Judas – the Last Offer of Mercy

on when I get heretestingtesting testingtestingthis is just for the Friday nightone and then he's gotthe Saturday one in thereohokayyeah clickerokay all rightall right let me take the mics down ifthere's any problems I'm sorry I have tocallyou good evening andwelcome I would especially like to thanktonight the Red Bluff church at the lastminute being willing to host thisprogram and uh so that's a bigblessing and um then uh I'd like tothank God for the Sabbathand then also for our guest speakertonight and so um right following the umthe uh opening prayer there's going tobe some special music provided for uswould you bow your heads with me inprayer let me take some mic kindHeavenly Father we just want to thankyou so much for your mercy and kindnessto us all rightthanks thank you that we get to live inthis time of Earth's history and I justpray that you will help us to takeadvant AG of everything that isavailable to us from heaven rightnow we want to ask the presence of yourHoly Spirit and that your Holy Angelswill set up their guard around thisplace and even more than that heavenlyfather I pray that since it is a Sabbathyou will help us to push out of ourminds the things of this past week thatmay um hinder us from entering into adeeper fellowship with you we now wepray these things in Christ's name amenamenI'd like to invite ouruh sweet singers to come up here and doa special music for us now mic's areging what'sthat the mics arecoming ohwe do have this mic good evening churchfamily it's a blessing to be here as wewait on our mics to come excuse me andhere they come I thought you were goingAC capella withoutmics I don't think so are they alreadyon and[Music]everything sorry I got held upI just wanted to be up onstage thank you somuch the name of our song um is gentleshephergentle come and lead us[Music]for we need you to help us findour gentleshepher come and FeedUs for weneed your strength from day to daythere's noother we can turn[Music]to who can help us faceanotherday gentleshepher come and lead usfor we need you to help us find our[Music]wayoo o[Music]there's noother we can turn towho can help us faceanotherday gentlesheer come and leadus for weneed help us find our our[Music]way well it's my privilege to introduceto you my brother Conrad Vine he comesto us from Baran Springs Michigan so uhhe's beenthe president of Adventist Frontiermissions for a while has a lot ofexperience all around the world and hehas a lot of good things to share withus so I'd like to call him up here nowand turn the time over to him thankyou all right good evening everybody canyou hear me out there yes yeah all rightso it's a privilege to be here inCalifornia um and I was here I think inJanuary uh just a few weeks ago and it'sa privilege to be back uh yesterday Iwas texting with brother Tim and sayingthere's a storm coming in in Chicagowinter storm a lot of snow is expectedand you guys know all about snow don'tyou here right now and I got a noticefrom United Airlines saying your planemay be cancelled a lot of cancellationsexpected in Chicago on Friday and so I Itexted brother Tim and said you know Imay or may not make this uh but by God'sgrace I got up this morning and theroads were clear and uh uh then theysaid just as I was about to take off Iwas looking at the weather forecast mywife texted me she says we got heavysnow falling right now so I'm gratefulthat I don't have to shovel out mydriveway tomorrow morning it's 170 yardslong and I can tell you it's um it's areal it's about 2 hours of backbreakingwork uh so um my wife has noticed in thepast that uh she can predict when thewinter storm is coming in cuz I'm alwaysalways away from home it's a very goodindicator of when the storms are comingin so anyway it's a privilege to be withyou here this evening and um to sharewith you so um when you come to speak ata at a congregation and you've neverbeen there before and you really don'tknow hardly anybody there you kind ofwonder what am I going to talk about andso tonight um I want to talk about um uhwhat happens in the upper room withJudas uh tomorrow morning for ourSabbath School we're going to befocusing on on missions andmissions and then we have our sermonthen the afternoon we have uh somethingmore focused on religious liberty in theQ&A session but um tonight I'm going tofocus on what happens in the upper roomwith Judas and it's um it's it's apoignant story and it's a tragic storyand it's a story that relates to eachone of us today so um wherever you are Iinvite you to Bow your heads and we willask the Holy Spirit to bless this timetogether heavenly father as We Gatherhere at the start of the Sabbath dayfather I thank you that we made itthrough the pandemic alive I thank youFather that we've made it through thisweek I thank you Father for the gift oflife and health and strength fatherthank you that we have the ability topause and reflect on spiritual mattersthank you Father for the freedom in thiscountry to gather like this tonight andto Worship You freely and to hear theword of God so now Lord as we uh As WeGather in this your house I pray thatyou'll speak through me you'll speak forme I ask I ask father that the words Ispeak will be from your throne of graceI ask Lord that our lives will bechanged by what we hear tonight in thename of Jesus I humbly askamen all right so we don't often hear asermon preached on the life of Judas dowe you know um there are some whenparents name their give their um namestheirchildren I've never met any parentscalling their childJezebel and um I've met a few ahab's butI've never met a jezebel and and um I'vemet a few Judas but I've I've never metaJudas and so it's a name that kind oflives in infamy it's a name that wedon't often uh use for our children sowe're going to talk tonight about thestory of Judas and we start out byasking ourselves let me switch thisthing on here allright who was he who was Judas son ofSimon es scariot so I'm going to put thetext on the screen here tonight for youif you want to follow them in yourBibles that's fineum I'll leave the Powerpoints with withum the pastor and so if you want thePowerPoint later you can have it um butI'm going to be asking ourselves thequestion tonight first who exactly wasJudas es scariot well we know that hewas one of the 12 disciples but there'sa few things we can figure out about himfrom the gospels the first thing thename Judah um it means that God would bepraised so it is an expression of praiseto God the name Judah you know in actualfact you can often tell a lot aboutsomebody name um in in the the OldTestament the they would often the theword yah have you hear the word yah inyour name likea ElijahElisha um you're it's normally referringto Jehovah so L isElijah Jehovah is my God and so forthand uh it's interesting these names thatwe find in the Bible but Judas a scariotuh Judas means god be praised now um aswe can see from the the uh his namethere