Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Betrayers

Episode Date: March 8, 2023

In Mark 14, Jesus predicts his betrayal by one disciple, and he predicts the defection and the failure of all the disciples. So what are we supposed to learn from this? Even though it will be relevant to everybody, this passage is particularly meant for people who think they are Jesus’ friends, people who think they’re pretty close to him, people who feel they’re really following him, people who even would consider themselves the leaders of the Christian movement. This passage teaches us about 1) the breadth of sin, 2) the depth of sin, and 3) how to overcome it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 28, 2007. Series: King's Cross: The Gospel of Mark, Part 2: The Journey to the Cross. Scripture: Mark 14:12-21, 27-28. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller is exploring the life of Jesus as recorded by the Apostle Mark. It's a fascinating look into the life of Christ as both Savior and Teacher. After you listen, please consider taking time to rate and review our podcast. Your review can help others to discover our podcast and experience the hope of the Gospel. Now here's today's teaching from Dr. Keller. The scripture is found in Mark 14 verses 12 through 21 and verses 27 and 28. On the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus his disciples asked him, where do you want us to go and make preparations

for you to eat the Passover? So he sent two of his disciples telling them, go into the city and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you, follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters, the teacher asks, where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? He will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there. The disciples left, went into the city, and found things just as Jesus had told them, so they prepared the Passover. When evening came, Jesus arrived with the 12.

While they were declining at the table eating, he said, I tell you the truth. One of you will betray me, one who is eating with me. They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, surely not I. It is one of the twelfth, he replied, one who dips bread into the bowl with me. The son of man will go just as it is written about him, but woe to the man who betrays the Son of Man. It would be better for him if he had not been born. You will all fall away, Jesus told them, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.

This is the Word of the Lord. This is the Word of the Lord. From now till Easter, we're looking or we're finishing up our study of the book of Mark, and that means we will be looking for a number of weeks at the last days of Jesus on earth, and what they mean to the world unto us. And tonight what we come to is a passage in which Jesus predicts that he will be betrayed, he predicts his betrayal by one disciple, and he depicts the defection and the failure

of all the disciples. So what are we supposed to learn from this? What does this passage mean? And I think even though we will find that it's interesting to everybody, and I think it'll be relevant to everybody, it's particularly addressed and particularly meant for people who think that they are Jesus' friends, for people who think they're pretty close to Him, people who feel that they are Jesus' friends, for people who think they're pretty close to Him,

people who feel that they're really following Him, people who even would be considered themselves the leaders of the Christian movement. That's in particular who this material is addressed to. So, when we take a look at what we're being taught here, I think we're going to see three things. We're going to see it's teaching about the breadth of sin, the depth of sin, this breadth of sin, the depth of sin, and how to overcome it. The breadth of sin, the depth of sin, how to overcome it. Now first of all, when we talk about the breadth of sin, the depth of sin, how to overcome it. Now, first of all, when we talk about the breath of sin, what are we talking about?

Jesus, as we're going to see next week, is in the upper room with his disciples, and this is the last supper. And he's passing around the bread, and he's passing around the cup, and he's about to say, he says it's just a verse or two after the passage that we've got here. He says, I'm shedding my blood, I'm dying for the sins of the world. But it's at that moment that the moment he says, I'm dying for the sins of the world, that he tells his disciples about their failures, about their betrayal, about the failure.

Why? What's his point? As he's talking about the sins of the world, why he's coming to die? He then starts to tell them about their failures. And the answer is, according to one commentator who puts it very well, he says, in placing the last supper between the betrayal

and the defection of the disciples, the gospel of Mark vividly conveys that the sin that necessitates the death of Jesus is not someone else's sin, not someone out there, not Caligula or Nero or the Legion of Tyrants ever since, but his own disciples. Peter and John, you and me, every time the Lord's supper is celebrated, the essential evil, the essential problem with the world is present. Now this is the doctrine of the universality of sin. It's been put in modern times recently by Sultzenitsen with a very vivid statement in which he says, the line dividing good from

evil goes down the center of very human heart. You see what he's saying? He says, the line dividing good from evil goes down the center of very human heart. You see what he's saying? He says the line dividing good and evil doesn't necessarily divide nations from nation or people, individuals from individual. It goes right down the center of every human heart. It's a pretty strong statement. And at first you can say, and rightly so, you can say, no, wait a minute, I'm not Neuro, I'm not Collegiate, I'm not Hitler, I haven't done those things.

