Darkness Descends on the Light Part IV Matthew 26:30-27:26

This morning is the fourth Sunday of a five

Sunday sermon as we journey through what Jesus went through as he went to the cross. Because of the snowstorm, many of you were not here one week ago, what

I said a week ago is that this was supposed to be a three Sunday sermon, but as I looked closer at chapter 27, what

I realized is that the theme continued, and the theme is all the different kinds of suffering that Jesus experienced even before the cross.

In the sermon, going back to Matthew 26 verse 30, what we have seen thus far is that Jesus endured an abandonment from his closest friends, including

Peter. We have also seen Jesus betrayed in the most egregious way by one of his disciples,

Judas. Judas betrayed Jesus into the hands of Jesus' greatest earthly enemies, and he did this for 30 pieces of silver.

We have seen these earthly enemies put Jesus on trial, and even though they had no evidence against him, they sentenced him to be crucified because they despised

Jesus and wanted him out of the picture. We also have seen the personal torment that Jesus went through.

As Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane with his disciples, we saw Jesus ponder that the hour was coming when he would, for the first time ever, in eternity past, he enjoyed sweet fellowship with his

Father. During his whole earthly life, he enjoyed sweet fellowship with his Father.

For the first time ever, he would experience the displeasure of his Father, and in the

Garden of Gethsemane, we see the personal torment that he goes through as he ponders what is going to come upon him when he goes to the cross.

In these verses, we have seen the humanity of Jesus on full display as the time of his suffering approached.

To be abandoned by his disciples, to be betrayed in the most egregious way by another, to be put on trial by evil men and then sentenced to be tortured, and then to face the reality that he would experience his

Father's holy wrath. This experience that Jesus went through right before his final suffering is an enormous weight that he carried that none of us will ever be able to relate to.

Jesus endured the suffering because he knew it was the only way to bring sinners into a right relationship with God.

The cross was the only way, and so he willingly submitted himself to his

Father's will. Now this leads us to part four of this five

Sunday sermon. The big idea, once again, is to know that Jesus experienced enormous suffering even before the cross, and the title of this sermon is

Darkness Descends on the Light, and this is part four. So once again, know that Jesus experienced enormous suffering even before the cross, and here is the fourth way how you are to know this.

By undergoing betrayal from his closest disciple, and this outline is in your bulletins, undergoing betrayal from his closest disciple.

Now as we get to the end of chapter 26, what we have seen is that Jesus has experienced one abandonment after another.

He told his disciples that one of them was going to betray him, and that as he was arrested, all of them would fall away from him.

We already saw all of the disciples scatter as Jesus was arrested, and what we are going to see at the end of this chapter is that Jesus' closest disciple will also turn his back on him.

But before we get to that, we are going to see how things ended for the disciple who betrayed

Jesus in the most severe way, and that of course was Judas. What I have already explained is that as we look at Jesus' disciples bailing on him, 11 of the 12 were genuine believers, and 11 of the 12 would be restored.

But the one who delivered Jesus into the hands of evil men, this is the one who would not be restored.

So what we are going to do at this time is flip over to Matthew 27, where we will look at how the life of Judas concluded.

So I encourage you to turn in your Bibles to Matthew 27, and if you don't have a

Bible, we do have those red Bibles that you can take a look at. I'm going to read verses 3 -10.

Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying,

I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. They said, What is that to us?

See to it yourself. And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself.

But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.

So they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers.

Therefore that field has been called the field of blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet

Jeremiah, saying, And they took the 30 pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set, by some of the sons of Israel.

And they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me."

What we see here is the tragedy of the end of Judas' life. After Judas delivered

Jesus into the hands of evil men, and Jesus was sentenced to be crucified, Judas realizes what he has done.

He is sorrowful. No question he had regret. He goes to the

Jewish leaders and tries to return the 30 pieces of silver that they gave him for giving

Jesus over to them, as if somehow this will make things right. But what the

Jewish leaders tell him is that it is already done, and there is no going back. Jesus is going to be crucified.

This is why they say in verse 4, and I'm paraphrasing, What is that to us that you betrayed innocent blood?

That's your problem, not ours. As we see this regret from Judas, what this shows us is not only that Judas realizes what he has done, betraying an innocent man, but what we also see is that part of Judas was really drawn to Jesus.

