Transcription
Well, good morning, good morning. It's good to be in the house of the Lord. Amen. If I look like a shiny disco ball or Twilight Carrot under this morning light, it's because my daughter Molly had her fourth birthday the other day and happened to break into all of her glittery makeup. So our whole house is bedazzled. So if you hit the right light and I look like a disco ball for Jesus, that's why. Um, but this morning, sadly, and I know so many of you are brokenhearted about this, we are ending our series on the 12. You know, it's been a fun adventure learning about these 12 men who spent such an important time with our Savior. But we come now to the most interesting, I think, of all the 12. And I know today is Palm Sunday, and so for some of you it might be, "Man, I would love to hear a Palm Sunday sermon," but we're—we talk about the disciples. Ironically, Palm Sunday is the perfect day to talk about who we're going to talk about because his story and Holy Week go hand in hand. Um, where we see him in the scriptures has everything to do with Palm Sunday, with Holy Week, and what is about to unfold. So today we are learning about the infamous Judas. Um, he is our last disciple we're talking about in this 12, and we don't know much about him other than the most important thing we know about him, for why he's infamous. Um, we know his father's name—the only other information we know about him. But we know Judas because of Holy Week. Um, he's in the lists, and he's always referred to as the one who would betray him. But we don't know anything else about him except that he was among the 12, and that come Holy Week, he is going to shine as quite an infamous star. But this all began with Palm Sunday, at least right before it. The thing that kicks off this entire scenario where we're going to learn about Judas, as well as what's going to kick off the whole of Holy Week, was a miracle in the little town of Bethany, two—about two miles away from Jerusalem. There was one of Jesus's greatest friends that we learn he performed a miracle for, named Lazarus. We all know the story, um, or at least many of us do, where he was dead, and he told his disciples he's asleep, and he's like, "Well, okay, well, I guess we'll go wake him up." He's like, "No, I mean, this is a metaphor. He's—he's dead. We're going to go—we're going to see him." And they come to his house, and Mary and Martha, his sisters, are there, and people have been in mourning for four days that he's dead. And he goes, "Show me where he's buried," and they go and they show him where he is buried. And there is a beautiful scene of him—uh, Jesus being emotional and weeping, and the Jews saying, "Man, he really loved this man." And he goes and he says, "Remove the stone, sir. It's been four days. It's going to be awful. It smells. Remove the stone." And he says a very short, powerful line, "Lazarus, come out." Lazarus rises from the dead and walks out, and they remove the burial clothes from him, and he is alive. Ironically, the miracle of him bringing someone to life is what was going to cause our Savior to go to death. Because after that moment, that is when the religious leaders had enough. This was his first public resurrection. We see other times where he does it before, but he commands people to be quiet and not to talk about it. But here he says, in—in full view of everyone, right at the beginning of Passover week, this miracle, and his enemies have had enough, and he is ready—they are ready to get rid of him. But the scene—what is called Bethany, this—this town two miles away from Jerusalem—is where we also meet the man Judas Iscariot, where we get to see his story. Um, after all of this has taken place, Lazarus has been risen from the dead, and now his enemy—Jesus's enemies—have now put out a public notice like, "We want to find a way to put him to death, and we will—we will pay to help that happen." Because um, this is all—this all—this whole story takes place in the Book of John, chapter 11 and um, onward. Um, he goes and he rises Lazarus from the dead, and because of that they have a plot to kill Jesus. Um, this is in John 11:45: "Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what he did believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, 'What are we going to do with this man? He is doing many signs. If we let him go on doing this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.' One of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, 'You know nothing at all. You have not considered that it is your advantage that one man should die for the people rather than the whole nation perish.' He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was going um, to be punished for the nations, um, but unite the scattered children of God." So from that day on they plotted to kill Jesus, and Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews but departed there from among them to the countryside, um, and he stayed there with his disciples. So his miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead is ironically what is the—that gives his enemies a reason to say, "We now need to kill this man. We've had enough. We need to get rid of him." But it's also—all the reason they needed