Latest / Reformed Thinking / Betrayed with a Kiss The Sovereign Obedience of Christ (Matthew 26:47-50)

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Betrayed with a Kiss The Sovereign Obedience of Christ (Matthew 26:47-50) · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Picture a modern bank heist. You know you spend millions of
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  dollars on state-of-the-art security.
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  You build these massive walls of reinforced concrete.
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  Right. You install the biometric
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  scanners, the laser grids, all of that.
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  Yeah, and you hire these heavily armed guards to patrol the
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  perimeter because, well, you assume the threat is going to
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  look like a frontal assault, like a team with explosives
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  trying to blow the vault door off its hinges.
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  But if you talk to any serious security professional, they will
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  tell you that it's almost never how the catastrophic breach
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  happens. No, it happens when the guy who
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  sits in the cubicle next to you, the guy you have coffee with
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  every single morning, quietly uses his own authorized access
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  badge to just open the front door.
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  I mean, the most devastating threat is always the inside job.
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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking. We are setting out on a deep
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  dive into our source material today to look at the most
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  shilling, staggering inside job in all of human history.
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  We are setting the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane.
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  The timing is late at night or you know, perhaps the very early
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  morning hours. It is the middle of the Passover
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  Festival, roughly around 8030 or 33.
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  And the specific text we are unpacking is the Gospel of
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  Matthew chapter 26, verses 47 through 50.
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  Our mission for this deep dive is to look way past the familiar
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  Sunday School assumptions you might have about this event.
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  We want to see the startling, intense contrast between the
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  absolute darkest human hypocrisy on one side and the supreme,
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  deliberate, majestic submission of Jesus Christ on the other.
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  So as you listen today, be prepared.
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  We are speaking directly to you. Yeah, this deep dive is going to
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  challenge how you view religious association, how you think a
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  human free agency, and how you understand divine sovereignty.
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  It is going to push against casual assumptions.
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  Let's start with the physical location.
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  Before we even look directly at the Betrayer himself, we really
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  need to understand the historical stage where this
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  treason unfolds. Because the geography here is
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  not just random background scenery, is it?
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  No, it absolutely is not random. Matthew specifically locates
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  this event on the Mount of Olives.
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  And to give you the geographical layout, the Mount of Olives sits
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  just east of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
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  To get there from the city, you have to cross the Kidron Valley.
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  Right. And during Passover, this was a
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  highly charged geographical path.
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  Jerusalem would have been packed with maybe 2 million pilgrims.
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  The Romans were on high alert. Yeah, and the Kidron Valley
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  itself was a massive ravine. During Passover, the blood from
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  the hundreds of thousands of sacrificial lamb slaughtered in
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  the temple would actually drain down into the Kidron Valley.
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  Wow. So as Jesus and the disciples
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  cross this valley in the dark, they are likely stepping over or
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  walking right next to a literal stream of sacrificial blood.
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  That is the reality of the scene.
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  It paints an incredibly vivid, almost terrifying picture.
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  It really does, but there is also a historical echo happening
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  here. Right?
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  Because when I read the sources they keep pointing back to the
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  Old Testament, this specific path across the Kidron Valley
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  and up the Mount of Olives. It triggers a massive historical
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  memory for anyone who knows the Hebrew scriptures.
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  In the Old Testament, specifically in the book of
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  Tephy, Samuel, King David has to flee Jerusalem because of a
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  massive rebellion. And the treason against David
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  was led by his own son, Absalom. Right.
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  And as David is weeping and fleeing for his life, the text
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  tells us, he crosses the Kidron Valley and goes up the ascent of
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  the Mount of Olives. But the heartbreak for David was
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  not just his son's rebellion. The real tactical devastation
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  came from his most trusted counselor.
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  A man named Ahithophel. Ahithophel was the insider.
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  He was the guy with the authorized access badge.
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  Precisely the right way to think about him.
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  Ahithophel was David's close companion.
