The Kiss of Death | Matthew 26:48-49

[00:00:00] Real Truth Daily. This is Daily Truths with Dave Ahlman.

[00:00:07] Hi everybody, welcome back to Daily Truths. We're in Matthew 26, verses 48 and 49. Remember,

[00:00:15] Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane. A detachment of soldiers led by Judas is ready to take him away.

[00:00:22] And we pick up verse 48. Now the betrayer, namely Judas, had given them a sign saying,

[00:00:28] the one I will kiss as a man sees him. And he came up to Jesus at once and said,

[00:00:35] greetings, Rabbi. And he kissed him. Wow. First of all, they need to identify who Jesus was because

[00:00:43] it was dark. And so the kiss was the way it was going to be done. Now, a kiss in the Middle East

[00:00:50] at that time was a common way to show love and affection for someone else, kind of like it is today.

[00:00:55] But even if you just met somebody, if you really were respectful, you'd greet them with a kiss.

[00:01:01] So that's why he did what he did. Now also, Judas identified himself as the accuser.

[00:01:07] And if it went to trial, he would be the one that would accuse Jesus. Of what?

[00:01:13] That's a good question, right? Okay. So that was part of it as well.

[00:01:17] Now, what did he say to him? He said, Rabbi, that too was a name of respect, admiration and honor.

[00:01:25] So even in the midst of what he was about to do, he kind of gave this pretense.

[00:01:30] Hey, I'm still respectful of him. And he probably was.

[00:01:33] But again, as we said in previous episodes, I think he was disillusioned by the mission and mandate of Jesus,

[00:01:40] not understanding that he came as a sacrificial servant, not a conquering hero to crunch out the Roman government.

[00:01:47] And so he was disillusioned. That's part of the reason I believe he betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

[00:01:54] Okay. So he identifies him with a kiss. He calls him rabbi. And now what else can we say about this guy?

[00:02:01] This was truly the kiss of death, right? It's sealed that Jesus faith.

[00:02:08] Now you can say, and I would agree with you. Well, he could have escaped. He didn't have to go.

[00:02:13] He could have even jumped off the cross. Absolutely.

[00:02:15] But as we said all along, Jesus mission and mandate was to go to the cross.

[00:02:20] And this kiss was kind of a kiss of death because now he'd go to trial.

[00:02:25] He'd go before Caiaphas, Pilate, Herod and the rest, and eventually have to climb Calvary's hill, be crucified on a cross.

[00:02:32] So what can we say about all this? Judas committed a horrible sin.

[00:02:37] There's a lot of sins we think about that are really horrible, right?

[00:02:40] Murder, betrayal, adultery, killing, stealing.

[00:02:47] Some of these are heinous crimes, right? We would say those are pretty bad.

[00:02:51] Those are biggies. Betrayal, betrayal of God.

[00:02:55] Betrayal of the son of God is at the top of the list.

[00:02:59] But yet, what if Judas, instead of committing suicide, what if he would have repented?

[00:03:05] What if he would have come to the Lord Jesus and said, I'm so sorry for what I've done.

[00:03:11] I can't believe I did what I did. Please forgive me.

[00:03:15] Do you think Jesus would have stood at a distance and say, no, not going to do it.

[00:03:19] You messed up and you messed up badly.

[00:03:23] No.

[00:03:24] He would have forgiven him.

[00:03:26] He would have restored him.

[00:03:28] He would have reconciled him to the father.

[00:03:30] He would have said all is well.

[00:03:32] I died for that.

[00:03:34] Now, my friend, here's the thing.

[00:03:36] If he would have repented and reaffirmed his faith in Jesus, all his sin would have been forgiven.

[00:03:43] Here's the bottom line for us.

[00:03:45] We repent of our sin.

[00:03:47] We put our trust in Jesus.

[00:03:49] And here's what the scriptures say.

[00:03:51] The blood of God's son, Jesus Christ, cleanses us from just a few sins.

[00:03:58] No.

[00:04:00] From all sins.

[00:04:02] What we would consider biggies and trivial.

[00:04:05] They're all covered by the blood of Christ.

[00:04:09] So the bottom line of our devotion today is, thank God and rejoice in the fact that every sin of your life is covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.

[00:04:22] That is truly, truly something to be grateful and thankful for today.

[00:04:29] And that is today's Daily Truth.

[00:04:32] Have a great day in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[00:04:35] Thank you for tuning in to Daily Truths with Dave Allman.

[00:04:38] Pastor Dave Allman is the pastor of Mount Hope Church in Boulder, Colorado.

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[00:04:53] Come back tomorrow for your next Daily Truth.