The Killing of Jesus

Well, tomorrow evening at sunset begins the 14th of Aviv by God's calendar. The 14th of Aviv is a significant date, as you know, in the Bible and should be in our lives as well. As you begin the Passover service tomorrow, I'll be up in Jacksonville with Doug Wentz, and we'll be here with you for the Passover service in Orlando. I'm sure he'll begin reminding you that just a few minutes ago, began the 14th of Aviv, and you will recount the history of what God has had His people and what He has done on this very important day. In ancient Israel's time, it was on the 14th of Aviv that they were in their homes.

They had slaughtered the Passover lamb. They had taken the blood and they had spread it over the doorposts. That evening, on the 14th of Aviv, the firstborn of Egypt was killed as they rejected God and determined to resist Him and His plea to let His people go. They were delivered from death by that blood. Several hundred years later, on the 14th of Aviv, Jesus Christ sat down with His disciples at the last Passover.

He would become the Passover lamb, that the ultimate Passover lamb, the lamb that was slain from the foundation of the earth, and by His blood, His shed blood, we would be saved from the death penalty that we all have been earned. As you can imagine, on that 14th of Aviv, in 30 or 31 A.D., when He sat down with His apostles and His disciples at that last table, all those things that He knew were going to happen would be heavy on His mind. As He reflected, and as we reflect on His time, and as we are just one day away from the Passover, it's appropriate and good for us to reflect on the suffering that He did because His suffering was enormous.

It wasn't just physical, it was emotional as well. Everything that could possibly be thrown at a human being was thrown at Him, and He did it all for us. So let's look at a few verses here.

Back in Psalm 22, because He knew exactly what He was going to be going through, it was all prophesied, all determined, the details of it, even before the foundation of the earth. Back in Psalm 22, we have one of the prophecies of the suffering that He would go to. In verse 1, it says, "...My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from helping me?" The very words that Jesus Christ said as He was dying that day, on the 14th of Avon.

Let's get out down to verse 6. He says, or the verse says, I'm a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. All the those who see Me ridicule Me.

They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted in the Eternal. Let Him rescue Him. Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him. And as you read through the Gospels and you see the accounts of what Jesus Christ went through, you see the people mocking Him, you see the people jeering Him, you see the people just casting these comments at Him that any of us would recoil at. And in spite of all the pain and everything that He was doing, because He was the only person who didn't deserve that punishment, and who didn't deserve that death and that period of torture, He endured it all.

He endured it all without sin. Down in verse 12, Many bulls have surrounded Me. Strong bulls of basin have encircled Me. They gape at Me with their mouths like a raging and roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It has melted within Me. My strength is dried up like a postured, and My tongue cleans to My jaws. You have brought Me to the dust of death.

For dogs have surrounded Me. The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierce My hands and My feet. I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots. Written hundreds of years before Jesus Christ was on earth, hundreds of years before the actual events happened, fulfilled exactly the way every prophecy in the Old Testament said that the Savior would come and what He would endure, every single one of them, in so many places, in just exact detail.

Let's go back to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 is another prophecy of becoming Messiah of what He would endure on our behalf. Isaiah 53 and in verse 3, He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from Him. He was despised, and we didn't esteem Him. All of us have a part in the killing of Jesus Christ. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. We fought, and the people, as you read through, they just thought He was getting His just reward.

Certainly He had done something wrong to do that, and they esteemed Him stricken by God and failed to understand that He was the Savior of all mankind. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. We have life, we have eternal life, we can experience the spiritual healing that only comes through yielding to God, through yielding to His Holy Spirit by allowing it to cleanse us and purge us and mold us into who He wants us to be. And the physical healing as well that we read of back in Matthew 8, verses 16 and 17. Verse 7, He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before it sheers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. Shrub down to verse 10, Yet it pleased the eternal to bruise Him. He has put Him to grief. When you make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hands. Therefore, verse 12, I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death. And He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. So tomorrow night, and through the days of Unleavened Bread, and really every day of our lives, we should be thankful for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He went through it all, and I think it's hard for us to imagine the pain, the grief, the suffering, emotional and physical that He went through that last day, and really in the days leading up to His death. But you know, through it all, all the things that were done to Him, if it was done to us, we would have a really difficult time with mankind. We'd have a really difficult time with ourselves, wouldn't we? And yet He never lost His love for mankind. Let's go back to John 3. John 3 and verse 16. You could probably all quote it to me. We don't even have to turn there, but let's do it anyway. John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only Beyotin Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That's why He came to earth. That's why He was born a human.

