The Judas Factor
Art
Nelson
The story of
Judas Iscariot has always intrigued me and filled me with a fear of
the Lord. It should do the same for all of us when you consider
that, except for the grace of God, Judas is not much different than
we are. Before you protest too much, let's look further at Judas and
his actions and see if we can reach any conclusions about his
motivation. I think that we will find that his story is very timely
for us when we consider what is happening in some of the “movements”
in the Church today.
We need to
remember that Judas was not one of the twelve chosen apostles of
Jesus by accident or by manipulation. Jesus earnestly prayed to God
before selecting the twelve.
Luke
6:12-13 NASB
(12)
It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and
He
spent the whole night in prayer to God.
(13)
And when day came, He called His disciples to Him and
chose twelve
of them, whom He also named as apostles:
The twelve,
including Judas Iscariot, were chosen for particular reasons which
were important to the Lord.
Mark
3:14-15 NASB
(14)
And He appointed twelve, so
that they would be with Him
and that
He could
send them out to preach,
(15)
and to
have authority to cast out the demons.
The
primary reason for His choice was “so that they could be with
Him”, which, we assume, means that He could train them, mold
their character, and reveal the Father to them. Once this was
accomplished He would send them out to preach and cast out demons.
This would include Judas.
We
know that some of the reason that Jesus chose Judas as one of the
twelve is because of the will and purpose of the Father. Jesus only
did what He saw the Father doing; therefore, we know that this choice
was in the will of God.
Another
part of the reason has to do with the unfolding purpose of God. It
had already been prophesied that Messiah would be betrayed; so, these
prophecies had to be fulfilled. Does that mean then that Judas had no
choice, that his betrayal was predestined? Of course not, this is
not predestination but rather the foreknowledge of God. God already
knew the choices that Judas would make; but, it was within Judas'
power to make the choices.
When the twelve
were ready, Jesus sent them out to heal diseases and to cast out
demons and proclaim the Kingdom of God. This included Judas.
Luke
9:1-2 NASB
(1)
And He called the twelve together, and
gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal
diseases.
(2)
And
He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform
healing.
Luke
9:6 NASB
(6)
Departing,
they began
going throughout the villages, preaching the gospel and healing
everywhere.
We
can assume that Judas performed healing, cast out demons, and
proclaimed the Kingdom of God just like the other eleven. Certainly,
one of the other eleven would have noticed if everyone was performing
miracles except Judas and would have raised the issue.
When
the multitudes were fed, the bread and fish were multiplied in Judas'
hands just like it was with the other eleven. If it had not been
multiplied then Judas' basket would have been empty rather quickly.
In
every way it appears that Judas participated in the work of the Lord
just like the other eleven apostles. The only activities of Judas
that appeared to be different was that Jesus made him the keeper of
the money box; that is, He made Judas treasurer of the group (John
13:29).
The other eleven
had no idea that Judas was a betrayer (John 13:28). It was only in
retrospect that they even realized that he was a thief.
John
12:6 NASB
(6)
Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but
because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to
pilfer what was put into it.
The
question arises, “why did Jesus allow Judas to have the care of
the money box?” The answer to this is important to us, today.
The Lord puts us into circumstances to expose the hidden things of
our heart so that they can be brought to the light and dealt with.
Petty thievery in the heart will come out when exposed to the
temptation of handling the money box. Apparently, no one but Jesus
and Judas paid much attention to the money that was in the money box.
As
we just saw, Judas had thievery in his heart, which means that he did
not have a proper view about money. This is one of the areas of our
heart that the Lord has to deal with before He can trust us with true
riches from Him—we have to be released from a bondage to the
desire for money.
1
Timothy 6:9-10 NASB
(9)
But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and
many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and
destruction.
(10)
For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by
longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced
themselves with many griefs.
In
Judas' heart was a love of money, which certainly resulted in him
being pierced with many griefs. This was an issue in the heart of
Judas that was never resolved. The question is. “why wasn't it
corrected?” Judas had the ultimate opportunity and
resources—daily interaction with Jesus, intimate teaching, a
life of fellowship and miraculous ministry—yet, his heart
wasn't changed.
The answer
should cause us to come into a healthy fear of the Lord. Judas'
heart wasn't changed because he never allowed Jesus to rule his life
as his Lord. We can see this clearly in the Scriptures. As you read
the Gospels notice that the disciples called Jesus Rabbi, or teacher,
in their early relationship with Him; but, as that relationship
developed and revelation came they each began to call Him Lord, that
is, all except Judas who continued to call Jesus Rabbi or teacher.
This is shown clearly at the last supper.
