Mark 14:10-11 "One of the Twelve"

Good Morning Calvary Chapel Lake City!

Today is a special day…

First… Mom’s… Happy Mother’s Day!

You are loved and appreciated… we picked up some plants to honor you on this day. Please grab one after service!

Today… is also a special day personally in my family as well!

26 years ago today… in 1998… I first accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

AND… 17 years ago today… God blessed Amanda and I with our eldest daughter Elliana!

Happy birthday Elli!

It’s a good day all around!

And now… we have the privilege of freely entering God’s word…

Please open your Bibles as we continue our Chapter and Verse journey through the Gospel of Mark… today in Mark 14. Mark 14:10-11.

Just two verses today.

We left off in Jesus’ final week of ministry after He taught the Olivet Discourse…

And, last week we looked at Mark’s thematic presentation of plots against Jesus…

In vv 1 & 2, the chief priests, scribes, and elders assembled at the palace of the high priest, Caiaphas… and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him… after the Passover feast.

That account, and our account today of Judas’ betrayal… sandwiched the beautiful account of Mary anointing Jesus with oil…

… an act of worship that rises off the pages… sandwiched between scenes of plots against Jesus…

… and her open-handed act of worship testifies there is no gift to precious to withhold from the Lord to honor Him.

Today, we pick up in V10…

Where we will examine the character of the infamous… Judas Iscariot…

For a time he was “One of the Twelve”… our message title today.

Let’s Pray!

In reverence for God’s word, please stand as I read our passage…

Mark 14:10-11 “Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Him to them. 11 And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray Him.”

Praise God for His word!

Our passage today begins in vv 10-11 with a scene of betrayal…

… by Judas Iscariot… it’s one of those notorious biblical names like Cain… Jezebel… or Haman.

We associate wickedness with these names… and rightfully so…

The accounts surrounding the names tell stories of betrayal… evil… murderous intents…

For Judas specifically… in the Gospels… when all Twelve disciples names appear in a list… his name is always last… and following his name are the words “who also betrayed Him.”

How would you like the forever recorded of you in eternal scripture?

And, still today… these names… Judas… Jezebel… they live in infamy… they are not “go to” names in baby-name books…

I’ve never met a Judas before

And, in the case of Judas… it’s one of the saddest stories of all.

The name “Judas” is the Gk form of the Hebrew name “Judah.”

The name “Judas” means “Praise of the LORD.”

His surname “Iscariot”… has been translated as “man of Kerioth”… which is thought a town in Judea…

Making him possibly from the tribe of Judah… the only disciple to share that in common with Jesus.

Judas in Gk is the root word for Jew or Jewish… which refers to the people from Judea…

And this similarity has led some to an interpretation that Judas is a symbol for all Jewish people…

Because… Israel nationally and Judas personally… both rejected and betrayed their Messiah. Interesting thought.

And, that’s what we see in this scene… V10 “Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Him to them.”

And, this phrase “one of the twelve”… stands out to me…

It really struck me. On one hand… Is Mark simply being descriptive, as in this is Judas… one of Jesus’ twelve disciples?

‘One of the Twelve’ was a uniquely special calling… you had to have been born contemporary to Jesus…

You had to be born in Israel… born a Jew… born a man…

And, Judas was one of the twelve… uniquely selected by Jesus to walk with Him during His ministry…

Is that what Mark is driving at… or is there more…?

Does this phrase stand as a reminder of how out of place Judas is in this scene?

Judas being ‘One of the Twelve’ had no place being with the chief priests who were plotting against Jesus.

What was one of the twelve doing with them? Going back to old ways…

… and keeping company with people he had no business being around…

He was out of place.

It’s like what happens when a Christian goes back to their old life… back to the old man… the old friends… the old environment where they have NO place being…

They’re out of place.

Maybe you’ve experienced this mistake and you get it…

A foolish moment where you went back to the old life… a true Pro 26:11 experience, “As a dog returns to his own vomit, So a fool repeats his folly.”

