Sermon Cloud

We're beginning a series this morning entitled, "Living as if the Resurrection Mattered" If Jesus has really come back from the dead, if the echoes we talked about last Sunday area really with us. Then it matters in our life. If the Resurrection is true. Then there are things, beyond physical death, that God also has the power to conquer. One of which would be guilt. We're going to look at the story of a couple guys who were the first followers of Jesus, Judas and Peter, who probably felt some guilt. You'll see why. Matthew 26:14-35, 47-50, 69-75, 27:1-10
Video clip from Passion of the Christ
We believe scripture to be inspired by God. It's "God-breathed." Seeing those images, though, really drive home what we just read.
When was the last time you got that knot in the pit of your stomach? Surely you know what I'm talking about. That sick feeling that accompanies the thought, "I can't believe I just did that." This happens the most to me when I do something to hurt my wife. It hurts to wrong another person, but hurting someone you love is a killer.
When both Peter and Judas realized what they'd done, it probably wasn't just a knot, it probably felt like someone had sliced open their stomach with a knife. With good reason. Both of these guys blew it - majorly! So we're going to look at each one of their stories; what they did, imagine what they were thinking and most importantly how they responded to what they did.
Judas - I saw a list of the top ten baby names from 2007 and the top three were Judas, Adolf and Benedict Arnold. Funny how you've got a bunch of other disciples running around; John, Peter, Matthew, Luke, Andrew, James... but not any Judas'. We want nothing to do with Judas. We've completely demonized this guy. And for good reason. What he did was sinful. But what I think we often do is automatically assume all the worst about Judas, so we can distance ourselves from him. "Judas was completely evil, I'm glad I'm not like that." We assume the worst about Judas so we assume the best about ourselves. But the truth is; those simple categories don't work.
We know what Judas did - it's pretty simple. He traded Jesus' life for the 30 pieces of silver. Matthew describes this terrible scene. Judas comes up to Jesus, calls him rabbi (teacher) and then kisses him. And the terrible part of this scene isn't that they kissed, although I don't make a habit of kissing guys. In those days, kissing was like our handshake. And in the days before soap and toilet paper, a kiss on the cheek was probably more sanitary. But a kiss was usually a hospitable act. Judas takes this sign of friendship to begin the process of Jesus' trial, suffering and crucifixion.
But why would he do it? What was he thinking? There was agreement among the scholars I studied, that it wasn't about the money. 30 pieces of silver wasn't that much money. If Judas was only worried about money, he wouldn't have left his job to follow Jesus for three years.
Two options I tracked with as I studied. 1) Judas was sick of Jesus. Judas would've had the same belief about the Messiah as other 1st Century Jews. That the Messiah would overthrow Rome and make Israel the world's superpower. But here's a guy claiming to be the Messiah but talking about peaceful resistance, loving your enemies, praying for those who hurt you and other senseless crap that just doesn't work in the real world. The more Judas thought about it, the more convinced he became that Jesus had to be done away with to get a real Messiah in there.
You ever been there? Some of you are there right now. This way of Jesus is bogus. This forgiving people. This serving people. Giving to people. It doesn't work in the real world. "Forget you, Jesus, your way isn't working." We quit, do things we know to be wrong. Judas quit, did something he knew was wrong. Is it really that different?
2) Judas was trying to force Jesus' hand. If I can arrange a bunch of soldiers to come after Jesus with swords drawn and chains at their side, maybe then the Messiah would rise up and begin the military campaign we've been waiting for. He didn't understand that the way of Jesus is different than the way of the Roman army or the religious right (Jewish leaders).
Whatever his motivation, Judas quickly realized that things were not turning out the way he wanted them to. Even if Judas had only done it for the money, he quickly found out it wasn't worth what he'd just caused to happen.
That's what sin does to us. We think it will turn out one way, but the end is always disaster. James 1:14-15 It was a disaster for Judas.
What about Peter? We know Peter had no intention of denying Jesus. 26:33
"I can do it. I'm strong. I'm not like everyone else. Everyone else may run, but I'll do what's right, Jesus."
Right there we know Peter is in trouble. Why? Because it's all about him. I can do it. You know what - we can't. None of us can honor Jesus on our own. We need each other. That's what church is all about.
The best picture of what the church should be about is alcoholics anonymous. Bill Wilson, the founder of AA had been dry for awhile when staying at a hotel on a business trip he was confronted by the familiar sound of tinkling glasses drifting down the hall from the bar. He wanted a drink. But then he realized, "I don't want a drink, I want to be around others." And the idea of a support group was born.
It may not be alcohol abuse but we're all sin-aholics. We need each other. Which is what our small groups are all about. We're starting a new bible study this Tuesday night.
So fully armed in his false self-confidence, Peter wilts under the pressure. It's likely that Peter believed that if he were identified with Jesus, the same thing would happen to him. So he flat out denies it. He swears he doesn't know Jesus. The English translation is pretty weak here, "He swore a curse upon himself." Basically he was declaring, "damn me to hell if I really know Jesus of Nazareth." Which is exactly what Jesus warned earlier would happen if you denied him. Matthew 10:32-33 Those are pretty damning words. Not only to Peter.
