Close Enough to Kiss Christ

Let’s pray. Lord, as we come to you now in the name of the Lord Jesus, Lord, help us. Lord, take away, we ask, all distractions from our minds, from our hearts, Lord, whether they be physical or emotional or mental, Lord, perhaps even spiritual. Things that are designed to distract us from the lovely Lord Jesus. Help us to see Him plainly as we study the scriptures this morning.

Lord, I pray for your people that you would you would strengthen and encourage them. You would help them to to glean great wisdom from your word. To be to be cautious, to be wise, to be circumspect.

And Lord, just open our understanding to Your Word, to know how to apply these things that we study, these things that we observe, Lord, these events that we read about in the Scripture. And Lord, perhaps there’s someone among us who is not born again, someone who does not know you. Lord, you are the God who searches the hearts and reigns and knows the hearts of all men, and we pray that if that’s the case, that you would prick the heart of that person and take away the peace and comfort that they that they have, that they might come to the lord Jesus and be truly forgiven and have eternal life.

So, lord, we commit this time to you. Now, lord, we ask that the name of Christ will be glorified. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now to be honest with you, sometimes with these messages, I have a hard time addressing them because they seem to me to be so negative.

Throughout, as we’ve studied Matthew, we’re in chapter 26, we only have two chapters after this, and we’ve seen this man Judas Iscariot kind of pop up here and there. We saw him at the beginning when all the disciples are named, and he’s mentioned several times, you know, we saw in the beginning of chapter 26 last week, and his name popped up as the instigator of the criticism of Mary.

But we’ve seen Judas throughout this book and throughout the narrative of the life of Christ over and over, but it’s not until chapter 26 when it all kind of coalesces into into the main story because Judas, what Judas is has been building. It started out at the beginning when Jesus called him and indeed, the lord Jesus called, I think just just meditate on that. The lord Jesus called Judas to be one of the 12 disciples knowing full well who he was and who he would be and what he would do.

And yet he called him and and so throughout this time, Judas has been with the lord Jesus just like Peter, just like James and John, and the other disciples and has observed and seen all of the things that the lord has done in his ministry. Has heard all of his all of his teachings and so what Judas is has been building.

And it all kind of comes together in chapter 26 when we see these leaders are looking for an opportunity to to arrest Jesus but the problem with this is you have this situation where the the the leaders do not like Jesus, they want to kill him, they’re bloodthirsty, but you you have another group of people which is the common people are the ones that love Jesus because he’s the one who’s, you know, he’s fed the 5,000 and he’s healed the sick among them and he’s, you know, they have been the ones that have been the most open to the lord Jesus and so you have the leaders, the whether it’s the priests or the Pharisees or scribes, they hate Jesus and want to kill him and then you have the common people want to receive him and so there’s a there’s a division there.

And so the the elders of the Jews are looking for an opportunity to arrest him such that it won’t create an upset among the common people and that’s really the core of what’s happening here.

And in fact, in Luke 22, I’ll just I’ll just read it for time’s sake. Luke 22 verse six, Judas promised and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude. So, that’s really the core. That’s the Judas is the key in this the answer to this which is how are these elders going to get Jesus in such a way that it doesn’t create a huge uproar and a stir. And so what they did is they they coordinated to do it at night.

When everybody’s asleep under the under the dark of night, and you realize by the time that the the Passover day has come, Jesus has already been convicted and the sun’s coming up and they’re already sending him out to the cross. I mean, he’s he’s on the cross by 9AM. So, by that time, it’s a done deal. He’s already been to Pilate and all of those things. So, when everybody’s starting to stir, it’s done and that’s exactly what they were going for.

But Judas, we see him, we see him at least five times in just in this chapter. He’s referred to And so, you know, seeing how we’ve seen his character throughout and it’s such an important point, I thought it’s important for us to see what role Judas had. Judas was the means of the elders to get Jesus without the people being round. Look at verse number 14. Then one of the 12 called Judas Iscariot went unto the chief priest. Now, this, they did not approach him, but he approached them.

That’s interesting. In other words, there was no temptation here. It wasn’t like, it wasn’t like they were hanging a bribe in front of Judas Iscariot. No, it was of his own accord, of his own volition that he sought them out. He sought the elders of the Jews out because Judas was a man that was Judas was a man who was interested in money. In fact, when you read, when you read about Judas in the various spots, if you ever do a topical study of the life of Judas, what you’ll find is very often his name is mentioned in the context of money.

