“SATANIC PLOT OR SOVEREIGN PLAN?”
LUKE 22:1-6

I. Introduction
You do not need to attend this church very long to know that we believe in, preach, and teach that the God of the Bible is sovereign. We believe, preach, and teach that God’s sove-reignty oversees and orders not only the affairs of men, but everything from eternity past, through the present time, and on into eternity future.

When we first hear this truth most of us readily accept it. But the more we contemplate how the sovereignty of God affects, not only our lives but everything else, everywhere else, and all the time, we begin to wonder about what this thing called the sovereignty of God actually means. And that usually leads us to question just what we really believe about it.

The question that seems to arise most often relates to evil and why a sovereign God, if He is truly in control of all things, would allow evil to flourish, and even increase in frequency and intensity. We ask, “What’s with that? That makes no sense. If God really is sovereign, can He not stop it? Better yet, why does He allow it in the first place?” That is the question, isn’t it? And when we ask that question, aren’t we looking for an answer that we can not only understand, but one we’ll be able to agree with?

Yet the more we stretch our thinking and wrack our brains, the more deeply we dive into theology, and the more we read the great Christian thinkers of the last two thousand years, we only come to the same conclusion: God is God and we’re not! And sooner or later we come to grips with the fact that God does what God does because He chooses to do it.
Psalm 135:6a
6a Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth…
Daniel 4:35
35 “And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”

It’s popular these days to talk about man’s free will, but God’s is the only truly free will that exists. “Whatever the Lord pleases, He does…” No human being, no creation of God could ever say that, no one, ever!
*Isaiah 46:8-10
8 “Remember this, and be assured; recall it to mind, you transgressors.
9 “Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accom-
plish all my good pleasure…’”
This eternal truth is carried forward into the NT. What does it all mean to those of us who believe? The Apostle Paul tells us in his letter to the church at Ephesus.
Ephesians 1:11
11 (In Christ) also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things, after the counsel of His will…

And so, we are left with this: The God who has created the universe by speaking it into existence, the one who knew us before time began – and the one who has saved us by His choice and His will – does what He wants to do, when He wants to do it, how He wants to do it, and He does it all for His ultimate praise, honor, and glory. That’s sovereignty!

Why am I saying all of this? Because if we fail to acknowledge and embrace God’s absolute sovereignty, we will never understand what happens in this morning’s passage in Luke or, for that matter, the rest of Luke’s gospel either.

Today we will look at the sin of Judas and the evil of Satan. Both will be disclosed and both will accomplish their purposes. Or so it will seem. But in their sin and evil the absolute sovereignty of God will be on display as He will use that sin and evil to accomplish His own eternal purpose.

Back in Genesis 50, Joseph, by then a ruler in Egypt, confronted his brothers, the ones who tried to murder him when he was just a boy. He told them…
Genesis 50:20
20 “And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”

Think about that as we examine the events of the last days of Jesus life on earth. It seems that everywhere He turns sin and evil are about to overtake Him, defeat Him, and finally kill Him. But do not be dismayed. In ways that turn human reason and logic upside down, God will mean it for good. What will happen to Jesus Christ will, to use Joseph’s words back in Genesis 50:20, “…preserve many people alive.” God will accomplish this despite the sin of Judas and the evil of Satan. Only an almighty, holy, and sovereign God can do such things. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

II. Review
How have we come to this point in Luke’s gospel? Jesus’ three year ministry among the Jews has come to an end. He has nearly completed the task for which God has sent Him to earth. The gospel has been preached. The stage is set for Him to do God’s will. Here are just a few of the things Jesus’ has said about why He came into this world and what He accomplished when He was here.
Matthew 20:28
28 “…the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

John 6:38
38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”

John 18:37 (before Pilate)
37 Pilate therefore said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

So in these few verses we see God’s purpose in sending Jesus to die. It’s His will that Jesus give His life to save His people. This is divine truth from a sovereign God. Why would anyone think that the sin of Judas or even all the power of Satan could thwart God’s plan? This is why I asked Johann-Peter to read from Job to open the service. In Job 1 we see that even Satan must have God’s permission to do his evil work.

