Passion week day four; Judas betrays Matt 26

Believers who understand the difference between truth and the lie; between life with God and life without God, say as Peter did when the disciples were challenged by the Lord after hundreds had left when victory wasn’t on the horizon, and he said, “where are we going to go, You have the words of eternal life,” these believer’s don’t quit when the suffering does come.

 

So 11 of the 12 didn’t quit, even after their temporary dispersion during the trials and the cross, but one of the 12 had never believed. Judas Iscariot had the excitement that all the 12 had at the beginning of the ministry and he most likely wasn’t even stealing from the money bag.

 

But when the Lord’s ministry didn’t pan out the way that Judas had envisioned he began to get bitter. While the Lord’s words excited him in the beginning they began to irritate him. Like all arrogant unbelievers he saw the Lord as weak instead of strong because they have no clue where real strength lies.

 

So, while Judas’ unbelief turned to the gravest of evil, the disciples believed but didn’t understand. But what the Lord tells them on the fourth day makes it impossible to misunderstand.

 

It could scarcely have been possible to doubt what Jesus said of His near Crucifixion. If illusions had still existed, the last two days must have rudely dispelled them.

 

 

 

 

Matt 26:1 And it came about that when Jesus had finished all these words, He said to His disciples,

 

Matt 26:2 "You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is to be delivered up for crucifixion."

 

On the day of His triumphal entry, the “Hosannas” could be heard all around while the temple emptied of the usual pilgrims of the Passover getting ready for the feast so they could run up the hill to see Jesus on the colt. They laid down blankets and waved palm branches. This was their King coming to save them.

 

The good question here is, “To save them from what?”

 

What does anyone want to be saved from? What do you ask God to save you from? Do you want to be saved from a bad situation or do you realize that you need to be saved from yourself; that you are a sinner and you need to be delivered from the ultimate judgment on that sinfulness?

 

To most of the Jews in the first Advent of Christ, their desire was to be saved from a mild slavery and the tyranny of the Romans. So, they thought of their own betterment.

 

That is a fine thing to struggle for if there is no God and even if there is a God who is not involved and doesn’t care.

But that wasn’t the case and is still not the case. Our God wills for all men to be saved to the destruction of Himself as a man.

 

But if you are a nation that has been promised a Messiah that would deliver you then you have to pause and think. If He is the Messiah then you have to put all your reliance on Him.

 

But that would mean salvation of yourself through Him. A sinner cannot enter into the perfect kingdom of God can he?

 

Overt slavery is not the biggest problem with any man. Inner slavery is the ultimate slavery.

 

 

 

EPH 6:5 Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ;

 

EPH 6:6 not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.

 

Their biggest problem was that they were not regenerate, therefore they could not entrust themselves to Christ, who was their only Savior.

 

Even if Christ took over as an earthly King they still would have been slaves to themselves. The OSN must be removed from power and that only happens through regeneration.

 

ROM 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?

 

ROM 6:2May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

 

ROM 6:3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

 

ROM 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

 

ROM 6:5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection,

 

ROM 6:6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;

 

ROM 6:7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

 

ROM 6:8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

 

ROM 6:9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.

 

ROM 6:10 For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

 

ROM 6:11Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 

 

So the Lord wept over Jerusalem.

 

Luke 19:29 And it came about that when He approached Bethphage and Bethany, near the mount that is called Olivet, He sent two of the disciples,

 

Luke 19:30 saying, "Go into the village opposite you, in which as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it, and bring it here.

 

Luke 19:31 "And if anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' thus shall you speak, 'The Lord has need of it.'" 

 

Luke 19:32And those who were sent went away and found it just as He had told them.

 

Luke 19:33And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, "Why are you untying the colt?"

 

Luke 19:34And they said, "The Lord has need of it."

 

Luke 19:35And they brought it to Jesus, and they threw their garments on the colt, and put Jesus on it.

 

Luke 19:36And as He was going, they were spreading their garments in the road.

 

Luke 19:37And as He was now approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen,

 

Luke 19:38saying,

"Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord;

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"

 

Luke 19:39And some of the Pharisees in the multitude said to Him, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples."

 

Luke 19:40And He answered and said, "I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!" [The Lord’s Faith Rest]

 

When you find yourself in the ultimate of any testing, know that it will succeed even if the impossible has to happen. Jesus was so confident about His triumphal entry that if the disciples didn’t shout joyfully that inanimate object would.

 

You and I must find this faith over the years. And I don’t mean that you find rocks speaking on your behalf, and I do mean having complete trust in God that you will be vindicated by His omnipotence.

 

Luke 19:41And when He approached, He saw the city and wept over it,

 

Luke 19:42saying, "If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace [His cross would conquer all your enemies]! But now they have been hidden from your eyes [because you reject it].

 

Luke 19:43"For the days shall come upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank before you, and surround you, and hem you in on every side [Roman’s surrounding the city],

 

Luke 19:44and will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation [when your Messiah arrived]."

 

 

But the next two days were different. The acclamations from the people, had given way to the trivial objections and fault finding of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes, and with a ‘Woe’ upon it Jesus had taken His last departure from Israel’s sanctuary.

 

And now the Master was telling it to them in plain words; was calmly contemplating it, and that not as in the dim future, but in the immediate present - at that very Passover, from which scarcely two days separated them.

 

But to Judas Iscariot, in whose heart the darkness had long been gathering, this was the decisive moment.

 

Matt 26:14 Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests,

 

Matt 26:15 and said, "What are you willing to give me to deliver Him up to you?" And they weighed out to him thirty pieces of silver.

 

Matt 26:16 And from then on he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Him.

 

Luke 22:3 And Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot, belonging to the number of the twelve.

 

Luke 22:4 And he went away and discussed with the chief priests and officers how he might betray Him to them.

 

Luke 22:5 And they were glad, and agreed to give him money.

 

Luke 22:6 And he consented, and began seeking a good opportunity to betray Him to them apart from the multitude.

 

The last glimmer of light for a believing Judas is gone and with that darkness comes such an evil; so evil to the extent that Judas allows Satan to enter his body.