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  His advice was considered almost as authoritative as the Oracle
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  of God in those days. And Ahithophel aligns himself
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  with the rebellion. He turns against the anointed
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  king. The typology here, the
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  historical foreshadowing, is staggering.
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  Now, centuries later, the greater Son of David, the true
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  and final anointed king, faces betrayal in the exact same
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  geographic theater. He crosses the Kitchen Valley,
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  he goes to the Mount of Olives, and he's betrayed, not by a
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  stranger, but by his trusted companion.
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  And the historical parallel goes even further.
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  Both Ahithophel and Judas realized the horror of what they
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  have done, and both men eventually hang themselves after
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  their treason. Wow.
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  Yeah, the Holy Spirit uses the very landscape of Israel to
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  signal that redemptive history is reaching its climax.
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  Absolutely. So let's walk into the garden
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  itself. Jesus is there praying.
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  He has just submitted entirely to the Father's will, sweating
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  drops of blood, preparing for the cross.
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  And then the mob arrives. Judas does not come alone.
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  He brings what Matthew calls a great crowd, and this crowd is
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  sent by the chief priests and the elders of the people.
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  This is the Sanhedrin, the supreme ruling council of
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  Israel. And the sources point out
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  something fascinating about how this mob is equipped.
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  They are carrying swords and clubs.
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  We need to picture the hardware they are carrying.
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  We are talking about Iron Roman short swords, the kind used by
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  soldiers for close quarters combat, right?
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  And we are also talking about heavy wooden cudgels, brutal
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  instruments of blunt force trauma.
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  This is not a casual neighborhood watch group.
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  No, this is a heavily armed, militarized response unit.
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  Which brings me to an analogy I cannot shake as I look at this
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  scene. It feels comical in a dark way.
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  How so? It is like a paranoid mayor
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  sending an entire SWAT team, you know, equipped with heavy
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  artillery, flashbangs and riot Shields to arrest a single
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  unarmed man who is just kneeling and praying in a quiet public
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  park. That analogy captures the
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  absurdity Florida State. The disproportion of force is
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  absurd. Why the massive overkill?
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  What does this reliance on iron swords and heavy wooden clubs
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  reveal about the mindset of this religious elite?
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  The Overkill reveals their total reliance on carnal physical
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  methods. They were approaching the Prince
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  of Peace as though he were a violent insurrectionist.
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  They treat him like a revolutionary hiding out in the
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  caves, plotting a violent coup against Rome.
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  Which makes zero sense historically.
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  I mean, Jesus had taught openly in the temple courtyard every
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  single day. He healed the sick in broad
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  daylight. He possessed no earthly army.
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  He literally told Peter to put his sword away.
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  Yet they bring iron and wood because that is the only kind of
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  authority unregenerate men understand.
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  They understand coercion. They understand intimidation.
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  They understand physical violence.
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  They are completely blind to the actual nature of his authority.
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  They think authority only comes from the barrel of a gun, or in
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  this case, the edge of a blade. They cannot comprehend a Kingdom
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  that advances without physical warfare.
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  And we have to recognize the political cowardice at play
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  here, too. Right, because they wait until
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  dark. Yeah, the religious leaders act
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  under the cover of night because they are terrified of the
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  multitudes who had welcomed Jesus into the city days earlier
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  with palm branches. They are playing political games
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  in the dark. But there is a massive
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  theological shift happening in this exact moment, isn't there?
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  Absolutely, we are witnessing the total final corruption of
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  the Old Testament religious establishment.
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  The national leaders of Israel, the men entrusted with the Law
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  of Moses and the prophets are formally and definitively
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  rejecting the Messianic King. This official rejection sets the
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  stage for the transition from the Old Covenant structure
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  centered on national Israel to the New Covenant Church, which
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  will gather both Jew and Gentile from every nation.
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  Right, so we have this tense, terrifying scene.
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  The torches are flickering, the armor is clanking, the heavy
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  wooden clubs are gripped tight by the temple.
