Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Hello, I'm Josh.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: And I'm Gabriel.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: And today on reading the Gospel, we are studying the event, the death of Judas. This is found in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 27, verse 3 to 10. Follow along with us in Matthew 27, verse 3 as we read.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: Then when Judas his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.
They said, what is that to us?
See to it yourself.
And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed and went and hanged himself.
[00:01:18] Speaker A: But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, it is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money. So they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. Therefore, that field has been called the field of blood to this day.
Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah saying. And they took the 30 pieces of silver, the price for him, on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel. And they gave them for the potter's field as the Lord directed me.
Again, we have another sad event where Judas is taking his own life and getting to the place where the the chief priests are not taking back the blood money. And so as we look at this event, we start by seeing Judas having a change of heart.
[00:02:25] Speaker B: It's very interesting. I was thinking exactly about that expression. Because in the New Testament, the disciples made up a word that is a combined word from two different Greek words. Meta is the change and nous mind. And in Greek, the combined word is metanoia, translated in English as repentance.
Is Judas a genuine repentance?
[00:02:53] Speaker A: I don't think so.
I think again, when we look at Judas life, it seems like he's trying to project Jesus to claim the title of Messiah.
But he's working outside of the will of God. And that's the bigger issue. Whatever his motivation was, whatever his thought process was, it was not God's will that Judas goes and betrays Jesus.
God knew it was going to happen, and God prophesied. But if Judas had never done that, I believe God would have been much happier. The Bible says we are all predestined for salvation. That doesn't mean we're all going to be saved. It means when Jesus went and died on the cross, he died for every single one of us. That if we so believe, we can have eternal life.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: When we read an expression like this that Judas changed his mind, it Was not always about repentance.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: Yeah, and I said changed heart, but it's not really a change of heart as it says, is a change of mind.
And sometimes we can have a change of mind. We can regret something we did not because of our heart, but because we regret the consequences.
We don't like the outcome of what happened.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: And this change of mind will not change the heart. Because if the heart is not being changed, will not turn around back to God. That is not repentance. The difference between a turning point in life and the actual repentance is based on that internal experience.
If you experience repentance, that means you realize that you have hurt God and you are sorry for that, not for consequences. You are sorry for hurting God who has created you, who has redeemed you, who is your friend, who is interested in your well being. He wants to walk this deep valley with you every moment.
Genuine repentance is the result of the work of the Holy Spirit.
It is a revelation of your wrongdoings and turning around and by the power of God making a decision that you will never do it again.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: And so here we have an example of someone who, like Saul in the Old Testament, has walked away from God. And they might regret their actions, they might regret what they did. But I think this is an example, maybe even a microcosm of what is going to happen to everyone who chooses not to be saved.
The Bible says every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And this is not just every Christian, every Christ follower, every person in heaven. This is creation.
And so there's going to come a time where even those who reject Christ's gift of eternal life and choose to pay the price for their own sins themselves, which is death, that they will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: This perspective or this view, that not only the righteous people will turn around, will recognize what they've done wrong, but also the wicked people will recognize this is a perspective that puts God into the right light. That means vindicates God's character. Even the evil people, the wicked people will recognize that they've done something wrong. Of course that recognition will be based on the outcome. The consequences may not be a turning back to God, maybe too late, but at least everyone will recognize that. And that is important not only for God himself, is important for the unfallen human beings throughout the universe.
[00:07:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. That they will recognize and again gets back to that head knowledge and not the heart knowledge.
And so Judas here goes. And cannot continue living. It's interesting how the Chief priests react, though. They're the ones that gave him the money, right?
[00:07:39] Speaker B: Yeah. And maybe convince him to take the money and to cooperate with him.
[00:07:43] Speaker A: Yeah. So a few hours earlier or maybe a day earlier, sometime earlier, they give him this money. They're the ones convincing him. And now they're not willing to take it back.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: Even they say, hey, we have nothing to do with this. It's your problem. You have to carry it. It's your burden. Sorry.
On the other side, the high priest and the elders recognize that this is blood money.
And however twisted their conscience was, they didn't feel comfortable to put that money into God's treasury. And they bought a field as cemetery for the foreigners.
[00:08:29] Speaker A: Yeah. I find that interesting though, because they didn't feel comfortable to put it back in the treasury, but they were okay going and buying a field.
