This four-week series deals with those who betrayed, denied, and abandoned Jesus leading up to his crucifixion. Through examining Peter, Judas, and the other disciples’ unfaithfulness, we can ultimately see the faithfulness of Christ and his love and redemption in our brokenness.
Text: Matthew 26:31–51; Luke 22:56–62
Topic: Betrayal, Denial, Peter, Restoration
Big Idea of the Message: Even though Peter walked with Jesus for years, he publicly denied him. However, Jesus restored Peter and did not condemn him.
Application Point: We all have denied Jesus in some way at some time, but Christ still shows us love and restoration.
Sermon Ideas and Talking Points:
- What do you think of when you hear the word backstabber? What does it mean? The word evokes an image of someone stabbing another person in the back when they least expect it.
- “Et tu brute!” The famous phrase from Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar was uttered from the dying breath of the ruler. Julius Caesar was betrayed by his close commander, Brutus. Brutus, along with others, savagely assassinated Caesar to take control of the Roman Empire (http://shakespeare- online.com/ettubrute.html). Brutus was literally a backstabber!
- When we talk about the life of Jesus, we can talk about his miracles, his teaching, and of course his death and resurrection. But one thing we must also talk about is that Jesus knew what it was like to be betrayed. Whether it was his own home town that wanted to stone him or the famous betrayal of Judas, Jesus knew the pain of having someone let you down and throw you under the bus.
- One of the most notable disciples was Peter. He was outspoken, loyal, and had a bit of a temper. He told Jesus that he would stay loyal until the end: “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will” (Matthew 26:33). Even leading up to Jesus’s arrest he remained loyal, to the point of pulling out a sword and cutting off a man’s ear when they came to arrest Jesus (John 18:10). So when Jesus told Peter that he would openly deny that he knew Jesus, Peter was astonished (Mark 14:30–31).
- Has anyone ever denied knowing you? Maybe at school when you wave at someone, they think they’re too cool for you, and they look down and ignore you. Maybe someone said they would be loyal to you, and they weren’t? Or that they would keep a secret, and they didn’t. Take a moment and write down three things you felt and thought (anger, sadness, etc.) Now, write down the possible motives that they would have had (Were they scared, vengeful, trying to help themselves?).
- As we said before, Peter was a loyal guy to Jesus and was astonished that Jesus would predict that he (Peter) would deny him. But Peter did deny Jesus three times. Why would Peter do this? He had been with Jesus since the beginning. He had seen miracles and been empowered to do miracles himself. But we must put ourselves in Peter’s sandals. He sees the Messiah being arrested and not fighting back. The Messiah was supposed to be a strong figure that wasn’t pushed around by the religious leaders and Romans. Fear creeps into Peter’s heart and he flees … because he doesn’t want to be crucified too. A servant girl sees Peter and says he was associated with Jesus. “Woman, I don’t know him,” Peter replies (Luke 22:56–57). Two other times people associate Peter with Jesus, and he denies it every time. The last time he screams, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” (vv. 59–60). It is after this third denial that Jesus looks at Peter (Peter said this in front of Jesus), and Peter remembers what Jesus had said (v. 61) and weeps, ashamed (v. 62). Fear is a powerful emotion that causes the most courageous and loyal to become cowardly and abandoning.
- The 1985 movie The Breakfast Club is a about a group a students who get sent to Saturday detention together. All these kids are different stereotypes: the jock, rebel, prom queen, nerd, and weird girl. Over the course of the day, they become friends. At the end of the day, the nerdy guy wonders what Monday will look like, and if they will remain friends. The prom queen tells him no: when they see each other they won’t hang out, and the more popular students will still shun and make fun of him. By the end of the movie, this changes, but the conversation shows that people can abandon and deny us: https://www.wingclips.com/movie- clips/the-breakfast-club/friends-on-monday?play=1. (Note: this is an intense scene and the language has been edited; use with caution).
- Peter’s story doesn’t end with him publicly denying Jesus. We see the resurrected Jesus restore Peter, telling him to feed Christ’s sheep and take care of the disciples (John 21:15–19). Jesus didn’t condemn Peter for his moment of denial and struggle. He showed him love and reconciliation. For those of us who have let Jesus down, he still shows open arms to forgive us and restore us to a better hope.
