Making a Difference in the World
Judas Iscariot
The Tragedy of a Wasted Life
Matthew 26:47-49; 27:3-5
 
As you know, we’ve been studying the Twelve Apostles, the original men they Lord selected to be a part of “Making a Difference in the World.”  We have met the first eleven.  Some of them have a lot of information, some of them little or none other than their name.
 
I’ve tried to help you see their personalities and character and backgrounds and some of the circumstances that show how they fit into the scheme of things and the plan of our Lord and why they were selected for such an incredibly large task.
 
And I suppose if we were to draw one characteristic they all shared it would be they were basically unqualified for the task Jesus assigned to them. They were common men just like us. They had no formal ministerial training.  They were not trained theologians.  They were as varied and different as could be, traveling from one end of the spectrum to the other.
 
And the thing they all had in common is that God had to transform them and channel their personalities and gifts in order to make them into what He wanted them to be.  And without exception, we have seen how our Lord overcame their commonness and enabled them to preach and to teach and to heal and to cast out demons as the official representatives of the Kingdom.
And I might add that they were not only successful, they were highly successful.  In fact, the eleven men we’ve been studying are really the key to all of the rest of human history. If they had failed, we would not be here today and Christianity would not have survived. We are living testimony to the success of the eleven. They did it. They built His church, and the gates of hell did not prevail against it.
 
But today we come to the twelfth apostle and this one stands out against the background of the others. He is isolated and alone. He is in a class by himself.  No one else shares his shortcoming and failures.  His name is Judas Iscariot and he is the vilest, wickedest man the Bible knows anything about.
 
In every list of the apostles in the Bible, his name always appears last and never without a comment about his betrayal of the Lord.  There are forty verses in the New Testament in which there is a reference to the betrayal of our Lord and in each of them there is a connection to Judas. 
 
But perhaps the most accurate and applicable title ever given to this traitor by the name of Judas Iscariot was spoken by the One whom he betrayed in John 17:12 where Jesus called him "the son of perdition."  Do you know what the word "perdition" means?  It means "destruction" or "waste."
 
And this morning I want us to take a look at the Tragedy of a Wasted Life.
 
Listen to how the disciple Matthew recounts the situation and circumstance around the greatest betrayal in all of human history.
 
Matthew 26:47-49
 
Have you ever been betrayed?  Have you ever had someone whom you loved and trusted and confided in, someone who you thought was a friend turn on you and betray you?  Maybe it was a spouse.  Maybe it was somebody you worked with, went to school with, or even went to church with.  It may have been a pastor or staff member.
 
But you trusted them and they turned on you.  Nothing hurts like that does it?  Charles Stanley says in one of his books, "Once you've been betrayed you never, ever really get over it."
 
Judas committed the most horrible, heinous act of betrayal that anybody has ever committed because  He betrayed the pure, perfect, sinless, holy Son of God.  He sold Him out for a handful of money.  And what did it get him? 
 
Well, look in Matthew 27:3-5
 
That's the tragedy of a wasted life.  There are two questions that I want us to ask and answer this morning as we look at this betraying apostle.  Here's the first question.
 
1.  What Can We Learn About Judas Iscariot? 
 
Everybody's heard about Judas.  Even from a Scriptural point of view, other than Simon Peter, Judas is mentioned more times in the four Gospels than any of the other disciples.   So, everybody's heard about him, but what can we learn about him?
 
 
First of all, think about
 
1. His Name
 
I don’t want to spend very much time here, because we discussed the name “Judas” two weeks ago in our study of Judas Lebbaeus Thaddaeus.
 
You will remember, at the time, Judas was a very common name. It was a form of Judah, the land of God’s people, and one of the twelve sons of Jacob.  Most scholars think the Hebrew root means either, “Jehovah Leads” or “one to be praised”.
 
What a paradox either way! If it means “Jehovah leads”, in the case of this Judas, there never was one who was more obviously led by Satan than was Judas. If it means “one worthy of praise”, never has there lived one more unworthy of praise than Judas.
 
And like several of the apostles, he has more than one name. He was not just Judas, but Judas Iscariot, and in that name we get a little more insight into this man who betrayed the Lord. 
 