Very often, it’s in the context of money. Judas is the treasure of the disciples In our in in the book of John which we’ll see in a little bit, he was the one who carried the bag. He was on the, he was the treasurer. He kept the money. Judas was the one who he of course betrayed the lord for money. He threw the money back at the elders after Jesus is crucified and then we also saw in chapter 26 here, what did he do? He criticized Mary when she was anointing Jesus with the ointment on the grounds of on the grounds of money and so Judas is a man, you know, you kind of get the full picture although you never see it all together in one place until you get to this point. He is a man that is using his position to enrich himself.

He is using his position to enrich to enrich himself. Now, as I said, he wasn’t approached or tempted by the elders to betray Christ. It was his idea. Why?

Money. Money. He wanted money. He he he was exercising the love of money. He was a covetous man. Now, we know the scripture says that the love of money is the root of all evil. Now, is there any place in scripture where that is more more clearly illustrated than Judas Iscariot? The love of money drove Judas to betray the Lord Jesus. Now, notice what it says in verse number 15. He went unto the chief priest and said unto them, what will you give me?

And I will deliver him unto you. Now what’s interesting is this, if Judas had in his heart a pure unadulterated unmixed hatred for the Lord Jesus Christ, then, he would have just delivered him over without money, right? I mean, if he really, that’s what the the Jews were hoping for. They were hoping for the opportunity to they they could just seize the lord Jesus because they they hated him but I don’t think Judas hated Jesus like with a burning, you know, burning heat of a thousand suns or anything like that. Judas was a man of he was an opportunistic man whose mind was often on money.

And he loved it, and he was covetous. And so, that’s why we read in verse number 15, he goes to them and he doesn’t he doesn’t deliver Jesus up for free. He’s looking for money, not hatred, but money. And the Bible says in verse 15, and they covenanted with him for 30 pieces of silver, and from that time he sought opportunity to betray him. Take a peek if you would at Exodus chapter 21.

Exodus chapter 21. I’m gonna show you a couple of verses here. Exodus 21 and verse 32. Well, starting verse 31, just for the context, whether he have gored a son, talking about an ox now, whether he have gored a son or have gored a daughter according to this judgment shall it be done unto him. So this is a random kind of, know, one of these legal sections where the civil laws of Israel are being articulated by the Lord to Moses, and what we’re talking about here is you know, fiscal liability.

You know, if you would, tort. Is that what they call it in the the insurance industry? It’s tort. It’s how you It’s the the liability if you have an animal that hurts another person, that’s what we’re talking about here. This is legal legal stuff. But notice, if the ox, you know, it talks about if an ox gores a son or daughter, but then in verse 32, it says, if the ox shall push a man servant or a maid servant, he shall give unto their master 30 shekels of silver and the ox shall be stoned.

And so the idea is the the legal requirement, the legal price, and the legal compensation for a servant in the event that the the an animal killed the servant was that the owner of that animal was to pay was to be paid or the owner of the the the master of the servant was to be paid 30 pieces of silver and the ox was to be stoned. So, that is the legal compensation for a servant in the event of his death. Now, cut now, that’s in the Old Testament. You come to the New Testament, here’s the same amount, 30 pieces of silver as this. And this is why we say Jesus was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave. This is this is the reason we say that.

But how much is this? How much is this? In the New Testament, and we’ve covered this before in our study, if you you remember the penny, everybody remember the penny which represented the the the labor of one day. Remember that? We talked about that before. Well, a shekel, which is the the piece of silver, the shekel was worth 4 pennies, 4 denarii, which is the penny, four of them.

And so, if you have four and you multiply it times 30 because there were 30 pieces of silver, that equals one hundred and twenty days of labor, approximately. So, let’s just do a little bit of math here like we’ve done before. If we assume a person, say, makes just on average $20 an hour, and they work an eight hour day for one hundred and twenty days, that would be roughly $20,000.

So, we we talk about the price of a slave, we’re not talking about, you know, Judas was not turning over the Lord Jesus for just for for a couple of bucks. Now, was turning over the Lord Jesus so he could buy a boat. That’s basically what he was doing. He was turning over Jesus because he had something expensive that he wanted to buy. In fact, if take a peek once more at Zechariah chapter 11, Zechariah chapter 11.

