Judas: Beneath the Kiss Pt 2

0:00Looking at our world from a theological perspective, this is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good afternoon everyone. It is Tuesday, March 31st, 2026. It is currently 156 pm Central Time and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central Studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. I know I shouldn't have done it, I know, I know I shouldn't have started a new series, but I felt I had to because if I look to the left, if I look to the right, if I looked up, if I looked down, I kept running into the same thing over and over and over again. And that was Judas. I could not get away from Judas. So I'm like, okay, if Judas is everywhere, we need to talk about Judas, I kind of felt like, you know, the fact that no matter where I looked, I found Judas. I thought, well, then we have to talk about it.

1:00And then I realized, well, to really do this in a kind of an interesting, a comprehensive way, we're going to turn this into a series. And I decided to call the series Judas beneath the kiss because I want to go beyond just the caricature. I want to go beyond just Judas is the bad guy, he's the villain. I want to go beyond just Judas is a warning. I wanted to go maybe a little beyond what most people talk about and really dig in and see by the time we're done with this mini series, we all understand Judas better than when we started. At least that is the goal. Now, this is what happened just so that you remember, I'm just going to put this all together so that we can hopefully accomplish something. So I need you to listen. A lot of times my introductions can go long and you may not feel like that they are necessary. In this particular case, I think this introduction is of the utmost importance because it's

2:01going to establish some foundational truths in regard to Judas that your theological understanding of Judas must must have this foundation or I think you're going to have a wrong understanding of the individual and everything that happened. Here's how it all started. Of course I went to church, our Savior Lutheran church, Abilene, Texas, our seventh street. They're handing out the devotionals for April through June, 2026. The name of the devotional is Portals of Prayer. This is the devotional for Lutheran church, Missouri Synod. You can probably get a copy and go to Concordia Publishing House. Probably order a copy there or probably you can just drive by any of the Lutheran church Missouri Synods in your local area, walk in the office and say, hey, do you have a copy of the April through June Portals of Prayer that I could have or obtain a copy most likely they will give you one. I know at our church they have stacks of these things and we're telling us to give them

3:03out to everyone. So yeah, Portals of Prayer. So when I got it, of course, you know what I did. I immediately started my investigation. I started looking and I looked at April the first. That's the first devotional in this devotional book and it's called Judas No Faith. And I was like, okay, so Judas and I'm like, all right. So I already started thinking how would I approach the subject of Judas and the devotional gave me some ideas because it connects Psalm 14 to Luke 22, 47 through 51. It connects Psalm 14 to an account of Judas betraying Jesus and I'm like, well, why would they connect those two? So that started me on hours and hours of study, all right. So I'm like, okay, maybe I'll do a message on that. So I thought, okay, I'm good. I'm done. And then the next thing I know, I open up a music streaming service. A new song is released by Josiah Queen called Judas and I'm like, okay, that's an interesting

4:08song. And then yesterday looking at my feed on the sermon audio app, I noticed that there was like five sermon, six sermons in a row that had been uploaded to sermon audio on Judas. I'm like, so Judas is in the sermons, Judas is in the music streaming service, Judas is in my devotional, Judas is everywhere. So you know what, let's talk about him and let's talk about him in a way that maybe goes beyond just the kiss. So that is what we're going to do. So today, we're going to kind of take the first major step in this series. And I think I'm taking, I think I'm going to take the right step here. Some people may approach this differently, but this will make sense, all right. I am not, I'm not going to start this by telling you what I think about Judas or my thoughts or my perspective or my interpretation of a lot of these passages. I'm going to start by asking, what are people being told about Judas who go to church?

5:19People who go to church, what are you learning about Judas? What are you hearing about Judas? If you're paying, if you listen to a lot of things on the sermon audio app and you hear see all of these sermons being uploaded about Judas, what are you hearing? What are you being taught? What are you being told? And I think that's a good place to start, right? So I was looking around going, you know, I think I'll start with a sermon. I could start with my interpretation. I could start with doing exegetical work, but I always find it more interesting to go. Here's what everyone else is saying. And then when I offer my perspective, then I'm offering the contrast. Here's what they say. Now here's what I say, and then you can, well, figure out. And we'll also consider the devotional, we'll consider that song, we'll do a lot of things before the series is over, but I thought today would be a good day. And the main reason is, I was looking at all the random sermons on sermon audio, and I found one with this title, when a person gives himself to Satan.

6:29So even before listening to the sermon, even before doing anything, that title already started telling me something. It seems to be suggesting kind of a framework or an interpretive framework for how to understand Judas. It is suggesting that Judas became what he was, and he became this by giving himself over, giving himself over to sin, and then ultimately over to Satan. Here's Judas, and here's what Judas became. Look at how messed up it is. He betrayed Jesus with a kiss. He became that by giving himself over to Satan. And as soon as I saw the title, I'm like, so I read the description under the sermon.

7:31And the description spoke of the progression of sin, that sin is, I guess, progresses, it moves forward. It suggests in the description that your small compromises will ultimately lead to your destruction, and that Judas was a man close to Jesus, yet he was lost. So I just started thinking about all of this. That gives me kind of an idea of how the sermon is going to approach Judas. Now I haven't listened to the sermon yet. I don't want to do that. But the title and the description gave me the idea. This is going to approach Judas as, here was this man, here's what he became. Don't become like a Judas, and you can avoid becoming like Judas if you take these steps. Here's the steps Judas took. You don't take those steps.

