========================================================================
  THE BETRAYER AT THE TABLE
  by Anton Bosch
========================================================================

Summary: This sermon delves into the betrayal of Jesus by Judas
Iscariot, exploring the motives behind Judas' actions and the warning it
holds for all believers. It emphasizes the need for self-examination,
addressing the dangers of greed, lust for power, and potential betrayal
within the Christian community. The message highlights the contrast
between Judas' betrayal and Jesus' graciousness, urging listeners to
emulate Christ's love and forgiveness towards others.

Topics: "Betrayal", "Self-Examination"
Scripture References: Luke 22:1, Psalm 41:9, 1 Corinthians 11:23, Matthew 26:48, 2 Peter 2:20, Mark 14:18, John 13:5, Revelation 13:1, 2 Corinthians 13:5

------------------------------------------------------------------------
DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------

This sermon delves into the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot,
exploring the motives behind Judas' actions and the warning it holds for
all believers. It emphasizes the need for self-examination, addressing
the dangers of greed, lust for power, and potential betrayal within the
Christian community. The message highlights the contrast between Judas'
betrayal and Jesus' graciousness, urging listeners to emulate Christ's
love and forgiveness towards others.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENT
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22. We continue our study in the Gospel of
Luke and I think we have three chapters to go.

Who knows how long that's going to take us. It's already taken us since
2018 to get this far. But we're in no rush.

We want to give due diligence to the word and take us however long it
takes to get to grips with the text. So this morning I'm going to read
verses 1 through 6, Luke chapter 22 verses 1 through 6. We've just been
through chapter 21 which deals with the Olivet Discourse. We've been for
these last months but in the text for the last week in what is known as
Passion Week, the week before the crucifixion.

And this is now the end of that week and Jesus is about to be betrayed.
The Last Supper, we're going to deal with that next week. Interesting
that it falls together with, happens to fall on the same day as
Communion.

And so we have Judas who now crops up in these six verses. And I'm not
going to just stick to those six verses. There are other verses and I'm
going to jump forward in the chapter and deal with the other verses as
well, so that we can deal with Judas and then move on to the rest.

So Luke chapter 22 verses 1 through 6. Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread
drew near, which is called Passover. And the chief priests and the
scribes sought how they might kill him, for they feared the people. Then
Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the
twelve.

And so he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains
how he might betray him to them. And they were glad and agreed to give
him money. And so he promised and sought opportunity to betray him to
them in the absence of the multitude.

Just a few verses and it just seems very straightforward. And yet
obviously the whole issue of Judas and why he did what he did and all of
that is quite a subject. And many books have been written about Judas
and his motives and those kinds of things.

So let's have a look. And it begins by saying it was the Feast of
Unleavened Bread drew near and it's called the Passover. So the next
verses we're going to deal with the Passover as Jesus celebrates
Passover with the disciples.

The verse is not exactly clear because it says the Feast of Unleavened
Bread drew near, which is called Passover. Technically these are two
different things. The Passover was to be celebrated on the evening of
the Feast of Passover, and we'll get into more details about that.

Remember the Lamb is killed and it's a reminder of the day that they
came out of Egypt and the blood was posted on the doorposts and on the
lintels. But at the same time there is a separate feast. So there are
two separate feasts or memorials.

The one is the Passover which happens on the first day and then that day
begins, that evening begins the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the Feast
of Unleavened Bread lasts for seven days. And again this is attached to
them coming out of Egypt because they didn't have enough time for the
bread to be leavened and the dough to rise.

And so they ate unleavened bread for seven days as they moved towards
the Red Sea and towards Canaan. So these two things are two separate
feasts but they are blended. So there are many aspects of the Feast of
Unleavened Bread which forms part of the Passover Seder, the Passover
ritual.

And so they have the unleavened bread, they look for leaven in the house
and purge the house. That's all part of the whole thing. So the two
things blend together but they are two separate things with two totally
different messages.

