Judas’ betrayal of Yeshua is one of the worst things recorded in scripture. Yeshua’s loyalty to Yahweh is perhaps the most important thing recorded in scripture. Did you know both of these things have parallels in scripture?
Slide 2 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. (1Co 11:27-29)
This coming week is the week. The week where we remember the Messiah exactly the way He told us to do that. I’ve covered the details on how we are to observe Pesach and the Night Yeshua Was Betrayed a few times. I’ve talked about how our works display our faith and how salvation and works are dependent upon each other. In this walk, we spend a whole lot of time in study to get the details right. Proper doctrine, teaching, and works are super important. But let’s not neglect the deeper aspects. There’s a foundation to what we do. Our works display our faith. But how do we define faith? How do we define the intangible part of this concept, the ”things unseen” part? Today, we’re going to get at that. Today, we’re going to talk about a core value, perhaps THE core value, from which faithfulness and obedience sprouts.
Up a few verses, Paul talks about divisions among the Church of God in Corinth. That’s in verse 18, Paul meanders in his writings so it’s not a lock that just because he mentioned something a couple sentences ago that it’s really “in context”. But let’s assume it is part of his context for examining ourselves. Think about how special it was to have a believing group in Corinth in the first century. Paul talks about factions but we don’t know what the factions were about. Were they about money, position, doctrine? Who knows. But we do know when we have to be united and that around Yeshua’s sacrifice. When it comes to salvational issues like this week, we need to drop the divisions and unite around the Messiah’s sacrifice. Everything else is second. Everything we do stems from His sacrifice and resurrection. Without that, we are not grafted in. Without that there is no new convenant at all. Without that there is no resurrection from the dead. Without that there is no new High Priest. Without that, we can eat and drink for tomorrow we die. And stay dead. So the first part of examining ourselves is about priorities. Have we really, spiritually, accepted that Yeshua died for our sins? Is that our prime mover in our lives and in our ministries? We all stray to other topics throughout the year, but this time of year, we need to take to heart what really matters and get refocused on the most important thing, Yeshua being the Lamb of God.
Slide 3 While He was still speaking, behold, a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was preceding them; and he approached Yeshua to kiss Him. But Yeshua said to him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” (Luk 22:47-48)
Betrayal. Is there anything worse than betrayal? When you experience this, it shakes you to the core. If you haven’t experienced it, then bless YHVH. Do you know what? There is no commandment against betrayal. The activities surrounding betrayal are often covered in Torah, bearing false witness being chief among them, but if there’s a literal commandment against betrayal, I can’t think of it. The closest is adultery, and the damage is very similar.
What exactly did Judas do? It doesn’t appear that Judas accused Yeshua of anything. He wasn’t one of the false witnesses, either. He just took money to identify Yeshua. He just provided intelligence, like where to find the Messiah, and then he identified Him through a kiss. He helped Yeshua’s enemies capture Him, that’s it. And what an awful thing to do. The worst. To guide the enemy to find the Messiah.
It’s also written that Satan entered Judas to make this happen. Judas needed a little help to get over that emotional hurdle of betrayal. Where else do we see this in scripture? In the garden, of course. Eve’s betrayal included a literal sin, eating the forbidden fruit. In that, she betrayed both Yahweh and her husband. And then what did she do? She led her husband into the betrayal. How do you think this made Yahweh feel?
Slide 4 Then YHVH Elohim said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Gen 3:13)
Of course YHVH already knew what they had done. This is a rhetorical question. From someone who had just been betrayed. He was devastated, even though He knew it was coming. We talk about the fall and how it originated in covetousness a lot. But it also originated in something else: disloyalty. Eve decision to listen to the serpent was a betrayal of her husband and of Yahweh. She made a mental decision to put her faith in the created serpent rather than her Creator and her husband, from whom she came.
And what does she do? She immediately implicates somebody else. Betrayal appears to be quite a bit easier the second time around. And the betrayal started with Adam selling out Eve, who then sold out the serpent. And did all that blamestorming do anything? No, it didn’t. Well, except saving the trial. The blaming didn’t replace the bite in the fruit. The damage was done. And it was irreversible. Just like when Judas betrayed the Messiah. There was no taking it back. The damage was done.
Except in Judas’ case, he had nobody else to blame. He had nobody to bring down with him. He tried to go back to the priests and elders when he realized he had betrayed Yeshua to dead and they wouldn’t have anything to do with him. With the help of Satan, Judas had betrayed the Messiah. This is remarkably similar to what happened with Eve. In Judas’ case, though, it would have been better had he not been born.
Is there another place where scripture records such a betrayal? Well, not exactly, but we all know about it. The first betrayal.
Slide 5 The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.” (Luk 10:17-18)
Satan is in similar position to Judas. At some unrecorded point in history. Satan betrayed YHVH and tried to ascend to the throne. Satan is more like Eve, though, because he took a third of the angels down with him. Satan was the covering angel, he had a very high office, and betrayed the Creator trying to take over an office that nobody could earn. Satan wanted to have all that authority that belongs to someone else and to get it, he betrayed YHVH. And I bet it hurt. Yeshua saw this betrayal.
Slide 6 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” (Joh 6:38-40)
Yeshua came to earth to stay loyal. He came to earth to run through anything Satan could throw at Him and stay true to His Father and our Father. This is the core of spirituality, faith. Faith to the point of death. The ability to be betrayed but to not betray. This shows His perfect spirit, His essence, His core.
Slide 7 Then Moses returned to YHVH, and said, “Alas, this people has committed a great sin, and they have made a god of gold for themselves. But now, if You will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!” (Exo 32:31-32)
Moses was willing to die eternal death to intercede for the sinful Israelites. Moses witnessed their sins, their betrayals, and he did not join in. Instead he offered to die in their stead. Moses’ life was not required. But Moses’ faith ran to his core. He would never give up YHVH for anything.
Slide 8 “YHVH your Elohim will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.” (Deu 18:15)
This is what is meant that Yeshua was one like Moses. Except it’s really the other way around, since Yeshua is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And Yeshua is our example. Our loyalty to Him and His Father has to be our foundation. Our loyalty how we are able to choose their way of life over the world’s and traditional Christianty’s. This shows our spiritual side. That at our deepest, we trust Yahweh and Yeshua, even before we know them.
Slide 9 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. (Heb 11:1-3)
Faith and loyalty are intertwined. Faith is the act of trusting someone or something that is not tangible or known: unseen. Loyalty can be built by things seen or unseen. Yeshua was loyal to Yahweh to the point of trusting Him to resurrect Him. The same holds true for the martyrs, who stayed loyal to Yeshua even while being executed. As we examine ourselves this week, contemplate our loyalty to Yahweh through His Son, Yeshua. To be a Messianic, a Christian, is to emulate Christ. As we prepare to observe the days, we know we are loyal enough to do what He said to do in memory of Him. As we examine ourselves for sins, asking forgiveness, and understanding that Yeshua bore our transgressions, let’s examine our loyalty to Yeshua, and make sure it’s a strong as humanly possible.