EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/6/2026
8:12 PM
My
Worship Time Focus “PT-1 “His Call”
This evening I begin the section on
Judas Iscariot “His Call” and it comes from the commentary of John MacArthur.
“The Bible does not record when and
where Judas first encountered Jesus. He may have been among those who went to
the Judean wilderness to hear John the Baptist (Matt. 3:1-5), or he may have
met the Lord at the outset of His ministry when ‘Jesus and His disciples came into
the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and baptizing’ (John
3:22). When the Lord first called Judas
to follow Him is also not recorded in Scripture. With the other eleven, he was chosen to be
and apostle (Luke 6:12-13). At that
point (if he had not already done so), Judas left his former occupation and
became a full-time follower of Christ.
He even stayed with Him when many other false disciples abandoned Him (John
6:66-71). But though Judas was skilled
as a hypocrite, appearing outwardly loyal to Jesus, he never gave Him his trust
as Messiah and Lord. He was crass to the
core, indifferent toward godly, spiritual matters.
“Judas was probably young (perhaps
in his early twenties), zealous and patriotic.
Like most of his fellow countrymen, he hated the Roman occupation of
Israel, and longed for the Messiah (whom he thought of in political and
military terms) to drive out the Romans and restore Israel’s sovereignty. In that regard, he was no different from the
rest of the apostles, who also hoped Jesus would establish an earthly kingdom
(Acts 1:6).” “6 ¶ So when they had come together, they asked
him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’” But unlike Judas, they also believed that Jesus
was the Son of God (Matt. 16:16), who alone was the source of eternal life (John6:68).
“It was precisely that spiritual
dimension that was absent in Judas. He
saw Christ’s miraculous power and fervently hoped that He would use it to throw
off the yoke of Rome and establish His kingdom.
Judas’s motives, however, were not merely patrotic; he was also driven
greed and personal ambition. He hoped to
reap the benefits—power, prestige, and wealth—that would be his in the kingdom
as a member of Christ’s inner circle. It
was materialism, not spiritual realities, that fueled Judas’s ambition.
“It must be clearly understood that
although Jesus chose Judas, Judas chose to follow Him of his own volition. He was not forced to become an apostle, nor
was he compelled against his will to betray Jesus. The biblical tension between divine
sovereignty and human responsibility is evident in the calling of Judas, as it
is with the rest of the Twelve. They
chose to leave everything and follow Jesus (Matt. 19:27), but He chose them
first (John 15:16.” “16 You did not
choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit
and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my
name, he may give it to you.”
“That the Lord Jesus Christ would be
betrayed and die for the sins of the world was foreordained in the eternal counsel of God. Centuries before it happened, the Old
Testament prophesied Judas’s role in the betrayal of Jesus. Psalm 41:9 says, ‘Even my close friend in
whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.’ Jesus told the apostles in the upper room
that that prophecy would be fulfilled in His own betrayal. (John 13:18). Psalm
55:12-14 also refers to Judas’s betrayal:
“For it is
not an enemy who reproaches me, then I could bear it; nor is it one who hates
me who has exalted himself against me, then I could hide myself from him. But it is you, a man equal, my companion and
my familiar friend; we who had sweet fellowship together walked in the house of
God in the throng.
“Zechariah
11:12-13 predicted the exact amount Judas would receive for betraying Jesus:
“I said to
them, ‘If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!’ So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver
as my wages. Then the Lord said to me, ‘Throw
it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.’ So I
took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of
the Lord.”
“Matthew’s
gospel cites that passage as a prophecy of Judas’s betrayal of Christ
(27:9-10). “9 Then was fulfilled what
had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, "And they took the thirty
pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the
sons of Israel, 10 and they gave them
for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.’’ Thus long before judas was
born, his treachery was foreseen and designed into God’s eternal plan. Jesus
knew exactly the kind of man Judas was from the outset. But He chose him so that the divine plan
revealed in the Old Testament prophecies would be fulfilled.
“But on the other hand Judas freely
chose to do what he did, and was fully accountable for his actions. That his
betrayal was predetermined in no way contradicts the truth that he acted on his
own volition. Jesus affirmed both
realities when he said in Luke 22:22, ‘For indeed, the Son of Man is going as
it has been determined [God’s sovereignty]; but woe to that man by whom He is
betrayed [Judas’s responsibility]!’
Peter expressed the tension between God’s plan and human choice as they
relate to Christ’s death in the sermon on the Day of Pentecost: ‘This Man [Jesus], delivered over by the
predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands
of godless men and put Him to death’ (Acts 2:23). As He did with the others involved in Christ’s
death, the sovereign God, ‘who works all things after the counsel of His will’
(Eph. 1:11), used the evil plans of Judas’s wicked heart to bring about the
good of redemption (cf. Gen. 50:20) “20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God
meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as
they are today.”
“Judas had every opportunity to turn
from his sin. Much of Christ’s teaching
applied directly to him, such as the parables of the unjust steward (Luke
16:1-13) and the wedding garment (Matt. 22:11-14), and Jesus’ warnings against
the love of money (Matt. 22:11-14), and Jesus’ warnings against the love of
money (Matt. 23:1-12). Judas was present
when the Lord said to the Twelve, ‘Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and
yet one of you is a devil?’ (John 6:70).
Just hours before his betrayal, Judas heard Jesus Declare that not all
the disciples were spiritually cleansed (John 13:18). But all of that left Judas unmoved. He determinedly hardened his heart and
refused to repent, and went to that eternal hell where he belonged. (Acts 1:25
calls it ‘his own place.’ There is an
instructive parallel to this combination of divine decree and human will in
Isaiah 10:5ff., where God prophecies that He will use Assyria as His rod of
judgment on Israel, though Assyria has no intention of serving Jehovah. When Assyria has worked that decreed
judgment, He will turn on her and destroy her for the very pride that motivated
her to assault Israel.”
7/6/2026
9:10 PM
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