to the glory of God. Now, the term Messiah is an English translation of the Hebrew word mashia, which is derived from the verb mashah, which means to smear or to anoint. So originally when objects such as in the Old Testament wafers or even shields that they took into battle were smeared with grease or oil, they were said to be anointed. But the term Messiah was not used to refer to anointed objects that were designated and consecrated for specific purposes, but to people. And so people who were anointed had been chosen or elected or designated or appointed. And because of this election or this choosing, these people had been given authority. They had been qualified and equipped to carry out specific offices and tasks. For example, Psalm 133 says, Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head coming down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, and coming down upon the edges of his robes. One of the reasons why I abandon Pentecostalism is because of their propensity to dab. You've been in Pentecostal services where they take a bottle of oil and they dab you. I can't find that in the Bible. In the Bible they anointed with oil and the oil ran down their head down to the skirts of their garments. And of course we have $400 suits so we don't want to ruin our suits. So there's hardly any biblical anointing with oil. So when you talk about we need to anoint with oil and pray the prayer if they believe that that's what James was talking about, then they ought to anoint with oil and they ought to let it run down just like right here. It ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard coming upon the edges of his robes. And when I was in that movement, I did that. I emptied a whole bottle on top of people's heads in the middle of the church service. And then I found out that's not what the Bible was talking about to begin with. So, whoops. But he said, it is like the dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing life forever. So when the oil was placed on Aaron's head, it ran down his beard all the way down to the edges of his robe. So that's a lot of oil, right? And that's symbolic of what it means to be anointed. The calling and choosing of this person was all-consuming. It was dominant. It flowed out all around him and all upon him. And here the psalmist was comparing the unity of brethren to that all-consuming anointing. So Aaron was chosen by God to be the priest. And the reality of his divine choosing or his divine election to the priesthood by God was signified by the outward anointing of oil. But it's important to understand that the oil did not make Aaron to be chosen. Putting oil on his head didn't qualify him or equip him for the priesthood. The oil merely signified what God had already done. So as time went on, and as the revelation of God became more and more clear to the people of God, and as God's will began to flow out from the vagueness and the generalities and the symbolism of the first covenant, The people of God began to understand that God was going to choose a person, a single man, who would be from the lineage of their beloved King David. A man who would be specially chosen by God, specially anointed by God, to bring salvation and deliverance and healing and redemption. And this one man would be totally consumed by this calling. The oil of anointing would flow down upon him and dominate his life. And this man would not merely be anointed by God to perform a specific task, but this guy would be the anointed one. Meaning, the one. who had been specially gifted, specially qualified, specially chosen, specially equipped by God. And so the verb massa became the title Mashiach or Messiah. And the longer it took for Mashiach to come, the more the people longed for him. And about 400 years after Malachi had uttered his prophecy, the expectation that Mashiach could come at any moment had reached a fever pitch. And all during the intervening four centuries between Malachi's prophecy and the angel Gabriel being dispatched from heaven to Zacharias, there were several men who rose up to lay claim to that title. And we know a couple of them from the Bible itself, and we know a couple of them from history. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, about 164 B.C., two men, Judah and Mattathias Maccabees, rose up and through military conquest captured a section or recaptured a section of Israel from the pagan Roman occupiers and enforced Old Testament law on that section. And they were just as brutal to the Jews that they were ruling over as they were to the Romans that they had evicted from that section of Israel. You were converted by force under their rule. And the Maccabees and their successors ruled that area for about a hundred years until the Roman army crushed them. And with that military crushing came the crushing of the hopes and the dreams of the Jews to one day see Messiah come and finally rid them of their tormentors. and the two apocryphal books of 1st and 2nd Maccabees that are not inspired describes some of this. But now, I want you to turn with me to the book of Acts, chapter 5. The book of Acts, chapter 5. Now, you should remember from our journey through Luke chapter 21 that Jesus had prophesied that after He was killed and risen and ascended, that there would be a literal explosion of many of these pseudo-Messiahs that would rise up and deceive people and mislead them. and draw all kind of people after them and add to their further disillusionment. But even though none of these self-appointed messiahs would succeed in eliminating the pagans from Israel, Jesus said they would cause more and more persecution, terrible political and social uprest and turmoil among the Jews. that would eventually