A cursory reading of the Scriptures may lead you to believe Judas’ betrayal of Jesus led to the Lord’s crucifixion. And a superficial understanding of Satan’s power may lead you to believe that the devil accomplished his task of destroying God’s Son. But the works of both Judas and Satan were under the control of God. None of what will happen to Jesus through the last three chapters of Luke’s gospel will be outside the parameters of God’s will.

Was there a satanic plot to kill Jesus? Yes, there most certainly was. Was God caught off guard or surprised by Jesus’ death or the events that led up to it? No, He most certainly was not! On the contrary, He orchestrated every aspect of it. In fact, Jesus’ death was planned by God before the foundation of the world. One of the choruses we sing at our Communion services expresses that very sentiment. It’s taken from Revelation 13:8.

“Behold the Lamb, behold the Lamb, Slain from the foundation of the world.
For sinners crucified, O holy sacrifice, Behold the Lamb of God, Behold the Lamb.”

Not only was God’s plan in place, so was the time. And the time wasn’t merely the year, or the month, or the week, or even the day. It was the very hour. John 7:30 says, “…no man laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.” John 8:20 he says, “…and no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come.” But when His hour finally did come, Jesus knew it, and He said so. In John 12:23 He said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Later…
John 17:1
1 …and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come, glo-rify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You.”

The religious leaders didn’t even control the time of Jesus’ death. Pilate didn’t control it. Judas didn’t control that. Satan himself didn’t control that. God controlled it! It was His plan. Jesus is God’s perfect Lamb and He died on God’s perfect schedule.
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III. Text
That leads us to this morning’s text. God’s perfect time would when Israel celebrated the Passover – when the blood of an innocent lamb would be shed for the sins of the people.
*Luke 22:1-6 (Please stand with me in honor of reading God’s Word.)
1 Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching.
2 And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might put (Jesus) to death; for they were afraid of the people.
3 And Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot, belonging to the num-ber of the twelve.
4 And he went away and discussed with the chief priests and the officers how he might betray (Jesus) to them.
5 And they were glad and agreed to give (Judas) money.
6 And he consented, and began seeking a good opportunity to betray (Jesus) to them apart from the multitude.

In Luke 21 Jesus has been speaking about His Second Coming. That chapter ended with a summary statement of everything Jesus had been doing since He entered Jerusalem four days earlier on what we’ve come to call “Palm Sunday.” Since then He has spent His time preaching and teaching in the temple during the day, and spending the nights with His disci-ples in Bethany at the home of His friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.
*Luke 22:1
1 Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching.

This feast was a commemoration of God’s delivering the nation of Israel from Egypt. In the Book of Exodus God directed the people to celebrate it for six days. It was to begin on the fifteenth day of the month of Nisan and run through the twenty-first day of that same month. (in 2015 the same dates on our calendar are April 4 through April 10.) The Passover commemorated the night that God’s destroying angel went through Egypt killing all of the first-born.
*Exodus 12:12-14 (God speaking to Moses and Aaron)
12 “For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment – I am the LORD.
13 “And the blood (of the Passover Lamb) shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
14 “Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a perma-nent ordinance.”
So the Feast of Unleavened Bread was approaching. It would begin on Friday. And since the Passover was to be celebrated on the night before the feast began, Jesus would eat the Passover meal on Thursday night with twelve of His closest friends. Well, to be more accu-rate, that would be eleven of His friends and one enemy, but the others did not as yet know that one was a betrayer.