Look if you would at verse number 13, this is the prophecy of the price Judas paid for the Lord Jesus, Or the price that that Judas received rather. Verse 13, and the Lord said unto me, cast cast it unto the potter a goodly price. Let me start at verse 12, I’m I’m I forgot verse 12, and I said unto them, if you think good, give me my price, and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price 30 pieces of silver. Now we know how much about how much that is, and the Lord said unto me, cast it unto the potter a goodly price that I was prized out of them and I took the 30 pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the lord.

Now, you know that in Matthew chapter 27, when Judas returns the 30 pieces of silver, they take that money and they can’t put it into the treasury, they’re so religious, right? They just paid blood money to kill a man, and yet now they’re gonna be scrupulous over how they use the 30 of silver that they just paid for blood. Anyway, they take that money and what do they buy with it? They buy the potter’s field. So I’m saying all this to help you to understand how much Judas exactly how much he’s getting paid. He, in other words, he could buy a piece of land with this money. I mean, this is not a small amount of money. In other words, it was it was enough to be tempting to someone whereas if if it was a couple $100, he might have been like, I mean, I’m giving up a lot here. You know, it’s like when you’re trying to trying to haggle with somebody. I’m giving up a lot here, come on, you gotta help me out.

No, this was substantial. This was substantial. But it wasn’t, it of course did not rise to the price and the value of the Lord Himself. Not even close. But this is what, it says something about the elders of the Jews because this tells us how much they’re willing to kill Jesus. That’s the first thing. It also tells us the estimation that Judas had of the Lord Jesus.

Remember, Judas turned the Lord Jesus Christ into a financial transaction. Remember we talked about that in chapter 26 with Mary? Remember she was doing something, a one time event, anointing the head of Christ with the ointment? And it would only happen one time because he was It was for his burial. And yet he was he was calculating that that unique and precious act of devotion in terms of dollars and cents. That’s the way Judas thought. And you know who was up for for sale? The Lord Jesus Christ himself was up for sale. Now let me Let’s kind of expand this out a little bit.

How many times have we been willing to put a price on our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in hopes of attaining something or getting something? In other word, every time in other words, every time we sin, we are laying some to some degree or another. You might say, that’s a stretch. But every time we sin, what we’re doing is we’re laying, maybe not the Lord Jesus Christ himself, but we are certainly laying a price to sell our relationship with our God at the price of whatever that sin is.

Where in other words, we’re making our relationship to god a transactional relationship in that way. This is exactly what Judas did but what I want you to see about Judas going back to Matthew 26, Now, we know what is on Judas’ mind. That is clear in scripture. Judas is thinking about one thing and one thing only. He’s he I I don’t think Judas hates Jesus. I don’t think he particularly wants to kill Jesus. I don’t think he’s bloodthirsty himself.

Judas is thinking about money. Man, what a reason for us to pause. Here’s what they say, those who are much older than me, much wiser than me, and who have lived much longer than I have, say it like this, you can divide up your adult life into basically three segments.

When you’re a young person, especially a young man, your primary sin is the sin of the lust of the flesh. And then when you pass into middle age, primary sin that is you’re tempted with is the lust of the eyes. Attaining things. And then when you get into older age, the primary sin that that you might deal with is the sin of the pride of life. Cause you’ve lived, you’ve accomplished, you’ve learned.

And so, what we have with Judas is, and this is the place where we need to stop and say and reevaluate how we view money. How we view money? Money is not something that we should live for. Money is money is a is a good servant but money is a terrible ruler. And it but it’s way worse than just that. It’s it’s way worse than the than the more common ways we think of, well, money, you know, chasing money will lead us into committing sin. That’s definitely true. The love of money is the rule of all evil. We know that. It will lead us into all sorts of evil. That’s true. But there’s something far more nefarious going on with Judas Iscariot.

Remember, to Judas, what is Judas motivation? His motivation is, he’s looking for a way to so he can go get his boat. He’s looking for a way that he could take his $20 or however much it was approximately and he could take that and he could use it. That’s what he’s been doing with the bag. He’s been, that’s what, that’s why he was complaining about Mary. He was hoping if someone had something that was that expensive, they sold it, put it in the bag, and then he could he could just he could swipe a little bit here and there to fund whatever things that he wanted to do.

This is what is singularly on the mind of Judas and that, listen now, and and this mentality is the same mentality that invades people to this day. Where all we’re thinking about is the dollar signs. All we’re thinking about, whether it’s a, whether we’re a believer or an unbeliever, I’m telling you that is dangerous. We have to have principles that are higher than just money, do we not?