8:32You won't betray Jesus with a kiss. And I have some serious theological, we'll call them reservations about this approach. I have some, again, I don't know exactly how the sermon is going to flesh this out. But just from the title and the description, I'm already thinking, so here's what I'm going to do. I want to lay down kind of some foundational information, some foundational truth about Judas. And then as we listen to the sermon, you can see if the sermon accounts for this foundational information, acknowledges this foundational information, or if it just completely ignores it. And what is the result of ignoring it, all right? So that's what I want to do. So I'm going to establish what I think scripture actually says about this man named Judas, all right? And I think, and it's always, I think this is critical. We always have to try to hear what scripture says, whether we like it, whether we dislike

9:37it, whether we don't understand it, whether we question it, whether we hate it, either scripture is the authority or it's not the authority. And if scripture is the authority, then you just have to figure out what scripture says. Oh, you may sit there and look at it going, I don't like that. Oh, that bothers me. No, no, no, no, but I would, I think to me, the way I approach it is, here's what scripture says. And then I may struggle, I may doubt, I may not like, I may want to scream to God, I, but the scriptures, we have to figure out what they say. So we have to figure out at least some basic things about Judas according to the scriptures, not according to sermons, not according to tradition, but according to scripture itself, all right? And I think this is very important, all right? Because I think there's something when it comes to the scriptures that cannot be ignored or ignored.

10:38The Bible does not present Judas as a complete unknown, but it says things about Judas right from the very beginning. And I think we, because if the sermon, at least the titles like here was Judas and this is what he became, but scripture almost begins to describe Judas right from the very beginning in a certain way. I'm going to read this from two different translations, John, maybe three different ones. I'll go to John chapter six. I really want you to write down these scriptures. John chapter six for 64, John chapter six for 64, all right? John chapter six for 64, but there are some of you that believe not. That's Jesus speaking, all right? He is speaking, and this is what he says, but there are some of you that believe not.

11:39For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believe not and who should betray him. That's John six, 64, and we read it from a different translation. John six, 64, John six for 64. Here we go. This is what it says. Some of you do not believe me for Jesus knew from the beginning which ones didn't believe any knew who would betray him. Jesus already knows something about Judas from the, he knows Judas is going to betray him. Now, does Jesus just know this is what he's going to become or does Jesus already know something about Judas? Let's add a few more scriptures here, right? John chapter six, verse 70 and 71, same chapter, John chapter six, verse 70, Jesus answered them, have, have not I chosen you 12 and one of you is a devil.

12:45I chose you and one of you is a devil. Not one of you is slowly but surely giving yourself over to Satan. One of you is slowly but surely compromising and becoming this. No, he says, I chose you 12 and one of you is a devil. I'm going to read it from a different translation. John chapter six, verse 70, then said, then's Jesus said, I chose the 12 of you, but one is a devil. Verse 71, he was speaking of Judas son of Simoniscariat, one of the twelve who would later betray him. The text identifies it. Jesus knew that Judas was a devil from the moment he chose him, not that he was going to become one, not that he was slowly going to give himself over, but that he was that. Now, if this sermon approaches this, that hey, don't be like Judas, giving yourself over,

13:49this sounds like Judas was already something, but when Jesus chose him, he already was a devil. He didn't become one. So is the sermon going to take this into account or is it just a poorly chosen sermon title? I don't know, we're going to find out. We're going to find out, but whether it doesn't matter what the sermon does, I want you to know that from the very beginning, Jesus knew Judas was going to betray him and from the very moment he chose him, he knew he was a devil from the very moment. All right, John chapter 13, John chapter 13, verses 10 and 11, Jesus said to him, this is Jesus speaking, he that is washed, needed not save to wash his feet, but is clean every wit and ye are clean, but not all for he knew who should betray him.

14:52So even a little later on, Jesus is still saying one of you is not clean because he knew Judas, it's not that Judas was becoming unclean, he was unclean, he was a devil, Jesus already knew he was going to betray him. There was never any question, there was never any doubt, this wasn't what he was becoming, it's what he was. Another passage, what we have Luke chapter 22, depending on how you read this, maybe this will make, we could probably get into some argument here, but Luke chapter 22, see how it reads in this translation, Luke 22, I believe it's verse 22, Luke 22 verse 21, Jesus is speaking, we'll go back to verse 21, but here at this table sitting among us, as a friend is the man who will betray me, for it has been determined that the son of

15:52man must die, but that sorrow awaits the one who betrays him, that sounds like something, it sounds like now what exactly has been determined, not only that Jesus would die, but had it already been determined, the very person who would betray him, now this is strong language used in scripture, he knew it from the beginning. One of you is a devil, one of you is unclean, it was determined, now we're not even doing any interpretation, we're not even doing any application, it is clearly established that Jesus knew Judas was a devil from the moment he chose him, not that he became it, he was it. And then do we interpret the actions of Judas, as this is what he became, or do we interpret the actions of Judas, this is what he was, his actions simply reveal what he was, not what he became, that's a completely different theological approach to the subject.

16:59So was Judas simply a man who became what he ultimately was, or was there something already true of him from the beginning, all right, now you can also look, is there any old testament passages that already predicted or prophesied Judas, you can add that in if that is, then this whole thing was already known, it was already determined, it was already knew what was going to happen, but when we see, I think this is the theological point I'm trying to drive you to, when we see Judas kissing Jesus, do you really look at that going, oh my goodness, look what Judas ended up becoming, how did he get here, or do you go, that action is simply the out external evidence of what he was, he was a devil from the moment Jesus chose him, how do we interpret that, and then how does

18:05that impact our preaching and our application, but let's do something else, let's forget Judas for a moment, all right, okay, I know, I know we're all sitting there and you're like, look up there, look up there, in the second pew to the right, that's Judas, that guy's trash, that guy's garbage, okay, how about stop looking at Judas and whispering about Judas, how about we look in the mirror, what about you and I, what about us, because I don't believe Judas is isolated from the rest of scripture, in fact I know he's not, Judas is recorded in scripture so we don't isolate him from the rest of scripture, because the Bible does something, well I think very interesting, because it describes all of us, right, we have scriptures that we think are applicable to all of us, for example, what does David say and his great confession of his sin in Psalm 51, behold, I was shaping in iniquity

