Somebody Loves You

Raul Ries: God the Father sacrificed his Son from all eternity, sent him to this world to die for you and for me, to die for Judas, to die for every sinner that comes to Jesus Christ. That's the gospel of grace. That's the gospel of love. And that's why he came and died on the cross and resurrected.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. Today's lesson continues our Easter focus on Jesus' unparalleled power and sacrificial life. Exploring Jesus' prophecy of his own death, Raul will establish that the cross wasn't a surprise to him. He knew what was coming and willingly chose to suffer on our behalf. Stay tuned for encouragement to set aside all doubt, receiving the salvation Jesus bought with his own blood. Here's Raul Ries with our study from Matthew chapter 17, verse 22: Jesus Predicts His Death.

Raul Ries: What's incredible about this here now is that imagine yourself walking with Jesus and then all of a sudden, you're walking along with him and he opens his heart to you. Maybe you know someone that's done that for you. And all of a sudden, he opens his heart to them and he says, "You guys, I've been telling you and I'm telling you again. I'm going to Jerusalem and in Jerusalem, they're going to kill me. But I'm going to rise on the third day."

All the way along since they've been following Christ, they are thinking that they're on their way to Jerusalem to defeat Rome, to set up the kingdom age. They're going to sit on 12 thrones, he's going to rule, and everything's going to be peaceful. But that's not the truth. And somehow even unto the end when he goes to the cross and the resurrection, they still do not believe. It is interesting how the Lord can speak to our hearts and he can share with us so many things and still come to that place where we still do not understand what he's trying to say to us.

Now imagine as he's walking along also and he's looking at the 12 disciples that he's chosen, and without saying anything in his mind, he knows that already Judas is stealing the money from the purse every single day, but he doesn't say anything. And then he looks at Judas again, and he already knows that when they get to Jerusalem, Judas is going to betray him and he's going to sell him out to the Jews so that he can receive again money for himself.

Judas had a real problem with covetousness, a real problem with money. It seems that Judas constantly was not only quiet in a way, not like Peter, but the Lord continually had his eye upon him. And if you think for three and a half years walking with the Lord and those three and a half years by the time you get to Jerusalem, and then you get to go to the upper room and right before the upper room they're going to have supper, and before they even break the bread and take the cup, Jesus takes the piece of bread and he dips it and he looks at all 12 of them and then he hands it over to Judas and he says, "What you're going to do, do it quickly."

He gets up and he leaves the room. And he goes to betray the Lord. He never partakes of communion. He departed, he went out to betray the Lord. So now the way to Jerusalem, he's now in the Sea of Galilee. You have Tiberias and Capernaum, and then on the other side, there's many little cities around the Sea of Galilee. A population in the Decapolis of 15,000 people per city, so about 150,000 to 200,000 people around the Sea of Galilee that Jesus has come in contact with.

And remember all the way back what he was doing? He was preaching, teaching, and healing people. And constantly the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the scribes were constantly trying to entrap him and trying to kill him. He kept avoiding them. But because Jesus was moving, as we should move, according to the will of God. God the Father, when he came to Jerusalem and he got there to the Mount of Olives there in the Garden of Gethsemane, is where finally Jesus Christ said, "Father, not my will, but your will be done. If you want me to die, I will die. I will do whatever you want me to do."

He submitted himself to the cross of Jesus Christ, submitted himself to the Father's will. And I think that once we submit ourselves to the will of the Father, to the will of the Son, to the will of the Holy Spirit, which all three are the same, that God can now take this vessel of clay and he can mold it and shape it into whatever he wants that piece of pottery to be, the value of it. It's not until you and I fully, completely submit our lives to him completely that he can really do a work for us in our lives.

And imagine how these guys must have felt because now in chapter 17, look at verse 22 and 23, our text this morning. He says, "Now while they were staying in Galilee," so they just healed that little boy, now they're in Galilee again. Jesus said to them, the disciples, "The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men. And they will kill him and the third day he will be raised up." And they were exceedingly sorrowful. And Judas was there among them, imagine that.