result in the government of Rome sending Titus Vespasian down from the north country to utterly destroy the temple and Jerusalem and Jewish worship and their way of life in 70 A.D. in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. That's what we learned in Luke 21. And so at one point, soon after Jesus had risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, the apostles found themselves at odds with both the Roman and the Jewish authorities. How about that? The apostles were at odds with the ruling government. And they were being put on trial. And during this trial, a wise and respected Pharisee named Gamaliel rose up to speak. Now, according to what I've read, this man Gamaliel was supposedly the man who trained a very young zealot named Saul of Tarsus to be a Pharisee of the Pharisee. Now, the issue before the Sanhedrin court that day was the doctrine that the apostles were preaching and teaching. They didn't kill anybody. They hadn't robbed any stores. They weren't stealing anything. It was their doctrine that they were preaching that was putting them on trial. They had finally rid themselves, the Jews, the Jewish rulers, had finally rid themselves of that rabble-rouser Jesus. And many of the Jewish rulers wanted to ban the doctrine that He taught and kill the apostles. I think we're faced with this very same thing in our day. When they come to you and tell you that you can talk all day long on the job about getting drunk and falling over the coffee table, about your fishing expeditions, and about what went on over the weekend with Uncle Bob and Aunt Sue, but you better not preach the gospel on your job or we're going to fire you. And that's all the more reason for you to rise up in absolute rebellion to your boss and preach the gospel anyway. Anytime the authorities tell you not to preach the gospel, that is what you should preach. And you will be in trouble. And you might get fired. And you might go to jail. And if you suffer repercussions for being faithful to the Gospel, don't gripe and don't bellyache. Count yourselves worthy. Praise God that you were worthy to suffer for the name of Christ. But for all means, do not be silent. Do not be silent. You are authorized by the owner and the creator of the universe to violate the law of man when the law of man violates the law of God and God said preach the gospel to every creature. Tell them we'll be right there. Sister, I've had crying babies and people screaming at me for preaching the gospel. It's fine. It don't bother me a bit. Hallelujah. It's good. So they were put on trial. And so Gamaliel rose up and he began to speak in verse 34. So look at Acts 5 verse 34. But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, teacher of the law, respected by all the people, stood up in the council and gave orders to put the men outside for a short time. Talking about the apostles. Alright, you guys leave and you get out and we're going to talk. Huh? Kind of like you do with your wife when you tell your children to leave. You know what I'm talking about? And He said to them, men of Israel, take care of what you propose to do with these men. For some time ago, to Judas, rose up claiming to be somebody. And a group of about 400 men joined up with Him, but He was killed and all who followed Him were dispersed and came to nothing. And after this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census and drew away some people after Him. He too perished, and all those who followed Him were scattered." Now, Theodos and Judas of Galilee are direct fulfillments of Jesus' prophecy that many will come in My name saying, I am. Your English Bible says Christ. That's not what it means. It means the Anointed One. Messiah. They will say they are the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy of the Messiah. That's what that means. And Jesus said they would do this, and here's two of them right here that did it, right? So in the present case, Gamaliel is saying, I say to you, stay away from these men and leave them alone. For if this plan or action is of men, it will be overthrown. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. Amen to that. Or else you may be even found fighting against God. Now notice in verse 36 and 37 that Gamaliel was relating how the two of these self-appointed messiahs, Theodos and Judas of Galilee, had failed in accomplishing what the true messiah was supposed to do, proving that they were impostors, false messiahs. In English, false Christ. You know, Paul is the one that made Christ acceptable. Because messiah only means something to Jews. And so Christ was used in the evangelistic world to let it apply to all men. He is the Anointed One. He is the Messiah, the Christ. That's what it means. So Christ is not Jesus' last name. It's Jesus the Christ. But Gamaliel knew that God was going to raise up a real Messiah. who everyone thought would do what these false messiahs did not do still didn't know what the messiah was supposed to do But these guys didn't do it, so at least they knew they were false. And so in verses 38 and 39, this well-respected Pharisee cautioned his fellow rulers by saying, So in the present case, I say to you, stay away from these men and let them alone. For if this plan or action is of men, it will be overthrown. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them, or else you may even be found fighting against God. So when Gamaliel said this, in other words, he's saying the proof of the pudding is in the eating. If God is with the apostles, human beings cannot overthrow them anyway. Because God is absolutely sovereign and all you will do is find yourself fighting against God. Now this is an amazing statement. And one that gives me great hope that perhaps Gamaliel was a believer, or at least on his way to becoming one but at a minimum you can see that even at this point after jesus had died after he had risen from the dead after he descended into heaven that even the wisest and the most respected and the most learned jews were still looking for a warrior messiah who would act militarily and politically in saving or rescuing God's people from the infidels, and they still had no concept at this point, that the real Messiah was establishing an invisible kingdom by saving God's chosen people from their sins. Matthew tells us, why did Jesus come? Not to give you a better life down here. Not to make your teeth whiter and brighter or allow you to hit more home runs or keep the dog from biting the neighbor. Jesus came to save His people from their sins. That's salvation. And the entire sequence of events here with the apostles in Acts 5 is astonishing. especially in contrast with the event in the Garden of Gethsemane in Luke 22, where instead of a physical demonstration of power and authority, that everybody there, including the Roman soldiers and including the apostles, thought should have come with Jesus being the Anointed One. We see instead Jesus being betrayed and arrested by evil men. who would then humiliate Him, beat Him to within an inch of His life, and then crucify Him. How do you reconcile that with this Man being my Messiah? They didn't have Romans to read yet. They didn't have all these New Testament Scriptures to read yet. This was not clear to them even now in the garden. Now, we took a two week vacation to celebrate the 499th year of the Reformation by being obedient to Hebrews 13 verse 7 over the last two Sundays. So, I'm going to spend a little time this morning refreshing your memory about just what all is going on here in this garden, in this section of Inspired Truth. Chapter 22 begins, with Jesus instituting one of only two sacraments of the Christian church, the Lord's Supper. And as Jesus is going over the value and the seriousness of this Last Supper, we saw that this scene is very busy, even chaotic. There's a bunch of stuff going on all around this table. A lot of sin going on in the Last Supper here. It's amazing. When we take communion, it's one of the most holy and one of the most sacred, one of the most precious. And you notice how quiet it is when we take communion? Not here. They were talking. They were busy. And in verse 21 and 22, Jesus was purposely being provocative by making a general statement that He knew was going to incite fear and examination in His followers that would then lead to a demonstration of sin in these men that is almost unbelievable when He said, But behold, the hand of the one betraying Me is with Mine on the table. for indeed the Son of Man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed." Why didn't he just say, it's Judas? Why did he leave all these guys in doubt that maybe they were going to be the ones to betray the Lord? And as they first began to examine themselves, they were very fearful that maybe they were going to be the ones. Now why were they thinking that way? We're going to get into this this morning. Because everybody thinks that way at one point in your walk with God. Is this real? Am I just going to church? Is this real? And especially you children that are raised in Christian homes. You watch your father. You watch your mother. You listen to them pray. And you come up in church and you see all kind of stuff going on in church. Somebody say amen. Some of it real bad. Huh? Because people don't act the way they're supposed to act in church. Huh? Right. And then you say to yourself, is this real? And there's a point in time where this has got to be real to you. Because you can't go to heaven because your daddy saved. You don't pass salvation on through your bloodline. It's got to be real. And Jesus used this to teach them how different His church would be from the lost world. It was also at this time that Satan, at the Lord's Supper, Satan entered into Judas' heart. And after supper, Jesus brought His disciples with Him to an olive garden. It was just outside Jerusalem. It was probably owned by a follower. And it was here that the single most amazing prayer in the history of mankind took place. And then Dr. Luke told us that Jesus left eight of the remaining eleven disciples at the gate of the garden and told them to pray so they would not enter into temptation. And Jesus took Peter, James, and John with Him some ways into the garden. But He didn't tell these men to pray like He told the other ones to pray. No, Jesus, God incarnate, Asked these men to pray for Him. Find another passage where that ever happened. That never happened. God, in human flesh, is asking these men to pray for Him. And He's beginning to be very sorrowful. And He looks like He's very sorrowful. And He's not happy. And He's not joyful. And he's sagging down. And the weight and the seriousness of this moment is all over Jesus. And they've never seen Him like this before. And they don't have a clue what's going on. And then Jesus goes a little further by Himself. And there's no music playing in the background. There's no orchestra playing. There's no choir going, Is it in the background? No, He falls on His face. and cries out to His Father in agony. What's He praying? He's not afraid to die. He's not scared of how bad He's going to get hurt. Jesus is going to become sin. And that's never happened before. And when Jesus becomes sin, the fellowship that He has had with His Father since before the world was, is going to be gone. And His Father will abandon Him. And the Father will delight to crush Him. And Jesus is saying, is there any other way that I can obey you