19:07and in sin did my mother conceive me, that is not only true of David and some could argue that David is trying to make an excuse, hey, hey, I know I committed adultery, I know I committed murder, but hey, I was born in sin, but the reality is your external sin, your external action is simply a reflection of what you are, you were conceived in sin and so was I and so was Judas, whatever external thing you do is a result of what you are and you were born, you didn't choose to be a sinner, you didn't ask to be born, you didn't ask to be conceived in sin, you did not ask for a sinful nature, low and behold, welcome to the world, smack the bottom, you are a sinner, but before you even get smacked on the bottom, you were conceived in sin, you are a sinner by nature, Ephesians 2, 1 through 3 and you

20:08are half he quick and who were dead in trespasses and sins and were by nature the children of wrath, you were born dead in sin by nature, you are a child of wrath, Jeremiah 179, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, the most deceitful thing on this planet is your heart and it's desperately wicked, this is just true of us, you don't ask for this, you didn't want to be that this is what you are, and then Jesus himself said in John chapter 8 verse 44, you were of your father the devil, so by nature I am conceived in sin, I have a desperately wicked heart that's deceitful above all things, I am dead in my trespasses and sin, I am a child of wrath and my father is the devil, I don't do anything,

21:09I don't do anything to become that, that is what I am, oh man, it Christians love to have this, don't do this so that you become this, no, no, no, no, I am that, I don't do anything to become a child of the devil, I am born a child of the devil, I don't do anything to become a child of wrath, I am that, I don't do anything to die, to die in my trespasses and sins, I'm born dead, that is a major fill, that's a foundational theological understanding. Now I know we have this weird mentality within Christianity, no, no, no, no, don't compromise, don't do this, you'll become this, you'll be, what do you mean I will become something? You can't, I mean, how, I see, what can I do to not be born a sinner? Well, I'm born a sinner,

22:11I'm born dead, I'm born a child of the devil, I'm born a child of wrath, I'm born with a heart that's desperately wicked and deceitful above all things, I don't have to do anything for those things to be true, but those things being true, explain everything I do, that's why you come forth from the womb lying, you don't have to be taught to be selfish, you don't have to be taught to be hateful and grumble and complain and hate, those things are what you are. When Christians say things, well, that, that, that's bad parenting, that's bad parenting, no, that's called God allowed that kid to be born, a depraved sinner. This is foundational, I want to make these, those statements I just gave you, they're not

23:13minor statements, they describe your condition, they describe your nature, they describe your reality and they explain why the world has been messed up as long as human beings have been walking around on this planet, see, can enable. The Bible does not describe people becoming sinful, it describes people being sinful, it's not about people entering darkness, we're already in the kingdom of darkness, I could have added another scripture and Colossians about how we are delivered from the kingdom of darkness because we are already in the kingdom of darkness. So we have to keep in mind what the scriptures say about Judas and what the scriptures say about us, because what the scriptures say about us is true of Judas. So Judas is far more like us

24:13than anybody wants to admit, all right? And so there's some questions I think become unavoidable. If Judas was known from the beginning to be a devil, if humanity is born in this horrible condition, then how should we understand Judas and understand what he did? Do we understand Judas ultimately walking up and kissing Jesus as the climax of a progressive downward spiral? Do we see it simply as a decision? Do we see it simply as surrender? Or do we see something deeper beyond that kiss? Now that's why all of this matters because now we're not just listening to a sermon and

25:16a sense we're going to test it. Not emotionally, not philosophically, but textually. You now know what scripture say about Judas. You know what scripture says about us. And whatever it says about us is also true of Judas. So you're ready? Let's listen to the sermon when a person gives himself to Satan. And again, do you give yourself to Satan? If you're born a child of the devil, you don't have to give yourself to Satan. You already belong to Satan, right? So we're going to listen to how they approach Judas and we're going to basically say, okay, does this take into account all that we just gave you? And that, well, we went 26 minutes in that introduction. I told you the introduction was going to be long, but it was foundational. Now I don't know how long we're going to make it into this review. You already know the sermon is 53 minutes. So you already know we're going to end up in a mess here, but that's okay.

26:17We're just going to go. If I find a good, clean stopping point, great. We're going to kind of look for this is what we're going to try to look for in this part of the review. We're going to try to find that thesis statement. What is his thesis? What is he? Because that thesis will be his an interpretive approach and everything else will just flow from it. Once we get the thesis, then we can just immediately test the thesis and go, well, the first sermon we listen to approach Judas this way and we already see a problem with it. All right. So are you ready? Here we go. I got two Bibles. I got no books. I got everything. I think we're good to go. And I hope you take, you took down all, I mean, I know with you that very quick in the introduction, but all of that information is critical, really understanding that about Judas and about us. All right. Here we go. I don't know what's going to happen. We'll see, but we're going to find out. I want this morning to consider with you this man Judas is scary at

27:22and his life. The life of Judas the scarlet is life of tragedy that reveals to us what is possible when a person gives himself over to lust, to sin, and to Satan. All right. So we know this much. It is about Judas and he wants to see this is what is possible when a person gives himself over to lust, to sin, and to Satan. Now, this seems to be taking kind of a very pelagian view like you, you're born neutral, you're born without a sinful nature, you're born almost innocent. That's very much a pelagian concept, right? And then here's sin, here's lust, and here's Satan, and then you just slowly but surely start giving yourself over to it. And then next thing, you know, you're betraying Jesus with a kiss. And I think that's still logically