someone to betray him because now Jesus is not being out in public anymore; they're being—he's stepping back from the public eye of the Jews because he knows they're out to kill him, and now the Jews can't just find him in open marketplaces anymore to arrest him. Now they need a reason; they need a betrayer. So this whole event gives the reason for why they want—they're going to kill him and why they need a betrayer. The reason why we see Judas walk into the scene now—this is the first time we ever see him um, doing anything. Um, in John 12, all of this has happened. Lazarus has been raised from the dead, and now they're celebrating that he's been risen from the dead, and um, Mary, his sister, goes and as they're reclining at the table, gives some anointing oil, um, and she pours it on Jesus. And now in this chapter, uh, 12, it says that six days before Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, the one Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave him a dinner there, and Martha was serving them, and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took a pound of perfume, pure and expensive nard, anointed Jesus's feet, and wiped his feet with her hair. So the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Then one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was about—about to betray him, said, "Why wasn't this perfume sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?" He didn't say this because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he was in charge of the money bag and would steal part of what was put into it. And Jesus answered, "Leave her alone. She has kept it for the day of my burial. For you will always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me." The first time we ever see Judas independently do anything is we find out he is a thief and an opportunist and just this—this fake man. You know, I don't know what was going on for the first three years of this ministry, but he was trusted enough to be trusted with the money purse. He was the person in charge of this and apparently was a thief and an opportunist and would take from the ministry. And we see him here trying to have a righteous reason for this: "Oh, we could have sold that and given it to the poor." But in reality, all he was thinking about was his own pockets. But this is the first time we see Judas. But in other variations of this gospel story, um, because this is told in every Gospel—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—whenever this story happens, when they are at the table in Bethany and she anoints Jesus, there's always the fuss that, "Hey, we could have sold this money for the poor." But then he goes and because of what happened with Lazarus, because now there's an opportunity to go and sell him out, he goes to the chief priests. And we see this in the Book of Matthew, uh, chapter 26. He goes to the chief priests and he says, "What will you give me if I hand Jesus over to you?" And we find the famous, "We'll give you 30 pieces of silver." And he waits then for an opportunity to betray Jesus to them. This miracle—the first miracle we see uh, Judas—and ironically the miracle that sets up Holy Week, the reason why that they want to kill him, the reason why they need someone to betray him—is also the day we see the betrayer come onto the scene. Because everything else up to this point, Judas has been a background character. When every time we know that the 12 are mentioned, we know Judas is there. And that is what's kind of going to be the terrifying point we take away from today. Judas was there. He was there in the background the entire time. When there was the feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000, Judas was there, feeding them from the baskets, refilling again and again. When Jesus and Peter walked on water, Judas was there in the boat. When Jesus healed the—healed the blind man and the lepers, when he preached the Sermon on the Mount, when he did all of his three and a half years of earthly ministry and miracles—all besides the one we know only certain people were there for—Judas was there. And yet—yet still in his heart he was not a real follower of Christ. His aim was the money purse; his aim was what he could gain from this. He sees a woman brokenhearted over her brother being raised from the dead and seeing the man who must be the Christ and anointing him and worshipping him, and his first response was, "I could have gotten 300 denarii from that." This is a man who walked and talked and literally performed miracles with Jesus. You remember the 12 were sent out in his name to go preach the Kingdom of Heaven, to go perform miracles in his name. He didn't—he's—we—we see Judas in Sunday school, and he's the—he's the grimy character in the back; he kind of looks like, yeah, he's a bad guy. Why did we ever let him in? We—we Sunday-school him for the kids. But he walked and talked with Jesus; he performed miracles with Jesus; he preached the kingdom of Jesus. And yet here he is so—so far from Jesus in his heart of hearts. And we see that first at this miracle that sets up the rest of Holy Week. And it's amazing timing that today would be uh, Palm Sunday is the day we would learn about him because