SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/10/2016 9:33 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 The Hypocritical
Self-Interest of Judas
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 12:4-8
Message of the verses: “4 But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples,
who was intending to betray Him, said, 5 "Why was this perfume not sold
for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?" 6 Now he said this,
not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as
he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it. 7 Therefore Jesus
said, "Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial. 8
“For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.’”
I believe
that this is the first time that we see Judas speaking in the Word of God, and
we will see him again as He portrays our Lord a bit later on. What he says here as recorded in verse five ruined
what was going on as Mary was using her perfume to anoint Jesus and the fragrance
had filled the room, and not a putrid smell comes out of the mouth of
Judas. Judas was a follower of Jesus
Christ and was one of the twelve, and yet he was a trader to the Lord. Think about how he walked with Jesus for
three plus years, even was sent out to do miracles in our Lord’s name, and yet
in the end betrayed Him for 30 pieces of silver as prophesied he would do in
the 11th chapter of the book of Zechariah. He was what we would call
an apostate, someone who knows the truth and for a while lives as if he had
received the truth and then turns away from the Lord denying that he ever knew
the Lord in the sense of receiving Him as their Savior and their Lord. It was prophesized this would happen and Jesus
later on would say this would happen to fulfill the Scriptures, but this was
truly what was in the heart of Judas.
Those who follow after what Judas does will receive the harsher of
punishment in hell. While listing to the
sermon from John MacArthur on this section he made a statement that one who
attends church services who is not a believer, who perhaps says that he will “get
around to that some day” and yet continues to come to church and hears the
truth Sunday after Sunday is in the worst position he could be in, for he is heaping
up punishment upon himself by being in church and not responding to the
truth. He is in the worst position he
could be in while true believers are in the best position they can be in by
learning and growing in the Lord from the truth that is spoken of while under
the leadership of Pastor who teach the truth.
People in our country have great opportunity to hear the gospel as it is
on the radio, the internet, the TV, (not all TV evangelists are good, as some
only are looking out for their wallets to get fatter), and also in churches
around the country who teach the truth. Too
much is given, much is required.
As we look
at verse four we see the word “but” which follows the actions that Mary was
doing, as that word changes the scene of this dinner party that was going on so
well. This word introduces a sharp
contrast as I have written about in the previous paragraph. The difference contrasts the selflessness of
Mary with the selfishness of Judas as verse six explains. Now as we go through the gospel of John we
can see two descriptions that John gives of Judas, one that he was a disciple
of Jesus and two he was intending to betray Him. I believe that Judas was a
very popular name during that time period as one of the half brothers of Jesus
was named Judas, but when he writes in letter that is found in the later
portions of the NT we see that he has changed his name to Jude. I was listening to a sermon that spoke of
sheep and whoever was speaking was talking about how the people at the slaughter
house got the sheep into the place where they would kill them. They used a sheep, a male one, to cause the
other sheep to follow them and right before they were going into the place of
slaughter this male sheep would be let out of the way and the sheep that were
following him would go to the place of slaughter. The male sheep that did this was named “The
Judas sheep.” I have not ever heard of
anyone named Judas since I have been alive.
John
MacArthur writes that Judas’ betrayal of Jesus was the most “despicable act in
all of human history—and the one that merited the most severe punishment. In the chilling words of the Lord Jesus
Christ, ‘Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he
had not been born (Matt. 26:24).’”
Now when
one first looks at what Jesus said we could describe it as being philanthropic,
(humanitarian, charitable), until we see his real motive. This kind of reminds me of certain
politicians that are around today, as they say something that sounds good,
without any intention of doing it. I
guess we could say that we have some “Judas” politicians today.
I believe that
it is no secret why Judas followed Jesus as it had to do with political
involvement in His coming kingdom, and yet this was probably the motives of
some of the other disciples, but none of them had a desire to sell Him out when
things did not go as they expected, as they were true believers and although
they first were disappointed that He was not going to start the kingdom at that
time they realized the reason that He came was to save their souls and not only
theirs but all who would believe on Him for salvation.
Judas was probably
seeing “the hand writing on the wall” realizing that Jesus was not who he
though Him to be and so because he was a thief decided he could at least get some more money out of
his wasted three years. In the end he
would get one third the price for Him and because he realized he was wrong
would hang himself. MacArthur quotes
Dolin Kruse who writes “Seeing that much money elude his grasp infuriated
Judas, and he lashed out at Mary, ‘Judas’ disapproval of Mary’s action related
not to loss of opportunity to do more for the poor but to his own loss of
opportunity to stead from the common purse.”
We will
pick up from here in or next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I wrote the following on July 14, 1994 “When
your heart is right with God you will be led by Him to do those things that He
desires you to do. This was the case
with Mary. When your heart is not right
with God, as in the case of Judas, you will do those things that do not please
God. I, as a Christian am subject to do
wrong things if my heart is not in right a relationship with God.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: ““I’m putting on the belt of truth.
I ask You to make it very clear to me what I am to accept into my life
and what I am to reject. Help me to see
clearly the motives of others as they deal with me and converse with me. Let me walk in Your truth, making decisions
and choices according to Your plans and purposes for my life.”
Memory verses for the week:
(Romans 6:8-10) “8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we
shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the
dead, is never to die again, death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin
once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Rebekah” (Genesis 27:41-43).
Today’s Bible question:
“As Leviticus begins, where are the children of Israel?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/10/2016 10:43 AM
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