The Arrest of Jesus - Death to Life - Matthew S7E2

Amen, and amen. Hey, if you got your Bibles, Matthew, chapter 26 is where we are gonna be. I warned you last week that as we approach the cross, and we're getting really, really close in our study in the Gospel of Matthew, we're one chapter away as we approach the cross, it's just gonna get more and more intense. And also, just a little confession, I'm fighting something, I think I got the crud, so pray for me, and I'm gonna try to preach for the cough drop, and so if I choke to death, I'll see you in heaven. (congregation laughing) And if it flies out on the front row, if you could just dust it off and bring it back, I'd appreciate it, thank you. So we are in season seven, we've been studying the Gospel of Matthew, we're gonna talk about the arrest of Jesus in Matthew, chapter 26. And there's a reason that we call it death to life. Now, ultimately the reason we call it death to life is 'cause that's what's gonna happen in Jesus. We're gonna see him die, we're gonna see him resurrected. But we also call it death to life because you are gonna have the opportunity in this service to go from death to life. Because some of you are spiritually dead, you don't know Jesus and you're not walking in the eternal life that he has for you.

And today, in about 45 minutes or so, you're gonna have the opportunity to put your faith and trust in Jesus and go from death to life. Because the reality is this, I know you didn't think about this all day 'cause you were just doing whatever you do today. 'Cause we're all busy and we have things to do and people to raise and jobs to do and places to be. I get all that, but the reality is, if you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord in Savior, then what's actually happening is you are dangling by a thread over the very flames of the fire of hell for all eternity and time is running out. And nobody woke up thinking about that. And time is running out. There is a clock right here and it is my nemesis every week. It's just ticking down and down and down and down and then it's gonna turn red and my time is up. And for every single one of us, either Jesus is gonna return like we talked about a couple of weeks ago or you are gonna breathe your last and you have a clock and the difference between that clock and your clock is I can see how much time I have left and you can't see it. And it is but by the grace of God that you're not already inhale and if we do not repent and put our faith in Jesus Christ, then that is our eternity. And I know what some of you are thinking, are you trying to scare me? And I would say, are you not terrified?

I'm terrified for you. I am, I am terrified for you. And if you could just get a glimpse of what eternity apart from Christ was like you would be terrified too and you should be scared. I'm not trying to scare you. I'm just trying to tell you the reality of what the Bible says is realer than real and you should be scared. However, this is a big, big, big, however. Fear will never save you. Fear will never save you. Faith will, trust will. Being scared of hell will never make you know Jesus. And it's the love of God that draws us to him, not being afraid of him. It's the love of God that changes our hearts to see that we're not merely avoiding hell but that Christ offers us a relationship with him and then what really begins to happen when the scales fall off of your eyes is that you see him for who he really is and it's not necessarily about what we're avoiding but what we're getting and what we get is him and he gets us and he is the prize. And so this is what we're talking about. Charles Spurgeon, one of the greatest preachers to ever live says this. I love this quote so much. He says, oh brothers and sisters in Christ,

if sinners will be damned at least let them leap to hell over our bodies and if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees imploring them to stay and not madly to destroy themselves. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions and let not one go there unworn and unprayed for. So I've been praying that if you don't know, Matthew chapter 26. I told you it was going to be intense. Verse 47, we're picking up right where we left off last week. They have the-- the Lord's Supper. Jesus tells Peter, you're going to deny me three times. Jesus says, one of you is going to betray me. Turns out it's going to be Judas. So he said, Jesus says to Judas, be about your business. Go do it. That's right where we pick up. The boys have now gone to the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus has prayed with such intensity that he's sweating like drops of blood. And he says, father, to be any other way for this cup to pass from me, not my will, but thy will be done. Verse 26, and while Jesus was still speaking, Judas came, one of the 12. And with him a great crowd with swords and clubs. From the chief priests and the elders of the people, most commentators will say there was about 600 soldiers that came to arrest Jesus. This is not a small crowd.

Verse 48, now the betrayer had given them a sign saying, the one I will kiss is the man, sees him. And so Judas came up to Jesus and at once, and he said, greetings, Rabbi, remember last week when Jesus says, one of you will betray me. And the disciples begin to say, is it I, Lord? Is it I, Lord? Is it I, Lord? Is it I, Lord? And there was one of the 12 that did not call him Lord, but called him Rabbi. He continues to know Jesus as a teacher, but he has not surrendered his life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. And he kissed him. None will get weird there. This is just a typical normal first century greeting. Think about like a mob movie, you know, those big mobster men, and then when they see each other, they be like, how you doing? You know that thing? I don't know if he said how you doing, but that's how they would do it, all right? And so he, he kissed him. Why do the soldiers need a sign? Well, they need to know which one Jesus is. First and foremost, the Roman guards, they're not paying attention to this man that claims to be the son of God. They don't really care.