Returning to the old life… and the old habits… it’s disgusting and foolish… like a dog eating it’s vomit… that’s the picture.

I remember a strange experience I had related to this…

Bear with me for a moment as I share this story…

Back in 2012… 12 years ago… two days prior to the Lord baptizing me with His Holy Spirit and changing my heart…

… a total act of grace.

Two days prior to that… I found myself in one of the most profound “out of place” experiences I ever have…

In that season… I was Christian, but was backsliden into drinking too much… and chasing the “almighty dollar.”

As Chuck Smith would say, “I had a foot in the world… and a foot in Christ”… and that’s a miserable place to be… because you can’t enjoy either.

We had this annual insurance manager’s meeting with an open bar… I started drinking… and found myself making a series of bad choices…

Namely drinking too much, but I also jumped in a van with some colleagues… and I didn’t know where we were going…

We got dropped off at a club in DC… and were greeted with drinks…

Then some house music started playing… and I was dancing BY MYSELF… minding my own business… and the strangest thing happened.

Some young lady came up to me and asked me, “What are you doing here?”

“I’m dancing.” I replied perplexed.

But, she pressed, “No, but what are you doing here?”

Even in my state of mind… It was strange and very convicting… I knew I was out of place…

I’ve often wondered… was that just a random odd girl…

Or, was she demon possessed and me… even backslidden… was recognized as light… and was questioned… like ‘what fellowship has light with darkness?’

Or, was that an angel…? appealing to me the same question… “what are you doing here? What fellowship has light with darkness?”

I don’t know. I won’t know until glory.

But, what I DO KNOW… is I was out of place.

I was like a dog returning to his vomit.

Save yourself the trouble… of a similar experience… and learn from this…

If you’re saved, and you go to a place of darkness…

You’ll be out of place…

Because as Paul wrote in 1 Cor 6:19-20 “… do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

You can’t enjoy the old life… because you’ll grieve the Holy Spirit…

Early in my Christian walk… I was so baffled why sin was no longer sweet… it lost it’s flavor… it wasn’t enjoyable anymore…

Because God is changing our hearts… as Paul wrote in Rom 6:6, “… our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.”

When you identify with Christ… the Holy Spirit indwells you… and He sanctifies you… conforming you into the image of His Son…

So, if you walk into darkness… you’ll be out of place… and if someone were to write your story…

Would it really be that different from what Mark wrote of Judas…?

“Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Him to them.”

“I don’t know Pastor Marc… what Judas did… directly to Jesus.. was pretty extreme… he betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.”

True… but in some sense… when we turn from the Christ… and turn back to the world… is this not betrayal?

This word betrayal which means “to deliver to an enemy by treachery”…

… which comes from a Middle English word ( Middle English was 1100-1500 A.D.)… English be + trayen.

From Latin tradere… you would recognize our English word “traitor” as related…

The sad thing about betrayal is… it doesn’t come from an enemy… it comes from someone who sits close to you… a Judas even at your table… a friend… a loved one…

A traitor is one who betrays another’s trust… OR is false to an obligation or duty… a synonym is faithless.

And, maybe we were never paid thirty pieces of silver, but in some sense when we turn to the lust of the flesh and the eyes and the pride of life…

When we drag the Holy Spirit through that… to some degree… it’s a betrayal to Jesus’ Lordship in our lives.

But, praise God… as Paul wrote, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful.” 2 Tim 2:13

Christ remains faithful… and we positionally remained saved… despite our struggle…

Praise God that Christ’s faithfulness to us is NOT contingent upon our faithfulness to Him… or we’d all be sunk.

Because in this present time… we all wrestle with sin… which means to “miss the mark”… as in hitting the bullseye in archery…

We all miss the mark of God’s perfection…

Paul the Apostle certainly understood this… as he so vulnerably wrote about in Rom 7 when he wrote about this idea of sin in-dwelling us…

Listen to how Paul wrestled with this… Rom 7:15 “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.”

