Betrayer
When you think about villains who comes to mind? Darth Vader? Come over to the dark side
Or how about- The Wicked Witch of the West of Wizard of OZ
Come here my pretty
Or Mr. Potter of “It Is A Wonderful Life” You want me to give you a little more time?
Or this monster? 1000 year reign..
Villains have always been around. We could go on and on and naming them. However, this morning as we are leading up to Easter. This morning I want to look at a man who many would consider the king of villains………..Judas Iscariot.
Maybe this name is new to you? Or maybe you are familiar with this man, but his name will go down in history as the man who betrayed Jesus. He betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Maybe today’s value of $100.00 or so. So his name is synonymous with being a villain.
It is easy to say that Judas was a villain right! But as hard as it is for us to admit, in many ways, it is easy to find ourselves been like him……. Maybe we cowering down when we should have been standing up for our faith. Or putting earthly thing ahead of the Lord…
One thing that I would say about this man is that he was a doubleminded man. Judas loved money more than he loved Jesus causing him to be extremely double minded.
Dan Delzell columnist for the Christian Post states: “A double-minded Christian is always being torn in two directions. He has a relationship with Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, but he also has a relationship with a particular sinful obsession. It is a mental obsession and distraction, and it may even have a physical aspect. But it's a miserable way to attempt to live the Christian life.”
Let me share a little background about Judas. We know that Judas was chosen by Jesus to follow Him and be an apostle. We also know that Judas left his former life and followed Jesus during his three and half years of public ministry. I guess we could say that he was faithful and committed, but that surely is open to speculation, right!
We know of the other 11 disciples who they left their former lives as well. They loved Him and were devoted to serving Jesus. When Jesus called them, their priorities changed. They left behind the old life for a new life with Jesus.
We can only wonder if Judas was committed at the start, but we know how his life ended. He hung himself and sadly Jesus said that it would be better if he would have never been born (Mark 14:16)…..
Matthew 10 is where we first see Judas’s name. And in that chapter Jesus is commissioning His disciples and sending them out to preach…. So, we can say that Judas went and preached. In verses 2 – 4 it does list all twelve disciples, but Judas is listed last of the twelve. This is always the case in the Gospel records. Why? I don’t know….
Perhaps he was the last chosen Apostle. Or perhaps this was inspired in the writing of the Gospels because of his great sin I don’t know.
But this is interesting, that all the apostles, except Judas, were from Galilee. His name, Judas Iscariot, indicates that he was “Judas from Kerioth.” Kerioth was a small village on the southwestern extremity of the territory of Judea, about 15 miles south of Hebron….
This territory was occupied by Edomites. The Edomites descended from Esau remember Jacob’s brother? Esau took “wives” from the line of Ishmael (Genesis 28:9). Ishmael, we know, is the son of the flesh and his descendants are not the children of God (PP) (Romans 9:8). “Isaac is.”
Another infamous man from the Edomites was King Herod. Remember he ordered all the little boys in Bethlehem to be killed because he was trying to get rid of Jesus.
There is not much history about this man, but knowing who he is, I can only guess that Judas we a very miserable soul,… because the night before Jesus’ crucifixion, it is clear, Judas abandoned his faith in Jesus, the faith that he once professed……………………….
Transition: Now we are only 3 Sundays away from celebrating “Resurrection Sunday” together. That is what I love to call it rather than Easter. And the truth is, Judas is a part of this story leading up to Jesus’ death upon the cross…………………….
Objective: So, I want to share with you this morning, four things that are easily overlooked in the story of Judas, things that we might say we might find ourselves very much like Judas in some ways. And if so, maybe today with the Lord’s help we can remedy the problem. PRAY
Transition: First let’s take a look at the…….
(PP) I- Commitment Judas made…………………..
Judas made a commitment to Jesus, and there is no reason to think he was anything but sincere in his faith…. At least I can’t find anything in the pages of the Bible to say differently……
Along with the other disciples, he too left everything to follow Jesus. So, we can presume that Judas was actively involved in the ministry of the Lord.
In the Gospel of Luke 9:1-2, it tells us that Jesus called “the twelve disciples” together…. And that included Judas. And Jesus
(PP) “Gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and Jesus sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.” So, Judas did as the others did.
The Bible tells us that Judas Iscariot was a gospel preacher and he was given the gift of healing, and he exercised authority over demons as were the other disciples. There is no reason not to assume this.
Application: But,…you see being active and involved in ministry is a good, very good and is a commandment from the Lord and wonderful thing in so many ways. But it is not a guarantee of having eternal life…………………………..………
Story: Tell story about the man who was very involved in ministry for most of his life. He was a devout Lutheran. (Evangelism Explosion)
Transition: The next thing that we will see…. is….
(PP) II- Judas was given the opportunity to follow Jesus.
Can you imagine going back in time, and living and walking and learning from Jesus Himself? Well Judas got this opportunity. He walked with Jesus for three years…… He saw the greatest life ever lived up close and personal…. He got the Word of God in person.
You can’t have a better model of faith than Jesus or a better environment for forming faith,… than Judas had.