That's why He lived and died, that our sins could be forgiven. And then by His resurrection, we have the hope of eternal life if we believe in Him, if we follow Him, if we commit ourselves to Him, and if we follow that way the rest of our lives. That last day, the 14th of David, the Jesus Christ, was alive. He faced so many things, and on that day, He knew as He entered it, He would be killed.

He would be killed for many reasons, and on that day, as we look at it, we'll look at it a little more closely, there were several things that contributed to the killing of Jesus that day.

And as we see what happened on that final fateful day, prescribed in Scripture, known from the foundation of the world that it would happen, the details that were included in prophecy, we can learn about the people of that time, but we learned something about ourselves too, and determined that we would never be part of the people who were there for the killing of Jesus.

Let's go back to John 13 and see at the beginning of the 14th of David, some of the things and people and sin that confronted Jesus that led to His death.

John 13, verse 1. Now, before the face of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come, that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. Loved them to the end, even through all the stuff that was going to happen in the next 24 hours. And supper being ended, the devil, already having put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside His garments, took a towel, and dirted Himself, and then He proceeded to wash the disciples' feet.

A symbol of service, a symbol of humility. And later on, as you go through the verses, as we'll read tomorrow night, He says, Do this. Happy are you if you do these things. Jesus Christ, the greatest man who ever lived, our Savior, was willing to humble Himself and put Himself at the feet of everyone at that table, to serve as the lowliest of servants to them, as an example of what we should be willing to do. And it mentions in that verse that Judas Iscariot, Christ already knew that Judas was going to betray Him, and betray Him He would. He's become a well-known figure throughout the world because of His betrayal of the Savior, His betrayal of Jesus Christ. Let's go back. Let's go down to verse 18.

After he speaks of the ceremony that he instituted here of washing each other's seat, he says, I don't speak concerning all of you. I know whom I've chosen, but that the Scripture baby fulfilled, he who he spread with me has lifted up his heel against me. I know there's someone here who is going to be against me. I know what this night is going to unfold.

Most assuredly, let's go down to verse 21. When Jesus had said these things, He was troubled in spirit. Now, you can imagine that evening, you've gone through it, you know what lies ahead in the next day. You know that Judas Iscariot, who is going to betray you, is there, and you know what that's going to lead to over the before sunset of the following day. I would think all of us would be pretty troubled in spirit. We would be looking at things, and it would be hard to even look at Judas, wouldn't it? And yet Jesus Christ looked Him squarely in the eye. Jesus Christ had Him there at His table. Jesus Christ will see some amazing things with Judas that night, things that are prophesied in Scripture and things that we can learn a lesson from of ourselves. So, let's go on.

Verse 22, it says, Most assuredly one of you will betray me. For this caused the stir among the disciples, and they looked at each other and said, Well, who would that be? Verse 23, there was leaning on Jesus was in one of His disciples whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore motioned to Him to ask who it was, of whom He spoke. And leaning back on Jesus' grasp, He said, Lord, who is it? And Christ answered, It's He to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it. And having dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas the scary at the Son of Simon.

And after the piece of bread, Satan entered Him. And Jesus said to Him, What you do, do quickly.

The process was set in motion. Now Judas, as we see, left. And the process began of the killing of Jesus by the time sunset would occur on the following day.

Now we know about Judas. We've talked about him before. He had some fatal flaws. We see one of the clues to what his fatal flaw was down in verse 29. Some thought that he was dismissed because he had the money box. And we read back in chapter 12, if you want to turn back there, verse 6, when Ointment is being put on Christ and He raises the issue, Why is all this money being spent, says in John 12, verse 6, This Judas said not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and he had the money box and he used to take what was put in it. So we see the character of Judas Iscariot. We talked about it was a cancer that was him, his love of money, his love of the material things. He just never overcame it. Maybe he had a blind spot on that. Maybe he just thought it wasn't anything that really was a big deal. He just liked money and he was always around it.

And yet that cancer was allowed to grow in him, that cancer that will kill all of us, if we don't arrest it, if we don't do the things to allow God's Spirit to weed it out of us.

