#175 Lu. 22:3-6  A WAY OPENING UP FOR THE ARREST OF JESUS

Introduction:
	
In this text a way finally opens up to the Jewish leaders
which will enable them to arrest Jesus and bring about His
death.

I.  The dilemma of the Jewish leaders in their effort to
arrest Jesus

     The chief priest and scribes were in a dilemma.  They
wanted to arrest Jesus and kill Him, but they had been
unable to do so.   In our text last Sunday we were told that
the day of the Passover was drawing near.  That is, it was
very near.  This means that the time for the crucifixion of
Jesus was drawing near.  The passover lamb was a type of
Christ.  Just as the passover lamb was slain on the Passover
Day, even so Jesus, who is the real Passover Lamb, would be
slain on the Passover Day.
	The Jewish leaders, the chief priests and scribes,
wanted Him arrested and killed.  But they did not want Him
arrested or killed on the Passover Day.  They did not want
Him either arrested or killed on the Passover Day.  This was
because they feared that if they did so, the great masses of
people, with whom Jesus was so popular, would rise up
against them.
	Long before Jesus had arrived at Jerusalem, they met
together in council and plotted His death.  They planned
decided that as soon as He arrived at Jerusalem they would
very quietly arrest Him away from the masses of people and
very quietly put Him to death.
	However, when Jesus arrived, He rode into the city in
the midst of several thousand people proclaiming Him to be
the Christ of God and they did not dare touch Him.
	Day by day they sought to carry out their plans, but to
no avail.  Every morning, Jesus was surrounded by a great
mass of people as soon as He arrived at the temple.  Then
when He left in the late evening He disappeared into a mass
of people in the streets of the city.  There was no way they
could follow Him and find where He was spending His nights.
They used all the trick questions they could come up with
trying to trap Him, but He had outwitted them on every
question.
	So in our text last Sunday called an emergency session
of the Sanhedrin Council for the purpose of trying to come
up with some new idea whereby they might arrest Jesus away
from the multitudes of people.
    They still did not want to arrest Him in midst of the
people because they were afraid that the people would mob
them and tear them limb from limb.  Jesus was still popular
with the common people.  Likewise, they still did not wish
to arrest Him on the Passover for the same reason.  They
were especially afraid of the masses of common people on The
Passover.  This was the day that there was the greatest
danger of an uproar among the great crowds of people.
	We are told that they held this meeting for the purpose
of trying to come up with new plan for arresting Jesus, but
we are not told that anybody had any new plan that they
thought might work.  The implication is that the were unable
to come up with any new ideas.  They were at their wit's
end.  They did not know what they were going to do about
Jesus.  The time of the Passover was fast approaching.  They
wanted to arrest Him before the Passover if they could.  But
they still had not come up with a plan whereby they could
arrest Him at all.

