Committed, But Committed To What?

Introduction:

When it comes to living a life of worth and significance the primary question for each of us isn't, "Am I committed?" It's, "What am I committed to?" I have noticed lately that there are many people in the Church body no less who are solely committed to their own welfare. However, true Christians aren't in it for themselves; they're committed to the growth and well-being of the people they are serving, and they are most especially committed to the Lord Jesus Christ.

In 1 Kings 8: 61 it is written, “Your hearts must be fully committed to the LORD our God, to live by His decrees and obey His Commands.” And these Words don’t come with any options, you and I “…must be fully committed…” there are no ifs, ands, or buts. Yet, there is a question that is begged to be asked, if we are committed, what or who are we committed to? People are committed to so many different things these days; there are some things that are worth being committed to such as your family and your career. But your commitment to Jesus Christ should be first and foremost on your list.

In our text we find Judas Iscariot who did indeed showed an outward appearance of commitment to Jesus, but an outward show of loyalty to Jesus is meaningless unless we also follow Christ in our heart. Judas Iscariot is remembered for one thing and one thing only: his betrayal of Jesus Christ. Eventhough Judas showed remorse later; his name became a symbol for traitors and turncoats throughout history. If someone calls you a ‘Judas’ they are saying in effect that you are a backstabber, you are someone who is not to be trusted. Judas had a commitment, in fact each and every one of us is committed to something, and even if it is doing nothing at all you’re still committed to doing nothing. The question I brought with me this morning is what kind of commitment do you have? I submit to you that there are at least three kinds of commitment one could have.

A Deceptive Commitment

Judas had a deceptive commitment, an example of a deceptive commitment would be like a corrupt politician being willing to commit to a certain cause only if the price was right. Judas is known by some as “the great pretender” and he is, without a doubt, the most notorious and most vilified of all the disciples. His name appears last in every list of the disciples, except in Acts 1, where his name does not appear at all. Every time he is mentioned in the Bible, the Word of God reminds us that he is a traitor who betrayed Jesus to His death, now how’s that for a legacy? Here in the text, we have Judas, the man who betrayed the Savior of the world, Judas, one the twelve apostles, a disciple, a professing follower of the Lord. There are too many people within the Church today who just like Judas. They profess Jesus Christ with their mouth, but He is nowhere in their heart.

Judas for a while was able to fool many people around that he was just as much committed to Jesus as the other disciples. When Jesus said during the Lord’s Supper while giving Judas his last chance to repent, "Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me." No one appeared to expect that the betrayer would turn out to be Judas and even when Jesus revealed there was a betrayer among them Judas continued to sin and continued to deceive by having the audacity to ask, “Surely not I, Rabbi?” thereby proving that he did not consider Jesus to be his Lord and Savior.

Judas continued to lay out his deceptive plan; he knew it would be done during the night and it would be dark and so he wondered how the temple guard would be able to recognize Jesus in the dark and keep Him from slipping out of their hands? And so he orchestrated a plan in which he’d simply walk up to Jesus and greet Him with a kiss. Note: A kiss during these times was a sign of deep commitment, this particular kiss was meant to keep him in good grace with other disciples; he must have thought that the disciples could not possibly suspect that he was actually betraying Jesus if he gave Him a kiss. Besides all this, he didn’t point his finger and say, “Here He is” he simply greeted Jesus with a kiss indicating his commitment. Which is why I call it a deceptive commitment. Do you realize just how dangerous it is to plan and plot evil and at the same time profess your commitment to Jesus Christ?