So the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill him for
they feared the people. Now this is not the first time we've seen this
verse. Over and over in the last few chapters we read how that they were
looking for an opportunity to nab Jesus and to get rid of him.

They tried by theological arguments to get some kind of conviction on
him of being a blasphemer but they couldn't get him on those things. But
the other problem was the people. The people were still following Jesus
in large numbers, probably thousands were following Jesus.

And we remember at the end of the last chapter he would go out to the
Mount of Olives at night, he would come back to the temple in the
morning and the people would all be there waiting to be taught by him.
And so if they were to grab Jesus in front of the people, arrest him,
and then take him away, that would cause a riot. And remember that these
scribes and chief priests were political animals.

They were really employed by the Romans to keep peace. So they were like
a buffer between the Romans and the people. And their position was a
political appointment and if they didn't do their job of keeping peace
they would be in serious trouble.

And so you remember they make a decision. They say, well, it's better we
crucify Jesus than we have a riot and the Romans come down on the rest
of us. And so they sacrifice Jesus not in the sense of an atoning
sacrifice but in the sense of saying, well, he's a troublemaker, let's
get rid of him because we don't need trouble with the Romans.

So they are more aligned with the Romans than they are with their own
people or even with God or God's Word. And so the opportunity just
wasn't there. How do we get hold of him? And so Judas comes on the
scene.

So Satan enters Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the
twelve. And I'm going to come back to the first line because that's
where we get stuck a little bit. But he is surnamed Iscariot.

His last name is Iscariot. Now the reason it mentions that is that there
are two Judases amongst the twelve. There is another Judas and there is
Judas Iscariot.

So they call him Judas Iscariot to differentiate between him and the
other Judas. And of course he is numbered among the twelve. So he was
one of the twelve apostles.

He had been sent out by Jesus to perform miracles. And he sends them out
to go and preach in the surrounding areas. They cast out demons.

They do all of these things. And Judas is there among them. And of
course we also know that Judas was the treasurer.

He held the money bag for the group. And so the first part of the verse
is where we have some difficulties. Satan entered Judas.

Now again, the gospel writers are a little—there's a little bit of a
discrepancy in the sense that at what point did Satan enter Judas? Was
it at the beginning of the process or was it at the end—at the end of
the Last Supper? It doesn't really matter. Here's the way I understand
it. Satan had influenced Judas all along.

Satan—Judas had opened himself to the devil's direction and the devil's
influence from the very beginning. And he now finally, by betraying
Jesus or determining in his heart—even before he had done the deed, but
by determining in his heart to betray Jesus—he now opens himself to be
possessed by Satan. Satan actually enters him.

Now remember, this is very unique, because normally Satan himself does
not inhabit people, from what we understand from Scripture. His demons
inhabit people. Remember, there are many examples in the New Testament
of demons being cast out of people.

Remember, there was the one man who had a legion of demons, and they
were cast out. But generally, the devil himself does not. But Judas is
of such significance that the devil himself possesses him and controls
him.

And of course, this is important because there's only one other person,
and they are both called the son of perdition. So Judas is called the
son of perdition, and the Antichrist is called the son of perdition. And
I believe that the Antichrist will in the same way be possessed by Satan
himself.

He will be under Satan's direct control to do the things that he will do
as he sets himself up against the Lord Jesus Christ, as we see in the
book of Revelation. So this is a statement of extreme apostasy. Judas
was one of the twelve.

And notice in the passage, he's one of the twelve, but the devil got
into him. And of course, this is where the whole debate is. What
happened? Why did he allow the devil? Because clearly, he invites the
devil in.

It's not like the devil held him down and arm-wrestled him and said, you
know, I'm going to get into you. He had welcomed the devil's influence
all along, and now finally allows Satan to enter him. And so here's how
it happens.

