PT-5 "The Contrast Between Guilty Judas and Innocent Jesus" (Matt. 27:3-5)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/14/2024 8:05 AM

 

My Worship Time            Focus:  PT-5 “The Contrast between Guilty Judas and Innocent Jesus”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 27:3-5

 

            Message of the verses:  “Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." But they said, "What is that to us? See to that yourself!" 5 And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself.”

 

            I continue to quote from John MacArthur’s commentary and I want you to think about this first paragraph as it has great meaning.  “Had Judas been able to remember one fault in Jesus, one deficiency or sin, he may have been able to rationalize his treachery.  But even Jesus’ arch enemy in the human realm could not escape confessing His innocence.  Like the Jewish religious leaders, the Roman political leaders, the false witnesses, and even the demons, Judas could find no fault in Jesus.  In His sovereign power, God caused even His enemies to testify to the Son’s sinless purity.

 

            “Yet despite his confession, Judas had not changed his mind about who Jesus was or about his own need for salvation.  He had dimply become aware of the wickedness of what he had done and wanted relief from the overwhelming guilt that now tormented every part of his being.  The money he had wanted so badly not burned in his hands like a live coal.

 

            “Sin never brings the satisfaction in promises.  Instead of happiness it brings sorrow, and instead of pleasure it produces pain.  It poisons with a pang that cannot be relieved apart from God’s forgiving grace.”  Once again I remind you of how powerful these words are, and if there is unconfessed guilt in your live, you must confess that to the Lord who will willingly forgive you.  If you have never invited the Lord Jesus Christ into your life in order to save you from your sins, then now is the perfect time to do this.  Just talk to the Lord, something that Judas was unwilling to do, and tell Him that you agree with what is in His Word, the fact that you were born a sinner because you are a part of Adams race, and that you sin because you were born a sinner and now you desire to rid yourself of the guilt that it is causing you in your life.  Just ask the Lord to save you as you confess the fact that you are a sinner and on your own can do nothing about it.  In doing this the Lord will save you, so don’t be like Judas who felt guilt but only felt remorse which certainly did not save him. 

 

            Here is what the chief priests and elders callously replied to Judas when he told them that he had sinned by betraying innocent blood.  They said to him “What is that to us?  See to that yourself!”  MacArthur goes on:  “True to the characterization Jesus had given of them a few days earlier, the religious leaders of Israel were adept at laying heavy religious burdens on men’s shoulders, while not lifting a finger themselves to help relieve those burdens (Matt. 23:4).  They had no more concern for Judas than for Jesus and were as cold-heartedly indifferent of his remorse as they were to Jesus’ innocence, which, in effect, they had already acknowledged.

 

            “Judas likely realized he was cursed, because the Mosaic law made clear that ‘cursed is he who accepts a bribe to strike down an innocent person’ (Deut. 27:25).  But because the Sanhedrin had paid the betrayal bribe, they were hardly in a position to indict and punish Judas for taking it.  If they cared nothing for justice regarding Jesus, they certainly cared nothing for it regarding Judas, especially if it would bring their own indictment as well.”

 

            Lord willing we will finish up this section in the next SD.  It has taken longer than I thought that it would take to go through this section, yet there were things that needed to be said that I hope and pray that the Lord will use in people’s lives who read this.

 

7/14/2024 8:29 AM

PT-4 "The Contrast Between Guilty Judas and Innocent Jesus" (Matt. 27:3-5)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/13/2024 10:42 AM

 

My Worship Time           Focus:  PT-4 "The Contrast between Guilty Judas and Innocent Jesus"

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Matthew 27:3-5

 

            Message of the verses:  “3 Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." But they said, "What is that to us? See to that yourself!" 5 And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself.”

