This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to our second day of our Look Through Matthew chapter 26.
We begin today to look at Judas and the betrayal that happened. Remember
yesterday we talked about this extravagant expression of worship that Mary had
and the scripture tells us that there were some disciples that were upset by
this.

Some of the other gospels tell us specifically it was Judas who was upset by
this because he was stealing money from them. He was a thief and so he said this
about we should give the money to the poor but really he wanted the money for
himself. Sometimes people say very spiritual things but they have very selfish
motivations for saying it and that certainly was true with Judas.

He couldn't understand genuine worship and so he reacted with rejection. This
often happens when you can't understand genuine worship and you see it. You have
a choice.

I'm either going to embrace that or I'm going to reject that. I can't stand on
the fence anymore because I'm seeing what it really is and Judas chose to reject
it. In verse 14, "Then one of the twelve, the one called Judas Iscariot, went to
the chief priests and he asked, 'What are you willing to give me if I hand him
over to you?

' So they counted out for him 30 silver coins and from then on Judas watched for
an opportunity to hand him over. " We don't know why exactly Judas betrayed
Jesus. There are a lot of theories as to why he betrayed Jesus that it could
have been that he was just greedy and he wanted the money.

It could have been that he was trying to force Jesus' hand somehow and he
thought if he did this Jesus would proclaim himself to be the king. Whatever was
happening we know that he was confused and we know very clearly from scripture
that he was confused by Satan. The Bible tells us that Satan had entered into
him from the very beginning and so he was allowing Satan's voice to have free
reign in his life.

He was listening to Satan and not God even though God in human flesh was right
there with him. And so we'll listen to what happens in beginning in verse 17,
"On the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus
and asked, 'Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the
Passover? ' He replied, 'Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, 'The
teacher says my appointed time is near.

I'm going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house. ' So the
disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover. When evening
came Jesus was reclining at the table with the twelve.

And while they were eating he said, 'I tell you the truth, one of you will
betray me. ' They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other,
'Surely not I, Lord. ' Jesus replied, 'The one who has dipped his hand into the
bowl with me will betray me.

The Son of Man will go just as is written about him. But woe to that man who
betrays the Son of Man. It would be better for him if he had not been born.

' Then Judas, the one who would betray him said, 'Surely not I, Rabbi. ' Jesus
answered, 'Yes, it is you. ' Now as I said a moment ago, the motivations of
Judas we may never know.

But the actions of Judas we can clearly see. And we do know what he was not
motivated by. He was not motivated by love.

Because he wasn't motivated by love he ends up betraying Jesus. He wasn't
motivated by love for God. He wasn't motivated by love for others.

And because of that his life becomes a ruin. Now Jesus is able to see this
moment of betrayal that's coming. But that's not all that he sees this night.

If you and I, if we face a betrayal that's all that we can see is that person
that's betrayed me. We can't see past it or beyond it or around it. But Jesus
sees the whole significance of what's happening as he's heading towards the
cross.

In the midst of this betrayal now he institutes this amazing moment of worship.
Verses 26-30. While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke
it, and gave it to his disciples saying, "Take and eat.

This is my body. " And then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them
saying, "Drink from it all of you. This is my blood of the covenant which is
poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until the day
when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom. When they had sung a hymn,
they went out to the Mount of Olives. " Now remember, Jesus and his disciples
are sharing the Passover celebration.

This Passover celebration was a celebration commanded as Jewish men, as Jews
they would gather every year to celebrate the Passover and they would not have
ever missed it. Every one of his disciples would have had strong memories of the
Passover since they were children growing up. When the Passover approached, we
just read earlier, they said, "Where are we going to celebrate it?

Not are we going to celebrate it, but where are we going to celebrate it? " And
in the midst of that Passover celebration, Jesus institutes a new celebration,
the celebration of the Lord's Supper. In that Passover celebration, there was a
lot of bread eaten and there were a lot of cups of wine that were drunk or at
least drinking out of one cup several times.

The bread that was eaten was a symbol, a sign of the bread that they had eaten,
the unleavened bread coming out of Egypt being set free by God, and the cups
that were drunk. There were actually four cups that were drunk during the
Passover and each of these reminded them of a promise that God had given to
them. They were all about the promises.

And what Jesus does is he says, "I want to take what you have seen as certain
symbols for so many years, for thousands of years now, and I want to show you
what these symbols have pointed to. I want to give new significance, new meaning
to these symbols, to the bread, to the wine, to the cup. " Jesus says, "First,
look at this bread.

It's my body given for you. And then look at this cup. It is the covenant, the
promise, the cups in the Passover celebration signified the promises of God.

This is the promise of my blood that's poured out for you. " That's the promise
that Jesus gives you. So for just a moment in your mind, celebrate that promise.

Celebrate who Jesus is. Because the Lord's Supper is a supper of celebration.
It's not a supper of sadness.

It's a supper of celebration. We celebrate the Lord's Supper. We celebrate the
fact that the body of our Lord was given for us.

Crucifixion, this cruelly devised torture for the body that combined elements of
exhaustion and exposure and humiliation and pain and suffocation to bring about
this slow death. Jesus went through that for you. Jesus gave himself for you.

Why his body? Why did he have to give his body? Why so physical a death for our
spiritual freedom?

Jesus met you at the point of your need. He met me at the point of my need. Sin
occurs right here in our bodies.

So he gave his body, a perfect body for us, to redeem us, to set us free, to
forgive us of our sins. The body of our Lord given for us. And then the blood of
our Lord poured out for us.

The new covenant in my blood. The blood of Jesus. As you just take a quick look
through the New Testament, you find out that the blood of Jesus is our
justification.

It's our redemption in the book of Ephesians. It's how we're brought near in the
book of Ephesians. It's our peace in the book of Colossians.

It's our forgiveness in the book of Hebrews. It's our propitiation in the book
of Romans. And Jesus here says, my blood is your promise.

It's your promise. Jesus' blood is God's sealed promise of all that can take
place in our lives. Of all that God offers to us.

That is the celebration. The celebration is not his death. The celebration is
what his death brings into your life and into my life.

And into millions, billions of lives. The celebration is what's going to change,
what's going to happen in all of eternity because of what he did. That's why we
look forward as we celebrate to what it's going to mean for all of eternity.

So right now as we pray, let's take a minute to celebrate the body and the blood
of the Lord. Jesus, we celebrate right now what you did for us. We celebrate the
fact that you gave yourself, your body for us.

That your body was given, that you went through suffering because of your love
for us. And we see, we sense your love in that. We also know that that love had
a motivation, a reason, a power.

That in that love there is the power of forgiveness. So thank you for your
forgiveness. And Jesus, we celebrate your blood.

The fact that you allowed your blood to be spilled so that we could enjoy the
promise of eternal life. Your life was poured out so that you could pour your
life into us. Thank you.

Thank you for the life that we find in you. Abundant life now and eternal life
as we look forward to heaven. Thank you for the promise of life in you, Jesus.

We celebrate you. In your name. Amen.