Monday: Judas
Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve
(Luke 22:3, NIV). No doubt Satan worked hard to get all of the disciples. What was it about Judas, though, that enabled the adversary to succeed so well with him, in contrast to the others?
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Luke tells how Jesus prayed alone all night in the mountains before He chose His disciples (Luke 6:12-16). And Jesus believed that the Twelve were God’s gift to Him (John 17:6-9). Was Judas really an answer to prayer? How are we to understand what is going on here other than that even in Judas’ betrayal and apostasy, God’s purpose was to be fulfilled? (See 2 Cor. 13:8.)
Judas, who had so much potential, who could have been another Paul, instead went in a completely wrong direction. What could have been a Gethsemane experience for him was, instead, like the fall in Eden.
He had fostered the evil spirit of avarice until it had become the ruling motive of his life. The love of mammon overbalanced his love for Christ.
-Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 716.
When Jesus fed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish (Luke 9:10-17), Judas was the first to grasp the political value of the miracle and set on foot the project to take Christ by force and make Him king.
-The Desire of Ages, The Desire of Ages, p. 719. But Jesus denounced the attempt, and there began Judas’s disenchantment: His hopes were high. His disappointment was bitter.
Page 719. Obviously Judas, as did others, believed that Jesus would use His extraordinary powers to establish a worldly kingdom, and Judas clearly had wanted a place in that kingdom. How tragic: his desire for a place in a temporal kingdom that never came caused him to lose a place in an eternal kingdom that was sure to come.
Another time, when a devout follower of Jesus chose to anoint His feet with a costly ointment, Judas decried her act as an economic waste (John 12:1-8). All Judas could see was money, and his love of money overshadowed his love of Jesus. This fixation with money and power led Judas to put a price tag on the priceless gift of heaven (Matt. 26:15). From then on, Satan entered Judas
(Luke 22:3, NKJV). And Judas became a lost soul.
There is nothing wrong with status, power, or money. The problem comes when these things (or anything) overshadow our faithfulness to God. Why is it always important to take stock of ourselves so that we don’t become as self-deceived, as was Judas?
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There are a lot of factors that impinge on us to keep Satan in our hearts and it is an exhaustive list. It is also complicated for it involves us in our daily lives and if someone says it is easy then he or she is from another world. But praise God that we have Christ and His Representative here on earth The Holy Ghost who will help us overcome. First and foremost some of these we cannot eradicate from our midst for they are part of you, your family, church, society and fellow citizens.
1). Loved ones, family members, relatives, church members, community members and fellow citizen are there to stay and they impinge on your heart either directly or indirectly. Most of them are either rebels in that they keep Satan in their hearts, some are unaware of their keeping Satan in their hearts so they impinge on you and your desire and zeal to keep Satan out of your heart.
2). Secondly, you cannot keep Satan out of your heart for that is something that will be prevalent with you until Parousia (Second Coming) when He will be forever be shunned out of our Hearts.
3). When I say you cannot keep him out of your heart is that the mind is where the battle of the Great Controversy's battle ground, but the only place that Satan cannot come in if you wish to is your sub-conscious mind where Eternity (Ecclesiastes 3:11)resides that is the place where Jesus was meant to be and rule from there.
4). You cannot avoid nor been given the ultimate mandate to get rid of your loved ones, family, friends of church, community and fellow citizen for that is your obligation for ministry or for their survival and existence. You can only keep Satan out from your inner most heart/mind(Ecclesiastes 3:11), for your heart and mind is the battle ground.
5). Since your heart is the arena of the Great Controversy it does not mean that you have sinned when Satan has access to your heart and you are struggling to make a stand for Jesus and during that contemplation of what decision to make it is not yet sin but once you decide than you have allowed your inner most heat which is the seat of Christ for Satan to control and rule from there.
6). When you shun Satan from your Sub conscious mind or inner most part of your heart which is the seat or throne of Christ in you and that is where all the automatic functions of the body, cell division et al are taking place.