What you might think is that this shows Judas' true faith. But this is not the case.

What happened to Judas sometimes happens with false disciples. Over a year ago, we looked at a parable in Matthew 13 known as the

Parable of the Sower. In this parable, Jesus describes four different types of people in the world.

These four groups of people are described through the agricultural image of seeds falling on four different types of soil.

It is the second and third soils that describe false disciples. The second soil, in particular, describes someone like Judas.

The second soil is described in Matthew 13, 5, where Jesus said, Down in 13, verses 20 and 21,

Jesus explains the type of person that this soil describes. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.

Yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

What Jesus is communicating in this parable is that there are false disciples who appear to be believers, who appear to receive the gospel of joy, but they fall away, and Jesus tells us very clearly what causes them to fall away.

Once again, as Jesus says in 13, 21, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately one falls away.

In other words, when it becomes too difficult to be a

Christian, this is when apostasy happens. Apostasy is a fancy way of saying one who once followed

Jesus who no longer does. This is what happened with one of Jesus' disciples,

Judas. Judas knew that the Jewish leaders were out for Jesus. He knew the heat was increasing to arrest him.

It used to be that thousands upon thousands, in fact, ten thousands upon ten thousands of people were following Jesus, and Judas and the other disciples enjoyed the popularity of being closely associated with him.

But those days had passed. It now had become inconvenient to be associated with Jesus.

So his fear of persecution and his love for money led him to sell

Jesus to the Jewish leadership for 30 pieces of silver. But what is interesting is that even those who fall away sometimes still have a soft spot for Jesus.

They remember those days where they had that joy of being in the Christian community and thinking they too were following Jesus.

This is the experience of the second soil that springs up for a short time, but shortly after withers.

This story is told well through a man who preached alongside Billy Graham in the middle of the 20th century.

In the early days of Billy Graham's preaching, there was a popular preacher by the name of Charles Templeton.

Templeton was such a powerful speaker that one Christian publication even gave him the award, the preacher most used by God, as if that somehow can be measured by man.

But they gave it to him because they thought this man was truly being used by God. But sadly,

Templeton fell away from the Lord and lived the rest of his life in unbelief. At the very end of Templeton's life, he said something remarkable.

He said, I miss him. Who did he miss? He missed Jesus. Now some might say this was a deathbed conversion, but it sounds much more like what

Judas is doing in our text. People who fall away from the Lord as described in the second soil are so steeped in their idols that they cannot come back to him.

This is the story of Esau, as Hebrews 12, 17 describes. He desired to inherit the blessing, but was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

These people who fall away still might have a nostalgia for the things of the

Lord, but they do not follow him. And they may even regret some of the things they did as they fell away.

But this does not mean that they belong to him. When push comes to shove, they choose what they are truly devoted to.

And it is not Jesus. It's some idol. It's going their own way, as Scripture says.

1 John describes this well. They went out from us to show they were not of us, for if they had continued with us, they would have been one of us.

But because they went out, they show that they are not of us. What we read in verses 3 -10 concerning Judas is that this soft spot for Jesus led him not to want the money anymore, as he realized he betrayed an innocent man.

He betrayed the one he knew was truly a good man. And that's an understatement, since he is the only man who is truly righteous.

Judas, at this point, realizes that he violated Deuteronomy 27, 25, which says,

Cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood. Judas felt bad for what he did.

But this was not true sorrow. A true sorrow that reunites one with the

Lord. It was worldly guilt, as is described in 2 Corinthians 7 -10.

It is not as if his love for money and his love for himself suddenly went away. He just doesn't want to be known as the one who betrayed innocent

Jesus into the hands of these evil men. And he knows, as we read clearly in verse 4, that Jesus is innocent.

The choice Judas made to betray Jesus is already sealed. He is the betrayer, and the sting of this taboo and his conscience haunting him is too much to bear.

So verse 5 tells us that after he threw the 30 pieces of silver in the temple, he goes away and he hangs himself.

He was not repentant. It is not as if he is going to the Lord with sincere sorrow for the great sin he has committed.

And committing himself to a new path forward, that's not happening here. What we see here from Judas is worldly sorrow.

He felt so sorry for himself for what a mess he made. And the consequence of that mess and the self -pity was so strong that he decided to end his life.

