Appearances can be deceiving, even in the church. Today on Truth for Life Weekend, Alastair Begg continues our study in Luke's Gospel, chapter 22, by considering Judas Iscariot, a man who professed faith in Jesus, witnessed his teaching and his miracles, and yet betrayed him. How can this happen?
Well, it does, even in our day. Let's find out more. Money. Sex Influence. The three things that sell the magazines in the racks.
The three great dangers. For everyone in a close position of leadership with Jesus. I don't think there has been someone fall out of the ranks. of evangelical usefulness. but that it may be traced to either money Sex or power.
Does this touch you at all? Sure. Touched me this week when I went to Dallas. The huge crowd gathered, 2,000 plus. Earlier in the day, they had me go to a bookstore.
I used to sign books. It always makes me smile doing that. I can't tell you all the reasons why. I always feel very diffident in doing it, sitting behind a table and having old ladies come and Tell me that. They like me.
And um They never buy books, they just come and tell me they like them. Having people come and give me their cell phone and ask me to speak to the person who's other on the other end of the line. Surrounded by great mountains of books that nobody's buying. And as it wends his way to the end of the two-hour saga, recognizing that this poor bookstore owner has got 220 books. And me?
Yeah. and no prospect of much.
So I said to him, Why don't you get all of these books? and bring them to the church. Because there will be thousands of people at the church who move all these books. I could see his eyes. Yeah.
I know what this guy is up to. Yeah. Yeah. I think I get 13% of cost. Whatever his cost was.
Penny's in the dollar. I wasn't remotely interested in that. I just felt bad for him having 220 books that he wouldn't be able to move as soon as I left town. I mean, he might sell six more, but the rest, they're going in the bargain basement fast.
So I said, why don't you take them all over there? If I had really been interested in money, I would have cut him out of the deal. I would have had Truth for Life send boxes of books down into the church. I would have bought them at my cost. I would have sold hundreds of them.
at at least ten bucks a book. If I saw $500, that was $5,000, that's a pretty good evening. Why didn't I do it? Because I can't trust myself. I can't trust myself.
then I don't know whether I'm selling books or preaching the gospel.
Somebody else may be able to do it. I can't. Because I'm frightened. That in saying that I love God. I may actually only love money.
and be using God. as a mechanism. to worship my idol. You cannot see what happened to Judas without recognizing. that the financial factor plays deep into what's going on in his psyche.
but it's not the complete answer. Because if it was a complete answer, he shouldn't have settled for 30 pieces of silver. And because then he sold himself way short. No, you cannot explain it only in those terms. He's got a covetous heart, there's no question of that.
But a covetous heart doesn't reveal itself simply in the issues of finance, it reveals itself in all kinds of other ways, for example, in jealousy. I don't have any doubt at all that Judas was jealous. Read the Gospels and what do you find? His name comes last on the list all the time. Every time he comes last on the list.
And there was Peter and there was James and there was Andrew and Thideus and so on. And there was Judas.
Now that gets to wear on you after a while. You know, why is my name always at the last list? Why am I always at the last list? And why do they always say Judas Iscariot? Why do they have to mention my nationality?
Why do they have to point out that I am Judean? Because I am the only Judean out of the 12. I'm the only one from a village in Judah. Why do they keep mentioning that? And by the way, while we're at it...
Why wasn't I at the transfiguration? Huh? I mean, I could have had a shot of the transfiguration. And I'm sick and tired of Peter, James, and John, James, Peter, John, James, Peter, always the same three. What about me?
What am I? Where do I fit in this great scheme of things? You see? That's when you know that grace has not refined your heart. When your great concern, when my great concern is whether I'm getting my just desserts, whether I'm getting the profile that I should have, whether I'm getting the opportunities that fall to my this or that, or whatever our work perception of ourself may be.
