Introduction:

Human history has been besmeared with self-serving traitors and collaborators who have betrayed their friends, peoples and their nations. But in the end, not everyone had a chance to enjoy the fruits of their betrayal.
One of the most well-known cries of dismay over a betrayal is Julius Caesar’s when Brutus, a Roman senator, joined a plot to oust Caesar from power. A beloved friend of Caesar, Brutus opposed the ascension of any single man to the position of dictator, and he feared his friend aspired to such power. So he plotted and murdered him.

Arguably the most reviled women in the Hispanic world, Doña Marina is known as the traitor who betrayed her people to the Spanish conquistadors. She was a former slave and mistress of Hernando Cortes.

Benedict Arnold was an American general during the American Revolutionary War. He contributed to the success of the Americans during numerous battles. However, other officers claimed all his accomplishments, prompting him to sell West Point to the British. After the plan was exposed in 1780, Arnold fled and became a brigadier general of the British Army.

Robert Hanssen was a former FBI agent who willingly sold the largest bulk of CIA information and assets in history to the USSR for 22 years in exchange of more than 1.4 million US dollars and diamonds. His treachery was dubbed as the “possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history” and earned him a lifetime in prison.

There are 25 betrayals that have changed the course of history. However, in all the annals of human antiquity there has never been a darker day of infamy, a more diabolic deed of treachery, or a more shameless act of selfishness, than the night Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus into the hands of his would be murderers.

Betrayal can dampen the human spirit. It can sting like a wasp and inflict pain like that of a cold dagger. Only those here who have been betrayed know of its’ hurt. Betrayal operates alone. It has communicated it’s unwanted message to kings and queens, statesmen’s and servants, preachers and presidents, mothers and fathers, husbands and wives. It knows no bounties. No-one is exempt from it; no-one enjoys its. The greatest people who have ever lived have had to deal with betrayal. So did our Lord Jesus. He experienced a counterfeit among His twelve. He was a treacherous wolf camouflaged in sheep’s clothing.

This morning we will look at three things that took place during the betrayal of our Lord Jesus. 2. Jesus Offers No Resistance 48-52 & 3. Jesus Endures’ a Mock Trial vv. 53-62.

I. Jesus is Betrayed by a Sign vv. 43-46

1. We note in verse #43 a crowd comes with Judas. The Jewish religious leaders who wanted to kill Jesus sent this mob. You will note they came armed and ready for a fight. Included in the crowd were the temple police also the slaves and servants of the high priest. They were not going to be directly involved.

2. Judas had told his conspirators that he would identify Jesus by a sign… kissing Him. I do not think there is anything more despicable than this kiss of Judas — a deliberate, prolonged, apparently loving act, done with cold determination to accomplish his own selfish purpose.
Mark uses the normal word for kiss in verse 44 which means “to love”— phileō in telling of all the arrangements that Judas had made with the chief priests. They were to seize the one whom this traitor kissed. — What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. Matthew 26:15

In verse 45 when Judas carries this out, Mark uses a form of that word, a word that means a prolonged kiss. Judas is fill of deceit and calls out Rabbi, then kisses and embraces Him with a prolonged embrace so as not to confuse the mob. Truly this is the betrayal of all betrayals disguised in the embrace of love. Then the Bible states that them they took him.

3. Just a few minutes later someone pulls his sword (John account tells us it was Peter) and cut off the ear of Machus the servant to the high priest. Peter is so poor in his aim that all he does is lop off the ear of the high priest’s servant. That is such a beautiful example of the flesh at work! Jesus then amazing picks it up (Luke 22:52) and restore it whole again, truly he displays that he is fully man and that he is fully God and they were not really able to restraint him except by his own will.

Application:
There is always a Judas in the crowd. Someone everybody trust, but there purpose for being
Involved is self- center and malicious. That why shepherds watch and wait. Judas sought to please himself and be in favor of other men. We move now to… Judas was not driven to betray the Lord; he chose to do so. This is why Jesus adds what are probably the most solemn words that ever fell from his lips: “It would have been better for that man if he had never been born.” This truth was the Lord’s mouth reveals to me that there is a hell.

II. Jesus Offers No Resistance w. 48-52

1. Jesus offered no resistance and instead healed the slave’s ear. He tells them (v.48, 49) of their hypocrisy and coward-ness. He was daily in the temple, they could have taken Him any time but they did not. They are the real cowards.

2. All the apostles forsook him. They were willing to be a part of the fight if Jesus was going to use His powers to usurp the Romans authorities and false High priest. The Christ offered no resistance for the scriptures he said must be fulfilled. Then they all forsook him. His will was to give himself over without any resistance into the hands of his enemies and his refusal to defend himself in any way becomes, in their eyes, synonymous to his denial of being the Messiah. Now, it is every man for himself, and so they flee.

3. Mark adds a little postscript in Verses 51 and 53 that we do not want to miss and it is rather strange. All the scholars agree that this is Mark himself. Mark himself may have been the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and asked the way to eternal life. Jesus said to him, “Go, sell what you have and follow me,” and that young man went away sad, because he had great possessions, {cf. Mark 10:17-22}.

I think there is some evidence that this was Mark. I believe this incident toward the end of the book is Mark’s way of saying, “I did it. I went away and sold all that I had and gave it to the poor. All I had left was this *sindōn. That night I followed him; left it and fled away naked into the night. Matthew says Joseph brought or redeem the lien cloth…agorázō, ag-or-ad’-zo; specially, to redeem: * A linen cloth, that which was fine and costly, in which the bodies of the dead were wrapped.

Application: We have Mark’s account to remind us that we can come to a throne of grace and find mercy and grace to help in time of need.

III Jesus Endures’ a Mock Trial vv. 53-62.

1. It is very late Thursday night and Jesus has been betrayed for 30 pieces of silver he is lead away and forsaken. It early Friday morning just after mid-night, it is the Spring of 30 AD and the Son of God is arrested on phony charges. He will stand trial repeatedly thought the night. After he was captured in Gethsemane Garden, he was led away by the soldiers to the high priest. Mark doesn’t record for us the appearance of Jesus before Annas, the father-in-law of the high priest, but moves directly to the courtyard of Caiaphis high priest, in Verses 53-54.

2. Notice the very careful way Mark sets this scene for us. Jesus is in the inner room with the Sanhedrin. This assembly consisted of the high priest, all the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders — 70 members of the Sanhedrin plus their helpers and advisors, etc. So it was a large crowd that gathered in the inner room in the residence of Caiaphis the high priest. Evidently our Lord understood that the testimony against him was so fragmentary, so weak, that it required no answer. He made no effort to defend himself or to answer the lies of the witnesses, but remained silent.

3. The high priest was angered by Jesus’ silence, and so he did something absolutely illegal. He put Jesus under oath to testify against himself. He said to him, “I adjure you by the living God,” Jesus responds very simply, “l am,” {Cf. Matt 26:64}. Jesus is the Great I am…

The religious laws state that no trials can be held during Passover, and none can be held at night. If they are to kill Jesus, he must be arrested by Thursday and tried before sundown. Making mat¬ters even more pressing is the religious stipulation that if a death penalty is ordered, a full night must pass before the sentence can be carried out. They had many false witnesses…they voted at sunrise after they mock, spit and beat him.

Conclusion:

The devil is no joke he betrayed Christ. He is a vicious, diabolical enemy prowling around in your life right now trying to find a way to devour you. Because of our roaring adversary we need to make sure we take the appropriate action. That begins by being saved!