Transcription
Hey, hey, hey. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. >> [music] [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Hello, River family. So glad you joined us as we uh kind of polish off this series uh denying denial. Uh glad that you're here. Pastor David here.
If you have any needs, prayer needs um please let us know. We would love to be in prayer for you. Email us office@theriverine.com and we'll make sure our prayer teams are praying for you and we're glad that you're here uh with us today.
Couple of things we want you to know that are going on in the life of the church. First of all, our next Team River class, that's where you can explore what it means to partner with the church and and do the kingdom business that we are specifically uh called to do. That's going to be March the 1st, Sunday, March the 1st after the second service in room A103. You are absolutely welcome to do that, but we need to know if you're going to be there because we keep the class a certain size. Once again, office@theriverine.com. That's where uh you can sign up for that class.
All of our groups have begun. There's probably a couple more uh that will be erupting soon. I want to encourage you, go to our groups page, the riverine.com. Go to the groups page. There's a lot of cool stuff going on. If you're not getting the regular enews every week, let us know so that you understand a little bit more about what is going on in the life of the church.
And and you can really participate in the amazing things that God is doing in this church um by giving. And there's three different ways you can give. You can write a check to 539 US uh highway 83 Abilene, Texas 79602. You can mail that check right there. You can give by secure text or you can give by going to the website the riverine.com. Go to the dropdown and you can securely uh give there too. We'd love for you to participate in what God is doing here at the river.
Here's a question for you. Here's a question for you. In today's dollars, what are the 30 pieces of silver that was given to Judas to betray Jesus? What is that worth in today's dollars? We'll see you in a sec.
>> Creation is not silent. It speaks, it shouts, [music] it testifies. From the first let there be to the last breath of every storm and sea, the world itself has never stopped proclaiming the majesty of God. The heavens [music] don't whisper, they roar. Stars burn sermons into the night and galaxies swirl in sacred choreography declaring the glory of the Lord. Every sunrise is a testimony. [music] Every sunset a signature. The mountains lift [music] their arms like choirs and the oceans crash like symbols of praise. The wind dances through the trees and even the [music] stones hummath our feet. Because everything he made still remembers his voice. It was his word that sparked the light. His breath that filled the sky. His hand that shaped the dust and called it human. Creation bears [music] his fingerprints etched in the bark. woven in the tide, written in the rhythm [music] of the tide and time. The psalmist said, "The heavens [music] declare the glory of God, not suggest, not imply, declare." And they've been [music] declaring ever since. Every thunder clap, his [music] majesty. Every lightning strike, his might. Every still, quiet morning, [music] his mercy knew again. Even the vastness of space bends beneath his reign. For no distance [music] can stretch beyond his name. And if creation is the witness, then we are the response. We made in his image are the echo of his glory. So when we lift our hands, we join [music] a chorus that never ended. A song that began before the first dawn. Still rising through time. Still pointing [music] to the one who said, "Let there be." And there was and it was good and it still is because all [music] of creation still testifies, still magnifies, still glorifies the majesty of God.
Logan River family. So glad that you joined us. Um, as we look into the the character that nobody really wants to study, but as we look into a character to teach us a little bit about how the the psychology, the emotion, the heart that comes that moves somebody into a point where they're they're willing to betray Jesus. Let me let me talk about depiction. Let me give you some depictions and you go, "Yeah, that that really typifies that." Let's talk about laziness. Did you hear about the two bank robbers that were so lazy they waited till the evening news to tell how much was stolen because they didn't want to count the money?
>> Mhm. That's lazy, isn't it? That's really, really lazy. You know what the lazy orthodontist says? Brace yourself. That's lazy, isn't it? It typifies laziness. You know what a country full of lazy people is called? A procrastination lazy. You you can you know those depictions you immediately think lazy. I think of of Norm when he walked into Cheers and you know he is a lush that is not a hard worker. I can say one word and it typifies it typifies traitor and it's the word Judas. I can say the word Judas and immediately your mind says traitor and you go to the very end of his story and you go to the very end of his his demise and and you have broad strong emotive conclusions about him. Well, how did he get there? How did he get there? We're going to kind of do a bit of a a study of his his psychology, his his motivations that it's always a little frightening to step into a character study because I always think there's going to come a day when I maybe in my mind I see as Peter's this big strong fellow and he's going to look like Danny DeVito. I I don't know. But here's here's what I know is this is a very informed educated possibility of the personality of Judas and what helped him move from disciple to betrayer.