It's like, why didn't they use their other money to go buy a field?
So just a little quirk.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: Yeah. But I heard the following story from the first witness. Right from the eyewitness.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:53] Speaker B: It was a colleague of mine who was a pastor in Mexico, when one morning before going to church, one of those large pickup trucks, tinted windows, stopped in front of his house.
And it was a big sack which was brought into his house and said, this is full of US dollar dollar bills and this is for God.
And they disappeared. And the question is, what do we do? That money that might have been most likely blood money, do we put them into government, God's treasury? No. Even the priests and the elders didn't do that with Judah's money. Do we burn them? You can, you know, burn your life this way. Those cartels, that was a drug cartel. Yeah.
They might hear about that and you will not exist the next day. And they talked to each other. They looked into the Bible to find an idea. And the only example was this one.
So they said, we are going to help poor people, we are going to use for community projects, but we cannot use for preaching the gospel.
[00:10:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
Again, this hearkens back to the Old Testament, that the Old Testament prophesied that this would happen.
And again, to the definition, prophecy is history before it happens.
And God knows the end from the beginning. He knows what's going to happen. And so he just, he's just telling us he's not forcing people to do it. He's not saying that you don't have a choice. It's just a factual statement that these things are going to happen.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: And it's interesting that this is the prophet Zechariah who wrote hundreds of years before that Jesus Christ will be betrayed and sold for 30 pieces of shekels. And that was in accord with one of the rules in the book of Exodus in the Old Testament. That was the price for a slave.
So Jesus Christ was betrayed and sold to Judas by the price of a slave.
What can we learn? What can we take? What can we apply to our lives today?
Maybe we don't plan to sell Jesus for a sum of money, not even for more than this.
But is it possible to act like Judas even without taking money from someone? To betray Jesus Christ, to betray innocent blood?
[00:11:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I think there are many ways we can betray Jesus in our actions, in what we say and what we do when we profess to be Christ followers. And then we go out and we do things that hurt other, hurt him, hurt others that put ourselves first, that destroyed, that is betraying him.
[00:12:15] Speaker B: And my last question, how do we know when we have crossed the line and in fact we are sorry just for experiencing negative consequences?
And how do we know when turning of the mind and of the heart is the work of the Holy Spirit? How can we differentiate those two? I'm asking this question because it seems that Judas, when he realized that he betrayed innocent blood. And the priests and the elders of the nation, they didn't want to do anything with this and said, this is your burden, you have to carry it. It's your problem. He felt that burden so heavy and you know, thoughts from the evil one. The instigation to take your life was so strong, he saw no way out.
How can we experience true forgiveness that is also a burden of guilt. How do you know if that burden comes from the Holy Spirit or it is Satan's way to destroy us, to eliminate us, to push us towards suicide.
[00:13:29] Speaker A: Yeah, and I think you answered that question exactly. That when the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, that drives us to the hope of forgiveness. It should bring hope and joy and peace that Christ died on the cross, he's going to forgive me, he's going to give me a better life. There's some good out there.
[00:13:52] Speaker B: It provides a way out.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: Yeah. And so it's like being getting caught in a trap and knowing that the person can come by and free you is right there. If you just call out and say help me out. And they come by and they open the trap and they let you out versus what Satan does and shame. When you get caught in that trap, Satan comes by and stands there and makes you feel terrible. Well, you did this, you're gonna die. There you don't deserve to get out and doesn't help us out, but makes it worse, maybe throws another trap in there. And so I think this is the difference, that here he's got a change of mind, he's regretting it, but it's more Satan giving him shame and causing him to feel like he is not worthy of living. Whereas when it comes to repentance and conviction of sin with Jesus, it should drive us to the hope of our Savior.
Let's pray. Father God, we are so thankful that you are able to forgive us.
[00:15:05] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: Because Jesus came and died for our sins.
And Father, we pray that we will have that joy and that hope when we realize we've messed up, that you want better for us and you are willing to change our lives.
Father, if we feel shame because we did something, I pray that we will rebuke Satan, that we will turn to you and that we can get out of that depression or that cycle that we're in, that we will value the life you have given us and in turn we can lift up other people in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:15:51] Speaker B: Amen.
