4/10/22 Matthew 27:1-10 “The Life of a Villain!” or “The Reason for This Season!”

4/10/22 Matthew 27:1-10 “The Life of a Villain!” or “The Reason for This Season!”

4/10/22    Matthew 27:1-10          “The Life of a Villain!” or “The Reason for This Season!”

Have you ever had to be in two places at the same time?  You will probably say that this isn’t possible but I think that it is to a certain extent.  I have had many times where I have been at a concert or a game or some activity that is quite joyous but part of my mind is back preparing for a funeral that I have to do the next day or maybe just a Sunday service like this.  I think that maybe we have all been there where we are physically in one place and enjoying it but our minds are someplace else.  I think that Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday is kind of like that.  In many churches they have had the children come in with the palms and singing songs.  It is a special time.  And yet, in the back of our minds, we know what has to happen this week and some of the things are not that nice.  I think that it was the same way for Jesus as He entered Jerusalem.  They were practically having a parade for Him.  It was a joyous time of celebration.  But Jesus knew what lay ahead and His mind would have been on those activities.  Today we are going to take a look at one of the key players in all of this.  He is one of the people that was surely on the mind of Jesus.  Let’s see if we can learn a little about our own lives as we look at the life of a villain.

Sometimes I run across a story that just makes me laugh.  Here is one told by Victor Yap.  It is a letter received by the parents of a teenage girl who is a freshman in college.  It reads:

Dear Mom and Dad, I just thought I’d drop you a note to let you know what’s going on with me. I’ve fallen in love with a guy named Blaze. He’s a really neat guy, but he quit high school a few years ago to get married. That didn’t work out, so he got a divorce last year. We’ve been going out for several weeks, and we’re thinking about getting married in the fall. Until then, I’ve decided to move into his apartment. I think I might be pregnant. Oh yeah, I dropped out of school last week so that I could get a job to help support Blaze. I’m hoping I’ll be able to finish college after we get married.

With utter shock and dismay the parents turned to the next page:  Mom and Dad, I just wanted you to know that everything I’ve written so far in this letter is a lie. None of it is true. But Mom and Dad, it is true that I got a C in French and a D in Math. And it’s also true that I need some more money. Could you please send me a hundred dollars?  Thanks a bunch.  Love Julie
She received a check in the mail from her parents two days later.

I want us to see this story as being somewhat like the story of Judas except Judas never added the second page.  Judas did something that was incredibly stupid and despicable.  But he never wrote a second page saying he was sorry and repenting.  This is a passage that we don’t preach on very often.  And yet it is a passage that tells us a lot about ourselves.  I doubt that there is a person here today who has not done something stupid or really wrong.  As I mentioned last week, we have all done things that we truly regret but that we can never take back and get a ‘do over.’

I think that we all have questions as to why Judas did what he did.  Denn Guptill gives us 6 possible reasons that Judas did this.  The first is that Judas was the only non-Galilean in the group and he may have been bitter about this and his treatment.  Or it could be that Judas thought that they would all be arrested and he is just trying to save his own skin.  Or maybe he did it just because he was greedy.  After all, 30 pieces of silver would have been quite a piece of change for a thief to get for one night’s work.

Or it could be that Judas had come to hate Jesus because there was nothing that he could hide from Him.  Jesus knows everything.  I think that this is one of the main reasons why people don’t like Jesus today.  Jesus knows everything you do and say.  If you are leading a life that is wrong and it is filled with sin after sin after sin, Jesus knows all about this.  Then the first thing these people will say to us is that we are not supposed to judge.  They don’t realize that it is not us doing the judging but its Jesus.  Basically, it makes them so uncomfortable to live in sin.  Well, duh!!  Get out of it.  It is pretty simple.  Don’t do what Judas did.  Instead, take your sins and your life to Jesus.  He will not turn his back on you.  He would have forgiven Judas if he had just come to Him instead of doing what he did.

Or maybe Judas was of a special band of people before he became a disciple.  He was still sentimental towards them and they wanted a Messiah to lead them away from Rome.  All these reasons have merit but I think the last one is the real reason.  Judas never intended that Jesus die that day.  He only wanted to force his hand and use his power to liberate Israel from the Romans.  The Scriptures never really tell us the answer to why Judas did this so we have to guess.  Maybe, just maybe God doesn’t think that the answer to this is that important.  I think that there are some other issues here that are far more important.

As we begin to look at our passage today, we find that chief priests and elders have just decided to put Jesus to death.  In other words, Judas couldn’t have known that what he did would lead to the death of Jesus because it hadn’t been decided until now.  Judas had betrayed Jesus earlier before this decision.  Jesus is then bound and led away to his death and suddenly Judas is filled with remorse.  He has just done one of those things that you cannot undo.  Judas goes to the chief priests and elders to try to take back his betrayal but they will have none of this.  So, he throws back the money they had given him and goes out and hangs himself.

Hopefully, you are all paying attention to this and you can see what Judas really did wrong.  Don’t misunderstand me here.  Judas did all kinds of things wrong but one thing should really stick out to us.  When Judas found out the terrible mistake he had made, he should have gone to Jesus.  He had been with him for 3 years so he should have known how to do this.  Instead of going to the place where he could be forgiven, he relies on his own smarts if that is what we want to call it.  First, he goes to the priests for forgiveness.  There is no way we can get forgiveness from anyone except Jesus.  Judas gets nothing from the priests so he takes things a step further and hangs himself.  What this does is that it successfully cuts him off from any forgiveness forever.  He took one step too many.