And this is the tragic way his life ended. Now as Judas brought the money back to the chief priests, they would not even take this money back since this was money that Judas attained by giving

Jesus up to them. According to Deuteronomy 23 .18,

anyone who gains money the wrong way, that money would not be allowed to be used in the temple.

The temple is the holy place. You can't get money through cheating, through some way, and then just throw it into the temple.

It would not be accepted. So as we think about what's happening here, with Judas trying to return the 30 pieces of silver to them, and their response to this, this is really dark.

The Jewish leaders knew quite well that Jesus was innocent. We saw that one week ago. They paid

Judas the bribe and they acknowledge here that this is blood money. They're admitting their own guilt right here.

But they are going to continue to give the appearance that what they are doing is right, that Jesus needed to go.

The end justifies the means. If that's your ethic, it becomes a very scary world.

Dictators, not through history. The end justifies the means. So we're going to kill these people for the greater good.

Now the reason they gave for sentencing Jesus to death is that he claimed to be the Messiah and God.

It is true that the Jewish leaders did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah and surely was not God. Every time in the

Gospels when he described his messianic identity and deity, they went into a frenzy.

But even though they believed this, deep down there was something about Jesus they could not deny. The people who were guilty of committing blasphemy and violating

Leviticus 24 -16, but even the Jewish leaders could not deny that Jesus truly loved people throughout his ministry.

He's different. He's not the kind of guy who commits blasphemy and is just a rebel.

But even though they knew this, they could never bring themselves to follow him. It was too great a cost for them, the

Jewish leaders. Too great a cost. They loved their cushy position that they held and the corruption that they were involved in and they could not get away from the fact that he was not the

Messiah they wanted. So whenever he made a claim to be the Messiah and to being the

Son of God, it was convenient for them to say it was blasphemy. Because as they lied to themselves, they would justify continuing to live in the idolatry in which they lived.

You want to get someone mad? Take away their idol. When you follow

God, God gives you comfort, security, joy, peace, everything we long for.

If you don't find it in the living God, you have to find that somewhere else. So what people do is they find it in their idols.

You go after their joy, their peace, their comfort, their security, even if it's false, which it is, they get angry.

And the Jewish leaders, their idol was their cushy position, their corruption, their titles, their own religion that they made.

Jesus had to go because he was against them. He was against what they stood for.

He was against what they loved. Now in keeping with their hypocrisy, in missing the whole point of God's message, and instead carrying a ton about little rules, they would not accept

Judas' blood money as if somehow God would be pleased. But what they did instead was use the money in a way that unbeknownst to them would fulfill prophecy.

As verses 7 -10 say, So they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers.

Therefore that field has been called the field of blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet

Jeremiah, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set, by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter's field.

What verse 9 says is that this was fulfilled by Jeremiah the prophet. It's actually fulfilled in Zechariah 11, verses 12 and 13.

But in the Jewish tradition, the prophet Jeremiah was the first book of the prophets, and it was often used to describe the totality of all the prophetic books.

But this is indeed a fulfillment of Zechariah 11, verses 12 and 13. What we see in this episode is the tragedy of one of Jesus' disciples.

Judas spent three and a half years with Jesus. They probably spent every day together. They had conversations together.

They shared meals together. They would have laughed together. And what a tragedy that Judas' life ends with him betraying

Jesus, and then taking his own life. And for all eternity, Judas would bear the penalty for what he did.

We should feel the weight of this. Not only not to follow in Judas' steps and throw away your eternal soul, but we should also feel the weight of the pain

Jesus experienced seeing his once friend Judas. Remember in 2650?

Jesus still treated Judas kindly. He said to him, Friend, do what you came to do.

As Judas and the soldiers from the temple came to arrest him.

Judas would face the penalty that he deserved, but there is no question that sorrow filled

Jesus' heart knowing what Judas did to him and the outcome of Judas' life.

We must understand God's heart toward the wicked. God does not throw a party in heaven for their demise.

As Ezekiel 33, verse 11 says, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

He does not want to see their lives end this way. And when it does, he grieves. This is not to say that God regrets the justice that he pours out on the wicked.

He very much does not regret it. He is very much satisfied with it. But there is a grief that he experiences as he pours out his judgment on the ungodly.

As he sees how the life of his image -bearer ends. This is someone created in his image.

And look how they turned out. Look at their end. They are lost forever.

