A Crowd, Christ, and a Coward

Dwayne one of the pastors here at the district and we're just grateful to be able to worship with you this morning at this time we're going to go ahead and dismiss our kiddos and so the kids can head out to little District um for their own study this morning and for the rest of us if you've got a Bible go ahead and grab it if you don't have one you can download one on the App Store there's tons of translations on there I read from the ESV translation if that's what you want to download and look up um if you don't have one or a

phone or technology there might be because I never know actually where they're at but there's a hard a hardback black one under the seat somewhere around you and so if you don't see it maybe someone can pass it down or you can just look on someone else's Bible but Luke 22 is where we're going to be this morning Luke chapter 22 so go ahead and turn there and as you're turning there one of my favorite movies um well I say not favorite movies because that would really like lower my standards but but uh one of my favorite movies in recent time is a movie called

Logan lucky um and if you I know someone's already laughing if you've not seen it it's it's kind of like a spin of Oceans 11 meets just redneck Ingenuity and so like even in the movie they kind of joke saying they're like the ocean 7-Eleven and so um but what what the kind of plot of the movie is it's been out for a while now so if you haven't seen it I'm not really spoiling anything but there's this big NASCAR race at Charlotte Motor Speedway and hundreds of thousands of people are showing up to this race because that's what they believe that they are showing

up too but what is actually happening behind the scenes of the race is there's this major Heist that's being pulled off by the major characters of the film and they are just absolute rednecks and so I I really appreciate that's probably why I'm drawn to it being from Tennessee is like I just really appreciate the redneck Ingenuity that they put in into the bombs that they make and and just the conversations that they have and so forth but um you might be wondering how does that have anything to do with what we're going to be talking about today Luke 22 brings us to the Passover

feast the Passover meal um and just the time of the Festival of Passover for the Jewish people and so everyone is descending to Jerusalem everyone's coming to Jerusalem but what they don't realize is they think they're coming to just another routine Passover event but what is actually happening behind the scenes is Jesus is 12 minus Judas so really it is Jesus is 11 um Jesus and his 11 they are pulling off a heist but this is a spiritual Heist that is literally changing the trajectory of human history and nobody is aware of it everyone that's there is none the wiser and so I want to

show you and this is really what we're going to be walking through over the coming weeks as we enter into into our last three chapters of the Book of Luke um that we'll be spending three months in looking at these three chapters but it's how Jesus is taking what they think is a normal routine Passover feast and he's hijacking it and continuing to allow it to impact what he does through us today until eventually he comes for his second coming and so let me read for you Luke 22 1-6 and we will dive into it now the Feast of unleavened bread Drew near which is

called the Passover and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death for they feared the people then Satan entered into Judas called a scariot who is one of the number of the 12 he went away and he conferred with the chief priests and the officers how he might betray him to them and they were glad and they agreed to give him money so he consented and he sought an opportunity to betray Jesus to them in the absence of the crowd let me pray for this one more time before we unpack it God we just ask this morning that you

would give us eyes to see what it is that you're revealing to us ears to hear what it is that you would have for us and that you would give us faith that would transform and renew our minds and our hearts to just become more like your son Jesus if we don't follow you then I pray that this would be a morning that you would convict our heart Hearts to see that the way we're living our life is not for your glory and it's not really for our good either but we know that what your son has done for us has provided glory for you

but also good to us both now and forever and so if someone doesn't follow you I pray that this would be a moment a time where you convict their hearts to see that you are their Savior and that you want to forgive them of their sins and that you want us to choose the wise path and not the foolish one to choose Jesus and not be like Judas and be a coward so God I pray in this moment let us see your Scriptures it pleases your heart to reveal them to us and so we pray your spirit does that in this moment now it's in

your name we pray amen all right this passage begins with the mention of and it also ends with the mention of a crowd first again they're gathered for the of unleavened bread which is called the Passover second it says that the chief priests and the scribes they were actually uh fearful of the crowd and trying to figure out a way how do we get Jesus how do we catch him how do we arrest him because if you go back a few chapters it actually says that they're nervous about the crowds because all the crowds are going after Jesus and so they're in fear of the

