Episode Transcript
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Hi, I'm Josh.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: And I'm Gabriel.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: And today on reading the Gospel, we are studying the event the Betrayer revealed. This is going to be unique. We're going to read from all four instances, starting in Matthew 26, verses 21 through 25. Follow along with us.
[00:00:44] Speaker B: And as they were eating, Jesus said, truly I say to you, one of you will betray me.
And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him, one after another, is it I, Lord? He answered, he who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born. Judas, who would betray him, answered, is it I, Rabbi?
He said to him, you have said so.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: Continuing in Mark 14:18, 21, the Bible says, Truly I say to you, one of you will betray me, the one who is eating with me.
They began to be sorrowful and to say to him after one another, is it I? He said to them, it is one of the 12 who is dipping bread into the dish with me. For the Son of man goes as it is written, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: And now we read from Luke 22:21 23.
But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table.
For the Son of man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed.
And they began to question one another which of them it could be who was going to do this.
[00:02:39] Speaker A: And finally we'll Finish with John 13:21 30.
After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit and testified, truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me. The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he had spoken. One of the disciples whom Jesus loved was reclining at the table at Jesus side. So Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus or whom he was speaking. So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, lord, who is it? Jesus answered, it is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it. So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Then, after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, what you are going to do, do quickly now. No one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that because Judas had the money bag. Jesus was telling him to buy what we need for the feast or that he should give something to the poor. So after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out and it was night.
This is a very sad story, the betrayal of Jesus. And, you know, we have this term, he's a Judas or she's a Judas. For someone who betrays Judas has become a symbol of someone that we do not want to be like.
But as we get into the story and the reason why we read all four of these instances, you know, we were discussing, which one do we read? We went back and forth, we were looking around, and we ended up reading all four because there is opportunity in here. And I think we want to spend some time looking at this. Now.
We believe that the Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit and that God came to Matthew and came to Mark and came to Luke and came to John and inspired them. They wrote it down in their own words, and they wrote down what they remembered, what they saw. And so it could be that these events happen, and each disciple picked up on something else, saw some other event that happened, and that's what burned into their mind later on.
So how many times or when was the first time that Jesus announced that there was a betrayer among them?
[00:05:26] Speaker B: I think Jesus hinted towards this even before, on the way to Jerusalem for the last week of celebration before being crucified.
But this time, it is just the 12 disciples and the betrayer is revealed gradually.
It is like building, you know, an intense moment.
In the beginning, it says, one of you will betray me. And they look at each other and they question, what do you think about this statement? And that?
[00:06:07] Speaker A: I like in John on that, Sorry, real quick, where Peter looks over at John and is like, dude, ask him.
Hey, ask Jesus about that. And John, who's laying back against Jesus, asks Jesus, I just love that imagery.
Who is this? We want to know.
[00:06:27] Speaker B: And after that, Jesus is very clear. One of you, one of you 12, it's more direct.
And they try to question their own integrity, their own allegiance.
When we are before God, we realize that God might know more about us than we know, that he might know our thoughts and our plans better than we think we know.
I think the next one is when Jesus said, the hand of the betrayer is with us here with me on the table. Yeah. At that moment, I imagine that everyone looked at their own hands. Is it my hands that is going to do this?
They questioned their thoughts and their intentions, and now they question their actions.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: Is it this hand that is going to do. And I see this, like an intense moment. And everyone, after examining their thoughts and their desires and their plans, now they looked at their hands. And examined their hands.
[00:07:39] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And wondering, how could I come to the place? And I think it gives good questions for us because it's easy to look back at Judas and say, that was a bad man.
[00:07:54] Speaker B: And after they looked at their hands, you know, the hands are moving towards taking a piece of bread.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:01] Speaker B: I mean, dipping the bread.
And Jesus said, the person who dipped with me here in this little plate, he is.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:15] Speaker B: And it seems that Jesus Christ didn't stop here.
[00:08:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: And Jesus Christ took a piece of bread and gave it to him.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: Because then later on it says, the person whom I dip and feed this morsel to will be the one who betrays me. So so far we have. He said, there's going to be a betrayer.
[00:08:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: The one whose hand is on the table.
[00:08:39] Speaker B: The betrayer would be one of them.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: Yeah. One of them.
[00:08:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Not from the outside.
[00:08:42] Speaker A: Hand on the table. The one who dips bread with me. The one who. I give this morsel a dip bread, too. So far, that's four times. Are there any more times?
[00:08:53] Speaker B: Maybe a couple of more. Because they started asking the Lord, is it me? Is it me? And the Lord said, yes, it is you.
[00:09:01] Speaker A: Yeah. So he outright says it to Judas, this is you.
