SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/9/2024 7:23 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-4 “The Kiss of the Traitor”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
26:48-50a
Message of the verses: “48 Now he who was
betraying Him gave them a sign, saying, "Whomever I kiss, He is the one;
seize Him." 49 Immediately Judas went to Jesus and said, "Hail, Rabbi!"
and kissed Him. 50 And Jesus said to him, "Friend, do what you have
come for.’”
The following is the last words that Jesus said to
Judas “Do what you have come for,” as this was His farewell statement to Judas,
the son of perdition. MacArthur adds “For
Judas those were the last words of Christ, and one can imagine that the words
will ring as a torment in his ears throughout all eternity in hell. Judas exposed Himself outwardly as the enemy
of Christ he had always been inwardly, and until the end of history his name
will be synonymous with treachery.
“Judas’s
betrayal not only reflected the wickedness of the sinful world but the
wretchedness of the false disciple. He
is the epitome of a sham believer, the quintessence of a spurious Christian.”
MacArthur
then goes on to describe what a false Christian is as he writes “A false
Christian is first of all motivated by self-interest, which for Judas was
exhibited most obviously in his greed, because he was a thief (John 12:6). But it is likely that he also craved
prestige, glory, and power, which he expected to share with Jesus when He
overthrew Rome and establish His earthly kingdom. He sought to use Jesus for his own sinful
ends, and when he discovered that the Lord would not be so used, he turned on
Him in open rejection and betrayal. He
was like the seeds planted in rocky soil that spring up for a little while but
wither when exposed to the heat of the sun (Matt. 13:5-6). When disappointment and testing came, he fell
away (see verses 20-21). He is the
fruitless branch that is cut off and burned (John 15:6).
“Second,
a false disciple is also marked by deceit and hypocrisy. He masquerades in the guise of devotion to
Christ, His Word, and His church. He is
like a tare planted among wheat; only God can with certainty distinguish him
from the real thing. He pays homage to
Christ on the outside but Hates Him on the inside. Like Judas, his outward signs of affection
for the Lord cover a heart that despises Him.
“But
when a false believer is confronted with a price to pay for his association
with Christ, his superficial interest in the church and the things of God
invariably withers, and he is exposed as the impostor he has always been.
“Judas’s
particular act of bet rayal and its direct consequences were unique, but his
basic attitude toward Jesus is characteristic of every false believer. Every age has found Judases in the church,
those who outwardly feign allegiance to Christ but who at heart are His
enemies. They identify themselves with
the church for many different reasons, but all of the reasons are
self-serving. Whether it is to get ahead
in business by appearing respectable, to gain social acceptance by being
religious, to salve a guilty conscience by means of pretended righteousness, or
to accomplish any other purpose the underlying motive always is to serve and
pleas self, not God.
“Judas
is the archetype of Christ rejecters and the supreme example of wasted
privilege and opportunity. He is the
picture of those who love money, having forsaken the priceless Son of God for thirty
pieces of silver (cf. Matt. 12:22). He
is the classic hypocrite, who feigned love and loyalty for Christ even as he
delivered Him up for execution. He is
the supreme false disciple, the son of Satan who masquerades as a son of God.”
With
that we end our study on this section about Judas the traitor, and Lord willing
we will begin to look at verses 50b-53 in the next SD, “The presumption of
Peter.”
6/9/2024 7:47 AM
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