crowd and then also it says that the end that Judas agreed to betray Jesus absence of what the crowd and so he moved to instead of community he moves into isolation and that always uh gets you in trouble and so I want to begin with just the importance of a crowd and why is that drawn attention to here in Luke 22 but let's begin with the Passover what is the Passover because if you weren't aware at the time of Jesus the Passover was a required Annual Festival in which everyone would come uh all Jews would come to partake of and participate in this annual remembrance

or Memorial it's kind of like a holiday uh of when Jesus or when God through Moses um allowing the 10 plagues in Egypt the 10th and final plague was that he was going to bring judgment on all of the Egyptians for not listening to him and not letting the people go the Israelites go and so the 10th and final plague was he was going to kill all of the firstborn in Egypt and the angel of death that was going to be sent into every household to pull off this judgment the only way the angel would know who the Jews were versus the Egyptians where the

Jews were commanded by Moses to go and grab a lamb sacrifice the lamb and take the blood of the lamb and paint it over their doorpost that would allow as the angel of death pass through to realize that these are the Israelites not the Egyptians so we will pass over this house they receive salvation if you will they remain they're they're able to continue to live where the others end up dying now this is what they celebrate every year remembering the fact that God brought them out of slavery preserved their life through a sacrifice and then brought them into the promised land the freedom um

that God provided for them now there are hardly any other typologies or object lessons in the Bible that Point more to Jesus than this one does because this is exactly what Jesus is doing at the Passover they think again this crowd that is coming to Jerusalem which early historians Josephus one of them estimate that there was around two and a half million Jews that would descend to Jerusalem for the Passover feast I mean that's about the equivalence of the population of the Indie metro area so this is a massive event that's going on so anybody who's ever everybody is going to be there there's going

to be massive parties there's going to be massive crowds there's going to be massive followings and in this moment this is one of those opportunities where Jesus is coming to put on display what he is accomplishing that they don't even realize he is accomplishing again they're thinking we're just coming to just partake of the same thing that we've been celebrating for thousands of years now that God freed us from the Egyptians and that he provided a way out through the sacrifice of the lamb and so we remember that by doing this every year not realizing that that's exactly what Jesus was coming to now offer

himself as is the true Passover Lamb the true once and for all sacrifice that in breaking his body and shedding his blood and having it spread over the doorpost of your heart God's judgment when it does come will pass over you because Christ has paid your price for you and again the reason why Jesus chooses Passover to be this opportunity is because God is not stingy with his grace God lavishes his grace and his love God wants and desires all people to see what he does with his son Jesus to see the sacrifice that Jesus is ultimately offering for them this is why 1 Timothy

24-7 puts it this way he tells uh Paul tells Timothy pray for all people because God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth that's 1 Timothy Chapter 2 verse4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth now what is the knowledge of the truth for there is one God and there is one mediator between God and Men the man Christ Jesus Passover was about them coming and having the chief priests act as mediators between God and the people people so they would all bring animals they would all bring sacrifices

they would offer their sacrifices the priest would conduct the sacrifice the priest would then take the blood and he would spread it over and cleanse their hearts and then they would say all right we'll see you again next year and then next year and then the next year and then the next year they continued over and over and over because they needed a man to be a mediator for them Christ comes in and becomes the once and for all s sacrifice as well as the once and for all mediator which means what he accomplishes at this Passover in breaking his body and shedding his blood

is the removal and forgiveness of your sins a crowd was coming to be cleansed just not realizing that Jesus was coming to cleanse the world that placed faith and trust in him and then by doing that guess what they don't have to come back the next year they don't have to come back the next year after that Jesus does it once and for all past present and future sins he is a mediator on our behalf so that anytime you sin and you come to God God looks at Jesus Jesus says I paid for it already and God says all right you can remain in my

presence and guess what that presence is not uh temporary but it is eternal so that presence is going to be now because he is our mediator that is unending and unfading and unfailing he allows us to be with God For Eternity for eternity and so he desires this for all people for this large crowd that is gathered again John 3:16 God so loves the world that he gave his begotten son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life this is what he's accomplishing for us he's a mediator before us who gave himself as a ransom for all which is the testimony

given at the proper time time now look at verse two in our lukee 22 passage the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death for they feared the people now often times when people think about the crowd and they think about um the the movies that you've watched in regards to The Passion of the Christ usually everybody depicts it as like everybody hates Jesus like everyone wants him dead but the reality is is of the two and a half million people that are present here not all of them hate Jesus not all of them want him to be dead you