They believe in about a million God, so whatever. And also they can't like look him up on Facebook or Instagram and be like, I think this is what he looks like. They don't have a mugshot in the post office. And so when Judas comes and makes this deal, which we read about earlier, and he says, "Hey, what would you give me if I turned over "what he would have called an insurrectionist?" Then they said, "We'll give you 30 pieces of silver." And he's like, all right, I'm gonna show you who he is. And he betrays him with a kiss. Verse 50, "And Jesus said to him," I'm just gonna tell you when I read this and the tree's staying this week, it blew me back. Never read the Bible, and you've read the same thing a bunch of times, and then one time you see it, you're like, when did you add that word? I've never seen that word. Has that word always been there? It has, but look at this, and Jesus said to him, the man that is in the action of betraying him. And Jesus said him, friend, do what you came to do. Now, if you really dig into the Greek of this word, you know, all the commentators will say this was, it's kind of like a common what you called somebody, but here's the thing, man, Jesus calls him friend, the man that is about to betray Jesus. I kind of think he's giving him like this one last chance. Friend, we've been together for three years. What I'm about to go do would count for you

if you would repent and follow me. Friend, he offers him friendship. We're gonna look at John chapter 18, also in a minute, because all four of the gospel writers, they use all kind of different details in the telling of the events that happen. And one of the things that John says in John 15 is that Jesus looks at his disciples, this would have been not a long time before this, like the same night. He looks at his disciples and he says this very famous verse. He says, "Greater love has no one than this, that he would lay his life down for his friends." And then Jesus says, "And that's what I call you, friends." The almighty sovereign king and judge of the universe would call us friend and he offers friendship to Judas. And this is more important for your life right now. And he offers that kind of friendship to you right now. Right now, friend, do what you came to do. And then they came up and laid hands on Jesus, not in kind of like the Pentecostal way, but more like the UFC way. One of the things that's amazing here is it's one thing to pray that I will be done and then it's another thing to do that I will be done. That Jesus actually does the will of the Father, that Jesus does not resist the will of the Father. Do you? 'Cause I can tell you man, about three nights in the saturated,

I'm pretty spiritually juiced up. I'm pretty saturated. And I wanna, I mean, I'm ready to go attack hell with a water gun. God just speaks to me, here I am. Send me, my yes is on the table. But how many of us, when we begin to take the steps of obedience and then it gets hard, then we begin to resist the very thing that we ask God to show us. And here's how to play out in our Christian life, man, is that we will pray about things and we will sense a direction from God and then when it gets hard, we'll begin to blame God. Well, I guess that door just wasn't open. You know, sometimes the spirit of God tells you to kick down some doors. I just can't find any place in the scripture where God ever calls somebody to the easy, not one. Never is it, well, here's what I'm calling you to do. Do things that make you more comfortable, say lie, not one time ever in all of the Bible. And so they came and they laid hands on Jesus and they take control of him, they seize him, verse 51. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. All right, gift to class. Who's the one of them that did that?

Anybody know? Peter, well, John's gonna tell us who it is. We'll get there in a minute. I think John had a little bit of a rival with Peter. This is just me, this is not in the Bible. This is complete conjecture. I don't think John, I mean, he loves Peter 'cause there are brothers in Christ and all the things you gotta do. But I think you kinda, Peter got on his nerves a little bit. 'Cause Peter screws up all the time and then Jesus puts Peter in charge of everything. And so every time John can like poke a little bit, he's like, well, I'm the one he loved. And when we get to the resurrection text, you'll see this only in the gospel of John. Three times John makes it explicitly clear that Peter and John race to the tomb and John can outrun Peter. That's in the Bible, three times. So Matthew is like, you don't really matter who it does. And then John's like, Peter, Peter did it. He's shopping off ears. Now I identify a lot with Peter. I've told you many, many times before, not in his greatness, but in his weakness. He makes me feel better about being a disciple 'cause if you'll remember right before this, they're sitting at the Lord's Supper. And Jesus says, one of you will betray me.

And Peter's like, not me. And Jesus looks at him as like actually three times before the rooster crows. And Peter's like, no, I would die for you even if all these would turn away. That's what he says begins to compare himself. Even if all of these were to abandon you, not me ever. And then Jesus is like, yeah, you. And so we'll cut, like, I don't know how many minutes later this is, maybe an hour or something. And then here comes 600 soldiers and Peter's like, now's my chance. And so they go to seize him and Peter's like, seize this, swing pulls out his sword. And he's like, hi, chop this man's ear off. Two of the gospels tell us it was his right ear. Very specific. A lot of people ask why. Pastor Robbie Gallady that was here, he was saying that Peter was trying to intentionally mane this guy because he worked in the temple court and he would never be allowed to go back. Maybe. I'm probably still in the camp then that like not only was he careless with his mouth, he was careless with his sword. I don't think he was actually like, and to the ear, I don't think so. I think he's trying to chop his head off

