Disciple To Traitor Judas Series

Video Transition: Easter upside down – Judas (Skit Guys)

Sermon: From Disciple to Traitor!

Thesis: How does a disciple of Jesus go from being called, to a witness of miracles, to a hearer of Jesus teachings, to seeing His power to walk on water and then to betraying Him? Most people who start out strong in their faith will drift from Jesus if they are not proactive in their actions to serve Jesus, it happens slowly and over time!

Betrayal comes with leadership in the Kingdom of Heaven. The greatest leadership pain is betrayal from others. But you must understand they did it to Jesus, they will do it to you! So, you have to learn pain management in leading others.

Scriptures:

The list of Jesus's twelve disciples is provided in the New Testament books of Matthew 10:2-4, Mark 3:16-19, and Luke 6:13-16.

Mark 14; Luke 22; John 13 – chapters of the Last Supper and Jesus predicting his betrayal all highlight our last unfaithful disciple Judas – The Traitor!

The names of the 12 disciples are: Simon Peter, Andrew his brother, James’s son of Zebedee, John his brother, Philip, Bartholomew (also known as Nathanael), Thomas, Matthew the tax collector, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus (or Judas son of James), Simon the Zealot (or Cananaean), and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.

Scriptures of betrayal of Jesus:

John 6:66: “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” (After Jesus hard teaching) he even asked his 12 are you not leaving too?

John 13:18-30: Jesus Predicts His Betrayal

18 “I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill this passage of Scripture: He who shared my bread has turned against me.’

19 “I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am. 20 Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.”

21 After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit (Leadership pain) and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.”

22 His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. 23 One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. 24 Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.”

25 Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?”

26 Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered him.

So, Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” 28 But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. 29 Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. 30 As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.

Introduction:

I did a search on the top Famous Betrayals of history: Who do you think was number one on the list? Yes, Judas!

Yes famous betrayals of history include the biblical betrayal by Judas Iscariot of Jesus – the others who made the list are as follows: The assassination of Julius Caesar by his friend Brutus, The American Revolutionary Benedict Arnold's plot to surrender West Point to the British, Vidkun Quisling who collaborated with the Nazis, Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen who spied for the Soviet Union and were US agents, and the legendary outlaw Robert Ford who shot and killed Jesse James and to round out the top 7 is the Cambridge 5.

Historical Betrayals according to my AI search:

1. Judas Iscariot: One of Jesus's 12 apostles, Judas betrayed Jesus to the religious authorities for 30 pieces of silver, leading to his crucifixion.

2. Brutus: A trusted friend of Roman leader Julius Caesar, Brutus was convinced by the Senate that killing Caesar was necessary to prevent him from becoming king.

a. A pastor on sermon central shares this thought: https://sermoncentral.com/sermons/anatomy-of-betrayal-john-oscar-sermon-on-judas-207747:

i. One of the most famous betrayals in history was the betrayal of Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar was a general and politician in Rome during it’s years of being a Republic prior to becoming an empire. He is responsible for conquering parts of Germania and France and even had a few excursions into the British Iles. After a great deal of drama and political strife, Caesar led his army into the city of Rome, and wrestled power away from the current leader, Pompey, and set himself up as the Dictator of Rome. This initially was not a normal dictatorship where a person rules for life, but one that was elected on a yearly basis. Initially, this move was very popular with people. He was a much-loved figure, and for the most part his rule was fair. Then Caesar got the Roman senate to declare him Dictator for life. This was very concerning to many of the senators who valued the freedom that Rome represented being a democratically elected government. They formed a conspiracy that assassinated Caesar on March 15th, 44 BC. The Ides of March if you remember your high school reading. These events were immortalized in William Shakespeare’s play that we all probably had to read in High School. I read the account of this scenario from a historian that said Julius Caesar, being a soldier and general before he became a politician, fought back against his assassins ferociously, until he saw the face of his friend Brutus. Seeing the face of his most loved friend, and faced with this betrayal, it is said that Caesar cast his robe over his head allowing the knives to fall while uttering the famous Latin words, “Et Tu Brute?” Even you Brutus? Caesar couldn’t face the betrayal of one of his closest friends and let the knives fall.