 

            The section that we are looking at now has a lot of MacArthur’s commentary in it, I guess I could say “extra commentary” and I say that because that is the way that he teaches, and that is the way that I like to be taught.  In cases like this I do a lot of quoting from his commentary, and as mentioned before I do this so that those who read these from my blog get what I consider great teaching.  Today we begin this SD by talking about “Judas’s remorse was not repentance of sin, as the King James Version suggests.  Matthew did not use metanoeo, which means a genuine change of mind and will, but metamebmai, which merely connotes regret or sorrow.  He did not experience spiritual penitence but only emotional remorse.  Although he would not repent of his sin, he could not escape the reality of his guilt.  Genuine sorrow for sin (metamebmai) can be prompted by God in order to produce repentance (metanoeo), as Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 7:10.  But Judas’s remorse was not prompted by God to lead to repentance but only to guilt and despair.”  Let us look at 2 Cor. 7:10 “10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.”  I have a friend of mine who truly thinks that Judas is in heaven, but that is not the case as seen in this last paragraph.  Not only is he not in heaven, but as mentioned in earlier SD’s I believe that there are different places in hell where the punishment will be worse than others and my belief is that Judas will be in the “hottest” part of hell, and the reason is because Judas walked with the very God who created the heavens and the earth and then after walking with Him for three years betrayed Him so that in the end He died on the cross.  I realize this was in the plans of God from eternity past, but Judas is still responsible for what he did and thus will have to pay for his sins.

 

            MacArthur goes on to write “Because he was a kind of witness against Jesus, perhaps Judas thought that by admitting the wickedness of what he had done he would be punished as a false witness, as Deuteronomy 19:16-19 prescribes.  Under that provision, he would have been crucified himself; suffering the penalty imposed on the one he caused to be falsely convicted.  Instead of looking to Jesus’ for forgiveness and trusting in His atoning death, Judas’s perverted mind may have led to believe that by dying he somehow could atone for his own sin.”  Now we will look at Deuteronomy 19:16-19 “16 "If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing, 17 then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. 18 "The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.”

            I will quote two more paragraphs from MacArthur’s commentary which will finish this Spiritual Diary for today.

 

            “Proof that Judas’s sorrow was ungodly and selfish is seen in the fact that he made no effort to defend or rescue.  He had no desire to vindicate or save Jesus but only to salve his conscience, which he attempted to do by returning the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.”

 

            “While some of the Jewish religious leaders were escorting Jesus to Pilate, others remained in the Temple.  It was there that Judas confronted them (see. V. 5) and confessed that he had sinned by betraying innocent blood.  Had he been concerned about forgiveness for his sin and had he really believed on the Lord, he would have approached Jesus, not the chief priests and elders.  He hoped somehow to assuage his guilt simply by returning the blood money.  Like Pilate, who recognized Jesus’ innocence but nevertheless permitted His death, Judas knew he had betrayed innocent blood, but he did not come to Christ’s defense or seek His forgiveness.”

 

7/13/2024 11:21 AM

PT-3 "The Contrast Between Guilty Judas and Innocent Jesus" (Matt. 27:3-5)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/12/2024 9:53 AM

 

My Worship Time            Focus:  PT-3 “The Contrast between Guilty Judas and Innocent Jesus”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 27:3-5

 

            Message of the verses:  “3 Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." But they said, "What is that to us? See to that yourself!" 5 And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself.”

 

            I will try and get a little further into these verses today and not get sidetracked as I have been for the last few days.  The “then when” in verse three could be translated “at that time” and that seems to fit the context better.  This was happening even before dawn, and even by then it was evident to Judas and the others in the courtyard that the foregone verdict of the Jewish leaders had been confirmed.  Now Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw with his own eyes that He had been condemned.  MacArthur writes “Although horao (saw)was sometimes used in the figurative sense of being aware of or perceiving, its use here suggests literal, physical sight.  If Peter was able to see Jesus during at least part of the trial (Luke 22:61), then others in the courtyard could have seen Him as well.  Judas had seen Jesus maligned, spat upon, beaten and mocked.  Now he watched in bewilderment as his condemned Teacher was taken to Pilate.”

 

            Now as Judas watched Jesus being carried away to Pilate, the full enormity of his treachery finally began to dawn on him, or you could say that the “light” came on in his mind as he realized the Jewish leaders did intend to put Jesus to death.  All they had to do now was get permission from the compromised Pilate, which Judas had no reason to believe that Pilate would deny their request, even though that too would take some time to persuade him.  As mentioned the Jews had something on Pilate and they were using that to manipulate him to get what they wanted, and that was to have Jesus crucified. 