got to remember they're just coming off off the cusp of uh the triumphal entry I mean that's a large crowd just literally a week away from this moment that were laying palm trees out that were laying all their cloaks out on the ground that were creating essentially a red carpet for Jesus to enter in Jerusalem because they believed Jesus was going to be their immediate King that was going to take over and Rule and Reign all of Israel they were very excited about Jesus and that's the main reason why the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees the religious rulers and the elite that

are also kind of summed up as the Sanhedrin they hate Jesus because their livelihood is based on whether or not the masses and the crowds are following them are they trusting them are they following their TR tradtions are they following their teachings are they following what they put on the people and expect of the people but if you go back to um one of our passages a couple of weeks ago literally what the chief Priests get upset about is they say um in John 12: 19 look the world has gone after him and that's when they begin trying to devise plans on how to get

rid of Jesus and so the crowd is important here because again Jesus is here here for the crowd he's here for the people he wants and desires all of them to see exactly what he's doing so as they're bringing animals into this Passover and beginning sacrificing them Jesus literally even Josephus again a Roman historian um of the first century says that when the hour came for the death of Christ it was the very hour that they were uh required to part participate in the sacrificing of the Lambs so down to the hour Jesus is like I don't want you to miss this the time is

at hand where I substitute myself in your place and I take your death that you deserve because of the wages of sin is death I take it and I am going to die for you doesn't want them to miss it and so God puts the sacrifice of Jesus on full display in order for all of the Jews to be able to see this but not even just to the Jews if you go back to 1 Timothy chap 2: 7 when Paul is talking to Timothy about what Jesus is here to accomplish being a mediator and a ransom for all and desires all to be saved

he says in verse 7even for this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle for this reason for Christ to be a mediator and a ransom for all and for all to be saved for all to know this good news God made me a preacher and an apostle that's what P or Paul is telling Timothy a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth and so not only is this all the Jews gathered together but the message is even going to spread beyond the Jews to the Gentiles and that's what we actually referenced and talked about last week is uh um where Luke talks about

the time of the Gentiles and for the time of the Gentiles to be fulfilled so the gospel message what what Jesus accomplished first came to the Jews but then it spreads out Beyond them to the Gentiles and we explained if you're like what is a gentile Gentile by definition literally means not a Jew so if you're not a Jew in this room you're a gentile and because we are currently in the time of the Gentiles this is the best time to be a gentile because this blessing that Christ has come to accomplish and execute in providing salvation for Sinners forgiveness of your wrongdoings forgiveness of

all of your fumbles and stumbles through life forgiveness of all of your falling shorts like if you're like and I don't even know if I'm a sinner I don't even know just ask who you came with and they'll point out the sins in your life and then you'll know okay I need that dealt with I need to be forgiven of that it is the time of the Gentiles Jesus is forgiving you because of what he is doing here at this Passover and what that means for you and me today is that you are here to engage in the movement that is the time of the

Gentiles if you are here today and you are saved by Jesus if you are saved by the blood of the Lamb because you understand what he accomplished at his death and his burial and his resurrection then you are now in a season of life to spread this news to invite people to come and hear this news this doesn't mean that you don't like focus on being a good husband or a good wife or a good father or a good mother or a good child this doesn't mean that you can't focus on building a great and successful career all of those things are secondary to the

primary purpose of your life which is to spread the glory of God over the Earth as the waters covered the SE as habc 24 says because that is what we were designed for we were designed to glorify God to worship Him in all things that's why first um passages like First Corinthians 10:31 says whether you eat or drink or whatever you do do it all for the glory of God and you're like well I I fall short in doing that again that's why Jesus died on the cross for you so that he can help mature you that when you're eating or drinking or whatever you're

doing in life you're able to do it in a way that is stewarding it for his glory and for your good for your good that's what he's called us to we either join the crowd who is going after Jesus or we abandon the crowd and become a coward like Judas you see this is what happens in verses 3 through six Satan entered into Judas called a scariot who was of the number of the 12 he went away and he conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them and they were glad and agreed to give him money so he consented

and he sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd when Satan wants to distract you or what Satan wants to do is he wants to distract you with temporary things he wants to distract you with a paycheck like that's what he wants to do he wants to distract you with a paycheck does anyone know how much money Judas was willing to betray Jesus for it says in scripture 30 pieces of silver when you look up how much 30 pieces of silver was worth in Jesus's day it's about a month's wages so he spent three years with Jesus how much