7). Once we do this then character of Christ(Ecclesiastes 3:11) automatically is being reflected through us by the working of the Holy Ghost in writing His Commandment, or Law, or Character in our hearts Heb 8:10 & 10:15-18.
The only surety to keep Satan out from your inner most part of the heart is the Word of God by allowing it ( word of God) be the criterion which the heart should refer to when contemplating to made a stand on any issue that Satan tempts him with either through loved ones, family, friends et al, also when your lust tempts you (James 1:14)thus proving lust is in you thus Satan in your heart but not in your sub conscious mind.
8). There is enough stories, words in the Holy Scriptures to meet and address any problem, issue and controversies until the 2nd Coming thus our only surety is the WORD OF GOD WHICH IS CHRIST HIMSELF IN THE WRITTEN WORD.
Judas was not the only one of the twelve ordained who was used by Satan. Peter (Matthew 16:22, 23), James and John (Luke 9:54, 55), and other disciples (Luke 9:46), at various times became instruments in the devil’s cause. Just claiming to be Christ’s or to love Jesus does not prevent anyone from being used by Satan in a careless moment; and most of us probably have.
The difference with Judas was where his mind was set from the beginning, and never changed. Satan was allowed to control his agenda. He was preoccupied with prosperity and making a mark on the church, but left a stain. He sought personal advancement and increased wealth; and justified his course by the thought that God’s cause will not progress without money (John 12:4-6) and a network in high places (Mark 14:10).
More than one might realize the church upon which God has set His special mark is in danger of being unduly influenced by issues connected to financial viability, especially where the people have not learnt to sacrifice and do without.
Even some church growth efforts have been influenced by financial considerations. Sad thing is compromise will do damage financial gain cannot offset. When the dragon brings on the economic pressure only those prepared by self-denial and sacrifice will endure (Revelation 13:17). Maybe some financial lack is a form of preparation and therefore an act of mercy.
It is better to cut programs and let Jehovah find a way out than to negotiate with the world (James 4:4). Any program which God does not support while the saints remain faithful is probably not worth pursuing anyway. The Lord is able (Philippians 4:19) and He has been faithful (2 Timothy 2:13) to support that which is according to His will.
The only reason Satan could enter Judas was because they both had the same issue - self exaltation. Putting their own desires and beliefs about how the kingdom should operate before the LORD's.
The only way to avoid this problem is to embrace the LORD's prayer:
Our Father - acknowledge our source
Hallowed be they name - become like Him, have His character
Thy kingdom come - this it the ultimate goal
Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven - not our will but the LORD's will be imbedded in our hearts
Our only choice is who controls our lives!
If you choose Satan you have the illusion of thinking you control your life because his kingdom consists of selfishness.
If you choose Jesus initially it may seem like you have no control because you surrender your whole life to Him, but He has promised that if you know the truth you will be free indeed, free from the bondage of sin, free to fulfil our original purpose to live a life in harmony with the will of the LORD where every thing is good and very good and we walk daily with the LORD.
Praise God for you Aca. Your comment especially (1)is encouraging to me in the sense of loved family members. For a long time now, I just could not understand how family members continue to be disobedient even though we have devotions after devotions and my children even attend Adventist schools. The comment has strengthened me now to be more forgiving and support my family because I AM ALSO A JUDAS.
Thanks one and all. God bless you all.
Greetings from Fiji, Peter!
Appreciate that what I shared was of some sort of encouragement to you. When we committed to Jesus in 1993 in baptism after spending 7 years as a young Animist Priest at the age of 11 years until 18 then I was initiated in one of the powerful secret society in the world from 18 to 29 years of age. The weekend we got baptized, the following week 2 of our sons in the USA went to prison, one son in Fiji went also to prison, my wife was really devastated and could not understand why God allowed this to happen, then I finally told on that Friday morning after 5 days of self pity and utter dismayed that before we came to this stage of our experience God already knew it, so let us just trust God.
