Jesus The Ultimate Sacrifice

Matthew 26:3-5, 14-16, 20-25

³ Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, ⁴ and they plotted to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill him. ⁵ "But not during the Feast," they said, "or there may be a riot among the people."

¹⁴ Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests ¹⁵ and asked, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?" So they counted out for him thirty silver coins. ¹⁶ From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

²⁰ When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. ²¹ And while they were eating, he said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me."
²² They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, "Surely not I, Lord?"
²³ Jesus replied, "The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. ²⁴ The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born."
²⁵ Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, "Surely not I, Rabbi?"
Jesus answered, "Yes, it is you."

Mark 14:1pt-2, 10-11, 18-21

¹ …and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him. ² "But not during the Feast," they said, "or the people may riot."
¹⁰ Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. ¹¹ They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

¹⁸ While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me."
¹⁹ They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, "Surely not I?"
²⁰ "It is one of the Twelve," he replied, "one who dips bread into the bowl with me. ²¹ The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born."

Luke 22:2-6

² and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people.
³ Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. ⁴ And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. ⁵ They were delighted and agreed to give him money. ⁶ He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.

John 13:2, 18-30

² The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus.

¹⁸ "I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill the scripture: 'He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me.'
    ¹⁹ "I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He. ²⁰ I tell you the truth, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me."
    ²¹ After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, "I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me."
    ²² His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. ²³ One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. ²⁴ Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, "Ask him which one he means."
    ²⁵ Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, "Lord, who is it?"
    ²⁶ Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon.
²⁷ As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.
   "What you are about to do, do quickly," Jesus told him, ²⁸ but no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. ²⁹ Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the Feast, or to give something to the poor. ³⁰ As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.

The people who really hated Jesus were the High Priest, the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
They formed the ‘ Old Church’. I am not referring to the ‘Church’, the ‘Body of Christ’, the ‘People of God’.(Read Church - The Body of Church in replay )

Ephesians 1:22-23

²² And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, ²³ which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Colossians 1:18pt, 21-23pt

¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church;…

²¹ Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. ²² But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— ²³ if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel…

They were the administrative body of the so called ‘Church’ the house of the people of God. They were supposed to lead the people and bring them closer to God. Instead they were destroying them.

Mathew 23:13, 15

¹³ "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

¹⁵ "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.

They hated Jesus because He spoke the truth and the truth hurt them. They were the so called ‘builders’ of the people of God and they reject Jesus as it was prophesized.

Psalm 118:22
²² The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;

Jesus was the ‘Cornerstone’, the prefect stone against whom if the other stones align, will also become perfect. Jesus lived on earth, as man ought to live; He showed us the perfect way to live without sin.
They were looking for a way to kill Jesus and they found that in Judas.

Who is Judas Iscariot?
There are three Judas in the New Testament Judas the son of James, Judas the brother of Jesus and Judas Iscariot.
Judas Iscariot was selected by Jesus as one of His twelve chosen disciples. He was in charge of the money bag and had greed for money in him right from the start.

John 12:4-6

⁴ But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, ⁵ "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages." ⁶ He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

John 13:29

²⁹ Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the Feast, or to give something to the poor.

He followed Jesus like some of other disciples too did; thinking that Jesus being the promised Savior was going to start a revolution and become king, but unlike Judas the others did not harbor evil in their hearts.

John 6:70-71

⁷⁰ Then Jesus replied, "Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!" ⁷¹ (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)

The Greek word for ‘devil’ used here is ‘ diabolos’ which means adversary, false accuser or slanderer.
It is written in Luke 22:3 that Satan entered Judas. That means evil spirits like Satan (You will really be surprised to know who Satan or Lucifer is, I was, when the Lord showed me and then like me, you too will understand why he is call the ‘father of all lies’ and how he operates. What is his mission and why he is doing it. Teaching to be put up in good time) can take charge of a person and make the person do things.

Luke 22:3-4

³ Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. . ⁴ And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus.

We also read in the Gospels of Mathew and Mark that at one time Jesus rebuked Satan while speaking to Peter.

Matthew 16:23
²³ Jesus turned and said to Peter, " Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

That means Satan entered Peter? No.
Now to understand this we need to understand how things operate in the spiritual world.
A person can be in different stages in relation to the spirit world.
When a person is living a life without sin, according to God’s commandments, according to His statutes with the fear of God, he is under total protection of God. God’s hand is over him.
For example when the Israelites obeyed God none of the 15 to 20lakh had any sickness or any problems through that period.
Another example is Job.