When I went back to read the Gospel of Mark in chapter 9 of Mark, the same story, listen to what he says in verse 30. He says, "And then they departed from there and passed through Galilee and he did not want anyone to know it, for he taught his disciples and said to them, 'The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men and they will kill him. And after he is killed, he will rise on the third day.' But they did not understand the saying and were afraid to ask him." What a difference.

So one of the things that concerned me as I was reading the text this week is that here are these guys that are with him for three and a half years and even at this point in time, and even when they get to Jerusalem, they still don't understand. They're not paying attention. And I think of myself, I think of you, I think of the people in the church today. As the Lord speaks loud and clear in all of the situations that he allows in our lives to be in because he's preparing the way for us.

He's coming here and he's predicting not only his death and resurrection but also his second coming. He's letting them know, "I'm going to Jerusalem and I'm not going to rule, I'm going to die. I'm going to be in submission to the government of Rome and I'm going to be in submission to the Jews, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ." And when they heard that, they were exceedingly sorrowful. And it's interesting that even though they were exceedingly sorrowful, yet when Jesus was looking around at each one of their little faces, imagine here is Judas, the one holding the actual gold, and at the same time, he's stealing and he is going to sell him for 20 dollars.

Let's look at the first observation here in verse 22, the betrayal here. He starts out by saying, "Now while they were there, staying in the Galilee," Jesus said to them, "the Son of Man," which is what? His human title. Remember that. That's his human title. Son of God, deity. So here he's talking about his humanity, the title given to him. He's saying, "Look, as a human being and 100 percent God, 100 percent man, I'm just about to be betrayed." I don't know if you've ever been betrayed. It's a horrible feeling when you confide in someone, you're talking to them about your problems, your situations, and you really know them and you trust them for years, and then something happens and they betray your confidence. Something that should have never happened.

And I think of how many times when the Lord was standing there, he could have exposed him and said, "Judas, you're done, you can go now." But he kept him in the crowd among the twelve. You know why? He gave him three and a half years to repent. There's a space of time that God gives to you to repent. So simply he could have said, "Jesus, I am so sorry. I'm sorry, I've been taking money. And by the way, I'm planning to betray you in Jerusalem for money." But he never did.

And as I was reading this great chapter and I was coming to this verse, it really spoke to my own heart because he says the Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men. Here is Judas standing there and he doesn't do anything about it. He just kind of smiled and said, "Yep, amazing." No repentance. But yet what Judas and you and I do not understand and we don't realize is that when you go back into the Old Testament and the New Testament, already the prophets and all the people in the Old Testament that wrote the Bible already had written about Judas 500 years before. Can you believe that?

Because God is what? He's eternal. We're temporal, he's eternal. And so the first thing that I saw in Psalm 41:9 is that it was predicted in the Old Testament. Check this out. It says, "Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted," Judas, "who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me." Wow. 500 years in the Psalms before Jesus ever came and before Judas was ever born. It said that he was going to betray the Lord. And the Lord was saying what? "Even my very own familiar friend in whom I trusted, he lifted up his heel against me. He betrayed me."

Guest (Male): This is Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. Our goal is to help you grow in relationship with Jesus. For resources, visit somebodylovesyou.com or the Somebody Loves You Worldwide YouTube channel, home of Raul's Straight Talk program streaming Tuesdays at 10 a.m. West Coast time. Let's continue now with more from Raul Ries.

Raul Ries: And then secondly, in John 13:21, it says, "When Jesus had said these things, he was troubled in spirit and testified and said," he says, "you will betray me." He's talking about again Judas, how Judas not only betrayed him, but again it's frequently mentioned through the Scriptures about Judas. In chapter 13:26, Jesus answered and said, "It is he to whom I shall give the piece of bread when I have dipped it." And when he had dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. Imagine that.

Imagine sitting on the table and they're eating lunch or dinner, and all of a sudden the Lord breaks the bread, they're inclining on pillows, and he dips it and he says, "Okay Judas, here it is." He got up and he left. This is before they partake of the bread and the cup together. Judas never partook of communion. He was out of there. Where did he go? To his betrayers to betray him. Incredible how the Scripture speaks.

