The Sovereign Lamb | Matthew 26:17-25

Scripture

• Matthew 26:17–25

About this sermon

Introduction: All around the Son of God the wolves have gathered. Meetings are being held in which it is determined that He must die, and that by stealth they would take Him and kill Him (vs.2). That plotting is as near to Jesus as the circle of His own disciples. There is one in his own company who has, of his own accord, volunteered to betray Jesus. His lack of love for Jesus, His blindness to the majesty of Jesus, is seen in the price that he accepts for his betrayal. He did it for the price of a slave, 30 pieces of silver. And this was something he initiated. He wasn’t sought out for this despicable act — he sought out the opportunity himself. WHAT MOTIVATED JUDAS ISCARIOT? Some have thought that this was a move on his part to force the circumstances by which Jesus would usher in His kingdom. Some have thought that this was bitterness acting itself out. Jesus has rebuked Judas’ objection to Mary’s beautiful act of worship with the perfume. Perhaps Judas, already frustrated that things aren’t going the way he imagined, and then suffering that rebuke from Jesus, decides to act with vengeance? The truth is, the Bible doesn’t supply a motive. The only clear motive that we have is the desire for money. This man was already a thief. This man was already stealing from the disciple’s funds. Maybe he’s driven (from the human perspective) by simple greed? We do not know. BUT WHAT WE DO KNOW IS THAT HIS BETRAYAL OF JESUS IS TREATED AS OUTRAGEOUS BY THE BIBLICAL RECORD. JUST FROM OUR OWN EXPERIENCE WE UNDERSTAND THE UGLINESS OF BETRAYAL. Sooner or later most people experience the sadness and the pain of betrayal. Someone proves unfaithful to you. Someone, perhaps at the time of your greatest need, proves to care nothing for you and acts in a way favorable to themselves. DISLOYALTY WHEN YOU HAVE LOVED THEM DISLOYALTY WHEN YOU HAVE BEEN FAITHFUL TO THEM DISLOYALTY WHEN YOU HAVE BEEN GOOD TO THEM DISLOYALTY WHEN YOU HAVE TRUSTED THEM Just from our own experience we know that betrayal is indeed a great sin. But there is no more outrageous act of betrayal than when Judas betrayed the Son of God. This is why the Bible describes Judas, and his betrayal, the way that it does. When the list of disciples is given in Matthew and Mark, Judas’ betrayal is emphasized. ESV Matthew 10:2 The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. When Jesus awakens His sleeping disciples at the time of His arrest, He uses the word “betrayed.” ESV Matthew 26:45 Then he came to the disciples and said to them, "Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. When Paul delivers instructions for the Lord’s Supper to the Corinthian church, he makes mention of Christ being betrayed on the night when Jesus instituted the supper. ESV 1 Corinthians 11:23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, Earlier in Christ’s ministry when professing disciples were offended as Jesus talked Himself as the bread come down from heaven, John wants us to know that Jesus already knows what Judas is. ESV John 6:60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." 66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. When John writes about the pretended indignation of Judas over Mary’s anointing of Jesus, he mentions the coming betrayal. ESV John 12:3 Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, 5 "Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?" 6 He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. When Jesus washed the disciples’ feet at the Last Supper, John notes the source of Judas’ desire to betray Jesus and Christ’s knowledge of i