and not become sin? Jesus has never had a bad thought. He has never ever sinned for a second. And now he's going to become pure sin. This is amazing. And as they looked at the man that they had abandoned their fishing business for, The man they had risked everything for. The man they saw raise the dead and cast out demons and forgive sin and open blind eyes and walk on water. These men began to see Jesus in a way they had never seen Him before. The apostle Levi describes this moment in Matthew 26, 37 and 38. He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, that's John and James, and began to be grieved. and distressed. Then he said to them, My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here. Keep watch with me. Up to this point, Jesus had all the answers. He had never consulted with anybody. These men had watched Jesus stare down the most powerful men in Israel and never blink. He had tied the Jewish lawyers in knots. And so they just knew that at any moment, Jesus would now rise up and gather His army together and begin to train them to wage war against the Roman occupiers. Because after all, that's what everybody thought Messiah would do when He got here. But here the man that these men were betting their lives on, yea, even their very souls looked weak and unsteady. and unsure. He looked troubled and distraught. Jesus looked worried. They'd never seen Him like this. And it scared them. And it hurt them. Listen. It offended them. And then Levi tells us in Matthew 26, verse 39, "...he went a little beyond them, fell on his face, and prayed, saying, My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not as I will, but as You will." Now a strong leader don't talk like this. The victorious presidential candidate Tuesday night didn't talk like this. The guy you're going to follow into combat doesn't talk like this. A man chosen and elected and anointed by God to lead the nation does not ask those who are following him to pray with him. He doesn't fall on his face in anguish asking God to let this cup pass from him. Who would follow a man who was this vacillating and this deeply grieved? How does acting like this inspire anybody? And so what's going on here? What was going through their minds? Was Jesus having second thoughts? Was Jesus contemplating making peace with the Jewish rulers? Was He thinking about cutting and running and leaving the disciples to fend for themselves? What in the world is going on here? Why is Jesus so upset? Why is He praying like this? I mean, if Jesus is scared, about what the Jewish rulers and Roman authorities are fixing to do to Him. What hope do we have? We have to remember, dear friends, that none of these men had ever read what the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, where it says, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him because Paul had not written that verse yet, because Paul had not been saved yet. And none of these men had ever read what the writer of Hebrews wrote, Hebrews 2 and 17. Therefore He, Jesus, had to be made like His brethren in all things so that He, Jesus, might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Because this writer had not been saved yet either. So none of these men understood that Jesus was not afraid of dying. Looked like He was. He was agonizing over having to be made sin on behalf of God's elect and of His Father withdrawing from Him. Jesus had never sinned. Ever! Not even for a second. And the thought that God was going to lay on Him all of the sins of all of God's elect was so heavy a load that He began to seek another way. Combine that with the fact that Jesus knew. that the pristine nature of God would not allow His Father to continue to be one with Jesus at the point, and it was more than He could take. So Jesus was agonizing over seeking another way to perfectly obey His Father and yet not become sin. He was crying out to God that He could fully submit and yet God not leave Him. I don't know if you've ever heard people pray like this. And the answer is you haven't because nobody prays like this. But I don't know if you've ever really heard people agonizing in prayer. I call it, Oh God prayers. Because you don't even know what to pray. And you're agonizing. And you don't care anything about eating. And you don't want to be entertained. And you're not interested in what's going on at the football game. You're going, Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! You don't even know how to pray. And when you see that, it changes you. When you do it, it changes you. So Jesus was agonizing over seeking another way to perfectly obey His Father and yet not become sin. He was crying out to God that He could fully submit and yet God not leave Him. But if not, then may God's will be done. That was his agony. That was his prayer. That is why Jesus fell on his face. And listen, why an angel had to come to strengthen him. That's why Jesus is praying so hard right now that he sweat blood. So Jesus was not afraid to die. He didn't fear what man was going to do to Him. Jesus loved His Father to such an extent that He was willing to become a curse and have His Father delight in crushing Him. Truly, this is an amazing moment. Now John tells us that when Jesus came to Peter, James, and John three different times during this agony, He rebuked them twice for falling asleep. And I don't believe this was gentle. I don't believe when Jesus called Peter Satan that that was gentle. Oh, Satan. Satan! And he looks at these guys sleeping and he said, What? Could you not watch with me one hour? Now think who he's talking to. He's talking about men who spent their life staying up all night long fishing. The Bible doesn't say they were sleeping because they were tired. The Bible says they were sleeping for sorrow. And we went over what that meant. And perhaps they were so distraught over what they considered to be Jesus' display of weakness and confusion, something that in their mind a true Messiah would never demonstrate. But the third time Jesus was back in His calm and confident demeanor, even though I don't find any record anywhere of him washing himself. So his face is filled with streaks of blood. His hair is knotted. He's sweating. His clothes are disheveled because he's been agonizing in prayer. But he tells these men the very same thing he told the other eight at the beginning. Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray. that you may not enter into temptation. Oh, if we could hear this this morning. Get up and pray. Get up and pray. The Apostle Levi gives us further insight here as he recalls Jesus saying, are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up. Let us be going. Behold, the One who betrays Me is at hand. And this is where we pick up Luke's account. In Luke 22, verse 47. Read that again with me. While he was still speaking, behold, a crowd came. And the one called Judas out of one of the twelve was preceding them. And he approached Jesus to do what? To kiss Him. Judas was leading this group of soldiers and religious leaders Now John tells us that the reason Judas was leading them in John 18 verse 2, Now Judas also who was betraying Him knew the place, for Jesus had often met there with His disciples. So this was a common place of prayer and fellowship and whatever. So evidently this was not the first time that Jesus' disciples had gone to this garden. Judas knew the way, and so he was leading the group. So this is the height of betrayal. And John also tells us just who was in this group of men that Judas was leading. In John 18 verse 3, Judas then having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Levi wrote this in Matthew 26, 47. While he, Jesus, was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, came up accompanied by a large crowd with swords and clubs who came from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now when John tells us that Judas had received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, that means that the chief priests and the Pharisees had arranged a deal with the Roman occupiers to send some of their soldiers with Judas, and some who represented the Jewish rulers, probably the temple guard, to arrest Jesus, even though the Romans really didn't have a beef with Jesus. So this could very well mean that the Jewish religious rulers had actually paid the Romans to send soldiers to accompany Judas to the garden since their complaint against Jesus was a Jewish religious matter and of no concern to the Romans. But in any event, Judas came to the garden with a fairly large group. Luke calls it a crowd. Levi called it a large crowd. And John says that the cohort contained both soldiers and officers. Now, a cohort was one-tenth of a legion, and a legion had 6,000 men. So this could have been a crowd of about 600 men. That's the soldiers. But then you also have to understand that this crowd also included representatives of the Jewish religious rulers, probably, like I said, the temple guard, as well as Roman soldiers and their commanding officers, who brought lanterns and torches and swords and clubs. So this was a seriously large crowd in a seriously dangerous moment. And at the head of this large crowd was Judas, who both Luke and Levi made a point to say was, quote, part of the Twelve. So this was a deep and bitter betrayal by one who had walked with Jesus for three and a half years. Now back at the Last Supper, Satan had entered into the heart of Judas and totally took over. And when he left, Judas went directly to find the Jewish leaders. He had already made the deal earlier. He had already told them he would deliver Jesus, and they already negotiated the price. So now was the hour. Judas knew as soon as Jesus would leave the upper room, he would go straight to the Garden of Gethsemane. And so Judas told the Jewish rulers all of this, and he volunteered to lead the group so he could point Jesus out. Now Judas wanted this to happen really, really fast. He wanted to take advantage of the night. He wanted to take advantage of the fact that Jesus was alone with His disciples and away from the massive crowd of followers. And he knew exactly where Jesus would be. But even though Judas is possessed by Satan, and even though he is pressed by his own greed, he is still being used by God. Not willingly, but sovereignly. So even in his wicked betrayal, Judas is the servant of a holy and divine purpose. So Judas wants his money. He wanted his compensation for three wasted years following Jesus around in poverty, hoping that Jesus was going to prove to be the real Messiah. And like so many others, Judas became completely disillusioned with Jesus when things didn't work out the way he thought Messiah would operate. Judas, as well as John the Baptist, as well as so many others thought that Jesus was going to set up an earthly throne and that Judas would end up being in some ruling capacity in the kingdom. So he's looking for his own throne to the side of Jesus when Jesus conquers Israel and throws out the Romans. But as far as Judas was concerned, Jesus had just blown it. Instead of gathering a loyal followers to destroy the pagans, Jesus taught some kind of foolishness. That His followers should forgive their enemies? And love them? Pray for them and do good to them? What nonsense! Surely the long-awaited Messiah would never advocate that, especially to pagans. So at least part of the reason why Judas betrayed Jesus was because Jesus was not