[00:09:05] Speaker B: This is you.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: And then he tells him, after you've eaten this morsel of bread, go do what you need to do quickly.
Why are there so many different times?
[00:09:19] Speaker B: I see this as a climax of the week.
In 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, as we discussed in the previous episode, Jesus Christ shared with Paul in one of those visions in the third heaven that the communion was established on the night when he was betrayed. A very intense moment that hurt very deeply. We knew that the Jews were planning or even decided to kill Jesus Christ. It was a long process. We knew that the Romans can be rude and can execute anyone.
But to have one of the 12 betraying Jesus, it is very painful. And this pain is being revealed here by Jesus Christ on one side. On the other side, I see all of these steps of revealing the betrayer as opportunities for Judas to acknowledge, to say, maybe I went too far to realize that Jesus knows everything and he is divine. He is the Messiah who is supposed to come.
I see all these steps as opportunities for Judas to pause, to reflect, and also to repent.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: Yeah. And ask forgiveness.
I agree. And, you know, I was not the best youth and I remember some of my friends, we decided we were going to steal one of our friends bikes. And we planned it and thought about it and everything. And I still remember the feelings, like the points. There were points along the way where I could have stopped, but I didn't. And I kept digging in and kept going forward with this thing that I knew I shouldn't do and I knew would hurt someone.
But I saw on the path to that decision so many times where the Holy Spirit was prompting me not to do it, to turn back, to stop, to repent. And I'm so thankful that God does that to us. I think of another Bible story, the story of Cain, Cain and Abel. You know, this is the very first death in the Bible and God is coming to Cain as Cain is walking through the field as he's contemplating. Cain had just offered a sacrifice to God and so did Abel. Abel's sacrifice was accepted, Cain's was not. And so Cain is fuming not at his mistake, but at Abel.
And God said, sin is crouching, it's creeping at your door, it wants to devour you. And he has this conversation, come back, don't make the mistake.
[00:12:20] Speaker B: And God talks to the bad guy. In Genesis 4, God doesn't talk to Abel, to the righteous Abel, just to the bad guy. Because God loves everyone and wants everyone to come back to him.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: Yeah. And while I use that example of me stealing a friend's bike, I can go back. Unfortunately, there were many times in my teenage years where I deliberately planned something bad.
And I knew that feeling that God was giving me.
Exit ramps from the bad plan. Ways to get away, ways to turn to him.
And in my life today, when something's. When a temptation comes and when I dwell on that temptation and start desiring that, I'm thankful for those exit ramps because just crying in the name Jesus, Jesus, help me.
I've never, I can't remember any time where I was tempted to do something. And when I said, jesus, help me, that I still went through and did it anyway.
And I think if Judas had cried out at this point, Jesus, help me, Jesus would have been there to help Judas, right there.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: I like this. How many six or seven points of revealing the betrayer in a gradual way. Unfortunately, it ended at a point of no return.
When the Lord said, do what you want to do. And the Gospel said, Judas left, closed the door, it was night outside. And that is the night of sin. That is the darkness of beyond the point of no return.
And that is when God cannot do too much for us.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: And it said Satan entered into him as he went out.
And so I think for us, for individuals, we need to know that our actions are important. That when we're on this path towards sin, to destruction, to betraying Jesus ourselves, we might not be going to the Jewish authorities and getting coins to crucify Jesus, but we can betray Jesus in our lives.
[00:14:49] Speaker B: Half white lie. And you know that you're lying, you know that that is not the truth. Practically we betray the Lord because we side with the enemy. In our mind when we say a little lie, we justify, oh, you cannot live without that. I have to do it.
That means you justify Lucifer's behavior in the beginning when he rebelled against God.
So this is how we, this is one quick example of how we can betray Jesus Christ today.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: And the good news is that Jesus offers forgiveness for that. And I believe that if Judas had, even after betraying Jesus, had come back and asked forgiveness, there would have been forgiveness there.
But I think he passed that point where he desired forgiveness. And that's the danger in our lives. If we keep rejecting God, we can get to a point where we will no longer desire God. There won't be any drive, there won't be any thought in our hearts that we want to do what God wants or want to be with him or want to be saved. And at that point we're cut off.
But forgiveness is there. Let's pray.
Father. God, in our lives there might be something that we know we're doing wrong that we shouldn't.
But Father, I pray that we can cry out, jesus, save me that, that we can stop before it's too late.
And that in that pitiful cry, Jesus save me, you will take over and that you will save us from our sins, save us from ourselves, help us to serve those around us and do good, not to be self centered and do evil.
So please be with us always in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:16:46] Speaker B: Amen.
