Judas Iscariot: The Perils of False Faith

Devotional

Sermon Summary

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips



Now the central character in the verses that are before us this morning provides us with the classic example and most chilling illustration of this fact: Judas Iscariot lives on the stage of Scripture as a constant reminder to us, as an awful warning to each of us who may be prepared at any point on the journey to contend ourselves with the fact that somehow or another we're caught up in the routine, that we are included in the crowd, that we have customarily thought of ourselves as belonging, despite the fact that our behaving gives no evidence of belonging. [00:84:96]

And every time we turn and look into the face of this tragic character, we realize that he is there in part to remind us that outward conformity to the routine of Christianity that is not matched by our relationship that speaks to inward reality will yield there's nothing on the day of his returning. [00:160:319]

And satan and his activity is at the very heart of all that is now unfolding. Incidentally, you may remember that back in Luke chapter 4 and in verse 13 after the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, Luke records that Satan left him waiting for a more opportune time, and it was just left hanging for us. [00:516:56]

Read it as an invitation that the reason that Satan was able to do as he did in the life of Judas was because his dastardly desires coalesced with the spirit of Judas himself. There is no hint here of Judas being unable to control his own actions. Rather, what we have here is essentially Judas opening the door of his life as it were to Satan. [00:710:48]

Let me say to you in passing that it is the ultimate in spiritual naivety to live a minute of my life absent the awareness that sin crouches at my door, desires to have me, and the call given to me is to master it not in my own strength but by the enabling of the Spirit of God. [00:762:24]

Judas opened the door. He didn't resist him. Therefore, Satan did not flee from him. Jesus had to suffer, but Judas did not have to be the traitor. Jesus had to suffer, but Judas did not have to be the traitor. Some of us read our Bibles as if we were Islamic, as if we were faithless, as if we were determinists. [00:880:32]

The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. I wonder, did he have Judas in mind? He doesn't see some people who had money, some people who used their money as if somehow or another the existence of money in itself was an evil. [00:1389:76]

You cannot serve God and money. Now that must have run right up the back of Judas because that's exactly what he was trying to do. He was trying to be the follower of Christ, and at the same time he had some kind of agenda that was related to his desire for cash. [00:1343:12]

The story of Judas is a chilling, powerful, permanent warning to every member of the visible church about the dreadful possibility that among us who apparently live in the closest connection with Jesus, there may be those who are inwardly false, those who although their colleagues do not know, are busily engaged in betrayal. [00:2529:28]

And satan entered Judas, not as a result of an unsought invasion, but as a result of a personal invitation. [00:2672:56]

Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts, and lead me in the way everlasting. And may the grace and mercy and peace that comes from God the Father, whose love is greater than our hearts even when they condemn us, rest upon and remain with each one today and forevermore. [00:2722:48]

The writer to the Hebrews reminds us that your word is like a cat scan. It runs from the tip of our toes all the way through up to our heads and takes these three-dimensional pictures that are unescapable in the information they provide. [00:2691:599]

Ask a question about this sermon