28:25just not accurate. No, I don't have to give myself over to sin and to lust and to Satan because I'm born a complete and total depraved sinner who's dead, who is corrupt. I was conceived and sin. That's a completely radically different theological approach. And if you're going to say people are born innocent and you're going to go with pelagian, a pelagian view, pelagias himself, basically at knowledge that people could be perfect, even without God, even without salvation. You could be perfect because you don't have a sinful nature. You just you can choose to be holy and perfect. You don't even need God's help. Now, Christians will come back and say, well, no, you can't be perfect without God, but with God, you can do it. Well, so now you believe you're going to be perfect. Even as Christians, we know we can't be perfect, which seems to indicate even more so that even after salvation, you still have that same sinful nature, and it's

29:28still won't allow you to get to perfection. So, and if you continue to sin all the time, what you do, well, then are you not continuing to give yourself over to Satan? So many issues with this approach, so many. Let's see where this actually, how it unfold, and I want you to really think. So, what is this person, how are they identifying what the problem is, and then what do they tell you to do in order to avoid the problem, and does that actually work? What we know about Judas is very much. We know that he was one of the twelve disciples. We know that he, whenever the disciples are listed, he's always listed last in that group of disciples. Whenever Judas is mentioned throughout the New Testament, it's always mentioned that he is the one who betrayed Jesus Christ. We know that as a disciple, he participated in the mission work that the apostles were sent on. We know that

30:34he preached. We know that he participated in the miracle working that the apostles did. He was one of the disciples. We also know from John chapter 12 and verse 6 that Judas was a thief. The Bible says that very clearly. And beyond that, we know from John's gospel, the 12th chapter, verse 6, 13th chapter, verse 29, that he was the treasure. Whenever you see the picture of the last supper, if you look at the twelve men around that table with Jesus. Now, he said that really quick, but I want you to think about that. He said that Judas preached. I think we could assume that there was some level of truth to that, but that Judas performed miracles. Now, Judas is one of the twelve. That seems clear, right? Matthew chapter 10,

31:37verse 1, and then 7th through 8, Jesus gives the twelve authority to cast out demons, hill diseases, and to preach. Judas would be included in that group. Now, I don't think the text ever says Judas performed a miracle, though. There's no specific verses that state that in any clear or direct way. So we could go with option one, Judas participated in the ministry like all the others. Therefore, he performed miracles. That means God gave the power to perform miracles to one whom he referred to knowing he was a devil from the very beginning. So God gave a devil the power to perform miracles. Why would he give him the power to perform miracles? Knowing he was a devil from the beginning. He was a liar. He was a thief. But yet, he's like, I give you the authority. So he's out there.

32:41Is he casting out demons? Being a devil himself? Now, I would say we got to be very careful. The text never says he did. And if we assume that he did, then obviously this would be the conclusion. Someone performing a miracle does not in any way at all prove that they are from God. It doesn't. Now, this would be very difficult to try to process because then this would demonstrate, wait a minute, the apostles did miracles in some ways to give confirmation of their apostolic authority and their apostolic office. We tends to say that the apostles had the power to do these miracles to give confirmation of their message. They do miracles showing that their apostles, therefore their message has authority. But if Judas did the same miracles,

33:47well, then the miracles prove nothing. Oh, so you held the sick? Well, Judas held the sick. You cast out demons, Judas cast out demons. So your, the miracles prove absolutely nothing. They didn't even prove anything during the apostolic era. That would be because we tend to understand the miracles, right? The miracles supposedly was to prove something. The miracles was to prove the deity of Christ. The miracles were to prove that the apostles were sent by God. But if Judas was out there doing similar miracles, then miracles prove absolutely nothing. So what do you think? I will say this. And I think we have to be very careful. Judas was among the 12. That's a fact. He would have been among the 12 who was given authority to perform miracles. But this is clear. Scripture never, never explicitly states that Judas personally

34:52performed any miracle. We have to at least acknowledge that. I don't know how that impacts anything, but yeah, that wouldn't. That would raise lots of questions, right? Okay, so yeah, well, there's a lot we could say there, but I'll just leave it there. Let's see where else this goes. You'll see very distinctly one of them holds a bang. That's Judas' scarion. He was the treasure. And from that we can, I think, deduct that he was a trusted and unsuspected traitor that those other apostles had somehow trusted him. Now, here's the question. Who appointed him treasure? He said, this proves that he was trusted. Who appointed him? Right? Okay, so I'm going to. Who appointed Judas

35:56to be the treasureer, the one who held the purse? Now, he's saying this proves that he was trustworthy. John 12, 6, he was a thief and had the bag and bear what was put there in. John 13, 29, some thought Judas had the money bag and was going to buy what was needed. Yeah, I don't know where you get that. I mean, wouldn't Jesus be the one in charge? I mean, Jesus knew from the beginning it was a devil. So if he's holding the purse, Jesus knows he's a devil. Jesus could have said, hey, guys, you may want to take that the money from him. He's a thief, but Jesus doesn't do that. Now, see, this is the thing with what the Bible gives you

36:59and what preachers say are almost always in conflict. Preacher is almost inevitably in belish or go beyond the text. Hey, he did miracles. Well, the text doesn't actually say that. He was well trusted. The text does not actually say that. That's us. That's us filling. It's like we get the Bible gives us a picture and a lot of times that picture is very small without any detail and that we come along. We've got our colored we got our colored pencils. We've got all of our artwork and we just start filling in and we're like, look what I drew. And you're like, well, that's wonderful. That makes for a great sermon. I just don't know if we can say that because the text doesn't give us that information. I know this. The Bible makes it very clear. Jesus knew when he chose Judas that he was a devil and yet Jesus did nothing to stop him from holding the purse and having the money. That much is a fact. There was something about him that seemed to be trustworthy and yet we know that he was a traitor.