They will never enjoy sweet fellowship with him in his kingdom. No doubt,

Jesus would have experienced grief knowing what happened to a man that was his friend. So as we just wrap up the tragedy of this end of one of Jesus' disciples,

Judas, let's now look at the focus of this point, the temporary betrayal of his closest disciple,

Peter. After Judas betrayed Jesus, what Jesus told his disciples in verse 31 is that all of them would fall away this night.

What we saw two weeks ago is that this indeed happened. As Jesus was arrested by the soldiers sent from the

Jewish leaders, all of them ran in different directions. As Jesus told his disciples that they would fall away,

Peter was adamant that even though all the other disciples would fall away, he would not.

Now what we are going to see is that Peter did something better than the others. With the exception of John, by the way.

John is the one where he was there, he was present in the courtyard. The courtyard that Peter was going to go to.

John was present at the cross. So as I say that they all fell away, John actually comes out the best in all of this.

The one who wrote the Gospel of John. But largely speaking, they all fall away.

They all abandon Jesus. And let's see what an epic failure

Peter was in his friendship to Jesus. Let's go back to chapter 26 here, verse 69.

We're going to read the first portion of verse 69. Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard and a servant girl came up to him and said,

You also were with Jesus the Galilean. What we read here is that Peter did something better than the others.

He's present there. We learn from the Gospel of John that the way that he got into the courtyard is that John, because John knew the high priest, he let

Peter in. So Peter is present. So give him some credit. He's not off somewhere else hiding.

He actually wants to see what's going on. But what we read here is that he gets a comment from a servant girl.

And the servant girl says to him, You also were with Jesus the Galilean. And this is how

Peter responds to the servant girl in verse 70. But he denied it before them all, saying,

I do not know what you mean. And what we learn here is that it's not just the servant girl that is present, but also the others.

Peter is concerned that word will get out, that one of Jesus' disciples is there, and he might get in trouble as the one who was with Jesus.

Jesus had already, at this point, been sentenced to crucifixion. And to be associated with him is not a good thing.

It's inconvenient. That's why Judas betrayed him. That's one of the reasons he did. Now when

Jesus told Peter that he was going to deny him, remember what Peter said to him in verse 35.

Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you. Pretty bold.

Pretty high view of himself. But here Peter is not willing to put himself in danger by saying boldly that he stands with Jesus.

No, he denies him publicly. Peter did not just do this once, he did it again in verses 71 and 72.

And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him and she said to the bystanders, this man was with Jesus of Nazareth.

And again he denied it with an oath. I do not know the man. So as Peter leaves the courtyard and goes to the entrance, he's once again confronted by another servant girl.

It's fitting by the way that it's not some important prominent person that he's denying Jesus for, it's a servant girl.

Which shows his cowardice even more. And this servant girl proclaims to those around her that this man has a close relationship with Jesus.

But once again, Peter denies that he is one of Jesus' disciples and he denies that he even knows him.

Peter is willing to completely disassociate himself from Jesus in order to protect himself.

This is cowardly. You would think that at this point Peter would come clean and say, yes,

I am one of his disciples. But he doubles down once again in verse 73. After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, certainly you too are one of them.

For your accent betrays you. As Peter proclaims that he does not know

Jesus, these people do not believe him. Two servant girls have said that he was one of the disciples and the bystanders believe their word.

And they believe their word because something gives him away. It's the way he talks.

Peter like Jesus and the other disciples are from Galilee. This is the northern part of this region.

What is modern day Israel. Peter and the disciples and Jesus were not from Judea.

Jerusalem is located in the region of Judea. Jesus and his disciples are from Galilee, where the

Sea of Galilee is. Some of you maybe have been to Israel to know the geography of this.

He didn't talk like them. Now I'm going to pick on Keith here for a second. And Keith can pick on us too.

We have different accents. Keith has a southern accent and we have a northern accent.

When we converse, you can tell that we sound a little different. In fact, the first time I talked to Keith, I noticed he's not from here.

I could tell right away. This is how it was with Galileans.

Who lived in the north. And Judeans who lived in the south. They could tell each other apart based on the way they talked.

They would have spoken the same language, they just sounded different. As Peter is exposed to these people, accusing him of being one of Jesus' disciples, verse 74 tells us what

Peter shamefully does once again. Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear.