About the time this book was being written, there was a Roman Emperor by the name of Nero. Nero was crazy. He burnt down a huge section of Rome. But politicians don't take responsibility for anything, so he needed a scapegoat so he chose this new group called Christians. This set off a wave of persecution. There were stories of Christians being used as human torches. Others were torn apart by Lions in the Roman Coliseum. But there were also stories of Christians denying Jesus to save their own skin. Or even worse, turning in other Christians as a plea-bargain. And so the first readers of this book were wondering, how do we deal with the guilt?
They were just like us. We've all got guilt. We've all blown it. We've all got that one thing in our past. The affair, the addiction, the cover-up, the outburst of anger that ended the relationship, the abortion. We feel guilt over the things done to us; abuse, lies. Stuff that wasn't our fault.
We've all got guilt, the question is how do we deal with it?
Judas didn't do so well. For a moment, it seemed like maybe he was on the right path. Matthew tells us Judas was remorseful for what he did. Judas was moving in the right direction, but he stopped short of what he needed to do. Judas needed to do more than just feel remorse, he needed to repent. Matthew is doing a play on words. Just like in the English language, in the original greek, remorse sounds a lot like repent. He's using the word "remorse" to remind people of Jesus' constant command to "repent." But they're not the same thing. It's like the difference between "for sale" and "on sale." Close, but not really.
Remorse means to feel bad. It's the guilt we all feel when we screw up. Repentance means to turn. To repent means to do a 180 with your life. Judas felt remorse but he didn't repent. Like I said earlier, a lot of us can relate with Judas, we've felt the remorse. Remorse is good, if it leads to repentance. But by itself, remorse just leaves us feeling guilty.
Not only did Judas stop short but he also went to the wrong people. Rather than going to God he went to the same sinners that offered him the bribe in the first place. 27:3-7 Ever wonder if there's humor in the Bible. Just think about what you just read. Vs. 6 Irony. These religious leaders didn't want to put this money in the temple offering because it was blood money. But they didn't even think about the fact that they were the murders. That's called missing the point. Religious people do it all the time.
Judas never dealt with his guilt because he failed to repent and he failed to go to God. He hung himself. The guilt literally destroyed him.
What about Peter? Matthew told us that Peter wept bitterly. He allowed himself to feel the depths of his guilt and remorse. He probably felt like his insides were being ripped out. It's okay to feel that way. In fact, it's healthy to mourn your sin. But he didn't stop there.
In that movie, you saw Peter confess his sin to Mary and John. Now that was creative story telling, that incident wasn't in the bible. But we know that Peter told others about it. We know that because it's in the bible. Matthew got his material from the stories told by Jesus' disciples. Peter was the only one there when he denied Jesus. So he had to have told people. This is such an important story that it's in all four of the books about Jesus. I wonder if Peter told and retold that story. So others could know, "I blew it but Jesus removed my guilt."
But Peter didn't just talk with others about his sin, he talked with Jesus, too. In John's book about Jesus, there's a story of Peter and Jesus fishing together. While they're cooking their catch on the beach, Jesus asks Peter, "do you love me?" The guy who said "damn me to hell if I know Jesus" responded, "yes, Lord, you know that I love you."
Jesus asked Peter "do you love me" three times. The same number of times Peter denied knowing Jesus. Jesus was telling him, "I know you love me. You hurt me, but you're forgiven. I'm taking your guilt away."
That's how we deal with our guilt. We talk about what we've done with other Christians. People we trust. People who will still love us. Who will challenge us to live differently. And we also confess it to Jesus. He's the only one who can truly take away our guilt.
And speaking of Jesus, he's the third character in this story. He's the one being sinned against. Ultimately, any sin is a sin against Jesus. And it's mind-blowing the way Jesus responds.
Jesus and all the disciples are eating together when Jesus told Judas, "I know what you're about to do. If you're going to do it, just get it over with." It's is if he was giving Judas one last chance to back out.
And during the meal, Jesus told the disciples that the bread and wine represent his body and blood about to be broken and shed on the cross - for their sins. And guess who was still there - Judas.
Jesus was trying to give Judas hope. "You're about to commit a terrible sin. You know what I'm going to do about that? I'm going to die a brutal death on the cross to show you how serious I am about forgiving you for the sin you're about to commit. Your guilt can be removed because of what I'm about to do on the cross" There's still hope!
And when comes into the garden to betray Jesus with a kiss, Jesus calls him "friend." That's what we call grace. The undeserved kindness of our God.
And what was Jesus doing while Peter was denying even knowing him. He was dying for Peter's sin.
What does Jesus think of your guilt? Cross image - David should get it to you
Can you picture Jesus doing that for you? Can you hear Jesus say, "I've already dealt with your guilt." Can you imagine Jesus offering you the bread that represents his forgiveness, even though he knows you're about to blow it? That's what we call grace.
I want you to hear some other verses about repentance and forgiveness:
1 John 1:9
2 Corinthians 5:21
Isaiah 1:18
Psalm 51:1-10

If you're dealing with guilt - 1) Confess it to God 2) Confess it to someone else 3) Repent - turn around and live differently

We're giving you the opportunity to do exactly that - Communion