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Last week we looked at verses 30 through 46 of Matthew 26. In these verses Jesus told his disciples That when he was arrested all of them were going to abandon him. He told them this not long after he had told them that one of them was going to betray him and that of course was Judas.
But the disciples of Jesus would not come out of the last two days of Jesus life squeaky clean. They themselves would fail in their friendship to Jesus while their sin would not rise to the level of betrayal like Judas they would all Deny him in different ways.
Most would abandon him by fleeing the scene and not being seen at the trial with him. Well one of his disciples Peter would deny Jesus three times. This is what Jesus told his disciples in the text we had one week ago.
After Jesus had this conversation he went with his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane as He was there. He took three of his disciples that this inner circle Peter James and John. To a place where they would pray Jesus told them to stay awake and not give in to the temptation to sleep, but to pray.
But they did repeatedly fall asleep and Jesus rebuked them. But this was not the focus of the section the focus was the anguish that Jesus experienced as he considered what was to come upon him. He knew that he needed to bear the sins of the world and As he bore the sins of the world the wrath of his father Would be poured out upon him.
This was what he dreaded more than anything we talked about this everybody has a great fear in life. People have phobias sometimes. It's interesting to ask someone. What's your greatest fear? Jesus greatest fear was being Separated from the blessing of his father from all eternity.
Jesus experienced his blessing with his father. But when he would go to the cross for the first time ever as he took the sins of the world upon him. He would experience the displeasure of his father so as he's in the Garden of Gethsemane.
He's in anguish. If he anticipates this moment that is coming when he would experience the holy wrath of his father. During the last night and the day that followed Jesus would experience all sorts of difficulty.
Last week we saw these two Abandonment from his closest friends and Jesus facing the reality that the wrath of his father was about to come upon him. So this is our big idea for this long sermon. It's taking three Sundays to get through.
Last Sunday was the first Sunday. Today's the second and the next Sunday will be the third Sunday for this sermon. So we've seen the first two ways how? You are to know that Jesus experienced enormous difficulty even before he went to the cross and Today we're going to see the third way how?
And that is this right and if you don't have an outline you can write this down somewhere. But there is an outline in your bulletin. The third way how you were to know that Jesus experienced enormous suffering even before the cross is by giving himself over Into the hands of evil men giving himself over into the hands of evil men.
So as we continue our sermon series through Matthew, I encourage you to turn with me to Matthew 26. And if you don't have a Bible with you, we do have those red Bibles in the pews. In Matthew is the first book of the New Testament.
And so you can find it there. This sermon is once again titled darkness descends on the light. Darkness descends on the light in the third way. How it once again is by giving himself over into the hands of evil men.
This is the third way how you were to know that Jesus experienced enormous suffering even before the cross. So once Jesus informs his disciples that they are going to abandon him and once Jesus and his disciples finished praying in the garden of Gethsemane.
This was the time when Jesus would be delivered into the hands of evil men. So we're gonna look at verses 47 through 56 today of Matthew 26 and we'll begin by reading verse 47. While he was still speaking that is Jesus 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. What verse 47 says is that as Jesus was telling the disciples that his betrayer? Was at hand the betrayer. Judas along with many men Arrived in the garden to meet him.
What verse 47 says is that along with Judas were a great crowd? Who were carrying swords and clubs and this great crowd is the end of verse 46 says were sent From the chief priests and the elders of the people.
This account of Jesus arrest is described in all four Gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John. This is also fascinating when reading the Gospels. There's so much overlap and each of the Gospels provides details that others do not which provides a fuller picture.
The Apostle John gives us some more detail about this scene in John 18 3 where he writes Judas having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees Went there with lanterns and torches and weapons.
An idea of what this would have been like as they're coming to arrest Jesus so we learn That these are not just any men that Judas has brought to arrest Jesus. These are soldiers. These are Roman soldiers and some of these are officers in the Roman Army.