he was son of Simon es scariot andwe find that in Jude uh John6:71 it says that Jesus was speaking ofJudas son of Simon is scariot for hethough one of the twel was going tobetray him so uh the word Iscariot comesfrom the Hebrew ishiro which means a manfrom KIRO which is a Judean town southof the city of Jerusalem so he comesfrom near Jerusalem and his father'sname is Simon and he's one of the TWdisciples but there's something else weknow about Judas and we find that inMatthew chapter 10: 1-4 this is whenJesus summoned the 12 disciples to comeunto him and he commissioned them forgospel Ministry and it says there inMatthew 10 1-4 it says then Jesussummoned his 12 disciples and gave themauthority over unclean spirits to castthem out and to cure every disease andevery sickness so Judas was given byJesus the authority to cast out evilspirits directlyhe was also commissioned by Jesus withthe authority to cure every disease andevery sickness that's pretty impressiveyes and uh you know when you look at sayMark chapter 6 where Jesus sends out the12 disciples there uh he sends them outand he commissions them very similar tohere in Matthew 10 and then in Mark 6:31 and 32 the disciples come back and itsays they told Jesus all that they haddone and you can imagine what it wouldhave been like to be a disciple of Jesussent out with authority over everydisease can you imagine every diseaseyou'd walk down to your local hospitaland walk through the hospital Wards andsays rise in the name of Jesus Christand everybody is healed on the spot Imean you would be the most popularperson in town wouldn't you and whenpeople hear that you're coming to townto give a preaching series or a teachingseries they'd be queuing up from you formiles around because everybody is hopingto have their ailments their disease andwhatever it is cured and so um he wascommissioned by Jesus to cast outunclean spirits and to cure everydisease and every sickness and this iswhat he did when Jesus sent out the 12in Mark 6 then they come back to Jesushalfway through that chapter after thestory of the death of John the BaptistJudas was out there curing every knowndisease and casting out spirits andpreaching so it's hard to think whyJudas would betray Jesus having seenwhat Jesus can do for somebody now Jesushad reserved special time and teachingfor the 12 many of the teachings ofJesus are reserved for the 12 theBeatitudes for instance in The Sermon onthe Mount are given for the 12 it's notgiven for the whole crowd in start ofMatthew Chapter 5 Jesus is speakingprimarily to the 12 disciples thereJudas had seen The Sermon on the Mounthe' witnessed Jesus raising the deadhe'd seen Jesus casting out demons andhad cast out demons himself he'd seenJesus feed the 5,000 he helped pick upthe pieces and Loaves that were leftover from the feeding of the 4,000 he'dbeen in the storm on the Sea of Galileeon at least two occasions he'd seenJesus storm um Ste the wind and calm thewaves and he'd seen Jesus walk on waterhe'd seen Jesus heal the paralyzed he'dseen Jesus cleanse lepers he'd seenJesus ministering to both Gentiles andJews men and women he'd seen Jesusspeaking with elderly and he'd seenJesus taking the children in his laps hehad walked with Jesus for almost 3 yearsand he had as good an understanding ofthe ministry of Jesus Christ as anybodyelse yet in John'sgospel it's interesting in John's gospelyou know the the upper rumors from John13-17 um you don't so much get the breadand the wine in John's gospel uh you getit in Matthew Mark and Luke but inJohn's gospel the discussion about umJesus being the bread of life that'scome down from heaven unless you eat EatMy Flesh and drink my blood you have nopart in me all that comes early in thegospel in John in John chapter 6 andwhen Jesus discusses the fact that ifyou do not eat my flesh and drink myblood you have no part in me most ofthose who are following Jesus turnedaway from him they wanted nothing moreto do with him and Jesus when at the endof that chapter when when everybody'sleaving Jesus after a very very um toughsermon you might say Jesus um says areyou going to leaveme and uh Peter says Lord where are wegoing to go and so Jesus answered themyou see it on the screen there did I notChoose You the 12 yet one of you is adevil now in the Greek it says into oneof you is a devil or in one of you is adevil the word is diabos we get the worddiabolical from that it says he wasspeaking of Judas son of is scariot forhe though one of the twel was going tobetray Jesus so Jesus Judas was a mancapable of deceiving his closest friendswhen many disciples left Jesus in Johnchapter 6 and only the 12 were leftJudas remained with the other 11 eventhough in his heart he never quitebelieved inJesus but he stuck with Jesus for thosethree and a half years even though as wewill see he never quite came to Faith inJesus Christ now um Judas was a smartguy we know he was good with money weknow it from this story here in John 12now my wife she's a teacher and she saysto me Conrad you must never put morethan six lines on a power Point slidelike this so if my wife is watching Iapologize um but I hope you can read itthere this is the story of Mary washingthe feet of Jesus just before hiscrucifixion and in this story here um itsays Mary halfway down Mary took a poundof costly perfume made of pure nardanointed jesus' feet and wiped his feetwith her hair and the house was filledwith the fragrance of the perfume butJudas es scariot one of his disciplesthe one who was about to betray him saidwhat why was this perfume not sold for300 dinari and the money given to thepoor now he said this not because hecared for the poor but because he was athief and he kept the common purse andused to steal what was put into it soJudas was the treasurer for thedisciples you might say he was theconferenceTreasurer now I've just met one localchurch treasurer here this evening andI'm not going to suggest anything aboutchurch treasurers here tonight butwhat can we figure out about Judas thefirst thing was um who would be if youdidn't know that Judas kept the commonpurse um if you think about what youknow of the 12 disciples who do youthink would be the logical choice to bethe treasur for the 12 Matthew and why'you sayMatthew yeah he was an IRS agent heshould know about money zachus was a taxcollector and the tax collectors wouldtake some for the Romans but taxcollectors in those days worked on acommission basis that is you had to giveto the Romans a certain amount of moneyand you kept whatever was left over foryourself so they knew how to skim moneyall the time for themselves they wereaept andembezzlement and so Judas um he was TheTreasure of the disciples ahead ofMatthew which means that if they choseJudas to manage the money he must havebeen really good with money if theyweren't going to chooseMatthew he's a smart guy now why elsewhy else do we think he say he was smartwell because he was the treasurer