Chapter 22, verse 4. So he went his way—this is Judas—and he conferred
with the chief priests and the captains how he might betray him to them.
Who initiated the process? Judas initiated the process. It wasn't like
they pulled him aside and said, hey Judas, you know, how about it? You
know, is there any chance of you, you know, betraying Jesus, telling us
where we can get him when he's alone and he's not with a crowd? No, he
initiated the process.

And then it says, and they were glad and agreed to give him money—thirty
pieces of silver. Again, if you read Matthew's version, it wasn't that
they said to Judas, now if you give us Jesus, we'll give you thirty
pieces of silver. Judas actually went to them and he said, I'll give you
Jesus, what are you going to pay me? That's literally the way it went.

So here's the thing. People talk about what was it that motivated Judas.
And there are many people who write books and have theories that Judas
was motivated by a good motive, that he was really just trying to force
Jesus's hand so that once Jesus was cornered, Jesus would reveal himself
as the Messiah, as the political king, and all of those sorts of things.

There is nothing good about Judas. I cannot find anything in him and
anything in what the Scripture says about him that in any way cuts him
any slack. He is motivated by money.

It's simple. He doesn't ask for a position, which he could have asked
for. He doesn't ask for power.

He doesn't ask for anything else, but he wants money. And remember, this
was a problem before. We read this a couple of chapters ago, when the
Scripture says that because Judas held the money and he was a thief.

So Jesus had been stealing money from Jesus, from the group, because it
was really a communal pot of money, that they obviously used to pay
their expenses. And remember that various people donated money to them,
particularly women who followed Jesus. And so money was a problem for
Judas all along.

I don't believe that there was any other motive. I don't believe that he
had any kind of nationalistic motives. Some people say, well, you know,
he had nationalistic motives.

He wanted to see Israel become great and be restored. And so again, he
was trying to manipulate a situation whereby Jesus would be forced to
attack the Romans and that kind of thing. No, I see only one thing, and
over and speaks about the money.

And remember that, and we're not going to deal with that this morning,
but later on, he goes and he takes the money and he throws it back at
the temple. He first negotiates with them and he says, look, you know, I
made a mistake. I betrayed innocent blood.

So that he still had some kind of conscience. And he says, you know,
give you the money. And they said, we don't want the money.

The money is blood money. And so he takes the money and he throws it
down in the temple and he goes out and he hangs himself. So it all
revolves around money.

Now, the problem with money is a very real problem. Why do people defect
from the faith? And here we're not talking about just apostatizing,
falling away, but clearly he doesn't just leave the twelve and go back
to farming or whatever he was doing before. But he turns against Jesus
and he betrays him and sells him.

So he becomes the enemy. What causes a Christian to defect to the other
side? Particularly, what causes pastors to do this? And again, this is
very relevant to me because just this week someone that I had an
association with, a pastor, who I thought was a good guy, defected to
the other side. And I've wrestled with the whole thing again.

And now, you know, this is not the first time I've had this experience.
I've had this experience over and over and over. And he said, well, you
know, you have a lot of contacts and so the ratio is not that high.

No, I have a very small circle of friends. Very, very small. And the
percentage is incredibly high of those who have turned to the world and
those who have turned against the true faith and gone into heresy and
false doctrine and blasphemy.

And so what is it that drives men to do this? And there are two
questions I want to address this morning in this context. The first is,
what is it? The one thing is money. In many cases, money is the biggest
problem.

And you'll remember the little rhyme that my mother taught me when I was
a young boy. There are three things that will take you down, pennies,
petticoats, and pride. And they're still the same things, money, sex,
and power.

Those are the things that will take not just preachers down, but will
take any one of us down. Just yesterday I heard of a pastor, just
yesterday, less than, I don't think it's ten miles, five miles from
here, who stole a million dollars, a million dollars from his church and
then did what Judas did. He went out and committed suicide.