The Jews had soldiers who patrolled The central place of worship in Jerusalem, which was the temple so it's right to assume that these are the soldiers that are coming to arrest Jesus as They approach him.
We learned something in verse 48 about the plan that Judas had put forth. Now the betrayer had given them a sign saying The one I will kiss is the man Sees him. What we learned is that Judas had given the officers and the band of soldiers a Signal so that these men knew the identity of Jesus what he looked like.
Now you would think that everyone at this point Would have known what Jesus looked like as he was the most popular man in this region during this time. We've seen this in Matthew thousands and Thousands of people Were following him.
John Lennon once said when the Beatles were at the height of their fame that we're more famous than Jesus and that's which isn't true, but what he was saying is Jesus. If we're gonna talk about the person who had more fame than anybody in the history of the world it is Jesus.
Tens of thousands of people would follow him wherever he would go. This is why he would go to pray. He would he needed privacy. He needed to get away from the crowds that were always coming to him. So Judas tells these officials these officers these soldiers I'm gonna give it.
I'm giving you a sign so that you know Who the man is who is going to be arrested and apparently some of them had never seen Jesus. Which is true and not everybody would have known what he looked like.
Most of the people probably did but not everyone would have known. So the sign here is that he is going to kiss Jesus. Now kissing people that you need is thankfully something we're not familiar with in our day, but this was commonplace in the ancient world in Several letters the Apostle Paul commanded the churches that he wrote to to greet one another with a holy kiss.
This is where we don't want to take this too literally, right? To greet with a kiss was something you did as a friendly gesture as you greeted someone. It would be like a handshake or maybe a hug in our day so let's see this play out in verse 49 and He came up to Jesus.
That's Judas at once and said greetings rabbi. And kissed him. Think about this. Judas is in the process of betraying Jesus and yet it is insulting that he greets Jesus and calls him rabbi. Which was a Jewish way of saying teacher and then he does the friendly greeting gesture of kissing him.
He's showing these nice gestures. But because of what he is doing to Jesus here, it's actually insulting. It goes without saying that Judas does not love Jesus. He is delivering him into the hands of evil men when we talk about Loving someone it's not just showing it.
It's not just saying you love someone. It's not just affection that you have for someone. Its action. True love always Involves action. What we have seen in recent weeks is Where Judas's true love is What Judas loved more than anything was money.
What we have learned from the Gospels is that Judas was in charge of the money bag and regularly helped himself to it. Judas's love for money led him to approach the Jewish leadership about turning Jesus over to them in private.
Judas knew the places That they met where they spent time together. And one of those places was the Garden of Gethsemane. The last place that Jesus was before he was taken away. Judas knew that the Jewish leadership wanted to arrest Jesus and kill him.
So he came up with the plan to turn Jesus over to them in private where they would Pay him and so he presented this to them and they agreed they would pay Judas 30 pieces of silver. This is a great deal both parties get what they want.
Judas wants money they want to arrest Jesus in private and so they come together and work out a deal and The the amount of money that was agreed upon was 30 pieces of silver. And once again 30 pieces of silver from the book of Exodus in the Old Testament.
Was the price a master would pay for a slave? So the fact that Judas was willing to give Jesus up for 30 pieces of silver shows us that Jesus meant nothing. His true love was money. So as Judas approaches Jesus He calls him a rabbi and he kisses him.
But Jesus is not fooled by this. In a parallel account in Luke chapter 22 verse 48. Jesus says Judas. Would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss? Jesus is not impressed by Judas's kind gesture. Judas is betraying Jesus and how insulting it is as he shows this false respect to him.
In our day, we see this false respect shown all the time. You hear godless government officials say all the time God bless America when Officials in Congress are sworn into office. They swear to uphold the Constitution, what do they swear by the Bible they never read the Bible.
But they swear on the Bible and they haven't heard the Constitution by the way, too, but this is the sign mark. What God wants is a pure and sincere heart. He wants us to mean what we say and do. If Judas truly loved Jesus, he would never even think of betraying him.