I don’t know about you but I know a lot of people who are just like Judas.  I am not talking about suicide here because I think that is just a very minor part of this story.  I know a lot of people who roll the dice of life thinking that they will have a lot of time to come to the Lord later.  Suddenly they find themselves in that later situation.  Suddenly they have died with a heart attack or an accident or something else that has taken them just like that.  There has been no time to go to the Lord and now they face an eternity of anguish.  They miss the forgiveness of Jesus Christ just because they were too stubborn.

I also know that I am not supposed to preach a sermon like this where we talk about the consequences of our actions.  According to the new way of preaching, I should only talk about blessings and Good News and not our sin.  But I can’t do things like that.  You need to know the truth about your actions.  You need to know that unless you come to Christ in some fashion, you will never be able to experience this wonderful forgiveness firsthand.  This forgiveness of things you have done wrong is one of the best parts of this Good News.  It is the blessing that you need to have.  Don’t be like Judas and just give lip service to Jesus.  Get to know Him.  Ask Him into your life.  I guarantee that the results will be better than you can imagine or that I can ever tell you about.

So, Judas has missed the forgiveness of Jesus.  He has also missed the peace of Jesus.  I think that it is really hard to imagine what it must have been like to do what Judas did.  Here was a guy who just went along with the flow of Jesus without ever asking Him into his heart.  He didn’t have that personal relationship with Him.  His first god was money.  So, he figures he can make a few extra bucks while they are back in Jerusalem.  Then he finds out that all that he did was wrong.  He is filled with tremendous remorse and guilt.  He doesn’t know what to do so he hangs himself.  His last hours must have been filled with such anguish and turmoil as to be unbearable.  He had no peace.

You know, people, Jesus isn’t called the Prince of Peace for nothing.  Jesus is the most overlooked cure for all of our ailments.  There is nothing that He can’t do, if you ask.  When was the last time you really had a problem and you went to Jesus?  How many people who are unemployed have gone to Jesus for help?  How many have gone to Jesus to help them out of a natural disaster situation?  Or how many people go to Jesus for help for their physical and mental ailments like depression?  I have had people get upset with me because I have said that Jesus is a way out of a mental illness.  It’s the same way with a physical illness.  He is our first line of defense.  If we go to Him first, He will help us go to the right doctors or get the right medicine that will help.  He will direct us and work through other people to help you feel better.  He works to give you peace.

This is the peace that you can also get after you make bad decisions.  I might be the only person here today who has made bad decisions.  I have made decisions that can’t be undone.  I have done things that affect other people that haven’t been for the best.  I have done things that I have regretted.  But through all of these things, Jesus has been there to help me bear the burden.  This is what non-believers miss.  This is what Judas missed.  He never really knew Jesus and was gone to the other place before he asked for the peace that only Jesus gives.

I’m going out on a limb a little here as I say that I think that what Judas did was a forgivable sin.  I think that Jesus would have forgiven Him if he had asked.  Judas had to do what he did but he could have been forgiven.  Instead, he held onto the ways of the world.  He didn’t know Jesus.

I have talked to many people who feel the same way.  They are the Judas’s of this world.  They tell me that the things they have done are too bad to be forgiven.  They tell me they are totally beyond redemption.  What a bunch of baloney!!  Jesus will forgive any of you who come to Him in true repentance.  People who talk like this don’t want redemption.  They don’t want peace.  They only want to have everything they do their way.  They are totally selfish.  Jesus will help anyone so let’s see if we can go into the world and offer Him to everyone.

So, Judas missed the forgiveness of Jesus and the peace that only Jesus could have given him.   But most importantly, he missed the power of Jesus.  Let’s face it, Judas was driven by Satan.  Satan had his hands all over him.  There was nothing that Judas could do about this because he didn’t know Jesus.  He hadn’t accepted who He was or is.  If Judas had known Jesus, then He would have known of the power to get rid of Satan.  He could have cast him out.

This is probably one of the greatest aspects of this story because there are so many of us who live our lives with Satan always at our doors.  You forget that through Jesus, who Judas didn’t know, you have power over the devil.  You can tell him to get lost in the name of Jesus and he will.  You can cast him out of your life.  You may have to do this every day, and he will listen every day and leave.  I can say this in the name of Jesus Christ that Satan is the foulest, most rotten creature that has ever been invented.  I can say that and mean it in the name of Jesus and the devil has no recourse on me.  I don’t know how many times I have talked to people in private and in public about how wonderful Jesus is and the critics of Jesus have been quiet.  They don’t dare say anything because they know that Jesus has the real power, not Satan.

You have this power or you can have it.  Just ask Jesus for it and it is yours.  Jesus loves you and the last thing that He wants is that you have anything to do with this nasty, evil creature.  Grab a hold of this foul beast and cast him out of your life in the name of Jesus.  Do this every day until he leaves you alone a little.  You have the power.  Most of our neighbors don’t have this.  Most of our neighbors don’t want this which makes our job that much tougher.

I think the bottom line here is that Jesus loved Judas.  Judas had every chance to repent.  At the last supper, Jesus offered him grace but he didn’t take it.  He was too far gone.  He could have come to Jesus any time after this also.  Jesus would have given His grace to Judas.

I don’t think that there is anyone here today or maybe even anyone in the community to whom Jesus will not offer his grace.  To those of us who are already Christians, let us not forget about this wonderful grace.  Jesus loves every one of us and He loves us far more than we will ever comprehend.  He only wants you to come to him, to be a part of him.  Don’t wait until it is too late. The creator of love, our creator, wants all of us no matter what you have done wrong.  Go to Him and bask in this love this Easter season.  Let this love permeate every part of your body and soul.  This is the reason for this season.  And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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