But and that's very significant, I hope you don't. Please don't. That's not an insignificant difference. But when it comes to talking about who you are and knowing your own heart, it's not enough just to say, what have I done? It's also important to say, what am I capable of doing if I was under certain threats, certain temptations, see certain pressures, certain opportunities? Could I produce great evil under certain circumstances which I haven't experienced yet? And the Bible says, yes, that's true.

That's what it's trying to say. It's talking about the universality of sin, the universality of sin. Every single time the Lord's Supper is celebrated, and all of his intimates and friends come and participate in it. At present, the Lord's Supper is what's wrong with the world. Did you know G.K. Chesterton, the famous Catholic writer, British writer? Years ago the London Times asked a series of prominent writers to write an essay, each write an essay on what's wrong with the world. And all G.K. Chesterton did was write in a simple telegram basically and said, dear sirs, I am sign G.K. Chesterton. He was just practicing the doctrine of the universality of sin. Now, some of you are out there saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, tell me something I don't know. Yes, everybody is a sinner. I know. That's

the Christian teaching I understand. Tell me something I don't know, I am. Don't give me that. If we knew this, if we truly grasped it and knew this, we would be able to handle two very, very intractable human problems. There are two really difficult problems that human beings grapple with. That if you believe this, you'd be able to address much better than you do.

What are they? On the one hand, we have a lot of trouble forgiving individuals. We have a lot of trouble forgiving individuals. Some years ago, I remember talking to a psychiatrist that he said to me that if he could teach, a third of his patients, if he could teach them how to forgive and let go of their anger,

almost all the problems he was treating them before we go away. A third, he said, because see, if you can't get over anger, people have mistreated you. You know, parents, sins of omission and commission, you're siblings, other people, people have mistreated you. And if you continue to be controlled by the anger that you, you live lives of self-pity, you live lives of your distorted with resentment and bitterness. How can you get release? How can you forgive? Let me tell you why we have trouble forgiving.

If somebody lies about you, how do you feel about them? You look at them and you say, they're just a liar. There's no excuse for it. They're just liar. They lie and they're just a liar. But if you lie, well, you're complicated. You know, there's several things to see. I mean, I don't always lie, but under those circumstances,

if a person lies about you, you flatten them. They're just liars. You see caricature, liar. But if you lie, oh, well, you're a kind of complex and human being. And there was all these various vicissitudes there. And why? You refused to put yourselves in the same class as the other person. You said, I would never do something like that, but you have done something like that.

Well, it's different. Mirsav Wolf in his little book, The Spacious Heart, says, forgiveness flounders, because I exclude the enemy from the community of humans and I exclude myself from the community of sinners. I exclude myself from the community of sinners. That's exactly right. You don't believe in the universe out of your sin or you'd be able to forgive. If you grasp what this is saying, you say, we are the same. I'm not quite as complex when I lie as I like to believe. And that person isn't quite as one dimensional as I like

to think. We are in the community of sinners together. If you grasp this, you'd be able to handle a lot of the things that right now are ruining your lives. So that's one big problem. We have a problem forgiving individuals, but here's another problem we have. And that is we have a problem to staining groups. I'm convinced that one of the big problems we have in the world today is that virtually every one of us has got one or two groups of people

that we just can't stand. And even though we liberal New Yorkers are very careful to make sure that those groups of people aren't of a different race. But there are still groups of people that are marked off by ideologies or politics or something like that, and we can't stand them. And the problem with the world is them. And so it's not exactly racism, but it's groupism. I hate them.

I wish they go away. The problem with the world is them. I'm not like that. They're like that. If you believe the doctrine of the universality of sin, you have to believe in the concomitant truth of the radical nature of grace. If we're saved, Christians believe,

at least we supposedly believe it, if we're saved, we're not saved because our doctrine is more right than other people, our practice is more right than other people, we believe we're saved by the sheer grace of God. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago. When we said that every Christian, regardless of your theological system, every Christian,

you fight and you struggle to believe. And when you finally make that commitment, it's like you walk through a door into your commitment to Christ. And once you walk through that door into Christ and you close the door, you can turn around and look back and over it, it says, you have not chosen me, I have chosen you. And all I remember that illustration, all I meant to say by that is this, every single Christian when you finally come to faith,

you look back and in spite of the fact that while you're coming, you feel like you're working awfully hard, every person who ever finds faith looks back and says the only reason I believe is because God persistently and patiently over the years came after me till He broke me open to His love. And the only reason that I believe is because of the mystery of grace somehow, not because I'm better.