II.  A way which suddenly opened up

	It was at that point when they were totally helpless to
accomplish their goal by their own schemes that a way
suddenly opened up to them.  A way totally unexpected opened
up to them.
	You see, before the foundation of the world, God had
planned that His Son, Jesus Christ, would be crucified.
Revelation 13:8 says that Jesus was as a Lamb slain from the
foundations of the world.  That is, before the foundations
of the world were laid, God had already decided that Jesus
would be slain.  He would be crucified in order that a
Savior would be provided for all mankind.  God had foreseen
that all mankind would sin   and all mankind would suffer
forever in the fires of hell unless God would send Jesus to
die on the cross.  So even before foundations of the world,
God made the plan that Jesus would come to the world and
that Jesus would go to the cross.
	It was God, Himself, who pulled back the His
restraining power and allowed Satan to do what he wanted to
do.  Satan wanted to bring an end to the ministry of Jesus
Christ here on this earth and all God had to do was to allow
him to do what he already wanted to do.
     V. 3, "Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot,
being of the number of the twelve."  As soon as God allowed
him to do so, Satan moved immediately to get Judas to betray
Jesus into the hands of the Jewish leaders.  Satan knew the
heart of Judas Iscariot.  Satan knew that Judas was never
really saved.  He knew also that Judas was following Jesus
just for what he thought he could get out of it.  Judas,
like the other apostles, had expected that Jesus would very
soon take over the throne of Israel.  He thought that by
being one of the apostles he would be one of the highest
officers in the new government.  He thought he would become
rich and powerful in the new government.
    But when he found out that Jesus was not about to go to
the throne, he was disappointed.  When he found out that
Jesus was going to the cross, he was really disappointed and
he was ready to desert Jesus and get out.
	But Satan sold him on the idea that he could yet get
something out of his time with Jesus.  He could bargain with
the Jewish leaders for his services to them.  They wanted to
arrest Jesus away from the crowds of people, but had been
unable to do so.  He could lead them to Jesus at night away
from the people and he would be willing to do so for a
price.  That is the thought that Satan put in his head and
that is what he decided that he would do.  Now Satan did not
make him do it.  Satan just tempted him.  Judas is the one
who made the decision to betray Jesus.
     V. 4, "And he went his way, and communed with the chief
priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them."
That is, Judas took the initiative and went to the Jewish
leaders.  They did not come to him; he went to them.  He
went to them and offered to them his services.  He offered
to betray Jesus into their hands at a time and place where
they could arrest Him without any interference from the
multitudes of people.
     By the way, the captains who are mentioned in this
verse were Levites who were in charge of the temple guards.
The temple had many valuable treasures and it was necessary
for the temple officials to maintain guards to prevent the
temple treasures from being stolen and to keep temple
property form being vandalized.  The Roman authorities did
not allow the Jewish people as a whole to carry swords, but
they did allow the temple guards and their captains to carry
swords.  The captains and the guards, of course, worked
under the close supervision of priests.  Judas approached
the chief priests and the captains of the guard.
	V. 5, "And they were glad..."  The chief priest and
captains were overjoyed.  This was totally unexpected, but
they could not have been more pleased.  They would have been
happy under any circumstances to be able to arrest Jesus.
But it must have pleased them all the more that it was one
of His own apostles who would lead them to Him.  They were
all filled with glee.
     (V. 5), "...and covenanted to give him money."  They
were so happy to be able to arrest Jesus that they were also
happy to pay for the services of Judas.  They covenanted to
give him money.  That is, they promised him money once the
deed was done and Jesus was in their hands.  He would not
get his money until the deed was done.
	Luke does not say how much money they promised, but
Matthew says they promised him thirty pieces of silver.  I
feel sure that Judas must have been somewhat disappointed
that they offered such a small sum of money and he may have
dickered with them somewhat trying to get more.  But that
all the Jewish leaders were willing to give and he agreed on
that amount.  He would sell out the Lord for thirty pieces
of silver.
     V. 6, "And he promised, and sought opportunity to
betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude."  In
order to get the thirty pieces of silver Judas promised to
do two things.  He promised to lead them to Jesus and he
promised to do it at a time and place away from the
multitude.  So the deal was cut.  The contract was made.
Judas became somewhat equivalent to a modern-day hit man and
Jesus Christ, the Son of God was the hit.  He would not
actually kill Jesus, but he would assist them in doing so.
He was an accessory to the crime.

III.  The most important point for us to take notice of

	Listen, we could talk much about the great wickedness
of the Jewish leaders who plotted the death of Jesus.  They
would well deserve any bad thing we might say about
them---and more.  We could talk much about the great
wickedness of Judas Iscariot and he, too, would deserve any
thing we might say -- and more.  We could talk much about
the great wickedness of the people of the world as a whole
that brought about the crucifixion of the Lord and there is
an awful lot of wickedness in the world to talk about.  We
could talk much about our own wickedness---our own sin.
This is certainly the sin that we should be most concerned
about.  The lost sinner should be concerned because he will
face God in judgment.  It is his own personal sin that he
will be charged with in judgment and it is his own personal
sin for which he will be punished in the Lake of Fire and
Brimstone.
	But it is not the sins of the Jewish leaders nor the
sins of Judas, nor the sins of the world nor even our own
sins that I think is most worthy of our attention.  The
thing that is most deserving of our attention is the great
love of God that would send Jesus to the cross of Calvary to
die for our sins so that we may go free.  He would die on
Calvary in order that we may stay out of hell.  He would die
on Calvary so that we would not have to suffer forever for
our sin.  He would die on Calvary so that we could spend
eternity heaven.
	He would die on the cross of Calvary so that we could
be saved.  But unless one repents of his sins and trusts in
Jesus to save him from his sins he will go into the Lake of
Fire and Brimstone and suffer.
     Listen, you do not have to be as wicked as those Jewish
leaders to go to hell.  You do not have to be as wicked as
Judas to go to hell.  You do not have to be as wicked as the
meanest person in the world to go to hell.  If you fail to
repent of your sins and you fail to trust in Jesus Christ to
save your soul you will go to hell.  You won't go to heaven;
you will go to hell.

Conclusion:

	Are you ready this morning to get right with God?  Are
you ready to have all your sins forgiven?  Are you ready to
call upon Jesus Christ and commit your soul's destiny into
His hands?  If so, will you come forward and trust Him to be
your Savior while we have this invitation song?
	If you have already trusted Jesus and you are already
saved, are you ready to come forward and present yourself to
this church for baptism and for membership?
	If you are saved and you wish to transfer your
membership from some other Baptist church to unite with us,
will you come forward while we have this invitation song?
	If you are saved but you need to re-dedicate your life
to the Lord and you are ready to do so, will you come
forward while we sing?