Burdens & Blessings | Week 1 | Sermon

Guys, I have the privilege of starting our brand new sermon series, Burdens and Blessings, where we are going to be looking at the final days of Jesus before he's hung on the cross. And what we're gonna see over the next couple weeks is Jesus is walking through and encountering some of the most tense, burdensome

moments of his life. And yet in the midst of all of it, he continues to be focused on others and bless those around him before he's killed. What I want us to be looking at and observing over the next couple weeks is how can we be people that follow Jesus, even in rough circumstances

that we might be walking through and yet still be focused on others around us blessing them. So we're starting off today in Matthew chapter 26,

verse 17. I would love for you guys to grab your Bibles. If you don't have your Bibles, you can take out your phone Bible, that still counts. Your Bible app and go to Matthew chapter 26, verse 17. And as you guys are doing that, I'm going to pray for us to get us started. God,

thank you so much that we get to come to your word, that we get to hear what you have to say to us. I pray that you would speak clearly, that you would speak to each individual through your Holy Spirit. And God, I pray that we wouldn't just show up on a Sunday morning and accumulate more knowledge about you

and yet walk out of fear not transformed. Challenge us. God, I pray that we would open our hearts to hear what you have to say to each and every one of us. And we would walk out of this room different because we chose to listen to you and what you have to say. In Jesus name everybody said, amen. Hey guys, we are approaching

my favorite holiday of all time, Thanksgiving. Anybody Thanksgiving lover in here? Okay, thank you. See, Thanksgiving's the turkey. That's right. Thanksgiving is my favorite. Every family does a holiday big. You know what I'm saying? Some people, you guys do Christmas. Some people go crazy for fourth of July.

Some people, for some reason, do Halloween. That's not my thing. That's awesome. It's your thing. I love Thanksgiving. It has always been my favorite. Ever since we were young and growing up, all of my extended family would fly or drive to little Joplin, Missouri, where, I used to live, and we would all celebrate

Thanksgiving together. And I remember just over the years, we started accumulating traditions. It's like, okay, after we eat, we always play Pictionary,

family versus family, and that's always fun. And then we always make sure everybody brings their favorite desserts, and we we we have tons of desserts, and we always do so many things. We we always go play family versus family football afterwards.

We started stacking these traditions, and it just became one of the most exciting holidays that I always looked forward to. And I remember when I first got married and I was so excited to bring my wife home

and she got to experience all the Thanksgiving traditions that I grew up enjoying and loving. And I was so ready for her to love it in the same way I did. And so we were newlyweds. We were married in July in an outside wedding in Arizona. So yeah. She loves me, man.

And then November comes around. I remember we flew to Joplin. It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving,

and we're saying hi to everybody. I'm reintroducing her to all the family she met at the wedding, and it's saying, yeah. This is my aunt and uncle, and these are the cousins. And and we're talking about how excited we are for the weekend, for the whole week.

And my dad comes in and he's like, alright guys, we gotta get ready. We gotta go to bed early because we've got the turkey trot tomorrow. And I look at my wife and she looks at me like this. She pulls me aside and she says, Archer, why didn't you tell me?

That's like a run. That's like a long run. I said, yes. 3.1 miles. That's five kilometers. She's like, I don't like to run. And I said, well, none of us do. It's like trauma bonding. You'll think back and enjoy it. She said, why didn't you tell me about this? Well, it wouldn't have been a surprise if I told you about it.

And from that moment on, we were in a fight. Okay. You know what I'm saying? And it it's the kind of fighting the way you fight when you're around family. You pretend like everything's good, and then you just slip the daggers beneath the surface.

You know, my grandma comes over and she's like, alright, you two get the newlyweds together. Get a picture, you know, act like you love each other. And I was like, I'll try.

The truth is, I so wanted my wife to love every piece of thanksgiving that I loved. And she didn't meet my expectations. I had this picture of the spouse of the wife that I wanted and she didn't live up to it. And

I ended up being frustrated and angry with her. If you've ever been in any sort or type of relationship, whether that's marriage or you you grown up with siblings or, parents, whatever it is, you're dating, you understand the idea of putting expectations on somebody and them not meeting those expectations.