 

            This sight was surely devastating to Judas, more than even his money-hungry mind, his disgusting soul, and also his seared conscience could deal with, after all when he left the upper room Satan had entered into him to accomplish what Satan wanted done to Jesus, and so after he did Satan’s bidding Satan had no more use for him, and because Satan likes death that was his plan for Judas as he would fill Judas with great guilt and the only thing that would cure that guilt as far as Satan was concerned was suicide.

 

            MacArthur writes “No man could be more evil than Judas Iscariot.  Only eleven other men in all of history had had the intimate, personal relationship he had with the incarnate Son of God.  No man has ever been more exposed to God’s perfect truth, both in precept and example.  No man has been more exposed firsthand to God’s love, compassion, power, kindness, forgiveness, and grace.  No man has had more evidence of Jesus’ divinity or more firsthand knowledge of the way of salvation.  Yet in all of those three indescribably blessed years with Jesus, Judas did not take some much as the first step of faith.

 

            “In a way that defies comprehension, Judas persistently resisted and rejected God’s truth, God’s grace, and even God’s own Son.  Also in a way that defies understanding, he managed to completely conceal his wicked rebellion from everyone but Jesus.  His hypocrisy was so complete and deceptive that even when Jesus predicted that one of the disciples would betray Him, Judas was not suspected.

 

            “Judas was so totally trapped in the darkness and corruption of sin that he became a willing instrument of Satan.  Because this false disciple had totally renounced Christ, ‘Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot’ (Luke 22:3), and it was then a simple matter to persuade him to betray Jesus (John 13:2).  Judas’s heart was so utterly hardened to the things of God that long before he consciously considered betraying Him, Jesus called him a devil (John 6:70).

 

            “Even so, Judas could not escape the divinely designed signal of guilt that reminds men of their sin and warns them of its consequences.  Just as pain is an intrinsic and automatic warning of physical danger, guilt is an intrinsic and automatic warning of spiritual danger.  It was not that Judas suddenly became afraid of God, else he would have turned in desperation to the One he knew could forgive him.  Nor was he afraid of men.  Although he was now discarded and despised by the Jewish leaders, they had no reason to harm him.  It was rather that Judas suddenly realized the horrible wrongness of what he had done.  An innate awareness of right and wrong is divinely built into every human being and cannot be totally erased, no matter how deep a person may fall into depravity or how consciously and rebelliously he may turn against God.  This is intensified by the convicting pressure of the Spirit of God.”   

 

            I have to say that there is much more to the commentary on these verses, and so Lord willing I will continue it in the next SD, as I want to talk about Judas’s remorse.

 

7/12/2024 10:29 AM

PT-2 "The Contrast Between Guilty Judas and Innocent Jesus" (Matt. 27:3-5)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/11/2024 8:56 AM

 

My Worship Time            Focus:  PT-2 "The Contrast Between Guilty Judas and Innocent Jesus"

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 27:3-5

 

            Message of the verses:  “3 Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." But they said, "What is that to us? See to that yourself!" 5 And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself.”

 

            I want to begin with the lyrics of a song by Michael Card entitled “A Traitors Look” which is a song about Judas and about believers as well.

 

“How did it feel to take the place
Of honor at the meal?
To take the sup from His own hand
A prophesy to seal?

Was it because He washed your feet
That you sold Him as a slave?
The Son of Man, the Lamb of God
Who'd only come to save

The silver that they paid to you
From out their precious till
Was meant to buy a spotless lamb
A sacrifice to kill

How heavy was the money bag
That couldn't set you free
It became a heavy millstone
As you fell into the sea

Now Judas, don't you come to close
I fear that I might see
That traitor's look upon your face
Might look too much like me

'Cause just like you I've sold the Lord
And often for much less
And like a wretched traitor
I betrayed Him with a kiss”

 

            I have probably said in earlier SD’s that I really like the music of Michael Card and I suppose that the reason that I like it is because for one thing he is an ordained minister, and the second thing is that he writes all of his music and before it is released on song to the public he presents it before the church that he attends in Nashville Tennessee. Take a few moments to think about this song, especially the last part that speaks of believers.  I realize that it was prophesied that someone would betray the Lord, and Judas was the one who desired to do this, which actually fulfilled that prophecy, and that I have heard that Judas may well be punished in the hottest part of hell because of the advantage that he had as one of the Lord’s disciples.  Knowing this, and knowing that I as a believer can betray the Lord from time to time according to this song makes me like Judas, something that I surely need to repent of when that happens.  I will say that I must allow the Lord to take care of Judas’s punishment and that I must confess my sins in order to have a continuous walk with the Lord in order to serve Him by doing the things that He has called me to do for the cause of Christ.

