Judas wasted his life pretending to be a disciple.
John 13:1-2 Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that His hour had come to leave this world and return to His Father. He had loved His disciples during His ministry on earth, and now He loved them to the very end. 2 It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.
John 13:10-11 Jesus replied, "A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean, but not all of you." 11 For Jesus knew who would betray Him. That is what He meant when He said, "Not all of you are clean."
John 13:25-27 So that disciple leaned over to Jesus and asked, "Lord, who is it?" 26 Jesus responded, "It is the one to whom I give the bread I dip in the bowl." And when He had dipped it, He gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. 27 When Judas had eaten the bread, Satan entered into him. Then Jesus told him, "Hurry and do what you're going to do."
The last Passover meal that Jesus would be around for was full of surprises, first there is the way that the location was revealed to the disciples (Luke 22:7-14), then there was Jesus taking on servants work and washing dirty feet during the meal, and then the greatest of surprises is that one of the disciples is going to betray him.
The news that someone would betray Jesus was a complete shock and nobody could say that they had a good reason to suspect Judas or anybody else. Judas has covered his real character so well that there was only one man that knew who he really is.
Judas must be tired of living a lie and deceiving the other eleven men in his small group. The rest of the guys are going to be in complete shock, none of them had any clue about what was in Judas' heart, none of them had a good reason to suspect Judas and they didn't even get it when Jesus told them in the Upper Room.
It is important to note that Judas was not a true believer; he was a hypocrite. He had never believed in Jesus (John 6:64-71), he had not been bathed all over (John 13:10-11), and he had not been among the chosen ones whom the Father gave to the Son (John 13:18; 17:12).There would be a lot of trouble if anybody knew, Judas was protected by the fact that it was so well hidden, I am sure that somebody would have turned on Judas in order to protect Jesus.
If I had this information about someone that was going to harm me then I wouldn't stay quiet about it and I certainly would not serve them by washing their dirty feet or allowing them to sit at my dinner table. Jesus kindness in serving Judas was the last opportunity to soften his hard heart.
Have you considered what it would be like to be a hypocrite living everyday with Jesus? Judas has seen Jesus know a man's thoughts on more than one occasion so he must have been troubled with the dread that Jesus knew that he was a fake and that he would divulge his real character.
John 6:63-64 The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But some of you do not believe Me." (For Jesus knew from the beginning which ones didn't believe, and He knew who would betray Him.)Judas teaches us that sinners need more than a good example to be saved, Judas had the best mentor he could have possibly had, everything that he had seen and heard should have given him a very awesome testimony but instead he has a very sad one.
Judas teaches us that we will encounter people that are not saved in the most religious circumstances. In every church there is a Judas that is so cleverly disguised that we will never know their true identity. Don't forget that Judas was plugged into a small group and he fooled all of the guys in his group with the exception of Jesus.
| Wheat or Weeds |
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| Matthew 13:27-30 "The farmer's workers went to him and said, 'Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?' 'An enemy has done this!' the farmer exclaimed. 'Should we pull out the weeds?' they asked. 'No,' he replied, 'you'll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.'" |
We will always have deceivers and hypocrites in our midst, even in the church, and we will have to be patient to determine the difference. It will be difficult to know the difference until the fruit is produced and it is ready to harvest (Matthew 7:15-20)
Throughout church history there have been attempts to get rid of these sinful people but the trouble with that is they are never fully eradicated and the true wheat is often damaged in the attempt. The bride of Christ must keep herself pure and get rid of obvious false teachers but we must be careful and we must realize that we cannot possibly get rid of all of the weeds without damaging the wheat and harming its ability to produce fruit.