The grace says it is a miracle that you're even on the team. Grace says, it is fantastic that I even have a jersey. You see, when you watch these baseball players, I just noticed the Texas Rangers and they were, no, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and they were all out there in that wonderful royal blue and white uniform with those exercise bags lying on the ground that I was coveting. And I said to myself, man, I'd like one of those bags. But anyway, there they were.
And I've watched, I don't fully understand how they give the numbers out. This seems totally crazy. In soccer, it goes, you know, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. In baseball, I don't know what it does. One guy's 22, another guy's 43, another guy's 97.
But I think, as best I can understand, apart from strange issues, you know, if you get a high number. You're probably not starting. You know, if they if they say, hey bag, hey bag, your jersey's back there, take it, uh, 387, go ahead. Carla, take your jersey. You take your 387, say.
Man, a lot, that means there's 386 people that are ahead of me in this operation. I'm ticked. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Or if you're honest, you ought to say it's a miracle. that I didn't get 388.
Knowing me? annoying my heart. And the weakness Of my arm. I think probably that Judas Iscariot bit his fingernails. I don't see him as Joe Cool.
At all, cool. I see him. Like this. you know, sitting around when they're before the launch comes. He's always He's like Kramer on Sein Thauf.
He's just... It just At himself all the time. He's processing the information because he's bright. And perhaps what he did was he said to himself, this whole thing is going to come to a grinding halt. It is apparent to me.
We are going down the way, we're not going up the way. After all, my Lord and Master has had plenty of opportunities to seize the day, to establish his cause, to bring in the kingdom. But look at us, look where we're going. It's getting worse and worse. And when he takes us aside, he says, We're going up to Jerusalem where I must suffer and die.
Suffer and die.
Well, I want nothing to do with suffering and dying because it is obvious to me that when Christ goes down, we're going down with him. Therefore, I'm not going down. I'm turning king's evidence. I'm turning governor's evidence. I'm going to go in the cover of darkness.
I'm going to betray him. And when he goes down, then they will look favorably upon me, and I will at least have a future. Unlike these sorry friends of mine, who are so brainless. in their devotion. to Christ.
I think there may be something of that in it. Money. jealousy, anxiety, protectionism. And for that reason I don't like the suggestion, which is a very common one, you read it everywhere. That in actual fact Judas was trying to do Jesus a favor.
That Judas was So concerned that the triumph of Jesus would come, that his glory would be established, that his power would be displayed, that his kingdom would be so visibly there. That he decided that he would preempt the situation by creating a crisis that would force the hand of Jesus and then Jesus would step up and do what, as far as Judas was concerned, he should have done a long time ago.
Well, it's an interesting idea. Mostly it comes from people who are trying to exonerate Judas. But there's not a hint of any substantiation for it in the Bible. Indeed, what you have in Jesus is somebody who is moving inexorably towards the cross. We've seen that in the opening chapters of John's Gospel.
My time has not yet come. The day has not yet come. And he's moving constantly towards Jerusalem. To conceive of it in these terms Instead of Jesus moving sure-footedly towards his destiny, Jesus is then portrayed as some kind of vacillating prince of Denmark. I mean, this is Hamlet.
I don't know what to do. I can't muster it up. You know, witness you this army of such mass and charge, says Hamlet to himself, led by a delicate and tender prince, whose spirit with divine ambition puffed, gets him out on the battlefield. But look at me, I'm not on the battlefield. I don't know what to do.
Now this is the explanation. Jesus is dithering them. Judas steps in and says, I'll take care of it for you, Jesus. You know, I can get this kingdom to come. What you have then is in place of Judas the traitor You have Judas the misguided saint.
Instead of treachery. You have an error in judgment. Don't you think that Christ in his goodness would have overlooked a little error in judgment, a little exuberance on the part of one of the 12? He would have said, hey, Judas, that was a dumb idea. Come here, let's talk about that.