I do not know the man. And immediately the rooster crowed.

What we see Peter do here is swear an oath. In Old Testament times, when one swore an oath and was not truthful about the oath, there would be severe consequences for not staying true to your word.

Peter swearing to the people that he swears by the Lord, that he does not know Jesus, but of course he does.

He's bringing a curse down upon himself. As he does this, something happens that brings to remembrance what

Jesus said to Peter. In the second half of verse 74. And immediately the rooster crowed.

And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.

And he went out and wept bitterly. So Peter denies

Jesus three times, and then the rooster crows. As the rooster crows, Peter remembered Jesus saying this.

What Luke 22 .61 says is that Jesus even makes eye contact with Peter.

So he looks at him and says, I told you you were going to do this, and look what you have done.

Peter thought he was the one who would never betray him. But that is exactly what he did, and he turned his back on Jesus in a very serious way.

As he realized what he did, sorrow filled his heart. As the end of verse 75 says, After this denial of Jesus, Peter leaves

Caiaphas' house, where this trial occurred, in shame. Even though this is a horrible episode for Peter, his story is different from Judas'.

Peter's weeping here is a weeping of repentance. While Judas' weeping was sorrow for himself.

Remember Peter ate at the Lord's Supper, with Jesus and the other disciples. Judas did not.

Peter was eating the meal that only belongs to believers. Jesus told Peter and the other disciples that his body was broke for them and his blood was shed for them.

We need to remember that Peter was the one in Matthew 16 .18 who proclaimed that Jesus is the

Christ, the son of the living God. Peter is a believer, and he shows his belief through his repentance, and Jesus would receive him as he repented.

That's a good word for us. If you're repentant, you have fellowship with the

Lord. It's the people who aren't repentant who do not have fellowship with him.

The people who will populate heaven are not those who are good on their own merit. Heaven will be populated with people who understand their sin as a great offense against God, and all believers believe in Jesus, who paid the full penalty for one's sins at the cross.

Peter's story is a story of restoration. At the end of the Gospel of John, there's a sweet episode where Jesus has a conversation with Peter.

I read this for the call to worship. In there, Jesus says to Peter, Feed my sheep.

Then John records, after saying this, Jesus said to Peter, Follow me. When Jesus had this conversation with Peter, Peter was restored, and even though Peter was cowardly in denying

Jesus three times, Peter would not be cowardly the rest of his life. Look at how

Judas' life ends, and how Peter's life ends. It's completely different.

The third and fourth century historian, Eusebius, records that Peter was martyred for his faith in Christ, and he was crucified upside down.

And he was crucified upside down at his request, because he was not worthy to be crucified the same way as his

Lord. Look at this amazing turn in Peter's life.

As he repented, there was a path forward, and what a triumph his life became.

When his faith was young, he was a coward. But as he grew, he became a man full of courage.

And this should be great motivation to us. We looked at Daniel, we're looking at Daniel right now, and we talked about how

Daniel was faithful. Daniel was a mature believer. So when the edict came where his life was on the line, from Darius the

Mede, he wasn't going to obey the order that goes against his faith in God.

So he stands firm in his faith, and he's thrown into the lion's den. Daniel was a mature believer.

He was ready for that moment. The question is, are you ready? Am I ready to face what's coming upon us?

Peter was not ready at this point. He was cowardly. But he would be ready down the road.

That's a question we need to ask ourselves. Our country is godless. Our country is moving away from the

Bible. And it has departed from the Bible. It did a long time ago. The question is, are we going to stand with Christ when it's unpopular?

Because it will be a cost to follow Jesus. There is a sobering passage that we've already seen in Matthew, in chapter 10, verse 33, where Jesus said,

Whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

But the verse before that, in verse 32, says this, Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my

Father who is in heaven. We should not be ashamed of our relationship with Jesus Christ.

The story of Peter should teach us, he did deny Jesus before others, but this would not be the story of his life.

This would not be the pattern. The pattern of his life would show that he did not deny Him. This should be the aim for everyone.

That we would understand that the world hates Jesus, and it will hate you. Jesus said this in John 15, 18,

And knowing that the world will hate you, we'll always stand with Him, no matter what the cost is.

We have to mark it down. I'm going to be faithful to Jesus no matter what. If it means fines.