Can I get get can we, I mean, is that not true? There has to be something that’s more important in our life that we are not willing to sell no matter the cost, right?

Money is not the be all end all. And so we should be, the Lord tells us over and over in scripture, we should be very careful how we We should be very careful of our relationship to wealth, to our relationship to money. But as I said a minute ago, there’s something far more nefarious here.

To Judas, he’s just thinking about the money but there’s another influence that is working behind the scenes that is not obvious. Look if you would in John chapter 13. We’ll come back to Matthew in just a minute. John 13.

John 13, somebody’s car alarm is going off. Well, why are while we’re in John, we’re gonna be looking at verse chapter 13, but peek at chapter 12 verse number six. We we covered this last week, but I just wanna reiterate it because it overlaps a little bit. John 12 verse six, this he said, speaking of Judas, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the bag and bear what was put therein.

Now, we’re familiar with that already, look at John 13 and verse 29. This is at the last supper. For some of them thought because Judas had the bag and that Jesus said unto him, buy those things that we have need of against the feast or that he should give something to the poor. Having then, he then having received the sop went immediately out and it was night. So, two two places where it says Judas was the treasurer.

Now, we go to chapter 13 verse number one, the Bible says this, now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. Supper being ended, here it is, the devil.

The devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him. This is that other influence I was telling you about. So, notice what is happening.

Put yourself in Judas’ place. What is Judas interested in? He’s interested in the money. He just wants the money. That’s also on his mind. He didn’t hate Jesus, I don’t think. He wants the money. But back of that, the Bible says plainly that the betrayal of the Lord Jesus was satanic, right?

But my question to you is how was the devil influencing Judas? What was the means? It was money. You see it? Judas is only thinking about the money. He’s not thinking about you know the grander nefarious sinister scheme to put the Savior on the cross. He’s not thinking about that at all. I mean it’s not crossing his He just wants the money. But the devil is behind him accomplishing his purposes by means of Judas’ just carnal lust.

And listen, I just wanna tell you, this is exactly how it works. This is exactly how it works. Right in front of us, let let me get, let me give you an example, okay?

Our enemy wants to destroy you. He wants to destroy your spouse. He wants to destroy your children, and he don’t wants to destroy the testimony of Christ at your work. He wants to destroy the The devil doesn’t give a flip about Judas. He doesn’t care about us at all. His aim is and has always been Jesus. We saw that in school scripture on Friday night. The devil’s goal is to attack and destroy the Lord Jesus Christ. He don’t care about us, we’re just kind of incidental.

And so what he does is because he’s aiming at your family to destroy the Lord Jesus in them, he’s trying to destroy our families, our children, our testimony, the name of Christ, however and in any way that he can, but what he will do is he will lay before us some simple, I say simple but you you I trust you know what I mean, some simple sin like a drive for money or pornography or adultery or some other just regular carnal thing.

And he’ll lay it in front of us and behind it, he’s manipulating the situation because he wants to get at your wife, he wants to get at your husband, he wants to get at your kids, he wants to get at your family, he wants to get at your testimony, he wants to get at the witness of Christ, but he’s going to use simple sins so that all we’re thinking about is this immediate thing, this immediate pleasure right in front of us, just getting that $20 so that we can go get that boat we’ve been wanting.

And the devil is gonna use it to completely wipe out the name of Jesus that is connected to us. You know, you think about your job and the testimony you’ve tried to keep.

And then through that chasing that one thing, right, that one carnal appetite right in front of you, what happens is we do that and all of a sudden all of the people around us and our circle and our sphere that have been watching us and paying attention because they are, are they not? Brother Wayne, they are. All of the sudden, they see our dramatic fall and the testimony of Christ is destroyed.

You know what’s behind that? You might think well it was just some one little simp, no, no, no, Behind it is a satanic and a sinister plot to attack the Lord Jesus Christ. That is exactly what is happening with Judas. He’s just thinking about money but the devil is manipulating him using that lust, using that desire. Why? To what end? To get Jesus on the cross.

And Judas has no idea that he is being totally played. So this is why we keep saying, you know, over and over, this is why the Lord reminds us over and over again that sin is not just right now this thing that we would that that is alluring us. It is not that. It has it has great ramifications. May we live in a true fear of God.

