Tag: Faith

Loyalty, Faith, and the Betrayal of Yeshua

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.

Works and Salvation

Works and salvation cannot be separated.

Historically, Christianity has had more bad doctrine than good. Let’s just face up to that reality. One of the reasons we have such a hard time expressing the truth is because the bad stuff always floats to the top. Think about what happens when we try to introduce people to the Sabbath? They jump to “well, you don’t stone your kids when they misbehave, do you?” without understanding that stoning children meant ADULT children. It still sounds amazingly harsh to us today, but having that out there was probably more effective than threatening to put someone in time out.

One of the areas where traditional Christianity falls down flat is on the notion of works in relationship to salvation. This is through a history of abuses and increasingly bad doctrine by the church at Rome. The religions of antiquity were heavily works based. One notion was that if you could perfect yourself in this life, you would attain to a higher plain of existence in the next. Conversely, if you were bad in this life, your next would be bad. And to be good, you would have to do what the priests in the pagan religions said to do. You can see where this could go wrong, huh?

The Roman church adopted many of the practices and rites of the pagan churches in order to make a universal religion, which is what the word catholic actually means. One could say the Roman Catholic Church is the Roman Universal Church and it would be accurate. The penances, practices, and rites from pagan religions were “Christianized” to the point where the faith barely resembles first century Christianity at all. And it turned into a works based faith, with the works changing with each change in leadership. Some of the works, like charity and such, did tie into the Bible, but those are, well, universal principals. Other works, like adorning statues and keeping man-made days holy, are contrary to scripture. They came up with a system of penance where you could do stuff to make up for sins. Then came the indulgences, where you could substitute money for doing stuff to make up for sins, and well, that lasted for a thousand years coined “the dark ages”.

Then comes the reformation. 95 theses are nailed to a door. A lot of these are good. But out of this comes the notion that works are bad. John Calvin comes up with his idea and they are strained at best. The idea that works have nothing to do with salvation is introduced and takes on a strange life of its own. Martin Luther even wanted to remove the book of James from the bible.

Slide 2 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS,” and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. (Jas 2:20-26)

Luther didn’t want the book of James in the bible because of these verses. In fact,  he took out Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation because of his ideology. Apparently going too far is not a new phenomenon. What happened at the reformation was the people concluded works were bad because they had been mistreated and taught improperly. This is also not a new thing. When we have bad experiences, we tend to shut down or overreact. Unfortunately, these guys went way too far and we are still dealing with their bad ideas today. It’s understandable. When a government is totalitarian and revolution occurs, people generally swing the pendulum too far, and create something that at least sounds like the opposite of what they just left. This is the same with religion. The people had been abused under Catholicism for over 1000 years. Religion was used as a weapon to control the masses and enrich the elite through made-up rites, works, so the people rebelled against works all together. And they came up with the notion that works themselves are contrary to salvation. But that’s just an absurd notion. Beyond absurd, which is why James wrote what he wrote.

James wrote the verses on the screen to show that you cannot display your faith without works. If your doctor tells you your A1c is too high, do you stop eating sugar? Of course you do. Your works show that you believe the doctor, the test, and the treatment protocol. In our walk, we are to come to Yahweh as children, which we are. Children show their faith in their parents by doing what their parents tell them to do. As they grow, the then listen to teachers and mentors. While becoming their own people, they take instruction from those whom they respect. And they act on the new information, showing their faith in the people bringing them along.

James cites Rahab the harlot. This is a key example. She was a big time sinner in a pagan city. But she recognized the true God and His people. She helped them on blind faith. She helped the spies based on her trust that they would keep their words. When the wall of Jericho came down, Rahab and her whole family were saved. This was due to their faith displayed in works.

Let’s back up a little bit in history. What about the Exodus? The 10th plague? The people had to do something very strange to identify themselves. They had to listen to Moses, Yahweh’s prophet, and put the blood of lambs on their doorposts. They had to stay inside that terrifying night. They were literally saved by their works. Their works being a manifestation of their faith in Moses’ God. And it wasn’t just the Hebrews who obeyed. Those who saw Yahweh’s marvelous works for the previous 9 plagues joined in. Much like Rahab, they realized righteousness when they saw it, and their works displayed their faith.

Slide 3 Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name. For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? AND IF IT IS WITH DIFFICULTY THAT THE RIGHTEOUS IS SAVED, WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE GODLESS MAN AND THE SINNER? Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right. (1Pe 4:15-19)

It’s hard to be saved. Did you know that? Even for the righteous, it’s hard to be saved. Sinning separates us from God and His Messiah. Sins are works, brothers and sisters. It takes works to be saved and it takes works to be condemned.

Slide 4 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. (Rev 20:11-12)

This is pretty simple to understand. The house of God, which I believe to refer to those who know the truth in this life and have accepted the Messiah, is judged in real time. Those who do not know Yeshua today, will be resurrected and judged at the end of the 1000 years. And that judgment will be based on what they did in their prior lifetimes. The books will be opened and all they did, their works, will be made known. And some will make it into the kingdom while others are destroyed. This is based on works.

What do we think will happen to those who have taught works are meaningless and that salvation is just some ethereal thing you have to “believe” in?

Slide 5 Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. (Jas 3:1)

I wonder if this verse had anything to do with Luther’s desire to remove James from the bible? But this is a terrifying thing for those who stand and preach the Word of God. We have to be very careful with our words, and this is something very easy to mess up! But telling people they won’t be judged on their works when they will clearly be judged on their works, well, I hope they all repent of that and correct the record.

Which brings me to the crux of today’s message. Works and salvation. They are intricately aligned. They are tied together. We cannot separate the two. Why?

Slide 6 And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” (Luk 22:19)

Do. To remember Yeshua’s sacrifice, we have to DO something. We have to do something very specific and unique. We have to wash each other’s feet, have some bread, and have some wine on the annual date of His betrayal, with was Abib 13. That’s Thursday, April 14 this year on our calendars. We have to take actions to show we believe Yeshua is the Messiah and we believe that His ministry, His death, and His resurrection are real. We have to do what He said to do. Works display our faith.

And this is unique to those who believe like us. We do what He said to do exactly how He said to do it. And then we follow it up by observing Passover, also in remembrance of Him. We do things to display our faith. We don’t do it to become saved, we do it because we are saved. And our works are the evidence of our faith.