But the relationship I wanna focus on and we're gonna be talking about today is our relationship with God and how so often we can put expectations on who Jesus is, and either mold Jesus into what we expect him to be, or when he lets us down, we walk away altogether.

Today, we're gonna be looking at the person of Judas. Now, Judas is famous for betraying Jesus. Growing up hearing this story, I always thought, well, Judas was just an inherently evil person. But the truth is Judas didn't start out with the wrong intentions.

What I believe is Judas got to the point where he realized that Jesus wasn't the Jesus he wanted. And the truth is we can do the exact same thing in our relationship with Jesus. My big idea, what I want you guys to walk away, walk out of here with is this, follow Jesus, not the Jesus you want. Follow Jesus,

not the Jesus you want. Whether you've been following Jesus for decades or you're just starting to figure out your relationship with Jesus or you just got dragged to church this morning and you're forced to sit here, I truly believe God has something to say to you through this message. Because Jesus explains

exactly who he is, and you and I can get our picture, our idea of Jesus twisted and messed up. And I truly believe that's exactly what led Judas betraying Jesus because Jesus didn't end up being the savior that he wanted.

So we are going to jump in. Matthew chapter 26 verse 17. Let me set the scene a little bit. It is Thursday

afternoon, and Jesus is gonna be hung on the cross Friday morning. We are approaching the final moments of Jesus before he dies for the sins of the world, And the weight is starting to be packed on his shoulders. And he's starting to wrap some of these things up and prepare his followers for exactly what's going to happen.

And so 17, you guys there? Okay. Me and like two people over here are there. Awesome. On the first day of the festival of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, where do you want us to prepare the Passover meal for you? As you go into the city, he told them,

excuse me, you'll see a certain man. Tell him, the teacher says, my time has come and I will eat the Passover meal with my disciples at your house.' So the disciples did as Jesus told them and prepared the Passover meal there. So this Passover meal, it's literally the final day that Jesus has with his followers

before he's hung on the cross. And they're celebrating a Passover meal. We probably don't celebrate that in our day to day, like our traditions. I like to explain Passover like it's the Jewish version of Thanksgiving. Instead of the turkey, they have a lamb.

Instead of the rolls, they have like this, flat, crackery, matzah bread. Instead of the wine, they well, they still have the wine. So, you know, that's steady in human celebration. We got the wine. Okay? So they are celebrating an event that happened in the second book of your bible.

If you flip to the beginning of your Bible, the first book is Genesis, the second one is Exodus. And in the book of Exodus, God's people had been in slavery to the Egyptians for four hundred years, being mistreated, being oppressed. And they were begging God, God, would you free us from slavery? Would you send a deliverer?

Would you help us? And God sent a deliverer named Moses. And Moses came and he talked to Pharaoh, the king of the Egyptians, and he said, you need to let God's people go. And Pharaoh said, no. And so God ended up sending 10 plagues,

each one worse than the previous one. It started destroying their economy, their agriculture. The final blow, what finally ended up forcing Pharaoh's hand to let God's people go is this. God said, the tenth plague, I'm going to send an angel of death. And that angel of death is going to go into each and every home,

and the firstborn child in each and every family is going to be killed so that there won't be a single home without a death. So my wife and I, we're both firstborns, so that's fun. And so we wouldn't wake up in the morning. That's that's the reality of this situation. Any firstborn in the land, Egyptian and Israelite. But

God said, If any of you takes a perfect lamb and you sacrifice it, you take the blood and you put it over the doorpost of your house, the angel of death will get to your house and it will pass over your home, and you will be saved. So fast forward. That's

what set the Israelites free. Fast forward two thousand years, you have Jesus sitting down with his 12 disciples, And these guys, these men grew up in oppression as well. They grew up in Roman oppression. The Romans have taken over God's people and they're forced to

pay taxes to them. They're forced to comply to their demands. So these men literally grew up being looked down upon, being mistreated, being talked down to by Roman soldiers constantly. These men watched their families barely be able to make ends meet because they were so heavily taxed by the Romans.

