Judas Iscariot The Twelve Apostles Sermon Series Part 13 of 14

Hello and welcome to Social Media Ministries, my name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you so much for being with us. Today we are on part 13 of a 14-week sermon series about the 12 apostles, so we are almost done, stay with us one more week and we will wrap it up.

If you are new with us, thanks for being here. You can check out all of the sermons in this series on a playlist on our YouTube channel or on our website and get caught up. If you are a returning visitor take advantage of those share icons. You got one week left to bring people in to the sermon series about the 12 apostles. Share this with them, help them learn about these great men and find out which one they can identify with, and then model their lives to follow as they follow Jesus.

Today we are talking about Judas Iscariot. This is the last one of the 12 apostles. Most people can name Judas. If you ask anyone around to name the 12 disciples of Christ or the 12 apostles, most people know who Judas is because he is very famous as the disciple who betrayed Jesus.

He betrayed Jesus, so who was this guy? Was he only a betrayer? Did he do anything right? Did he do anything good? What about his life? Is he someone we want to try to model after or is he an example of what not to do? Well, let’s take a look at it.

Judas is mentioned about a couple dozen times, 23 times in the New Testament. He is talked about quite often. Some of these other disciples, if you remember the whole list, we have gone through them all. Simon Peter was mentioned over 200 and then a few other disciples were only mentioned a few times, like three or four or five, several of them in fact.

Judas is kind of in the middle, 20-some times and that is because people wanted to know or people wanted other people to know exactly what Judas did. Judas Iscariot was the son of Simon. We know about this Simon because when we talked about Simon the Zealot a couple weeks ago we mentioned that there were 9 Simons in the New Testament and one of them is Simon who is Judas’ father. We see this in John chapter 6 verse 71, ‘He meant Judas Iscariot son of Simon, who though one of the twelve was later to betray him.’

Where did Judas live? Judas lived in Jericho which is a city in Judah. That is different. All the rest of the disciples remember they were from towns in Galilee. Whether it was Cana or some other place around Galilee, they were Galileans. They grew up fishing. Matthew of course was a tax collector, but the rest of them were fishermen, most of them. Judas grew up in the city of Judah, he was a Judean and the rest of the disciples were Galilean. Judas was the odd man out.

He really belonged. Jesus had him as part of the 12 for a reason but he was different from the rest. It was like Matthew was the tax collector, he was different from the rest. However, Judas was an excellent disciple. He was in charge of all the finances of the ministry of Christ.

For three years while they traveled around and did all of the financing and they had to go from place to place, they had to have things to eat, if they needed new shoes or new cloaks or tunics or something they would have had to have purchased them and Judas was in charge of all of that. He was an essential part of the ministry. He was the treasurer and we see this in John chapter 13 verse 29.

John 13:29 says, ‘Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the feast or to give something to the poor.’ Judas had charge of the money. He was a naturally greedy man, we know this, who most likely gave in to the temptation of robbing the treasury for his own personal gain. In other words, as they traveled around, Judas was the one with the money bags.

Now of course some of the other disciples may have had their little coin purse or their money bag around their neck or on their hip or something and as they traveled if they needed to get something quick or they saw a little food vendor that they wanted to buy something from or anything like that or give some money to the poor, they had their own little probably allowance or an allotted amount that they each had on their person and Judas had the rest.

Judas would have been carrying around sacks of gold or silver coins or whatever they had. He would have been carrying that maybe in his backpack or in his satchel. He was in charge of the money and he most likely gave in to the temptation of taking a little bit out of the money, the coffers, and putting it in his own pocket.

His coin purse might have had more of an allowance or an allotted amount than the other people’s coin purses. How do we know this? Is this just because he was in charge of all the money and he most likely gave in, or is there some truth behind this? Let’s go to John chapter 12 verses 4 to 6.

John 12:4-6, now if you do not have your Bible feel free to come back later with your Bible, because guess what you can watch this again, you can listen to it again. You can also look at the description below and that will show you all of these verses, they will be referenced for you and you will be able to look them up and read them on your own time.

John chapter 12 verses 4 to 6, ‘But one of his disciples Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him objected. Why was not this perfume sold and the money given to the poor?’ It was worth a year’s wages, a year now. This is the time period when Mary had a pure nard and she dumped it on Jesus and Judas is saying why was it not sold?

