"Immediately while He was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, *came up accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs, who were from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Now he who was betraying Him had given them a signal, saying, "Whomever I kiss, He is the one; seize Him and lead Him away under guard." After coming, Judas immediately went to Him, saying, "Rabbi!" and kissed Him. They laid hands on Him and seized Him. But one of those who stood by drew his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear. And Jesus said to them, "Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me, as you would against a robber? Every day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize Me; but this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures." And they all left Him and fled.
A young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they *seized him. But he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked."
Good Morning my beloved,
As I was studying this passage, there were many things that God has laid on my heart, things that really stir up a tremendous amount
of sadness in my heart, if you will indulge me, I'd like to share a few of them with you today, as we move closer to the cross. Jesus willingly suffered untold agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, unlike anything any human has ever been experienced, suffering that was so severe it nearly killed Him, as He prepared Himself to go to the cross to be crucified and die in place of
those of us who would believe on His name and the Gospel from the penalty of sin and do a life transforming cleansing work in every area of your life, so that the Holy Spirit could come and live inside every believer and begin to exhibit all the attributes of God and a desire to keep His commandments.
The author of Hebrews 10:22, says "Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." If we’re going to draw near God, we must come with a sincere heart, a pure heart without hypocrisy. The reality of loving the Lord your God with all your heart is to love what He loves and hate what offends Him. When come to Christ, we willingly submit to Him and commit ourselves to doing what the Lord says as is revealed to us in Scripture. That is the foundation of Christian living, that is how we know we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. In 1 John 2, John affirms that Truth, if you say you belong to Christ, then the reality of your claim will manifest itself in your obedience. In contrast, if you say you know God but do not obey His commands, you are lying. Obedience is the mark of a true child of God. Authentic salvation then could be described as obeying the Truth, the Gospel that purified your souls. What does the Gospel say? Repent and believe in the Gospel, that's not a suggestion, it's a command. From the moment you became a believer, you acknowledged Jesus and Lord and Savior. That's Romans 10:9-10, "That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."
I’m confident that most Christians today have no genuine understanding of the implications involved of what confessing Jesus as Lord means. By acknowledging Jesus as your Lord, you committed yourself to a life of obedience to Him and to faithfully serve Him as your Master, living a life that honors Him. Lord is the title bestowed upon a master; emphasizes one possessing supreme power, ultimate authority and rulership over all things, in all aspects of life, which carries significant moral implications, to obey God's standards of what is right and wrong and the importance of aligning themselves with His will. In other words, we acknowledge that God is complete control of our lives, submitting to His will to experience the profound impact of His love, forgiveness and grace. Grace does not mean that everybody is free to act independently of His will, doing whatever they please.
Paul writes in Romans 6:16-18, "Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness."
The problem is that the church has decided to compromise with the world, "re-educating" undiscerning Christians to not only tolerate sin, but accept the sins that the Bible clearly condemns, rather than to refrain from sin. As a result, sin
is not only being tolerated and accepted in the Church of Christ, it's flourishing. Let me be clear, Christ was so intolerant toward sin, He gave His life to rescue us that might triumph over sin and live according to the will of God. To reject Christ's teaching or any portion of it, is to reject Christ Himself. In Matthew 10:33, Jesus said "But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven." If you’re not applying the Word of God in your life, living in obedience from the heart, resulting in righteousness, everything is not fine, you are horribly deceived about your true spiritual condition.
It's like James says in James 1:22-24, "But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was." It's worth mentioning, this applies to anyone who hears the Word of God, and doesn't put it into practice! We glorify God by loving Him enough to obey His Word, love is the key to obedience. Love does no wrong, that's why love is the fulfillment of the law. People who don't know God, who do not love God, have no desire to obey His commands, they love their sin. So they avoid the Truth of God, they suppress the Truth because it calls them to accountability. And so it is with the stubborn, unregenerate, impenitent heart.
John 3:18, "He
who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been
judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." And in verse 36, "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." It may look as though sin is being tolerated, it's not. Every sin committed is being stored up waiting for the day when His patience reaches its holy end! For thousands of years, God has held back His wrath, those who have not been regenerated, will face their own judgment, no matter what they claim. We are living in a day where there is a rising trend of superficial Christians, who refuse to acknowledge their sin, think biblically about their sin that are inevitably headed to judgment. They have dishonored God, disgraced Christ and will receive exactly what they deserve, without excuse. I have every confidence that God would never send someone to Hell who didn’t deserve it, who never had a choice, He never judges without warning as revealed in Scripture, therefore, judgment is absolutely deserved. It is the responsibility of every believer to properly respond to God's Word.