forabout three and a half years and thedisciples were arguing all the timeabout who was the greatest in thekingdom of God is that right yes didanybody ever raise the accusation thatJudas was stealing from the commonpurse no there's no evidence of thatwhich means that for three and a halfyears while these 12 proud discipleswere walking up and down the roads ofGalilee with Jesus watching each otherlike Hawks figuring out who who was thegreatest in the kingdom of God who wasgoing to have preeminence and James andJohn go with their mother and her mothersays Lord can they sit at your righthand and your left hand when you come inthe Clouds Of Glory and Peter thinkshe's the natural leader and they're allwatching each other and arguing all thetime not once did anybody say well it'snot going to be Judas because he's athief which means he could deceive hisclosest friends for three and a halfyears he was so good with the financesnobody suspected him of stealing in fromthe common purse from which they madetheirliving he's a smart guy withmoney he knows how to steal he knows howto cover up he knows how to embezzle heknows how to lie to his closest friendsand he can do all of this veryconvincingly he lives a double life butit seems in the gospels that Judas wasfrustrated frustrated that this newproject called the kingdom of God thatJesus was announcing which he was hopingwould bring him to a position of workpower and Prestige and incredible wealthit wasn't moving ahead as Judas quitehoped it needed to be hurried alongsomehow so what does Judasdo well he goes and betrays Jesus itsays there in Matthew 26 is then one ofthe 12 who's called Judas a scarat wentto the chief priests and said what willyou give me if I betray him to you andthey paid him 30 pieces of silver andfrom that moment he that is Judas beganto look for an opportunity to betrayJesus so after Mary washed Jesus feetwith this expensive ointment costingabout a Year's wages because in thosedays adarius was a day's wage so youthink of your annual wage that's what itcost Mary to wash the feet of Jesus itwas a costly sacrifice she made whethershe knew it or not she was preparingjesus' body for hisburial but Judas goes and sells theJesus to the chief priest for 30 piecesof silver and if you look back in Exodus21 and: 32 that's the price for a commonslave so he's selling Jesus as basicallya piece of inanimate meat he sellingJesus intoslavery and from that time in Leaguewith the chief priests and the rulersJudas looks for an opportunity to betrayJesus but What Judas doesn'trealize and while the disciplesabsolutely knew nothing about anythingwas happening was that Jesus kneweverything allalong and it's important to rememberbefore we look against the upper roomand we look at the multiple offers ofMercy that Jesus gave to Jesus it'simportant to remind ourselves that wetalk of John 3:16 but I think John 3:17is just as important that God did notsend the son into the world to condemnthe world but in order that the worldmight be saved through him includingJudas so Jesus walks with the TW forthree and a half years has a profoundimpact on their life as we see most ofthem come to believe in the Divinity ofJesus we're going to see that thisevening but something there's somethinggoing on between Jesus and Judas whenyou come to the Lord's Supper the lastnight before Jesus dies Jesus has a onelast Evangelistic focus and is not thechief priest and is not the Phariseesand it's not the 11 but it's Judashimself Jesus has a heart for that youngman called Judas and so there aremultiple offers of mercy and we're goingto talk first about the first offer ofMercy we find that in John 131-11 and it says there that now beforethe Festival of the Passover Jesus knewthat his hour had come to depart fromthis world and go to the father havingloved his own who are in the world heloved them to the end the devil hadalready put it into the heart of Judahson of Simon son of Iscariot to betrayhim and during supper Jesus knowing thatthe father had given all things into hishands that he had come from God and wasgoing to God got up from the table tookoff his outer robe and tied a towelaround to self then he poured water intoa basin and began to wash the disciplesfeet and to wipe them with a towel thatwas tied around him and he came to SimonPeter and he said to him Lord are yougoing to wash my feet and Jesus answeredyou do not know what I am doing butlater you will understand now Peter saidto him you will never wash my feet Jesusanswered unless I wash you you have noshare with me Simon Peter said to himLord not my feet only but also my handsand my head and Jesus said to him onewho has bathed does not need to washexcept for the feet but is entirelyclean and you are clean though not allof you for he knew who was to betray himfor this reason he said not all of youare clean so Judas has already struckthe deal to betrayJesus and he's carrying the common pursewhich means he's carrying those 30pieces of silver now have you ever haveseen a Sil US silver dollar is quite abig coin 30 pieces of silver is not aninsignificant chunk of change in yourpocket it's probably a nice littleleather bag that you're carrying withyou he's probably got it slung aroundhis waist somewhere and in this storyhere Satan had already put into Jjudas's heart what he was going to do tobetray Jesus the 30 coins were sittingin judas's pocket and now Jesus startsto work on the one disciple that he hasyet to recognize his divinity and thatis Judas now the disciples have beenarguing about who was the greatestleading up to this moment and nobody wasgoing to take the role of a servant andwash the other's feet so in those daysyou may walk to somebody's house and asJesus says um you may bathe and you youyou don't need to wash again except forthe feet because if you're walking onthe dusty roads of Palestine your feetget really dirty okay and so thedisciples they come for the the Lord'ssupper or that that Passover meal thereand their bodies are clean but somebodyneeds to wash the feet and normally thiswas done by a servant or a slave butthere is no servant or slave there andso none of the disciples is going benddown and wash the feet of the others andso Jesus does this as an example to theDisciples of what Christianity reallymeans there was um the Dalai Lama wasonce asked what the greatest symbol ofChristianity is he said the picture ofJesus washing the disciplesfeet because you cannot imagine you knowPresident Biden or Queen Elizabeth orthe other pre presidents and PrimeMinisters of the world getting down andwashing the feet of their cabinetmembers or their citizens but but thepicture of Jesus washing his disciplesfeet um has a profound image in manyparts of the world so Jesus bends downand he washes the disciples feet nownobody was going to wash anybody else'sfeet the 10 were angry with James andJohn for trying to steal a march on themwith their mother and trying to get thetop seats in