Iscariot comes from two terms, “ish”, meaning “man” and “kerioth” meaning “town”, and the basic idea is that of geographical location.  In other words, he was Judas of Kerioth and that little piece of information tells us he was the only non-Galilean of the group. He is the only Jew from the south.  He is the only Judean Jew. All of the rest came from Galilee and that most likely indicates that from the very beginning, Judas was never really one of the guys.  He was the outsider.
 
 
There was also some demographic distinction in that because not only was he “not from around here”, the Southern Jews felt themselves superior to the rural Jews of the north and would have looked down on them and consequently there may have been a certain amount of arrogance and segregation involved which deepened as time went on.
 
So twenty-three miles south of Jerusalem, seven miles from Hebron was a little group of tiny villages. They were built near farms where the people cultivated the soil. As the little villages congregated together and grew they became one little town and that little town became known as Kerioth. It is mentioned in Scripture as early as Joshua 15:25.  And it was that little village that gave birth to this man who would grow up to be the most hated human being who ever lived.
 
His name was Judas Iscariot.
 
Secondly
 
2. His Call
 
Like the others, Judas is found in every list of the apostles in the Bible, but we don’t know anything about how he got there.
 
Obviously the Lord called him in but we don't know the details.  I think it safe to assume he wanted to be involved in what Jesus was doing.  Apparently he liked what Jesus taught and stood for.  He followed Him. He listened to Him teach and he stayed with Him which is more than could be said for a lot of other false disciples who bailed out on the Lord.
 
Judas stuck it out but I’m not convinced he was
attracted by the spiritual. I think he was attracted on a more selfish, physical level. I don't think it was really Jesus alone that drew him.  I think it was more what Jesus could do for him that drew him. He saw the power of Jesus. And he believed that this man would bring the Kingdom. But he wasn’t interested in the Kingdom for the Kingdom's sake or for Christ's sake.  He was interested in the Kingdom for what he might gain from it if he were on the inner circle.
 
But nonetheless he followed.  Now keep in mind, he is always in that last group of four which indicates that he wasn't a real intimate disciple of Christ. And I would just imagine he kind of hung on the edge of that group also.
 
He didn't fit in because he was a non-Galilean and he sort of hung on the outside and I think he never really had a meaningful relationship in spite of how Jesus treated him.  When you think about it, even though Jesus knew what was going to happen, Jesus still loved him and tried to reach him. 
 
For instance, in John 13, at the last supper, Jesus told John the one He gave a piece of bread to was the one who was going to betray Him.  The giving of that bread was a typical way in that culture to honor a guest at a meal.  You see, consistent with all Jesus taught, He was loving His enemy.  He was esteeming others better than Himself.
 
So besides teaching him and warning him, He actually honored him.  He was ever-reaching to Judas, and that’s what makes the third point so amazing and that is
 
3.  His Betrayal
 
John allows us to see what’s going on leading up to the betrayal of Jesus in chapter 12.  Please turn there while I set the scene for you.
 
Three years have gone by since Jesus began His earthly ministry and Judas keeps hoping that any minute Jesus is going to take control of the situation and establish His Kingdom.
 
Obviously it’s going to happen.  Jesus is, no doubt, the Messiah.  He keeps doing miracles and people are healed and He has no fear of the religious leaders of the day.  People are responding and recognizing His authority.  Judas is in awe of all these things and he anticipates that at any moment it's going to happen. And he is so greedy that he just keeps hanging in there, waiting for that Kingdom to happen.
 
Now I think it important to remember, Judas is no different than the other eleven.  They all believed that the Messiah had come and bring an earthly Kingdom.  They all believed the He would overthrow Rome and they would be on the ground-floor level ofo that happening.  They all believed that they had met the lion of the tribe of Judah.
 
But the Lord began to tell them that before He was the lion of the tribe of Judah, He had to be the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And He talked about dying and giving His life and being lifted up and going to Jerusalem  to be crucified. And whenever He talked about that you could just hear Judas saying, “That’s a bunch of nonsense!”
 