30 pieces of silver would mean nothing to him. Imagine someone coming up to you. And saying I'll give you a million dollars if you betray someone. No way. That money means nothing to me. What means to what means to me.
It is this person whom I love who I will never turn my back on. But Judas does that to Jesus here. So Jesus he would have received this this kind gesture of greeting and kissing him. He would have received this if he knew it was sincere, but he knows it's not sincere.
And so he says to him would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss? But after Jesus says this Jesus does something to Judas that he does not deserve. That Judas does not deserve. He shows kindness to Judas.
This is remarkable the first half of verse 50 Jesus said to him friend Do what you came to do. This is remarkable. What Judas does to Jesus here is the ultimate betrayal. Jesus only ever did Judas good and Jesus only ever did anyone he came into contact with good.
Yet Judas is turning Jesus over to the vilest of people the corrupt Jewish leadership. But even though Judas is doing this to Jesus Jesus calls him friend. Now the Greek word for friend that Jesus uses here is not the word used for the closest of friends.
But one used as kindness toward an acquaintance. Jesus uses this word for a friend in Matthew 20 13 and Matthew 22 12 when he rebukes two different men when they are in the wrong. But Jesus uses a different Greek word when he is talking to those who are really his friends.
In John chapter 15 verses 13 through 15 he uses the Greek word for friend which describes closeness and affection and There he's describing his disciples. But even though he does not use the Greek word for close friends He is still being kind to Judas by using the word for friend that conveys respect to an acquaintance.
Judas did not deserve this kindness, but Jesus shows this to him anyway. As Judas betrays Jesus Jesus would have experienced the pain of such great betrayal. He spent three and a half years with this man.
It wasn't just that they spent every once in a while together. They would have spent Just about every day together probably every day. We don't know exactly if they were together every single day. But you get the idea that Jesus and his disciples were with each other all the time and yet Judas Turns Jesus due to he turns Jesus over to these evil men for 30 pieces of silver.
Betrayal and friendship truly breaks the heart of the one who is betrayed. There are stories of great betrayal down through history. In the 1930s there was a New Testament scholar by the name of J. Gresham nation.
This man is a very Significant person in the history of American Christianity in the 20th century. What people don't understand is that the Ivy League schools were once a bastion of conservative Christianity schools such as Harvard Yale and Princeton existed in large part to train Christian ministers.
These Ivy League institutions which started in the 16th and 17 1700s were one by one abandoning in the Bible and becoming liberal institutions. All the Ivy League schools fell to liberalism. But there was one remaining in the early 20th century and that was Princeton in New Jersey.
At this institution J. Grisham mention was professor of New Testament. What sadly happened is that Princeton followed the other Ivy League schools and finally succumbed to liberal Worldly ideas and since Machen was a Bible believing Christian.
He could not stay. So he started a new seminary in Philadelphia called Westminster. Machen endured huge battles fighting for the Bible Against people who called themselves Christians, but did not believe the Bible at the end of Machen's life.
Friends whom he had for many years abandoned him because of the strong stands that he took. They did not stand with him in his fight against the liberal doctrine that was flooding in Christian institutions.
And of course the poison eventually made its way into churches. But Machen did and it came at a cost as he lost friendships in late 1936 Machen became ill but he kept a promise that he made a Long time before that to do a speaking engagement in bit in of all places.
Bismarck, North Dakota. As he was in this location. He fell very ill and he died alone. I remember one of my professors in seminary saying that more than anything Machen died from a broken heart. What we have been seen in the section of Matthew 26 is the heartache that Jesus is experiencing.
He experienced heartache from the reality that all of the disciples would abandon him and now the heartache is that one of his disciples will sin against him in the severest of ways as Judas is delivering Jesus into the hands of evil men.
So Jesus tells you his friend Do what you came to do and then the second? Half of verse 50 in verse 51 the author Matthew tells us what happens. This is what? Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him and behold one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and Struck the servants of the high priest and cut off his ear.