Now if that's true, how do you look at other people, huh? If you really believe the doctrine of the universe, Adius, and therefore, the radical nature of grace, it rehumanizes people that otherwise you would demonize. It rehumanizes people, otherwise you would look down at. Imagine that you and a friend were about to rob a bank, and you've made up your mind, you're going to go rob a bank. But you drop by Mr. X you know because you both know Mr. X so you'll drop by Mr. X on the way to robbing the bank and

you tell him you're about to rob a bank and he says oh please don't rob that bank he'll just ruin your life and he says the two of you say no no no we have made up our mind and so you two of you turn on your heels and you start to go out the door to rob the bank. And Mr. X grabs both of you by the shirt. And for whatever reason, your friend's shirt rips and off he goes and he robs the bank, kills a guard. Now he's in jail, depends on the state. He might be on death row. But for some reason, your shirt doesn't rip. And Mr. X holds you down. And until you come to your senses, you see. And you see what happened to the other guy.

Now, when you go into Sam and Jail, what do you do? What's your attitude? You say, you idiot. What was the matter with you? Why didn't you say, no, how do you regard that man now? You say, I should be in jail. I don't know why I'm not in jail. The only reason I'm not in jail is because of the mystery of grace.

Can you feel superior in any way to that person? If we really, really, really believed in the universality of sin and the radical nature of grace, we wouldn't disdain any group, any class, any political party, any race, any group of people that right now, otherwise, if it wasn't for the gospel coming to your life, he would demonize or at least disdain. But this doctrine is radically rehumanizing. It rehumanizes all kinds of people, though otherwise you would disdain, in your heart if you believe it.

So you say, tell me something I don't know, I just did. So the first thing we're going to hear is the breath of sin, the universe obviously sin. But the second thing is you don't really know who you are unless you're also willing to look at the depth of sin, willing to look underneath the surface. Only if you learn to look down into your motives, what do I mean?

Well, when you become a Christian, a lot of changes happen. You stop doing A, B, C, D. You start doing one, two, three, four. You stop going this place, maybe, and you start going to this place, and you stop doing this practice, and you start doing this maybe, and you start going to this place, and you stop doing this practice, and you start doing this practice, and on the surface, up here,

it looks like you're making a lot of changes than you are, and you feel pretty good about it, and you should. But a Nietzschean question is, why are you now obeying the Ten Commandments? Why are you praying? Why are you going to church? Why are you doing everything that Jesus says in the Bible to do? Why? What's your motivation? And Jesus helps you think about this in His very ambiguous statement in verse 18. One of the things, if you're trying to read a text, you have to look at certain ambiguous and unpredictable. When you see something in a text that you wouldn't have predicted, it seems out of the ordinary, you say, why?

And here's what you want to know. Why was Jesus so ambiguous? If he wanted to talk about the fact that one of the disciples was to betray him, why didn't he just say, there he is? You know, Jesus isn't like the white witch of Narnia. You know, the white witch of Narnia comes and says, you have a traitor in your midst, and there he is. See, that's what the white witch of Narnia does.

But Jesus comes into the room and says, one of you will betray me. It doesn't say who? One of you will betray me. Well, now, if you're going to bring it up, why not say who it is going to be? What's going on here? Why is Jesus deliberately ambiguous and there's two answers? And I'm going to give you the first one under this heading and the second one under point three. And here's the first one. Jesus wants every one of the disciples to look in his heart. And see when he says, one of you will betray me, he uses a word that means to hand over or sell. And the sin of betrayal is actually a sin of motivation.

The sin of betrayal is to say, one of you serves me as long as it benefits you, but you're going to sell me out a minute it costs you. And that means, look, here's a person who is doing everything Jesus says. And here's a person who's doing everything Jesus says. If this person is doing everything Jesus says to profit and this person is doing everything Jesus says simply to please him, then on the surface they look exactly the same, but their motivations are utterly different. And the only way you're going to find out the difference is when things go bad.

