Sermon nuggets Weds Aug 27
Theme Pretenders
Verses John 13:21 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."(NIV)
Troubled Spirit
Jesus is troubled in spirit. What troubled him? Does that questionever come to your mind? Certainly we know that He was troubled by the hypocrisy of Judas. Judas heard, seen, and knew Jesus but still rejected the truth. He went a different way that the way of Christ.
Let's not deny Jesus' human emotions. Betrayal hurts. Sin against us hurts. Gossip hurts, people spreading rumors hurts, it also hurts our Lord. But Jesus also knew what was ahead. He knew what would happen to Judas.
Early, coming into Jerusalem, Jesus was moved to tears of pity when he saw the future destruction of Jerusalem. What troubled Him was the with the deep love he had for his people He realized what they were to suffer.
You are troubled in heart are you not, when you see people you love make wrong decisions? You are troubled in heart when you see people do things they will be regretting. Sometimes it is very difficult when you see people openly and blatantly going against God's word and you know that it will be for their undoing. Sometimes all we can do is warn and watch.
We also learn from the example of Judas that a person can be very near to Jesus Christ and yet be lost forever. Although he may have given intellectual assent to the truth, he never embraced Christ with heartfelt faith. Jesus was not deceived; Judas was a phony. He understood the truth, and he posed as a believer. Furthermore, he was good at it--the cleverest hypocrite we read about in the Bible for no one ever suspected him. But the irony of this all is the motivation was for greed. It was for 30 pieces of silver. Maybe there was some short term political inspiration, but how foolish when it comes to eternity.
I can imagine how His heart is troubled when things of such insignifance get in the way of Spiritual things of such importance.
It makes our Lord sad when people make choices that will have eternal consequences. It makes Him sad when sin abounds. Of course that love is what motivated the Lord to come to earth to redeem those who will come and follow Him. He tells us the truth. Some will listen. Most will not. That gives Him a troubled spirit for all who go their own way.
Pastor Dale