No guessing where he is tonight or today. What hold does money have on
people? What goes into a man's mind when he begins to take thousands of
dollars, never mind thousands, one penny, one penny of the Lord's money?
It's not the church's money, it's the Lord's money. What is it? It's
this greed that grabs hold of the souls of men.

And why am I focusing on pastors? Because if pastors are deceived and
seduced by money, then every single one of us is potentially deceived
and seduced by money, and will betray the Lord and betray the faith and
turn against him because of financial gain. And it takes sometimes very
simple practical purposes. I understand there are some of us amongst us
who have to work shifts, have to work on Sundays, because that's the
nature of the job.

But there are others who will take overtime and miss the meetings
because of the extra money. Are you not doing the same thing,
essentially? You're saying, well, I didn't steal. Well, you sure changed
the Lord so that you can make some money.

Remember Esau, who for one pot of stew sold his birthright. And we find
this warning right through Scripture. Remember Esau.

Never forget Amalek. Amalek is Esau's descendants. The problem of
selling ourselves for financial gain.

I'm not going to get into the whole sex thing. We know that whole deal.
But the power thing is very, very real.

And folks, I believe that one of the most dangerous things in any church
is what the Bible calls, or the New Testament calls, or the New King
James calls, selfish ambition. The Old King James uses the word strife.
Selfish ambition.

Selfish ambition will take any man down. And again, leaders are
susceptible to that. The moment you get to stand up here, it goes to
your head.

And the moment that goes to your head, you begin to flex your muscles in
other areas. And you begin to think more highly of yourself than you
ought to think. The other man that defected this last week, it was
because of power.

He was offered a platform with a rogue ministry, a heretical ministry.
An opportunity to speak to thousands. He was leading a little church
like this.

Now suddenly he's a big deal. But he's turned against the purity of the
faith. He's turned against true doctrine.

He's associated with a man who's been proven to be an enemy of the
church. Power. Now, as I said, this was not Judas' problem.

Judas' problem was money. Now here's the other thing that I need to,
that we need to wrestle with, and that I wrestled with this week. And
others wrestled with me as we looked at this particular situation.

Not the man who took the money, because he was not known to me. Why
didn't we see the signs? Because this particular one, and many times it
comes out of left field. One day you think everything is good, and the
next day, just like that, he's turned.

Judas was walking with Jesus. He was eating with Jesus. He was sitting
with Jesus while Jesus was teaching.

And that very night, after the Last Supper, and I'm going to come to the
Last Supper, after sitting at the table with Jesus at the Last Supper,
within an hour, he had betrayed Jesus. Or maybe not an hour, probably
more like three hours. But that very night, he betrays Jesus.

So here's the thing I beat myself up on. Why didn't I see the signs? Why
didn't I discern that this man, or that man, or that man was rogue, or
they had the potential to be rogue? But we see the signs. You think
Jesus was stupid? You think Jesus didn't know who Judas was? Of course
he knew.

Of course he knew the money was disappearing. Of course he knew Judas's
heart. But Jesus allows Judas to continue amongst them because of this
principle that we've spoken about over and over in recent months, that
he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance.

And so Jesus is allowing Judas to go along with them because he's
pleading with Judas, Judas, get saved. Judas, do the right thing. And
folks, if we had to, let me speak for myself, if I had to cut everyone
off that I had suspicions about, I don't know that there'd be anyone
here, including myself, because I have suspicions about myself.

But we give one another grace, and we pray for one another, and we pray
that we would not go that way. And it's important, and I'm going to come
back to this, it is important that we examine our own hearts and say,
Lord, is there potential in me to be a Judas? And folk, if you say to
me, there's no potential, you've deceived yourself already. We'll see
next week or the week after, Peter says, Lord, everyone will run away,
but I won't.

I'll stand with you to the very end. And Jesus says, before the cock
crows the third time tonight, you will deny me. Peter said, never, Lord,
that'll never ever happen.