It’s a beautiful passage where Paul speaks about he desires to do good, but does evil instead… and concludes saying, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

The issue here was not justification, but a struggle with personal sanctification… because we have a sinful nature.

There is a pull we all experience… away from Christ and to the life of the flesh…

And, in our own strength… we cannot deliver ourselves?

That’s why Paul exclaimed “I thank God -through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

The good news is there is triumph for God’s people through Jesus Christ…

We will be triumphant in eternity… in new bodies… free eternally from sin… don’t you long for that day? I do.

Not only will all the sickness and pain of our current bodies be gone as Rev 21:4 promises… but the sin nature will be gone too…

But, in this lifetime… there’s a war inside us…

As Paul wrote in Gal 5:17-18 “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

While there is a war inside us… and often we betray the Lord by choosing sin…

God could have removed our sinful nature at conversion, but He didn’t…

And, this reminds us of our weakness… and helps us to depend on Jesus Christ…

It leads us to cry out to Him for forgiveness… and He stands as our advocate…

And, it’s so important for us to remember that we’re not under law… we’re under grace.

We’re not saved by works… we’re saved by faith… knowing we have been victorious before God because of our faith in Jesus Christ.

And, daily we find victory over sin… as we walk by the Spirit… which is neither walking in legalism… nor in license to sin…

We find victory when we walk in that middle ground… and rely on His Holy Spirit to sanctify us… day by day…

And, then that betrayer inside us… that Judas inside us… will gain no ground.

I hope you walk away today understand just how vigilant we must be in this lifetime.

As we saw with Judas… he is likely from the tribe of Judah… and his name means “praised”… and yet he fell from the Lord betraying Him…

And, now… this name which SHOULD CARRY the idea of praise… lives forever in infamy.

Be vigilant in your Christian walk that your name is not tarnished as well.

As we consider Judas Iscariot… logical questions are raised such as, “What happened?” OR “How is it that Judas got to this place?” … “How could Judas have betrayed Jesus Christ?”

Looking back on Scripture… there were many unique privileges afforded to Judas… that seem to stack against betrayal… and make the betrayal even more surprising…

Judas was selected as one of the Twelve Apostles…

He walked with Jesus during the entirety of His public ministry…

Being an eye witness to Jesus’ teachings… and miracles…

He saw lepers cleansed… sight given to the blind… the lame restored… demons cast out…

Judas was even sent out to on short term missions… when Jesus sent the Twelve… and later sent the 70…

He not only saw… he was a vessel to perform miracles…

Some people think… “If I only saw a miracle, I’d believe.”

I’m not so sure about that. In the account of the rich man and Lazarus… father Abraham declined to send Lazarus back to the land of the living to warn the rich man’s brothers of the torment of hades…

Father Abraham said, “‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ”

Certainly in the life of Judas… there were no shortage of miracles he beheld… and still he betrayed Jesus.

And, I think from this we can take away that it’s not the miracles… or even being in the very presence of Jesus physically that creates an on fire and dedicated Christian.

Even after Jesus returns again… when He physically rules and reigns on earth for a 1000 years… the Millennial Kingdom… at the end of the thousand years…

… Rev 20 writes that Satan will be released from captivity and he will deceive the nations… and people numbering more than the sand of the sea will rebel against Jesus.

It’s not miracles… and not even His physical presence that defines who will walk with Him in devotion…

Father Abraham implied Moses and the Prophets have… the OT was given to the world for people to be persuaded of God.

Jesus said in Luke 8, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”

James wrote, “… be doers of the word, and not hearers only...”

Hey… we could go down this rabbit trail all day… of what makes a dedicated disciple…

… this would be a great side study… but clearly there is a link to God’s word… and our action to follow it… as one point of our dedication.