The Bible says, a wise man foreseeth the evil and what? Hideth himself. It ain’t worth it. Just like Judas found, it wasn’t worth it. That $20 was not worth it. But see, that’s where we have to understand when the Lord tells us to be circumspect, to be wise, we need to remember that our enemy is trying to use every little thing laid in front of us and to manipulate us to accomplish his purposes and he will do it.

He will do it and I know you don’t want that for anybody around you, right? You don’t want that and I don’t want that for anybody around me, including all of you. And so that’s why the lord gives us a puts a fear of sin in us.

A fear of sin in us The second thing I want you to see besides Judas motivation is Judas, his camouflage. Look back at Matthew chapter 26. Chapter 26 verse number 20.

The Bible says this, now when the even was come, he sat down with the 12. This is the is the last supper. Okay? Now, some people some people have tried to argue that that Judas wasn’t actually at the last supper and they that’s part of a a system of doctrine but he was there. Luke makes it plain. It might not be perfectly clear here but Luke says it without without ambiguity that he was there.

And he says this, and when now when even was come, he sat down with the 12, and as they did eat, he said, verily I say unto you that one of you shall betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began to say, began every one of them to say unto Him, Lord, is it I? And He answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me.

Have you ever read this and thought to yourself, how is it that they didn’t know that it was Judas? We have this idea that Judas was walking around, and is this not what the idea we get from pop culture? We have this idea that the devil’s walking around in a long red trench coat with big ugly horns and a long tail, know, pointed tail and a pitchfork, and he’s not.

He’s not. The devil was in Judas. Jesus said, have not I chosen you twelve and one of you is a devil? That’s what he said of Judas. And that was among the 12. So the devil does not always appear as we think he does. So in this case, you could see that Judas, He says, one of you shall betray me and it wasn’t like, it wasn’t like John’s look, John looks at Peter and kinda kinda nods at him and then Bartholomew looks at Matthew and says, like, yeah, we know who that is. No, they didn’t know. They were saying, is it I? They had no clue that Judas was the one to whom Jesus was referring. They had no clue. You know what that means? He had some good camouflage on. He had everybody deceived.

He had everybody deceived. John six sixty four says this, but there are some of you that believe not. Speaking to his disciples, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believe not and who should betray him.

Now, this might be one of the reasons if you’ve ever noticed, if you’ve ever kind of delved into the teaching of Christ and the different parables and lessons he gave and things. You ever notice how sometimes when he’s talking to his disciples, it sounds like he’s talking to people who aren’t believers? Have you ever noticed that?

Might have been because there was an unbeliever among them. Right? And very often, we’ve gone over and over, and I just hate to repeat myself so much, but we’ve gone over this over and over again, how that this idea of the mixed multitude, the believers among the unbelievers. We’ve seen it already, we saw it last week, so I won’t spend very much time there. But we just know that Judas was very camouflaged.

And we need to have we we should have a similar heart and attitude that the disciples had because they said, is it I? Jesus said, one of you shall betray me and they immediately didn’t think of, is it them but is it me? Man, lord, give us a give us a humble heart. Give us that that fear, right? That fear of sin where it’s like, I could.

It might, I might, if the circumstances are right, I might, there go I. Right? But by the grace of God, there go I as they say. That’s what the disciples were saying, and then and then they completely undid it because John tells us that right after that, were arguing about who would be the greatest. So I can’t explain that, but that’s what the Bible says.

Judas was completely hidden. He was completely hidden. He had perfect camouflage. And did you know the disciples did not know that it was Judas? Even when he even when he dipped the sop, you know, he dipped the bread into the vinegar there, and he gave it to Judas as the indication that you I’m talking about you, buddy. Even when he did that and handed it, Judas Judas stood up and he and Jesus said to him, this is in John now, he said, what thou doest do quickly, and Judas got up and left in the middle of the night. You remember that?

Even then the disciples thought that Judas was just gonna go give something to the poor, had to go buy something for for the Passover. Even then they didn’t get it. It was not until Judas leads the multitude in the Garden Of Gethsemane and stands beside them. It is only at that moment that the disciples understand it was Judas. And we think, what? We think, what?

Then we have Judah’s kiss. Matthew 26 verse number 48. We’ll start in verse 47. And while while he yet spake, Jelo Judas one of the 12 came and with him a great multitude with sores and staves from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign saying, whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he, hold him fast. Now you just gotta remember, just put yourself in this case, what time is it a day here?