At this point I want to reiterate that Jesus’ death was not an accident, brought about by a series of unfortunate and random circumstances that somehow gelled into a perfect storm that was out of God’s control. That’s exactly what many critics of biblical Christianity believe, but they could not be more wrong. Let me remind you of three facts that dispute the unbeliever’s claims.
• First, Jesus prophesied His death and His own resurrection.
*Mark 8:31
31 And (Jesus) began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
*Mark 10:33-34
33 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and will deliver Him to the Gentiles.
34 “And they will mock Him and spit upon Him, and scourge Him, and kill Him, and three days later He will rise again.”

• Second, Jesus had total and absolute power and authority over His own life.
*John 10:17-18a
17 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.
18a “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again…”
*John 19:10-11a
10 Pilate therefore said to (Jesus), “You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?”
11a Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above…”

• Third, until the hour of Jesus’ had come, every attempt to kill Him would fail.
*Matthew 2:13
13 Now when they (the Magi) had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise and take the Child and His mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.”
*Luke 4:28-30 (When He announced His true identity in Nazareth)
28 And all in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things;
29 and they rose up and cast Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of a hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.
30 But passing through their midst, He went His way.

On the Day of Pentecost the church was born and the Apostle Peter preached the very first sermon. He made it clear that nothing about Jesus had anything to do with the will of men. Rather, he said this…
Acts 2:22-24
22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know –
23 this Man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.
24 “And God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.”

How’s that for an opening salvo? Right from the very beginning of the church it was made clear that God controlled it all. Jesus’ miracles, His death, and His resurrection – they were all planned and executed by the hand of God. The religious leaders, Judas, and Satan all played a role, but it was a role God had given them, and they played it out on His stage.
*Luke 22:2
2 And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might put (Jesus) to death; for they were afraid of the people.

It has often been said that religion is one of the greatest forces for evil that this world has ever known. Think about that. Has anything done more damage to the cause of Christ and biblical Christianity than the religions of men? The chief priests in v. 22 were some of the most religious men in Israel. Among them were the current high priest Caiaphas, the former high priest Annas (Caiaphas’ father-in-law), and most of the sect of the Sadducees. The scribes were nearly all Pharisees, those who studied, interpreted, and taught the Mosaic Law.

And although they regularly disagreed about many things, they had found common ground in their hatred for Jesus. As His popularity among the people grew, they began to fear the loss of their own power. They did not like that at all. And it wasn’t just Jesus’ challenge of their pride and hypocrisy that angered them. The Romans had allowed the religious leaders to maintain a certain level of autonomy over the people. They were becoming afraid that Jesus’ popularity could escalate into a cause for Rome to question its wisdom in doing so.

So these most religious men wanted Jesus dead. But regardless of their motives they were still the men a sovereign God had placed in human authority over the nation.
I want to show you a concrete example of that sovereignty. Since God called every high priest to speak God’s truth, the high priest Caiaphas would speak God’s truth. Yes, his motives were evil. Yes, his words would emanate from a heart filled with hatred for Jesus, but no matter, God would see to it that the high priest would speak divine truth anyway.
*John 11:48-52 (the Pharisees talking among the themselves)
48 “If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place (privileges) and our nation.”
49 But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all,
50 nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish.”
51 Now this he did not say on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation,
52 and not for the nation only, but that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

What an amazing passage and testimony to the power of God! What a lesson for us! If He chooses to do so, God can even make those who hate Him open their mouths and speak His truth. And then another amazing thing happens.
*Luke 22:3
3 And Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot, belonging to the num-ber of the twelve.

If Satan was pleased with what was going on with the religious leaders, can you imagine how he must have felt when he gained entrance into one of Jesus’ own disciples? Jesus had already told the scribes and Pharisees… “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning… (John 8:44b).” Now Judas is no better than the Pharisees. In fact, there is at least one sense in which Judas may now be far worse than the Pharisees.

I cannot say this with absolute assurance, but I believe it to be accurate. As far as I know Judas is the only person who was ever possessed by Satan himself. I believe that at this moment, even though Judas was still alive in the flesh, he was irretrievably lost. We know that many have been possessed by demons, and some have later come to saving faith. The Bible tells us of them. But it seems that Satan did not want to leave Judas’ possession up to one or more of his own fallen angels. It seems that he wanted that job for himself.