And… Judas heard the word directly from the Word’s mouth…

Judas didn’t read the red letters… he heard the red letters…

Jesus is the living word… and Judas heard the word directly from the words mouth… what a privilege.

Jesus Himself said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by not means pass away.”

How profound is that?

The very words Jesus spoke… were eternal… they carried more weight than the present existence of all that we see.

And, Judas still betrayed Jesus…

And, while scripture does not explicitly state the reason WHY Judas betrayed Jesus… some things are certain…

Like many betrayals, Judas’ did not happen over night… it was a process… AND it was multi-faceted… there seems to be a number of reasons layered on top of one another…

Starting with the possibility of failed expectations.

For many Jews… they expected Jesus to lead Israel as their political messiah… and break the bonds of Roman oppression.

Did Jesus fail to meet Judas’ expectations…?

After all the talk about His suffering and death… and seeing no evidence that Jesus would overthrow Rome… did Judas throw in the towel?

And, on top of that… everywhere he turned… there was “Peter, James, and John”… “Peter, James, and John”…

Those guys got included in everything… Jesus’ inner three…

Just a thought… but was there frustration or jealousy brewing in Judas’ heart…?

I don’t know… but I could see it.

For sure there was greed. Without a doubt… scripture confirms Judas was stricken with greed.

Last week we looked at how Judas protested Mary anointing Jesus with the expensive oil of spikenard, and asked why the oil was not sold for almost a years worth of wages and given to the poor?

Which seems noble, but John recorded Judas’ true motive… John 12:6 records “… not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put in it.”

And, we know from Matt 26:15… that Judas betrayed Jesus for just 30 pieces of silver.

Clearly… money was a factor in Judas betrayal.

As was Satanic influence.

When a person allows a foothold in their heart… like the lust of the flesh… or lust of the eyes… or the pride of life…

Satan seeks that one… Peter testified our “adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

And, Judas became prey to the devil.

Even a year prior to our scene today… in John 6:70-71 Jesus said, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” 71 He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.”

Judas was known by Jesus to be under the influence of Satan… for some time now.

At the last supper, after Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.”

The disciples questioned, “Is it I?” and asked, “Lord, who is it?”

And, Jesus said, “It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it.”

Scripture records after Jesus gave the bread to Judas that Satan entered Judas.

Matthew and Luke both record this… and it’s a heartbreaking moment…

A year prior… the idea of betrayal was planted… and as Judas entertained it…

And, since Judas never repented… and never flee’d lust… he hardened his heart against Jesus… and in this process…

Judas now reached the point of no return where Satan now entered him…

Entered means “to go into” and probably signifies satanic possession.

He’s now under the control of Satan.

And, what that tells us is Judas was never saved… Satan would not have taken up residency in Judas’ heart IF Judas had been saved…

At the Last Supper, when Jesus told the disciples “one of you will betray Me.”

“… they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, “Lord, is it I?”

That was the eleven… because a humble heart that confesses Jesus as Lord… stands on solid ground.

But, Judas… in that same scene did NOT confess Jesus as Lord… he said, “Rabbi, is it I?”

The best he could do was acknowledge Jesus as ‘teacher.’

And, we’ll see later in our chapter… v21 Jesus will say, “… but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had never been born.”

For Judas… and anyone who rejects Jesus… the same is true…

From an eternal perspective, it would be better if they were never born.

That’s a sobering perspective.

I have to say… if, you’re hear today, or listening online… and you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus as Lord… if He’s just a good teacher to you…

If all this Bible talk we do is just head knowledge… but you put up a wall to your heart… and you won’t submit to Jesus as Lord…

That’s a house built on sand… and when the rain descends… and the floods come… and the winds blow… and beat on that house… that house will fall.

“… wise is the man who built his house on the rock...”

Judas was not wise. Don’t make the same error.