And that led to something that Judas was going to do that evening, that even he himself, I'm sure looking back, didn't see what was going to happen, but he had become a willing tool, a willing tool of Satan. Well, keep your finger there in John 13. Let's turn back the first time at the... first Timothy 6. Maybe all of us have a fatal flaw. Maybe all of us are overlooking that fatal flaw. Maybe all of us, or many of us, I hope not all of us, are ignoring something that God is trying to show us, ignoring a problem in our lives like Judas did. And if not arrested, if not corrected, if not repented of, if not a change that occurs would lead to the same thing that Judas did.

First Timothy 6, verse 10 is almost like this verse, was written for Judas, but it's written for all of us. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Judas certainly pierced himself through with many sorrows because he just would not repent, because he just would not recognize. Maybe with him it was, well, it was with him money. He was willing to sell the Savior for thirty pieces of silver. That's what lured him in. Thirty pieces of silver? He'd be happy to do the deed that no one else would do. Maybe with us it's something else. What would we sell ourselves for?

What do we do and put in front of God that would lead as it does, as it did with Judas, to the killing of Jesus? But as we read through here, that was something that was developing in Judas for a long time. It wasn't something that just entered into him that night, the love of money.

He had already planned to betray Christ. He had already had this that he didn't repent of, that he didn't go through. There's this interesting detail back in John 13 that Jesus Christ, John 13, that when he was asked, who is it, Lord, who is it that's going to betray me?

Jesus answered and said in verse 26, It's he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it. And having dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas the scary at the son of Simon. Why is that detail in there? Why would that even be important? Actually, it's prophesied in Psalm 41 verse 9. And so, because of that reason it had to happen, Jesus Christ would hand the bread to the one who would betray him. But what is that detail there for? Let me read to you from some commentaries regarding this verse that gives us some of the background of what the culture was like back in the time of Christ. Now, why this was a significant event that occurred during the dinner, not only for Christ and Judas, but for the rest of the apostles that were there as well. It says in biblical times, there would have been a common dish at the meal. Their bread was flat, thin, and round. It was common to dip a piece of bread into the common dish and wrap the bread around the small piece of food. They called it a sop. And the old King James, I think it says that he handed the sop to Judas. When the host would dip his piece of bread into the dish and then give the sop to someone, this was very significant. The host or master of the house would give the sop to the person to whom he wanted to show his greatest love and esteem. Isn't that interesting? When Jesus Christ dipped the bread, he handed it to Judas.

He was showing him an act of love that was commonly known in that time. I extend my honor and esteem and love to you. I'll dip the bread. And all the disciples knew what that meant was common back in biblical times, according to the commentaries. It goes on to say, in so doing, he would show to all those present and to the person receiving the sop the love and honor he had for him.

Now, isn't that interesting? Isn't that interesting that Christ, knowing what Judas was going to do, knowing what he had already done, knowing what the plan was, knowing that he would be setting this in motion, the plan that would lead to the killing of Jesus, isn't it interesting that he would show him that respect and that love at that table at that time? He was extending himself to him. And there's a reason that he was doing that. He was showing Judas, I love you. I care for you. I'm here for you. And Judas should have. And I'm sure Judas knew exactly what that meant. And he should have looked at that love and thought, what am I about to do? Can I do that to this man?

And it was clear that Judas knew, that Jesus Christ knew, because he looked at him, he knew that Jesus Christ knew that someone was going to betray him. He knew that he knew this was going to happen. And he looked at that bread and he took it. And he took it. And the Scripture said, and Satan entered into him. Judas had gone to that dinner, purposing in his heart that he was going to betray Jesus. It was worth those 30 praises of silver for him to hand Christ over to the people who wanted him dead. I don't think he counted on the fact that he would feel Christ's love that night, that Christ would actually single him out and in a well-known symbol, offer him the piece of bread, he had to stop and think. Now was the decision point. Do I move ahead with the plan, or do I think I can't do this? I can't deny my Savior this way. I can't deny this man that I love, that I've walked with for three and a half years, that I've seen the goodness of him. And Judas made a choice. He took the bread and Christ said, what you do, do quickly.

And he went out and he did that. Now let me read from another commentary here on verse 27. This is Elikot's commentary. It says, referring to the part there, that after the stop, Satan entered into Judas. It says, the Greek expresses more vividly the very moment when the mind finally casts out love and left itself as a possession for Satan. Because that's what Judas was making a decision.

I'll accept your token. I'll accept the symbol. It's not changing my mind. I'm going to do what I came here to do anyway. It was at that moment when the last effort had been tried and tried in vain, when the heart hardened itself to receive from Jesus the sacred pledge of love while it was plotting how to betray Him. It was then that hope took her flight from a realm of gloom where she could no longer dwell and light ceased to shine in the darkness that could not comprehend it.