and he just got ear. I think that's what happened. And if I were there, I mean, if I didn't, you know, know what happens here and Peter cuts off in the ear, I'd probably be like, get him, Pete. You can't, come on. You kind of rise up on me and try to get our savior. We'll cut off everybody's ear, you know? I'd be ready to fight. I'm always looking for a little like justified violence, you know? And I bet Peter right when he did it, he's like, I told you, should me leave you and forsake you. And this one guy was like, huh, you know, 'cause he can't hear. Sorry, I told you, say it again. Anybody else wants some, he thinks, he thinks. I'm killing it. Which, by the way, Christian. blameless. You ever met a Christian that loves Jesus and loves God's Word and might even have right motives and then the things they say and then the things they do, they look around and there's just ears laying all over like the office and you're like, "I told him God." He's like, "We ain't really got to chop the ear off ministry here." The craziest thing about this in my opinion, Luke is one of the gospel writers and he's a doctor and so he's always very concerned about the health and wholeness of all people and so he lets us know the detail that Jesus picks up the guy's ear and I imagine he looks at Peter, he's like, "Bruh, seriously?" And he puts the ear back on and heals the man.

Now the craziest thing in my opinion is the guy still arrests Jesus. I'm just telling you man, if I was on team Judas and somebody cut my ear off and then the guy I'm arresting and put my ear back on, I'd be like, "I'm switching teams. I'm on the ear healer guy, man." Who takes the office sword, he chops the man's ear off, verse 52. And then Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword back into its place for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will at once send me more than 12 legions of angels?" That's at least 72,000 angels. "Bruh, there's some stories in the Old Testament where our angels shows up and wipes out an entire army, 72,000 angels." And by the way, like when you hear angel, it doesn't mean what you think of me. It's not like a little chubby baby in a diaper like shooting bows and unsuspecting lovers. That's not what angels do and it has nothing to do with underwear. These are like warrior messengers of God and 72,000 of them right here, right now. Do you think I'm not in control? If I wanted to stop these events, I could stop these events right now, verse 54. But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so? Here's what he's saying. "Peter, do not try to thwart God's plans. Do you think I need help?" And he says that the scriptures will be fulfilled. God's will always is an alignment with God's word every single time. So if you ever think God told you to do a thing that is different than what he told all of us, somebody's wrong and it ain't God. So if you look at the Bible and you read it and you're like, "Well, I don't like that." You're wrong, period. And so Jesus is saying, "The scriptures must be fulfilled. I have already set my nose towards Jerusalem, towards the cross."

And by the way, this one's just for free as an aside, this whole text here is not a passage about pacifism, but about obedience to the plan of God. I mean, everybody believes violence is required sometimes. The pacifist just outsources it to other people. And so listen, man, if you don't want to go fight in a war or whatever, that might be okay. But if you're a dad and a husband, when you said, "I do," and you stepped into the responsibility to be provider and protector, you lost whatever ideological right you think you have to just not pick up a sword when it's time to pick up a sword. That's just a fact. All right. Feel free to email me. I won't read it. It'd be awesome. And at that hour, Jesus said to the crowds, "Have you come out against a robber?" This robber might not be strong enough a word. This would be like an insurrectionist. This would be somebody that's trying to overthrow the government. This would be that kind of thing with swords and clubs to capture me. Day after day, I sat in the temple teaching, and you didn't seize me, but all this has taken place that the scripture of the prophets might be fulfilled. And then all the disciples left him and fled. Just like he said, they were going to do, including Peter. Now, I know we're studying Matthew, but I want you to hop over to John. In John chapter 8, this is the exact same event, and you're going to see a lot of different details. In case you're new to Bible study, there are four different gospel writers, two of which which were eyewitnesses to Matthew and John were disciples of Jesus, and they are recounting the things that they remember

as they are led along by the Holy Spirit. And then Mark was a disciple of Peter, and so he interviews Peter one-on-one, and that's his account. And Luke doesn't come along until Acts, and he joins up with Paul on his missionary journeys, and Luke interviews a whole bunch of different people as he is putting together what he calls an orderly account when he writes Luke and Acts. And a part of the reason that the details are different is one of the things that you realize is that this was not conspired, that after the resurrection of Jesus, and as the church begins to grow and go as the disciples and Mark and Luke, they're like, somebody should write this down, they could just say and all the things to each other, and they did not conspire, they did not all huddle up in one room and be like, "Hey, what did you get for the transfiguration?" Let's all say the same thing. And some of the reasons, some of the details may be different, it's the same event, but this is just eyewitness testimony. And if you've ever watched like a court case, there will be many people that see the same event, and some of the things just stand out more to them than others, and each writer has a different audience, and so they're just talking about the same event. And so here's the details that John decides to include. John 18, and when Jesus, so we're backing back up,

this is like a Tarantino sermon, okay? Like we went to the end, now we're gonna jump back and we're gonna do it again with some different details. And when Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Brooke Kidron, where there was a garden which he and his disciples entered, and that he just says not even talk about the garden of Gethsemane and the prayer and that will be done, he just skips over that for whatever reason. First two, now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place for Jesus often met there with his disciples. So Judas, when he goes and makes this deal and says, "What will you give me if I turn him over to you?" They said, "We'll give you two, 30 pieces of silver." And he's like, all right, follow me, I know where he's going. Because one of the things that Jesus often did, a normal habit in his life is that he would go to a certain place and he would go to pray. And so Judas is like, follow me, verse three, so Judas having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees. He went there with lanterns and torches and weapons, and then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and he says, there's Judas, there's some chief priests, there's a bunch of soldiers, and there's like maybe 600 in total, and he asked this question, "Whom do you seek?" Now, why do you think he asked this question?