this is what sets up both the story of Jesus and the story of Judas. And all of that started at Bethany. But then it goes on. So if—if you're taking notes, you know how I love to chalk things up into three points. The first point is Bethany, and the next is the bread. Because Judas was there; they're here for Passion Week; they're here for—they're here for Passover, which if you know and remember your Sunday school lessons, Passover was remembering all the way back to Moses when they took them out of Egypt, and that they would remember that the spirit of the Angel of Death passed over them because they had an uh, sacrificed the lamb and anointed their house with its blood to be a symbol then for what Jesus would do—that he would be the perfect Lamb of God that would take away the sins of the world and that God's wrath would pass over us. So here they are in Jerusalem celebrating this—of the most important festivals in the Jewish calendar. They're on the run; they know the Jews are against them. So they find a place to have this Passover meal, and Judas is there. He's there at Passover; he's there at the Last Supper. In John chapter 13, we see—and this is the only time we see this in the Gospels—we see Jesus wash the feet of his disciples. He gets down; they're at their Upper Room; they're having Passover; and Jesus takes off his outer cloak, wraps it around himself; it's a bowl and a cloth; and he gets down and he washes the feet of the disciples. He gets down and he washes the feet of Judas. Track that with me. He washes the feet of the man who he knew hours later would go to betray him to his death. He washes the feet of the man who he knew had those coins jingling in his pocket and that was what his life was worth to him—the man he had spent three years teaching and performing miracles with and preaching the gospel to and even performing power out of—he's washing the feet of the man who would betray him. Because Jesus—he knows. And yet he never stops from the moment of loving on the people who he knows will betray him, will turn from him. He washes the feet of Peter, who would deny him hours later. He turns to the thief on the cross who tells them, "Lord, I—you—I am not worthy," and said, "Today you will be with me in Paradise." He even deals kindly with the people who are um, at his trial—the Centurion who was nailing him to the Cross. He is there in—at every moment of the crucifixion—we—every moment of the crucifixion, from betrayal to crucifixion to burial and resurrection—he is showing nothing but love—love and mercy and grace to the very people he knows are going to lead him to his death. But he washes the feet of Judas. Not only that, he gives him communion; he gives him the Last Supper. He literally preaches the gospel to him before he goes to send him out to betray him. He preaches that, "This is my body broken for you; this is my blood that I shed for you." Judas was in the room; Judas had that communion; Judas heard everything that was going to happen. This wasn't just an impulse of, "Hey, maybe I could just slip them the address they gave me, the 30 coins; I'll just tell them where he's going to be, and if what happens happens, no one needs to know it was me." He actively and aggressively and personally was preparing to betray Jesus. And Jesus, the entire time, knowing what he knows, washes his feet, tells him, "I will have my body broken for you; I will have my blood poured out for you. This is my gospel; this is my mercy." And at any moment up into that time, we could have seen Judas say, "My Lord, I was about to really mess up. My Lord, I—I got this in my—I got this in my pocket. I've been stealing from you. You would give your life for me—me. I'm sorry, Lord." But all the way up to that point, and we see in the gospel stories that um, it says that he was um, the spirit of Satan came upon him; he—he was being spiritually influenced, as literally the—a pit of—of evil in the world, "Stand up and kill Jesus," even though Jesus shows him nothing but love, grace, and mercy. And in John 13, um, as after he's washed the feet, after he's given them the uh, the communion, he tells them that one will betray him. This is in uh, John 13:21: "Jesus said to him—he was troubled in his spirit—and he testified, 'Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.' And the disciples stared at one another, uncertain who he was speaking about. And one of the disciples, the one that Jesus loved, was reclined near beside him. And Simon Peter motioned for him to find out who he was talking about. So he leaned back against Jesus. He said, 'Lord, who is it?' And Jesus replied, 'He is the one I give this piece of bread to after I have dipped it.' And when he dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas Simon Iscariot. And after Judas had eaten the piece, Satan entered him. And so Jesus told him, 'What you're about to do, do quickly.'" None of those reclining at the table understood why he had said this to him, since Judas kept the money bag. Some thought that he was telling him to go buy what was needed for the festival or that he should give something to the poor. And after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately left, and it was night. Not only