Judas knew. He took it. He made a decision. I reject you. I'll take your offer of love.

I reject you, but I'm doing what I want to do anyway. I'm not changing my mind. I'm not changing my heart. I won't allow myself to think that what I have done up to this point is wrong.

I will continue in the life that I have lived, and I will not accept change, and I will not admit that I was wrong. I'm going to go ahead with the plan. He hardened his heart. He would not let the truth in. He would not admit wrong. He would not change, and he was not about to change.

Vincent's word studies, talking about this verse, says, with a peculiar emphasis, this marks the decisive point at which Judas was finally committed to his dark deed. The token of goodwill which Jesus had offered, if it did not soften his heart, would harden it. Christ gave Judas every opportunity to turn from his deed. And he knew. I'm making you take a stand, Judas. Will you soften your heart, or will you harden your heart and go through and continue to do what you've been planning to do anyway? If it did not soften his heart, it would harden it. And Judas appears, who have so interpreted as to confirm him in his purpose. He hardened his heart, and it led to the killing of Jesus. He already had the weakness. He already had the plans, but he had a chance to turn around. All he had to do was determine, I can't do this. We've all been in that situation, right, where something goes on in our lives, and we come to a point where we have to make a choice.

And we have to decide, I'm going through with it, even though all the people around us say, this is wrong, this is not the path to go, this is not what you should follow. And we continue to do it anyway. We don't listen to advice. We don't listen to what's going on. We want our own way, and that's what Judas wanted. He hardened his heart, and it led to the killing of Jesus that day. That very day of the 14th of David, he made the choice. He made the choice. And Jesus Christ was sitting there at that table with him, and he showed him kindness, something that you and I would have a hard time doing if we had a Judas at our table. But he so loved the world that he was willing to give himself for it, and to show Judas, I love you too. You can change. You can be what you were called to be. He refused. Let's go back to Hebrews 3. We read Hebrews 3, maybe last week or the week before. There is repeating again, though, because, you know, Judas hardened his heart. He just wouldn't listen. He wouldn't pay attention. He was going to continue the way he wanted to be. And in Hebrews 3, the author, many believed to be Paul, has that very same admonition for us, don't be like Judas. Let's pick it up in verse 12.

You can read through in verse 7 here, leading up to verse 12, but let's pick it up in verse 12.

The word beware. In the verses before that, don't harden your heart, it says. In verse 12, beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.

Beware that this is in you, that you, like the people in the rebellion who steal their hearts, sorrow against Moses, against God. And even in the face of everything determined they were going to go ahead with the rebellion because they thought they were equal to Moses or better than him, and they wanted things their way. Beware lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God. And then he says, one of the reasons we come together.

In God's presence each Sabbath day and even through the week, exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, because that's what happened to Judas. For we have become partakers of Christ if, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. If we hold, not just because we once repented, not because we were baptized and then go off and do our own things again, but because we continue to live the way of God like God has called us to. Not hardening our heart against it, not hardening our heart against him, not hardening our hearts against the words of the Bible, but doing what he says, yielding to him, knowing that's the only way to eternal life.

Fifteen, while it is said, today, if you will hear his voice, don't harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, don't harden your hearts as Judas did. Don't harden your heart that led to the killing of Jesus and that will lead to the killing of us, the spiritual killing of us.

If we don't, resolve that and ask God to remove the hardened heart from us.

And so Judas left that dinner table and he went out and he was going to complete what God had, what he had purpose to do in his heart. And he went out and he brought the people back to the garden where Jesus was. Look at Luke 22. Luke 22. Beginning in verse 41.

Now, in verse 40, he came to a place where he was going to go out and pray. He told them to wait for him. In verse 41, he was withdrawn from them by the stone's throw and he knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And an angel appeared to him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. Then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Distress the knowing what was going to befall him in the next several hours because Judas had set the fall in motion. And he knew what was prophesied. He knew those scriptures better than you and I do. He knew exactly what was going to happen to him between then and by before sunset the next day. And he was in such agony as he prayed to God, his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. When he rose up from prayer and come to his disciples, he found them sleeping from sorrow. Then he said to them, Why do you sleep? Rise and pray lest you enter into temptation. And while he was still speaking, behold a multitude. And he who was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them and drew near to Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said to him, Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss? Are you so hypocritical that you're going to come and betray me that you can't even come and say, There he is, arrest him, do whatever we said, you're going to come and act like you like me, that you know me, you're going to betray me with a kiss? Come on, Judas. Be a man if you're going to do this. Judas was a hypocrite.