Lord, open our hearts, open our minds, help us to be very sensitive to what is going on in our own lives that is part of the downward slide to betrayal. and help us resist it in Jesus name. Amen.
We're been jumping around a lot lot of places in the in the scripture in the gospels. So I encourage you encourage you to go to to to Luke uh chapter 6. We're going to be in verse 12. Luke chapter 6 verse 12. And this is the selection and the first listing of Judas as a disciple. One of those days Jesus went out on a mountainside to pray and he spent the night praying to God. Very important. When when morning came, he called his disciples to him. And he chose 12 of them whom he also designated as apostles, those who would go out. Simon, whose name is Peter, his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, son of Alphaeus, Simon, who'd be called the Zealot, and Judas, son of James, that was a designation between the other Judas and Judas, a scariot. Commentary commentary. It's all written after the fact who became a traitor. So hold on to this thought that according to the first depictions of Judas, it is not Judas the betrayer. It was Judas who became a betrayer. So there is some reason for us to assume that he was seen as an as an authentic um sort of maybe God-loving Messiah interested guy and he was selected by Jesus to become there's a lot of predestination ideas that you may have in your brain on that but stick with me and and he is named in the band and that he would become become a betrayer as opposed to he was intrinsically a betrayer.
We don't have a lot of biographical information on him, but we do have one little little clue here. There's just little pictures and little snippets in in the New Testament, but here's the the clue. He's Judas a Scariot. Now, likely that means he's from the village of Kerioth, which is near uh Hezron. and and it's about 12 miles from Hebron. It it's it's not a it's not a a clear meaning of a scariot, but that's probably the highest possibility. But there are others. And one of these, I believe, gives us a bit of a bit of a clue. The word scariot could be of a Latin understanding from the word sakaras, which means zealot. Now, now consider this. Zealot Sakarus um has been made very popular by a couple of movies that include Benicio Del Toro. And here's what's interesting about it is there's there's pockets in all of the Roman world of Jews who are longing for an uprising and longing to overthrow the Roman government and reestablish Israel and Jerusalem as the centerpoint of Israel. These pockets, we see it culminate a little later, but these pockets are known as as zealots, people who are sold out for the cause of Israel. Because this is a prevailing thought and because we have a little bit of illusion in the name, there's a high likelihood that that Judas is is coming with an expectation that Jesus will become a um a militant or at least a a charismatic leader that will lead to an overthrow uh and also a reestablishment of a nationalistic identity. So in the initial stages likely Judas is seeing Jesus as a Messiah, maybe the Messiah, and in his mind, clearly hadn't read all of the text, in his mind, he's seeing somebody who's going to become maybe a a charismatic Messiah person that would overthrow the the Romans. Give them give them a new a new lease.
Now his dream of that is not a bad dream. His desire for that is not evil. His his desire is that is the children of Israel would come out of bondage that they would reestablish their identity that that that they would be free and that and that this new kingdom would erupt and and that potentially there would be a high uh position for himself. So he has a dream that most people would look at and congratulate, affirm, confirm, encourage in him. And yet this dream will potentially be his downfall. I don't I don't know about you, but but the call was come follow me. and and and many people instead of just following Jesus will apply upon Jesus a noble or Christian-like dream that is not following Jesus. I I will never forget my my brother and I are both pastors and I remember my brothers going into ministry but I knew that the Lord had called me to ministry and I remember fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting that and I I came to a conclusion I would become Dr. Skinner. I would become a Christian psychiatrist. That way I could help. I could be noble. I could care about the body of Christ and I could make copious amounts of money. It was a noble dream, but it wasn't following Jesus. Following Jesus involved me surrendering that so that I could be who I was called to be in his dream.