Our elders will be available at the end of service to pray with you if you want to elevate Jesus from ‘good teacher’ to ‘Lord’.... in your heart today.

Friends… we need to be very careful not to make the mistakes of Judas in this lifetime… Judas had many privileges…

He seems to have come from good stock…

Seemingly born into the tribe of Judah… with a name that means “praised”…

Our modern equivalent in our Christian culture is “he was raised in a good Christian home...”

He had direct access to Jesus… heard His word… saw the miracles and ministry…

But, somehow he let Satan’s influence… either through expectations… or frustrations… certainly through greed…

… corrupt his heart… and that roaring lion the devil found one whom he could devour…

Judas gave place to the devil… namely because Jesus was only his teacher… and NOT his Lord.

Despite your upbringing… and walking with the Lord… if you don’t enter into personal relationship with Jesus…

… how will you ever stand?

And, any person, like Judas, who chooses not to accept Jesus as Lord… they open the door for a number of other issues in their heart…

Which sometimes plays out in their life… and in the case of Judas… we know his story did not end well.

A scene or so later… after Judas departed… and Jesus and the eleven were on the way to Gethsemane… Jesus prayed His “High Priestly Prayer” recorded in John 17… a favorite chapter of mine…

And, in John 17:12 Jesus prayed this… “Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”

Jesus kept eleven of the disciples, but one was lost to Satan.

And, Jesus referred to Judas as the “Son of Perdition.”

Perdition can be rendered as “destruction” or “waste.”

Judas was critical of Mary in our scene from last week… asking, “Why was this fragrant oil wasted?”

And, yet… he is called the “son of perdition.” The ‘son of waste.’

How sad is a wasted life?

Judas’ life was a waste because he was so close to salvation, but he only called Jesus “Rabbi” and not “Lord.”

His life was a waste because it ended with him remorseful over betraying Jesus… returning the silver and… between Matthew 27 and Acts 1 it would seem that Judas hung himself… and either the branch broke or his body swelled and became distended… something bad on top of bad happened… and “his entrails gushed out”… quote Acts 1:18

He was the son of destruction… the son of waste…

And, what a tragic waste this was… because think of all that he missed…

The resurrection… 40 days with the risen Lord and then the ascension…

Pentecost… and the Holy Spirit empowering them…

The birth of the early church…

He could have been used to impact so many… instead of suicide and ending his life in infamy… he could have died a blessed martyrs death… and forever be with the Lord.

His positions would not have been replaced… and it would have been his name written of one of the twelve foundation stones of the New Jerusalem in Rev 21.

Truly a waste. What would the end of his story have been had he just turned to Christ?

And maybe not to this extreme… but if we get away from the Lord… and in some sense betray Him… and betray our calling… what do we miss out on?

God’s will… will be done… with or without us…

Judas missed out on so much…

Jesus said in John 17:12 “… none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”

Revealing yet another purpose Judas played in the betrayal… that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

In John 13:8… Jesus quoted and applied Psalm 41:9 to Judas “Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me.”

David wrote this Psalm in reference to Ahithophel… his friend and counselor who betrayed him… advising David’s son Absalom in rebellion against David the king. And, later Ahithophel would hang himself.

And in these parallels of the betrayal of a friend… Ahithophel is seen as a type for Judas.

What was so different… was it was David’s sin with Bathsheba that likely motivated Ahithophel to betray him… because it would seem that Bathsheba was Ahithophel’s granddaughter.

Matthew 27 quotes Zech 11:12 and Jer 32:6-9 fulfilled as well in the blood money paid to Judas which was later used to purchase the field of blood…

And, Peter cited Ps 69:25 and Ps 109:8 fulfilled in Judas’ betrayal… where another would take his office.

In all this… scriptures written even a thousand years prior to Judas’ life and betrayal were literally fulfilled… as was written.

Fulfilled prophecy is always a testimony to the veracity of the Bible…

But also… how this played out is a testimony to the Sovereignty of God…

One might ask… how much free will did Judas have in all this?