 

            I have to also say that I do not like studying about the life of Judas, but because it is in the Word of God and because I am studying this section of Scripture in the Gospel of Matthew I have to learn from it and also have to write about it in order to put it onto my blogs so that the Lord may be pleased to use it to help those who do not know the Lord to, by the grace of God find the Savior and those who know the Lord grow in their relationship with the Lord.

 

            Once again I did not advance much in this section of verses, but there are times when I must just write things that are on my mind, and pray that the Lord will use them for His glory.

 

7/11/2024 9:15 AM  

 

PT-1 "The Contrast Between Guilty Judas and Innocent Jesus" (Matt. 27:3-5)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/10/2024 9:12 AM

 

My Worship Time            Focus:  PT-1 “The Contrast Between Guilty Judas and Innocent Jesus”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                        Reference:  Matt. 27:3-5

 

            Message of the verses:  “3 Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4  saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." But they said, "What is that to us? See to that yourself!" 5 And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself.”

 

            The Bible does not tell us where Judas was, but as we read these words we can be sure that he knew what was going on with Jesus during His trials.  MacArthur writes “It is possible that he was called as one of the witnesses against Jesus, but that seems unlikely.  Judas still had the onus of being a disciple of Jesus and, in any case, the very fact he was a traitor would have made his testimony suspect.”  It is certain that Judas had fulfilled his usefulness to the Jewish chief priests and the elders and they wanted no more from him.  He was now a rejected outcast not only to them but to the rest of Jesus’ disciples and to Jesus too.  Jesus had given Judas a chance to repent of what he was about to do, but he turned Him down, and so at that point when Satan had filled him, I believe that Jesus was done with him, knowing what his fate would be as Judas had crossed the line and would not come back, because he could not.

 

            The following is a song that has to do with what I just wrote about:

 

1 O sinner, the Saviour is calling for thee,
Long, long has he called thee in vain;
He called thee when joy lent its crown to thy days,
He called thee in sorrow and pain.

Chorus:
O turn, while the Saviour in mercy is waiting,
And steer for the harbor light;
For how do you know but your soul may be drifting
Over the dead-line tonight?

2 O sinner, thine ears have been deaf to his voice,
Thine eyes to his glory been dim;
The calls of thy Saviour have so wearied thee,
Oh, what if they should weary him? [Chorus]

3 O sinner, the Spirit is striving with thee;
What if he should strive never more,
But leave thee alone, in thy darkness to dwell,
In sight of the heavenly shore? [Chorus]

4 O sinner, God's patience may weary some day,
And leave thy sad soul in the blast;
By willful resistance you've drifted away,
Over the dead-line at last. [Chorus]

            Please think about the verses to this song.  Think about how Judas had gone over the dead-line right after he left the Lord and His other disciples on the night of the last real Passover meal, and the very first Lord’s Supper.  It was too late for Judas, but may not be too late for those who read this and do not know the Savior.  I will stop at this point because I want everyone who reads this to have an understanding of what it takes to be a believer in Jesus Christ.  We are all born sinners because of our relationship with Adam; we all sin because we are sinners.  By realizing this then it is a must that we confess these facts to the Lord, realizing that there is nothing that we can do to gain salvation on our own.  After confessing that we are a sinner and can do nothing on our own next we cry out to the Lord to save us for that was why He came to earth, that is why He went through what He went through, for us.  Tell the Lord that you are a sinner and that you believe that He died for you and then ask Jesus into your heart to save you from your sins, and my friend He will do that for that is why he came.

 

7/10/2024 9:35 AM

The Contrast Between the Wicked Leaders and the Sinless Christ (Matt. 27:1-2)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/9/2024 7:51 AM

 

My Worship Time   Focus: “The Contrast Between the Wicked Leaders and the Sinless Christ”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 27:1-2

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 Now when morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Jesus to put Him to death; 2  and they bound Him, and led Him away and delivered Him to Pilate the governor.”