Within these 12 guys that are followers of Jesus, there is so much frustration and anger towards these Roman people. And they are celebrating an event where God sent an angel of death and freed his people. And what they're thinking, what they're hoping, what they're praying is, God, would you do it again?

Would you free your people from oppression again? Would you free your people from their enemies? And many of them thought, many of the Jewish people believed that God would send another deliverer. And it was this figure called the Messiah. The Greek version of that word is the Christ.

So the Messiah. And many Jewish people believe that the Messiah would establish an eternal, literal, physical kingdom. That the Messiah would overthrow all of the enemies and overthrow all of the other nations. Finally, God's people would rule once and for all. Enemies defeated, God's people would finally prosper.

And Judas believed that Jesus was this Messiah, was this king. He believed that he would be the savior that would overthrow, defeat, destroy the Romans, that he would be someone who would finally make God's people prosper again. And so they're sitting at the table.

Verse 20, when it was evening, Jesus sat down at the table with the 12. While they were eating, he said, I tell you the truth. One of you will betray me. I'm greatly distressed. Each one asked in turn, Am I the one, Lord? I don't wanna blow past that. Each and every one of these 12 disciples are asking, Am I the one?

Because when I think about this story, I I see 11 regular guys and then this guy over here who looks like a Disney villain just planning to kill Jesus. But the truth is, they trusted Judas.

They trusted each other. They trusted each other so much that they looked around at the other 11 guys and thought, it can't be any of these guys. Is it me? Am I the one Lord? We actually believe Judas was one of the most trusted disciples because he was, John tells us, he was in charge of the money.

He was the treasurer for the whole group. John also tells us the entire time Judas would help himself whenever he wanted to just buy something for himself. He was stealing from the Lord the whole time.

And so each and every one of them are asking, Am I the one Lord? And I wanna hold on to that because we're gonna come back to that at the end. Verse 23, He replied,

'One of you who has just eaten from this bowl with me will betray me, for the Son of Man must die, as the scriptures declared long ago.' Listen to this, this is crazy. But how terrible it will be for the one who betrays him. It would be far better for that man if he had never been born. Man, Jesus comes out with the haymakers,

Not like Mike Tyson. It was sad. It was sad. But here's the truth. Man, this seems harsh. This seems brutal. But what I want to point out is Jesus knew the end of the story for Jude. Jesus knew the end of the story for Judas. At this point, Judas could still turn back. He could still

not betray Jesus. He still had the choice, but Jesus knew the end of the story for him. We're told that Judas actually, after he betrays Jesus and Jesus dies, he's so filled with shame and regret and self hatred that he goes and hangs himself.

Jesus is looking at his betrayer and he doesn't have anger. He doesn't have rage. He's not screaming at him. He's not calling him out. He's looking at him with a broken heart. He said, oh, it's gonna be horrible. I know the judgment that's coming for you and it's not going to be good. You see, there's nothing that ignites

in the human spirit rage or anger quite like betrayal.

I remember, when my wife and I were getting married. I come from a divorced home, and so I was nervous. I was nervous I'm gonna mess this thing up, that I'm not gonna be the man I wanna be. I'm nervous that, man, we are not gonna be married for our entire life. Don't wanna be divorced. I wanna be someone who's faithful to my wife. I was so nervous. And I remember there was a man in my life

who counseled me, who sat with me, who prayed with me, and he inspired me that I could be the man that I've always wanted to be. I could be the man who would have an amazing family, a godly family, be a godly husband. He ended up doing our premarital counseling.

Then three weeks after we finished our premarital counseling, it had come out that he was cheating on his wife.

There is nothing that ignites human anger or rage like betrayal. Yet, that is not the heart of our savior. He's looking at the man who he's lived with, traveled with, walked with, eaten with, cried with, talked with for three years. He trusted him.

In his final moments, Judas stabbed him in the back. He is not met with rage or anger, but he's met with a broken heart. If you are in this room right now and you feel any hint of an idea that God is upset, angry, condemning, frustrated, rageful

with you, or you feel uncomfortable just sitting in a seat because of the building you're in, I'm here to tell you that is not Jesus. That is not who Jesus is. He is a savior whose heart breaks for those who betray him. He's a savior who loves us in the midst of our sin. Amen? Amen.