And things are about to go very, very bad. And they can see it. Up to now the disciples were thinking, wow, Jesus is coming into his kingdom and that means we're going to be in pretty good shape. Maybe we'll be able to serve in that capacity. But now Jesus is written in on the triumphal entry Palm Sunday and he's been declared by the crowd the son of David and the religious leaders know that they have to destroy them, has to destroy him and the disciples know that too.

And now, all right, now the fat has gone into the fire. And now Jesus says, one of you has betrayed me and look at what they do. They don't exactly deny it. They don't exactly confess it. They say, it can't be me, can it? And commentators have said linguistically and emotionally, this is a remarkably ambivalent response. They're all saying, not me.

Me? Not me. Not me. No, not me. Because what they're saying and what they're saying and what Jesus wants him to see and what Jesus wants you and me to see. You and me is that you may not be a Judas through and through, but we've all got a Judas in us. Why?

What does that mean? All right, let me tell you about another guy. Job. Great story, book of Job. Job is having a great life and he's very faithful to God. And at one point God and Satan are having a conversation, which is a sermon right there, but not this sermon. And Satan has been going to and fro on the earth and God says, ah, have you seen my servant, Job? There is none like him on all the earth.

throw on the earth and God says, Ah, have you seen my servant Job? There is none like him in all the earth. And Satan says, does Job serve God for naught? Does Job serve God for nothing? What a question. There's a question for you. You see what he's saying? He's saying, God, Job looks like he's serving you,

but I submit that he's using you. He looks like he's serving you, but he's actually using you as a means to an end. He's serving you to serve himself. He's serving you to get things, not to please you, but just to get things, and I'll prove it to you, let things go bad in his life. And when things go bad in his life,

he'll sell you just like a broker sells non-performing stocks. He'll sell you off like a broker sells non-performing stocks. He'll sell you off. You'll be gone. Now we can't say how did that all work out. I told you that's another sermon. In fact, that's another sermon series. But ever since, I understood that that was the basic point of the book of Job.

Does Job serve God for nothing? Is Job using God or serving God? I began to realize that every time you go through a job experience, every time you go through a period in your life in which things really go bad. And that happens a lot. It's God as it were saying, now we'll see whether you got into this relationship to get me to serve you, or whether you got into this relationship for you to serve me.

And there's almost no way to know what's down under the surface. to serve you or whether you got into this relationship for you to serve me. And there's almost no way to know what's down under the surface. There's almost no way to know what's down the depths until bad things happen. Huh. And when bad things do happen, there is a part of your heart that says, hey, where's this blessedness I signed up for? Wait a minute. I'm just saying no, and I'm abstaining, that says, hey, where's this blessedness I signed up for?

Wait a minute. I'm just saying no, and I'm abstaining, and I'm sacrificing, and I'm doing this, and I'm doing that, and everything's going wrong. And there's a part of your heart that says, what good is this Christianity thing then? That's the Judas part of your heart. And it's the part of your heart that's still operating on the principle of religion rather than the gospel. Listen carefully, we talk about

this every so often. Religion operates on the principle, I obey, therefore I'm accepted and now God owes me. The gospel operates on the principle, I'm accepted through the infinite sacrifice of Jesus Christ and shared grace, therefore I obey and I owe him everything. Those are two absolutely different paradigms. I obey, therefore I'm accepted, God owes me. I'm accepted because of Jesus's infinite grace and sacrifice, therefore I obey and I owe him everything.

Hi, I'm Tim Keller. You know, there is no greater joy in hope possible than that, which comes from the belief that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. The apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13, verse 4, although Christ was crucified in weakness, he now lives by the power of God. If you grasp this life altering fact of history, then even if you find things going dark in your life, this hope becomes a light for you when all other lights go out.

With Easter approaching, I want you to know the hope that stays with you no matter the circumstance, the hope that comes from the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In my book, which is entitled, the circumstance, the hope that comes from the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In my book, which is entitled Hope in Times of Fear, the resurrection and the meaning of Easter, you'll find why the true meaning of Easter is transformative and how it gives us unquenchable hope and joy even when we face the trials and difficulties of this life, which can be considerable. Hope and times of fear is our thank you for your gift this month to help gospel and life

reach more people with the hope and joy of Christ's love. You can request your copy today by going to gospelandlife.com slash give. That is gospelandlife.com slash give. Thank you so much for your generosity. And as we prepare to reflect on the amazing love of Christ, demonstrated when he went to the cross to save us, I pray you will find renewed hope and comfort in the historical fact of his resurrection.