So once again, it appears that Satan is behind all of it. The religious leaders are children of Satan, and now Judas is one of them. But all of them – Satan, the religious leaders, and Judas – no matter what they may think they’re doing, the reality is that they’re still serving the ultimate purposes of God. None of them can do anything outside of the boundaries and limits that God has placed on them.
I hope you can remember that as you see evil in the world and heresy in the church. None of it is out of God’s control. When He is ready, when the time is right, He will bring it to an end. Oh, how I hope you can take comfort in that today! But someone asks, “How could a man live and walk with Jesus, hear Him preach and teach, see His miracles, and enjoy sweet fellowship with Him for three years, and then turn his back on Him and betray Him?” The answer can be found in the spiritual blindness of a hard and unbelieving heart.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4a
3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,
4a in whose case the god of this world (Satan) has blinded the minds of the unbe-lieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ…

So Satan, using Judas’ spiritual blindness and unbelief, turned him into the betrayer of the Son of Man. The last three verses of this passage really require no exposition.
*Luke 22:4-6
4 And he went away and discussed with the chief priests and the officers how he might betray (Jesus) to them.
5 And they were glad and agreed to give (Judas) money.
6 And he consented, and began seeking a good opportunity to betray (Jesus) to them apart from the multitude.

So the stage was set for the final hours of Jesus life on this earth. We’ve seen the pride and hypocrisy of false religion, the evil and power of Satan, and the blindness and greed of Judas. They’ve all come together in a plot to kill Jesus…and God is in complete and sove-reign control of every last detail.
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IV. Conclusion
As we approach the conclusion of this morning’s sermon I want to leave you with a few quotes that I think will help to focus our thinking. Listen to John Calvin. He said…
“And it is of great importance for us to hold, that Christ was not unexpectedly dragged to death by the violence of His enemies, but was led to it by the providence of God; for our confidence in the propitiation (Jesus’ death) is founded on the convic-tion that He was offered to God as that sacrifice which God had appointed from the beginning. And therefore He determined that His Son should be sacrificed on the very day of the Passover…”

The most obvious lesson for us this morning is that God is in control. That should be a great comfort as we look around us today. The second may be a little less obvious, but important nonetheless. It is that Satan uses religion more effectively than anything else he has to thwart the truth of God and keep men and women blind to it. Listen, every one of the world’s major religions – except biblical Christianity – teaches some form or variation of this satanic lie: Man can please God and save himself by good works and/or human effort.
Only the gospel can save because only the gospel can change hearts and convert those who are spiritually dead to those who are spiritually alive. Making “a decision” for Christ can-not save because salvation is not the result of anything we can do. Unless God penetrates our hearts with the gospel of His Son we will not believe, and we will not put our faith and trust in Him. Salvation is solely and completely a work of God. That’s why Jesus said…
John 6:65
65 “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me, unless it has been granted Him from the Father.”

Has God changed your heart? Then praise Him and give Him thanks. He has done for you what you could never have done for yourself.

And there is a third lesson for you to take this with you this morning. When things look bleak and even dark, or when fears and doubts come upon you, or when you are overtaken with sadness, sorrow, or even grief, remember this one eternal truth: The God you worship has the situation under control. He is not asleep, or unable to come to your aid.

Last Sunday we sang “How Firm a Foundation.” Just listen as I read the first, second, and fourth verses. In the first verse the words come from the hymn writer. He says…
“How firm a foundation you saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He has said,
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?”

But then the words come from God, albeit paraphrased from Scripture…
“Fear not! I am with you; O be not dismayed,
For I am your God and will still give you aid.
I’ll strengthen you, help you, and cause you to stand,
Upheld by My righteous omnipotent hand.”

“The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose;
I will not, I will not desert to his foes.
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!”

~ Pray ~