Scripture was written… and Jesus knew… several times he said that scripture would be fulfilled in Judas betrayal.

Some would argue that Judas had all the chances in the world to turn back.. up to that point that Satan entered him…

But, God… in His foreknowledge and being outside of our way of seeing time in a linear fashion… knew Judas would not repent…

And, you can imagine how a scene like this has raised all kinds of debate between the interaction between God’s Sovereignty and Man’s Free Will…

I look forward to that day when will be in heaven… sitting at Jesus’ feet… understanding exactly how these doctrines work…

The tension between the truths will finally be understood.

Rev 21:7 promises, “He who overcomes shall inherit all things...”

And, I believe part of that inheritance will be knowledge of how God sees doctrine… and so much more.

The account of Judas betrayal in Mark’s gospel… was quickly summarized in two verses…

We find greater detail in Luke’s account… Luke 22:3-6 records “Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve. 4 So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them. [Matt 26:15 record Judas asking, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?”] 5 And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. [Matthew records, “… they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver.] 6 So he promised and sought opportunity to betray Him to them in the absence of the multitude.”

Judas’ betrayal of Jesus was motivated by his love of money… and he was paid the price to redeem a slave according to Exo 21:32.

Which again… according to Matt 27:9 fulfilled Zech 11:12 which Matthew paraphrased as “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who was priced...”

What’s also interesting about the context of Zech 11:12 is it portrays a good Shepherd… who is rejected by the people…

A clear parallel to Jesus… and what was happening to Him during the Passover week.

The words in V6 of the Luke 22 Judas “… sought opportunity to betray Him…” which is repeated in Mark 14:11 “So he sought how he might conveniently betray Him.”…

These verses testify how Judas was seeking an opportune time… a well-timed occasion to commit the betrayal…

And, you can just imagine what was happening in his mind… betrayal is in his heart… yet he was still physically with Jesus and the other disciples…

Judas went to the final Passover with them…

And, Judas allowed Jesus to wash his feet… can you imagine?

Then Judas sat with them to eat the Last Supper…

And, Jesus was well aware… John wrote Jesus “… was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.”

And, yet Jesus still washed Judas’ feet… and still ate a meal with him…

Which was highly symbolic of oneness in Jewish culture.

And, a scene or so later Judas would betray Jesus with a kiss…

This degree of deviousness seems incomprehensible… how hard… how cauterized was Judas’ heart?

And, to some degree this is still happening today…

There are some who would walk with Jesus… and yet their heart is far from Him.

And, they too are looking for an opportune time to betray Jesus…

Namely through the intentional pursuit of actions contrary to the nature of God… which the Bible calls “transgression” or “rebellion.”

There are Christians today who try to see how close they can come to the line without going over… when it’s safer and wiser to avoid the line altogether.

And, we are tremendously blessed to know what that line is… what God deems as right and wrong.

When you read God’s word… He defines for us what “sin” is… the behaviors that miss the mark…

And, “sin” is not a dirty word… or God’s way of ruining your fun.

The very fact that God defined sin is a tremendous act of love…

It should comfort all of us to be aware of God’s standard…

Which is a standard BECAUSE sinful acts are HARMFUL to us… and to our relationships with other people and with God.

And, yet… people get all uptight about the word ‘sin’ and want freedom to live however they want…

And, they get angry with God and reject God… and slander God’s people… for holding true to His word.

I love the fact the God defined what will harm us in life. That doesn’t make me resent God at all…

Just like I don’t resent the manufacture of rat poisoning for putting warning labels on their product.

“Harmful to ingest.”

Or just like I don’t get angry at the highway administration for putting up guardrails on the side of a cliff.