did Jesus know and wash his feet and preach the gospel to him, he even has a conversation with him, looks at him in the eye and says, "What you're about to do, go do quickly." He confronts him head-on. This is not a secret sin; this is not a secret betrayal; this is one that is well known. He even addresses—and still he goes. Um, while they're at that table, and he tells them, "Someone is going to betray me," and the other gospel accounts, all the disciples get flustered and they say, "Surely not I, Lord. I would never betray you. Surely not I, Lord. Surely not I, Lord," all the way around the table until Judas. So Judas says, "Surely not I, Teacher. Surely not I, Rabbi." And Jesus says, "Well, as you have said it." Everyone at the table looked at Jesus and said, "My Lord, surely not I." But to Judas, he was only a teacher; he wasn't his Lord. He was "Yes, Rabbi," not "Lord." All the other disciples, they knew him as the Christ; they knew him as the anointed one of God; they knew him as the Son of God. But to Judas, after three years of seeing miracles, walking with him, under his teaching, seeing all of that, having him wash his feet, preach the gospel to his face, he was still just his teacher. The terrifying thing, church, and I've heard this many times of many variations—there are plenty of gospel preachers who are in Hell tonight because they preached the gospel and yet never believed it—who would tell everyone in the world over about what Jesus did for the world but never asked him into their hearts, never believed it for themselves. They went through the motions; they did what they were—good pastors do. Judas is that terrifying example. You could go and be in church; you could have the best teacher; you could have the best performance; you could have everything go right for you and look great—a righteous and holy—but if you are not right with Christ, if he is not your Lord, doesn't matter if he's your teacher, you could still turn around and sell him out for 30 coins of silver. There's lots of people who've done church their whole lives. If you ask them why—if you died today, would you go to heaven?—they would say, "Well, I've been a Sunday school teacher for years. I've been in church my whole life. I believe in God." And the Bible itself says, "Great, even the demons believe in God and shudder," because there's a difference between knowing him and just believing that he exists and going through the motions. This entire series about the disciples has been about a personal God who wants a personal relationship and a personal walk with those who he would call his followers, whether it was 2,000 years ago or today, in 2024—not their ritual, not their motion, not their title. He wants our hearts. He wants to know us, to know him, and to be known by him. And Judas is the terrifying example, the cautionary tale that you can do all the right things, but if Christ is not in here, it is all for nothing. He washed his feet; he fed the gospel to him; he even told them on the way out the door, "Go do what you're doing quickly." He knew. And now still he went—he went and betrayed him. In John 18, just a few verses uh, chapters down from where we are now, Jesus preaches his sermons to his disciples who are still there, and then they go and they leave the Upper Room and they go to a special place. This is in John 18: "After Jesus had said these things, he went out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley, where he had—where there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it. And Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, because Judas—Jesus often met there with his disciples. So Judas took a company of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees and came there with the uh, with lanterns and torches and weapons. And Jesus knew everything that was about to happen to him and went out and said to them, 'Who is it that you are seeking?' 'I am Jesus of Nazareth,' uh, 'Jesus of Nazareth,' they answered. And he said, 'I am he.' And uh, Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. And when Jesus told them, 'I am he,' they stepped back and fell to the ground." Judas knew the place they were going because for three and a half years he followed and he listened and he walked with Jesus Christ. Only those who knew him could have known where he was going. This was a personal betrayal. Like I said, after the Lazarus event, he was hiding from the public because he knew they wanted him—they wanted to arrest him—and the only one who could have possibly betrayed him was someone close to him. And he went to where only the disciples would know to go, and he brought armed men with him. And when they looked out and they said, "Who are you here for?" he said, "Jesus of Nazareth." And the other Gospel tellings, Judas comes up and he says—he identifies him by name and he identifies him by kissing him on the cheek. He didn't just know the place; he knew the man, and he identified him by name and by kiss. This was an intimate and personal betrayal—someone only who was close to him and a friend, someone who could have been considered a brother, could have done. And yet Judas—none of this is just opportunistic; none of this is just passive betrayal; none