38:07We also know that not only was he a thief but we know that Jesus knew him from the very beginning. John chapter 6 and verse 64, John chapter 6 verse 70 and 71 tells us very distinctly that Jesus knew all along that one of his disciples was a devil. Jesus knew he was a thief. Jesus knew everything about him and we further know as we study the Passover, the last supper. Now he acknowledges right there that Jesus knew this. So if Jesus knew it then it's not that Judas was somehow trustworthy. Jesus already knew that he was not trustworthy. Now you may want to say he was trustworthy amongst the other men. Okay, maybe that in that case, maybe. But you can't ignore this part that Jesus already knew. You've got to at least acknowledge this creates tension here with the story that you're telling. You've got to at least go, hmm, well then why is Jesus letting

39:10him do this if Jesus knew this? Well maybe because it was all part of the plan and predetermined. Well then that leads to lots of other questions. The Judas scarion participated and that last supper with the other disciples. I've always been amazed that when you read John 13, you'll realize that when Jesus washed the disciples' feet, that he washed the feet of Jesus. Furthermore, we know that for 30 pieces of silver, Judas scarion betrayed Jesus Christ. We know that he betrayed him with a kiss and we know that afterward according to Matthew 27, he knew he was condemned and he took the money back and they refused to receive the money back. They said, what is that to us? And the Bible says he went out and hung himself. And according to Acts chapter 1, when he hung himself, either the rope broke or the tree

40:14from which he hung himself, the branch broke, but he fell down. And his inner, his inner, oh, what you say is guts and everything else came out. He was, that's what was left of him. He was laying there mangled and open and for the birds and insects and everything else to have their way with. Just so that you know, there is much dispute and much argument about did Judas partake of the Lord's supper or did he depart beforehand? So the Bible leaves us with a little bit of confusion. So the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, they seemed to present the narrative as if Judas was there during the mill. You got Matthew 26, 20 through 26. Jesus announces the betrayal. Judas is present. Then he says, as they were eating, he took bread. The narrative kind

41:14of flows straight through. There's no clear statement that Judas leaves before the institution of the Lord's supper. Luke 22, 21, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table. So this sounds like Judas is still there. He's at the table during the mill, but then John's gospel comes along. John 13, I believe 26 through 30. And Jesus identifies Judas with the dipped bread, but then after the soap, Satan entered into him and he went immediately out and it was night. So did Judas leave before or after the Lord's supper was instituted? John does not explicitly mention the bread and cup institution like the others do. So we have to kind of compare the accounts and you end up with kind of two views. The most common view is Judas left before the Lord's supper. And they base this on the sequence found in the gospel of John. Many argue he

42:17exited before the institution. Now, if you believe in a, and this is very important because this has great impact because a lot of people will take the story and if you're, if you hold to the Lord's supper being a sacrament, right? Well, you fence the table. It's sacramental. It's, it imparts grace. So you don't just hand this to anybody. So you've got to have Judas leaving or you're going to, someone's going to argue, well, Judas got to partake of it. Why can't anybody partake of it, right? And other people who don't believe it in a sacramental way still believe in fencing the table or enclosed communion, not close, closed communion, they will say he left, right? So anyone who kind of holds to that, now that, that may be your theology, needing a certain interpretation. So is that your theology guiding the interpretation or does the text? Another view is that Judas was present during the meal, possibly even the institution. And they base this on Matthew and Luke, all right? So

43:26well, what do you do? I don't know. Here's what I, I will say. Here's what I will say. Whatever happens with Judas at the Lord's Supper. What, what do you ever say do you want to argue? I do not think that it is meant to prescribe how the church is going to conduct itself in the celebration of the Lord's Supper. It's not meant, it's just saying this is what was going on in this very instant and this very situation, right? I don't think it's trying to give us how it's supposed to occur. You could argue, why? How come? But the fact is nobody seems to know because the accounts don't give us a clear picture. But I do know this when you get to First Corinthians, we are explicitly told that those who partook of the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner were sick or had died. Well, if people can get sick and if people can die by partaking of the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner, if you don't fence the table and you don't have closed communion, then for crying out,

44:29now don't tell me you're pro-life. You're pro-murder. Okay, hey, we're just going to hand this out to anybody. Why? That thing could kill somebody. That'd be like, hey, we're just going to take a loaded gun and we're just going to pass it out to all the kids and kids church. I think you would close it off going, you know what? Listen, we need to figure out what's the best way to ensure that nobody gets sick or nobody dies. Okay, right? I mean, don't you have to at least take that into consideration? He said, well, what about Judas? I know that when Paul comes along and tells you what's going on in the church of Corinth, he doesn't say, what about Judas? Judas never becomes a part of how or how we should not conduct the Lord's Supper in the epistles. So whatever happened there, we may never know exactly. And I think we cannot necessarily use that to prove our case or to disprove a case.

45:32We just know something happened and it does seem to appear according to John. At some point, he just departs. He leaves. He's gone. That part is as seems to be without fail. That's where he ended up. He committed suicide. That's what we know. Judas is scary it did. And we also know that the Bible says to us that it had been better for Judas if he had never been born. Now what do we learn from the tragedy of Judas' life? What can we gather from his life? What do we learn as we look at his life? There are three things I want to draw your attention to. One is this how far a person may go with Jesus and yet not know him. Here is this man you look at his life. He went out preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. He no doubt did miracles in the power

46:35that Jesus gave to the disciples. He had gained the trust of his fellow disciples. There at the Passover, as he no doubt had done each year of the Passover, he sat down with the others. He took communion. He took the elements of the Lord's Supper. We got to be very careful. All those years before he was not taking communion, he was partaking of the Passover mill. We got to use our words carefully here. It was only at the last supper that Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper. He obviously believes he partook of the Lord's Supper. He believes that. He's going with that view that he literally partook of it. But let's just remember, those years prior he wasn't partaking of communion. That was the Passover. It wasn't communion. It doesn't become communion until Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist. However, you want to describe it at the last supper. Let's make sure we at least try to keep this