 

          It has been ever since these fake trials began for Jesus that I have tried to point out that they were contrary to the laws that Israel had that were found in the Word of God, but, and I have mentioned this before, that similar to the trials that former President Donald Trump had to go through as they too were fake trials that did not go along with the laws in our country.  Now these first two trials of Jesus were contrary to rabbinical law, the first two phases of Jesus’ religious trial were carried out during the night and away from the Temple.  Jesus had first been brought before the former high priest Annas, probably in hope that this wicked schemer could concoct a charge that would be against Jesus which could be justified to put Him to death.  However when that failed, Christ was then brought before the acting high priest, Caiaphas, and this sham trial began rapidly as the Sanhedrin were brought together.  Now I have mentioned that probably Joseph of Arimathea was not there, for others knew how he felt about Jesus.  It was only after Jesus confessed to be the Christ and being God’s Son did they discover a way to destroy Him.  Jesus was and is in fact God’s Son and the true Messiah of Israel, but truth did not matter to these blood thirsty people who were certainly filled with Satan.  This is what can happen because of sin entering in the world back in the third chapter of Genesis, thus Satan became a ruler on earth, but certainly God can and does overrule in his activities, but allows others to be done and like the death of Jesus Christ for the redemption of sin God wins and will win in the end when He puts Satan in the lake of fire for all eternity.

 

          MacArthur writes “Now when morning came, Matthew recounts, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Jesus to put Him to death.  Although t hey had already reached a verdict about His guilt and punishment, they still had two hurdles.  First, they had to devise a way to make their decision appear legal under rabbinical law.  Mark mentions that in addition to all the chief priests and the elders, ‘scribes, and the whole Council’ were present (15:1).  Second, because the people knew that all trials involving the death penalty had to be conducted in the daytime and in the Temple court, they had to wait until morning of that Passover Friday to reconvene the Sanhedrin in its legitimate council chamber (Luke 22:66).  The council they took among themselves amounted to reasserting the charges against Jesus and reaffirming the verdict to put Him to death (see Luke 22:67-71).” 

 

          Now I will quote those verse from Luke 22:67-71 “67 “If You are the Christ, tell us." But He said to them, "If I tell you, you will not believe; 68 and if I ask a question, you will not answer. 69 “But from now on THE SON OF MAN WILL BE SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND of the power OF GOD." 70 And they all said, "Are You the Son of God, then?" And He said to them, "Yes, I am." 71 Then they said, "What further need do we have of testimony? For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth.’”

 

            It was after that point, that the Jewish leaders dropped all pretense of having a legal trial, and went on with their sham trial.  In an earlier SD I talked the fact that if a person was to be sentence to death legally, and not in a sham trial that there had to be three days of wait time before that sentence could be carried out and even on that third day if any evidence would come through as they were in the process of putting to death the one on trial they would stop and listen to the new evidence.  The Jewish leaders, as mentioned were blood thirsty and wanted to get this over so that they could celebrate the Passover, and certainly did not want to wait and do this lawfully. 

 

            Now I have mentioned when talking about Judas that his betrayal of Jesus was prophesized, however it was what Judas wanted to do and so he certainly will receive the just punishment of what he did in the next life in hell.  This is the same with those Jewish leaders as this too was prophesized and they too will receive their just punishment as it certainly was their desire to have Jesus put to death. 

 

            Now as we learned the Jewish leaders were not allowed to have someone put to death they had to have permission from Rome therefore  they bound Him, and led Him away and delivered Him to Pilate the governor.  With that hearing the first phase of Jesus’ secular, Roman trial would begin.

 

          MacArthur concludes:  “Pontius Pilate had been the Roman governor of Judea since A. D. 26, when Tiberius Caesar was emperor, and continued to govern until the year 36.  Jesus was taken to the Praetorium, the official provincial residence of the governor, and to keep from being ceremonially defiled and thereby prevented from celebrating the Passover later that day, the Jewish leaders waited outside (John 18:28).”