Text: John 12:3–6; Matthew 26:14–25
Topic: Betrayal, Hard Heart, Judas
Big Idea of the Message: Judas betrayed Jesus, even though he followed Christ for years. His betrayal was driven by bitterness and greed.
Application Point: We will not let our hearts grow cold over time but will remain faithful to Christ and not lose heart.
Sermon Ideas and Talking Points:
- Imagine growing up in the Dallas area in a family of die-hard Dallas Cowboys fans. You went to the games, wore the jerseys, and cheered for the team throughout your childhood. You now have your first girlfriend or boyfriend, and they just happen to be a die-hard Philadelphia Eagles fan (one of the main rivals of the Dallas Cowboys). You go to a family event wearing an Eagles jersey out of support for your significant other. What is your family going to call you? We don’t like traitors. Whether it’s someone not being loyal to a team or an American spy that sold secrets to our enemies, traitors are vilified.
- Have you ever seen a couple deciding on baby names? It’s cute, and when you start to look up the names and meanings, you find some weird ones. Like, if you have the last name Monk you wouldn’t want to name your kid Chip. It would be cruel. One of the least popular names for a baby is the name Judas. Who would want to be associated with the person who betrayed Jesus and led the authorities to arrest and eventually crucify the Messiah? Judas is one of the ultimate people in history that is associated with betrayal.
- We first meet Judas in Mark 3:13–19. Judas was one of the main disciples, the original twelve. Judas would have seen the miracles of Jesus, have helped feed the five thousand, and have served with the other disciples. We know Judas for the end of his life, but he walked and served with Jesus. What if he started out fully devoted to Jesus but became less interested over time? Peter’s denial happened in a vulnerable moment, Judas’s was premeditated and happened over the span of a few years.
- Disney movies often illustrate what betrayal looks like. Take the 2013 movie Frozen. Hans and Anna hit it off and “fall in love.” But apparently Hans doesn’t share the same devotion as Anna; when she needs him the most, we realize he doesn’t love her and just wanted to marry her to inherit her kingdom. That’s betrayal. It comes out of nowhere and stabs you in the back.
- We start to see some of Judas’s struggle in the scene of the woman and the alabaster jar who anointed Jesus at Bethany. Judas condemned the woman for wasting an expensive perfume and objected that the money could have been used to feed the poor (John 12:3–5). This sounded noble. However, Judas was the treasurer and was also embezzling from the gifts given to Jesus’s ministry (v. 6). Judas eventually approached the religious leaders to offer to betray Jesus—for a price of thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14–16). Now, we can speculate about Judas’s motives. For a good Jewish disciple to turn in a teacher that was claiming to be God was a good thing to do in the mindset of the faith at that time. Maybe the religious leaders played off his theological commitments. However, to betray someone for money shows a good amount of animosity. It is premeditated. Judas was greedy and had something against Jesus. Was Judas fearful, angry that his Messiah wasn’t properly following Torah? We will never know. But Judas’s betrayal shows us that even the closest of followers can turn away over time.
- We like it when the villain gets what they deserve. For Judas, he died a horrible death (Matthew 27:5). But we must ask ourselves if we have grown cold to Jesus over the years. If we let our doubts, frustrations with God, and pursuit of riches cloud our judgment, we could begin to deny the reality of who Jesus is.
Text: John 6:66–70; Matthew 26:47–50
Topic: Social Rejection, Abandon, Fearful Disciples
Big Idea of the Message: Throughout his ministry, Jesus’s disciples abandoned him when things got tough or they didn’t understand.
Application Point: Our community will remain faithful to Christ and not abandon him when times get tough.
Sermon Ideas and Talking Points:
- Can an entire group of people be guilty of denying and betraying someone? Think of a clique that shuns and shames someone. Think of one of the ultimate movies about teenage cliques and the struggle to fit in and be popular, Mean Girls. A movie about the struggle of cliques and community in high school. The main character Cady goes from a “nobody” to fitting into the most important girl clique in school, the “Plastics.” She eventually realizes that the harsh world of cliques hurt people and damage community. Throughout Jesus’s ministry, not only did people reject him, but even those disciples who decided to join him deserted him throughout his ministry.