Galatians 5:24, "Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."
There is so much deception being taught today, the "I'm ok, you're ok and God's ok" theology, that's why I'm constantly warning believer's
about sin and saving faith, because nothing is more important. In Matthew 7:21, Jesus said "Not
everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of
heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter." It is God's will that you repent and believe exactly what the Bible consistently teaches, not some man-centered variation of it. That's why Jesus tells us very clearly "the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it." I believe the churches today are filled with people who have been deceived, who possess a faith that does not save, they know nothing of living for the glory of God. They are concerned about their relationships with everyone but God, rejecting the teaching of Christ, on their way to Hell! Jesus emphatically said He will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!" Satan has effectively deceived millions of people, people who believe they are saved, with a false salvation that doesn't mean anything, that are not truly saved. Those who are truly saved love God, delight in His ways and have a longing to please Him, it is a love that involves a hatred for sin that leads to repentance and forsaking it. Those who are deceived will claim to love God, but will tolerate sin, make every excuse for the sin that offends Him. If you really have the saving faith that you claim, your thoughts, your speech, your actions will reflect that reality. In other words, your life is transformed, from the inside out, and will align with Scripture, so that God glorified. One who possesses true saving faith will deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow Christ, with an decreasing attachment to the world.
I believe the greatest assault on Christianity, the one that cuts more people off from true salvation, is the distortion of the Gospel, perverting the means of salvation for those who have no interest in the narrow way. I do not believe it is by coincidence that as we draw nearer and nearer to the return of our Lord Jesus Christ, the assaults against the Truth have dramatically increased, it's a matter of salvation. Satan doesn't care what people believe as long as it's not the Truth of God.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, thank You for Word, so clear to give wisdom to us that we otherwise could not have, to get a better understanding of the Truth, granted to us by Your grace. Lord, we pray that You would open blind eyes, that many will respond to the Truth that produces saving faith. Father, those of us who know and believe the Truth with confidence are so wonderfully blessed, Your Word is our anchor. May we be faithful to proclaim the true Gospel, because we have seen its power to deliver us from error to Truth, from darkness to Light, a power that is beyond us. Thank You for drawing us to Yourself and granting us this saving faith in Christ. In His precious name we pray.Amen
Today's Message: Betrayed with a Kiss
Open your Bibles with me, if you would, to Mark chapter 14 verses 43 through 52. This is an account we are all too familiar with, recorded in all four Gospels, the betrayal of Judas Iscariot and the arrest of Jesus. I can’t quite comprehend how anyone could spend three years in the presence of Jesus Christ, following Him every day, listening to His teaching, witnessing the many miracles He preformed and still remain an unbeliever, possessed by Satan himself who has taken over control of him. Judas was close, yet, so far away from true saving faith.
However, I believe this is exactly what is happening in the church today having compromised with the world, are delivering Satan's lies, claiming to be God's Word, while denying what God Himself calls sin, is really no sin at all, because Jesus loves you the way you are, you don't need to turn from your sin. This is a damning corruption intended to deceive God's people and affirm every form of sexual immorality and perversion, while giving them the illusion of salvation. This is exactly what Christ condemned the false religious leaders for in
Matthew 23, "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because
you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in
yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in." The truth is Jesus does love you, so much that He gave His life that you might be
forgiven of your sin and turn away from it. That's what "repentance"
means. He will accept you as you are, but rest assured, He will not leave you that way. If you're still practicing the same sinful behaviors you were before
coming to Christ, I strongly encourage you to examine yourself in Light of God's Word, to see if you
are truly in the faith, not deceived by those who are under the influence of Satan, and are tampering with it.
I trust that you will follow along with me as I read to set the text in our minds. Mark 14:43-52.
"Immediately while He was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, *came up accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs, who were from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Now he who was betraying Him had given them a signal, saying, "Whomever I kiss, He is the one; seize Him and lead Him away under guard." After coming, Judas immediately went to Him, saying, "Rabbi!" and kissed Him. They laid hands on Him and seized Him. But one of those who stood by drew his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear. And Jesus said to them, "Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me, as you would against a robber? Every day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize Me; but this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures." And they all left Him and fled.
A young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they *seized him. But he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked."
Let's look at verse 43, "Immediately while He was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, *came up accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs, who were from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders." While Jesus was still speaking, Judas shows up with the crowd carrying swords and clubs. The swords, carried by the Romans soldiers, called a "machaira," which was a short two-edged dagger, sharp on both sides, mainly used for slitting throats, to bring a quick end to life. The clubs belonged to the temple police used to control the crowds. John 18, fills in more details, telling us they came with torches and lanterns. Keep in mind, it was dark, sometime after midnight, so it was critical to be able to distinguish Him from the disciples for the purpose of arresting Him, they needed the light because it was assumed that He would try to escape into the darkness. There was no room for mistakes, they needed to be able to identify Him quickly in case somebody else pretended to be Him while He got away.
