Planned Betrayal - Luke 22 Vs 1-6

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.

Church Announcements and Prayer for the Congregation

So for announcements, just a couple here. This Wednesday at 5 .30, pastors Bible study out of the book of Titus, so 5 .30 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 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 life of truly a lifelong a mission and commitment of serving the Lord. 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 at 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 9 .30 Bible study that we normally have.

So no 9 .30 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 and your grace, Lord, because you do sustain us every day, every moment, every breath is a gift from you.

And God, today 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 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 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. 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. Please stand together as we lift our voices. I forgot to mention 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 having communion today 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 22:1-6 and the Plot Against Jesus

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 going to 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 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 it'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 human 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 is a spiritual agency in some of the most heinous crimes committed. And it is just beyond human wickedness. Right. 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 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 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 Bread 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 springtime, 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 in 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. So, they had more to fear. Ironically, as the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover approached, the religious leaders, who are supposed to lead God's people to remember God's deliverance of many lives, want 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, an even greater enslavement than Egypt.

What the religious leaders meant for evil, God meant 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.

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.

Satan’s Role in Judas’s Betrayal

Now, how did the religious leaders manage 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 the 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 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 five 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 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 five 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' life. And verse six 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 he's been waiting for this day to see his main adversary put to death.

God himself dead. 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 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 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 friend's 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 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 Satanists coming to church to worship Christ on Christmas, I don't see what Christians have business in celebrating Satan's Christmas on Halloween.

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. May we always be watchful, make violent escapes from temptations, pray for God's presence, pray for your kid's 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 hymn 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, I would 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, let's stand together. We're going to sing one verse of My Hope is in the Lord. You are dismissed. Praise God. Thank you.