Living Outloud: Matthew 26-28

Following Jesus today can be dangerous and unpopular, much like it was during his final days in Matthew's Gospel.

• Looking at Judas, we see how misplaced expectations can lead us to betray Jesus when he doesn't act how we want
• Judas was a real follower who saw miracles and heard teachings, yet abandoned Jesus when his expectations weren't met
• The sleeping disciples in Gethsemane mirror our tendency to disengage when faith becomes uncomfortable 
• Faith should put us in positions where we "contend" - entering the ring, taking punches, and staying engaged
• Peter's denial reminds us that it's easy to follow Jesus when it's popular, but much harder when it becomes dangerous
• When people accuse and attack Christians, the most important audience is often the silent bystanders watching
• Like the Roman centurion who witnessed Jesus' crucifixion, quiet observers notice the contrast between love and hate
• As culture becomes less accepting of Christianity, we must decide where we'll stand in relation to Jesus

Download our free Echo Discipleship Guides at outloudbible.com on the resources page to dig deeper into these discussions with another person.

Chapters

• 0:23 Positioning Ourselves Close to Jesus
• 1:58 Judas: When Jesus Doesn't Meet Expectations
• 6:14 Disciples: Falling Asleep When Jesus Needs Us
• 9:39 Peter: From Bold Claims to Fearful Denial
• 13:51 The Watching Bystanders and Kingdom Building
• 18:15 Next Steps: 1 & 2 Timothy

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Hey, welcome back to Living Out Loud, our Friday segment of the Out Loud Bible Project podcast with Mike and Kelsey, and what I want to focus on today is in this last bit of Matthew there are lots of people who have certain proximities to Jesus, new characters that kind of pop up here in the story, a couple that we've known before, but have their unique relationship with Jesus. In a time where the name of Jesus and the figure of Jesus is not popular, affiliation with him, affiliation with Jesus, is dangerous now in this section of Matthew and, frankly, now in 2025. The way culture is going now is it's not popular to be a Christian, it's not being affiliated with Jesus is not like oh, that's cool. It's a very tenuous thing at best and a lot of people have a lot of negative reactions around Jesus. Ourselves in some of these stories and figure out how can we position ourselves and our hearts close to Jesus so that we can be most effective, even in a time when it is not popular to be associated with him.

Speaker 2: 1:24

Right, I was reading this and thinking when things heat up around the name of Jesus, where are we going to stand? And right now, I think that we can really apply these characters to our own lives and hold up some mirrors and be really honest with where we are, when it is not cool and it is even dangerous to associate with Jesus. So one of the first characters that we come up to in chapter 26 is Judas. Judas making this deal to betray Jesus.

Speaker 1: 1:56

Big bad Judas. It's really easy to like, vilify Judas as like he's the bad guy. He's the one that Satan himself entered into, like what that's crazy, and be like well, obviously we're not like Judas and I'm not implying we are like Judas. However, I like to talk about this a lot when we read the Bible, like don't assume you are the good guy, don't assume you are the good example and don't assume that you're not like the bad guys here. Allow the Bible to be a mirror to reveal any time that we don't line up with the heart of God. Okay, so in Judas it's not just about like I'm going to betray Jesus and hand him over to be killed.

Speaker 2: 2:31

He, as a very real human who lived a very real life, had his reasons for doing what he was doing. We are not saying he was right, but he had reasons, and we need to be really honest with ourselves whether or not we sometimes have those same motivations when it comes to our proximity to Jesus and how we're going to either follow him or not follow him. Judas was a follower of Jesus. Right, he was with Jesus, he was following Jesus. He was learning from Jesus, of Jesus. Right, he was with Jesus, he was following Jesus. He was learning from Jesus, up until Jesus started saying stuff that Judas didn't like because it didn't follow what Judas had decided Jesus would be.

Speaker 2: 3:03

It didn't fit Judas's expectations of the Messiah. And then what I see is Judas making a decision to you know what, instead of continuing to follow this guy because I don't like what he's saying anymore and and I don't really I don't like what he's turning us into I'm going to go hedge my bets and go side with the side of, in his case, the culture, the political leaders, the cultural, religious leaders. I'm going to go hedge my bets and like make sure that I'm on the right side with them so that when things go south with the Jesus guy, I've got some collateral, I've got a position left over, Like hedging his bets against Jesus, because Jesus is starting to say stuff that is not popular and is going to get him killed.