It’s middle of the night. Right? We’re talking like midnight. It was it’s dark. They don’t have street lights. They’ve got the moon perhaps but they don’t have the moon because actually it would have been I gotta get that right. The new moon would have been it’s the fourteenth day. Some y’all figure it out. There’s a way to calculate what the phase of the moon was at that point because of the Passover but the point was that? Full. It would have been full but we don’t know if it’s cloudy or whatever. It’s dark. So, if it’s dark and you have a crowd coming, it’s kind of difficult to discern who’s who, and you got to remember, they also didn’t have Internet, they didn’t have photography, anything like that. So, there were people in that crowd that maybe had never seen the face of Jesus and didn’t know what he looked like.

And so, Judas has this idea, this sign as he leads the crowd because all of the disciples are in the Garden Of Gethsemane. There’s so there’s 12 people not not counting Judas, there’s 12. Jesus and the 11 and so when they walks up, they need to know who to grab. So, and it’s dark. So, Judas says, I’ll go up to Jesus and I’ll kiss him and that’ll be the sign and then you can take him.

But I ask myself this question, why a kiss? Why didn’t Judas just say that’s him? This guy. Or tap him on the shoulder. Why a kiss? Now we know if you as you’ve read your your bible you know what a kiss indicates. You know, obviously, we know what it indicates in our world, in our society, but in scripture, it indicates love, it indicates charity, indicates affection. The churches would greet one another with a kiss of charity, a holy kiss.

You remember the sinful woman that wiped Jesus’ feet with her hair? She kissed his feet. The father of the prodigal son, when he received his son returning from the far country, what did he do? He fell on his neck and kissed him. The elders of of Ephesus when they departed from Paul. Remember, they fell on his neck and kissed Paul because they wouldn’t see him again. So, this idea of love and affection. So, why is does Judas choose a sign of love and affection as his sign of betrayal? And I don’t know that I can nail down the reason exactly but we do know Jesus said this in Luke 22, he says, but Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the son of man with a kiss?

What a sign of betrayal and then we also see in verse go down to verse number 49, and forthwith, he came to Jesus and said, hail master. No doubt a common greeting he had had prior to this point. You know what I think Judas is doing here?

I think Judas even at this moment, even at the very moment of betrayal is still trying to maintain the facade and the appearance that he is a faithful disciple of Christ. That’s what I think Judas is doing. He’s trying to still look the part in front of the other disciples. He’s faking. And this is where it this is where it starts to come out, where the camouflage starts to go away. Even at this moment, he’s trying to fake it but we should, listen, we should never forget from the beginning, Jesus knew who believed among his disciples and from the beginning, he knew who would betray him and that the principle of that is whether someone’s wearing camouflage or not or whether they’re trying to maintain the appearance or or the facade and trying to look the part and act the part and say, yes, this and yes, that and use the religious lingo like he’s doing here. God knows where everyone of us stands with him.

The only person we’re deceiving is ourselves and those around us but the the person whose opinion matters the most knows perfectly clearly. We gotta keep our Gotta remember that. Consider how close Jesus came to the Lord Jesus. He had seen all of Jesus’ miracles. He had served Jesus, healed in Jesus’ name. He was there every He was there at the last supper. His feet were washed by the Lord Jesus. This is how close.

You think about a kiss, I don’t have anybody here that I can kiss, I’m not gonna try to kiss, okay, I’m not gonna do it. Devin, I’m just joking.

But when, I’ll get close to Josh because he’s like, ick. Isn’t that what they say these days? Eek, that’s so ick. But when you bring somebody close to you to kiss, you kiss them on the side of the face, What I’m saying is it’s a visual representation of the life of Judas and the relationship of Judas with Jesus. Do you see what I’m saying?

He had been with Jesus everywhere from the beginning, from John the Baptist. And that’s what this kiss represents, is he brings Jesus close and he grabs his face and kisses him, I assume on the side of the face, feels the scratch of his beard and smells the scent of spikenard.

How many of you remember that? That had been poured on his head and dribbled down his face, no doubt still in his beard, in preparation for his what? And and here, so as he brings the Lord Jesus, just try to imagine with me, as he brings the Lord Jesus close, you know, you think of how close he’s been to Jesus all this time, and now physically he’s touching his face, and he gets so close to him, he smells the scent of his death and burial and then resurrection.

He smells that thing which represents that. He smells that. He was there when Mary did that. Judas was. You know what that kiss shows us? He came this close.