Because the gospel changes everything. The Judas Principle in us is the part of the heart that still operates on the idea that if I do this and this and this and this, then God has to bless me, which means I'm using God for the blessings. I'm not serving God, I'm serving myself and I'm using God to get this and that and this and that. That's the real point, is the blessings. And that's the part of our heart that Jesus is trying to say, it's in you. Even if you're not a Judas through and through, there is a Judas in you. Well, what else is in you?

A Mary. A Mary, yes, because Jesus brings up, pardon me, Mark brings up Judas. This whole story about Judas betrayal, immediately after last week, if you were here last week, the first part of chapter 14 is about a woman. Mark doesn't name the woman, but the gospel of John does. Mary, the sister of Lazarus, we're told in the first part of chapter 14, that when Jesus Christ came to Mary's house,

Mary anointed his feet with perfumed ointment. Now that was typical of the time, and that was also a gracious thing to do. Why? Because in that smelly time, in that hot and messy time, to anoint the feet of your guests and your travelers, was a way of sweetening and softening their feet and sweetening and softening the atmosphere.

It was a nice thing to do. But we're told that the people who watched Mary do that were shocked because of its extravagance. Because what Mary did was she took a vessel of perfumed oriment that was worth more than a year's wages. Probably the entire net worth of her family and she broke it on his feet. And then she wiped, we're told in John chapter 12, she wiped his feet with her hair, with her hair.

Now that was economically over the top. You look, for 10 bucks, you can, you can anoint the feet. You don't need to do 1010 million. That's ridiculous. And of course, the wiping with the hair, that was so emotionally intimate and so emotionally over the top. And Jonathan Edwards, 200 years ago, preached a sermon called Mary's Remarkable Act.

And in this sermon, he says something that was very striking. He says, the thing that shocked everybody about Mary's active devotion was its uselessness. It's uselessness. First of all, it was useless to Jesus, why? Because look, it's useful to Jesus to have your feet anointed for $10 or $20, but not for $10 million.

You don't need that. Nobody needs that. That's way over the top. It was useless. He didn't need that. Nobody needs that. That's way over the top. It was useless. He didn't need that. But it was useless for Mary. Because Mary had already received her brother Lazarus back from the dead by the power of

Jesus. Mary had already seen Jesus utter commitment to her family. And now we begin to understand the difference in Judas and Mary. Judas found Jesus useful. but Mary found Jesus beautiful. Judas served Jesus to get things. Mary served Jesus just to get Jesus. More of him, more like him. And that's what I want to put in front of you.

That in every one of us, there's a Judas and a Mary, if you're a believer. There's a part of you operating off the religious paradigm that says, if I live a good life, then God's got to bless me. In other words, I'm using God to get the blessings. And there's another part of you that understands what he has done

and perceives him and responds to him as an object of beauty, not of utility of beauty. A quick example. When I got married to my wife, you want to get to know the father-in-law, right? You want to get to know your wife's father. One of the problems I had with my father-in-law was all he ever did was play golf,

and I didn't. When you go on vacation, it wasn't just my problem. He had four daughters, and all of us son-in-law's had the same problem. If you went on vacation, he would go out in the morning, he was retired, and he'd just play golf all day. If you wanted to even talk to him, you had to go play golf. You know, probably, in in the beginning he played golf because it was useful. It was useful. It was a means to an end. It was useful because it

was a relaxing, because he had a hard job. It was useful because it was a way of getting in the good old boy network. You know that one too. And I had to learn to play golf. Why? Just because it was useful. It was a means to an end. I didn't like it. I wasn't very good at it. But I had to if I was going to get to I didn't like it. I wasn't very good at it. But I had to if I was gonna get to know my father anymore. And so, but for him, golf had become something else. He certainly didn't do it because he got the reward of great scores because he didn't get great scores. He certainly didn't do it because of the powerful people

that he was hanging out with. He was just hanging out with us. He did, it was beautiful to him. It was fulfilling in itself. Do you understand the difference between something being useful and being beautiful? I spent a lot of money to sit at the ocean for a week every year because I love the look at the ocean. Why? Is it a means to an end? No, it fills your soul with joy and meaning and poignancy. It's an end in itself. It's satisfying in itself. You know, the story I like to tell is I listen to Mozart to get an A in a music appreciation, which was required course in my BA so I could

get a degree so I can get a job. In other words, I listened to Mozart to make money. But today, I will be quite well and it's been quite a bit of money just to listen to Mozart, because the same thing happened to me with Mozart to happen to my father and I with golf. And that is, it's not useful to me anymore. It's a beautiful thing in itself. Elaine Scary of Harvard wrote a book some years ago called of beauty and being just.