A year’s wages at this time I mean what is a year’s wages? In today’s world anywhere from probably the average a decent year’s wage would be about $60,000. Can you imagine $60,000 that she poured it out on Jesus’ feet? This is significant. Judas objected. ‘He did not say this though because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. As keeper of the money bag he used to help himself to what was put in it.’

Interesting. This is even biblical. Judas objects and says, whoa there is a year’s wages, there goes $60,000, we could have sold this and given the money to the poor and I could have helped myself to a hefty $6,000 fee or we do not know how much, maybe half. He was human after all. He gave in to the temptation but Judas was essentially robbing the ministry of Christ. He was sinning big time. Now of course we know all sins are equal, we have seen that before, sin is sin, it is the same.

But Judas was hindering the ministry of Christ. How much money did he take from it? He was greedy. He was serving his own personal gain. We have even seen this in the Bible later on in the New Testament, this is a very important thing, where Ananias and Sapphira sold their possessions.

They went to Peter and they said hey we want to join in with the crusade or join in your quest. We want to become missionaries. We have sold our house, we sold our land, we sold our stuff, here is the money we got. Peter said thank you, thank you, and then later he received a vision from the holy spirit of the two of them hiding the money, half of the money, they kept half of it for themselves. They put it in a cave and sealed it up because they were greedy and what happened? Peter obviously went and confronted them individually.

He confronted the man first and he denied it and then the holy spirit struck him dead. Then he went to the woman inside a tent and she denied it and they heard the footsteps and then eventually Peter said you hear that? Those are the men carrying your dead husband who also denied it, but you have stolen from the holy spirit and then she died as well and they carried her out and got rid of them both. This was greed. They were robbing the ministry. Judas was doing the same thing. Judas was already setting himself up to fail. This is very serious.

Who else was Judas? What else do we know about him? Well, he was also a Jewish nationalist kind of like Simon the Zealot. Judas could have been a zealot and now I am talking about the type with the rebel group, Judas definitely had zeal. He had zeal for money. He had the love of money.

Jesus talks about money all the time, probably likely because Judas was never getting the picture so he kept talking about the love of money is the root of all evil. Well Judas loved money, he was a greedy man, he helped himself to the purse.

He later manifested even more evil by betraying Christ, then he eventually died because of it. Just like Ananias and Sapphira. Interesting. They loved money, they had greed, they ended up dying. That is a good lesson. That is a good lesson for you. Do not love money. What do we have? Judas if he had zeal for money, it is very very interesting because as we are going, we have Simon the zealot who could have been part of that rebel group, but Judas if he was a zealot at all we are pretty certain that he was probably a zealot in that rebel group.

He was outspoken. How do we know he was outspoken? He objected anytime anything happened with money. He said no why would you waste that? It could have been sold for a year’s wages and the money given to the poor. But we know he did not care about the poor, he cared about the money. He was outspoken. He likely had a high disregard for Rome and strictly followed the Jewish laws as long as their money was there.

See it is interesting, he gave up everything to follow Christ but he was unable to give up his one stronghold, his cardinal sin so to speak, he was unable to give up his love for money. He most likely loved money even before he met Jesus, perhaps he was the treasurer of his zealot group or the treasurer or the caretaker of the funds wherever he was when he lived in Jericho.

Now there is something interesting about Jericho. The city was destroyed way back in the Old Testament when Joshua came through and at that time remember there was a curse put upon that city that whoever rebuilds it would do it at the cost of their sons. We know this from the Bible, the city was built at the cost of his firstborn and finished at the cost of his last born.

Then anyone who lived there, what was going to befall them? Were they put under some sort of a curse? We do not know for sure, but if the city was meant to be destroyed and it was rebuilt and there was a high cost it is possible that there was some type of a bondage or a stronghold that the devil or the demons had or even a curse that God had over that city. That is where Judas came from. It is not insignificant that he came from Jericho.

But he did not live in Jericho, so that is a distinction that has to be made. Because some people may try to draw those correlations and say hey there is a reason Judas was the one to betray Jesus, it is because he came from Jericho, a cursed city. Well, guess what he lived in a city near Jericho. He was Judean, a city in Judah, which was outside of Jericho. It was near Jericho, that is why I bring this up.

We are stopping that right now, that if you hear anything about Judas being of Jericho or reasons that he betrayed because he was from Jericho, that is inaccurate. He was Judean and that is outside or away from Jericho. The reason Judas had all his problems is because of one thing, he put the love of money over the love of God.