acting or talking the way that Judas thought that the Messiah was supposed to act and talk. So Judas' real bad eschatology encouraged his betrayal. His man-made and false understanding of what the Messiah was supposed to do when he got here contributed to Judas' betrayal of Jesus. And as amazing as that might sound to you, you need to remember that John the Baptist went through the very same thing and became just as disillusioned with Jesus as Judas was. I want you to go quickly to Luke chapter 7 with me. Luke chapter 7. Turning your Bibles to Luke chapter 7 beginning with verse 18. It says, the disciples of John reported to him about all these things. Summoning two of his disciples, John is in prison now, right? John sent them to the Lord saying, Are you the expected one? Or do we look for someone else? When the men came to him, they said, John the Baptist has sent you to ask, are you the expected one or do we look for someone else? At that very time, He cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits, and He gave sight to many who were blind. Proof of the pudding is in the eating. And He answered and said to them, Go and report to John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive sight. The lame walk. The lepers are cleansed. The deaf hear. The dead are raised up. The poor have the Gospel preached to them. Blessed is He who does not take offense at Me." Now the phrase, the expected one, is just another way of saying the anointed one or the Messiah. So because Jesus was not behaving in a way that John the Baptist thought that the Messiah was supposed to behave, he doubted. And John began to waver and was seriously thinking about abandoning his belief in Jesus and looking for somebody else to follow and love and serve. But he didn't. But the reason that John stayed faithful to Jesus and the reason that Judas betrayed the Lord was not because John was full of faith. It wasn't because John was strong. It wasn't because John had some form of nobility about himself. No, John was horribly offended at Jesus. I mean, after all, Jesus had never even come to the prison to pray with him. and things were not good at all for John the Baptist. No, John remained faithful and Judas didn't only because Jesus personally interceded on John's behalf and gave him enough information about what the Messiah was supposed to do by quoting from the prophet Isaiah that was able to keep him. And then Jesus issued a very strong warning to John the Baptist by telling him, blessed is he who does not take offense at me. In other words, hey, John, I'm not coming. And you're going to die. Is that okay? Am I worth dying over? Are you going to be offended at me because I don't destroy the pagans that are going to cut your head off? Are you going to remain faithful to Me no matter what? So the difference between John the Baptist and Judas was that God sovereignly intervened to rescue John in his doubt and confusion, and He left Judas to Himself. Let me say that again. John the Baptist would have turned against Jesus just as quickly as Judas did. The Bible says he was already on his way. Except Jesus personally intervened for John to rescue him. And so even though John had been called by God to identify Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, he too was confused about why Jesus didn't act like everybody said Messiah was supposed to act and why Jesus never even visited him in prison. And so the greatest prophet born of woman would have collapsed under the weight of his own confusion and doubt except Jesus graciously rescued him. Hallelujah! Now if that bothers you, Let me go even further to say that Peter himself would have turned against Jesus just as easy, just as angrily as Judas did, except Jesus told Peter in Luke 22, 32, I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And if that bothers you, let me go even further by saying that unless Jesus personally intercedes for you and me, It wouldn't take long before we too would become unbelievably disillusioned with Jesus and offended at Him. And we would fall away just like they did. So, if we are truly saved, we stay saved. That's absolutely true. But, the way we stay saved is that we are kept by the power of God. And Jesus personally intervenes and intercedes for you. So, in addition to living a sinless life, in addition to dying on the cross and shedding His blood for our forgiveness, in addition to rising the third day, in addition to ascending into heaven and sitting at the right hand of the Majesty on high, Jesus is very busy right now. Yes, He is. And He is busy interceding for us so that all who are saved will remain saved all the way to glory. So just like He personally intervened on John the Baptist's behalf, just like He personally prayed for Peter, Jesus is right at this moment interceding for you and me. Hallelujah! Jesus is praying for us that our faith will not fail. So instead of welcoming the Son of God as their long-awaited and expected Messiah, these guys sent a group of vigilantes and soldiers to capture Him for the purpose of murdering Him. This is an amazing way at how people look at Jesus Christ. It transcends this scene. Because this is an act of serious injustice. These people have no right to arrest Jesus. There's no moral or legal reason to arrest Jesus. He committed no crime. He committed no crime against God, no crime against Judaism, he committed no crime against Caesar. There's no crime here. Jesus broke no law. These men are purely unjust, unfair, and evil murderers who have demonstrated now that they are the children of their father, the devil, who is a liar from the beginning and a murderer. Their deeds against Jesus Christ have no relation to reality, truth, or justice. They have