If it means imprisonment. I mentioned last week the pastor in Canada, who protested the drag queen hour.

Well, guess what? He got released from prison. You know what he did? He went back to protest. What happened again?

He got arrested. He might be fined now. He might serve some time in jail. He's committed himself.

I am going to take a stand, and I'm going to trust the Lord to take care of me. How many Christian leaders are like that?

Very few. Very few. This is a modern day hero.

He's following in the steps of the disciples, who would give their lives for their faith in Jesus.

I don't think seminary prepares people for what it truly means to be a

Christian leader. I'm not saying that everything seminaries do is bad. They do a lot of good things.

How many sermons are being preached? You might get your head chopped off for being a pastor.

Go somewhere else. Do something else. It's not just the pastor. It's Christians. Every layman, you might get your head chopped off for following Jesus.

This is not a seeker -sensitive church. You can tell that right now. Are we ready to understand that this is what true

Christianity is? Look at the Bible. Look at the prophets. Look at Jesus.

Look at John the Baptist. Look at the apostles. Look at church history. Look at what's happening to modern faithful people.

Are we planning just to enjoy our 401ks? It's just so foreign to the

Bible. We need to be faithful no matter what. We're going to have to contend for our faith.

The calling is to live for Him and endure through the Lord's strength, the hostility that will come your way.

What we see here is that once again, Jesus experiences suffering even before He reaches the cross.

He told His disciples that they would fall away, and they did. And what even hurt worse was the fact that His closest disciple,

Peter, sinned against Him in this great way. He was afraid to be associated with Jesus.

He was ashamed. At this point, He took the easy route. He didn't want them to find out that He was one of His disciples and what would happen to Him if they did.

They hated Jesus, and they hated anyone associated with Him, so the disciples distanced themselves from Him.

Peter tried to be loyal to Him, but he failed miserably when the test came. He denied

Jesus before men three times. And when he realized what he had done, he was broken over it.

As Jesus made eye contact with him, as the Luke account says, this would have broken Jesus.

Jesus had just been sentenced to crucifixion. But what even hurt worse was that His friend,

His closest disciple, Peter, denied Him before men. You can see

Jesus saying, this is where our friendship is, that you will not even acknowledge that you know Me, let alone say that you are

My disciple. Jesus knew Peter was going to do this to Him, but it would still have hurt tremendously.

But all of this came upon Jesus because He was willing to give Himself up for your sake.

And as we read this narrative, going back to verse 30, as we've seen the suffering that He endured, that's a reminder,

He did this because He had to. And He did this willingly, and He did it for you. He was willing to give

Himself up for your sake. As He gave Himself up and was turned over to the Jewish leaders, what came from this was abandonment from His disciples who were weak in faith, and the most painful from His closest disciple,

Peter. But Jesus endured all of this suffering for your sake. He was humiliated and abandoned.

This was the road He had to endure to be your sacrifice at the cross. There was no other way for Him.

He knew this was going to come upon Him. And even though He knew it was going to come upon Him, it still hurt tremendously for Him to see this.

It grieved Him. But He did it. He did it for you and for me. Know that Jesus experienced enormous suffering even before the cross.

And the fifth way how, is by undergoing betrayal from His closest disciple.

Undergoing betrayal from His closest disciple. Next Sunday we are going to look at the sixth and final point of this

Five Sunday Sermon. And what we're going to see is that it's not only the Jewish leaders who put

Him on trial and sentenced Him to be crucified. Now He's going to go to a people who are pagans.

And He's going to have to submit Himself to them too. To even heighten this humiliation that He had to endure.

But this time, let's bow our heads in prayer. Father in Heaven, I do thank

You for Your Word. It's living and active. It's sharper than any two -edged sword. And Lord, You are able to apply this text to everyone in this room, to everyone who can hear my voice, right where they are at.

And so my prayer is that the Holy Spirit would do that. For some it might be salvation.

If anyone here does not have a relationship with Christ, my prayer is that that person would understand that he or she is a sinner and that Jesus is the only

Savior. And that He went to cross to die for their sins and that they would turn and believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ. For some, Lord, it's to be challenged, to be more committed to You, to be prepared to not deny

You before others. And for all of us, Lord, this is a great reminder of what

Jesus did for us. And this should fill our hearts with gratitude and appreciation, knowing that He did all of this so that we can be saved.