The betrayal by Judas Iscariot, one of the original disciples of
Jesus, is a very scary event that happened (Matthew 26:47-49). There are many
dangers that we can learn from, and professing Christians would do well to
look at this betrayal closer. I want to highlight four dangers that we can
learn from this incident.
1. Secret sin will be made known
one day. Judas Iscariot appeared to be a sincere
Christian from the outside, he had the very rare privilege of being one of Jesus’
original disciples, yet he betrayed Jesus and showed he was not a true
disciple. We must believe that this betrayal did not happen overnight, I don’t
believe Judas just decided out of the blue he was going to betray Jesus. I
believe it was a slow fade, slowly drifting farther away from Christ. This
tells us that we may profess Christ, yet if we are drifting further and further
away from Christ without repentance we should be concerned. Public sins are the
result of secret sins. A man or woman never falls in public who does not fall
in private. Let Judas remind us to beware of secret sins.
2. Some who appear to be
disciples of Jesus are not. This is pretty obvious, but I
don’t think we talk about this enough in our day. Judas was with Jesus when he
walked this earth. This is the best privilege anybody could ever have. People on the outside would
have never thought that Judas ended up being an apostate. Let Judas remind us
to beware of a false profession of Christ.
3. Some who profess Jesus will
part with Him for worldliness. Judas saw Christ do many
great things, he saw Jesus heal many, he probably saw him pray, and he saw His
great Person daily. Judas knew Jesus was the Son of God, yet he rejected Christ
for a little money! The apostle Paul
tells us that the love of money is a tremendous danger, “But those who desire
to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful
desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction” (1 Timothy 6:9) Paul also
made clear that Demas, once a faithful servant of Jesus, deserted Paul in love
with this present world. (2 Tim 4:10) Let Judas remind us to beware of
worldliness.
4. Take care that you do not misuse
means of grace. I have already said much of
the benefits of what Judas had in sitting under the earthly ministry of Jesus.
However, we should let this sink into our minds. Just because we sit under good
preaching, or are a part of a biblical church does not mean we are necessarily
true disciples of Jesus. Judas knew much about Jesus, yet did not make use of
the privileges of grace that he was offered. Let Judas remind us to beware of
misusing the grace we have received.
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