Do you think he's not, he doesn't know what they're doing? It just said, knowing all that would happen to him. He's not asking this question for his own sake, he's asking it for Judas to say, and he asks, "Whom do you seek?" So let me ask you, whom do you seek? Or what is it you're actually looking for? Have you asked yourself that question? If you're honest, and I know this is a church, no place for honesty, but if you're honest with yourself, don't say it out loud, it'll be embarrassing, all the time what we're actually looking for is ourselves. That's what we're looking for. I mean, we are raised in a culture where the air we breathe is all about me. It's about me, it's about mine, it's about my happiness, it's about my rights, it's about what can you do for me, it's about what can this, how can this benefit me? We are looking for us, and if you spend an entire lifetime pursuing yourself and only yourself at the end of your life, that's all you're gonna have, it's just you. And I got terrible news about you. You're not that good to you. Has anybody lied to you more than you? Has anybody let you down more than you? Has anybody broken more promises to you than you? I mean, if you were your friend, and you treated you the way you treat you, you would not be your friend.

Has anybody ever talked more trash about you than you? And yet we try to be the center of our own universe. This is, we're in this constant pursuit of happiness. It's why we try to make the money that we try to make, so we think it's gonna bring us satisfaction or security. It's why we work as much as we do, because we're trying to prove ourselves. It's why we buy the stuff that we buy because we're thinking about us. It's why we try to gain influence. And even in religion, if you pursue religious activity for yourself, then ultimately what you're doing is saying, so what can I do so that I can be blessed and get mine? And Jesus says, whom do you seek? it is an empty pursuit and you'll get to the place where you lay your head on the pillow and you think, "Is this it?" And you've come to a place where you realize this ain't it, man. And so you stop just seeking you and you start seeking truth. And all who seek Jesus, you'll find Him. And the reason that you'll find Him is because He's actually seeking you. He says, "Whom do you seek?" Verse 5 and they answered, "Jesus of Nazareth." Think about it, man. They're big. They're bad. They're soldiers. They're about to take over, you know. Whom do you seek? And they answered, "Jesus of Nazareth." And Jesus said to them, "I am," and English says, "I am He that He is not there in Greek."

We just did it because it makes more sense in English. That's not what He said. He actually just says, "I am." Who do you seek? Jesus. And He says, "I am." And they drew back and they fell on the ground. And if you're like, "Well, what's happening?" Oh, man. In the Gospel of John, John writes his gospel really more from like a heavenly eternal perspective. This is why the Gospel of John starts out. Not, you know, there's no Christmas story in the Gospel of John. There's no mangers. There's no shepherds, Santa Claus, and all of a sudden, there's no way there. It just starts out with, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the Word was with God." That's how it starts. And then in verse 14 it says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." And it's seven times in the Gospel of John Jesus makes these, "I am statements." Like I am the good shepherd. I am the way the truth and the life. All these things. I am a gate. I am the resurrection in life. And that phrase, "I am," is the covenant name of God. When Moses was in the wilderness and he sees the bush on fire, but it's not being consumed. I talked about it some time in the past and he gets to it and God tells to him, "You go until Pharaoh let my people go." And eventually Moses is like, "Okay, all right, I'm in, but who shall I say sent me? What's your name?"

And God says, "My covenant name is Yahweh," is the Hebrew word. It's supposed to sound like breath. Like you breathe in, you breathe out. Yahweh, I am as close to you as your next breath. And the way that gets translated in English is, "I am that I am." So what Jesus is saying seven times in the Gospel of John, which is the number of completion, is that I am completely God. And so they show up. They're big, they're bad. They got all the power. They got the control. They got the swords. They got the muscles. They have the credentials to put him in prison. And they say, "Who you looking for?" And they say, "Jesus of Nazareth." And then he claims it, "Yahweh, I am." I think he does a little bit of a son of God flex on him, because when they hear this, let the bodies hit the floor. Boom, they're down. Jesus is letting them know who's actually in charge of this situation. Because Jesus is going to say, "No one takes my life for me. I'm going to lay it down willfully." That's what's about to happen. So here's their 600 soldiers, they're all laying on the ground. And Jesus asks them again, "Whom do you seek?" And they say, "Probably with a little less conviction this time." Jesus of Nazareth, and then I got, I mean, I wonder, are they still laying on the ground like the Bible doesn't tell us? And Jesus told them, "I told you I am."

