"If I Had It To Do Over Again,..."

“If I Had It To Do Over Again, …”

Text: Luke 22:1-6

I. Welcome

II. Introduction

Have you ever regretted a decision you made? Guys, has your wife ever asked you: “If you had it to do over again, would you still marry me?” And, I hope you had sense enough to know how to answer! This morning, I want to focus on some events leading up to our Savior’s death. To do this, I want us to look at some individuals who made some poor decisions. As we all know, hindsight is 20/20 and perhaps some of these would do things differently if they only could. We’re going to begin by looking at the infamous Judas Iscariot. We’re all familiar with this man who betrayed our Lord but I hope you’ll open your Bibles as we study together for a few minutes. As always, we urge you to be like the Bereans in Acts 17:11 and search the scriptures daily to make sure I’ve preached the truth.

III. Lesson

Verse 3 of our text always gets to me: Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve. Just remember, Judas had to open the door to let him in! We talked about this Friday night in men’s Bible class using James 1:14-15. Now look at the end of John 6 after one of the saddest verses in the Bible – verse 66 – when many of the Lord’s disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Jesus then asked the twelve if they wanted to go away also. And Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Notice the last two verses: Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve. I want us to go to the parallel text of our scripture reading as found in Matthew 26:14-16. But, before we read these verses, please observe verses 6-13 that record the anointing of Jesus by Mary in Bethany with the expensive oil.

Now verses 14-16: Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him. Judas asked how much money he could get for betraying Jesus. The amount was what a slave was worth or about a month’s wages by some accounts. Whatever the amount, it was not worth the price of a man’s soul. Now, turn to John 12:1ff. where we have the account of Mary anointing Jesus in Bethany with the expensive spikenard. Read with me verses 4-6: But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who would betray Him, said, “Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put in it. John further records that Satan entered Judas while they were eating a meal – John 13:27. Judas’ greed and thievery made him an easy target for Satan. As we well know, Judas betrayed Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane with a kiss – but his satisfaction was short-lived. Less than 12 hours later after the Sanhedrin agreed to put Jesus to death, we read the following in Matthew 27:3-5 – Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”

And they said, “What is that to us? You see to it!”

Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself. But, the key word is in verse 3 – “remorseful”. The Greek word means: to have regrets about something, in the sense that one wishes it could be undone, be very sorry, regret The second man we want to notice is Simon Peter. After the Passover meal, Jesus and His disciples went out to the Mount of Olives. Our Lord stated that they would all stumble that night because of Him. Peter was adamant that he would never be made to stumble. Then we have this exchange in Matthew 26:34-35: Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”