And yet that very night, he said, I don't know the man. And so every one
of us has that potential. And yet God is gracious with us, and he
tolerates us, and he accepts us, and he pleads with us to not go to that
extreme.

So verse 6, and then we're going to go through to the rest of the
chapter. So he promised and sought opportunity to betray him to them in
the absence of the multitude. So he contracted with them, there was an
agreement, and the important part is the last part of the verse, the
last line on the screen, in the absence of the multitude.

And obviously, we know that that's going to happen on the Mount of
Olives that morning as he was praying. Now verse 21 of chapter 22. I'm
not sure that we'll get this far next week, but behold, the hand of my
betrayer is with me on the table.

So we've now jumped forward to the Last Supper, and Jesus is sitting
there with his disciples. It's really just the twelve and Jesus, a very
exclusive group of those who would be the leaders of the church, except
for Judas, of course. But Judas is there, and Jesus makes a statement.

Jesus knows what's going on, and he says, the betrayer is at the table
with me. Some have calculated based on the various verses that we have
that Judas was sitting at the left-hand side of Jesus. John, we know,
was on the right-hand side.

And so the speculation is that Judas was on the left based on the
interaction that goes on and the discussion and so on around the table.
I'm not exactly sure that that was true, but certainly he is there, one
of the thirteen around the table. And truly the Son of Man goes as it
has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed.

Now remember what happens at the supper. Two things happen that affect
Judas. The one is that Jesus washes his feet.

Jesus washes all of their feet. And remember, Peter says, not me, Lord.
And the Lord said, if I don't wash you, you're not part of me.

But Jesus, and doesn't specifically say so, but clearly Jesus washed all
of their feet. I think I've said this before. I don't know that I could
touch a man, I could shake the hand or touch a man who I know had sold
me for money.

And yet Jesus touches his feet and washes his feet. What is that all?
You know, it shows us the incredible grace and love of the Lord Jesus.
Judas had already received the money.

It was probably on his belt, in his money bag already, probably mixed
with the money that belonged to the rest of them. But he had the money.
He had contracted.

It was all but done. And yet Jesus washes his feet. And why is Jesus
washing his feet? Because Jesus is pleading with him.

Judas, don't go there. Judas, stop what you're doing. Could Judas have
changed? Yes, he could have.

If he could not have, then Jesus would not have washed his feet. Jesus
would have barred him from the supper and said, Judas, you're out of
here. But Jesus allows him to come in because Jesus is still pleading
with him.

And folk, I pray that not one of us are here this morning and in the
presence of God, because he is pleading with us one last time. But if we
are, if that's the situation, let's hear his voice. You know, as Jesus
kneels before Judas, Judas, all he needed to do was raise his hands and
embrace Jesus and plead for forgiveness.

But he doesn't. And then they finally sit down to eat. And they asked
Jesus, who is it? Because he says these words, someone is around the
table is going to betray me.

And so they asked John, and John asks Jesus, who is it? And Jesus says,
the one to whom I give the sop, the piece of bread that is dipped in the
gravy. Now, that was a special sign of affection. It was a custom that
the favorite of the host would receive the piece of bread.

Is Jesus being fake? No, again, he's pleading with Judas. He's saying,
Judas, I'm your friend. Not only am I your friend, I'm your Savior.

I'm your Lord. Please. And Judas accepts it.

And immediately after that, he goes out and he betrays Jesus. Verse 47,
and while he was still speaking, behold, a multitude, this is in the
garden now. Sorry, we've jumped forward a few hours.

And behold, a multitude. Now, this is not the multitude who were
following Jesus for his preaching. This is a multitude of soldiers, and
of Romans, and of temple police, and of scribes, and so on.

And so a multitude, and he who was called Judas, one of the 12, went
before them and drew near to Jesus to kiss him. He becomes the leader of
the gang. They were going to arrest Jesus.

And he drew near to Jesus to kiss him. That was the sign that he had
agreed on, the one that I kiss. What a form of betrayal.