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  Guard the Mob brings these physical weapons, but here is
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  where the narrative shifts from a standard arrest to a
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  psychological Horror Story. Because the most devastating
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  attack in this entire sequence does not come from the Iron
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  Roman short sword. No, it comes from an insider
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  using a gesture of affection. Let's look at the anatomy of
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  this treason. We must look very closely at the
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  trader himself. Matthew explicitly identifies
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  Judas as one of the 12. That phrase carries enormous
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  theological weight. Matthew does not just label him
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  a betrayer, he highlights his proximity to Jesus.
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  Right. Judas was in the inner circle.
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  He belonged outwardly to the Apostolic.
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  Company, which means he had front row seats to everything.
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  I mean everything. He heard the Sermon on the Mount
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  with his own ears. He saw the bread and fish
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  multiply in Jesus's hands. He saw the stormy sea go
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  completely calm at a single word.
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  He saw dead people walk out of tombs.
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  Yes, he was entrusted with massive responsibility.
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  He handled the money bag for the group, which means they trusted
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  his integrity. He possessed access to the
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  clearest, most brilliant revelation of truth in human
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  history. Yet that physical proximity did
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  not change his heart, and the mechanism he chooses for his
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  treason is calculated to the highest degree.
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  In the Greco, Roman and ancient Near Eastern world, a kiss on
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  the cheek was a very specific cultural institution, wasn't it?
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  It was. It signified loyalty, fraternal
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  peace, and a disciples reverence for a rabbi.
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  It was the ultimate outward sign of brotherhood and submission.
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  Let me stop you right there and push back on the psychology of
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  Judas, because I genuinely struggle to understand how a
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  human brain can operate this way.
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  It is baffling to think about. I get.
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  That he was greedy. The sources tell us he sold
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  Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, which is roughly the price of a
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  slave. But the guy lived with Jesus for
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  three years. He saw literal, undeniable
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  miracles. If you see a man command a dead
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  body to come back to life, I do not care how greedy you are, you
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  do not sell that man out to the local authorities.
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  You would think so, wouldn't? Seeing those miracles terrify
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  you into believing, how is it psychologically possible to fake
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  it for three years and then orchestrate this?
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  It is one of the most terrifying questions in all of Scripture,
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  and the answer shatters a lot of modern assumptions about human
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  nature. How so?
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  We tend to think that if people just saw enough evidence, if
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  they just witnessed a miracle, their hearts would change.
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  But Judas proves that physical evidence, even miraculous
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  evidence, cannot regenerate a dead soul.
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  So you can have absolute, undeniable proof of the
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  supernatural right in front of your eyes.
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  And if your heart is bound by sin, in his case a consuming
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  greed and a desire for an earthly political Messiah rather
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  than a suffering servant, you will twist that evidence to fit
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  your own narrative. He didn't want a savior from
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  sin. He wanted a political revolution
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  that would line his own pockets. Exactly, I mean spot on.
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  When he realized Jesus was going to a cross instead of a throne,
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  he decided to cut his losses and cash out.
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  That is terrifying. It makes me think of an art
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  forger. An art forger.
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  Yeah, a master forger can study a priceless painting for years.
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  They can copy every single brush stroke.
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  They can match the exact chemical composition of the
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  centuries old paint. Oh, I see where you're going.
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  They can replicate the frame. Florida State.
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  To the naked eye, the painting looks entirely authentic.
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  It passes all the external tests.
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  But the forger completely lacks the original artist's soul.
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  Right, the painting is dead. It is a brilliant imitation, but
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  it has no authentic life. Judas is a spiritual forger.
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  That art forger analogy hits the nail on the head.
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  Judas had mastered the breaststrokes of discipleship.
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  He possessed flawless Orthodox terminology.
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  When he walks up to Jesus in the garden, he says, Greetings
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  Rabbi. He says the correct theological
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  words. He performs the correct physical
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  gestures, but his soul is entirely hollow.
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  This exposes the reality that one can be intimately close to
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  the things of God, associate with the people of God, and even
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  speak the precise language of faith while remaining completely
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  disconnected from God. Outward proximity is not the
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  same as inward union. External privileges like sitting
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  in a Pew, holding a religious office, or knowing all the right
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  theological terms cannot substitute for a new heart.