Speaker 1: 3:47

And with Judas. It's not a case of that. He didn't, you know, see the miracles. He was there for the miracles. It's not a case that he didn't know what Jesus said. He was there for Jesus' teachings. As long as you know, the Bible didn't say that it was just, you know, peter, james and John, or that Jesus was by himself. We can assume Judas was there. Jesus washed his feet. You know, it's not.

Speaker 1: 4:07

That revealed a misplaced expectation on Jesus. I think Judas here is an example of what do you expect Jesus to do? What are your expectations that you've placed on Jesus? And Judas was disillusioned when Jesus did not meet his expectations. Was that Jesus' fault? No, it was the fault of having expectations on Jesus in the first place. And so, if we're going to allow the Bible to be a mirror, we have to ask ourselves what do I expect Jesus to do Now? I may have seen his miracles, I may know his teachings, I've seen what he's done, I've experienced his love. Okay, what do we expect of him, though? In Judas's case, well, great, he's going to overthrow Rome, and then he was like you know what? I don't think Jesus has that in mind at all. That's not what he's doing at all. And then then what? Then? What do you do with the Jesus who doesn't meet your expectations?

Speaker 2: 5:09

Right. I see this coming through in our day and age, when, whenever someone asks the question like how could a good God let something so bad happen, that is a revelation that the expectation we put on him is that he does good things the way I define good things and when he doesn't come through in what I would define as a good way in a bad situation and bad happens anyway. He didn't defeat the bad guy, so what's he doing?

Speaker 1: 5:35

Then I have a crisis of faith because I'm like, well then, what good is he?

Speaker 1: 5:54

Yeah, and that crisis of faith can lead us today to do the same thing Judas did, which is sell out and be disciples his three best friends Peter, james, john. He was inviting them to come pray with him. Like Jesus was having a bad day, like this this was the worst day of his life really as a human and he just wanted his friends around. Hey, I got to pray, can you come pray with me? And it's really kind of sad, like three times he went out to I'm going to go off over there by myself to pray, but just pray here and I'll come back. And he came back and they're sleeping three times. It's sad, but frankly I think it's relatable also, if we're being honest, not in the sense of, like I fall asleep when I pray in bed at night, although you know sure if that's, if Jesus is saying, hey, just be alert, like maybe do that.

Speaker 1: 6:41

But I think it goes beyond just literally falling asleep praying.

Speaker 2: 6:43

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:44

I think that here the question that I want to ask is Jesus was sweating blood, like he was stressed about what was coming and about the hour that was upon him.

Speaker 2: 6:58

And right now Jesus is on the throne, he's not sweating, he's fine, he's not sweating blood, he's fine, he's not sweating blood, he's fine.

Speaker 2: 7:04

But if, proverbially, he's sweating blood right now, if things are heating up around his name and culture is coming to a clash and the world is kind of like coming to blows over who Jesus is, are we going to engage with that? Are we going to sit and pray and ask Jesus what to pray and pray in this moment? Or are we going to kind of fall asleep in the sense of saying, yeah, things are looking bad, but I'm just going to kind of live my comfy, cozy Christian life and not really engage with that, because all of that is kind of too much for me and I don't really want to I don't know engage and I don't want to be put on the chopping block with my friends or my family. So I'm just going to kind of stay over here and live my cozy little Christian life. I think that's what we have to wrestle with with this story and the disciples falling asleep is that if Jesus was in front of you sweating blood over what's about to go down, what would you be doing If Jesus was?

Speaker 1: 8:03

in front of you, sweat and blood over what's about to go down. What would you be doing? I think it reminds me of when Paul talks about the importance of contending for the faith. Right Like contending? Is this idea of going into the ring and throwing some punches and, frankly, being willing to take some punches and just not giving up and just bleeding a little bit? The faith, our faith, is supposed to put us in positions where we are going to get beat up a little bit. Our faith is supposed to put us in positions where we are going to get beat up a little bit, and it's going to be hard, it's going to be uncomfortable, but we're in the ring and we're sticking with it and we're not experiencing any fatigue or pain or abuse from other people that Jesus hasn't already received. So let's contend with him.