47:40somewhat in order here. He took the bread which represented the body of Christ. He took the cup which represented the blood of Jesus Christ. He allowed the Lord Jesus Christ to wash his feet. He's a man no doubt that it touched Jesus Christ. What I mean by that, for three years he had followed Christ. And no doubt there were times he had his arm around Christ. And there no doubt there were times Jesus had his arm around Judas. Yet the Bible said he was a thief and he was a devil and the Lord knew from the very beginning what he was. Now I do applaud that he keeps acknowledging that the Lord knew from the beginning. Painting this picture that Jesus had his arm around Judas. Look, we don't need to add any more to the text. We don't need to add any we don't need to embellish. We just got to stay with what the text

48:45says. This is why I told everyone in part one of this do observational work. Do observational work. If you do observational work, you'll know what's there and you'll immediately hear when preacher start adding to you got to listen to when preachers add when they embellish when they paint a picture. That's not that's not accurate. You may you may want to speculate. I don't know if they ever hugged. I don't know if Jesus ever put his arm around Judas. I don't know. I've been around a lot of people that I've never hugged and I've never touched. Okay. So yeah, let's see where else he goes. Yet he went that far. He was a man who witnessed the miracles of Jesus. No doubt he had witnessed Jesus to walk upon the water. He had witnessed him raise the dead. He had witnessed him deliver the the maniac of Godara from all of those demons. He had watched him feed the 5,000. He had countless, countless miracles of Jesus. I'm talking about how far you can go with Jesus

49:47and yet not knowing. Now, this does raise questions. This raises serious theological questions about the nature of conversion or the nature of salvation because it sounds like walking literally with the physical presence of Jesus, God in the flesh, that won't necessarily save you. Seeing Jesus actually perform miracles, that won't actually save you. Literally sitting under the preaching and teaching of the eternal Son of God, that won't save you. Well, then how does salvation occur? Now, you now again, I know this will ultimately come to well, you choose, you choose, you choose. But a lot of times we we seem to make well, if we can get people under the sound of good preaching, if we can do well, it doesn't sound like that all the preaching in the world, even the preaching of Jesus could save somebody. Something else seems to have to occur. Now, you may want to argue. I guess you could still break into the two major camps. It's all your will. You either choose or you don't choose. You could put man's will, if you go with the will idea, then you have a problem

50:52because how does man, how is our will not impacted by the reality of our sinful nature? And if we're dead in our trespasses and sin, if our heart is deceitful above all things, if it's desperately wicked, if we are conceived and sin, how does that sin nature not impact our will? That raises all kinds of questions. Or you fall into the side, well, God has to save you. God has to grant you faith. God has to grant you the change of mind. God has to do that. It's a supernatural work of God. Now, I know a lot of people don't like that view because they want the person to be responsible. But how can a person ultimately choose God when the Bible says no, when seeketh after God, no, not one? Because we're dead in our trespasses and sin. But this at least demonstrates all the miracles in the world, all the preaching in the world, all the teaching in the world, even by God himself will not convert someone. Here is a man that did all of these things, but he did not know the Lord. He heard the teachings of

51:56Jesus. In my, anybody that had the privilege of hearing the teachings of Jesus was sitting at the feet of the greatest teacher that ever walked upon the face of the earth. No waste your time with philosophers. Don't waste your time with intellects. Go straight to the greatest man that's ever walked upon the face of this earth. Go right to Jesus Christ and praise God that you have His words to live by and be guided by. Judas had all that and still was lost. It's amazing. The Bible said he was wounded in the house of his friends when he was betrayed by Jesus, by Judas Iscariot. The Bible speaks of sinners in Zion in Isaiah 33, hypocrisy, hypocrites. That's what Judas was. He's a sinner in Zion. He's a man that doesn't hesitate to take communion. He doesn't hesitate to go out and talk about Jesus. He doesn't hesitate to walk with Jesus and listen to Jesus and see Jesus. But at the same time, he betrays Jesus.

53:01I'm talking about how far you can go with Jesus and not be saved. And I'm telling you, you can go a long way. You can have emotional experiences. You can understand the faith intellectually. You can go out and supposedly win souls for Christ. You can go to the mission field. You can teach in a seminary. You can attend church just like this, be baptized in a church like this. Take communion, take the Lord, separate, read the Bible, carry the Bible to all of those things and be lost. In fact, the Bible teaches us that in the end, on that great day of judgment, Matthew, chapter 7, verse 21-22, many shall say to me, Lord and Lord, I did all these things in your name. Within all these miracles, I did wonderful things. And he'll say to them, I never knew you. All right, so let's make this very clear because this is setting up kind of a tension here, and I want you to feel the tension. All right, so you can literally walk with Jesus. You can preach in the name of Jesus. You literally can do miracles in the name of Jesus. You can look,

54:04you can be so trustworthy that they hand you over the money for the quote-unquote ministry. You can do all of these things and yet be lost. Well, isn't it constant that the way Christians determine if someone is saved or not saved is based off what they do? Well, if you don't read your Bible, if you don't go to church, if you don't do this, you're possibly not saved. Well, no, no, no, no. Doing those things doesn't prove you're saved. That's what he's going to quote from Matthew, chapter 7. And the last day, many are going to say, Lord, Lord, didn't we do this? Didn't we do this? Didn't we do this? He's like, to part from me, I never knew you. So that means all the external things that Christians tends to point to to supposedly prove if someone's saved, they don't actually prove if anyone is saved. Listen to the test they MacArthur would give, his test to prove if someone is saved. I think wretched radio, he gave a test and it's always like, you love God, you read your Bible, you pray, you do this, none of that proves anything. You

