Judas: What Could Have Been?
Chuck Sligh
April 11, 2021
NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives.
The inspiration for this message was Den Guptil’s sermon on SermonCentral.com titled “What Judas Missed.” However, I took the sermon in a totally different direction. You should check out his sermon as well and see which you like best, or if both give inspiration to you to go in an altogether different direction.
BIBLE READING AS THE TEXT: Mathew 26:14-16; 26:45-50 and 27:1-5
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – Before modern organs came into vogue in the 1880s, organs were very small and required a blower, a man whose job it was to operate a pair of bellows that connected directly to the windchest to ensure a steady flow of air. One Sunday, the organist at St Paul’s Cathedral in London caught sight of the great early 19th century composer Felix Mendelssohn in the congregation.
After seated to listen to the sermon, he sent the great composer a note inviting him to play the organ after the service and Mendelssohn agreed. The congregation, already shuffling out of their pews to go home, suddenly stopped and sat down again to listen entranced.
Then half of the way through, in the middle of a glorious crescendo, the music died away, and the organ went silent. The organ blower had gone home for lunch! What could have been one of the great highlights of his life…he threw away for something to eat.
Well, that’s one of those “What could have been?” moments that we chuckle over today, but it really had no real-life consequences.
But people often ask “What could have been?” over life choices that have impacted them major ways: An alcoholic might ask what could have been if I had not taken that first drink. The drug addict might ask what could have been if I had not started taking drugs. The unwed mother might ask what could have been if I had not had premarital sex. A divorced man might ask himself what could have been if had sought marital counseling before it was too late.
The greatest “What could have been?” questions revolve around life and death: What could have been if my husband had not joined Army, where he was killed in Iraq. What could have been if my friend had not been killed by a drunk driver. What could have been if my brother had not committed suicide.
Suicide—The ultimate “What could have been?” conundrum. When people take their own lives, for whatever reason, the loved ones left to pick up the pieces wonder what could have been if they had not snuffed out their lives. What accomplishments might my son have achieved if he had not committed suicide? How many grandchildren will I never have because my daughter took her life? On and on the questions go.
We all know the story of Judas Iscariot—the thief, the plotter, the betrayer of our Lord, the man who repented of his evil deed and…then went out and hanged himself. We don’t know a lot about Judas. We do know that his father was Simon and that his surname, Iscariot, might indicate he was from the town of Kariot, although this has not been definitively determined. The gospel writers tell us that he was the treasurer of the twelve Apostle, and that he had been stealing from the treasury.
But why would Judas betray his closest friend to their worst enemies, resulting in Jesus being condemned to suffer the most horrific form of capital punishment Rome could mete out? I know of at least six possible theories that have been postulated by various commentators.
I won’t take the time to list them all, but after weighing them all, I think the most plausible theory is that Judas never intended for Jesus to die that day. Instead he hoped to force Jesus’ hand so that when He was betrayed, Jesus would use His miraculous power to liberate Israel. If so, think what a tragedy Judas experienced when he saw his plan go up in smoke. And oh, how it must have broken Jesus’ heart that day.
But let me pose a question for you this morning: What could have been in Judas’s life if he had not committed suicide that morning? When you compare the different gospel accounts, it’s clear that Judas hanged himself before Jesus was even sentenced. Before Pilate finished questioning Jesus, Judas was dead. Before Barabbas was released, Judas was death. Before Jesus was tortured by the Roman guards and crucified, Judas was dead.
The real tragedy is that when Jesus looked down from the cross at those who had unjustly condemned Him in a kangaroo court, struck Him, scourged Him, mocked Him, spit on Him, pulled His beard, crushed a crown of thorns deep into His head, nailed Him on a cross—when Jesus saw them all, He cried out saying, ‘Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” But Judas never heard those words; he was already dead.
Just think of what could have been for Judas:
I. IF JUDAS HAD NOT HANGED HIMSELF, HE COULD HAVE EXPEREINCED THE MOST SPECTACULAR EVENT IN ALL OF HISTORY.
We’re told that Judas “repented,” which simply means he changed His mind. His act of betrayal was awful, repugnant, depraved, selfish, but then in his sorrow for what he had done, as he wallowed in regret and shame, he would eventually have heard some way or the other: “Jesus is ALIVE! He is risen from the dead.”
Dark though his deed, he would have heard this glorious message of hope. Like all the disciples, it would take him time to process and believe it, but eventually, like everyone else, he would realize the importance of this stunning turn of events. And he could have been witness to the events that followed. But he lost that chance by his act of self-destruction. That prospect became one of the great “What could have beens?” in history.
II. SECOND, IF JUDAS HAD NOT TAKEN HIS OWN LIFE, HE COULD HAVE EXPERIENCED FORGIVENESS.
What Judas did was heinous…but it was not unforgivable. After all, Peter denied Jesus three times, and he too was truly remorseful. So remorseful that after the news of the resurrection, Peter said to the other disciples, “I’m going back to fishing.” He wasn’t saying he was going on a fishing vacation; he was so ashamed of his failure that he was saying in essence that he was leaving the ministry, as we would say, to go back to his former occupation as a fisherman. He was thinking to himself, I might as well give up living for the Lord and just go back to my old life, my old job, my old way of life. He did, and he took some of others of the Twelve with him.