So the soldiers lay their hands on Jesus and then one of his disciples moves into action. We learn from the Gospel of John in chapter 18 verse 10 who this disciple is it's Peter. He's the one who draws the sword and in our text in verse 51 we read that Peter cuts off the ear of one of the ones present.
This one whose ear is cut off is the servant of the high priest and John 18 10 says that this servant's name is Malchus. Now we might be tempted to think that we should be cheering at this point because one of Jesus disciples is standing up for Jesus Against those arresting him and Peter is showing his loyalty to Jesus here I've explained the enormous abandonment that Jesus is experiencing here and about to experience when all the disciples flee.
But in this case Peter is standing up for Jesus. But Jesus does not come in Peter, this is what Jesus says to Peter in verse 52. Then Jesus said to him put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.
So Jesus rebukes Peter. What Peter is doing is taking things into his own hands. Let's say a person has a loved one who is murdered. The amount of righteous anger that this person has toward the murderer is enormous.
But it is not right to take the law into your own hands by ending that person's life. Romans 12 19 commands believers the love and never avenge yourselves. But leave it to the wrath of God for it is written Vengeance is mine.
I will repay says the Lord. Christians are not to be vigilantes. The Lord will write every wrong at the final judgment. Leave it to him. If Peter killed this man with the sword, he too would be deserving of death because scripture supports the punishment of death for murderers.
Now Genesis 9 6 says whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed. Then Jesus reminds Peter something in verses 53 and 54. Jesus says do you think? that I Cannot appeal to my father and he will at once Send me more than 12 legions of angels.
But how then to the scriptures be fulfilled. That it must be so. What is it that Jesus reminds Peter? Jesus Reminds him That him being arrested by sinful men is all a part of God's plan. Jesus told the disciples numerous times that he would be arrested and crucified.
The Old Testament predicted it. Jesus tells Peter that in a time of need He has the power to ask his father to send more than 12 legions of angels To help him. That's a lot. How much? In the Roman military 6 ,000 soldiers was a legion.
If you do the math 12 legions of angels would be the father sending Jesus more than 72 thousand angels to help him. Pretty sure no human army, especially this pitiful one arresting Jesus Could do anything to overtake him if Jesus called to heaven for help.
Actually one angel would probably do the job because one angel is more powerful Than thousands of humans, but he's saying I can call Over 72 thousand angels to help me. I'm not gonna do it. Jesus is not taking the easy way out.
He never did if you want to be like Jesus don't take the easy way out. He never took the easy way out. He always took the hard way. And he won't do it here. You won't take the easy way out here. There's only one way and that is the path to the cross.
Jesus has given himself up to fulfill the plan of his father. And as he says in verse 54 if He received help from heaven Jesus said how then should the scriptures be fulfilled? Then it must be so the hard way for Jesus is the only way.
As the God man, he knew the hard way he was to go down and he embraced it and he would do this for the salvation of sinners. Many Christians down through history have followed Jesus by refusing to live a life of ease and going in the hard way.
This is the call of Jesus to anyone who will be his disciple as we have already heard Jesus say in Matthew 16 24. There Jesus said if anyone will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross.
And follow me for whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake Will save it. What he means is forsaking the world forsaking the devil. Forsaking the temptations of the world where the world says you can have anything you want.
You don't need God. Just go your own way. He's saying forsake that. And live life upstream because if you're a Christian in this world, that's what life is. If you think of the St. Craig River It's gonna get fast real soon as the snow melts this ferocious River going downstream.
That's the world. The world gets on that tube and they go right down that River. That's not what we do. We go up. We're going against the flow of society. That's the way it is. It's hard. It's the hard road and Jesus set us the ultimate example in taking the hard road.
The soldiers of Jesus Christ follow him down the hard path that song am I a soldier of the cross? What you need to understand is that no biographies are written for those who take the easy way. There are no inspiring books about couch potatoes.