Speaker 2: 8:44

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 8:45

And that's I think that's our position today. If we want to be among Jesus's friends, let's pray according to his prayers, let's have the same heart that he has and ask for more. Ask for, like God, show me your heart, and whatever breaks your heart, have it. Break my heart too, like I don't want to. I want to be able to be awake at night for something, not out of worry, but out of because it breaks your heart, and I want it to break mine too. And if it means that I lose sleep over it and I stay up and pray instead, then that's what we'll do. It's kind of a scary prayer to pray, but I think it's an important one if we really want to contend for the faith like.

Speaker 2: 9:21

Jesus did, but I think it's an important one if we really want to contend for the faith like Jesus did. Just a real quick note about Caiaphas and Pilate in this story. I think that Caiaphas and Pilate, for me, are a reminder to pray for the people in positions of power, politically or governmentally, or religiously Caiaphas, of course, being the leader of the religious and Pilate being the political leader. Let's pray for those people in positions of power that they would be seeing Jesus for who he is and making calls on behalf of the people that are honoring to God, unlike Caiaphas and Pilate did.

Speaker 1: 9:59

But I just think that there's a call there for us to be praying for pray for more people, like pilot's wife yeah, god was trying to communicate in her and through her. Didn't give pilot those dreams. Give him his wife like pray for the people who are around these people, that they, yeah, have boldness to speak and that the person in power has the humility and the openness to receive it. Yeah, um, god can still work in those ways today. So, yeah, that's a good note. Of course we have Peter, and I mean the parallels are too stark here. It doesn't take much imagination to find ourselves in Peter's position.

Speaker 2: 10:32

For me, it's this story of this Christ follower who it was real exciting to find the Messiah. It was real exciting to be one of his 12 closest followers, even among those, one of the three. He's the rock on which Jesus is going to build the church Like this is exciting stuff. At some point in Jesus's ministry it was really popular to follow Jesus.

Speaker 1: 10:53

It was so exciting. And it was hey, are you one of those followers of Jesus?

Speaker 2: 10:56

Yeah, I am Like, let me tell you about him, Let me tell you about the Messiah. He's the Messiah. And at one point in my life if someone had come up to me and been like, hey, do you follow Jesus? I would have been super excited about that open door conversation Like oh, yeah, like let me tell you.

Speaker 2: 11:09

But in Peter's story, here and I think now in our culture, the way things are going, the question of hey, do you follow Jesus? Is less inquisitive and more accusatory. And so when that question becomes an accusation of like oh, are you with him, are you one of those people, are you one of those hateful all the bigoted, homophobic white supremacists like all those things, everything that they think Jesus stands for or Christianity is. That it becomes an accusation. The oh, do you follow him? Is an accusation. Then how do I respond?

Speaker 1: 11:42

It's not so exciting to say yes, and we can empathize with Peter a little bit, because now he finds that being associated with Jesus is more of a dangerous thing. It poses a threat to his own safety. Three different times people came up to him and were like no, I've seen you with him or I've seen you around those church people, I've seen you post something about Jesus on social media or whatever, and they're not coming to him saying that. I'm now translating it to today, but the parallel is too easy. Are we willing to still affiliate with Jesus?

Speaker 2: 12:14

Right.

Speaker 1: 12:14

And you know what you don't know until you're in it, it's easy to say oh yeah, I'd stand up for it. Peter himself did. Peter himself was like. Even Jesus himself said you will deny me three times by the end of the day.

Speaker 2: 12:26

And Peter was like no, I won't, no, I won't Jesus?

Speaker 1: 12:30

Jesus, you'd be silly. But no, then the time came, and it was. The attitude about Jesus had flipped so quickly that he did not feel safe being affiliated anymore. So you know, what do we do today? I mean, we can say all we want and declare all we want. I think we just got to pray, though, like Jesus, in the times where I'm confronted with and it does not look favorable to me, just please give me strength, like please give me the faith and the strength to affiliate with you, even if it costs me something. I think that's the best we can do right now.

Speaker 2: 13:04

Yeah, kind of. The last thing to hone in on that we wanted to bring up was the crowds in Matthew 27, the crowds that are just slinging accusations and horrible. Verse 39 says those passing by were hurling abuse at him, wagging their heads. They're criticizing him, they're saying, oh, if you were going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. If you're the son of God, come down from the cross cross. Just these horrible slurs and abuses and criticisms, just really aggressively coming at who Jesus claimed he was.