55:07literally can be raising someone from the dead and it doesn't prove anything. You can be doing miracles. You can be walking with Jesus for three years. You can be preaching. You can be sitting under his teaching, listening to him preach and still not be saved. Well, then that means there is no way to look at external actions to prove someone is saved. I don't know how the church never catches on to this. External evidence doesn't prove anything. If you're going to make the argument, look at Judas. Well, Judas proves that external signs don't prove salvation. If you're going to go to Matthew 7, external obedience, external actions do not prove salvation. Then stop giving test where people have to look at their external actions to prove whether they're saved or not. I'm told about how far you can go. You can go a long way and not know Jesus Christ. There are people who say, well, I know I'm saved. I know what had happened. I felt and I experienced

56:08well, has it changed your life? The Bible says, and second Corinthians chapter 13 verse 5, examine yourself as to whether you're in the faith. Did you notice the tricky just pulled? All these external things don't prove that you're saved. You claimed that you're saved. Well, has it changed your life? Well, now you're going back to looking at the external things. You just showed me that the external things don't prove that you're saved. Now you're telling me, did it change you? Change me in what way? Externally? No wonder so many people go, I don't know if I'm saved. I don't know if I'm not saved. I don't know if I'm saved. I don't know if I'm not saved. How do I know? You want to know if you're saved? Look to Jesus Christ. Do you believe in Him? Are you trusting in His finished work? The end. You're saved by what He did. You're saved by what He accomplished. Not by what you do. Don't do. Could do. Should do. May do. Try to do. How much you do it? How little you do it? That is nothing but subjective human morality. Stop it. Look to Jesus. That's how you know you're saved.

57:12Well, I know I'm believing in Jesus, but I don't know if I'm saved because you want to look at something else. That means what you're saying is Jesus, you're not good enough. You can't save me by your perfection. You can't save me by your finished work. I've got to do something else. Well, if you're going to do something else, then just cast Jesus aside and don't claim to be a Christian. Don't give me this garbage while I believe in Jesus, but I don't know that I'm saved. What does that mean? Because Jesus can't save. You're looking to yourself. And if you're looking to yourself, you have a high opinion of yourself to think that you are good enough to be able to prove your save by what you do and don't do. You've never been crushed by the law of God because God's law would demand perfection. And you would never ever think for one second that you could look to yourself to prove your salvation because you know that yourself will never live up to the standard of the law. Go sit under the law for six months and you'll come back so crushed that you'll be like, okay, I can't look to myself. You're right. I'm going to look to Jesus. And then

58:14okay, but when you say, I know I believe in Jesus, but no, that but just negates Jesus. And you're going to look to yourself. And if you want to look to yourself, you've got a high opinion of yourself or you have a low opinion of the law. But if you see the law for what it is, you're going to be like, I can't do it. So where do I look? You look to Jesus who kept the law perfectly in your behalf. Now, he just showed you that external things don't prove it. And then he just said, has it changed your life? External things don't prove it. But then he has you checked to see if your external actions prove it. Do you not see the contradiction? The Bible says in second Peter chapter one, verse 10, to make your calling an election sure. Why does the Bible say that? The Bible says that because there is a great danger of deception. Over and over again, the Bible tells us not to be deceived. Not to be deceived about our relationship with God. Spurgeon said that almost everybody at one point of their life has had a religious spasm. And that's what I find. People have had a

59:16religious spasm. Some it lasts a month and some it lasts a year and some it lasts a few years. But then they they've proved to be nothing to it and they walk away. And somehow they believe they're saved because somewhere back then they made a decision. My friend, if what you did in the past is not a present reality, it's worthless. See where you're looking to? What you did in the past, if it's not a present reality, you're not saved. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. So what what has to be the present reality? See, it's never looking to Jesus. It's never looking to your church does not believe we're saved by Jesus. They say that we are but we're not. It always has to be some present reality, something you're doing, something you're doing, something you're doing. No, I am not saved by what I'm doing. I'm saved by what he did. You're teaching Catholicism. I am saved by imputed righteousness and you cannot prove imputed righteousness by what I do or

1:00:16don't do because imputed righteousness is simply righteousness accredited to my account. You cannot see it. If you want to see the perfection, I'm saved by look to the perfection of Jesus. If you want to see what saves me, look to Jesus hanging on across and bleeding. It's his death, his blood that saves me, not what I do. It's not the present reality is Jesus. If you want to say, well, it's the present reality that saves me is the present reality of Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father who died, was buried, and rose the third day and ascended to the right hand of the Father. He is my mercy see, he is my sacrifice, he is my salvation. That's the present reality that saves me, not the actions that I do or don't do. That's ridiculous and I'm so sick and tired of the church not being able to preach the gospel even remotely correct. It's like we all want to go back to Rome. Just go back to being Catholics. At least they're consistent and honest.