No one calls the highway administration and asks them to push the guardrails out 10 feet…

Why? Because you’ll fall off the cliff…

That would be craziness…

But, it’s just as crazy to look for an opportune time to sin… or to redefine God’s standards…

Asking “Did God really say?” just like Satan in Gen 3…

Tread carefully in your walk… walk close to Jesus… and learn from the mistakes of Judas Iscariot.

Today, we’ve talked a lot about Judas… and I want to close out… taking a moment to reflect on what Jesus did in response to the knowledge and action He would be betrayed…

Essentially… what do you do… how do you handle betrayal?

Not IF you are betrayed, but WHEN you are betrayed… because I’m not sure it’s an elective course…

David was no stranger to betrayal… and in Psalm 55 David’s lays out wisdom in handling betrayal…

Let’s read Ps 55:12-18 “For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; Then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; Then I could hide from him. 13 But it was you, a man my equal, My companion and my acquaintance. 14 We took sweet counsel together, And walked to the house of God in the throng. [in crowds of worshippers]

As noted earlier… betrayal comes from those close… it’s unexpected… and it’s painful…

And, so… in response David responds how most of us would respond… with an imprecatory prayer…

Continuing in V15 “Let death seize them; Let them go down alive into hell, For wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.”

How many of you have prayed that prayer? Don’t raise your hands…

I don’t want to make a liar out of those of you who don’t raise your hands.

David wished swift destruction upon his betrayers, like many of us do…

And, David turned it over to the Lord. Notice… David didn’t send them to the grave…

He didn’t pull out his sword to seek vengeance… just like Jesus didn’t obliterate Judas…

Remember how David handled Saul… he wouldn’t stretch out his hand on the Lord’s anointed…

Saul was terrible wicked to David… and tried to kill him…

But David would not avenge himself.

David said, “As the LORD lives, the LORD shall strike him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall go out to battle and perish. 11 The LORD forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the LORD’s anointed.” (1 Sam 26)

Which was the 2nd time David sparred Saul.

The desire for retaliation is natural… but we are called to the supernatural…

As Paul wrote “Repay no one evil for evil.”) (Rom 12:17)

Which is a call against retaliation…

Not a prohibition of defending oneself from harm or seeking criminal justice…

If you are abused or being scammed… there are lawful pursuits against such things…

But, seeking vengeance motivated with evil intentions… is not what were called to.

As Peter wrote “… not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.” (1 Pet 3:9)

Wow… can you bless in the midst of evil befalling you?

Could you wash the foot of your betrayer as Jesus did?

Or knowingly walk with your betrayer… for a solid year before the betrayal… like Jesus did?

Which is certainly supernatural…

And, blessing a person who did evil to you… is an olive branch… it extend forgiveness… even when not deserved.

That’s a tough one… but I’m glad Jesus forgave me when I didn’t deserve it.

In 1 Sam 24, when David sparred Saul… Saul lifted up his voice and wept… saying… “You are more righteous than I; for you have rewarded me with good, whereas I have rewarded you with evil.... now I know indeed that you shall surely be king...”

David’s mercy to Saul is a classic example of what Paul wrote about in Rom 12…

Paul wrote, “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”

They will feel ashamed… just as Saul… bent on killing David… did.

Worship team come…

And so… David’s action… back in Ps 55… V16 “As for me, I will call upon God, And the LORD shall save me. 17 Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, And He shall hear my voice. 18 He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, For there were many against me.”

David’s continual cry was to the Lord… his confidence was in the Lord…

And, he found peace and redemption in the Lord… in the midst of betrayal and battle.

The same peace available to you and I today when we trust and cry out to Him.

Elder’s and pray team… please come… Let’s pray…

Betrayal is no small thing…

But know this… Jesus understands betrayal…

Judas was “one of the twelve”… until he betrayed our Lord.

If you’re here today, and you’ve been betrayed… I encourage you to ask for prayer… pray as David did… and see how God moves.

Jesus said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”

He’s a mountain moving God… cry out to Him.

May God bless your week ahead.