The Gospel Of Judas

“The Gospel of Judas”

Rev. Bruce A. Shields

First Baptist Church of Tawas City Michigan USA

www.tawasbaptist.org

April 23rd, 2006

† WELCOME

† SCRIPTURE READING

Matthew 26:25

“Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, "Surely not I, Rabbi?"

Jesus answered, "Yes, it is you."

PRAYER FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT AND UNDERSTANDING

† The release of the Coptic text called “The Gospel of Judas” this past week has been reported with considerable enthusiasm by the media.

At the center of this gospel is Judas Iscariot, known from the biblical gospels as the betrayer of Jesus.

Yet from the gospel of Judas, a different figure emerges.

This text claims that in private conversations, Jesus tells Judas he will share with him alone “the mysteries of the kingdom” knowledge not shared with any of the other disciples, and asks Judas to hand him over to the authorities so that his body can be sacrificed.

The Coptic text goes on to claim Jesus said to Judas, “But you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.”

In this particular quote, “the man that clothes me” refers to Jesus’ body.

According to the gospel of Judas, Jesus longed to be set free from this physical shell, which he considered to be, in good Gnostic fashion, the “prison of the soul.”

Are we to see Judas the liberator?

Betrayal considered a virtue?

Jesus a Gnostic?

Today we’ll pay a visit to this “Gospel of Judas”, and measure it against the word of God for accuracy.

Gnostic, or Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis, which means ("knowledge"); It is a belief system that flourished in Hellenistic culture which began in about 323BC.

It had a profound influence on early Christianity, particularly in the Johannine tradition (i.e., the gospel of John, the letters of John, the gospel of Thomas).

Gnosticism is a pre-Christian religious tradition defined primarily by the belief that salvation comes through gnosis, or knowledge, rather than through Jesus Christ and the cross.

In so doing, Gnostics wholly deny the human dimension of Jesus Christ, even to the point of saying that Jesus, is a purely spiritual entity, and only "appeared" to suffer on the cross.

Gnosticism was therefore declared a heresy in the 4th century AD Christian church, for obvious reasons, because it denied Christ and the work of the Cross and gives salvation to those who gain knowledge.

Gnostics proclaim that salvation that can only come through enlightenment or knowledge.

This is the key thinking to 90% of cults out there.

Knowledge will get you to heaven.

This is a major theme in many of the Pagan religions such as Taoism, Buddhism, the teaching of Zen, Hinduism. Many of the eastern philosophies base their teachings on this concept that the gaining of knowledge leads to salvation, or a god-like state of being.

So, with this and many people coming to me with concerns of this document and its implications, I felt it warranted a sermon on the subject.

† I will however attempt to condense my study into one sermon.

1. First we will look at the physical document itself.

2. Then examine its content.

3. We will then try to fit it into the Holy Scriptures we have before us today, remembering that God will not contradict Himself or His Holy Word.

1. First we will look at the physical document itself.

† National Geographic, who is currently in control of the document, came out with the Documentary last week called “The Gospel of Judas”.

They unfortunately did not give the whole or accurate story about the history behind this document.

I believe this is because the document itself would lose its significance (or value to the world and National Geographic) as a monumental FIND if its history is that of a non-Christian origin.

They need this document to be equal to, if not greater than the already accepted Christian writings of the Holy Bible we have today, otherwise they are just in possession of another of the many worthless discarded heretical Coptic Gnostic scripts.

† Such as other so called great finds that later went into the circular file cabinet (or trashcan to the layman), like the illustrious gospel of Mary.

This document was found in the 19th Century, and was believed to be the gospel of Mary Magdalene.

Its text told us that it was Mary, who was especially enlightened with knowledge by Jesus (sound familiar?), and all the disciples went to her for guidance because the master only shared this information with her.

Won’t Judas be upset when he find out?

This document also has blatant Gnostic beliefs with Mary as the center character with the SECRET KNOWLEDGE that Jesus ONLY shared with her.

It is obvious why this document was never included into the Holy Scriptures. Gnosticism is not Christianity, nor is it Christ centered.