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  And he doesn't just betray Jesus, he weaponizes the kiss
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  itself. Our sources go into incredible
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  detail on the original Greek text here and it makes my skin
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  crawl. It is a dark detail, Judas tells
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  the mob beforehand. Whomever I kiss, he's the one.
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  The Greek word he uses when he plans the arrest is filio, which
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  means a standard kiss of greeting or affection.
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  But when he actually steps up to Jesus to execute the act, the
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  text shifts the verb, and the shift is horrifying.
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  What does Matthew use instead? When Judas actually performs the
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  betrayal, Matthew uses an intensified compound verb kata
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  fielson. The prefix kati intensifies the
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  action. So this is not a quick nervous
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  Peck on the cheat from a guilty conscience.
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  No cateful Pyelsen means he embraced Jesus and kissed him
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  fervently, repeatedly, with ostentatious affection.
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  Wow. It's a rare word in the New
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  Testament. We see it used when the sinful
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  woman is weeping and fervently kissing the feet of Jesus in
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  Luke Chapter 7. Or when the father runs out and
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  fervently kisses his returning prodigal son in Luke chapter 15.
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  Right, so it is a word reserved for the most intense, genuine
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  displays of love. But here, that exact same
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  display of fervent love is used to mask a murder.
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  He is overacting. He is smothering Jesus in fake
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  affection while the temple guard pulls out their sword.
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  It is the absolute apex of religious hypocrisy.
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  And once again, the Old Testament parallel here is
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  vivid. Which one?
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  In Second Samuel chapter 20, there was a military commander
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  named Joab. He approaches a man named Amasa,
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  and he takes Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him,
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  simulating deep fraternal affection.
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  Oh man, I know this story. Yeah.
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  While Amasa is distracted by the warm greeting, Joab secretly
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  drives the sword right into his stomach with his left hand,
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  spilling his intestines on the ground.
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  Judas is the New Testament Joab. He overacts his loyalty while
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  actively delivering the Lord to the slaughter.
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  He shows us that the greatest threat to the Son of God was not
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  the clubs of the Romans, but the hypocritical kiss of the
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  apostate within the covenant community.
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  So we have this horrific fervent embrace, the kiss of death.
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  In the face of this, from a purely human standpoint, we
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  might expect a reaction of shock.
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  Sure, human nature would panic. Right.
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  If a trusted friend walks up to you and embraces you while
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  heavily armed men surround you, human nature dictates that you
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  push them away in disgust, or you panic, or you start shouting
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  for help. But instead, we witnessed the
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  absolute unyielding composure of the Savior.
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  This brings us to what I want to call the omniscient
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  confrontation. Jesus's response in verse 50 is
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  mind bending. In the midst of this chaotic a
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  terrifying scene with torches glaring and swords drawn, Jesus
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  looks right through the traitor and says, friend, do what you
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  came. For this single sentence is
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  packed with staggering theological weight.
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  We have to start with that word, friend.
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  Right, because just like the word for kiss, the specific
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  Greek word Jesus uses here is very revealing.
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  He does not use the word filos, which would mean beloved friend
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  or true companion. Instead he uses the word
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  heteros. Help us understand the
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  difference. While Hitaros translates more
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  accurately to comrade, associate or fellow worker, it implies a
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  shared task or a shared space, but not necessarily a shared
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  heart. And if we track how Matthew uses
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  this specific word elsewhere in his Gospel, a pattern emerges,
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  doesn't it? It certainly does.
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  It is used exclusively in highly specific confrontational
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  contexts. Like where?
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  Jesus uses heteros to address the complaining disgruntled
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  laborer in the parable of the vineyard in chapter 20.
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  And he uses it again in chapter 22, right, to address the man
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  who tries to attend the royal wedding feast without wearing
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  the required wedding garment, right?
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  Before that man is cast into outer darkness.
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  It is an exposing word. Think of it like this.
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  You work at a company for three years and your boss always calls
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  you by your first name. You.
