The Messiah - Part 27

Messiah Betrayed by His friend

Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. Psalms 41:9
For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:
But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.
We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company. Psalms 55:12-14

Fulfillment in the New Testament

And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.
And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I?
And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me.
The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born.
Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said. Matthew 26:21-25

And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people.
Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast.
And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him.
And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him. Matthew 26:47-50

I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.
Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. John 13:18-21

A person who walked with Jesus daily and witnessed the healing of the sick; he may have even been used of God to heal the sick himself. He also witnessed the feeding of thousands. This person betrayed Jesus and told the authorities where Jesus was at the time of His arrest.

What motivated Judas into betraying Jesus? Perhaps greed since he desired money. Perhaps Jesus said something to offend him and he was mad. Many of us do things in anger that we live to regret later. Perhaps unbelief crept into his heart and he began to doubt that Jesus was who He said He was. Then perhaps Judas was looking for the powerful Messiah that would take over the government and give them victory over Roman oppression. Perhaps sin was in the heart of Judas and he did not really repent of it. Whatever it was, the strength of the evil in his heart was too strong to resist and when the time came it brought forth bad fruit in the form of betrayal.

This is why we need to root out sin in our lives. Don't accept the modern saying that, "We are only human." If we see weakness that may lead to sin let's take it to Jesus. Lay it upon an altar of prayer. If it keeps coming back, don't give up. Be determined to overcome. Jesus came to forgive us of sin but also to take that sin away. If we have a problem with lust, pornography, greed, or pride, take it to Jesus. Hate the sin. Don't hate yourself or others who sin but hate the sin. Hate what it does to us. Hate the evil fruit it produces.

Perhaps we have a problem with fear. We fear what others think of us. We fear the persecution that comes with serving Jesus. We must take this to Jesus also. We can say, "Lord, I don't want to be this way." "I want to love you more than what people think." Remember that this life, our possessions, our family and our friendship is only temporary. They will pass away sooner or later.

The only thing that is eternal is our relationship with God. If we choose the fear of men over the fear of God, then we will lose. If we choose the fear of God over the fear of men, maybe we will lose things in this life and some even their own physical life but we will gain an eternal inheritance that no one can ever steal away from us.

Before we condemn Judas we must ask ourselves, am I the kind of person who would betray a friend for money, for popularity, or to get back at them for hurting my feelings.

Getting back to this prophecy though. We see that Jesus Christ fulfills so many of the prophetic words in the Old Testament. David, who wrote most of the Psalms may not have understood when he wrote of his own personal trials that he was speaking of the Messiah who was to come from his own lineage in order to fulfill the promise God made not only to him but to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

David may have thought that Solomon was the promised one. We know though that Solomon was not the promised one. Solomon had more wisdom that any man on earth. That wisdom was given by God. Yet we know that Solomon fell away from God. What was his weakness?

He multiplied many wives unto himself. Some of these wives were worshippers of other gods. They eventually led Solomon away from God and compromised his faith. However, we do not throw away all of Solomon's teachings just because he fell away from God. God is still real in spite of what we do with our lives.

This is why we need to constantly seek God and build ourselves up on the Word of God. We are not strong in ourselves. We need daily to seek God.

Throughout the years greed has caused many to get into error and sin. The love of money is truly the root of all evil. Just because someone who preaches the gospel gets into error and sin, whether preacher, rabbi, priest does not mean that what they preached is false.

Jesus is still real, the gospel is real and Jesus is the Messiah which fulfills all the prophecy in the bible. Just because a famous preacher sins as Solomon did, does not mean that the bible is not true or that Jesus is not the Messiah. Not all who sinned were false prophets or deceivers, they just merely got so busy or full of pride that they were tempted by the tempter and led into sin. The old devil wants to kill, steal and destroy ministries because he knows they will save the lost and bring people back to God.

Granted there have been false teachers, false brethren and those that do all these things just to make money. However many of them do not start out that way. We are not to follow the ministries or the preachers, we are to follow Christ. When they go astray, pray for them but keep following Christ. Do not follow anyone into a false doctrine or into sin. When they sin and do not repent, stop following them or supporting their ministry but continue to pray for them to be restored back to the truth and back into the right fellowship with God.

Most faithful ministers of the gospel are not getting rich. There are many countless preachers and missionaries that have very little, especially pastors of small churches and local congregations. They need our support and help for they could have better jobs and have nice homes but they forfeit that to be pastors of small churches with very little income. I know this from being a church treasurer for 15 years.

They will be rewarded someday but right now we can be a blessing to them by helping and giving. Lets not forget the local church and the struggling pastor. Don't assume that God will take care of them if they have faith, God will supply. Yes God will but He uses us to do it. He doesn't always drop money from the sky. We flock to the big mega churches and that is good but lets not forget the small, struggling churches. God still wants to use them to reach communities. It takes determination and prayer but the small churches have a purpose too.

And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. Zechariah 11:12
Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him. Matthew 26:14-16

We see here another prophecy concerning the Messiah. His price was thirty pieces of silver. Zechariah prophesied that the Christ would be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver. In Matthew 26 we see this prophecy fulfilled when Judas Iscariot bargains to betray Jesus for the same price that Zachariah prophesied of. Was it worth it? Did it profit Judas? Did Judas gain by this betrayal?

Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,
Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.
And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. Matthew 27:3-5

Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.
For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry.
Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. Acts 1:16-18

The awful remorse Judas suffered and the guilt caused him to take his own life. A moment of giving in to temptation got him into big trouble. One root of unbelief or one root of bitterness led to the greed that overtook Judas and caused him to betray Jesus.

Desire to gain at the expense of someone else can lead to cheating in business, stealing, betrayal, and result in much unhappiness. Instead a life of joy is produced in one who gives without begrudging it. The one who said that it is more blessed to give than to receive knew what they were talking about. Politics and desire for power over the masses can also cause someone to try to destroy his or her opponents no matter how much they are hurt. It is sad and in the end, it's not worth it. Jesus said to love one another as Christ loves us. It's a better way to live. DC

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Messiah part 28