But he doesn't do that. What does he do? He pronounces judgment on the man by whom the betrayal comes. Mark chapter 14. Woe to the man.
by whom this happens. No, the only way we can ultimately view this is to see in Judas All of the infamy. of man's rebellion against the dominion of God. Really, what we have in Judas is the spirit of the Antichrist embodied. He is there in the crowd, he is there in the company, but in his heart he is opposed.
to the one he professes to follow. And if we could pull back the layers of his deception. We would probably find that he's saying to himself, I thought this was going to be much more successful and much more profitable. I've been sold a bill of goods, he's saying to himself. False hopes, empty promises.
This whole journey has been a complete waste of my time.
Well, he could never hang that on Jesus, could he? Because Jesus hadn't put the challenge in the small print. Unlike many of the people on contemporary television that suggests, you know, if you come along now, you'll get wealth and health and happiness. And if you give the $1,000, then the next year is going to be the most amazing year you've ever known, and so on. And witness all these people with their Visa cards all marked up with this craziness and their life's a horrible shambles.
They have reason to be concerned. They have reason for anger. They have reason for disappointment because that was a false gospel that they were fed and to which they responded, which is no gospel at all, which is the fact that they are not saved because only the gospel of the Lord Jesus saves. And Jesus had extended his call. To do this just the same.
as the others. But presumably he was annoyed. He was embarrassed. He thought he was going to be involved in something really successful. When they came into sight of Jerusalem.
Just when he might have expected that Jesus has said, okay, let's mount the horses and let's marshal the troops and let's take Jerusalem, instead, Jesus falls on his face. And he starts to cry like a child. Jerusalem, Jerusalem. How often would I have gathered you as a hand gathers her chicks? No, I think we have to say that Judas is standing there going, Oh, get it over.
Here we go again. See? All of the time his thoughts are fueled with bitterness, with spite, with revenge. Always realizing that Jesus could read him like a book. That his heart and his mind, his devotion, had all gone in a different direction than the only thing that remained was not for him to point to Jesus.
Not for him to shout out, there's Jesus. Not for him to walk up and poke Jesus. But all that remained. was for him to kiss Jesus. The one I kiss.
What infamy is this? This is infamy beyond infamy.
Now finally in a moment. The other question I've been wrestling with during the week is not why, but when. And I just say a word and we're through. Don't get restless. I said to myself, when did this start?
See, when does it start? When does backsliding start in the professor? What is it? Where is it? Is it an event?
Is it a day? What is it? After all, he'd left everything to follow Jesus, just the same as the rest. Jesus had come and issued his call, and the people had stepped out. Mark 3.
314. And he called them to be with him. And Judas said, I want to be with you in the way that some of us have said that we want to be with Jesus. We went somewhere and somebody explained something of the gospel, and they told us if you walk an aisle or you hold up your hand or you write on this card or whatever else it is, then that means that ipso facto you're in the group. And Judas had been living under his influence.
He'd been Witnessing the compassion in his eyes. He'd been watching the great physician heal. He'd been listening to his entreaties, and as he listened to his entreaties, he'd been recognizing that they were entreaties to which he needed to respond, but he couldn't respond or he wouldn't respond. For example, Jesus says, on one occasion, come to me. Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
How do you think Judas heard that? With a big bag of cash on his lap. He was weary. And he was burdened. He had the worst weariness and the worst burden because he knew that there was a striking gap between his perception of things in terms of who Jesus was and his experience of the reality of Jesus' power within his life.
And when he heard Jesus say, and you will find rest for your souls, oh, he must have said that is exactly what I need: rest for my soul. But he didn't step out. I mean Would have been embarrassing for him, wouldn't it? After all, everybody who saw him said, Well, he's one of Jesus' boys. The way they look at the pastoral team And say, well, they're all Jesus boys.
I trust so. It would be a fearful thing to have preached to others, and then, in the end, myself to become a castaway. To step out of the mainstream and acknowledge that I'm in the routine, I'm part of a falderall, I engage in all the activities, but as God searches my heart, I neither know Him nor love Him nor serve Him. That was Judas's predicament. And then we'll always come out.
