The Deceitful Lusts • Luke 22:1-6
1:08:13 Teaching begins
Notes
Jerusalem’s chief priests and scribes are big grownup men who know what they’re doing, and they’re hungry for what they think will make them satisfied and happy. They decide: we must kill Jesus.
Judas Iscariot also knows what he wants. He’s hungry for satisfaction and happiness. He decides: I’m going to contact the chief priests and scribes and betray Jesus.
These decisions come together beautifully because Satan decided for himself what would satisfy him, what would make him happy: to steal what belongs to God and kill Him.
All three want what they want, and they believe what they want will satisfy them. Their own appetite will instead take their own lives.
They are victims of their own deceitful lust.
I’m reading in Luke 22 from verse 1.
1. Luke tells us what time it is: Passover is approaching.
A. Jesus and His disciples triumphantly entered Jerusalem about three or four days ago. Jerusalem is filling up with Jews from around the world for the Feast of Passover.
B. People are learning about this prophet from Galilee.
1. He’s been teaching every morning in the temple.
2. The chief priests and scribes tried to challenge His authority and He easily turned away that attack.
3. Others attack Him but He always knows what to say. He’s always thought-provoking. He’s got depth.
4. He asks one question of them, and they can’t answer Him a word, nor do they dare ask any more questions. Very impressive.
2. The chief priests and scribes really want to kill Jesus because they’re afraid of the people.
A. One fear is losing their prominence to Jesus.
1. Matthew 27:18 For he knew that because of envy they had handed Him over.
2. Envy is painful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another, with a desire to possess that advantage for oneself. You could phrase it, “How come I don’t have what He’s got? I should have that.”
3. I want that adulation and worship. I want to be the centre, the focus of everyone’s attention. How come I don’t have that?
B. A related fear is losing security, that people will so follow Jesus that the Romans will see Him as a rival and come to destroy Jerusalem. That’s John 12:43-53, and the high priest says, “It’s better that one man die rather than the whole nation.” Then we’ll be safe.
C. They want to do this quietly because they’re afraid of the people. What if they find out the chief priests are going to kill Jesus? They would kill them!
D. They want to live, they want to get rid of competition, they want to make themselves the focus, they want to be secure.
E. What’s behind all this? Envy. Why don’t I have what He’s got?
3. Satan enters Judas and he goes to the chief priests and scribes to discuss how he might betray Jesus to them.
A. Just like that? Satan enters a disciple of Jesus and he becomes a traitor at the drop of a hat?
B. The answer is, you don’t become an infamous traitor immediately.
1. You get thoughts sent into your brain from the devil all the time. You recognise those thoughts as the devil because they’re not like Jesus’ thoughts. You reject them, you don’t own them. That wasn’t Jesus, you pray, “Please forgive me, wash me, don’t let me think like that.” You recognise the devil, don’t you?
2. It takes time to make a traitor. The process is very subtle.
C. This wasn’t the first time Judas betrayed Jesus, nor was it the second. He began betraying Jesus quite a while before, consistently, on a very small scale because he was greedy.
1. It was his regular habit to pilfer what was in the money box, because Jesus gave him the responsibility for it. So every time he stole a little and covered up for himself, he betrayed Jesus’ trust.
2. You say, “Yeah, but that’s a little thing!” Remember, if you’re faithful in a very small thing, you’ll be faithful in a very large thing, but if you’re unfaithful in a very small thing, you’ll be unfaithful in a very large thing. You’re either faithful, or you’re not.
3. He wasn’t thinking, “I’m going to betray Jesus!” It was so small he wasn’t thinking about how important it was. He was getting away with it, so he figured all was well.
D. Just like the chief priests and scribes had an appetite for being prominent, and being envious of Jesus’ popularity, Judas had an appetite for money.
E. The appetite grows because whatever is taken in doesn’t satisfy.
1. It’s like eating fake food. You eat it, tastes like food, it goes in you, you’re full, but it’s not real food, so you aren’t satisfied.
2. Money is temporary, and it’s fake because you need what is eternal. So your appetite grows into desire, which grows into craving. That craving becomes the master. The tail begins to wag the dog. Sin is in control. I want what I want.