As chapter twelve opens, Jesus comes to Bethany six days before the crucifixion will occur.  He is visiting in the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus.  Scripture makes it clear that this is the Lazarus that Jesus raised from the dead and now here he is sitting at the table with Jesus.  And as Mary takes all of that in, she is so overwhelmed with love for the Lord, she. . .
 
verse 3
 
She is just loving on Jesus.  This is just love and affection and appreciation.  And, to be honest,  it's something that was once used and then forever gone and in a sense, she just wasted it and lavished it on the Lord.  And it is in regard to that, for the first time in the Bible, we hear Judas speak.
 
Verses 4-6
 
Now remember, John is writing after the fact. When all of this is going down, he doesn’t know about the betrayal and theft.  But we get our first peek into the heart of Judas and he is so fed up with the delays and the love and the syrupy sweetness, he finally shows his true character.  He could take it no longer.  Jesus keeps messing around with the kingdom and now this foolish woman is wasting a precious commodity on this One in whom he has wasted three years and the evil inside begins to trickle out.
 
Then comes the day of the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem and for a moment, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel.  When Jesus rode into the city, people were shouting, "Hosanna to the son of David," and throwing palm branches at His feet and acknowledging Him as the Messiah.
And Judas has got to be in the background somewhere saying, “Today is the day!  This is it!”
Then Jesus gets off the donkey and gives a speech and in that speech He says,
 
Verse 23
 
This is it!  It’s time to name Jesus King!
 
Then verses 24-27
 
Once again, rather than seizing the moment, Jesus goes back to the same old party line and I believe that literally devastated Judas.  That was the last straw, and it wasn’t going to happen after all and we’ve wasted three years for nothing.
 
Now remember, the other disciples started where he started. But while they were growing and listening and seeing the bigger picture and the light was coming on, for Judas, the light went out. He never got there. And while the others grew to be able to see through spiritual eyes, Judas never got there.
And the other gospel writers let us know that during that time, Judas sneaks off to strike a deal with the scribes and Pharisees.
 
We are now in the final events before the crucifixion.  History is quickly moving toward the cross. The anticipation of anything good coming had totally removed itself from him.  Judas is utterly and totally disillusioned and the betrayal is now in motion. But He hides it well.  I don't think the disciples ever picked it up because they never even suspected him.
 
 
 
Follow the sequence in John 13. In the first few verses, we find Jesus washing the feet of the disciples, Judas included.  Then notice what He says beginning in
 
Verse 10
 
verses 18-22
 
Obviously, Judas had hid himself well.  Apparently there is no indication to those who knew him best that he is disloyal.  They couldn't believe it. They looked on each other doubting of whom He spoke. They had no reason to believe it was anybody.
 
Verses 23-24
 
Peter says, “John, ask Him who He’s talking about.”
 
I think Peter asked because Peter and Judas were a lot alike in many ways. Peter knew he was a sinner and I think he was just checking in to find out if it was going to be him, since he had so many other failures.
 
Verses 25-26
 
Apparently that is a private conversation between Jesus and John.  I don't think the others heard it because if the others would have heard it there would have been an attack.  
 
verses 27-29
 
Nobody knew why He sent him away. They thought He sent him to get some more food or to do some ministry.
John knew; Jesus knew; Judas knew and Satan knew because Satan entered him.  I can't imagine anything more horrifying. It’s one thing to be demon possessed, but it's something else to have the Devil himself get in there.
 
What is it that the Devil himself gets into an individual to accomplish? It must be the big ones, right?  Before you answer, remember the Devil also entered Ananias and Sapphira, two Christians in the early church in Jerusalem because they didn't give money to God they promised to give, then lied about it. Somehow that doesn't sound quite as serious as betraying Jesus Christ. But Satan entered Judas and Judas went out to put the final details together for the betrayal.
 
He sold the Lord for thirty pieces of silver, $10 to $20 dollars in today’s money.  It was the price of a slave.  And it was agreed that he would point Jesus out to them in a secret place in the pitch dark of the night by giving the Lord a kiss.
 
The next time we see Judas is in chapter 18.
 
Verses 1-2
 
That’s pretty sorry, isn’t it, to take a special place of prayer and turn it into the place of betrayal?  That’s about what you would expect from someone who would steal from the Lord.  Judas not only profaned the Ministry by stealing the money, he not only profaned the Passover with blood money, he not only  profaned friendship, he profaned the secret, private place of devotion for our Lord.
 