the kingdom of God Peterwasn't in the running for the job forthe top job right now because Jesus hadjust rebuked him so who was going to bethe greatest in the kingdom of God whowas going to have the most power in thecoming Kingdom maybe it was going to beJudas because everybody trusted him withtheir money now their feet neededcleaning but nobody wanted to do it outof a sense of Pride so Jesus washes thedisciples feet for them he gives hisdisciples and he gives us today a lessonin humility in the true meaning ofconversion from Pride to Godly sacrificeand service and he washes their feet nowJesus says there one who hasbathed now the word that he uses hererefers to the entire body you might sayone who has been baptizedwould be a good way of understandingthat but before the guests come to thefeast yes they've bathed their entirebodies but now they need to wash theirfeet but despite the disciples spiritualdifficulties they've already received aspiritual cleansing from Jesus he hasalready forgiven them for their sins andalthough they have lapsed into Pridethey are not yet in full apostasy so asthey need to be fully washed again theyes they've yielded to The Temptationsof Satan to Pride and seeking ofposition but not entirely and as spokenby pet Peter who when asked for hiswhole body to be cleansed again theywere repentant yet says Jesus one of the12 is unclean Jesus says uh where onewho has be betray bathed does not needto wash except for the feet but isentirely clean and you are clean thoughnot all of you and he's referring heretoJudas so Judas is sitting there and hedoes not seek a full washing of his bodythere's no evidence of repentance injudas's heart at this moment herethere's no grief at his disbeliefthere's no inner struggle at histhieving there's no hypocrisy or shameof sense of Shame over his hypocrisy orhis pride there is no there doesn't seemto be any um remorse about his betrayalof Jesus he remains sitting their prouda thief a betrayer a hypocrite a loverof money and though he sits among thedisciples he really isn't counted amongthedisciples as you saw with um the storyof blind bmuswhen Jesus was walking to Jerusalem withblind bmus um and then the woman comesup behind him many people will walk andfollow Jesus and they uh and they'retouched by Jesus um but they're nottheir lives are not touched in a salvicway you know following Jesus as did thecrowd on on the um with the the womanwith the issue of blood she was the onewho was healed not anybody else you knoweverybody's crowding AroundJesus so Judas is sitting there andJudas hears the words of Jesus whenJesus says not all of you are clean nowif you were Judas what would you thinkwhen Jesus saidthat like what's Jesus talking aboutlike we allwashed and now he's washed all of ourfeet but he's still saying that not allof you areclean so something's going on in thatUpper Room you wonder what Judas isthinking does Jesus know about theBetrayal does Jesus does Jesus know thatI'm a thief maybe Jesus is speakingabout James or John or thus orBartholomew hopefully maybe they've gota secret cherished sin but the thoughtsstart working in in judas's mind who'sJesus talking about when he says thoughnot all of you are clean would Judaslike Peter seek a full cleansing fromJesus at this stage absolutely notbecause Judas doesn't know what Jesusknows so then you come to the secondoffer of Mercy in this chapter and weread there in John 13:18 Jesus says I'mnot speaking of all of you I know towhom I've CH I know whom I've chosen butit is to fulfill the scripture the onewho ate my bread Has Lifted his heelagainst me so after Jesus washes theirfeet he stands up he's washedeverybody's feet including the feet ofJudas now Judas probably had to lift hiske very feet very carefully to avoidthose 30 pieces of of Chila attractinganybody'sattention and what did he you mean whenJesus said that someone there wasunclean was maybe he talking about Judasnow we know in the gospels that whenthey lay down for that Last Supper mealin those days they kind of lie reclineon their right side that on the one sideof Jesus was the Beloved disciple thatwas John and on the other side of JesuswasJudas so Judas is right next to Jesus inthe upper room it's important when Jesusgives out the bread and the wine laterwho he gives that to Judas is lyingsitting right next to Jesus in the upperroom there Jesus will be lying on hisright with his right hand dipping thebread into the soup and he would pass itto the one next to him and thatlogically would beJudas and Jesus says the one who ate mybread Has Lifted his heel against me andJesus quotes here from Psalm 41 andverse19 uh which says even my bosom friend inwhom I trusted who ate of my bread HasLifted his heel against me now to liftyour heel against someone in the MiddleEast is a sign of grossdisrespect what's the dirtiest part ofyour body your feet do you remember whenPresident Bush was in the Middle Eastgiving a press conference and an Iraqiman stood up and started shouting aboutall the children that died that werekilled in the in the oil for the oil forpeace program and also in the Americaninvasion of Iraq in 2003 and he startedshouting to President Bush and then toshow his utter disregard for PresidentBush he threw his shoe at him rememberthat like this is the dirtiest part ofmy body when Saddam Hussein wasoverthrown you saw pictures on CNN ofpeople taking their shoes and slappingthe pictures in the faces of SaddamHussein uh it doesn't matter whichpresent it was the point was people wereshowing their utter disregard for thesepolitical leaders so when Jesus says theone who ate my bread Has Lifted his heelagainst me and Judas is lying right nextto Jesus and Jesus has given the breadtoJudas Judas must start wonderingwho's Jesus talking abouthere the one who ate my bread Has Liftedhis heel against me even my bosom friendin whom I trusted that's where Jesus isquoting from who ate of my bread HasLifted his heel against me to lift yourheel it shows total ingratitude meansyou're going to act against your friendwhat could Jesus mean at this moment Ibelieve that here Jesus is appealing toJudas a second time to repent and belike the other 11 disciples now noticethat Jesus does not call out Judas byname he doesn't humiliate Judas hedoesn't say to Judas in front of thedisciples Judas I know what you'vedone he doesn't publicly denounce Judasbut Judas hears what Jesus is saying andhe takes the bread and eats it and Judasdoesn't say anything back to Jesus butyou start to wonder what's Judasthinking at this stage he's probablythinking uh Jesus just said that not allof you areclean and now he said the one who ate mybread Has Lifted his heel against me andJudas is sitting right next to Jesus hewould have received the bread from inthe meal from Jesus maybe Jesus isspeaking about Judas he's not callingout Judas by name he's not humiliatinghim he isn't putting it on Twitter orFacebook the sins of one of hisdisciples