Verse 44, "Now he who was betraying Him had given them a signal, saying, "Whomever I kiss, He is the one; seize Him and lead Him away under guard." By the way, in Middle-Eastern culture it was not uncommon for men to
kiss each other on the cheek, as an act of affection, honor, love, respect, in fact, it
still is today. However, I believe Judas was thinking that by kissing Jesus, he would be able to ultimately deceive Him and the disciples, while identifying Him to those who came to arrest Him. It's interesting he would have chosen a kiss to betray Him, but in keeping with his deception, he went all out. This is hypocrisy at its finest. The Greek verb "kataphileō," means to kiss fervently, meaning Judas intensely and fervently embraced and affectionately kissed Him, it was ongoing. This was a dramatic show of phony affection to make it unmistakable exactly who He was. Satan always goes above and beyond what is necessary in order to deceive his prey, doesn't he? Matthew adds "Now he who was betraying Him gave them a sign, saying, "Whomever I kiss, He is the one; seize Him." Satan was certainly speaking through Judas.
Verse 45, "After coming, Judas immediately went to Him, saying, "Rabbi!" and kissed Him." I cannot even pretend to imagine what must have been going through Jesus'
mind as He stood there, being kissed repeatedly by Judas, knowing this act of
affection was merely a deceptive vice being used by the enemy. In Luke 22, Jesus noted the contradiction, saying "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?"
What
a disgusting, treacherous, devious plan this is. The fact that Judas was fulfilling the
plan of redemption as prophesied by the Old Testament prophets, does
not mitigate his guilt, remember, he had already chosen to betray Jesus, God
even uses the wicked to fulfill His plan. Matthew tells us Jesus said to him, "Friend, do what you have come for." Jesus didn't call Judas a friend at this point. He didn't use the word "etaire," or "phileo," He used the Greek word "hetaíros," meaning fellow, an imposter posing as a close companion. Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized Him." Judas' betrayal of Christ is now complete, Jesus has been identified to those around Him waiting to arrest Him, Mark tells us nothing more about Judas. Matthew chapter 27 tells us Judas stuck around after he betrayed Him, until morning, when he saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." But they said, "What is that to us? See to that yourself!" And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself. The
chief priests took the pieces of silver and said, "It is not lawful to
put them into the temple treasury, since it is the price of blood." And they conferred together and with the money bought the Potter’s Field as a burial place for strangers." Judas felt remorse, but that's not repentance leading unto salvation. In Acts chapter 1, Peter tells us that Judas ultimately died a horrific death for his wickedness, apparently the rope or branch broke, causing him to fall headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his intestines gushed out.
Verses 46-47, "They laid hands on Him and seized Him. But one of those who stood by drew his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear." Based upon the impulsive behavior, most of us could guess that it would be Peter even if we weren’t told. Fortunately, John tells us exactly who it was and the name of the man whose ear Peter cut off, it was Malchus, a servant of Caiaphas, the high priest.
Matthew tells us that Jesus takes advantage of Simon Peter's impulsive behavior and turns it into yet another teachable moment. "Then Jesus *said to him, "Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?" Luke tells us Jesus said, "Stop! No more of this." And He touched his ear and healed him." I have every confidence that Peter didn't intend to cut his ear off, he was going for his throat and missed, thus cutting his ear.
Christians should never engage in impulsive behavior, especially involving force, unless it's self-defense. Just because something seems right in the moment, doesn't mean it is, impulse is the source of many terrible decisions. Peter acted impulsively, because he had something to prove, maintaining his boast that he was not afraid to die defending Him. Jesus didn't need Peter's help, anymore than He needs ours. I believe we can all learn from Peter's
weakness, some things must take place to fulfill God's plans, even if we can't seem to see a reason
for it, God doesn't allow anything without a divine purpose. By the way, Peter's impulsive reaction is so important that all four Gospels include it. It's important to understand the strategy of Satan is to lead you into temptation, to
compromise your Christian integrity, to rely upon your fleshly weapons,
you realize that you have to prepare yourself for his unexpected
relentless attacks. Our responses should be Christ-like, controlled by the Holy Spirit, rather
than on impulse controlled by our emotions, but we cannot do that unless we saturate our minds with Scripture. John 18 tells us Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword." If you kill somebody, the government has a right to kill you, is proof our Lord is advocating capital punishment for capital crime. Leviticus 24:17 "If a man takes the life of any human being, he shall surely be put to death." Christians are never to take someone's life for personal vengeance, under any circumstances. Deuteronomy 32:35 says "Vengeance is Mine, and retribution, in due time their foot will slip; For the day of their calamity is near, and the impending things are hastening upon them."