F. John 12 shows us a turning point with Judas.
1. He saw Mary of Bethany anoint Jesus with perfume he estimated as costing a year’s wages and thought, “Brother! What a waste!” I could have really scored with that.
2. When he actually said, “Why was that wasted, it could have been sold and given to the poor?”, he got a little rebuked by Jesus. It wasn’t a waste, she was anointing My body for the day of My burial. Let her alone.
3. That’s when Judas goes looking for the chief priests and scribes.
G. He had a plan, and he’d been thinking about it for a long time.
1. Jesus is not pushing Himself forward in His being Messiah. Even His own brothers noticed that. John 7:4 For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.”
2. If I betray Jesus into their hands, what’s going to happen? He’s raised the dead, healed the sick, stopped a storm by speaking to it. All He has to do is say a word and they’re history. Or else they believe Him. See that? Nothing is really going to happen if I betray Jesus!
3. Either way Jesus finally does something, and He declares Himself the Messiah, He overcomes all His enemies, He defeats the Romans, He sits on the throne of David, the wealth of the nations flows to Israel.
4. Then you’re going to see some serious wealth, and I’m going to have a hand in it. It’s going to be jackpot.
5. Maybe there’s a bit of payback in that for Jesus’ slight rebuke. We’ll see who gets slapped around a little bit.
H. The deception here is that “Nothing is going to happen, it’s going to be okay. The little betrayals didn’t matter, neither will this betrayal.” Every FUF betrayal matters. It doesn’t matter what size, all sin matters.
I. Satan is slipping in and out of Judas making suggestions, leading him, giving him ideas, without Judas noticing, because Judas thinks just like Satan. Those thoughts are just like his thoughts. They think alike. And both Judas and Satan are thinking the unthinkable.
4. The primary player in this scene is Satan himself. His lust and greed is the source of priests and Judas’ lust and greed. Two major scriptures show his sin.
A. Ezekiel 28:12-15 Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the ruby, the topaz and the diamond; the beryl, the onyx and the jasper; the lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you. On the day that you were created they were prepared.
You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you.
1. Satan was created by God for His glory. He is not the equal of God, he is not eternal. He is a creation.
2. Satan’s perfection showed forth God’s glory, he had something to do with leading that worship of God, he was there in God’s very presence.
3. God found unrighteousness in him. “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, that they may see you.” Satan became proud, instead of worshipping God, he worshipped his own beauty. A creation can’t be greater than his Creator. He corrupted his wisdom so that it’s not wisdom anymore. It’s not rational reasoning.
B. The other scripture is Isaiah 14:12-14 “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations! But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’”
1. Because Satan became proud and focused on himself, he decided for himself what would fulfil him, what would satisfy him: I want to be God. He gets all the worship, all the focus. Why don’t I have that? Why should He have it? Why not me?
2. Lust and greed made God’s creation the devil.
3. Can he satisfy his lust and greed? He can’t overthrow God. But he could get Adam and Eve to think like him and crave and lust like him. They began to think, “Why should God have the knowledge of good and evil? Why don’t I have that? Why not me?” They began thinking like Satan, and then they acted like Satan, they decided what would satisfy them: I want to be like the Most High. And then they did what they thought would satisfy them.
4. Satan lied to them, it only killed them. But they still have the craving, the appetite, the lust, that never gets satisfied because whatever you feed the lust isn’t real food, it’s fake. You consume money, but money doesn’t satisfy. You kill your opponent, but that doesn’t solve your problems.
5. So what?
A. You have deceitful lusts and craving that are completely corrupted from the very beginning.
B. Satan was deceived and you are deceived.
C. This attitude naturally makes you an enemy of God. You cannot cooperate with Him because your very desires are exactly opposite to His. There is zero agreement possible. You will kill God, or God will kill you.
D. He knows what will make you happy and satisfied. He doesn’t have to guess, and He is not deceived. Jesus said, “It is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. John 6:32-35
E. It’s amazing that He knows better than we do how to satisfy us. As long as you are the boss you will always be deceived, stressed, and hungry.
F. Turn to Jesus. Eat the True Bread and be satisfied. You will thank Him and bless Him and glory in Him.
Let’s pray.