So verse 25, Judas, the one who would betray him, also asked, Rabbi, am I the one? And Jesus told him, you have said it. So the question is why, right? Judas, how could you follow Jesus closely? How could you watch him do miracles? How could you watch him feed 5,000

with just a little bit of bread and a couple fish? How could you watch Jesus raise the dead, heal the leper, and then in the final moments, betray Jesus? How? Why? Why did Judas betray Jesus? I truly believe this is why. Because Jesus wasn't the savior Judas wanted. Jesus was not the savior Judas wanted.

And there's two things specifically I think Judas wanted, and Jesus offered something else. The first thing, Judas wanted success,

but Jesus brings service. You see, Judas genuinely thought that Jesus was going to establish a real throne that's gonna over be over the entire world. He thought, man, God's people will finally prosper, will finally be blessed. And if I'm close to Jesus, that'll be good for me. This is gonna be really good for my portfolio.

Okay? He is expecting to be really blessed because of this. And yet Jesus steps onto the scene and says, I am not a savior who came to be served, but to serve and lay my life down. And when Judas realized that he wasn't here to bless him or bring him success, Judas said, I'm out.

You know, I grew up in the South in Atlanta, Georgia. And in that area, we had a saying around church that we'd say, I don't know if you guys have heard it, but it's like, Lord, just bless this mess.

You've heard? It's like, you know, I just can't get it together. You know, I'm just I messed up again, but Lord bless this mess. I remember we had this lady Carol at our church. She's like, well, I just you know what? Bless this mess. It's like, no, Carol. You're a white wine alcoholic,

and you gossip about everybody at the church.

The Lord doesn't wanna bless that. He wants to get into your mess and clean you up. Listen. We all have messes, And I want you to hear this. You do not need to clean yourself up to come to Jesus. That's his job. We all have a mess. We are all dealing with something. We all have a mess that we need Jesus to help.

See, we're sitting in our mess, and he says, I am the messiah. And I'm gonna step down into your mess, and I'm gonna clean you up. Amen? And

he is the messiah that gets us from our mess to our mission. You see, he is a God, a savior that came to serve, and he says, follow me. You see, God cares far more about building the kingdom of God, reaching the lost than us being successful.

You know, when we come to God and we're like, God, I just I would really like a bigger house. I'd really like a sports car. I'd love the Florida house. Like, Lord, please. And we believe that God is a God who's here to just bless us financially.

He doesn't do that. We get frustrated with him. And maybe we're just like Judas. You're like, you know what? You didn't bless me. I'm out. But the truth is God cares far more about his mission than your mansion. Cares far more about the broken than our bank accounts.

It's not that God doesn't want blessings for you. I think you know, Jesus said, you know, our God is a good father, and he gives good gifts. He cares about us. But when we get that in front of the mission, we are out of priorities with what God's priorities are. That's why we are a church that unapologetically

says we will go live intentionally, specifically with our time, our talent, our treasure, and our testimony. Man, that's why we ask you guys to serve because we want you to be people who are jumping on the mission with us.

What's the mission God gave us? What's the final words of Jesus before he ascended into heaven? He said, go and make disciples

of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We baptized just a couple weeks ago. We had baptism weekend. Teaching them everything that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. We rock pointified that.

And the way we say it is we point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. That's our mission, church. Man, that's what God wants to

walk alongside us within. He wants to empower us in. That's why we ask you guys to serve because when you show up to the children's ministry and you hold a baby for an hour, there's a couple who finally feels comfortable to drop off their baby so that they can sit in this service undistracted

and hear the good news of Jesus for the first time. That matters. And God's heart is desperate for the mission. God is a savior who cares about the mission. When we get it confused, man, we can get really frustrated with God.