Verses 3-4
Jesus knew that Judas was going to come and find Him and greet Him with a kiss and then the soldiers would attack and Judas could fake shock and act as if he knew nothing.
 
So Jesus removed the mask.  The kiss won’t be necessary for identification.  But just to show you how sorry Judas was, he kissed Him anyway. And according to the way the Greek phrases it in Matthew 26, he kissed him repeatedly.  It was no longer a kiss to point Him out.  It was a kiss to fake his innocence.  Judas is putting on a show.
 
You’ve got to be as sorry as they come to pull that off. I can't imagine what Jesus must have been enduring at that moment.  I can understand how He could endure the hatred of the priests or the shouts of the crowd.  I can understand how He could endure the cowardice of Pilate or the brutality of the soldiers.  I can understand how He could deal with the denial of Peter.
 
But how do you handle someone you’ve loved and honored doing this? And yet do you know how Jesus responded when Judas kept on kissing him?  He called him friend. Always the lover, always the forgiver, and so He was betrayed by a man who lived for greed and if he could only get ten bucks it was better than nothing.
 
But that is not so unique. In fact, I would suggest to you today that men have and always will sell Christ for whatever they think is worth more. As the poet said,
"It may not be for silver,
it may not be for gold.
 
But yet by tens of thousands,
the Prince of life is sold.
Sold for a godless friendship.
Sold for a selfish aim.
Sold for a fleeting trifle.
Sold for an empty name.
Sold in the mart of science.
Sold in the seat of power.
Sold at the shrine of fortunes.
Sold in pleasure's hour.
Sold for your awful bargain,
none but God's eye can see.
Ponder my soul the question,
“How shall He be sold by thee?
Sold, 0 God, what a moment
stilled his conscience voice.
Sold unto weeping angel
records the fatal choice.
Sold, but the price accepted
to a living coal shall turn,
with the pangs of a late repentance
deep in a soul to burn."
 
Judas sold Jesus for greed and people are still doing it today for their materialistic lifestyle and selfish desires. Before we finish, let me talk for a moment about
 
4. His Death
 
In James 1, the Bible says “Lust, when it is conceived, brings forth sin and when sin conceives it brings forth death.”  The wages of sin is always death.  And Judas found that out.  See, the truth is, Judas didn’t really sell Christ.  Jesus said, “No one takes my life from me.”  He willingly and freely laid it down.
What really happened is Judas sold himself.  For between ten or twenty dollars, he betrayed the Lord and he deserted the apostles, but he sold his soul and in return, he purchased hell.
 
According to Matthew 27:5, he was convicted by his conscience, regretted his decision and returned the money and went outside of town and hanged himself.
 
Acts 1 says he died, having fallen and bursting open and having his bowels spill out.  Some people think those conflict. Not necessarily. Some say he  couldn't hang himself any better than he could do anything else and either the knot was insufficient or the branch broke and having hanged himself over a cliff he fell on rocks and burst open.
 
My conviction is he hanged himself before the death of Jesus on a Wednesday, hung there until after the Sabbaths were over, which would have been at least three days and maybe more, and by the time his body was discovered he had swollen and when he was cut down, his body hit and burst open.
 
And by the way, what did the religious leaders do with the money that he threw in the house of the Lord? They said, "It is not lawful to put it in the treasury because it’s blood money."  Now all of a sudden, they're getting lawful. They used the money to buy the plot of ground where Judas died and used it for a cemetery for strangers.   That is exactly what the Old Testament said would happen and the plan was fulfilled.
 
Well, I’ve given you a lot of information about his name, his call, his betrayal and his death.
Let me point out
 
2.  What Can We Learn From Judas Iscariot? 
 
There's nothing that we can do for him.  He's dead and in hell.  Jesus even said that it would have been better if he had never been born.  And by the way, that's true.  If you die lost it would have been better if you had never been born than to die on the wrong side of Jesus.  But even though there's nothing that we can do for him, I believe that there are at least three things we can learn from him.
 