but Judas Must Be Wondering atthisstage then he comes to the third offerof Mercy in the upper room you find thisin Matthew 26 which goes into a bit moredetailThe Story Goes On It says when it wasevening he took his place with the 12and while they were eating he that isJesus said truly I tell you one of youwill betray me so Jesus as first saysone of you isunclean and Judas could be rightfullyforgiven for thinking maybe somebodyelse is unclean then Jesus says one ofyou is going to um Li uh lift your healyour heal against me the one who's takenmy bread and Judas is thinking well itcould be John maybe you're speakingabout John here and now in the thirdthing that Jesus says in the upper roomhe says truly I tell you one of you notjust two or three or five of you or 10of you or 11 of you but one of you isgoing to betrayme Jesus doesn't point the finger atJesus but now Judas knows clearly thatJesus is speaking to him in the upperroom Jesus knows that What Judas isdoing Jesus knows that Judas is sold himfor 30 pieces of silver there is nothinghidden anymore Jesus knows judas'sthoughts his intent and his plans forbetrayal now one of the characteristicsof Judaism in Psalm 139 is the idea thatGod knows every person'sthoughts even before a thought kind offorms in your mind God is aware of yourthoughts before you speak something Godknows what's going to be coming out ofyour mouth and so when Jesus says trulyI tell you one of you will betray me umJudas realizes that Jesus knows whathe's thinking aboutit's a revelation of the Divinity ofJesus toJudas if Judas is paying attention thisis the third offer of Mercy Jesus islike homing in one of you is notclean uh even my bosom friends in whom Itrusted Has Lifted his heel against meone whom I gave the bread to maybethat's John maybe it's me I don't knowmaybe Jesus is speaking about John nowJesus brings it in a bit more narrowerhe says one of you is going to betray meand Judas is probably thinking I don'tthink John betrayed him the the chiefpriest said nothing about John comingbetraying Jesus I'm carrying those 30pieces of silver in my pocket I'm prettysure he's talking about me at thisstage the disciples are stunned thatJesus would say one of you betray me andit says they became greatly distressedand began to say to him one afteranother surely not I Lord now the phraseLord is cuos in the Greek um and it's anexpression of the Divinity of Christwhen the disciples call Jesus lordthey're expressing their their theirtheir faith in Jesus as the Son of Godin the Roman Empire for the firstcentury when the Romans wanted to topersecute Christians they would s themin front of an altar and they would sayyou need to put some incense in front ofthis statue of Caesar and you have tosay um kaisaras which means Caesar isLord and the Christians would refusethey would say no Yus Kos Jesus isLord and so if you wouldn't saykaaos and you'd say Yus cuos it wasviewed as an act of treason to the tothe uh Roman Empire and therefore youwould be killed so when the disciplessay surely not I lord they're expressingin the upper room their faith in Jesusas the Son ofGod they've been converted they'veexperienced conversion they recognizethe Divinity of Jesus but interestinglyJudas is not included in this verse herehe comes in the ne the following verseJudas does not call Jesus Lord he callshim somethingelse so the disciples re in this versehere the disciples re recognize jesus'Divinity but Jesus Judas sits theresilent as Jesus reveals to Judas thatJesus knows everything about him Judasis left in stunned but unrepentantsilence so he come to the fourth offerof Mercy again in the upper room Jesusanswered the one who has dipped his handinto the bowl with me will betray me theson of man goes as is written of him butwoe to that one by whom the son of manis betrayed it would have been betterfor that one not to have been born andagainJohn the John the Beloved disciple is onone side of Jesus and Judas is on theother side ofJesus and Jesus says the one who'sdipped his hand into the bowl withme it must be pretty plain to Judas thatJesus is speaking about him right now inthe upper room one of you is not cleanone of you is going to lift his heelagainst me uh one of you is going tobetray me the one who's going to betrayme is the one who's dipping his handinto this bowl with me is not talkingabout the guys at the other end of thetable because they had share bowlsbetween two or three guys Jesus isnarrowing it down and narrowing it downand narrowing it down and Judas issitting next to Jesus at that meal musthave been very uncomfortable for Judasto go through that conversation but eachtime Jesus is revealing to Judas thatJudas I know what you've done and I'mnot calling you out about it I knowyou've betrayed me and now Judas youknow that I know and I know that youknow and you know that I know that youknow and I know that you know that Iknow that you know like nothing ishidden anymore Judas I know that you'rethe one who has betrayed me does Jesuscondemn Judas in this verse here hedoesn't really betray him he doesn'tcondemn him he doesn't call him out infront of the other 11 disciples hedoesn't say to them maybe we should havea board meeting and strip him of hisrole as the as the common Treasurer hedoesn't say maybe we should disFellowship him will put him under Churchcensure he doesn't say maybe we shoulddrive him out of this room because he'sa traitor in our midst he doesn't do anyof these things but he's working on theheart of Judas in the upper room because11 disciples recognize Jesus as Lord butJudas in the fifth offer of Mercy itsays Judas who betrayed him said surelynot I Rabbi and Jesus replied you havesaid so Judas the other disciples calledJesus Lordwhen Jesus says one of you is going tobetrayme but when Judas asks Jesus a directquestion he doesn't call him Lord hecalls himRabbi Rabbi just means teacher so theother 11 recognize Jesus asDivine but Judas he only recognizesJesus as a decent teacher a greatProfessor a wise man asage but he's not cuos he's only a rabbiand Jesus replies to J Judas Jesusdoesn't say to Judas excuse me Judas I'mcurios to you not Rabbi he doesn't saythat he simply says to Judas you havesaid so judas's question betrays hislack ofbelief for Judas Jesus was still a greatteacher a wise man a profound Sage butnothing more and if Jesus isn't going togive Judas great power and wealth andprestige then Judas is not going toaccept Jesus for who he really is whenJesus says you have said so he revealsthat he knows everything about Judas toJudas nothing's Now hidden in that InnerRoom dialogue between Jesus and JudasJesus has revealed himself to Judas in avery personal and unist unmistakable wayJesus does not humiliate Judas but hereaches unmistakably into judas's heartand pleads with him forrepentance like the other 11 disciplesare saved but Jud I'm working on you inthis Upper Room you're my last projectbefore Idie are you going to accept