Judas was what he did. He was trying to be something he wasn't. He wanted to say all the right words, but he couldn't say all the right words. His actions defied him. His actions of a kiss, just he thought maybe would be funnelled what he was really there to do. Hypocrisy was there on that night. Judas was there, and hypocrisy led to the killing of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ spoke many, many times about hypocrisy, even in the days leading up to the time that he was arrested in that last day, the 14th of David. He scolded the Pharisees pretty well about the hypocrisy.

In fact, let's go back to Luke 22. Let's go back to Luke 12.

He warned his disciples about this sin that would have a place there on that 14th of Abib as Judas came in and defy and betrayed him with a kiss. Then we see some of the hypocrisy later in that day as well. Luke 12, verse 1, In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, Christ began to say to his disciples, Beware, there's that word, beware again, beware lest there be in any of you a heart of disbelief, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

As we approach the days of unleavened bread and we put leavening out of our lives, physical leavening, but also the spiritual and the mental leavening, the spiritual ramifications and meaning of this day, he said, beware of that leaven. Beware of that leaven of hypocrisy. And we could all pray to it. We've probably all been hypocrites sometime in our lives. Our young people can see through a lot of what we do. I remember back years ago talking to a group of teenagers and my older daughter was one of them, and what they said was they saw a lot of hypocrisy in the church as they visited other people. We could all be guilty of hypocrisy. The Pharisees certainly were guilty of hypocrisy. Jesus Christ, as I said, scolded them many times about it, but many times about it. But back in Matthew 23, we see where he really scolded the Pharisees about this sin of hypocrisy. Matthew 23, in verse 1, nearing the time of his arrest of the days of unleavened brother that year. For chapter 23, verse 1, it says, Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples, saying, the scribes and the Pharisees hid in Moses' feet. Therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, that observes and do, but do not do according to their works, for they say, and do not do. Well, that's the very definition of hypocrisy, isn't it? I'll tell you what to do, but I'm going to live my life differently. I'll tell you how you should live, but I'm going to do something quite different. If you peek in on me on Tuesday, Wednesday, or at work, or at the office, or at play, or wherever I am, you're going to see a different person than what my words might define I am. Therefore, observe what they do, what they tell you to do, but don't do according to their works, for they say and don't do. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and they lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. All their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at peace, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But you, don't be called Rabbi, for one is your Teacher, Christ, and you are all brethren. Don't call anyone on earth your Father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven. And don't be called Teachers, for one is your Teacher, the Christ.

But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant, and whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. He gave quite the sermon to the Pharisees gathered there and to his disciples. This is how you, this is what happens, this is what's going on in this world, my disciples, you don't be like this. And then he goes into a litany, a real tongue-blashing of the Pharisees, seven times in the remainder of this chapter. He calls the Pharisees, hypocrites. Verse 13, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. He says it again in verse 14, and down through the chapter, we're counting what they do, how it's different than what God would have them do. Hypocrites, blind, they had blind spots, they weren't leading the people, they wanted them to do what they wanted them to do. Let's pick up the last few verses here where he's scolding them and calling them hypocrites. Verse 23, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and anise and common, but you've neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done. You should have kept that law of the tithe of the tithing, but you shouldn't have done the other. You shouldn't have let the others undone. And certainly knowing what's going to happen then on the 14th of Aviv, justice, mercy and faith was no part of what the religious order of that day showed when they arrested Christ and convicted Him wrongly. Verse 24, blind guides who strain out of the gnats and swallow a camel. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you cleanse the outside of the copped in dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.

You make yourself look good to the world, but inside you haven't done any work at all.

You're still very lit and on the inside. God is looking for what goes on in the inside, for a complete surrender, for a complete surrender of mind, heart and soul, a complete yielding to Him and willingness to change what we do to become like Him and what He records in the Bible for us. Verse 26, blind Pharisee first cleansed the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. Verse 27, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead man's bones and all uncleanness.

I think Christ saw the sin of hypocrisy, and He would have all His people certainly not partake in it or be it or look at ourselves and say, is this something? Let me read what Barnes notes says on hypocrisy. They do this in conjunction with this verse and back in Luke 12.1 where we were.

It says, hypocrisy is like leaven or yeast because, one, it may exist without being immediately detected. Leaven mixed in flour is not known until it produces its effect. Two, it is insinuating.