Today Peter, our 2 sons are baptized but still struggling one has been converted into baptist and we still hopeful that He will come into the church one day. Recently our daughter in the USA just last 2 Sabbaths she has been attending church and started bible study Wednesday last week at Sacramento Central.
I have resigned from pastoral work in 2007 for my wife to do ministry with our 2 kids in the USA and 3 grand children there and I take care of our 2 sons here and 5 grandchildren and I tell you as you have already known, it is not easy. We had a hard time with 2 of our grand daughters in boarding school, but we stuck with them and treated them without reservations and conditions and now they are changing now.
So I am happy to share some insights into being content and trusting God to take care of our wayward loved ones even though we do our morning devotions and evening family prayers. Job kept praying for his kids despite the fact he knew their lifestyle of waywardness.
I will not be surprised that jobs children will be in heaven because of the admonition in 1 Corinthians 7:14 "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy."(New American Stand Bible version) and 1 John 5:16 "If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this." (NASB version)
Interesting lesson...My question is, should Judas have remained loyal to Jesus nd not betrayed Him, what would have happened to the plan of salvation? cuz it was prophesied smbdy had to betray Jesus...Was Judas really wrong in fulfilling prophecy? thank you
Amponsah, it's just a matter of choice,it could have been any of the other eleven, for God made us free moral agents, we can eather choose to follow Jesus and recieve eternal life or choose to rebel against him and follow Satan's promping and be his agent and be destroyed with him in hell, as muuc as God dont wish that any of us perish but that all come to repentance,He respects our choice and will not force us, Judas made his choice as well as the other eleven and there destiny was decided.
It is always important to take stock of ourselves so that we don’t become as self-deceived, as was Judas... And as such, we are to imitate Christ and not the world..
Judas was called to fulfill the plan of salvation... If it wasn't for Judas we wouldn't be saved...
But even so , wouldnt Christ still walk this earth if Judas did the right thing, wouldnt we have had an experience to follow and still accept Him ?
Then should we say our lifes are predestined like they are already there we are just here to fulfil.
Prophecy doesn't cause the future, it only reveals the future. To God, the past, present and future are like an open book (Hebrews 4:13). He sees it all... clearly. When God reveals some of what He sees (past, present or future), this doesn't mean that He caused it.
Have you ever read an entire book and then shared the ending with someone who was only half way through? Your revelation of the ending didn't cause the ending, it only revealed what you knew because you had already visited the end.
For God, revealing the future or revealing the past are one and the same. He is simply sharing something he already sees and knows having already visited both. If you saw a rainbow yesterday and shared that with someone today, it doesn’t mean you caused the rainbow.
CHAKO LUBANI: no, our lives are not predestined even though God sees and knows our lives from beginning to end before we are even born.
God revealed that Christ would be betrayed because He saw that, clearly, from eternity past, but God did not cause that to happen or He would have removed free will and He loves us (even Judas) too much to do that.
I've thought about this too, in the past. I am no theologian, so please study for yourself, but here's how I understand it: 1. Before even sin entered into the world, God had a plan. That plan called for the sacrifice of His Son. 2. The act of prophecy simply reveals to others what will happen in the future. 3. God gives everyone free choice.
Did Jesus have to die to save us? Yes. But did Jesus have to die through betrayal and crucifixion to save us? I don't think so. I believe that there could have been many other ways for His sacrificial death on our behalf to be fulfilled. But God revealed to the prophets in the Old Testament the manner in which it would take place.
So, in short, if Judas would have come to his senses, then it would've been somebody else. It's not that Judas was created purposefully to fulfill this prophecy. It's more like: Jesus has to be sacrificed. There are many ways in which this could be done. God knows the beginning from the end. God just chose to reveal to us through prophecy the manner in which it would be done. Prophecy wasn't controlling the destiny of Judas, but just revealing the destiny that Judas would chose for himself.
Hope this helps!
may God help us never to give the enemy chance to use us against our maker. We must aways study the word of God, and be prayerful at all times so that we would be able to overcome!