So in all of these verses where it says in English, "I am here," it's not what it says, it says, "I am, I am, I am." I told you that I am. So if you seek me, let these men go. This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken of these whom you gave me, "I have lost not one." So Jesus runs cover for the 11 disciples. And now, if you look at this, what do you mean he didn't lose any? Didn't he lose Judas? Well, this is more evident that Judas was never his to begin with. He only knew him as teacher and not as Lord. And that's damnable for Judas. That promise from Jesus ought to bring you great comfort. Sometimes, oftentimes, you know, I get the same about 10 questions as a pastor, and one of the questions I get to ask on repeat is this, is that can a Christian lose their salvation? Not according to Jesus, okay? It's not like your car keys. It's not like, where'd I put my salvation? It's not how it works. And because you didn't do anything to earn it, then you can't do anything to be disqualified from it. The real question is not can I lose my salvation, can I do something so that God's, that I am separated from the love of God, Romans 8 just deals with that right on the nose and says, no, there's nothing that can separate you from the love of God. The actual question is, can God lose one of his kids? No, no, no, you can't lose your salvation.

You can fake it, and that's terrifying, but you can't lose it. He said, of those whom you gave me, I have lost not one. Then Simon Peter, having the sword, John's gonna give a lot of details about this. Simon Peter and the sword, maybe that's why we're unslow. drew it and struck the high priest servant and cut off his right ear. Again, maybe the right motive, but the wrong action. And the service name was Malchus. And again, Luke lets us know in his gospel that Jesus healed the dude, verse 11. And so Jesus said to Peter, put your sword into its sheath, and then he tells him why. He doesn't say put your sword into your sheath because there's never at a time to use the sword. That's not what he says. He says, put your sword into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup that the father has given me? He's like, Pete, this is not your will be done. This is not my will be done. Father, this is thy will be done. Do not get in the way of God's redemptive plan for his people. If you go all the way back to Caesarea Philippi, if you'll remember after Jesus transfigures himself, no, I'm sorry, when Caesarea Philippi, Jesus declares upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And then in that place, he lays out the gospel.

He says, I'm gonna be arrested, I'm gonna be tried, I'm gonna be crucified, dead, and buried. And Peter comes up to him and says, not on my watch, boss. The Bible says that he rebukes Jesus. And he says, may it never be so. And if you'll remember, it's in that place where Jesus says, get behind me Satan. Same things playing out here. Jesus is saying, do you not understand? It is the Father's will for me to drink the cup of wrath, for me to pay the full and final payment for the sins of anyone who would believe. And so, part of the reason I wanted to turn to John is this, is the way John lays this thing out. Is that there are four players in this event. I specifically don't use the phrase characters in this story 'cause this is not a story, this is an event. Like if this happened yesterday, I witnessed news would be there and we would have it. And everybody would put it all over Instagram and stuff. This is an actual event, this actually happened. And there are four different players represented by these four chairs. There's Jesus, he was there. There's Peter, he's chopping off ears. There's Judas the betrayer, and then I'm gonna lump everybody else into one category and then there are the soldiers. The question I want you to ask yourself is, based on my life, what I believe and the way I live my life,

which one of these chairs am I currently sitting in? I'll explain, the first chair is Jesus. Now, if you immediately are like, that's probably my chair. It's probably not. (congregation laughing) But it couldn't should be. And what I mean is this, man, Jesus at the beginning of his teaching ministry starts with blessed are the poor in spirit. You don't ever graduate from that. But just for the sake of what I'm talking about, Jesus is the one surrendered to the Father's will. Jesus is the one that says not my will, but your will be done. Jesus is the one that takes steps of obedience in the direction that his Father said to go. And so in reality, if you have ever put your faith in Jesus Christ, we are not perfect like him. We are made perfect by him. When God sees us, he sees us wrapped in the robe of righteousness that Christ earned for us. But even in our struggles in humanity, I hope and pray there are times in your life where you are being conformed into the image and likeness of Christ. That is what you have been predestined for according to Romans 8.29. I hope and pray there are times in your life where God has called you to do hard things

and you will step forward and do those hard things. The Bible says in the book of Ephesians that we have been seated with. And it says it past tense because it's not like, if I do good things, then maybe one day I'll be seated with him. It's because of what he has done for us, and we put our faith in him that we have been seated with him. That Philippians says that we should walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. And that means because we've been run over by the grace train, our whole life changes. And God lives in us and through us. It's not if I can get things right, then I can earn my position with God. This is what it means to be surrendered. This is what it means to sit in this chair. And I'm just going to give you a preview in the next series that we do in the Book of Matthew. We're doing a series called Neighbors to Nations. And we're going to ask every single person at our church, whether you attend online or an outpost or in person, whatever, we're going to ask every single person to go before the Lord and say, God, in this season of our church, what are you asking us to do as a family? Or what are you asking me to do? What's my next step of obedience? And he's going to call you to do some stuff. And it's going to be hard. And you might get into a wrestling match. And you've got one of two options.