Now consider this. The first slide into betrayal is holding on to a noble, good or appropriate, seemingly appropriate dream that is not his kingdom come, his will done on earth like in heaven. That is the beginning of dissolution. We get another picture into Judas's personality. So go to to John chapter 12. John chap 12. Gospel of John chapter 12. And we get a picture. Now several years have passed. There's been a lot that's happened. He's seen uh miracles. He's seen Jesus engage uh religious people. He's seen uh uh how he operates in the Roman world. And so he's beginning to get a very clear picture of who Jesus is. And and look at what happened. Six days before the Passover, starting in verse one, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lives, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here, dinner was given in his honor. It uh probably like a banquet. Uh Mary served while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table. Kind of a picture of a banquet, a real honoring time. Then then Mary took about a pint of pure pure nard an expensive perfume and she poured it on Jesus' feet and she wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Uh we know uh the fragrance is probably worth about a year's wages to put it in today's dollars in Texas at least $65,000 and and it was um seemingly a waste although nobody says anything. There's this this banquet all of a sudden a woman rushes in. a little bit of an inappropriate thing in in the setting and she uh anoints and honors Jesus. It's a salient powerful moment. But one of the disciples, Judas Iscariot, whose letter to betray him, there's the commentary. He objected. Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor is worth a year's wages? He did not say this because he um cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and as keeper of the money bag, keep that in mind. He used to help himself to what was in it. Leave her alone. Jesus said it was intended that she should save the perfume for the day of my burial. You'll always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me. Judas gets called down.
Here's the the fascinating thing. Judas has become of such great esteem that he is given literally the money box. Now in rabbinical times if there's a rabbi many times they would select a disciple to handle all the financial matters. That means some of the women are making money through working. There's also donations. Some of the guys may be doing some occasional things to put money into the coffers to fund Jesus ministry. And and to be able to do this, you select a disciple of great esteem, one you really really trust. And Judas was selected to take care of the money bags. Meaning that from the beginning, it looks as though this is a guy you can trust. This is a guy who's who's maybe getting the picture. what it means to follow Jesus. Maybe this is that guy. But we get a a different picture. He wants to sell it for the cash so that he can use the cash for himself. It's kind of dark and insidious and and strange to see a disciple who was allegedly to be honored and trusted is back door taking money.
Consider this one of the second pictures of a slow denial of Jesus. One is the application of our dream over following Jesus. And then the second is whenever we begin to justify unethical or immoral behavior because we are disillusioned with Jesus. You you see he has ideas that Jesus is going to become nationalistic. He's going to he's going to change the world and that he's going to have a place in this new kingdom. He has this thought. This is his highest likelihood of what's going on within Judas. And as he's watching Jesus, Jesus is loving the unholy. He's he's healing people that are not of of high repute. He he's engaging religious leaders instead of the Roman government. And he's beginning to realize that he's a nonviolent, peaceful messiah. And he's slowly getting disillusioned. And when we have that twinge of disillusionment, that twinge, that that little root of bitterness that hits us, we begin to justify behaviors that are wrong. He begins to justify and feel okay with I'll take a few thou out. Got some stuff I might buy. Okay. I I remember this is such a microcosm. I I remember uh we didn't do hotels a lot early in our marriage because we didn't have a lot of money, but I remember hitting a motel and we probably paid $39 for for a motel. And in my mind, that was just unbelievably ungodly expensive. And I remember thinking, I'm taking this little soap. I'm taking this little shampoo. I'm taking that extra toilet paper. I'm taking all that stuff because I picked I surface. Well, we do that. We justify unethical, immoral behavior when we become disillusioned. Whenever our dream is not matching up with truly following Jesus, instead of conforming to follow, we become disillusioned in the dream.