Many Christians have had their "swords" drawn for quite some time, cutting people with our words, hurling insults and accusations toward one another and it's become much worse in the last several years. I dare say, that's not how we advance the kingdom of God! We can only do that by being different from the world.
Verses 48-49, "And Jesus said to them, "Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me, as you would against a robber? Every day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize Me; but this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures." I love the way Jesus unmasks their hypocrisy, violating their own laws in the middle of the night, men love the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. If they were not under the influence of Satan, they would have done it in public, but it has to happen this way, to fulfill the Scriptures. Remember, they didn’t want to arrest Him during Passover, but this is the hour that God has chosen to bring His divine plan to
fruition, Christ would die at precisely the moment the Passover lambs
were being slain in Jerusalem because He is the true Passover Lamb. God's plan on His time, not theirs.
Verse 50, "And they all left Him and fled." They all fled in fear of their life, thinking that if they're taking Him, we're going to be next, so they ran before that could happen. They all scattered exactly as Jesus said they would, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 13:7.
That brings us to verses 51-52, "A young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they *seized him. But he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked." It's interesting that Mark is the only one that records this incident, and he doesn't give us his name, so we have absolutely no idea who this young man is, its the only place this man is ever mentioned. There's nothing to indicate that he was a follower of Jesus, I believe this man probably heard all the commotion going on in the middle of the night, jumped out of bed, and ran outside without his clothes, wrapped in a linen sheet. As he got closer and closer, they noticed him, and seized him but he pulled free, leaving the linen sheet behind. More importantly, Jesus was left alone to face the mob, everybody was gone, even the disciples. I believe the Holy Spirit is making a
point here, if only the disciples would have been faithful, if they would have stayed,
God would have delivered them out of danger, just as He did this young man, their time to die had not yet come, they still needed to proclaim the Gospel to the world. Instead they ran when the hour of testing arrived. In the last ten years, when Satan has given it his best shot to destroy my faith in the hour of testing, I have personally witnessed God showing up in my weakest moments like never before! My faith did not fail, in fact, it became even stronger, I was humbled because Christ is faithful to hold on to those who are fully surrendered to Him.
By the way, saying that he escaped naked doesn't mean he was literally naked, it's way of saying he had nothing on but his under garment, not unlike our underwear today. This reminds me of the time some years ago, I had gotten home from work very late, I went upstairs and got undressed for bed when I heard a loud noise, when I got up to look, I saw a man entering in our house, without thinking, I immediately ran out the door without shoes on and chased the man for several blocks, yelling at him to stop, just as the sun was coming up, and people began coming outside to see what was going on, before realizing I was in only my underwear, talk about embarrassing.
I believe one of the biggest reasons that the evangelical movement is moving so fast, that people are literally lining up by the thousands, is because the church has made coming to Christ too easy, just saying a little prayer and believing in Jesus is sufficient enough for salvation. That's only the beginning, it's not the end. It’s not enough to claim Jesus as your Savior, you must confess Him as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved, anything else is just an empty profession. There’s no price involved, you don’t have to come with a broken and contrite heart, you don't have to repent, you don't have to deny yourself, no need to take up your cross and be willing to follow Christ, even unto death if need be. What's being offered today is nothing more than a free ticket to personal fulfillment, you don't have to give up your sin just remain in your wickedness and add Jesus to your life, to make sure that nobody is offended. The problem is, that’s not the salvation that Jesus offered. In Luke 14:26-28, He said "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and
mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his
own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?"
True saving faith brings about a new birth, a new regenerated life accompanied by a moral transformation. Hebrews 12 says without sanctification, no one will see the Lord. to deal with sin's dominion and power , it's a gift, an act of His divine grace after conversion. In other words, it doesn't matter what you claim, if you can’t back it up with your life, because your heart has never been changed. That's James 2:18, "You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works." It's impossible to show anybody your faith without works. To be clear, we’re saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone; works cannot save you, but works will always follows true saving faith. Faith that is devoid of works, is faith that doesn't save, because there’s no evidence of the reality of life God in your life. In Matthew 5:16, Jesus said "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." If you reject that, you're rejecting the Gospel and you will stand condemned before Him. If you don't know Christ as your Lord and Savior, I pray with all my heart, that you're ready to that today.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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