Betraying God 2025-04-27
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A Closer Look
A Closer Look
I never thought I would spend a Sunday preaching on Judas Iscariot because......
it would be like.
Judas Iscariot messed us!
He made a bad choice!
A Huge bad choice!
And he couldn’t live with it!
Don’t act like him!
That would be a short sermon.
But as we have been reading the gospels, through the Bible reading plan.
As we have been watching the Gospel story through Series like
The Chosen
And movies like
The King of Kings, that great big animated life of Jesus
Set up as
being told by Charles Dickens to
one of his children.
As we found and watched again
Jesus of Nazareth, the four part TV mini series in this season
I notice a similarity between Judas Iscariot and the Crowds of people who hailed
Jesus as their coming king on Monday,
And called for him to be crucified, on Friday!
So I think maybe
we should look a little closer at Judas Iscariot,
let’s see if he had any good points,
let’s see what his bad points were and
let’s see if we can identify any similarities
between him, Judas Iscariot and
us,
you and me.
Judas was a Church Man
Judas was a Church Man
Judas wasn’t just in the crowd once or twice,
He was a true follower of Jesus.
He was in all the lists of the 12 disciples
12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. 13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: 14 Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
And these 12 apostles were given authority
13 Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. 14 He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach 15 and to have authority to drive out demons. 16 These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), 17 James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), 18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
Mark also says
7 Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.
8 These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9 Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. 10 Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”
12 They went out and preached that people should repent. 13 They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
There is no mention that the demons were cast out by all 11 disciples but not Judas Iscariot!
He was out there ministering,
with the power of God,
just like the other disciples!
Judas looked like the rest of the committed disciples.
And like Peter,
Judas Iscariot was a flawed man.
Not that he was outspoken,
It is not recorded that he put his foot in his mouth like Peter but
Judas was a flawed man.
Judas Iscariot’s character Flaws
Judas Iscariot’s character Flaws
He had Greed
He had Greed
He had his own Vision for Jesus ministry
He had his own Vision for Jesus ministry
unwilling to allow Jesus to lead
He thought he could control the outcome
He thought he could control the outcome
Regarding his greed,
Regarding his greed,
John reports in his gospel that Judas would help himself to the money in their purse.
The purse holding what donations and earnings they had.
And Judas was the keeper of the money and he helped himself too those funds.
So when about a pint of nard, an expensive perfume was lavished on Jesus feet, they disciples complained about the waste. but Judas, for personal reasons, may have complained the loudest.
5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
I wounder what in the world Judas did with the money he was taking?
Did he,
lag behind and buy himself some hot ca-bobs from the markets they passed by?
Did he,
go to branch offices of
The First National Bank of Jerusalem
and make little deposits along the way
into his IRA?
And did he carry two money bags under his coast,
the ministry’s money bag and
Judas’ Iscariot’s money bag?
What every he did with the money,
people knew about it,
after three years of living together and ministering together,
they probably all knew,
Judas Iscariot was taking some of the money
and Jesus didn’t change treasurers.
Regarding my other two assertions,
that Judas didn’t like the direction Jesus was taking the ministry and
that Judas thought he could take charge and get the outcome he wanted
Well clearly All the disciples were confused about Jesus ministry during Holy week.,
no doubt they were fearful and confused but
only Judas Iscariot made a plan
A plan to earn some money
A plan to force Jesus to meet with the Jewish Leaders
A plan that did not expect Jesus condemnation to Death
Satan entered in
Satan entered in
Two different times Satan entered into Judas.
1 Now the Festival of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, 2 and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. 3 Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. 4 And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. 5 They were delighted and agreed to give him money.
and the second time was at the Last Super.
I can picture Judas there going over his plans
shall he do it, or not
back and forth,
back and forth,
It would be wrong
I would get money
wrong Money
And Jesus can use his power to convince the Religious Leaders
It’s not like he would really be in any danger,
it will be fine,
Shall I do it,
Or shall I not?
Back and forth, around and around.
At that super, Jesus says, One of them, will betray him.
And Peter asks John to ask, who it is so John.....
25 Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?”
26 Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.
So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” 28 But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. 29 Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. 30 As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.
You can ask what happened their?
slow
Judas reach the moment of decision.
He chose to betray Jesus
and right then is when Satan entered Judas Iscariot again.
Decision Points:
Decision Points:
I wonder how often
everyday people
people like you and me
park themselves on decision points
playing with the idea of a sin, but not quite willing to do it
The longer you prolong the decision
the more likely, you are going to make a poor choice
and Satan will gladly take over running your life
as long as you let him.
He will help steer the rest of your actions.
Until you kick him out and say no
and that is when his list of personal condemnations will begin
with the devil trying to tear you down again.
Judas gave up and took his life.
Peter didn’t give up.
And accepted Jesus calling him back into ministry
serving Him.
As much as we would like to think that Judas was a unique case,
the turn of the crowds
from Hosanna to the Son of David on Monday
to Crucify Him on Friday morning, suggest
They put their
pre-conceived idea of God’s plan for Israel
ahead of
God’s real plan for Isreal.
How does all this relate to us
How does all this relate to us
Does your vision for ministry,
does your vision of the Christian life,
perhaps it’s a vision of easy street, USA
agree with what Jesus wants to see in your life?
. . . . .
. . . . .
Are you a regular church attender, church worker,
and if so does that come from a genuine heart or just going through the motions
to look good?
I am concerned that people can drift between being
totally dedicated to Christ,
and going through the motions.
The good news is, if you find you have moved from
dedicated to going through the motions
God and mama allow
U-turn.
What about sin,
is there a character flaw, that
effects your walk with Christ
effects you ministry
effects your family
I’ll confess to you, back in the days of Hollywood Video and other such stores,
I seldom actually rented questionable movies
But upon occasion, I toyed way too long over some unwholesome movies,
that I desired to see
and new I shouldn’t see.
And if you convince yourself that,
it would only be a sin, if I actually rent this movie
then you missed the whole point of Jesus message
28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
So what about you,
is there a character defect,
you want to submit to Him at the altar or
at the foot of the cross.
You can come and do that even now.
Someone asked recently,
If the devil entered Judas, then is Judas responsible for his sin?
It was because of Judas Iscariot’s bad decision,
that Satan got a foothold on his life.
And started binding him in chains of sin.
But Jesus can break those chains
Jesus can forgive those sins
And set us free.
Peter found forgiveness,
healing
love
service in Christ.
Judas Iscariot ran from the pain
and took his own life.
Choose life in Christ over
death without Christ.