That's why we ask you guys to give as well, because we want to fund the mission of God. Every dollar that you give is here to reach the lost. Amen? Amen. So

my question for you is if I got to read all of your prayers, if you just listed them out, would I see that you care more about, you're asking more for your own personal success Or are you asking, God, put me into purposeful service? Are you praying for God to use you or to bless you? The

second thing is Judas wanted success,

but Jesus brings sacrifice. See, Judas wanted a savior who would wipe his enemies out. He wanted a savior that would slay his enemies. And Jesus steps in and he is not a savior who slays his enemies, he's a savior who was slain for his enemies. He's a savior that came in and died

for our enemies. And when Judas realized that he was here to die for the Romans just as much as he was for the God's people, the Israelites, he said, I'm out. That's not the savior that I want. See, Judas,

when he comes to Passover, he's saying, God, would you do it again? Would you send another angel of death? And Jesus said, No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not the angel of death. I'm the lamb that was slain. I'm the lamb that when my blood covers you, you will be safe and saved and protected.

I look at Judas and I'm like, Dude, how could you get that wrong? I try pretty hard to

follow God, to live up to being a pastor. And I remember just the other day I was riding to work, driving, and I'm praying. I'm trying to get my heart ready for my day of work and that God will work through me and all these spiritual things.

And as I'm driving, this big old Ford f one fifty cuts me off. I swerve. I almost wreck into the car right next to me. And I'm just thinking, Lord Jesus,

would you just wipe that man off the face of the earth? I'd really appreciate that. You know, bless this mess.

The truth is, I'm a lot more like Judas than I wanna admit. Man, that guy wasn't even my enemy. He was an annoyance. He was just something that bothered me. And I got so angry and frustrated with him. You see, this idea of Jesus coming into our life and saying, we need to love our enemies, that sounds awesome.

It's like, man, put that on a bumper sticker, slap that on the refrigerator on a magnet, like, love your enemies. Woo hoo. It's amazing. But the truth is, guys, there is truly nothing more challenging, more offensive in the Christian faith than the idea that we're called to love our enemies. Because that means

that God died for the Israelites in the Romans. I was scrolling on Facebook right before the election. Can I I mean, thank God the election's over? Amen? Amen. Just no more of that.

And it's funny because I have friends on both sides, both Christian friends. And as I'm scrolling, I see one of my conservative friends. He's like, man, I can't believe the people on the left. They think Jesus would vote for Jesus would never vote for that side.

And then I scroll on the other you know, scroll down and one of my friends on the politically left, they're like, man, I can't believe the conservatives think Jesus would vote on that side. Jesus would never vote for that side. And I'm like, isn't it interesting that everybody is positive Jesus is on their side?

Here's a good indicator, you've probably made Jesus into the Jesus you want. He agrees with all your opinions. If all of Jesus' enemies are also all of your enemies, you've probably made Jesus into the Jesus you want, not the Jesus who is. We're called to love our enemies, guys, and that is challenging

because that means we're called to love the father that left us. We're called to love the mother that just constantly manipulates us. We're called to love the sibling that stabbed us in the back. We're called to love the man that left and took everything. We're called to love the woman that broke our heart.

We're called to love the kids that no longer talk to us. We're called to love the people out there that have hurt us. That's challenging. I mean, that can get offensive. But guys, here's what I'm not saying. Jesus is not asking you to get back in a relationship with a person who will hurt you. Am I clear?

The last thing I want is someone to walk out of here and think that you were called to get back into a toxic relationship. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about being freed from the hatred in your life and your heart. I'm talking about

forgiving the people who have hurt you, even though they may not even know it. Even though they may not even care. Choosing to love them because Christ died for them just as much as He died for us. You see, forgiveness only has to be a one way thing.

You do not have to repair the relationship. And sometimes that's not safe or smart. Christianity is a religion about loving your enemies. Because Jesus said, while we were sinners, he knows every sin we ever committed, will commit, and are committing right now. And he said, that made you my enemies.

But while we were Christ's enemies, he died for us. And Jesus died for me when I was his enemy. And he says, follow me. He says, we're called to lay down our life. We're called to die to our own selfish desires and love the people around us no matter if we disagree.

In your prayers, are you asking God more for personal success over your enemies or the failure of your enemies? Or are you asking God, would you make me a sacrifice? Would you make my life an offering? Would you use me in any way you see fit? You see, Judas didn't betray Jesus at the last supper.