It will inevitably come out. And the when of it is secondary to the fact of it itself. Oh, I say to you again, these little verses here are a warning to every unconverted believer. There is a chilling warning here to every uncommitted follower and professor of Christ. Oh, Jesus had seen him as a good recruit, seen him as marked by potential.
Of course, he had. But somewhere the clouds had come in, the disappointment, the bitterness, the frustration. He loved it when John the Baptist said, now the axe is at the root of the trees, now the fire is going to fall. And Judas said, I love that stuff. It makes me bite my nails, but I love it when he says that.
Let the fire fall, let the axe start. What he was unprepared to acknowledge was that if the axe were ever to fall, it would take him out at his ankles. He'd be the first to go. See our great protestations about the sinners and the dreadful people in the world, and you come and judge them, God. is often a dreadful subtle smokescreen.
For the fact that I am unprepared to face the searching gaze of Scripture in my own ugly, sordid, messed up. Life. I say to you again. Bunyan was right. And I saw.
That there was a pathway to hell even from the very gate of heaven as well as from the city of destruction. What he discovered was that he had never really been Christ's man. He had never really been Christ's. Or he was in the group that was close to Christ. But he wasn't Christ's.
He'd never really known This love at all? You know, he'd known the moons and the dunes and the ferris fields and the dizzy dancing way it feels when every fairy tale comes real. He'd done all that stuff. He'd been there for the feeding of the 5,000. He'd been present for some of the dramatic miracles.
But somewhere or another he Dada da and feeling proud to say I love you right out loud, you know, he just couldn't get. And when he put his head on his pillow, he said, I really don't know love at all. I really don't know Christ at all. And it says John. The reason these people went out from us is because they weren't of us.
If they'd been of us, they would have continued with us. And the story of Judas and His treachery. is a permanent, powerful, Chilling reminder to every member of the visible church. that there exists the dreadful possibility that among us among us who are apparently Living in close connection To Jesus. There may be those who are inwardly false.
and who are busily engaged. and betraying him. And do not let. Appearances. deceive us.
Do you remember this? From and with the cyclose, from the Jordan management consultants. Sent to Jesus the son of Joseph. Dear sir, Thank you for submitting the resumes of the 12 men you've picked for. leadership positions in your new organization, all of them.
have now taken our battery of tests. We have not only run the results through the computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant. It is the staff's opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education, and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you're undertaking. They do not have the team concept. Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper.
Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, placed personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a sceptical attitude that would tend to undermine morale. Matthew has been blacklisted by the Jerusalem Better Business Bureau. And James, the son of Alpheus, and Thideus, definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the Manic Depressive Scale.
One of your candidates, however, shows a great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness. He meets people well, has a keen business mind, has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious and responsible. Uh we recommend Judas Iscariot as your CEO.
and right-hand man. You're listening to Truth for Life Weekend with Alastair Begg. Alistair returns shortly. I hope you're benefiting from our study in the Gospel of Luke. We are currently in Volume twelve, but if you'd like to listen to the complete verse by verse study through all twenty four chapters of Luke's Gospel, you can hear it for free on our website at truthforlife.
org. As the Gospel of Luke begins, its author declares his intent is to compile an orderly account of the life of Jesus. As you study this New Testament book you'll trace Jesus' life from His Nativity and ministry all the way through to His crucifixion, death, resurrection, and Ascension.
Now here's Alastair with a closing prayer. Father, thank you that the Bible conducts a big CAT scan on us. Thank you that you come to us. not with a telescope, but with a stethoscope. Search me, O God, and know my heart.
Try me and know my anxious thoughts. And see if there be any wicked way in me. And leave me. and the way everlasting. And now Unto him who is able to keep you from falling.
And to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God, our Savior. Be glory and majesty Dominion and power.
Now and forevermore. Amen. Thanks for listening this weekend. If you've ever felt overlooked by God, join us next weekend when we'll consider the full extent of His love. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life.
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