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  Go to lunch together, you know his family.
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  But then one day you were called into his office.
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  He looks across the desk with cold eyes and says, listen,
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  associate. Oh, that is chilling.
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  It is a sudden, chilling distancing.
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  It strips away all the fake warmth and redefines the
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  relationship on purely objective terms.
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  It exposes the true dynamic. That sudden distancing is
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  precisely what Jesus is executing here.
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  By using Hetaros. Jesus is saying you are an
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  associate, You have shared close physical space with me.
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  We have eaten from the same table, but you possess no real
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  love for me. You are not my true friend.
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  Jesus is not fooled by the fervent kissing.
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  The traitor's secret arrangement with the Sanhedrin is entirely
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  transparent to the omniscient gaze of Christ.
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  He brings the moral reality of the hidden treason out of the
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  shatters and into the blazing light.
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  And then comes the second part of his response.
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  Yeah, do what you came for. Our sources indicate that the
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  original Greek phrase here F ho pare, is syntactically
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  complicated. It's a notoriously difficult
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  phrase to translate. Some past scholars, perhaps
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  leaning toward a more skeptical or liberal theological view,
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  have tried to translate this as a confused question question.
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  They try to make it sound like Jesus is caught off guard,
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  asking friend, why have you come?
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  Like he doesn't understand what is happening.
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  But that translation is historically and grammatically
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  bankrupt, isn't it? Absolutely bankrupt.
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  The grammatical structure here lacks a main verb, requiring us
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  to supply 1 based on the immediate context.
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  Harmonizing this with the parallel account in John Gospel
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  where Jesus tells Judas what you're going to do do quickly,
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  it is clear this is an imperative.
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  It is a command. Jesus is commanding the action
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  to proceed. He is saying execute the purpose
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  for which you are present. This completely flips the
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  script. I mean, if we understand this as
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  an imperative command rather than a confused question, what
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  does that do to the idea that Jesus was a helpless victim of a
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  political miscalculation? It obliterates the idea of a
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  helpless victim. When Jesus issues an imperative
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  command for his own arrest, he is demonstrating absolute
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  sovereignty over the entire event.
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  He is not being overtaken by a mob.
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  He is the High priest willingly laying himself upon the altar.
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  The mob cannot touch him until he gives the verbal
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  authorization for them to do so. This touches on a vital
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  theological distinction that we need to unpack the active and
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  passive obedience of Christ. OK, let's break those terms down
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  because they sound like seminary jargon, but they are crucial to
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  understanding what is happening here.
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  What do we mean by active and passive obedience?
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  Use an analogy if you can. Think of a soldier facing an
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  enemy. Passive obedience is willingly
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  absorbing the blows. So in his passive obedience,
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  Christ yields himself to the unrighteous hands of the mob to
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  suffer the penalty of the law on behalf of his people.
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  He takes the hits. He absorbs the betrayal, the
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  arrest, the scourging, and eventually the wrath of God on
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  the cross. He receives the punishment that
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  is passive. But he is doing more than just
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  taking a beating. Precisely.
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  Active obedience is His perfect intentional submission to the
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  Father's decree without sinning, without retaliating, and without
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  calling down the 12 legions of angels He explicitly says He has
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  at his disposal. He actively obeys the Father by
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  commanding the action in the garden to proceed.
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  He is the Sovereign Lord orchestrating his own sacrifice.
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  He is not just endure the cross, he marches toward it and
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  commands the gates to open. Seeing Christ's absolute
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  majestic control in the garden, literally commanding his own
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  betrayer to finish the job, forces us to zoom out.
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  We have to look at the cosmic theological mechanics at play
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  here. How do human wickedness and
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  divine purpose coexist in this single moment?
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  This takes us into the theology of Gethsemane, specifically the
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  concepts of Providence and the Divine Decree.
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  The overarching theme tying this entire narrative together is the
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  fulfillment of Scripture. Throughout Matthew's Gospel, we
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  repeatedly read that events occurred to fulfill what was
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  spoken by the prophets. The betrayal by a trusted
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  companion, the suffering of the righteous servant, the
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  scattering of the sheep, these were all prophesied centuries
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  earlier. The treason of Judas is the
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  necessary mechanism to fulfill those prophecies.