And then how about the act of guilt? In Matthew 27:3, "Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that he had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, 'I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.' And they said, 'What is that to us? You go see to it, that's your problem, that's not our problem.'" He threw down the money, but you know what they did? They never used that money. It was blood money. They bought a field, the field of blood.

And what did Judas do? He went up into a tree, threw up a rope, put it around his neck, he jumped off the cliff, and the rope actually on the tree, the tree broke, the branch broke, and he went down the cliff and splattered on the rocks. Judas Iscariot. The one that walked with Jesus. Incredible what happens.

And then how about when it was a Jewish nation, the whole nation of Israel and they came against him and betrayed him? In Matthew 27:9, "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, the prophet," here again 700 years before. "And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of him who was pierced, and the children of Israel pierced and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me." Which then in Acts 7:52 when Stephen was dying, he said, "Of which the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, Jesus, of whom you know have become now betrayers and murderers."

And that's why they stoned Stephen, because he called them betrayers and murderers to the Jews. And they took him and they threw him over the wall, a 300-foot wall. And when he fell down, if you read Acts chapter 7, it's amazing. They took these big rocks and they dropped them on top of him. He got on his knees, he looked to heaven, and the heavens opened and he saw Jesus, not sitting, he stood up to receive Stephen the martyr into heaven and he died. Incredible stories. Those that are true to the gospel of Jesus Christ, we should never, ever betray the Lord. We should always be honest with the Lord and true to the Lord.

Second observation, look at verse 23 again: "And they will kill him," he said. Imagine his pouring out his heart now to the disciples about his death and again Judas is standing right there. And what is the Lord doing? He's thinking of this amazing love that he has for them. I mean, you've got to go back to John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life."

And then how about 1 John chapter 4:9? "In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God had sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. And this is love, not that we love God, but that God loves us and sent through his love his only begotten Son to be," notice, "the propitiation for our sins." Wow. God the Father sacrificed his Son from all eternity, sent him to this world to die for you and for me, to die for Judas, to die for every sinner that comes to Jesus Christ. That's the gospel of grace. That's the gospel of love.

Then John goes on to say, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love what? One another." If he loves us, why can't you love your brother or your sister or your enemies? We have to. We have to, we don't put up with their sin but we have to love. We can't hate. And that's our first thing that we want to do: we want to hate. And yet Jesus could have hated Judas, he could have hated Peter. I mean, every one of those guys had a problem. And yet what did the Lord do? He forgave them, he restored them, and he gave them eternal life except for Judas. He didn't get no spiritual life. He went to hell.

But then look at the third observation, the resurrection now. The most important one, check this out. He says he's going to die, but on the third day, he will be raised up again. Notice that. That's amazing to me that Jesus Christ is telling them, "I'm going to Jerusalem, I'm not going to set up the kingdom, I'm going to die. But listen, I'm going to rise in three days." They couldn't comprehend it in their minds.

First of all, what is he doing in his amazing resurrection? Here he's accomplishing God's great power. I am God. Remember when he's on the cross? He's the only one that can say, "You try it. Spirit, you can go now. I want to die right now, just die." You can't do that. He was the only one that could say, "Spirit, now you can depart." And the spirit of God departed, remember? He died.

And when they came to him after they put nails in his hands and his feet, they came to him to break his legs. Why? Because the prophet Isaiah 53 says, "Not one of his bones," and also Psalm 22, "not one of his bones shall ever be broken." His skin was broken but not his bones. So when they came to him to break his legs so that he could suffocate like the rest of the thieves that were on those crosses, remember? He was dead. So what did they do? They took a spear and they pierced the side of his heart, and the water and the blood came forth, and he died of a broken heart for you and for me.

Jesus, the Son of the living God. The only one that can cleanse us and wash us from all of our sins. The only one that gives you a second and third and fourth and fifth and a million chances and opportunities before he ever sends you to hell because of his love. And that's why he came and died on the cross and resurrected. And when he resurrected, he demonstrated and accomplished the power of God.

