following his entry into Jerusalem Jesus
spent the first part of the Passover
week preaching to the crowds healing the
sick and confronting the Jewish priests
in the courtyard of the temple his
miracles and message angered the
religious leaders so much they decided
he must die on Thursday morning Jesus
instructed his disciples to prepare a
room in the city for a celebration of
the Passover Feast that evening during
the meal he offered his own prophecy of
impending death and resurrection during
the Passover Seder meal he took the
bread and he broke it and he prayed most
people don't know what he prayed and he
prayed a Hebrew prayer that is being
prayed until today and he said blessed
are you O Lord our God King of the
universe who brings forth bread from the
earth
and when he said I am the bread of life
and he said take eat so he was
prophesying to the disciples that he
will be put to death and he will be in
the grave and God the Father will raise
him up blessed are you O Lord our God
who brings forth bread from the earth
meaning his body will be in the earth
and it will be resurrected
as the disciples shared in the witch
symbolism of the Passover meal only
Jesus was aware that one of them planned
to betray him after this Jesus was
troubled in spirit and testified I tell
you the truth one of you is going to
betray me the one to whom I will give

this piece of bread when I have dipped
it in the dish and he gave it to Judas
Iscariot Judas betrayal was no surprise
to Jesus or it had been predicted by the
Prophet David a thousand years before
Christ broke bread with his disciples in
the upper room my close friend he who
shared my bread has lifted up his heel
against me the specific details in that
passage remind us that he's not just
going to be betrayed by anybody but by a
friend and then a friend with whom he
breaks bread you can't miss the fact
that this is Judas at the Last Supper it
is so obvious that the prophecy
literally shouts to us about its
fulfillment in the New Testament
the prophetic vision of Jesus betrayal
did not end with David's words in the
forty-first song in 500 BC Zechariah
also foretold another crucial detail I
 told them if you think it best
give me my pay so they paid me thirty
pieces of silver
the fulfillment of Zechariah's prophecy
occurred more than five centuries later
and is recorded in Matthew's Gospel then
Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests
and asked what are you willing to give
me if i betray him to you
so they counted out for him thirty
pieces of silver the common slave price
in the Old Testament was twenty pieces
of silver you may recall that Joseph's
brothers sold him into slavery for 20
pieces of silver with inflation over
time by the time of the New Testament it
was 30 pieces of silver Jesus was
betrayed for the price of nothing more
than a common slave for Zechariah in the
Old Testament era to predict that it
would be 30 pieces of silver not 20 was
contrary to the economics of the day and
yet it had prediction involved in it
that it would be exactly that amount of
money each detail tells us specifically
what is going to happen so that when it
occurs it is obvious this is the
fulfillment of it
following the Passover meal Jesus led
his disciples outside the city walls to
the Mount of Olives and a garden called
Gethsemane it was a place they had often
gathered during the three years of
Christ's public ministry I've been in
that garden many times it's one of the
most beautiful spots on earth
you stand there among the olive trees
that are still there all these centuries
later and you're looking right back into
Jerusalem as they are there that evening
Jesus leaves some of the disciples in
one place he takes the three from the
inner circle Peter James and John they
go further into a deeper recess of the
garden it is there that Jesus throws
himself on the ground that he calls out
to the Father and pray
my father if it is possible may this Cup 
be taken from me yet not as I will but
as you will as Christ
agonized in prayer he asked God for the
strength to face the ordeal he knew was
about to unfold an ordeal described by
the prophets centuries earlier we must
understand that the decision that go to
the cross of Calvary was first made
under the olive trees at Yosemite and we
know Jesus was under pressure because
being God he had foreknowledge he knew
what was ahead he knew that he was going
to be betrayed by Judas Iscariot he knew
that he was going to bear the sin of the
world he knew that he was gonna be
crucified that his back would be torn
open but I think the thing that he
recoiled from the most was the knowledge
that he who was holy and pure and
sinless was going to take upon himself
all that was unholy and impure and
sinful so indeed it was the passion
in the gathering darkness
Judas led the temple guard into
Gethsemane and identified Jesus with a
kiss
Christ betrayal was complete and
prophecy again fulfilled it had to
happen it had to happen someone had to
give him away he went with all the power
in the world that he could control every
single event he went without resistance
as Christ was taken away by the temple
guard Peter leaped to the aid of his
master cutting off the ear of Malchus
the servant of the high priest Jesus
immediately healed the wounded man and
rebuked his disciple
put your sword back in its place Jesus
said do you think I cannot call on my
father and he were at once put at my
disposal more than twelve legions of
angels but how then were the Scriptures
be fulfilled that say it must happen in
this way
Jesus dares to say that all the
prophecies the pictures the
illustrations in the Old Testament all
point to me
he goes to the cross knowing what it is
all about he faces the prediction of
these prophecies knowing their
fulfillment is not only that of the
blessing of the kingdom yet to come
but of the suffering of the servant who
must die in our place
amidst the chaos of Christ's arrest his
disciples fled into hiding then
abandoned and seemingly defenseless
Jesus was taken back into the city to
face his accusers as the fulfillment of
messianic prophecy accelerated
a wicked and deceitful men have opened
their mouths against me they have spoken
against me with lying tongues on Friday
morning
Jesus was subjected to two trials one
Jewish and religious the other Roman an
secular in the first many believe he was
led up these steps to the home of the
high priest where he was interrogated by
a hastily convened meeting of the

Sanhedrin the Supreme Jewish Council
he knows from the prophecies that he has
to be crucified and that means he's got
to be turned over to the Roman
authorities the Jews don't have the
authority under