Think about,…. when Jesus fed the 5,000, Judas took the bread and distributed it along with the other disciples. When Jesus calmed the storm, Judas was there. And he was there when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. You can’t have better evidence for faith than Judas had…
Judas heard all the teaching of Jesus, right along with the rest of the disciples. He heard the Sermon on the Mount, so he had to have heard Jesus speak about there is a narrow gate.
(PP) Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14: “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for many will choose that way. 14 But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.”
Judas heard that statement first hand…..
He heard the warnings Jesus spoke to the Pharisees, so he knew that hell is real and those who do not follow Jesus will go there and he understood that heaven was Jesus’ gift to all who would follow Him.
He heard the parable of the prodigal son, so he knew God is ready to welcome and forgive those who have wasted themselves in many sins. So why didn’t he run back to Jesus and cry out for forgiveness?
The fact is: with Judas’s eyes, he saw the clearest evidence….. With his ears, he heard the finest teaching. With his feet, he followed the greatest example…. And yet this man still betrayed Jesus………….Why?
Well folks, as (PP)Jeramiah 17:9 states, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?”
Application: And there is something so incomprehensible about a person who abandons the faith they once professed… Judas’s story contains an important lesson for parents, leaders, and friends who grieve over someone they love who has abandoned the faith.
Moms, dads, pastors, friends all wonder where did we go wrong? Or what more could we have done? Or did we fail in our example? Was that the cause of their loved one abandoning their faith?
But folks, Judas teaches us that even the best example, the most compelling evidence, and the finest teaching, the ultimate environment for incubating faith,………cannot, in and of themselves, change the human heart……..
Transition: So there must have been something else. You see the Lord gave us the freedom of Choice… Praise the Lord for this, so that we can say that Judas’s direction was made by……
(PP) III- The choice he made…..
The man love money, he did. He stole money from the money treasury that helped support the ministry of Jesus and the apostles. Judas sold Jesus out for a hand full of silver. So, we could conclude that satan made a relentless assault on Judas’s soul, as he makes a relentless assault on everyone who chooses to follow Jesus Christ.
(PP) Luke 22: 3-4 tells us: “Then Satan entered into Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve disciples, 4 and he went to the leading priests and captains of the Temple guard to discuss the best way to betray Jesus to them.”
The Bible’s clear statements about Satan’s activity have led some to say, “Well, poor Judas, he didn’t have a chance. satan entered into him. What could he do about that?” But this assessment overlooks the fact that Judas opened the door to satan.
Judas had been stealing from the collection money bag, and when he kept this sin secret, satan entered him. We know that he made a deal with the chief priests, and then sat down at our Lord’s table with known sins he would not confess. And Satan entered even further into his life.
Application: You see folks, unconfessed sin always opens the door to Satan’s power…. Here is the truth folks, we cannot think for a second that we can hide our sin from the One who knows what is going to take place tomorrow in our lives.
And the fact is, satan doesn’t gain a foothold in the lives of people who are walking in the light with Jesus. He only gains access when we open the door.
As Klaus Schilder a theologian states: (PP) “It is the peculiar majesty of Jesus that He can conquer man without man’s first approaching Him. But satan’s frailty is proved by this, that he cannot approach a soul unless that soul has first turned to him.”
Application: So the only way that satan can have access to our lives is if we let him in. We have to open the door. But the Bible teaches precisely the opposite.
(PP)1 John 1:4:4 says, “You are of God, My little children, and have overcome them: because greater is the Holy Spirit that is in you than satan that is in the world.”
We must keep that door shut to satan and his demons so that we can live the life that God has planned for us. But it is our choice.
Transition: Now finally we have to see the ending of Judas. We have to look at the……..
(PP) 4- The outcome he embraced……
After the Last Supper that Jesus had with this disciple, Judas went out into the darkness, to do his villainous dead that he had chosen to do…….
You see what happens is folks, when you get close to Jesus, one of two things will happen: (PP)Either you will become wholly His, or- (PP) You will end up more alienated from Him.
That is my observation over the many years of pastoring.
Among those who hate Christ the most, is often the person who once professed to trust Him….
Folks, Jesus’ claims are so exclusive, and His demands so pervasive that, in the end,……. THIS IS SO IMPORTANT…… you must either give yourself to Him completely…… or give Him up altogether…. With this faith called Christianity, there is no middle ground.
Conclusion: You see the story of Judas reminds us that nothing good can come from giving up on Jesus Christ.
Only those who have never known Him can remain indifferent to Him.
And for those who get close to Him, the only outcomes are full devotion, or eventual resentment; and every day, each of us is heading in one direction or the other.
The Bible tells us that at the end of the age, before the coming of Christ that there will be a great abandonment of people who once said they followed Jesus leaving Jesus behind and following the world (2 Thessalonians 2:3).
We are in an age when many are abandoning the faith they once professed. Even though the story of Judas warns us to guard our hearts, lest we drift away.
The story of Judas also equips us to reach out to those who may be close to walking away from the faith. Christ calls us to “be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire” (Jude 22-23).
Finally, the story of Judas reminds us that nothing good can come from giving up on Jesus Christ. He is of supreme value and following Him is worth any cost……..
PRAY