no ability to recognize who is just and who is righteous. In fact, who is God? But it's also mindless. What did the soldiers and the majority of the Jewish leaders have against Jesus legitimately? Nothing. He banished illness from the land of Israel. He fed the poor. He healed people. He cast out demons. He taught the truth of God. He upheld the glory of God and the law of God and the Word of God. And their response was to arrest Him and beat Him and kill Him. But I want you to look, dear friends, with me at how Judas betrayed the Lord. Luke 22, 47 and 48 says Judas, one of the 12, was preceding them and he approached Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said to him, Judas, are you betraying the son of man with a kiss? Jesus was betrayed with a kiss. What hypocrisy. What treachery. Of course, this kiss was a signal, a sign that Judas had previously agreed to, to identify which one of the men was Jesus. So even though it is night and there is the moon shining, they were in an olive grove, so it's dark and dense, and Jesus is surrounded by eleven men, so there had to be a signal that identified Jesus. Now, this tells us that there wasn't any distinguishing marks about Jesus that would make Him stand out in the crowd. In His humanity, Jesus didn't glow. There wasn't any distinguishing signs that made Him any different. Josephus writes in his writing, he saw Jesus standing in the marketplace. There's about a two-line paragraph in one of his writings that says, Jesus was an average man of average height and weight and looked like the average Jew of His day. But when He opened His mouth and spoke, no one spoke like this man. But we need to remember at this point, at this moment, Jesus looked terrible. He had just spent hours in the most grueling and agonizing prayer. A prayer so intense that the small blood vessels in His body near the surface ruptured and Jesus was literally sweating blood. He cried out in agony to His Father to find another way to redeem fallen man without Him having to be made sin for us. He had begged God for hours to not leave him. Jesus had prayed so hard that God sent an angel to comfort him. He prayed so hard, friends, that the church of Jesus had to invent a word. The word is agony. to describe it. So Jesus is disheveled. He is exhausted. He is sweating blood. Jesus had blood running down His face and His arm and His legs. And He stands to receive the betrayal of Judas with a kiss. Peter and James and John look on at Jesus in amazement. And they don't really like what they see. We see this as a most magnificent moment. They saw it completely different. Their handsome, strong, powerful leader looks very vulnerable right now. Their Messiah looks very weak and very tired. In fact, Jesus looks resigned. He looks like He has come to terms with His fate. Which, as far as they know, is just death. And this offends them. Just as Jesus told John the Baptist not to be offended at Him, these men are becoming offended at Jesus because they think Messiah should rise up and fight. And Jesus looks like He's going to allow these people to arrest Him. And that doesn't sit well with these eleven men. We're going to find out more about this next week. So keep in mind that's a lot going on in this garden. You've got 12 men, 11 disciples in Jesus. You've got at least 600 men with swords and torches and clubs coming to get 11, 12 men. It's amazing. God is dealing with Judas to expose him as the hypocrite that he is so that God can damn him, the Bible says, in his own special place in hell. But God is also dealing with the other 11 men in a way that no one has ever been dealt with before. The disciples are at the point now of either fighting to save Jesus or running away to save themselves. And we're going to see them do both. And how God is dealing with them here in the garden to prepare them for their ministry is literally breathtaking. And Lord willing, we will look deeply into this over the next several weeks, but once again, the Apostle Levi gives us further insight here. Matthew 26, 48 and 49 says, Now he who was betraying Him gave them a sign, saying, Whomever I kiss, he is the one, seize him. Immediately, Judas went to Jesus and said, Hail, Rabbi! And kissed Him. So Judas is concerned that there might be an effort for one of the other disciples to step up and claim to be Jesus in the dark so they could get Jesus away to protect Him from the arrest. But Judas wants his money. So he doesn't want there to be any mistakes. So it was Judas himself who came up with the idea to betray Jesus. with a kiss. Judas wanted the right one arrested and taken because that's the only way he could get paid. And so this is an unbelievable act of betrayal. But we have to understand that Judas is a very keen hypocrite. He is very good at operating under cover. You might have met some people like that. Because he's been a part of this group of twelve men for three years, day and night, and nobody except Jesus had a clue who he was. Nothing was out of the ordinary. He was used to talking in ways that wouldn't draw attention to himself and acting in ways that wouldn't give away who he really was. So Judas is good at playing the hypocritical game day and night for three and a half years. Yet he never had to reveal the truth in his heart. And this fact emboldens him. Little does he realize that the reason he has not been exposed is not because he fooled Jesus. but because Jesus doesn't want to save him. Jesus allowed Judas to continue in his deception precisely so that Judas would do what he's doing right now. And this speaks volumes about human nature. We think that being able to hide from God and continue in secret sin is good because nobody knows. and we haven't been