Job 1:1-3

¹ In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. ² He had seven sons and three daughters, ³ and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.

When a person obeys God’s commandments and lives his life upright with the fear of God, shunning evil. Then what God does is build a hedge of protection around that person and everything concerning that person. Even Satan can not break the hedge of protection. No evil spirits can affect you or cause any trouble. Temptations may come but they will not affect you, because under the grace of God and with the help of the Word of God you will easily be able to overcome them.

There is an intermediate stage of spiritual growth. Here testing does happen but this is with God’s permission. God does not allow more hardship than which can be borne by you. He gives you the grace to overcome.

Job who was in the higher stage was bought to this stage.

Testing is not bad; it is required for promotion, for spiritual growth.

God is Spirit and does all in Spirit. When He blesses you, your blessings come down from the ‘spirit world’ to the ‘natural world’. The evil spirits dwell in lower parts of the spirit world, which is above the natural world. When the blessing comes down they can see it before it manifests in the natural.

In the intermediate stage the hedge of protection is in an on / off situation, so they look for a gap to attack. In this stage problem means time for promotion.

How do you identify between testing and not being under God’s protection. Testing brings problems but they end soon. Suffering or problems that come from not being under God’s protection goes on and on. Suffering that comes from disobeying God intensifies as time passes till it totally destroys the person.

Deuteronomy 28:15, 20

¹⁵ However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

²⁰ The LORD will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.

Deuteronomy 31:17

¹⁷ On that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and difficulties will come upon them, and on that day they will ask, 'Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is not with us?'

In the third stage God’s face is turned away from you. He does not even bother if you exist or not.

The Fourth stage incase you are called to be a child of God and you are worshiping other gods, then God’s face is turned against you. His hand is against you, He will bring calamities on you. He will even bring the non-believers to destroy you and your blessings will be given to them.

For example God knew what the Israelites were going to do later, yet He gave them the Promised Land, not because He loved them but to teach a lesson to the Canaanites and other people living there.

Deuteronomy 9:5
⁵ It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

God’s curse comes on you and your enemies, non-believers (aliens) get the blessing.

Deuteronomy 28:43-44
⁴³ The alien who lives among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. ⁴⁴ He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, but you will be the tail.

To understand what happened in USA at 9/11 read Deuteronomy 32:19-35

So when problems come in your life, it is time you look into your life with a magnifying glass and ask the Holy Spirit of God to help you identify your mistakes and help you get back into the hedge of protection.

Temptations start in small ways if you fall for them by entertaining them you will offend God and be totally open for the evil spirits to get hold of you and destroy you.

In case of Peter, he was entertaining thoughts put by Satan and spoke what Satan was telling him. Peter had not reached the stage that Judas did, because he did not harbor any evil. When you do not live in evil and when temptations come you can easily overcome them with the Word of God.

John 13:2, 27

² The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus.

²⁷ As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.

"What you are about to do, do quickly," Jesus told him, ²⁸ but no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him.

In case of Judas, Satan was preparing him to betray Jesus long before the last supper. Since Judas had already evil in him, Satan got total hold of him.

Temptations start in small ways and slowly get you in total yoke of the evil spirit. When one comes, he brings the other spirits too very easily.

God does not tempt He blesses, but He does test and reward. Devil also does test, but he tempts and destroys.

Jesus here calls Himself the ‘Son of Man’. Jesus was the Lord, the Son of God the Father, but He came on earth as son of man, humbling Himself.

This is a truth that is needed to be got in perfectly.

Another truth that needs to be registered is that the Bible clearly says there were only twelve who were with Jesus at the last supper and they were His disciples.

Matthew 26

²⁰ When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve.

So where did Da-Vinci get the information that Mary the Magdalene was at the Last Supper?

What I learnt from the people who study the art works of Da-Vinci say that the person who looks like a female is actually John.

Da-Vinci had not intention to distort the Word of God when he painted the picture of the Last Supper. It was the people who had malice for God that did it latter. You will be surprise to know, like what has been done with Mary of Magdalene and Da-Vinci, the same is done with many others in the Word of God by the same powers. Therefore always keep you spiritual eyes open and understand the Word of God so that you are not misled.

Chapter 2 Chapter 4