My will be done, or thy will be done. And so in this scenario, this is the one that's surrendered. Now way over here, these are the soldiers. Now on the surface, these are the anti-Jesus people. They're going to arrest them. They're going to try him. They're going to whip him. They're going to put a crown of thorns upon his head. And now, you may say, well, obviously, I'm not anti-Jesus. I'm not in that chair. Well, what if I frame it this way? These are the people that think they stand in authority over Jesus. You ever sat in that chair? Let me tell you how this plays out in your life. This is the person that sits down with their Bible, not under its authority, but in authority over it. A friend of mine named Pastor Carlos at Lake Point Church, he calls this build-a-bear Christianity, or cafeteria Christianity. You ever done that? You're kind of working your way through the line. He'd be like, ooh, grace. Let me give me a bunch of build-a-bear grace. That's, oh, Lord, yeah, forgiveness. Oh, I'm going to put some gravy on that right here, you know? And then you get to things like, well, God says to do with money, and you're like, no. Well, what God says to do or not do in your bedroom, and you're like, eh.

Or how to entertain ourselves, like, no, I don't think so. You see, when we do that, we think we stand in authority over Jesus, and we get to tell him what to do. If that's you, then you haven't surrendered your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. At best, you've tried to use Jesus as an addition to the way you want to live your life. And when Jesus says to them, whom do you seek? And they say, Jesus of Nazareth. And he says, I am, remember man, boom, they hit the ground. And it is a foreshadowing of the most real thing that you'll ever hear in your life. It is a foreshadowing that there is coming a day. There is coming a day when Christ will return. And if you say to me, do you actually believe it? The reason I believe it is because he said he was going to be crucified dead buried on the third day, resurrected from the grave. So if he came through on that bet, I'd go all in on everything else. He says it's going to happen. And when he comes back, he ain't coming back tender and meek and mild. He's not coming back eight pounds, six ounces, swaddling, that ain't what's happening. That the trumpet is going to blast and he's coming back with firing his eyes, a sword out of his mouth, tattoos on his quad to judge us. And the Bible says that every knee will bow and every tongue confess Jesus as Lord.

The question is Lord of what? He'll either be Lord of your salvation or He'll be Lord of your damn nation. And so we do have two options. Every knee will bow. And if we bow our knees to him now and call him King Jesus, then he will lift us up in our time. But if we stand on our own and say, forget you, I don't need you, then the next time you bow, you will be judged. If that's you, I beg you, repent, repent and put your faith in Jesus. Now these other two chairs, these are the two disciples that play a very key role. There's Peter and there's Judas. This is the part that scares me to death. In my lecture, in my lecture, in my lecture, in my lecture, in my lecture, in my lecture, Until the last week of Judas' life, I can't tell the difference. Like, from right here, everybody looks saved. Maybe not you, but everybody else looks safe. He's on staff, he better be. You get it? They both did the miracles. They both sat at the feet of Jesus. They both took communion with Jesus. They both had their feet washed. When Jesus sent them out two by two, they both cast out demons. They did all the things, man. And yet Judas didn't know him.

Judas didn't know him. Judas only knew him as a rabbi. These don't be adjacent to Jesus and misjesus. In fact, what becomes evident is that Judas loved money more than he loved Jesus. Because he sells Judas Jesus out for 30 pieces of silver. And you might say, "I would never betray Jesus your Instagram does." Your social life does, the way you treat your wife and home does, the way you talk about your husband when he's not around us. In fact, we betrayed Jesus for far less than 30 pieces of silver. And I'm telling you, one of the key warnings in the Scripture to church people on the day of judgment, have you read the end of the sermon on the Mount? He says, "There will come a day where many will cry out to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not do all kind of wonderful things in your name? Did we not feed the poor and sponsor kids that prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name? You would think if you're on the exorcism team, you're in. If you sit in the seat, Jesus looks at him and says, "Depart from me, I never knew you." Because it's not about what we do for him, it's about receiving what he has done for us on the cross. In reality, if we were observing, if we knew going into this, if the first thing Jesus would have ever said, or maybe when you were sitting at the table, when Jesus said, "One of you is going to betray me." Most of us, if you're honest about it, and you've been walking with the disciples for three years, you'd probably go, "I bet as Peter, I mean, look at his life." Nobody with it. It's not like the movies. You ever watch the Jesus movies? It takes you one second as soon as it gets all the 12 gathered up in every Jesus movie I've ever seen. You can always pick out Judas that make him look real creepy.