1:01:18If you've done the past hasn't changed your life, if what you've done the past past hasn't put you on a life of holiness and separation from this world and a consecration created following of Jesus Christ, then my friend is meaningless. See? What is he point to? Your life. You've got to be doing a certain thing. You've got to be doing a certain thing. Well, Judas walked with Jesus for three and a half years. He was trustworthy. He was preaching. He was doing miracles. Did he not look holy and righteous? He had to look holy and righteous enough for them. I guess to trust him enough with the money, right? Well, then that didn't prove his salvation, but now you're telling me it's holiness that proves my salvation. Well, holiness proves my salvation that I'm going straight to hell because I've never been holy a day in my life because holy means a complete and total separation from sin. It is other than sin. I have never been holy in my action. I have only been holy in my positional standing before God because his holiness has been accredited into my account. That's why I'm

1:02:19saying by an imputed righteousness and not an infused righteousness and you're teaching an infused righteousness. So good. Welcome back to Rome. If Jesus is not to you, the pearl of great price that's worth all the pearls of this world, if he is not the treasure in the field, that you would sell everything that you have for that treasure, then you do not know Jesus. Judas proved by 30 pieces of silver that regardless of how far he had went with Jesus, he never knew it. For that 30 pieces of silver, he would betray him. And I'm here to warn you. I'm here to tell you that you can have emotional experiences. I'm here to tell you you can have intellectual understanding. I'm here to tell you you can be a good church person. You can be active in a committee on the church. You can serve on the deacon body. You can serve as the pastor of the church. None of that matters. See now he's back to you can go to church. You're going to be a part of the community. You can be a pastor. None of that matters. But wait a minute. So what is it? Is it my external actions or is

1:03:23it not my external actions? Can you make up your mind? It sounds like I have to basically be perfect and I have to love God above all things or I'm not safe. Well, then nobody has saved ladies and gentlemen. No one. Everyone is going to hell, including the man who preached, who sounds so fervent and sounds so godly rip apart his life. You're going to see the ungodliness because it is inside all of us because we're all infected it infected with it from conception. And the church loves to preach this nonsense. And all at least and what's so weird it does two things. Half of the congregation will like that's right. We're godly. We're holy. We're righteous. We're not like these other people and it gives this air of self-righteous judgmental, fair-seical, sadgicy attitude. And then the other group of the people are like, wait a minute, what is wrong with me? Man, I know myself. I know I'm not as godly. Maybe I'm just not as godly

1:04:28as all these other people. Maybe I'm the one messed up. Maybe I'm not saved and it leads them to a life of confusion and doubt. And guess what? No one is looking to. No one is looking to Jesus as the one who saved them. They're looking to, they're stinking, messed up, ridiculous lives. And if you can look to your life to think that that proves you're saved, then you don't need Jesus. You should look to your life going, I'm, I'm, I'm unclean. I'm a sinner and thought word indeed by what I do and by what I leave undone. I've sinned against god and my nature. I've sinned him and against him in my thoughts and my words and my deeds and my desires. What am I going to do? I'm going to run to Jesus because he is the only hope. You can go a long way with Jesus and still be lost. Jesus spoke of the weed and the tears. And he said the thing about the weed and the tears is you can't tell the difference. Until they're grown up and as you grow up,

1:05:29then you begin to notice the difference between the weed and the tears. And it's only at the judgment that the weed and the tears will be separated. Well, if you can't tell the difference between the weed and the tears, then that means there's no way to look to the external things to know if which one is wedged. And if they're only going to be separated at the judgment, then why do we have all of these lists of supposedly telling how you can tell the difference? So here is Judas Iscariot. He represents to us. He tells us how far you can go with Christ and yet not knowing. There's a second thing that you and we'll have to stop right there right before he gets to number two. That's a good place to stop. All right. That's what we're hearing about Judas so far. What do you think? A lot there to consider. A lot there to contemplate. I'm not going to come up. I'm not going to try to summarize. I'm just going to leave it right there.

1:06:34I'm just going to leave the tension there, the struggle there because we just stumbled into a number of theological issues. And we didn't even make it. We only made it through the first point of the first sermon. And we are already like, whoa, getting into Judas gets into a lot of very important theological issues. That's why we're dedicating this time. Holy week churches are talking about Judas. We're going to talk about Judas. All right. Now remind, I'm going to remind you of the assignments I gave you. If you want, you can expand it a little bit. First thing, just I said, look at all the verses that talk about Judas betraying Jesus. But if you want, just gather a list of all the verses that mentioned Judas in the New Testament. Just gather them all and then just do observational work. No interpretation, no application. What does it actually say about Judas? The end. Don't add. Don't do these sermon tricks where they add. And just, just, just do the observation. What it says. What does it not say? All right. I told you to grab you if you can get a copy of

1:07:36the Portals of Prayer devotional. Just drive by any Lutheran church in your city, Missouri Senate. Make sure it's Missouri Senate. Ask them for the newest issue of Portals of Prayer, the April through June edition. Most likely they'll just hand you a copy. And you'd check out the song by Josiah Queen, Judas. You can get it on any of the music streaming services. Like I said, it just was a new single. It just dropped when I kept seeing Judas everywhere. You may like it. You may not like it, but it just seems interesting that it got dropped right when I was seeing Judas everywhere. And then if I would challenge you or at least consider if your church is not doing a good Friday service, look for a Lutheran Missouri Senate, a confessional Lutheran Missouri Senate church. In your area, make sure that they are a confessional Lutheran church and Missouri Senate. And then go to the Good Friday service. You may not agree. You may disagree, but you'll just see a Good Friday service done in a liturgical way. You may find it interesting. You may find it moving. You may find it powerful, but it'll just add to whatever you're doing this week. Now if your

1:08:39church has a Good Friday service, then by all means attend. If it's not, then you may want to just go to that. I'm not telling you to join. I'm just telling you to just experience what it's like and see how you feel about it. All right. And find five sermons on sermon audio about Judas. Find five and listen to those. All right. That should give you a lot to do and a lot to consider. All right. I'm going to stop because it's about 752 degrees in this studio right now, because I'm broadcasting to you live from Abilene, Texas. And some are started about a month ago. All right. It's been we've had days where we've already been at what 100 degrees. And yeah, we haven't even gotten to April yet. Okay. So yeah, it is hot in here. All right. So there's probably a million other things I could say, but the goal here is just to try to react in real time and what I did. And so we'll begin the next time we do another episode, we'll do, we'll pick up the

1:09:44review with point number two. And we'll just see where we go. All right. Thanks for listening. God