But the lives worth reflecting on are the ones where men and women made their lives count. One of these is a man from the 18th century by the name of David Brainerd. His life was one of taking the hard road for Jesus sake.
Brainerd wanted to be a pastor in his younger years. This was his dream. But an offhand comment caused him to be expelled from pastoral training at Harvard. Remember I mentioned Harvard was the bastion of Christian conservative Christianity.
He went there to become a pastor. The offhand comments he made to one of his professors. He said he has no more grace than this chair. As you might imagine that didn't go well. It wasn't a great comment, but the punishment he received was probably excessive.
He was expelled. And if you didn't graduate with a pastoral degree from one of the few colleges around at this time. One could not be a pastor. When this unfortunate event happened his ministry dream died.
His pastoral ministry dream that is. But this was not the only problem that he faced. In his 20s. He also developed a condition, which was the bane of this era tuberculosis. But even though his ministry dream died and he suffered from tuberculosis.
He did not fall into such a severe depression and do nothing with his life. In fact, he fought depression, but he pushed through it trusting the Lord. He was forced down the most difficult path. He could have imagined but he pressed forward.
Instead of being a pastor. He became a missionary. And he became a missionary to Native Americans in the northeastern part of America that needed the gospel and he experienced a fruitful ministry. Over the few years that he poured himself into them for Christ's sake.
His life was one where he had to go down the hardest path, but he was faithful and His life was a short one a very short one at the age of 29. He died of Tuberculosis never married, but just served the Lord.
But his legacy lives on as his friend Jonathan Edwards a famous theologian from the 18th century gathered his diaries. That he wrote as a missionary and Edwards published these diaries in the book the life and diary of David Brainerd the best-selling sold book of Jonathan Edwards.
This man's life is a story of taking the hard road for the sake of the gospel and the Lord has used The difficult life of David Brainerd to bless many as they follow the Lord Jesus in Different callings and the difficulties that come with those calls.
Every calling that we have every press every person in this room has a calling to follow Jesus. Every calling that you have is going to have difficulty. And so we need heroes from the past to remind us of the Lord's faithfulness.
Heroes in the Bible. And they're only heroes because the Lord sustained him ultimately there is only one hero right the Lord. But he sustains these people and he will sustain you as well. In Jesus case he took the hardest road.
He is the Son of God. But he did not call down more than 12 legions of angels to rescue him from the darkness That was descending upon him. He ran to the darkness. He he gave himself up to the darkness.
He knew he needed to face that darkness in order to earn the salvation of sinners. Now before Jesus is taken away. He has something to say to those arresting him. Let's look at this in verse 55 in the first half of verse 56 at that hour Jesus said to the crowds.
Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me day after day? I sat in the temple teaching and you did not seize me, but all of this has taken place. That the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.
What Jesus told them is that he had been preaching in Jerusalem For a few years now and yet they did not arrest him as he preached he was right out in the open and They did nothing. But what Jesus tells them?
Is that the Lord restrained them from arresting him as He told them once again in verse 56 all this has taken place that the scriptures of the prophets Might be fulfilled. All of this happened according to God's plan.
But the suffering would happen in God's time and the type of suffering Jesus experienced would fulfill the prophets. He wouldn't be stoned to death on the grounds of the temple in Jerusalem as he preached.
No, that's not what the prophet said. He would be arrested By the Jewish leaders and then delivered over to the Romans to be crucified. Psalm 22 pictures crucifixion. Isaiah 53 pictures crucifixion. Zechariah chapter 12 and 13 Very vividly described his crucifixion because they will look on him whom they have pierced.
Think about that. Do you realize that? These prophecies from the Old Testament were predicted Before crucifixion was even invented amazing. Eventually the Romans the Romans weren't the ones who in invented the crucifixion, but they were the ones who perfected it but when Isaiah is Predicting the crucifixion of Christ.
It wasn't invented when the psalmist is predicting the crucifixion of Christ. It wasn't invented when Zechariah is predicting the crucifixion of Christ. It wasn't invented. This shows the supernatural nature of this book and let me just say this we must understand that without this book We have no hope.