Speaker 1: 13:40

And this reminds me of videos that we've watched today. We're going to bring it right into 2025. This reminds me of videos where there is some street evangelist, maybe some apologists, on the street with a microphone or something, whether they're taking questions or they're just kind of open air. People from the crowd will kind of step out and be loud and be vile and be hateful, frankly, and just yell things and mock and very loud, maybe part of a crowd, but I think it's actually maybe a minority, but it's a very loud minority of people who are slinging these accusations. And it's interesting when we watch these videos and in the really good examples we see the person representing Christ, keeping calm, having composure, and we have, on the other side of things, someone being very loud, very upset, very hurt, honestly very hurt and confused people but don't know how to handle it very well. But then you look on the outskirts. You see a lot of people standing watching, because here's the thing, there's always someone watching when the name of Jesus starts heating up.

Speaker 2: 14:39

Yep, and in Matthew 27,. We see verse 54. Now the centurion and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, literally just there doing their job that day, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became frightened and said truly, this was the son of God. They're the bystander right and I think if we put our energy into trying to convince the people who are screaming in our faces that they're wrong, we're going to miss the bystander and the moment that God's happening with them.

Speaker 1: 15:10

I don't think you're going to flip someone who's yelling profanities and accusing you of bigotry and hate, and I don't think you're going to flip them in that conversation. They're not ready for that. Honestly, I think Satan's just trying to throw a fit and cause a distraction. So be loving, of course, still, but don't try to flip them.

Speaker 1: 15:26

In a conversation, it's the bystander that's watching. They are seeing a stark contrast between what someone is saying about Jesus and love and what someone is saying about saying, yelling about Jesus and hate and they're saying, okay, but hold on. The one talking about Jesus and love is actually the one that is loving and the one who's saying that Jesus is hateful is actually the one acting more hateful. Like that contrast is looking more and more stark even today in conversations. Like that contrast is looking more and more stark even today in conversations. So we, as the Christian, as the one who's representing Jesus, we need to be strong to represent Jesus' love, peace, building relationships, not giving into anger, not giving into stooping to other people's levels, but to let love and truth just stand on its own and speak for itself, so that the people, like the Roman officer who are watching, taking it all in and deciding for themselves. They can be able to say that's Christ.

Speaker 2: 16:26

So, as the name of Jesus heats up, as the situations and conversations and implications around being affiliated with Jesus heat up, where are you? Where are you standing? Using Matthew 26-28 as a mirror and there's plenty of other characters we didn't get into for the sake of time but if we really go in here and study and have an open heart to let the Holy Spirit reveal to us who we are in this story, who are we today? Where are we standing in relation to Jesus and what ought in this story? Who are we today? Where are we standing in relation to Jesus and what ought we be doing? Who should we be?

Speaker 2: 17:00

I would like to be the women at the feet of the cross who didn't leave, who stayed all the way through and who believed that he was the Son of God all the way through and stayed faithful to be near Him the entire time. I can't say that I always am that, but I would like to be, and so I think that these are just good questions to wrestle with and really practical, timely things to be wrestling with, as being a Christian and claiming the name of Jesus and claiming to be a follower of him isn't popular, it isn't cozy, it's no longer comfortable. It's no longer easy and culturally accepted to be a christ follower in the same way that it has been for the last several decades. So, um, I'm wrestling with this in my life, how I can be more boldly speaking about the name of jesus and be more boldly affiliated with him. And and I hope you are too satan's not gonna let us build this kingdom without opposition.

Speaker 1: 17:52

So we can expect it, but we got's not going to. Let us build this kingdom without opposition so we can expect it, but we've got to keep going, and that's what this season of the podcast is about. It's building the kingdom. So we've concluded the book of Matthew Awesome.

Speaker 2: 18:03

Where are we headed next?

Speaker 1: 18:04

We're headed to 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy, some of Paul's letters to help equip some young men to build the kingdom in the way that God's calling them to.

Speaker 2: 18:17

So to build the kingdom in the way that God's calling them to so great discussions ahead, and thanks for joining us here on this Living Out Loud. And, as always, you can be going to find the Echo discipleship guides to go into these discussions deeper. They're designed to do with one other person, one-on-one. You could take it to a small group, you could also do it on your own, but really trying to live out what Jesus says at the end of Matthew 28, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I've commanded you. That's what the Echo Discipleship Guides are for. You can find those at outloudbiblecom on the resources page. They're completely free and you can download those to go along with the books that we're studying in the podcast.

Speaker 1: 18:56

That was a great time to do it, and we'll join you for the next conversation, next time We'll see you then.