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  But this raises the great tension, the interplay between
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  human free will and divine sovereignty.
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  Right. Let me play devil's advocate
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  here, because this is where people's brains usually short
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  circuit. Let's hear it if God planned
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  this arrest from eternity past, and if the prophets wrote about
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  it hundreds of years ago, and if Jesus commands it to happen
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  right here in the garden. Was Judas just a robot?
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  That is the logical question everyone asks.
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  Was he forced against his will to betray Jesus?
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  Did God make him sin? The answer is a resounding no.
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  Judas acted entirely freely according to his own wicked,
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  greedy desires. No one put a gun to his head.
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  He wanted the 30 pieces of silver.
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  He calculated the betrayal. He chose the moment when the
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  crowds were gone. He weaponized the kiss.
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  His will was active, engaged, and entirely his own.
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  Therefore, He is fully 100% morally responsible for his
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  monstrous crime, yet at the exact same time, God from all
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  eternity freely and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to
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  pass, including the specific the horrific betrayal.
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  This is a core concept in the theological framework we operate
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  from. Correct the idea that God's
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  sovereignty and human responsibility are not enemies.
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  Yes, it is the understanding that God's sovereign decree does
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  not override human responsibility.
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  God's Providence extends over the sinful acts of men,
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  governing them to accomplish His holy purposes.
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  While God himself remains perfectly holy and sinners
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  remain entirely accountable for their sin, the religious leaders
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  arrest Jesus out of envy and hatred.
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  Judas betrays him out of greed and unbelief.
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  But Christ submits out of love and obedience to the Father.
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  In this garden, human treason and divine submission meet, and
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  the salvation of the world is secured.
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  Let me bring in another analogy to try and visualize this
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  tension, because it is heavy. Think of a grandmaster chess
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  player facing a complete novice. OK, I like where this is going.
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  The Grandmaster does not reach across the board and physically
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  force the novice's hand to move the pieces.
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  The novice move their pieces freely.
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  They are trying to win. They launch their most
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  aggressive, deceptive, nasty attacks.
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  But the Grandmaster is so infinitely superior in intellect
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  and strategy that they anticipate every single move.
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  In fact, the Grandmaster actually uses the novices most
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  aggressive, freely chosen attacks to structure their own
• 22:11
  inevitable checkmate. The novice is fully responsible
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  for their bad strategy, but the Grandmaster is entirely
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  sovereign over the outcome of the game.
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  That is a brilliant way to conceptualize it.
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  God is not desperately reacting to human sin.
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  He is not sitting in heaven wringing his hands, trying to
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  save people, but constantly being hindered by bad human
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  choices. This text absolutely crushes man
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  centered theologies that view God as well-intentioned but
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  limited. God orchestrates the salvation
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  of His people through the absolute darkest act of human
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  treason. The betrayal was not an
• 22:45
  interruption to the the plan, it was the mechanism of the plan.
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  So if God can use the most wicked, treacherous kiss in
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  human history to bring about the salvation of the world, how
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  should that reshape the way we view the injustices, the
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  betrayals, and the massive failures we face in our own
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  lives? It changes everything it strips
• 23:02
  away to spare. We often encounter teachings
• 23:04
  today like the prosperity gospel, which suggests that if
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  you are in the center of God's will, you will only experience
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  success, health, and favor. You will never face hardship.
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  But look at Jesus. He was perfectly sinless.
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  He was at the absolute epicenter of the Father's will.
• 23:19
  Yet he willingly subjected himself to betrayal, horrific
• 23:24
  injustice, and profound physical and emotional suffering.
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  If the Father governed even the betrayal of His beloved Son for
• 23:31
  a glorious purpose, then no suffering, no slander, and no
• 23:35
  betrayal experienced by a believer falls outside His wise
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  sovereign hand. It means our suffering is never
• 23:41
  random. The malice of others might be
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  real, but it is ultimately subjugated to a higher
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  redemptive purpose. We have analyzed the history,
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  the Greek language, and the massive theological frameworks.