This has to be the worst way in which you can betray a man. You know,
you read about the hoodlums, and the mafia, and things like that, when
they execute a man. The highest form of bravery is to look the man in
the face and to kill him.

Cowards kill at a distance. Now, I'm not saying there's anything good
about that. They're all cowards.

They're all bad. But to come up to a man and to kiss him is a sign that
this is the man that needs to be killed. What a statement.

Verse 48, But Jesus said to him, Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man
with a kiss? I don't know that I can say anything about that. Psalm 41,
Jesus quotes this, Even my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who
ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. David was speaking
about one of his counselors who had defected to Absalom, his son's side.

Remember, Absalom rebelled against his father and sought to kill his own
father. That was painful enough, but Absalom was never really a good boy
anyhow, so David expected that. But this man, Ahithophel, was one of his
close associates, one of David's counselors, and he walked across to
Absalom's side.

And David speaks about this in at least three of his psalms. The sting
of betrayal is so painful for David that he writes about it several
times. My own friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has turned
against me.

But betrayal is one of the worst things one can experience, and I know
about that. And those that you put your trust in turn against you and
betray you. But I'm just a man.

David was just a man, king of Israel. But remember, Jesus asked Judas,
Do you betray the Son of Man? It's one thing to betray your country.
It's another thing to betray your friends.

But you can never compare this with betraying the Savior. I'm going to
close with 1 Corinthians chapter 11, because we're going to read this
again next week. We read this every time we come to the Lord's table.

For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that
the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread.
What's strange about that verse? We're talking about the Last Supper.
We're talking about communion.

Surely it should say that the night before he was crucified, because
that's what the communion is all about. It's about the crucifixion. But
it doesn't say it was the night before he was crucified.

It says the night he was betrayed. And it's built into the communion.
And just about every church that I know of, certainly every evangelical
church, reads this passage at every communion, and we don't know what
we're reading.

Why does it speak about the betrayal? Because it contains a warning. You
see, here's the thing is we can argue and debate about why did Judas do
this? And I understand the fascination, because it seems to be surreal.
It seems to be just unbelievable that someone who had walked with Jesus
for three and a half years, who had seen the miracles, who had heard his
wonderful preaching, who had seen his response to difficulties and
hardship, who had seen him never do the wrong thing, say the wrong
thing, the perfect son of God, and then to betray him with a kiss for 30
pieces of silver.

Of course, that fascinates us, and it fascinates theologians and
preachers. But folks, that's not the point. The point is that there is
the potential of every one of us, as I've said earlier, of being a
Judas.

And that's why it's built into the communion, that when we come to the
Lord's table—remember, the Lord's table is a continuation in many ways,
and we'll deal with this in the next few weeks, of that last supper that
he had with the disciples. And so it reminds us that sitting at the
table with Jesus was Judas. And it's reminding us that as we come around
the Lord's table, month after month or week after week in other
traditions, there is a potential of betrayers amongst us.

In one of the Gospels, it says that when Jesus told them one of them was
going to betray him, they started asking the question, Lord, is it me? I
think that's about the best question anyone asked at that supper,
because we'll see next week they asked other questions which were really
inappropriate. But that was the right question to ask. Lord, is it me?
Could it be me? And of course, the answer is yes, it could be.

It could be any one of us. And obviously, the answer is that as we come
to the Lord's table, let's check our hearts. Let's make sure that there
is nothing that is drawing us away.

That the greed for money and the lust for power and the other things
that draw us away, that those things have been dealt with. Because if we
allow them the potential of those things growing and coming to a place
where we can turn away from him and possibly even turn against him, is
real. I believe that God is able to keep us.

But at the same time, he cannot keep us against our own willfulness. And
I'm not getting into a debate of whether Judas ever was saved. I don't
think he ever was saved.