And she says this, beauty somehow moves us toward justice and generosity. Beauty stops us, transfixes us, takes the individual away from the center of his or her preoccupation with self, and prompts a distribution of attention toward others. And that's exactly what happens with Mary. Why is Mary doing this extravagant thing? She's not doing cost-benefit analysis. She's not saying, well, if I pour $10,000 worth of perfume on his feet, I get this much,

but if I pour 20,000, I get this much, no. The generosity is absolutely spontaneous. It's not conforming to a norm. I'm not doing this, so Jesus will do this. She wants to, she loves to. There's the more she expresses her joy in generosity and service, the more joy she has. See, in every single one of us,

there's a Judas and a Mary. And here's what Judas does. Judas says, if I do this and this and this, I ought to get this and this and this and if I'm not getting this and this and this and this and I really don't want this and God is useful, God is an instrument, God is a means to an end. But Mary serves God just for the shining, satisfying magnificence of who he is in himself. And I'll tell you the difference. A religious person says, God's a means to an end,

and therefore your obedience is always a burden. Your emotions are up and down because the thing you're really after is not God, but a good life and getting the job and, and a's and, you know, people's approval. And so, because circumstance is up and down all and so because circumstances are up and down all the time you're up and down all the time but a gospel person a Mary is someone Jesus is an end in himself the Lord is an end in himself and as a result what obedience is a joy the service is

spontaneous and your emotions aren't up and down because the ultimate beauty of your life is He Himself and that doesn't change. In each of us there's a Judas in a Mary and the growing grace become more emotionally stable, become a more generous person, is become more and more a Mary which is to see Jesus more and more as not an object of utility, but of absolute beauty. Well, you say, thank you Tim, but I really need a point three here. Because that sure sounds nice. But when I sit down to pray, I'm not sure I responded to Jesus like that. And I'm having a job experience right now, and it's not easy. And I kind of see what you're saying. It all works out very nice, very architectonic. I like that second point.

But how? How? How do I find Jesus a beauty instead of just something that I've got to do? Point three. How to overcome it? I told you there were two reasons I think that Jesus gave an ambiguous statement in verse 18, and I want to give you the second reason. Jesus walks in and says, one of you will betray me. Why did he do it that way? You know, back in the Old Testament, remember when David betrayed

Euraya by having him killed so he could marry Basheba, his wife, and he thought nobody saw, So he could marry Baschiba, his wife. And he thought nobody saw. And then Nathan the Prophet comes into the court. Wow, what a dramatic scene. And I'll tell you one thing, Nathan does not walk into court saying, one of you has sinned. I'm not saying who? Oh no. When he comes into court, he looks at David on the throne and says, thou art the man.

Remember, wow, what a... you know, what an amazing story. Jesus doesn't do that. I wanna ask, why is Jesus say, one of you will betray me. I want you to think about it. On the one hand, what Jesus does not do is say nothing. He very definitely is saying to Judas, I see you, I see you, see when he says,

one of you will betray me, he's way of saying to Judas, I see you, and there's a warning here because he says, one of you will betray me and if you follow through and do what you're thinking about doing, it'll be better than if it would be better if you hadn't been born. So he's warning

him. But on the other hand, he's not unmasking him. He doesn't say, there's the scum, traitor liar. It's Judas. No. He doesn't say nothing, but he doesn't unmask him. He lets him know, he warns him, but at the same time, he doesn't humiliate him, he doesn't expose him, he doesn't trample on him, why? A friend of mine, Don Carson, is written a commentary on both Matthew and John, and in the commentary, Don says this, I think it's quite lovely. He says, this is Jesus' final act

of courtesy and love toward Judas. And I'll tell you, here's why. Why is he doing it this way? He wants Judas to repent. He doesn't want to shatter him. He wants to melt him. He doesn't want to condemn him. He wants to convict him. See, if he hadn't said, I see you, there'd be no chance for repentance. He has to do some conviction. But if he had actually trampled on him, there would have been no chance for repentance either. Jesus wants to melt him.