exposed. And to be able to sin and not be exposed and continue week after week to engage in our secret sin, and yet no one finds out, actually emboldens us. But in reality, the opposite is true. All that God is desiring to save will be exposed. Nothing will be hidden that will not eventually come out. And that exposure that we so dread is called mercy. That exposure is the love of God. It is the means that Jesus is personally interceding in your life to correct you so He can save you and rescue you from God's wrath and damnation. When you can sin with impunity and never be exposed, when you can live in ongoing hypocrisy and continual sin and never have that sin brought to light, that is the frightening sign that Jesus is not dealing with you at all. And that He is allowing you to continue on in your wickedness so that God can damn you. And that's exactly the way it was with Judas. Yet Judas is so deceived that he thinks that everybody thinks so highly of him and thinks he's genuine. And so they'll not think anything about him kissing Jesus. Now the kind of kiss we're talking about here is a repeated kiss along with an embrace. And this is what will make it crystal clear to the soldiers who Jesus is. Because Judas is going to hold on to Jesus and kiss Him repeatedly and tenderly while embracing Him. And Judas is going to look Jesus in the eye and call Him Rabbi. And Jesus responds to this hypocrisy with a question of truth. Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss? Really, Judas? A kiss? An embrace? A friendly greeting? You're actually looking me in the eye? Even now you're going to act like you really love me when in fact you are betraying me. Now back in the first century, there were different kinds of kisses. For example, a slave might kiss the back of a hand offered to him, or maybe even the palm. A slave would also kiss the foot of someone who was superior to them. Kissing the hem of a garment expressed great reverence. But a kiss on the face, a kiss on the cheek, a full embrace and a tender greeting was a sign of very close intimacy and warm affection between equals. It's a mark not of gratitude. It's a mark not of homage. It is the mark of selfless love and affection. And that's how God's commanded you and I to greet one another. And so this kiss is the most ugly act of treachery ever conceived. Proverbs 27 and 6 says, Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. Now this is what it's like when people in the church say they love Jesus, but in reality, they're simply enduring Him. They physically come to church and sit on the pew, but their heart is far from the Lord. They endure church. They endure Bible study. They endure being in the presence of Jesus. They publicly kiss Jesus. But they're willing to walk away from Him in a moment. They say they love Him, but they're willing to trade Jesus for the pleasures of the world in just a moment. And the ones whom God has called and chosen, this hypocrisy will be exposed. Thank God! Hallelujah! Jesus will personally intervene in the lives of these hypocrites to bring conviction and repentance to them. And you are the most blessed person in the world when your hypocrisy is publicly exposed for the world to see. And the rest, Jesus will leave to themselves. And they will continue to embrace Jesus publicly and kiss Him and call Him Lord while all the while they are betraying Him. Now we need to know that at this point, Judas knows that Jesus knows. But he doesn't care. Jesus exposed him back in the upper room, and Jesus sent him out and told him, what you do, do quickly. So Judas knew, but he overrides what was left of a tortured conscience, and his fevered brain is now under the complete domination of Satan. Now over the years, dear friends, many people have asked me why I believe that it's important to understand that God needed to be in a body. What is the significance of God putting on human flesh? And there are very important reasons that we're going to go over in our service. It's closest to December 25th. I do this every year. And so I'm not going to go over those reasons this morning for the fleshing of God or the Incarnation. But one reason that you might not think about much is that in order for Jesus to suffer and die, He had to have a body. And He had to plan it way ahead of time because as the Logos, or the Word, who existed before creation, He could not die. He was immortal. But God didn't have a body and so He could not die. And yet, if He didn't die in payment for our sins, nobody would be saved. So, God chose to die for you. He planned the whole thing by clothing Himself with a body so He could get hungry. And so He could be weary. And so He could be betrayed. So the incarnation is the preparation of nerve endings for the nails. That's another reason why God took on flesh. The incarnation is the preparation of a brow for thorns to press through. He needed to have a broad back so there would be a place for the whip He needed to have feet so there would be a place for the spikes. He needed to have a side so there was a place for the sword to go in. Jesus needed a body so there would be a place for the spit to run down when the soldiers spit on Him. He needed a brain with a spinal column with no vinegar and no gall so that the exquisiteness of the pain could be fully felt. And God Almighty needed cheeks. Fleshly cheeks. So that Judas would have a place to kiss. So Jesus could be betrayed. But may we not betray Jesus. May we embrace Jesus and hold Him and kiss Him and call Him Lord, but may we value Jesus and treasure Him and take up our cross and deny ourselves and follow Him because we have been born again and Jesus intercedes at the right hand of the Father for us. Let's pray.