We all have the choice to do good and sin not. Why worry about who would if Judas didn't. Satan and his angels do bad things why just look only for human to do bad things. Satan is the source of all evil, give the devil his due.Let us focus our love on Jesus and the commandments of God and we will not be like satan nor Judas.
After reading Sis White's account of how Judas' walk with Christ was based on self exaltation, greed and power than anything else it leads one to the point of careful analysis of their own life...All the miracles seen by Judas only offered him more reasons to think Christ could indeed set up an "earthly kingdom" and he Judas could be the overseer since the others were thinking "out of this world" Oh how stupid of them he thought. Didn't they see the ability to gain prestige and power walking with one such as Jesus! Dear Lord have mercy upon us. It is so easy to blinded by the things around us....we so NEED to be rooted and grounded in Jesus lest we lose sight of what really matters. All Judas saw was how expensive the perfume that Mary annointed Jesus' feet with was. He didn't dare to see that the saviour was worth it all.
Everyday you feel like you are in a constant battle with Satan. We think about Satan getting to us through our family, friends, co-workers, church family and the community, but what scares me the most is myself. I (we) should be asking God to reveal the bad qualities that is within us. I say this because we can be used by Satan and don't even realize it is happening. Ex. King Saul (who started out as a good man)and Judas which was to their death and eternal damnation. The thought of being used by Satan can also be seen in our incarcerated population. We are in a war between good and evil where we are the casualties. I feel that only leaning on the word of God like Jesus did can help us in the fight for eternal life without sin and not be consumed like Judas. On the other hand Jesus had to go to the cross and die in order for us to have a chance at eternal life. How could this have been accomplished without someone betraying him or did God have another plan. We will never know.
Satan will use anything in our lives that we have allowed to overshadow our faithfulness to God. He will deceive us as Judas was deceived. Judas used to steal from the money box for the poor John 12:1-8. Do we steal from God, or believe that there are other things more important than giving to Christ and His kingdom? Nothing is more important than Christ and His mission.
truly a point to note , in not allowing ourselves to be caught up in our own selfish goals because we become entwined so much in ourselves the we lose focus of whom we should focus . I personally have had my share of having my own way, all should strive to accept Jesus Christ And allow Him to guide you Psalms 32:8 "I will instruct you and teach you in the way thou shalt go. i will guide thee with My eye."
greetings brethrens and sister,Thanks God for such lessons and encouragements for all things happened for our admonition so that we don't fall in the same trap.lets remain prayerful and focused for God's work.also pray for one another
There is a Judas in all of us! How many times have we as church members or church board members shot down an outreach proposal because of finances - or the lack thereof. Our eyes are so fixed on the bottom line in the church books (ignoring our own pocket books!) that we fail to hear the Lord ask "what do you have?' He fed 5000 men including women and children with a few loaves and fishes - why do we doubt that He still can do the same?!
Judas wasn't the only one who betrayed Jesus. What about Peter, what of the other apostles? Only John followed Jesus all the way to the cross, no mention is made of any of the others. 1:12!
Knowing what I do now of the great love of God - Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit - I know what the outcome would have been had Judas turned to the Lord in utter repentance - he would have been forgiven and become the first Church Treasurer, working for the greater good of the early church! He was destined to be saved - not lost - as we all are! However, it was not to be - because he chose to listen to Satan, who told him there was no hope for him - in this life and in the next.
Let's face it - until we all admit that we are weak and prone to betraying the Master; if we trust in our selves and our own judgment and hang on to our 'self-sufficiency' and independence; we shall remain Judases.
What made the 10 other apostles such strong witnesses and evangelists for Jesus after Pentecost? The same Spirit which would have been available to a repentant Judas and is still available to all who confess their total dependence on the Risen Saviour - and move forward in faith.
No matter how much we stock(worldly things or money) for ourselves,Discontentment is always there ,and that's what gives satan a chance to deceive many.We can only attain contentment in Jesus only through a sincere prayer and a constant connection with the Father.