We know that God says you cannot serve two masters, you cannot love both God and money. You cannot love one, because if you love one, you will hate the other. You have to choose who and what you are going to love. What are you loving? Are you loving Jesus or are you loving something of this world? Whether it is money, whether you love your house, your boat, your car. What do you love?

We have had many sermons about this, where is your devotion? What are you devoted to? What are you committed to? You can check them all out on our channel, our website, we have several because this is very important. You need to be fully committed to God, that is who you have to be committed to. You need to know exactly who you love the most and what you love the most and it has to be God. He is a jealous God, remember that.

Now Judas, he gave up all that stuff to follow Christ, but he did not give up the one sin he still loved money. He had greed and he ended up betraying Jesus because of that greed and that love of money overcame his love for Christ. How do we know this? It was in the Bible, Luke. If you have your Bibles please turn with me to Luke.

We will go to Luke chapter 22 verse 3, ‘Then satan entered Judas called Iscariot, one of the twelve.’ Okay, so a couple things. One thing there, satan entered Judas. Now we have some discrepancy or a little bit that needs to be clarified here. Satan entered Judas. Now we have talked about Peter before, Simon Peter way back in the beginning, he was the first apostle we spoke of.

There was a period of time when satan asked and received permission from God to sift Peter like wheat, but Jesus prayed for Peter and that is exactly what happened, satan did not really enter Peter but satan grabbed onto Peter and sifted him like wheat.

Peter ends up betraying Jesus and he said, wait a minute Judas betrayed Jesus, Peter denied Jesus, he denied the faith. Three times people asked Peter are you one of them? I know. I know I saw you with them. He says no. He denies it. Another one, later on, different person, not even part of the comment, you are one of them, you are a Galilean. Nope. Then he did it a third time, no and satan had a hold of Peter.

Satan was causing Peter to deny Christ or betray the faith or step away and willingly separate himself. Despite all that Peter did, he is the rock, he is the rock. Peter is the rock that Jesus built the church on, he went out and started everything. He was the foundation. Satan still could grab him though, but Judas satan could enter and there is a big difference there.

If you truly love and follow and believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have Him in your heart and satan will never enter you. But if you simply love Jesus and you are going through life, but you have not made that full 100% commitment, then you could still have problems with satan entering you.

We have a couple of sermon series, check out one, it is a great one on demons and how they attack you. That is a great sermon to watch. We have got several messages on demons because it is very important. Remember we live in two realms. We live here on earth and then we have another level, the spiritual world, that is where we got to be fighting because that is where we are being attacked. We are being attacked on the spiritual level.

We have talked many times, Jesus always took things to the spiritual level and He fought with scripture and He won. Now as a Christian, we can be oppressed and suppressed, that is what Peter was, but we cannot be possessed. Arguably that is what happened to Judas, satan entered him and took control. Why? Judas left himself open, he allowed greed to hinder his love for Christ and eventually, he said greed and money are more important to me and bam satan took advantage of that and entered him.

Because for Judas, Jesus and money might have been equal. Money might be like this, kind of like a neck and neck race, but all of a sudden Judas at one time said, oh man that if I betrayed Jesus they are gonna give me a bunch of silver, boom, money came up here and look at that gap satan went right in. You have got to keep Him like this or you keep Jesus up here. Satan can never come in if Jesus is up here blocking him, but as soon as something else goes like this satan can come in. Do not let him in.

Let’s go to John chapter 13 verse 2, it says, ‘The evening meal was being served and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot son of Simon to betray Jesus.’ Interesting, interesting, but let’s keep going because the next verse is a good point. I know we are running short, but we will get there. ‘Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God.’

Even though satan entered Judas, it was still under the control of God. We need to remember that. That is why. How could satan take control of Judas? With God’s permission. We see this time and time again. Satan, the demons, the devil, they need God’s permission. We saw this with Job. We have seen it with King Ahab in the Old Testament. We saw it with Peter and now again with Judas.

If you open up yourself to the problem, satan can enter. Why? Because God will allow it. God will allow it sometimes and we have talked about that it could be for a course correction or it could be some type of heavenly battle. I encourage you to check out that playlist that we mentioned because it is an excellent sermon series on demons, how they attack you, and why.

