news is that you serve the risen King Who reigns victoriously and not a hair can be touched without his sovereign permission?

Pray and fast that you depend on him rather than yourself if your parents

Regularly pray and fast for your children that they may be saved and protected if you're married especially men

God placed you to protect his daughter at your wife

How often do you pray for her security in Christ?

And if you're a wife? How often do you encourage your husband to walk with Christ not in a

Condescending guilt -shaming way. Oh, you should be doing this But to encourage him to support him to give him strength and if you're single

How often do you pray and fast for purity and for all of us?

How often do we pray that the church may be protected from false teachers and satanic rituals?

We're always under attack Every day we're in the trenches

Every day is a battle But we serve The victorious

King and what we need to do is we need to remember we're not fighting each other, but we are fighting together with Christ against the principalities and demons

Satan will hinder you from knowing

God better Satan will prevent The times you spend in prayer

But that's more the reason to depend on your commander -in -chief

Jesus Christ Who has defeated? Satan once and for all on the cross

All you have to do is Diligently Serve him

And wait until he comes back May we always be watchful

Make violent escapes from temptations Pray for God's presence

Pray for your kids salvation Pray for your parents marriage and pray that the gospel goes forth

That's how we fight Let us pray Father we pray that you would give us a discernment to know what is from you and what's not and what is from Satan and what's not and Help us

Help us to be tender -hearted to your voice So that we may listen to you rather than ourselves or the world or even

Satan himself Help us to be spiritually aware of what's going on so that we may not entertain

Ourselves with the very things that you would call an abomination Help us to love you and seek you every day for Jesus sake

Amen So as our closing hymn You take your hymnals one more time to him 406 406 it would be my prayer that if you as you walked through the doors out of this building that your hope would be in the

Lord and If it isn't if you're still on that journey and still seeking it

We just pray that you would come to the Lord humbly and seek forgiveness and you can be his child

It's not very complicated really so So let's stand together.

We're gonna sing one verse of my hope is in the Lord Excellent you are dismissed praise