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  Now we must turn the lens on to the original audience and on to
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  ourselves. What was Matthew's goal when he
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  wrote this down for his original Jewish Christian audience?
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  Matthew's primary goal was to prove that Jesus is the promised
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  Messiah, despite the immense stumbling block of his arrest
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  and crucifixion. We have to remember that in
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  Jewish thought, based on Deuteronomy 21, a crucified man
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  was considered cursed by God. The idea of a conquered,
• 24:17
  arrested Messiah was an oxymoron.
• 24:20
  It was a contradiction in terms. Matthew had to show his audience
• 24:24
  that Jesus was not overpowered by the mob.
• 24:27
  His arrest displayed the precise path by which the Messiah
• 24:30
  fulfilled the saving purpose of God.
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  Matthew wrote this to comfort a persecuted early church.
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  If God was sovereign over the betrayal in Gethsemane, he was
• 24:39
  sovereign over the persecution the early Christians were facing
• 24:42
  from the synagogues and the Roman authorities.
• 24:44
  But alongside that comfort, there is an urgent flashing red
• 24:48
  warning light regarding false profession.
• 24:51
  Judas acts as a terrifying warning.
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  The warning is severe. Having the right theological
• 24:56
  vocabulary, attending church services, and showing outward
• 24:58
  affection toward the things of God means absolutely nothing
• 25:01
  without inward regeneration. Judas proves that secret sin can
• 25:05
  wear highly religious face. You can fool the other 11
• 25:07
  disciples. Remember at the Last Supper none
• 25:10
  of them suspected Judas. They all asked, Is it I?
• 25:14
  Judas looked the part. Florida State.
• 25:15
  Which brings up the difference in how people react when they
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  inevitably fail. We have to contrast the worldly
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  sorrow of Judas with the godly sorrow of Peter.
• 25:25
  Both of these men failed Jesus miserably on the exact same
• 25:29
  night. Yes, the contrast is stark and
• 25:31
  highly instructive. Peter denied Jesus out of sudden
• 25:35
  panic and fear. But afterward, he wept bitterly
• 25:38
  with a godly sorrow that led to true repentance, life, and
• 25:41
  eventual restoration to ministry.
• 25:43
  Judas, on the other hand, betrayed Jesus out of calculated
• 25:46
  greed. When he realized the
• 25:48
  consequences of his actions, he experienced A worldly remorse.
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  He felt bad that his plan resulted in a death sentence,
• 25:55
  but he did not run to the Savior for forgiveness.
• 25:57
  He ran to the priests, threw the money down and hanged himself.
• 26:00
  Worldly sorrow leads to death. Godly sorrow leads to life.
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  This forces you into uncomfortable self examination.
• 26:07
  Are we bringing a Judas like duplicity to our faith?
• 26:10
  Do we sing the hymns on Sunday while secretly harboring treason
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  in our hearts during the week? I want to talk about how this
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  applies to something happening right now.
• 26:17
  We see a phenomenon today where people talk about deconstructing
• 26:20
  their faith. They walk away from the church,
• 26:23
  abandoning beliefs they once seemed to hold firmly.
• 26:26
  They write blog posts about why they are leaving Christianity.
• 26:29
  When we see people who looked and sounded like faithful, solid
• 26:33
  Christians suddenly walk away or turn against the faith, it can
• 26:36
  be deeply unsettling. It makes you question
• 26:39
  everything. How does the reality of Judas
• 26:41
  keep us from despairing in those moments while also forcing us
• 26:45
  into that uncomfortable self examination you just mentioned?
• 26:48
  The reality of Judas protects us from shattered expectations.
• 26:52
  When modern leaders, pastors, or close friends walk away from the
• 26:55
  faith, it breaks our hearts, but it should not break our
• 26:59
  theology. The presence of false brethren
• 27:01
  within the visible church is not a new flaw in the system.