of this is just, you know, "I'll—I'll send them a quick message, and if they find them, great. I'll get—I'll get a reward if it happens." He was personable; he led him to his death. But I love what it says when they say his name—they fell back because there was power in the name of Jesus, even in the midst of his betrayal, even in the midst of someone who should have been a brother is giving him a kiss of death. The name of Jesus shocked the forces of those who were coming against him. In other tellings in the Gospel—uh—stories when this happens, um, one of the disciples, Peter, goes to attack those who are arresting him and cuts off one of the—the arresting officers' ears—a servant of Caiaphas. And Jesus—I love it—heals the man's ears—heals the man who was arresting him to bring him to death. And I love what he says: "No one is taking my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord that I might pick it up again. I could have called my Father for legions of angels, and no one would have touched a hair on my head, but I lay my life down of my own accord." He might have been betraying him, but Jesus willingly went to the Garden, willingly went to the Cross, willingly laid his life down for you and for me because of his love for us. It was never taken from him. Judas didn't outwit him; Judas did not, you know, finally find the—the secret to his weakness. It was always grace; it was always mercy. No one took his life. Judas betrayed him, but Christ gave himself willingly because of his love for us. There is power in his name. After all of this happens, after Jesus is arrested and the crucifixion story begins to unfold, in Matthew 27 we see Judas have a reaction to everything that has just happened. He begins to feel guilty of what he had done, and in Matthew 27:3-10, he feels guilty and he goes back to the Pharisees and he says, "I betrayed an innocent man," and he tries to undo what he has done, but it's like—it's too late. We can't take that—we can't take that money back. It's blood money, and he throws it down at the temple and he leaves and he goes and he commits suicide. And there's many people who have this long debate about what is the result of Judas. He felt guilty at the end. Is he right with God at the end of the story, or is he not right with God at the end of the story? And there's lots of people who debate back and forth, but, "Well, he felt guilty, so that means he—he—he turned around." But there is a difference between guilt and redemption. In 2 Corinthians 7:6-10, it describes that there is a heavenly and an earthly guilt. Earthly guilt brings you to death; heavenly guilt brings you to redemption. The gospel story isn't just that we admit that we are wrong and in—in sinners; it's coming to Christ because he offers solution and salvation and forgiveness. There isn't redemption until you first go to Jesus. He offers it freely; there is no price. He paid the price. But just admitting your guilt is not redemption. Admitting your sin is not the redemption. You then have to go and bring it to Jesus. You have to go bring it to the cross and say, "God, I am a sinner; I am guilty; I am lost; I am broken; I need to give this to you." I don't believe Judas made himself right with God at the end. I think he died of a guilty conscience. And there are many people who have guilty consciences and don't get right with God. But I don't know—that's between him and God. One day we'll know the answer for sure. But what I do know is through this whole story—this cautionary tale—of being told that you could walk so close to Jesus and still miss the mark—bring your sin, your brokenness, in your lostness to Jesus. Let him be your Lord, not just your teacher. Ask for redemption that he gives freely as a gift, because no one took his life that day. The story of Judas goes hand in hand with the story of the gospel because there had to be good news—uh, bad news—to go to the good news. There had to be someone who was an instrument of the world and sin trying to kill the light and life of Jesus Christ, but that he would conquer sin in the grave, and we today, 2,000 years later, can learn from his life, the cautionary tale, and get right with God and follow him with our hearts, not just with our feet, that we would live for him and that he would be our Lord and our Savior. Let's pray. Heavenly God, Father, I just thank you for this day. I thank you for these 12 men. We got to learn about all their failures, all their faux pas, all their successes, for we have our own journeys with you, Lord. They're going to be filled with our own failures, our own faux pas, our own faith walks. And I pray that we would just learn something from them—how to follow you today, because you have called us just the same to follow you and to be your disciples. And I pray, Lord, that you would help us live like you, to walk with you and follow you, Lord. And as we remember this week—Holy Week—that you would give your life willingly, that you would lay it down, that you would pick it up again victoriously on Easter Sunday, that we would remember our faith is the victory that has overcome the world. And thank you and praise you, Lord, that you offer this gift so freely, in your Son's name I pray. Amen.