Everybody else has got a tan and he's all like pasty white, you know? He's like, "Isn't he a first-century Jew? What is he doing?" It's like a vampire, you know what I'm saying? He's got a little pointy channel, pointy nose. Everybody's got a white robe on, his is black, you know what I mean? Okay. That's not how it would have gone down. He was the treasurer, man. They trusted him with the money. If you remember, a couple of weeks ago, Mary and Martha's house after Lazarus got brought up out of the grave, and you remember, Mary comes in and she breaks the alabaster jar and she spends a year's worth of wages, anointing the feet of Jesus with it? And don't you remember what he says? Judas is like, isn't that an awful waste of money? Do you know how many poor people we could have fed with that? Do you know what we would do in the modern church with him? Be like, "Man, you ought to be on the board of trustees because you're so wise." Yeah. Peter's resume, it ain't awesome. I mean, think about Peter, right? He just caught off a dude's ear. He flies off at the mouth. He makes promises that he can't keep. That night, like within the next nine hours, he is going to deny that he's ever even known Jesus. He screws up everything, every opportunity that he ever gets that Jesus puts him in. He screws it up over and over and over again. They're on the mountain of transfiguration. There's Jesus displaying his glory.

There's Elijah. There's Moses. Like this is a really big deal. This is the personification of Romans chapter 3 that no one will be justified by the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to this alien righteousness. And the law, Moses and the biggest prophet Elijah are bearing witness to the Christ. And then Peter screws it all up. He sticks his head in and like it is good that we are here and then the voice of Behold my son in whom I am well, please. He screws up everything. I told you already, it says to real Philippi, Jesus calls him Satan. Don't raise your hands, but how much therapy have you been in because your parents called you names? How about the almighty son of God called you the devil? That's gonna leave a mark. He's out of step, right? He's the guy that when Jesus is walking out on the water, he's like, ooh, me, me, pick me, can I come out? And then what does he do? After a couple of steps on the water, he takes his eyes off of Jesus while he's participating in a miracle. And because of his fear, he begins to sink. And Jesus, when he gets back into the boat, looks at, this one looks at Peter and says, why so little faith? That's this guy, man. Peter almost screws up the Lord's Supper. Remember John 13, Jesus, to display his love

for his disciples, he gets up, he dresses himself as a servant, and he's walking around and he's washing his disciples' feet. And all the other disciples just receive it by grace. Like, I'm sure they're thinking I'm unworthy, but they receive it. Then he gets to Peter and Peter's like, be a good time for me to say a couple words, Jesus. You're not gonna wash my feet. And Jesus is like, well, if I don't wash your feet, I have no part with you, you're gonna go to hell. He's like, well, then just wash my whole body. Jesus is like, bro, you're a weird, why are you so weird, man? You're messing up communion. If we do it this way for the rest of the church's life, everybody's gonna have to strip down into the skivvies to do communion. Stop it. Can you just, you know, over and over and over, he's a screw up after a screw up after a screw up. One of the biggest ones, in John chapter six, Jesus feeds 5,000 people, which is actually about 15,000 people 'cause they only counted the dudes. And there's this huge crowd. Jesus knows the only reason they're following is 'cause they want their bellies full of stuff, not their hearts full of Jesus. And so Jesus teaches this message, which in my business, we call it a space maker.

Like if you got a crowd problem at your church, you just hammer the gospel and tell everybody they're dangling by a thread over hell, it'll thin it out a little bit. And he says, "Unless you eat my flesh or drink my blood, you have no part with me." And then he doesn't even explain it. I can explain it. He's talking about the cross and we're gonna celebrate the cross by taking communion, the bread and the cup, so that we remember the broken body and shed blood of Jesus on the cross. He's saying, "Apart from the gospel, "my atoning sacrifice on the cross, "you have no part with me." But he explains none of it. And everybody's like, "Ooh." I can imagine the note-takers, right? He says, "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood "and they're jotting that down, eat my flesh." Did he say flesh? He had to say fish. Did he say eat fish? He couldn't have said flesh. I mean, we're Jews. We can't eat pork much less, the prophet, you understand what I'm saying? And then he doubles down on it. And he's like, "Unless you feast on my flesh."

To eat is like, to feast is like the walking dead. It's like, "Ha-ha-ha-ha." You know what I mean? He explains none of it. The crowd begins to thin out. John chapter six, verse 66, that's weird. It says, "And from that day forward, "many of his disciples left him. "And he walks up to the disciples, "and he looks right at Peter, and he asks this. "Do you want to leave, too? "Have you ever found in the scriptures, "Jesus is asking random questions? "Why is he asking Peter if he wants to leave? "Because he wants to leave. "He knows the heart of every man. "All throughout the scriptures, "the Pharisees would think something, "and then Jesus would answer their thoughts. "And he says, "Do you want to leave, too? "And Peter's thinking, kind of. "I mean, I left a lucrative fishing business "with my dad, and I thought it was going awesome. "Because we had 20,000 people here on the hillside. "We're like the fastest growing ministry in Jerusalem, man. "They're going to write articles about us. "Let's go." And then you start talking about eating flesh and drinking blood, man. then he looks at Jesus and he doesn't say, "I'm the rock and I stand on faith and I am