thesemultiple offers of Mercy I keeprevealing to you Judas I know what'sgoing on and I'm doing it in a way thatonly you understand and everybody elseis having their nice table talk andchitchat around the table but there'ssomething profound going on betweenJesus and Judas here and offer afterMercy um mercy and offer after offercomes towards Judas but Judas is not yetexpressing his faith in Jesus and he'snot repenting Judas will not suffer hisheart his religious hypocrisy his loveof money his pride and his world holdupon his heart so then you come to thefinal offer of Mercy in the upper roomso when they were eating Jesus Took aloaf of bread and after blessing it hebroke it and he gave it to the disciplesand said take eat this is my body thenhe took a cup and after giving thanks hegave it to them saying drink from it allof you for this is my blood of theCovenant which is poured out for manyfor the whatfor the Forgiveness of sins I tell you Iwill never again drink of this fruit ofthe vine until that day will I drink itnew with you in my father's Kingdom nowin this passage here Jesus is bringingin what Jeremiah calls the New Covenantuh this is the spoken of in Jeremiah 31and also by the prophet Ezekiel inEzekiel chapter 36 in which God promisesto take away our hearts of stone andreplace them with a heart of Flesh andPromises to bring forgiveness for oursins Jeremiah says I'll remember theirsins no more more so in the New CovenantJesus is offering a new beginning to theworst ofSinners that's why we celebrate theLord's Supper Jesus is offering a newbeginning to the worst ofSinners and at the climax of The Lord'sSupper here Jesus Takes the bread and hebreaks it and he gives it to thedisciples now if Judas is sitting hereand John is sitting here and Jesusbreaks the bread and all the otherdisciples are scattered around the tablewho's going to get the bread from thehand of JesusJudas this is my body is the first Johnum 1 Corinthians 11 this is my bodythat's is broken foryou and uh then Jesus Takes thecup and he says this is my blood of theCovenant which is poured out for manyfor the Forgiveness of sins now againwho can Jesus physically give that cupto toJudas can you imagine Jesus looking intojudas's eyes and saying those wordsJudas this is my blood of the Covenantwhich is poured out for many for theForgiveness of sins and Judas knows thatJesus knows all about histhievery Jes Judas knows that Jesusknows that he's betrayed him to thechief priests and at the climax of TheLord's Supper Jesus gives that cup toJudas and he says this is given for theForgiveness of yoursins it's the sixth offer of Mercy tothis hard-hearted disciple who sitsthere with a love of money and pride andworldly ambition has got a grip on hisheart and Jesus looks at his discipleand says Judas I'm offering you fullforgiveness I'm not calling you out I'mnot going to shame you I'm not going tohumiliate you I'm not going to tell thewhole church what's been going on herenobody else in the room is picking up onthis private conversation there's norecord of the disciples saying Jesuscould you just say that again what didyou just say about Judas there nothere's no record of that this is aprivate dialogue always through theLord's Supper between Jesus and the onelostdisciple and the climax of The Lord'sSupper Jesus offers Judas the bread thebody that is broken for you for youJudas and this is the cup representingmy blood that is spilt for you for theForgiveness of Judas of yoursins I wonder what was going on injudas's heartyes I imagine the thoughts there there'sa tyrance going through judas's heart atthis moment is he going to accept theForgiveness of Jesus Christ or is hislove of money going to Triumph is hegoing to accept this last offer of Mercyor does his desire for Prestige andpower and position Trump his love forJesus Christ what's going to happen inthe climax of The Lord's Supper heretonight and at the end the bottom lineabout this story is it's not just astory about Jesus and Judas but Satan isalsothere and Judas sits there and those 30pieces of silver in his pocket wellthat's tangible wealth that comesthrough betraying Jesus and so far infollowing Jesus I haven't made muchmoney so I'm going to choose for themoney and Judas rejects that last offerof Mercy from Jesus it says afterreceiving the bread Satan entered intohim previously a diabos or a devil hadbeen in s in Judas but now we we knowthat Judas has chosen against Jesusafter his repeated offers of Mercy andafter repeatedly refusing you might saythe appeals of the Holy Spirit to hisheart judas's heart is is open for Satanto take control and Jesus said to him doquickly what you're going to do even nowJesus doesn't reveal to the other 11disciples what's going on withJudas now no one at the table knew whyhe had said this to him some thoughtthat because Judas had the common PurJesus was telling him buy what we needfor the festival or that he should givesomething to the poor kind of ironiceven though Judas had the money so afterreceiving the piece of bread heimmediately went out and it was nightnow that's an interesting uh concepthere throughout the Gospel of John youhave this idea of light and darkness andyou find it in in the Epistles of Johnum that we should walk in the light yesand so forth and so this idea betweenlight and darkness goes all the waythrough the writings of John at thestart of the ministry of Jesus a mancalled Nicodemus comes to Jesus in themiddle of the night and he comes toJesus in in the middle of the night whenis physically dark but he comes to Jesuswho is the light of the world that's atthe start of his ministry and at the endof his ministry in John's gospel um youhave a man leaving the presence of thelight of the world and he goes out andhe says and it wasnight it wasn't justnighttime it was night time forJudas so if I were to say to you I'llmeet you if I were to say to you um anaccident happened at midnight last nightthat has a different meaning to if Isaid say to you during the Midnight Hourthere was an accident last night yesduring the Midnight Hour has certainconnotations it implies that this iswhen evil is at its worst when evil ismarching through the land during theMidnight Hour and so when John says andit was night it's not just saying it wasdark he's talking about the fact thatJudas was going out into EternalDarkness he's leaving the presence ofthe light of the world he's going outinto darkness and he's now controlled bySatan why is he controlled by Satanbecause Jes Jesus has repeatedlyappealed to his heart in private in away that nobody else knows and Judas hasrepeatedly hardened his heart to thepoint where Jesus gives him a directoffer of forgiveness this is my blood ofthe Covenant this is my body that isbroken for you and Judas takes it buthe's not going to repent and Soeventually his heart is so hardened thatonly Satan will find a home there and heleaves Jesus and it is not the nighttimehe has uh