But that's beside the point. The fact that this is included in 1
Corinthians 11 is a warning to us. And it's saying every time we come to
the table, check your heart.

Are the seeds of rebellion there? Are the seeds of defection there? Are
the seeds of betrayal there? And if they are, let me deal with them. Let
me get rid of them. Let me renew my relationship with Jesus.

Let me renew my relationship with my brethren. Because many times we may
not turn against him, but we turn against our brethren, as I experienced
this week. Lord, is it me? And the answer is it could be.

So I need to walk with carefulness, examining my heart, examining my
motives, examining the things that drive me, making sure that my walk is
right, that my relationship with Jesus is 100 percent, and that my
relationship with my brothers and my sisters is right, that there is
nothing driving between us that could drive either of us into the arms
of the devil. Folks, this is a somber message. And I've come to the end
of the message.

And I wish I could better express the deep burden on my heart for every
Christian, every pastor, every teacher, and the potential that we have
of becoming a Judas. And folks, let me just emphasize as I draw to a
close. We say, no, it can never happen.

I have seen people fall that I never, ever thought would fall. People I
walked with, people I walked with for years and decades, turned from the
faith. And again, it's not a debate whether they ever were saved or not.

That's not the point. The point is they were numbered with the twelve.
They were numbered as one of us.

And today they are outside of the faith, and some of them are fighting
against the faith. Can they come back? I don't know. That's not the
question this morning.

But can it be me? Lord, help me to make sure my heart is right. Lord,
let me keep my lust for power, for money, for sex, and for whatever else
it may be, in subjection and under control to the cross. Father, we
thank you for Jesus.

Lord, we've spoken about this terrible man and the terrible stuff he
did. And yet, Lord, maybe I've neglected to emphasize the wonder and the
loveliness and the graciousness of the Lord Jesus. And Lord, it stands
in such contrast to such a dastardly man, son of perdition, the Son of
God, without ill motive, without a lust for power or money or any of
these things, but simply seeking and saving that which is lost.

Lord, I pray that this morning each one of us would seek to be more like
Jesus. Lord, that we would be tolerant of those who hurt us, that we
would be tolerant of those who seem to be going astray. And Lord, not
just tolerant, but that we, like Jesus, would pray for them, plead with
them to return to the faith.

Lord, I do pray for those who are outside this morning. I pray for the
family of that pastor who committed suicide, Lord. My heart breaks for
that family who have to live the rest of their lives with the knowing,
with the knowledge that their husband, their father, was a thief.

Lord, I pray for the brother who defected this week. Pray, Lord, bring
him back. Cause him to wake up and understand who he's associating with
and what he is doing.

Lord, the many others that we know, Lord, those who have sat here
amongst us in this church and have turned back to the world, and some of
them become worse than they ever were before. Lord, we just pray for
them. We intercede for them.

Pray that you'd bring them back, Lord, that they might be restored.
Lord, not so that we can say we have gained our friends back, but Lord,
that their souls may be saved. We pray this in Jesus' name.

Finally, Lord, I pray that you'd help us to be honest with ourselves.
Lord, that's the biggest problem, our inability to be honest with
ourselves. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to face the ugly facts about
our true natures outside of Christ.

And so, Lord, we ask for your help. We pray, Lord, that we may go away
sober, but at the same time rejoicing in your ability to complete the
work that you've begun within us. Thank you, Lord, that you have
promised that you will fulfill, that you are the Alpha and the Omega,
the author and the finisher of our faith.

And, Lord, we thank you for your goodness and your grace and your
ability to keep. So, I pray that you'd go with us now, Lord, keep us,
protect us, grant that your spirit may continue to preach this word to
us, Lord, that I will never forget, Lord, that we will never forget,
but, Lord, that we would walk close with Jesus. I ask this in Jesus'
name.

Amen.

========================================================================
Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/Hx7k0Kuy7Tc.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/anton-bosch/the-betrayer-at-the-table/
========================================================================