- After teaching about eating his (Jesus’s) flesh for eternal life, his disciples struggled with what he was teaching. John 6:66 says, “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” But the twelve disciples stayed with him—even Judas (vv. 68–70). This is just one example of disciples abandoning him because of his teaching and ministry. They found it to be difficult teaching that went against Jewish tradition and that would bring suffering.
- Being rejected by a group of people is hard. Scientists conducted a study in which they played a game of online Frisbee with three people. Eventually, two people would play with each other, excluding the third person. They found that the rejected person’s physical body showed the same signs as if it had physical pain. “As far as your brain is concerned, a broken heart is not different from a broken arm” (Kirsten Weir, “The Pain of Social Rejection,” Monitor on Psychology 43, no. 4, April 2012, https://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/04/rejection.aspx).
- The remaining disciples eventually deserted Jesus at the garden of Gethsemane. Mark 14:50 says very clearly that “then everyone deserted him and fled” when the guards came to arrest Jesus. In that moment when Judas led the guards to Jesus, the disciples ran away (Matthew 26:47–50). Was it fear, panic, frustration? Maybe a mixture of everything, but we are all prone to panic and run during times of trouble.
- During a music festival in New York, people were injured when a pop was heard in a crowd. The crowd thought it was gunfire and a stampede ensued. Although musicians and police tried to calm the crowd down, announcing from the stage that it was a fence that fell down, panic set in, and it was some time before people calmed down and ambulances could treat the injured (Ashley Southall & Ali Winston, “They Thought It Was a Shooting: The Real Danger Was Mass Panic,” New York Times, October 3, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/03/nyregion/central-park-concert- stampede.html).
- We are social creatures. We live in cliques, communities, and churches. Even our churches can deny the power and truth of Jesus. We can reject and neglect the very people that God wants us to reach. However, God wants our communities to be loving and welcoming, just like he is to us when we go astray.
Text: John 19:25–27; 20:19–29
Topic: Faithfulness, Loyalty, Friendship
Big Idea of the Message: Jesus shows the disciples his faithfulness, even after their fear and betrayal that led to his death.
Application Point: We will be faithful to God and each other, just as Christ was faithful to his disciples.
Sermon Ideas and Talking Points:
- What is the opposite of the words abandon, deny, reject? Take a moment and write down a few words and phrases (some examples: faithful, loyal, accepting, etc.). While we have been talking about betrayal and abandoning Christ, we now want to talk about what the opposite looks like, through the example of Christ.
- This comical commercial shows the loyalty of a dog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4wd_XRJxT0. Dogs have a tremendous ability to never abandon their owners no matter what.
- Even after leaving Jesus behind in the garden to be arrested, some of his disciples tried to stay near him throughout his trial and crucifixion. Peter followed from a distance after Jesus was arrested (Matthew 26:58). John (the beloved) was seen at the cross of Jesus with Mary the mother of Jesus (John 19:26–27). His disciples still loved Jesus and were ashamed they ran. They hid in fear of the Jewish leaders until Jesus found them after his resurrection (John 20:19–20).
- J. R. R. Tolkien’s hobbit character Samwise Gamgee exemplified what it meant to be a faithful friend. Throughout the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Sam stayed with his friend Frodo as they traveled to destroy the ring that so easily corrupted those near it. Even as Frodo was struggling, Sam was the constant friend who protected him and ultimately saved Frodo so he could destroy the ring. When everyone abandoned Frodo, Sam stayed with him until the end. Sam was the true hero of the entire story.
- The Bible loves to use visual images to describe an aspect of God’s character. So instead of just saying “God is faithful” Hebrew poets would say that God was like a “refuge, a strong tower against the foe” (Psalm 61:3). Faithfulness and loyalty come alive when we can associate them with an illustration. Jesus said he is the “bread of life” (John 6:35) for those who are hungry for truth and to know God.
- The greatest showing of grace and mercy was Jesus seeking out the disciples who abandoned him, denied him publicly (Peter), and doubted his love and power (Thomas). Jesus remained faithful (2 Timothy 2:12–14). The ultimate example of faithfulness, loyalty, love, and friendship.
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