he has hardened his heart tothe point where he now acts not as adisciple of Jesus but is a servant ofSatan and now he is lost forever nowevents spiral out of control if you knowthe story within hours Jews Judas hadhanged himself on a tree outside thewalls ofJerusalem on that Fridaymorning two men hung on a tree outsidethe walls of Jerusalem Jesus andJudas let say Jesus died for love of youand me and Judas Died For Love of Moneyfor they both hung on a tree and died ona tree outside the walls of Jerusalem onthat Fridaymorning it's a terriblestory and it remindsus it remindsus that as we read in John 3:17 that Goddid not send his son into the world tocondemn the world or to condemn Judasfor the Judas might be saved throughJesusChrist let's apply this story to ourourselves shallwe it may be that sitting here tonightlike those 11 disciples we have indeedbeen washed fully by that I mean thatwe've accepted the Lord Jesus Christ asour savior we've been baptized wereceived by faith and through the graceof Jesus Christ forgiveness for our sinsand spiritual healing but like thosedisciples in the upper room like Peterwe still sense that we're Sinners westill need our feet to becleaned there are some sins in our livesthat need cleaningup like those disciples then so tonightwe do things that we're not proud of andso today we come to God in these Sabbathhours with a sense of remorse in ourhearts maybe a sense of shame maybe wewere carrying some waves and kaves andshould ofes from this past week and weknow as we come to the house of God thatsomething needs to be put right betweenmyself and my heavenlyfather now if you have no sense of sinand you have no sense that you sinned umit may well be that your heart isexcessivelyhardened I'd invite you just to sit andthink for a few minutes this eveningabout is everything right between us andGod or are we carrying a cherished andhidden sin into this house of God justas Judas carried it into that Upper Roomlike those 11 disciples then we canconfess our sins and our burdens arelifted the guilt and the shame is gonewe may have the Assurance of forgivenesswho may have indeed the Assurance ofSalvation we as Adventists don't like totalk about first John 5 very much PaulJohn says I write these things that youmay know that you have eternal life oneof the tragedies of many Adventists ontheir deathbeds as you realize when youchat with them is they don't know thatthey have eternal life ornot it's a great tragedy to not have theAssurance of eternallife it may be today that we're a bitlike Judas we do all the right things wesay all the right things we stand at theright time we sit at the right time wereturn a faithful tithe we express theright feelings and emotions at the righttime we looked upon as being goodfaithful Christians in good and regularstanding yet like Judas thougheverything looked good on the outsidesomething isn't quite right on theinside maybe like Judas tonight there isa love of Self in our hearts maybe thereis a love of money that trumps all othervalues maybe we're nurturing the selfishambition in our hearts maybe want toraise ourselves and generally when weraise ourselves we have to push otherpeople down in order to push ourselvesup maybe we're expressing in our lives aprofound unconcern for the poor inparticular for those who have nothingmaybe we're sitting with a sense ofreligious hypocrisy as did Judas maybewe're nurturing a critical attitudetowards a brother or sister maybe ourhearts are frozen in willful disbeliefof Jesus maybe we're in a transactionalrelationship with God where we say ifyou give me this financial or careergain then I will accept you as cuos butuntil then you're just myRabbi I don't know where we are sittingwhat the state of our hearts aretonight but I believe that just as Jesusrepeatedly appealed to Judas in thatUpper Room in this ongoing dialogue andthe other disciples really had no ideawhat was going on back and forth betweenJesus and Judas but Jesus knew and Judasknew maybe the holy SP spirit isspeaking to your hearts tonight aswell maybe in the quiet of this room inthe quiet of your heart where nobodyelse can see nobody else can hear wherenobody else can enter maybe the holyspirit is speaking to you tonighttenderly and softly that says sinnercome home this body was broken for youthis Blood was spilled with forgivenessnot just of the sins of the world butfor your sins your particular sins yourprivate sins your cherishedsins those sins that you yearn to keepand you pray that God doesn't really thegoal kind of Overlook somehow I'm goodenough in every other part of my life itdoesn't work likethat God wants to purify purify us andcleanse us of allsin he wants it he wants us to be ableto say like John the Baptist he mustincrease and I mustdecrease he wants to present us as thebride of Christ pure and unblemishedbefore a watchingUniverse he wants to give us victoryoversin he wants us to put us put put awayand put behind us those besetting sinsthat seem to stick to us so that we candemonstrate um in our lives what itmeans to be holy committed to the Saviorand what God can do through the life andheart of someone who's wholly committedtoGod now I'm not an exponent of lastgeneration theology but I do know thisbefore Jes Jesus comes again there willbe a flowering of wickedness on thisworld such as never has been and therewill be a flowering of righteousnessamong the saints ofGod and people will know whether you areamong the saints or whether you amongthe Wicked the polarization of todaywill be replaced by a polar polarizationbetween righteousness andwickedness and God is asking us tonightto kind of winow our hearts and to siftout that which has no part in God'sKingdomso tonight do you hear the voice of Godcalling you to repentance for somethingin yourlife maybe it's a we could list allkinds of sins we won't time is movingon but I'm pretty sure there are peoplesitting here tonight who have a sensethat maybe God can forgive everybodyelse but he can't forgiveme I preached a sermon recently and a alady was watching andwhen I made an appeal at the end shebroke down and confessed to all thoseheinous of crimespossible well now spend the rest of herlife inprison but she wrote to me and in hercase she used to be free on the outsidebut a prisoner of guilt on the insideshe's now a prisoner on the outside butshe's free of guilt on theinside Jesus wants to set us free fromthat burden of guilt and just as heappealed to to Judas multiple times inthat Upper Room maybe he's appealed toyou multiple times before tonight andhe's appealing to you againtonight this is my blood that is givenfor the Forgiveness of your sins I knowwhat those sins are and my grace issufficient to cover all of your sins mygrace in my grace there's provision forforgiveness for all of your sins heretonight so tonight do not be like JudasI appeal to you tonight Do not sit herewith stubbornness or sense ofdetermination and ourdisbelief