 

7/9/2024 8:28 AM

  

Intro to "The Traitor's Suicide" (Matt. 27:1-10)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/8/2024 10:04 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                             Focus:  Intro to “The Traitor’s Suicide”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Matthew 27:1-10

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 When the morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people met in council to decide how they could get Jesus executed. 2 Then they marched him off with his hands tied, and handed him over to Pilate the governor. 3 When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was overcome with remorse. He returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and elders, with the words, 4 “I have done wrong — I have betrayed an innocent man to death." "And what has that got to do with us?" they replied. "That’s your affair." 5 And Judas flung down the silver in the Temple, left and went away and hanged himself. 6 But the chief priests picked up the money and said, "It is not right to put this into the Temple treasury, for it is the price of a man’s life." 7 So, after a further consultation, they purchased with it the Potter’s Field to be a burial-ground for foreigners, 8 which is why it is called "the Field of Blood" to this day. 9 And so the words of Jeremiah the prophet came true: And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was priced, whom certain of the children of Israel did price; 10  and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord appointed me.”

 

            “The total age-adjusted suicide rate in the United States in 2021 increased to 14.0 per 100,000. In 2021 , the suicide rate among males was 4 times higher (22.8 per 100,000) than among females (5.7 per 100,000).”  I got this statistic from the internet and I suppose that it is true, but I feel that it is higher now.

 

            In his commentary on this section MacArthur writes the following in his intro to this section:  “Researchers who analyze human behavior list five primary reasons for committing suicide.  I believe most people kill themselves for retaliation.  Because they are angry over an offense or mistreated, they take their own lives a a means of hurting those who have hurt them.  Whether their abuse was real or imagined, they invariably succeed in inflicting deep pain on those they seek to hurt.  This is almost always the case when young people kill themselves.  And usually it is their parents they want to hurt irremediably.”

 

            He goes on to talk about the other four primary reasons for suicide, and I will just list them without too much comment.  Second reason is that a person wants to join the one who has just died, and in most cases that would be a mate.

 

            Next one comes from the influence of Eastern religions and many of them believe in reincarnation so if a person doesn’t like who they are they then kill themselves hoping to come back in another form.

 

            I had better quote this next one:  A particularly distorted reason for suicide is referred to as retroflex, the killing of oneself in place of someone else who is unreachable.  Some years ago a man killed himself because a brutal Nazi war criminal could not be found and brought to justice.

            Next this one could be qualified as being guilty, they think that they are so guilty that no one could ever forgive them even God and so they kill themselves.

 

            Suicide in actuality is murder and Exodus 20:13 says “You shall not murder” and so that, of course, makes it sinful and wrong.  I knew a man who used to go to our church who was deeply depressed and the medicine that he was on was just doing much harm to his situation.  We learned one day that he had killed himself.  In my mind this man is now in heaven for I truly believe that he was and still is a believer in Jesus Christ to save him from his sins.

 

            While listening to the sermon on this section MacArthur writes that there are only two suicides sited in the Scriptures.  He does site Saul’s armor bearer who took his life he did so only because they faced a much more brutal and humiliating death at the hands of their enemy.  He then writes “But in the usual sense, only the deaths of Ahithophel (see 2 Sam. 17) and Judas was suicides.”

 

            “Because Judas’s sin was so monstrous, it is not difficult to understand how unrelieved guilt drove him to take his own life.  He committed the most heinous crime any man has ever committed or could commit, betraying the only truly innocent and perfect man who has ever lived.  Because he could not live with his guilt, Judas had only two choices.  He could have gone to Jesus for forgiveness and salvation, which the Lord had so often offered.  But because he would not do that, his only recourse was self-destruction.

 

            “For the account of Judas’s suicide, Matthew briefly interrupts his portrayal of Jesus’ trial.  His purpose is presenting the story of Judas’s final hours of life was not simply to show the dreadful fate of Christ’s betrayer but also to show, by several contrasts, the beauty, purity, and majesty of the one betrayal.  Jesus is exalted even against the backdrop of sordid sin and death.”

 

            Lord willing in the next SD I will look at “The Contrast Between the Wicked Leaders and the Sinless Christ” as we begin to look at the first two verses of Matthew 27.

 

7/8/2024 10:39 AM