They were out on the lake fishing and then Jesus comes walking along the shore. He calls out to them, “Hey! You fellow caught anything yet?” They look and see it’s Jesus, and Jesus says, “Try on the right side of the boat, boys, and you’ll find some fish.” When they did, they had so many fish, they couldn’t draw them to the boat. Sure enough, Jesus had done another miracle, just as He had done before.
So they come ashore, and Jesus had already started a fire and was cooking fish. Can you picture the awkward silence as they sit around the fire, each thinking how they had let the Lord down? We don’t have time to tell the whole story, but in short, Jesus gently probed Peter about his love for Him, and each time Peter admits he loved the Lord with a lesser word for love than the love Jesus was asking him about. After each exchange, Jesus says, “Feed my sheep.” In the third and last exchange, Peter is humbled before Jesus’ withering questions, but Jesus does not leave him wallowing in remorse and shame. After the last question and Peter’s answer, Jesus says, “Follow me.”
Think of that!—Jesus doesn’t say, “You’re right! You DON’T love Me like you should. Peter, you’re an utter failure. You’re kicked out of my kingdom plans. Go back to your stinky fish and rickety boats and torn nets!” No, Jesus doesn’t do that. Having forgiven him, Jesus invites him back to the road to discipleship and ministry and service for the kingdom. Jesus gives Peter the EXACT same call He gave Peter and his brothers three years earlier when He called him the first time: “Follow me.”
Just think of what could have been for Judas! Matthew 27:3 says that when Judas realized what he had done, he repented, took back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, and tried to make things right, although they threw the money right back in his face.
His own words reveal the state of his heart: “I have sinned…I have betrayed innocent blood.” Judas had repented of his actions; he had changed his mind; he was sorry for what he had done; he was remorseful.
But he was never to hear that there was forgiveness aplenty and a recommissioning to service for him like Peter experienced. Think about it: What could have been if he had just stayed around? He made a rash decision that was to have ETERNAL consequences for him. We know he was unsaved for in His high priestly prayer to the Father shortly before His death, Jesus prayed for His disciples, saying, “… those whom thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost…EXCEPT the son of perdition…” (John 17:12)
What a sad waste! Had Judas just waited; if he had just been able to hear the voice of the risen Lord, he could have realized that there is no sin too great for Jesus to forgive. See how wonderful the story of Peter’s redemption was and how he was able to rise from the jaws of defeat to service and usefulness in the early church? That could have been the testimony of Judas too! But by the time Jesus had risen from the dead, Judas was gone for eternity. Just think what could have been: forgiveness instead of perdition; a witness and participant in history instead of becoming a byword for treachery.
III. THINK ABOUT ANOTHER THING: IF JUDAS HAD NOT TAKEN HIS OWN LIFE, HE WOULD HAVE EXPERIENCED PEACE.
Before Jesus went into the maelstrom of death, burial and resurrection, He was teaching His disciples one day and He made this wonderful promise in John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
I wonder if Judas ever experienced peace while following Jesus. He walked with Jesus, acted like a Christ-follower, listened to His sermons and stories, and witnessed His miracles, yet all along, he was filled with greed. His greed took such a hold on him that he became a thief. None of the disciples knew about Judas’s deeds, but Judas had been around Jesus long enough to know he knew Jesus saw the deepest crevasses of his heart! This had to be unsettling; he could never know peace as long as he gave in to his wicked desires and continued to steal from the treasury.
That’s the way it is when we sin, isn’t it? When we sin, we may think no one has seen us…except for One Person. We know the all-seeing eye of the ever-present, all-knowing God sees and knows everything. And that produces a sense of guilt before God, and we lose our peace.
Praise God, if you’re saved, you know that God has already paid for your sin, but you also know that that sweet sense of fellowship is broken. It’s the way you felt when you deliberately disobeyed your parents. You knew there is nothing you could do to ever lose their love, but you also knew things were not right until you asked your parents to forgive you.
Dear brethren, I have a precious verse for you when you let your Lord down and you sin: 1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
We can also lose our peace when we are going through struggles and trials. We don’t know what will happen next; we don’t know the solution to our mess; we lose sleep and we lose peace and we practically lose our sanity as we stumble around in our problems. But God has a solution for that too.
In Philippians 4:6-7, Paul exhorted, “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
The word careful means “full of care.” Paul is saying, “Don’t allow yourself to be full of care and worry, but bring your cares to God by “prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.” When you do that, you can experience “the peace of God which passes all understanding through Christ Jesus.”
But by taking his own life, peace would evade Judas for all eternity for there is never a moment of peace in hell. Too bad; think what COULD have been. He might have come to saving faith in Jesus and experienced peace with God. Having been forgiven, he could have felt the peace that passes all understanding!