because you may find that youdepart into Eternal Darkness as didJudas rather if you hear God calling youpersonally and speaking to you by namemaybe the spirit is moving upon yourheart tonight he's offering you theForgiveness only God can give the peacethat passeth all understanding and he'soffering you with the new beginning thatonly God can give and he's offering ittonight and he's offering offering itforyou the one who knows your sins from athrough z who's loved you witheverlasting love you cannot make himlove you more you cannot make him loveyou less you every this Grace was givenyou in Christ Jesus before thefoundation of theworld which means god knew before youwere even born every sin you'd evercommit and he's made full provision foryour fullforgiveness it's amazinggrace but it does requiretonight for me for you for each of ustonight and those watching online dorequire us to repent andconfess and ask God to give us the graceto overcome those sins in the days goingforward so I want to appeal to youtonight you know we come and listen topreachers preach about differentthings I've just come to the conclusionit's important to be direct these daysbecause time is short and souls areprecious and people are dropping Deadall around us if you watch the news ofunexpectedcauses even the elephants in the roomdied unexpectedly justrecently that's a joke by theway life istenuous you can have a road accidentyour life can changeovernight those missionaries in thePhilippines went on a Mission of Mercythree daysago and while engaged in God'swork as far as we know we still pray fora miracle or they lost their life liveswhile they were the hands and feet ofJesus we do not know if you'll even gethome tonight in onepiece so even though we're going to gofrom this house where there's a lot oflight we go outside and it's dark I wantto appeal to you tonight don't go don'tjust go home in the dark but um do notgo home in spiritualDarkness but allow the light of theworld that is Jesus Christ to shine intoevery nook and cranny of your life andreveal to you tonight what needs tochangeI want to encourage you tonight to gohome and if the spirit's been speakingto you tonight get down beside your bedand give whatever the holy spirit's beentalking to you about over toGod in the privacy of your own roomthank the Lord for his forgiveness thankthe holy spirit for speaking to youthank the holy spirit that he's notgiven up on you that Judas had six orseven offers of Mercy in the upper roommaybe you've had hundreds of offers ofmercy and he's still speaking to youtonightit means he still sees a possibility ofyour salvation that he has not given uphope on you so I encourage you tonightgo home if the Holy Spirit has movedupon your heart here this eveningthere's something you need to give overtoGod and on your Bended Knees by your bedconfess that sin before your heavenlyfather and receive by faith theForgiveness that only God cangive and claim that forgiveness byfaith Satan may come to you and and hemaysay ah you're a sinner God could neverforgive you for that and you'll throw inyour face all the sins of the past allthose memories will come back to you andyou'll say God could not forgive asinner like you that's known as falseguilt when Satan comes at you like thatyou quote one the promises of Godrelating to forgiveness as far as theEast is from the West so far I willremove your transgressions fromyou that's false guilt because you areforgiven Satan may come to you tonightand say are you're a show how could God possibly forgive youlook at the sin that's ongoing in yourlife and he's trying to discourage youmake you give up Faith and give up hopebut you know it's the Holy Spiritspeaking to you if you send if you hearthat voice of conviction in your mindbringing that conviction of sin to youbut pointing you to Jesus as your sinbearing Savior and saying yes you're asinner but there is a savior that paidthe penalty for that sin and he willforgive you tonight if you confess andyou turn away from it and you ask forfor his forgiveness and you ask for hisgrace to be anovercomer sotonight give over to God whatever you'reholding on totonight allow him to reign supreme inevery corner and nook and cranny of yourlife if the holy spirit is appealing toyou as Jesus spoke to Judas do notHarden your heart do not leave tonightin the darkness and do not go into outerdarkness in Eternal spiritual Darknessyou may go home in the darkness tonightbut you can still walk in in thelight let's bow our heads and we'llclose with a word of prayer heavenlyfather I want to thank you for thiscongregation gathered heretonight father I want to thank you forthe way that you've moved upon theirhearts to bring them here tonight fatherI want to thank you for the way yourspirit has moved in on everybody'sheart I thank you for the way thatyou've convicted us of sin youve pointedout to us our need of oursavior and tonight father I'm askingthat you reveal to us aresh in personaland unmistakableways those strongholds of Satan thosecherished sins those nooks and crannieswhere we would rather the light of theworld would notshine I pray Lord that you will shineyour light into those uh corners of ourhearts tonight reveal to us our sinsthat which comes between us and you andI pray that we will have the courage toaskforgiveness I pray that by by faithwe'll receive yourforgiveness and we will return in themorning with a sense of gratitude to oursin bearing savior who has removed thatparticular burden from ourlives father tonight I ask you hear ourprayers ask you forgive us for oursins I humbly ask that you send yourHoly Spirit into my life and to thelives of all thosepresent once again to convict us ofwhere we need tochange and father I pray that tonightyou will strip RP away from us thoseworks of the flesh that have no part ofyour kingdom and you replace them withbeautiful Harvest of the fruit of thespirit which are an unmistakableevidence that you are at work in ourlives and in our hearts so we give ourlives AR fresh into your hands tonightmold us and shape us You Are The Potterwe are but the clay may we be vesselsFit for Your Kingdom may we carry awonderful treasure to the world may OurLives be credible I pray Lord that ourlives will be Testament to the world ofwhat it means to follow Jesus who speaksto the heart and Tenderly and gentlyWhispers to each one of us followme thank you Father for sending your soninto the world not to condemn the worldbut that through him we might be savedin His holy name we prayamen so we look forward to seeing youtomorrow morning for Sabbath Schoolwe're going to focus on missionstomorrow morning and um I need a lot ofkids here tomorrow morning a veryinteractive thing and so kids need to beready to dress up tomorrow and we gotsome various costumes for you okay so umcome ready for that and we look forwardto what time is Sabbath School Pastor9:15 we start tomorrow that's Pacifictime not Eastern Standard Time