was Jesus Worth to Judas a paycheck a paycheck which means that when Satan entered into Judas he had convinced Judas that What Judas needed more was now in the immediate rather than eternity rather than something that would be patient and prudent something that would leave a legacy Sophocles once said many are the wonders of the world but nothing is more wonderful than man his whole vision is that nothing is higher than man man as the measure of all things is ultimately what secularism is all about and this is what Satan distracted and won Judas with you become your own God and Serve Yourself rather than

the true God therefore by contrast the kingdom of God is exchanged for the good life a biblically renewed mind is exchanged for the mental health industry the resurrected body is exchanged for being in shape now Botox 10minute ABS whatever you want to fill in the blank there we'll take that over the resurrected body it's now instead of the age to come it's the age now and it is a this age approach all of those longings and promises that we have in the Christian faith are mapped into this imminent world World in this imminent frame and honestly what social media and modern tech have done to

us is create an appetite for the immediate and a disdain for what's generational or what's Eternal that's why and and again like we're in the same boat here all right let's just show hands how many people have watched a reel in the last couple of days come on all right Tik Tok and Instagram reals make their wealth on this idea the immediate the now and they create all of these micr formative moments that are preaching here now you here now you as you just swipe from one to the other because you're able to start something and finish something immediate and then do the same thing

again and again and it does something where it's rewiring your system to believe that what I want and what I feel and what brings me satisfaction I can have it now I can have it now it's producing the sense of current Consciousness rather than being a part of God's vision for a larger society of movement that is patient and prudent and wise and selfless and sacrificial for the greater good here even more for the greater good of the age to come so there's no drawing you beyond this now and that's exactly what Judas found himself giving himself over to Satan wants you to sacrifice others

and your Eternity for the sake of yourself and your immediate gratification which is honestly just sad and depressing like especially when you are aware of it in your own life but then when you're aware of it in other people's lives that aren't aware of it it just produces this sad and depressing reality but here's the good news the gospel disrupts the status quo the gospel disrupts the status quo listen I need you to hear this you were not born into this world to Simply Be raised by your parents get an education become a contributing citizen in Society build a career have a family of your

own leave whatever you have left to them and then die and be forgotten within a generation that's not why you were born it's not that's what Society tells us and if you're lucky they'll remember you after a couple of generations because you've done something great and Grand Here and Now where you might get your name on a building but even that building is going to come down at some point the gospel disrupts this the Jews were not in Jerusalem for another routine annual Passover reunion they were there to witness Jesus you are here to meet Jesus you're here on this Earth to be saved by

Christ and his sacrifice in your place which then allows you to enjoy God for all eternity like that's why you're here that's why you are alive and breathing is so that God who created you and because sin fractured and separated us from him has then provided us a way to get back to relationship with him that is only through the life death and resurrection of Jesus there is no all roads lead to Heaven There is no all paths get to Jesus the only way that we get to be in the presence of God and in relationship with him not only now which is beautiful but

for eternity glorifying him and receiving all satisfaction all gratification all pleasures ever more the only way we get there is through Jesus Christ he is the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the father except through him as our scriptures tell us that's why they're there that's what they're actually witnessing In This Moment Judas isn't having it and he's selling Jesus for a month's rent but there are other people there that are going to witness it and are going to see it and after Jesus resurrects he's going to empower those people which by the time that the first church is actually

planted is about 120 people you got to remember there were thousands of people that were fed right there were thousands of people that saw the Miracles but few really saw what he was accomplishing and what he was executing and doing and in those 120 people that were at the upper room that were praying and then they had the the spirit of God descend upon them and they were empowered and then they became Witnesses in Jerusalem Judea Samaria and the ends of the Earth you're here because that 120 people experienced Jesus and said we're not here just to live a good life we're here for Jesus

and we're here for other people to come to know Jesus as well that's why we're in this room you can you can trace it all the way throughout church history of why you're in this room today hearing ing this message because people were willing to understand what God has actually called them to that is higher than man he's called them to himself that brings God glory and it brings you the greatest joy and satisfaction ever it's your purpose and it's worth way more than 30 pieces of silver it's worth more than a lifetime of paycheck Jesus wants you to follow him and be a living