CONCLUSION
What can we learn from Judas’s betrayal and the fateful decision to take his own life? Let me share two quick takeaways from today’s sermon:
First, as we see in other places in the scriptures, suicide is never the right answer to life’s problems or when we’re deeply sad or depressed. – Here are some things to think about:
To begin with, the Bible teaches that suicide is a form of murder and a usurpation of God’s sovereignty over our lives. The Psalmist says, “My times are in thy hands.” (Psalm 31:15) Job said about our lives, “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.” (Job 1:21) To take your own life is to usurp God’s right to determine what is best for you.
Second, suicide is the easy way out. The hard way is to struggle through our difficulties, and the struggle makes you stronger and more resilient and better equipped for future life struggles. You become a better person for it and in the process, instead of feeling like a VICTIM of your circumstances, you realize that God will show you a way to become the VICTOR over the things that are weighing down on you.
Many people in Scripture felt depression and despair and even wanted to die:
• Solomon reached the point that he hated life (Eccl. 2:17).
• Elijah was so depressed that we read this in 1 Kings 19:4 – “But he…went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and asked that he might die; and said, ‘It is enough; now, O Lord. Take away my life…”
• Jonah was so angry at God that Jonah 4:8 says, “he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, ‘It is better for me to die than to live.’”
• Even the Apostle Paul at one point said of him and his missionary companions, “…we were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself” (2 Corinthians 1:8).
However, none of these great biblical characters committed suicide.
• Solomon learned to “fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
• Elijah was comforted by an angel, allowed to rest, and given a new commission, and he went on to become the greatest of the prophets.
• Jonah received a new vision of God’s power and glory, and he came to realize that his suffering had been intolerable, but temporary, and later God blessed him more after his trials than before he had been afflicted.
• And Paul learned that, although the pressure he faced was beyond his ability to endure, he said in the very next verse in 2 Corinthians 1:9 that these trials had happened so that “we should not trust in ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.”
Another thing to remember on this subjuect is that what you’re feeling now can change if you’ll ask God to help you discover WHY you’re feeling the way you are. In time He may provide you with the reasons for your sadness and how to change things. Or God could deliver you from you struggles by changing your circumstances. Or He may allow you to ENDURE your sadness but be made stronger by it.
To get these answers, you may need a friend or a counselor to talk you through your struggles and help you get a healthier outlook on things. Mos importantly, you’ll definitely need to pray and seek God in His Word. And you may need to seek the help of your doctor or a professional psychologist to help determine if there is a chemical basis for your feelings that can be treated with medication and restore the “real you.”
Whatever you do, if you’re actually contemplating suicide rather than having occasional passing thoughts about it, get help IMMEDIATELY! Real help is just a phone call or a conversation away. And if someone tells YOU they’re contemplating suicide, don’t just hope they don’t follow through with it: IMMEDIATELY contact someone who can help.
Here’s my second takeaway from this sermon you should consider: There is no sin that is too big that God cannot or will not forgive if you come to God in true repentance and faith.
In my 42 years of ministry, I’ve dealt with or heard stories of some mighty big sinners. People have confessed to me about every kind of sexual sin imaginable—and many I had never ever imagined before. People have personally confessed to me past rebellion against parents, abortions, criminal acts, verbal spousal abuse and even physical spousal abuse. I’ve read or heard the testimonies of former murderers, thieves, tax cheats, one man who ran one of the country’s biggest houses of prostitution, adulterers, fornicators, devil-worshippers and many other wicked sins. And every single one of them, no matter how deep their sin, came to realize their sinfulness before God, bowed their knee to Jesus, repented and trusted in Christ to save them from ALL their sins!
There is only ONE sin Jesus will not forgive: that is the sin of finally and irrevocably rejecting the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. No matter what you’ve done, or how deeply you’ve slipped into the depths of sin and depravity, God promises your sin-filled heart forgiveness and peace with God.
Listen to these glorious verses from God’s Word:
• 1 John 1:7 says, “…the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from ALL sin.”
• Colossians 2:13 says that those who are saved have been “…made alive together with [Jesus], having forgiven you ALL trespasses.”
• Isaiah 43:25 says, “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and remembers your sins no more.”
Do you see it?—If you come to Christ, He will forgive you for ALL your sins! I invite you to come to Jesus today and be saved. He paid the penalty for your sin in your place on the cross of Calvary.
In Revelation 22:17 we read, “And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let him that heareth say, ‘Come.’ And let him who is athirst come. And WHOSOEVER WILL, let him take the water of life freely.” – Did you hear that? — “WHOSOEVER WILL, let him come and take of the water of life freely.”
• “Whosoever” means ANYONE, no matter what you’ve done or how far you’ve fallen! There are no exceptions to this invitation. It doesn’t say, “Whosever will, can come…except for fornicators.” It doesn’t say, “Whosoever will, may come…except thieves.” It says “Whosoever”—Anyone, including YOU.
• “Will” means this offer is available to ANYONE willing to accept eternal life.
• “Let him come” puts the initiative on YOU: Jesus already did His part by dying on Calvary for your sins; but you have to come to the water to receive it by your own volition.
• “Freely” means that eternal life through Jesus is offered to you absolutely freely, not by earning it through good works or acts of righteousness.
So what’s holding you back today? Come to Jesus and taste eternal life.