This is the Word of God this book right here and if we Think we can find the truth any other way. It will never end good. It will never end good. The Bible has proven itself over and over and over again.
We need to trust it. Most of the world doesn't know. We have this book. And it predicts what's gonna happen and and why would it how would it be able to do that? Well because it comes from the one who knows the future God it's the Word of God.
So these prophecies predict the suffering of the Messiah and Jesus is telling them. These people who are arresting him and this is a message to those who are going to deliver him over to the Romans, too.
He is telling them that their very tactics are fulfilling prophecy. We read that in Acts 4 today. It was God's plan that the Jewish leaders are going to deliver him into the into the Romans hands. And he will be crucified.
And once Jesus said these things and was arrested Matthew writes this at the end of verse 56. Then all the disciples left him and fled. Once again, the future is predicted just as he said Jesus predicted last week in verse 31.
You will all fall away because of me this night. His words, of course come to pass as the end of verse 56 says all the disciples left him and fled. Jesus knew what he needed to do. He did not run. He did not have his disciples fight back and in fact rebuked the one who did.
He did not call more than 12 legions of angels to rescue to him. He did none of these. Rather he did the only thing he knew he needed to do because he knew. He was the only hope for the world. He gave him himself up to these evil men.
Who arrested him because of what the cross means and we have a cross right here. This cross is all over the place in our world. What does the cross mean? He died in your place. He is your substitute. He paid the full penalty for your sins.
And this is what everybody in this room needs to understand. You cannot earn your own salvation. I've shared before that, you know, I recently had a conversation with someone who said yeah, I don't really believe the Bible.
I don't believe those stories. You know, they're all made up. Which is false, but this is what he was saying. So, you know what? But generally speaking he believes in God and he says, you know, if there is a God I'm a good person.
I'm gonna be okay. That's what the devil wants you to believe because the person who believes that is going to hell. And that's Satan's mission. His mission is to bring as many people to hell with him.
That's his mission. Why did Jesus go through all this? What is the whole meaning of the cross? It's not just that this guy just jumps off a bridge and tells people how much he loves them. This doesn't make any sense.
He had to go to the cross because he had to be sacrificed. That's what the whole Bible is pointing ahead to the Old Testament. The sacrificial system is pointing ahead to this once-for-all sacrifice that needs to take place.
Jesus isn't running. He's not hiding. He's giving himself up for sinners. He did it for you. That's what it's about. So know that Jesus experienced enormous suffering even before the cross. His greatest suffering is still to come but even before the cross.
He's giving himself up. He's entrusting himself to his father. He's setting himself up to be the sacrifice for sinners. And in this three Sunday sermon we have just seen the third way how the third way how Jesus experienced enormous suffering even before the cross the third way.
How is this by giving himself up? Into the hands of evil men. By giving himself over into the hands of evil men and we need to reflect on this. And next Sunday, we're going to see the fourth and fifth ways.
How you were to know that Jesus experienced enormous suffering even before the cross as we marched toward? The crucifixion but this time with our heads in prayer. Father, what a wonderful God you are.
What a wonderful story that we all live in. And life is a story of a Savior and those who humble themselves realizing they need the Savior and Those who in pride that trust their own wisdom and go their own way.
Those are the ones who are in. Who will be in hell one day and my prayer is that everyone here would humble themselves. Many have already and they follow Christ and they're in a good place and they belong to you forever and will never be snatched out of the hand of Jesus Christ.
But my prayers that everyone in this room would be in that place. Would belong to your son Jesus Christ would have their sins paid for would have his righteousness credited as their righteousness. So that's my prayer this morning and what a great Savior.
For those of us who know Christ. To be reminded this morning. What a great Savior that he gave himself up to the most vilest of men who are going to kill the innocent one the one who never sinned. So Lord apply this message to everyone right where they are at in Jesus name, Amen.