Matthew
26:21-22 NASB
(21)
As they were eating, He said,
"Truly
I say to you that one of you will betray Me."
(22)
Being deeply grieved, they each
one began to say to Him, "Surely not I, Lord?"
Matthew
26:25 NASB
(25)
And
Judas, who was betraying Him, said, "Surely it is not I, Rabbi?"
Jesus *said to him, "You
have said it
yourself."
If
Jesus is not ruling your heart as Lord, then you are still ruling
your own heart—operating in the kingdom of self rather than the
Kingdom of God. In this way we live our lives by the desires of our
own heart rather than the desires of our Lord.
It
is because of this that Judas could betray Jesus. In the heart and
mind of Judas Jesus was a teacher, even a great teacher. It is much
easier to betray a teacher than it is to betray the Lord.
Judas
had his own agenda. It is most likely that he was a member of the
Zealots, a patriotic sect that desired the restoration of the glory
of Israel and the overthrow of the Roman government. It is even
possible based on the etymology of his name, “Iscariot”
that Judas was a Sicarius, a violent sub-sect of the Zealots
that expected Messiah to be a military leader who would powerfully
defeat and cast out the Romans. It is very possible that Judas saw
Jesus in this manner. Jesus' popularity with the people, the power
that He demonstrated, and His talk of the Kingdom certainly lent
credibility for this to Judas.
We
can't really know what went on in the mind of Judas, but it is
certainly possible (and, in my mind, probable) that, as Judas saw the
popularity of Jesus begin to decline, he felt that he needed to help
things along a little bit.
Judas,
operating from his own agenda, needed to manipulate the situation in
order to spark the rebellion against Rome. Judas tried to force
Jesus into a position where He would have to reveal Himself as the
divinely appointed warrior-king who would destroy His enemies.
Judas' motivation for handing Jesus over was to force the hand of God
into action. The thirty pieces of silver weren't the primary reason;
they were just a side benefit.
I don't think
that Judas ever thought that Jesus would allow Himself to be taken.
He had seen Jesus pass through the crowds and escape capture and
stonings on several occasions. He had every reason to believe that
Jesus would do the same thing again. However, when that didn't
happen and Jesus refused to even allow his followers to resist, Judas
realized that his plan was not going to work. He regretted betraying
Jesus and tried to back out of the deal but it was too late.
Let's apply this
to our own heart and to those who function in the ministry today.
From the example of Judas, we know that a false person can do
true things, but the true things are not to further the
purposes of God but rather his own agenda. A person operating out of
his own kingdom of self can do miracles in the Name of the Lord,
performing healing and deliverance. The Devil did not do the
miraculous works demonstrated by Judas, the Lord did them through
Judas just as He did through the other disciples.
Is this part of
what Jesus meant when He spoke of not knowing some who did miracles
in His name?
Matthew
7:22-23 NASB
(22)
"Many
will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your
name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many
miracles?'
(23)
"And
then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU
WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'
Those
who operate from the kingdom of self with their own agenda, deciding
for themselves what is right and wrong are those who practice
lawlessness. We are lawless until we come under the Lordship of
Jesus and learn to practice obedience to His will.
Those
who operate in ministry with a constant focus on money have a heart
problem. Those who constantly speak of spiritual experiences and
perform “manifestations of the spirit” in order to
increase numbers, offerings, visibility, power and position are
practicing lawlessness.
When
Jesus said, “I never knew you;” He was referring to
having an intimate relationship. The alternate meanings of “knew”
in the original include “approved” or “authorized”.
Jesus never approved or authorized those miraculous works—they
were done in lawlessness, performed with illegitimate power by those
who never yielded their heart to the lordship of Jesus.
With a healthy
dose of the fear of the Lord, we need to ask Him to search our hearts
for any of the motivations of Judas. We need to lay our lives open
before Him and ask Him to rule over us—be Lord of our life.
When we begin to practice the real Lordship of Jesus, it become much
easier to discern in others ministry that is arising from self rather
than the Lord—we are able to see beyond the miraculous into the
heart of the minister.
We have too many
among the people of God who are operating from the principle of Judas
rather than the life of Jesus. May the Lord help us cut through the
hype, the manifestation frenzies, the personalities, the showmanship,
the flamboyant styles, the self promoting, the arrogant,
self-exalting ministries to see Jesus. What comes from Jesus
remains; everything else is but dust in the wind.
©
2003-2008 by Art Nelson and
Lifestream
Teaching Ministries
Previous
issues of Present Truth are on the website:
www.Lifestreamteaching.com
For comments or questions contact Art
Nelson at this address:
artnelson@lifestreamteaching.com
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