Matthew 26:17-25
"Began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I?"
Jesus sits down to eat the passover meal with His disciples. "As they did eat" the Lord dropped a bomshell. He had spoke of it repeatedly before, but now He detonated the bomb. Right when everyone was enjoying the feast, He suddenly decalred that one of His disciples shall betray me. Instant joy turned to sorrow. Each disciples searched his heart. "Is it I?" Peter asked. "Is it I?" Thomas asked. One and all, they voiced their self-doubt. None of them could think that he was the traitior, yet none of them could be sure that he was not. The slumbering possiblitites of betrayal lies in the heart of all of us. It is far wiser to cry, "Is it I?" than to boast, "Yet will not I." Beware of becoming sure of yourself: how impossible it must seem, or how incredible it must sound.
Let none of us say in foolish self-confidecne that any form of sin which our borther has ever committed is impossible for you. All sins are at bottom but varying forms of one root. "He that trusteth in his own heart is fool." Need to all say as the Puritan who when beholding a man going to the scafold, "But for the grace of God, there go I."
All the disciples momentarily questioned their own loyalty, but no one suspected the actual traitor. This means the love of Jesus had completely preserved His secret. His love for John and the rest of the group had been the same as the love shown to Judas.
The potential of betrayal is in each and everyone of us. Blessed is the man that feareth always.
Betrayal---- Am I guilty of betraying the Lord today?
I. Betray Him with the motive of our doing
Are the motives in my heart such that God would be pleased with? Are the motives in my heart pure and holy? Why do I do what I do? What is the reason behind the why?
A very miserly man entered an antique store looking for a gift for a friend. Everything was too expensive, except for a broken glass vase which he could purcahse for almost nothing. He asked the store to send it directly to his firend, figuring his friend woul think taht the vase had been broken in transit. In due time the man received a thnak-you card from his friend. "Thanks for the vase," it read. "It was so thoughtful of you to wrap each piece separately."
Oh, that our motives would be pure. It is possible to do a right or a good thing for the wrong reason.
If our motive is anything less than for Him to receive the glory, then we have betrayed Him
"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." God deserves the glory, desires the glory, and is due the glory.
He should get the glory in the most ordinary and trivial acts of life as eating and drinking; and yet the command is so vast that in nothing we do or say should escape His getting the glory.
Colossians 3:17 "Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus."
II. Betray Him with the message of our speaking
Talk about everything under the sun, but cannot talk about Jesus.
A. Matter of our speech
Baseball, football, fishing, racing....but seldom do we ever hear of the name of Jesus.
Our speech identifies us "Thy speech bewrayeth thee" -- Peter’s dialect showed that he was a Galilaean, and as most of Christ’s adherents came from region, they inferred that he was one of Christ’s disciples. Oh for a speech that indentifies me as His.
He who created speech desires that we use it for him.
B. Manner of our speech
"Speaking the turth in love"
Truth without love is brutality, but love without truth is hypocrisy. People care little about how much you know until they know how much you care.
III. Betray Him with the methods of our ministring
Have to do God’s work in God’s way. E.M. Bounds once said, "The church today does not need more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the HolyGhost can use -- men of prayer, men mightly in prayer."
Betraying the Lord by adopting the methods of the world. You cannot do the spirtiual with natural methods.
A. No subsititue for supplication
Foolish to attempt to try
The importance which should be given to prayer.
1. Prayer ripens souls
Story is old taht five yong ministerial students, before theri ordination, spent a Sunday in London. They wished to hear Spurgeon speak. WHile they waited for the doors of Metroplitain taberncale to open, a stranger ppproached them. "Gentlemen," he asked, "WOuld you like to see the heating apparatus for the church?"
They politely agreed to go. The man led them down some steps, adn then opened a door. In a low voice he remarked, "Here, sirs, is our heating apparatus." There, before the eyes of the five young ministerial students, were 700 people bowed in prayer, seeking God’s blessing on the service about to begin in the auditiorium above. The unknown guide, they found out later, waa s Spurgeon himself.
2. Prayer readies the speaker
Pulpit power is the result of prayer power.
A story is told of a district denominational superintendent who asked a pulpit committee, "How big a man do you want?"
"Well," they aswered, "We are not overly particular. Just send us a man who can reach Heaven when he is on his knees"
3. Prayer releases the Spirit
A.C. Dixon once wrote, "When we rely upon organization, we get what organization can do; wehn we rely unpon education, we get what education can do; we we rely upon eloquence,we get what eloquence can do. However, when we rely upon prayer, we get waht God can do."
B. No subsitute for the Scriptrues
1. Provides the church’s message
"Gospel"
2. Prescribes the church’s method
"the follishensss of preaching"
3. Produces the church’s members
"to save them that believe"
IV. Betray Him with the manner of our living
Are we living such a life that what we say we are is not inforced by what we do? Are we recognized as being a Christian?
A. Actions of a Christian
Pleasures we appreciate are different from the world
Places we attend are different from the world
B. Attitude of a Christian
loving and forgiving
"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."
C. Attire of a Christian
Book entitled - Your Clothes Say It For You
Proverbs 7:10 - "the attire of a harlot"
Jeremiah 2:32 "a bride her attire"
II Samuel 13:18 "with such robes were the king’s daughter’s taht were virgins apparelled"
Colossians 3:10, 12-14
Put off the vile garments associated with the old man and put on the virtuous garments associated with the new man.
Under garments (12)
Outer garments (13)
Over garments (14)
Conclusion:
Do us all well to search our own hearts and ask the question the disciples asked "Is it I?" Am I betraying you in the message of my speaking
motive of my doing
manner of my living
methods of ministering