That’s what the kiss is. He was this close to eternal life. He was this close. He smelled the scent of it but died and went to hell. Man, what an illustration of so many people in churches, right? Hear the teachings of Christ, see and hear the testimonies of what Christ does in the lives of other people. Even sometimes serves Christ, gets close to him and and here’s the gospel so many times. I was that person, many of you were that person and you you heard it, you you were as if as if you were right next to the very face of the lord Jesus and could smell the gospel on him and yet not saved.

Lord That’s Judas. As they say, he he got this close, he he kissed the door of heaven but did not enter in. Man, that is, this is why Jesus said in this passage he says, the Son of man goeth as it was determined, but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed. Good were it for that man that he had never been born. Man, what a Listen, this is why I said sometimes these messages I feel like I’m so, I’m negative, I don’t mean to be negative at all, but this is real, Judas was that close to eternal life, he was holding eternal life in his very hands and never got it.

I hope nobody in this room is like that. This close in a gospel preaching church where the gospel is not ambiguous, it’s not unclear, it’s not, we’re not trying to figure it out. Like we, many of us, hopefully all of us, have our living proof of the power of the gospel in this world. It is not just theory and theology, it is real.

And there might be somebody among us who’s sitting there right beside somebody who does not know that power even though you’re that close. Man. I wanna end with this, verse 50.

I wanna end on a good note, a happy note. Because this is Judas is just an unhappy guy. His end is extremely unhappy. He kills himself and goes to hell. Even after he repents that he takes the money back.

Verse 50, and Jesus said unto him, this is to Judas now, he’s just been kissed. He says, friend, that’s amazing. Friend, wherefore art thou come? Is Judas a friend of Jesus? No. You don’t betray your friends to be murdered, he’s not a friend of Jesus, but Jesus is Judas’ friend. You see that? It was Jesus calling Judas friend. Even though Judas had betrayed him and sinned against him in the worst humanly possible way, yet Jesus still calls him friend.

You know, it doesn’t matter what a man or a woman does in this world, no matter the rebellion, no matter the sin, no matter the ugliness, no matter the hatred against God, God still says listen, friend, there’s room at the cross for you.

This shows us Jesus’ heart toward Judas. Matthew eleven nine, listen to these. You’re you’re familiar with these passages, I know, but Matthew eleven nineteen says this, the son of man came eating and drinking and they say, behold, a man gluttonous and a wine bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. Now, that’s how they accuse the lord Jesus. He didn’t say, no, no, no, I’m not a friend. No, what did he do? He spent time with them because he wanted to save them because those are the ones that needed the the physician, right?

He accepted the label of friend of sinners. Matthew twenty two twelve says this, he saith unto him, friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. This is the parable of the wedding feast. When they come in and they don’t have the garment and the Lord of the wedding feast says, sorry, you can’t come in. He says, friend? He’s about to condemn them and he says, friend?

John one John eleven eleven says this, these things said he and after that he saith unto them, our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. The last one I want you to see, I want you to see it yourself if you John 15. If you look at John 15 and this is where we’ll finish.

John 15. John 15 verse number 13. You know this verse? Is this not great? John 15 verse 13. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You know what that means? That means Judas laid down Jesus laid down his life for Judas.

There is no no greater expression of Jesus’ kind friendship to sinners like you and like me than the fact that Jesus Christ died for sinners. Did Jesus die for a wicked, ungodly betrayer and traitor like Judas? Yes. He did. He called him friend. Friend.

Wanna tell you something. To any person who is this close to the Lord Jesus, but not there, not not a believer, this close, The Lord extends a hand or if in this case maybe a kiss, and he says friend come on. You might not count me your friend, you might count me as enemy, your life testifies to the fact that you are an enemy of Christ. That you’re an enemy of God, yes.

But friend, I’ve died for you. I want I want reconciliation. I want to be made right with you, friend. You see the heart of the Lord Jesus even to the Judas. And if Jesus has a heart to save the Judas, the Judases of this world who have sinned and betrayed the Son of Man and have turned him over to be crucified and have been the human cause of his sufferings, then surely Jesus extends a hand of friendship to any sinner who is also the cause of his sufferings, right?

Because he died for their sin, he extends that hand, he says come friend, be reconciled, Be reconciled. This is the heart of the lord Jesus. This is why we say that god is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance because this is god’s heart. He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He calls the wicked friend. It doesn’t mean he’s going to give him a pass. No, he’s not.

But he but the the offer is the offer is sincere to be made right with god. Let’s pray.