Leaven will soon pervade the whole mass. So, hypocrisy will, if undetected and unremoved, soon pervade all our exercises and feelings. It will take us over. It will kill us. Pretty soon the whole lump is leavened. And if we're really following God, we're to be an unleavened lump. And then, put, put the word of God in our mind so we become and remain an unleavened lump.

Three, it is swelling. It puffs us up. It fills us with pride and vanity. No man is more proud than the hypocrite, and none is more odious to God. When Jesus cautions them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, He means that they should be cautious about imbibing their spirit and becoming like them. The religion of Jesus is one of sincerity, humility, and an entire want of disguise, meaning what you see is what you get. When you saw Him, what it should be with us.

Like He said in the Fannya, remember, behold, a man in whom there is no guile, that's what Christ should see in us as we grow and live and are led by His Holy Spirit. Behold, a man, a woman of no guile. The humblest man is the best Christian, and he who has the least disguise is most like his master. But that didn't happen with Judas, and it didn't happen with the people who would arrest him that night. Judas would betray Him, would betray Christ, and they would take Him back to the chief priests, those who were the religious leaders of that day, the ones at whom you should look for guidance and how properly to handle the situation. That's what they purported themselves to be. They were the ones, they were the light. They were the ones who were able to lead people in the way they should go. But then when they had Jesus in their midst, they were quite different people. Let's look at Mark 14. He had just cautioned them not too much earlier about justice, mercy, and faith. You never read about Jesus Christ. He may have upgraded someone with His words. He may have raised His voice with them to get their attention. But there was nothing like what He was dealt when they arrested Him. Mark 14 and verse 48.

As Judas kissed Him and as they were about to arrest Him, Jesus answered and said to them, Have you come out? As against a robber with swords and clubs to take Me?

Come on, you know Me. You know who I am. You've seen Me in the marketplace. I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and you didn't seize Me, but the Scriptures had to be fulfilled.

Ah, you didn't do it during that time, but here you are now, wanting to arrest Me and acting like I'm some vicious villain that's out there. You know who I am. You don't need to come with Me with clubs and swords. Down to verse 57. Of course, they led Him back to the Sanhedrin to the chief priests of that day, and they were anything but merciful to Him. Some rose up, verse 57, and bore false witness against Him saying, People who are religious, and then they're lying because they want their way. Not the truth. They weren't seeking truth. They were seeking to get what they wanted out of this situation. Some rose up and bore false witness against Him saying, We heard Him say, I'll destroy the temple made with hands, and within three days I'll build another made without hands. But even their testimony didn't agree, because liars' testimonies don't agree. They were trying to frame Him, but they didn't even have their stories. Their stories straight. Down to verse 63. The high priest, the high priest, well, let's read verse 61. Christ kept silent through all of this and answered nothing. And again, the high priest asked Him, saying, Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?

And Christ said, I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power, and coming with the clouds of heaven. And then you can see the sanctimoniousness of the high priest. He rises up. He tears his clothes and makes a big production and says, What further need do we have of witnesses? You've heard the blasphemy. What do you think? And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death. All. Then some began to spit on Him, blindfold Him, beat Him, and say to Him, Prophesy. And the officers struck Him with the palms of their hands, religious leaders, pawning themselves off as the example of the day, and look what they're doing behind closed doors.

And they wrongly convict Him, and they take Him to Pilate, because they didn't have the power to put Him to death. So they take Him to Pilate. But so far, we have Judas, who hardened his heart.

It led to the killing of Jesus. We have the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Judas, and they lead Him to Pilate. Pilate, in verse chapter 15 of Mark, can see what's going on. He was an experienced man. He was used to dealing with people, just like those of you who manage people, who work with people. After a while, you can kind of see through the gains and the manipulation and what people really want. Pilate had far more experience than any of us being a Roman governor and seeing all sights of people. So Christ is brought to Him. Chapter 15, verse 1.

Immediately in the morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes of the whole council, and they bound Jesus, led Him away, and delivered Him to Pilate. Pilate asked Him, Are you the king of the Jews? Christ answered and said to Him, It is as you say. And the chief priests accused Him of many things, but He answered nothing. Pilate asked Him again, Do you answer nothing? See how many things they testify against you. Why aren't you defending yourself? Because all of us would be compelled, right, to defend ourselves. We'd have every excuse why this had happened. But Christ knew what He was there for and what the prophecies were, and He was going to fulfill the mission that He was on earth for. But Jesus still answered nothing.