- A good beginning does not guarantee a Godly ending. 
 
Go back to his name -- Judas, "the Lord leads."  Obviously his parents wanted a better life than the life he lived and the death he died.  Judas decided to follow Jesus. Judas heard Jesus teach. He went out two by two with the others, healing the sick and exorcising demons. Judas did a lot of disciple kind of things. Yet he is not remembered for any of that.  The only thing that we remember is how his relationship with Jesus ended.  What does that teach us?  How a life, a ministry, or a relationship ends is absolutely crucial to everything that goes before it.
 
- You can be close to Jesus and not be changed by Jesus.
 
I can't get over the fact that here was a man who spent 24 hours a day with God in the flesh, Jesus Christ Himself.  He watched Jesus eat and sleep and teach and preach.   He saw him heal people and raise people from the dead.  No doubt Jesus would put his arm around him at times and talk to him.
He was that close and yet he was so far away.  John MacArthur said, "He had given his life to following Jesus, but he never gave Jesus his heart."
 
Maybe John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim's Progress had Judas in mind when he wrote, "Then I saw that there is a way to hell, even from the gates of Heaven."
 
- In The End, Sin Is No Friend
 
Judas thought the Pharisees were his friends.  He thought that they would stand by him.  He thought that they would accept him.  He thought that they would understand, but in the end all that they did was use him to accomplish their ends and then turn their backs on him like he had on Jesus.  So, he goes out and hangs himself and steps out into an eternity without Jesus.
 
It’s the tragic story of a wasted life.
 
In 1777, two battles of the Revolutionary War took place on the battlefield of Saratoga in New York.  Some historians refer to the American victories there as “the most important battle of the last 1000 years.” It was that victory that secured critical foreign recognition and assistance, without which the American independence would likely have ended in failure.
 
If you were to visit that battlefield today, you would find a monument to what happened there.  It was built in 1877 as a testimony to what happened there.
At the base are four deep niches for the bronze figures of the generals who fought there so heroically.
Facing north is General Horatio Gates, who had overall command of the American army in the battles. He gazes northward, anticipating the imminent arrival of the southward-invading British army.
 
Facing east is American General Philip Schuyler. His country estate is downhill and east of there. It was burned by the British as they were retreating north from the battlefield (about 8 miles south of Saratoga Monument).
 
Facing west is the bronze statue of American Colonel Daniel Morgan, whose riflemen and light infantry troops were positioned west of there to prevent the British from escaping in that direction.
 
The south-facing fourth niche is empty.  It was originally designed for a general whose performance during battle merited honor.
 
In fact, not far away is another monument in honor of this particular general.  This general was wounded in the foot during the Battle of Quebec, and suffered further injury in the Battle of Ridgefield when his horse was shot out from under him. His last battle injury was at Saratoga, and it occurred near where this monument is located.
 
The Boot Memorial was donated by John Watts de Peyster, a former Major General for the New York State Militia during the Civil War who wrote several military histories about the Battle of Saratoga.  He wanted to honor the military accomplishments of this fourth general.
 
The dedication on the back reads:
"Erected 1887 By
JOHN WATTS de PEYSTER
Brev: Maj: Gen: S.N.Y.
2nd V. Pres't Saratoga Mon't Ass't'n:
In memory of
the "most brilliant soldier" of the
Continental Army
who was desperately wounded
on this spot the sally port of
BORGOYNES GREAT WESTERN REDOUBT
7th October, 1777
winning for his countrymen
the decisive battle of the
American Revolution
and for himself the rank of
Major General."
 
No doubt, Benedict Arnold was a great general.  But he later committed an act of treason and his name became associated with being a traitor rather than a hero and that nameless boot and empty niche stand today as the testimony of a traitor.
 
In heaven there is a great monument constructed as well, and it, too has a glaring omission.
 
Revelation 21:14
 
The fact that the Name of Judas Iscariot is not there will stand forever as a testimony to the tragedy of a wasted life. Now, there is another potential tragedy in the making and that is if you are not there either.  The choice is yours.  You can follow Judas and sell your soul to the highest bidder, or you can follow Christ who bankrupted heaven to save your soul.
 
Let’s pray.