Betrayal to Victory

Have you ever been betrayed? I have. I've been betrayed so much that I have begun to believe it is just "a way of life." Or, at least, my life. I have had so many people lie to me, and it shakes the foundation of your existence, or at least your heart. To see how Jesus was betrayed by the very ones who should have embraced Him as the Messiah is hard to read about, but it happened. I try to stay away from subjects that hit close to home, but reality bites hard, and it just keeps on biting. I have been put in positions where people have lied about me, threatened my life, and were hell bent on destroying me, but it didn't stop me from following my call. Life is full of disappointments, and being betrayed is one of those life things that hits hard and hits deep. We sometimes think that being around other Christians would keep this betrayal from happening, but it doesn't. The place betrayal hits me the deepest is in my ability to trust people or circumstances.

Get this. Jesus is walking on the earth healing people and offering eternal life and forgiveness of sins, and it is the religious leaders who are riding point against him? Evil has a way of going against what we believe can happen, and then it goes even further than that. There is a phrase that says, "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer." When those who should honor you betray you and then blame it on you, it defies human understanding. Sometimes we try to sweep betrayal under the rug, but doing that just allows it to keep on getting worse and worse until it becomes an acceptable lifestyle. Well, it isn't!

Betrayal was at the heart of Jesus sufferings and betrayal was in the heart of those religious leaders. Jesus identified them and their wicked hearts in Matthew 23:13 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either. 15 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are! 16 “Blind guides! What sorrow awaits you! For you say that it means nothing to swear ‘by God’s Temple,’ but that it is binding to swear ‘by the gold in the Temple.’ 17 Blind fools! Which is more important—the gold or the Temple that makes the gold sacred? I believe Jesus "called them out" very well and I think we should call out those who are betrayers as well. Those people try to exalt themselves by hurting other people and try to justify it through very weak means. There is a word for those who are betrayers who exalt themselves at the expense of others and Jesus tells the upside down reasoning from heaven in Matthew 23:12 But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

The lying religious leaders thought they had accomplished victory for themselves, but a greater victory happened as the Son of God was resurrected and His victory erased all the hate and pain those religious leaders had tried to cause. John 20:1 Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 2 She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” 3 Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. 4 They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. 6 Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, 7 while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. 8 Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed— 9 for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. 10 Then they went home.

The victory of the resurrection more than made up for the betrayal of a world that did not believe Jesus was the Messiah. What has the victory done in your life? Have you immersed yourself in the fact that exalting Jesus is living in His resurrection power, and exalting yourself is fruitless and lifeless? So betrayal will no longer exist in that kind of heart, for it is controlled by the Holy Spirit and not the world. I remember a scene in Jurassic Park where the guy who programmed their computers had a password that must be used to access the system. If you didn't do the right password the computer would say "ah, ah, ah." In other words, that password won't work. Here is our password to show Jesus in our lives. You must be born again. If not, you are not changed. Jesus took a betraying world of religious people and gave victory in spite of their evil intentions. That is real power. Ressurection power!!

Today's Message,

David Warren