• 27:04
  It was present among the original 12 hand picked
• 27:07
  disciples. Judas proves that an outward
• 27:09
  departure simply reveals an inward reality that was always
• 27:12
  missing. As the apostle John later wrote
• 27:15
  in his first epistle, they went out from us, but they were not
• 27:18
  of us, for if they had been of us, they would have continued
• 27:21
  with us. This keeps us from despairing
• 27:24
  because we realized the foundation of the church is not
• 27:26
  built on the flawless performance of its members or
• 27:29
  the unbroken track record of its leaders.
• 27:31
  The Church is built on the sovereign obedience of His King.
• 27:34
  At the same time, it forces us to look in the mirror.
• 27:37
  It stops us from merely pointing fingers at those who leave with
• 27:40
  arrogant judgement. It forces us to get on our knees
• 27:42
  and ask, Lord, cleanse my heart. Keep me from hypocrisy.
• 27:46
  Grant me sincere, enduring faith.
• 27:49
  It pushes us to rely entirely on Christ's grace rather than our
• 27:53
  own religious performance. And for the true believer, there
• 27:56
  is immense comfort here. We have a high priest who
• 27:58
  sympathize with the piercing pain of betrayal.
• 28:01
  He knows what it's like for a trusted companion, someone who
• 28:04
  ate bread at his table to lift their heel against him.
• 28:07
  Since God used this ultimate betrayal for the highest good,
• 28:10
  the redemption of sinners, He can be trusted to orchestrate
• 28:13
  all suffering for the ultimate good of His people.
• 28:15
  That is the anchor for the soul. The King wears chains by choice.
• 28:20
  He permits what He could easily prevent, exercising His
• 28:23
  authority through perfect obedience to the Father's will.
• 28:26
  He exposes the false disciple not just to indulge our
• 28:29
  historical curiosity, but to warn us.
• 28:32
  And he yields himself to the mob, so that his people might be
• 28:34
  set free from the penalty of their own treason against God.
• 28:37
  So let's pull all of this together and recap the Stark,
• 28:41
  staggering contrast we have looked at in this deep dive.
• 28:44
  We started with the physical swords and heavy clubs of the
• 28:47
  carnal multitude clashing against the unarmed divine
• 28:50
  submission of Christ. We examine the terrifying
• 28:53
  psychological reality of the fervent weaponized kiss, the
• 28:57
  ultimate symbol of false discipleship and religious
• 28:59
  hypocrisy. And we witnessed the majestic,
• 29:02
  unyielding control of the sovereign King, who did not
• 29:05
  cower in fear but instead issued an imperative command for his
• 29:09
  own arrest. Orchestrating the redemption of
• 29:11
  the world. We saw a human depravity reach
• 29:13
  its dreadful apex in the Garden, while the sovereign obedience of
• 29:16
  Christ advanced the saving purpose of God.
• 29:19
  The betrayer betrays, but the savior saves I.
• 29:22
  Want to leave you, our listener, with a challenging final idea to
• 29:26
  ponder on your own? We began this discussion by
• 29:28
  talking about the nightmare of the inside job.
• 29:31
  The terrifying realization that the greatest threat bypasses our
• 29:34
  defenses because it comes from someone holding the key.
• 29:38
  Judas was the ultimate insider threat, using the key of
• 29:41
  friendship to open the door to death.
• 29:43
  But consider this. If the most devastating,
• 29:46
  treacherous inside job in human history was the precise,
• 29:50
  eternally decreed mechanism God used to secure the salvation of
• 29:54
  his people, what does that mean for your life today?
• 29:57
  What if the greatest obstacles, the most painful failures, or
• 30:00
  the most bitter enemies you face are not interruptions to God's
• 30:04
  plan? What if they are the very
• 30:05
  instruments He has sovereignly chosen to fulfill it?
• 30:08
  It changes the way we look at every shadow in our lives.
• 30:11
  Thank you for joining us on this deep dive.
• 30:13
  Keep questioning, keep seeking, and we will see you next time on
• 30:16
  Reformed Thinking.