In John 10:18, he says, "No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down myself. I have power to lay it down and I have the power to take it again. This command have I received from my Father. My Father sent me and my Father has given me the power. I have equal power with the Father to do this." And then how about the Spirit's power? Romans 8:11. "But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus Christ from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." Who dwells in us? The Holy Spirit of God. He's given you what? A new life of resurrection. When you die and I die, we go to heaven. This body stays here, but my spirit and my soul goes to be with the Lord immediately.

I love it the way the scriptures are written. And then how about it was proven by an empty tomb? Remember when the women came? The men weren't there, but the men, the women came and Mary Magdalene came and they went into the tomb and the tomb was empty and she freaked out. And there was an angel and said, "Hey, where have you laid him?" He says, "He's not here. Why? He's risen. Remember he told you guys that he was going to rise from the dead?" And she got up and ran out of the tomb and she went to meet the guys because the guys were hiding and they were fearful.

And knocked on the door and said, "Hey Peter, James, John, guess what? The Lord is not there, he's risen." And then they got up, John and Peter, and John outran Peter and they got to the tomb. John got there first and Peter was huffing and puffing when he got there. And they looked in and Peter went inside and they saw the clothing still in place, the handkerchief folded up in the place and they said, "He's not here." And they still did not believe. They said they went away until Jesus appeared to them.

Man, until Jesus appeared to them. I mean, what is it going to take for anybody just to believe by faith in Jesus Christ? That he is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. That he's the only one that can touch my life. And that he's the only one that can wash me and cleanse me and make me a new person in himself at any time that I come to him. And I come with surrendering my life to him and my hands to him, and my feet, my eyes, and my ears, and my heart. That's what he desires. He doesn't want to be at war with you, he wants to be at peace with you. He wants to be your peace. But you've got to surrender and you've got to give up.

And you know what happens? Look at the observation number four, the last part of the verse 23. When they heard these things, what happened? They were exceedingly sorrowful. Isn't that sad? They should have been happy. They should have been glad. "Wow, Lord, you're going to rise from the dead, you're going to come back, and you're going to send the Holy Spirit, and we're going to be here, and one day we're going to be with you." They couldn't grasp it. It was too much for them. Unbelief, doubt, sorrow. Think about that. Those are the things that keep us bummed out. And yet we have to remember that if there is no sorrow in our hearts, then how can there be the cross and how can there be the resurrection in our lives when we really, truly do not believe in eternal life when there is eternal life?

Everybody's going to die. And when you die, your spirit departs from your body, it goes to heaven or goes to hell. You make the decision where you want to spend eternity. You make the decision. He never, ever forces anybody to do anything, but he gives you the free will to do that.

Guest (Male): If you don't have a personal relationship with the Lord, we encourage you to seek him now in prayer. Receiving Jesus' gift of salvation will not only reshape your life in the here and now, it will determine the course of your eternal future.

You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. If you'd like to hear today's lesson in its unedited form, we'll be happy to send a copy to you for a donation of five dollars or more. Just call us at 800-634-9165 and mention today's program, "Jesus Predicts His Death." We'd also like to tell you about this entire Easter series. It's titled "Why the Cross Mattered and Still Does." Available on CD or USB, Raul's 13-part study underscores the mercy and power that propelled Jesus' journey from heaven to a tomb and celebrates the victory he accomplished over death. Visit somebodylovesyou.com or call 800-634-9165 to order Raul's 13-lesson series, "Why the Cross Mattered and Still Does." We'll send you the CD set for 25 dollars or, if you prefer, the flash drive for just 16 dollars. That's 800-634-9165. Or write to us at Somebody Loves You Radio, P.O. Box 4440, Diamond Bar, California 91765.

This is a listener-supported ministry and your partnership is crucial to this ministry. Thank you for your generosity. Next time on Somebody Loves You Radio, we'll continue this series with a challenge to follow Christ in a life of absolute surrender and obedience. This program is sponsored by Somebody Loves You Radio in Diamond Bar, California.