He doesn't want to shatter him. And what Jesus is doing is, what I want you to behold in Jesus Christ right now is the perfect gentleness of Jesus. The perfect thread the needle gentleness, the most amazing meshing of justice and sensitivity. See, if you really love somebody, you don't warn him, you say, I see you, and what you're about to do is going to be terrible. And if you don't do that, you don't love him, but in other hand, you don't trash them, and you don't

smash them, and you ruin them. In Jesus Christ, we have this mixture of meekness and You don't smash them and you ruin them. In Jesus Christ we have this mixture of meekness and majesty, of melt in your mouth sweetness and absolute steely insistence on being heard, on grace and justice. And he's not a halfway between grace and justice. He's just to the answer degree and sweet to the answer degree the world has never seen as like. And he brings these things together and it's life-changing gentleness.

And this isn't the only time we've seen it. Another place that's really remarkable where he does this, which is a beautiful place where he does this, is when he's with the woman who's caught in adultery. Do you remember this famous place? And there's one line he says at the end to the woman caught in adultery that's an amazing statement. He says, neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. Have you ever thought about how weird that is?

Now look at this. It makes sense to say, this isn't sin and I don't condemn you. And it also makes sense to say, it is sin and I do condemn you. But does it make sense to say, it is sin and I do condemn you. But does it make sense to say it's sin and I don't condemn you? See, he doesn't say it's not sin. Who's to say what sin is?

You know, we have to decide that for yourself. And he also doesn't say, this is sin, fallen woman, scarlet letter, see. What does he say? This is sin, this is wrong, this is terrible. I see you, but I do not condemn you. How could he do that? How can he bring these things together?

But you know what Paul says, that's the gospel. That now if you get into Christ Jesus by faith, even though you're still filled with sin, there's no condemnation. And when Jesus Christ looked at this woman and said, this is sin, but I don't condemn you. What he was saying, probably in his heart is, this is sin, and this is serious, but I don't condemn you because I'm taking your condemnation for you.

He's looking out at his disciples and saying, I'm giving you bread from this sweet bowl, but in a few hours I'll be getting the warm wood in the gall. I'll be getting a sponge with vinegar on it. And that's beautiful. To see him taking our condemnation so he can do this needle threading gentleness with us. And on the cross, there's the ultimate example of meekness and majesty. He was so holy, he had a die for sin.

He couldn't ever come sin on the other way. But he was so loving, he was glad to die. And there, because of the cross, he's able to come at us like this. And that's beautiful. And when I see him, so loving and so just that he's willing to take our condemnation so that he can even reach out to Judas, no matter what you've done, no matter who you are, he's offering you this mercy. That's beautiful. I spend a lot of money to sit and look at the ocean, but this is beyond that beauty. sit and look at the ocean, but this is beyond that beauty.

This is beyond the beauty of spring after winter and sun on the leaves. This is beyond the beauty of trumpets and drums and of all the songs you've ever heard. And if you see this beauty and let it sink in, it will get you out of yourself. Like Elaine Scarry says, it'll get you out of yourself. There'll Scari says, it'll get you out of yourself. There'll be a generosity, there'll be a joy, there'll be a poignancy, it'll fill your soul. And I can tell you this, if he can offer this to Judas at this moment, then he offers this kind of mercy and beauty to you. I don't care what you've done. I don't care your past. I don't care what you've done. But when he offers it to you, respond to it, not the way Judas did, poor Judas. Respond the way Mary did. So you can sing what Mary

I think would sing if she was living today, because it's a great hymn for a Mary heart. Were the whole realm of nature mine that were present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. Let's pray. Our Father show us how to become more and more like Mary by looking at what your son did for us on the cross, by weighing our motives, by holding on to what you've done during our Job experiences, by practicing what we know in our head,

but we don't particularly know with our heart. Until it becomes so real to us, we become more and more conformed to the image of your son who came not to be served, but to serve and give his life for us. It's in his name that we pray, amen. We hope you enjoyed today's teaching on the life of Christ, and we hope you'll continue to join us throughout this month as we look at the death and resurrection of Jesus.

If you were encouraged by today's podcast, please rate and review it so more people can discover the hope and joy of Christ's love. Thank you again for listening. This month's sermons were recorded in 2006 and 2007. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.