He betrayed Jesus with his life. Because his entire life, Judas was following the Jesus he wanted. And as soon as Jesus didn't meet his expectations, he said, I'm out, I'm done. And he betrayed Jesus.

Jesus knows that Judas is about to go betray him. Right after this, he's leaving dinner. He's gonna go tell the Roman officials where to find Jesus and Jesus is gonna be arrested. But Jesus gives him one more picture of the kind of savior that he is. Verse 26,

it says, As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and he blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples saying, take this and eat it for this is my body. See, Jesus is a savior. He said, this bread, this represents my body that I am giving to serve you. I am laying down my life

for the kingdom, for the mission. Verse 27, And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, 'Each of you drink from it, for this is my blood which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of many.

Right before Judas is about to betray Jesus, he gives him one more crystal clear picture of exactly who he is. He says, I'm the God who came to serve. I'm the God who came to sacrifice.

And today he's inviting us. Are you willing to follow the Jesus who calls us to serve and sacrifice along with him? So my question is, where in your life are you holding back? Where in your life are you holding on to the idea of Jesus that you want rather than the Jesus that is?

Are you harboring resentment and hatred towards somebody that Jesus died for? Are you holding back your service from God because you expect him to give you something rather than joining in the mission? Today, do you need to really think about maybe I really need to start giving to the church?

Maybe I actually do need to just figure out a way to jump in and serve. Because that's that's what Jesus is calling each and every one of us to. Maybe I do need to start having conversations with my friends and my coworkers about Jesus, even though it makes me uncomfortable.

See, that Thanksgiving that I had with my wife, I realized that I had held her to the expectation of who I wanted her to be, not who she was. And I was angry and upset with her. So I pulled her aside and I had to apologize. I said, Elliot, I've been a jerk and I'm sorry.

You don't have to like the things I like. You don't have to be exactly who I want you to be. I just love you. I want you to be my spouse and my wife no matter what. You don't have to measure up to my expectations. I take you for who you are. I just want you. I think some of us in the room

need to have that conversation with Jesus right now. Jesus, I've had these expectations that you would give me what I want, and when you didn't give it to me, I've been frustrated and angry with you. I'm sorry. Jesus, I've

been thinking that you hate these people or this person just as much as I do, but I'm sorry. I've had a wrong picture of who you are.

In a moment, we're going to take communion. And if you don't have a communion cup, we have some ushers who are gonna be walking up and down the aisles. And Just raise your hand. You can grab one. We're going to be remembering the savior that Jesus is, the one who came to serve and to sacrifice.

My worry is, if I can be honest with you, is that we're gonna take this. We accept the service. We accept his sacrifice. We walk out of this room, and we betray Jesus with our life. We betray Jesus with withholding from him

our life. We betray Jesus by accepting his gifts and his goodness and deciding, I don't wanna be a part of what you're doing. I don't want to get uncomfortable. I don't want to give. I'm here to receive. We betrayed Jesus by harboring hatred and anger and resentment toward someone that he died for.

We're gonna sing a song before we take communion. And as we sing this song, some of you should worship the king that you know Jesus is, the one who came to serve and sacrifice. But I think some of us need to have a conversation with Jesus.

And what I want you to ask Jesus in part is this, Lord, am I the one? Am I the one that's going to accept what you've done for me, walk out of here and betray you? Am I the one?

So we're gonna take communion and remember exactly the kind of savior that Jesus is. Because on the night that he was betrayed, he took the bread. So we have these little wafers. And he said, eat this. This is my body given for you. Eat this in remembrance of me.

Then he took a cup of wine. He said, this is my blood, which has been poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins. Drink this in remembrance of me.

God, thank you for showing us exactly who you are. I pray that we would remember that you are a God who came to serve and to sacrifice, that you would speak to each and every one of us individually. I pray that you have spoken to each and every person in this room individually and told us exactly where we're at.

May we walk out of this room and live a life following you, not the Jesus we want because Jesus, we just want you. In Jesus' name we pray. Everyone said, amen. Hey,

thanks for joining us for service online this weekend. Be sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the Rock Point Church app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.