So that Pilate marveled. Now, at the feast, He was accustomed to releasing one prisoner of them, whoever they requested. And there was one named Barabbas, who was chained with his fellow rebels.

They had committed murder in the rebellion, and Pilate offered them. Wow, maybe I can get away with it this way. He knows there's nothing that's deserving of death in this man before Him, Jesus Christ. I'll offer them this criminal, this known criminal, and when they have a choice, they'll choose to let Christ go free, right? That would be the logical choice. You can see His reasoning in this. Pilate answered, saying, Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?

For He knew that the chief priest had handed Him over because of envy. Not because He had done anything wrong. Not that He had committed any crime. They were jealous of Him. The people listened to Him. The people followed Him. He was able to perform miracles of healing that they couldn't do and they couldn't explain. They were afraid they were going to lose their positions. What was more important to them? Truth, salvation, or their position? No, their positions were pretty important to them. They were willing to hand over the Savior. They had blinded their minds to who He was. They had hardened their heart to everything He had done during that time. Simply were not going to believe.

Simply were not going to listen. Simply were not going to pay attention. They had a purpose in mind from day to day until the last that they were going to kill this man and get rid of him. And nothing was going to change their minds. And as Pilate looked at this man as he said, I don't see any guilt in him. I don't see anything wrong with him. He is not deserving of death. I'll release him or Barabbas. They chose. They chose Barabbas. But they handed Him over because of envy. Envy had a part in killing Jesus that day. Envy did. Envy can have a part in killing us spiritually if we let it continue in us. Look at a few verses back in Proverbs. Proverbs 14.

Proverbs 14 verse 30.

A sound heart.

God's Spirit imparts to us a sound mind, right? A sound heart is life to the body. But envy is rottenness to the bones. A few chapters forward in chapter 27. 27 verse 4.

Wrath is cruel and anger is a torrent. But who is able to stand before jealousy?

It is going to knock down everything in its way, just like it knocked down the Savior of mankind.

They didn't recognize it. They didn't overcome it.

James 3. In the New Testament, James 3.

Verse 14. If you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, don't boast and lie against the truth. Bitter envy. Because envy is self-seeking, isn't it? It's not about others. Envy is about us.

What we want. What we want to believe. How we want to live our lives. Whether it is in accordance with the Bible or not. Sometimes it's difficult to see where our way of life, maybe the way we grew up with, can be a difficult thing to overcome. But it's incumbent on all of us to read the Bible, to see how God wants us to be. And not allow these sins, not allow these tendencies, not allow these attitudes that we have that may have been formed not by our own forming. They may have been put into us somewhere along the line, but it is our job to repent and to use God's Spirit to help us overcome them and to become who He wants us to be. If not, it'll lead to our spiritual killing, just like envy had a part in the killing of Jesus that day.

Now, I was looking for quotes, and I know I'm guessing someone in this room likes Star Wars, right? I don't know when the last time I've seen the Star Wars movie, but I thought this was an interesting quote. In the Star Wars movies, it says, Master Yoda. Anyone know who Master Yoda is?

Okay, Master Yoda says, Envy leads to jealousy, jealousy leads to hate, hate leads to anger, and anger leads to the dark side. So even in Star Wars, you can find some things to hang on to, if you watch that. But Pilate knew it. He said, I know what they're doing here. I can see clearly.

They're not... This man hasn't done anything wrong. He doesn't deserve death. They're jealous of him.

That's why they want him gone. And he didn't want any part of it. This doesn't say it here in where we are in Mark 15. But later, when the Pharisees say, no, kill him, kill him, crucify him, crucify him. We want him dead. We want him dead. He kind of stands back. He washes his hand and says, I'm going to have no part. No part in the killing of this man. And yet he had a very real part in the killing of that man because he stood by and he did nothing. It was in his power to say, absolutely not. No, he will not die. I will not tolerate this. But he stood by and he did nothing.

He listened to the crowd and he gave into their wishes. And he had a part in the killing of Jesus, even though he thought maybe when he washed his hands and said, I have no part. Indeed, he had a part. Go back to Proverbs 24. He could have done something, but he took the easy way out. He wasn't going to stand against the crowd. He wasn't going to stand in the gap. He wasn't going to stand for what was right. He was going to take the easy way out and just let him have what they wanted because it was easier for him. Proverbs 24 and then verse 11, deliver those who are drawn toward death and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. Pilate could have done that. You and I can do that. If we know someone, if we see someone stumbling to the slaughter, living their lives apart from God and blaming themselves as, this is okay, it's not that important to God, I'm not doing this wrong, and blah, blah, blah. We have a commission, as we've talked about before, of showing that person, going to them with love and mercy and pointing out those things that will lead to their spiritual killing if it's not arrested. Pilate could have intercepted that situation. He did not. He did nothing. God would say to us, we have a responsibility to do as well.