sacrifice for others and give up your now for the sake of Christ and your Eternal gratification and gain that's what the 120 were willing to do at the resurrection of Jesus they were willing to give up their now for their eternity Judas gave up his Eternity for the now as we conclude this morning 1 Corinthians 14 tells us that through the preaching of God's word the people will experience conviction like you'll experience conviction sometimes that feels like I don't like this guy on stage that's okay I'm not like I'm not here to to win a popularity contest by any means I'm here to just say

what God's word is teaching us and there are going to be moments where what we preach and what we Proclaim it wrestles in your soul to where you might be thinking things like am I doing what I should be doing am I living how I should be living am I following Jesus like I should be following Jesus do I follow Jesus do I believe in Jesus was I just raised to know about him but I never really made a choice to actually follow him by faith do I just assume that I know the gospel and I really don't like what am I actually wrestling with

right now in my heart because when the word of God is proclaimed as Hebrews 4:12 says the word of God is living and it's active it's sharper than any two-edged sword it pierces the division of soul and of spirit of joints and of marrow and Discerning the thoughts and intentions of our heart so like when we read God's word and when we preach God's word and when we preach what his message and his purpose is all about God is surgically doing work on your heart and your soul and it's going to feel uncomfortable because if you've ever had a surgery they're not comfortable God sometimes

wounds you in order to heal you just like doctors do and in this moment that might be something that is going on in your mind in your heart and we want to always have an opportunity for you to respond because if that's you I ask that you let us know by telling either the person that you came with or as we are partaking of communion I'm going to be down here to the left come up and talk to me and say you know what I I either have assumed that I followed Jesus or I know of Jesus but I have never actually truly trusted him

and followed him that was my story I remember the first time walking into a church when I was 14 years old and I knew some bullet points because I was from Tennessee about who Jesus is but when I walked in that day they said do you know who Jesus is and I said no and I followed him and I trusted him and I got baptized and my life has been literally dedicated to him ever since then is it the same for us in this room this morning what is he convicting in your heart he might also be convicting in your heart that yeah you know

you've been talking about life and life might not be what I actually thought it was I thought it was building a career and just having a great family and all those things but you know I haven't really been about the mission of God I've not really been about Jesus in spreading his glory spreading this good news of what they thought they were coming to but here was the reality of what they were coming to do I invite other people to Jesus to experience the same forgiveness that I've experienced so that they can have it as well so this is a moment and an opportunity for

us to come to a table similar to an altar and the reason why we call it an altar is because it's a um it's an illustration an object lesson of the altar that Jesus went to on the night of passover and sacrificed his body and shed his blood you see they came every year to this but but on that same night when Jesus gathered with his disciples gave them something else that they will continue to partake of and remember as often as they partake of it so it wasn't going to just be an annual thing or a quarterly thing or a monthly thing or a

weekly thing it's as often as they wanted to partake of the Lord's Supper they would get to remember him breaking his body and shedding his blood and so it was a meal for believers for believers to come back to every single time as often as they take it and say thank you Jesus for what you did at that Passover 2,000 years ago thank you for breaking your bir or breaking your body and shedding your blood so that I don't break my body and shed my blood when God's judgment comes upon instead Jesus has paid for it and I get to go be with God in

his presence for eternity and so I'm going to invite you to stand with me we invite everyone who believes in Jesus even if it's for the first time to come to the Altar and grab the bread and the cup while the band leads us in a song of Praise this is a great time as they're playing as they're singing for you to be able to share with the person that you came with that hey yeah I I thought I believed in Jesus but but I don't think I really did or I've never believed in Jesus and this is an opportunity I I want to believe

in Jesus I want to follow him I want to receive his sacrifice in my place I want him to forgive me of my sins you can say that to a person that you came with and here's the thing don't don't feel embarrassed about that there's no greater decision in all of life than that like there is the angels in heaven throw a party there will be no one in this room who will be like well that's weird that you're following Jesus no like that's why we exist that's why we're here that's what we get up for in the mornings that's what we're excited about that's

what we want and desire I'll also be down here you can come and talk to me about that and say I don't know exactly how that looks how that works itself out I'll let you know but we're all going to come down grab the elements bring them back to your seat and after we do some moments of just reflecting and spending time with Jesus thanking him we will then partake of the meal together so come on down as