The Night Judas Betrayed Jesus
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Contents~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Introduction
2. Sin Drove Judas Out Into The Darkness
3. Sin Separates
4. Powerful Forces At Work
5. Jesus’ Challenge To Satan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Introduction:
John 13:30 “He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night.”
It was the night humanity sank to it’s lowest depts. The thing that strikes us here is the utter loneliness of Judas. With so few words John paints the picture. “He went out immediately and it was night.”
Within there was light and gladness and the richest fellowship the world has ever known. For Jesus was there. John was leaning on His bosom. The talk was on Holy Themes that evening.
Outside was hostility and hatred. Outside was darkness, “and it was night.” A fitting description of anyone going away from God.
2. Sin Drove Judas Out Into The Darkness:
No man drove Judas out into the darkness. It was the motion (inertia) of his own heart and life that impelled Judas to choose the darkness rather that light. It is the continual effects of sin. In every shape and form, in every age and country, sin brings and intensifies the loneliness of life.
3. Sin Separates:
Sin separates friends, families, partners, and fellowship with God. Sin drives wedges between brother and brother, sister and sister, husband and wife, partners in business. Anywhere there is sin there is division.
A friendship based upon sinful conditions is in reality only a comradeship. There can be no real trust. Sin separates man from his ideal—or what he knows he should do with his life. Sin separates man from man. Sin divides the brother-hood. Finally sin separates for God.
Sin separated Judas from his ideal—or what he knew he should do with himself and his life. Judas knew that the life which Jesus introduced was the greatest life which had ever been lived upon the earth. Judas knew that he should allow himself to be consumed by that life—that with passion he should give himself unto it.
4. Powerful Forces At Work:
But there were powerful forces at work upon him. Judas had walked with the Light Of The World, but as Jesus Himself said He chose darkness because his deeds were evil. Today we want to study the forces which were at work upon Judas and the inner struggles which must surely have gone on in his life. The more we know of this force the more we will know how to deal with the same force in our own lives.
Paul says, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12)
Three and one-half years before this dreadful night, Judas had joined this little fellow-ship, with the highest goals and intentions in mind. It takes some doing (action) to carry them out. Many people’s intentions and goals are born at the altar.
But it takes a lifetime to fulfill them. Judas had a high purpose in mind. He was a member of a Preaching Team. He rejoiced because the devils were subject to his prayers. He held a position of trust (he was treasurer) of the Apostolic band.
What went wrong? What caused Judas to lose his ideal: His purpose in life which he seemed to have set out on? The hardships of the past 3 1/2 years had not caused him to murmur.
The hardships of life do not usually divide friendships nor cause one to change course. Hardships causes to us to realize how much we need one another. Hardship drives us to prayer- trust in God and one another.
The mountains and valleys, the deserts, the lakes, and the storms were all gone through together. But sin separated Judas from his Brethren. Jesus had said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
Whatever it was that went wrong it had to start with Judas himself. Somebody has said “There is a part of me that it takes all the rest of me to keep under control.” That was Judas’ problem. Was it greed? Thirst for power or importance? Was it disillusions? Did he think that things were not going to work out like he thought? Whatever it was that Judas did not conquer in his life Satan took advantage of it.
John 13:2. And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him;
This does not mean that Judas for the first time left the faith and became an Apostate. It simply means that at last the devil prevailed in the heart of this unhappy man the plan of betraying his Master.
He puts (cast) into the heart of those he tempts the seeds of evil. The heart is the seed plot into which he sows. Suggestion is one of his chief weapons. The sin of man consists of opening his heart to the suggestions. Giving it a place, and letting it sink down. So the seed sown in the heart of Judas, was now to bear fruit.
Let us note the reality, personality and awful power of our great spiritual enemy the Devil. There are degrees in his power and dominion over us. If his first temptations are not resisted, he may in the end gain full and entire possession of every part of our soul, and lead us captive to be his slaves.
So we find that even at the First Communion Satan was present, and busy in a heart. First he suggest: then he commands. First he knocks at the door and asks permission to come in. Then once admitted, he takes complete possession and rules the whole inward man like a tyrant.
Once a person begins tampering with the Devil he never knows how far he may fall. Trifling with the first thoughts of sin, making light of evil ideas, when first offered to us is dangerous to our soul. Don’t allow Satan to talk to us, and flatter us, and put bad notions into our hearts. This all may seem like a small matter to many but at this point is where the road to ruin often begins.
5. Jesus’ Challenge To Satan:
John 13:27. And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.
Our Lord addresses these words to Satan rather than Judas, and as it were challenging him to do his worst.
John 13:30. He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night.
Jesus never drove anyone away. His words never drove anyone away.
“Come to me”
John 6:37 “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
Satan entered Judas first as the Satan of wicked ideas. (John 13:2)
Then after the sop, Jesus’ challenge to Judas, as the Satan of action. (John 13:27)
They would meet one more time in the Garden when Judas performed his awful deed. In a short while both the Holy Master and the treacherous servant were dead.
They will never meet again in the body till the trumpet sounds, and the dead are raised and the Judgment is set, and the Books are opened. What an awful meeting that will be.
We should not think of Judas as an absolute unique character as the solitary perfect incarnation of Satanic wickedness. We should always think as the Disciples did. “Is It I.”
To be happy in some fashion, Judas should either have been a better man or a worse. Had he been better, he would have been saved from his crime.
Had Judas been worse, he would have escaped torment before the time. As it was, he was bad enough to do the deed and good enough to be unable to bear the burden of its guilt. Woe to such a man! Better for him, indeed that he had never been born.