Let me read 24 11 from the New Living Translation. Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to die, save them as they stagger to their death.

You know, Pilate didn't have Christ's interest at heart that day. He didn't have the Pharisees' interest at heart. He only had his interest at heart, didn't he? This is the best for me.

I don't have to deal with the anger of the Jews if I turn them back loose. I don't have to do anything. This is best for me, so I'm just going to stand by and do it. It was the wrong choice, and it's the wrong choice for us to just stand back and watch someone or some group fall away and commit spiritual suicide.

I'm not advocating anyone should be a judge of anyone or anything like that.

Let me read Adam Clark's commentary on this verse. He said, a few concepts here, going back to what Pilate did that day. No one did that for Christ.

No one stood up for him. Pilate didn't stand up for him.

Let's go back to Proverbs 3. Proverbs 3, 27.

Proverbs 3, 27.

Don't withhold good from those to whom it is due when it's in the power of your hand to do so.

Now let's go back to James 4. James 4, 17.

We talked last week a verse that said, anything that's done apart from faith, it is sin. Verse 17 of chapter 4 of James, therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Many people failed Christ that day. Now we know the answer. We all had a part in killing Jesus Christ because we've all sinned and he died for all of our sins. But on that day, the fourteenth of David, he faced a mighty stiff opposition and he was emotionally and physically torn by what he saw that day. He faced a series of hardened hearts that simply would not believe what was clearly in front of their eyes that this man was the Savior of God. They hardened their hearts against any mercy or justice for him. They doomed him to death and no matter what came in front of them, they were willing to do that. Hebrews tells us, beware, lest the same heart can be in us, that we would do the same thing and harden our hearts against the truth of God, harden our hearts against what God is showing us we should change, or what others may be showing us we should change if we want to be the Christian that God has called us to be. He saw envy and he saw the effects of it and he saw the jealousy and he saw how that led to hate and how envy and how people were so interested in self and what they wanted and what they wanted to do that they were willing to sacrifice him just to keep what they had. No interest at all in other people. We need to beware of the same thing. Now we look out what we follow, what God said. We look at the Bible and we're willing to change so that we are a blessing to other people. Just like God has always been a blessing to us and Jesus Christ was a blessing and that's an understatement of magnitude, I can't even describe, a blessing to us by what he was willing to do and the love he showed for us.

He saw on that day the hypocrisy of Judas. He saw the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. He saw religious leaders doing things that no religious leader should even enter into their minds, but they were willing to do it because they hated him, because they didn't want him alive. They wanted their own purpose. And he tells us, you don't do the same thing. Learn the lessons. And as we're now just a little more than 24 hours away from Passover and a little more than that from the days of Unleavened Bread, we can learn lessons and we should go to the stage that we should be very thankful for what Jesus Christ had done for us. We should be asking Him to show us our blind spots and to reveal those things to us. We should be committed to God. And as we take Passover tomorrow night, the baptized members, that we commit to Him and we open our eyes and ask Him, show Me, just as you heard in the sermon, Ed, if there is any evil in Me, anything that needs to be cleaned out because His Holy Spirit that He gives us is able to purge the inside of that cup, as we read in Matthew 23. It can purge our minds. It can send us and direct us in the new direction if we let it and if we don't stubbornly hold on to the old way of life and the old man, because part of the lesson of these days of Unleavened Bread is you let go of the old and you turn to God and do the things that He did. What a travesty that Jesus Christ had to endure what He did. What a travesty on the human race. What a travesty to you and me if we continue in the ways and don't turn ourselves totally to God. Let's conclude in 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 5.

As you turn over there, I know you will all have and pray that you all have a very inspiring Passover, a night to be much observed. The first Holy Day here, I'll be up in Jacksonville, that my hearts will be with you as well. We'll see you next Sabbath and at the camp out throughout the weekend. But as we look forward to tomorrow and the beginning of the days of Unleavened Bread, let's echo what Paul said in here in 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 7.

Therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you truly are unleavened.

For indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.