confident of this." That is not what he says. The only little thing he can muster up is this, "Where else am I going to go?" You're the only one that offers eternal life. Does that sound like mega hero faith? That sounds like, I think you're my only option, but where else am I going to go? And you know what Jesus does with that? I can work with that. I can work with that. In fact, loud mouth, the biggest group of the bunch. One day I'm going to pitch you in charge. You're going to be the boss of everybody else. And I'll be at John's like, "What?" But anyway. So let me ask you, which seed are you in? Maybe you come to God with your own agenda and you have tried to stand in authority, over God and tell him how you're going to run your life. You need to repent to bend your knee to Jesus and say, "Your ways are better than my ways." In fact, my way is not working. And bend your knee, bow your knee to him so that when he comes back and you confess Jesus as Lord that he will be the Lord of your salvation. And many of you are believers in Jesus, but like Peter, man, your resume is just screwed up, mind too, mind too. It's like we sang, "Prawn to wander, Lord, I feel it, prawn to leave the God I love." So what do you do? The life of the believer is out of daily repentance. Just don't give up. My friend Matt Chandler says, "The greatest line, if we don't quit, we win. We don't quit, we win." So you say, "Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it, seal it for that court's above."

Maybe there's some area in your life and God has called you to hard. Surrender, trust him, trust him, because on the other side of every crucifixion, there's a resurrection. You cannot plead with you if you're a church person, and you think status or activity or who you're related to somehow earns your way to heaven, please don't miss Jesus, please don't miss him. In my mouth, right now, he stands before you, and he says, "Friend, do what you came to do." And I hope and pray by the sovereign hand of God that what you came here to do tonight is to receive the offer of friendship for the one who laid down his life to make that possible. If you've never put your faith in Jesus, I'm giving you that invitation tonight. Jesus, himself, is offering that relationship for you, so that no matter how many times you deny him or betrayed him or told him what to do, that when he pushed him on his nail pierce feet, he goes, "That's paid and full, that that is all covered, and whoever believes would receive the right to be in a right relationship with him." You just have to trust him. Would you bow your heads? Would you close your eyes? Would you spend just a little bit of time with the Lord? Before you listen to me pray, would you pray? If there are places in your life where you've just been bucking against Jesus and your finances and your identity and your sexuality and the grudge that you're holding, whatever that thing is, would you put yourself under the authority of his word and just repent? Say, "God, I'm sorry, I'm just all too highly of myself." Or maybe you're like Peter, you love Jesus so much. (gentle music) but the activities just aren't lining up with it. Would you repent? Say, "God, I need your help.

I need your help." Maybe you've got a big decision in your life, and maybe you would pray that you would have what the Bible calls the mind of Christ. Say, "Lord, would you conform me into the image and likeness of your son?" That I could say, "Not my will, but that will be done." And if there's anybody here, like Judas, and you've betrayed him because you've just sought yourself instead of the Savior, then maybe right now, in this time, you would put your faith in Jesus Christ. And when he looked at you in this very moment and said, "Friend," then you would receive that friendship, and you would call him your friend, too. And when he says, "Do what you come to do," that would be to admit it. I'm a sinner, I need a Savior. I believe I trust Jesus when you've done on the cross somehow that counted for me. So, God, I confess you as Lord. And so, if you were ready to put your faith in Jesus Christ for the very first time, I invite you to accept His invitation to be in His family, to be His friend, to receive salvation by the finished work of Christ. Would you lift your hand as high as you can? And say, "Here I am, Lord, save me." Are good and gracious Heavenly Father. God, we love you more than anything.

And God, I thank you that there's more love and grace in Jesus than sin and shame in us. And God, I thank you that you have demonstrated your love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ came and died for us. And so, God, the reality is, we kind of bounce between these four chairs all the time. But Lord, I pray that tonight we would sit down in the chair of your salvation, provided by the finished work of Christ on the cross. And Lord, I thank you that you came to save sinners like us, we prayed in Jesus' name, amen. Would you please stand to your feet as we respond? Other than the Jesus' chair, all of us need to repent. There are things in our lives that we need to come before the Lord and say, "God, change me, change me. I'm trying to change me, and I'm working. I need you to change me." So, if that's you, we would invite you to come and bow before Jesus, and just pray the honest prayer that's on your heart, man. And he'll hear it, and he'll do something about it. And we're going to join our voices together, and we're going to sing, we're going to make much of the one that calls us friend. We're not going to be like Jesus. I mean, Judas, we're not going to love money more than him. A big reason that we bring our first and our best

is that we're saying, every single time you do that, first and best, first and best, not leftovers. Every single time we do it, it is a declaration and an act of worship to say, "Jesus, I love you more." So let's bring, let's sing, let's pray, let's respond. [MUSIC PLAYING] ♪ Is it wonderful ♪