Let’s go to John 13:26, ‘Jesus answered, it is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it into the dish’. So Jesus knew who was going to betray Him and He openly told the other disciples. ‘Then dipping the piece of bread in, He gave it to Judas Iscariot son of Simon. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered him.’

So Jesus gave direct permission and told satan exactly when he could enter Judas. Interesting. Judas did his part, he opened up the door and then satan was waiting. But he needed permission. So Jesus is telling satan. Jesus took things spiritual, remember He lived in the world but He was not of the world.

So people are asking Him who it is? Surely it is not I Lord, it is not I, because they are talking in the world. Jesus says, it will be the one who I have given this bread to and He takes the bread, dips it in, and the disciples are seeing this worldly action.

Satan is up there listening and watching and waiting, knowing that bread of life, all of this thing, remember living water, eat my flesh, Jesus is speaking in two worlds. He is giving the bread to Judas and He is passing His flesh to Judas. Satan is now entering because of permission.

‘Then Jesus says what you are about to do, do quickly. No one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the feast or to give something to the poor.’

That is the big deal right there. Jesus is speaking to Judas, what you are about to do, do quickly. Do you think He was talking to Judas about money? No, He was talking to satan who just entered Judas and He said what you are about to do, do quickly. Satan then having control of Judas, Judas leaves and he is going to go get the priests and make arrangements to betray Jesus. This is a big deal. Jesus took it spiritually. Remember that. What did Judas do though? He put Christ on the back burner and made money his top priority.

A couple more verses. We are gonna go to Matthew 27, verses 3 to 5, ‘When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the 30 silver coins to the chief priests and elders. I have sinned, he said, for I have betrayed innocent blood. What is this to us, they replied. That is your responsibility. So Judas threw the money into the temple and left.

We are going to stop right there. What happened? Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 silver coins. He let his love of money get ahead of himself. Then when he saw the error he had done, Christ obviously revealed it to him probably, because satan said I am done with you and he left. Judas is filled with remorse, he tries to return the money, they say too bad, you have already done it. Then Judas threw the money into the temple, went away, and hanged himself.

He was filled with remorse. He could not go on living. He hanged himself. He felt so bad that he either died in one of two ways, he either hanged himself as we see here or he took that money, purchased a field, and then fell headlong causing his innards to burst out of his body.

Now how do we know all that, seems pretty detailed. Well in the two scenarios, Judas either hangs himself as we see in Matthew, and then the greedy Pharisees or chief priests they say, what are we going to do with this money that he left here? We cannot put it back into the treasury because it is blood money. They knew what they were doing, they knew it was wrong, so they said well we can buy a field. They buy this field and then that is where they bury all the dead or they have it as a place for anyone who is kind of unmarked or unknown. The field of the unknowns. Interestingly enough that field is still there in Israel untouched today. Very cool to see.

Otherwise the story number two is that Judas took that money, bought the field, and then of course fell headlong and we see that in Acts chapter 1 verses 15 to 20. ‘In those days Peter stood up among the believers, a group numbering about 120, and said, brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled which the holy spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas who served as a guide for those who arrested Jesus.’

‘He was one of our number and shared in this ministry. With the reward he got for his wickedness Judas bought a field, where he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Aceldama, that is the field of blood.’

Judas let his love of money get in the way of Christ. He stopped being committed to Jesus. He let greed take control and what happened? His life took a downward spiral, he was filled with remorse and he ended up not being able to live with the guilt and he died.

You have 12 disciples that we have gone through this sermon series. Who are you going to be like? Who are you going to identify with? I hope it is the other eleven but come back next week as we wrap up this sermon series.

Let’s pray. Lord Jesus thank you so much for giving us Judas as an example. We know that you needed him for your plan to be fulfilled, you needed someone to betray. We know that. Thank you Lord that it was Judas because without that act we would not be able to be saved, so we thank you for that. Thank you so much for being the person who was willing to die for us so that we could believe in you and be saved.

Lord, I ask that we would learn from Judas, that we would know that we cannot put anything above you. That we would remember to follow you wholeheartedly. That you would be the most important thing in each and every person’s life and that they would never deviate from that. That they would not open the door because with you the devil cannot get in. Lord, I ask that they would be strong in their faith and that you would give them great opportunities to go out there and share their faith and share you with as many people as possible. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Once again come back next week as we wrap up this sermon series. God bless.