Now consider in Matthew 26, jump over to Matthew 26:14. Matthew 26:14. And look at where this goes. Then one of the 12, the one called Judas Iscariot, went went to the chief priests and asked, "What are you willing to give me if I deliver him to you?" So they counted out for him 30 pieces of silver. From then on, Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over. How do you go from the Messiah prays all night, comes down, selects you, later on selects you to handle the finances? How do you go from that to the point that you're seeking out enough money to be able to betray the very one who called you? How bitter have you become? How disillusioned have you become? How disappointed have you become? And how have you lived in that disappointment in such a a powerful way that the bitterness has led you to betray? He seeks them out. 30 pieces of silver. 30 pieces of silver was the common Exodus 21. If a slave was gored to death by an ox or some other animal, the owner was given was given 30 pieces of soap. Judas is now equating Jesus as almost valueless. Today's dollars anywhere from $72 to $450 bucks. That's what Judas betrayed Jesus for. How hard is your heart that you would move into that place to where you could not see yourself in Jesus' picture? because Jesus is not in the picture you've created. How difficult and difficult and dark is that particular place?
>> [snorts] >> You see, the process began with a with a dream that was not surrendered to follow. And then over time, as the dream goes from unfulfilled to disillusionment, behaviors that are wrong get justified. And when wrong behaviors are justified, you're on the slippery slope to fullblown betrayal. It's a process that happens. It's it's it's one of the enemy's great delights is to enter and encourage self-created dreams that may be noble, that may look good, they may be fine, but they're not his dream. They're not following Jesus. Had Judas just stayed in following Jesus. There may be people who are named Judas right now that we wouldn't even think differently of.
Now, where does it go? It goes, if you'll look back over in John, John John chapter 13, starting in in verse 27. As soon as Judas, this is at the last supper, the institution of the Lord's supper. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered him. Consider that that the process of holding on to a non-God breathed dream leads to a disillusionment that when nurtured leads to leads to the fact that someone can betray a god and embrace darkness. What a slip race. Let me give you a dark example. This young boy at 18 confirmed as a Catholic. Several years later, he proclaimed he was not Catholic or Protestant. He was just a German Christian. Few years after that he began to destroy the church Catholic and Protestant speak out against him and then he began to embrace a nationalism and exit Christianity from everything he did. His name was Adolf Hitler. I know it's dark. I know it's big. Judas Hitler. Come on, Pastor David. But here's the thing we must hold on to when we apply a dream to Jesus that does not that is not following Jesus. Whenever our dreams are our kingdom dreams versus following Jesus which is the fulfillment of his kingdom dreams that we get invited into. When we do that, there will be over time a disillusionment that will lead to a bitterness. And that bitterness will give us license to behaviors we should never be doing. And then our hardening of our heart will move us to a full-blown betrayal of Jesus and an embracing of darkness. You see, beloved, it's not overnight. In this case, it's 3 to 3 and 1/2 years.
Let me ask you a question. What are you feeding in your life? Where are you putting all your cards? Where are you putting all your emotions? Where are you putting all your expectations? Is it on the dream or is it on following Jesus? To feed the dream is to take steps toward distance and betrayal. to surrender the dream and to follow is the God of the universe, the redemp redemption uh redemption savior of all humanity inviting you into his dreams and that is a delight. How do you avoid this? There's so there's really just one major simple test. What behavior are you licensing in your life? That is wrong. That you have given the green light because you are disillusioned, disappointed. Your dreams have been violated. If that's happening in your life, you're probably feeding a self-created dream and you're not just like Jesus. What are you feeling? Are you feeling a noble dream that has a little egocentric bonus to it? I have you dropped to follow Jesus being invited into his magnificent dream. I pray you would feed the follow and reject the self-created tra Lord. U look look in our hearts, look in our souls. Help us to see and realize where we stand in this process.
>> I pray Lord Jesus that we are not giving license that we are not becoming embittered that we are not in that place but that we are freshly surrendering to follow you.
>> disciples >> of Jesus Christ >> in Jesus. >> Amen. A single word, Judas, >> and your whole perspective changes. >> What about fully devoted follower [music] of Jesus? >> Being invited into bigger dreams than you ever thought were possible. >> That's denying denial. >> God bless you. Hallelujah. And I [singing] know it's not else for a king except for [singing] a heart singlelu. [singing] [singing] I've got one response. I've got just one with my [singing and music] arms wide. I will worship you. I've got [music and singing] one response. >> I've got just one clue. In my arms, [singing] >> I will worship [music] you.